Author: psgels

Ergo proxy – 08

by psgels, posted in Ergo Proxy



No Real! Blasphemy! Anyway, this episode was focused one half on Vincent, while the other half was focused other side-characters. A bit of new info about the Proxys is aquired, and Vincent gets to have his mental breakdown.

Vincent, while hungry seemed to have learned his lesson on his journey, as he acknowledges Pino’s existance at the beginning of the episode. They, they stumble upon other life-forms. Not Moskou, which I guessed, but a lonely army base ho’s been fighting off infected auto-raves. The members are suspiciously hospital, though it soon appears that they’ll make him fight in order to pay it back.

Then, a third Proxy appears. First, we only get to see its bandage-like hairs, killing, though it’s obvious what its owner is, mostly because of Vincent’s reaction. Anyway, because of the killing, Vincent is put in some kind of cell, right next to a crazy woman who keeps on muttering random sentences. Then Vincent begins to fall down, and mutter random sentences himself.

The autoraves, meanwhile, attack the base once more. This time, they’ve got help from the third Proxy, who kills off the commander of the base. She then crashes a helicopter right into the crazy woman, who managed to escape. Then, the second Proxy appears, beating the third one, taking off its mask, only to reveal the face of a woman. Then it absorbs the third, killing it.

We then see the dead body of the crazy woman, surrounded by cards. A strange man arrives, and picks up the joker-card, and he smiles. Who the heck is this guy? And why does he pick up the joker-card? Actually, why were those cards there in the first place?

Bluewacky also brings up an interesting issue. The face of the third Proxy bears suspiciosly close resemblances to that of the crazy woman. They also both die at the same time. Could they be linked somehow? If that’s the case, could Vincent be linked to Ergo Proxy (That’s how Bluewacky calls the second Proxy, I have no idea why, but it does explain the show’s name, as well as the fact that this will be an important character, I’m somehow reminded of Noein)? And who was linked to Monad Proxy?

This episode also explains why Monad Proxy was killed off. It was just being caught by Ergo Proxy and absorbed. And that crazy woman, right before the helicopter crashed on her, she made the infamous infected-autorave-pose. What the heck does that pose mean?

.Hack//Roots – 05

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots



The conflict between Haseo and Sakisaka extents further, and now Tabby and Shino also become involved with it. This is awefully fast, though it does mean that it’ll be solved relatively quickly in the range of the anime. What will happen once this is solved?

Haseo was great once more. Even though he doesn’t show it, he is worried about the PK-ing, and goes to investigate, and again visits a number of people. It’s a good thing that, even though he’s part of the Twillight Brigade, he does visit other people, unlike other members. Unfortunately, Tawaraya is one of the people he visits, which doesn’t really create good rumors. I find him rather uncertain and nonchalant at the outside, though I thing that he probably knows what he’s talking about, though he’s just doesn’t want to make any false statements. I like the way he talks, though. It’s so much better than all those impulsive main characteer. I also loved him after his conversation with Ender.

I was finding Tabby in the beginning just plain annoying, though now I see that she also has a couple of good sides. I just can’t stand her character design, especially the look she has when idle. Can’t she just not smile? Though the way she stirred up the conflict in this episode was brilliant, not to mention her annoying behavior towards Haseo, who wants to just be left alone and do his own things.

Ovan was a bit boring in this episode, though I think he’ll begin to shine at the last part of the show. He’s really not meant to show himself at the beginning of the series. I’m also wondering what he meant “So this is all of them”. I guess he meant that he just caught the last of the virus cores that was to be appearing at that time and place, though the moment I saw it, I really think that that was the last of the virus cores to ever appear.

Shino’s a bit boring. At least, when she’s not giving her attention to Haseo. When she’s not with him, she tries to be a bit advicing or serious, but it doesn’t work. When Haseo’s around, though, she finally acts a bit more natural, kindof like a motherly type. These moments are very enjoyable, both when the two of them agree with each other, and when the two of them are on different tracks, like the end of the episode.

