Category: Finished Series: Action

Bonen no Xamdou – 22

by psgels, posted in Bonen no Xamdou



Short Synopsis: Akiyuki’s father meets Kakisu at the Sentan Island war memorial and MAJOR SPOILER ALERT.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Those who’ve been following more of my entries for the past weeks must have noticed the lots of 8/10s for the episode ratings, but that’s exactly what nearly all of the shows I’m currently blogging are: consistently excellent with hardly any weak moments. The same goes for this episode: despite the slow pacing it was yet another really moving instalment.

With as highlight of course the death of Kakisu. It was a very subtle death, exactly what you’d expect from this series, and it was also wonderfully animated. When Akiyuki’s father shot, I was really surprised that the screen didn’t black out, followed by the sound of a gunshot. I only realize it now, but such a trick is very often used in anime as a cheap trick to avoid having to draw a bit of gore. On top of that, the amount of blood that was gushed in the process felt about right: there were no galleons of blood spilled, as many shounen-series tend to do in these sorts of situations. All of that gave something very creepy to his dead body.

Fusa was also as good as ever with her monologues. Akiyuki and Haru meanwhile find out that the gathering of the Xam’d comes along with a mass suicide and as expected: the white haired guy has a much different perception of human life than Akiyuki and Haru, who went through the horrors of the assault on Sentan Island.

The rest of the episode focused on building up for the series’ finale, which most likely is going to focus on the all-out war between the north and the south, and possible other fractions. Midori is being moved to the battlefield as we speak, while Raigyo and Benikawa are also busy helping their allies. Tessik village also has its own super weapon, so it’s definitely promising to be an interesting finale, especially since Akiyuki, Haru and Nakiami, who are supposed to be the main characters of the series, don’t play a major part in it, apart from Haru’s connection to Midori. I really wonder what the creators had in mind for them for the final episodes of this series, because at this point I have no idea.

Shikabane Hime – 15

by psgels, posted in Shikabane Hime



Short Synopsis: Makina again gets the chance to meet the ones who killed her.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10 (Good)
Whoa, there surely have been some changes between the first and second season. Some were expected, others not, and both seasons now have their own advantages and disadvantages. Thankfully this episode was much better than the first episode of the second season, so all hope is thankfully not lost. Anyway, here’s a list of changes between these two seasons:

Season 1 < Season 2 - Characters are fleshed out and some of them are developed by now: they're easier to connect to and more enjoyable to watch. - AWESOME lighting effects: the second season looks even better than the first one due to the increase of lots of CG for lighting. - The monster of the week-theme seems to be gone now (not sure about that one, though). - Faster pacing. Potential for even better fight scenes. Season 2 < Season 1 - The second season now really is a shounen series: group of good guys fights group of supernatural bad guys with large powers. - Too much angst about Keisei's death. - The sense of humour is much worse. In the first season, the humour was there before you knew it, and then gone again, while it feels much more unbalanced in the second season. - As a sacrifice for the lighting effects, the animation quality went down. - What the heck is up with that Idol Shikabane? Very weird and out of place fanservice. I really am not sure whether the second season is going to turn out well or not. It all depends on how well the creators manage to do the rest of the battles of the series. What it absolutely MUST NOT do is end every single battle like they did in this episode: with Makina struggling without any will to fight, only to awaken to her desire to avenge Keisei and release hidden powers. Things like these are good once or twice (like what this series did with this episode), but a very nasty habit of shounen-series is to overplay this cliché way too much. It's been ages since I watched a really good shounen-series like this one, and I really hope that the creators can pull this one off. One big advantage that this series has is that the antagonists are by now means too powerful. They retreat too when cornered, the only advantage they have is that they work together as a team. Compare that to many other shounen-series, where we have a near-impossible to beat enemy, and so the creators have to mess with power-level inconsistencies as large as a black hole in order to make the main characters win in the end. What I’m really hoping for in this series is an all-out war between everyone in the finale. But yeah, the two major factors that are going to decide whether the second season is going to be worthwhile are: 1) the amount of Keisei-angst from Makina and Ouri, and 2) the laziness of the creators during the fights. The fanservice is definitely annoying, but it's not going to make or break this series.

