Author: psgels

Bus Gamer Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


It’s not often when an anime is made about a manga that went down after only one volume. Apparently, the original mangaka ran into trouble with the magazine that Bus Gamer was published in, and only one volume ended up published before it was cancelled. Still, the premise had potential, which is probably why three anime-episodes were made out of it. Obviously, the budget was short, so don’t expect an epic storyline, high-quality graphics, deep characters or an ending that wraps everything up.

What you can expect from this series, however, is a well-developed cast of down-to-earth characters, interesting fights and three episodes that become increasingly more interesting as they go along. It’s especially the down-to-earth-part that makes this series worth watching, as it provides an interesting look at the concepts that were explored by Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji. Kaiji was basically about the scum of society, and made it very apparent that these guys were at the end of their line, piled up in debts and used the sick games as a last resort to get some money.

Bus Gamer is different: it just features three guys who just need some money, are willing to risk their lives to get it and are well aware of all the involved risks. There’s no attempt at all made to make any of them look pitiful, and instead it focuses more on the relationship between these three guys who are so different, and how they grow to get used to each other. The different teams also have no overmoralized respect to the other teams (“thou shalt not kill”, “thou shalt save thy enemy when he’s in trouble”) that is overplayed in so many other anime.

This is really one of these series that you want to watch on a rainy day when you’re bored. It’s nothing special by far, but it’s one of these series that is perfect for entertainment. Bus Gamer could have gone much worse: there’s zero filler, the characters are actually developed a bit (which is the reason why the best episode by far was the final one, rather than the opposite), it’s got a small police-subplot, explaining why the police isn’t doing anything about a bunch of punks, killing off each other.

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 16

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi


Words can’t describe the awesomeness of this episode. Before I started to watch this episode, I had NO idea that this series would turn out the way it did here. I’m sure now with this episode: Porfy no Nagai Tabi will be one of the best series of 2008, joining Shion no Ou on this list. Before I delve more into the awesomeness of this episode, first a summary:

Porfy is frantically searching for Mina. Mina, meanwhile, reached a flower stand, with flowers that resemble her own tree. With the bit of money she has left, she buys one of them and walks away again. Zaimis is meanwhile extremely worried, and he blames himself for Porfy’s disappearance. He notifies his mother, Helena and Barnes and Barnes hurries to his car to check the surrounding area while Zaimis and Helena search more around the coast.

Helena really needs to calm down Zaimis. Porfy may have meant well with that final message of his (“we’ll stay friends forever”), but like always, that wasn’t the most tactful move. After all, how would you react if someone would say to remain friends forever, only to disappear afterwards? In any case, Porfy too reaches the flower stand, but Mina’s already away. The seller points Porfy in the direction she went, but Mina has already gotten herself into the car of a local woman, mistaking and offering her a ride to a totally different part of the city. She drops her flower, and THAT’S THE LAST THING PORFY SEES OF HER!!!

Mina gets dropped off near a cafe, where a band of travelling entertainers is working: a woman, and two men. The woman dances, while the two men try to win money by playing card-games (not sure whether or not they’re the cheating-kind). The woman then notices Mina, but Mina walks off again, and she gets called back to her job.

Mina then ends up on a boat (if I recall correctly, the movie she watched took place on a boat). She then mistakes a random woman for her mother, but loses sight of her. It then turns out that Isabella (the above-mentioned woman) and her companions will be boarding the boat as well. It seems to be a boat to ITALY. Mina continues to get scared by the crowd, until she sees the woman who looks like her mother again. She then follows her into the boat, only to find out that she was mistaken.

The boat the takes off, with MINA ON BOARD!

Isabella meanwhile, can also use tarot-cards (Gypsy?), though Mina is still on her mind. Her two companions meanwhile continue with their card-trick. It’s an interesting method they use: they just start playing together, and very soon others will get interested and want to play along as well. Porfy, meanwhile, arrives at the harbour, but of course nobody remembers such a tiny little girl. Apollo meanwhile is very angry at him.

