Author: psgels

Simoun – 22 – Anubitufu

by psgels, posted in Simoun



Interesting. An Anubitifu/Guraghief episode. Didn’t see that one coming. It’s an interestingly paced episode, one you wouldn’t expect at this point of the anime.

The thing starts when Anubitufu makes some decisions Guraghief doesn’t agree with. Remember when Mamiina was shot out of the air? Anubitufu also realized something was wrong when the Sybilla transporting her coffin never returned. Anubitufu sees this as a sign that they don’t have control anymore over their own airspace. He also orders Guraghief not to tell the members of the Chor Tempest about this. That’s where Guraghief doesn’t agree. And he gets angry.

Later, we see them in the church, and Guraghief surprises himself over the fact that Anubitufu would hide things from him, and he no longer understands what he desires. Was this only over the fact that Anubitifu told Guraghief not to tell the Sybilla about Mamiina, or did something happen which we don’t get do see. After all, it’s unlikely to make such a fight because of this. In any case, we later see Anubitifu make a little talk with Wauf. Wauf seems to know that the two of them are hostile to each other. Anubitufu reckons that Guraghief’s too earnest. Wauf makes a comment about how it’s such a pity that he’s a man and he advices Anubitufu to make up with him as soon as possible. After all, you never know, don’t you?

Anubitufu tries to make up in a very original way: by piloting a Simire and commanding the Simoun from the battlefield itself. It works in the end, and it seems that Guraghief has also forgot his grudges with this.

Other interesting characters were Aaeru, the Official, especially Paraietta and a bit of Rödoreamon, Morinasu, Kaimu and Waporifu.

Morinasu gets a small injure after a rather reckless attempt to stop an enemy flyer from being able to hit the capital. It’s not often that you think of such a radical method to stop them. Rodoreamon, meanwhile, shows that she’s not good at all with first aid, and she offers Yun Mamiina’s braid. She seems to have put her trust in Yun to take care of her. Waporifu, meanwhile shows that she’s very good with first aid.

The official’s temper keeps going worse and worse, as the Sybilla keep annoying him more and more when they go against his orders. I think that he isn’t used to people disobeying his orders. He’s probably had a lot of experience in wars, in which everything was strictly regulated. The member of the Chor Tempest must be really new for him, making him unable to deal with them.

Aaeru and Neviriru, meanwhile, spend a part of the episode giving their blessings to the common people who seem to have lost their homes. For Aaeru, this is totally new. We know that she doesn’t believe in Tempus Patiem, but still she’s giving out her prayers. It must’ve felt really weird for her to do. But Neviriru tells her that she remains a Simoun Sybilla, a priest of Tempus Patiem. It’s an interesting view on religion. Teh fact remains that Aaeru’s giving a lot of people the placebo-effect. That’s why religions arrived in the real world in the first place. To give people hope and reassurance. Only later, people began to misuse this, resulting in some bloody events.

Paraietta was awesome. Suddenly, she seems to have realized her importance, and she has made a huge change to herself. She’s decisive, serious. Everything a good leader should be. Kaimu’s reaction to this also was too cute, as she actually started fangirling over her. ^_^;;

Speaking of cute, on a side-note, the eye-catch for this week actually showed Guraghief and Anubitufu in their younger years.

Anyway, about the story, an unexpected twist happens. Both the highlands as the archipelago are actually proposing a peace treaty. That, while they can annihilate Simulacrum any minute now if they want to. For some reason, they also attack after they proposed peace. It seems that this was some kind of warning from them, to put more pressure on Simulacrum and make sure it accepts peace.

I’m wondering what the last four episodes will be about. As of right now, it seems that there won’t be much material left. After all, nobody in the Chor Tempest seems to have any problems, peace has been made, that takes away some big plot holes. But still, there are so many details which still haven’t been solved yet. Why was peace proposed? What happened to Amuria? Will Dominüra and Limone come back? What about the sparkly stuff from Onashia?

