Author: psgels

Crystal Blaze – 04

by psgels, posted in Crystal Blaze


Heh, this episode finally featured an actually funny fanservice joke. When the horny doctor first appeared, I feared the worst, but his nurse’s BSDM have turned out to be quite hilarious. Especially the dog’s outfit was brilliant. Really, if series as Kanokon realized this, they would have been quite fun, though instead they just can’t think beyond the tried-and-true formula of groping, blood-noses and panty-shots.

Fanservice aside, I’m still surprised at how much I’m enjoying this show, seeing as it’s turned into one of the dark horses of this season in the rest of the anime-community. The budget is indeed quite low. Studio Fantasia is no Satelight or Madhouse, so the drawings and animation are quite simple. And yet this has never had a weak episode so far, in my opinion at least. This episode again was a great one, and it finally pushes the plot forward again.

We learn that the one who changed all the women to glass was indeed that little girl. This time, she kills Yuumi, who indeed went on her solo-debut, dropping Seiji without him even knowing it. The glass women like her and Sara were meant as humanoid weapons. Hence why the bad guys are so interested in retrieving her. They’re currently in the process of testing out their work, which has finally shown its fruits.

One thing I also like is how this series has managed to make characters likable who would have been really cliché otherwise. Especially Shu and Manami would have been incredibly annoying if they didn’t receive any development. Manami, however, turned into a really sympathetic character, who’s just finding out how naive she’s been in the past episodes. She’s a girl with real fears, instead of contractor-like behaviour (a la Darker than Black) of knowing what to do in any dangerous situation. Shu meanwhile turned into quite a refreshing main character, who neither is a stereotypical ambitious guy nor a carefree “cool dude”. This guy doesn’t care about being the best; he just cares about the people around him. For some strange reason, both of them have really turned into my favourite characters in this series.

RD Sennou Chousashitsu – 04

by psgels, posted in RD Sennou Chousashitsu


This series continues to intrigue me, for some reason. This episode was clearly meant to flesh out the concept of “Metal”, now that the introduction is finally over. Knowing the director, and the fact that this is an anime-original story, just like Chevalier, I think we can expect lots of building up in the first half, that’ll cleverly be used in the second half of this series.

Still, even though it’s building up, this series still manages to remain interesting due to its concepts, and the fact that it didn’t play all of its trumps in the first episodes. In this episode, while the person in question who has been trapped inside the Metal isn’t that relevant to the story, this episode does offer a lot of new things about the metal, and finally things become a bit clear, as to why Metal turned so important. It’s not only used for things like power plants, but civilians can also use it. In this case, a salaryman uses it to escape from reality and be surrounded by loads of beautiful woman.

The problem is that this episode a lot of complicated monologues, so it was pretty hard to understand what the assistant of this salaryman was trying to say. Apparently, he was quite an important person, yet at the same time he remained a regular guy due to his sexual desires. If I understood correctly, then he was inside the metal when the power went down on the island (I guess that the cyber-divers used a emergency back-up power-system to enter the power plant, back in episode 2), and his brains went down. Later, the corrupted data seems to have turned him into one of the women, and this same data tries to affect Haru, as he tries to get the guy back. Minamo then proves to be the mystery-element in this series, when she somehow manages to connect to Haru from outside, and apparently they can reach each other no matter what’s happening.

There also seems to have been a bit of influence from outside. They probably made alterations to Zouhen(the salaryman)’s data, to change him into a woman and prevent him from re-entering. I’m not sure about their motives, though. Heck, I couldn’t catch anything that looked like it explained this.

This episode also introduces the two characters in the OP who make strange faces, along with Minamo and Haru. I was surprised to find out that they’re both guys, (that big guy really looked like some GAR woman in the OP). On top of that, they seem to be brothers. The little guy seems to be a cyber-diver as well, and he failed to get back Zouhen earlier.

I also must say that this series has the most solid OP and ED this season. They really fit the strange nature of this series. With the heavy J-rock, combined with the strange images. I also like how the episode previews don’t spoil anything about the next episode, but instead provide an introduction to the concept of the next one. One reason why I often avoid next-episode previews on series is because you’ll never know when they’ll spoil you too much for the next episode. Especially Naruto was a heavy offender of this, though RD seems to use them very nicely.