Some quick first Impressions: Touhou – A Summer’s Day Dream, Shikabane Hime Kuro and Maria-Sama ga Mitaru Fourth Season

by psgels, posted in Shikabane Hime, Some Quick First Impressions

Touhou – A Summer Day’s Dream

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets targeted by a mysterious thief.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (Very slim)
First of all, since this is a series that’s purely created by amateurs, I must praise the creators for doing an actually pretty good job at it. The character art is a bit crude here and there, but nevertheless the music is excellent and the background look pretty nice, and there’s actual CG in here. You can really see that a lot of time was put into this to make it look good, and it definitely beats the to be honest rather half-assed Animax Grand Prix series. I’m also glad that they went for a slice-of-life setting, rather than going to try and recreate the game’s virtually non-existent plot. But yeah, the entire story is about a mysterious thief who keeps stealing stuff. It’s just one big excuse to show as many of the game’s characters as possible and giving them some reason to fight, but nevertheless it’s an interesting way to spend 20 minutes.

Shikabane Hime Kuro

Short Synopsis: Our lead character trains hard to accept his mission.
Chance of me Blogging: 90% (I blogged the first season, so why not?)
Overall a decent start to the second season, but I have my worries here and there. The episode felt a bit dry with Makina being chained up for the largest part, but let’s hope that she snaps out of angsting over what happened at the first season soon. The side-characters also were mostly in the spotlights, and they did a good job of driving the episode forward… but what was up with those boob-jokes? Seriously, this episode had more fanservice than the entire first season together, and that has me slightly worried. Especially that new character… talk about out of place-looking characters. This is a horror-series, not a magical girl show.

Maria-sama ga Miteru Fourth Season

Short Synopsis: Our lead character participates in a school play.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (Have yet to watch the first seasons)
well, so this is the fourth season of the much-loved Maria-sama ga Miteru franchise, but I’m not yet convinced. Based on the title and promo-art, I expected this to be some sort of combination between big brother and yuri, but in the end this is just another slice of life series on an elite school. Ultimately, this episode was simply dull; there was nothing that really made me watch the rest of this series, nor the first two seasons. What it did well was the bit of development for that one classmate, but nothing else even caught my attention. The lead character is annoying, in the way that she keeps poking her nose into everything. What made the previous seasons so good anyway?

Bonen no Xamdou – 21

by psgels, posted in Bonen no Xamdou



Short Synopsis: Jin infiltrates Kakisu’s base in order to get his daughter back.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
One of the many things I love about this series: it knows that it shouldn’t force its main characters towards the centre of attention all the time. It’s often said that a good story writes itself, and that’s really the case here. Akiyuki has a clear purpose in the series, but until his time comes the creators smartly focus on the rest of the characters of this series. In this episode, it’s about the people on Sentan Island.

Especially Kakisu is going crazy, and the next episode looks to be a big climax for him. In this episode, he kills the white-haired kid he captured when the latter starts talking about the former’s past.

It’s also a big episode for Akiyuki’s parents. When the series started, I really believed that they’d be your standard hero’s parents, who stayed at home while their son went on an adventure, but this episode shows that they’re very much involved with their own story. The two of them feel like proper characters, instead of plot devices.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – 38

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00



Short Synopsis: Celestial Being and Kataron both try to destroy Memento Mori.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
I must say, that even though it was a pretty straightforward episode, it nonetheless was the perfect closure for the third quarter of Gundam 00, and definitely the best episode of the second season so far. At this pace, it’s going to easily surpass the first season. It’s also good to see that the white -haired commander is gone now.

This article is a pretty interesting one, and it shows that anime staff do check the opinions on the net. Unfortunately, on the wrong places such as 2channel… It also confirms a suspicion I’ve had for some time now: the producers indeed were quite limited in coming up with the storyline for this series. I really think that the “Mr. Bushido”-part was thought up by some crazy Sunrise executive who apart from that wasn’t that involved with this series, which is only confirmed by the guy’s glaring absence in any action so far. My biggest problem with Sunrise is with their top executives, who try way too much to make their series sell, rather than the actual production staff. Especially Mizushima did a great job of dragging Gundam back from the pit where Gundam Seed Destiny left it.

