Author: psgels

Zetsuen no Tempest – 09

by psgels, posted in Zetsuen no Tempest

Okay, I think I just watched the single best episode of the Autumn Season from the series that started there at least. That was just amazing.

THIS is what I mean with using your build-up well. After the slow pacing of the previous episode that took so much time in showing flashbacks, and was so careful in setting everything up for this episode, having everything just turned completely upside down within 20 minutes was just freaking amazing. I’m just blown away by this.

Everything came together here. It was already one thing that Hakaze was living in the past, but then this episode came with Mashiro who easily changed sides, Samon who was too busy clinging on trying to keep things safe as possible, Yoshino coming with that ridiculous idea to get Mashiro to change sides yet again. The delivery was also just perfect, I loved how blown away Samon was by all this, or how on-wavering Mashiro was from his goal. Yoshino as an observer also played a brilliant part, and at the center are these two dead girls who had such a large indirect impact on everything.

And holy crap, the music of this show is awesome! It had been on the background for the past few episodes, but this time it played a really big role again. And with this, yeah. Not even Jojo or Psycho Pass can match how well this OST manages to contribute to its series when it’s really on fire.

This episode once again gave me that delightful feeling of being blown away by something. It’s not a feeling that I get often, and yet I’m really glad that this show achieved it, because I love it, and it just kept going, without any weak spot whatsoever. Please Tempest, keep up this pace.
Rating: 7/8 (Fantastic)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 09

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Just… what the hell, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Here I was thinking that this would quietly start off the next arc and another over the top clash between Jojo and Dio, and here they come and pull this episode. In just 20 minutes they go over 9000 again with this bizarre talking head of Dio, only to kill off the two most important characters in the series. What other shounen series does that?

This show really lives up to its name. What I especially like here is how helpless Jojo was: he was instantly disabled, hardly being able to use his ripple, and most of this episode was Dio monologueing about something, or zombies being evil. What a contrast with the previous episodes. Dio by the way was hilarious as talking head. The way in which he also used his veins as a weapon… how did they come up with that idea?

And then there is that zombie that on its own made that ship blow up, Elina who survived in the bomb-proof coffin that Dio brought on board both carrying a random child and being pregnant, there was just so much awesome stuff going on in this episode. I can only imagine how many chapters this part took, which makes it even more amazing that the creators managed to condense it to just 20 minutes. I really wonder what would have happened if David Production were handed the rights to remake Bleach ten years from now… it probably would not be as awesome as this series, but most definitely much more bearable than the normal Bleach series.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Robotics;Notes – 08

by psgels, posted in Robotics;Notes

Okay, so this show likes its anti-climaxes. In this episode we saw two examples of the creators toying with this: first of all, the lady of last week’s cliff-hanger is not a threat at all, and instead wants to help the lead characters build their robot, not to mention that she’s working for Akiho’s father. Then the end of this episode comes, and casually mentions that there is an evil organization about to kill 6/7th of the world population.

Instead there was this big typhoon acting as the red herring in this episode: totally unrelated to the plot, but it kept the characters busy, and Akiho now knows about Airi (which I believe should have happened earlier by the way), and I admit that the way in which they used Kaito’s time issues during the typhoon. It looked much more painful than the other times so far, good job from the creators.

It’s also quite a strange way for a guy to hide his reports, using some of the strangest requirements that could break down making some of the clues potentially unsolvable. I really wonder why. I mean, I get that he was a playful guy and all, but would even such a person want to joke about something so serious? Was there a reason why he had to keep things so secret to keep them from finding out?
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

Psycho Pass – 08

by psgels, posted in Psycho Pass

Urobuchi Gen likes gore. Fate/Zero showed this, and this arc of Psycho Pass showed that yet again, and especially. This episode was just brutal as it shows the conclusion of the latest arc. It was meant to get Kougami in the spotlights again amd show his ability to deduct and his connections. His bizarre connections involving a guy who took turning his body into art to the extreme.

As for the themes of the current arc, this episode showed the flaws in the past murders: the lack of creativity or message behind it. The culprit just wanted to carry on her father’s tradition, rather than kill with a statement like her father did. It’s a very morbid way to look at art like this.

