Author: psgels

The Third – 08 – Keeps Getting More Interesting

by psgels, posted in The Third



Okay, that’s something I NEVER would have expected! The Third gives us more and more proof that this will probably be the best series of the Spring Season. And that has to say something, when more than 50 shows came out. It’s just such a pity that the fansubs are coming in so slow. Honoka’s almost reaching Alice in terms of awesomeness.

We start the episode with Honoka and Bogie travelling towards Emporium. They hear some trampling, see a lot of sand blow up in the horizon, only to realize that they’re being chased by a rampaging herd of sandworms. Bogie takes off, attempting to get out of the sandworms’ track, accompanied by a very nice background tune. Just when you think that they made it, they get hit by a sandworm, which really beats up the sand-tank. If Honoka wasn’t in her PSP for protection (yes, mechas can be used for other things than just fighting ;)) she would’ve ended up in the hospital.

It seems that Joey is not enough to fix it completely, as he hasn’t grown enough to reach Zanka’s level, so Honoka has to think of something. Still, Joey does what he can. Bogie is meanwhile taken to the hospital, as it seems he also suffered some damage (why the hospital? Does it have a special section for AI?). Meanwhile, Honoka runs into Kevin, who seems to be tracking some kind of cult which is said to have appeared in Emporium.

Honoka runs into these guys later in the episode, in a cafe. She first has hallucinations about Ikus, after which a group of three guys enters. They try to hit on another main character, introduced this episode: Sensei (for now, I’ll just name her Sensei, as I don’t think her name became clear in this episode). She’s one of Millie’s teachers, and a fairly interesting character. She also seems to have some strange power, which she can use to get control over people for a short while. For some reason, this doesn’t work with Honoka. Her third eye probably interfered.

Millie and Honoka also got to meet each other again. Millie’s turning more amazing by the minute as well. Because she loves Honoka, she wants to study to become a mechanic, so the two of them can be together again. She was so adorible when she said that. Though indeed, Honoka and the doctor fear that she might become a bit too attached to Honoka. I’d love to see how her case gets developed. ^_^

This episode also took another turn you wouldn’t expect so soon in the anime. It seems that there is something in the desert, nearby the sandworms’ nest, which can get out of control any minute now, with the possibility to destroy Emporium within ten days. Honoka also gets sent to investigate in the sandworms’ nest, so this should promise for some awesome scenes. The scenes which introduced this also were perfectly built up, I just loved them.

Overall, The Third is awesome, and it doesn’t show any signs of weakening. It’s another one of these series in which I like every single character, and it deserves to be subbed. I really can’t wait to see more of this.

Popolocrois 2003 – 02 – Gamigami’s got Children?

by psgels, posted in Popolocrois 2003



You’ve got to admit one thing about this anime: the music rocks. Every tune seems to fit, and the ED really is breathtaking. Still, it’s got a long way before it can reach the awesomeness of the 1998-series.

For one, it’s got annoying characters. Pinon and Papu aren’t exactly the best characters ever. Their voice acting is a bit off, especially when they kept calling for each other, it really got on my nerves. Still, Pinon’s got some good points, mostly his struggles to get away from his father’s shadow, though I haven’t seen any good points about Papu.

Basically, in this episode, Papu gets lost and ends up in a lone island offshore. It’s basically meant to show how much Pinon’s willing to do for his new friend. It’s interesting that he’s able to make friends with Papu so easily, while he has troubles with ordinary humans. I guess it’s because Papu was the first who didn’t see him as Pietoro’s son. (Star Ocean Ex, anyone?)

Three new characters are introduced this episode, and we get some signs that Gamigami’s still alive! Woo! We get to meet his children during this episode. This, of course, brings up a very interesting issue: who is the mother? Who would be crazy enough to give a guy such as Gamigami two children? In any case, they do have some antics, though they haven’t reached the brilliance of their father yet. Gamigami was just 100% chaos, while the two of them try to be like him.

