Author: psgels

The Third – 15 – OMG Honoka O_o

by psgels, posted in The Third


Seriously. This was an amazing episode! I can’t believe that the creators would go this far, at this stage of the anime.

Okay, so Honoka got mortally wounded. That by itself already was amazing. It’s clear that she’ll recover somehow, as we haven’t reached. But why was I so hoping for her to be safe? Why did I keep wanting her not to die. If an anime manages to do this with me, it seriously has done something special.

Okay, a quick summary. The episode starts rather gloomy, when it seems that Millie still keeps her feelings inside of her. Ever since the previous episode, Bogie has been travelling for three days. During those three days, Millie only smiled once. And that’s when she managed to hit a can with the gun she got from Honoka. Then, they reach the sandstorm with the desert fairy in it, as well as Kanwei and Leon. Leon starts shooting at Kanwei, after which Honoka runs up to him and the two end up in a fight. Honoka looks to be winning, though then Leon blasts two small lasers through her body, and she faints. Ikus takes her back to Bogie, and there it seems that even his healing powers aren’t enough. In the end, all hope is left on Kanwei, who also dropped by.

There’s also a bit of info given about the fairy and Leon. The fairy seems to be called Star Seed. She’s the seed of life, which seems to be spread over the entire universe. Within her, all the genetic data of all living beings is stored. She seems to be travelling all kinds of worlds, collecting DNA, in order to transport lives from here to some kind of newborn planet. I think that she uses the DNA from those she saves in the desert as guidelines. Leon seems to be a phantom, made out of liquid metal. Usually, these phantoms have degenerated into pieces of nothing, though nano-machines make them smart. Phantoms also can absorb each other, in order to become smarter and stronger. It seems that Leon’s absorbed quite a few other phantoms.

The highlight of this episode definitely was the reaction of Ikus, Millie and Bogie to Honoka’s wounds. Millie really was too sad when she found out about this. And especially Bogie surprised me. He always is as objective as possible. But when Kanwei starts doing strange things with Honoka, he suddenly starts yelling, telling someone to stop the wolf. Especially if you consider that he’s actually just AI. In any case, this was a wonderful episode. I won’t be surprised if The Third ends up as the best series of the spring season.

Otogi Juushi Akazukin – 12 – Things you wouldn’t expect from a children’s show

by psgels, posted in Otogi Juushi Akazukin


This episode’s main purpose was to introduce a number of new characters. The problem is that their relationships are quite complex. If you combine this with my lack of Japanese, things become quite hard to understand. This episode also was pretty dark, with themes you wouldn’t expect in a children’s anime. The bad guys are no longer the only ones who get slain. Something I never saw coming.

Anyway, a quick rundown of the new characters.

First, we have a strange villager, carrying an accordion. We see him at the beginning of the episode, where he discovers some strange eyes, glowing out an abandoned building. Later in the episode, he warns Souta not to go inside that building, as a monster is wandering around in its wine cellar. I’m not sure whether he’s an important character, or just appeared during this episode. At first looks, he just was a random villager who ran into the monster in the wine cellar, but then again, why did he carry an accordion? And why did he have to act so mysterious (as in, randomly disappearing without a trace)?

Second, a new bad guy. The one with only a single eye. We see him for the first time when he talks to Randagio. He seems to be his superior, or something. His name is spoken, but it’s even harder to figure out how to spell it than with the Bremen City Musicians. I’ll go with Rarudo for now, even though it’s a rather strange name. In any case, he looks quite scary.

Third, another bad guy. He appears along with Rarudo. It seems that his name is Jedo, though for some reason, he wants Randagio to call him “Eternal King Jedo-Sama”. The conversation that he and Rarudo have with Randagio could also mean that Eternal King Jedo-Sama is another major bad guy, who wasn’t present at that time. Otherwise, the guy would be speaking about himself in third person.

The fourth is a character who only appears this episode, seeing as he disappears afterwards. He’s a monster who lives in the wine cellar at the abandoned house, mentioned above. He’s able to take the form of a human, and when Souta meets him, he learns that he isn’t a monster after all. It’s just that he’s become lonely after everyone labelled him as a monster and stayed away from him.

