Author: psgels

Tactics Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Well, I guess it’s time for me to check out another one of Hiroshi Watanabe’s works. Tactics can easily be viewed along with Suteki Tantei Labyrinth and Matantei Loki Ragnarok as his “supernatural detectives”-trilogy, featuring Shinto, Post-Apocalypse and Norse Mythology respectively. Out of the three, Tactics has the least original premise (after all, how many series about Shinto are there already out there?), it’s still a pretty decent series.

This series is actually pretty un-typical of Hiroshi Watanabe: his series usually are a very strange combination between really good and really bad, but Tactics instead is a pretty solid series. Whereas Suteki Tantei Labyrinth’s cases were really crazy at times, the cases that the lead character of this series needs to solve are well built up, logical, genuine and not really stupid at all.

The cast of main characters also is pretty interesting for a shoujo series. For once the lead character isn’t a teenager, but instead a folklorist, who has been properly schooled in the occult and happens to be able to see youkai. It makes sense that the guy would then try to make his money with exorcism. The rest of the lead cast complements him really well: no two characters feel the same, and they make up for quite a varied and enjoyable cast.

So, why the relatively low rating? Well, it’s pretty much a case of wasted potential. What we have here is a series without any major flaws, but which also lacks any major highlights. While Suteki Tantei Labyrinth was memorable for me because you’d never know what kind of stupid plot twists it would pull, Tactics for the most part isn’t memorable at all. The different episodic stories do the job of not getting you bored, but they don’t make any impact either. I really feel that the creators could have gotten so much more out of the lead characters than what they showed in this series.

The bad guys this series are also pretty pathetic. They hardly receive any development, their reasons for being evil are even shallower than your average bad guys, and they suffer from the “I’m about to kill you but I won’t because I want to see you grow stronger”-syndrome. Characters as Rosalie also appear way too late in the series to make any real impact.

Still, while this series isn’t your typical Hiroshi Watanabe-Trainwreck, it does have one very typical element of his series: a surprise ending. Like usual the episodes leading up to the finale are a bit too stuffed with angst, you’re about to give up on the series, and then it suddenly closes off with a really good (or surprising) ending. The ending of Tactics made up for a lot of the balance issues that I had with this series. It was really good and the only big highlight of this series for me.

So overall, this series is wasted potential, but it’s good to see that Hiroshi Watanabe is also good at writing solid story-lines, without the usual stupidity that you can find in most of his other works. Out of his supernatural detectives trilogy, I’d still prefer Suteki Tantei Labyrinth, but if you’re stuck with this series on a rainy day, then you’re not going to get bored.

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

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – 42

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00



Short Synopsis: Setsuna and Saji rush in to stop Memento Mori II (oh, and this post has semi-spoilers for the endings of Gundam Wing and Zeta Gundam, for those who haven’t seen them yet)
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
Oh boy, this episode pretty much ranks among the best that Gundam 00 has shown so far. Even if the final parts become horrible (see below), this was a worthy mid-climax. Not only did the orbital elevator indeed fall, the results of it were what made it awesome. It’s already established that pretty much most of the parties apart from the Innovators and the A-Laws top executives aren’t pure evil, so in the end it was great to see everyone preventing the huge amount of rubble that fell from destroying an entire city. It was well built up, with some great results.

It’s a shame that 00 Raiser yet again pulled a power from out of thin air (the incredibly long light saber; this really has to stop somewhere, right?), but ah well. It’s also a shame that Sergei and Hercule died so sudden, but their deaths were memorable. It’s also good to see that Saji for once didn’t whine.

This is also the first time this series has truly impressed me with its eye candy. For the most part, I don’t really care about the graphics of this series, since they’re nowhere near as interesting many different sorts of anime, but I do have to say that those long-distance shots of the orbital elevator in this episode looked really sweet.

Having said that, though, having watched Zeta Gundam recently has made me a bit wary of its confusion. Especially since this series uses lots of references to past Gundam series. The last thing I’d want in this series is a killing frenzy which sends half the cast into emo-mode for the final bunch of episodes. I’d much rather have the final part of this series refer to the finale of Gundam wing, with the huge-ass battleship. Gundam Wing may have done a lot of things wrong, but the finale was pretty good, and at least none of the characters became emo in its final parts. At this point, we’ve seen foreshadowing for both possibilities: on one hand the damage that the elevator caused in this episode is only a fraction of what would happen if a full-sized huge battleship would crash down on earth, while on the other hand Sergei’s death has set Marie in a huge rage for revenge, and remember that Saji and Louise have yet to settle their differences.

