Author: psgels

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 18

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi


This was the most light-hearted episode of Porfy no Nagai Tabi in what felt like ages. The tragedy has finally settled down a bit, and it’s time for Porfy to move on and search for Mina, as he travels to Italy.

Porfy walks around the harbour, searching for the place that sells tickets to the boat that travels to Italy. When he finds the ticket booth, he’s confused by all the complicated talk, and ends up ordering the cheapest ticket. The woman behind the counter then wonders where his family is, and gets a worried look on her face when she finds out that Porfy’s alone, and especially when she finds out that Porfy has no relatives whatsoever in Italy. She also warns Porfy that it’ll still take a long while until the ship departs, so that he doesn’t need to worry and take things easy, and also to buy some food in the harbour, since the stuff they sell on the ship is expensive.

Porfy buys a sandwich and waits a bit, and talks to Apollo. A girl then arrives, a few years younger than Porfy is, and she gets interested by Apollo. She wants to give him a few candies, though Porfy notes how owls don’t eat sweets. The girl is disappointed, and then her parents come and pick her up. She gives two sweets to Porfy, of which he saves one. Mina loved candy, and he wants to save that one for when he meets her again.

Porfy then falls asleep and nearly misses the boat, though Apollo wakes him in time for him to barely catch it. The ship departs, and Porfy looks at the ever-shrinking shore of Greece (if you ever believed that this series didn’t have quality-graphics, then this scene will prove you wrong). The small girl then arrives again, and introduces herself as Marika. She too wonders where Porfy’s parents are, and Porfy says that they’re not there. In response to that, Marika drags Porfy to her parents. Porfy then explains what happened to him. All three become worried about him, but Porfy says that he’ll be fine. He leaves them after tasting some of their cheese-pie that reminds him of the cheese-pie that his mother made.

Porfy then looks at the ocean, and reveals to Apollo how today is supposed to be his thirteenth birthday, and he gets a bit nostalgic again. When it’s evening Porfy looks for the cabin he’s supposed to sleep in. To his luck, it’s also occupied by a bunch of scary truck-drivers. These guys mean no harm, but of course they seem scary in Porfy’s eyes, so he runs away when one of them tries to touch his backpack with his father’s tools. Out of all places, he ends up falling asleep at the same spot that Mina slept at, two episodes ago. So sweet.

The next morning, Porfy is woken up by Marika an her parents, who are of course wondering why Porfy didn’t sleep in his room. They offer him breakfast, and then Marika grabs a piece of bread, and manages to feed it to Apollo. Marika’s father then suggests Porfy that some of the people boarding this ship might have been on it when Mina boarded it, like truck-drivers who went to Greece to stock up. In the end, one of Porfy’s “roommates” (they’ve all been wondering how he spent the night, by the way) remembered having seen Mina, along with a gypsy-woman. They then tell Porfy that the two of them left with a car, and had no idea where they went afterwards.

Porfy is a bit sad to still be far away from Mina, but at least he now knows that she’s with another woman. The ship arrives at the port of a certain city in Italy, and the episode ends.

One thing that’s really caught my attention in this and the previous episode is the emphasis on the kindness of humans. I’ve seen so many series now with a lot of focus on hate and other dark themes, which it’s quite refreshing to finally see how humans also have a side that helps out others. One series that especially looks like the complete opposite of Porfy no Nagai Tabi is Kaiba, where people and human lives are considered as trash at times. Incidentally, those are two of my favourite shows at the moment. ^^;

One thing that I really miss in nearly every anime is the ability for characters to just walk up to random people and make a small talk, without that character suddenly turning out to be really important for some sort of side-plot. I can understand how you’d usually ignore random by-passers, but when a character is alone on a ship like in this episode, and needs a bit of time to kill, it would make much more sense to find a random person and have a small chat with than just sit around and do nothing. It’s a shame you don’t often see that, because it’s exactly those things that make the world that the story tries to create come to live. Not every character needs to spawn his entire live-story if he’s introduced, and Marika and her parents did very well as serving as random people you just run into, without ever putting the focus on themselves, and instead they just try to help Porfy. I hope this rambling made sense.

