Author: psgels

Soul Eater – 07

by psgels, posted in Soul Eater


Well, we finally meet the major antagonist for at least the first part of this anime. The comedy in the fights was abandoned completely unfortunately, but thankfully the chemistry between Soul and Maka continued to be very enjoyable. At the moment, I can’t really place Soul Eater among the best series of this season, though. It’s good, but there are many better series in my opinion. I think that the biggest reason for this is that it spent too much time on flashy fights so far, while it could have used this time to flesh out the characters a bit more. But then again, because this series has 51 episodes, it does have much more time to do this than most other series.

I do want to say something about the use of thugs, though. Not just here, but many anime seem to be really lazy when handling them. They’re nearly all just a bunch of loudmouthed stereotypes, and unfortunately they too are just cannon fodder in Soul Eater as well. I think that that’s why the punk enemy in the Law of Ueki worked so well: he made this punk-stereotype completely ridiculous with his obsessions.

In other news, it turns out that the reason why we never see anything of Maka’s mother is because she divorced a month ago. Now I also understand why Maka’s father is so hopelessly fooling around with other women. Something’s telling me that he’s trying to forget her by doing this. 😛

Summer Season Preview

by psgels, posted in Seasonal Previews

Well, it’s time to start looking at what the next season has to offer again. The summer-season is again going to be relatively small, but there are quite a number of potential gems in it. There’s also a wide variety of different genres; there’s slice of life, action, adventure, mystery, romance, comedy, detective, there are historic series, there’s fantasy and science-fiction. It’s going to be a pretty diverse series, and I’m glad to see people as Ike Yoshihiro make their return as well. I’ll update this list when more anime get announced.

+ Not Really Looking Forward To +
Ikkitousen Great Guardians

Summary: Loosely based on the novel ‘Romance of the three kingdoms’, modern day Japan sees a similar struggle for power between different rival schools with the three strongest being; Kyosho Academy led by Sousou Moutoku, Nanyo Academy by Sonsaku Hakufu and Ryuubi Gentoku from Seito High School. Together these three tousei, each with their own mangatama, fight for the honour of becoming ikki tousen and fulfilling their fated destiny through battle and conquest. – (Taken from AniDB)
Thoughts: Oh god, not another one. Why this airs at 9:30 in the morning is beyond me. In any case, this one will most likely be the obligatory depth-less fanservice-show that every season seems to have.

Antique Bakery

Summary: Tachibana, grandson of a rich businessman and newbie in the world of managing; Ono Yuusuke, famous pastry chef and even more infamous “devilish homosexual”; Kanda Eiji, a retired young boxer with a thing for pastries; Kobayakawa Chikage, servant friend of Tachibana and current romantic interest of Ono, who is clumsy yet serious and stoic to a fault (most of the time). Together, these four men maintain a small yet elegant cafe known as “Antique”, where they and all their customers can come together to cherish one of the few but truly important things in life: cake. – (Taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: Okay, I have no problems with Junjo Romantica, but there are borders. I’m fine with Shounen Ai. But please let this be more than just a bunch of freakin’ bishies who like to serve cake. -_- The director of Bedaman doesn’t promise much good either, and I don’t think that even Natsuko Takahashi will be able to save this series.

RoboDz Kazagumo Hen

Summary: RoboDz Kazagumo Hen is an upcoming anime, co-produced between The Walt Disney Company and Toei Animation. It is currently scheduled to begin airing on Japan’s Toon Disney starting in June, 2008, with a possible chance of airing in future Asian Markets. Despite the close release date, little to no information has been given about the project. What is known at this point and time is the episodes will be animated in 3D. – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Thoughts: Well, this series is so obscure that even Anime News Network doesn’t have an entry about it. There’s just one thing you should really know about it: it’s being directed by the director of Dragonball Z. Stay away from this one at all costs!!!

