Category: Finished Series: Action

Aquarion Evol – 18

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

I hate to say it, but I’m starting to lose interest in this series. This episode was the final nail in the coffin for me to admit that. This was the episode when the main plot returns again after the string of bizarrre filler lately, but what we got for it… I can’t really say that it was worth the build up.

So, Mix gets kid-napped, Zessica is doing nothing but angst and every father in this show is an asshole: Mikono and Mix’s treat their daughters as junk, while Amata’s fater left him and who knows: perhaps he’s eve that Mikage guy. The amount of angst in this episode, it didn’t work for me aside from Mix and Andy, but even that resulted in a cheesy kidnapping.

This type of angst unfortunately is something that is all over Shoji Kawamori’s series. I got tired of it in Macross Frontier and Arjuna, and even Basquash had some of it. I was hoping that Mari Okada would be able to keep him straight, and I guess that the twists here are more creative, but this angst still remains annoying.

The worst was Zessica, who just plainly dived into emo and lost herself in her angst and crush for Amata. It’s a shame that even after 18 episodes, her character still is nothing more than “I like Amato but have no chance on him because of Mikono”. It’s all just so superficial. The mecha action battle of this episode also was quite boring and also couldn’t keep my interest. Something needs to happen for this series now, and quickly.
Rating: – (Disappointing)

Eureka Seven Ao – 03

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

The setting of Eureka7 Ao is completely different now that Eureka somehow traveled through time, but I like that: it shows that the creators really attempt to go for something different here, rather than to dwell on what worked. The big challenge with this approach will be: what can they do in order to make up for it?

In any case, I like how not nationalistic this series is. After so many series that are about Japan being in danger,this series actually split up the country and made Okinawa declare independence. Of course having this set in a country beside Japan would have been even better, but at least this is a step into the right direction.

This episode also dedicated a lot of time to the islanders and i must say that I like how this series already has many different parties with their different interests. what’s more, the way they are portrayed makes them all feel alive. The best example of this was the scene where Ao arrives back at his grandfather’s house, and saw his grandfather busy salvaging his stuff from his burning house: it shows that even when the camera isn’t focused on them, they’re busy with their own agenda. It’s been a while since I watched a show that had this done well.
Rating: *+ (Great)

Zetman – 04

by psgels, posted in Zetman

Interesting: someone actually saw a bunch of thugs beating up someone, and did the most sensible thing: run away. Unfortunately this was nullified a bit when she headed outside again afterwards, but at least this was for a better reason than the usual “I want to help too!”

In any case, what also was interesting about this episode: all of the people observing Jin. They feel different from your average support crew. For one they feel like having actual characters and worries beyond their professionalism. It doesn’t feel like they exist solely to support Jin, but have a more complex job.

With the players, the creators also made random thugs better than your average thugs you see in anime. What I mostly like about these characters when they’re used is how they’re devoid of any sort of character. It’s like, “we need drama! throw in some random thugs with just one line!” These guys actually had a personality though. And they were actually a bit smart in when to run away. Two of them, at least.
Rating: +* (Great)

Aquarion Evol – 17

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

Okay… so this show just explored some new depths here.

Shoji Kawamori, Mari Okada, or whoever it was who came up with the idea for this episode: why? Why did you stuff everyone in swimsuits? Why was the ancient aquarion hidden in a lake? Why do people need to take a bath in milk? Why did that milk suddenly become a way to teleport people into mechas. And what on earth was up with all of the banana references? Seriously, with these past episodes this series has made all of the training arcs look completely ridiculous.

