Author: psgels

Casshern Sins – 22

by psgels, posted in Casshern Sins



Short Synopsis: Casshern is still alive but heavily damaged and Leda attempts to receive eternal beauty from Luna.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
Whoa… the voice actors were really having the time of their lives in this episode. Seriously, there was a lot of screaming and moaning in this episode, but those scenes hit me really hard. In any case, it seems that my worries in the previous episode were just completely out of place: although I would love to run into a series some day in which the main protagonist dies before the final episode of the series, Casshern indeed still needs to do some things in this series. The huge beating up he received in the previous episode was meant for his character-development: he’s no longer a senseless killer, and also for some reason, his body’s regenerative abilities have declined a lot, although they’re still there.

And I’m really glad to see how Leda and Dio turned out. I remember noting about eight episodes ago how the two of them were my least favourite characters of this series, but now that they too have received their development, they too have really become part of the amazing cast of this series. This episode really was about the two of them, and worked really well. As Casshern demonstrated: Luna’s blood isn’t perfect. It’s not like you drink it and become immortal with the push of a button. In this episode, Leda only drinks a bit of her blood, though that doesn’t turn out to be enough for 100% regenerative abilities. Remember how Casshern needed to impale her chest in order to drink enough blood and the past two episodes showed that that still wasn’t enough to be purely immortal. I also think that the “immortal”-part of Casshern was just a rumour: Luna’s blood regenerates, but it doesn’t toy with life.

And it also turns out that not every robot is able to take the huge amounts of blood from Luna either. This episode shows that Leda just couldn’t take even a fraction of the blood that Casshern must have drunk from Luna. She doesn’t look dead, but that does explain why Casshern lost his memory: he too received the repercussions of drinking too much of her blood. It’s a bit hard to imagine how this would chain-react into the ruins, though. And I also think that Luna never gave her blood to Dune because he probably already had drunk too much of it, and giving him even more would only ruin him. Luna indeed isn’t a villain, but just someone who is incredibly tormented by her own powers.

But what does that mean for all of the robots who have been saved by Luna before? Did they simply drink a little bit of her blood, that would allow them to heal their wounds, but didn’t do much else? In that case, then it must mean that the robots who were hurting themselves like crazy were just ecstatic: they were too happy that their wounds recovered that they didn’t notice that new ones popped up.

Unfortunately, it really does turn out that this show has only 24 episodes, that means two episodes left. I’m really curious to see whether this series can pull off a great finale. It really has the potential for that, but series as Ghost Hound have shown that lots of build-up doesn’t necessarily mean a perfectly planned ending. At the very least, I want to see a satisfying explanation of where the ruin came from, and why it appeared when Casshern killed Luna. That coloured rock has probably something to do with it. Speaking of which, where the heck has Ouji hidden it?

The Sky Crawlers Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Mamoru Oshii has become famous for his typical style of very convoluted dialogue. For the Sky Crawlers though, he went into a completely different direction from all of his other works. There are no endless dialogues here, the storyline isn’t really that complex, the action scenes don’t last forever: they’re short and to the point, the character-designs are very simple and down to earth and the pacing throughout the entire movie is very quiet. And yet it works like hell.

Basically, the Sky Crawlers tells the story of a bunch of people who are stationed at a small airbase somewhere in Europe in the middle of some war. The movie’s biggest focus is on its storytelling, because my god, the realism! Amidst the dogfights, there is a huge amount of attention to detail spent on how the characters interact with each other. The characters here really feel much more like regular people than in most other anime. Most of the drama in the movie is kept very subtle and meaningful. And that really is the biggest strength of this movie: it’s two hours long, with a story that could also be done in 20 minutes, but because of the incredibly slow pacing it really was able to show off its characters, their strengths and weaknesses in a very quiet and subtle way.

So yeah, obviously you don’t want to watch The Sky Crawlers if you’re looking for an energetic action-flick, although the action scenes that take place whenever the characters fly their planes definitely look beautiful. The CG is really well done, and integrates really well with the 2D art so that it hardly ever feels out of place.

If I had to mention down-sides of the movie, then there are two things that spring to my mind: first of all, there hardly is any background on the characters. Only the lead characters have some (very good, by the way), but the rest of the characters are all just a bunch of random pilots who happen to be in the same airbase. This of course can also be seen as a good thing: you get to know exactly as much about them if you were to meet them in real life. Of course they have their secrets, but they sure as hell aren’t going to blurt them out to any Tom, Dick or Harry.