The fifth is the strangest of the bunch. I’m not really sure what he’s up to. He seems to have come to town to slay the monster in the cellar, but he acts nice towards Souta when he finally did so. When Baru found out that the two of them have met, he suddenly got extremely serious. For some reason, the monster names Jedo’s name as well when he’s about to get killed.

I’m not sure who belongs to which party, but it’s great to see that this is not just a fight between good and evil. We have Souta’s side, we have the side of the Bremen City Musicians, we have Cendrillion’s side and now Jedo’s side has also appeared. And why does Randagio seem to have connections with each of the last three of them?

In any case, Randagio was pretty funny during this episode, when he tried to get his hands on the key yet another time. The Nightmarians he summoned were quite creative as well. Instead of summoning one huge creature, he summons a bunch of flees. ^^ Quite annoying if you have no idea how to deal with them. During the end of the episode, he also has a very funny discussion with Cendrillion. She tries to say something to him, but because he’s forced to keep such a large distance from her mirror, he can’t hear what she says. ^^ I love it when he gives the more serious characters a funny side.

Oh, and Raikan, that was the person who was with Cendrillion in episode 10, wasn’t it? *kicks memory*

Night Head Genesis – 08 – Ah, So That’s Shouko’s Power

by psgels, posted in Night Head Genesis


An episode focused on the main plot of the anime, instead of an individual case. A bit less awesome than usual, though. There wasn’t enough pain and suffering, unfortunately.

In any case, a few things about Shouko become clear. It seems that she’s at a warp which connects the entire world. No time and no space exist where she is. This has showed her things she needs to know. Still, it also seems that she doesn’t know everything. She doesn’t know what the “Upheaval” means. it does seem that she left some messages for the two brothers in Miki’s care. Their memories about their parents aren’t false. And she shows them the strange scriptures she was reading in episode one.

Naoto and Naoya seem to have a very strange power. The power to change reality. Much details aren’t known yet, though it does seem that people will be trying to take advantage of them. At the end of the episode, we also get to see another psychic, who seems to have another vision-ability. I think he can see alternative futures, or something in that direction. In any case, he sees a future in which Naoto and Naoya have killed the entire world population. He’ll probably be coming after them soon.

A strange tattooed man also appeared during this episode. I’m not sure what his purpose was, or who sent him, though it did seem that he was trying to profit from the brothers’ sorrow. He makes Naoto and Naoya see that they seem to have more abilities than they thought they had. He wasn’t really interesting, though. Just an overconfident bastard.

xxxHolic – 21 – Watch Out For Giant Scissors

by psgels, posted in xxxHolic


I’ve got one problem with this episode. The case this time is focused on Watanuki, instead of a customer. The episode is about superstitions. At one time, Watanuki’s clipping his toenails, after having heard that you can’t clip your toenails at night, because if you do, you won’t be with your parents when they die. His parents are dead, so he ignores this. Because of this, he gets attacked by a giant pair of scissors.

Well, the problem I have lies with Yuuko’s explanation. The people who came up with these superstitions were trying to prevent people from doing something. They knew you’d be attacked by a giant pair of scissors if you clipped your toenails at night, that’s why they subtly tried to warn others. But that doesn’t make any sense, as why is Japan the only country who believes in this? If this really were true, rumours and stories like these would appear over the entire world.

But now that I think about it… the scissors could also have been Yuuko, who tried to make Watanuki believe in superstitions.

Watanuki basically had it right: there is no such thing as superstitions. When you believe in things like these, you start paying attention to the details. For example, when you break a mirror. Every time you have bad luck, you notice it, and blame it on the mirror. Tons of good things may have happened, but you don’t even notice these. You just keep focusing too much on the bad parts that you loose your view of the overall picture. Most of the superstitions work like these, and that’s also the reason people are still believing in them.

I think that this episode was just one big attempt of Yuuko, trying to play with Watanuki’s mind. First of all, Watanuki never turned into a cow. His body just got heavy. I think indigestion problems can be blamed. His obsession with Himawari’s ribbon was just something psychological. He already was a bit ill, so he couldn’t concentrate on things properly. He then focused his eyes at Himawari (logical, as he has an eye on her), and concentrated on the most attention-catching aspect: her ribbons. His mind, meanwhile, told him that he was a cow, and for some reason, he began to think that cows chase after red, moving things. He probably was at the point at which he began confusing cows with bulls. And at the beginning of the episode, at which Watanuki tripped over his own shoelaces was also some good timing by Yuuko. She just made him forget about tying them, which can easily result in him tripping over them.