Psycho Pass also has a very interesting view on its references. Usually when a show quotes another work, it’s kept with a brief reference: just one shot and nothing more. Here, they quote entire paragraphs. Last week played a lot of Beethoven’s 9th symphony. This series really attempted to make its symbolism have this slow impact. And it worked really well.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 35

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

This episode was recommended to me in order to cheer up from being sick, so I’m putting it ahead a bit of the other shows this week. And yeah: this episode is as we feared: the creators managed to dedicate an entire episode to Kenji’s results from the third exam. At the end of this episode, we still don’t know what happened to Mutta.

Having said that though, this episode was completely and utterly adorable. Kenji already was an awesome character, and here this episode comes and gives him even more character. We finally learn exactly why he chose to become an astronaut, and what he did before he met Mutta, while this episode was entirely occupied with building up to that one moment, where he heard whether he passed the exam or not.

And that moment actually brought some tears to my eyes. The creators here were evil and just kept dragging it out, using Kenji’s daughter also really well in it, and how the bald guy just kept going on and on with his story. Also don’t tell me that the rest of the characters will also get their own episode dedicated to their results. It’s gonna take ages before we know how Mutta did.
Rating: 6.5/8 (Amazing)

A Letter to Momo Review – 86/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

The target audiences for movies are completely different from those of TV-series. What’s most impressive is that the most overused genre, the family movie, is actually consistently very good and that there are very few people taking advantage of it with cheap and bad story-lines, like what’s currently happening with the fanservice in TV-series. They’re all attempting to be well executed.

Having said that though, there are a lot of movies that just look like each other. I’m of course talking about the My Neighbour Totoro-inspired series: you take a village, you take a kid, and you take some sort of supernatural being, and you try to create a heart-warming story around it. The stories indeed are heart-warming, but they don’t really try to do something new with the genre and tropes. Miyazaki himself did this with Ponyo, a few years ago, but apart from that I can’t really think of many other movies. A Letter to Momo however, gives a really good attempt to stand out, though.

It’s just all so real. These movies stand out with their realism, but this one reallygoes the extra edge: Momo really feels like a typical young girl, and this movie adds so many quirks for her that other movies look over. It’s all in the details, though, but those details are amazing. The animation also really shows this, with a lot of Madhouse’s top people working on it. The faces in this movie are all 2-dimensional, but they have depth. The way they’re animated, the way they move: you feel like they’re more than just a few drawn lines, something quite rare in today’s animation. It only adds even more to the realism and believability.

Where this really sets itself apart though, is in the supernatural creatures that visit Momo. They are nearly always innocent: cute, adorable, mysterious. In this movie, they’re the complete opposites: while they have good intentions, these beings are flawed, annoying, they continuously cause trouble, they keep stealing from everyone, they keep harassing Momo, and they have just generally un-likable personalities. And yet it’s been a while since I laughed as much at a movie as here. They are the kind of characters that were supposed to be annoying, yet only ended up really charming because of it.

The overall plot of this movie is something you should not expect much of: you’ve seen it before in other movies. However, the way in which it does this is remarkable and defnitely deserves a watch as one of the best attempts on how to do it since Totoro. For the Jin Roh fans who were looking forward to this movie though (the director of Jin Ron has also directed this movie, working on it for seven years): expect nothing like it. This movie has no political messages whatsoever, and is the complete opposite of Jin Roh was. It’s a bit of a shame considering how original Jin Roh was and all, but that does not make A Letter to Momo any less impressive.

Storytelling: 8/10 – The plot is nothing special, but how it was told stands out as the best since Totoro of its trope.
Characters: 9/10 – Absolutely lovable, yet different. Excellent acting as well, although the way they developed has been done before.
Production-Values: 9.5/10 – Very realistic. Characters have depth, lots of details and the characters really are brought to life here.
Setting: 8/10 – Realistic portrayal of a random village, nice ideas. Solid

Suggestions:
– My Neighbour Totoro
– Junkers Come Here

November Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

The best thing about this month was potential. Yes, there were so many good series. But the best part is that all of those series were just building up for later. There are so many shows that are already a joy to watch, yet haven’t even started. The promise here is amazing.

