Author: psgels

Hunter X Hunter OVA Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



There aren’t many OVAs that are based on TV-series that actually manage to contribute to their respective story. Most of the time, they’re just silly DVD-extras, or have side-stories that just aren’t as interesting as their TV-counterparts. But oh boy, when an OVA is made with a clear goal and purpose, it sure does become good. Take Rurouni Kenshin Tsuiokuhen and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni for example. The first OVA from Hunter X Hunter is also such a wonderful example of this.

Seriously, this is EVERYTHING a shounen series should be. Creative, intelligent, a plot that for once doesn’t try to prevent the destruction of the world, a huge emphasis on strategy, an awesome cast of villains, the main character doesn’t scream, yell or play the hero all the time, nothing drags on whatsoever, whenever the show threatens to catch up to the manga, it simply takes a hiatus rather than come up with a bunch of pointless fillers, it’s without a doubt one of the best shounen series ever. It’s an incredible shame that today so few anime take up the example that Hunter X Hunter provided.

So anyway, the OVA basically continues where the TV-series left, and it’s actually one big cat-and-mouse game between Kurapica and the Spiders. Because the TV-series already did all of the building up, it really can immediately dive into the action, and the result is a very tense and complex strategical battle, which for once has the biggest focus towards using one’s head; in fact, there’s actually hardly any fighting aside from a few key scenes here and there.

This OVA really opened my eyes on the use of intelligence in anime. Usually, if shows even bother to use their brains during a fight at all, there is one party who actively uses his head, while the other stupidly rushes in without much of a strategy. In this OVA, everyone thinks carefully about his/her actions. As a result, this show can get away with powers that would be entirely overkill in most other series: the ability to read minds, the ability to copy any technique you want, the power to create clones or simply pull out the heart from one’s chest. This OVA carefully examines the different advantages and disadvantages of all the different powers, and it doesn’t even try to make use of every single obscure loophole to create tension.

The cast of characters is also really good. Both main and side-characters, everyone is in this story for a reason; no matter how small, they contribute to the story. Out of the most important characters, especially Pakunoda leaves an impression. We hardly know anything about her, but the performance that she puts down is very convincing and gripping. The leader of the antagonists also is unlike any other of his counterparts: for once you have a leader of an evil organization who doesn’t spend his time sitting on a chair doing nothing: this guy isn’t afraid to get his own hands dirty, and yet at the same time you can clearly see why he’s the leader of the bunch. The protagonists Gon, Kurapica, Leorio and Killua also get their own share of development.

There is one point of criticism I have for this OVA: I feel that it’s already done a wonderful job in characterizing its villains, but this would have been even better if some of the history of these guys had been revealed. But then again, there have been hints that the next two OVAs are going to delve into that.

The Hunter X Hunter OVA is exactly why I love those short but very intelligent and well-crafted series, and why it’s also a shame that there are so few of them. This OVA is basically the best of the TV-series, stripped from all the long training arcs and any kind of other boring part, and showed us eight episodes of what this series is best at: characters and actually intelligent strategies. For me, the best shows of the shounen genre are the Law of Ueki for the humorous and fun side, and Hunter X Hunter for the serious side.

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

07-Ghost – 10

by psgels, posted in 07-Ghost



With all the dislike going on for this series, I’m starting to wonder why I’m still enjoying this series so much. Seriously, at times it feels like I’m the only one who isn’t a rabid fangirl who’s still into this series. While I agree that the pacing has been slooooooow, but is it really a universal truth that fast = good and slow = bad? It’s not like every episode looks the same or anything. Or am I missing something here?

In any case, this episode yet again didn’t convince me that this show is dull when Teito from out of nowhere got possessed by the Star of Mikhael, and I mean really out of nowhere: Frau and Castor were talking in front of an unconscious Teito, the episode really had this air of building up after the previous episode, and then suddenly without any prior warning all sorts of crazy stuff starts showing up. That really took me by surprise.

The rest of this episode though is really an aftermath, including the obligatory “angsting and being shown the light” subplot. I know that they’re really necessary to each plot, and characters would be a bunch of unemotional paper bags without them, but they remain boring. Still, they’re worth it for the character-development. And in this episode Frau and Castor did a pretty good job of keeping the viewer busy while Teito was busy with sorting out his own feelings. It was pretty simple this time, but I’m still curious what this series can do once it hits its second half and the character-development really starts kicking in.