There’s also one long-term thing I’m really curious about: what age will Porfy be at the end of the series? I’m intrigued at how the creators are planning to end this series. Will he just be like Damon, and remain a traveller for his entire live, or will he settle down? Will this series just like Les Miserables feature a major time-skip? Will Porfy remain a kid forever? Or will he grow up? Will he ever see Zaimis again?

I also wonder: how are the creators going to handle the language-barrier. Porfy obviously doesn’t know Italian, though I’m fine if the creators just ignore this. For as far as I know, NO series (or movie or whatever for that matter), whether anime or not anime, has ever managed to handle the language-barrier perfectly. Black Lagoon’s attempt, for example, failed horribly. Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula gets points for trying, but that series too got hammered down by horrible Engrish.

Nijuu Mensou no Musume – 04

by psgels, posted in Nijuu Mensou no Musume


Excellent, Chico is already growing up, and this episode skips ahead one year. This episode did well in just being believable enough. While it’s a bit hard to believe that in just one year, Chico would turn from a fragile girl who always stayed in bed into a master knife-thrower and how she has no problems with holding onto a rope for so long, the creators did handle her fighting-abilities very nicely. One year of intense practice should be just enough to learn how to execute a basic judo-throw, and a kick in the groin by a cute girl should always be enough to throw an unsuspecting guy off-guard. Although I do admit that it’s a bit hard to believe that a fully grown and trained man would get knocked out just from falling down a bunch of stairs.

I do wish that the creators showed Chico practicing her lock-picking skills a bit. That rather came from out of nowhere, when Chico was in the elevator and suddenly disconnected the suitcase that was attached to one of the policemen by a pair of handcuffs like it was nothing.

One thing that’s interesting to note is how Chico may be a child genius with all the intention to be better, she does lack experience. Right now, she’s moving forward and forward, though this has to end somewhere. She has a lot of book-wisdom, but there will be a point where her confidence will shoot her in the foot. I guess that when Nijuu Mensou disappears, it’ll have a pretty interesting effect on everyone, and I commend this series’ ability to build up for this.

Amatsuki – 05

by psgels, posted in Amatsuki


Seriously… how good can this series be anyway? Even though this episode took a step down from the previous episode, it was still an excellent one, and the thing is that I’ve got no idea what the creators did to make this series so great. Sure, it’s got a great soundtrack, but it’s not the best one this season. The art is pretty, but there are other series with better art. The incredibly complex dialogue probably helps, but even then I only understand half of what people are saying. I really can’t exactly put my finger as to what makes this series so great, but there has to be some reason why this series suddenly stands out, while most other series need episodes of building-up before they can reach such an emotional level…

I also have a question to those who’ve read the novels for Amatsuki. I recently found out that Amatsuki is only going to have 13 episodes, and I can’t really think that that would be the right length for this series. If I’m not mistaken, then there are 7 volumes of the original Amatsuki manga, and after episode five, at which point in the manga are we currently? If we’re just at the end of the first volume, then there’s a possibility for a second season, though if we’re up to the third volume already, then this’ll be a bit more difficult.

From what I understood in this episode, Tokidoki and Kon finally meet the princess’ real form. I first wondered a bit why so many priestesses were needed for just a simple audience, but then it turns out the princess’ body has been long dead, and it takes a whole ritual to get her spirit from that doll we saw in the previous episode to that body. Another surprise: this “princess” turns out to be a guy. Meanwhile, Tsuyukusa follows the spirit of a broken fox-statue.

From what I picked up and read on on-line forums, the “princess” and Bonten seem to be on opposing sides, and both want to use Tokidoki’s strange abilities. I’m glad that in this episode, we saw a more human side of Bonten, getting annoyed at Utsubushi’s worrying. Bonten and the Princess seem two out of four beings who can at will change bodies. The other two are a strange priest that hasn’t been introduced yet and the spirit that created this world. The names of all these four seem to end with “ten”, meaning heaven. I’m not sure about the intentions of these guys yet, though.

