Author: psgels

Bonen no Xamdou – 22

by psgels, posted in Bonen no Xamdou



Short Synopsis: Akiyuki’s father meets Kakisu at the Sentan Island war memorial and MAJOR SPOILER ALERT.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Those who’ve been following more of my entries for the past weeks must have noticed the lots of 8/10s for the episode ratings, but that’s exactly what nearly all of the shows I’m currently blogging are: consistently excellent with hardly any weak moments. The same goes for this episode: despite the slow pacing it was yet another really moving instalment.

With as highlight of course the death of Kakisu. It was a very subtle death, exactly what you’d expect from this series, and it was also wonderfully animated. When Akiyuki’s father shot, I was really surprised that the screen didn’t black out, followed by the sound of a gunshot. I only realize it now, but such a trick is very often used in anime as a cheap trick to avoid having to draw a bit of gore. On top of that, the amount of blood that was gushed in the process felt about right: there were no galleons of blood spilled, as many shounen-series tend to do in these sorts of situations. All of that gave something very creepy to his dead body.

Fusa was also as good as ever with her monologues. Akiyuki and Haru meanwhile find out that the gathering of the Xam’d comes along with a mass suicide and as expected: the white haired guy has a much different perception of human life than Akiyuki and Haru, who went through the horrors of the assault on Sentan Island.

The rest of the episode focused on building up for the series’ finale, which most likely is going to focus on the all-out war between the north and the south, and possible other fractions. Midori is being moved to the battlefield as we speak, while Raigyo and Benikawa are also busy helping their allies. Tessik village also has its own super weapon, so it’s definitely promising to be an interesting finale, especially since Akiyuki, Haru and Nakiami, who are supposed to be the main characters of the series, don’t play a major part in it, apart from Haru’s connection to Midori. I really wonder what the creators had in mind for them for the final episodes of this series, because at this point I have no idea.

Shikabane Hime – 15

by psgels, posted in Shikabane Hime



Short Synopsis: Makina again gets the chance to meet the ones who killed her.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10 (Good)
Whoa, there surely have been some changes between the first and second season. Some were expected, others not, and both seasons now have their own advantages and disadvantages. Thankfully this episode was much better than the first episode of the second season, so all hope is thankfully not lost. Anyway, here’s a list of changes between these two seasons:

Season 1 < Season 2 - Characters are fleshed out and some of them are developed by now: they're easier to connect to and more enjoyable to watch. - AWESOME lighting effects: the second season looks even better than the first one due to the increase of lots of CG for lighting. - The monster of the week-theme seems to be gone now (not sure about that one, though). - Faster pacing. Potential for even better fight scenes. Season 2 < Season 1 - The second season now really is a shounen series: group of good guys fights group of supernatural bad guys with large powers. - Too much angst about Keisei's death. - The sense of humour is much worse. In the first season, the humour was there before you knew it, and then gone again, while it feels much more unbalanced in the second season. - As a sacrifice for the lighting effects, the animation quality went down. - What the heck is up with that Idol Shikabane? Very weird and out of place fanservice. I really am not sure whether the second season is going to turn out well or not. It all depends on how well the creators manage to do the rest of the battles of the series. What it absolutely MUST NOT do is end every single battle like they did in this episode: with Makina struggling without any will to fight, only to awaken to her desire to avenge Keisei and release hidden powers. Things like these are good once or twice (like what this series did with this episode), but a very nasty habit of shounen-series is to overplay this cliché way too much. It's been ages since I watched a really good shounen-series like this one, and I really hope that the creators can pull this one off. One big advantage that this series has is that the antagonists are by now means too powerful. They retreat too when cornered, the only advantage they have is that they work together as a team. Compare that to many other shounen-series, where we have a near-impossible to beat enemy, and so the creators have to mess with power-level inconsistencies as large as a black hole in order to make the main characters win in the end. What I’m really hoping for in this series is an all-out war between everyone in the finale. But yeah, the two major factors that are going to decide whether the second season is going to be worthwhile are: 1) the amount of Keisei-angst from Makina and Ouri, and 2) the laziness of the creators during the fights. The fanservice is definitely annoying, but it's not going to make or break this series.