Another person I love is Sakisaka. Although it won’t seem that he’ll ever be able to escape the miseries of being a side-character, he plays his part very well. He too, begins to question Ovan and the Twillight Brigade. Tawaraya only makes this worse, and he’ll probably explode in one of the following episodes. Two things can happen afterwards, he can either calm down, and stay with the guild, or he’ll leave the guild just like Goad and B-Set. So far, I haven’t seen any true motivation from him to be remaining on the Twillight Brigade, so I think it’ll be the second. I also loved the way he tried to hide the things he knew.

Goad also came in as a surprise. When I first saw him, I believed he was only to return for a couple of more episodes, though it does seem that he’s going to play an active role in the story. It was also great to see some character development from his side. His pride, is of course being hurt, so he will take revenge against Ender. But how?

I’m a bit worried about the leader of TaN. He just seems so much like the standard I-sit-in-my-chair-while-all-my-subordinates-carry-out-my-evil-plans-muaha-evil-villain. I hope that there’ll be a change in this pattern, as he’s probably the member of the cast who so far has experienced the least character-development of all (a fancy way of saying that he’s had no character development at all). Will he really make for a great bad guy?

B-Set also shows a lot of potential for the rest of the show. I’m somehow reminded of a weaker version of B. T., a member of the .Hack//Sign cast. She was once member of the Twillight Brigade, but she left. But still she can’t forget it, and Haseo doesn’t make it better. The previous episode showed that she has quite some character, so she’s probably going to have a couple of moments in which she’ll shine.

Tawaraya is, unlike the leader of TaN, a good example of a villain. He’s more of a merchant, so he doesn’t go into fights, as opposed to Ender, so the two of them make a good combination. It also seems that this won’t be a contest to see who can collect the most virus-cores, as he doesn’t just gloat when he enounters one. Still, I love it how he loves to stirr a bit of conflicts in the Twillight Brigade. I only don’t like him when near his superior.

The little furry animal (what’s his name again?) is fairly unique to anime. He’s a character you can just talk to, and he’ll give you some interesting and very useful advices. He says he plays the game to kill time, though I think he actually enjoys listening to those people, and giving his opinion.

Ender seems to be a villain which will last till about episode 10. I don’t think she’ll play a big role afterwards, but the role she has right now is pretty entertaining. I have no idea why she randomly PK’s people when they don’t have the answers she needs, though I think it’s to intimidate the opponent.

In case you haven’t noticed yet, this was my first attempt at an in-depth character-analysis. I got the inspiration from Willuknight, and his post about the characters from Air. I dont think I’ll be doing this very often, as it takes one hell of a job to write. Still, I’m quite pleased with it, although it could benefit from a number of improvements.

Noein – 21

by psgels, posted in Noein



After the eventfullness of episode 20, we get to see another intermezzo. This’ll either be the last one of them, or episode 23 will be the last intermezzo. In this episode, all the pieces are moved to be ready for the grande finale. There are so many different parties, and they all feel like they still have something to do in this show. And that with only three episode left. I tried to make a quick list off all the parties, as at the end of the episode:
– Haruka
– Yuu and Karasu
– Noein
– Ai, Isami, Miho and Atori
– Kosgai, Uchida, Kooriyama and Tobi
– Haruka’s father and mother
– The idiot who plans to excecute the magic-circle project
I think this won’t be too much altered. Anyway, about the episode. The person I absolutely loved was Atori, again. At the beginning of the episode, it becomes clear that he has yet to fully returned to his old self. He’s extremely grumpy, but he does keep his nice self. Then, at one moment, he loses control and goes berserk, and Miho really manages to stop him. I so love this, for the biggest part, he’s back to his old self again, but his love for Miho remains, and I doubt that that will ever go away.

