Category: Finished Series: Action

Rinne no Lagrange – 22

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

Well, things got serious here. This was the episode in which all hell breaks loose. There are two episodes left, so this was about time, things look promising, but I still feel like this could have been more.

Overall, things would have been bad if this episode had been delayed till next week, however with two episodes, or fifty minutes, the creators can do some interesting stuff with it because it doesn’t take that long to just stop a world destroying superpower: there will be more. In the meantime this episode was fun and action-packed, so the creators did get that right.

In the meantime we have Dizelmine going totally ballistic. The more I think about it, the more issues I have with that. To list them:
– It was… rather overacted, especially for him. Where did that sudden outburst come from? I’m not really that convinced that he went mental, just because Madoka stopped him. He was able to interact with Vilagulio perfectly fine before.
– The “this guy is evil due to another more evil guy behind the scenes”-twist near the end of the series is a difficult one to pull off. Why? You just poured so much time into showing who he is, and why he does the things he does. And then you suddenly create an even more evil character from out of nowhere, who has had absolutely no development whatsoever. The result is that the creators are going to have to give a new character impact from out of nowhere. It has been done plenty of times before with success, but when the guy is such a stereotypically evil bastard with no other sides things will get a lot trickier.
– Just have Dizelmine kill Vilagulio. That shows that he really is serious and that something snapped with him. If you don’t show him actually dying, you’re just going to obey the golden rule of anime (no character is dead unless confirmed so).

I’m also complaining so much for another reason: a lack of other things to keep me interested. I mean, after how awesome the conclusion for Mouretsu Pirates was, I guess that I got my hopes up too much for Tatsuo Sato’s other series. And the characters indeed are great, but the plot has lost all its creativity ever since Yurikano disappeared. And unfortunately, this is because the creators focused too much on getting that epic world-threatening ending. Please put some creativity in the final episodes because the characters are too good for just a standard climax.
Rating: 4/8 (Nice)

Eureka Seven Ao – 19

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

Now this was a big episode! It completely changed the plot and setting and after this, the series will look completely different. This is really what this show needed to make it even better and it’s a wonderful twist to prevent it from getting stale near the end.

I generally dislike “let us adults sacrifice ourselves for the younger generation”-twists, however in the context of this series it fits perfectly. The themes have always been that children should be protected, even if they’re the only ones able to pilot mechas, and that’s exactly what happened here. On top of that the creators went even further by giving the kids a good excuse to be the central focus of the plot: it’s exactly because they have been protected and bear no responsibility for the actions of these adults, that they’re able to be free in stopping the real threat: the Scab Coral.

And yeah: Generation Blue has been disbanded because it has been causing too much trouble and acted way too much behind the scenes. Beyond that Fleur got some really good development out of everything, Elena finally came clean with her story (what the hell has Eureka been doing?!), and Truth also is moving more and more away from the perfect villain that he was when he was first introduced. He may not be dead (unfortunately, I have seen too much anime at this point to know the trick of that cliff-hanger), but even considering that, his role in this series has been completely changed after this episode.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Rinne no Lagrange – 21

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

So, I thought that at this point, Rinne no Lagrange would dive straight into its climax like what happened with Mouretsu pirates. Instead we get a calm before the storm episode. While I did not expect this, it’s a very good calm before the storm nonetheless.

It’s basically an episode that looks to the future: the three aliens who pretty much haven’t had anything to do in the second season are finally all going their own ways, with two of them returning back to their home planet. Even though their characters at this point are pointless from a plot perspective, it’s still nice to see what’s going to happen with them.

Beyond that this episode also addressed Madoka’s refusal to change. It’s interesting, as she hasn’t really changed over the series, even though everyone around her has, and with that she’s about to be left behind when the series closes off. I liked how both Lan and Muginami decided to return back to their home planets when everything is over.

Overall though, I do have to say that out of the three big mecha-series that debuted in the past Winter-Season, Rinne no Lagrange probably will end up with the least impact, unless something amazing happens in these final few episodes. The best ended up without a doubt Mouretsu Pirates with how it completely changed as it lead up to its finale, and Aquarion Evol also for me holds a candle above this one due to its plot twist. Of course, the characters of Rinne no Lagrange are much better written than Aquarion Evol, and possibly even Mouretsu Pirates, but there is one thing that I am still missing in this series: something that makes them stand out and memorable. I guess that that’s the frustrating part: this show has the wonderful ingredients. The characters are really well fleshed out at this point. They just don’t come together as well as the other series. Unless Tatsuo Sato has something in store for us for the ending, of course.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Eureka Seven Ao – 18

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

This episode… had a really good director. This really was a sharp episode, and even though it may not have had the animation of the previous episodes with their Itano Circus and all, I really enjoyed it even more.