Sekirei

Summary: Minato is a total loser. He’s failed to make it into college twice, he’s unpopular with women, and he’s unemployed. But suddenly one day he met a girl dashing inhumanely fast down the road he walked, chased by 2 bandits with electrical powers. From that day on Minato’s life changed forever. The Girl, Musubi was not any ordinary girl she was a “Sekirei”, and suddenly she just bestows Minato with the power of an Ashikabi, one of a mysterious set of “masters” in an awesome battle royale between hordes of cute girls (and males) with individual special powers called “Sekirei’s”. Eventually Minato’s true capabilities will release his useless self into truly understanding all of the Sekirei’s that he embarks to gather, and his own strength. – (Taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: Produced by the same animation production who worked on the Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha trilogy. They also seem to have brought over the same director and the music composer. The screenplay will be done by someone who’s been behind various fanservice-series as Dragon Destiny, Kakyuusei, Sky Girls OVA, Zero no Tsukaima, Mezzo, DearS, etc. With such a premise, is there really any hope for this thing?

Hidamari Sketchx365

Summary: Yuno has just begun school where she always wanted, Yamabuki High School. She moves out and into an apartment by herself in a complex called Hidamari-so, which is right in front of the school. There, she meets a classmate, Miyako, and a senior student, Hiro. Yuno’s days become hectic as she begins meeting the strange artists that live in her complex. Although she’s not used to her new life style, she begins to actualize her dream while being with these gentle friends. – (Taken from AniDB)
Thoughts: Shinbou’s next series, though I never really got into Hidamari Sketch when it first aired. Slice-of-life fans will love this, though.

+ Shows With Small Potential +
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu

Summary: Based on a light novel series by Igurashi Yuusaku, illustrated by Shaa. The main character, Ayase Yuuto is your average boy without any special traits. He attends a private high school where he is one of the many and doesn’t stand out, until, one day, he happens to discover the secret of the school princess Nogizaka Haruka, and his life changes drastically from there on. Haruka, the school’s most unattainable girl, is so idolized in the school for both, her looks and intelligence, that her classmates nickname her Nuit Étoile (The Silver Star of the Night) and Lumière du Clavier (The Shining Princess on the Piano). However, nobody knows that it is only a fake role she assumes to hide her true nature. In reality she is a die-hard fan of anime, manga, and otaku culture. Promising Haruka to keep this a secret, Yuko becomes her advisor and confidente of some sort and hangs out with her more, though earning some viciously envious glares from his fellow schoolmates. – (Taken from AniDB and Anime News Network)
Thoughts: Well, it doesn’t get any points for originality, but it does look better than the regular premise of a shounen romance. Studio Barcelona (the ones who did Kodomo no Jikan and Nanatsuiro Drops) is behind this piece that’ll probably never be anything special. The director who did Otoboku seems to confirm this.

Slayers Revolution

Summary: The May issue (released on March 19) of Fujimi Shobo’s Dragon Magazine has announced the official title of the upcoming fourth anime television series in the Slayers fantasy comedy franchise: Slayers Revolution. The announcement also hinted tongue-in-cheek, but not stated, that the character Xellos will be the main character instead of the popular female lead Lina. A major announcement will be made in Dragon Magazine’s July issue, which goes on sale on May 20. (Dragon Magazine has moved to a bimonthly schedule starting this month.) Dragon Magazine published Hajime Kanzaka’s original light novels that started the franchise. – (Taken from AniDB)
Thoughts: I’m a Slayers-noob: I’ve never seen anything whatsoever about the franchise. This series could be a good way to check whether the rest of the series are worth watching. I’m not at all positive about the director, though: apart from Slayers, he directed Shakugan no Shana, Ikkitousen and Lost Universe. Interestingly enough, he also did Boogiepop and wrote the storyboard for Death Note, but by the looks of the overly moe-ified promo-art, I’ll remain sceptical for now.