#22 (16) – Gintama – (5/10) – What the hell man? I love being trolled by anime, but Gintama. Did you seriously mean that you were just going to air a bunch of new episodes in front of a recap season? I really do not like that in the slightest, as I was finally enjoying this show again. This one got dropped really hard.
#21 (25) – Sword Art Online – (7.25/10) – I have not seen the latest episode yet, but I do have a very clear opinion on what happened during the past month: people freaking out over nothing does not work with this series. And don’t get me wrong, I often really like it when a series focuses on a small conflict or when something small is made really huge instead of just putting the world or country at stake, but when I see everyone making such a big deal over dying in an mmorpg… this show just completely loses me. Perhaps I lack the gamers mentality or something, but any conflict just feels meaningless to me. And it’s not like it’s impossible to do this with me: the way in which .Hack//Sign dealt with player deaths, I found that beautiful. This… is just a bunch of idiots getting worked up over nothing.
#20 (23) – Medaka Box – (7.4/10) – I’m still waiting for this show to get interesting. At this point it’s still too formulaic, and the only way in which this show stands out is how it tells about its different characters, without really showing much. It puts so much effort into explaining why all of these people are abnormal and all, that it forgets to do just about anything else. The action is dull, the comedy is dull the characters are boring. This is really what irks me so much about nishiOisin: he puts so much focus on one thing that he forgets everything else.
#19 (21) – Little Busters – (7.6/10) – It is such a shame that Little Busters was based on a dating sim. Because of that, it is obliged to follow all of the girls, and they are BAD. Badly acted, boring, not very interesting and quite often annoying. The guys in this series are much better. They are interesting to watch, have great personalities and have much more down to earth stories, like always failing, insomnia, etc. Focus on them, for christ’s sake. But no, we need to have sad girls for the moe.
#18 (20) – Teekyu – (7.75/10) – The thing with this show… it’s so accessible. I can just turn off my brains for two minutes and it’s over again. It’s completely non-sensical, but the animation, jokes and energy are actually quite enjoyable.
#17 (18) – K – (7.75/10) – K so far has been the biggest disappointment of the season. It’s not that it’s bad or something. The problem more is that it isn’t really anything at all. The major conflict turned out to be something incredibly simple that just isn’t interesting at all. The setting? Yeah, it’s a city that is well drawn (or photoshopped), that’s all there is to say about it. The characters? They’re fun. Again, that’s it: nobody stands out. Come on guys, be ambitious. Animation isn’t the only thing you can base your series on.
#16 (6) – Saint Seiya Omega – (7.75/10) – Saint Seiya… has gotten too dramatic right now. With the second half the characters are fighting this group of eleven golden saints who are so ridiculously overpowered that the creators are going to have to pull major power-ups out of their asses in order to get the characters to land even a single punch on them. I mean, I know that this is not realistic fighting and all, but the tension rather drops when a character first has all bones in his body broken, only to stand up and walk away like nothing happened. There is a limit to that kind of suspense of disbelief…
#15 (9) – Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki – (8/10) – And now, we’ve reached the dreaded part of any comedy: the conclusion! Especially for a long running comedy, you want something that is not incredibly formulaic, and I guess the timetrip back could have been worse… but it still is a big step down compared to what this show was like a month ago.
#14 (13) – Shirokuma Cafe – (8/10) – Shirokuma Cafe continues its trend of corny deadpan humour, and again this wasn’t its best month, but it did make me laugh like usual. There are some skits that just don’t work (the coffee ones, for example), and other running jokes just keep getting better (how the lama is useless for example). I’m not as excited about this show as what I used to be though.
#13 (14) – Btooom! – (8.1/10) – Btooom, let me ask one thing of you: please don’t make the female lead the girl that the male lead met in the past. I know you’re heavily hinting at it, but that would destroy her entire character. Aside from that, I really like the old man for some strange reason, and how helpless he is in most of the series. He’s definitely so far away from your usual sidekick, yet he is not overly exaggerated like the rest of the cast in this series. Btooom is playing out nicely, yet uneventful, but I fear that that climax is not going to be anything worthwhile.
#12 (17) – Sukitte Ii na Yo – (8.25/10)

This really was surprisingly good. At first this show seemed to go in the direction of smut, but that was entirely un-justified. This is just incredibly genuine, about a shy girl trying to find herself in her own romance, and getting the courage to talk about her feelings. This pretty much is what Kimi ni Todoke should have been because stuff actually happens, and the conflicts are meaningful in bringing out emotions, rather than forced.