Kaiba – 04

by psgels, posted in Kaiba


Okay, so while the introduction of weird accents didn’t exactly help my ability to understand this episode, I still loved every bit about this episode. Really, I’m trying to think of one part of this series that doesn’t stand out, but so far this series couldn’t have progressed better. I absolutely LOVE the pair of Kaiba and the guard (I think his name was Vanilla) as they travel through various world. They stand so incredibly far apart from your usual travelling-companionship. The two of them are without a doubt my favourite characters of all new shows this season, apart perhaps from xxxHolic.

I originally thought that Kaiba would switch bodies with every new episode, but this episode proves us wrong. He just has two bodies: one of the stuffed animal and one of the girl. Both bodies are very different from the Kaiba we saw in the first episode, and it felt especially weird when the stuffed animal suddenly started talking. It turns out that normal rules don’t really apply when you’re into the mind of a person.

What’s also interesting: we see Vanilla into Kaiba’s mind this time, and there, we saw the body he was in when we found him in episode 1. The thing is also that this doesn’t seem to be his original body (because yes, this episode also gives us a small shot of Kaiba when he still had his memory). There’s nothing of that fancy outfit we saw. And really, what the hell has happened to Popo? He hasn’t appeared for four episode, and yet he seems like a vital character in all this, after the previous episode showed some hints that he was connected to Neiro.

In any case, this episode is about an old woman, who refuses to share her dead husband’s “treasure” with her two sons. They may be poor, but they’re always causing trouble for others, and don’t ever pay attention to their surroundings. Of course, the “treasure” turns out to be an ordinary memory-box, but still. The interesting thing is how this episode went into this old woman’s mind, as she’s still trying to forget her deceased husband. He fell off a lighthouse, but she never knew why. Inside her memory, she then finds out that he was just trying to pick a flower, in the hope of making his wife smile again. I probably missed the important point of this episode again, though, due to the above-mentioned dialect.

The art this time was also different from usual. It looked much more like Kemonozume than ever. While it’s usually not that good of an idea to have an episode with a different animation-style than usual (just take a look at Gurren Lagann 04), for Kaiba it works surprisingly well. Perhaps it’s because the changes are there, but not quite radical.

xxxHolic – 29

by psgels, posted in xxxHolic


The big improvement, aside from the increased graphics-budget, of the second season is the inclusion of foreshadowing. The first season was very good, but the stories all felt a bit disconnected from each other, aside from the occasional appearances of the Rain and Vestal Sprite. The second season however has cleverly been inserting small introductions of the upcoming arcs in the past few seasons. My guess is that this second season will feature three major arcs: the spider-queen, the current one with the psychic girl and the final one will be Himawari’s background, with in-between small stories like in episode four. It really gives the viewer something to look forward to, and brings more unity to the whole series.

This episode mostly introduced the young girl, and her relationship with her mother. The mother is a typical case of a parent who’s become too obsessed with how famous her daughter has become, and starts seeing her just as a tool, and she’s clearly suffering from a lot of stress. The atmosphere about this episode was just perfect.

In this episode, she was asked to remove the spirit of a dead woman from a sakura-tree. I believe that with the help of Watanuki, she managed to move the spirit to one o the sakura-trees around Domeki’s house. The big questions for the next episode are of course: why does Watanuki feel so drawn towards her and why does she feel so drawn towards Watanuki?

Kurenai – 05

by psgels, posted in Kurenai


Ah, what an adorable episode! Hardly anything new was introduced, and yet it was so much fun to just see the characters. This is exactly what I mean by a well-written series. Everything about this episode was just so enjoyable.

I love it in a series, where the characters are coming together. This series shows how far you can come with realism, because Murasaki and the five-year old sister of Yuno felt so real together. It’s just like how real little kids would spend their time when bored and not used to each other. And poor Yayoi! Everyone was having fun and eating at the end of the episode, and she was standing out there in the cold, getting hungry.

There’s nothing much else about this episoe to say, though. This really is an episode you need to watch for yourself, rather than read about it. I do want to say, though, that if this is really going to be a 13-episode series, then it’s well on its way to become a classic.