The question is of course where this series is going to go after this. Memento Mori is destroyed now, but I doubt that the innovators are going to give up that easily. The huge space fortress is also still missing, so I wonder when that one’s going to show up, although right now I haven’t seen any indication or hint as to how and why the thing will have to be built.

One thing that annoys me though is that these innovators refuse to die after being pwned by Setsuna. They always manage to escape in some sort of escape capsule, even though most other unimportant soldiers simply die when they’re shot. I guess that that’s the privilege of having your own custom built machine, but it remains a bit jarring.

Shikabane Hime Review Aka – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Shikabane Hime


Gainax’ latest series: Shikabane Hime. The first thing that you need to know before watching this is the following: Shikabane Hime is NOT the next Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. While it still has a lot of very stylish action, this series is much more than a simple brainless action series, and definitely not the place to go if you want to see action series as overblown as seen in Gurren Lagann. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for compelling characters, then this is the place to go.

There’s actually a lot to like about this series. First of all, it unites Gainax, one of the most un-subtle animation studios in existence, with Masahiko Murata, the director of Gilgamesh, which was in its turn incredibly subtle. The result is a very interesting combination between those extremes: a lot of quiet moments, expressive characters, combined with fast-paced and gorgeously animated action-scenes, all coated in a horror-ish atmosphere.

Another potential turn-off for this series is the male lead, Ouri. At first sight, he may be nothing more than a typical fourteen year old lead character, but the series quickly proves you wrong. Instead of immediately giving the guy superpowers and a central place in the story like in most other anime of its kind, Shikabane Hime instead tries to subvert this trope by explaining as good as possible at how such a seemingly insignificant guy can get himself some power. In fact, the entire first season of this show is dedicated to setting him in the right position for the second season, and flesh out the rest of the cast as well. This is one series that knows that it shouldn’t reveal all of its cards right at the start, and it’s so much better than the tons of series that start with “oh hey, I’m going to give you powers because I purely coincidentally managed to bump into you. Oh and by the way love me”.

And since this is Gainax, the animation for this series is really impressive. And thankfully it was spent in the right way: not on flashy beams or CG, but instead it’s dedicated to make the characters expressive, and the fights more centred around close combat, resulting in a number of gorgeous visuals. The soundtrack for this series is also downright excellent, and among the best of the season. This turns the fight maybe not as large in scale as in Gurren Lagann, but nevertheless the small scale fights never cease to be exciting.

As for the bad parts, there’s one particular episode where the boob jokes run a bit out of hand. You’ll know when it’s there, but it has particularly nasty effect on Ouri’s male classmates, turning them from regular classmates that turn up only once in a while into a bunch of paper bags who can only think about sex. This series is definitely at its lowest whenever these guys start whining about girls. Thankfully, this only happens two or three times through the series, but it remains rather jarring.

Overall, Shikabane Hime has been a great series for me. It had compelling characters and action, and it’s only been building up for the second season that’s about to arrive in January. In the beginning, it may seem to suffer a bit from the “monster of the week”-theme, but at the end it did what it was supposed to: create a solid base for the second season to work with, giving the important characters enough background and fleshing them out sufficiently.

Storytelling: 8/10
Characters: 9/10
Production-Values: 9/10
Setting: 8/10

Shikabane Hime – 13

by psgels, posted in Shikabane Hime



Short Synopsis: Recap
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
So yeah, it’s Chrismas evening, so it was something to expect. Nevertheless, for a recap it was a good one: it came at the right time and it felt like it made sense: Keisei has just kicked the bucket, so of course Ouri is going to remember the times they spent together. At the same time, he’s also being pushed to his new duty, making him recall even more important things from the past. If you want a recap, at least make it necessary, and that’s exactly what this series did. The opposite is of course having recaps for the sake of having recaps.

