Category: Finished Series: Action

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 03

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

I’m still completely baffled by how over the top this show is, but here is the thing: if the pacing was any slower, this series would have been incredibly cheesy. There is so much over the top yelling going on. If this had the pacing of its contemporary Dragonball Z, it would have been an incredible flop. I cringe at the thought of what would hvave happened if this would had the pacing of a regular shounen series.

Instead though, the creators went for this really fast pacing, and they went for it all the way. It does have a few quiet moments that prevent it from being too fast-paced, but the action scenes are a complete delight, exactly because it jumps from one scene to the other without the endless padding. Because of that, the scene above the inferno worked, even though it took ages for two people to just fall. The characters yelling now fits perfectly here and it just continues to build up adrenaline. It’s also not like the voice actors do nothing but scream the same over and over. They simply talk with a lot of power and passion behind their voices.

Dio especially was brilliant in this episode in this. This is the point where he completely loses his humanity, and during his many rants he was just so enjoyable to watch. There is just something funny about how he goes “JOOOOJOOOOO!!!!”, or how he uses his fingers and toes to climb walls but he just keeps going! Once the action scene in this episode starts, there is just hardly any chance to catch a breather.

On a side-note: do you see the top-left image? I now know where some of Hunter X Hunter’s character designs came from.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 02

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

I love remakes! But even then, this show was by far the most pleasant surprise of the season. I mean, by far the biggest problem with this series would be animating the complex characters. When the first episode started off slowly, I had a few doubts, but after that, those doubts were completely turned around. This show is so delightful to watch.

I love what the creators did with this series. I mean, normally I don’t like overacting and all, but this show does the overacting with such force and consistency that it becomes awesome to watch. Once in a while, I just want to watch a show that’s full of testosterone that just makes me want to yell at my screen, and that’s exactly what the creators established here. This is so incredibly over the top, yet there is so much passion put in this show. Everything it does is larger than life. Oh, and the great news: I checked on amazon, and already 8 dvd volumes were listed. There is no way that this will be a short series of only 13 episodes!

And beyond that, it has a very inspired direction. Out of all shows this season, this series goes the most into its own direction, rather than following established conventions. The way this show uses its camera angles and character poses makes up wonderfully for the lack of animation, especially the use of colours. The manga-styled sound effects look a bit weird at first sight, but they definitely give a unique effect. The way it handles flashbacks by showing a number of key frames in quick succession also really works well. And the soundtrack! After Tempest and Psycho Pass it definitely stands as the best soundtrack of the season, and it works perfectly in making this show feel EPIC.

The show is rushed, but in fact, I believe that this show can manage where Zetman failed earlier this year: from my perspective it doesn’t look like important details are skimped over right now, and instead of a bit of a wonky pacing, it turned its incredibly fast pacing into its strength by keeping consistent with it, while at the same time finding a way to flesh out the cast by making the scenes that were supposed to be quiet also completely over the top.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Eureka Seven Ao OVA

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

The bet OVAs are the ones that take an important side story and expand on it. The best example of that in the past seasons was Another with its prequel. Eureka Seven however, has no such intention. Instead, it’s a fanservice OVA. Having said that though, it is a very special fanservice OVA.

I’d recommend watching this one around the middle point of the series, which is where this OVA takes place. The reason I recommend watching it as soon as possible is because it’s an OVA that fleshes out the cast: its value is lost a bit when you watch it after the conclusion, when there is no point to flesh out any characters anymore, and I’m therefore glad to have watched this before the final two episodes, because this definitely showed different sides of the cast, something they actually needed a lot.

Also, by fanservice I don’t mean the kind of fanservice that involves lots of nudity. Instead, Ao dresses up like a girl. This goes to the point where he starts cosplaying as Eureka. Yeah. As weird as this sounds, the direction of this episode was actually quite good. I have to admit, as a fan of both this series and the original Eureka Seven, I enjoyed this quite a bit, especially with the way they used the music, and paid homage to a few obscure series along the way (yay Ranma, Osamu Dezaki and Soul Eater!) It’s just a holiday and everone conveniently forgets what happened at the end, but it was worth it.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

Some Quick First Impressions: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, K and Btooom!