Macross Frontier – 05

by psgels, posted in Macross Frontier


At my April summary, I remember noting how this series is a bit too silly for it’s own good at times…

Well, this episode definitely didn’t solve that problem, as it basically degenerated into a dating-sim/love-triangle/idol-episode. Sheryl and Alto have a little date, while Ranka and Mikhail also spend the episode together. Predictably, at the end of the episode Ranka finds out that Alto is starting to fancy Sheryl. Been there, done that. Ah well, at least this episode was enjoyable. I remember how Souko no Strain was one of the very few series who actually made such an episode work, but that series took much more risks than Macross Frontier does right now.

Still, thankfully the episode could have gone much worse. At least this episode gave some background on the Zentradi for those who’ve never seen anything of Macross like me. Before this episode, I really thought that they were some kind of lost race with just a handful members still alive, though it seems that they’re still living in quite large communities. We also know that Ranka’s song somehow strengthens the Varja, which does explain why one of them suddenly popped up, just as she started singing. For that, I have to give the creators of this series credit: I originally thought that they just timed Ranka’s song and the battle together for more excitement, but there is an actual explanation for why that happened.

Ranka’s song this episode felt a bit wrong, though. I wish that the creators would stop to make a huge spectacle about Ranka’s songs. In that mood, an a cappella-song would have suited much better, but instead the creators suddenly introduced instruments from nowhere and made no attempts to hide the fact that that song was recorded in a studio. Series like Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club and Red Garden have shown that songs that sound spontaneous sound much better than the over-rehearsed ones.

Allison to Lillia – 05

by psgels, posted in Allison to Lillia


With this episode, I guess that we’ve reached the second novel of the original “Allison”-series. It does worry me a bit that the creators are trying to stuff 10 volumes of light-novel material into just twenty-six episodes (For the sake of comparison: Soul Eater with its 11 volumes has 52 episodes to work with, and Saiunkoku spent 78 episodes for 12 of them). Apparently, there are going to be six story-arcs in this series, with the latter ones taking up two volumes. This means that each arc will be about four or five episodes long.

While the chance for a rushed story is quite big, this short format does keep the story fresh. I’m really wondering whether the director will be able to pull it off. I think the biggest reason for this short series-length is the budget, which you can also see in the animation, which has always been not that special for this series. In any case, at least the director has already shown that he’s very good at characterizations, which should be more than enough to keep me interested.

In this arc, it’s not likely that Allison and Will will board some kind of airplane, and the story is actually quite similar to a random arc of Kino no Tabi: Allison and Will end up in a hostile town, in the middle of winter. This town seems to be very afraid of outsiders (especially if they come in a military car). In the meantime, Benedict follows them, because he’s worried that Allison and Will might have run into trouble due to an unexpected blizzard, after which he meets the mysterious girl we see in the ED. Also, throughout the episode, we can see Allison trying to find courage to confess to Will. She’ll probably propose properly around the end of this arc.

April Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

So, most series have had four episodes aired now. So far, the season is looking quite promising, with many good series that have debuted. I’ve been noticing an on-going trend though, about how much more 13 episode-series appear. It’s a shame, because a lot of these series could have easily been lengthened to 24 or 26 episodes.

