Category: Finished Series: Action

Bonen no Xamdou – 26

by psgels, posted in Bonen no Xamdou



Short Synopsis: Bonen no Xamdou’s finale.
Episode Rating: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
Well, there we have it. This unique series is finished at last, even though the finish comes way too soon. Still, this episode did a good job of providing closure to the different characters, so while not a great ending, it wasn’t a bad or rushed either.

But let me first focus on the one big disappointment of this episode: Akiyuki. What the heck was up with him? His character had so much potential in this series, and yet his death felt so… insignificant. It’s the main character everyone should be caring about, and yet when he died, I was more interested in Yango. But that would have been excused if not for the incredibly blatant deus ex machina that the creators pulled at the episode. I really expected better from this series…

Okay, now the good stuff. The characters I really liked in this episode was the Zanbani crew minus Benikawa and Yango. Not haru, or any of the other main characters, only they were the ones who received good closure in this series. I think that that’s the result of the very strong first half of this series, and all of the attention it focused on fleshing out their characters, and with that I suddenly realize how little we came to know about the rest of the cast.

I’m not really sure what kind of rating I’m going to give this show at this point. At one side, this show had some really good points and parts, but on the other hand it would have been so much better if it were longer. I’m not sure who found it a good idea to only give this series a scope of 26 episodes, because that sole decision caused this series to simply become a great series, instead of the incredible, genre-breaking one that it could have been. I remember how Eureka 7 also had some pacing issues, but at least that one had enough time to fully flesh out its characters for its amazing finale, while in comparison I’m going to remember Bonen no Xamdou’s final quarter, despite its godly animation, as the weakest part of this series.

Shikabane Hime – 19

by psgels, posted in Shikabane Hime



Short Synopsis: Ouri vs. Keisei & Keisei & Keisei & Keisei & etc.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
I’m really glad that my fears that the extra shounen roots would ruin the second season proved to be unnecessary, because the creators have found more than enough inspiration to keep this series interesting and exciting, so in the end the only big problem of the second season is simply the lack of subtlety in the fanservice.

This episode eliminates one of the seven stars, and what I especially liked was that the creators managed to squeeze in a bit of background about her before she died. Her death also had quite a bit of impact due to some particularly nice voice acting. Next episode should prove to be even more fun, because finally “boob”-sama is going to play a big role. It’s very nice: the past few episodes have so emphasized that shikabane aren’t humans, and because of that Ouri had no problems with killing all of the fake Keiseis. But here we have the case where a living being has been possessed by the balloon guy (who looked really scary this episode, by the way). Now that’s going even further. On top of that, it’s revealed that Akira and Mabuhiro are planning to kill the head priest, so there’s plenty of fun stuff left for this series.

The only thing that’s a shame about this second season apart from the fanservice is that the animation has also become much worse. It’s still good enough, but nowhere near as dynamic as the animation of the first season. That second episode got me hungry, but apart from the visual effects most of the eye candy isn’t as impressive anymore. Still, in order to make up for it, the creators decided to focus much more on the music. It’s strange, most of the tracks were also there in the first season, but somehow they sound even better right now.

Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai – 04

by psgels, posted in Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai



Short Synopsis: Now that Munto has the power to win the war, he decides to not use make use of it.
Episode Rating: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
Well, that’s eighty minutes already. The end of this episode sounded like a nice climax for the end of the first OVA, is that about right? There was at least no shortage of really pretty OVA-styled animation, so I don’t think that we’ve hit the anime original material yet.

But seriously, what were the creators thinking of putting such a huge story as this in only two hours? This episode introduces dozens of more countries involved in the war. For such a story to work, you really need at least 24 episodes to get the development of every party right. This is also why I’m hoping for this series to not end after only 13 episodes: there is NO WAY that the creators are going to fit everything, even in only 13 episodes.

