Category: Finished Series: Action

Star Driver – 03

by psgels, posted in Star Driver




Hell yeah, this is looking really good: like Utena, Star Driver, beyond focusing on the main villains, also focuses on the people close to them. Right now, it may seem a bit random, but I’m betting my hat that these guys will return over the course of the series. It’s not like the cast of this series is infinite, and something really is telling me that the main villains will get plenty of time to show themselves.

As for the accusations of this series being formulaic: well, I guess it is partly. However, that’s the entire point of the series: Utena was the same: it had a ton of stuff that happened in every episode. The thing is however, that beyond that formula, you couldn’t predict it at all. The repetition caused it to become a bit ritualistic, which provided a beyond excellent framework for the characters to work with.

Star Driver looks like it’s going to be the same: every episode has the meeting of the council, it sets up someone to become Takuto’s opponent, it shows this person open the cybercasket, the caged girl starts singing the same song, Takuto transforms, and after a fight Takuto wins and the opponent hands in some kind of badge. Beyond that, though: it’s new and fresh. It’s one of the very few series that’s willing to try out new ideas, half of the characters are unique and unlike anyone else, and even the characters that fit a certain archetype are fun to watch.

I’m also really glad to see that the graphics still look really impressive. This is the third episode in a row that ha d a really exciting battle here, and on top of that the creators have made every match different. This one centred around sword battles, and even beyond that the style of animation also was a bit different here. Again: just think of the potential for the future of this series when the creators just continue to up the ante here.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Star Driver – 02

by psgels, posted in Star Driver



As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls is just bad. Its dialogue is so camp that it becomes silly, no matter what it does. Its voice acting sucks, the premise is worthless and there’s just no hope for this one.
– Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai keeps sending off the same hints that regular romances use for their lead couple. Learn some subtlety dammit.
– Super Robot Wars – The Inspector is full of cheesy morals, plus I know too little of the franchise to really enjoy it.
– Yumeiro Patissiere has its character development, but I’m missing too much in the other areas: the characters are annoying, and the pacing itself drags on, instead of keeping my attention.

In any case, before I move on with this episode, I do want to say a number of general comments towards the Autumn Season, and my main problems with it: I’m lacking some kind of adult touch here. Iron Man just sucks. Panty and Stocking does focus on adults, but it also has the toilet humour of a teenager, Togainu no Chi has its lackluster direction, the same goes with Hakuouki, and Arakawa just is hit or miss. What I’m trying to say is that, while these characters are technically all over 18 years old, there’s nothing mature about them other than Panty’s sex addiction. The good series that feature adults are Yakumo and Otome Youkai Zakuro, but those seem more aimed at a teenaged audience than a mature one. That just leaves Kuragehime and we don’t even know yet whether that one’s going to be good.

So yes, teenagers. That’s really the biggest fear I had for Star Driver, but this series has more than enough to set itself apart from all other teenaged series. This episode really established this series as Utena’s spiritual successor, and yet still feels new, refreshing and full of potential. I also really like how this is supposed to be a mecha series, made by people who don’t have anything with the genre: this way they can really go into their own ways, rather than follow all of the examples that have been set by series in the past.

Based on the fact that this series was going to be completely original and the exceptional staff, this really was the series I was looking for the most. The thing with the staff is that they may not be the best choice when it comes to adaptations. Yoji Enokido, the guy behind the series composition and script, also wrote the series composition behind Sailor Moon SuperS (haven’t seen it, but it seems regarded as the worst Sailor Moon series), Ouran High School Host Club (which I didn’t really like: it was unbalanced and there were too many boring episodes) and Nodame Cantabile: Paris (again unbalanced and nowhere as good as the first season). The director, Takuya Igarashi‘s previous two series also weren’t much to my liking: Soul Eater and Ouran High School Host Club. I’m not sure whether this was because of the material that they were working with, or whether they simply didn’t portray them right, but they have been involved with some disappointment.

