Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Guin Saga – 13

by psgels, posted in Guin Saga


This arc has really been getting more and more interesting, even though this episode pretty much lacked any sort of battles. This is where the adventure part of this series jumps in, and I do have to say that it may be the part where Guin Saga is best at. In any case with episodes like this you’re not going to get bothered by badly animated fights.

So this episode basically followed the two story-lines around Amnelis and Ardnaris’ wedding, and Guin and his party trying to get back to Parro (at least, that’s what I managed to pick up), and both delivered. This episode marks the point in which Naris finally seduced Amnelis, and whatever his plans are, something tells me that they won’t be pretty for Amnelis.

Remus’ development also it becoming really interesting. From the outside he seems to be turning into your average whiny brat, but having his balls drop and getting into puberty has had some interesting side-effects: suddenly, it is Linda who is the weakest of the two. Suddenly, Linda who seemed so mature in the Nosferas arc has turned into the whiny brat who doesn’t take good notice of her surroundings, and Remus has turned into the mature one; despite his brattiness, he does know when to shut up, and the only one he treated with disrespect was Linda. That is SO typical of siblings when they’re in puberty.

Flawed characters like Remus are either incredibly bad or incredibly good, since they’re so annoying when they’re first introduced, but when they’re developed correctly they can prove to be a very interesting addition to their story. I’m not saying that Guin Saga is definitely going to be one of those series that gets it right, but there’s a reasonable chance that it will.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
The characters are really developing strongly. This show is going to be epic if the creators can keep this up.

Shangri-La – 13

by psgels, posted in Shangri-La



Oh my god. I’m not sure who exactly was responsible for the dogfights in this episode, but I have to say, that these were the most visually pleasing scenes that I have seen this season. Yes, that includes Guin Saga and Eden of the East; it was THAT good. With this episode, Gonzo has really shown why they are the masters of CG. It may not be the best blend with the rest of the art, but damn. These guys are getting closer and closer to perfection in making CG action scenes engaging. I don’t care what the popular opinion on them is, it’s going to be SUCH a shame if these guys are going to close down due to poor sales. Their bad series are indeed really bad, but their hits really are one of a kind, and for me, Shangri-La has been their best series ever since Bokura no ended. Say what you want about both Gonzo and this series. I’m too busy drooling over the incredible visuals in this episode.

The rest of this episode was also really good to close off the first half of this series. This episode was intense, in which Kuniko for the first time has to really display her leadership, and even though she still has a lot to learn, at the same time you can see that she’s trying her hardest guiding the Metal-Age, instead of sitting back and letting the others do the dirty work.

And while most of this episode was about the Metal-Age trying to bust into Atlas, there also was something interesting going on around Ryouko, as some sort of upper chief has decided to pay a visit. His influence on Ryouko is going to be pretty interesting. There was also a pretty touching moment about Miiko and Mikuni, where you can see that the two have gotten even closer since Sayaka left.

I’m wondering when Kunihito is going to play a role in the story again. He obviously is important, he has a dagger, he is a digma, but so far the only thing he’s done is screw up when Kuniko was around. He definitely was a character meant for the second half of this series, but I’m really wondering what kind of role he’s going to play in the whole series. I’m definitely pumped for that second half. With such an ambitious setting, if this series manages to avoid any major screw-ups, it’s going to be epic.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Incredible CG visuals, very exciting dogfights

Pandora Hearts – 13

by psgels, posted in Pandora Hearts



Awesome episode! With all of the small hints to Alice’s past and all, the actual revelation of how deep it actually is really amazed me. This episode was full of awesomeness that further developed the mystery that’s going on, instead of just answering some of the lingering questions. After a small dip in the middle, this series sure as hell picked itself back up again.

And I really have to say, that with this episode Xebec has shown that they very well know how to animate an anime. Especially in the first half of the episode, there was lots of movement, and the entire episode was full of really good and creative camera-angles. Xebec really is a strange production company: a lot of their shows just aren’t good, with especially disasters like Kanokon and To Love-Ru going nowhere, and yet there are some of their series that are nothing like their usual series, or any other series for that matter. Hitohira had a unique chemistry between its main characters; I’m still looking for a series that managed to attain the same feel as The Third, and now Pandora Hearts does it again, with this really dark gothic fairy-tale like style that again I’ve never seen before.

