Author: psgels

Gundam 00 – 17

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00


Yup, indeed. The Throne Gundam Meisers are a bunch of inexperienced idiots, even more emotionally unstable than the original four Gundam Meisters. Both Michael and Nena have no sense of subtlety, and I especially dislike Michael. Ah well, at least they’re good for some development for the main cast. This episode reminded me again of why Tieria turned into my favourite characters for this series. He’s the only one who really tries to use his head. Setsuna is also turning more likable with every episode now that he too became sceptical of his mission.

Also, I don’t understand one thing… how did the Throne Gundam Meisers know that the professor finally found out their plans? Okay, I can understand the superpowerful Gundams. This episode also gave a pretty good reason for why everything took 200 years to finally get started, because the Gundams could only be created on Jupiter. But the l33t hax0rz skills of these people are starting to get a bit ridiculous. There’d better be a very good explanation, because you don’t just “hack” yourself into a random government institution and get away with it. Heck, if things go wrong, you can easily be traced back by the right expert.

And regarding Jupiter, it finally seems that the enemy has obtained some information about the Gundams in an abandoned space-station near Jupiter. Lockon’s flying ball also mistook the Throne Gundam’s flying ball for his brother, while it seems that this brother was actually left behind on the Jupiter Space-station. I do wonder, though, how did these people find out about Jupiter, six years before everyone else?

And on a completely unrelated note: Saji has to say goodbye to Louise, who heads off to Spain. And still there is no new connection whatsoever between the guy and the Gundams…

Shion no Ou – 15

by psgels, posted in Shion no Ou


Shion versus Yasuoka. How could this episode not turn awesome? It was probably the longest match of the entire series (a bit less than one episode, to be exact). As always, the match was awesome, but what went on around the match was even more interesting! Sure, Shion managed to win, but that’s not what this match was about. It was a nostalgic trip for both Shion and Yasuoka, seeing as this was their first real match. Shion was SO adorable when she was four, and first got into contact with Shougi. I can’t believe that she actually played her first match at that young age, and it’s even more adorable how even then Yasuoka didn’t hold back.

Hisatani and Saori also have quite an interesting relationship. Hisatani has been nervous ever since he realized what he was up against, and Saori just keeps yelling at him to get him back to earth. He’s got his own match to prepare, so he can’t check up on Shion. I also like how Shion ended up winning. The usual spectators have written her down, at that point, and then Satoru suddenly reveals a fail-proof way for Shion to win that everybody else didn’t see. Of course, Yasuoka did see it, and he forfeits.

The episode also ended with a great scene between Satoru and Yasuoka. As usual, Satoru starts taunting, though Yasuoka retorts that Shion’s parents must be proud at how she grew to adulthood. After that, we see a bit more of Satoru’s past: it seems that he actually SAW his father die in the accident that killed him. After that, he shows what could very well be the nicest face that we’ve ever seen from him…

Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter – 05

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


Yep, this episode yet again showed that this series has the same scriptwriter as Code-Geass. This episode had quite a few small unexplained coincidences that plagued Code Geass, up to the extreme. Thankfully, Shigofumi promises to be ten times better than the former somehow. I think it’s because that this is the only flaw that this series really has, whereas Code Geass was plagued by emo-fests and the horrible nationalistic messages that it tried to shove down the viewer’s throats, among others.

This episode was really mentioned to flesh out Fumiko, and the person receiving the Shigofumi (a cat) took a step back. It worked out really well, in my opinion. We also learn a bit more about Fumiko, before she became the deliverer of the Shigofumi. It seems that she, after killing her father, went into a coma. And now, she’s stuck, delivering the Shigofumi while her real body remains unconscious for years. Her old classmate that we saw in episode three turns out to have confessed to her, though Fumika declined.

It was also quite amusing to see that she hated cats. In that way, she does form a pretty good combination with Chiaki, as it’s clear that both of them try to annoy each other as much as possible. I really liked how this episode gave a new dimension to Fumiko, and how she’s not just that cold girl who delivers letters.

Regarding the case of this episode, it was pretty cute for a old man and woman to try and give their last message to a cat in the form of a key to their old apartment. I like the creativity, and it shows how the original writers were really trying to explore the borders around the Shigofumi. That’s what I like about these case-based series so much. 🙂

True Tears – 05

by psgels, posted in True Tears


Is it really that uncommon for Japanese boys and girls to have lunch together at school? Now that this series has mentioned it, the only time when I recall that characters, apart from lovers had a school casual school lunch with the opposite sex was in xxxHolic.