Still, I have to admit that Simoun’s reached its height at episodes 14, 15 and 16, in which almost each of the characters was feeling unstable. Right now, it hasn’t been able to reach the awesomeness of these scenes. Mamiina’s death was a very good attempt. It worked perfectly. But there are just too many moments outside of this which, while they are very good, are in no way awesome. I’m hoping for the final four episodes to deliver a bang.

The Third – 10 – Still Going Strong

by psgels, posted in The Third



Aah, I’ve been longing to see more of The Third, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. The episode mainly focused at showing yet another side of Paife, though many more things happened at the same time.

First Honoka. She’s getting really unstable now. I really noticed that she’s trying to keep cheerful, in order to hide all her worries. Still, once she’s with her PSP, she really is cheerful. ^^ It also seems that there’s something more to the last episode, in which Honoka cut down the man-turned-monster. She was extremely shocked afterwards. The reason seems to be that she never cut any human before. For some reason, cutting a human feels different from cutting a Desert Ant, Sand Worm, or Blue Breaker. Honoka found out at that moment, and it keeps haunting her, even in her dreams. Still, this gives evidence for two very interesting things. 1. Honoka did kill before, but not with her katana. What happened at that time? Who did she kill? 2. Honoka has been having nightmares like these every night. There must be more things occupying her mind than just Ikus being gone and having killed a human.

Paife seems to be very annoyed when men are around. That becomes clear when Ikus rejoins Honoka. Her personality is totally different from what she was before. She’s more blunt, and not afraid to hide her annoyance of Ikus. In the end, this annoyance leads to a fight between her and Honoka. She’s noticed that Honoka’s feeling uneasy. This also becomes evident when she practices her swordfighting in the evening. That’s why she steps up to her, to try and talk her out of this depression. She thinks that Honoka should know what reality is. She also lets Honoka know that she’s done some horrible things in the past and that Honoka wouldn’t want to be with her if she knew the things she did.

I’m not sure what she tried to accomplishing by fighting Honoka. I think that she wanted to beat some sense into her. In the end, Honoka beat her in both fighting with and without weapons. Ikus, meanwhile, displayed interesting behaviour when he found out about Honoka’s first kill. This does suggest that he was somehow involved with these punks, and apparently, he felt bad about letting Honoka kill a person.

Over in space, preparations are meanwhile taken to activate the Wormhole Drive, or a huge cannon, used in the great war. Just what went on during the great war anyway? It must’ve been pretty bad. In any case, Joganki has found out that Ikus was located near the site of the warped space. It seems that The Third are indeed tracking him. In any case, he then realizes that Honoka has to be with him. Long story short, Honoka will be blasted if she doesn’t move away from the warped space. Ikus knew this, and tried to stop her from going, though he didn’t really try this with enthusiasm.

There are two main reasons why I’m so in love with The Third. The first one is that it doesn’t seem to have any obvious weaknesses. That almost never happens in anime. Even the best ones have one or two small parts that annoy me. The Third has absolutely no flaws at all. It’s building up perfectly. The second one is the characters. Never have I seen characters who are so fleshed out as in The Third. Especially Honoka shines like no other in this department.

Also, someone from within the warped space was calling Honoka. Who could that be? Who wants to contact Honoka from such a place?

The Animatrix – Program

by psgels, posted in The Animatrix



Program was very interesting. The art style this time resembles that of old japanese samurai-anime. If you combine this with the extremely fluent animation and choreography, the result turns out interesting.

We’ve got a woman, inside a mini-matrix. Another guy comes up, and challenges her for a spar. He then makes a confession to her, while he has blocked the signal so nobody can hear him. He plans to go back to the matrix. The woman doesn’t agree. She can’t turn back from the truth. The two make a small chase, after which the woman kills the guy. In the end, it appeared to be a test for her, to see whether she’d react in the right way. The woman isn’t really happy with it.

The interesting point of this film is the emotional effect the matrix can have on a person. The guy appeared to be a simulation, but when you’re in the matrix, or mini-matrix in this case, you won’t notice. A program was created so, that it would look like the guy she knew in every single way. If that’s the case, how ever can you recognize whether that guy is a fake? In normal anime, people often recognize this because they feel something different, or that their heart knows that they’re being deceived. But the fact remains that the matrix can create these feelings.

