Author: psgels

Pandora Hearts – 12

by psgels, posted in Pandora Hearts



Now this is Pandora Hearts! This definitely was my favourite episode of this series since episode two and three. We learned lots of new things about our characters, and the quiet moments were pure comedic gold. This episode really had the dark and gothic tone that originally made me fall in love with this series.

Break really showed a different side of himself when both he and Alice got captured by the Cheshire Cat (another Alice in Wonderland reference) and it showed that he isn’t perfect in his schemings. He too seemed to be bothered by some sort of dark alter ego that he didn’t know about, like Alice. I’m really curious now as to what was up with that. At the same time, why did the lair of the Cheshire Cat contain hints of Alice’s memories?

The lighter moments were also wonderful in this episode. I loved how Oscar completely appeared from out of nowhere, in front of the two boys he hasn’t seen in ten years. Or Break’s attempts at camouflage, or Gil’s obsession with his particular hat. There really is a huge value put to that hat: for some reason he’s really attached to it, and yet he leaves it with Oz when the two are apart. I’d love to see the full story behind it.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
Lots of things happened, new developments and overall a really enjoyable episode.

Basquash! – 12 & 12,5

by psgels, posted in Basquash!



Ah, okay. Sorry for the little misunderstanding after the previous episode. According to this link here at MyAnimeList, it seems that the director changed after episode 9, while the chief animation director got replaced at the end of may, so probably around episode 17 or 18. Last episode simply seemed to have been the victim of a bad case of outsourcing.

Then at the same time, I did have my worries about the change of directors, especially since the previous two episodes really weren’t as good as the rest of this season. Thankfully, this episode showed that the new director most definitely understands the series he’s working with. This episode had everything that made this such a fun series to begin with: very fun action scenes, every single member of the main cast has his own story progressed a bit, and the themes of fandom finally return again in their brilliance. The only point at which you can really see that the directors have changed is the opponents that Basquash had to fight in this episode: they weren’t opponents, they were typical shounen enemies whose can only rely on one strategy.

But really, I don’t really care, since this episode and especially that fight was incredibly fun. The idea of running around with fake balls, changing your own hair color (in the most painfully bright colors), while letting the real ball slowly roll towards the target is so stupid, yet brilliant at the same time. I also loved how the creators treated this match as a kind of mini-episode inside an episode, complete with its own OP, ED, next-episode preview and even commercials! Add to that a crazy announcer with DJ-glasses (literally) and you have an awesome first half of this episode.

And in contrast, the second half of this episode was really the complete opposite of all the madness in the first half. In there, it was time for extra depth for most of the characters. Especially Iceman’s story is nowhere near finished it seems, and Sera also had her share of attention, since the tournament they’re currently playing in takes place in her hometown. My only complaint was Coco: while she did appear in this episode, she didn’t appear enough. ^^;

Rating: ** (Excellent)
Very weirdly paced, and yet it’s a really fun episode.

Eden of the East Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Eden of the East



Okay, I decided to rewrite this entire thing since the review I originally wrote was crap. Kenji Kawayama really is one of the better directors out there. His sense of realism, attention to detail and originality has really made his series one of a kind. After Seirei no Moribito I therefore was very eager to watch his next work: Eden of the East. As promised, it’s a very solidly produced series, but I do have to admit that it is a tad disappointing.

After thinking a bit about the series, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are two reasons that prevent this series from being among the top of this season for me. First of all, the cast of characters leaves a bit to be desired. The lead character Saki is a great one: she grows very subtly through the series, and while she may seem weak at times, she really stands out as a strong character. The rest of the cast lacks a bit of a spark, though. Akira as the male lead is a bit too much of an idealist; his character without any seeming flaws is a bit hard to get into. The majority of the rest of the cast simply feels not fleshed out well enough: some characters show too little of themselves to really make an impact, while others are just plain annoying (most of Saki’s friends). Two notable exceptions are Kondo (whose story gets nicely explored through his limited airtime) and Micchon, who serves her purpose as a quiet side-character well.

My second issue with this series is its mystery. As a mystery-fanboy, I was of course elated after the first episode. It was so delightfully weird and unusual. There were so many different theories possible for what went on, and it really intrigued me like no other. But yeah, the thing with mystery-series is that the challenge comes with correctly revealing the mystery, and in that I feel that this series did a lukewarm job. It can’t keep its air of mystery consistent through the series, and as the series goes on and the answers come, there aren’t really any new questions asked: the answers are simply presented on a silver platter when the time seems ripe for it, without really using them for anything other than for the sake of filling up plotholes.

