Category: Series which were Dropped

Hunter X Hunter – 59

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

I can be quick about this episode: watching exposition that you’ve already seen before is boring. Training arcs are even worse. There will be a big chance that I’ll put this show on hold again for blogging in the upcoming Winter season, because the very reason why the Greed Island is so good is its exposition. Sure, this was the point where the 1999 series went downhill in its exeuction, but I don’t want to get bogged down by the details again. Really, with the way things look, it will have taken nearly a year and a half for the series to reach the new material. Like, more episodes than what it took Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood to tell its full story.

Also, the new ED… something tells me that the sound guy was not paying attention again. “WhoaaaahooooooooHOOOOO”… is that really what you want to use as a cliff-hanger for the next half year?
Rating: 3/8 (Mediocre)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 37

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

Yeah, the only two series that made me cry this year: Natsuyuki Rendezvous and Uchuu Kyoudai. I just completely broke down at the big moment of this episode.

At first sight it seemed that the creators were going to make this one the episode for the losers: the ones who didn’t make it while Mutta was still going on and on about his luck of the day. The episode indeed started out that way: Mizoguchi didn’t get the job. And in a way, this was to be expected: he is talented, but in the end he is too much focused on himself. It’s a bit of a shame that we didn’t get to see much of him in the third exam, but I believe that the decision was already made after the second.

Mutta in the meantime was hilarious. Just seeing him waiting and waiting for the right moment was awesome. And then this episode put details like head-bumps in the mix to make things even better. And then he suddenly got invited to come outside, and hear that he passed, even though there still are enough people left of which we don’t know what happened.

His reaction in any case was beautiful. The danger with these things of course is making them too cheesy: playing up the emotional value too much and making the reactions too simple and shallow. The comedy did so much to avoid this, the symbolism helped so much, en then Mutta’s facial expressions were really well done. This series doesn’t have the best animation at all, but it is a A-1 production nonetheless: they really bring in some good people for the scenes that really matter, and this episode really showed that in bringing out the emotions right.
Rating: 7/8 (Fantastic)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 36

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

Oh space brothers… what the hell are you doing to me? We’re waiting for the big moment to hear whether Mutta is going to become an astronaut, and yet again you’re going to stretch it with this bittersweet episode dedicated to Serika. After Kenji I guess it was obvious that they’d do this, but this episode made one heck of an impact.

First the creators showed Serika’s family (great way to flesh out a cast by the way), and then the creators finally tell the whole story of why her father died, and how she felt with it. The diary returns many times, but instead the central focus of this episode is how even though he knew so much about the subject, he couldn’t find a cure for himself, even though outer space could possibly find the answer.

How Serika’s father’s disease progressed was also beautifully done, and another example of what you can really do if you take your time, and actually use it by deteriorating his situation bit by bit, to the point where he eventually ends up in the hospital and his wife instead has to start working again. Three thumbs up for Space Brothers.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Hunter X Hunter – 58

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

And it’s over. My favorite arc of Hunter X Hunter has ended with this, and what a ride it’s been. I’m curious for the Greed Island arc, because it’s here where Nippon Animation started getting lazy, so there might have very well been many stuff it skimped over. However, I am a bit disappointed here.

I refuse to rewatch the 1999 series because it makes me focus too much on the stupid details. However, I will say this: as the episode concluded, I felt like “wait… it’s over already?” As a frame of reference: this arc was done in eight episodes in the 1999 series, whereas here it only took less than five. And no, there were no fillers in that part. As a result, I unfortunately do think that this version skimped over the details. The most noticeable for me was Pakunoda. Now that this is over, I can finally admidst that she was my favorite character, which made me all the more surprised how little attention she got in this episode. It’s like, before we got a really good feeling for her she was dead already.

If I gained any new insights the past half year, then it’s about pacing, and how much it can influence the quality of a series. The most important examples of this are Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and Space Brothers: they showed me that a series should adapt to its pacing. There is no universal formula in terms of pacing your series. It all depends on your mood, themes, and execution what the best pacing is, but you do need to pay attention to it. And it’s so important, yet so difficult with adaptations: being too fast or too slow can be so disastrous. If you make the wrong decision then you’ll lose so much emotional value.

And the way we all experience pacing is just completely different. I’ve seen many episodes, in which I blogged about how much I liked them, and then other people were too much bothered by that pacing. It’s a big trade-off that needs to be made: the faster your pacing, the more interesting things happen, yet the slower, the more the characters sink in. If your pacing is slow but you have nothing interesting happen/ A slow pacing can so easily become a drag that pointlessly wastes time, and a show that has a fast pacing can lose some of its emotional impact. And yet some series have to sacrifice this emotional impact in order to fit in their stories. It’s so complicated and that makes me all the more happy to see series as Jojo and Space Brothers that actually managed to nail their pacing in an incredibly effective way.

That’s not that this episode was not excellent or anything. Pakunoda still rocks, but here she is not my favorite character, that instead is Kurapika now. This still was an epic tale of revenge and it’s the kind of plan that would never happen in any other shounen series. I also did not expect that comedic bit when Hisoka found out that Chrollo had lost all of his powers.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Magi – 10

by psgels, posted in Magi

I think that if there is one thing where this show disappoints a bit, it’s is storyline. Compared to the rest of the series this season, I feel like it could have used itself better, and right now its main theme, fighting for freedom and against poverty, it has been done many times before unfortunately, and better.

What this show does have is interesting character. Perhaps they’re nowhere near the best of the series, but they have this charisma that makes them interesting to watch. That other magi in this episode made the fight that this episode was all about worth watching with how confident he was. The episode really worked in how far it actually went: it started off mundane, but got more and more serious as it went on, to the point where Ugo just went crazy.

