Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 18

by psgels, posted in Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru



Whoa, Luka. This was quite an episode for him, and it had a really good atmosphere here. This episode shed a big light on what actually happened to this guy, and the relationship between him and his kin. The exact reason for this is still left for the flashback that’s going to show the past between him and Yuki, but this episode really showed his loyalty towards his decision to betray his own kind.

Interestingly this episode also explains why Luka kicks so much ass with his powers, and it turns out that in-breeding Duras only leads to stronger species, with him being the best example of this, safe for perhaps Reiga. I really suspect that he hated this kind of upbringing.

At a certain point the villainess also pulled the “I can create illusions and therefore transform into your loved one and you completely fall for it”-card. This was one of those few cases in which it actually worked. Usually you’d see completely through such a trick with enough common sense, but Luka did have his nostalgia to blame for falling for it. I mean, how many hears has he been waiting to see the girl Yuki back?

Also, I really want to praise the background artists of this episode. The use of colours and CG really made for some beautiful artworks. Elegy herself didn’t have the best character-designs, but heck, that could be just the creator’s intentions. All of the Duras have looked rather silly in this series, so it might just be that the demons in this series have a strange taste in fashion.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu – 06

by psgels, posted in Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu



“Oh, you guys are fighting a lot, so you must be very close to each other”. …Well… so it turned out to be this series to drop this bomb. I guess it had it coming and all, but seriously: was it really necessary to reduce the chemistry between Ferris and Raina to a stupid cliche like that?

I have more problems with the creators actually using such a cheesy line than with Raina and Ferris themselves though. I mean, that line sucks because it suggests that a girl seemingly hates you is actually secretly in love with you. Sure, with enough development you can make this work, but there are too many tsunderes who only reaffirm how incredibly shallow their personalities are.

With Ferris and Raina this is different, though: none of them really are tsunderes; they’re just acting and they both know it. From the first minute they met, they have been constantly trying to playfully piss each other off. They simply grew into two good friends… and yeah. If romance develops from that it’s going to be a bit annoying, but at least plausible.

Anyway, the rest of this episode continued to develop Miran as a bit of a villain. Nothing really special, though the fight scene was pretty nice. It’s just a bit of a shame that the character-designs are rather generic here (either that, or I just don’t like Zecxs’ style of character-designs…), but it’s nothing major. This was a building up episode after all.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Eden of the East 2 – Paradise Lost Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Eden of the East



It’s hard to judge Eden of the East: it started out as a series that promised to be amongst the best of the year… and failed to live up to that. It tried to do way too much in too little time. The movies tried to make up for a lot by deliberately keeping the pacing slow, but in the end, even that wasn’t enough to turn this into the masterpiece that it could have been.

In the end it joins the list of flawed series that actually do have quite a few points to make up for it. Paradise Lost is really no exception. It wraps up a lot of plot points, it reveals quite a number of interesting twists that tie the plot together and it still manages to keep the pacing restrained, with a lot of focus on the dialogue between the characters.

On the downside, there are quite a number of glaring holes left open. Some other revelations lack their build-up so that they fail to make any impact for a mystery series of this scale. Other revelations just come out of nowhere and really would have benefited from more foreshadowing and others just don’t make any sense. I want to be as ambiguous for this as possible due to spoilers, but let’s just say that the final resolution felt weak to me. The fate of the NEETs also is something I didn’t buy.

Now that everything is over, I also have to say that the series just didn’t have the time to flesh out its characters. Because of that, there really is just one character who actually develops when you ignore the memory loss devices of this series. I think that out of all the flaws of this series a lot of them can be forgiven, though this is one of those key flaws that caused me to enjoy this series a lot less than I would have liked. Most of the characters are just walking plot devices that just didn’t feel interesting to watch beyond the plot they were trying to tell. And its a shame, because that plot really was pretty good and imaginative.

Despite its short length, this did turn into one of those series that actually evolves: Paradise Lost really is completely different from the first episodes of the TV-series, and through its run this is one series that has been constantly changing. Because of that, every part of this series is different and fresh, not ripping off itself and it wonderfully manages to avoid the formula that it promised in the first few episodes.

On retrospect, I don’t think that even 26 episodes and two movies would have been enough here. To really be able to flesh out everyone, and give the story really its time to be complete, the creators would have needed at least 39 episodes. But really, I do want to say that despite my bitching, I really like what this series was trying to do: here we have the brain child of a very talented director. A series that’s not based on anything and a completely original story that really benefits from its format by including some of the latest technologies, feeling like this is one of those few series that really takes place in 2009, rather than something that also could have played in the year 2000. I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped to.

Storytelling: 8/10 – A good number of twists and yet a slow and restrained pacing. The story is great, but it uses too many plot devices to get there.
Characters: 7/10 – In the end, the big weakness of this series. I tried, but I failed to care about most of the characters here.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Again, Paradise Lost’s graphics weren’t exactly better than the TV-series. It’s still very consistent and detailed though. The use of music was also very excellent.
Setting: 9/10 – I like the guts of this series. It’s not afraid to think beyond the box, try out new stuff and overall I really like the different ideas put into this movie.

