Aaaand the building-up continues yet again. My patience is getting tested quite a bit for this series, and it really looks like the final arc of this series will be around nine episodes of building up, with the climax taking up only two of them. I’m still not sure whether this was a right decision to make. I mean, the climax has to be really good in order to make up for the episodes that it kept us hungry for any actual development. Can the creators really pull it off, without going through the obvious routes in which Takano dies and the others live happily ever after?
In this episode, Rika teams up with both the major children and adult-characters, and they come up with the plan to fake Rika’s death to cause confusion to Takano. Tomitake goes into hiding, and meanwhile investigates on Takano, discovering what we knew already, Akasaka remains in Rika’s house to make people believe that the house is still being inhabited by people, while Rika, Satoko and Hanyuu hide, Irie continues to keep an eye out, and basically forms Akasaka’s link to the outside world, since his phone will probably be tapped and Oishi is going to be the one to spread Rika’s faked death.
Meanwhile, the woman we saw with Takano turns out to be someone who’d like to see Takano’s antagonists fall too, which explains the support she gives to her. The next episode will probably consist out of everyone getting ready for the major plan. Episode 48 will then probably deal with the start of the plan, while the real climax will take place in episodes 49 and 50. Let’s hope the creators know what they’re doing.]]>
Author: psgels
Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 08
Holy flipping heck! I know I’ve been complaining about Kaiji for the past few episodes… but seriously… this episode was just plain crazy, and I mean that in a good way! If there was anything this series needed, it was betrayal, and this episode features lots of it. I love episodes like these, where everything comes together like that.
So in the end, there was no Mr. X. I should have guessed this: the guy who flushed his cards down the toilet threw away three scissors. He probably ended up with a wrong hand and fell in despair. The matter is, though, that these cards weren’t counted off the scoreboard. Because of assuming this, Funai ended up being the final person with a card, along with Kaiji and the others. Because of that, he just had to throw away five of his nine stars just to survive. The thing is that because he’s a repeater, he needed to have four stars to survive. Because of this, he still has a debt of 4 million yen after this, because he was stupid enough to borrow the maximum limit and he can’t sell any of his stars.
The second half of the episode is dedicated to another problem: because said three cards have been flushed, there is no way for Kaiji and the others to cancel out each other’s cards. Kaiji then sacrifices himself to the other room, where the final pieces of the puzzle come together. The old man indeed has been tricked by a repeater, and now he’s been abandoned while said repeater is celebrating happily in the winner’s room. Then there’s another character (Okabayashi) who gets introduced, and I really like this guy for his realistic view on life. Both the old man and Okabayashi have been working for their partners. Which makes me wonder, where did Okabayashi’s partner go? I recall that Furuhata and Andou were the only ones with more than two stars left.
Which brings me to the next point: Andou is about to betray Kaiji! It is logical if you look at it one way. There’s a huge trust between Kaiji and Furuhata: they knew each other before going on the ship, Furuhata feels extremely guilty for what he did to Kaiji and Kaiji has been way too moralistic to doubt him. Andou is a different case, however. He was basically saved by Kaiji because he happened to have two stars. Kaiji made a temporarily impression on him, though apart from that, he doesn’t know anything about the guy. There are people who trust easily and there are people who are always afraid to make friends and always keep an emotional distance from people. Apparently, Andou belongs to the later part.
Again on a side-note: if the screenshots don’t show up: let me know]]>
Saiunkoku Monogatari – 67
Ah, so finally Juusanhime appears. Really, she turned out totally different from what I imagined of her. I expected a mature young girl, probably along the lines of a younger Kochou, but instead she turned out to be Shuuei’s younger sister, quite energetic and quite talented at fighting. So this is the woman who will eventually be married to Ruuki, and I wonder what she’s going to add to the overall storyline.
In the meantime, Shuurei relieves her anger upon a very unlucky lump of dough, and she gets her first major mission from Kouki: safely escort Juusanhime to the palace. Shusui also returns, and nearly commits suicide! Ran also has some worries now that he’s not with Ryuuki anymore, and the two of them meet each other in this episode. There was a lot talking involved, so I couldn’t understand exactly, but apparently Ran had someone he loved, taken away from him by his triplet-brothers. Shushui puts up a strong face in front of him, though she herself is also troubled by hearing a very strange and annoying sound. Could this date back from when she was still working under Souka? All signs point to yes, since she freaked out when she saw small Riou.