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, K, Some Quick First Impressions

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a rich noble’s son.
Well, there you have it. The fourth awesome opening episode of the season. I mean heck: this was absolutely delightful. It just screamed retro cheese, but it was so incredibly over the top that it became stunning. I mean, Dio Brando is such a great villain that every time he appeared on the screen I just sat there with a giant grin, but just about everything in this episode was done with incredible passion. Normally I’d complain about overacting, but the way in which this episode just took it over 9000 made it so enjoyable to watch. The show also has this reallly interesting visual style: like expected the animators didn’t attempt to make everything look clean and the characters often look off-model (not to mention the inclusion of some manga-style sound effects – really!), but the direction was so good. It knew what to animate properly, and the use of colours and poses was just delightful to watch. Why did it take so long to make a proper anime of this thing?
ED: Great song there, with great vocals and a very good use of a guitar.
Potential: 90%

K

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has this evil side that murders people.
Whoa, now this is a feast for the senses! The graphical style really shows that this comes from the same people as Mardock Scranble, but even then I was surprised by what a visual orgasm this was. And they made it look so easy. Every frame of this episode looked utterly gorgeous, but what’s even more impressive is that at times they actually bothered to animate the background art. Keep a look-out for the skating scenes, because those were particularly gorgeous. On top of that, this show has a very creative soundtrack: it’s diverse, has very catchy songs and comes with a ton of different styles. The voice acting though… not so good: Lotsa Engrish! Beyond that though, this is a show that was clearly inspired by Durarara, and that’s a very good thing: there were lots of different characters, lots of stuff going on at the same time. It very much was an introduction episode, and this can still go anywhere, but I’m glad to see that this show tries so hard: so many characters are difficult to balance well, but they can get some very good stuff out of this when they manage to pull it off. Some minor complaints: this show has bad hacking going on, and for some reason they did manage to include a school in this series. There are a few cliches in this show that just seem to be there in order to look cool. I know that that’s exactly what this show is trying to do, but there is such a thing as taking things too far.
OP: Utterly gorgeous OP, plus a nice song from Angela.
Potential: 85%

Btooom!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wakes up in a video game.
One of Madhouse’s specialties is adrenaline: creating those series that focus on building up this stuff. In that way, Btooom is the perfect series for them. It focuses on this teenager who ends up in a game world, but usually with these kinds of stories, the game is an RPG. This time, we’re talking about a full blown action game in which people kill each other with bombs. This is really what I’m looking for for a weekly dose of adrenaline: it got the emotions of the lead male right, combining bewilderment with this sense to survive. This episode already gave a bit of a taste of what the battles will be like, and they’re tense, but also completely unrealistic. It’s a missed opportunity that this series should have put some thought into its explosions, but right now they’re mostly plot devices. The soundtrack and animation are pretty solid though. I mean this isn’t going to win any awards, but if it can keep up this atmosphere then it’ll be pretty damn entertaining. Just handle the lead female with a bit of tact, okay?
OP: Quite stylish, but degenerates into a bit too much of a copy of other OPs as it goes along.
ED: Is that Chiaki Ishikawa? One of my favorite singers for these OPs and EDs. Not her best work, but still a great voice.
Potential: 75%

Eureka Seven Ao – 22

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

As I said in my Kokoro Connect review: I don’t include dvd specials in my reviews, simply because it takes too long to wait for them. With Eureka Seven’s final two episodes scheduled in November though, I can wait. My memory will still be fresh. And with such a cliff-hanger, I really want to include those final two episodes, because they are promising to be awesome. YES! Renton finally made his appearance!

Beyond that, this episode also offered a lot of answers, which is quite good. Naru and Ao also finally got a chance to talk again, and overall this was very fitting as the episode before the big climax, especially considering how it has been building up to give a major role to Renton and Eureka in the final two episodes.

Finally, I want to comment a bit on why I ended up really liking this series, even though I also dislike other series that also pulled questionable plot twists. First of all I want to get things clear: there is no formula in rating anime. With these things, not explaining everything or pulling plotholes, it’s not like there is one rule that says if there are plotholes, it’s bad. Instead, I care all about the context in which it happens: does it have things to make up for it? For example, I pay much more attention to the things I don’t like in Sword Art Online because I dislike that it wastes its potential with its setting. With Eureka Seven Ao however, I am for one a very satisfied Eureka Seven fan, so it can pull off a bit more, and it all just works together. The plot twists that it keeps pulling are all true to its themes and allow it to get the best out of its characters and have them show themselves off.