The final character to be introduced is Luna. She somehow reminds me of Hyuu in a way. She’s an extremely good swimmer, and the ED seems to suggest that she indeed has affinity with water. It seems that she’s really surprised when she finds out the lengths Pinon’s willing to go through in order to save his friends. The episdoe ends with her, Pinon, Papu and Gamigami’s children being sucked into some kind of portal. Star Ocean Ex all the way.

Still, 2003 did make me see one thing. 1998 doesn’t have any animals or monsters at all! It’s just a character study of each of the different characters, nothing more. The RPG-elements are almost nearly gone. This is totally different in 2003. Last episode, we ran into Papu, a walking skeleton and a big huge monster, and this episode we get treated by some angry horned penguins. I guess the creators were trying to create a better RPG-feel out of it.

Overall, I’m still waiting for the awesomeness. But then again, 1998 also started out slow, so I’m suspecting that this one’s also building up perfectly. After all, we still have a huge amount of characters left to be introduced. And did Shirokishi ever find his Great Knight Sword?

Memorable moment: Punpun and Kogoto waiting for hours for Pinon to return from the cave. ^^

Simoun – 12 – Kaimu and Aruti

by psgels, posted in Simoun



This was another incredibly exciting episode. One of the best in Simoun so far. Dominüra gets the strange idea of messing up the pairs, in order to let Kaimu and Aruti work together. As she’s in love with Paraietta and hates Aruti, Kaimu doesn’t really like this.

The major part of the episode really illustrated this. Kaimu kept getting angrier and angrier. Simoun is great in portraying angry characters. The background music also really helps in this. It’s a really sad tune. Especially when Kaimu and Aruti make their first test flight, along with Aaeru and Neviriru, the scenes kept getting more amazing by the minute. It indeed seemed that they were sortof close once before they came to the Arcus Prima, though on the night before Kaimu’s first flight, one of them seduced the other, and well, you can guess the rest.

It isn’t clear who seduced who, but Kaimu clearly blames Aruti for this. Aruti, however, still remains nostalgic. Both of them are at fault this time, and both manage to learn a bit. Kaimu learned that she doesn’t need to get so angry with Aruti (still, I doubt whether these scars are totally gone). Aruti learned to stop living in the past, and stop depending on her sister to make her grow.

Aaeru meanwhile tries to get even closer to Neviriru, though that doesn’t really work. She also looked very cute with her hair loose.
Yun also displays a cute side when it seems that she doesn’t like onions. I’ve also noticed that she’s along with Limone the only one who likes to read books. She’s also the last one to go to sleep in the evening.
Furoe still doesn’t seem to have forgotten what happened at the previous episode. It’s a shame that we don’t get to see the two of them meating again. The soldiers seem to have left the Messis.

Overall, this was an awesome episode. The tension was just perfect. So far, we’ve had an episode dedicated to Neviriru, Paraietta, Limone, Furoe, Kaimu, Aruti, Mamiina and Rödoreamon. That only leaves Morinasu, Aaeru, Dominüra and Yun. I can’t wait for them. 🙂

Memorable moments: Seeing the Sybilla actually fixing the leaks on the Messis. Limone trying to comfort Rödoreamon.

Popolocrois 2003 – 01 – Couldn’t resist ^^

by psgels, posted in Popolocrois 2003



While waiting for the rest of Popolocrois Story 1998 to come in, I couldn’t resist to check out its 2003 version. A lot has changed. Pietoro has now grown up, and has taken the throne, along with Narcia as his wife. Hyuu seems to have been buggered off, and the two now have a son: Pinon. All of the adults from the 1998 series also have vanished into thin air, as there doesn’t seem to be a sign of Paolo, Hilda, Shirokishi and unfortunately, Gamigami.

The art also has changed a bit. It still bears the unique art of Popolocrois, but the overall color scheme looks a bit less bright. The character’s faces also are more blocked instead of curved and the eyes and mouth of each of the characters look a bit more evil. The music, however, is as good as ever. The CG, however, doesn’t seem to be living up to the 1998-version, which is strange, as you would expect a newer series to come with better graphics. Though the beam of light shown in the first episode of 1998 certainly was able to beat the beam of light in the first episode of 2003.