And yet, we’re also talking about the guy who directed Ashita no Nadja, an incredibly charming and uplifting shoujo adventure and three of the Ojamajo Doremi, one of the supposed best mahou shoujo franchises, along with the guy who wrote Utena, a ground-breaking title with brilliant characters, a brilliant script and chockful of symbolism, and FLCL, another highly experimental anime with a ton of neat and original ideas, being consistently entertaining to watch. How could I not look forward to this? We could have a potential classic if these two manage to get in their element here.

And overall, I’m really pleased with the results. You can really see the influences on Utena, but instead of its elegance, the director here swapped that with flamboyance. On top of that, this episode toyed around with interesting ideas. I mean, take the kissing: at first it may seem random, and then it turns out that people have different powers. Also, “kissing through the glass”, could that be a reference to the strange glass balls in which everyone is caught during the fights in that strange dimension?

I love the concept of a mecha who can only move around in zero time. I’m expecting a lot of this series, though: if everything goes right, it can really become a potential classic. It’s only one of the two series this season that is really trying out something new and fresh. And since the other series that does this is Panty and Stocking, this really is one of those series that NEEDS to work out well, in order to set an example for many other series to follow.

Also, Shinichiro Watanabe (the director of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo) directed the OP for this one. How cool is that?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Macross Frontier – Itsuwari no Utahime Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Macross Frontier




Okay, so the Macross Frontier Movie turned out to be an alternative retelling, very much in the same veins as Do You Remember Love. And here’s the thing: in the most cases, the biggest flaw of these kinds of movies is their lack of time: they really try, but compared to the series they’re based on they just don’t have the time to experiment, flesh out their characters. You can really see that with Air, Clannad and Escaflowne: they really had their own ideas and visions, but severely lacked the time to really get the best out of their stories, and instead they ended up with a very stylish, but much more simplified version compared to their TV-shows. But holy crap, Macross Frontier is completely different: I liked the movie quite a bit more than the TV-series.

The thing with Macross Frontier was that its plot was pretty much flawed: it had a lot of subplots that never really went anywhere: it never really knew what it wanted to do. This movie finds this focus, it cuts out all of the pointless bits, and makes the story focus much more on Alto, Sheryl and Ranka. It updates many scenes to make them less annoying and it makes the drama that never seemed to progress in the television series much more dynamic and interesting. And even though its plot is similar to that of the TV-series, it really stands on its own, as much more than just another recap movie.

The back-story of the TV series felt unnecessarily complicated to me. Unnecessary in the way that it had a lot of bark and no bite, and was never really used. The movie simplifies things a lot. The results are that it’s a bit more cliched, but it fits much more within the rest of the series. In order to make up for the cliches, the creators here try to make up for it with the smaller things, where you can see them play around with neat ideas around the performances as well as a much snappier and flowing scenario in which the scenes flow into each other much better. Oh, and Shoji Kawamori found himself a new vehicle that he really wants to show off.

As for the graphics, this movie consists out of frames taken directly from the TV-series, along with plenty of new stuff. The recycled frames may be annoying, but it really surpasses the TV-series with its original content. The character animation is much more fluid and much less rushed, while the action scenes are just visual orgasms: they look absolutely beautiful, there’s a lot going on at the same time and have some of the most amazing choreography.

Really, I realize that I’m one of the people who had quite a few complaints about the original Macross Frontier and all, but I’d actually advise people who are interested in Macross Frontier to check out the movie instead of the TV-series, unless the second movie really ends up ruining things. The TV-series never felt like everything came together. The movie does.

Storytelling: 9/10 – The proof that “more time” doesn’t always equal better. Grabs the plot of the TV-series, removes most of weaknesses and makes the plot flow much, much smoother.
Characters: 8/10 – Much more likable, and much better used.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Not getting a 10 because of the recycled frames, but otherwise it would get really close. Fantastic animation and a visual orgasm and a great soundtrack that really succeeds in making this one of the few animated musicals that really work.
Setting: 8/10 – Less needlessly complicated, though more cliched because of this. Still, the cliches are not enough to weigh this movie down.