One thing that I don’t like in this series is something that plagues just about 90% of every anime: Teito’s fate can either save or destroy the world. That’s pretty much the most generic and overused subplot you can think of, and yet NEARLY EVERY SHOW uses it. But yeah, I’ve long ago given up on complaining every single series that attempts this, so complaining about it every single time it gets used obviously isn’t magically going to solve it.

Rating: * (Good)
Standard aftermath with quite a nice surprise in the middle

Shangri-La – 10

by psgels, posted in Shangri-La



First of all: small Kuniko was AWESOME.

Now that that’s out of the way, its good to see that with a series like this one, which has a huge amount of different characters and parties, if one of them angsts there’s plenty of other stuff to keep the viewer busy with. I know that when a character experiences a huge shock like Kuniko did in the previous episode, she of course needs some time to settle down. Unfortunately it is too easy to just follow this character angsting for an entire episode and be incredibly boring in the process.

Here though, while Kuniko was putting her thoughts together, we got to see a bit of her past, and especially Atlas isn’t waiting for her to catch up as they’re setting plenty of stuff in motion in this episode. The awesome bitch-fight between Momoko and Sayoko also continues. I was surprised to learn that Sayoko isn’t Kuniko’s mother, neither Mikuni. Instead her child seems to be called Midori, who I have no idea who she is. This begs the question… where exactly did Kuniko’s mother go? The only other notable woman in Atlas we’ve seen so far is Ryouko… and that’s just scary.

I’m also wondering why Kunihito had a dagger that strangely resembled the one that Kuniko’s grandmother gave her at the end of this episode. There’s definitely something weird going on with these daggers, but I’m not yet sure what they’re made for, but they seem to be able to receive Atlas’ waves. In this episode, we see Kunihito, Mikuni AND Kuniko being able to catch these messages that were thought to be only receivable by Hiruko. I’m also glad to see that not only did Kuniko pick herself back up and decided to do something, but she also resolved to take up the leadership of the Metal-Age. There you go, here’s one girl who knows what she wants.

Rating: * (Good)
Very nice build-up episode.

Guin Saga – 10

by psgels, posted in Guin Saga



Ah, I remember how the last time an anime toyed with large-scaled fantasy wars, we got stuck with Utawarerumono, which in the end never really caught on. Thank god Guin Saga is doing a good job this time. Its individual ingredients aren’t that impressive, but together they form a very capable series indeed. Guin in this episode yet again proves that he is a born leader and that he has the ability to reunite various tribes. As the future king of Nosferas, politics should start getting into play soon as well, and that’s also going to be pretty interesting.

With the giant people, the defeat of the Mongols was of course only going to be a matter of waiting whether they could get there on time. Amnelis really was never meant to lead such a huge army, since all she basically does is charge and retreat. One thing that I do want to see in one of the next arcs is Guin taking on someone who actually has half a braincell. I mean, now that he has the giant people on his side, his opponents really are going to have to use their heads in order to prevent themselves from committing suicide.

One thing I didn’t like in this episode was Suni’s supposed death and resurrection. I’m not exactly sure what that was meant for… she just fell off a cliff and at the end of the episode turned out to be fine. The directing also is a big buggy at times: at one time we see Amnelis about to be attacked by two giants. Astrias slays one of them, and the other just… disappears. It’s true that this show could have been much better had it had solid creators, but it still is a pretty good series.
Rating: * (Good)
Guin pwned this episode as it ends the Mongol invasion-arc.

Konnichiwa Anne – 10

by psgels, posted in Konnichiwa Anne



Amidst all the sadness, episodes like this one really help to brighten up the mood. Anne gets her own room (with Katie Morris included) and meets a guy who plays cello and sells eggs, who’s going to teach her how to read. She’s still such an adorable little child.

The episode starts with the carriage loaded with all of the stuff that they took from their old house, as it heads to Marysville. The snow has stopped and Horace and Edward are fooling around again. When Anne starts talking to Katie Morris again, the two of them start making fun of her. Johanna asks what kind of home they’re going to live in, but Bert says not to expect too much. It’s not a very big home, but there are three bedrooms: one for Johanna and the kids, one for Horace and Edward and one for Anne herself (probably as thanks for offering Bert the job in the first place. Anne obviously get elated when she hears this.

