This episode was quite an interesting experience. After watching it, I really have to say that Shion no Ou is going to be one of the best series this season, especially the 12-episoded ones, even though it was quite hard to understand this episode. It’s basically one huge Shougi-match, and for the first time in the series we actually see some strategy, and we’re allowed to see how the game develops.
Even though the only I know about Shougi is the things I remembered from wikipedia (the difference between the king, bishop and rooks and pawns), and I did get a vague idea of how the game developed, and how Shion again got defeated by Ayumi, but still providing a huge challenge for him. I like how the match just took up one episode, and that’s a benefit for the short length of this series: often board-game anime like this tend to drag on for ages but Shion no Ou can’t waste such time because it’s only got twelve episodes.
One thing I also loved about this game was the huge role that was given to the spectators, and how they were commenting on the game. Hanimeji (that was his name, right?) was especially interesting, due to his realistic and expert-view of the game. Obviously, everyone wants Shion to win, but things don’t always go that easy.
And I love Shion even more after this episode. While this isn’t the first time where you see a character pass out after an intense game, the way this series presents it is refreshingly detailed. Shion was basically both sick and she had her period, and the only thing that kept her awake was her desire to win over Ayumi (yeah… the anime explains this better).]]>
Author: psgels
Dennou Coil – 23
So, yes. Today’s episode is a recap. Don’t bother hoping for a bit of new content like with episode 14: there isn’t. Every frame of this episode was basically recycled from the other episodes. I really wonder why the creators had to include a recap at this point, so close to the climax. I mean, for a series with 26 episodes, three recaps is just too much.]]>
Saiunkoku Monogatari – 64
Now this is what I call an excellent episode! This arc is finally beginning to shine again after the countless episodes of building-up, and the main plot also finally gets moving into a very interesting direction. This was by far the best episode of the series yet, since the month-long hiatus back in August and September.
There are three storylines that were important in this episode: the one about small Riou, the one about Suou and a new one, which has to do something with salt. If I understood things correctly, then someone is preventing salt-merchants to arrive in the capital, and Shuurei’s going to be busy for the next couple of episodes to try and sort that one out.
The storyline that surprised me the most was that of small Riou, though: he’s big Riou’s son! Not only that, but he just hangs out with Ryuuki in the library like it’s nothing, even though both his brother and father went after Shuurei. I’m still curious about the relationship between big Riou and Ryuuki, as there doesn’t seem to be any hostility between the two of them.
Tantan’s story featured some great build-up in this episode. He basically says his goodbye to Shuurei this episode by letting her play the erhu for him, because he knew that his father was going to drag him in another one of his plans. Could this have something to do with the salt?
On a smaller note: Seiran remains absent in this episode, an Ki Kouki makes his first move towards Shuurei. Oh, and Shuurei and Ryuuki see each other again, and Ryuuki eats some of the lunch that Shuurei prepared.]]>
Shugo Chara – 05
So, according to Hinano this episode is supposed to be a filler. Still, I liked it a lot more than the previous episode, which seems to have come from the manga. The storytelling for the case of this episode (a guy who loves playing soccer, but isn’t the best at it) was way better than the messed-up stewardess that attacked with bad Engrish.
Sure, the thing was still as predictable as ever, but it’s not like Shugo Chara has been known for its dramatic twists. This actually makes me hope that the director is going to go for his own storyline, as the previous episode did show that he’s got some troubles with trying to convert the manga-format in anime. This episode also convinced me that the best things about this series are the Chara-changes. It’s hilarious to see the characters act beyond their defined characters in a totally outrageous way.
Then there’s also the matter of the heavy Utena-influences. I hope that the creators did realize that the thing that Made Utena great is how it developed its elegant characters, and not the fact that it had elegant characters in the first place. 😛 The best example would be Hotari’s admirer and the strange old tv-presenter-woman. It’s very unlikely that the creators will go for it, but it would be awesome if the two of them actually get their own piece of development at some point during the anime, which will make them more than just stereotypes.]]>
Baccano! Review – 93/100
Anyone who tries the first episode of Baccano! will immediately notice one thing: the immensely huge cast of characters. I could be wrong, but this can very well be the 13-episoded series with the biggest amount of characters ever. While it’s incredibly hard to make a story with so many characters that stretches over three different timelines come together, the creators of Baccano! actually pull this off. And how!
Basically, Baccano! combines immortal alchemists with the American Mafia in 1930. It works quite well, because there are so many different characters, they just have to go beyond the clichés in order to prevent characters who look too much like each other. This results in the quirky thieves of Isaac and Miria, the psychotic Ladd and the charming Luck. While it’s of course impossible for the character to reach the same level of depth as, say, Toward the Terra, but the creators did manage to give every important character (if I had to guess, there’s about thirty of them) an identity, a clearly defined role, a small piece of development and an actual personality.