The big revelation in this episode was that Alice erased her own past. She didn’t want to remember it, so she tore it up and had Cheshire Cat guard it, she just didn’t make sure to prevent Alice from trying to find out her own past. A hundred years apparently, something huge happened that somehow involved her getting betrayed by the one she loved (Jack Bezarius, to be exact), and blowing up an entire city. But still, where is B-Rabbit’s place in this? What does the white Alice have to do with all of this? How exactly is Jack Bezarius tied in with the rest of the Bezarius family?

And really, what the heck is Vincent Nightray up to? All this build-up was put into making him a huge villain, and yet this episode showed that he regards his relationship with Gil above anything. At the same time, he really seems to hate Vincent, as this episode showed Echo doing… something to Sharon while she was investigating what happened 100 years ago.

I also have to praise the amazing voice acting in this series. Especially Cheshire Cat’s actor was really good.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Lots of juicy revelations, gorgeous visuals, plus an awesome performance from Cheshire Cat.

Phantom – 13

by psgels, posted in Phantom



Oh, it’s only been two episodes since her introduction, and I’m already a big fan of Cal (apparently not Drei, who has yet to show up). This episode really reminded me why I’m such a big fan of Bee-Train. This episode was mostly building-up, but the superb characterization made it all worth it. With an already excellent game that this series is based on, they really managed to get the best out of it. It’s a shame that this episode got the short end of the budget for this series, but apart from that I loved it.

Cal’s surprisingly sharp wit really has the ability to open up Reiji who has closed himself ever since Helen’s death. She may look like an innocent girl, but time and time again she proves to be observant, curious and direct, and yet she is full of weaknesses, like how she hates how she isn’t able to do anything on her own, and how she’s deeply affected by the death of her caretaker. That’s why it surprised me when she suddenly popped up with five million dollars in stolen cash from Inferno, asking Reiji to kill every single one of the bastards that killed off Judy.

The plot for this arc is again promising to be really interesting, with multiple sides, none of them being completely good or evil. We have Reiji and Cal, who are after the mysterious people who killed off Judy, at the same time they have to try and hide the fact that Cal just stole five million dollars from an angry Isaac, and something tells me that the mysterious Drei is part of the people who killed off Judy.

Oh, and on a side-note: one detail I also loved was that Reiji still bears the scars of the gunshots that struck him six months earlier. That really is a detail that many anime simply forget to include, but big wounds like that obviously take ages to heal properly. Like expected, he was mostly hit in the shoulder, and not in his heart, so that explains why he managed to survive that day.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Very intriguing build-up with an increasingly awesome Cal.

Shangri-La – 12

by psgels, posted in Shangri-La



I really must say, that despite the rocky start Shangri-La is quite possibly turning into one of my favourite series this season. If it wasn’t for the likes of Phantom and Konnichiwa Anne, I’d be sure of it. As messy as the beginning episodes were, as solidly everything is coming together at the moment. It just shows how series can completely change for the better as they go on.

I think what sets this show apart is that for this season, it has managed to find the best combination between a complex multi-layered and epic plot, great aesthetics and audio and a very varied and coloured cast of characters, and yet it doesn’t drag or go too fast. I really hope that this can continue on in its second half. It relies a bit too much on coincidences at times, but it’s really nothing serious to get in the way of what’s really important. It’s not necessarily the best at one front, it may have some rough edges, but when combining everything together the picture really makes for a top-notch series.

This episode again had lots of revelations. Indeed, Mikuni is not unique: Kunihito and Kuniko posses the same power that she does. This is why Ryouko was so interested in her, and why she had Kunihito’s personal data blocked (it’s also a nice touch that all three of them have “Kuni” in their names). I’m really going to wonder what kind of impact that’s going to have on Mikuni: she obviously of the three of them is the easiest to manipulate, but there has to be another reason as to why Ryouko is so interested in Kuniko: if she can already read Atlas through Mikuni, then why does she need all three of them?

This episode also marks the end of Sayoko, as she gets arrested from trying to hack in the Atlas server in order to try and find out this information. This means that Miiko is going to have to take care of Mikuni. And speaking of Miiko, it’s great to see how far she’s already developed: now that she doesn’t have Momoko anymore and instead is going to be the one who needs to protect, she’s proven to be a really strong and dependant character, and ended up saving Momoko that way.

For Kuniko, it’s also good to see that she didn’t choose to become the leader of the Metal-age just to save Momoko, but instead because she really doesn’t agree with Atlas’ principles. She even says in this episode that the mission that they’re going to undertake has the priority above saving Momoko (but of course, it never gets to the point for them to save her because she already escaped on her own).