The other flaw is most of a personal disappointment of me: there really isn’t that much innovation in this movie. It’s probably something really new for Mamoru himself, but I’ve seen the subtle storytelling done before and better. It’s of course really good for this movie to chose this approach, but I felt I saw nearly every aspect in this movie in another anime already before. Kenji Kawai’s soundtrack also pretty much sounded like all of his other soundtracks, and it didn’t really stand out as anything fresh or new from him.

Still, that definitely doesn’t take away that this is a very solid movie. It’s not Mamoru’s best work, but nevertheless consistently good and enjoyable if you like your drama to be subtle.

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

Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai – 08

by psgels, posted in Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai



Short Synopsis: Yumemi’s friends aren’t going to let Yumemi disappear that easily.
Episode Rating: 7/10 (only one more episode left!?)
So obviously, I am not happy with this series after finding out that it’s only going to last for nine episodes. I’m going to take back some of the original praises I made for this series; seriously, if I had known this beforehand I wouldn’t have attempted to blog this series. Warning: big rant coming up.

I really have to wonder: what was the whole point of this ‘remake’. Why couldn’t the creators just have made a third OVA? They could have saved up on the broadcasting fees in order to spice up the animation of the original material. In the end, Sora wo Miageru Shoujo isn’t a remake, it’s just a recap with about an hour of new material pasted at the end. Seriously, I really expected better from Kyoani.

Take a look at some of the other series which were intended as remakes as well: the eighties version of Glass Mask was terrible, and yet the version of 2005, even though its first half followed the exact same plot managed to rewrite it so that it became something amazing. Towards the Terra turned a reportedly average movie into a full fledged TV-series that excellently made use of its extended time-frame. THAT was exactly what I was hoping that this series would do as well, but in the end the ones who planned out this series never understood what was wrong with it in the first place. Sure, the lack of conclusion is one thing, but it’s definitely not the biggest flaw.

So in the end, this still remains wasted potential: there are so many interesting parts in this world that are never going to get explored. This series simply lacks proper build-up, and time to flesh out the different characters. At this point, one episode before the end I still can’t say that I know any of the characters. Yumemi’s friends probably come closest to that.

I can’t believe that I originally praised Kyoani from finally doing something out of their comfort zone. There was nothing experimental at all about this TV-series whatsoever, it’s just another one of their plans to milk out one of their franchises. That’s the thing I really hate about Kyoto Animation: they only go with series that they know will sell; they hardly take any risks whatsoever. Ever since Haruhi, their only original work has been Lucky Star, and that one still was about a bunch of overly cute girls that you can see in every single one of their series (and I didn’t like that one at all as well). Full Metal Panic as well: it was a continuation of a series that they already knew would work, and the same goes for the Key adaptations: it was Toei who pioneered them, not themselves.

What’s more, it’s probably going to take bloody ages before they’re going to be able to come with another new series: they obviously have to animate the next Key visual novel, Haruhi 2 also needs to come and I’m going to eat my hat if there isn’t some sort of Lucky Star Second Season coming some time. It’s especially aggravating since these guys have so many potential to make great series. PLEASE, Kyoani: make your next series about a pig dentist who practices curling at night. Sure, it might not make any sense, but at least it’s original.

Kanon (2006) Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


I originally dropped Kyoani’s version of Kanon after about ten episodes because the characters got on my nerves way too much. Still, after having been completely surprised at how good Air and Clannad’s After Story turned out, so I just had to finish Kanon at one point. This review is going to contain a few spoilers here and there, but in any case, the thing that immediately struck my mind when I picked it back up: those eyes! It feels like they watch right through you!

In all seriousness, though. The reason that Air and Clannad made such a big impression on me was that they started with the biggest heap of cliches imaginable, played a bit with them, and then went into a totally unique and original direction which blew me away in the end. For Kanon I was anticipating something similar. And it indeed started out with a huge amount of cliches: sick girl, tomboy, silent samurai girl, nice girl, energetic male, cute mother, et cetera. However, at the end of the series, I was still waiting for it to turn into something special.

I think that in the end, this series was trying too hard and ended up forced for me. It tries very hard to be cute: there is Ayu with her Uguu~, Makoto with her Au~, Nayuki with her Unyuu~, Mai with her delayed reactions, but all of this feels forced, and even though there’s more comedy in it than any other key adaptation, none of the jokes really live up to the few scenes that Air devoted to it (all the Uguu~s in the world couldn’t even come close to the awesomeness of the Stegosaurus t-shirt). The same goes with the drama: this series aims to be a huge tear-jerker, though I never cried once. It felt like the series kept clinging too much to its harem roots, which resulted in a few very strange plot twists. Twice, we have Yuuichi come very close to a girl, only to dump her in a hospital and move on to the next one.