It’s not apparent when you just casually watch this episode, but what the direction in this episode did was put focus on the direct environment around the characters. What the creators could have easily done was show Elena peoples walking down some random road. But no, the camera stopped specifically at a flower with really well animated lightingeffects. Nick and Ao could just as easily have a conversation between the two of them, but with that sloth distracting in the background it made the scene so much livelier. And this episode was just full of these details that brought life to these surroundings, and the best thing is that you can really see that the creators put time into placing them there. They’re inspired and creative.

Beyond that, the acting in this episode was also much sharper than usual. Often the characters delivered a ton of emotion and meaning with just one line, or even a simple facial expression. Or take the point at which Elena was consumed by anger: the creators actually twice used the facial expressions of her giant robot and her helmet respectively to strengthen portraying these emotions. This was the work of someone with a lot of passion for this series.
Rating: 6.5/8 (Amazing)

Rinne no Lagrange – 20

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

This show is building up to something. This episode however, decided to ignore that for some good old-fashioned character-building. It wasn’t even a calm before the storm, but rather an episodic story that was meant to push the characters a bit further before the climax starts.

So yeah, the student council wants to take away the club room for the jersey club. To avoid that Madoka needs to find an extra member. They find one, but at the end of the episode that member already quit and the clubroom issues stopped being a problem. The new character is also completely insignificant to the story, so the real point of this episode was everything in between.

Aside from fleshing out, what I think was the most important here was the meaning of the Jersey club to Madoka and Youko (who by the way has a way too small part in this second season): how the club was formed, and how they look at it today. It’s a neat piece of character development for both of them.

As for the main storyline, the only thing that was revealed was that that one guy who has been suspicious for the entire series has something to do with it and has been alive for 20000 years now. I’m still not seeing how it’s going to relate back to the themes of the rest of this series though, but this episode was not bothered by that. And in the meantime, the new girl was annoying but had her charms when she revealed her intentions, and it was fun to see Madoka fly off.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Eureka Seven Ao – 17

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

So, this series definitely has this tendency to come with back-stories right from out of nowhere. This episode treated us to the identity of the father of Truth. On top of the nature of the world that the series takes place in: we’re dealing with a parallel universe. Basically this show is what would happen if earth would be invaded by the Scab Coral: it would still thrive, but not as much as we do now. So wait, are the villains in this series trying to move the plot into the current earth?

What’s interesting is how Goldilocks isn’t dead, but instead they never got enlisted. And you know what? I wonder what happened to Bruno in this timeline then: is he still working for Generation Blue, but in a different division or something? Will we actually see him again? What’s also interesting is how Ao nearly loses himself near the end of this episode, leading to quite an interesting cliff-hanger where people actually realize that he is too dangerous with that dimension-altering gun of his. Is that really going to be it, though, or did this episode fail to mention something?

And then there are the characters in this episode who just started to act weird. Elena Peoples… didn’t she try to shoot down the Nirvash a bunch of episodes ago? This episode she apparently decided to try a completely different tactic, but what she has in mind still is a complete mystery. The trio of Gazelle, Pippo and Juno also were different from usual. Juno was in his element when he started explaining things, so that one is logical, but what about Gazelle being so blunt? And has Pippo always been this stupid? The most notable change however was Georg, who sometimes got taken over by a new voice. That one definitely is a plot point that the next episodes will touch upon.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Rinne no Lagrange – 19

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

This show is building up to something. It’s being very mysterious on what it exactly is, though. We’re given plenty of hints, like with the tragedies of the Rinne that happened, and that something really bad is about to arrive, but beyond that? I mean, this episode also pretty much resolved the tensions between Vilagulio and Dizelmine. This was surprising and all, but I do have a concern.

Here is the thing: so far, this series has been all about reaching out to others. It has mecha, but it has made clear plenty of times before that conflicts should be avoided. And really, in this episode they did that with Dizelmine: something bad is going to happen in a thousand years, however he completely changed his attitude and now has ended up joining forces with Vilagulio and his people to find a solution. Sure, it took the love of a young girl to get there, but it kindof works.

