Author: psgels

Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 23

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


Okay, this’ll be a short entry, since all this episode did was building up anyway. Kaiji, while still under the influence of the adrenaline from his match with Tonegawa, is screwed in the head enough to abandon the 20 million he won, just for a shot to challenge the chairman. Even though the chairman claims that it doesn’t really hurt him whether or not he loses, Kaiji is still determined to gamble. This begs the question: how is Kaiji planning to take revenge on the chairman? The most obvious strategy would of course be for the guy to put all of his money on the line. If it’s one thing that rich people are terrified of, it’s getting poor. But this guy is a professional. He just isn’t crazy enough to just do it for the life of one measly ant.

Apart from that, the pacing was as slow as usual, which isn’t the most exciting thing when this series isn’t in one of its climaxes, so I’ll withhold my judgement until the next episode.

Mokke Review – 89/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Even though the season hasn’t officially ended yet, I’m pretty sure about my top-3 series of the Autumn-season. First place is obviously for Shion no Ou, Ghost Hound comes in second, and Mokke takes up the third spot. In a generally underwhelming season, these three series stood far above the others, and manage to deliver constant quality.

Mokke has had it quite tough in terms of popularity, though. Even before it aired, people were comparing it to the next Mushishi. Expectations it obviously couldn’t fulfil. True, at first sight Mokke and Mushishi seem alike. They’re both slice-of-life stories about supernatural spirits, but that’s where the similarities end. In Mushishi, the mushi had no personality whatsoever, while in Mokke, each spirit talks just like a human would. Mushishi featured a grown up and experienced adult as its main character, while Mokke worked with two young and naive sisters. And the most important difference: Mushishi was about its stories, while Mokke is about its characters.

And that’s where people are mostly turned off by. The stories for Mokke are quite simple and not very complicated. They just serve to support the characters. Each episode features some kind of spirit that comes into contact with either the two main characters, or somebody that they know. It may seems like the “monster of the week”, but thankfully the creators have enough inspiration to make every episode different.

And really, the characters shine. They’re all well-defined and subtly developed, and especially Mizuki and Shizuru bring this anime to life. Through the 24 episodes of this series, you’ll learn their hobbies, their fears, what makes them uneasy, and how they try to deal with the fact that one of them can see spirits, while the other gets easily possessed by them.

Do note that the character-designs don’t try to be as pretty as possible. Mizuki and Shizuru are in this way really portrayed as normal girls, but if you’re one of these persons who loses interest if you don’t see a sexy bishoujo drawn to please otaku for forty-five seconds, then you may stay away from this. I also acknowledge that at times, this series tends to be a bit too dramatic for its own good. And yet, this was always a series where I knew that I would end up in a relaxed state after watching, no matter what happened during an episode. Add that to the fact that I ended up crying for the characters more than once, the music is simple, yet effective, the final episode ended up being the best of the entire series, leaving no bad taste whatsoever and the OP and ED both feature excellent songs, and I see enough reasons to put this on my list of top-series of the season.

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 11

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi


This episode for once didn’t introduce anything new. Instead, it built upon past themes of this series: the gasoline-tank, Zaimis’s brother, Porfy’s tendency to ignore promises and of course ice cream (with the episode titled “Porfy and Ice cream” and all). Seriously, this series makes everything look so easy, and it makes me wonder why so many series fail to put down a cast of likable characters.

The episode starts with Porfy and Mina, feeding Apollo a piece of bread that Aneke made, with Mina feeling a bit ticklish when Apollo eats out of her hand. Aneke meanwhile looks at a notepad that probably contains the family’s financial records, and mentions to Christopher how well things are going, and it seems that they’ve made quite a bit of money now. Christopher notes that he now doesn’t have to go to “that place”, which I assume was the place he worked before he started Patagos Grand Station.

Porfy comes downstairs and wonders what “that place” is as well, though Christopher avoids the question and heads back to handle one of the customers. Mina also hands this customer a piece of cheesecake as a means of extra service. Then, none other than Barnes passes by the station, and hands Porfy the pictures that were taken at the last episode. Apparently, it’s the summer holidays, so Tom and John have returned to America and Barnes is enjoying his day off. Porfy, though, is having a lot of fun helping his father and learning.