Program also had a few claustrophobic moments. The program tells the woman that he’s blocked the signal. When she starts screaming for help, nobody reacts because of this. It must be quite a scary feeling, when you always know that you can escape a “dream”-world because of your comrades. I think that that’s a reason for people to be calm in situations like these. It must be a huge shock to find out that you don’t have a means of returning to the real world. Especially if someone’s about to kill you.

Overall, it isn’t the best. It has yet to reach the brilliance of World Record. Still, it was an interesting watch. The fights also were well-coordinated and full of details, though I admit that they lacked a bit in creativity.

The Animatrix – Final Flight of the Osiris

by psgels, posted in The Animatrix

Ah, CGI. Yet another style of animation, totally different from the others. This, however, doesn’t really mean that Final Flight of the Osiris is good. It’s actually the worst film so far.

See, the problem with Final Flight of the Osiris is that it has awesome graphics, but zero substance. Basically, what happens is a man and a woman are inside a mini-matrix, sparring with swords in sexy outfits when their ship suddenly gets attacked by robots. The rest of the film basically features lots of guns fired at these robots and the robots getting inside the ship and destroying it, causing as much explosions as possible in the process.

The action scenes it features also aren’t very exciting. The fight in the mini-matrix is basically two people stipping each other’s clothes off. The sound effects also made no sense at all. Swords cut way too easily through air. And even though the choreography looks interesting, it remains uninspired. The robots attacking the ship also aren’t very worthwile. Basically, we see lots of guns shooting and robots crawling, but nothing that looks impressive.

Also, sorry for the lack of screenshots. I played this one in a weird format which doesn’t support screenshots, and I only managed to take one of them before my computer started acting weird. And I’m not exactly motivated to spend time to this one.

Tsubasa Chronicle – 40 – That. Was. AMAZING!

by psgels, posted in Tsubasa Chronicle



Wow…

This episode was just incredible. This is what Tsubasa Chronicle should be, in every single way. A true masterpiece.

We get to see an episode entirely devoted to Kurogane’s past. He used to be the son of a demon-slayer and priestess. The country he lived in was the Japan Country, or rather Nihon Country. In this country, monsters and demons have been roaming free. Kurogane’s mother has been creating a barrier to keep their lands free, which takes a toll from her health. This border isn’t really perfect, and his father slays the ones that get through. An interesting fact is that Kurogane and Tomoyo seem to have different names. I think that that’s because of the different languages spoken in the worlds.

In any case, when he was young, Kurogane was an energetic little fellow. He really loved his mother, and he always looked up to his mother. Because his father was a demon slayer, he became inspired to learn how to fight. Over time, he began seeing his father as a rival. Then, at one night, it happened. Kurogane’s father ran into an extremely strong demon. His mother attempts to weaken it, even though her health already is incredibly weak, in order to help her husband. Still, she fails, and dies. Kurogane breaks when he sees this. When he sees his father, being devoured by the demon as well, he loses his mind and goes berserk.

That was so amazing. Afterwards, Kurogane has slain the demon, and continues to idly sit in his rampaged state. Tomoyo and her big sister then arrive, because of a dream she had. She then manages to calm him down, and he starts crying. In the end, it seems that Syaoran picked up a book in a library somewhere. This book told him Kurogane’s history. It’s indeed no wonder that he also starts crying afterwards.

With this episode, my respect for Kurogane has gotten even bigger than it already was. This episode explained bit about how he became the person he is today. We still don’t know what happened to him while he was under Tomoyo’s service, though I do have some theories. I believe that afterwards, he was admitted to the royal army, though somehow, he kept setting his mind on battles. He only wanted to fight stronger opponents, probably in false hope of getting his father and mother back. Over time, these feelings subdued a bit, though his lust for fighting didn’t. That’s why, once he was the strongest in the country, and kept causing trouble, Tomoyo decided to send him to Yuuko.