Still, the next episode should prove a much-needed change of pace. These first four episodes were definitely action-packed, but there had to be some time for the fighting to end, and a chance for the creators to explore the different cultures and countries presented here. The demon king-guy is about to die, (he apparently was really powerful because he didn’t have a long lifespan anyway), and with both him and Munto out (since he’s probably going to spend some episodes with Yumemi), the pacing of this series should slow down a bit as well.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – 42

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00



Short Synopsis: Setsuna and Saji rush in to stop Memento Mori II (oh, and this post has semi-spoilers for the endings of Gundam Wing and Zeta Gundam, for those who haven’t seen them yet)
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
Oh boy, this episode pretty much ranks among the best that Gundam 00 has shown so far. Even if the final parts become horrible (see below), this was a worthy mid-climax. Not only did the orbital elevator indeed fall, the results of it were what made it awesome. It’s already established that pretty much most of the parties apart from the Innovators and the A-Laws top executives aren’t pure evil, so in the end it was great to see everyone preventing the huge amount of rubble that fell from destroying an entire city. It was well built up, with some great results.

It’s a shame that 00 Raiser yet again pulled a power from out of thin air (the incredibly long light saber; this really has to stop somewhere, right?), but ah well. It’s also a shame that Sergei and Hercule died so sudden, but their deaths were memorable. It’s also good to see that Saji for once didn’t whine.

This is also the first time this series has truly impressed me with its eye candy. For the most part, I don’t really care about the graphics of this series, since they’re nowhere near as interesting many different sorts of anime, but I do have to say that those long-distance shots of the orbital elevator in this episode looked really sweet.

Having said that, though, having watched Zeta Gundam recently has made me a bit wary of its confusion. Especially since this series uses lots of references to past Gundam series. The last thing I’d want in this series is a killing frenzy which sends half the cast into emo-mode for the final bunch of episodes. I’d much rather have the final part of this series refer to the finale of Gundam wing, with the huge-ass battleship. Gundam Wing may have done a lot of things wrong, but the finale was pretty good, and at least none of the characters became emo in its final parts. At this point, we’ve seen foreshadowing for both possibilities: on one hand the damage that the elevator caused in this episode is only a fraction of what would happen if a full-sized huge battleship would crash down on earth, while on the other hand Sergei’s death has set Marie in a huge rage for revenge, and remember that Saji and Louise have yet to settle their differences.

Birdy the Mighty Decode – 17

by psgels, posted in Birdy the Mighty Decode



Short Synopsis: The new enemies prove that they’re not so useless after all.
Episode Rating: 9/10 (Fantastic)
Jezus Christ! This show just keeps on getting better and better, and it was already among the best of the season! The first season is looking like one of the most generic series ever in comparison, for god’s sake. I’m so astounded as to what this series managed to do with only four freaking episodes.

In this episode, Birdy already finds out that something’s up with Natoru. It turns out that the two of them had to flee to earth because they were major suspects on a bombing of the headquarters of Birdy’s organization, while in fact one of their friends was behind it. That same friend who belongs to the group of aliens that Natoru has been killing off so systematically. I’m not exactly sure what they have to do with Ryunka, but they seem to be taking care of a new version of it.

And holy balls, this episode showed that they’re not as helpless as we originally believed, as they end up killing Natoru’s father in this episode (with the same brutal animation of the second season). To make matters even more disturbing, Natoru gets even more violent because of this, and brutally kills one of the frog-children of that group.

I must say that I had a lot of doubts about Kazuki Akane. Sure, it was a nice series and all, but it just didn’t live up to his previous works. Right now, I’m taking all of that back. The guy definitely hasn’t lost his touch yet, and he’s definitely my favourite director out there. It’s because of guys like him that I’m still watching anime.

Shikabane Hime – 18

by psgels, posted in Shikabane Hime



Short Synopsis: Sougi takes care of his old friend, while the Seven Stars pull a particularly nasty trick on Makina.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (8,5/10 for the first half)
Ah, who cares about the stupid fanservice! The second season rocks!