Parents have always played a very big role in Key adaptations, but the extremely forceful way that Nayuki’s mother inserts herself into the drama didn’t sit well with me either. It felt like the creators were going “we need more drama! Let’s insert a random car crash!”. And there are a few more of these contrived plot twists that only serve to keep the story on the right track, rather than to get the best out of the characters (for example, it was quite convenient for Mai to suddenly lose her powers, otherwise she would have instantly solved nearly all of the problems in this series). The final episodes also included some deus ex machina that didn’t also sit too right with me.

However, do note that this is all compared to Air and Clannad (a very high standard). For me it feels like if you’ve seen both of those, then Kanon doesn’t have anything new or additional to add. However, when you look at the series as a standalone production, then it definitely has some good points. The air of mystery is very good throughout the series, the slice of life moments are also pretty well done, and Yuuichi is actually a pretty good lead for a harem series like this. Not because he’s a continuous sarcastic wise-cracker (that actually was annoying most of the time), but because he’s a seriously flawed character who already made a lot of mistakes in his life. One of the nice things about this series is seeing him realize what an incredible idiot he has been, and learning from his mistakes.

And yeah, this is a Kyoto Animation series, so the animation is very detailed if you can ignore the often very weird eyes. The character-designs definitely aren’t the most appealing ones out there, but the way they are animated makes up for it. There’s one particular aspect of the designs that I did appreciate, though: the architecture of the school that the characters go to. You can see that either the creators spent some time on designing it, or the creators thoroughly searched for some of the best school architecture out there and made an anime version of it.

Overall, Kanon isn’t bad by far. I liked watching it, but it’s just not that good. There’s nothing outstanding, ground-breaking or awesome about it, but it is definitely a good dark mystery romance series. If you like these sorts of very sad romances, then you’ll like this one, but it’s not going to make you see the light if you hate the genre.

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

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 22

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou



Short Synopsis: Natsume buys a picture and wakes up next to flower blossoms.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
Aha! I finally see the big difference in how I’ve been enjoying the first season when compared to the second season. Those who have read my past entries probably know that for some reason, the second season didn’t hit me as hard as the first season did. My guess that the novelty of the storytelling started to wear off, while the first season had me especially in its first half at the edge of my seat, I didn’t experience this with the second one, but now I realize that its episode in exchange felt really satisfying when they ended. Especially this episode: throughout the episode it didn’t feel like anything special, but in the end it felt like everything came together perfectly.

And seriously, Natsume is just TOO nice at times. He buys a picture, it starts sucking the life out of him and yet he refuses to have it removed because it supposedly contains a special person to a youkai he just met days before. As it turns out, the youkai and that person had met centuries ago. At one point, the guy stopped showing up (probably because he died since his health was weak), and instead of waiting for a quarter of an eternity like most Youkai would, Mai (the youkai) instead starts looking for him, and eventually seems to have found him inside that picture. Ever since, she’s been travelling with that picture, even though the guy could never say anything back, or even confirm that he indeed was the one that she made friends with.

And this episode shows again the meaning of masks in this series: breaking them seems to signify being able to move forward and change. In this case, Mai’s hard patience finally paid off when she could meet her loved one again. And I guess that that all happened because of the sacrifice Natsume made for him, but god, he could easily have died if he chose the wrong painting to be nice to.

This episode also had a very short bit about Natsume and his mother. It established that Natsume still has trouble to fully trust his mother, simply because he has a secret that she’s never going to believe him for. It was mostly building up in this episode, but I wonder if the chapters in which this building up is used can still make it within the series.

Jigoku Shoujo – 73

by psgels, posted in Jigoku Shoujo



Short Synopsis: A boy whose mother is pregnant calls Jigoku Tsuushin.
Episode Rating: 9/10 (Fantastic)
Easily the best episode of the third season. Oh, it’s awesome to see how good the final third of this series has become, compared to the huge trainwrecks of the first two thirds. They definitely served their purpose, and it’s really episodes like this one that remind me why I’m such a big fan of this series. Originally when it started out, it was the second-biggest reason after Mahou Shoujotai for me to start blogging, and now more than three years later it’s still going really strong.