#39 (new) – To Love-Ru – (4,6/10) – If it was only the fanservice, then this show could have been good, but everything about this series is crap: story, characters, nothing stands out whatsoever. Dropped.
#38 (new) – Kamen no Maid Guy – (5,5/10) – Ugh… This turned out disastrous. Any potential in this series has left due to the incredible overuse of unfunny fanservice-jokes. Dropped.
#37 (new) – Kanokon – (5,7/10) – Well, I guess nothing much can be said about this series that hasn’t been said yet. If you like young boys getting it on with horny fox-spirits, then this is a must watch. If you don’t, then stay far away from this thing. Dropped.
#36 (new) – Kyou Kara Maou – Third Season – (6,5/10) – The episode I watched was decent, but in no way did it make me eager to check out the rest of the series. Dropped.
#35 (new) – Monochrome Factor – (6,5/10) – Okay, so here’s a potential trainwreck. Stay away from this one. Dropped.
#34 (new) – Neo Angelique Abyss – (6,6/10) – Mary-sue, anyone? Dropped.
#33 (new) – Naisho no Tsubomi – (6,6/10) – I am so NOT the target audience for this. Dropped.
#32 (new) – Penguin Musume Heart – (6,9/10) – A very strange series, but I doubt that I’ll continue it with so many good series this season.
#31 (new) – Zettai Karen Children – (7/10) – The fun in this series quickly dies. Dropped.
#30 (new) – Net Ghost Pipopa – (7/10) – Good show for kids; not for me, though. Dropped.
#29 (new) – Kyouran Kazoku Nikki – (7,3/10) – This might become funny, but I don’t feel like finding out. Dropped.
#28 (new) – Nabari no Ou – (7,4/10) – I wish I could watch every series that came out this season, but unfortunately I can’t. Nabari no Ou wasn’t bad, but neither did it impress me. Dropped.
#27 (new) – Special A – (7,5/10) – I decided to drop this series after finding out that it’s only going to feature 13 episodes. Four lacklustre starting episodes may be excused for long series, but one-season long series really need to have delivered at least something at this point, and Special A never really seems to want to go anywhere.
#26 (new) – Golgo 13 – (7,6/10) – Duke Togo is an interesting protagonist, but 50 episodes may be a bit too much for a concept such as this. I’ve dropped it for now.
#25 (new) – Code Geass – Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 – (7,8/10) – Well, it’s getting pretty hard to take the different plot-twists in this series seriously, ever since the infamous episode 22 destroyed my suspense of disbelief, but I admit that Code Geass has been solid enough so far. However, I KNOW THIS SERIES. I wouldn’t be surprised if Suzaku ends up slaughtering the entire world population near the end of this second season, seeing as how this series is so eager to copy parts of the first season.
#24 (new) – Junjo Romantica – (7,9/10) – Yaoi aside, I admit that the romance in this series has been pretty good, and it actually does have a sense of humour. That said, I still don’t know why I continued to watch this series…
#23 (new) – Chi’s Sweet Home – (7,9/10) – It’s amazing to think how deep the creators dived into Chi’s mind. The adventures of Chi are an innocent way to spend 2 minutes
#22 (new) – Druaga no Tou – The Aegis of Uruk – (7,9/10) – Okay, I admit that this series turned out better than I expected it to do after watching the second episode. The band of idiots does make sense so far, but I really wonder what the creators plan to use to get them to the top of the tower when they already struggle at the first level.
#21 (new) – Toshokan Sensou – (7,9/10) – A good show, but for Noitamina, this seems to be missing something. Kaiba would have fitted this timeslot much better, I think. It’s just not a good sign that in an 11-episode series, the characters already start feeling a bit annoying after the third episode.
#20 (25) – Bus Gamer – (8/10) – A nice enough short series. The characters were dynamic enough to keep me interested.
#19 (7) – Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei – (8/10) – Well, it’s taken a bit longer than usual, but Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei is finally feeling the repercussions of the fact that it refused to develop its characters beyond their stereotypes. This series is still fun, but nowhere near as brilliant as it used to be.
#18 (new) – Vampire Knight – (8,1/10) – Solid so far. I personally like a healthy dose of angst, and Vampire Knight so far has done well in staying away from emo. However, the bishies and squealing fangirls are just as annoying as the hot babes and drooling guys in the shounen counterparts.
#17 (new) – Soul Eater – (8,1/10) – So far, Soul Eater has been a really stylish show. Now let’s hope that it’ll know how to remain fresh for 52 episodes.
#16 (new) – Allison to Lillia – (8,1/10) – This series has an engaging atmosphere so far. This series feels genuine, and it really succeeds in bringing across its sense of adventure, even though it sometimes struggles with believability.
#15 (new) – Wagaya no Oinarisama – (8,2/10) – A surprisingly fun and down-to-earth series for me. Great music, and finally the male main character looks at least a bit different from his counterparts in other series.
#14 (21) – Gintama – (8,2/10) – While Gintama has definitely been better, the transvestite-joke was priceless.
#13 (new) – Macross Frontier – (8,3/10) – At times, it’s a bit too silly for its own good, but the likable characters and godly production-values have really made up for this so far.
#12 (17) – Persona – Trinity Soul – (8,3/10) – Persona has developed into a pretty solid mystery-series so far, but I do hope that the creators have been saving the best for last, because this series still feels like it’s missing something.
#11 (new) – Blassreiter – (8,4/10) – Surprisingly, this turned into my favourite GONZO-series this season. It’s got the best action-sequences so far, and the characters are pretty likable so far. Now let’s hope it doesn’t go trainwreck somewhere in the middle!