The great thing about such a sequel is that you really can compare the two of them. Pietoro has grown very different from his father, Paolo. Both of them are strong leaders, but they both do it in their own way. Paolo was very laid back. He had a huge amount of self-confidence and because of this, he was able to rule with a very laid-back attitude. Pietoro, however, wants to rule as good as possible, and he wants to do this as good as possible. He therefore actively concerns himself with things going on in Popolocrois and he’s also very strict on Pinon.

Because of this, Pinon was raised in a totally different way than Pietoro. Pietoro was son of Pablo, the great leader. Pinon is son of Pietoro, the great hero. This anime manages to show the huge difference between these two. Pietoro is great for what he has done. Pablo is great for what he’s doing. Both of them have their good points and bad points, and these are reflected in their children. As Pablo and Sania were rather carefree, Pietoro also grew up to be carefree. When Pietoro grows up, and gets to be strict to Pinon, Pinon grows to be a bit more rebellious.

Okay, maybe rebellious isn’t the right word. Both Pietoro as Pinon run around the castle. Though Pietoro does this because he wants to play. Pinon does this because he wants to run away. It was also interesting to see that Pinon didn’t consider Ulala as a friend. He’s been locking himself inside so much that he doesn’t even care to see the things in front of him. Still, he does have a kind heart, as he always stands up for others, willing to take their blame.

Ston and Sanda also seemed to have their roles as cute familiars (maybe “cute” isn’t the right word for them, but whatever) to Papu, a weird flying ferret. I liked Ston and Sanda’s designs more, for some reason. The OP and ED also seem to suggest that three more animals like Papu will appear. I so hope that their roles won’t be just “cute and mysterious”. After all, Ston and Sanda were great because of totally different reasons.

2003 also seems to be a lot darker. While 1998 had the wind-kind and Gamigami as the major enemies, 2003 seems to suggest for something actually evil to threaten Pinon. The robots from Gamigami also seem to have been replaced by actual monsters. Pinon, just like Pietoro beats them using his dragon powers. I hope that these also get lost somehow.

Overall, I liked the first episode of Popolocrois 1998 more. 2003 just doesn’t seem to have any awesome or memorable characters yet. There are actually annoying characters (the little boys, for example, they may have a good effect on Pietoro, they remain annoying as hell). Still, you can really see that just as 1998, 2003 is building up very carefully. After all, there are lots of characters appearing in the OP and ED who didn’t appear at all in the first episode, and Ulala, on her turn, doesn’t showu up in the OP and ED at all. There’s got to be some reason for that. And after all, 1998 was quite good when it actually came with a solid storyline, so I’ll keep my hopes up.

Popolocrois Story – 1998 – 20 – Let’s Hope the Final Episodes Arrive Soon

by psgels, posted in Popolocrois Story 1998



I finally managed to catch up with the fansubs. Now all that’s left is hope that they come out soon. Overall, the series was at its best at episodes 8-14. At that time, Gamigami played a huge role, though now he’s a bit too pityful. He doesn’t really work if he’s trying to be serious, although episode seventeen remained awesome. Though that did make me hope for the love-potion to wear off soon.

This episode, Hyuu tries to tempt Pietoro by promising to return his dragon powers, if he promises to stay with her forever. I feel that she tries a bit too much and too long. Though I don’t think that she has any better methods of convincing Pietoro, so we might see some change in this soon. The great element in this episode came from Ston and Sanda.

The two of them are just so incredibly indecisive. They were looking like crazy during the previous episode, but at the beginning of this one, Ston had already given up. Only to realize that the wind-kind will punish him if he doesn’t look after her. Later in the episode, they attempt to actually kidnap Pietoro, because he is the one who makes Hyuu not want to go back.

Overall, Gamigami was funny, though his brilliance lies in his countless inventions. He hasn’t been inventing much lately, unfortunately. Narcia was still extremely cute, though. The entire episode was focused on one decision Pietoro had to make. He chose the most ambitious option, though it’s indeed clear that Hyuu won’t continue as queen much longer. The last five episodes will probably focus on getting rid of the wind-kind.

