Author: psgels

Nijuu Mensou no Musume – 16

by psgels, posted in Nijuu Mensou no Musume



Short Synopsis: The “detective girls” go after a rumour about two teachers that seem to fancy each other.
Highlights: The French was nice and all… but NOT with a Japanese accent!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
This episode convinced me that the “detective girls” only exist in Haruka’s head. The creators have no intention to just end the series with a bunch of random detective story arcs, because this episode set up the story and characters for the rest of the series. We get introduced to a bunch of new characters, and Nijuu Mensou’s past is revealed a bit more.

In the meantime, Chiko’s classmates have already started the fanfiction…

In any case, this episode introduces a former university professor who knew Nijuu Mensou when he was young (I wonder, do we ever get to hear what his real name is?). I didn’t quite catch what he told Chiko exactly, but it seems to come down to that he was once a brilliant scientist when the war started, and so he ended up developing all those supernatural weapons for killing. Since his motto was “look and think for yourself”, at one point he abandoned his research, and now that everything comes to try and bite back at him, he’s had no choice than to use Chiko as a decoy.

The next villain is someone who’ll be a big problem for Chiko to escape, as he’s basically just as small and light as Chiko, and the guy’s even stronger and faster. Ever since the train incident, Chiko has only had to fight people who were much bigger than her, so the guy might be one of her toughest enemies yet.

I also wonder how the creators are going to use the story of that washed-up cleaner, and when that super-powered woman of a number of episodes back is going to return. This episode showed that she’s indeed the product of Nijuu Mensou’s research, but is she going to play a bigger role than just a bit of background for the guy?

Birdy the Mighty Decode – 06

by psgels, posted in Birdy the Mighty Decode



Short Synopsis: Nakasugi invites Senkawa and his classmates over to her house, but Birdy has other plans.
Highlights: Finally this series gains a bit of depth.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
Now this is more like it. Birdy the Mighty Decode still is my least favourite series of the shows I’m blogging, but at least this episode was a major improvement on the outer-space arc. It’s main purpose was fleshing out Senkawa’s classmates, and it did this well. I feel a lot more familiar with these guys now, and it’s interesting to see that Nakasugi didn’t just recover from her accident that easily, as she seems to have been revived by an alien as well.

My biggest problem with this series is that the episode length of only 13 episodes seems way too short for its own good, and instead of keeping a fast and focused pacing to make the best out of such a short time, it continues to goof off and gets distracted on unimportant side-plots. This episode too: it was enjoyable and all, but there are so many side-characters and side-plots left. How the heck are the creators going to stuff those in just seven episodes with this slow of a pacing? If this was a 26-episode series, I could understand this decision, but 13 episodes is just way too short.

Macross Frontier – 18

by psgels, posted in Macross Frontier



Short Synopsis: Sheryl finds out that her sickness… isn’t as innocent as we originally believed.
Highlights: Sheryl finally gets some good development.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Throughout the entire first half, I kept wondering why I kept watching this strange overbudgetted series. The characters were okay, but nothing really was remarkable outside of the sky-high production-values. Still, with this episode, I’m really glad that I kept watching and blogging this series. This episode was downright awesome, it first comes with an OP that’s ten times better than the original one (in my opinion, at least), then Sheryl’s character gets more development than the previous 17 episodes combined, and then the episode closes with an epic battle, where the soundtrack seems to surpass itself yet again.

Ah, to think that Sheryl was just a poor sick girl, plucked from the streets. It makes perfect sense now: it’s the same way that Ranka rose to her fame, although a bit more extreme, I guess. Now that it’s apparent that Sheryl’s singing abilities hardly have any effect when compared to Ranka, Grace has no reason anymore to take care of her, and basically just kills her off by letting the disease that got hold of her when she was young spread again. She’s really meant to be hated, having taken her business-like nature way too far out of control.

And I still remain convinced that Bobby should have gotten an episode of his own in the first half. His few scenes of manliness in this episode were awesome, and I feel that the creators could have done so much more with him if they spent a bit more attention to fleshing the guy out.

