Category: Finished Series: Action

Aquarion Evol – 05

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

wtf… just wtf.

I have to give it to this series: it’s creative. This episode once again was completely weird, but on a completely different level than the previous episode. Instead this turned into this bizarre romantic comedy. It’s like the previous episode promised, but I did not expect electric bracelets that would go off whenever the wearer had an impure thought. It’s even more surreal that all of this was monitored by the people in charge of the academy.

Because of that, this episode was hilarious. And this comes from a guy who normally finds romantic comedies to be really boring. There was a lot of good chemistry between the characters, but I also really liked how well the serious parts were directed. That robot guy’s past, and the climax of this: that really was some well delivered stuff here. On top of that, the art department of Satelight really got to flex their muscles again in this episode, with some really gorgeous pictures as a result. These guys really know like no other how to draw huge and grand landscapes with a ton of detail in them.

Seriously, comparing this to the first five episodes of Macross Frontier, and Macross Frontier pretty much loses out on every area aside from the animation. The romance in this series feels whimsical and fun, rather than forced and contrived as it did there. The overall storyline is much more interesting and has much more potential (for me, “guy dates two idols while bug aliens attack” is much less interesting than what this show is currently doing, exploring the tensions between males and females while actually sentient aliens are attacking).
strong>Rating: ** (Excellent)

Rinne no Lagrange – 04

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

The chemistry between the characters is really good in this series. This was supposed to be just a dull building up episode, but thanks to that chemistry I didn’t mind that at all. These characters are very funny when they’re together, and I’m not just referring to the main characters. The side-cast also is full of characters who are great to watch and who love to make quips towards each other.

One of my biggest fears for this series was the third main character. The last thing that this series needed was another ditzy stupid female. And yet, surprisingly she turned out to be a completely different character, using her traces of ditziness actually to her own advantage. I also like how this series didn’t try to glorify how she was using CPR. It’s been a while since I didn’t see someone freak out and link saving lives to randomly kissing.

Unfortunately, one very annoying cliche slipped by. Two, actually. The first is the lead character suddenly living together with a bunch of cute girls. The main one though was the “waitress scene”. That’s something I’ve seen dozens of times before and it was only saved because of the good characterization.

And again: this episode showed the damages of the last episode being rebuilt, both for the main characters and the aliens. Another thing that this series does well is that the town that this is set in feels alive. This show is very good at putting in small details that flesh out the characters, but it’s doing the same thing with the setting. I like that.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Aquarion Evol – 04

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

What the hell did I just watch?

In any case, in terms of soundtracks, there are quite a few good ones this season. There is of course the usual Natsume dreamy soundtrack. Rinne no Lagrange is also quite intense and well timed. By far the best though, is Aquarion Evol. This is pretty much the best thing that Yoko Kanno has done in a really long while. I really realized that once that piano guy started playing: that is some really complex music. And on top of that, the soundtrack is just huge.There were so many different epic tracks in just this episode, and it doesn’t look like the creators are running out anytime soon. A lot of effort really has gone into this thing.

Now, going back to the infinity punch: wut?

I must say, I did not expect things like that from this series. I thought it was just a regular mecha series that would show a bunch of normal battles between a bunch of giant robots. The battle in this episode however, really was something else. I mean, a show like Star Driver used the concept of using one’s libito to power a mecha before, but this really took the cake with that punch that circled the earth several times, only to break down the Berlin Wall. that separates the males from the females. Um, symbolism anyone?

I also love that at the end, that infinity punch didn’t disappear or something. So right now the entire world is now polluted by this gigantic arm that is wrapped around it twice. That must be one bitch to clean up in the end. Speaking of the end of the episode, it promised total chaos next week. Knowing the creators, I have no idea what to expect. It’s especially unlike Shoji Kawamori to pull twists like this this early in the game already?