Memorable moment: Ston and Sanda trying to kidnap Pietoro. And failing.

Nitaboh Review – 65/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Nitaboh is a historical movie. It plays in Japan, from 1865 till about 1875. Japan is gradually getting more and more american influences. The movie follows the rise of Nitaboh (hence the movie’s name). Nitaboh became blind when he was eight years old, due to an epidemic. Ever since, he’s been enjoying things that make sounds. When he, three years later, gets into contact with a shamisen (a three-stringed japanese guitar. Mostly played by blind people. Think Samurai Champloo 20 and 21), he decides to be a great shamisen-player. Because of his hard work, he manages this in the end.

This movie is ninety minutes long. After watching it, I had a good feeling about it. Some great and inspirational scenes are featured. Some of the tunes are surprisingly good. Both the shamisen-tunes as the regular background tunes. Seeing Nitaboh train hard, even when suffering works really inspirational. His friends also add up to this fact. The characters are really likeable. Still, there’s one big issue with this movie: it’s slow. Very slow. This makes most of the scenes in this movies very boring. But the few good scenes become great due to this effect.

The art looked a bit messy at times, though through the major part of the movie, it looked very crisp. Especially the very few action scenes it featured came out great. Still, when people played shamisen, their movements still didn’t look right. It’s something no anime has yet to accomplish: showing expert musicians playing their instruments. They always smuggle, making everything look unnatural. Nitaboh gives a good attempt, but the movements of the musicians’ hands is too fast and too unnatural.

Overall, this movie is good, but it didn’t feel like it was worth the time it took. If you’re really bored you could check this out, but most of the anime is just a bit too slow. But that’s the case with most historical anime.

Some quick first impressions: Coyote Ragtime Show, Tsuyokiss and Zero no Tsukaima

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

We now turn to the second batch of summer-anime. These were the shows which were the most hyped for the summer-season.

Coyote Ragtime Show

This is a science-fiction action series which just oozes with style. The first episode was more focused on the side-characters, instead of the main characters, which means that we haven’t seen too much of what this anime will really be like. We did get the chance to take a good look at the bad guys, though. It seems that they’re an army of twelve extremely dangerous cyborg-sisters with highly developed artificial intelligence. Only that was enough for me to keep following this series, though the best part of this anime is the action sequences it features. A lot of things happen at once, events succeed each other in a rapid pace and the music is awesome. It did have some boring parts, but overall, I liked this first episode.

Tsuyokiss

When I first heard about this show, I feared that it would probably become horrible, with each character as a tsundere. Still, it was better than I expected. Then again, my expectations weren’t what you’d call high. I’d describe this series as plain mediocre. It’s not nessecarily good, but not bad either. It wasn’t scared to throw all of the harem-cliche’s on one pile, the little brat, the silent girl, the annoying student council member and the big-breasted teacher. But the brat was okay, I guess. I also like the orange haired girl. Though my main problem with this series were the main characters. Both the male as the female one. Whenever the two of them were together, this series became predictable as hell, and not in a good way. Actually, I think that if Tsuyokiss would have been a yuri-anime, it would have stood a chance (the hug was about the only effective scene in this), but the male main character will probably ruin things. Still, I’m really recommending this to you if you have some sort of sleeping problem. Just watch the episode right before sleeping, and I’ll be a definite help.

Zero no Tsukaima

Now this is the real garbage of this season. What we have here is a pretty good concept, being handled by the guys who produced Shana. The result is a horrible mess. Everything that could have been messed up has been messed up. The backgrounds feature some fancy CG, but in exchange for that, they lack in so much detail. A room feels more like a cheap movie-stage now. The main characters aren’t any better, as they fit every stereotype in existance. The bishounen could have been so much funnier and half of the scenes just seem aimed to display as much fanservice as possible. The anime also shows that there hasn’t been any research put into the world, as the concepts just seem totally random and convenient. My advice is to not even touch this series with a ten-foot pole.