White Album – 05

by psgels, posted in White Album



Short Synopsis: Yayoi approaches Touya, with the message to leave Yuki alone.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
Haha! Nice: the creators are actually preventing Hirano Aya from singing in this series, even though she plays the role of an idol. I must say that I wholeheartedly agree on them in that decision, because it would completely have ruined Yuki’s character. Even one of Hirano’s best roles, Chiko from Nijuu Mensou no Musume, raised quite a few eyebrows when she started singing. It has to be a conscious decision from the creators of this series, because Hirano usually takes over the singing in nearly every show she stars in. Now I also see why she’s been absent from the OP and ED so far. ^^;

In any case, this episode adds a whole new dimension to this story, by focusing on Yayoi and Misaki, and it does so in such a way for it to actually make sense, rather than insert an obligatory filler to satisfy the fans of said characters from the game. It was quite a surprise for me when ayoi started hitting on Touya, in order to take his attention away from Yuki, even though it had it coming with this series’ set-up.

I must say that this series has overall proven to be a very interesting variation to Makoto Shinkai’s “being away from the one you love”-theme. While Shinkai’s leads generally remain faithful despite the distance, the thing is the entire opposite for Touya. Not only is there a large distance between him and Yuki, but he’s also being pressured from all sorts of sides to break up with her. His feelings already were a time bomb about to go off, but now that also Misaki is starting to depend on him, it’s become even worse. I do like, however, how Misaki has her own life, and the creators came up quite a decent excuse for her to rely on Touya for emotional support. I’m really liking this series more with every episode, and yes, this is coming from someone who once hated all harems with passion.

Jigoku Shoujo – 69

by psgels, posted in Jigoku Shoujo



Short Synopsis: An elderly woman calls Jigoku Tsuushin.
Episode Rating: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
Haha! It’s the bizarre episodes like this one that really make Jigoku Shoujo worth watching. This episode tells about the backstory of Yamawarou, the new kid in the third season, and it’s a really imaginative one. He once was a fungus spirit (or whatever that’s known as in Japan), watching over a family as they lost their son. Eventually when the father and mother grew older, he appeared in front of them as the son that they lost.

The husband and wife both reacted very differently. The wife saw Yamawarou as the reincarnation of her son. The husband instead, was a scientist and never saw Yamawarou as a human being, and instead performed his experiments on the guy, in order to find a cure for his wife who was about to die. When the wife found out, she sent Yamawarou away in order to prevent him from being taken advantage of. He then ended up by Jigoku Shoujo. A while later, the wife couldn’t take it anymore and wanted also revenge on her husband and so she calls Jigoku Tsuushin. Yet again wonderfully off-balanced on the moral scale.

It’s also great to see finally what’s up with Yamawarou. There was no hidden purpose to the guy, and instead he simply was the fourth doll that Ai collected. He just happened to arrive when he lost his body. The big mystery now of course is Kikuri, and she definitely showed a different side of herself in this episode. But then again, with this show you never know which questions it’s going to answer, and which ones it’s going to reserve for a potential fourth season. ^^;

I do wish for Yuzuki to become a bit more involved than she has now. Especially since this episode so forcefully wrote her away, I really want to see her become more involved with the different victims in her own way, and see the reality of the Jigoku Tsuushin. This is why I consider the first season of this series to still be the best of the three: in the second half, the revenges weren’t simply random, but so chosen in order to get some great character-development out of Hajime and Tsugumi. In the second season, the stories at this point were merely arranged to show some background on Ai’s dolls. While that’s important as well, it’s less awesome than seeing people’s beliefs challenged like the first season did. I’m really hoping for this third season to show sort-of a combination between the two, but for that to happen Yuzuki really needs to get some more confidence.

January Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

It’s definitely been an interesting Winter-season so far. I know that I’ve ranted pretty often about the lack of new concepts this series, but when you look at the big picture, then this is promising to become an excellent season. There are many quality sequels airing right now, and especially a lot of great shows that are entering their second halves. I’m looking forward to see what the rest of this season is going to offer.