Koihime Musou

Summary: ???
Thoughts: Eroge adaptation alert! I took a look at the promo of the original game, and this seems to be a fantasy series where a bunch of cute teenaged girls ended up being the commanders of a huge army. Agh, why must these things be so lazy in their explanations!? Interestingly enough though, the director of Mahoujin Guru Guru is going to be directing this one. I hope that he realizes how hopeless the original premise of this series is, and ends up parodying it.

+ Interesting-Looking Series +
Chocolate Underground

Summary: “From 5 o’clock this evening, chocolate is illegal.” It is an amazing law. The story takes place in some present-day country. The Good For You party has won the elections and announced the Chocolate Prohibition law. They prohibit all sweet things, including chocolates, because they are harmful to one’s health. “We can’t stand such an absurd rule”. Two boys, Huntley and Smudger, stand up to fight against the law. With help from Louise and other friends, they begin to bootleg chocolate. – (Taken from AnimeNfo)
Thoughts: Production IG continues its string of series with very weird premises, though I think that Trans Arts is going to be doing all the work again. Still, I must say that the prohibited chocolate has more potential than that of Library Wars at the moment. Ironically, both series share the same director, and this “ONA” also shares a lot of staff members with Sisters of Wellber. Should prove to be interesting.

World Destruction

Summary: From the creators of Xenogears, it seems. An RPG and anime will be released at the same time. “The story revolves around two main characters named Kyrie and Morute who become a part of an organization called “Destruction of the World.”” – (Taken from Destructoid)
Thoughts: Production IG keeps coming with strange premises, which you wouldn’t expect from such a major animation company. Still, I like how they try to think beyond the box. World Destruction can go anywhere, all depending on how they’ll end up interpreting the “world destruction”-part of the title. The director of the Prince of Tennis and Tsubasa Chronicle OVAs will direct the thing, the supervision and scriptwriting will be done by the scriptwriter of Himawari, Reideen and Deltora Quest and Yoshihiro Ike (one of my favourite musicians) will be doing the music. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope that this won’t be another lazy RPG-adaptation!

Strike Witches

Summary: The world had received the attack from the existence of the mystery that appeared suddenly. Only girls who have magic can fight against them. They install arms in an own body, and fight in the sky, the land, and the sea. Fights of girls who defend the world start now. – (Taken from AniDB)
Thoughts: The first episode still has me intrigued, as in that it was nothing like I expected. I’m interested whether the creators can carry that style further in a fully fledged TV-series, and I hope that they keep the short episode-length. The director has never directed before, which means that this series really can go anywhere, depending on his skills. This seems to be backed up by the fact that this will be another Gonzo series.

Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora

Summary: Yume Kikuchi, a girl who can use magic, goes to Tokyo to be an apprentice mage to the handsome Masami Oyamada (a professional mage). In Tokyo, Yume learns about magic, helping people, and various other things on her way to being a mage. but she soon also finds out that even just magic alone isnt enough to make someone truly happy… – (Taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: I’ve been doubting whether or not to check out Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto for ages, and this seems a good opportunity to check whether the original series is any good. Hal Film Maker is behind the animation, and the original mangaka will be doing the scenario, which always helps. The director will be the director of Paradise Kiss, Kimagure Orange Road, End of the World, Beck (which I haven’t seen yet, but it seems to be awesome), the seventh episode of Kemonozume and the infamous fourth episode of Gurren Lagann (but NOT the original MTnTnK). The art director will be the one from Good Witch of the West, and the music will be done by the guy who did Vampire Knight. Honestly, I have no freaking idea what to expect from this series.

+ Definitely Looking Forward To +
Natsume Yuujin-Chou

Summary: Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him. Containing the names of these spirits, a binding contract was formed between the spirits and the owner of the book. Now, Natsume is determined to free the spirits and dissolve the contracts. With the help of a spirit cat, his days are filled trying to return the names to these spirits. – (Taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: Brains Base is busy this year. This’ll be their next series, and it can really go both ways, depending on how interesting the creators can make the demons that Natsume encounters. For this series, it’ll really depend on the quality of the scriptwriters, and having the director of Jigoku Shoujo and Baccano really helps! The series composition is done by Kenichi Kanemaki, who worked on series as Pani Poni Dash, Jigoku Shoujo, El Cazador and various Hiroshi Watanabe-series. This could prove to be very interesting!