Also, what was up with that flamboyant headmaster? On hindsight it just seems so surreal what he had been doing. He knew about Mikono, so he dressed up like this drifter, and got into the boat she was supposed to take away from the island, only to drive her back again. Again, this feels like some weird satire on Star Driver of all things.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Rinne no Lagrange – 03

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

And this is why you should never leave a teenager in charge of intergalactic negotiations. “Long term? Who the hell cares about long term! You attacked us so I’ll attack back!’. Also, this is something that I’ve been noticing in quite a few other series as well. I mean, I get stylizing things as “there is no sound in space” and stuff. But it’s a bit bizarre to have the dark parts of the moon translucent…

In any case, I like what this series is doing here. Once again this episode placed a lot of focus on continuity. The battles aren’t just destroying random buildings. They’re destroying random buildings that people live in. It shows that everyone is involved.

Also, my fears of Madoka being too perfect also turned out to be ungrounded. Her aforementioned stubbornness is an interesting way to show her flaws. The enemy was willing to actually negotiate, and yet her pride for her hometown was an interesting way for her to ignore that. The big danger for this is taking it too far. Flawed characters are of course great to watch, but when these flaws make them mindlessly stupid then it’s just a sure sign of bad writing. So far though, Madoka isn’t really stupid. Just mindless and really impulsive. On top of having some bad ideas, she also balanced this out with some good ideas. Part of the fun of this show is how she perplexes everyone around her aside from her cousin. That cousin who really needs a bigger role here.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Aquarion Evol – 03

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

I have not watched the first Aquarion, but I want to test whether it’s possible to watch this series without having watched the prequel. The reason for that is that this season of Aquarion has a very different staff from the first. And really: there are a lot of great people working on this thing.

I have my issues with Shoji Kawamori, but I consider him to be a very good director. He’s at his best though, when working together with other talent. I got really annoyed with Macross Frontier, but in the end the writers for that show, along with the other director, weren’t really that impressive(as a frame of reference, the writer of Macross Frontier is currently writing Guilty Crown…). This series though? The director under him is the guy who directed NHK ni Youkoso and B Gata H Kei. The series composition? None other than Mari Okada. And amongst the other scriptwriters for the episodes are the guy who wrote Senkou no Night Raid and adapted The Third and the guy who wrote Argento Soma, Betterman and Yukikaze. There really is a lot of talent involved in this series, not to mention Yoko Kanno behind the music.

In any case, this is by far the best looking series of the season. In particular the architecture is impressive here, with the kind of grandeur that’s very typical for Satelight (for example Macross Frontier, Guin Saga and Basquash). This definitely aims to be the epic of the season. And heck, I have no idea why Satelight picked the winter season of all things to go all out, but heck, it’s definitely an interesting twist.

As for the plot in this episode… it was weird. We have a main character who starts to fly whenever he’s turned on, and we’ve got a lead female who is turned on by failure. I like the themes of males versus females, although there are still a few things I’m a bit iffy about, like the forced fanservice of tihs show. I don’t mean those transformation scenes; I’m more referring to that one scene where the male lead and his companion were trying to tunnel under this show’s version of the Berlin Wall and picked the exact spot to surface that allowed them to look up the lead female’s panties. That’s just bad; but ah well, at the very least I hope that we won’t get an episode like in Macross Frontier, which was entirely dedicated to getting Sheryl’s panties back…

In any case though, this was solid build-up, meant to get to know the characters. We got a good feel for them here, and this includes the side-characters. And at the very least, the creators realize that the two leads are useless idiots. This allows the rest of the cast to stand out, compared to Guilty Crown, where the entire universe revolves around that darned male lead…

Obviously the show isn’t there yet, but I see potential for growth here. Comparing this to the other of the big three sci-fi action shows (Mouretsu Pirates and Rinne no Lagrange), it only stands out with its better graphics, but with the right script it can get quite interesting.
Rating: * (Good)

Rinne no Lagrange – 02

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

Rinne no Lagrange’s biggest flaw is its pointless fanservice. Aside from that, it definitely doesn’t stand as inferior as the other Tatsuo Sato series this season. Where Mouretsu Pirates had its characters that impressed me, Rinne no Lagrange surprised me with how creative its direction can be. And I don’t mean in the big lines; that part is pretty standard. Instead, I’m referring to the small scenes and scenarios. These were written with inspiration.