When they arrive at the house, Bert and Johanna immediately start with unloading the carriage, but Anne is too impatient to see her own room (and Horace and Edward are already running around the house like crazy). When Anne sees her room, she is the most happy to find a window. She’s a bit disappointed that there is no lake that she can see, but quickly lets her imagination make up for it. Bert and Johanna then appear, carrying Katie Morris inside her room. Apparently there was no other place for it, so they just let Anne have it (to Anne’s delight, of course).

Anne’s attention also falls to a worn-out mat that’s sitting in a corner, and she reckons that she can make something out of it once she cleans it, so she gets to have that too. A bit later, Bert and Johanna leave (very rare for the two of them to be something together): Bert to his new job and Johanna to do the groceries. when they left, Anne grabs a brush and starts cleaning the mat and gets excited when she finds out that behind the dirt it indeed has a nice colour.

When they’re in the town and split ways, Johanna asks around for the nearest shop to buy salt and eggs. As it turns out, eggs are rather expensive in this town. Only a guy named “eggman” seems to sell them cheaply, though he seems to be a bit of a strange fellow. Bert meanwhile meets his new employer: Jeffrey Parker.

Anne is meanwhile preparing the potatoes as the two of Bert and Johanna get back. Johanna however isn’t pleased to find out that Anne used a brand new brush to clean the mat, and she gets really angry at Anne for basically ruining it right after it was bought. During dinner, Horace notes that there are lots of squirrels in the forest around them. As a punishment for ruining the mat, Johanna sends her out the next day to get some eggs from eggman, who apparently according to one of the stories Bert heard is a magician.

On the way to eggman, Anne’s imagination of course has enough opportunity to form all sorts of crazy theories about the guy. On the way there she also spots a Moose. When she gets to eggman’s house, a cello suddenly starts playing. She then sees a wounded chicken and knocks on the guy’s door, carrying the chicken. The door opens, though Anne is too scared to say something so he closes the door again. She knocks for a second time and then she does get the chance to ask for some eggs, and tell him that one of his chickens has been hurt.

He fies up the chicken, and then asks her to bring him the basket to put the eggs in. He asks her how much, which she misinterprets as him asking for her age, so she happily tells him that she’s six years old before he can say to her that he meant how many eggs she wanted, so eventually she walks out with twelve nice eggs. He then starts playing his cello again and she listens by his window a bit more, to suddenly see that he’s crying a bit.

Anne then falls off and makes some sound that make eggman notice her standing beside her window. When she’s discovered she scaredly starts telling him about all the strange ideas she had about him and his cello. While she fell, she also hurt her leg, so eggman takes her inside in order to treat her. He then introduces her to his cello. It then turns out that eggman is pretty interested in Anne’s imagination, and when she says that she actually isn’t allowed to imagine from Johanna, eggman instead tries to convince her that imagination is very powerful. He then writes down the word “Imagination” on paper, which I guess is pretty appropriate to be the first word Anne learns to read and write.

Anne then comes back to Johanna, and happily tells her how eggman isn’t the evil magician they thought to be, and the episode ends.

I guess that eggman is going to be Anne’s mentor for the future, just like how the new teacher was this for Emily and her friends. It’s good to see that she’s finally learning how to read, and I think that this is either going to be the first step of Johanna to send her to school, or he’s going to teach her until whatever is going to happen that’s going to cause Anne to move out. With such a happy episode as this one, it’s hard to believe the drama that went on in the previous episodes. The only drama in this episode really came from typical children’s antics: accidentally ruining something brand new in one’s enthusiasm, or not knowing when to stop talking. This show really has some awesome nostalgic moments.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Quiet and happy episode was happy and quiet.

Natsu no Arashi – 10

by psgels, posted in Natsu no Arashi



Well, so my assumption the last episode was indeed wrong: Kanako was simply one of Arashi and Kaja’s classmates. In this episode, Hajime goes to stalk them inside their house (with a little help from Hideo), after which Yayoi tells him about who the two of them are. I’m not really that much of a fan of the fact that they seemed to be the only cute girls in their entire school, but then again just about every anime suffers from this, and the rest of this episode really was as top-notch as ever.

For as little time that has been devoted to her, I quite like Kanako as a villain. She’s got this evil look on her, she is sure what she wants and makes sure that she gets it. I’m curious to see whether the creators can pull off her defeat well. She has deeply rooted motivations for her actions, so it’s going to be a shame if she’s just going to end up being talked out of her actions.