Mina has meanwhile hidden in a corner on the boat, watching a couple. They inspire her to recite a part of the movie, and Isabella manages to overhear her. She then tries to talk to Mina, how she liked the movie as well. The two then introduce themselves to each other. She tells Mina that her partner is called Carlos, and the other guy is Carlos’s father and that they’re playing card games. Isabella then asks Mina her age, and when she finds out that it’s 12, she says that it’s the same age as her daughter, who died from an illness. She then tells mina to return to her mother, and then leaves again when Carlos calls her, though she does return for a bit to give Mina an apple.

Mina spends the night on the ship, trying to sleep against random crates and eventually ends up under some stairs. Isabella’s still worried, but Mina has hidden herself well, so she can’t find her. The next day, Mina wakes up and is amazed at the sunrise. She then starts singing her favourite song, while Isabella her companions are watching. Carlos’ father notes how Lily (Isabella’s daughter) was good at singing as well.

Then the boat arrives in Italy, and Isabella wonders where Mina’s parents are. Mina then finally tells her how her parents have died during the earthquake. Isabella then offers Mina to come along with them. The four of them leave the boat together, while Porfy’s still wondering where Mina went and the episode ends.

Let me first say: holy jumping clamfish on a stick! I knew that the creators were clever at building-up, but I never imagined that they were THIS clever. I remember making so many predictions after the previous episode, and they all turned out not to come true, simply because I didn’t consider the option that Porfy wouldn’t be able to find Mina back! Only now I see what the scene in episode three, where Porfy and Mina lost sight of each other, really meant to say: Mina was just joking to Porfy back then, and she easily found her way back to Porfy. This gave both Porfy as the viewer the illusion that she’d return to Porfy no matter what. Instead, her image of Porfy now is something completely different of what I expected.

It’s indeed true that Porfy turned much more protective of Mina after the earthquake, so you’d think that Mina would be the same: two siblings who lost everything apart from each other. Instead, Mina has been so affected by the shock of losing her parents, that I believe that she can’t make sure who of her loved ones is still alive and who isn’t. I remember noting how she never went against Porfy when he was with her, but it felt like she unconsciously thought he wasn’t going to return to her when he left her.

And then there’s Porfy: will he or will he not return to the refugee camp, after being unable to find his sister? What will Zaimis, Barnes and Helena say if he does? And to think that this is a 52-episode series. It might take till October or November before Porfy and Mina see each other again!!

Nijuu Mensou no Musume – 02

by psgels, posted in Nijuu Mensou no Musume


Out of all the series that aired this spring-season, Nijuu Mensou no Musume was the series that I had the most doubts of whether it was worth blogging or not, even more than Toshokan Sensou. The first episode was really bad for my suspense of disbelief, and yet it seemed to scream “potential”, unlike the mentioned-above Toshokan Sensou. Thankfully, the second episode was a lot better, so I’ve decided to blog this. I’ve always seemed to end up with 12 series each season as well. It’s a nice number that manages to cover enough different series without being overwhelming for myself.

This episode wasn’t perfect by far. Yet again, I spotted some scenes that didn’t make too much sense:
– Why didn’t the police leave one of their men behind to guard the treasure, in case of a decoy? Were they that stupid? They seemed to have more than enough men for it.
– The creators need to watch a bit more discovery-channel: shooting the tires of a car does NOT make it magically stop. It just makes the ride bumpier and the car needs to go to the repair shop afterwards, but it can just drive further without any problems.
– This is the same question I asked after the first episode: why has nobody who’s against Nijuu Mensou ever gotten the idea of using some kind of flying-device as well? I admit that it’s a pretty neat way to escape ground-forces, but if that zeppelin were to be assaulted by a (say) aeroplane, it’d be screwed. Of course, this is just my guess. Seeing the wit of this episode, I can imagine how Nijuu Menshou has found some tricks against this. It’d be interesting to see that in action, though.

That’s one of the reasons why I decided to blog this: the faults may be faults, but it’s interesting to point them out, much more than in usual series. What’s attracted me the most in this series is the character-development, though. Not only in Chico’s case, but this episode also showed a much more interesting side of Nijuu Mensou. His crew also gained a lot of depth, and came across much more believable. What I’m hoping for now is for this series to actually show the background of this Nijuu Mensou: how did he become so awesome in thievery? Especially since you can nearly hang a sign on his neck, saying: “Hello, I’m about to get killed off”.