And I haven’t even started talking about the story yet. Basically, it goes from a completely incomprehensible first episode to a captivating mystery-series, where all the threads of the huge amount of side-stories end up resolved at the end of the final episode. It furthermore tells the story of three, sometimes even four, related timelines right through each other. Because of this, the creators are able to plan the climaxes really well, and they turn into one huge success, with a near-perfect combination between comedy, drama and action. I really mean it when I say that Baccano! has some of the best writing of the entire year.
In terms of production-values, this series also shines. Especially the character-designs: not only do the creators manage to give every one of the about thirty important characters a unique look, they manage to actually do this for even the unimportant and side-characters (if I had to guess, there are about eighty of them). The animation may not look crisp, but it’s detailed, never giving off a feeling of still-frame abuse. The soundtrack consists out of a bunch of catchy Jazz-tunes, which makes me wonder why not more anime turn to this, as it works great to give action-scenes a bit of a quirky touch.
Regarding the bad points, there aren’t really any true flaws about this series, apart from the sacrifices that had to be made for the good points. The first episode is basically one huge puzzle, and only later in the series will things start to make sense. The characters individually aren’t very special either. It’s only when they are combined with others that they become special and interesting.
Overall, there need to be more anime like Baccano! It’s not often when you run into a series that’s as well-written as this one. It’s a definite recommendation from me, provided that you can take a few gory scenes that pop up once in a while.]]>
Baccano! – 13
So, certain things just had to happen. This episode had a huge disadvantage in terms of predictability, and still it turned out great, even though we knew that Ennis was going to retaliate to her creator and Jacuzzi was going to kick the guy in black suit’s butt. Yes, these things happen, but in this final episode, so much more gets wrapped up.
Ladd indeed ends up unconscious, at the side of the railroad, with one arm gone, just like we saw in the first episode. After that, Rail Tracer actually ends up proposing to Chane, explaining how Chane ended up in the water in the first episode: when Rail Tracer didn’t look, she jumped into a river. Nick does the same, while Nice goes to check up on Jacuzzi, who manages to win against the leader of the guys in black suits, like expected. What I didn’t expect is a scene of Jaccuzi, right after Nice had her accident that made her lose her eye. Quite cute. ^_^
What’s even cuter is the reunion of the two lovers, especially when Jaccuzi spots Rail Tracer, thinking it’s an enemy (probably Ladd). Czeslaw also gets a surprisingly large amount of development when basically both Isaac and Miria and Maiza just greet him, without eating the guy. I guess he’s been so afraid of immortals ever since he the horrible things that his companion did to him. It’s interesting: he does remain a child, despite having lived for so long. It’s not something you can recognize in other anime that feature children that somehow are much older than they look. I loved how his story turned out. 🙂
Back in 1930, I just had to be amused when every single person who drank the sake that Isaac and Miria had been passing around returned at the same time. It seems that also a bunch of guys from the Mafia drank it, and the final fight between Firo and Szilard was awesome. I also loved how everyone reacted so happily after discovering being immortal, considering how Maiza had been hiding his secret for years and years, and probably grew scared of it.
And I just had to laugh when I found out what happened to Dallas. The idiot. It’s a bit of an anticlimactic ending, but it fits the guy perfectly, to be trapped in concrete for ages because the Gandors couldn’t find a way to kill him. It may be a bit strange that this story was included in the anime, though. Baccano! is basically the story of the immortals Isaac and Miria (as shown by the aftermath, where we see the two of them as energetic as ever in 2001), and the people they meet. The Dallas-storyline was about the only thing they didn’t have anything to do with, apart from the fact that the Gandors and Eve had met Isaac and Miria at one point.
And to close off this post, those who’ve been reading my blog know that I kept wondering who the guy in shadows was, who was searching for someone in the first episode. My speculations went from Dallas to Czeslaw’s companion, but in the end: it was Rail Tracer. The one he was looking for is simple: Chane. After all, she disappeared after he proposed to her. Of course he’d search for her. I know about the DVD-only episode, but I’ll be closing off Baccano! for now. This really has been an amazing series, and a recommendation for everyone who doesn’t mind a bit of gore here and there.]]>
Ghost Hound – 03
I am SO glad that at least one series of the new fall-season has horror-elements. It’s really shaping up to become one of my most favourite genres, especially because the Japanese style of storytelling works so damn well with it. And I don’t mean the gore-style horror. Anyone can cut off limbs or draw scary monsters. The horror I’m referring to is the psychological one. Another thing I like about this is how horror-series can often captivate me throughout their entire airtime, in comparison to, say, dramas, which more often than not only stand out because of their climaxes.
The horror in this episode was excellent, and at the same time it developed both Tarou and Masayuki, as the two of them, accompanied by Oogami go to see the abandoned hospital, in order to try and make Tarou remember. It also seems that all three of them suffer from traumas. We already knew this about Tarou (kidnapped along with his sister who’s now dead) and Oogami (witnessed his father after he killed himself), but it also seems that Masayuki hasn’t had a perfect youth: he killed a classmate of his. For the exact details, I need to watch the subs, but it’s clear that he’s still haunted by it.