I’m really surprised. When the fanservice started coming with buckets at the time, I really thought that the series had hit its height in the first season, and the second season was just meant to cash in a bit more on the DVD sales. Still, Sougi and Itsuki’s past was rock-solid, and the definite proof that the creators haven’t lost their touch yet. Especially the conclusion to their story was fantastic. It’s impressive how easily Sougi was able to kill his once best friend. The guy has really grown from the teenager he once was.

Their arc really signified the message in this show, that Shikabane aren’t the same as people. Even though they’re a bunch of cute girls, they remain a bunch of non-rotting corpses. At the end, where Itsuki also started looking more like a zombie, and asked Sougi how she did her job, Sougi was able to face her with a straight face and told her that she did well, and he was able to do this because he didn’t see her as an ordinary cute girl.

In the second half of this episode, Makina and Ouri finally have the chance to talk and sort out their differences. It turns out that Makina killed Keisei in the end, to prevent his body from turning into a Shikabane, and that’s why she refused to take Ouri as his replacement. The next episode with the fight against the army of Keisei’s should also prove to be interesting, as it’ll finally show Ouri and Makina fighting together.

The question now remains where this show will go from now. will it, despite my praises turn into standard shounen fare now that Ouri and Makina have settled their differences, or will the creators be able to keep this level of character-development up. I’m just a bit worried about “boob”-san, who has just arrived at the mountains. She was one of the more annoying characters in the first season, without any real point to her, so I guess that the creators were saving her for the second season. But what could she possibly add?

Bonen no Xamdou – 25

by psgels, posted in Bonen no Xamdou



Short Synopsis: Akiyuki vs. the Hiruken Emperor
Episode Rating (that “overall entertainment value” was beginning to sound cheesy…): 8/10 (Excellent)
So far, an excellent finale, if only because the animation surpassed itself this episode yet again. That fight scene between Akiyuki and the Hiruken Emperor was downright beautiful. This episode also worked really well on the emotional level. The big question is obviously going to be: can everything in this series come together in that final episode? We’ve already seen that this series is great at building up, but is it also good at a conclusion?

Now that the series has reached nearly its ending, it’s time to start looking at the overall picture. I think that the big flaw of this series is that there wasn’t enough time put into all the different kinds of ideas that the creators put into the setting. While the creators focused a lot on the setting in terms of the effects that war can have, even the battles that look small on a large scale will have people losing their lives. Though the whole deal with the Xam’d and Hiruken Emperor could have been more fleshed out. Ideally, this should have been a series with 39 episodes. Because of that, this episode had quite a few random powers being pulled out of thin air, most notably Sannova’s plans to solve everything. In the end, this isn’t the next Seirei no Moribito, though it’s one of the closest I’ve seen to it.

And yeah, it seems that Furuichi is really dead now, otherwise the creators would have at least shown some hints that the guy is still alive. I personally love it when creators pull these random deaths were it only becomes clear that the person in question is dead afterwards. Seriously, more people should play with the Golden Rule of Anime like that. Still, talking about deaths. I do hope that the creators aren’t killing just for the sake of it. This episode, yet another one goes down, but the meanings of each of those deaths are getting more and more insignificant. Especially since all the cute girls seem to be the ones who are going to survive in the end while most of the adults are getting killed off like flies.

Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai – 03

by psgels, posted in Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai



Short Synopsis: Yumemi’s friend and her new boyfriend try to cross a river.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
How awesome: the animation quality hasn’t decreased at all since the first episode: it’s still as solid as ever. This promises lots of nice things for the future of this series. Anyway, this episode finishes the introduction of this series, where Yumemi decides to help Munto. It seems that she just needed a bit of time to sort out her thoughts, and the creators made use of this time by showing why she ended up deciding to help an unknown elf-guy in a weird outfit in the first place. After all, it would have been weird if she immediately decided to help this guy without ever questioning where he came from.