In any case, this was a rather quiet episode. The less amazing animation seems to back up my view. At least we now know that Noe is jealous too, though at least she tries to relief it in quite a different way from usual: by having lunch with Hiromi. Shinichiro also makes a rather stupid move towards Harumi, when he basically mentions how Noe’s brother said that she was cute. Aiko, meanwhile, finally takes action and prevents Shinichiro from answering to Miyokichi, in order to spend more time together. Seriously, that girl is diging her own grave.

And that’s basically all that happened. Like I said, it was a pretty quiet episode. I liked how the creators showed one scene two times, from the perspective of different characters, like Tokyo Marble Chocolate did before, and Seraphim Call took to the extreme.

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 73

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari


Haha! This has to be the most comprehensible Saiunkoku Monogatari-episode I’ve seen in months. Finally I can understand things again without the help of Impz’s summaries. ^^; Sure, there were a few things that I didn’t pick up, but I’m glad enough that at least this episode didn’t feel like a giant Rubik’s Cube.

The episode starts after what happened at the end of the last episode, and Ensei cheers Shuurei up a bit. He then also agrees to go along with her to the Ran-clan. Ensei also notices that Shuurei hasn’t been sleeping well, so he forces her to go to sleep, while Seiran notices this and threatens to kill the guy. After this, Seiran asks Ensei to make sure that Shuurei returns safely from the Ran-clan.

We then switch to Shouka, Juusanhime and Ryuuki, leaving the capital, with Seiran and Yuushun seeing them off. The next scene is between Shuurei and Ki Kouki, who asks Shuurei that now that she’s going to the Ran-province anyway, that she should investigate a guy named “Shiba Jin”, and I think that Shuurei knows fully well what this means if she goes in too deep, and Juusanhime’s lover might get arrested if she does her job of investigating too well. He also orders her to bring back a few souvenirs, and to not go after Ryuuki if he decides to agree with his engagement with Juusanhime. When Shuurei runs off, she passes Seiga, and the guy has a really suspicious grin on his face while she passes him.

Next up, we see Ensei, Shuurei and Suou in a carriage, heading to the port. They then get surprised by an overly worried father of Suou, who underwent a total change of characters since we saw him first. It seems that he’s really proud of his son now, and he’s still thankful to Shuurei on how sh got him out of prison, it seems. At least, I think that Shuurei was the one who did that, I could be wrong. In any case, he entrusts Suou to Shuurei for the trip. ^^;

The next scene shows Shun and Shusui, as they too seem to be heading for the Ran-province. Shusui isn’t doing well, though, and she struggles to go up the mountains. For some reason, Shun also puts up an eye-patch, to cover for the eye he’s missing. Shusui then mentions a number of strange characters, though that story is one I couldn’t pick up. What’s important, though, is that at one point, she gets possessed again by that strange thing that got hold of her a few episodes back. She calls this thing “Ruka-sama”.

Shuuei has meanwhile finally arrived at the Ran-palace. His triplet-brothers aren’t there, but his brother Ryuuren and his sister Gyoku (I think that’s how she was called) are present. Ryuuren takes off into the woods again, and Shuuei gets to reuinite with his sister. The thing is that he wasn’t really keen on that, and for some reason he was reluctant to meet her. I didn’t pick up exactly why, as she seemed like a really nice person (they even played together when they were kids), though if I had to guess then he did some thing to hurt her in the past. I didn’t pick up what exactly that was, though. Also, Setsuna, is that the name of one of Shuuei’s triplet-brothers, or is that yet another of his brothers?

The episode ends with the ship on which Shuurei, Suou and Ensei are sailing in order to get to the Ran-province. Suou gets seasick, and Ensei’s remedy is basically to knock the guy out so that he’s unconscious during the trip. ^^; The ship then gets struck by a whirlpool that the area is famous for. According to a local legend, one person once threw a manju in the whirlpools and they disappeared. For some reason, Shuurei thinks that this legend is important somehow.

On a side-note, those whirlpools were really badly animated, but then again, this is Madhouse. Their animation is either incredibly good or incredibly bad, and you can really see in this episode that it was meant to save a bit of animation-budget.

Alien Nine Review – 86/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


What a charming little OVA. Alien Nine gives the term “Alien Invasion” a whole new dimension. Here, aliens can come in lots of different sizes and shapes, and most of them have no real intention to take over the Earth at all. Instead, they cause small amounts of trouble here and there, especially around schools apparently. Because of that, random students get allocated for each school to be the local alien fighters. Alien Nine is about the three alien fighters for one particular grade school.