Otogi Juushi Akazukin – 02 – Akazukin = God

by psgels, posted in Otogi Juushi Akazukin



I’m going to handle the series which I’ll be blogging for this season a bit different from the Spring Season. Back then, I started blogging every good series, but if I’ll do that again for this season, I’ll be overwhelmed. I therefore decided to pick up three series this season. The first will be Otogi Juushi Akazukin, and the last two will be the underdogs of the season. Much like Gintama of the Spring Season.

In any case, I’ve also decided to try out one series raw for each season. In this case, it’s Otogi Juushi Akazukin. And I have to say that I couldn’t have picked a better one. Everyone who wants to start with checking out raws really should start with this series. As it’s a children’s anime, a lot of simple language is used. I have to say that I was able to understand 80% of the episode globally, and I managed to figure out the meaning of 40% fo all the lines spoken.

In any case, this episode was great. It doesn’t follow the OVA anymore, so it finally has the opportunity to show its own storyline. And I have to say, Baru is awesome. The episode was mostly about introducing Akazukin to Erde’s technology and introducing the second musketeer: Princess Shirayuki (I so hope I spelled that right).

The episode starts with Souta waking up, realizing that all that happened was not a dream. Ringo then yells to him, from the corridor. As usual, she made breakfast for the two of them. Souta then gets scared about what might happen when Ringo finds out about Akazukin, so he tries to hide this. In the end, this doesn’t really work, with quite hilarious results. I’m amazed that this show also manages to include some very effective comedy. This only makes this show more enjoyable.

What follows is a very amusing conversation, in which Akazukin and Baru introduce themselves to Ringo. Akazukin also seems to have no idea that her mission’s supposed to be secret, so she blurts it out, before Baru gets the chance to remind her about her tasks. I just love how the dialogues are just so carefree. ^_^

It seems that those creatures from last episode were Nightmares, sent after Souta. We then switch to the little cat, who managed to get his hans on a tin can from a vending machine. Then Hansel pays him a visit, to check up on things, and the cat quickly hides the can behind him. Though this doesn’t really work in a room full of mirrors. ^^ It was great to see Hansel, actually checking out the vending machine, later in the episode. ^^

Akazukin, meanwhile, is amazed by the magic of the washing machine, fridge and the tv. As Ringo has yet to hear the full story, she gets more sceptical by the minute when Baru and Akazukin keep referring to “Mahou”. The TV inspires Akazukin and Baru meanwhile to go out to the town and try out some special food they saw in a commercial. This does mean that Baru has to be put on a leash. He didn’t really like that. ^^;

When Akazukin finds the food stand she was looking for, she attempts to pay with money from her own world. As Souta doesn’t have any money with him, Ringo ends up being the one who gets to pay. Ringo now gets so pissed that Akazukin has to tell her what’s going on. The two of them do have to promise to keep it a secret. Akazukin reveals that she and Baru indeed come from another world. It’s called Fandabere (“called”, not “spelled”. I still have to figure out how you spell that damned word). The world Souta lives in is called Erde. It seems that Cendrillion has escaped from her seal, and now wants to do something bad to Fandabere. I think it has something to do with conquering it. In any case, Souta is the key to reuiniting the magic from Fandabere with the technology from Erde. If she combines these, Cendrillion will probably gain huge strenght, just like the young man in the story in the first episode.

To Akazukin’s surprise, Souta doesn’t get shocked at all, he rather gets enthusiastic. What follows is an extremely hilarious scene, in which a couple of schoolgirls find Baru, and all get incredibly giddy over him. They all want to take his picture, and it doesn’t take long before he loses his temper and begins shouting. I laughed really hard when I saw how he tried to get himself out of that situation. ^_^

What follows is one of Hansel’s henchmen. This time, he comes in the form of a bat. He soon gets joined by another of his companions. Akazukin gets really annoyed when Shirayuki appears. She seems to have used the excuse that Erde was supposed to be a great shopping-opportunity to tranfer worlds. Akazukin and Shirayuki when work together to beat the two bats. (I also loved it when Akazuking declared Ringo as their personal cook on her own).