First of all: Muahaha! Kikuri is also planning to become the next Jigoku Shoujo (I loved the “Ai no Baka!”, by the way). This just begs the question why she didn’t just take over Ai’s role when she died for the first time, and why she was the one who reunited the dolls again after Ai came back. She may prove to become an unexpected ally of Mizuki, though. That’s going to be interesting. 😛

As for the story this episode, it really was a sad yet typical case of domestic violence: one parent is abusing her child (who isn’t even hers), and the other parent knows about it but turns a blind eye to it. The ironic thing is that the stepmother used to be very nice, until she got pregnant. She really wanted to have a happy family at all costs, and when the boy didn’t turn into the only one who could provide her with this she started seeing him just as second fodder (plus, pregnant women can be scary).

The perspective of the boy was also awesome, and the exact reason why any sort of domestic violence is BAD. Even though he’s constantly abused by his step mother, all he thinks about is the fun times they had, and the one responsible in his eyes isn’t his mother, but the about-to-be-born baby, so he ends up sending his future little sister to hell. Since he’s just a small boy who just happens to be a bit more mature for his age and so able to find Jigoku Tsuushin on his own, as he grows up he’s steadily going to be able to see the huge mistake he made in his childhood.

I also loved the effects that the previous episode had on this one: the dolls now start involving themselves more and more with the cases, and they now talk to Yuzuki on a much more personal level, instead of having to remain in the shadows all of the time.

And you also HAVE to love the final scene of this episode. That explains exactly why the creators waited so long with letting Yuzuki getting close to the different people who accessed Jigoku Tsuushin. Even though in this episode she did a lot of work to prevent the boy from using Jigoku Shoujo, when she looked at the end result and how he was happy, she couldn’t help but smile, and we immediately see Ai spying on her. Bring on the character-development!

White Album – 09

by psgels, posted in White Album



Short Synopsis: It’s the day of the performance of Misaki’s play.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
And it’s finally happened. Finally Touya said something that… you shouldn’t say to another girl when you have a girlfriend. It’s now just going to be a matter of time before he breaks up with Yuki, though the interesting thing is that Misaki is now completely out of the picture and hooked up with Akira. The girl has been just one big red herring, whose part only was to break up the relationship between Touya and Yuki, and increase that gap as it went along. It’s now going to be up to Haruka and Rina to finish things.

It’s going to be very interesting, because I think it’s clear now that Rina doesn’t see anything special in Touya, while Touya seems to fancy her, while Haruka is clearly longing to spend more time with Touya, but Touya doesn’t see anything special in her. Now that the Misaki-arc is over, it’s time for the finale of this series to start, and at this point there are so many interesting possibilities for the ending to develop into.

But PLEASE, was it really necessary for Mana to suddenly kiss Touya from out of nowhere? That really had like… no build-up whatsoever. I’ve praised this show for being realistic, but that was about the complete opposite. In fact, that’s going to be a big potential pitfall for this series if it continues to pull these plot twists like in this episode. It’s not bad for now, but if every single girl is going to end up in the hospital (or something similar) due to a random accident, then it’s going to be a bad thing.

In any case, it’s also interesting how Misaki didn’t just force to characters apart from each other, but at the same time she also brought Touya and his father closer together. I’m not sure whether the creators are going to use him some more in the end, but it would be awesome if he would. At first I thought that they hated each others’ guts, but there seems to be a more subtle reason why he kicked his son out of the house. But then again,

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – 46

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00



Short Synopsis: A certain character thought to be dead returns.
Episode Rating: 7,5/10 (Good)
Seriously, I so want to hate this series, and yet this series doesn’t let me. And I so want to love this series at the same tie, and that too is something I’m unable to do with this series. There are so many good things about this series, but there are also so many bad things, and this episode again was no different.

Especially Louise got on my nerves more than ever, now that she finally has the chance to kill Nena. Especially the incredibly exaggerated screaming was just pointless. I personally believe that this series would have been a lot better if she had simply died when Nena killed her in the first season. In that case, Saji would indeed have angsted for a lot of episodes, but at least he would have gotten over it, and their relationship wouldn’t have turned into the whine-fest that it is now. In fact, I’m beginning to like Saji whenever he’s not thinking of his former lover.

But yeah, there was lots of good building up in this episode, which is always welcome. While it’s a bit strange for Wang Lui Mei and Hong Long to still be alive, and how four centuries into the future, people still haven’t invented bullets that have enough force to pass through a human body, I am glad to see that they do succeed in telling the CBs about Veda’s location.