Mission-E

Summary: Chinami Ebihara is girl with a strange ability to generate electromagnetic waves when her emotions run high. However, since this ‘ability’ affects anything electrical, it resulted in her having to transfer from school to school when she was younger. As Chinami, now 18 years of age, transfers to a new school, she once again affects the electronic devices in the school, but this time, when another student, Kotaro Kannagi, sees her do this, he becomes obsessed in studying her “TYPE-E” ability. – (Taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: About the only really bad thing of Code-E was its ending, so I’m really glad to see the sequel. I seem to be one of the few who actually liked the first season, though. It had a cast of really charming characters and for that I’m more than eager to check out the sequel. The retro promo-art makes me even more intrigued as to what the creators have in store.

Ultraviolet: Code 044

Summary: Main character “044” is a female warrior who is genetically engineered with high combat skills and ordered by the government to annihilate a vampire army. – (Taken from AniDB)
Thoughts: The trailer looks really promising. The main female lead is drawn without any attempts to make her moe, and the music sounded great. This could be the next great 12-episode series from Madhouse. Osamu Dezaki is also a very experienced director who may have been behind some of the big flops in anime, but also directed rumoured excellent series as Rose of Versailles, Oniisama E, the original Ie Naki Ko and the Snow Queen. Let’s hope he goes back to his roots for this series. Just let it be more than “Vampire of the Week”.

+ Top-5 Looking Forward To +
Yakushiji Ryouko no Kaiki Jikenbo

Summary: Based on a series of light novels written by Tanaka Yoshiki and illustrated by Kakinouchi Narumi. The story revolves around Ryouko Yakushiji, a 27-year-old multilingual investigator that graduated from Tokyo University’s elite Department of Law, and the bizarre cases she faces while working for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. Yakushiji not only has to deal with supernatural beings in her line of work, but also her rival Yukiko Muromachi, another equally talented and beautiful police investigator. – (Taken from AniDB)
Thoughts: Another police-series covering the supernatural. Sounds good! The writer of the original novel also wrote the novel for Legend of Galactic Heroes, which is supposed to be awesome beyond belief. The director can go all kinds of ways again. He did a bunch of random episodes on series as xxxHolic, Full Metal Alchemist, Gurren Lagann and Ghost Hound, and he was the episode director of Ookiku Furikabutte. This has the potential of being the surprise hit of the season.

Telepathy Shoujo Ran

Summary: Ran is a bright and energetic first-grader in junior high school who possesses supernatural abilities. Together with Midori (her friend who also has supernatural powers) and Rui, the threesome is constantly embroiled in mysterious circumstances. Ran is troubled by her powers because it seems to spark off the ill intentions of people in contact with her. However, with the support of her family and peers, Ran learns to deal with her ‘other’ side and accepts who she is. The threesome also learn how to team up as a whole and solve these mysterious events. – (Taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: Mystery? 26 episodes? Count me in! I’m really happy to see the musician Yoshihiro Ike in action again. His soundtracks are always subtle, yet awesome. Interestingly, the director for this series is still unknown, but the series composition will be done by the guy who did the script for the Snow Queen, among a bunch of other anime I’ve not seen. I’m interested to see what he can do with this concept.

Blade of the Immortal

Summary: Manji is a crass, violent samurai with a special ability: he cannot die. Cursed with immortality by the nun Yobikuni as punishment for his ruthless deeds, he has grown weary of his ageless life. The only way to lift the curse is to slay 1,000 evil men. So Manji wanders Japan, shedding the blood of the wicked on his quest to finally die. – (Taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: What? I’m a Bee-Train fan, so I’m obviously biased about this one. I’ve not read the manga, but I’m really interested in how Bee-Train’s style will work with such a bloody premise. An experienced writer (Hiroyuki Kawasaki) is behind the series composition, and the music is this time done by none other than Kou Outani, who did the music of Haibane Renmei, Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino, Popolocrois Monogatari, Ayakashi Ayashi and Gundam Wing.