This episode really succeeded in portraying the strong sense of community in Yumemi and the town in which she lives. It showed that the world in which she lives isn’t some empty cardboard world that’s only good as a plot-hole, but instead it’s about people who care about each other. Yumemi doesn’t want to lose this community, and this episode did well in convincing the viewer (well, me at least) how and why she feels that way.

I wonder about the length that this series is going to get. I think that the 24-episode format would really be best for this series, so that it can fully develop its setting, and there’s actually a pretty good chance that this is going to be the case. Anime News Network lists 13 episodes already, with the thirteenth episode airing at April 7th, which is quite a strange date to end your series.

So the story isn’t anything special yet, but the potential is definitely there. I also really like the show’s style of graphics: they’re a great combination of ten-year-old-styled character-designs and creative use of modern CG. The character-designs are also among the best I’ve seen from Kyoani: sure, the outfits are a bit silly at times, but especially the characters from Yumemi’s world are simplistic yet expressive, and for once they don’t try to be overly moe, like nearly every other Kyoani series (or at least: not as much).

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – 41

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00



Short Synopsis: A-Laws launches its counterattack after last episode’s coup.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
The more I watch this series, the more insignificant Gundam Wing becomes. It really was one of the first series I watched, before I discovered fansubs, so its always going to remain something special for me, but the more I watch this series, the more I’m reminded at the huge obvious flaws of this series. Take the coup for example: it was there, it came from out of nowhere and the Rockefeller Foundation vanished completely into thin air when it was done: we never saw any of is characters back. No retaliation whatsoever.

This episode however showed that A-Laws isn’t giving up so easily, and even Pang Hercule’s fraction isn’t on the good side of the moral scale either: he simply wants to get rid of A-Laws, but does reckon that sacrifices have to be made. This episode overall was a unique one for this series in the way that it didn’t focus on close combat, but instead of high-scale political warfare between the two parties. A-Laws for example sends in a squad of robots that kill civilians, and then edit the image footage of this battle, to make it look like Hercule’s forces are the bastards. And at the end of the episode, they reveal yet another Memento Mori, about to wipe out the enemy forces.

It’s going to be interesting once the Innovators start involving themselves with this political polygon, but unfortunately it seems that they’re just going to sit by and watch everyone kill each other.

Birdy the Mighty Decode – 16

by psgels, posted in Birdy the Mighty Decode



Short Synopsis: Senkawa&co visit a refugee camp for a school project.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
ZOMG, is this really the same Birdy the Mighty as the first season? That first season was a nice series and all, but the teen-aged romances got into the way, with especially Senkawa being annoying. And here the second season comes and it’s been consistently awesome so far, with still no signs that the series has hit its height!

This episode may not have been as dark as the previous one (there was quite a bit of comedy there), but nevertheless it was a very important one: it showed where the people who lost their homes thanks to Nakasugi ended up, and with such detail! It’s awesome to see that the creators take their time to show these things: it shows that this isn’t a show where buildings are simply made out of cardboard: if you destroy a building once, it’s simply happens to be a building where no people live and magically disappear by the next episode. It’s simple, but I see many series forgetting this. It really adds more believability to the setting.

And yet again, this episode featured some gorgeous animation. Especially the scene where Natoru got beaten up by those punks was downright brutal, but also the quiet scenes were full of life (and really reminded me of Noein’s animation, which is ALWAYS a good thing ^^;). It’s also amazing how much depth the relationship between Natoru and Birdy already has. As it turns out, Birdy always used to save him when they were kids, and it looks like this still hasn’t changed a bit now that they’ve grown up, even though Natoru changed so incredibly.

This really reminds me of Escaflowne (again directed by the same guy, and again one of my absolute favourites): the first half of the series was good, but didn’t exactly catch my attention, but the second half showed an incredible increase in quality. Here too: the first season was nice and all, but the second season seems to be improving on it significantly in every single way!