Suggestions:
– Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
– Tokyo Godfathers
– Key the Metal Idol

Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin – 05

by psgels, posted in Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin



The focus is away from Bunmei, and so this episode was much more enjoyable than the past one. It was all about the occult, and really chock full of references to all kinds of ideas and superstitions around the world thanks to a character that I once thought was pretty useless (the girl who is obsessed over occult stuff).

It actually made this episode pretty interesting. I’m a big fan of the series that put a lot of research into their subject matter here. While the previous episodes were all about “what if folklore was true”, this episode broke that part and instead talked about superstitions that are just products of the imagination of humans, ranging from spoons that can’t rust to monks who bury themselves alive and even the five second rule passed (called the three second rule here).

At first I really thought that that girl would be annoying with her optimism, but the comedy around her was again really excellent. This series definitely has the best sense of humour of the entire season, and its jokes are well built up and varied and the repeated jokes are handled with restraint.

Also, the previous episodes were certainly annoying, but they did what they were supposed to do: Maya really loathes this guy right now, and the previous two episodes really turned that into a deep-seated loathing, compared to the “this guy is weird”-kind of hatred of the first two episodes. Now, if she suddenly starts to develop feelings for Bunmei this would of course ruin everything (“you guys are fighting a lot so you must be in love with each other”… blegh), but I have faith in this series. And heck, the next episode will be staffed by Ryousuke Nakamura of all people. While I’d rather see him get another full series over which he has total freedom, an episode directed of the best and most imaginative series of the current summer season certainly isn’t bad either. I’m really interested what he’s going to do with it.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 17

by psgels, posted in Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru



Now that the background of Takashiro finally is told, it’s great to see that this series is so good at revealing its mysteries. After all of the build-up, the flashback itself was surprisingly short and to the point (it only took up half an episode), and at the same time it did more than answer questions. In fact, this episode created even more questions than it answered.

I really expected this episode to, like, serve all of the answers on a silver platter. Instead, it turns out that Takashiro himself doesn’t even know why Reiga set fire to his village and killed half of its residents, along with Takashiro’s fiancee (I guess). This episode made a few things clear, especially Takashiro’s motivation, but in terms of Reiga we still don’t know a lot. Could it be that he pulled the same thing that he pulled with Yuki? That he was just another reincarnation who went berserk the minute he awakened? Or is there more.

What’s also interesting here is Yuki’s parents, especially how this episode hinted that they’re still alive (the golden rule of anime: characters aren’t dead unless confirmed so). Now, there’s a good chance that this father is Takashiro, although that wouldn’t fit in everywhere, as people don’t seem to treat Yuki as an important heir, so my money is on another character who has already been introduced. Oh, and Yuki actually finally got to meet genuine family of his with his aunts. That was quite a touching scene.

Now, the manga is still on going, right? That’s going to be the major challenge for the creators of the anime right now. So far they did a great job to adapt the source material, but let’s face it: this show ain’t going to get a second season. It’s nowhere as popular to warrant one. The creators are therefore going to have to come up with their own ending that really makes use of the build-up of the past few episodes, or in some other way create a decent closure for this series. I don’t expect a fully wrapped up plot, but I do want to see a conclusion that makes use of this build-up.
Rating: * (Good)

Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu – 05

by psgels, posted in Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu



The mood-whiplashes in this series… I’m really beginning to like them. This show moves from light-hearted and outright silly comedy to serious politics, it’s already busy with character-development and in the meantime continues building its world, along with its characters. I love that when characters are introduced, they immediately tell their basic background.

The humour may not be as good as the humour of Occult Academy, but it still has its moments in which it’s really hilarious. The bickering between Raina and Ferris is of course one thing, but the two of them also toy with fantasy cliches surprisingly often (like in this episode where Ferris was able to enter a library because she was a cute girl). Ferris’ sister however may have been a bit too much, as a lot of her airtime consisted just out of screaming and yelling, rather than witty remarks.

This series also likes to play with things that aren’t as they seem. The blue haired guy in this episode for example. He was most definitely evil, but yet he didn’t end up as an enemy, and instead he ended up offering his services as a killer. Shion on his turn seemed like a righteous ruler so far, however that line from him at the end was quite a cliff-hanger. It just shows already how he’s changing as a ruler, and is willing to order this guy to kill his father, in order to make sure his services are genuine, in order to accomplish his ambitions.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin – 04

by psgels, posted in Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin



Okay, so now Fumiaki has reached the point where he’s just gotten annoying. In the previous episode he was still cute, but for the creators to carry this through in even this episode… it’s starting to get on my nerves. Especially considering that he’s gobbling up time that could be spent on the real main character here: Maya, who is a much more interesting character.

Characters like Fumiaki are always a bit of a double edged sword. I can understand flaws and all, but this episode was trying a bit too hard to make him look like an idiot. We’ve got enough anime with idiots already, can’t this series just be about genuinely interesting characters? Heck, I’d much rather watch that strange-haired weirdo and his friend at this point. At this point, I can only hope that the creators know what they’re doing with this guy.