#33 (new) – Hetalia Axis Powers – (1,5/10) – A full first impression will follow as soon as I find another bunch of new Series and OVAs, but the gist of it is pretty much that this series is discrimination and it deserves to have been cancelled from TV-broadcasts. Every single country is being made fun of… apart from the Netherlands!? What have we ever done to Japan to deserve this!?
#32 (new) – Akikan – (2,5/10) – No. Just… No.
#31 (new) – Asu no Yoichi – (5,75/10) – If I had to summarize this show with one word, it’d be “generic”. It’s not utter crap, but at this point I’ve totally forgotten what happened in that first episode, other than a totally out-of-place boob-joke. There are so many better series this season, so why would you go for this one?
#30 (new) – Maria Holic – (6,75/10) – I’m going to need a looong break from Shinbo. Especially after watching Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei and Tsukuyomi Moonphase.
#29 (new) – Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo – (7/10) – I know that this is a parody and all, but right now I’ve had enough of the Sunrise Trainwrecks.
#28 (25) – Slayers Evolution-R – (7/10) – The first season was lucky that it aired in a season where I had lots of free time and there weren’t that many good shows. The second season is less lucky, so I’ve dropped this one in favour of more interesting premises.
#27 (new) – Viper’s Creed – (7,5/10) – Even though there’s hardly any originality here whatsoever, I like this series. Its mature look at busting up bad guys is a refreshing change from all those action heroes and teenagers who are fighting for the powers of love, or something similar.
#26 (new) – Major 5th Season – (7,75/10) – One day. One day, I’m going to watch this series. Just… Not now.
#25 (new) – Maria-Sama ga Miteru – (7,75/10) – One day. One day, I’m going to watch this series. Just… Not now.
#24 (new) – Kurokami The Animation – (7,75/10) – Despite the interesting premise, the characters are dull and annoying, and yet I somehow end up caring about the two lead characters when they get their ass kicked for the umpth time.
#23 (new) – Koukaku no Regios – (7,75/10) – I keep getting surprised at how good this is. On the outside it’s a mindless shonen-series about people fighting each other, and yet there seems to be much more behind it. If it can only make its characters a bit more likable through the course of its 24 episodes, then I’m in.
#22 (new) – Ride Back – (8/10) – My problem with this show is that it keeps tugging on my suspense of disbelief. For example, one episode, a character violently crashes and ends up in a hospital. The next episode she’s just fine. Sure, a few months must have passed since then, but it breaks flow nonetheless. The characters are excellent, but this series desperately misses something.
#21 (11) – Skip Beat – (8,25/10) – The thing with Skip Beat is that it gets way too soppy when it turns on the drama-switch, and the soppiness only increases as the series goes on. The comedy still is hilarious, but there’s too little of it, and the bitchfights that originally made me like this series have been painfully absent this month.
#20 (14) – Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – (8,25/10) – This series isn’t as good as some of the other shows I’m watching this series, but nevertheless the plot is heading in the right direction, and especially the coup d’etat of the past episodes is promising a lot of great stuff for this series’ finale.
#19 (27) – Minami-Ke – (8,25/10) – Okay, so it’s taken me more than a year, but I’m finally sold on this series. The second and third episode were quite hilarious.
#18 (new) – Kemono no Souja Erin – (8,25/10) – Despite the fact that this thing is being produced by Trans Arts, the creators are actually doing a pretty good job on it so far. The only bad part is the use of CG, but apart from that the art looks really stylish. However, I first want to see what this series is going to do once the drama starts building up.
#17 (9) – Druaga no Tou – (8,25/10) – The royal guards have become pretty pathetic in the second season, but apart from that I like the balance between humour and seriousness in the second season so far.
#16 (new) – Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai – (8,25/10) – Okay, so technically this show is cheating a bit, by using its animation from theOVAs, but that doesn’t prevent this series from looking totally sweet. Yumemi is a likable heroine with interesting friends. Right now, the creators need to spend time into developing the setting.
#15 (7) – Jigoku Shoujo – (8,25/10) – This month of Jigoku Shoujo has been charming, but there weren’t any highlights. Still, the series is getting more solid and consistent, and Yuzuki is also getting better and better, so there’s lots of potential left for this series in the future.
#14 (10) – Tytania – (8,5/10) – The characters are surprisingly fun to watch as they all try to outsmart each other. What I also really like about this series is how seemingly small actions continue to spiral out of control throughout the series.
#13 (16) – One Outs – (8,5/10) – The decline of this series was wonderfully prevented by the Coach’s big scene. It’s good to see that this series is focusing on character-development after all, but it’s going to have to put in some effort to prevent the final arc of this series from getting dull.
#12 (new) – White Album – (8,5/10) – Sure, we’ve seen it before: guy is surrounded by lots of girls. Still, I’m still surprised at how good the writing of White Album is. The creators really manage to nail the different feelings of the different characters. It’s going to be awesome if they can keep this up.
#11 (5) – Shikabane Hime – (8,5/10) – I’m not sure who exactly found it a good idea to increase the fanservice ten-fold in this series, but nonetheless, the characters really managed to save this series from its shounen roots. I feared that the character-development would come to a grinding halt with the arrival of the second season, but it’s still going strong.