#11 (15) – Magi – (8.25/10)

The angst feels like it’s missing something, but overall Magi has been incredibly solid as an adventure series: lovable characters with interesting growth, and a very consistent animation budget that really brings out their emotions. Add a solid plot and backdrop, and yeah: I’m enjoying this a lot.

#10 (12) – Robotics;Notes – (8.4/10)

Robotics;Notes slowly builds up its mystery, and what interesting mystery it is! The realism and supernatural combine quite well with each other and the characters living their lives is surprisingly interesting, albeit uneventful so far. The characters are far from as out there and recognizable as what they were in Steins;Gate, and they could definitely use some growth and development, but this month made a good start for that.

#9 (11) – Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo – (8.4/10)

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo had one bad episode this month. In that it introduced the godawful clingy sister who failed to stand out from her stereotype in any way. That really needs to be fixed as soon as possible. Aside from that however, this series has been delightful: finally a shounen romantic comedy that has some actual good chemistry and interesting characters who really play off each other. The past episodes have been particularly good at combining drama and comedy with each other, and I love how it’s full of those tiny details that bring extra life to the characters. They may seem annoying stereotypes at first, but aside from the horrible, horrible sister, they’re all more and deeper than that, and the tension between them is actually really nice to watch.

#8 (8) – Jormungand – (8.4/10)

I’m still surprised at how much better Jormungand’s second season is. The key? Characterization. The way it explores its characters is much more interesting and varied. Characters are still snarky, but rather than their defining traits, it just becomes a smaller part of them. The additions to the characters make them much more varied than what they were in the first season.

#7 (5) – Kamisama Hajimemashita – (8.4/10)

Kamisama Hajimemashita’s endings are always awesome to watch, no exception. It’s a very solidly executed series with a lot of heart in it. I do get the feeling that it could have been a bit more than what it currently is though, especially since it just has 13 episodes. The strength of this show is how well it combines its comedy, drama, romance and plot together, but at its current pacing it feels like it’s trying to do too much at once, sacrificing that part.

#6 (4) – Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – (8.4/10)

This month is not particularly better than the first month of Jojo, but nevertheless it’s still really enjoyable to watch how ridiculously over the top, and how it consistently pulls these elaborate powers out of the tiniest things. This story was its time far ahead.

#5 (10) – Zetsuen no Tempest – (8.5/10)

The pacing for this show is definitely interesting: the past month really has been dedicated to a lot of building up, background and character building, and what it’s building up is most definitely interesting. The characters have this unique bond between them that makes the build-up worth watching. Plus, the soundtrack still is fantastic.

#4 (7) – Psycho Pass – (8.6/10)

Psycho Pass is consistently improving. After two months its setting is really starting to come together with its themes. In every arc it takes a certain setting, and explores what would happen if a psychopath were to enter it, and given the tools for murder. Its focus is not so much on mystery, but rather on exploring the mindsets of the people involved with very good use of symbolism and classical references.

#3 (3) – From the New World – (8.75/10)

The animation for this series definitely caused a bit of controversy, but I personally love that this show pretty much said “screw it” to consistent animation, and instead focused on delivering interesting visuals with unconventional camera work. This series really takes nothing for granted, and with the single best story, character development and original setting of the series to debut this Autumn season, and yeah: this is still my favorite series of the bunch.

#2 (1) – Hunter X Hunter – (8.9/10)

December will be AWESOME. This month took care of the build-up, and we’ve finally gotten to my favorite part of Hunter X Hunter. And really: already this show has set itself miles apart from all other shounen shows with so many cunning characters being thrown at the same spot. Kurapika and his mindset in particular were just amazing this month. I don’t even care anymore which version is better, the 1999 version or the 2011: they both rock!