The beauty of this anime is that it’s a character-study, and it knows it. Every single scene is dedicated to flesh out the three main characters, and develop them through the short airtime of four episodes. There’s a lot of angst, but the creators never delve into pointless melodrama, and they know exactly when to time the big climaxes for this OVA. There’s no cheesy love-story that gets in the way of what’s really important either, and all in all, the creators made the optimum use of the short time that they had to work with.

The thing about the characters is that they would have failed horribly if they weren’t developed as well as this series did. There’s a cry-baby, a strong girl and a perfect girl. They’re all pretty clichéd when you first see them, but the storytelling is so refreshing that you hardly even notice this while watching. Do note that the cry-baby can get on people’s nerves at times, so that may be potentially off-putting. Her interaction with the other main characters is excellent, though. 😉

Unfortunately, and I’m afraid to say it, but Alien Nine does suffer from the “TOO SHORT!!”-syndrome, which I’ve seen on many other movies and OVAs. Some anime try to solve this by omitting important character-backgrounds, others don’t bother to explain their storylines properly, though Alien Nine manages to avoid this. Instead, it just stops. I assume that it’s based on a manga, and only the first X chapters of this manga made it into the OVA. It’s a darn shame, because I feel that yet again this series deserves so much more episodes.

Thankfully, this flaw never got in the way of the characters, and they make sure to keep this OVA interesting till the end. The creators know how to build up properly, and try their best with such a limited amount of time. You’d be surprised at how intense the drama can get at times, considering that we’re just dealing with ordinary grade-schoolers.

Hakaba Kitarou – 04

by psgels, posted in Hakaba Kitarou


Well, that was disappointing. This most definitely was the worst episode of Hakaba Kitarou yet when it half-degrades into a dating-sim series between Kitarou and Neko. What the heck were the creators thinking, turning this series into a cheesy love-drama? When Kitarou fell in love, he totally ruined his own evil anti-hero that I liked so much in the first three episodes.

Thankfully, the cat’s dead now, so thankfully she won’t ruin the series much further, though the preview for the next episode shows Kitarou being angsty and love-sick. And now I realize how this series has one major problem: it doesn’t build up carefully. It does have the shock-value, though this episode showed that building-up is not its strongest point, and that’s really needed to make a love-relationship interesting. Right now, it feels like we’ve temporarily gone down a cheap romantic comedy.

I should have known to be careful with this series when the director only did Kamisama Kazoku before. That series to had some interesting twists, but the romance really felt horribly annoying at times. And the romance is one thing, but I also spotted numerous Deus ex Machinas and badly explained plot-holes during the climax. Writers: what happened?!

Please, Kitarou, go back to horror!

Ghost Hound – 13

by psgels, posted in Ghost Hound


With a title of “For the Snark was a Boojum, you see”, this episode had to be different from all the others. And indeed, this one gives a totally new twist to the story. You don’t want to miss this episode. The strangest part is that the first three quarters play entirely inside Tarou’s head. It’s here where he meets Snark, a strange Ghost-like creature who seems to live there. And Boojum… well, let’s say that that guy is still missing, but if we were to believe the title, then it seems that this Snark was a Boojum as well. Let’s hope that the future episodes explain what the heck this means…

In any case, Tarou travels from his last memories with his sister to an old hospital full of deceased people, to Snark’s room, where all kinds of memories of him are stored. You have to love the creativity that the creators have put into the different sections of the guy’s mind. He also visits a certain room that Kei (I think that’s her name) forbad him to go into, and it seems that this is some kind of special fermentation-place where spirits also like to visit. Tarou then faints a bit. I really liked this part, because it shows exactly what the previous episodes have been building up for: Tarou, getting more and more familiar with the spirit-world and his ghost-form.

The episode is more than just that, though. In his explorations, Tarou also saw that Miyako had caught a really bad cold, so he decides to visit her, along with Masayuki, Oogami and Michio. It’s here where Tarou tells Takahito about the things that Miyako said when she was possessed, and Takahito immediately orders them to leave, looking worried. It seems that he knew exactly what these sentences meant. To make things even better: when they descend the stairs of the shrine, none other than Noriko (Makoto’s grandmother’s household) stands there, waiting for him. Makoto of course gets angry and runs away, and everyone follows him, but Michio looks back, and suddenly sees a really evil grin from Noriko’s face. I never expected that even she had some kind of secret. This can turn out really interesting, and you just have to see that evil smile for yourself. 😛

January Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

We’ve now passed one third of the Winter-season. I must say that it’s been one of the best winter-seasons we’ve had in years. There are so many potentially awesome series, and there have been hardly any disappointments so far.