Still, Watanuki’s story about how the death of his parents made him stop believing in superstitions really was touching. He also reached a nice conclusion. It’s always nice to believe in them, as long as they’re fun. Overall, the episode was nice, but frankly, it dealt with a theme which has been a bit too much overused (that, or I just watched way too many American cartoons when I was young).

Dead Leaves Review – 71/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


After Mind Game, it seemed a good opportunity to check out another infamously absurd movie: Dead Leaves. It’s interesting to compare the two of them. Both movies are as far away from normal as possible, both are just crazy, both have their own good points, and both have their own bad points.

Let me issue a warning before I continue: Dead Leaves is absolutely not meant for little children. It can and will have a bad influence on them. The entire movie basically is a senseless violence-fest, with lots of maniacal gunfights and explosions whose purpose seems only to entertain the viewer. There’s also a huge dose of foul language in this, so keep this away from your little brother and sister.

One of the most notable differences between Mind Game and Dead Leaves was the fact that while Mind Game had its moment in which the pacing was very slow, Dead Leaves absolutely does NOT have these. The pacing is huge from beginning to end. Especially if you combine this with a couple of hyperactive characters, you’re in for a huge roller-coaster ride.

The story’s like this. A man and women wake up somewhere, unable to remember anything. They’re naked and decide to rob a store, with lots of violence and gunfights. After a huge car chase, they get caught by the police and end up in a mutant prison on the moon. In there, they discover that in this prison, pretty gruesome things happen. Over the course of the anime, some pretty interesting plot twists occur. Overall, it’s a pretty creative story. The main characters are an interesting bunch. We have a hyperactive man with a television as head and a very tough, sarcastic woman. They really are very funny at times. There wasn’t really any point at which I found them annoying.

Still, Dead Leaves does have its bad points. Unlike Mind Game it has some predictable points. Okay, some events are impossible to predict, but during some scenes, you only have to wait for the inevitable to happen. The character art also differs from normal anime. It’s a bit messy. It looks interesting at times, some characters have really creative designs (the television guy, some of the goons. These really looked evil when they wanted to). Other characters, however, look just plain. Another strange thing I noticed was that near the end, the overall animation quality suddenly got bogged down.

The major bad part of Dead Leaves was its infinite amount of action. Gunfights can be very entertaining at times, though a series has to know its limits. Dead Leaves doesn’t. Most of the times, we see people shooting as much bullets at each other until one of them dies. After the twentieth time, this gets rather annoying. The mindless killing also really got on my nerves at times, as they didn’t really add anything new.

Overall, like Mind Game, dead leaves was a very nice watch at times. Some scenes were very creative and amusing to see. Other scenes, however, ruined the movie a bit. Still, if you’re some kind of action or foul language junk, you’ll probably love this.

The Third – 14 – And The Art is Back To Normal ^^

by psgels, posted in The Third


Ooh, this really was an excellent episode. I always felt that the Gravestone arc, although it was awesome to see, it lacked something. And now I know what: Millie. Still, right now I’m fearing that the current arc will lack Paife. =P

In any case, during this episode it really becomes clear that Millie is only trying to be strong and independent. When Honoka starts treating her as if she needed help, she gets angry at her. She runs away and almost gets caught by a Hangeki (a huge sand-trap desert monster). If it wasn’t for the desert fairy, the wolf (Kanwei) and Honoka, she would have died back then. That only makes Honoka realize that she didn’t even try to understand Millie. It’s exaggerated, but it delivers some awesome results as well.

The best part of the episode definitely was when Millie forgets about being strong and starts crying, while clinging to Honoka. She was so sad and cute at that moment. (notice her red eyelids when she’s asleep afterwards?) If these scenes keep up, The Third will definitely get an incredible second half. I’m trying not to take The Third’s awesomeness for granted, though (*coughHackRootscough*). Still, The Third already has made a huge impression on me. The creators have to do very strange things in order to screw up and make me hate this series.

The plot seems to go in the direction of the wolf, the fairy and the desert eater. So far, it sounds very interesting. Who was this girl next ot the wolf? Why is it searching for the desert fairy? What is a desert fairy anyway? Why does it act the way it does? Why is the desert eater after it?

