Category: Finished Series: Action

X-Men – 06

by psgels, posted in X-Men



So, the animation received an obvious dip in the past two episodes. It’s unfortunate, but that earthquake also hit Madhouse hard. The good thing is however, that despite the less impressive animation, this show still knows how to deliver great action scenes. The battle scenes are all well choreographed and they’re all balance din terms of the characters involved. It doesn’t stick with one character for too long, and instead of endless talking the X-Men actually do something, and do this efficiently. It’s a stark difference with Wolverine, who without the X-Men was like a wild beast who just kept charging.

Now, I’m impressed that the creators actually revisited Hisako’s parents. what made less sense is how they just allowed her to become a member of the X-Men, which is far too dangerous for her. Overall though, I’d still say that the worst part about her is her voice actress. She neither turned into someone who hogs all of the attention nor someone who constantly has to be rescued, and yet remains a young girl without her powers.

And the biggest potential pitfall for this series has not changed: the villains. They hardly have any build-up, and so far the best they did was prove to be menacing villains as soon as they started fighting. This show does a good job of building up the bond between the different X-Men, but the villains are just completely ignored. This episode even didtched the U-Men for another different villain who has even less build-up.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Tiger & Bunny – 06

by psgels, posted in Tiger & Bunny



Okay, so the title of this episode seemed to suggest that it would be an episode about Fire Emblem; it wasn’t. It’s instead about a villain who also uses fire as a weapon. Of course Fire Emblem did make many appearances in this episode, and even though we didn’t get to know anything about his past, he only got more adorable through is antics.

Instead, we got ourselves a major villain. His introduction was a great one: usually when a main villain gets introduced, he just appears in one shot, trying to look cool. This guy immediately succeeded in making himself into a threat by linking him to Barnaby’s past, having him brutally kill previous villains and by by making his flames far more effective than the fire user of the group. This show has a lot with people with the same powers.

The chemistry between the characters is still amazing. Especially the interplay between Tiger and Bunny is great, and this episode also showed Tiger and Fire Emblem together, and they too make a great combo with each other. I especially love how the creators also aren’t afraid to build up jokes during the exciting parts, somehow succeeding not to make the jokes feel out of place. What’s more: this show has these things that you’d think are random jokes at first, yet prove to be important plot points later on, like the prank photo that Tiger made on Barnaby’s cell phone and the suit designer being claustrophobic. It’s all weaved wonderfully together.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ao no Exorcist – 04

by psgels, posted in Ao no Exorcist



So this episode showed that this show doesn’t necessarily have to rely on its action scenes. The episode in this episode was short, and instead it was much more about the character who I suspect is going to be the female love interest. Overall, this episode served its purpose quite well: we now have a love interest who already has a good backstory and has been nicely fleshed out.

And that’s the great thing about this series: it may not be anything new, but the things it does, it does really well. For a moment I was a bit afraid of the cliches taking over this series, but by now it has shown that it’s going to turn into one of the examples of how this kind of premise should be done well.

The main character is still a bit annoying, but I doubt that this will remain for long. Even this episode, which focused on a completely different character for once, had plenty of scenes that fleshed out the two brothers again.

Oh, and another plus of this series: I can actually see this working well in a 24 episode series: on one hand it has enough time to create a good cast, and at the same time its backstory is not way too ambitious: we have a pretty clear goal and path laid out by the first two episodes and the main character isn’t the type to beat around the bush as soon as he finds a way to kill Satan. It can be a good yet compact story that can both deliver on the action and wrap itself up without much problems, even if the manga does go on for longer. The creators have already showed that they know how to improve the storyline of the manga for the better (or so I’ve heard, of course).
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Deadman Wonderland – 04

by psgels, posted in Deadman Wonderland



This. Is one heck of a mind-screw. I mean, holy crap: this episode went even farther than this show already has in order to make the main characters’ life hell. Heck, this episode devolved into complete psychological torture! Even Shiro here proved that she isn’t god-moded as well, being captured like that.

This prison is completely crazy. Even the Number Pads on the security locks are scrambled up in order to confuse people. It’s so crazy that it has a badass violent inmate who is scared of breasts and an unregistered prisoner doesn’t even catch their attention.

These don’t have to be criticisms, of course: we have yet to learn of Shiro’s story. It’s already been established that something is really strange about her, and people hardly seem to notice her. Also the boob phobia is a neat quirk as long as it doesn’t overtake Crow’s character (which, in this episode, it didn’t do that at all).