What also surprises me is how close Tarou and Masayuki suddenly are. Last episode, Tarou was getting all tsundere when Masayuki tried to approach him, but the current episode did start with Masayuki, who invited Tarou to his place. We also see a bit more of Miyako, who has visions of Tarou’s childhood. Could she have some kind of post-traumatic disorder as well? The episodes so far were deeply rooted in psychology, so I can imagine that she has.]]>
Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 05
It’s strange… usually I can think of witty introductions for my posts, but for this one… I can’t. This episode was really good, and I love how Kaiji came out of it, but it’s hard to explain why. The best part was the part about the title of this episode, though: desperation. Kitami and his friends are probably the only ones on the floor left with more than three stars and the only ones where Kaiji knows something about their amount of cards, and Kaiji had to do everything to keep them interested in playing, especially when Furuhata and Andou kept clinging to their final star.
That latter part is quite interesting, and quite in-line with human nature. Humans aren’t inclined to put their lives on the line, despite what other anime-series might make you believe. Even though they were destined to lose in long-term, and the best chance of winning comes from challenging Kitami, they refuse to let go of their safeties for as long as possible.
Now about the next episode, the problem is that Kaiji still needs to win himself 3 more stars in order for all three of them to survive. For that, he plans to buy out all of the papers from Kitami as well, though the question now remains: how is that going to get him three more stars when everyone else has just scissors? The thing also is that now that the cards are running out, everyone’s getting more and more desperate, so the overall atmosphere is going to look grimmer and grimmer. Then there’s also that little matter that Kaiji and the others still have a huge amount of debt on their hands.]]>
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Strikers Review – 74/100
Judging continuations has always been tricky. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS is the third instalment of the Nanoha-franchise, which I personally loved. It’s hard to not get caught up in huge expectations, which can ruin a show. Still, despite knowing this, this series disappointed me, and I don’t think that my initial expectations are the only ones to blame.
Basically, in this series, Nanoha has grown up. She’s an adult now, and we join her and the other members of the previous seasons as they form their own division in the military, where their purpose is to protect people from accidents and magical incidents. The series starts as four new rookies have joined as new recruits, and get educated to become law-enforcement mages as well.
The original two Nanoha-series worked for me because of their antagonists. They were deep, and much, much more than just random people who wanted to destroy the world. They were all fighting for their beliefs, even knowing that what they did was ethically unjustified. StrikerS in its turn, creates two more of these villains: Zest and Agito. The two of them are deep and well-developed, and therefore they’re a delight to watch.
But there lies the major problem. This series doesn’t have two antagonists, it’s got freaking eighteen of them. I wish I could say that they’re as well developed as Zest and Agito, but alas: it’s far from that and the phrase “cookie cutter” fits them unfortunately much better. Some of them have only one-line personalities, others are just conveniently brainwashed good guys and while the villains who do get a bit of actual attention (Scaglietti and surprisingly Lutetia) have huge holes in their background story, shallow development and could have been so much more in the end. For a franchise that produced such sympathetic antagonist in the past, this is just unforgivable.
While it’s less apparent, the side of the good guys isn’t flawless either. With 26 episodes instead of the usual 13, you’d think that there’d be enough development to flesh them out well, but for some reason, the creators decided that it’d be better to spend too much time on one group of character, while overly neglecting another group of characters. This leads to quite an unbalanced cast. On one side we have Nanoha, Fate and the four new rookies. They’re fleshed out, developed and all, but the cast is filled with much more (very often more interesting) characters, who hardly ever get any serious attention, other than a few minutes at a time, and most of them lack any sort of background and development. The setting is also horribly neglected. Where does Section Six the section of the military where Nanoha and the others work, stand exactly in the world? After 26 episodes, I still have no idea.
It’s not like Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS is bad. I quite enjoyed certain parts of it. The storyline is quite nice and complex, and the creators did well in creating a setting where difference in experience in combat is actually noticeable, due to the huge focus on it. The characters that were developed were worth the watch as well. But as the continuation of Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha and Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s, it just fails and disappoints, making this by far the worst series of the franchise, despite the doubled length.]]>
Suteki Tantei Labyrinth – 05
This really is a strange series…. this episode too: it had many points to like, and many points to dislike. Let me start with the bad ones: this series does feel annoying at parts. The officials who were pestering Yaya’s brother were stereotypes and nothing special. The way their boss also begged the bad guy to do something about Yaya’s brother was awful. I mean, he could have done this himself just as well, if he was desperate enough. I also wonder why nobody else, for eight consecutive years, hasn’t done something about the huge amount of pollution, other than just masking it with holograms. It all felt a bit stupid to me.
Luckily, the storytelling made up for it. While the story itself is pretty dull, it’s told in an interesting way, and the climax actually worked because of this and the characters. I’m not sure why, but I like Mayuki, the twins and the policeman.
Another thing I appreciated is the bit of development on Yaya, and how she actually has a reason to have a weak health. She definitely steps a bit more away from her stereotype this way. I do wonder, though, why she’s on the same school as Mayuki and the others…. Anyway, next episode we should finally the “detective” part of “amazing detective Labyrinth”.]]>