Barnes also hands Porfy a photograph for Zaimis, and Christopher allows Porfy to go to Zaimis and take the rest of the day off. Porfy then goes to pick up Mina, and Aneke has also prepared a package that she wishes to give Zaimis. Porfy fantasizes a bit at all the ice-cream that Tom and John are probably getting, as he leaves with his sister. Aneke then takes a letter from her pocket, tells herself to start working on a certain something.

Zaimis is quite thrilled to see the photo, and Aneke’s package turns out to be full of baby clothes, for Zaimis’ upcoming brother or sister. Zaimis is surprised at how small a child can be, and Porfy tries to act smart by pretending to hold a baby in his arms. Obviously, nobody believes that he knows what he’s talking about. Zaimis yet again can’t wait till the baby gets born. Mina asks him whether he’d prefer a boy or a girl, though he replies that both are good. He can go play with a younger brother, and yet a younger sister is very cute. I’ve noticed that this series tends to answer a lot of questions like these in the way of “both options are nice”. Perhaps this’ll get used in the future.

Next, Zaimis looks up a suitable block of wood, and asks Porfy to teach him how to carve a wooden doll for his future brother or sister. Mina promises to make a drawing of what the doll should be, and Porfy promises to teach him how to actually do it the next day. There is, however, something that will come between Porfy and his promise again: this time it’s a guy in a business suit who they run into, who has a business to do with Patagos Grand Station. It was quite funny that he first thought that the station would be very big with a name like that.

In any case, this guy has come to offer Christopher a selection of gas pumps, so that he can now too serve gasoline to his customers, to the delight of Porfy. Porfy picks out a design he likes. Christopher notes that things will become busier right now, and Porfy won’t have the time to go anywhere for the summer holidays. Porfy is obviously okay with that, and he already asks when the pump can be delivered, with the motto “the sooner, the better”.

Before the pump comes, a few things need to be done, though. A hole for the tank needs to be dug, and Porfy, Christopher and two local villagers spend most of the next afternoon, digging this hole, with Porfy being as stubborn as ever, while being teased by the adults. In the meantime, he did forget all about his promise to Zaimis, and when Mina reminds him, he just tells her to leave and doesn’t realize that Zaimis is waiting for him. In the meantime, Mina managed to finish the drawing of the doll, though Zaimis is clearly unhappy that Porfy broke yet another promise. Yet he decides not to go and call Porfy, because he reckons how busy the guy must be, working so hard for his father.

Just as Zaimis is about to leave, a guy named Bill (spelling) comes to deliver a block of ice, revealing Aneke’s plans to make the children some ice cream. As it turns out, she learned how to do it from John’s mother. While Porfy helps laying cement in the hole, (with the two villagers noting how they’d better get free service when their car breaks down, and how things wouldn’t have gotten done so fast if it wasn’t for Porfy), Zaimis and Mina go and make the ice cream. It’s here when Porfy finally realizes that he did forget an important promise, and rushes home.

He’s obviously thrilled about the ice cream, but Mina then reminds him to apologize to Zaimis, and he does, with a rather sad-looking face. Zaimis forgives him, on the condition that he’ll teach him properly next time. Mina meanwhile is glad that the two made up. Next up, the ice-cream is done, and Porfy, Mina and Zaimis all enjoy the ice cream. Mina then shows Porfy the drawing of the doll, which would be fine for either a boy or a girl. Porfy then yet again mentions how he hopes that the child gets born soon (that’s really the most often-spoken line in this series), and Zaimis again says how he hopes to have a brother-sister relationship like Porfy and Mina are having.

The next day, the cement has nearly dried and the pit for the tank is finished. Christopher then puts his hand on the cement, and suggests to Porfy, Mina and Aneke to do the same. The result is a square tank with four handprints on it and the episode ends.