This episode was overall a good episode for the different couples in the show. Not only for Miho and Atori, but Isami and Ai also have a nice and intimate scene at the end of the episode, and furthermore, Haruka’s father and mother meet up with each other again.

We also get the information we’ve all been waiting for: why the La’Cryma-Haruka died. She sacrificed herself in order to become part of the La’Cryma main computer, in order to protect the timespace. This brings up an interesting issue. Remember the phone in episode 14? Could it be that that call was made by the Haruka, whilst in the La’Cryma computer? I also still want to know who that old man with the hat might be. I’m going to laugh if it turns out to be another version of Yuu, but still, he has to have some kind of connection.

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. Especially when Atori or Haruka’s dad came into the picture. The latter really seems determined to undo his past mistakes, which only promises some great scenes for in the future.

Bleach – 78

by psgels, posted in Bleach



Thank goodness, we finally have an enjoyable episode of Bleach again. I was beginning to worry. The problem with Bleach is that it’s too much focused on big, powerful guys which throw a couple of flashes at each other and take whole episodes in doing so. The fights that matter are so incredibly boring, I can’t believe people actually enjoy those.

The mock-fights in Bleach, however, are great. Especially when Ganju is involved. He’s the only one of the Bleach-cast who uses strategies in battle, with some great results. I just love how he totally owned Ichigo this episode. It was awesome, especially his entrance on the wild boar.

For some reason, the story also took a turn for the better. For what seems like the first time after the episode involving Ichigo’s deceased mother, we finally see some genuine dialogue, which really works. The cliffhanger actually was powerful this episode, instead of the usual annoying ones.

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 04

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari



Good anime get you hooked at one certain point of the show. In shows like Good Witch of the West or Noein, this point was right at the first episode. In shows like Blood+ and Eureka7, this moment happens around episode 10. In Saiunkoku Monogatari, this moment came at episode four. This really was the episode which motivated me to actively follow this anime.

We start of with Shiurei almost quitting her function, until she realizes that she’ll lose her huge payment as well. We then switch to Ran Shiuei and the emperor, who talk a bit, and the emperor realizes he might’ve used the wrong methods to get Shiurei’s attention. Ran cheers him up a bit.

We then switch to the three old men, and for the first time ever, I understood what they were talking about: who was the one that tried to poison Shiurei? They don’t really find an answer. We switch to Shiurei and her father, who talk a bit, and Shiurei’s father tells a bit about how the emperor was when he was a little kid. It seems to be a sad tale, I think it has got something to do with him being bullied.

Back to Ran Shiuei and Koyu, they talk a bit, about how Shiurei seems to know. I think that was referring to her finding out that the emperor really is smart, and has been playing dumb. They split up, and Ran sees Seiran walk alone, so he heads for him. Seiran looks kindof worried, so he tries to cheer him up, which includes making a couple of strange but very assumptions. Then one of the old guys, who appears to be the head of the palace guards, suddenly sees the two of them. He challenges Seiran for a sparring match, because he sees him in an armor. Seiran loses, and the old guy teaches him a few lessons.

This, by the way, was the very first action-scene of the show, and I have to say, I like it. Although subtle, I could see some sword techniques being used, instead of the usual shash-long-enough-until-you-hit-something. Anyway, that evening, Seiran and Shiurei sit at a table, having a small dinner, which consists of a couple of bread-buns. Shiurei begins to feel a bit worried, so Seiran comforts her.

Ran Shiuei and Koyu, meanwhile, talk again about the poisoning, and we get our very first hint of a very interesting plotline to come. Koyu reckons some legendary evil guy tried to poison Shiurei. We get to see his outlines, and it appears that he has lots of followers. He may have done it, he may not have done it, though one thing is certain: he will be appearing at some point of the series.