Popolocrois 2003 – 11 – Uneasiness

by psgels, posted in Popolocrois 2003



Interesting. Someone actually named the Seirei of Darkness. The name was Yasm, though it’s unknown who it was that named it. But then again, it does make sense. After all, Yasm is about to be defeated and we still have 15 episodes to go. Something has to be driving the latter half of the anime.

In any case, this episode was pretty straightforward. Pinon and the others are in the Holy (holy?) Precincts of Darkness, head to Yasm’s castle, battle a bunch of monsters, Pinon slays Yasm, the power of darkness grows weaker and Yasm transforms into a huge owl-like monster.

There was one interesting part about his episode. The darkness was making people uneasy, and the group got separated. They then began seeing illusions of others, talking behind their back, portraying their worries. Pinon began to fear whether Luna, Marco and Papu were really on his side, because of some jokes Marco made earlier. Marco believed that Pinon and Luna just saw him as a nuisance, while Luna still worries whether Pinon and Marco accept her.

Popolocrois continues its story about the adventures of Pinon and his friends, but it does seem to be missing something. I’m hoping for the second part of this anime to redeem it. It’s not like this anime is bad, or anything, but it just crumbles if you compare it to its predecessor, Popolocrois Story 1998.

Popolocrois Story 1998 – 21 – Behold: The Gaminator

by psgels, posted in Popolocrois Story 1998



Aah, I’ve been waiting for this! I’ve been dying to know how Pietoro’s adventures would continue, and I have to say, this was an awesome episode!

It all starts when Gamigami discovers that the roses he prepared for Hyuu have been eaten by someone. He immediately blames Pietoro, though Sanda seems to be the culprit. This doesn’t stop Gamigami’s grugde against Pietoro from becoming worse, so he puts it all in building his new invention: Gaminator. And yes, it is as scary as it sounds. Probably Gamigami’s strongest invention thus far. It’s powered by the anemoritos.

Still, like every invention of Gamigami, something goes wrong. This time, it’s the target detection system. The robot first has to lock on a target, though this takes a while, and the target mustn’t move during that time. Once the target has been identified, Gaminator will stop for nothing until he annihilates his target. Guess what happens? Because Pietoro can’t keep still, Gamigami forces him to stop moving. Gaminator then scans both of them, making both of them the target.

And if you think that this wasn’t great, the story takes another turn for the better when it starts focusing on the main story. Narcia ran into Hyuu, looking for Gamigami, Ston and Sanda with the message that Pietoro’s in trouble. The wind-kind, meanwhile contacted Ston and Sanda. Hilda, meanwhile, got her hands on the item she set Narcia out to deliver for her. It’s a seed from an ancient tree, it’s able to tell the history of the world. In her first attempt, she goes a bit too far back in time when the seed tells her about how the world was born. Once there was darkness. Into that darkness, the will of light, Duon was born. Duon then created the heavens, the earth and the seas. Nice info, though not really useful.

The second attempt reveals quite some interesting information. Once, the wind-king, the dragon-kind and the human-kind tried to unify their powers by using the anemoritos. Once this happened, a huge catastrophe occurred. At the same time when she discovers this, Hyuu tries to take out Gaminator by using her wind powers. The same Gaminator, carrying the anemoritos, already filled with the power of human and dragon kind. The wind-kind realizes this and tries to stop Hyuu, though he gets hit by the Gaminator and disappears. That was so awesome. Hyuu doesn’t realize this, so she fires at the anemoritos once again. Because of this, its power has become too big, and it explodes.

We also get some nice background information about Gamigami. He’s born with nothing, and because of this, and his eccentric personality, he decided to build his own country. Beloved by everyone. That’s why he hates Pietoro, because he keeps getting in his way. Man’s romance seems to be his way of living. It was a surprising, though appreciated bit of information.

This episode entirely changed my view of the wind-kind. After all, all he’s been doing is trying to get Hyuu back. He does love her, in the end, though he has no idea what’s happened with her on when she was away. He also really tried to protect Hyuu, no matter what.

The tombstone, shown at the end of the episode also was quite interesting. Remember around episode two, when the small print of the wind-kind was shown? It seems that it was part of a larger image. A dragon is flying at the top. Wind-kind are flying below it while humans are working at the ground. I’m not sure about its meaning, yet.

