Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Shangri-La – 11

by psgels, posted in Shangri-La



Those who made fun of this series, brushed it off as a trainwreck and dropped it after one or two episodes are probably going to be surprised when I say this, but oh my god: this episode was amazing. What an incredibly solid installment to a series that just keeps getting better and better. I even admit that this series had its chaotic moments and episodes that even made me question whether it was going something. But this episode made up for it all. It’s totally different from anything we’ve seen in this show thus far.

This is exactly why I stopped hyping myself up with season previews. You really saw a lot of people looking forward to this series, but as a result when its first episode aired and it didn’t turn out the best thing since sliced bread a lot of people simply ignored it. While in fact there are a lot of series with mediocre starts that simply need to take a while to get really awesome. That’s why when judging first episodes, I mostly try to look at the potential of a series as a whole, instead of whether its first episode was awesome or not.

I never thought that Karin would turn into such an interesting character, but her development in this episode was really well done. We’ve thus far only seen her as an annoying brat who can make lots of money, but this episode didn’t just show a different side of hers, it also developed her character and made it change significantly when her parents finally give her a message, and it turns out that they’re actually quite fond of her, but they’re only too often away from her. As a result, Karin shut herself in, to the point at which she didn’t even dare to go outside.

A big theme of this episode was bird cages: Karin’s house turns out to be shaped like one, symbolizing the cage in which she locked herself up. Mikuni at the same time is caught up in another bird cage, due to the fact that she can’t stand the sunlight. It’s really ironic: Karin has all the freedom in the world. She probably is the only character in this series who can really do what she wants, and yet she chooses to stay locked up in this closed space without any real-life contacts.

The white-haired boy introduced himself as Karin’s other side, and yet there turns out to be so much more behind it. What was up with the cat? Why did it turn into a leaf? Why did Atlas know about him when he is the same as Karin and what does he have to do with Kuniko, Mikuni and Kunihito? What was the point of having Kunihito inside a life boat for the entire episode?

Oh boy, we’re in for something really awesome if the creators can keep this up. 🙂

Rating: *** (Awesome)
Amazingly solid episode on Karin’s development.

Guin Saga – 11

by psgels, posted in Guin Saga



I’m still surprised at how little the amount of discussion around this series is. When I search for Guin on Anime Nano, the search results only show about one post every two weeks, aside from my own. I mean, for series as Shangri-La and 07-Ghost you at least have people saying how much they hate those shows, but even those sorts of posts don’t appear. This season really is full of these underdogs, I must say.

In any case, this episode closes off the Nosferas arc and introduces the next one, but I really enjoyed it, as it really pushed the story into a different direction. As it turns out, Guin is going to wait a while before he takes up the throne of Nosferas, because he first wants to find out about his own history. Does that mean that he’s also going to leave Linda and Remus?

Amnelis meanwhile is about to say goodbye to her career as an army commander, as her father is about to marry her off to another guy. To think that she’s only eighteen. That really explains why she screwed up so badly at the front line: a complete lack of experience. Her father probably let her have one chance at commanding an army, before sending her off as a wife.

In the meantime, we also get introduced to a new character: the black-haired guy. I’m still not exactly sure what’s up with him, as he seems to have some complex relationships with the Mongols, but the next couple of episodes will probably shed more light on that. Oh, and I really have to say that the backgrounds looked awesome in this episode. Even better than usual with this series.

Rating: * (Good)
Aftermath and introduction to the respective past and upcoming arc.

Phantom – 11

by psgels, posted in Phantom



Ugh, recap.

So yeah, most of this episode was just clips from previous episodes. Thankfully this is one of my favourite shows, so I didn’t mind to rewatch all of the great stuff that happened so far, but still. There was some new material that played three months after the previous episode. Apparently, Reiji was hit, though not in his fatal areas and he managed to recover, and now he seems to have gone back to Inferno. Scythe meanwhile has fled the organization, but he doesn’t seem to have fully given up on destroying them. Oh, and McCunnen seems to have lost a younger brother a few years ago.

So yeah, that’s pretty much it. I’m very much looking forward to the next episode now, and how Drei is going to fit in everything.
Rating: (Enjoyable)
Yeah, recap.

Pandora Hearts – 11

by psgels, posted in Pandora Hearts



Ah, finally it’s time for Raven to reveal how he ended up with the Nightray family. This episode mainly talks about his past, and again it was quite an enjoyable episode. But something is bothering me. Some of the comments on last week’s entry talked about how this chapter was supposed to be one of the best of the series, but I don’t really see why; there have been much more impressive episodes so far. This one felt more like a solid build-up. And besides, even if this was supposed to be the best part of the series, then what does that mean for the rest of the story?

Still, I was pretty surprised to learn that Vincent is Gilbert’s younger brother, that was pretty random. Another surprise is that he also seems to have made contact with a being called “Raven”, probably in an attempt to get Oz back. Which apparently failed since Oz found a way to get back on his own. It also turns out that Vincent isn’t like Break in that he doesn’t age. Instead, ten years ago he was just a child as well, which begs the question of who was with Alice when she was younger. My guess now would be Oscar.