Detroit Metal City

Summary: Souichi Negishi is a shy young man who came from the rural Ota Prefecture to Tokyo for college and wished to become a kindergarten teacher. However, for some reason he became the singer and songwriter of a metal band named “Detroit Metal City,” with a stage name “Johannes Krauser II.” Whenever he wears the heavy makeup, Negishi becomes a completely different person, shouting the most vulgar profanities beyond anyone’s imagination. With the popularity of DMC increases, Negishi starts worrying his double personalities can have negative effects on his (romantic) life off stage. – (Taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: Another Studio 4C television series? Hell yeah! These guys always surprise me when I least expect it. I admit, that the idea of a metal-band sounds really promising, and it attempts to explore settings that don’t often get featured in anime. The fact that this is directed by the director of none other than MUSHISHI makes things even better. Really, I can only imagine what will happen when this guy and Studio 4C join forces!

Birdy the Mighty Decode

Summary: While pursuing a criminal, the pretty but reckless interplanetary police officer Birdy Cephon Altirra accidentally kills Tsutomu, an earthling high school student. To make amends, Birdy is forced to share her own body with Tsutomu’s spirit so that he can continue his own life. At first, Tsutomu knows nothing about his situation but soon discovers that his body is starting to take certain actions without his mind ordering it. In times of action, Birdy takes full control of their shared body, transforming it back into her original female form. – (Taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: When I first learned about this series, I had no interest in it whatsoever. Then I discovered that it’s going to be directed by what’s quite probably my most favourite director ever: Kazuki Akane. Take a look at my top 10 series: this guy directed two thirds of my top 3: Noein and Escaflowne. The guy behind the series composition of Noein will take care of the series composition, I’m really curious as to what these people can do with such a premise. I don’t like the excessive fanservice in the promo, but as long as the story won’t focus much on dull fanservice-jokes, this should be no problem at all.

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 20

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi


The summary is going to be rather short this time, as I’m a bit busy with other things right now. Still, this episode was everything a travelling-anime should be: exploration, anxiousness, openness, making mistakes, meeting different people and places, trust and betrayal. It’s amazing how much the creators can stuff into one single episodes, especially considering how slow the pacing is in this series, and how there still are plenty of episodes left for this series to explore.

Porfy is ready to eave Leon, who gives him a bit of advice for the train journey he’s about to make. “First take care of yourself, then God will take care of you”. When Leon says how Porfy can return anytime, the train arrives and Porfy needs to rush to be able to get it. Apollo needs to spend the journey inside Porfy’s backpack, and of course he has a bit of trouble remaining quiet in there. ^^;

Porfy’s obviously fascinated by the huge train, and is surprised at how smooth it rides. He talks a bit to himself while doing so. A bit later, a pregnant woman enters the cabin, and Porfy offers her a seat opposed to him. Very soon a middle-aged man joins in too, and the three easily have a nice conversation. It then turns out, however, that the train is going west, instead of the North where Porfy was planning to head to. In his haste, Porfy gets off at the nearest stop, but this turns out to be right in the middle of nowhere.

Porfy looks around, and sees a nearby city. The dogs in the area are ferocious and will do anything for a meal, which already suggests that the area Porfy’s in is really suffering from poverty. When he reaches the city, however, it turns out to be nearly abandoned, and he only runs into one kid, who immediately runs away. As the evening falls, Porfy tries to leave, though he gets lost and can’t find the exit. He ends up falling asleep at one of the houses, which turns out to be occupied by a middle-aged woman.