And FINALLY, it becomes clear what Aeolia Schenberg intended to do with his plans from the beginning: turning every human into an innovator. That’s what it meant to change the world, and that’s why the GN Drives had to be constructed through such a difficult process. But here I have to wonder: what’s the point of being an innovator anyway? All I’ve seen in the past few episodes is that they have glowy eyes, weird hair and get to pilot fancy mechas. I guess the only thing is the telepathic powers of these guys, but I can’t see how Aeolia would start such an incredibly elaborate and complex plan, just to turn a bunch of people into psychics… Just imagine how people can be able to misuse these powers by intruding into others’ privacy.

Right now, my biggest problem with the second season aside from the obvious Saji and Louise is that it’s a story that could also have easily been done in thirteen episodes. There was no need to drag this on for this many episodes, unless the creators were very consciously building up for something in the end. The finale of this series can really make or break it for me. With such a large amount of build-up, the finale really needs to give this series a solid and satisfying conclusion. If it can do that, then my opinion about this series will very likely become much higher.

Birdy the Mighty Decode – 21

by psgels, posted in Birdy the Mighty Decode



Short Synopsis: Shouko goes on a big adventure.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
Another quiet episode with the goal of building up, but it’s an episode well spent, as it develops the character of Shouko a bit more. It was a bit silly of her to mistake Nataru and Shion to have a relationship, but the episode did its job really well, and especially the many other things that happened during this episode made it more than worth watching. And after all, she was about to be taken away from Nataru, so she needed something to vent off her frustrations with. Bullying Shion was the obvious thing to do. ^^;

But damn, I hate it when the creators pull that ‘character X is about to be killed off’-cliffhanger, especially since this show has already seen so many deaths. Now I really want to see that next episode, even though it’s going to take another week for it to air. My guess would be that the creators are going to let Nataru struggle for a bit more, make him escape with that power of his while heavily wounded.

Then, I wonder what Muroto’s purpose in this series is going to be. It’s been pretty small throughout the series, but now that he caught himself a ‘scandal’ of Shion, then I really wonder what kind of repercussions it’s going to have. Shouko is probably going to find out, meaning that her role isn’t over yet, and this episode was probably spent in order to develop her character not just to have a complete cast and for the heck of filling an episode, but it’s actually going to be used somewhere later in the series. Nice.

February Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

A bit of a boring list this time perhaps, since it looks mostly the same as last month’s with perhaps a few small differences. Nevertheless, this was a very good month. The winter season has proven to be an excellent one, and quite a few series spent this month getting even better than they already were. Oh, and I dropped Kemono no Souja Erin for those who were wondering. Wake me up if it turns out to be more than just a World Masterpiece Wannabe.