Four episodes in, and the characterization has been pretty consistent: neither good nor bad, but it works. This series mostly makes its characters interesting by showing the way they react when confronted with everything that goes on in Deadman Wonderland. The cast in particular makes sure that the story just keeps going on: there’s always something interesting happening. The downside to this is that the characters never have the time to really sit back and do nothing, which is especially visible in the lead character. So far though, it’s got enough to make up for it, and I can’t say that for every series that has stiff acting this quickly.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

X-Men – 05

by psgels, posted in X-Men



Well, the message at the beginning says it all: last week, an episode of the X-Men was scheduled, but it didn’t air. Madhouse too was hit hard by the quake, and this was one episode that they just couldn’t finish in time. The irony is that this episode, despite being an obvious step back, still delivered. Compared that to Iron Man, which also suffered from production issues thanks to Redline: there it didn’t even look like they were trying.

So yeah, this was a build-up episode. It’s quite early, especially compared to Wolverine, but that series also had quite a simple plot. This episode was all about developing the trust between the old X-Men and their new characters. It’s the kind of episode where you can only tell whether or not it pays off when the series is finished. At the very least though: this episode gave some really clear hints that the bad guys will indeed get some major development as well. That’s good.

The thing with Hisako is mostly that she just feels out of place. It’s great to see an entire series about adults, and the tension between Emma and Scott is just much more interesting at this point than Hisako trying to gain control over her powers. And yet, I totally understand why the creators put her in the series. The X-Men have always been about providing a stable environment for mutants to grow up in. Youth is a very big theme in the franchise, despite the main cast all being adults. And Granted, Hisako could have been a lot more annoying. She may be whining, but she’s always to the point, and… well, with the way she’s been treated, I don’t blame her in a lot of cases. Just… don’t let it go on for too long. The key to good whining is balance and granted, this episode did not have a perfect balance there. My main issue with her is just that she may have been a little too quick in becoming a part of the X-Men…
Rating: * (Good)

Tiger & Bunny – 05

by psgels, posted in Tiger & Bunny




Oh, I loved this episode. It was quite silly, but it poked fun at a lot of superhero cliches in the process, and yet at the same time it gave a lot of depth to Barnaby’s character. This show understands what makes a good episodic series!

The banter between the characters especially was priceless here. The tension between Tiger and Bunny is of course great, but the side characters actually all support this. In this episode especially the designer was hilarious in the way that he kept the team together, but Skyhigh too was great. I love how the best hero for once isn’t the main rival to be overcome, but instead is this guy passionately helpful yet simple guy who you just cannot dislike. Barnaby meanwhile, the guy you’d expect in this position, instead keeps getting harassed by his partner.

Then there were the weapon upgrades during the battle at the end. I loved the way in which they poked fun at superhero upgrades: first they cleave diamond, and then they just turn out to be fashion accessories that furthermore don’t disappear, making Barnaby walk rather wonky. They’re these neat touches that just keep popping up.

Also, this is what I want in an episodic series beyond a solid execution: variety. Every episode so far has been different and unlike the other. In fact, that is THE advantage of episodic series over shows with a continuous story: they allow the creators to fastly switch from one premise to the other to show many different stories and flesh out the cast from many different views and moods. A lot of series that use this formula unfortunately forget this and just go with strings of episodes that look like each other.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ao no Exorcist – 03

by psgels, posted in Ao no Exorcist



I must say: whoever designed the magical academy and especially its buildings did a mighty fine job. Everything looks grand, but beyond that there’s also a lot of creativity put in the different buildings. It’s also really well detailed.

Now, I did find it a bit far-fetched that Yukio turned out to not only be a genius exorcist at the age of fifteen, but also an actual teacher already. It’s in any case rather strange for him to wait until downright appearing in front of his class to reveal all of this, involving the rest of his classmates who should have nothing to do with him at this point.

The first half overall wasn’t really that interesting: it was just your average introduction. Then the second half came, and the brothers actually got to talk to each other, and it really made up for that. The creators of course had to make it exciting by suddenly unleashing a herd of random goblins on the characters, but that gave it a really nice charm. It’s been established by now that this is a pure shounen series, and considering that it does a very good job.