The result is a standard mecha show at first, with some nice touches once you look more closely. Ships that were destroyed last episode are still broken and help bring continuity in the world, to that one robot that was defeated being towed away… still upside down. But I’m also referring to things like getting lost while trying to find a hotspot for your cell phone. Oh, and the regular weapons actually aren’t useless this time, but actually serve their purpose to buy time.

The crowning moment of this episode however was the underwater scene. It’s a very neat idea at that point in the episode, to just have her quietly talk with her sister. when she felt down. And Youko, you made my day. You are without a doubt my favorite character of this series.

The cast in this series is fleshed out very differently from Mouretsu Pirates. Mouretsu Pirates did it by giving characters really time to play themselves out. It had humour, but that was secondary. In this show though, the tongue-in-cheek nature is much more a core part of this show, and the characters are fleshed out in how they react to everything, rather than how they act.

Oh, and that soundtrack of this show is really good here.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Some Quick First Impressions: Another, Ano Natsu de Matteru and Aquarion Evol

by psgels, posted in Another, Aquarion Evol, Some Quick First Impressions

Another

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a transfer student.
To the people who claimed that the season sucks after only half of the shows had aired: perhaps a bit of patience would have been in order, because this season also has a very good horror series. Another again doesn’t have the best premise. Heck, it yet again takes place at a high school. If there’s one flaw of this season, it’s that everything is centered around bloody schools. In any case though, this show understands horror. This episode built up this wonderful horror atmosphere with a good script, neat camera work and some subtle mystery that combined all really drew me in. This was the kind of horror series that combined the ordinary life with a lot of creepy hints. This episode was very uneventful, but it slowly revealed more about what was going on, which will very likely get continued into the next episodes. The ordinary parts about this episode in any case were a neat way to flesh out the cast, and in particular the script gave them some character that made them interesting to watch. They all had something interesting to say here.
OP: Ah, the ALI Project. That’s long ago. Their style still doesn’t really match here though…
ED: Dull ballad with dull images.
Potential: 85%

Ano Natsu de Matteru

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets killed and then revived again.
Here is the thing with this season: its premises are crap. In fact, it’s been years since we had a season with less interesting original series. And yet, it’s got so many big names, there are so many talented people working on all kinds of different series this season. The best example of this is Ano Natsu de Matteru. Here we have a show which follows all of the romance cliches… only it actually is well executed. What does this mean? The characters act and feel real. The animation and acting is realistic and believable, rather than the overacting moe stereotypes that you usually see in those types of series. On top of that, this doesn’t feel disjointed, but introduced a few different subplots that should keep the show interesting, rather than having it hang apart from random incidents. This show has a degree of believability that a ton of other shows of the genre lack. And yet the lead character is wimpy, there were quite a few romance cliches, there is the ditzy blond girl. And yet it feels strangely interesting when it’s delivered so much better than usual.
OP: Finally some J-pop I like this season. The really good use of instruments did it.
ED: Simple yet interesting graphics. The j-pop was a bit dull, though.
Potential: 75%

Aquarion Evol

Short Synopsis: Our lead character can pilot a mecha.
There is one way in which this season stands out: the amount of teenaged sci-fi mecha epics in it. Rinne no Lagrange, Mouretsu Pirates and Aquarion Evol are all ambitious action/adventures, while they still all pursue a different direction with a different kind of execution. Rinne no Lagrange focuses a lot on its direction and script, Mouretsu Pirates placed emphasis on its characters, and Aquarion meanwhile has gorgeous action and a ton of eye candy. I mean, this is the kind of big budgeted flick you’d expect in the big seasons, not the small ones. Besides that, Aquarion has the least interesting characters of the three, yet they’re still an interesting bunch. Their biggest problem is that most of them blend into each other due to the cast being huge. A long show can fix that nicely (and it’s Mari Okada behind the script. She has shown often enough that she’s able to do this). The plot had these interesting elements of males versus females. I haven’t seen the first season, but heck, I’m curious where this will go.
ED: A well produced song that fits the epic nature of this series really well.
Potential: 80%

