Category: Finished Series: Action

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 23 & 24

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

And here are the penultimate episodes of Jojo. And seriously, I loved the fights here. The creators really went to the extreme, while keeping true to their philosophy of putting huge over the top powers on one hand, and really delicate things on the other. One one hand you have Stroheim yelling like crazy, while weilding what is basically a giant lamp as a weapon. And the duel with Cars was also really good in how it used Lisalisa in such a painful position as a hostage.

Surpringly, the least interesting part of these two episodes was where Speedwagon started to explain what happened to Joseph’s parents. It’s not that it didn’t have any good points (I liked how one of the smarter minions of Dio worked his way up as an aviation commander in the Royal Air Force), but come on. You’re about to punch Cars to death. Don’t break up the momentum with that. Thankfully the actual finale promises to be epic.

My only gripe: Lisalisa didn’t really get a chance to stand in the spotlights, did she? I mean all other major characters got their chance to show off, but she has the bad luck to be immediately just brought to an inch of her life. Give her some credit, man. If she’s a ripple master, let her show this off!
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 22

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

I must say: this fight was AWESOME!

Using chariots definitely was something different from the usual standard fight scene, and the creators spiced it up even more by turning just about everything into a weapon, from conventional crossbows to horses, cannonballs and pillars. The best thing was how it kept using surprise after surprise in order to push the fight forwrad. This isn’t your standard action, this is the action that remains interesting!

It’s going to be a real shame when this series finishes, because it has definitely set the bar really high for the future shounen series. Possibly only Hunter X Hunter should be able to come close to this level of entertainment, but when it comes to series that are purely about fighting…. it will be incredibly difficult to top this.

You can notice how this series was originally a manga: there are tiems when characters are about to hit something, and yet these scenes take ages because some characters need to be able to finish their dialogue (this timing problem stands out much less in manga format). This is something that often irks me, but the creators really managed to be able to solve it with their raw passion and energy here. Also something tells me that the creators here are big fans of Osamu Dezaki…
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

AKB0048 – 21 & 22

by psgels, posted in AKB0048

I’ve often noticed that series can get a bit boring when they tend to get more epic. I think that that’s what happened to me for AKB0048. The biggest reason is that it started off so original and different, but there are only so many ways in which you can deliver an epic action scene. Also, these two episodes did not have what originally made me like AKB0048 so much: the way in which it had such a critical eye for the idol business. I originally thought that this would not matter, but its absence does show in these two episodes..

I did like how the focus on this episode went to the center novas, and what happened to them, especially the photographer who went over to the dark side in order to attempt to get the best friend back, not to mention the way in which the Yuuko just blew up with her performance. That’s the kind of change that I did appreciate. The character development for the good guys in this episode was good.

DES though… are pretty lame villains. They are the kind of villains who are willing to destroy entire cities for the sake of progression. On its own not really bad, but we’ve seen these villains so many times before. They’re not fleshed out in the slightest. There’s nothing that makes them stand out, there’s no depth to them. That’s not really the best group of antagonists to feel sorry for.
Rating: 4,5/8 (Good)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 21

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

I love how this show just treats random goons for 5-minute distractions, rather than people who are meant to delay the plot for entire episodes. For a minute I was afraid that this entire episode would be dedicated to that spike guy, and yet they just walk past him. It’s juuuuust enough for Wham to recover a bit, and nothing more. After that this show went back to Cars and Wham: the ones who really matter.

Sure, they didn’t fight for the rest of the episode, but that didn’t matter. The interaction between Jojo, Lisa, Wham and Cars was what was important, and as a set-up episode I really enjoyed this. The irony of Jojo having killed Lisa’s foster father also really worked well.

Plus: the chariots. The guys just brought in these giant chariots in order to have a duel together. Yay for variety! This series really puts in effort to spice things up here.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 20

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Awww. This show already has an awesome soundtrack, and to think that it has one of the best tracks saved for this episode. This episode was all about Ceasar, and as the episode went on it became pretty clear what was going to happen, but for what they attempted to do, the creators succeeded.

So the death of a major character. Another thing that has set Jojo apart is that really anyone can die, and they once again show this with this episode. It was over the top as usual, and the music really helped. The creators also made his death quick: no dragging on for ages, he was just hit once really badly, and that’s it. He did get to make a very elaborate farewell speech though, but it was well done with all of the symbolism there.

Wham was also a great guy to do it with dragging Ceasar inside the building with weird powers. Byusing them to block the sun they found a new twist to his powers. And it all happened in just one episode. Eat your heart out, Naruto.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

AKB0048 – 19 & 20

by psgels, posted in AKB0048

In an attempt to catch up I’m going to combine two episodes in one for this one. But really: the only reason why I’m slow with this is my schedule. This really was a major episode for the characters. And not just one of them, but a whole bunch.

For a long while I kept wondering why Nagisa was the main character. This episode she got her chance, and she showed that it would be for her stupidity. She’s the only one stupid enough to suddenly make such a giant declaration when everyone is trying to be perfect. An incident that is bound to be able to get some publicity since the rules of AKB can be so strict sometimes. And yet she tries so hard. Cutting off one’s hair is a gret symbol for character-development.

And then there is Mimori, and I now see what the creators were trying to do with her. She grew from a walking boob joke to someone really interesting to follow in the way that she continues to grow, but in the end sacrificed too much, taking her body into neglect.