#10 (15) – Gintama – (8,5/10)

This month’s best episode was without a doubt episode 99. Those were some of the best game parodies I’ve seen. Right now, the subs have reached the point where the show changed directors. Let’s see what the new director can do with this series, although it’s a shame to see the old director go. The guy was absolutely brilliant in the past 100 episodes.

#9 (new) – Genji Monogatari Sennenki – (8,5/10)

The visuals are downright gorgeous, and the creators are wasting no time to get on with the story. The romance in this show is pretty good, despite being a harem.

#8 (12) – Natsume Yuujinchou – (8,5/10)

The stories from Natsume Yuujinchou this month ranged from simply okay to downright adorable. It hasn’t been the best month for this series, but it’s good to see this series back again.

#7 (17) – Tales of the Abyss – (8,5/10)

This series really managed to capture the essence of a group of people growing closer and closer together which is really prevalent in all of the Tales-games. I’m still really liking where this show is going.

#6 (new) – Hajime no Ippo – (8,5/10)

It took me only three episodes to get hooked on this show, and realize how bloody addictive it is. The plot is most likely not going to go anywhere, but the sheer intensity of the boxing matches really kept me on the edge of my seat.

#5 (3) – Bonen no Xamdou – (8,75/10)

Overall, it’s a shame that this series didn’t get the proper amount of episodes that would have been necessary to get the best out of its story. The finale has been rushed a bit, yet nevertheless it’s been an awesome ride between climaxes, with some of the sweetest animation imaginable.

#4 (13) – Clannad – (8,75/10)

This definitely has been the best month for Clannad yet, and especially the birth-scene was for me the highlight of both the first and second season. Okay, sure Nagisa is pretty much an older rip-off of Air’s lead female, but nevertheless it was a wonderful scene.

#3 (4) – Michiko e Hatchin – (9/10)

I’ve become a huge fan of this show’s characters, from the downright lovable Hatchin to the excellent villain of Satoshi. This show has really proven to know what it’s doing in both the serious and fun scenes.

#2 (6) – Casshern Sins – (9/10)

We’re about to get to the real meat of the story, and I must say that it’s awesome to see the characters growing and the plot making more and more sense, while there still are plenty of questions left to be answered.

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

Talk about improvement! The second season is doing just about everything right, and has in four episodes already surpassed the entire first season in every single area. The new plot has become so much more interesting, and Natoru is such an awesome new character.

Birdy the Mighty Decode – 17

by psgels, posted in Birdy the Mighty Decode



Short Synopsis: The new enemies prove that they’re not so useless after all.
Episode Rating: 9/10 (Fantastic)
Jezus Christ! This show just keeps on getting better and better, and it was already among the best of the season! The first season is looking like one of the most generic series ever in comparison, for god’s sake. I’m so astounded as to what this series managed to do with only four freaking episodes.

In this episode, Birdy already finds out that something’s up with Natoru. It turns out that the two of them had to flee to earth because they were major suspects on a bombing of the headquarters of Birdy’s organization, while in fact one of their friends was behind it. That same friend who belongs to the group of aliens that Natoru has been killing off so systematically. I’m not exactly sure what they have to do with Ryunka, but they seem to be taking care of a new version of it.

And holy balls, this episode showed that they’re not as helpless as we originally believed, as they end up killing Natoru’s father in this episode (with the same brutal animation of the second season). To make matters even more disturbing, Natoru gets even more violent because of this, and brutally kills one of the frog-children of that group.

I must say that I had a lot of doubts about Kazuki Akane. Sure, it was a nice series and all, but it just didn’t live up to his previous works. Right now, I’m taking all of that back. The guy definitely hasn’t lost his touch yet, and he’s definitely my favourite director out there. It’s because of guys like him that I’m still watching anime.

Genji Monogatari Sennenki – 03

by psgels, posted in Genji Monogatari Sennenki



Short Synopsis: Something goes wrong as Genji yet again switches over to a new woman.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
I’m amazed at how much this series has already done within only three episodes. Most series really need a bit of time to get fully steamed up, but with this series, every episode has delivered so far, and has been increasingly better. It would be awesome if this trend would continue throughout the rest of the series. My only gripe with this series is that at times, it’s rather hard to keep track of who is who. The extreme example is of course Genji in his younger days, but because of the series’ pacing it doesn’t have the time to properly introduce its characters.

Still, this definitely is one of the more unique harems I’ve seen, even though the story is 1000 years old by now. With Genji, you can see that the guy is a player, rather than a clueless harem lead. In the Tale of Genji, girls don’t flock to Genji, but Genji flocks to the girls, seduces them and then moves on again. This episode also showed that he really isn’t aware of the pain he brings to all of his victims. This whole love-thing is simply a game for him, and while he genuinely cares about the women he meets, he doesn’t try to take their own feelings into account at all. I think that that’s because he was raised as a prince and all. Japan’s emperors in ancient times have always had a reputation of being rather screwed in the head.