As for the characters, I honestly don’t mind them, and actually quite like their charms. This episode for example had some good comedy, their chemistry is good and it was all well built up in the first half. It’s not like in Guilty Crown where the characters just changed their personalities for no other reason than raise drama. This is a line that may seem small on first sight, but it makes such a world of difference. Or at least it does to me.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Rinne no Lagrange Season 2 Review – 81/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Rinne no Lagrange



Mecha series today are a bit rarer than what they were in the past, but they definitely still keep getting made. 2012 gave us shows as Eureka Seven Ao, Aquarion Evol and the entirely original Rinne no Lagrange. In the first season we already got to see its rather interesting sense of plot progression, and with this we finally finished its long-awaited conclusion.

Now, let me start by saying that Rinne no Lagrange is very unconventional as a mecha series. It’s usually a series of action and lots of fight and over the top plot twist. Instead the mecha fights only take up a small portion of this series. The first season spent much of that extra time building up and creating characters, whereas the second season is more about developing a plot about two warring planets and the mindsets of the leaders. At the same time it still tries to keep true to its themes of reaching out to others, rather than fighting and the slice of life. It’s a daring combination indeed, and unfortunately it does have a few hiccups, but also interesting results.

The most interesting of the results is that it has quite a good cast of characters. It really devotes time to explore the relationships between the different members of the cast, and this definitely pays off in the second season, whether this is the bond between the three female characters, or between the kinds of the two worlds. Again this uses the theme of reaching out and talking to each other above fighting quite well. It also leads so a number of very enjoyable and whimsical scenes.

The hiccups result from trying to be too epic at the same time as trying to be personal. On one hand it tries to create this huge setting involving three planets, on the other it tries to revolve everything around five characters. It doesn’t combine too well, and especially in the final arc of the story it doesn’t really seem like it really knows how to deliver an action packed climax so it just pulls a berserk button on one of the villains, removing any personal aspect of his character.

At its best though, it is kindof refreshing to see this series deal so lightly with politics that are usually entirely serious, and it still manages to take itself seriously despite of it (compared to series that turn politics into a joke for the sake of moe…). It still didn’t quite exactly strike the right balance, but it’s an interesting attempt nevertheless. However, I do have to say that I expected more of this series. It’s all a bit too careful, especially considering the ingredients it had as a fully original story, not based on anything. Take Madoka’s aunt for example: a wonderful character, who mostly just stands on the sidelines doing nothing. There were points at which it should have taken a few more risks. It’s a tad too mundane to really make an impact, and it definitely had the potential for it.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Gives a different spin to the mecha genre by combining politics with slice of life, but failed to tweak the balance.
Characters: 8.5/10 – Great and enjoyable cast with a good resolution, though had the potential to be more.
Production-Values: 8/10 – There are a few moments of eye candy, but apart from that the animation is pretty average. Soundtrack is as good as ever.
Setting: 8/10 – Could have been great, but is a bit stuck in a limbo between this show’s wishes to be both epic and down to earth.

Suggestions:
– RD Sennou Chousashitsu
– Mouretsu Pirates
– Simoun

Rinne no Lagrange – 24

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

Well, there you have it. It’s a surprisingly fitting ending for this series. A bit silly, but I like how it went against conventions.

In a normal episode, this episode would be all like “you think you have beaten me, but I have yet to reveal my FINAL FORM!”. Instead, things looked scary for a while, but most of the action in this episode was the Rinne settling down. It fits this show well: there was no way in which an action-packed finale was going to work for this show. It’s not an action series at all. Instead it’s about its characters and happens to have some action in it.

Instead this episode ended up glorifying the jersey club, making it the most powerufl entity in the entire universe. Oh, and the two planets colliding… they don’t. It’s plausible, but also one heck of an anti-climax. It’s definitely a very strange ending, but also quite a charming and daring one. The atmosphere definitely worked, and this episode took its time wrapping everything up. Though did we learn why Moid disappeared in the end?