Something happened in the past. The dragon-kind, human-kind and wind-kind tried to unify their powers, using the anemoritos, as a step towards the future. This, however, backfired an a huge force was unleashed. Something happened, in which the wind-kind and dragon-kind were severely damaged. The human-kind possibly as well. In the end, the wind-kind died out for some reason afterwards. The dragon-kind still are alive, though they’re very rare. The human-kind somehow managed to recover a bit. It’s probably because they’re the hardest workers of the three. They’ve got the least amounts of power, so they had to already live their lives working hard. Something the dragon-kind and wind-kind had less problems with.

Overall, this episode was amazing. Not the best, but definitely among the better ones.

Popolocrois 2003 – 10 – Standing out

by psgels, posted in Popolocrois 2003



This show is really getting more excited by the minute. Now that all of the Seirei are present, the story moves forward with huge leaps. Ever since the previous episode, the world has been engulfed by darkness. It’s interesting to see what happens when it does. I like the fact that this anime actually tries to make its magic system believable. Darkness is taking over, making light from both the sun and the moon stop reaching the surface. This means that only man-made light sources can provide a bit of visibility, and even these are restricted. This darkness makes people feel uneasy and worried. This actually is the first anime ever to associate darkness with a feeling of uneasiness and worry.

Luna was great in her worries. The fansubbers also provided an some interesting fact about general Japanese citizens. They’re extremely xenophobic. They just can’t stand anyone who stands out, mostly foreigners. Luna feels the same. She thinks that nobody would accept her if they knew her true form, that’s why she tried to hide it, while she in fact, like Pinon mentioned, looks beautiful.

Narcia also comes with a huge revelation: she’s a forest SPRITE instead of a forest WITCH. With this, Popolocrois Story 1998 also becomes a lot clearer. I always wondered why she was able to fly. It also explains why she has her two-point hat. It’d be perfect to hide her two antennas. She seems to be the daughter of the queen of the forest sprites. It’s also very ironic for Luna to think that Pinon would be totally different from her. After all, he’s 25% human, 25% dragon and 50% forest sprite himself. ^^

At the beginning of the episode, Pinon also admits that he’s scared of the darkness. Marco then begins yelling at him, as a real man should never admit to be scared. Still, he’s shaking while he says this. It’s interesting to see that both of them react differently to the sudden events. Pinon’s more of a honest person. Too honest, perhaps. That’s why he’s so quick to admit he’s scared. Marco, on the meanwhile, has been raised by his mother. No wonder that he’d like to look cool in situations like these. ^^

Also, I like the small detail the creators put in the Water-Seirei’s eyes. As it’s the Seirei of water, its eyes are very quick to get watery, making it cry over absolutely nothing. Very creative. Pinon’s character development also became evident during this episode. He actually proposed to go along with Pietoro on his own. He seems to have gained a lot of courage.

Still, overall, at the same point, Popolocrois Story 1998 as featuring an insane Gamigami who was having difficulties stealing Paolo’s crown. Even though Popolocrois 2003 has been amusing, it has yet to reach the level of amazingness its predecessor did. Unfortunately.

Ginga Densetsu Weed Review – 77/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



This was probably one of the most neglected shows to air in the fall 2005-season. It’s imaginable why. After all, it’s a shounen-series featuring dogs battle each other. Most people wouldn’t even bother checking out such a stupid concept. Still, this anime definitely didn’t deserve this incredible lack of attention. Because yes, believe it or not, but it’s actually quite good. Some of the scenes it featured were amazing.

I have to admit, I laughed myself through the first couple of episodes. I just kept comparing it to Excel Saga, with hilarious results. The scenes were just too incredibly overdramatic to be taken seriously. We’ve got the son of the legendary leader of a pack of dogs, who’s been living with his mother ever since their homeplace was invaded by a huge bear. Now, one year later, Weed, our main character (appropriately named after a patch of weed), must go back to this homeplace, as another huge monster has invaded it. It indeed seemed like the standard pattern of a shounen-series, in which our main character would fight enemy by enemy.