The main characters’ reason for trying to become stronger: again it’s typical shounen to put so much emphasis on this, but his reasons aren’t for revenge, trying to become the best, or trying to save a girl he likes, and instead everything here comes back to his father: wanting nobody else to die because of him. On top of that, the creators also used his brother to give the same reason. It’s actually a very good motivation, and I especially liked how this episode kept tugging at the relationship between the two brothers.
Rating: * (Good)

Deadman Wonderland – 03

by psgels, posted in Deadman Wonderland



Well, so this episode did have an amount of strange things that probably were explained in the manga again. Most notably the reason why the guards ended up deciding that the quickest way to kill off a fourteen year old boy with a giant mechanic robot called Necro Macro. I mean, all these prisoners have these things around their necks that inject poison, for goodness’ sake.

And yet, this episode once again was bloody intense. For the third episode in a row it continued to show hell on earth and there are still no signs of this slowing down or taking a step back. Especially Takami became more interesting in this episode as he reluctantly was forced to follow Ganta around.

Now, as for the acting, this series is obviously nowhere near the four classics that Manglobe pumped out (Samurai Champloo, Ergo Proxy, Michiko e Hatchin and Sarai-Ya Goyou), and it does have a few weaknesses here and there, but I’ve seen much worse. Ganta at times has difficulty at responding to the people around him, but at the same time I also like how he’s neither constantly sulking nor blindly running into everything. There’s balance to his character: he’s helpless, but not so helpless as that you’d want to punch him, but rather as what you’d expect when you completely torment a fourteen year old kid here. Shiro meanwhile is… really simple of a character, who probably would have sucked if the rest of the setting didn’t form such a sharp contrast with her. She’s out of place, but strangely enough she doesn’t break the mood, but rather adds to it.

The worst acting in this show was probably from that Olympic medallist in the previous episode, the other prisoners… weren’t as bad in this episode because they took more of a step back. The return of that masked guy in any case was more interesting than that whole race of death.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ao no Exorcist – 02

by psgels, posted in Ao no Exorcist



Yeah, if there was any doubt left after the first episode, this episode took all of that away: this really is the shounen epic of the season. Whereas the previous prime time series (Star Driver and Sengoku Basara) tried to combine action with another genre (medieval politics and mystery/character study respectively), this is pretty much an all out action series about a boy who happens to be Satan’s Son. It really is the classic shounen formula, but it remains a very good rendition of it.

The set-up is not the best of this season by a long shot, but the execution and characters make up for it really well. This episode was an action-packed thrill ride, but the animation and art got really creepy near the end. The priest getting possessed by Satan was the highlight of the episode, but the other action scenes also kicked ass.

So far, the lead character is your typical shounen protagonist, but he has both his good points and his bad points. He can get rather annoying when he just stands there yelling, but whenever he isn’t he’s quite level headed and I liked how bluntly he just said that he’d become an Exorcist. In any case he still has enough room to grow. The side characters so far are diverse and interesting as well. The villains meanwhile do a good job of being a threat, although they are rather stereotypical, but let’s see where this series goes with them.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Tiger & Bunny – 04

by psgels, posted in Tiger & Bunny



Yesterday I was asked about reconstructions by Deedee. Back then I couldn’t really think of a good example that I really liked of one, but as I watched this episode of Tiger & Bunny I realized that it’s actually a pretty good example of a deconstruction. It accepts the flaws of the superhero genre, and then proceeds to create a highly creative setting around this flawed concept that both celebrates it and criticizes it. Of course it makes no sense for the heroes to be able to always be at the right place at the right time, but this series happily plays with that idea and has fun with it.

Also, apparently Tiger & Bunny will be 24 to 26 episodes long. I’ve yet to find official confirmation of this, but if this is true then it’d be awesome. This would really allow the creators to flesh out this setting of theirs, and this episode showed that they have every intention to do so. We finally get to see some background on one of the other heroes: the ice girl. My guess is that the other side characters will also get their own episodes. I also like that finally the most stereotypical character also became a bit more than a walking tramp. It’s a nice addition to see him own his own company, making him constrained by a whole number of different rules.

In the meantime, the action scenes still are fun to watch. They’re varied, and I like how they always involve multiple and different combinations of superheroes to make them fresh. The banter between the characters in-between the scenes especially is fun, and what the characters say are more than just cheesy one-liners.
Rating: ** (Excellent)