#1 (2) – Uchuu Kyoudai – (9/10)

It’s still amazing how much this series is able to do with its slow pacing. Mutta still is absolutely hilarious with his antics, but above that: this show put in so much detail on what all goes on for a launch to the moon. This month was full with defining moments for a ton of different characters. At this point I think that there is no character in this show that I don’t like: everyone here is just lovable.

Kamisama Hajimemashita – 09

by psgels, posted in Kamisama Hajimemashita

The current episode… I think it was a bit weaker than the others. And don’t get me wrong, it had an awesome climax again, and this made me laugh harder than any other episode this week, but it was a tad too short for my liking. The rest of this episode, it wasn’t that it was bad or anything in that direction, but after watching an episode of Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo that just kept switching back and forth between comedy and drama, something that THIS show was supposed to be good at, I feel like it could have been a bit more.

But that’s not to say that aside from the climax there wasn’t anything noteworthy in this episode. Tomoe’s past rocked, and how his feelings completely changed. Nanami refusing to steal something that could save the life of that woman whose name I can’t find. It didn’t even cross her mind, she just didn’t want to solve her problems over the backs of others, and I can really appreciate that.

I just missed the same chemistry for a large part of the episode that made me originally like this show so much. The ending made up for a lot, but not everything in this case. Ah well, better luck next week.
Rating: 4/8 (Nice)

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo – 08

by psgels, posted in Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

And as if nothing happened, this show returns back to its usual level of good writing and character chemistry. This episode thankfully reminded me again why this show is so special for its kind: the characters and their chemistry just are incredibly addictive. Where the fanservice in the previous episode was terrible, here it was back to being good again. It wasn’t there for the sake of “hey, let’s show panties!”, but instead they were all about creating tension between the characters. Without it, this episode would have been completely different and actually less entertaining. That’s my definition of good fanservice, and I rarely see a series that uses it as well as Sakurasou.

The previous episode did create a bunch of really big problems though, which really need to be fixed. First of all, the sister in this episode did not return, however she will come back. Being such an inherently wrong character in every single way, the writers really need to do something if they want to be able to make something out of her character. Also, Nanami. Her character still revolves around Sorata. Granted though, she at least started to redeem herself with the help of Sorata and Shiina with how her crush developed over this episode.

Meanwhile, Sorata’s feelings through this episode were wonderful, being rejected for something he worked really hard on. And it’s also interesting how the creators found a way to keep the angst from getting too out of control with their anti-climaxes. There also was a lot of play on symbolism (you should start running forward… if you don’t want that guy to catch you!).

Also, there is one thing I’m wondering: why are so many series centered around school? Don’t get me wrong, Sakurasou avoids this wonderfully: the characters go to school, but instead of that we see the interesting parts of their lives. But what I mean is that since these series are supposedly aimed at teenagers, why pick school as the setting so often? Don’t most teenagers that age hate school?
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 34

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

DAMN YOU SPACE BROTHERS AND YOUR CLIFF-HANGERS!#$#$!%&

You just had to do it, waste this episode’s time with damned toilet paper. You just had to build up and drag on this episode long enough with mundane stuff for there to be no time left for the actual phone calls of JAXA. You just had to time it right at when Kenji got his answer. You just had to tease us like that. AaAaargh!!

Seriously, not since Giant Killing have I gotten so worked up over a simple cliff-hanger. I mean this episode was just so good. It was wonderful to see the astronauts relax on the moon and chit-chat, Mutta’s adventure in the supermarket had me in stitches (and besides, how often do you see characters just do groceries in anime? It’s such a good way to flesh them out). I already was in an incredibly good mood with this series when suddenly out of nowhere it skipped five days to the JAXA phone calls. I Yelled at my screen when I realized how the creators were in that evil mood again to stop right at the worst possible time.

With this, I also realized that this episode had some quiet moments that were quite peculiar. Moments in which nobody just said anything for a few seconds, but their expressions said so much about what they felt.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)