Most part of the episode is spent on Shuurei, though. It’s great to see her out of her old outfit that she wore in the past few episodes. I’m again not sure if I understood everything correctly, but it seems that Kouki favours Seiga at the moment, and he lets him in on quite a few things that he doesn’t let Shuurei know. Which makes me wonder… aren’t there any other people working on their department besides the three of them? Or was Kouki really in such a huge need of more people?
On a side-note, I’ve been getting increasingly more annoyed with how the speeds of my images, hosted on putfile have gone down, so I’m experimenting a bit with different image- and filehosts. Can someone tell me whether the images above actually show up? And please notify me if they don’t. ]]>
Shugo Chara – 08
This really was a fun episode. Until, of course, the Batsu-chara appeared, but by now that shouldn’t really be a surprise. This episode was all about a girl who had a crush on Hotori, and I love how it further developed his relationship with the girls around him. The interesting thing also is that we’ve seen how Hotori claimed that he already has a girl he loves, but we’ve yet to see confirmed who it actually is. All arrows point to Nadeshiko, but I think that he sees her more as a very good friend in which he can confide than a loved one. This episode showed him telling her about his worries about his chara-changes, and if the two of them were really dating, they’d be much closer, and if he really had a crush on Nadeshiko, but never had the courage to mention it he’d be much more nervous around her.
In the meantime, it looks like we aren’t quite rid of the batsu-charas, as the teacher will just keep hatching bad eggs until one of them turns out to be Embryo. Where Ikuto and his girlfriend come into the picture isn’t clear yet. The two of them obviously have a mission they don’t like, as they’ve been quite angst for the past few episodes. Also, are they full-time employed by the bad guy, or do they need to go to school as well?
In any case, I liked this episode. The girl of this episode is a real teenager, gawking over the boys she loves, who change every week. I like how she brought back something that Amu said in the first episode, where she confessed her love for Hotori. It really gives a feel of continuity, aside from the plot by the bad guys. I also liked the attention to the different faces that people put up in front of others. That was the thing that originally attracted me to this series.]]>
Ghost Hound – 06
One thing that I’ve been wondering about this series: what’s going to be the point? Will it just feature Tarou and the others exploring their fears, or is there going to be some kind of crisis or issue that will be introduced in the second half of this series? I originally thought that as soon as the characters were introduced, random cases about the supernatural and spirit-world would take over this series, but the current episode really showed me that Ghost Hound is about Tarou, Makoto, Masayuki and Miyuki. Where the cyborg-rabbit from the OP comes into picture… I have no idea though.
This episode shows a bit of development for all four major characters. We start where we left off in the previous episode, with the old guy who can see spirits as well. He appears to be friendly, but the conversation quickly ends when he mentions that if you remain out of your body for too long, you won’t be able to turn back. If this was a series like Dennou Coil, I would have expected that in the future, someone won’t be able to turn back, but with Ghost Hound, I have no idea whether this was meant to flesh out the spirit-world a bit more, or some sneaky way of foreshadowing.
In this episode, Masayuki tries to confront his own fears by climbing over the edge of his school’s roof. He’s okay for a short while, but becomes terrified after a gust of wind hits him. The result of this we’ll see in the next episode.
Meanwhile, we get introduced to some people who were befriended to Makoto’s mother, who I assume is dead now as well. One noteworthy person is currently running in the election for major. This episode also shows that Makoto doesn’t like this guy, though I’m not sure why yet. It could be your usual Makoto, or something of which we haven’t heard yet. Meanwhile, his grandmother has health-problems.
Tarou, meanwhile, has had some very bad nights of sleep, and ends up fainting in front of Miyuki on the stairs towards the shrine. He gets taken to the hospital, where he is examined. The main doctor seems to be an old acquaintance of Miyuki’s father. Miyuki, when she finds out about this, gets strangely enough angry and leaves. Obviously, there’s enough potential left for our characters, and I suspect that the first half of this series will continue to develop them. But what will happen after that? I have no idea.]]>
Princess Mononoke Review – 84/100
If you want to know why Hayao Miyazaki is famous for his environmentalist movies, then you should watch Mononoke Hime, as the struggle between humans and nature forms a huge focus in this movie. This is the movie that ranks for many people as the best movie that came from Studio Ghibli. While I don’t share the same views, this does remain a worthy addition to their repertoire.
The setting of Princess Mononoke has actually quite some similarities with Nausicaä: humans need space, forest doesn’t like it and fights back, humans fight back and come to hate the forest and an ever-increasing cycle continues, until of course, the main character appears. The only change is that while Nausicaä took place in the future, Mononoke Hime is set in a past-like world, in which the industrial revolution has just begun.