#10 (new) – Nijuu Mensou no Musume – (8,4/10)

Great character-development so far, although it’s sometimes a bit hard to believe.

#9 (new) – Itazura na Kiss – (8,6/10)

Without a doubt the best romantic comedy this season. Heck, this series has the potential to be the best romantic comedy since years if it keeps up with this pacing.

#8 (new) – Kurenai – (8,6/10)

Without a doubt the best voice-acting this season. More anime should record the voices before the animation-process.

#7 (new) – Crystal Blaze – (8,7/10)

The animation and graphics may look just average, but to make up for it, Crystal Blaze has delivered us a very solid cast of believable characters that have already started to develop within four episodes. A recommendation for any mystery-fan.

#6 (new) – RD Sennou Chousashitsu – (8,8/10)

This series intrigues me like no other. It’s got a fascinating concept and a pretty good execution so far. It’s away from any stereotype so far, which also makes me very happy.

#5 (new) – Amatsuki – (9/10)

A surprise hit for me. I already somehow suspected that this series would be more than just pretty pictures, but I never expected that it would turn this dark, deep and emotional in such a short time.

#4 (new) – xxxHolic – (9,1/10)

What a wonderful way to start the second season. xxxHolic Kei has been just as good as the best parts of the first season so far, if not better!

#3 (new) – Himitsu ~The Revelation~ – (9,2/10)

I’m an absolute sucker for these kinds of series, and Himitsu has shown that it’s by far the cleverest series of the new season. Great themes, great characters, a terrific concept. This really is one of my favourites of the season so far.

#2 (new) – Kaiba – (9,3/10)

Without a doubt the best new series to air. Everything about this series has delivered so far! It’s a series that makes you think, and at the same time it’s got a wonderful story and cast of characters.

#1 (2) – Porfy no Nagai Tabi – (9,5/10)

April has been a sensational month for Porfy! Every episode delivered, there was no weak moment, and everything about this series was just so gut-wrenchingly sad. With this, this series earned it’s title of “World Masterpiece Theatre”.

Himitsu ~The Revelation~ – 04

by psgels, posted in Himitsu ~The Revelation~


Really, this is clearly the cleverest series to have come out this season. Kaiba may be good at other points, but Himitsu is a master in dropping hints that might solve the mystery. This series really draws you in like no other, also with the help of the terrific soundtrack. You really need to watch an episode at least twice in order to fully understand it.

The way the creators also revealed that Nanako fancies Aoki was also quite creative. Most series just show a very obvious and unsubtle blush, though Nanako instead just misses her chair, and you can also constant see her around Aoki, without him noticing it.

And the theme of this episode… it was really pushing taboos, as it reflected an issue of modern society that even Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei didn’t want to enter: the bother that elder people are to their younger generations. The culprit is a guy who ritualistically kills off older people who aren’t wanted by their families due to poverty. That one scene where the kid asks when he can get his own room: “you’ll get your room as soon as grandfather dies”. “Oh, I hope he dies soon then”.

On a side-note: there’s something I’ve been wondering. It rather annoys me a bit how many people are dismissing this series because it looks “gay” (what’s wrong with homosexuals anyway?). But at the same time, you don’t hear anyone saying this about Death Note (a series that shows quite a few similarities with Himitsu, by the way), even though that too featured a number of *ahem*”bishies”, that even ended up washing each other’s feet at one point.