#31 (new) – H20 ~ Footprints in the Sand – (5/10) – I find it strange to think that this is one of the most blogged-series of the new winter-season. Are people expecting some kind of spectacular trainreck ending, just like with School Days, or was could there really come something good from the crappy first episode?
#30 (new) – Rosario to Vampire – (5,2/10) – A lot of people seem to believe that Gonzo ruined this series, but I’ve got enough reasons to think that the manga was bad in the first place. Gonzo just made it worse.
#29 (new) – They are my Noble Masters – (6,8/10) – Yes, it’s filled with harem-cliches, but it’s also one thing: it’s fun to watch. There’s nothing ground-breaking, but I’d choose to watch this series above Lucky Star at any time.
#28 (24) – Dragonaut The Resonance – (6,9/10) – Yes, the story for this series is as bad as ever. Still, I unfortunately have to admit that it did catch my interest, and I’m actually curious to find out what’s going to happen next.
#27 (new) – Minami-ke Okawari – (7/10) – Just like its predecessor, I just couldn’t get myself interested to watch beyond episode 1, so I dropped it.
#26 (new) – Hatenkou Yuugi – (7,2/10) – The only disappointment for this season. Alas, so many great things could have come from this series, but the storytelling feels dull and uninspired. The creators don’t even seem to care to try and let everything make sense, and the only thing that wasn’t screwed up by the creators seems to be the dialogue.
#25 (19) – Shugo Chara – (7,3/10) – 51 episodes is a terrific format, but you have to use it. There’s no use in putting up 26 filler-episodes to try and make it longer. Let’s hope for now that this series knows what it’s doing for its final quarter, but right now there’s a good chance that I’m going to drop this series and marathon it if it turns out to be good in the end.
#24 (20) – Bamboo Blade – (7,4/10) – Every time I have the urge to drop this series, it drags me back in. Bamboo Blade definitely didn’t catch my interest as much as I’d hoped to, and there are so many better series out there, but it’s moderately entertaining at least.
#23 (new) – Noramimi – (7,6/10) – So, here I am as probably the only one who still watches this. It’s quite cute, and a relaxing series. Still, even though it’s enjoyable, I do have to say that Tetsuko no Tabi was better.
#22 (12) – Kekkaishi – (7,8/10) – Unfortunately, only one episode got released this month. It was just a regular building-up episode, though I did notice how the humour of this series, especially when compared to the first half of the series, has gone down a lot.
#21 (16) – Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – (8,1/10) – With the beam-arc, I felt like Kaiji lost sight of its original purpose a bit: gambling. I went into this series, expecting people, trying to outsmart each other. Not a bunch of people, being scared to death for episodes. Luckily, it feels like the next arc will breathe some new life into this series.
#20 (new) – Spice and Wolf – (8,2/10) – I admit: I’m impressed by the work that Imagin has done for this series. The mood is quiet, and yet enough things are going on to keep you interested, and the storytelling has been quite good so far.
#19 (new) – Persona Trinity Soul – (8,2/10) – I’m still not sure what to think of this series, but I mean that in a good way. So far, it’s carefully building up its storyline, and the climaxes so far have been quite interesting. Now let’s hope that this series can keep this up.
#18 (17) – Gundam 00 – (8,2/10) – So far, so good. Gundam 00 is really turning into an enjoyable series. I have a few problems with it here and there, but the characters and politics work, and thank god that it hasn’t turned into a cheap emo-fest.
#17 (23) – Suteki Tantei Labyrinth – (8,3/10) – So, basically this series turned from moderately entertaining to just plain weird. It’s very strange, it’s either incredibly good or incredibly bad. If you want to watch this, be aware of one thing: you don’t want to take this series seriously.
#16 (15) – Power Puff Girls Z – (8,4/10) – The fight against Him was awesome. The creators knew exactly what to do to keep the fight interesting, and much, much more than what you’d see in any random shounen-series *coughbleachcough*. The love-love-beam episode was also brilliant. Professor Utonium rocks! Unfortunately, the other episodes that got released this month were a bit disappointing, and too dramatic for their own good. Don’t get me wrong, this series actually gets away with its sappy drama, but it’s in no way as fun as the other aspects of the series.
#15 (21) – Clannad – (8,4/10) – Instead of really sad, I’ve found the past number of episodes from Clannad to be really relaxing. I must congratulate Kyoto Animation: they finally churned out a series that I liked.
#14 (new) – Hakaba Kitarou – (8,4/10) – The surprise of the season. This series has brought forth really entertaining horror-series that combines drama, horror and comedy perfectly. A definite recommendation; Noitamina rocks.
#13 (new) – True Tears – (8,4/10) – Like expected from the director of Simoun. True Tears has shown enough signs that it knows what it’s doing, despite the clichéd characters it has do work with. The pacing may be slow, but so far this series has done a very good job to develop its major characters.
#12 (22) – Kimikiss Pure Rouge – (8,5/10) – Kimikiss has gone into the right direction this month, and the love-triangles really work so far. I’m quite impressed with this series, and how carefully it manages to build up the different relationships between the characters.
#11 (10) – Saiunkoku Monogatari – (8,5/10) – Just when the pacing begins to pick up again, this series is plagued with random hiatuses that break it. Let’s hope that the final episodes will all air without any interruption.