But then I suddenly caught myself actually enjoying some of the scenes which were shown. The prediction at the previous paragraph was smattered as the series progressed. You see, this is an anime about fighting a war, with our main character as leader. Weed actually assembles an entire army of dogs, creating a huge cast of side-characters. All with their different story and motivation. We get to see some very interesting war tactics, which show that it isn’t that simple to just win a war. The creators also managed to create a number of very interesting bad guys. Who not only have interesting backgrounds, but also look scary at certain times.

There is one aspect in which Ginga Densetsu Weed really shines. Whenever a character dies, this anime is just incredible. The scenes are turned into an incredible spectacle, all dedicated to give the end of this protagonist or antagonist an as large impact as possible, and it works perfectly. At times, these really make you think about war ethics. If you combine this with the fact that this show’s got lots of characters, and lots of them die, then you’re in for something special.

Like I said, this anime has lots of characters. Surprisingly, most of them are just adults. Weed is one of the few kids among them. Another interesting fact it that the story likes to focus on characters other than Weed. There are plenty of chances in which he takes a step back, so that the story can focus at some of the interesting side-characters. Because of the huge quantity of diverse side-characters, this works great.

Still, this anime remains a shounen-series. Even though it breaks away from some clichés, it still follows others. We’ve got a young male in the lead. He’s got superpowers. He survives. Characters fight each other for too long. Weed’s whining and desire not to kill anyone can also get annoying at times, just like other parts of episodes, in which the characters are just having some fun.

The creators have tried an attempt to try and draw the dogs at a serious way, though it’s clear that they never tried to be realistic. After all, dogs would never do what was being shown in this anime. Dogs also don’t pant or do other things which is typical for dogs to do. When characters talk, their mouths don’t exactly move synchronic with the voices. Still, the background music does deliver. It contributes greatly to the overall mood.

Overall, the show’s got bad points, though the good and creative points totally make up for it. If you like anime centred around wars, you’ll probably like this, though you have to get used to the fact that the main characters are a bunch of dogs. ^^

Otogi Juushi Akazukin – 09 – Shirayuki!! Cute!!!

by psgels, posted in Otogi Juushi Akazukin



A Shirayuki-episode. And a great one. The group runs into a boy, who offers them a free ride. He also seems to be running a restaurant, so the group decides to eat there. In the end, it turns out that they don’t have any money. Ringo then asks the boy (Hansu) to let them work for their meal. Especially Shirayuki doesn’t like this.

She keeps complaining that she’s one of the best graduates of the magic school, and that she’s not fit to do a job like this. She then start to use magic to do her chores, though Hansu begins to yell at her when she does that. In the end, it seems that Nightmarians once attacked his town, killing his parents with magic. Ever since he hates it. Shirayuki then tries to make it up by doing her chores by hand, including carrying a heavy bucket of water. She was SO cute at that moment. ^_^

Then, a couple of Nightmarians attack. This time, they’re a bunch of frogs. They easily die, and they make Hansu and Shirayuki on friendly terms. Furthermore, Fernando indeed was captured by Cendrillion and he let his pet, Kyupi, escape in order to find the three musketeers. The tale Souta was told by his mother also seems to be common knowledge for everyone, and at the end of the episode, Souta gets a strange card, which makes him glow. When it’s put on those strange devices of the Musketeers, it displays part of this story. I’m not sure why it happened, as I didn’t understand it too well.

An interesting scene happened when Kyupi was being chased and about to be caughed. Right before it happens, the screen switches and the creators decide to show a roasted chicken, Souta was about to feast on. Do you think that would be some sort of sign for Kyupi’s future? ^^

Shirayuki seems to be eager to fight with others if she’s given a reason. She’s already on bad terms with Ringo, and this episode showed the same behaviour with Hansu. Still, when she realizes her mistakes, she’s incredibly cute.

Randagio, meanwhile, got scolded by a scary-looking Hansel, while Gretel seems to have decided to stay out of the action for a while. Cendrillion seems to be excited that Erde’s Key has arrived. I think she’s actually glad that Kyupi’s leading Souta to her.