Some Quick First Impressions: Natsume Yuujin-Chou Shi, Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2 and Rinne no Lagrange

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou, Rinne no Lagrange, Some Quick First Impressions, Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

Natsume Yuujin-Chou Shi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character can see youkai.
Usually the best of a season is aired last. This time, it’s completely different when the first three series are the big original series, the best comedy, and what’s likely going to be the best overall series for the next three months. Seriously, I can not imagine the rest of the season to live up to these three shows at all; perhaps only Rinne no Lagrange will get trumped. In any case, this was another very solid story for Natsume Yuujinchou. As opposed to the other seasons, it immediately starts off with an arc. And compared to the other first episodes of the arcs we’ve seen so far, it really holds up. This episode was both heart-warming as tense as a cat and mouse game between Natsume and what looks to be the series’ villain Matoba. Nyanko-sensei was as delightful as ever, the animation was also as rock-solid as usual. Now let’s hope that the series will capture the same heights as the third series.
OP: Very clever little op, completely dedicated to character development. The song could have been better, though.
ED: In the same style as the previous ED, with some nice animation and a gentle song.
Potential: 95%

Tantai Opera Milky Holmes 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a detective. Or at least she’s supposed to be one.
Oh my god. What the hell did I just watch here? You see, comedy sequels are very hard to do. Most of the times, the sequel is the point where the jokes get stale, overused, and there the creators get too scared to deviate from the formula that made the first season successful. Milky Holmes does not have that problem. Oh no. This episode was actually different from the first season. The creators definitely went into a slightly different direction. I mean, the first season wrapped up pretty conclusively, so the creators had to go for something different. I did not expect that “something different” to mean complete madness. Seriously, this show has turned into an extreme self-parody. This entire episode made the entire first season look completely ridiculous. This only was the first episode of the year, but already I cannot imagine any other show this year to have a DUMBER cast than this here. It was crazy beyond belief. And it was utterly hilarious. Also, what the heck is Artland doing here?
OP: Really, really bad.
ED: Really, really bad.
Potential: 90%

Rinne no Lagrange

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to pilot a mecha.
Happy new year, everyone! And so the Winter Season of 2012 starts, and it already does so with the original production of the season. Because of this, it was one of my most anticipated non-sequels for the upcoming start of the new season, despite the obvious problems. The obvious problems here are the fanservice, and indeed this episode had quite a bit of the pointless variation, from some of the outfits to the lead character running around in a swimsuit. Overall though, it definitely has promise, and in particular the direction of this episode was good. This show knows how to deliver tense mecha-battles, and the acting too is quite well delivered. Madoka as a lead character so far has her pluses and minuses. I like how she is a strong female character who is confident and gets along quite easy with others. On the other hand though, the creators also made her just too perfect: she excels at everything, whether it’s kendo, acting, sports or anything else it seems, and she manages to pilot the big mecha of the show like it’s nothing. The creators had better provide an explanation of why 1) she’s able to do that, and 2) she somehow is the only one who is fit to pilot an alien craft.
OP: Quite a standard set for the visuals for the rest of the year. The song is generic, but the use of colours and textures is excellent here.
ED: Dull song, but neat visual ideas.
Potential: 75%

Sengoku Basara – The Last Party Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Sengoku Basara

Okay, it may seem like a strange idea to watch and review the Sengoku Basara movie of all things on Christmas Eve, but I really have to say: if you finished watching the first two series: just watch this movie and enjoy the fireworks. It’s one hell of an enjoyable way to spend an evening.

You can definitely see that the creators wanted Sengoku Basara to end with a giant bang. Everything here is just completely over the top. Every single voice actor is having the time of his life, hamming up his role. And it actually works with such a series that’s so full of manliness. The first two series already developed the characters, and this movie realizes that it only needs to work a bit on the new ones. The result is that a far bigger portion of this series is devoted to the action than the second season, and the action is far better and over the top than in the first.