#10 (5) – Gintama – (8,5/10)

Episode 46 was the first time where I caught Gintama, milking out its own jokes. Thankfully, episode 47 made more than up for it with what what’s definitely its best introduction to an episode so far. You just have to see that one for yourself to believe it, and I really admire the fantastic job that the voice-actor did on it.

#9 (new) – Gunslinger Girl – Il Teatrino – (8,5/10)

I don’t seem to mind the bad graphics as much as most others, but the fact remains that the animation has gone down a lot. Thankfully, the art itself is still nice to look at, and the story simply rocks so far.

#8 (new) – Porfy no Nagai Tabi – (8,6/10)

The first four episodes have been excellent in terms of building up. Sure, it’s slow, but Porfy and his sister have already developed into terrific three-dimensional characters.

#7 (new) – Shigofumi – (8,8/10)

The only problem with this series is that it likes to put in random plot-devices to increase dramatic tension. Apart from that, the stories so far have been excellent in terms of both storytelling and characters. On top of that, the art looks terrific and the soundtrack fits the series perfectly. Okay, apart from the OP, perhaps.

#6 (6) – Perrine Monogatari – (8,8/10)

Oh god… I’ve read the summaries for this series, so I know what’s about to happen. Seriously, Perrine’s mother is too awesome for such a thing.. 🙁

#5 (3) – Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei – (8,9/10)

The big fear would of course be that the second season would run out of jokes, but thankfully, the opposite turned out to be true. For the second season, it seems that the creators decided to let go of all the brakes and go all out.

#4 (8) – Mokke – (9/10)

Have I already mentioned that the background-music for this series is amazing? In any case, for January, Mokke increased the dramatic tension for its episodes a bit, and it really works. The stories are simple, but I’m warming up more and more to the different characters. MadHouse did another terrific job on this adaptation.

#3 (4) – Ghost Hound – (9,1/10)

I really like to see that Ghost Hound has turned into an excellent series, which stands apart from all the others. The characters feel really natural, the storytelling has progressed in a really nice way and the story itself has also become more interesting with every episode.

#2 (new) – Wellber no Monogatari – (9,2/10)

Seriously, with the second season, Wellber no Monogatari has become so much better. Every episode works, and the characters have been absolutely amazing. And to think that there still are enough episodes left for this series to work with.

#1 (2) – Shion no Ou – (9,2/10)

This series just keeps and delivers consistently awesome episodes. Tournament-arcs often fail, but this series has managed to do so many great things with it.

Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber – 18

by psgels, posted in Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber


So, this was clearly a building-up episode, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t an excellent one. I really can’t believe how well the second season has progressed thus far, and I’m loving every minute of it.

This episode was mainly meant to develop the love-triangle between Galahad, Rita and Tina, when Sherry gets sick and the group is forced to make a pause. It’s clear now that both Rita and Tina love Galahad, though Rita is the only one who finds out that Tina too has feelings for the guy. Because of that, when Galahad confesses to her, despite how he’s still lovesick from Jamill, Rita declines.

Meanwhile, in terms of politics this series has also progressed. The king of Greedom has finally created a peace-treaty between the kings of Wellber and Sangatras, but in the meantime, he has plans, along with the king of Sangatras to screw the king of Wellber over behind his back. Guernia may be dead, but his father is still alive. I’m wondering when we’ll see Rita’s brother again. After all, he’s number one on my list of “guys that could have killed Tina’s parents”, and at the same time, he probably won’t like it when he finds out the plans of Greedam and Sangatras.