Soul Eater – 04

by psgels, posted in Soul Eater


I’m wondering… why does Tsubaki get naked when she’s in weapon-mode, and yet Soul gets to keep his clothes? I mean, I can understand how a bit of fanservice here and there is nice and all and how this would scare off the guys who are afraid to see other men without any clothes on, but at least keep things a bit consistent.

In any case, this episode started a bit disappointing, where Maka beat up Soul a few too many times. Jokes like these stopped being funny ever since Love Hina overused them. Thankfully, as this episode went along, it introduced a few new things, including a resonance-mode that goes wrong. And a Black Star who is actually calculating when he doesn’t need to ambush anyone.

Having said that though, this episode was the least funny of this series so far, since more than half of the jokes were just reused from the previous ones. The bad guy of this week, a teacher turned zombie that uses his own gravestone as a weapon, didn’t feel that inspired. This can mean two things:
1) This series already used up its best jokes and has run out of inspiration. Things would be pretty bad if this was the case.
2) Seeing as it’s 52 episodes we’re talking about, the creators cleverly decided to use their best jokes for later, when the characters are actually developed. Sortof like the Law of Ueki, which also was rather dull at this point. The next episode should be better, as it’ll introduce another major character: a certain Dr Frankenstein who used to partner up with Death Scythe before he met Maka’s mother (speaking of which, what happened to her? Heck, where has Shinigami’s wife run off to?)

Popolocrois Story 1998 – 25

by psgels, posted in Popolocrois Story 1998


Ah, what an adorable ending. It was a bit cheesy here and there, but overall it reminded me why I originally fell in love with this series. To think that I took two years and four months to fully blog this series. That’s been longer than any other show I’ve blogged, even Saiunkoku Monogatari, Jigoku Shoujo or Higurashi. It’s been a wonderful ride, that’s for sure, and Bee-Train’s debut surely showed a lot of promise in the studio that they were to become.

I decided to not write a review about this series, simply because it’s been too long since I watched the real meat of this series, and my memory is too fuzzy about it. (Plus, I’m rather tired right now, which probably also plays some kind of factor) If I did review it, I bet it would rate high, though, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up above 90/100. I do remember how this has been the best RPG-adaptation made, simply because of its wonderfully charming cast of characters, and definitely recommended to any fantasy-fan.

With that said, I’d like to thank Wyrdwad and the other ones who contributed to the fansubbing-process: you ROCK! I also must say that I really enjoyed reading the different episode-notes for each release. They provided interesting insights in the Japanese language and culture. Most times when fansubbers try to insert something personal in their work, it doesn’t really work, and most of the comments end up being in the sense of “yea hot!”, but Wyrdwad’s writing style is really fun to read. When watching a raw series, I now keep chuckling at characters who use “ore-sama” or “Otoko no ROMAAAAN!!!” 😛

Now with that said, I’m really curious to the final episodes of the 2003-series. 🙂

The Anime Blog Awards, Blogger’s Choice Start

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

So, the nominations are over, and it’s time for the real voting. I’d like to thank everyone who nominated me in te preliminaries, I never thought that this many people consider this blog among the best of the episodic ones.

Apparently, the reader’s choice and blogger’s choice don’t start at the same time. I guess that the polls for the reader’s choice will be set up in a few days or so.

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 17

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi


This series continues to be absolutely stunning! Seriously, there hasn’t been a weak moment, ever since the earthquake. This episode finally finishes the introduction of this series, and shows Porfy starting his “Long Journey”. It really does seem like it’s going to take a long while until we see Mina again…

The episode starts with Porfy, not sure what to do. In the end, the one who’s able to remember Mina and tell him where she went was the old blind lady. She tells how the two of Porfy and Mina had the same scent, and how Mina boarded a ship that goes to Italy. Now that he finally knows what happened to his sister, Porfy runs to a quiet alley to cry his lungs out.