Suggestions:
– Macross – Do You Remember Love?
– The Wings of the Honneamise
– The Adolescence of Utena

Some Quick First Impressions: Star Driver, Yumeiro Patissiere Professional and Letter Bee Reverse

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee, Some Quick First Impressions, Star Driver

Star Driver

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the legendary pretty boy.
Hell yeah! This is the series I’ve been looking forward to the most this season, and it does not disappoint. It’s a bit silly and nonsensical, but it really turned those would-be flaws into a really charming series, full of neat ideas, homages and a diverse cast of characters. You can really see the influences of the guy who wrote Utena, and at the same time this series packs enough new stuff with a delightfully refreshing and upbeat mecha series. The direction is also excellent, and makes optimal use of its time, the characters and really manages to make their charms stand out as much as possible. And the animation! Without a doubt the best of the season so far. Characters move very smoothly, and the show is chock full of interesting poses, and especially the mecha fight in this episode looked absolutely gorgeous. This episode was stylish, adorable and while the story may not make the most amount of sense, that really doesn’t matter in the big picture here.
OP: Great to see an OP with some actual visual inspiration, rather than doing what every other OP is already doing.
ED: Neat animation, though that pop song is rather generic.
Potential: 90%

Yumeiro Patissiere

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a high school student of a pastry school.
I watched about five episodes of the first season of Yumeiro Patissiere, but ended up dropping it because it was getting repetitive and I saw no real future in it. I did not expect this second season. At all. I’m not sure whether I’ll end up watching the first season (50 episodes is really long), but this episode nevertheless was really good, showing just about every character significantly grown up, heading into the direction of their dreams. The cast surely looks a lot more diverse, interesting and colourful than what I watched of the first season. I’m really surprised here. There are some downsides, though. the most notable is the portrayal of Americans: what the heck was that?! I guess I’ve been spoiled a bit too much by Giant Killing and all, but the American in this episode had just about every stereotype you can get with the portrayal of Americans in anime. And he’s supposed to be a major love interest? On top of that, I also don’t quite get the premise of this new season. Despite what the title of the title may suggest, the lead character is only in high school, but she and three other students are asked to run a street full of pastry shops. Now, this has some interesting potential as you never see series about managing a large amount of shops and all, but I really wonder how the creators are going to solve this without introducing a a huge amount of shop employees (we saw absolutely no hints in the OP about it), and why they would leave such an important task to a bunch of high school students, despite their talents.
OP: Probably the biggest surprise in terms of OPs this year. It’s rather weird, yet surprisingly good and lively.
ED: Again, I expected something really generic and instead got a bunch of bicycles flying around in the air. Definitely better than your average ED.
Potential: 65%

Letter Bee Reverse

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is still an incredible crybaby.
I know that this series is cheating a bit and all, but I see no way in which Letter Bee Reverse is not going to have my favourite opening episode of this season. I mean, after such an incredible cliff-hanger, the creators made this episode into an aftermath that worked better than I could have expected. I seriously teared up at seeing Lag Seeing and Nichi, after what happened at the end of the first season, and this episode really gave both of them the time to really develop their feelings. I mean seriously, Letter Bee is a unique little shounen series that’s mostly plagued by the fact that the fillers are a bit annoying to get through. The plot, the setting, the characters: they’re all much more interesting than your average shounen series, and this episode could have been no better proof to that. I mean, I can only imagine how amazing this second season will be if the creators end up toning down the fillers here.
OP: I can only imagine what kind of spoilers this OP is trying to refer to.
ED: Screw Naruto, screw Bleach, I’m really glad to see that Studio Pierrot have finally found themselves another series to show off their creativity in art. This ED looks absolutely gorgeous.
Potential: 100%

Sengoku Basara Two Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Sengoku Basara




This season’s prime time series was Sengoku Basara’s second season. And… it’s quite an interesting action series.