#24 (new) – Fresh! Precure – (7,5/10) – … why am I still watching this thing!?
#23 (24) – Kurokami The Animation – (7,75/10) – I still can’t quite grasp where this series is going, but it’s still mostly building up and fleshing out the Mototsumita-setting. So far, it’s solid, though it hasn’t hit any heights yet. My highlight this month was the episode with the other Mototsumita who made a contract with a substitute.
#22 (33) – Hetalia: Axis Powers – (7,75/10) – Okay, so my attempt at blogging this series failed, but it’s still a pretty fun and random series with interesting historical references. I’m looking forward to see the other countries show up.
#21 (20) – Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – (8/10) – Oh, I just hope that the finale is going to be all right for this series. Some parts of the past months have been really good, but at the same time the action has been repetitive apart from the two episodes about the coup d’etat, and the Saji vs Louise storyline STILL hasn’t become better, even after nearly fifty episodes.
#20 (10) – Gintama – (8/10) – Ouch… This episode saw the subbed versions of the episodes that were jointly directed by the old and new directors of the series, and there’s one thing that immediately becomes clear: the jokes start feeling flat. It may just be me getting used to the new style, but the timing just felt off and most of the jokes missed their mark. Thank goodness the serious parts were still as awesome as ever, but I’m worried here. Let’s see what the new director can do when he’s alone in the director’s seat.
#19 (19) – Minami-Ke – (8/10) – I’m a bit behind on this series, but overall while it’s not proven to be something awesome it remains pretty enjoyable to see the different antics of the Minami sisters. There’s hardly anything annoying or flawed, so I’m glad to have picked up this series.
#18 (23) – Koukaku no Regios – (8/10) – This turned into a pretty sold series, and the stereotypes are getting less and less apparent and annoying. My only gripe is that horrible, horrible Engrish, but I’m interested to see where this series can go.
#17 (22) – Ride Back – (8/10) – I really have a hate/love relationship with this series. On one hand, it continues to tug on my suspense of disbelief (why out of all people did the younger brother get involved, and why was everyone shot down and brutally killed, while he managed to survive long enough or Rin to arrive), but on the other hand, the characters do remain excellent.
#16 (13) – One Outs – (8,25/10) – So in the end, this series didn’t turn out into a very deep or thought-provoking one, but instead one that’s just a lot of fun to watch. I’m getting more and more warmed up to the cast of characters.
#15 (7) – Tales of the Abyss – (8,25/10) – This month was mostly build-up for the big finale of this series, but it’s nevertheless been very solid. The development on the two characters who originally made me question where this series was going (the two little girls who rather felt out of place in a war between countries) was quite good and appreciated.
#14 (21) – Skip Beat – (8,25/10) – I have so many issues with this series that it’s going to have to need an entire review in order for me to be able to list them all. For now, let me just say that I may have chosen the wrong time to watch Glass Mask: the parts about acting in Skip Beat feel downright shallow and oversimplified when compared to that series. Still, I’m surprised that the different characters’ antics still remain hilarious.
#13 (8) – Natsume Yuujinchou – (8,25/10) – I’m still not exactly sure what I’m missing that the rest of the people do see with the second season. I still like this series a lot, but when compared to the stellar first season, there seems something missing, and my guess would be that the novelty of the premise is wearing out for me. Still, the soothing atmosphere is still there.
#12 (16) – Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai – (8,5/10) – So, the glorified recap is finally over and this series can finally start filling in the huge holes that the original OVAs left behind. The pacing is still really fast, but I so hope that this series is going to last for 24 episodes.
#11 (17) – Druaga no Tou – (8,5/10) – This is really typical of Druaga no Tou. First you have episodes like the one with the shadows, which really were quite terrible and full of holes, and then when you’re about to give up on the series, it hits you with some really good and solid episodes that completely make up for the past screw-ups and silliness,and they fully explained what Neeba and Kaaya had been doing for the past six months.

#10 (14) – Tytania – (8,5/10)

A bit of a quiet month for Tytania with only two episodes aired, but there was some good stuff in it. This series sure took a long time to get fired up, but the end results are worth it.

#9 (12) – White Album – (8,75/10)

Ah, I’m so in love with the subtle execution of this series. It’s also proven to be quite a thought-provoking series: what does it mean to cheat on your girlfriend, and in what cases is it justified. There are lots of different opinions and ways to interpret this series, which I feel is yet another one of its strengths.

#8 (9) – Genji Monogatari Sennenki – (8,75/10)

Now this is what Noitamina should be. After seven episode,s this series is still going solid, with some beautiful eye candy along the way. Now let’s see if the creators can give this one a solid conclusion.

#7 (15) – Jigoku Shoujo – (8,75/10)

Muaha! It’s time for the real meat of the series to show up at last. I’m very excited to see what the creators have in store for the climax this time.

#6 (6) – Hajime no Ippo – (8,75/10)

Episode eight was pure slaughter, and yet this series is just getting better and better. If the original series was just as good as this, then I can understand why it became so popular.

#5 (11) – Shikabane Hime – (8,75/10)

Screw the shounen cliches, this series rocks! Especially the characters are excellent, thanks to all the build-up that the first season put into them, and there seems to be no end in sight for the character development of the second season.

#4 (3) – Michiko e Hatchin – (9/10)

As solid and fun as ever.Michiko to Hatchin continues its perfect balance between intelligence, action, fun, drama, romance, and a whole lot more things. Every episode this month has been a delight to watch.

#3 (2) – Casshern Sins – (9/10)

Everything is finally coming together for this series, and the results are awesome so far. The series is evolving, and yet the creators aren’t forgetting what made it so awesome in the first place.

#2 (4) – Clannad – (9,25/10)

Well, there you have it. The past few episodes have been nothing short of incredible. Ushio has pushed this series into a unique direction, going even further than Itazura na Kiss went.

#1 (1) – Birdy the Mighty Decode – (9,5/10)

I’m still amazed at how incredibly good and awesome this series has become. Nearly every episode so far has been utterly amazing, and I just have to love the animation style.