The next day, a little tournament is hosted between the knights of the palace. Koyu gets to be the referee (I know there’s a better word for this, I just can’t think of it), and it appears that Ran Shiuei’s a palace guard as well. Surprisingly. Shiurei gets to sit next to the emperor, but then she sees her father who’s giving the audience cups of tea. She’s very worried, because her father is extremely clumsy. A loud scream only comfirms that, so Shiurei decides to take over his work. That was a very amusing scene, I couldn’t help but laugh, especially after seeing a lonely father alone in his room afterwards.

The tournament begins with Koyu reading a very long, and apparently embarrasing piece of parchment. We only get so see two fights: Ran Shiuei vs a random giant, and the emperor vs Seiran. Ran manages to beat the giant with ease, with a pretty funny aftermath. In the fight between the emperor and Seiran, Seiran seems to be on the offensive side, though the emperor manages to win in the end.

We turn to the evening, and apparently Ran came out as a winner. The emperor apologizes to Shiurei because he lost. He then sees Seiran walk, and follows him. When he meets up with him, he confesses how Seiran reminds him of his older brother, and how he apparently wants to be with him. Seiran replies with that he’s not the emperor’s brother, and that he shouldn’t confuse the two of them. The two of them get a bit emotional, and then Shiurei runs into them. The way they’re holding each other makes her think that the two of them have a secret love-relationship. Hehe.

Now with the subs out, I think I’m still going to continue with the raws. Besides, I’m having too much fun with this to be abandoning it for a couple of weeks until the fansubs finally manage to catch up. And it’ll also be a nice kind of experiment as well. Even though some parts may be extremely difficult to understand, I still like this series, and as I stated above, this episode just got me hooked.

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 03

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari



Thanks to a couple of helpful commenters, the story of Saiunkoku Monogatari became a bit clear. Shiujou actually is an emperor, and Siurei was hired as a tutor for him. As women can’t be officers, she currently works as a concubine. Seiran was taken in by Shiurei-s family thirteen years ago, when he had nowhere to go, and ever since he’s been wanting to pay them back for their kindness. A couple of things indeed begin to make sense now…

Anyway, this episode, the emperor has a strange dream about his older brother, who bears suspiciously close resemblances to Seiran. Then he wakes up, with Seiran in front of him. The two have a strange discussion, I didn’t understand it, but it gave some ‘interesting’ impressions. Anyway, after that, the emperor admits that he’s a bit jealous of Shiurei and Seiran while they’re together, and he sees them being so close.

We then switch to that night, at which Shiurei has a small conversation with the little girl and an woman, probably both of them are concubines as well. The girl leaves, and returns with the message that the emperor really wants to speak with her. She looked pretty serious, though when Shiurei arrives at the emperor, it only appears that he went out and picked up a couple of wild roses. His hands, of course, weren’t used to the needles, so they’re full of scratches. Shiurei tends these, the two talk a bit, and somehow, Shiurei mentions Seiran’s name. Suddenly, the emperor demands her not to talk about Seiran, or something similar. Shiurei agrees, but she finds this kindof weird. The emperor then makes her tell a little story, at which he immediately falls asleep.

Apparently, he fell asleep in Shiurei’s bed, so she has no choice but to divide the bed into two with what looks like a role of carpet, and both of them sleep at one side. This makes for an interesting scene on the next morning, as the girl from before comes to wake them, and sees the role of carpet gone, and the emperor embracing Shiurei in his sleep. Needless to say that Shiurei doesn’t wake up in a pleasant manner. That was a nice moment. It also shows what an idiot the emperor actually is, he needs someone for everything, and just thinks he can do as he pleases.

The next evening, he again stands in front of her door in his bedgown, apparently planning to sleep next to her again. The two talk a bit, and she gives him a self-made hankerchief. I don’t know whether I picked up the next thing right, but if I understood it correctly, Shiurei didn’t give Seiran a hankerchief, which makes the emperor happy.