Oh, and Karin was downright adorable in this episode. Especially when she ran into Kuniko, who recognized her from the time she accidentally hacked into Karin’s server. Seeing her shopping and walking around in a bear-suit was just awesome.

And on a side-note: it’s interesting how the names of Atlas are all related to Greek mythology: we have Atlas as the main organization, Zeus as their main server, then there’s Medusa as their oracle. The names don’t really relate to the stories that their mythological figures had, but then again, I don’t think that such an obvious level of symbolism is needed anyway.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Lots of stuff happened again in this building-up episode.

Guin Saga – 12

by psgels, posted in Guin Saga



For a moment there, I thought that this was going to be a relatively uneventful build-up episode, but boy, was i wrong. This episode may have lacked a bit of fighting, but instead it was all about the characters. And now that a new arc has started, it’s great to see that some of them are getting some quality development. It’s even better to see that the ones with the most development are the ones who were the most useless and incompetent in the Nosferas arc. Yes, I’m talking about Amnelis and Remus.

It’s awesome to see that Remus is finally starting to realize that he’s been bloody useless throughout the entire series, and I love how the creators were specifically using the Nosferas arc to show what a weakling he was. It seems that his character will be much more important in the upcoming arc, and I’m interested to see how his character is going to develop.

Amnelis on the other hand develops in a completely different way, when she falls in love with… Ardnaris, whom she was supposed to be engaged with. I’m not exactly sure how he managed to pull that off by getting on the Mongol’s good side, but he seems to be enjoying it. Amnelis on the other hand is in for some interesting development that really is going to change her majorly. I’m still not sure whether this is going to be for the better or worse, but I’d love to find out.

This episode also introduces the three mystery characters that suddenly popped up in last week’s OP. They turn to be related to Ardnaris, it seems. The bond-haired guy seems to be his brother, while the black-haired couple also seem among his allies.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
Remus and Amnelis’s character-development? Count me in!

Phantom – 12

by psgels, posted in Phantom



Well, since I have been careful not to look at any of the promotion material for this series, I had no idea who Drei was or what she looked like. Now that we finally got to meet her, I have to say that that I really didn’t expect her to be such a little girl. Still, I like her. She’s got lots of potential for this series, and I can’t wait until the creators go in-depth with her.

The rest of this episode was pretty much the introduction of the second major arc of this series, and had Reiji walking around with a pimpin’ background tune. Really, this demonstrates how influential background music can be for a series. The background music for the first arc was very melancholic, but the hiphop soundtrack that this episode used was completely different, and it gave a totally different feel and atmosphere to this series. And that’s really typical of Bee-Train: for them, a soundtrack isn’t simply a soundtrack, but it’s very essential in telling the story.

So this obviously wasn’t meant to be an episode to stand out. The animation was really basic and simple, and in the meantime there was lots of fanservice. That sex-scene in particular was rather weird, but at least I’m glad that this series has a mature outlook on sex, rather than the juvenile and teenaged way.

And on a side-note: you don’t see that often in anime: people using the box (or however that’s called in English) instead of shaking hands. While it’s definitely inaccurate at times, you can see that the creators did spend some effort in giving the setting some subtle American influences.

Rating: * (Good)
Carol’s introduction, plus a pimpin’ build-up for the upcoming arc.

Pandora Hearts – 12

by psgels, posted in Pandora Hearts



Now this is Pandora Hearts! This definitely was my favourite episode of this series since episode two and three. We learned lots of new things about our characters, and the quiet moments were pure comedic gold. This episode really had the dark and gothic tone that originally made me fall in love with this series.

Break really showed a different side of himself when both he and Alice got captured by the Cheshire Cat (another Alice in Wonderland reference) and it showed that he isn’t perfect in his schemings. He too seemed to be bothered by some sort of dark alter ego that he didn’t know about, like Alice. I’m really curious now as to what was up with that. At the same time, why did the lair of the Cheshire Cat contain hints of Alice’s memories?

The lighter moments were also wonderful in this episode. I loved how Oscar completely appeared from out of nowhere, in front of the two boys he hasn’t seen in ten years. Or Break’s attempts at camouflage, or Gil’s obsession with his particular hat. There really is a huge value put to that hat: for some reason he’s really attached to it, and yet he leaves it with Oz when the two are apart. I’d love to see the full story behind it.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
Lots of things happened, new developments and overall a really enjoyable episode.