This episode also marks the return of Oscar, which at least also answers the question of where he went, although I am still curious as to what happened to Oz’s father. It’s going to be interesting if the two of them ever got to meet each other again. I’m interested to see how this guy changed over the past ten years.
Rating: * (Good)
Not among this series’ highlights but a solid episode on Gilbert’s past nonetheless.

Eden of the East – 10

by psgels, posted in Eden of the East



Okay, so I was wrong in last week’s impression: this episode of Eden of the East was definitely an excellent one and a step above the previous episodes about Pantsu. This episode explained a lot, and I have to admit that these revelations were well worth it. Mr Outside was nowhere near the evil overlord I thought him to be, Mononobe didn’t turn out to have the motives of simply destroying the world. It turns out that this show really likes to use red herrings.

So as it turns out, Mr Outside was a rich businessman called Ato Saizo (har har har), who himself had a part in reconstructing Japan after the second World War. He then however started to wonder whether the society he helped to create was the right one, and so whimsically created Juiz and enslaved 12 people apparently against their will in his quest to improve Japan. Mononobe and another Selecao we meet in this episode simply want to escape this plan, and the only way to do so seems to be to win the game. Apparently it involves sending a whole bunch of missiles to Japan. The only one I didn’t like was Number 10. He really was an emo kid who hates the world and therefore decides to blow it up. I’m glad that he’s going to die soon.

Juiz turns out to be an AI, probably modelled after Ato Saizo’s secretary. Ato may be dead right now, but the real Juiz seems to be working behind the scenes, and she probably is the one who maintains the AI Juiz. In the meantime, it also turns out that number 12 is either the supporter, or another Selecao who doesn’t agree with Mononobe, and something tells me that he’s going to be the main villain of this series once the movie starts.

There’s one part I didn’t quite get though: what was up with the boat-load of NEETs that suddenly returned on the ship? Wasn’t one of those NEET shown as he managed to become active in the society again? Why is the rest of them still naked and captured? Didn’t they get the chance to pick up their lives or something?

Rating: ** (Excellent)
Finally some answers, and satisfying answers they are.

Shangri-La – 10

by psgels, posted in Shangri-La



First of all: small Kuniko was AWESOME.

Now that that’s out of the way, its good to see that with a series like this one, which has a huge amount of different characters and parties, if one of them angsts there’s plenty of other stuff to keep the viewer busy with. I know that when a character experiences a huge shock like Kuniko did in the previous episode, she of course needs some time to settle down. Unfortunately it is too easy to just follow this character angsting for an entire episode and be incredibly boring in the process.

Here though, while Kuniko was putting her thoughts together, we got to see a bit of her past, and especially Atlas isn’t waiting for her to catch up as they’re setting plenty of stuff in motion in this episode. The awesome bitch-fight between Momoko and Sayoko also continues. I was surprised to learn that Sayoko isn’t Kuniko’s mother, neither Mikuni. Instead her child seems to be called Midori, who I have no idea who she is. This begs the question… where exactly did Kuniko’s mother go? The only other notable woman in Atlas we’ve seen so far is Ryouko… and that’s just scary.

I’m also wondering why Kunihito had a dagger that strangely resembled the one that Kuniko’s grandmother gave her at the end of this episode. There’s definitely something weird going on with these daggers, but I’m not yet sure what they’re made for, but they seem to be able to receive Atlas’ waves. In this episode, we see Kunihito, Mikuni AND Kuniko being able to catch these messages that were thought to be only receivable by Hiruko. I’m also glad to see that not only did Kuniko pick herself back up and decided to do something, but she also resolved to take up the leadership of the Metal-Age. There you go, here’s one girl who knows what she wants.

Rating: * (Good)
Very nice build-up episode.

Guin Saga – 10

by psgels, posted in Guin Saga



Ah, I remember how the last time an anime toyed with large-scaled fantasy wars, we got stuck with Utawarerumono, which in the end never really caught on. Thank god Guin Saga is doing a good job this time. Its individual ingredients aren’t that impressive, but together they form a very capable series indeed. Guin in this episode yet again proves that he is a born leader and that he has the ability to reunite various tribes. As the future king of Nosferas, politics should start getting into play soon as well, and that’s also going to be pretty interesting.

With the giant people, the defeat of the Mongols was of course only going to be a matter of waiting whether they could get there on time. Amnelis really was never meant to lead such a huge army, since all she basically does is charge and retreat. One thing that I do want to see in one of the next arcs is Guin taking on someone who actually has half a braincell. I mean, now that he has the giant people on his side, his opponents really are going to have to use their heads in order to prevent themselves from committing suicide.

One thing I didn’t like in this episode was Suni’s supposed death and resurrection. I’m not exactly sure what that was meant for… she just fell off a cliff and at the end of the episode turned out to be fine. The directing also is a big buggy at times: at one time we see Amnelis about to be attacked by two giants. Astrias slays one of them, and the other just… disappears. It’s true that this show could have been much better had it had solid creators, but it still is a pretty good series.
Rating: * (Good)
Guin pwned this episode as it ends the Mongol invasion-arc.