The downside is that this movie throws away all pretense. While the first two seasons had interesting storylines, this one has just has one goal: being over the top. We’re done with the complex plot lines, here is just an over the top and emotional epic ride. So yeah, when you boil down the storyline they used for this movie, it’s full of cliches and overdone tropes, packed together in a very simple premise. It may not seem so at first, but yeah. At a certain point, you’ll understand why.

And yeah, this movie is pretty much fanservice. I don’t mean that it suddenly grew boobs or that the characters suddenly start stripping for no reason, but I mean this in that this movie is entirely dedicated to pleasing the fans. Because of that it’s in no way accessible to those who haven’t watched the other Sengoku Basara-series, but this movie took the things that stood out the most in the TV-series, and built a movie around them.

At this point, I had been exactly waiting for this series to go all out, which is why I’m very pleased with this movie. It definitely washed away the disappointment of the ending of both TV-series, because they just weren’t epic enough for what this show promised. This movie finally delivered on that promise. I just can’t take this franchise serious anymore after this, though. Especially after the ED, which was all kinds of awesome, but just doesn’t belong in a series that expects you to take it seriously. Merry Christmas everyone, by the way.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Completely over the top and it works.
Characters: 8/10 – Makes good use of the fact that it already fleshed out its characters.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Solid as usual.
Setting: 7/10 – Please don’t believe that Sengoku Basara is an accurate portrayal of the Sengoku Era…

Suggestions:
– Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection
– Tailenders
– Shin Mazinger Shougeki Z-Hen

Macross Frontier – Sayonara no Tsubasa Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Macross Frontier

Um… yeah. This movie…. I think I’ve just been trolled. The first Macross Frontier Movie stayed very close to the TV-series, only in a much more streamlined version. It cut all of the unnecessary stuff that dragged out, and instead focused on the core of the series, which worked really well and I ended up really liking it (and this is coming from someone who was really annoyed by parts of the TV-series). The second movie is… different… One of my problems with Macross Frontier was that some subplots took forever to get anywhere, and a lot of them were resorted rather half-heartedly, if at all. This movie isn’t like that. This movie wants to be exciting. This movie wants plot twists, and it delivers them no matter what. It’s difficult to do this review without spoilers, but let’s just say that this movie wants to deliver plot twists a little too badly. Especially the second half shows this. The result is a story that has lots of twists and turns… that just don’t make any sense whatsoever. You are going to have to turn off your common sense if you want to be able to enjoy this. I did not, and was raging throughout half of them. This was in no way good storytelling! The creators just pulled whatever twist looked the coolest out of their ass, and completely disregarded narrative logic. And I’m not the strictest when it comes to not making sense, but what the creators pulled here was just deus ex machina after deus ex machina that only add to the style of this series, not the substance. Oh, and Shoji Kawamori shows his environmentalist side again. You know, the kind where the environmentalist messages are just shoved down your throat without any sense of subtlety. *Ahem* when you do turn off logic, you’ll be rewarded by an utterly gorgeous movie. In particular the musical segments shine as ever. This is one part at which Macross Frontier has never disappointed, and this is o exception. The use of colours and camera angles shows how much budget and animation talent went into this. Both for the 2d animation as the CG as the backgrounds. It IS a fun movie. Just don’t go into it expecting good drama, because the drama here is of soap opera quality.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Well, it’s fun and engaging. It’s at least a great action movie.
Characters: 7/10 – This movie does add things here and there to the characters, but I’m not sure whether they were good ones. The three leads do have extra charms compared to the TV-series… but there still are enough annoyances about them.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Not among THE best animated movies, but it has stunning visuals nonetheless. Gorgeous for movie standards, but loses points for reuse of soundtrack.
Setting: 7/10 – Makey no sensey. Also Kawamori’s environmentalist traits got old years ago.
Suggestions: – Redline – Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22: You Can Not Advance – Tailenders]]>