She’s first angry at Porfy, though she becomes nicer when she finds out that Porfy has been travelling to Greece. She gives him a bit of candy to eat, and she tells him why the city ended up abandoned. It was basically during the war, the Italian government offered the residents a better place to live, probably so that they could be drafted more easily. Only a few people remained in the city, and that’s why the children aren’t used to seeing outsiders.

Porfy then falls asleep, the woman runs off with his backpack, laughs like an evil witch and the episode ends.

After the previous episode, I considered Porfy to be very lucky when compared to Perrine (from Perrine Monogatari, another World Masterpiece series): he didn’t have to take care of his mother, and whenever he tells how he lost his parents in an earthquake, people all try to be nice to him. This episode shows how much of a double-edged sword this is. The nice people will be really nice to the guy, but this also makes him really vulnerable and easily deceived. These are all lessons that Porfy needs to learn the hard way. Oh, how I’d love to see his character in twenty episodes.

And really, that random chatter in the train with random people: more anime should do this. It’s really fun. ^^;

Amatsuki – 07

by psgels, posted in Amatsuki


Wow. The past few episodes have al started, seeming like a regular intermezzo, and then the episode hits its halfway-point and closes the off with a really powerful second half. This really makes every episode deliver. Series with a continuous storyline often need to insert quiet episodes to give the characters a bit of time to be fleshed out, but Amatsuki really blurs the line between an eventful episode and an intermezzo. It’s a difficult trick to pull off right, but things like these can make a good anime even better.

The quiet parts in this episode continued to spend a bit more time on the love-relationship between Kuchiha and Toki, as well as introducing an important person from Toki’s past. As a child, he seemed to spend a lot of time with this person. Though if I had to mention one part I didn’t like about this series, then it’s the tsundere-ness of that female priest. She worked well in the episode she was introduced in, but she seriously needs some development to stay away from the usual “has no chance to be loved by male lead”-stereotype. I do like, however, how Kuchiha tried to approach Toki when he was about to have breakfast and failed. ^^;

In the second half:
– Toki and Kuchiha head off to do some job
– Kon interrogates Ginshuu, and finds out that the Koku-ten is the closest to Tei-ten (the being that created everything). This Koku-ten seems to be a guy called “Yakou”. I’m not sure who this guy is, but he seems to be some kind of enemy. He lives to drive not only Ayakashi, but also humans and the world crazy. Oh, and the curse Ginshuu is under doesn’t enable him to keep living; it prevents him from dying.
– The fox ayakashi prepares to strike and at the end of the episode she does something that looks suspiciously like killing Heihachi

Nijuu Mensou no Musume – 06

by psgels, posted in Nijuu Mensou no Musume


Spoilers up ahead! Let me repeat: spoilers up ahead! This is one of these episodes you need to have seen before reading such an entry about it, so this sentence is meant to fill up the blurb that appears on the blog aggregators with. I am SO glad that I decided to blog Nijuu Mensou no Musume.

Because oh my GOD! I kind-of suspected that Nijuu Mensou would end up dead somehow, but talk about bloody overkill! This is even worse than the first episode of Chevalier: the ENTIRE cast is slaughtered apart from two people. It is only now that I finally understand the OP, where they only show the grown-up version of Ken, and not everyone else. I now also understand why Ken was the one who ended up with his eye poked out: doing this on any of the other characters wouldn’t have mattered anyway, since they would have died within an episode anyway.

Having said that, I do want to add that Nijuu Mensou’s death lacked a bit of impact. Chiko’s reaction on seeing him die was of course amazing, but I’m wondering why he couldn’t just detach the train and then quickly hop onto her car. With his skills, he could have easily done it. Or did he die on purpose? Did he feel like he would abandon his comrades if he didn’t die with them? I still somehow feel that the creators could have developed the guy a bit more, but at least he and his crew did a terrific job in developing Chiko. I’m really getting pumped up now for the rest of this series!

Kero Kero Chime Review – 83/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


This time, I wanted to check out something I knew absolutely nothing about. So that’s why I went for a strange obscure shoujo-adventure from the 90s. Don’t ask why, I’m not sure myself. Anyway, to my surprise Kero Kero Chime actually turned out to be good. Talk about overlooked!