This episode still had some really good jokes, though. Generally, all of the parts that didn’t focus on Fumiaki were really quite interesting and enjoyable. I loved the joke the creators made, when that moth chased Maya and Fumiaki behind Smile and JK. We also get confirmed even more that Maya surely knows a lot about the occult.

Most series about the supernatural just look at one direction: it’s either Shinto, or Viking legends, the Greek gods, or Chinese mythology or any other kind of popular kind of folklore. Only a few combine two of them, so Occult Academy is actually quite rare to actually look beyond the individual legends, and rather examines patterns and similarities between all kinds of different folklore across the world, like with the giant tree in this episode.

Finally, another thing that has me rather worried is the following, but it might just be something about this episode, and not the rest of the series. In terms of mystery, this series is really excellent at building up. But this episode showed that when it comes to revelations behind its questions… it doesn’t pack a whole lot of punches. Fumiaki’s background is pretty much what we could have guessed when he first explained it and the missing girl also predictably was found here. I want to see this series play around more with revelations.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 16

by psgels, posted in Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru



So, here we finally get to the background episode. Or to be more specific: the start of the background arc. The creators really wanted to give this its time to unfold, and so this episode merely deals with the introduction: we get to know what’s up with Takashiro, we get to know exactly what everyone is, and what has been causing the reincarnations. The actual past is left for the next episode.

But seriously though, this did exactly what I hoped, and it solidified the characters even more. The depth of these characters really prevented this episode from turning into a dull exposition episode, and instead it filled in the blanks in the storylines really well. I also now understand why this series is named the way it is: before this series started, I thought that that somehow was some sort of spoiler to the relationship between Luka and Yuki, but instead it refers to the nature of Takashiro: in which he’s forced to reincarnate everyone in order to stand a chance at taking down Reiga.

I guess that the whole reason for Takashiro to be infused with a Dumas, it is probably to make him able to actually kill Reiga, without reincarnating him, but that will probably be answered in the next episode. We already know that Reiga did something really bad, and Takashiro was probably the cause of that. The question now remains where Yuki ties into this: was she just “there”, or she also have an important part in that tragedy? Beyond that, we also have Luka, who seems like the only character who doesn’t seem to fit here so far. I doubt that he was there when Takashiro got his scar, and my guess is that he met Yuki at a later stage.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu – 04

by psgels, posted in Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu



Okay, so it was indeed impossible for this series to live up to the previous episode, and this episode indeed wasn’t as good as the previous one. Still, it completed the introduction of this series, sending Raina on the quest that we saw him at in the first episode, filling in some of the main gaps and questions we had (as in Shion becoming king).

But seriously, this show really likes its mood swings. The banter between Raina and Ferris is just silly. They make use of every moment to snare at each other. The contrast with the otherwise serious story has some interesting effects though. The way in which Lucile is basically using Shion from the shadows is definitely no laughing matter. On one hand, this Lucile guy is being set up as the villain, and yet Ferris still is loyal to him after the decapitation of the previous episode.

I was also surprised at how well the creators handled Raina’s time in jail. The conversations he had with his guard were quite interesting to watch. The way that the two became friends was quite charming, and they actually gave a character to this guard. Two entire years passed throughout this episode and you could see that the two of them got along with each other.

Kiefer Knolles (seriously, these people have weird names; just look at MAL: Ferris Eris, Iris Eris, Klom Claugh), I also really like how she just didn’t sit on a rock for two years, waiting for Raina to get released. And instead, she found her own way of dealing with having all her classmates massacred.
Rating: * (Good)

Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin – 03

by psgels, posted in Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin




This wasn’t what I was expecting from the third episode of this series. I mean, it wasn’t that this episode was badly executed, or that it wasn’t original. It’s just that more than half of it was spent on Fumiaki chasing after some girl he met in a restaurant.

It’s not that i can’t understand where this episode was trying to go. I mean, it’s a terrific way to flesh out Fumiaki and all. This also has to be the first moe girl who actually knows how to drive a car. But the thing is that it’s all just going very, very fast. The guy just walks into a restaurant who must get a lot more male customers, and a few days later she’s in love with him. It’s too fast. I’m not buying it. Especially with that kind of a voice actress. Seriously, was she trying to be this annoyingly moe on purpose?

But yeah, you could see that this episode was building up. Something has to be up here. We already know that this series has a tendency to not show anything inside the minds of anyone who isn’t a main character: this series is entirely told from the perspective of these two. Take that girl who randomly disappears for days: that has to be some sort of subtle hint for the future. That girl that Bumnei met is the same: in this episode we mostly saw Fumiaki’s hormones working: we don’t know at all what she’s hiding.

Because this episode was quite well written: it was very different from the first two episodes, and in a good way: this episode was great in bringing in a bit of variety in the series. Fumiaki’s character made leaps forward here and even though Maya played a small role, she still was very enjoyable to watch. I also love how the animators really managed to bring these characters to life. That animation realyl made up for those forced moe scenes.
Rating: ** (Excellent)