The thing I’m scared off the most right now is what Sheryl and Ranka will turn into. Sheryl will probably be fine once (or if) she recovers from her illness, but Ranka seems to be heading right down to the path of the damsel in distress, waiting to be rescued by the prince(ss) on the white horse (or mecha in this case). It’s not the cliché that gets me, but I want these characters to stand up on their own, and don’t sit around and wait for the inevitable like a bunch of potatoes.

Seto no Hanayome Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Seto no Hanayome: Gonzo’s attempt at comedy, and what a fine attempt it is. It’s very much the spiritual successor of Magikano: both series share directors, both feature cute girls and both managed to take an incredibly clichéd premise and turned it into something worthwhile. Seto no Hanayome is a bit tamer than Magikano was, and it’s also not the best comedy out there, but if you’re looking for something to laugh at, then it’s a great recommendation.

The key to the success here is the combination between the incredibly distorted faces that were also prevalent in Magikano, combined with a frantic pacing that hardly ever takes a break. Especially during the first half, this series makes sure to keep the laughs coming and coming, and it never seems to run out of inspiration for its next jokes. The characters are smartly not introduced all at once, so that each of them gets enough time to introduce his quirks to the audience.

Then, as the series entered its second half, the humour thank goodness didn’t get dull, and there still was plenty to laugh at. The characters thankfully receive enough depth to prevent them from getting dull after two or three episodes, which is very much appreciated, but this series does have some other problems, which pop up as it hits its second half, and the drama starts kicking in.

Don’t get me wrong, I usually love touching characters, but this is one of these series where drama just doesn’t belong. It gets in the way of the comedy and it’s also not that good anyway. Every time the characters started acting all serious, I kept longing back to the first half, where episodes just kept the jokes coming and coming. Thankfully, at least the series goes quickly back to comedy after these serious moments, but there’s one big exception to this: the bloody ending.

Oh, how deep does this series fall in its final two episodes. I guess it was to be expected with the director of Magikano behind it, but let’s just say that the climax of the story removes all traces of comedy whatsoever and goes down a predictable road with a story about a generic bad guy who tests the strength of the relationship of the two main characters. It’s predictable, dull and pretty much pointless.

It’s a pity when you watch a comedy with an identity crisis: no matter how hilarious the characters are, for some strange reason the creators find that they always need to close off their series with a big, epic and serious climax. The thing is though, that if I wanted to watch a good drama, I wouldn’t go for this series at all. Seto no Hanayome is all about comedy, and at least it’s got that part nailed very nicely. I especially wanted to give credit to the female lead: San. When compared to her counterparts in other romantic comedies, she feels really refreshing. She had a mind of her own, and she actually was one of my favourite characters in this series. I’m very easily bored by romantic comedies, but Seto no Hanayome has showed me yet again that the genre also has a fine selection of gems. The flaws remain, but in this case the pros do very much outweigh the cons.

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

Bonen no Xamdou – 04

by psgels, posted in Bonen no Xamdou



Short Synopsis: Akiyuki gets used to living on the airship.
Highlights: Mostly build-up, but good build-up.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I liked this episode a lot. Don’t expect much action, since most of it was just building up, but the cast did get a lot of depth this time. It’s very good to see that Akiyuki moved out of the rebellious phase so quickly, and that he’s willing to adapt so quickly. It’s much like Jomy of Towards the Terra. At the same time, the people on Sentan Island are still mourning about the large amount of people who lost their lives. It’s good to see that the creators decided to put a lot of emphasis on this part. Too often we just buildings getting destroyed and people getting killed who never appear again.

At the same time, the mysteries surrounding Nakiami continue to grow. We still don’t know why she ended up on the postal ship. It seems that she doesn’t want to have anything to do with her own kind of people (war refugees without any place to return to and who ended up as pirates), and at the same time the postal ship isn’t exactly the best place to carry out her wishes of finding out more about the Northern Government. The ship also turns out to have its own priest on board: Tenshin. We also see that Nakiami collects the same strange packages of liquid that we saw in the first episode with the white-haired people.