Overall, the characters in Otogi Juushi Akazukin surely are the elements that make this anime awesome. Especially each of the antics of the characters. Especially Akazukin and Baru are amazing.

Memorable moment: “…wan”

.Hack//Roots – 14 – Rather Dull This Time

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots



After what happened the previous episode, Haseo needs some time to be able to process what happened in the previous episode. He’s not very good in this, as he keeps getting gloomier as the episode progresses. His main support is Phyllo. The latter also goes to the place in which Shino and Ovan met for the first time, after which Tri-Edge ambushes him. For some strange reason, Phyllo is spared. You’d wonder why Tri-Edge took the time to visit him in the first place. In any case, when Haseo found out about this, he went berserk. He ran to the church and kept beating up the chains on the table. I think that he really snapped when he found out that each of Tri-Edge’s attacks have got something to do with Shino.

While that may have been too bad for Haseo, that part of the episode was just boring. Haseo was a bit too gloomy in my opinion. The good stuff came from the former TaN. It seems that Ender and Naobi not only swapped PC’s, they also swapped usernames. Naobi now is known as Yata, and Ender is Pai. A thing that really shocked me is that Ovan appears to be perfectly fine. After his arm exploded in episode twelve, he managed to escape, and now roams around The World. Either data-drained or just perfectly fine. Still, there has to be some kind of reason why he hasn’t contacted Haseo or Tabby yet.

In any case, Yata and Pai are up to something else, after their failure. They are probably busy analyzing what caused Ovan to escape. They’ve also run into some problems when they try to analyze the waterfall-field. It appears to be a dump for save-data. Much like the Net-Slum from .Hack//Sign. In any case, something is providing an error when they try to analyze it. It’s good to see that things aren’t going perfectly for Yata and Pai as well. I’m still wondering whether these hackers will be responsible for the greatest threat in the game.

Pai also talks about something called an SF. No idea what that means, though. Later in the episode, Pai makes contact with a new character, a former TaN-member: Savurou. It seems that the two of them knew each other, though it isn’t clear from where they do. In any case, she managed to swap PC’s as well. (On a side-note: I sortof like Pai’s character design. It’s a lot better than her Ender-version, in any case).

Overall, this episode was kindof boring. Haseo needs to accept that Shino’s gone. Still, TaN brought some nice material.

Some quick first impressions: Otogi Juushi Akazukin, Demashitaa! Power Puff Girls Z and Muteki Kanbanmusume

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Okay, and we now turn to the first batch of the summer-season. The first patch is very a very light-hearted one. The comedies work at certain times, though Akazukin is amazing.

Otogi Juushi Akazukin

First of all: OMG CUTE!!! Second of all: I really enjoyed the first episode. It’s got a very light feeling, and the character design is amazing. The story’s got a good base, though it remains incredibly simple. It’s a kid’s show, after all. I have to admit, though, the first episode of the OVA was better than the first episode of the anime. Overall, I certainly recommend this if you’re looking for a light-hearted fairy-tale story.

Demashitaa! Power Puff Girls Z

This show, is just stupid. It’s incredibly low-budget as well. Except for the transformation sequences, the major part of the budget seems to have been put in these transformation sequences. There have also been a lot of changes made to the original cartoon. The main characters weren’t made, they just were normal girls who were exposed to Chemical Z (a stronger version of Chemical X). Professor Utonium seems to have a son (who’s the mother?), and both he and his son have the ugliest character designs ever. His son also attempts to use the humour of repeated scenes, but he fails miserably. The major also isn’t the incredibly stupid guy he used to be before. The girl also seem to be 2-D stereotypes with just one personality. Still, there is one character which manages to save this show: Mojo Jojo. He actually was quite funny to watch and really brightens up the show.

Muteki Kanbanmusume

What we have here is a pure non-ecchi slapstick comedy. Characters try to act as outrageous as possible, mostly this goes along with lots of screaming. It was pretty funny at times, though I think this is missing something. This show feels like it’s Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu, without its brilliance. It’s a fine attempt at comedy, but it could have been so much better.