At the start, I suspected that this series would consist out of a string of action-oriented episodes. Instead, this series has only four or five episodes that are really focused on action. The rest of the episodes all put their priorities on dialogue and build up. Instead of containing a long string of epic action-scenes, this series aims to only contain a select few of them, and attempts to make those as epic as possible.

And partially, this worked. Episode six contains without a doubt the single best action I have seen during the past three months. The rest of the action episodes are also completely over the top, but a lot of fun to watch due to their contrast with the more quiet but very manly build-up episodes. This balance is far from perfect, though, because especially the second half spends too much time building up and too little on the actual substance, and the build-up itself also isn’t perfect. In the end, the action itself isn’t worth it to sit through so much build-up and this series could easily have been cut down to ten episodes in length.

However, this sequel is a much needed improvement after the rather lackluster first season. Events are a lot more interesting to watch, and the action scenes themselves are much better portrayed now. The story this time is a lot more focused, and there are a lot less annoying characters. It also helps that the characters made good use of 24 episodes in order to flesh themselves out, and so even the rest of the cast is a lot more interesting to watch. It’s still a series that’s completely over the top, but that has really become part of its charm without ending up cheesy.

It remains a really well produced series: the animation is consistently smooth and detailed for a television-series, especially with Production IG’s trademark style of character-designs. Albeit unbalanced, the dialogue itself is very well written, the music can be really awesome when it wants to. It’s not the next Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, but nevertheless I really enjoyed this series.

Storytelling: 8/10 – When it wants to be, the action really is epic and really well delivered. There’s too much build-up though.
Characters: 8/10 – Much better compared to the first season; the entire cast consists out of bulky and manly men, but they’re used well within the action and dialogue.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Especially the money shots are a sight to behold with great poses and combat animation. Consistently smooth and detailed graphics overall.
Setting: 7/10 – Makes absolutely no physical or historical sense. Even though it’s “loosely” based on the sengoku era, it could have used this better.

Suggestions:
– Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto
– Seirei no Moribito
– Jubei-chan’s Second Season

Sengoku Basara – 24

by psgels, posted in Sengoku Basara




Ah, the episode of today that I was looking forward to the most: the conclusion to Sengoku Basara. For a moment after learning about the upcoming movie, I was afraid that it would end with a huge cliff-hanger, but no worries: this episode resolves all of the conflicts built up to. Overall, it wasn’t as good as I hoped, but I still was pumped from start to finish.

My main issue was that this episode wasn’t as good as episode six, it could have been a bit more creative, and especially the way in which Toyotomi went down: he was dominating through the entire fight, Date was beaten to a pulp and afterwards he just stands up and gives Toyotomi one good whack, completely immobilizing him. With all of the build-up going into this episode, it’s this point where I expected more. Not to mention that the creators didn’t bother to animate the battle with the pirates.

Apart from that, though: this episode was awesome. Yukimura bringing down that entire fortress was definitely not a bad way to close off this series with, and on the opposite scale, Kojuuro’s battle also was very satisfying.

Ultimately though, the huge amount of build up of the rest of the series just wasn’t worth it. The creators could have easily cut one or two episodes out, and this series would have been much better. Still, I consider the second season to be a big improvement over the first at least: the action that was there really worked, and it didn’t drag itself out. This is also why I’m curious for the upcoming movie, because there the creators aren’t bound by time as much, and instead can use it much better to blend build-up with action.

Overall, you could really see that the change of directors worked for this series: I’m enjoying Kazuya Nomura‘s work a lot more. Unfortunately, it also shows that Yasuyuki Muto is still behind the series composition. Both seasons feel like they didn’t make good use of their time, and you can also see that very much with his work on Persona – Trinity Soul (though this wasn’t the case with Chevalier). This guy really should have played around more with the progression throughout the series.