Overall, The Third is awesome, and with this episode, the awesomeness only increased.

Popolocrois 2003 – 13 – Recap

by psgels, posted in Popolocrois 2003


Recap. Luna reflects what happened in the past episodes (with a bit of help of Punpun and Kotarou). You could say that this episode marks the ending of the first half, and the beginning of the second half.

Ever since the previous episode, Luna has been unable to return to her human form. Pinon has been busy with his homework and Marco has been busy with mother, I think. That’s why she’s getting kindof lonely. Then, Pinon asks Ulala (who was as funny as usual this episode) to deliver her the message that he’ll be seeing her again. During the end of the episode, they have a happy reunion.

Still, this episode did contain a few bits of new information. Luna lived in some kind of castle, but she had a fight with her mother and ran away. It also seems that she couldn’t go ashore at all costs. Otherwise she’d meet the same fate as when Narcia goes to the sea.

Still, the most interesting moment happened right before the end of the episode, in which Luna reveals quite some interesting things. She wished to be human again, to have a second golden key. Though she shouldn’t have wished that, as the Law of the Moon would be broken by this.

What exactly is going to happen in the next episodes?

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 23 – Awesomeness

by psgels, posted in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni


You know? That actually was a pretty awesome episode. After its incredibly weak fifth arc, the sixth arc definitely brings this show back at its original level of high quality. This episode definitely contained some of the best moments in Higurashi.

Still, nothing much regarding the main plot directly happens. Rena kills Rina and Satoko’s uncle, Keiichi, Mion Rika and Satoko find out about this and decide to fully support her. They clean up the bodies afterwards. We then switch to the Watanagashi, in which Oishi smiles with an evil grin and the episode ends. This is all very important to the storyline of the sixth arc, but except for a new perspective on Satoshi, the main story stayed away again during this episode…

…unless you start looking at the changes in personality for each of the characters. Especially Keiichi shows some interesting signs. He was kindof unique in the first arc. In that arc, the disease really got to him and he started doubting his friend, and he ended up killing them. During the second arc, however, we see that he’s suddenly become extremely nice. This continues up to the third and fifth arc, and now as well, in the sixth arc. He just does everything in order to protect his friends. I think it’s because of his history, being bullied and all. He finally made some good friends, and didn’t want to lose them. But what caused him to freak out in the first arc?

Now that I mention it, there’ve been more characters who had one arc in which their personality was totally different if you compare them with the other arcs. In some cases in two of these arcs. Satoko, for example. In arc 3 she shows a totally different side than the ones she showed in arc 1, 2 and 6. The fifth arc lies a bit in between, I think. Rika also acts differently in arc 4 and 5 if you compare it to arc 1, 2 and 3. The different arcs lead to different personalities of the different characters. what causes this?

Anyway, back to Satoshi. When we saw the body at the beginning of the third arc, I began to look for possible victims. It either was Keiichi or Satoshi, though I chose for Satoshi, seeing the things he went through. Now, I’ve been notified that this assumption is totally wrong. It was Rina. (Notice the star tattoo on the corpse?) If that’s the case, what the heck happened to Satoshi?

Regarding that, I’m going back to a theory I got during the first and second arc (if I remember it correctly): Satoshi still being alive. He was saving money for something. He killed his aunt and ran away, using that money. Probably because he wanted to protect Satoko, though he couldn’t face her after what he did. Rika also didn’t mention his name on the list of people to die during the fourth arc, suggesting that he didn’t die at that day. This is even more confirmed by Mion, at the end of the fifth arc, in which she confesses that she never knew anything about Satoshi, and nobody from the village killed him.

The flaws in this theory:
– We still have Tomitake.
– Why didn’t Satoshi kill his uncle? He’d seem worse than his aunt…
– Where the heck is Satoshi right now?

Oh, I almost forgot. We also get to hear a bit of background we didn’t know yet. The garbage dump seems to be the construction site of the dam. The first murder also was supposed to be committed here. And along with one of the culprits, one body part of the victim seems to be missing. Hmm, I wonder where it went.