.Hack//GU Trilogy Review – 77/100

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots, Anime Reviews


Just a small note before I start: this review contains spoilers for the end of .Hack//Roots. You need to have seen that series anyway in order to understand Trilogy. In any case, .Hack//Roots has been my second-least favourite Bee-Train production (the least favourite being .Hack//Dusk, but that’s a totally different story), and that was a real pity because of all the great ideas it had. The Trilogy-movie at least eliminates one of the problems I had with this series: it provides closure! It answers questions! The movie still has its problems, but it’s a must-watch for everyone who managed to sit through the original series.

Nearly all of the bad points of this series can be traced back to just one simple decision: the decision to not include the final scene of the original series. The scene where Haseo stopped angsting and actually learned his lesson. In Trilogy, Haseo actually continues angsting, even after being defeated by Tri-Edge. The result is an obnoxious amount of forehead-shot and more scream-fests than you can shake a stick at. The character-development that does get included was by no means as memorable as in the original series (about the only thing that went right in .Hack//Roots).

In addition, the music has been down-graded as well. In addition, though, the graphics turned to 3D, which is of course perfect for a setting of an on-line game. The good parts of this series, however, are the times when characters aren’t screaming. There’s a clear line between angst and emo that Trilogy continues to hop back and forwards to, and the moments you want to watch out for is when the characters are on the angst-side of the spectrum.

Trilogy is by no means a great movie, but it is a good one nonetheless, worth of your ninety minutes of attention. Oh, and be sure to watch the parody-modes that come included. They’re hilarious!

Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 26

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


And it’s finally over. I’ve decided not to write a review about this series, though. I’ve watched this series the wrong way, and it turned out to be a big disappointment, save for four or five episodes. I feel that I’m way too biased to give an objective view about this series. It already was difficult to give this series a fair rating during my monthly summaries. Kaiji is a series that you need to marathon, in order to pump yourself up with adrenaline. It’s not something you can watch casually. Having said that, if you haven’t seen this episode yet, you might want to close this window, as SPOILERS will follow.

Overall, this episode disappointed, especially considering the enormous build-up that preceded it. This arc was in no way as intense as the E-card arc, simply because the creators refused to show Kaiji’s reaction after his hands got cut off. And to think that the gore was actually one of the best parts of this series. The raw emotions when seeing Kaiji, cutting off his own ear, and my favourite moment of the entire series: seeing Tonegawa punish himself: even though this series mostly bored me, I have to admit that these moments were truly unrivalled. It was a real downer that the screen just blacked out and we saw Kaiji’s hand wrapped in bondages. If one wants to gamble online they can always see a guide for players here and know how to get better at gambling.

What also disappointed me is that we never really got to look in the mind of Hyoudou, but that’s only natural, since the manga went on for much longer. This episode also hinted at a second season (although with Madhouse, you never know; yes, I’m looking at you, Shigurui), though it that ever comes, I don’t think I’ll end up blogging it.

Having said that, I at least like that this episode wrapped up this entire arc well enough. The aftermath wrapped up all of the loose ends of the storyline, and it didn’t really leave a bad taste behind, apart from what I just mentioned. At least we got to know a bit more about Hyoudou when Kaiji figured out how he won. I like how Kaiji himself figured it out, instead of in regular anime, where the opponent just brainlessly tells his opponent all of his plans. The guy is smarter than he looks, and I like that.

Amatsuki – 03

by psgels, posted in Amatsuki


Very interesting. I originally thought that series as Macross Frontier, RD, Kurenai and Himitsu would have the most difficult dialogue to understand, but as it turns out Amatsuki is about to walk away with that title. No other series this season depends so much on its dialogue than Amatsuki, especially when characters start long monologues (especially the bald head of the temple is guilty of this) it becomes a real challenge to figure out what he’s talking about. Of course, Real Drive does take second place with its complex dialogue, and I do believe that it’s no coincidence at all that both shows are directed by the same person.