This was by far the most sexualyl charged episode so far. And despite some of the really bad twists of which I’m still not sure whether they were pulled on purpose or not, some characters emerged better out of it, while others got even worse. By far the best character in this episode was Andy, with his incredibly awkward freudian mistake. By far the worst was Zessica. This episode pulled the twist that gave her even less of a personality “I’ll love you even if you don’t love me back”. This remains a terrible twist. At least lett her attempt to move on or something. Also, what on earth was up with that new outfit of hers? Who on earth found it a good idea to give her a Queen’s Blade outfit? What on earth was that meant to symbolize?
Rating: * (Good)

Eureka Seven Ao – 02

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

The three big mecha/sci-fi shows last Winter Season have gotten an addition: Eureka 7. If you don’t include Uchuu Kyoudai among them (which is a completely different show anyway), then these are the four best series of the genre in 2012. Where Rinne was fun and witty, Aquarion was over the top and weird, Mouretsu Pirates was creative and down to earth, Eureka Seven puts the focus on its drama, and does it really well. This second episode, I’d probably rank it above the second episodes of Aquarion and Mouretsu Pirates and below Rinne no Lagrange, but in terms of potential, it could possibly eclipse all of them if it keeps on going like this.

This show also looks gorgeous. It’s a bit different from Aquarion, which spams eye-candy through its CG department. Here the CG and 2D animation mesh much better, and it’s the 2D animation that steals the show by being really expressive. That’s really going to work in the show’s favor later on.

For this series, the creators really used Ao’s innocence as a central point. It’s no excuse that he immediately knew how to pilot the Nirvash as soon as he stepped into it, but beyond that: it cares about continuity, it plays around with different parties who are all after him, and he realy is forced in the middel of this giant war, just because he refuses to let go of this bracelet of his.

I’m also very surprised at how the creators used Eureka in this series. If that really is the same Eureka as in Eureka Seven, she really changed.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Zetman – 03

by psgels, posted in Zetman

Seriously, I really like Zetman. The manga may be so much better, but something just clicks with the anime for me. Atsuhiro Tomioka‘s adaptations are often like this: incredibly flawed and rushed, but also with some really good parts. Nishi no Yoki Majo for example had some great characters and dialogue, but it just went way too bloody fast. Disgaea on the other hand went way too bloody slow, but it did get some good development out of the characters in the end. Trinity Blood had a horrible ending, but its first half was brilliantly written. Zombie Loan was over before it even started, but it had a cast of really good characters. All of this regardless of how good the source material was, of course.

The thing is that after these three episodes this might become the best series he worked on yet. The rest of this series has for me really made up for his rushed script: the original story, however butchered it may have been, shines through, and there are some really good animators and storyboarders working on this series. This is slightly different from Deadman Wonderland, which I covered last year: that show was a very entertaining over the top trainwreck. Zetman however, has something more, and it’s not a trainwreck. It’s very genuine at what it does, and I really like that about this series.

Also, this series has the kind of rush I don’t mind. The big problem I had with Persona was that it rushed through everything, yet spent way too much time on things that in the end didn’t matter. This script however allows the characters to show their emotions and development. While the plot itself has a lot of unexplained things, it’s not to the point where this series becomes incomprehensible, and it becomes fun to try and puzzle what this series is trying to do. If this series does that consistently, it can work out well. You don’t want to have a series that thrives on being solid and believable, only to have one gigantic plot-hole in its middle. That just breaks suspense of disbelief.

This episode also revealed that Kanzaki’s grandfather is still alive, and not only that: Kanzaki was his creation, attempting to make the Zet monsters that we’ve been seeing more human. If the rest of this series can explore more about this humanity I’ll be very interested. If this series can get to that, in any case. I really like this series, but I also have no clue whether this will be the same at the end of this series.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Aquarion Evol – 16

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

Okay, so with this episode it’s clear that this show intends to screw destiny. The important part is how it’ll end up doing this. This episode had a lot of build-up for that, alongside a completely overblown love confession that was really fun to watch when taken out of context s it created an infinity punch that even traveled through time.

However, I still am a bit afraid of Kawamori trolling again. What I mean by “taken out of context” mostly refers to the aftermath, which didn’t really use the fact that Zessica confessed to Amata, and instead focused more on how Aquarion nearly went berserk (by the way: did I see this right and did they just casually wipe out an entire island? I sure as hope that they picked some sort of uninhabited island and didn’t train in the midst of school grounds, like how they’ve been fighting most of the battles). Zessica’s confession has the most terrible timing: it’s too late to really make an impact on Amata, but it’s too early to really actually do something in the grand scheme of this. Instead the creators made this a bit of a stepping stone for the later romance, reducing Zessica yet again to nothing but a mere love plot device for the male lead.