But yeah, despite these flaws, there still is lots of good stuff in this series. The animation really is amazing. Animation in anime is often a job of cutting corners, but here the animation is really well done to the finest details: the creators have made sure to bring their pictures to life. The CG may be a bit obtrusive at times, but the realistic movements and awesome background art really make up for it.

The setting is also very thought-provoking. Through the 11 episodes of airtime, this series takes a critical look at idealism and its positives and negatives. The whole concept behind the show remains very original and thought-provoking. You can see that a lot of imagination went into creating the setting for this series.

So overall this series served its purpose as a solid build-up for the upcoming movies, which of course I’m going to review as well as soon as they come out. I know that the rating is lower than what one might expect, but I just can’t say that this was the best of the season because of the reasons mentioned above. Small series like this one really need be focused, and in my opinion this series goofed off a bit too much at times and it feels to me that this series was trying to stuff too much into just these eleven episodes. Let’s hope that the movies will use the build-up that the series has provided, but standalone this series for me wasn’t as enjoyable as other short series as Natsu no Arashi or Ristorante Paradiso, which both did know how to make optimal use of their tie (so far, at least).

Storytelling: 8/10
Characters: 7/10
Production-Values: 9/10
Setting: 9/10

Eden of the East – 11

by psgels, posted in Eden of the East



Ah, there are two movies going to be released. That means three, possible four more hours for this show to tell its story (unless they pull a Death and Rebirth), which really should be enough time for this show. Overall though, this series didn’t turn out as good as I hoped it would be. My biggest issue with the show is that my favourite episode still is the first one.

Still, this episode was a pretty decent ending until the movies. There were some things I didn’t understand, though. Why did Akira feel the need to wipe his own mind again? How and why did he get all of the NEET to access the Higashi no Eden site and take pictures of Akira, protecting them from the missile attack? Why did the creators find it necessary to bring Pantsu back to life? After spending all of his money on becoming king, and getting rid of his cell phone, isn’t he supposed to die?

In any case, as it turns out the reason why Akira wiped his own memory was because he kept getting accused of being the one behind the missile attacks (because he knew that they were going to happen), and so he at one point couldn’t take the accusations anymore and decided to travel to America and mind-wipe himself. That’s totally different from the crazy Japanese terrorist that I originally believed him to be.

Overall, it’s been fun, and although I can’t say that this has been my favourite show this season I definitely enjoyed watching this. It’s a bit of a wait until the movies are released, but in the meantime I’m looking forward to see what Noitamina has in store for us next.
Rating: * (Good)
Lotsa Johnnies and a pretty nice cliff-hanger for the upcoming movies.

Kurokami The Animation Review – 67,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



When judging first episodes, I always try to look at the potential for the rest of the series. Kurokami had a fairly generic beginning, but I saw potential for the rest of this series. I believed that the Dopple-liner system, in which every person has two clones living somewhere, with these clones destined to die when they get too close to their “Root”, definitely had the potential to become interesting later on. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

As a typical Sunrise-series, Kurokami is all about action: every single episode is really written for the battles, which use the aforementioned Dopple-liner system as a shounen-esque base to explain the various superpowers that appear through the series, but it’s all fairly generic: the side-characters all have interesting powers, but the lead characters and villains don’t have any fighting style other than “lots and lots of power”. Still, the battles are what made me keep watching this series: they’ve got this sense of despair when Kuro (the lead character gets beaten over and over again. It’s fairly formulaic, but especially in the beginning it’s strangely watchable.

But all goes down the drains in the second half. Up until the halfway point, despite the formulaic battles the series had actually done a fairly well job in letting us get to know the main characters. The story was finally coming together… until the writers completely jumped the shark with a string of the most blatantly obvious Deus ex Machina. The storyline that was up to that point at least fairly layered turns into a dumb “beat the bad guy”-storyline and turns completely ridiculous. My biggest gripe was with the episode that revealed why the major villain of this series became the bad guy. I won’t spoil it, but let me just say that those plot twists feel so incredibly contrived that they really destroyed any suspense of disbelief I still had for this series.

The characters are mostly just okay, but the male lead character is such an annoying character. He only has two personalities: an emo one (“leave me alone! I don’t want to fight!”) and a fearless one (“Let’s beat them, Kuro!”). I was hoping that he would change over the course of the series, but unfortunately he only got more and more generic as the show went on. So in the end, the only thing that this series did well is its pretty pictures. Sunrise is behind the animation, so at least the action looks solid and consistent, and the background art is very stylish.