The way Kero Kero Chime sets itself apart from most other shoujo comedies is its sense of humour. Really, I can’t recall many shoujo-series that spend so much emphasis on sarcasm. Believe it or not, but Kero Kero Chime can be surprisingly witty at times. There are of course enough quirky characters in this series, but the added degree of sarcasm really adds an extra spice that makes this series much more enjoyable than your average comedy.

Those who’ve been following my blog will probably also recall my annoyance with a lot of comedies that get dull after their first ten or so episodes. Examples of this are Bamboo Blade, Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei and Magikano. And here comes Kero Kero Chime, and it actually successfully avoids these flaws. Heck, it really stays enjoyable until the end and finishes off with an actually nice climax for such a series. The characters know when to be stereotypes and when to not be them, which allows them to get fleshed out and developed well enough to keep both their quirks and the comedy fresh for thirty episodes.

But yeah, I think you can already see from the screencaps that this series can be very childish at times. It’s not as bad as the pencil and eraser from Power Puff Z, but if you’ve got something against kiddie-shows then this series will be hard to get into. The comedy is also hit or miss: even though most of the episodes work, there are a few amongst them that are embarrassingly dull, especially around the middle of the series. There’s also a little issue with the voice-actors for the male and female leads: at times, they can’t carry their characters, so be aware of this while watching.

Seriously though, if you want a comedy that makes you laugh and don’t mind a bit of childishness, then you should consider checking out Kero Kero Chime. It’s also great to see a shoujo-adventure-series from the 90s that doesn’t involve a main female character with a “godmode-beam”. Instead, Minori only can jump very high and swim very well, while Aoi (the male lead) only has one power throughout the entire series: the power to turn into a frog when he comes into contact with water. Add a narcissistic crystal, a tea-serving forest-fairy and an obsessive doll-maker, and you’ve got lots of hilarious banter.

Just one warning if you do end up watching this: stay away from episode 23. Those monkeys fainted for a reason!!!

Kaiba – 06

by psgels, posted in Kaiba


Really, is there no end to this series awesomeness? This was quite possibly the best episode of Kaiba yet, for very obvious reasons. For the sake of spoilers showing up in the blog-aggregators like animeblogger antenna, this sentence is meant to fill up space. This one is meant to fill up space as well. So, this should be enough.

Kaiba finally meets Neiro! Although under very strange circumstances. She spends this episode in the form of a huge male cyborg without any hands. The thing that made this so awesome was that both of them were struggling with the feelings of being in the body of another gender. Kaiba has his first period as well, while Neiro has trouble with the male hormone-impulses.

As it turns out, Warp was the worst kind of king. He killed Neiro’s family, imprisoned thousands, and he was also probably responsible for the huge gap between rich and old, and several of the memory-clouds we see in space. That makes me even wonder why Neiro fell in love with him in the first place, because right now she seems to consider him as an enemy.

What’s more: in this episode a strange plant appears, which sucks out the memories of nearby persons. Neiro calls it a KAIBA!!! Could it really be that Warp fell victim to one of these Kaiba, and that’s how Kaiba originated? Oh boy.

The case in this episode looked a lot like the episode with the old couple in Kemonozume. Both couples have been travelling for decades now, and both suffer a huge loss as the episode went on. I must say that I prefer the Kaiba-version. This might be a small spoiler, but the problem with Kemonozume was that the ending had no point whatsoever. The two of them just turned into monsters and killed each other due to the big bad guy. This episode in Kaiba has been very deep, though. This time, just the old lady gets her memory sucked out, and as it turns out, she has been cheating on her husband. And yet the husband doesn’t matter, and he’ll just continue to travel with her memory-less body.

With this episode, I know for sure that Kaiba is my favourite series this season. The 26-episode series really need try their best in their second halves if they want to trump this series.