Speaking of Shinbo, I am getting worried about one thing here. In the next season he’s supposed to come with Bakemonogatari, and while I don’t know and don’t want to know what it’s going to be about, there seems to be a lot of hype around it, and how this can be one of his best series so far. But at the same time he also has a third season of Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei slated for the same series, right after a spring-season in which he churned out Natsu no Arashi, which was right after the winter-season in which he had Maria Holic, and don’t forget that Pani Poni Dash OVA that popped up about a month ago. I mean, is it me or doesn’t this just look like overkill? How many series can one guy direct before being completely burnt out? There’s no doubt that Zetsubou-Sensei is going to be rushed as hell, but it’s going to be a shame if Bakemonogatari would also end up suffering from this.

In any case, I’m at least glad that Natsu no Arashi turned out so well. Now if it only can give a nice conclusion I’m really going to be happy.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
This episode again shows that this show rocks when it wants to get serious.

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 10

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



This episode mostly followed the original series again, with only a few subtle differences here and there. The most notable event of course being Hughes. I remember, when I watched the first series that his death didn’t make that much of an impact, so I didn’t expect much of this episode. But damn… seeing his daughter at his funeral nearly got me a bit teary-eyed.

So again Hughes dies because he learns too much. I’m not exactly sure how Lust knew exactly when and where he would find this out (are uber-stalking powers also among the arsenal of the homunculus skills or something?), but in any case he realizes what the homunculi are planning, and also that something is very fishy with the Fuhrer, and thus gets killed off before he can spread the word.

One of the differences with the first series is that the creators here don’t try to hide the fact that the Fuhrer is a bad guy at all. In the first series, he looked more like a nice grandpa than anything else. That’s nice and all, but on retrospect I do have to wonder how that guy became a Fuhrer in the first place, and ended up ordering the Ishbal massacre.

Ed and Al meanwhile are busy with completely different things as they travel to their teacher in the search for answers to the Philosophers’ Stone. Unfortunately Winry ends up inviting herself again. I was hoping that she would have gotten to stay home this time, but let’s hope that she’s at least going to be more useful than she was in the first series. I never really understood her popularity. All she did was fix Ed’s limbs at the beginning of the series, and then just continued on in pointless adventures that didn’t really matter in the end.

Rating: * (Good)
Mostly the same as the first series, nevertheless it had one particularly touching scene.

Cross Game – 10

by psgels, posted in Cross Game



Well, the baseball matches really are like the rest of this series: very slow paced. This entire episode was simply focused on the baseball match between the good team and the bad team, and the next episode will probably see its conclusion. It was really meant to show that Kou is still inexperienced, despite his talents, and Azuma is just very talented since he just keeps hitting home-runs off the guy.

But yeah, the entire good team really deserves its reputation: even Akaishi can’t get a hit out of that pitcher. This episode also was about the third years: even though they weren’t talented at all, they just want to make some memories during their final year of high-school. Quite charming.

This mostly turns out to be an episode in which we see different sides of everyone. Kou no longer is that confident as we thought him to be, Lisa now that she has lost her lackey suddenly starts behaving entirely different, Senda is becoming less of a loser, and instead just becomes arrogant now that he’s found something he’s good at. Definitely a great building-up episode, though I don’t have a lot to say about it.

Rating: * (Good)
Nice build-up and subtle character-development.

Futakoi Alternative Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



I have no idea how horrifically bad the original Futakoi was, and I really don’t want to find out. Still, having heard that its sequel, Futakoi Alternative was nothing like it, completely different and story-wise had nothing to do with it; that it was supposed to be a really random and experimental series, my interest got sparked. After watching it, I do have to say: Futakoi Alternative was indeed a fine attempt to add some originality into the harem genre. But it’s in NO WAY perfect.

The show tells about a 21-year-old guy whose father resembles Nabeshin and whose yakuza friend looks like that guy from Getbackers, who works as a private investigator and has two cute 15-year-old assistants/girlfriends (pedophilia, anyone?). But those two girls aren’t just two regular cute girls; no, they’re twins. In fact, this show is full of them: they’re all identical twins (on a side-note: have there EVER been twins in anime that aren’t identical?), they even dress the same, have the same hairstyle, hair-length and love interest. The only things at which they differ are their personality and one accessory that they have different. And that’s the case for every single one of them. Seriously, it feels like the designers simply went through a checklist to create all of them.

