Category: Series which were Dropped

Lupin III – Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna – 13

by psgels, posted in Lupin III - Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna

So, what did Lupin decide to end with? With an exposition episode. I really expected an epic action-packed episode instead, but this works too, even though it’s a kind of ending that’s very easy to screw up by rushing through things way too much, or turning the story into something completely different.

This episode was slightly rushed, and it actually was completely different from the rest of the series, but it worked. I like the balls of the creators to go with an anti-climax like this: throughout the enitre series we’ve seen it established over and over again that Mine Fujiko was abused and raped as a childBut no, she was just brainwashed at some point and she had always been a thief like she is now. It’s awesome to see that the creators had the balls to go with such a creative ending, rather than going with the most obvious type of ending and I really appreciate this creativity.

So in the end, we still know very little about who Mine Fujiko really is, but she doesn’t have a ham-handed backstory that screams “pity me!”, and instead we’ve got a main villain with one heck of a messed up backstory. The ending was pretty much a “life goes on”-ending with Mine Fujiko getting revenge on the girl that kept her brainwashed for years, her mother is left behind in her own castle without her daughter, Oscar disappeared, and everyone else pretty much ends up doing what they’ve been doing all along. Normally I’m not too fond of these types of endings, but here they strangely fit: Lupin is a series about adventures, and this series was just a small sample of the places that these people go to. Best ending of the season so far? I’d say so.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 13

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

I really appreciate that there are still series out there that are able to devote an episode to a single thought experiment. This episode may not have been the most eventful, but it was clever. Really clever. It took the issue of a famous TV-anchor complaining about the tax that space flight has on the economy, and created a different response for like what? 6 different characters? All of those were insightful in their own way, apart from the theory from the nervous guy perhaps. This series keeps finding new brilliant ways to use its newly huge cast.

This show doesn’t just have one smart character, it really has a bunch of them and I really like how this series is able to show the talents of all of them, especially in Mutta’s group. Mutta is the oddball who is able to think outside of the box, Serika and Nitta are the best performers in concrete tests, while the other two whose names I’ve forgotten play as the voice of reason… in completely different ways. I do wonder why the nervous guy made it all the way through the selection process: what made the quirky director take interest in him?

A few weeks ago I mentioned that this series was like a shounen series without the shounen with it having the characters carry out various assignments. This episode pushed that even further and the creators found far more interesting things for the characters to do. For that Rubix guy’s response they even did research for English philosophers on the matter.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Lupin III – Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna- 12

by psgels, posted in Lupin III - Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna

Now this was good. This was a completely trippy episode that had even more visual symbolism than usual. It was both gorgeous, fun and disturbing to watch. It’s in this arc in which we finally get to see the full extent of the trauma that Mine Fujiko had to endure. While all at the same time Mari Okada is on a roll again with bringing her beloved Oscar back on top of introducing yet another person dressing as Mine Fujiko. Dressing up really is a large theme in this series, especially considering how often Fujiko dresses up as someone else.

One thing I’ve noticed is that blogging this series turned out to be more difficult than imagined, mostly because I don’t have much to say about the individual episodes. They really are things to be experienced and there are a lot of very imaginative pieces of art amongst them, and this episode was the same. Just watch this trip.

I do have to say though that the final third of this series is without a doubt its best. It’s filled with imaginative and meaningful episodes that all attempt to be really creative in all kinds of ways: script, setting, theme, mood. And they’re all completely different. The variety between them is great.\It’s here where this series gets much more cohesive, and it really fits this series better than the random stories of the first half of the series.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 12

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

Now this was some of the most uncomfortable romance I’ve seen in a long while. That’s a good thing though, because while it was hard to watch, it wasn’t annoying or contrived. There was no pointless love triangle or people being in denial, this is just about two people who find things they have in common with each other… and Mutta being absolutely terrible at flirting.

About the clock: I turned out to be completely wrong. I already knew that from the comments you all posted last week, but even then I didn’t imagine that Mutta would make this even better by creating some made-up story about the car’s velocity and the amount of miles it traveled. It’s a very important point in this arc though, because this is what creates a great first impression of him, a leverage which can be used later in the arc.

On top of that, I loved how every team made up its own rules and habits already. They came up with three totally different methods of determining the two who go through tat the end, using rankings, votes or just not thinking about it at all. With this, I now understand why we suddenly got to follow fifteen whopping characters with this: it’s to show the difference between how people might approach the problems they’re put into. And Space Brothers, you are awesome for attempting that. I mean, with this this series has by far the best characters of any currently airing series.
Rating: **+ (Excellent+)

Lupin III – Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna – 11

by psgels, posted in Lupin III - Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna

This was another Mari Okada episode. And one impression I’ve gotten after watching this episode is that she really likes Oscar. This was the second episode devoted to him and his crush on Zenigata. Whenever this show focuses on Oscar it suddenly gets so full of shoujo-vibes, completely different from the rest of this series. It’s great for variety’s sake, not to mention that we actually have a bisexual character in a series where the rest of the cast is just straight.

Having said that though, I do have to point out that the end of the episode suffered from one huge flaw in Oscar’s logic: why jump along with that bomb? I mean, couldn’t you just… drop it or something? Right now, his end is basically that he was trying to be someone who impressed inspector Zenigata, he got indirectly rejected and couldn’t bear this so he committed suicide. Was that the image the creators were going for? Still, I liked this episode a lot again. Perhaps also due to this shoujo vibe it had.