Still, it’s interesting: this is the first time the prime time slot has showcased a series of only thirteen episodes, and overall this was a pretty nice way to fill up the time until Star Driver. Ever since Gundam Seed, the timeslot has been in the hands of the three big ones: Sunrise, Bones and Production IG (with one exception), and while the former two always try to show their best and most epic side (aside from Ayakashi Ayashi, which really unfortunately was cancelled), Production IG instead does not focus at all on what it’s best at and instead tried out a few new stuff. With Blood+, it had its plot that was heavily based around character-development, while this can best be called an experiment in marketing: could they in their own way make an over the top and brainless action series? Considering the viewer ratings, it worked surprisingly well.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Full Metal Alchemsit – Brotherhood – OVA – 04

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



The OVAs so far have been simple side-stories, but this fourth one sure was different. It really added something to Roy’s character by showing the times at which he just enlisted at the military academy, along with some more footage from the Ishbal war.

The asshole sergeants may have been a bit too stereotypical and one sided, they did what they were supposed to do in addressing the discrimination against Isbalians. The sad part was the revelation in which Roy actually met the Ishbalian that he once considered as a friend. And then to think that the first season of Full Metal Alchemist showed him angsting about having to kill some random doctor. It’s like, two completely different characters.

Just one thing: couldn’t you have just made Heiss Cliff miss his shot at Roy Mustang? I mean, it’s a bit strange for this series to use such an overused cliche here that is usually only used by cheesy action titles, by having Mustang’s State Alchemist watch be in exactly the right position to block the bullet.
Rating: * (Good)

High School of the Dead Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, High School of the Dead




With High School of the Dead, you have to know and realize what it is before you start watching it. It’s a series that knows its priorities well: fanservice and zombie-bashing. You shouldn’t expect an innovative story here: it pretty much plays out like your regular zombie story. The characters are high schoolers, so expect a lot of whining. If you hate fanservice with passion, then don’t even bother with this show.

Beyond that, though, it really is quite good.

High School of the Dead doesn’t try to pretend to be anything more than what it is, but what it does, it does well. The production values are solid throughout the entire series, the action is solid (and quite creative at times) and especially the background art for this series is gorgeous. The characters in this series may start out a bit annoying, all of the lead characters have their flaws flaws that are explored throughout the series. There even is quite a bit of character development that, while nothing deep, does show the cast growing amidst the total zombie chaos that they’re in.

The biggest reason why I’m praising this series however is its atmosphere. Usually, fanservice series don’t really care about such a thing and are too busy with their uninspired antics, but High School of the Dead is different. Its atmosphere really draws you in, both during the action-packed parts and the quiet scenes in which the characters are simply waiting for the inevitable moment in which the zombies find them. The atmosphere is over the top when it needs to, but most importantly: it is also restrained when it needs to. This allows the characters, who may be quite simple, to show their best sides. It’s the atmosphere that really makes this series into more than just another action flick.

Don’t think that the execution is perfect, though. There still are the times here and there in which the fanservice takes over. There also are a few side characters who are trying way too hard to be evil or controversial, most notable that evil nazi teacher. He adds nothing to this series and only ends up being silly with how ridiculously over the top he tries to be. The zombies themselves also are really basic villains: they have no motivations, no origins, nothing. The only thing that is on their mind is “humans tasty; rawr”. Having said that, they are some very selective zombies. The creators tend to slow down time or make them oblivious, just for the sake of the plot. That’s a case of lazy scriptwriting!

Overall, High School of the Dead seems to be one of the most popular series of the past summer season, but don’t go in expecting a masterpiece. It’s simply a show to sit back with and enjoy the atmosphere and the zombie-bashing, and that is something that this series does really well, and you can see that the creators are having fun with this unpretentious horror-fest.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Solid action, very good atmosphere, tons of fanservice.
Characters: 8/10 – Annoying, but the main characters are well portrayed and have well balanced flaws. The antagonists don’t, though.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Very solid, excellent background art, great animation during the fight scenes, solid soundtrack. Great EDs.
Setting: 7/10 – It’s zombies, and it’s pretty much your standard zombie storyline with some strange holes in the zombie-logic.