You wouldn’t say it from the outside, but this series focuses a lot on people’s history, and complex relationships. In this episode, we meet the older brother of a guy who was an assassin for Sakamoto Ryouma (a guy who planned to overthrow the Tokugawa dynasty), if I’m not mistaken. This older brother claims to have nothing to do with his brother, and yet the second half of the episode shows how he isn’t 100% trustworthy. It’s especially suspicious since he can see spirits as well.

What’s interesting as well, is how this series puts a lot of focus on the fact that Tokidoki went to school, before he came to this world. It’s surprising how many shows there are with the same theme of transferring someone to another (often less advanced) world, and hardly any of them try to use the protagonists’ knowledge about technology to improve their lives. It took me a while to understand it, but in the previous episode, Toki uses his chemical knowledge to get rid of one troublemaker, and in this episode the fact that he’s well-schooled catches this assassin’s brother’s interest.

This episode introduces another major character: the one with all the ear- and lip-piercings. What’s interesting is that he calls a certain “he” the enemy of the world. I’m not 100% sure whether or not this is Tokidoki, but it does look like it. I originally thought that he would be the bad guy, but now I’d call him more of an “antagonist”. In any case, he’s not on Tokidoki’s side, because he doesn’t appear in the OP.

I’m trying to find a good series to compare this to, but I can’t seem to think of anything. I can’t really seem to find any series that reminds me of this one, like how Kurenai reminds you of Red Garden, or SA looks like Ouran. And that’s really the great thing about this series: from the outside, it really looks like a mediocre series, it looks too brightly coloured, it’s been done before, and then it turns out surprisingly deep and complex.

Sword of the Stranger Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Sword of the Stranger is Bones’ first attempt at an original movie (as in not based on an already existing series). Masahiro Ando, who had no prior experience with directing an entire anime and instead seems to specialize in animation and character-designs, was given the director’s seat and the screenplay was done by the director of the third Patlabor Movie. That’s not really the best cast you’d expect from Bones’ repertoire, but still, Sword of the Stranger is a worthy movie.

Don’t expect too much from the story, though. It features an uberpowerful ex-samurai with a sad past who got tired of killing who meets up with a young boy with an equally sad past. The main villain is another uberpowerful guy who’s looking for a challenge that only this ex-samurai can give him. Yawn, yawn, nothing we haven’t seen before. The reasons why you want to watch this movie is because of the animation, the cultural reference, and most importantly the bond that develops between said ex-samurai and boy.

Most of the time in this movie is not actually spent on the fights, but on showing how these two, with totally different personalities come to understand each other amidst their arguing. The two of them are dynamic and a joy to watch throughout the movie. The plot basically only serves to get and keep the two of them together, and even though it’s nothing special, it knows how to not get in the way of the development of these two for a large part of the movie.

I think that the big problem with this movie is that it would have made a great family-movie if it wasn’t for the huge amounts of gore in it. Gore can be a tricky thing. It’s great to intensify your scenes (Shigurui, anyone?), but at the same time you do alienate those who can’t stand it. I can really imagine that kids would have loved the innocent moments of this series, if it weren’t for the umpth guy who got an arrow blown through his entire face, with all the graphic details of a movie-budget.

Still, if you don’t mind the gore, I can’t really think of a reason not to watch this movie. It’s the genuine moments that really were the most enjoyable, plus some pretty impressive sword-fights. Bones could have done a lot worse (just take a look at Gonzo’s first attempt at a movie). The music is also really solid. You wouldn’t guess that it comes from the same composer who did Eureka7 and Heroic Age, and yet it complements the movie perfectly.

Kaiba – 02

by psgels, posted in Kaiba


Make no mistake: the drawings of Kaiba may be very simple but it’s also the show with the most mature themes of the spring-season. It’s only been two episodes, and we’ve already been treated to nudity, sex, adultery, murder, privacy violations, you name it. At the same time, it has also turned into my favourite series this season, along with Himitsu. The thing I love most about the current spring-season is that it features a few series with the most amazing ideas. This is really what anime should be in my opinion: a medium to explore creative ideas. Not to magically give a cute girlfriend to a geeky guy. (Yes, I’m talking to YOU, To Love-ru!).