Kurenai – 07

by psgels, posted in Kurenai


Now that we’ve entered the second half of this series, the main storyline pops up again. It’s pretty early this time, in comparison to most other series in the same situation. Five episodes will be plenty of time to get a good climax out of this series, and I wonder what kind of tricks the creators still have up on their sleeve.

The episode starts as Tamaki takes Murasaki to the college she attends. As it turns out, she herself claims to be an expert in terms of love, and yet she gets dumped by her boyfriend because she’s been too rough on him. That female friend of Tamaki really reminded me of the early Rachel in Red Garden. I must say that the director here has been really good realistically portraying the dating scene, as opposed to 90% of the other anime, who strangely enough never heard of the word “party”. Are these that rare in Japan? I can imagine how series with a serious story don’t have time for these, but I’m really surprised that of all these slice-of-life series, nobody seems to celebrate their birthday with a big party…

The second half finally shows some depth to the bad guy, which is about time. The guy turns out to have been in love with Murasaki’s mother. Murasaki was also raised, not knowing who her real mother is, and only just before she died (or just after it) she found out the truth. What the cretors now need to do is continue this development. It’s definitely a step in the right direction, but he needs more attention if he wants to end up as a successful antagonist. I may be comparing him a bit too much with HervĂŠ, though. (From Red Garden, who in my opinion was a great example of an antagonist that works).

xxxHolic – 31

by psgels, posted in xxxHolic


Finally! A catgirl who doesn’t end her sentences with “-nya”. She also doesn’t have any of the nervous tics to make her seem excessively cute either. I like that.

In any case: I really must praise the second season by fixing about the only thing that was wrong with the first season: the fact that the stories had no connection to them. The second season so far has been really good at foreshadowing its future stories. It’s a small touch, but it makes this season feel more as a unity than just a collection of random short stories, while avoiding to become a series with a continuous storyline.

The current story was about said catgirl, and it was delightfully close to the horror-stories that we saw in the first season of xxxHolic. The interesting thing is that it never tried to be anything big. The story was just very simple with hardly any unnecessary twists. A really good example of the simple, yet effective episode, and at the same time it foreshadowed Himawari’s arc some more. I suspect that the creators will save her arc for the end of the season.

I’m a bit iffy on the explanation the creators gave, on how the body of the dead girl has sat in her chair for years now, due to the fact that her body won’t decompose due to the chemicals that are in the food we eat. Even preserved meat goes bad if you don’t seal it to prevent outside air from reaching it, so why should a human suddenly become entirely immune to the process? Still, I admit it’s a freaky thought: perhaps the technology to completely preserve our bodies in the future.

Apparently, the creators also seemed to have cut out Tsubasa Chronicle references in this episode yet again. In a way, I’m glad that they did so. xxxHolic is basically a series about modern folklore, not some kind of back-up series for Tsubasa Chronicle. I’ve also heard from various sources that the Tsubasa Chronicle Manga is starting to get more ludicrous with every single volume, so it’s good that the creators have decided to keep things simple. I can imagine how there was a bit of collaboration between the teams that worked on the xxxHolic and Tsubasa Chronicle movie, but I can imagine how with so many references, trying to manage these crossovers will be near-impossible.

Macross Frontier – 07

by psgels, posted in Macross Frontier


Ah, finally some action. This episode gave me some more faith in the second half of this series. The two previous episodes may have been rather dull, but this episode made up for it pretty nicely. Although I do hope that this series won’t try to beat Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in terms of huge mechas…

This episode also finally shows us the main antagonist, though the guy didn’t do much. Still, it’s a nice enough introduction, as long as the creators remember to develop the guy. I also liked the Varja-battleship that suddenly appeared. The only dull part in this episode was when Sheryll got sentimental about Alto in front of her audience, but at least that part was meant to develop both her and Ranka some more.

I like the new ED a lot more than the old one. I’m not a J-pop fan at all, so these songs have always been a hit or miss. This one turned out to be pretty nice, thankfully.