Michiko e Hatchin – 11

by psgels, posted in Michiko e Hatchin



Short Synopsis: Hatchin gets used to life within the circus, when she meets a certain Michiko
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Seriously, Hatchin is an awesome character. At this point, I don’t care what kind of direction this series is going to go into: when she’s around, it’s going to be lots of fun either way. Another thing I like so much about this series is that it rapidly switches from hilarious comedy to powerful drama, and especially this episode was good at that. The news reporter in this episode was hilarious, even though he was trying to deal with such a serious topic as child exploitation.

It seems that Michiko didn’t have to search long for Hatchin. I’m not sure what part I missed where she found out about the circus, but I expected a lot more time to be spent on it. I’m still surprised at how long it took for the two of them to make up: normally things like these are resolved in one episode, in extreme cases two. The way they made up was also delightfully far from cheese, and it felt really true to their characters.

In the end, Michiko’s pride and Hatchin’s responsibility just remain adorable. I loved it when Michiko found out that Hatchin preferred her to the fat lady Michiko, and Hatchin, even though she despises Michiko, did rescue her in the end. There are a lot of things in this series left unsaid by the two of them, but that’s also what makes them such great characters to watch.

Casshern Sins – 14

by psgels, posted in Casshern Sins



Short Synopsis: Ringo and Ouji get separated.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Okay, so either this series got its timeslot shifted to Tuesday somehow, or the Thursday timeslot went into a hiatus and the Tuesday timeslot didn’t. Anyway, about the episode: CasshernXLyuze: you were right. Casshern and Lyuze are indeed the main couple of this series. The final few minutes of this episode were wonderful, as they showed that Lyuze finally accepts that she can’t kill Casshern if he has the potential to get rid of the destruction, and Ringo realizes that she belongs with Ouji. Oh, and the surprise guest at the end of the episode only made things better. 🙂

Regarding the rest of the episode, Dio and Leda are my two least favourite characters of this series, so it didn’t rank among the highlights of the series for me. I’m not sure why, but they just aren’t as likable as the rest of the cast, and I hope that the second half of the series is going to change that. Right now, all signs point to the direction that Dio isn’t going to stupidly chase after Casshern anymore, and I really want the guy to develop and turn into someone completely different, and with a bit of luck Luna is going to make sure of that. The same goes with Leda.

In any case, the arrival of Luna is definitely going to make the second half of this series incredibly different from the first half. I’m not sure whether this was actually THE Luna, but nevertheless the despair of the early episodes will be turning into hope. Whether Luna is real or not doesn’t matter, but she is going to have a very big placebo effect on humans and robots alike.

Oh, and this episode finally showed the real new ED of the series: the previous episodes merely showed an insert song. While the song still isn’t exactly of my taste, the visuals are still awesome as ever.

Some quick first Impressions: Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo, Hajime no Ippo New Challenger and Viper’s Creed

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is best friends with a flying potato with a train fetish…
Chance of me Blogging: 30% (Nice ideas, but…. what?!)
In my previous entry, I remember noting how this season lacked originality. I never thought that this series would listen to me, although it definitely has its own share of problems. Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo is weird. In fact, nothing of this series made any bloody sense whatsoever… the lead character moves from an innocent schoolgirl with an annoying sister to the henchmen of a weird mechanical space eye-ball… The character-designs are also way too moe. Still, I do have to appreciate the huge mount of ideas that was stuffed into this series, even though most of the times this is for the wrong reasons. This series is so incredibly stupid that it actually becomes enjoyable. The bad thing about this series is that it’s Sunrise again: the title is meant to cash in on Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo’s popularity, and the Lelouch-eyeball at the same time tries to squeeze more money out of the Code Geass-franchise.

Hajime no Ippo New Challenge

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a very good boxer.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (Have yet to see the first season)
In this season, I’m looking for new and fresh content. I’m not sure where I got that idea, but this clearly was the worst possible season for it: yet another sequel! The only original and imaginative premises I’ve seen so far are from Akikan and Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo, which… definitely were in the complete opposite direction of what I was looking for… Nevertheless, laying this aside I pretty much liked this episode. The characters were immediately likable, even though I missed around seventy episodes of the first season. My biggest concern with this series is: what’s its point? The lead character has worked very hard through the first season to become world champion (or similar), so: what’s next? There are so many Madhouse series that are in dire need of a sequel, so why did they pick this one?