Another thing I’m wondering: did Rena kill Rina in the previous arcs as well? Could that be the reason she freaks out at times? Because she didn’t have Keiichi and the others near her, who accepted and supported her, even though they knew what she did? Could this be linked to the third arc, when Keiichi killed Satoko’s uncle, after which he found out that he didn’t kill the guy? Could it be Rena’s work? After all, she did tell him she was going for a bit of treasure hunting.

I’m very interested to see what the last three episodes will be about. This episode already proved to be awesome. How will Rena react to all of this? What material will be presented?

Oh, and one more thing: when will the Higurashi OVA be announced?

Mind Game Review – 72/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Mind Game has been on my to-watch list for quite some time now, as it was both produced by Studio 4C and I heard good recommendations about it. Well, now that I’ve seen it, what do I get? Well… good question!

I’m not sure how to describe Mind Game. The closest I can think of is Robinson Crusoë who’s been smoking dangerous stuff. This really is one of the more absurd movies I’ve seen. Even Eikyuu Kazoku seems like an ordinary walk in terms of strangeness. We’ve got a guy, who’s much like a loser. He’s got a girl he likes, he confessed to her, though he keeps getting too scared to take initiative. Until she gets a new boyfriend. So far it’s normal, though this is where every possible connection with the word “normal” ends. The main character, the girl and her new boyfriend sit the restaurant of the girl’s family. A very dangerous guy comes in and starts causing trouble. He then sees our main character, who can’t move out of fear, and he kills him.

Our main character then has a talk with god, after which he starts to freak out because of his own foolish mistakes. He runs away from god and turns back to life. In there, he kills the guy who killed him and runs away with the girl and her sister. In the end, they end up in the belly of a huge whale, along with a strange old man. That’s where most of the story takes place, believe it or not.

I’ve got a hate/love relationship with this absurdness. On one side, there are times at which it really works. We get to see a very creative car chase, and the characters work good with all of the chaos which bursts out of nowhere. At other times, however, the show gets a bit annoying. We often get to see useless fanservice, and some chaotic scenes drag on for a bit too long. I believe that this movie could’ve been more successful if it had been trimmed down to the length of one hour, instead of the 1 hour and 40 minutes it has now.

The graphics are again drawn in the typical style of Studio 4C. Still, for some reason, it didn’t really appeal to me in the way Mahou Shoujotai, Eikyuu Kazoku, Beyond and Comedy did. The animation, then again, shows that this is a big budgeted movie. Overall, it looks pretty creative and fluid. Something you can expect of a normal movie. The background art, however, is where this movie does excel. Things look as creative as ever, though Studio 4C has always been excellent in this department.

Overall, it was a nice watch, but it was definitely not Studio 4C’s best work. I’m suggesting you to check out Mahou Shoujotai, Eikyuu Kazoku and Comedy if you are trying to see some of their stuff. Still, I have to admit. The beginning of the movie, aka before they got into the whale’s belly was worth the watch.

Night Head Genesis – 07 – Children’s Grudges

by psgels, posted in Night Head Genesis


Even though the coincidence is a bit too obvious, I still love the way Night Head Genesis introduces its cases. Every case Naoto and Naoya run into is somehow linked to its previous case. The killer woman was in the pub. The suicides all happened near the place Naoto and Naoya grew up. The culprit behind these suicides happens to be Shouko’s little brother. As so little anime are attempting this, the effect that this gives is great.

In any case, like I said, the culprit was Shouko’s little brother. He seems to have the power of mind control, which he used to kill off the bikers who killed his dog and ran away. Quite a shock for such a little boy. When such a thing happens to ordinary children, they start screaming and yelling. But what if a kid has potentially killing powers? Right. Then things get out of control. Still, it worked perfectly. The boy was so sad in this.

His mother also plays an interesting role in this. She knew about her son’s power, though she just let him do what he wanted. It’s indeed the depth of a mother’s love. Though I wonder why she hasn’t discovered Shouko’s power yet. It may be that because of Shouko’s disappearance, she allowed her son to kill off those students. She was too scared to lose him as well.

The teacher, coach and popular girl also were very nice. The teacher was on good terms with the students. When she realized that she was being used to kill them off, she got cornered. As she couldn’t do anything, I think the least she could do was put their pictures on her altar, as a means of paying them respect. The popular girl actually was in love with Megumi, the first girl who died. She probably kept chasing after the boys because she was scared of being found out. And the coach was uninvolved as well. He was just a horny coach. Nothing more.