Still, I do feel that the final quarter of Rinne no Lagrange was its weakest, simply because it didn’t really have much to do, so it just drove Dizelmine Berserk. It lead to this nice ending, but I do feel that the creators could have used it better, or if they were going for this ending they should have built it up better. Because my main impression with the second season was that it didn’t seem to know that this was going to be the ending. Still, it was definitely fun to watch.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Eureka Seven Ao – 21

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

This episode. There was someone involved who made the execution slightly different from usual. The way in which the characters interacted with each other was slightly different from usual, but very noticeable. There were these scenes which were a bit deformed, but very well animated in terms of character movements: they moved all over, and the episode had a lot of strange yet dynamic facial expressions. Most notably the animation at times was very smooth and the movement was very elaborate.

A quick look-up of the animators and directors involved with this episode doesn’t really point to one source that caused the change in style. My best guess is that a few people sat together and came up with the idea to try something new this time, because it’s both the storyboard, animation and direction that have changed. I like this a lot by the way, these experiments. Bones is usually a studio that thrives on consistency, especially in the past years, so seeing Eureka animated so whimsically definitely was a surprise here, but I liked how well that scene brought forth her emotions. Now that was some good use of fluidity.

What also caught my attention was the climax of this episode. This whole episode was basically about Elena. We now finally know all that is up with her: she was accidentally brought in from the past, but somewhere along the way she started finding herself special and thought that she came from a different world. That’s also why she probably created all those alternative personas. But anyway, her climax: she starts yelling and after just one love declaration of Ao she completely calms down. That was very unusual, and while it was a bit weird it worked surprisingly well there. Those emotions of hers were quite nicely done there and I really like these kinds of episodes in which the creators try to do things a bit differently.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Rinne no Lagrange – 23

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

So, last week I complained that things were getting too plain for Rinne no Lagrange. Did they fix that? Well…. the music was better than ever, the graphics also had this very trippy feel about them. The storyboard also was pretty good and in terms of action it was a very solid episode. It was also definitely full of emotion. But what about the actual content and the way in which the storyline progressed?

The structure was basically “overpowered villain beats heroes easily; heroes have a bit of quiet times to reflect on themselves; heroes gather their strength; heroes beat villain”. It’s quite a common pattern, and the first half was fairly dull in this. Especially because Dizelmine was pretty much on berserk-mode so it was just a random ending fight.

In the second half of the episode however, it redeemed itself. That’s when it went back to a climax that really fits this series. Dizelmine unfortunately was too far gone to be saved, but the way in which Madoka, Lan and Muginami nonchalantly had some sandwiches before battle was great, and the supplex in which they ended up beating him fitted perfectly. In the meantime Dizelmine’s subordinates also realized how pointless war was, bringing a believable end to the conflict now that the crazy dictator is gone, and Moid also finished his part and got arrested.

So at least this episode was fun enough, nevertheless in the end, Rinne no Lagrange did not turn out to be as fun as I hoped. And also, I have to wonder: you had such a great character with Madoka’s aunt. Why didn’t you use her more often?! Why did she stand on the sidelines so much? Her few seconds of glory in this episode were great, so it’s a waste of potential that this wasn’t used more often.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Eureka Seven Ao – 20

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

This show just keeps coming with twist after twist here. A few episodes ago Generation Bleu was against the entire world and now this episode things have turned full circle again with all kinds of alliances being made. On top of that, it turns out that characters who died last episode have left a few parting gifts which also shook things up tremendously, with the most notable being Fleur’s father, who immediately lost that glorious part of his death last episode by basically forcing all his problems on his daughter. That scene in which she broke down. Yeah, I can really imagine that.

Most of the twists were all very nicely built up and continued from the previous episodes. There was one that I’m a bit iffy about, though: that giant super mecha that appeared from out of nowhere and contradicts every rule that Eureka Seven has previously established, by being able to run without Trappar. Perhaps this has been hinted before, but this part for me unfortunately crossed the line between plot twist and ass-pull.

Also, it seems like a quarter of the cast of this show is some kind of spy for something. Elena Peoples especially was being a bit weird in this episode, but with the way she has been behaving lately it surprises me that she took this long to abandon Generation Bleu. Her mental stability makes her a very strange pick to be a spy by the way, since you’d usually want spies to be hardly noticeable. I hope that the creators still have time to explain exactly how she ended up crossing worlds, and why she was the only one from her world who did so.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)