This episode also convinced me that the creators are building up for some sort of romantic relationship between Akiyuki and Nakiami. Well, it was obvious right from the start, I guess. It’s a rather large cliché, but let’s hope that the creators manage to keep the romance away from what’s really important in this series. Note the picture that Raigyo left behind: the kids and the captain (whose names I’ve forgotten at the moment)’s faces were all crossed out for some reason, while Nakiami’s face was just fine, hinting that the two used to have romantic feelings for each other at one point.

Eve no Jikan – Akiko

by psgels, posted in Eve no Jikan



Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives in a future Japan where Androids are common and often used as tools
Highlights: The umpth anime about androids, let’s see what this one can add.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
So, the six-part OVA Eve no Jikan is the product of the creator of Aquatic Language and Pale Cocoon, and this seems to be set in the same world as Aquatic Language. The focus isn’t as much on the graphics as the ones above: the animation is way more static, and there’s not much experimental animation like in Aquatic Language either. Eve no Jikan is really about its setting: androids, and the difference between humans and androids.

It’s definitely not a new topic these days. There already have been so many android series that I’m wondering what this Eve no Jikan can add to this. The first episode was decent enough, but I like how the setting so far hasn’t tried to rip off other ideas. I think the best way to describe the level of androids is a more pessimistic look at the time-setting of Real Drive, and I also was reminded of the beginning of the Second Renaissance from The Animatrix. It’s at the border where androids have become nearly identical to humans, but still miss some subtle differences, which I expect to get blurred more and more in the rest of the six episodes of Eve no Jikan.

Real Drive showed these differences between Androids and Humans when the androids needed to do something that they weren’t designed for (the combat android, who tried to take his glasses back, for example). In Eve no Jikan, these differences seem more psychological. This episode suggested that androids very well have a human consciousness, but this continues to be repressed due to their servant-functions, but I first want to see more of these Doji-kois: what happens to those people who don’t oppress their androids, and treat them as regular humans instead? I also wonder, why design a sentient android when it’s just going to be a servant? I fail to see the economic purposes of designing androids that can feel sad when they’re abused. Either that, or the bartender’s owner bought the wrong sort of android…

Detroit Metal City – Introduction

by psgels, posted in Detroit Metal City



Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the lead singer and guitarist of a grotesque heavy metal band.
Highlights: Parodies at their finest.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Okay, I finally managed to check out the first episode of Detroit Metal City, and I just had to blog it, seeing as my favourite music style is metal. Detroit Metal City is a hilarious parody of the metal-scene. But of course, with Studio 4C, there was obviously no doubt that this would turn into a masterpiece. It’s great to see another niche culture being parodied apart from the otaku culture.

It’s interesting how the guitar riffs and the music of the songs of DMC is actually quite tame. Just take any random black or death metal band, and their music is much heavier than what you hear in this series, but it’s of course the lyrics that scream out rape, killing and suicide that are the outrageous. The freaky thing is that amongst these exaggerations in this anime, there is lies an unnerving amount of truth; of course metal is a very varied genre, but there are enough bands that sing about pain, mystery and other sorts of depressing things (I don’t remember having heard any metal song about abusing elderly people, though)

The fans are just as exaggerated as these lyrics, though. It’s hilarious to think that they’d just run and storm against anyone who doesn’t like their music. What I did miss were the mosh pits during the concerts, though. With such violent guys, I’m surprised that they didn’t go and beat each other up because of the adrenaline. (no really, most metal fans are really ordinary people ^^;)

I’m not sure how long this OVA is going to be… this seems to have been a short 13-minute introduction, and AniDB lists three more volumes, each of one hour’s length, but I’m not sure where that information came from…

RD Sennou Chousashitsu – 18

by psgels, posted in RD Sennou Chousashitsu



Short Synopsis: This episode starts a two-episode arc, centred in the jungle, far away from the civilized and cyberized world.
Highlights: Holon.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Too… many… shows… air on Tuesday…

In any case, this series continues to surprise me. It’s probably because the cast of characters is the best out of all the series that aired during Spring and Summer (just about the only thing at which Kaiba wasn’t number one). It’s strange, but the characters as Minamo, Souta and Haru feel like real people and Holon feels like a real advanced android, instead of just a bunch of characters. The amount of series that has characters that are this likable is really small, but every series with characters like this is absolutely worth it, even though hardly anything may happen.