Kanata and Shiori meanwhile finally had a little moment together again in order to develop their relationship, and in particular the problem that Kanata still has not become a successor. Then there is the talk of the new Center Nova, who Hikari and Shiori are working towards becoming. It’s still build-up at this point, but the characters do a great job of showing why it’s so important for them.

And I think that is the strength of this second season. Like I expected, the focus is less on criticizing the idol business (it’s still there, though), but more on the characters. And so far, it has really succeeded in bringing out the emotions of all of the new characters. The huge case makes sure that it can keep switching between all of them and their stories. And it’s doing a pretty good job of developing them all. It’s the thing with series with a huge cast: you can’t have characters that are as well developed as with series with a small cast. The trick is the big picture: give everyone attention, and make the cast come alive. Highlight a few characters as the main characters, but don’t excessively focus on them at the expense of others. AKB does that pretty well.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 19

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

It’s episodes like this that finally show me why there have been no attempts at a full Jojo series before aside from a few OVAs: it’s just so damn hard to animate. In this episode there were quite a few moments of characters talking in mid-air, and having entire dialogues over a span that should have just taken up a bunch of seconds. Without the incredible over the top style of this series, it ust would not have worked at all.

But really, the fight in this episode was awesome. The voice actors in particular were really having a great time yelling all of their lines in fashion that was as overblown as possible. Even the narrator was yelling at the top of his voice. I love just how much testostherone there was in this episode.

The one striking part in this episode was that pendant sliding off the cliff, that indeed felt like it took ages. One moment characters were fighting and yelling over the top, the next they were running like crazy after this tiny gemstone in this hilarious fashion, all while narrating everything that was going on. I know that I’ve often complained about shounen series explaining way too much, breaking up the pacing. In this case, it didn’t. The explanation and the buildup fitted perfectly and you just keep waiting here for the series to pull its next twist while the characters explain as fast and loud as possible.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 18

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

First of all, I was warned about last week: do try to avoid looking at this week’s episode title.

It contains a pretty big spoiler. It’s a bit strange to have this one slip through, because this series seemed to have an excellent production team that has proven to be flexible, so I wonder why nobody who saw it thought “wait, that will spoil the surprise, let’s do something else”.

But first, brains. At the start of the episode I thought that Jojo will have to fight some kind of bizarre pair of walking brains with tentacles, but in the end the fight got once again pulled to the bizarre when he actually took over one of the maids. Brainwashing in anime is nothing new, but the way in which this was done. Seeing her body get nearly torn apart definitely added a different dimension to that, and once again it was a really intense fight.

I also loved the big spoiler of this episode. You should not read this if you haven’t watched the episode yet, but seriously. The way in which they revealed Stroheim as some kind of terminator was hilarious. I kept wondering why they kept hiding his face, but yeah. His new character designs rock.

This show loves to play with its characters: the tough guy suddenly breaks down into uncontrollable tears, the cute maid gets completely disturbing, the sadistic nazi becomes a terminator. I really wonder whether the creators are also planning such huge contrasts for the rest of the cast. I really hope so. Don’t spoil this please, the fun is in finding out whether this is really true.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 17

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Warning! Warning! Some people notified me in the shoutbox about this, and I’d like to say it here as well: apparently the next episode preview for this episode contains a massive spoiler. Avoid it at all costs.

Now, about this episode, it reminded me again why this show is completely crazy. Villains in shounen series that are really hard to kill are a staple. Regeneration and stuff. I’ve never seen it done so well as with this series, though. This series shows exactly how tough it is in order to kill these buggers, and these invincible people make optimal use of their bodies now that they have these powers. Holy crap, a guy attacking with his tendrils that contain superheated blood?!

AC/DC is… quite a character. He’s just the same as Jojo in how he’s cunningly thinking all ahead. Not to mention his over the top acting that was hilarious. I loved how he cried like a baby over his lost arm. His voice actor is also perfect for this role. Having him reduced to a brain at the end of this episode… this will be glorious…
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

AKB0048 – 18

by psgels, posted in AKB0048

Once while zapping, in a lazy mood, I saw one of those model talent hunt shows which required its models to bungee jump. I can only imagine that this episode meant to poke fun at that completely silly and pointless practice with the end of this episode, otherwise I cannot fathom the bizarre set-up of having a gigantic hole with at the bottom a giant power-off switch. Nor why DES mechanics have a wide availability of bungee jump cords available… or perhaps…

What’s interesting is that this episode revealed this series to be one giant joke. Des has been profiting from AKB0048 just as well, and it’s using its entertainment ban and offensive actions to make huge amounts of cash, not to mention that apparently they’re very interested in Kiraras. Because of that, this it explains why they never really were able to take out AKB0048: because they never tried. The question now remains how much of this show ended up scripted. Knowing Mari Okada… yeah.

In the meantime, more character-development, this time for the useless one. It showed that yeah, being useless also has its charm, especially when something pays off. The character-development for the rest of the cast also showed because of this: they were able to goow up and become more dependable. I mean just look at them: they just ran in and grabbed a bunch of machine guns and started shooting stuff… yeah. It’s not like my suspense of disbelief was still in one piece for this series. I do appreciate however that they completely failed at driving a mecha. In the context of that scene it worked well. They didn’t need to drive it accurately, it just needed to make a big mess. Which it did. DES probably left the keys in on purpose or something…
Rating: 5/8 (Great)