Eden of the East Review – 82,5/100

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



Okay, I decided to rewrite this entire thing since the review I originally wrote was crap. Kenji Kawayama really is one of the better directors out there. His sense of realism, attention to detail and originality has really made his series one of a kind. After Seirei no Moribito I therefore was very eager to watch his next work: Eden of the East. As promised, it’s a very solidly produced series, but I do have to admit that it is a tad disappointing.

After thinking a bit about the series, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are two reasons that prevent this series from being among the top of this season for me. First of all, the cast of characters leaves a bit to be desired. The lead character Saki is a great one: she grows very subtly through the series, and while she may seem weak at times, she really stands out as a strong character. The rest of the cast lacks a bit of a spark, though. Akira as the male lead is a bit too much of an idealist; his character without any seeming flaws is a bit hard to get into. The majority of the rest of the cast simply feels not fleshed out well enough: some characters show too little of themselves to really make an impact, while others are just plain annoying (most of Saki’s friends). Two notable exceptions are Kondo (whose story gets nicely explored through his limited airtime) and Micchon, who serves her purpose as a quiet side-character well.

My second issue with this series is its mystery. As a mystery-fanboy, I was of course elated after the first episode. It was so delightfully weird and unusual. There were so many different theories possible for what went on, and it really intrigued me like no other. But yeah, the thing with mystery-series is that the challenge comes with correctly revealing the mystery, and in that I feel that this series did a lukewarm job. It can’t keep its air of mystery consistent through the series, and as the series goes on and the answers come, there aren’t really any new questions asked: the answers are simply presented on a silver platter when the time seems ripe for it, without really using them for anything other than for the sake of filling up plotholes.

But yeah, despite these flaws, there still is lots of good stuff in this series. The animation really is amazing. Animation in anime is often a job of cutting corners, but here the animation is really well done to the finest details: the creators have made sure to bring their pictures to life. The CG may be a bit obtrusive at times, but the realistic movements and awesome background art really make up for it.

The setting is also very thought-provoking. Through the 11 episodes of airtime, this series takes a critical look at idealism and its positives and negatives. The whole concept behind the show remains very original and thought-provoking. You can see that a lot of imagination went into creating the setting for this series.

So overall this series served its purpose as a solid build-up for the upcoming movies, which of course I’m going to review as well as soon as they come out. I know that the rating is lower than what one might expect, but I just can’t say that this was the best of the season because of the reasons mentioned above. Small series like this one really need be focused, and in my opinion this series goofed off a bit too much at times and it feels to me that this series was trying to stuff too much into just these eleven episodes. Let’s hope that the movies will use the build-up that the series has provided, but standalone this series for me wasn’t as enjoyable as other short series as Natsu no Arashi or Ristorante Paradiso, which both did know how to make optimal use of their tie (so far, at least).

Storytelling: 8/10
Characters: 7/10
Production-Values: 9/10
Setting: 9/10

Eden of the East – 11

by psgels, posted in Eden of the East



Ah, there are two movies going to be released. That means three, possible four more hours for this show to tell its story (unless they pull a Death and Rebirth), which really should be enough time for this show. Overall though, this series didn’t turn out as good as I hoped it would be. My biggest issue with the show is that my favourite episode still is the first one.

Still, this episode was a pretty decent ending until the movies. There were some things I didn’t understand, though. Why did Akira feel the need to wipe his own mind again? How and why did he get all of the NEET to access the Higashi no Eden site and take pictures of Akira, protecting them from the missile attack? Why did the creators find it necessary to bring Pantsu back to life? After spending all of his money on becoming king, and getting rid of his cell phone, isn’t he supposed to die?

In any case, as it turns out the reason why Akira wiped his own memory was because he kept getting accused of being the one behind the missile attacks (because he knew that they were going to happen), and so he at one point couldn’t take the accusations anymore and decided to travel to America and mind-wipe himself. That’s totally different from the crazy Japanese terrorist that I originally believed him to be.

Overall, it’s been fun, and although I can’t say that this has been my favourite show this season I definitely enjoyed watching this. It’s a bit of a wait until the movies are released, but in the meantime I’m looking forward to see what Noitamina has in store for us next.
Rating: * (Good)
Lotsa Johnnies and a pretty nice cliff-hanger for the upcoming movies.