When Porfy comes back to the harbour to check up on the fees for the boat, they turn out to be too high for the small amount of money he carries with him. He heads into the city, to check whether people are looking for a job. The first person he asks comes with the sad news that nearly nobody in the city has a car, and they work mostly with horses and donkeys. The guy then nicely offers Porfy a part of his lunch, saying how children shouldn’t suffer. Porfy says how he’s looking for money to board a ship, and then the guy comes with the idea to bring Porfy to an old man whose house needs painting. At this point, Porfy is indeed willing to do anything.

When he arrives at the old man’s home, the old man thanks him. He’s apparently been living alone for a long time now. When he asks where Porfy came from, Porfy says he’s from Simitra. The old man remembers how that place was hit by a huge earthquake, and Porfy tells him about what happened to his parents; he starts crying when he talks about it. The old man then comforts him, and says how Porfy’d better start working. When Porfy’s halfway done, the old man asks him to buy some food for dinner.

When they’re having dinner, the old man offers a surprisingly large amount of his food to Porfy. When Porfy says how he shouldn’t bother, the man retorts that it’s nothing, and how it’s a delight to be young. Porfy works for two days, and on the second evening the old man asks Porfy whether he knows what Mina’s thinking. I turns out that Porfy didn’t even think of that yet. The old man then says how Mina should be feeling the same thing he is, being separated from her parents and all.

Porfy finishes on the third day. The old man then gives him a really big amount of money for the job, even more than that’s needed for the boat fee. Added to that, he also offers a backpack for Porfy to use. The old man says how once you get older, there are enough things that you won’t need anymore, and he feels that Porfy would make better use of it. Porfy then leaves and the episode ends, as the old man wishes him good luck.

Apologies for the rather rubbish summary this time. The dialogue in this episode was particularly difficult for a Porfy-episode, and it featured more monologues than usual, so I wasn’t able to understand everything perfectly, like I usually do with this series. That aside, this episode was yet again amazing. When I started watching this series, I originally thought that it would go down about the same path as Perrine Monogatari (which is currently being subbed by C1), but it turns out I was wrong. Perrine puts much more emphasis on the bad sides of money, while Porfy no Nagai Tabi just solves Porfy’s money issues in one half of an episode.

Old people also have a really interesting role in this series. They really serve as mental guides for the children. First Damon, and now we have the old blind woman and the old man who offer Porfy support, and they encourage him to go into the right direction, hardly knowing anything about him. It’s different from usual anime, who mostly have the mindset of “the old ones need to step aside for the young ones”. In this case, they really try to help Porfy get over the horrible things that happened to him, without ever trying to look important for the storyline.

Nijuu Mensou no Musume – 03

by psgels, posted in Nijuu Mensou no Musume


I must say that this series is getting more interesting with every episode. The first episode was a huge disappointment for me because it didn’t really show the thought-pattern behind Nijuu Mensou’s plans, though thankfully the past two episodes have put a much bigger emphasis on planning and back-ups, in case something goes wrong. With this episode, I finally see that Nijuu Mensou isn’t inhumanly strong or smart. He’s just paranoid and a perfectionist.

I can indeed see why Chico will end up as Nijuu Mensou’s successor. Due to the way she’s raised, she’s ended up rather paranoid as well and doesn’t take anything for granted, and yet she’s willing to work hard for the person who saved her. This episode mainly meant to bring her a bit closer to Nijuu Mensou’s crew, and flesh out the different characters a bit.

What I’m waiting for right now is to see the always-composed Nijuu Mensou screw up. Obviously, this has to happen sometime, and I’m rather eager to see Chico, as she takes over his position. It’ll be interesting to see Chico evolve, and meet the other two girls we see in the ED. Like I said before, I like series that don’t play all of their trumps in the first episode.

Asagiri no Miko Review – 77/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


The individual ingredients of Asagiri no Miko (or Shrine of the Morning Mist) are not that impressive: a sentai-team of priestesses takes on the role of main characters, and they’re the only ones who can stop an evil demon from breaking its seal and destroying the world. At first sight, it seems like a yawnfest, and yet somehow, it works.