The next evening, there seems to be some kind of party at the palace. The emperor and Shiurei get offered some sake, but before Shiurei gets to even touch hers, the emperor snatches it away and drinks it himself. Later, it appeared that the sake wasn’t good anymore, giving the emperor a nice stomache-ache, so Shiurei carries him to his bed. When she finds out about the emperor knowing the sake was poisoned, she begins yelling at him, though he tells her to be quiet, or something in that direction.

Shiurei sits next to him for the next couple of hours, and suddenly, he begins a speach about how he’s afraid of the dark, mostly at his mother’s fault. It also appears that he was crying for some reason when he was young, and he was being comforted by none other than Shiurei’s father. The next morning, the emperor seems to be fine again, and he’s playing a bit with Shiurei’s hair as she wakes up. She’s a bit embarrased, though the two of them make up.

Then we switch to a scene at which Ran and Koyu meet up with a delivery-boy, which comes to deliver two flowers which the emperor sent them. I have no idea about the meaning of this scene… I mean… why would he even do such a thing?

The episode ends with Shiurei realizing something, and then getting angry at the emperor, to the point of yelling at and hitting him. I think that he wasn’t really sick in the first place, and that he’d just been acting all the time. After all, you don’t recover from food-poisoning in one simple night. And I can understand why Shiurei’s ticked off when discovering this. This really shows what an easy-going idiot the emperor is, he just does as he pleases.

Makai Senki Disgaea – 04

by psgels, posted in Makai Senki Disgaea



This anime definately could have been executed better. The first two episodes showed potential, though the third and fourth episode clearly show that this is an anime for little kids. Still, I have to say that this episode featured parts that I really enjoyed.

One thing that this anime does exceptionally well, are the running jokes, or however you call the jokes that keep returning. I’m referring to Etna’s struggles to keep Laharl away from his wanted-poster. Occasionally, our group runs into one of these things, and each time she has to make up some kind of excuse in order to keep him away from these posters, with some very funny and enjoyable results.

In this episode, it became clear that Laharl’s father’s butler took over while he was asleep, though Laharl’s father’s butler’s son has reached a rebellious age, and wants more attention from his father. Thus, he sells the book which is sortof like the symbol of being king, to an old junk-seller, who sells it again to our space-adventures. I don’t think they’ll be keeping it for long, but still. This storytelling kindof reminds me of the troubadours in the medieval period. They were travelling storytellers, who lived by telling stories to important people. Each day, he’d tell one part of the story, and meanwhile, he got to stay in the castle. So, in order to be smart, the troubadours kept extending their stories. The first day, the brave knight had to rescue a princess. The second day, it became clear that in order to save the princess, he had to rescue a dragon, but the third night told of a sword which was needed to defeat the dragon, and so on, and so on. When the tensions began to rise, or the story just began to take too long so that people began to get tired of him, the troubadour would quickly end all of these sub-stories, and leave the castle.

Somehow, I was reminded of this concept while watching Disgaea. Laharl wants to become king, but in order to become king, he has to defeat the current king, now this current king is defeated, it suddenly appears that he needs a book. I see that it’s not exactly the same as described above, but it certainly bears resemblances. I think this cat-and-mouse-game will continue untill the end of the series. Still, with a bit of luck, I’m going to be finishing it. I know that once this anime tries, it can do good, and I still love the art.

The Law of Ueki Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Law of Ueki



Say hello to the anime with the most creative battles ever. We finally have a series which understands that strategy-based battles are so much better than power-based battles. At least, most of the time.

The premisse is simple: we have this God, who organizes a tournament in order to decide his successor. 100 middle schoolers are picked, and given a power. Then they have to fight each other, and the last one standing wins. The good part: most of these powers make no sense at all. They’re certainly not the thing you’d expect. I’m referring to the power to change trash into trees, tomatoes into magma, bamboo into scissors and a ring into a rocket. And these are just the least original of the bunch. There also is a limit to each of these powers, as in a condition that has to be fulfilled before you can use it. Think of the ability of changing water into fire if you put it in your mouth, the ability to change towels into steel if you hold your breath and many more. When these are used in battle, the results become incredible.