The animation by the way also really improved over this episode. This episode finally had some smooth animation again, plus the artistic direction also was at its best again. The smoke effects in particular had some really good animation, so I’m glad that the producers still managed to find enough budget to pay some attention to inbetween animation. On top of that this episode took place in Paris. Having been in Paris a month ago, it really hit home how they portrayed it. Although obviously all hints of commercialization were removed.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 11

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

The first and second exams were so standard that I didn’t really see this coming. But seriously the third exam is awesome. Last week already threw the cast in an incredibly interesting situation, and this episode even made it better: splitting everyone up in three groups, and having everyone live together for two weeks. That’s two weeks of constantly being on each other’s lips, just like how things will be in a real space station as a test to see whether the characters are psychologically fit enough to handle it.

This episode really focused on that psychology, especially when they showed that footage of the three astronauts who crashed into the earth. Beyond being a great death scene, it built even further upon the previous episode taking the risks of the job very seriously, and again this had a different effect on many of the different applicants.

And then there was that cliff-hanger. For once it’s not a surprise what’s going to happen, but nevertheless it showed a very interesting difference between Mutta and the others. I mean, all of the applicants here have a technical background, that’s pretty much a requirement for the job. When asked with a question of what time it is, the most logical thing to do for such a person indeed make an as accurate estimate as possible. Mutta however is the only one who also has a creative background (again that car he designed), which gave him a very different perspective: we’re in space. Why should time matter?
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Lupin III – Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna – 10

by psgels, posted in Lupin III - Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna

This was another episode written by Dai Sato, and really: his influence is all over it and I am reminded again why he is one of the top scriptwriters out there. I’ve really missed him: Norageki had his ideas, but not his writing style, while the Tekken movie felt like he was forced to be generic. Here though, he got lots of freedom to tell Mine Fujiko’s backstory. The result is one of the best episodes of this show so far.

This was dark and surreal, and it had a great script that explored Mine Fujiko’s past without having her even in it. I love how it was non-linear on purpose, revealing a bit each time with different images and references, including Hegel of all people. It’s a great way to meet the owl baron as well, and this episode also built further upon episodes 1 and 6. It all comes together wonderfully at the end. Serioulsy Dai Sato needs to write another series. Get him to do some sort of Noitamina series or something. He can make something awesome out of that.

This series is probably really different from what the original Lupin III was, but I like that a lot: instead of trying to relive the original it really went into its own way. This doesn’t come without risks, though. The most dangerous is when a remake can’t choose between trying to be faithful or going into its own direction, or when it doesn’t really have anything impressive to add. Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna isn’t going to win the best of the season award, but it still had plenty of noteworthy things and is another addition to the collection of great remakes.
Rating: **+ (Excellent+)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 10

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

Space Brothers, you are awesome!

No, seriously. This episode had a fantastic premise. Just grab a bunch of characters, and have them talk to each other. I’m a fan of good characterization, and this episode was just absolutely perfect for that. Why has no series done this before?

?This show is also THE proof that you don’t need a big budget to be an amazing series. I mean, this episode was literally just characters talking to each other.And yet: this episode introduced something like ten new characters. And at the end of this episode we already have a very good feeling of who they all are. This episode broke the ice in such a wonderful way and it just had so much life in it. It wasn’t just Mutta who was amazing to watch, there were a ton of othrer characters who were in their element.

Some highlights were conversation between Kenji and the old man, both fathers, between Mutta and that obnoxious yet observant guy, and those two guys who just sat there next to each other without saying anything also said a whole lot about their character. But really: just about every short conversation added something here.

This episode took a set-up that shounen-series sometimes like to pull by having characters face off in a fight, and reduced that to its essence: getting characters to interact with each other and showing this in many different ways that would not be possible normally. And this wasn’t even the end of it: the next episode promises to become even more interesting because every single one of these fifteen people will rank each other. This means that we get a lot of time devoted to seeing how everyone thinks about each other.
Rating: ***+ (Amazing)

Lupin III – Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna – 09

by psgels, posted in Lupin III - Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna

So, this episode was nearly entirely dedicated to one big chase scene. It showed Mine Fujiko in a completely different state than usual, making Lupin the good guy to root for for once and making a very big change to the dynamic of this show. Like expected this episode properly starts the finale of this series, but I’m surprised that it’s not centered around the assholes who abused Mine Fujiko, but rather about her feelings themselves and how her past still haunts her.

The one thing I noticed with this series is that it isn’t the easiest series to blog. This series’ strength doesn’t exactly lie in its depth, but rather it’s style, and beyond that it’s just a really enjoyable adventure series that bothers to be different, but I don’t have as much to say about it compared to other series. So yeah, that’s why this entry is rather short.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 09

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

So, it was a will. It makes sense, and it also changed the mood of this series quite a bit with this episode. There still is plenty of light-hearted stuff, but at the same time it also got Mutta thinking about the more serious issues of spaceflight and how things can easily go horribly wrong. Add that to Serika’s reason for trying to become an astronaut, and you’ve got an episode with a lot of really good mood-swings.

Also, Kenji: a “best friend” character who actually has a stable relationship. Not only that but he is married and has kids. I know that this is a series about adults, but still, it is very refreshing to see his archetype being done completely different. At first I feared that there would be some sort of love triangle between him, Mutta and Serika, but with this that also is very neatly avoided.

I also love what this episode hinted at: a time-skip. Instead of having characters ready within months to go into space, it’s established that it may very well take up eight years before Mutta can join Hibito into space, in which he’ll be in his forties already. Besides death, this episode put an even bigger focus on the passage of time for these astronauts, and how it’s completely different from what we’re all used to.
Rating: ** (Excellent)