Futakoi Alternative can really be classified as one of those series that are just… weird. It basically consists out of two subplots: one is a quiet character-study between the lead character and the twins; the second one… is about the quest to destroy an evil mutant squid who breathes fire. Yeah it’s like combining Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann with True Tears in one show. Especially that first episode is very misleading: it’s extremely fast paced. full of explosions and awesome animation, only for the pacing the next seven or so episodes to slow down completely and the show taking itself much more seriously.

But there’s one thing that this series does really well: the narration. Basically, the narrator is the lead character himself, but his lines are inspired and quite a significant amount of time is spent on the history of the different characters: to show how they were a couple of years before the start of the story. That really helped to prevent these people from turning into a bunch of paper bags and they’re quite enjoyable to watch.

In the end though, this is a series that you don’t want to be taking seriously. Not just because of the evil squids and all, but also because of the huge amount of plot-holes. Especially in the second half, this show likes to take huge leaps through its logic and some of the most urging questions are never answered: why did the twins choose the lead character, of all people, to go to (no really; they’re just there… no explanation whatsoever)? Why did nobody object to such a ridiculous arranged marriage? Why did that awesome cop get so little screen-time!?

It’s really strange: this show really had a surprisingly solid middle part; I was really taking this show seriously when the evil Nazi squids suddenly popped up from out of nowhere and turned out to be the source of all evil (no, seriously). It’s definitely different and original which is something that the harem genre really needs, but I feel that even without the weirdness, it would have been an even better series.

There are a lot of things wrong with this series. For example, if the creators weren’t obliged to insert cameos from the original series that really have absolutely NOTHING to do with the story at all, they could have used this extra time to fill in the plot-holes left. We’ve really got ourselves an enjoyable show here, but because we never know why the three lead characters got together in the first place, it lacks foundations a bit.

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

Victorian Romance Emma Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Ah, maids. Anime creators often use them to make moe characters even moer; usually with rather… embarrassing results to say the least. And take the well-known subplot, in which our hero has found his true love, but his stubborn parents refuse to allow this marriage because they’re stubborn and want to have an arranged marriage. These are two subplots which reappear in many, many different anime, but never quite like Victorian Romance Emma.

It’s very easy to just ignore this show because it looks boring, but it really turns into a pretty accurate portrayal of what life was for the English upper classes in the Victorian age. There is so much realism in this series and it knows it. This series shows noblemen as regular people, who hardly come into contact with the lower classes, and have to be continuously politically correct in front of their peers.

That’s nice and all, but what really makes this show is the cast of lead characters, and how wonderfully subtle their relationship plays out. This series definitely is a very slow one, and so people without patience are probably not going to enjoy it, but because it’s so slow it’s really able to make the romance between the two lead characters play out very naturally. This series makes excellent use of its 13 episodes and every episode, it pushes the story forward a little bit, until it finishes off with a very good conclusion.

There also seems to be a sequel, but I don’t think that that would have been necessary: on its own, Victorian Romance Emma is already a wonderful series about the bridge between noblemen and your average maids; any more would only ruin it. It’s one of those series which leaves a lot of the dialogue unsaid and the beauty is really watching everything slowly play out. For once, the fathers mentioned above are nothing like the stereotypical evil parents that refuse to let son marry for the sake of just a bit of drama, but Jones actually gives some very plausible reasons as to why he can’t let his son go off and marry a maid. It wouldn’t just be hard on him, but also on Emma herself, because as a noblewoman, she’d constantly be looked down upon by all the other nobles.

There’s just one character that really should have been left out. Thankfully he’s a side-character who doesn’t have much screentime, but whenever he does appear on the screen, he completely distracts from the main point of the episode and most of all is just a very obnoxious brat. I’m talking of course about Collin: the little boy who seems to have lost his balls somewhere (seriously, he has the voice of a girl!) and does nothing other than continuously whining and crying. There seems to be no point for him to be even in the show, so I really wonder why the creators even brought in such an annoying little brat.

Still, Victorian Romance Emma is a must-watch for everyone who is into historical series. It’s a mature romance series with very likable characters that knows exactly how to use its time, and how to subtly develop its characters. Even though in the beginning it may seem a bit boring, it all becomes worthwhile in the end.

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