However, where on earth are these themes in the part of the story that is still remaining? What is there to talk about two planets colliding? What is there to talk about random flowers that appear from out of nowhere that have the power to destroy planets? The only thing I can think of right now is that Yurikano is going to go berserk or something, but that’s nowhere near as interesting as what the past arc has been. Plus it’s rather cheesy, even if the show built up to it. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see what kind of solution the creators found for it, but they did kindof write themselves into a corner with this. The challenge now is to leap out of it without getting dirty.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

Eureka Seven Ao – 16

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

Finaly! After two weeks of waiting (those bloody olympics!), Eureka Seven Ao is back! And it still stands out as a very entertaining action series with hard-hitting plot twists. I again went wtf the end of this episode when it became clear what the creators were building up to: completely erasiing Goldylocks from existance.

Again what I like about this series is how vague it is on what’s real or not. This episode also had these strange dreams, but how real these were (whether they were just simple projections of Ao’s fears, or something more) is also very vague. Not to mention that giant superweapon that Ao pulled out of nowhere: what does it actually do? Does it remove people from existance, or was Goldilocks never there and was everything before just an illusion?

Surprisingly, this episode didn’t have Truth in it. Instead the main enemies were the Secrets, which surprisingly were revealed previously to be not as bad as we thought they’d be. Also, what was Naru doing again at the beginning of this episode? My memory from three weeks ago may be have been failing me on that one.

Beyond that, this show knows its action: it often uses this technique known as the Itano Circus, which basically is showing a huge amount of bullets and following them through complex camera movement. Add that to the techno-soundtrack, which I actually think fits better compared to the soundtrack of the first Eureka Seven, and you’ve got the best action of the season by far.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Rinne no Lagrange – 18

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

Okay, I did not expect that.

Last week when Yurikano took over Madoka’s body, I thought that this would be the start of this epic story to resolve the war, with Yurikano in a central position. And here this episode comes and already removes Yurikano again from the main plot. And the way in which they did it surprised me even more.

Basically… this episode used coincidences: first Madoka randomly switches on the communicator while she’s talking to herself about Yurikano and afterwards just as when Lan’s brother is about to talk to Madoka about Yurikano, the Rinne switches them back again. They were a necessary evil: it led to nice character development and the chemistry that resulted from it was awesome. After all that build-up, this episode resolved everything surprisingly quickly. It’s a bit of an anti-climax, but so much stuff happened in this episode, and it was quite creative in the process.

And really, the creators can use this in their advantage. The only flaw of this episode was the coincidences, but I like it when a series does something against expectations. This brings the center of the story back to Dizelmine and Vilagulio. But how will they fill the remainder of the series with that? I mean, this episode was rushed for a reason. The question now is what kind of reason that was.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Rinne no Lagrange – 17

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

This episode really showed the strength of Tatsuo Sato’s series. I mean, this is supposed to be a mecha-series, but the Vox of this series only appeared at the end of this episode, taking off. Instead this episode was one giant build-up to the final moments of the series. It really had my attention from start to finish here and every time at which the episode seemed to dull in, they threw in something new to regain that attention. And that in an episode with so little action in a series that’s supposed to be mecha action.

Last episode I noted how annoying Yurikano was. Okay, I understand now: that sharp contrast between who she really is made her such a more interesting character because of this. Then there was that point two episodes ago, at which I whined that Lan’s brother needed more attention. And yet again this episode comes and delivers on that. This episode fleshed him out: he didn’t really change, but he finally showed his colors as a ruler ruler who knows that what he’s doing is bad, yet continues to charismatically lie his way through the episode and threatens to kill off an entire race for the sake of his own people. His character still is typical, but this episode made him so much more relatable than what he was before.

What also surprised me was that this episode pretty much answered all of the major questions in this series. From this point onward, there are many routes that this series can take, but here is the thing: this is an anime original series, so the creators have been preparing for that from the start of the series. Also, this is by Tatsuo Sato, who really was on fire this year. With Mouretsu Pirates, the final quarter just kept getting better and better, and I really hope that he can influence this to be the same here. The thing is: that at this point Rinne no Lagrange has a really good and relatable cast. The build up has been done really well, but actually using the build-up takes a lot of skill. The people working on this have the potential to make it work, though.

Also, I noticed that the soundtrack has gotten a bit more varied: it uses a lot of different instruments together. A nice touch.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)