While looking at the preview, at some forgotten ruins, I forgot for a moment that this is Real Drive we’re talking about, and expected some epic mystery plot or something similar. In the end, this turned out completely different, and much more focused at Minamo, as she explored the wonders of the jungle. But more importantly, this episode showed an interesting flaw of the technology in this series. In deserted places without much electronics, there’s something called “noise”, which upsets both cyberified humans and especially androids. Poor Holon even collapsed at the end of the series.

Seriously, this episode was just awesome, even if it was only about Minamo, giving her plant too much water, or freaking out over a bunch of large bugs. Seriously, this episode was hardly about anything and yet every minute of it was captivating somehow. Now that Kaiba has ended, Real Drive is well on its way to becoming my favourite series at the moment.

Ultraviolet: Code 044 – 06

by psgels, posted in Ultraviolet: Code 044



Short Synopsis: 044 and Garcia manage to flee to a mining planet as Luka returns to consciousness.
Highlights: Fillers? This series? Hah!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Ah, screw popular opinion, this series rocks. I’m not sure what exactly it is, but it’s simple, yet effective. When looking at the plot in the big picture, it’s nothing special, nor anything pretentious, and yet the storyline keeps flowing smoothly throughout the episodes, with hardly any time to take a break. It’s the type of series you can just sit and watch, and at the same time it’s full of passion and manliness. The soundtrack is among the best of the season, I love Osamu Dezaki’s style of directing and the art style is a treat for any Osamu Tezuka fan, to see his style in a more serious and cyberpunk setting. In other words, I’m pretty much sold on this series.

This episode introduces a new character, another clone who seems to have returned to a mining planet that harvests a new sort of energy. The guy is quite an eccentric, but he seems to have chosen the side of 044, and I think that he’s had his problems with Daxus II as well, or else he probably wouldn’t have left him. He’s a bit stupid (beating up those goons will only make Daxus send stronger goons).

My favourite part of this episode was Luka’s bit, though. The guy has been unconscious for episodes, has no idea what went on and when he gets back to his comrades he gets accused of high treason because his biggest enemy turns out to have saved his life. I’m eager to see the moment where he sees 044 again: 044 should still be in love with him, and I have no doubts that the guy is curious as to why the heck he was saved.

Himitsu ~The Revelation~ – 18

by psgels, posted in Himitsu ~The Revelation~



Short Synopsis: This case is divided over two episodes, and it’s about a serial murderer who has been killing people near train tracks.
Highlights: A new interesting character from Maki’s past.
Overall Enjoyment Value:8/10
Hmm, let’s see what this two-episode arc can deliver for this series. It’s been a strange episode so far, and I’m having a bit of trouble understanding it. At first sight, it seems like a simple case: a guy kills someone on the train and then kills all eye-witnesses. But then the episode pulls out all sorts of weird stuff like the culprit looking at fingernails and an old acquaintance of Maki. Seriously, this episode kept changing focus: you first thing it’s about a high school getting murdered, then it’s about Aoki’s wedding, then it’s about the serial murderer, then the stabbing on the train… Plus… there were much more people on that train who watched it, and the killer suddenly disappears and a bald young man with a hat shows up.

This episode was surprisingly more complex than it appeared at first… if I understood correctly, Miyoshi (Maki’s old friend) is the head of the autopsy department and she often sleeps right next to the corpses. Somehow, her fingers are related to the case… At one point, she also mistook Aoki for the real culprit of the case, but why would she think that the culprit would visit her at the police, of all places? Does that mean that she’s related to the case or something?

Especially the last of the episode has me puzzled… her fingers seem to be the same as the ones, seen from the brains of one of the victims, but what would that have to do with anything? Then at the same time, the guy who committed the first murder shows up dead in a train cabin, having killed himself.

Argh, I need to watch that next episode in order to get what the heck is going on here… my money right now is on the bald guy with the hat being the culprit, but don’t ask me why.