I am so curious as to what this series will turn into once Porfy starts travelling. Will he just run into a bunch of people, each with their own stories? Will there be recurring characters? Will the focus still be on Porfy, or more on the people that he meets? Will he actually grow up? And how much older will he get? I currently refuse to look at any episode titles or episode previews, because I want the arrival of the earthquake to be a total surprise, but still… I can’t wait!

Gundam 00 – 23

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00


A Gundam 00-episode without any Saji?! Is it really possible! This episode proves that it is. Incidentally, it’s also one of the best episodes of this series yet, as this series finally sets itself apart from Gundam Wing, where the main cast just refused to die no matter what.

Right now, the thing that this series now needs to worry about is not to dive into some kind of vicious emo-circle because of the death of Lockon. It’s good that everyone’s moved, but that should be a sign for character-development. It shouldn’t be the green light for an emo-fest that’s about to happen.

I’m also getting a bit worried about the side-characters, though. The side characters have been dangerously neglected for the past few episodes. We’ve now seen plenty of the main characters. They’ve developed and all, but I can’t really say that about most of the people that the Celestial Beings are up against. Even Ali Al Sarshes never really changed. Of course, the rest of the first season probably won’t change that, because it needs to build up for the big twists at episode 25 (I still believe that the Celestial Beings will split up around that time), but it would be nice if the second season for Gundam 00 would actually pay some more attention to the side-characters.

Shion no Ou – 21

by psgels, posted in Shion no Ou


This episode was… beyond incredible. Oh my god… I can still hardly believe how this turned out to be by far the best episode of this series yet. And with Shion no Ou, this has to say something! Every single part about this episode was just outstanding, and this episode turned out better than I could have ever imagined. It’s episodes like this one that only appear once every half a year. These episodes really are the true masterpieces, and showcase the best of the best for anime.

Okay, so it was sortof to be expected that this was the episode where Shion would find out that Hani-meijin was the one who killed her parents, but the real strength of this episode was the fact that the series had built her character into a truly memorable one. In the end, what happened was that Hani-meijin and Shion played a game of Shougi, after the murder. Shion just was too young to immediately realize what happened to her parents, so she just went along with the game, in an attempt to protect them. Because of this, she tried everything, to prevent Hani-meijin from taking her king. Hani-meijin then took the king from her, and placed it on her father’s forehead, explaining why it was so drenched in blood, after which he left, leaving Shion to finally realize what that total bastard had done to her parents!!!

As it turns out, Hani-meijin left his mother’s necklace with Shion on purpose. He wanted her to have something to constantly remind her of her parent’s murder, so that she wouldn’t just forget it, and a necklace is the perfect thing for that. And you just have to love Shion when she finally realizes that. Instead of cowering in fear, she quickly pushes them aside, rips off the necklace and puts Ayumi’s necklace on instead. That was so AWESOME.

And really, the animators were on FIRE for this episode. It’s not like the episode was extremely smooth or anything, but there were so many different angles, so many different poses. I really love the sense of style that this series has. Most series try to use some extra budget for flashy CG, or extra smooth frame-rates. But this series is different, and instead it’s more interested in different poses and viewpoints. Heck, it has this even more than Hakaba Kitarou. This is really what anime should be: an art-form.

It’s such a shame that there’s just one episode left. This series is really too awesome to end, but on the other hand, it also needs a conclusion. The next episode should be perfect for that, because all that’s left is for Shion to bust up Hani-meijin, Hani-meijin to reveal his reasons and the reason why he ended up killing Kazumi as well.

Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter – 11

by psgels, posted in Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter


Ah, of course. Shigofumi wouldn’t be Shigofumi without a deliciously over-the-top finale. What else could you expect for a series with the subtlety of an African elephant? Thankfully, this was yet another terrific episode for this series. I must say that I really had my doubts when I found out that the guy behind Code Geass behind the series composition, but this really turned out to be the perfect series for this guy, especially when the series is directed by a very talented director. They really brought this series to life.

So, basically, in this episode Fumi wakes up. Because of this, Mika wants to kill herself to accept her punishment, so most of the episode shows attempts as the shy Fumi gets kept away from the reaches of Fumi. Obviously, this can’t last forever, and the two run into each other at one point. Fumi then goes through an entire personality-switch when she found out that Mika shot the father she loved so much, and shoots Mika.