Still, I really don’t recommend this series for anything. There really is much better stuff out there, and this series fails to stand out in any way aside from its Dopple-liner system, which it never really goes in-depth with anyway. The story is full of holes and power-level inconsistencies, battles are written so that Kuro wins them at the last possible moment and overall, it just smells of mediocrity.

Storytelling: 6/10
Characters: 7/10
Production-Values: 8/10
Setting: 6/10

Ristorante Paradiso – 10

by psgels, posted in Ristorante Paradiso



Ah, of course: for the conclusion, the creators didn’t just try to focus on the relationship between Claudio and Nicoletta, but also they’re going to try and give a conclusion to Luciano and his dead wife. This episode was much more about the latter, while the final episode next week will probably focus at the former, especially considering that next-episode preview: we now already know how it’s going to end, but I’m curious to see the context in which it’s going to happen.

I loved how in this episode, both Nicoletta and Luciano tried to encourage each other to pursue a bit of romance, but neither of them really got anywhere. Luciano just stubbornly ignored the advances that the woman in this episode tried to make on him, while Nicoletta, who was supposed to invite Claudio to a concert that they were all going to attend, ended up chickening out and invited Vito’s wife instead. I also liked how a bit of extra attention was given to the rest of Luciano’s family. It really makes his back-story more complete to not just focus on him, but also his offspring.

At the same time, this episode also built up the fact that Claudio really doesn’t want to forget about his old marriage, and he still hasn’t properly gotten over the divorce. As a conclusion, it definitely makes sense for this series to wrap up that part of the show, but like with every series: pulling off a good conclusion is hard, and probably one of the things that’s the easiest to screw up in, or to become lackluster at. Let’s see whether this show can pull it off, though I’m confident for now: the director has pulled off great conclusions before with Saikano and Crystal Blaze, which both closed off their respective series pretty nicely. Let’s hope that he can do the same here.

And overall, I don’t think that David Production could have hoped for a better debut in the anime scene. It smartly chose not to go the way that’s been travelled a thousand times already, but instead they went with their own style, and it pretty much worked, and they put down a pretty good series without any major flaws. The artwork also looked really good, with hardly any screw-ups. Now all that they need more is the ambition to continue to produce new series, instead of to simply give up.

Rating: * (Good)
Pretty quiet but solid build-up for the finale, and it’s good to see that even with the finale this close, this show doesn’t forget what it’s good at.

Sengoku Basara Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Game adaptations are of course notorious in how they tend to fail more often than not, but Sengoku Basara at first sight looked like it was going to be among the good ones. It was full of manliness and great fights, but along the way it didn’t really manage to fully live up to its expectations. Sure, there still is potential for that second season in January, but when taken a look at this series individually, it isn’t really worth the time you invest on it.

So yeah, Sengoku Basara is based on a game which is very, very loosely based on the Sengoku Era of Japan, when the country still was populated by a number of smaller countries, all looking to become the sole ruler of the island Honshuu. Its trademark is manliness: lots and lots of it. The dialogue is extremely exaggerated and passionate, full of righteousness, justice and inner conflicts. This isn’t a show about a bunch of teenagers; this is a show about true men.

Unfortunately, the rest of the execution falls short a bit. The characters… really are nothing to write home about. There is some small development in a select few of them, but none of them really make an impact. Also, for a show that aims for entertainment, this series tends to get side-tracked into angst too often. It feels that it’s in its own identity crisis at times, not knowing what it really wants to focus at.

In the end, there’s just one reason to watch this series: the battles. This series is animated by Production IG, who really are the masters of realistic animation and character-designs, and here they use them really well in combination with the incredibly unrealistic nature of this series. There are two fights that really were worth the watch: the ones from episode 2 and episode 12. These battles really kick ass and are really fun to watch. Aside from that though, this series simply remained overshadowed by better productions: in terms of entertainment and manliness, the new Mazinger this season is doing a much better job at it, and for manly historical supernatural swordplay there are shows like Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto which really surpass this show in nearly every single way.

Storytelling: 7/10
Characters: 7/10
Production-Values: 9/10
Setting: 7/10

07-Ghost – 11

by psgels, posted in 07-Ghost



Oh my god. I couldn’t stop laughing this episode. Even five minutes after that doll went down I was still snickering like an idiot. It’s been a while since I laughed so much at one single joke. I still keep seeing Frau running around like crazy with that very weird laugh of his. I’m not sure who exactly voiced that very high-pitched laugh of his, but that guy was hilarious.