This episode showed indeed what the OP suggested: the main character changes bodies throughout the series. In this episode, he changes into the body of a giant plushie, while the woman from the previous episode uses his old body as a sex-object. The main character basically spends the rest of the episode, trying to not get caught as a stowaway on the ship (and he’s not the only one, it seems), and wait until the ship arrivees at its destination. We also get another hint about the female lead, as she seems to be some kind of criminal in that place. Is she the same girl as in the locket that Kaiba (the main character) carries? They sure look similar, apart from some colour-changes, perhaps.

This episode also shows him alongside a companion. Was that the same one-eyed bird we saw in the previous episode? It would make sense if the bird threw its memory-chip inside the ship, so that it could continue to follow Kaiba’s progress. I think it’s clear that Kaiba is a special case, since the body he was in when he woke up is quite a rare one.

Another thing I love about this series is how it explores the lives of different ordinary people. This is one of these series where even the smallest side-characters have themselves a personality. This episode was mainly about one of the stowaways and her boyfriend, as he turns out to have been playing around with many women (among which one huge-breasted one).

The guard also intrigues me. The guy is sadistic towards everyone, and not just the main characters, like in most other anime. I’m interested whether he’ll appear in the rest of this series, because I like the guy so far. He’s really been one of the more interesting evil characters.

Kurenai – 03

by psgels, posted in Kurenai


How awesome! With this episode, there’s no mistake: the voices in Kurenai are recorded before the animation, instead of afterwards. Otherwise some of the conversations this episode could never have turned out as they did here, with characters who spoke right through each other, without having to worry about matching the lips. Seriously, more anime should attempt this style, because it gives the voice-actors so much more freedom. I think that by far the best example of this is the fight between Claire and her father in Red Garden. It was an absolute masterpiece, and it would never have turned out so incredibly emotionally intense if the voices were just regularly recorded after the animators did their work.

In addition, this episode was also a lot of fun to watch. Murasaki pays a visit to Shinkurou’s school, and for once Shinkurou wasn’t attacked by every single male in the school who was jealous of how he was living with a cute girl. I love how this series has been shattering clichés one after the other. A while later, we see a bunch of punks bully an old lady, and even though I dislike it when a series uses a bunch of punks as a random plot-device, it was probably one of the first time where the main character refused to save their victim. Murasaki tries, but it really looks like Shinkurou hates fighting. As it turns out, he only does his jobs because of Kuhoin (I hope that that was her name), who saved him after his parents were killed off. Makes sense.

The best thing about this episode was without a doubt Murasaki’s innocence, though. Both the comical and serious parts. I really laughed when Murasaki mistook a biology-puppet (how did you call these things again) for an actually live human, and yet her inability to understand why Shinkurou didn’t stop the punks really hit a spot, even without the amazing voice-acting. I can really understand why this series has become one of the most popular series of this season. It’s solid, it knows its characters, it’s fun and it’s got without a doubt the best voice-acting of all new shows that aired this season.

Macross Frontier – 03

by psgels, posted in Macross Frontier


The quietest episode of Macross Frontier up till now, but for once everything felt right in it. There was a silly fanservice-joke in the beginning, which made me fear for the rest of the episode, but that one joke turned out to be used well in the rest of the episode, both for Sheryl’s character-development, as lightening the mood for a short moment, because only minutes later we switch to Ranka, seeing her “brother” wounded in one of the mecha.

So far, the only thing that this series has really suffered from is the classic “shoujo-syndrome”: no matter how big the world is: the major characters will always run into each other. This one got taken to the extreme in Code Geass, and I was starting to fear about this series, but thankfully this episode didn’t feature any of these coincidences, and it seems that the characters just used this in order to introduce the storyline.

The thing I like a lot about this series is Ranka’s fears, surprisingly enough. Even though she’s your usual traumatized girl, and in no way lives up to her counterparts of Shion (Shion no Ou) and Mina (Porfy no Nagai Tabi), but I loved that little scene where her hands just refused to let go of Alto, even though she tried to get them loose at all costs. At the end of this episode, she also showed that she’s not the whiny girl who won’t do anything but cower in fear (okay, auditioning with a song won’t exactly save the universe or something, but it’s glad to see her actually do something so early in the series).