Phantom – 10

by psgels, posted in Phantom



Wait, wait… what? WTF, they actually did it? If you’ve not seen the episode yet: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

This is a bit of random text to prevent spoilers from showing up on the blog aggregators, but seriously this episode has got to be the biggest surprise of the entire season. I know that I more often pull these sorts of conclusions and they don’t turn out to be true and all, but damn: Ellen was shot right through the heart and got dumped in the ocean! Bloody hell! There’s no way that she could have survived that!

Seriously, if this really is what I think it is, then this really has been the first time since ages than the creators of a show had the guts to kill off one of their lead character. I really thought that Reiji was just going to save Ellen, kill Scythe and just happily live together with her in Japan for a couple of episodes, but THIS. I never saw that coming.

I’m now sure of my favourite shows this season: Konnichiwa Anne and this series both continue to leave me stunned after nearly every single episode. Just when I think I can’t get more impressed, they pull yet another one of their surprises. Now THAT’s the sign of a good anime! It’s so sad that in the end, Ellen did choose to be Ein, and didn’t abandon her master’s trust. Reiji showed a totally different side of his this episode: we now really get to see his dark side, which is absolutely nothing like his composed, usual self.

This series sure as hell pulls no punches. Every single battle so far has ended with either one or both sides heavily beaten, whereas most series simply choose to let each side retreat with perhaps a small casualty or two. As an example, especially Gundam 00 had a nasty habit of doing this in its second season over and over again. I loved how this episode was dancing around Reiji, singing “no, you can’t get your happily ever after just yet, muaha!”
Rating: *** (Awesome)
An amazing conclusion to an already amazing arc of an already amazing series. And we’ve yet to even reached the halfway point!

Pandora Hearts – 10

by psgels, posted in Pandora Hearts



Muaha! Now this is more like it! I urge those who were unimpressed by the past few episodes to at least stick around until episode 10, because this episode really was heaps of times better. This episode really showed the power of this show’s scriptwriters, who really understand the characters they’re working with. I’m really glad to see that the building up is coming together!

This episode really was about Oz and his memories about his father, who clearly left a deep-seeded trauma on the guy. In this episode he in vain attempts to save the father of the little kid, even going against Alice and Gil in order to give the kid a good father, and yelling at the father for the horrible mistakes he made. The father tries to justify himself by saying that he killed all of those people for his son, in order to get his house and wife back, but OZ understands like no other that at this time, it simply would have been enough to spend time with him.

The animation also looked better than ever for this series. I especially loved Break’s evil grin at the end of this episode, where Vincent has made his formal introduction after shooting said father and Break lets him know that he doesn’t really like this in his own way. Still, everything in this episode was just pure goodness. It’s nothing like the cheese of a few episodes back: this was genuine drama that really came from the heart of OZ and Alice.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Such a genuine episode, where the build-up really comes together.

Eden of the East – 09

by psgels, posted in Eden of the East



Okay, so now that this series is nearly at its end (2 episodes left), I unfortunately have to admit that Eden of the East was a disappointment. It’s obviously nowhere near bad, but with its awesome first episode, I really expected something better from this series. Unfortunately, after nine episodes my favourite episode still remains that first one: it never really managed to surpass the creativity and intrigue of Akira and Saki, meeting each other in America, and to be honest, it never even came close to that.

My guess would be that it’s the lack of focus that’s working against this series. The pacing has simply been too slow for such a series, and during the quiet moments I don’t think that the creators really made optimal use of it to flesh out the cast. I once praised this show for how it involved its side-characters with the main-storyline, but for the past two episodes I’m really beginning to wonder what their purpose is. What really is the point of Oosugi, showing the Akira-hate messages? What can that really add to the story, other than making the side characters hate Akira with passion?

The thing with mystery-series is that creating intrigue is one thing, but making the revelations worth it is really the difficult part. Now that the revelations have finally come in, I unfortunately have to say that they… don’t really live up to my expectations. So yeah, the rockets were launched by one of the other Selecao who is out to destroy Japan and start anew. Should have seen that coming. Every Selecao is trying to destroy Japan, it seems, aside from Akira of course, who along with Number 5 was probably the only one who was doing the right thing. My big worry is also that Mr. Outside. I know that there are two hours of movie left for him, but my big fear with him is that the creators aren’t going to have any time to flesh this guy out, making him dangerously close to your typical evil overlord.

Compare this to shows as 07-Ghost: even though its plot is nowhere near as interesting as that of Eden, it did put lots of time into building up and fleshing out, and actually looks like it’s going to get away with it. Eden though… something just feels to have gone wrong during its build-up. I really hope that these hunches are wrong, because I really want this show to work.

Rating: (Enjoyable)
Predictable, Pantsu wasn’t really that interesting, but at least the plot moved forward a lot.