Most peculiar detail here is that something else was giving the magical powers to do that, meaning that there is much more behind their bond than what Aladdin thought at first. It definitely gives a much needed different dimension to such an overpowered being in this series.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

Magi – 09

by psgels, posted in Magi

And another episode that came with a twist that I just did not see coming: Sindbad easily changing sides and becoming a member of the band of thieves. But yeah, the purpose of this episode was clear: this series, or at least this arc, seems to have a very big focus on corruption, and putting an end to it.

In this episode we continue Alibaba’s explanation of what happened to him, and even though it was already hinted that he was fighting for the people in the slums, this episode explained the extend to which this happened, with everyone being extorted. The band of the fog also turned out to be noble thieves who give the things they steal to the poorest.

Personally I prefer my villains a bit grayer on the moral scale (that evil king really is pure evil with no good side about him whatsoever) but I still really liked this episode. Kassim also became quite the interesting characters when he kept hopping sides throughout the episode. And I like the idea of focusing on negotiations over violence like what this episode promoted, but yeah: that will only work if the recipient side will turn into a bit less of a stereotypical evil overlord, otherwise you’re just talking to a brick wall.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Hunter X Hunter – 57

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

Screw defeating every henchmen before you can get to the main boss! This is a show that has a plan, and if you can get a chance to crush the boss, you should by all means take that chance. Kurapika in this episode was AWESOME and I love how well thought out the plans that he made are. He put the one person who could get in his way (Pakunoda, who knew everything) in a bind, captured Chrollo and used him as a hostage for negotiations. Imagine if they’d do this in other shounen series.

And yes, my favorite part has started. Remember how in the past few months I’ve kept saying how awesome the spider troupe is? Well, this episode takes that even further: it forces the member to make an incredibly difficult decision: sacrifice the boss, or potentially threaten to kill off half its members. One simple mistake could cost so many lives. That’s one of the reasons why this became one of my favorite shounen series: how many other shounen series put so much focus on the importance of life and death? Most other shounen ruin this effect by having characters who survive against way too many odds (oh hello, Naruto, Bleach…).

I also actually cracked up a few times during this episode. I almost forgot that Togashi also put a few very effective jokes here. I loved how Chrollo kept taunting Kurapika, finding out at the same time that Kurapika would not sacrifice his friends. I also loved that one scene in which the yellow-haired guy took over negotiations and made a few stupid comments. That was just brilliant.

Also, it’s a small detail, but showing the spider troupe members in their past outfits before they started to dress so creatively. That was really worth it. It shows that in the end they’re all just humans.
Rating: 6.5/8 (Amazing)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 35

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

This episode was recommended to me in order to cheer up from being sick, so I’m putting it ahead a bit of the other shows this week. And yeah: this episode is as we feared: the creators managed to dedicate an entire episode to Kenji’s results from the third exam. At the end of this episode, we still don’t know what happened to Mutta.

Having said that though, this episode was completely and utterly adorable. Kenji already was an awesome character, and here this episode comes and gives him even more character. We finally learn exactly why he chose to become an astronaut, and what he did before he met Mutta, while this episode was entirely occupied with building up to that one moment, where he heard whether he passed the exam or not.

And that moment actually brought some tears to my eyes. The creators here were evil and just kept dragging it out, using Kenji’s daughter also really well in it, and how the bald guy just kept going on and on with his story. Also don’t tell me that the rest of the characters will also get their own episode dedicated to their results. It’s gonna take ages before we know how Mutta did.
Rating: 6.5/8 (Amazing)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 34

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

DAMN YOU SPACE BROTHERS AND YOUR CLIFF-HANGERS!#$#$!%&

You just had to do it, waste this episode’s time with damned toilet paper. You just had to build up and drag on this episode long enough with mundane stuff for there to be no time left for the actual phone calls of JAXA. You just had to time it right at when Kenji got his answer. You just had to tease us like that. AaAaargh!!

Seriously, not since Giant Killing have I gotten so worked up over a simple cliff-hanger. I mean this episode was just so good. It was wonderful to see the astronauts relax on the moon and chit-chat, Mutta’s adventure in the supermarket had me in stitches (and besides, how often do you see characters just do groceries in anime? It’s such a good way to flesh them out). I already was in an incredibly good mood with this series when suddenly out of nowhere it skipped five days to the JAXA phone calls. I Yelled at my screen when I realized how the creators were in that evil mood again to stop right at the worst possible time.

With this, I also realized that this episode had some quiet moments that were quite peculiar. Moments in which nobody just said anything for a few seconds, but their expressions said so much about what they felt.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Magi – 08

by psgels, posted in Magi

This show has one very misleading ED. I really thought that it would be a happy cheerful adventure featuring the three lead characters having fun. This episode showed that the atmosphere in this series is in reality muh darker. With the slavery themes this already was to be expected, but this episode really took the cake.

Alibaba’s past was… gloomy. The creators really tried to show how poverty can drive people to do strange things, and the whole story about Alibaba’s friend growing up to be the leader of a bunch of thieves is definitely a great one. This episode lso loved to use its facial expressions for that with a much more exaggerated look than normal, which also did quite some wonders in bringing up emotions.

The tension is mostly between Alibaba and Morgiana, the latter of whom will probably have a lot of trouble accepting what’s going on. I really liked how she just dragged Alibaba over the rooftops to Aladdin for a talk. The big danger right now is for this show to devolve into too much angst: making it too one-sided in a way. I’m not sure what it exactly is, but it feels weird, like something is missing from it or the show is trying too hard to get to this angst.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)