Viper’s Creed

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights berserked robots on a motorbike.
Chance of me Blogging: 20% (Only if the rest of the season is baaaaad)
Well, so it’s yet again a series that isn’t strong on the originality-department, but nevertheless it does have some good and exciting action-scenes. I didn’t notice anything familiar on the opening credits, but could this perhaps be the next Gonzo-series? It fits their style perfectly anyway: motorbikes, an all-female back-up team, lots of CG and camera-work, rock soundtrack. Still, this doesn’t look like Bad Gonzo; there was a delightful absence of stupidity that plagues these series oh so often. And this series has one big advantage: it doesn’t revolve around teenagers! The lead characters are trained professional adults who have been specifically prepared to fight crime. There were no angsty teenagers whatsoever. If only because of that, I’m going to keep watching this series. This is no Blassreiter, but still pretty entertaining.
Edit: ah, so it’s not Gonzo after all, but AIC Spirits that tries to look like Gonzo. Let’s see how long these guys can keep this series interesting (hint: plot!).

Some quick first impressions: White Album, Minami-ke Okaeri and Zoku Natsume Yuujin-chou

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou, Some Quick First Impressions, White Album

White Album

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has an idol as girlfriend.
Chance of me Blogging: 60% (It’s actually good… wut?)
Saying that shounen romance isn’t my favourite genre is an understatement, so when I learned that this series would revolve around a guy whose girlfriend was an idol, I definitely didn’t expect much from it. And yet at the end of the episode, I was convinced that this show has easily the best first episode of the new season so far. This show isn’t as much a romantic comedy, but rather as how you deal with being away from your girlfriend. What I especially liked was, however, the male lead: he has a personality, he works part time at a local cafe: the guy actually has a life! That’s something that’s really rare in this genre, and this show reminds me a lot of True Tears. Despite the whole idol-bit, this series feels refreshingly down to earth and true to life.

Minami-ke Okaeri

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters… do various things.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (What is there to write about this series for every consecutive episode… seriously?)
Okay, so this is my third attempt at following a Minami-ke series, after having failed both previous ones. It’s not like this is a bad series, but more like other series were more interesting at the time (but then again, if I dropped Dragonaut back then I could have easily kept watching this series…). In any case, this season actually looks like I might last until the end. It felt quick and fresh, and the fast pacing never gave me the chance of getting bored. For once Haruka also felt like more than just a clone of your typical elder sister that you see IN 100 OTHER SERIES ALREADY. The good thing about this series is that you can just join in at any episode you’d like without missing much, and this episode proofs that.

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets one of Nyanko’s old friends
Chance of me Blogging: 100% (Hell yeah!)
This season lacks originality! More than half of the new shows so far have been sequels… what happened to original content? Nevertheless, I’m really glad to see this series back, and it already starts off with a very strong episode. Nyanko-sensei especially was a delight to watch, and the chemistry between him and Natsume gets better and better. Now all that’s left is to see whether the second season can surpass the hotaru-episode of the first season, and perhaps bring a bit of continuity to the entire story.

Porfy no Nagai Tabi Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Porfy no Nagai Tabi


Porfy no Nagai Tabi is the second series of the revival of the famous World Masterpiece Theatre franchise, a long-running collection of series based on popular children’s novels, made accessible for every age. The franchise is typically very slow paced, combined with genuine, true to life and realistic characters, and it’s a formula that’s proven itself over and over again; though it’s definitely not a series for everyone.

Like the title does suspect, this instalment is a travelling series. It consists out of roughly five arcs, each of them being completely different from the others in tone, mood, pacing and execution. It starts out as a gentle and calm slice of life series, then it turns into a dark tear-jerker, then it becomes a slow laid-back travelling-series, then a haunting fast-paced one, and the final arc yet again goes into a completely different path, making sure that the 52 episodes of this series don’t drag on.

One of this series’ strengths is that it’s absolutely masterful at building up. Every single episode is chockfull of cross-references to either past or future events, the amount of foreshadowing is huge, and yet in half of the cases you won’t recognize the foreshadowing until what they wanted to hint at has already happened. When you see something randomly happen, especially in the first quarter of the series, you can be sure that one of the later episodes uses or builds further on this.

The same goes with the characters. The amount of development that goes into Porfy and Mina is immense. The show may not have as huge or complex of a regular cast as Les Miserables, but in order to make up for that it does what it can to make the lead cast as true to life and realistic as possible, and they really succeed at that. Porfy and Mina aren’t exactly immediately likable, but as the series progresses they and the other characters become very easy to relate to, simply due to their different sides and many subtle quirks that shaped their characters.