Apart from that, this was another slow paced episode. It’s really apparent that you don’t want to watch this series for the plot, because it really isn’t the major focus. It’s like trying to watch One Outs for its deep characters: it ain’t gonna be amazing, so stop hoping for it; and instead the shows are enjoyable for very different reasons. For 07-Ghost it’s the characters, who for me are both funny and compelling when the drama starts.

Basically, Teito polished up his skills a bit in this episode, and started learned how to control the Eye of Mikhail, and how to take care of ghouls. (with one of the practice targets being that ridiculously voiced dummy that Castor modelled after Frau; it still cracks me up thinking about it). This episode also introduced a new character, who turns out to be rather cocky. I’m interested to see what that guy can add to this series’ second half. In fact, I’m really curious to see what this series can do with its second half. I’m not hoping for the story to get back on track, but instead I’m waiting for the character-development, or something else that’s going to spice up the characters and make them even more enjoyable to watch than they are now.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
If only because of that hysterical doll.

Shangri-La – 11

by psgels, posted in Shangri-La



Those who made fun of this series, brushed it off as a trainwreck and dropped it after one or two episodes are probably going to be surprised when I say this, but oh my god: this episode was amazing. What an incredibly solid installment to a series that just keeps getting better and better. I even admit that this series had its chaotic moments and episodes that even made me question whether it was going something. But this episode made up for it all. It’s totally different from anything we’ve seen in this show thus far.

This is exactly why I stopped hyping myself up with season previews. You really saw a lot of people looking forward to this series, but as a result when its first episode aired and it didn’t turn out the best thing since sliced bread a lot of people simply ignored it. While in fact there are a lot of series with mediocre starts that simply need to take a while to get really awesome. That’s why when judging first episodes, I mostly try to look at the potential of a series as a whole, instead of whether its first episode was awesome or not.

I never thought that Karin would turn into such an interesting character, but her development in this episode was really well done. We’ve thus far only seen her as an annoying brat who can make lots of money, but this episode didn’t just show a different side of hers, it also developed her character and made it change significantly when her parents finally give her a message, and it turns out that they’re actually quite fond of her, but they’re only too often away from her. As a result, Karin shut herself in, to the point at which she didn’t even dare to go outside.

A big theme of this episode was bird cages: Karin’s house turns out to be shaped like one, symbolizing the cage in which she locked herself up. Mikuni at the same time is caught up in another bird cage, due to the fact that she can’t stand the sunlight. It’s really ironic: Karin has all the freedom in the world. She probably is the only character in this series who can really do what she wants, and yet she chooses to stay locked up in this closed space without any real-life contacts.

The white-haired boy introduced himself as Karin’s other side, and yet there turns out to be so much more behind it. What was up with the cat? Why did it turn into a leaf? Why did Atlas know about him when he is the same as Karin and what does he have to do with Kuniko, Mikuni and Kunihito? What was the point of having Kunihito inside a life boat for the entire episode?

Oh boy, we’re in for something really awesome if the creators can keep this up. 🙂

Rating: *** (Awesome)
Amazingly solid episode on Karin’s development.

Guin Saga – 11

by psgels, posted in Guin Saga



I’m still surprised at how little the amount of discussion around this series is. When I search for Guin on Anime Nano, the search results only show about one post every two weeks, aside from my own. I mean, for series as Shangri-La and 07-Ghost you at least have people saying how much they hate those shows, but even those sorts of posts don’t appear. This season really is full of these underdogs, I must say.

In any case, this episode closes off the Nosferas arc and introduces the next one, but I really enjoyed it, as it really pushed the story into a different direction. As it turns out, Guin is going to wait a while before he takes up the throne of Nosferas, because he first wants to find out about his own history. Does that mean that he’s also going to leave Linda and Remus?

Amnelis meanwhile is about to say goodbye to her career as an army commander, as her father is about to marry her off to another guy. To think that she’s only eighteen. That really explains why she screwed up so badly at the front line: a complete lack of experience. Her father probably let her have one chance at commanding an army, before sending her off as a wife.

In the meantime, we also get introduced to a new character: the black-haired guy. I’m still not exactly sure what’s up with him, as he seems to have some complex relationships with the Mongols, but the next couple of episodes will probably shed more light on that. Oh, and I really have to say that the backgrounds looked awesome in this episode. Even better than usual with this series.

Rating: * (Good)
Aftermath and introduction to the respective past and upcoming arc.