Also, a new season and a new sequel that refers the original. After Last Exile’s recap episode of its first season, this episode also continues to show old material. What really caught my attention was how seamless the images looked of Last Exile, while the transition from HD to a smaller format really is quite noticeable with thick lines of animation used back there. This is a compliment to the original Last Exile, by the way, because it’s definitely interesting to see how Satelight’s animation has changed over the past ten years.

Oh, and this episode finally showed Bianca and Dorezza in a battle, revealing what powers they have. And they are actually quite awesome. Why weren’t they used before? I mean, if Zessica didn’t confess they would have kicked ass. The only reasonable explanation for this is that Amata is special somehow, and that he can awaken special powers that others can’t. Weren’t you trying to screw destiny, Aquarion?
Rating: *+ (Great)

Some Quick First Impressions: Shining Hearts – Shiawase no Pan, Eureka Seven Ao and Tsuritama

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao, Some Quick First Impressions, Tsuritama

Shining Hearts – Shiawase no Pan

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives together with three cute girls.
This episode threw me off. With a title like “Shiawase no Pan”, I thought that there was a character named “Pan” or something. Not that the main characters would actually be bakers. Beyond that, this episode… it felt like playing an actual RPG: the characters went from one place to the other, talked to a few people and then went home again. That is not the way you should adapt something like this. RPG adaptations are meant to take liberties in order to weave their storylines because RPGs have things that just cannot be translated to anime format, more than any other kind of source material. So yeah, this was a bit of a boring way to close off such a streak of excellent first episodes. All the characters do is walk around and sell bread. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There were some intriguing parts that will probably be explored later, the characters were all moeblobs with really bad character designs, but they weren’t forced into stereotypes, and this show had a relaxing atmosphere that would have worked… if it wasn’t for one thing: throughout this episode I really got the impression that the creators have no idea what they’re talking about. I’m referring to the bread: it just assumes that the characters can make great bread, but it doesn’t even put an ounce of thought into why this bread is great, or how it’s made, or where they get their ingredients from. It’s just “Okay, we have bread! Let’s give it to people and make everyone happy!” I mean, if you’re going to bother making a show about bread, you should at least do your homework, right?
OP: Granted, this does have that RPG-feel, despite the annoying vocals.
ED: I… just… what did I just watch? Who found this a good idea?
Potential: 30%

Eureka Seven Ao

Short Synopsis: Our lead character will supposedly pilot the strongest mecha in existence.
With Eureka Seven it is of course a bit difficult to really judge its first episode. I remember how I actually dropped it for a while, until I saw how good it got after a while. This epiode of Eureka Seven Ao definitely made a better first impression than the first episode of Eureka Seven did. For starters its lead character isn’t as annoying as Renton, and the creators immediately start by showing some good drama around him, and his feelings towards his parents. His girlfriend still fits the bill of “female lead”, but there are small parts where she sets herself apart from her counterparts. The action and soundtrack also sound very promising based on the small tastes they gave us here. I do have to say though, that this episode also had a lot of parallels with Bounen no Xamdou’s opening episode, and compared to that series’ opening episode, this unfortunately lost out, especially in its characterization. Still, the potential is definitely there for this series to both deliver engaging action and characters. It’s now up to the rest of this series to develop the rest, and it definitely has some good papers for that. It’s a shame that this couldn’t get 50 episodes, but 25 works too.
ED: Not the most memorable ED, but also definitely not the worst. Also who’s the kid?
Potential: 85%