Another strength of Porfy no Nagai Tabi is the travelling-part of the series. Especially the second half really managed to catch the essence of travelling: meeting many different people, and not knowing beforehand whether they have ill intentions or are cooperative. Everyone that Porfy runs into is different, and the contrast between the loneliness of travelling alone without knowing anybody, and talking to random people you meet on the way really works.

The weakest part of this series is around the middle, where the travel arcs are long and a bit too tedious to get through. Porfy meets the right people a bit too conveniently, and overall there are times when it just feels a bit unrealistic when Porfy gets involved in large dramas, and in the end manages to make people who originally hate each other make up again like nothing happened. Thankfully the later travel arcs fix this wonderfully, and provide a more realistic view to this.

And yes, this definitely isn’t a show for the impatient. Especially since hardly anything happens aside from building up in the first twelve episodes, you need to be able to enjoy slice of life moments if you want to enjoy this series, but that’s the case with nearly every other WMT-series: the characters are amazing, but there’s an amazing amount of time needed to flesh them all out.

Since the character-designs look fairly simple and childish, do not make the mistake to think that the graphics are all very dull and simple. Sure, the character-designs aren’t complex, but to make up for it this series has some of the most beautiful background art in all anime. For 52 episodes, the creators consistently deliver the most gorgeous landscapes full of life and detail, perfectly representing the area that Porfy finds himself in at the time: you can really see the changes as Porfy moves through Europe.

Overall, Porfy no Nagai Tabi isn’t as incredible as Les Miserables, yet it’s a wonderful series nonetheless. I really hope that these guys succeed in fansubbing this series, because it’s definitely been one of the most under-looked series of 2008. You obviously don’t want to watch this, expecting nothing but juicy plot twists, but for those who can appreciate a bit of slice of life here and there, it really is an excellent recommendation.

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

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 52

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi



Short Synopsis: I think we all know what’s going to happen. ^^;
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
Talk about cruel: out of all possible episodes, this one gets delayed. The BIG finish of Porfy no Nagai Tabi took bloody ages to come out on share, but I must say, that IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT! This ending did exactly what it needed to do, and even though it’s not very unpredictable, it’s just so awesome that everything went well for Porfy and Mina, after the huge amount of ordeals that they had to endure. A predictable yet wonderful ending, if I have to say so myself.

The episode starts with Porfy waking up and Rose wonders whether her eyes look funny, since she spent the previous night pretty much crying. It’s snowing outside, so Rose comments that they’re going to get a white Christmas. In the end, Porfy couldn’t find an appropriate present for her, but she’s happy enough with a bolt that he happened to have in his pocket.

Rose then figures that she needs to give Porfy his present too, and she goes out to make a certain phone call. In the meantime, the creators tease us for one final time by letting Natalie and Zaimis bump into each other. Since Natalie is carrying a heavy shopping bag, they stay together and talk for a bit. Natalie notes how she can immediately see that Zaimis is not from Paris, since he looks so bewildered at the snow (it seems to be an often-used metaphor in this series: symbolizing things you’ve never seen before). Just before he’s about to tell that he’s from Greece, Natalie’s car arrives and they say goodbye.

Tiffany meanwhile receives Rose’s phone call, where Rose says that she needs to talk about Mina. They decide to meet at the film studio. Zaimis meanwhile has immediately developed a crush for Natalie as Porfy calls out to him. Porfy then gets a bit nostalgic now that his journey is about to end, and talks about how he’s seen many places. His mother used to say that the world is big, though at the time when she said it, he didn’t really understand what she meant, but now that he’s seen so many different places and people, he understands. Zaimis also appears to have worked hard, in order to protect his mother and little sister. The two then end up arm-wrestling, which is won by Porfy.

At the studio, Rose and Tiffany meet again, and Rose is finally able to say to Tiffany that her latest film was a great one (she did watch it with Porfy, after all), and that she lost to Tiffany: even without the cheating, Tiffany simply was meant to be a star. Rose then tells Tiffany about how she met Porfy, and the two then decide to give the two of them their best Christmas presents ever.

Porfy and Zaimis then talk a bit about how big Paris is, and Porfy still rather doesn’t want to talk about what happened to Simitra anymore, compared to Zaimis who still often thinks back to the incident. This again symbolizes the difference between the two of them: they both ended up dealing with the new situation in their own way, and grew in their own ways.

That evening, Rose tells Porfy about how she’s found Mina. Tiffany’s driver then comes to pick them up, and drives them to the movie theatre where they went to see Tiffany’s movie. In there, Porfy and Mina finally meet each other again, and the episode and series ends. That was just so adorable.