In any case, I’m glad that I ended up blogging this series. It may be a shounen series, but it is a very good one, centred around more than just fighting. The entire series has simply been building up to the second season, and that’s why I’m getting pretty interested in how that one’s going to turn out. Even now, Ouri still doesn’t have any 1337 powers, and the guy still needs to work hard. With such a set-up, it’s got such an advantage over 95% of all other shounen series.

Bonen no Xamdou – 20

by psgels, posted in Bonen no Xamdou



Short Synopsis: Not going to put that here due to spoilers on the anime blog aggregators.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
Okay, so while the previous episode felt a little underwhelming, this one was utterly amazing. It’s here that you can really see how much the building up in the beginning has paid off, and for how many episodes the attack on Sentan Island was still mentioned. It really got the message through that people die during these attacks, and that made this episode, where the Southern Government suddenly crashes down on the Tessik Village all the more powerful.

What I found ironic is how only a few episodes earlier, the soldiers of the Northern government were too scared to shoot at a friend. And here they’re basically trying to kill off tons of innocent people. It seems to me that Toujiro has made sure to prevent them making the same mistake twice.

And again this episode demonstrates how awesome the monster-designs of this series are. Kujireika really seems to have lost it, but the imagination that went into her new character-design must have been huge.

The rest of the episode was mostly building up, though with this series, that’s always a good thing. What stood out for me is that Akiyuki and Haru are finally getting tied to the main storyline again. After all, the two at the beginning of the episode had no real reason to be involved in the war: they were just a travelling couple. Still, now that it seems that the white-haired kids have contacted him, he’s probably the first of the Xam’d to lose his face, and then get it back again, and somehow that is good for the objective of these kids. Whether the talking eye ball was part of their plans too, I don’t know, but there’s a good chance for that.

Bonen no Xamdou – 19

by psgels, posted in Bonen no Xamdou



Short Synopsis: Haru buys a flying jetbike and searches for Akiyuki.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10 (Lacking)
Ah, COME ON! Things went so well! The past few episodes followed so naturally on each other, and then the series comes with this. How did Haru know the exact place Akiyuki would be at? Why the heck did she appear on the exact moment that he reached his limit and jumped to his death. I really expected better from this series at this point.

I mean, what’s wrong with just Haru, arriving at the village, searching around a bit and finally finding Akiyuki? They could have still used the failing flying motorbike as an excuse to explain Akiyuki’s flying powers. I think that the producers here made a slight error. This episode was a clear ending to the third quarter of the series (the next episode looks like the start of the return of the storyline!), and the creators realized too late that they reserved too little time for the reunion between Akiyuki and Haru in the final episode of that quarter.

Thankfully it’s doesn’t seem that this error is going to snowball itself into the rest of the series, it’s only the reunion between Haru and Akiyuki that felt really rushed, nothing more. The next episode looks like it’s going to be just as good as the rest of the series, but it really remains annoying. It breaks flow, in a way to have such a blemish at such a late point of a thus far perfect series. Ack, such a shame!

Bonen no Xamdou – 18

by psgels, posted in Bonen no Xamdou



Short Synopsis: Haru heads off to find Akiyuki.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
I must say that this has turned into a really emancipated series. While there are enough male characters, and this definitely isn’t a shoujo or josei-series, it’s nevertheless the females who do most of the work in this case. I originally thought that Haru would end up being the damsel in distress, but in the end this honour was for Akiyuki. In fact, he really has been atypical of your typical lead character. He’s not someone who’s out there to change the world, but he’s just a victim himself. Instead, it’s up to Nakiami to prevent the destruction of the Tessik people, although I do suspect that Akiyuki once he wakes up isn’t going to sit still and let the northern empire just do as it pleases.

So in the end, Nakiami’s sister (half-sister, I guess, based on her skin colour) has also started making Xam’d, and plans to head into war as well. I already suspected that something was not kosher about her, and I guess that that’s it. In the meantime, Akiyuki’s Hiruko (or at least, that’s what I suspect it is) does seem to be interested in Akiyuki getting his name back. I believe that it’s in the interest for both of them surviving, and I think that it knocking away the teacup is a sign that it’s going into berserk-mode if Akiyuki doesn’t hurry up and remembers his own name.