Tsuritama

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live together with a cute boy.
Above all, this was really refreshing. In a world in which most of the teenaged series try to see who can rip each other off the most, here we have a show who really makes a point in being original. It’s not just the theme of fishing, but the characters and their antics are all delightfully fresh and the cliches that are there are executed different from usual. For example: for as many transfer students that we see in anime, we actually rarely see people move. the lead characters’ grandmother also feels refreshing in her light-heartedness: she was old, yet not the same kind helpless old woman you see everywhere. And yeah, in a season with Shinichiro Watanabe and Sayo Yamamoto, you’d almost forget that Kenji Nakamura also is an incredibly good director. This episode was fun and whimsical, and A-1 at the helm combined with a number of very interesting animation techniques. The end of this episode also hinted that there will be much more than meets the eye at first sight, and I feel like this time, Kenji Nakamura went with a series that DOES fit perfectly in just 11 episodes. After sitting though Guilty Crown, I am really glad to see that Noitamina is back again.
OP: Some actually decent J-Rock. Finally.
ED: Dreamy song, and surprisingly catchy.
Potential: 90%

Zetman – 02

by psgels, posted in Zetman

From the start I was a bit apprehensive about blogging Zetman, because I knew right away that it would be rushed. Why? Because of the guy behind the series composition: Atsuhiro Tomioka. It’s not like he is bad or anything: I really liked his adaptation of Samurai 7, and all of his other adaptations do have a number of really good parts. However, he always takes huge liberties when it comes to source material and he always rushes through with incomplete stories. And then you give him a huge manga to adapt with only 13 episodes. Yeah.

So Zetman will be incomplete. I don’t really care about whether it’s faithful to the manga or not, but it is not fun to start watching a series knowing that that it’s not going to end well. But really: after that first episode I just have to cover this. It had so much detail there, and the creators put so much emotion in this episode. the graphics were also amazing. In fact, out of all the first episodes to have premiered this season, I liked the graphics of Zetman and Lupin the most. Yes, both are TMS Entertainment series. I really like how they went for something completely different from their usual series, and it works.

Now, the looks of this episode were decidedly less impressive and the animation was much more static, but it still had its parts that looked great. The characters’ faces in this series have depth. they’re not some cardboard-cutouts but they feel like movable objects. It’s not like the animation is perfect, and there were plenty of rushed shots in this episode, but even considering that the amount of the shots with depth was remarkably high. On top of that, I also love the amount of emotion that the characters’ faces portray.

Now, this wasn’t perfect though. I can only imagine that the manga had a better solution for saving the family trapped in the burning building. A bunch of pillows are nowhere enough to break the fall of several stories. Some of the old guys in this series also lack the energy that the young ones have, especially the corporate bastards: they feel like the same corporate bastards you see everywhere.
Rating: *+ (Great)

Aquarion Evol – 15

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

So, it’s finally time for the love triangle to get somewhere. This is something that can easily get really annoying when the creators have no intention whatsoever of breaking up th emain couples, but heck: Kagura and Mikono emerged as better characters out of this episode. Kagura for finally showing a different side of himself than that raging beast (it’s about time here…) and Mikono, for finalyl doing something against her part as Amata’s true love (hah! I got his name right this time!).

Amata and Zessica meanwhile still need to have their moments in which they need to grow. Zessica is nearly getting there, but her growth entirely depends on Amata here: if he doesn’t change, the she’ll remain stuck in in her current dull part forever. You’ve just entered your second half, Aquarion, so the time for delaying is over now. You’ve got the luck that you’re an original story, so you can fully make use of the 26 episode format.

The whole Silvia & Apollo is something that I, as someone who didn’t watch the first season, didn’t really get, but a quick look on the internet showed that they are the two main protgonists of the first Aquarion series. I like how they didn’t go for the predictable “Amata is Apollo route. What I still dislike about this series is how it still adheres to “true love”: the way in which love is always decided and only two people are meant for each other. Amata is the only one who so far goes against that. It’s a problem that has been all over anime, really, and 95% of the attempts to subvert this just turn into harems or psueudo-harems. Chihayafuru last season was one of the very few series who got it right for me.
Rating: *+ (Great)
ED: Entirely dedicated to Yunoha? Okay. It’s just a pity that her voice actress can’t sing, though.