This episode really showed how Porfy no Nagai Tabi may not have been as beyond awesome as Les Miserables, yet it was a wonderful series on its own. This episode lacked the aftermath that closed off Les Miserables so well: we never get to see what happens after the two meet again: it’s left up to our imagination, but nevertheless the reunion between the two was very fit for a climax of this series. I’m only bitter due to the lack of Alecia, but that’s just personal preference.

Speaking of fanboying: the trailer for Konnichiwa Anne was pasted at the end of the episode, and I have to say that Anne looks AWESOME! April 5th can’t come soon enough!

Kaleido Star Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Kaleido Star is yet another example of why Gonzo can produce really outstanding series when they really want to. It first starts out as your average shoujo series about gymnastics and acrobatics, complete with ultra-talented female rival, a just as talented male potential love interest and another love male interest. And yet, with these ingredients it grew into everything a good shoujo series should be.

What made this series work so well is its excellent use of its 52 episodes. The first 26 episodes are already a very capable series by themselves. They show perfectly how Sora (the lead character) rises as a capable rival for Layla, emphasizing guts and hard work, never giving up, and including a number of plot twists that make sure to emphasize that not everything always happens in the lead character’s favour. Overall it’s a very satisfying story by itself, and then the second half of the series comes and pushes this development even further. The new characters of Leon and May really manage to get the best out of Sora in terms of development and make her into a really memorable character by the end of the series, and both of them also pretty impressive by themselves.

Since this is a series about acrobatics, performances also play a huge part in it. And while the creators didn’t have an unlimited budget, the animation does look really nice nonetheless. Especially the costume design for the different parts that are played throughout the series are top-notch, and the creators know exactly how to use their camera-angles and lighting effects to create a great show, based on still shots and close-ups.

If I had to mention a flaw in this series… then it lacks realism. Some of the moves that are performed by the characters are near-impossible, while at other times they master top-notch moves with only a week of training, not to mention that this is a series where seals turn into dogs. But really, the characters shine enough to make up for this flaw, and it never really gets in the way of what really is important for this series. Neither is the romance, by the way. When I first started watching this series, I was afraid that typical silly love triangles would develop over time, but the romance only appeared once in a while, and knew exactly that it shouldn’t get in the way of the characters.

So yes, this series deserves all of the praise it gets. Even though it’s got 52 episodes, every single one of them is dedicated somehow to pushing one of the characters forward, and I especially liked how much of an in-depth look it gave into the themes of working to your dreams and never giving up. It’s a wonderful series, definitely the product of Good Gonzo.

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

Space Pirate Captain Harlock Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Matsumoto Leiji: the founder of the space opera genre. While his first work, Space Battleship Yamato, lacked a lot of polish, his next work, Captain Harlock, would feature an improvement in just about every aspect. This is the series that would define epic, and would provide inspiration for the many other space opera anime that would follow. Thank you Live-eviL, for having the patience to fully sub it.

While the set-up of the series is again simple (evil aliens known as the Mazone are attacking the earth, and Captain Harlock is the only one who can stop them with his battleship the Arcadia), this series knows how to use its 40 episodes very well. This isn’t a simple series where the Mazones just keep throwing monster after monster until they eventually die, but every episode serves to flesh out and develop the members of its cast, so that the end of the series closes off with both the good guys and the bad guys feeling complete.

Especially the Mazones and Captain Harlock provide to be more than capable of being the respective villains and hero of this series. While the Mazones are most definitely evil, this series makes them more than villains who are just evil for the sake of being evil. Harlock on the other hand stands far apart from your typical lead character. He’s a character who knows what his duty is, no matter what gets in his way, and after watching, I can really understand why Harlock managed to capture the hearts of many when it first aired.

But yeah, you really need patience in order to watch this. The best parts of this series only really start to shine in the final quarter of this series, and the building-up parts can be really nerve-wrecking at times. Especially the middle part of the series can be tedious to get through, in its attempt to give every major character a sufficient amount of background.

Nevertheless, the result of this build-up is an epic series with a rock-solid final quarter, even though it’s already more than thirty years old at this time. While this is definitely not a series you want to marathon in the beginning, it’s nevertheless a series that has a clear purpose and has found a good use for its forty-two episodes. So it’s nowhere near Tomino or World Masterpiece Theatre levels, but nevertheless it’s among the better series to have aired in the seventies.

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