Obviously, because of one of the big rules of anime (a character is only dead when confirmed dead, and this isn’t the kind of series to try and diverge from this cliché :P), but still, Fumi is turning into an actual villain! The best thing is that she doesn’t even realize how much everyone has worried about her. And what was her plan at the end of the episode? To actually kill her father for real? And the blonde woman… could she be Fumika’s mother?

That twist with the dog was also nicely found, and it shows that already back then Fumi was more than just the shy and scared girl that Mika came to know. That look on her face when she chased away that dog explains a lot. And interestingly enough, it was that look that caused Kaname to develop his crush on her.

True Tears – 11

by psgels, posted in True Tears


Okay, so as things look now, the next episode will feature the big climax of True Tears, while episode 13 will be some kind of aftermath. And really, after the last episode I may have said that Shinichiro and Hiromi are now officially a couple, but this episode yet again gave both of them an equal change. On one hand, Shinichiro and Hiromi ended up kissing each other this episode, but at the same time Shinichiro has found out how much Noe thinks about him.

True Tears really is a series about sorting out your own feelings, and making hard decisions that will end up in others getting hurt. One thing that I do hope for is that the creators aren’t going for a “true happy ending”, like how the one who Shinichiro doesn’t end up choosing will leave, while being happy because Shinichiro is happy. This is just so overused, as a cheap plot-twist to just wrap up small love-triangles without much trouble. I like how True Tears did this with Aiko, and Clannad with just about every female character. They all realized that they won’t stand a chance. The girls from Clannad then just continued as usual, though that doesn’t mean that they’re happy about it, and Aiko went and tried to make up with Miyokichi again. Although subtle, these reasons are so much better than having just one guy around a bunch of girl, and none of these girls seem to realize that they’re not the only ones in love with said guy.

I think that in these themes, True Tears is one step above Kimikiss, even though these two use rather similar concepts. It really feels like Kimikiss is trying too hard with its love triangles, and it really misses the subtlety of True Tears in my opinion. Take this episode for example. We get a lot of different close-ups, but you’ll never know exactly how these characters are feeling. With Kimikiss, guessing how each character feels is much easier, making that show much more predictable.

Some quick first impressions: Mnemosyne – Musume-tachi, Mai Otome S.ifr and Bus Gamer

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Mnemosyne Musume-Tachi

Mnemosyne’s strategy is basically to attempt to capture its audience with lots of gore and nudity. Like I said before, I haven’t bought the formula yet. The characters do have potential, but it seems to me that they’re trying a bit too hard to be sympathetic, so early on. Especially the case for the first episode was a bit too extreme, and to me it seemed that it was more keen on to shock its viewer than to come up with a cohesive story. Who knows, this is one series that can go both ways: it can get lost in its endless fanservice, or it can turn out to be quite an interesting character-study. One thing that I do want to say is that the OP is pretty amazing. Especially the track that the creators found for it.

Mai Otome S.ifr.

Well, at least this one looks to actually contribute to the Mai Otome-universe, rather than the abomination of Mai Otome Zwei. Still, the new characters are just as annoying as all the other series. Thankfully, the main character is less annoying than Arika was, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t get on my nerves every time she appears. Overall, I doubt that something good can come out of this OVA, but at least it seems to be trying. It’s going to have to try really hard to fit in all the development for the huge load of new characters, though. Hardly anything was explained in this episode (heck, we still don’t know why Sifr was kidnapped in the first place), and it’s going to take a lot of time for just three episodes to explain everything.

Bus Gamer

Well, this didn’t turn out as interesting as I hoped. Bus (as in BUSiness, not an actual bus) Gamer obviously didn’t receive that big of a budget to work with. The crows that appear once in a while look really bad, and one particular character has his hair conveniently over his eyes so that the animators wouldn’t have to draw them. The OP sung by a boy band and the bishounen character-designs quickly show that this is a series, aimed to cater the fangirls. The bad guys don’t help much either, because they’re just a bunch of paper bags that need to be defeated by the good guys. But that’s where the three-episode format for this series comes into play. This isn’t your top-quality series, but the episode was fun to watch. The creators managed to keep this episode interesting, despite the faulty ingredients. The music is also very decent, and as it look like, this series won’t have any time to get boring. This really is one of these series that’s for those rainy days when you’re bored and need half an hour to burn.