Suggestions:
– Kurozuka
– Ga-Rei Zero
– Shikabane Hime

High School of the Dead – 12

by psgels, posted in High School of the Dead




So, the good thing is that the creators really pulled up and delivered a worthy finale for this series. The bad thing is that the story just stops in the middle, the show stops just as the characters are about to find out whether Takagi’s parents are alive. There is one OVA left, but with that one I again doubt whether it will provide full closure.

Now, we could hope for a second season, but Madhouse has a bit of a strange policy when it comes to its sequels. To name an example, they did make a sequel for Saiunkoku Monogatari and Chi’s Sweet Home, but they did not for Claymore. Generally speaking, they very rarely make sequels.

In any case though, I’m not unhappy with the way this series ends. This episode was restrained, yet entertaining. The atmosphere never faltered, and I like how this episode did conclude the story of Saya’s parents. We’re not exactly told what happens to them, but this can be left to imagination easily, and I actually think that it’s more powerful than if the creators would have outright stated whether or not they survived or got slaughtered. This episode also put a lot of meaning into their relationship with Saya, and it’s also good to see that the nurse and her friend got one final conversation.

Oh, and especially the backgrounds in this episode were better than ever. I’m surprised that that’s where most of the budget went here, but works really well, and this episode looked utterly gorgeous because of it.

Overall, out of all of Tetsurou Araki‘s works, this does remain my least favourite series. However, he still put forth a very skillful adaptation here, with some great production values and atmospheres, he really did the story justice for as simple as it may have been. This was the first fanservice series I have ever blogged. It’s a genre that I usually dislike because they often focus too much on the fanservice and forget to make the rest of their series interesting and compelling. High School of the Dead did not. Overall I consider 2010 to be one of the least impressive years of anime since 2005, however the fanservice genre is one of the few for which I feel that it has gotten better. That’s not to say that we’ve gotten rid of the crappy fanservice series of course (*coughkissxsiscough*), but I admit: we’ve gotten quite a few good ones.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Sengoku Basara – 23

by psgels, posted in Sengoku Basara



I still like what this series is trying to do here: action series often consist out of long strings of long action scenes, which may get boring if they go on for too long. This series however intends to make its action count by keeping it short and sweet.

Of course, whether that’s going to work is will depend entirely on that final episode!!

I mean, talk about putting your stakes here. This isn’t the case in which a series is badly paced so far: the past few episodes have built up enough for that and there is no worry for a rushed ending at this point. This is nothing like series as Sora no Oto, which tried to cram way too much into its final episode. Instead, the final episode has about five major battles scheduled. With an average of four minutes each, making everything as epic as possible, the creators will be forced to make every battle here short, but sweet. And god dammit I can’t wait until next week to see whether they can actually pull it off!

As for this episode, especially standalone I have no complaints about it whatsoever. It did its job perfectly of building up, while containing enough action to remain exciting from beginning to end. This really was that perfect balance between short action scenes, plot and dialogue that I would have preferred to see in the rest of the series. Everything flowed really well into each other, and even though this isn’t that final episode yet, you can really see the build-up pay off here, even though this episode also spent just about all of its time building up as well.

Also, the ninjas busting Katakura out of jail while taking advantage of the fact that Toyotomi’s army is gone. I like that. I was thinking that the creators were perhaps setting up some kind of battle between him and Date, involving some cheap “you betrayed me”-drama, but instead it was all meant to build up for a battle between him and Takenaka.

I’m also curious what the creators have in store for Ichi. Really, I nearly forgot about her, but it’s interesting that the creators really found that her time as a character was over, and she’s more like a weapon in this sequel, and she indeed did seem pretty much like a life-less ghost than the annoyance she was in the first season. Speaking of weapons: they even got a freaking death ray?! I mean, in terms of physics it makes no bloody sense whatsoever, but I love the idea, and it’s just something this series might pull.
Rating: ** (Excellent)