If I had to compare the two settings, then I’d say that Nausicaä wins in terms of creativity. On the other hand though, Mononoke isn’t held back by a manga that went on for too long to make a proper movie about it. Most of the major characters and parties are fleshed out pretty nicely, and the major villain walks into an excellent line between good and evil. You can see why she’s doing the things she does, even though they’re morally unacceptable at times. One thing that also adds to the movie’s value is that there are many different parties that all have their own reasons to fight and be involved with the story, both on the human and forest-side. The side-characters are really the ones who make his movie shine.
And yes, there we go again: the same can’t be said for our two lovely main characters, like in most other action-anime that start a bunch of teenagers. A lot of predictability in the movie comes from the two of them, especially the male one. While most characters aren’t really good or evil, the two of them are clearly meant to be on the good side, and I blame them for the rather Disney-ish ending. This really is a mainstream movies: both in the good, and in the bad ways. Be also aware that near the ending, a few inconsistencies in the storyline appear, though to delve in them would be a bit spoilerific.
And while the setting may be less creative than other of Miyazaki’s movies, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t any creativity at all. For Mononoke Hime, Hayao created a fascinating world, especially the iron-factory where the women have basically become equal to the men is something I’ve never seen delivered in such a believable way, especially considering the time in which the movie is set. You can clearly see that Hayao is a huge feminist as well.
I finally understand why Ghibli has become such a big name. Hayao Miyazaki knows exactly what it takes to make a movie mainstream, and yet creative and good. While a few things had to be sacrificed for this (most importantly, the rather dull male lead and the cute and mysterious girl that is the female lead), this turned into a worthy movie. While the animation isn’t as revolutionary new as the movies that he produced in the 1980s (apart from perhaps the few elements of CG), they still look as beautiful as ever, with quite a nice musical score added to it.]]>
Kiki's Delivery Service Review – 88/100
Hayao Miyazaki may not be as good at realism as his good friend Isao Takahata, but for that he makes up with an excellent sense of storytelling. While Takahata’s movies often consist out of random sketches that don’t really have much to do with each other, Miyazaki creates wonderful coherent stories, that make full use of their airtime, and so far, Kiki’s Delivery-service is one of the best examples of this.
While the concept of a small witch who runs a delivery-service may sound boring, it’s everything but that. Kiki is probably one of the most likable characters that I’ve seen in a Ghibli-movie, and this movie makes sure we see all sides of her, whenever she’s happy, sad, cheerful, determined or down-hearted; she turns into a wonderful character. The themes range from the airplanes, which sort-of became Hayao’s signature, to independence and accepting the different sides of people. This is another gem that’s right for every age that ha the guts to admit to like cute characters.
One downside of this movie is basically the opposite of what you’d expect from a Takahata-movie: it’s too short. I feel like there’s so much more potential left in this story, even though the length is nearly two hours. There are many side-characters that could have easily gotten more development, and Hayao could easily have created more interesting jobs for Kiki to do.
The dialogue for this movie is great and life-like, though some of the plot-twists feel a bit forced. I’m especially referring to the climax, which got introduced in a Deus ex Machina-like way. Also, this being a Ghibli-movie and all, I don’t think I have to elaborate much on the graphics: they rock, especially for a movie that was produced in 1989, the same can be said for the soundtrack.
While I admit that Howl’s Moving Castle had its issues, and Nausicaa may have been a bit too preachy, the other movies from Miyazaki so far have been really excellent. While Kiki’s Delivery Service wasn’t as imaginative as Laputa or Spirited Away, it makes up with an addictive storytelling that really should be regarded as an example.]]>
Star Crossed Two-Year Anniversary
Top-10 Most Accessed Series 10. Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto 9. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni 8. Bokura no 7. Toward the Terra 6. Death Note 5. Seriei no Moribito 4. Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette 3. Claymore 2. Dennou Coil 1. Saiunkoku Monogatari Top-10 Most Accessed Posts (unfortunately, not all of which I’m proud of): 10. Some quick first impressions: Kotetsushin Jeeg, Darker than Black and Koutetsu Sangokushi (Really, I have no idea why this one made it to the top-10. This also is one of those examples of how wrong my first impressions can be at times.) 