Ghost Hound – 19

by psgels, posted in Ghost Hound


What an awesome episode!! Seriously, now that the finale is nearing, this series is more and more coming together. If you thought that the first half of this series was already impressive, you haven’t seen anything yet. This episode was all about the characters and their development, and especially about Makoto.

So basically, this series has taken four children with a trauma or similar mental disorder, but all of them from very different causes and cases. Masayuki has managed to recover. Tarou has been struggling with his feelings, but basically turned out fine. Miyako, however, ends up possessed and Makoto nearly killed off the rest of his entire family indirectly. A big key is the people around them. I think the reason why Masayuki managed to recover was because of the trust he placed in both Makoto and Tarou, and how he ended up saving Michio from his bullies. That’s why he was the only one who didn’t turn into a Ghost Hound. Tarou got better because he could talk to someone who resembled his sister.

Unfortunately, he took this too far, and called Miyako the reincarnation of his sister. This caused the spirits that have been possessing Miyako to grab their chance and posses her for real. Makoto, in the meantime, only had Tarou and Masayuki, and Tarou basically abandoned him when he ran away from his mother. After that, he didn’t have anybody to trust, which is why his mental state turned out so horrible. It’s an interesting message, which basically a mental illness can be cured through careful nurture, but it can very easily escalate into something much worse.

So in this episode, this all comes together. In the end, even though her partner seems to have died, Makoto’s mother doesn’t die. Instead, she loses part of her memory, and returns to her 17-year old version. To make things even better, she now seems to mistake Makoto for his father when he was seventeen!!! Imagine the shock this must be to Makoto, to see the woman he loathed so much talk to him, energetically like nothing ever happened!!

And that’s just the first part of this episode. In the second half, Tarou finds out that Miyako has a very strange smirk on her face after visiting her father, Makoto finds out that Mei used to have a crush on Makoto’s mother’s partner (explaining why she ended up so worried during the last episode), Tarou ends up trailing Miyako, Masayuki finds Makoto and then leaves, Makoto returns to the hospital, only to find Makoto and finally gets put at ease a bit. When he wakes up in his mother’s hospital-room the next day, he finds out that she regained her memory. I ask you, can a Ghost Hound-episode get any more awesome? Well, it’s up to the final three episodes!

Hakaba Kitarou – 10

by psgels, posted in Hakaba Kitarou


Quite an interesting set-up for the finale. Mostly because I have no idea what’s going to happen. This episode was basically another story on its own, yet it did leave various threads open (for example what happened to Kitarou his father, a newly introduced girl named Caroline and her father?). On one hand these threads will most likely be resolved in the next episode, but on the other hand that these threads alone are by far not enough to fill one episode, so the creators still must have some trump cards left.

In any case, this episode was definitely a Hakaba Kitarou-style build-up episode, simply because like the other two, it wasn’t as exciting as the other episodes. It basically tells the tale of a powerful Youkai who has settled into the house of a manga-artist so that he and his henchmen can take the first steps to conquer the world or something similar. He also has a daughter, whom Kitarou has fallen in love with. The entire thing eventually gets solved when Kitarou’s father gets eaten by this Youkai, and Kitarou’s father in his turn wrecks the brains of the guy like he did with many before. It was really too straightforward to be a regular Kitarou-episode.

The great thing about this episode was that I had no idea what it was building up to. One great point about this series is its unpredictability. You will have no idea what’s going to happen next, apart from Kitarou surviving and the “bad guys” losing. Everything in between, you’ll be completely in the dark. Because of this, I’m really glad that Noitamina has continued its tradition of staying away from the very overused high-school girls, and focused on creative series instead. Not to say that all series with high-school girls are bad (there are quite a few very good series that feature high-school girls), but I’d much rather see series experiment and try out new things than to stay with the “tried and true”-formula.