I’m not exactly sure what happened at the end of this episode. Was that ghost a vision that Genji had, causing him to cut up his newest love in confusion, or are there certain supernatural traits to this story, and was the ghost caused by the woman (I really have trouble remembering all of their names) of the last episode, who longs back to seeing Genji again?

Tytania – 16

by psgels, posted in Tytania



Short Synopsis: Fan’s back and proposes a plan to get his own reward money.
Episode Rating: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
So this episode was quiet, mostly used for comic relief and building up for the next major story arc where Fan is going to face off against Zalish somehow. It’s interesting how this series really puts the emphasis on plans and strategy, rather than concentrating on the low-level details of it.

If I understood correctly, then Fan plans to turn himself in because the planet he’s on lies in a remote region of Tytania. He’s hoping to make use of the bad organization of the place to make his escape once the money is received. In this episode, he basically investigates to find the weaknesses in said security.

On the Tytania-front, I’m surprised that Jouslain still has whathisface as his assistant. After the coup, you’d think that he’d hire somebody else. In the meantime, I was also surprised on how eager Idris was to get his hands on Fan. It sounds like he’s finally got a rock-solid plan in order to get Fan in his custody, though Jouslain is more intent on taking out Zalish, it seems. This could prove to be interesting.

Michiko e Hatchin – 14

by psgels, posted in Michiko e Hatchin



Short Synopsis: Satoshi sends a bunch of hit-men after Michiko.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
The best moments in this episode were definitely the ones involving Satoshi. Really, the guy is one of the best villains I’ve seen in a while; he just screams “charisma”, even though we hardly know anything about him. You know this guy is dangerous, and surrounded by a cast of awesome characters as in this series, I can’t wait to see the guy fully back in action again.

The rest of this episode was typical Manglobe. Their series really have a tendency to include a game element at non-filler points, even though these seem quite illogical at the time, and especially Ergo Proxy loved pulling them. This the second episode of Michiko e Hatchin in which Michiko’s enemies start playing a cat and mouse game with their victims, and I must say that they’re just as fun, and much more balanced than the ones in Ergo Proxy, which lost track of its plot a bit as it went along.

Satoshi this time hires two assassins: one of them is a drug addict at the end of his road, who desperately needs the money in order to get back to his girlfriend, and the other is a once awesome assassin who now is retired. Apparently, he’s good buddies with Satoshi, so he agreed to lend out his skills again, though the guy does make use of the opportunity to play a little game with his opponent. This all goes well until the other assassin rages into Michiko, apparently having heard her location from Satoshi who heard her location from the old guy.

Shikabane Hime – 18

by psgels, posted in Shikabane Hime



Short Synopsis: Sougi takes care of his old friend, while the Seven Stars pull a particularly nasty trick on Makina.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (8,5/10 for the first half)
Ah, who cares about the stupid fanservice! The second season rocks!

I’m really surprised. When the fanservice started coming with buckets at the time, I really thought that the series had hit its height in the first season, and the second season was just meant to cash in a bit more on the DVD sales. Still, Sougi and Itsuki’s past was rock-solid, and the definite proof that the creators haven’t lost their touch yet. Especially the conclusion to their story was fantastic. It’s impressive how easily Sougi was able to kill his once best friend. The guy has really grown from the teenager he once was.

Their arc really signified the message in this show, that Shikabane aren’t the same as people. Even though they’re a bunch of cute girls, they remain a bunch of non-rotting corpses. At the end, where Itsuki also started looking more like a zombie, and asked Sougi how she did her job, Sougi was able to face her with a straight face and told her that she did well, and he was able to do this because he didn’t see her as an ordinary cute girl.

In the second half of this episode, Makina and Ouri finally have the chance to talk and sort out their differences. It turns out that Makina killed Keisei in the end, to prevent his body from turning into a Shikabane, and that’s why she refused to take Ouri as his replacement. The next episode with the fight against the army of Keisei’s should also prove to be interesting, as it’ll finally show Ouri and Makina fighting together.

The question now remains where this show will go from now. will it, despite my praises turn into standard shounen fare now that Ouri and Makina have settled their differences, or will the creators be able to keep this level of character-development up. I’m just a bit worried about “boob”-san, who has just arrived at the mountains. She was one of the more annoying characters in the first season, without any real point to her, so I guess that the creators were saving her for the second season. But what could she possibly add?