9. Claymore – 20 8. Death Note – 37 7. Tsubasa Chronicle 52 (This one turned into a mini-bbs over time, about the potential third season ^^;) 6. Dennou Coil – 01 5. Death Note – 36 (Ironic how such a small posts generates that many pageviews) 4. Autumn Season Preview 3. Some quick first impressions: OverDrive, Fuyu no Semi and Saint Beast (That’s one post I’m trying to forget. Even six months after writing it still got comments) 2. Some quick first impressions: Kaze no Stigma, Ookiku Furikabutte and Kaibutsu Oujo (Same here. These two posts taught me how you shouldn’t rant without giving valid arguments) 1. Top-10 Anime Top-10 Google Keywords (aside from the obvious ones as “psgels” and “star crossed”): 10. Death Note 37 9. Claymore 20 8. Death Note 36 7. Toward the Terra 6. Overdrive Anime 5. Top 10 Anime 4. Seirei no Moribito 3. Dennou Coil 2. Saiunkoku Monogatari 1. Kaze no Stigma (Seriously, I have no friggin’ idea why this one became #1. I only made one single post about it, for goodness’ sake!) Amusing search-terms .hack//roots trainwreck – Yes, it is. coughing site:http://psgels.net cold site:http://psgels.net – Why would someone call my site cold and coughing? O_o ergo proxy all men learned toilet – I know for which episode this guy was searching, but it’s funny when taken out of context. higurashi keiichi episode dead body – Erm… you need to be a bit more specific than that. 😉 psgels.net sex scenes – Good to see that people who come to this site search for sensible things. psgels is gay – No, I’m not. And if I find out where this came from, I’ll gladly show the one behind it a taste of hell. what is at the bottom of a tornado – Err… strong winds? “anime show” +diapers – It disturbs me that people are searching for this… “best snowball” – Sure. “beans” anime little girl – Why would someone want to associate beans with little girls? “crush them now giant robo” – This one made me laugh. ^^; “his earrings” / “i like rose ” / “smell her feet” – A few examples of which I have no freaking idea how they ended up here. “your back looks just as graceful as stars” – Not exactly my choice of the ultimate pickup-line, but what do I know about it? “who invited dynamite – Nice Holystone, perhaps?]]>
Suteki Tantei Labyrinth – 08
Whoa, talk about a sudden increase in quality. This episode was much, much better than the previous ones of this series, strangely enough. While the previous episode with the director was kindof cute and interesting, it was also a bit too silly and unbelievable whenever the word “tea” was mentioned. The storytelling in this episode was quite effective and the climax right before the eye-catch worked really well for me.
But really, someone needs to replace Mayuki with a paper bag. While it would be a bit strange for Hatsumi to be in love with a paper bag, it would solve about 75% of the issues I have with this series. The only thing I can hope for is that he’ll develop into someone more interesting in the second half of this series, but I’m not getting my hopes up.
I was also surprised how Hatsumi actually got some major development for this episode. She indeed is just a high-school girl, just like Sanae, and she isn’t just working full-time as Mayuki’s maid. If I had to guess, then she came to live with Mayuki and Seiran after her parents died(?). Apparently, Mayuki was so cute that she quickly became attached to him. It was probably after this that Seiran transformed her into her uber-form.
The case for this episode, I admit, started off a bit mundane. We have a classmate of Hatsumi who is in love with her teacher, but this teacher was just using the girl to get money. Then everything changed when the music-teacher suddenly appeared and killed him with a bunch of scissors. I admit that I laughed, but the timing for this was exactly right, same with how Hatsumi arrived afterwards and got labelled as the #1 suspect.
The next episode should delve into why exactly the music-teacher became crazy enough to kill the guy. All we know is that she was the one who taught the teacher to play the violin, and he’s become quite good at it. Strangely enough, there’s no Byakko in this episode either… perhaps that’s why it was so interesting as well. At the moment, I just see her and her boss as annoying plot-devices to involve Mayuki in exciting cases.]]>
Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 07
Now this is more what I’m talking about. The pacing of this episode was quite a bit faster than the previous episodes and the amount of times where this series kept repeating itself has greatly decreased. On the other hand, though, the creators have somehow managed to stretch turn 8 minutes into twenty of them, but it’s not like we couldn’t expect this.
I also liked the arrival of Mr. X. I’ve got a faint idea of who he is: the guy who tricked the old man in the beginning, though why the heck he didn’t do anything with his three scissors is beyond me. Was he perhaps hoping for when only three other cards are left? It indeed seems like this arc will be over in two episodes. If I had to guess, then the first half of the next episode takes care of Funai, while there still is an episode and a half left for the mysterious Mr. X.
And I really liked Funai in this episode. He really developed, and we got to see another side of his now that his plans have failed. I really wonder how Kaiji is going to come up with a sure-fire way to win. Surely he can’t rely just on the 50/50 chance, can’t he? Then there’s also the matter that he and his companions need to end with an even amount of cards. And I do wonder… if Kaiji wins he should have the right amount of stars left. How will Mr. X fit into this picture?]]>