Thankfully, despite the boring premise, this series knows how to build up, and it pretty nicely alters between comedy-episodes and serious ones, rather than save the serious parts only for the final episodes. Both the comedy and drama gets better as the series progresses and the episode length of 12 minutes helps keeping things fresh and avoid dragging on. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that this series actually knows how to tell a story.

Unfortunately, Asagiri no Miko does have its bad points. The main lead is horribly ignored in terms of fleshing out when compared to the other ones. That’s fine by me, and it actually helped to prevent this series from getting dragged into pointless romance. The major problem with this guy is however, that in the final two episodes he suddenly becomes the most important character; a role he just couldn’t live up to, considering his huge lack of development. The result is that the final two episodes descend into a boring cheese-fest that end the series with a fizz, rather than a bang.

Still, despite this the first 24 episodes are a nice example of an enjoyable series that never really hits any highs nor lows. Asagiri no Miko is just one of these series that’s great for just a light watch, and in the meantime you also get to enjoy a healthy share of Japanese culture. Obviously, you’ll never see this series on any top-10 list whatsoever, but the average rating that the users of AniDB gave it (a 5.90; amongst the worst ratings on that site) is just way too low in my opinion.

Amatsuki – 04

by psgels, posted in Amatsuki


Okay… Amatsuki has a good chance of becoming Studio Deen’s next masterpiece. Yes, this episode was that good.

I’m left quite speechless by it. Amatsuki has really been the most emotionally intense series of the spring-season so far, and with series as Kaiba, xxxHolic, Kurenai and Himitsu, this HAS TO SAY SOMETHING. I really like how all the good series this season have their own points at which they excel.

It turns out that Toki was called by a god who is the head of a shrine. When he arrives there, the major bad guy first comes into contact with him, and he makes it clear that Toki’s eye is something very special. He does all this in some kind of strange dimension. When Toki returns from this dimension, he’s found inside the shrine. The priestesses of this shrine then get mistaken by the huge demon inside of Kuchiha and think that the threesome is an enemy. Then all hell breaks loose as they attempt to release the dormant powers inside both Toki and Kuchiha, in order to find out their origins, though I didn’t think that they expected to find such a huge beast inside of Kuchiha. The goddess of the temple then shows up, and almost gets crushed by said demon (in the shape of a huge dog). Bonten then appears as well, taking over one the priestesses.

After this episode, I know for sure: Amatsuki is going to be a really special series. Really, so many things happened at the same time, and the result is nothing short of stunning. If you’re doubting whether or not to check out this series, then at least wait till you’ve seen the fourth episode to decide whether or not you want to follow it.

Kaiba – 03

by psgels, posted in Kaiba


Oh for Christ’s sake! This episode took freaking ages to show up on Share, and even longer to download. I really wonder: how popular is Kaiba in Japan anyways? I remember how even Kaze no Shoujo Emily didn’t run into these problems, and that series probably was one of the least viewed anime around at that time…

Still, this series is pure gold, and I love every single bit of it. I’m an absolute sucker for good series that show how random people deal with its concepts, and Kaiba combines it plot with these random stories in an excellent way. What I especially like his how Kaiba meets the random people, he watches them, but he never interferes with them. He just tries to understand them, and that’s all. The stories of these people would have ended in the same way if Kaiba was never there, and that’s REALLY rare in this genre. It’s a great way of symbolizing the whimsical nature of memory in this series.

I’ve probably said this before, but PLEASE let there be more series like this one in the future. 12 episodes is just criminally short for a series with such a terrific concept. This episode shows a girl who sells her body in order to feed her family. Her memory then gets sent into space, in the hope of someday reaching a new body. Kaiba then steals her body, and ironically enough gets a free ride from the guard, who was sadistic to everyone only an episode ago.

This episode masterfully explores first this case from the perspective of the girl, and once she’s dead it’s the perspective from her stepmother, who was probably the one who suggested the girl to sell her body. The mother first was happy that the girl went, but very soon afterwards, she was full of guilt about what she did.

Kaiba definitely is my top-recommendation for the spring-season. It’s got everything: great graphics, an excellent concept, a fitting soundtrack, terrific characterization, it’s thought-provoking, short enough for a quick watch, and I can go on and on with this list.