It was really clear that the creators put all of their creativity in these battles. Some of them truly turned into something memorable, as you will have no idea what’s going to happen, or how the antagonists will be defeated. It’s also great that a great deal of humor was put into these battles, and somehow the creators managed to find the perfect combination between comedy and action.

The first thirteen episodes of the series contain either amazingly funny battles, or just a couple of scenes you just need to sit through a bit. Though that may be tedious, the awesome episodes are definately worth it. The six episodes afterwards, are horribly creative, and touching as well. In these episodes, Ueki shows his best side, and the bad guys just keep getting better and better.

The next six episodes, especially the first bunch, are amazing. We get to see some great duels, which contain the best strategies of the series, as the side-characters of the show show off their best. The six episodes afterwards (27-32, if you lost count) follow with a short intermezzo. Nothing special or worthwile happens here, though. There are some funny moments, but these were certainly not as good as the previous ones.

The series suffers a huge blow around episode 32 and 33. These were horrible examples of directions at which you should never go, and the se/ries went there. At this point, it almost made me give up the show. Luckily, in the episodes following, the show manages to steadily pick up, until episode 38. From this point on, The Law of Ueki really begins to shine. We get to see the best fights ever, perfectly combining comedy and action into one gigantic heap of awesomeness. Especially when the side-characters come into the spotlight, the show just switches from one amazing scene to another.

The awesomeness continues until episode 43. After this, the show loses its shine, and eventually manages to produce a decent ending. These last episodes were better than you expect, though they just weren’t on the same level as the previous episodes.

The art of the characters looks a bit different than usual. The unevennes of the faces is heavily accentuated, and every scratch becomes visible. I like this, it’s also what originally turned me on to keep watching the series, although as the series progresses, you become used to this. The backgrounds are a very good piece of art. Although the same ones are used for a couple of episodes after each other, this doesn’t really destroy that effect, it only makes it better. The music, although nothing extraordinary, it used to its full extend. It makes the dramatic scenes so worthwile, and adds even more to the great battles.

Overall, any action fan will surely just love this anime, or if you’re just in for a couple of good laughs, then I really recommend this anime.

Final Rating: 90/100

.Hack//Roots – 04

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots



After last episode, it was only natural that this would be more like an intermezzo. Still, plenty of things happen. Sakisaka gets amazed at the lack of reasons why Haseo and Tabby joined the guild, though he’s being a huge hyporcrite by doing so. He later gets to train with Tabby, while Shino shows Haseo a familiar place: the church from .Hack//Sign.

Sakisaka gets a bit bored with Tabby, and begins to ask himself questions about Haseo, who’s meanwhile levelling up along with Shino and Ovan. Later, in the guild-building, he meets up with Haseo. Haseo’s being overly nonchalant, and Sakisaka begins to lose his temper. Right before they end up fighting, Shino arrives with the message that Tabby was PK’d.

The members of TaN also have their busy times. The large merchant is involved in some kind of shady business, while the female thief visits the girl from episode two, who left the Twillight Brigade. Most of it still doesn’t make any sense, though.

As this was an intermezzo, it wasn’t as good as the previous episode. Still, the next episode looks promising.

The Law of Ueki – 51 (ending)

by psgels, posted in Law of Ueki



And it has ended! Based on my expectations of the last episode, it could have been done better, but it also could have been done. Still, I am SO glad that the creators managed to include one final piece of Ueki-goodness into the series before it ended. I thought it got lost after episode 43. It really was the best reason ever to keep the hero alive after a seeming death, and you so DO NOT see it coming, though it makes perfect sense, except for the coincidence that those two objects just happened to meet with each other.

Anyway, I’d have loved to see some more side-characters in the climax, though I’m satisfied. The usual part about what happens afterwards also was enjoyable to see, though nothing special.