Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Shangri-La – 09

by psgels, posted in Shangri-La



Now these really are the episodes that show why this series rocks. There’s just so much going on, it’s mostly building up, and yet it’s still intriguing and compelling, it cleverly uses things from past episodes, while also progressing forward with its plot. My biggest fear was for Kuniko to go emo, but even taking that into account I have faith that she’s strong enough to pull herself past this and grow even more.

I love how at first, the tunnel Takehito and the other members of the Metal-age was used as a cute gimmick in order to keep them busy, and yet in this episode it actually became relevant to the plot again when Kuniko wanted to rescue the rest of the inmates. While it may have been a bit extreme to kill all of them off like that, it definitely made impact: with it, the creators really show that they’re not going to pull any punches and that Kuniko has been majorly underestimating her opponents.

The fight at the beginning of this episode also rocked, especially Momoko vs. Sayoko: two sadist who take on each other. It was overall a very well coordinated fight: it showed a lot of things at the same time while never staying too long at one point. If the creators can keep this up we’re in for a very good second half. I’m also interested to find out what in the next episode, Momoko’s impact on Atlas will be, including the revelation who she actually was for Mikuni.

And there was so much more going on in this episode. The revelation of what exactly Hiruko is also was awesome: it’s basically a possessed schoolgirl in Atlas. Karin also has major troubles with her own Medusa, who seems to have taken a random nap, only to awaken again in this episode, but much more aware of his surroundings, it seems.

The one issue for this series is of course going to be whether or not the series can come together in the end, but that’s of course the thing with any series with a huge setting like this one. I’ve seen quite a few people label it already with a “Gonzo Ending”, but really, are Gonzo’s endings really that notorious? I can actually recall quite a few endings from Gonzo-series that were really, really good. Of course they’ve had their shares of disappointing endings, but that’s the case with any studio. I’m actually much more wary about Bones’ Endings (rushed ones) or Sunrise ones (overly epic ones).

And on a final note: I’m liking the soundtrack of this series more and more. After Phantom, it’s definitely my favourite soundtrack of this season, and you can hear that a lot of effort went into producing it. It’s really varied and every piece seems to be different and complements the series perfectly.

Rating: **
Really well told episode: there’s always something going on but nothing dragged or rushed.

Guin Saga – 09

by psgels, posted in Guin Saga



Aah! This show so badly deserves better animation! Having Satelight as the animation production company is both a bliss and a curse: the graphics sure look imposing. The designs for this series are absolutely beautiful, but the animation is just incredibly messy and full of cut corners and very obviously rushed. What a bloody shame, because this series really deserves to look beautiful.

As for the rest of this episode: Guin Saga yet again showed that it excels at detailing and describing all sorts of different cultures and people. This episode gives a proper introduction to the giant people that Guin went after, and again a lot of imagination went into designing these people. Standalone, they’re a bit stereotypical, but when put in context with the rest of the series they fit so well. With such a huge cast, this series has already shown that it isn’t the best at characterization: for Guin Saga it’s really the bigger picture that makes it stand out.

This episode also shows Istvan’s part of Guin’s plan come to fruition as he successfully manages to kill off one of the major generals from the Mongols. It’s also interesting how he never seemed to take his mission personally, and actually came to like Marius before he killed him off. It’s good to run into a series that doesn’t have the “I can’t kill him! He’s my friend”-mentality.

Rating: * (Good)
Sub-par animation, but that’s not stopping this series from delivering a fantasy-epic.

Phantom – 09

by psgels, posted in Phantom



With this episode, Phantom yet again proves that it’s one of the top shows this season. It’s much quieter than the previous episode, and yet there was so much growth in Ein an Zwei’s character(or should I say, Reiji and Helen’s). Especially the conversations between Reiji and Helen were utterly astonishing. The creators have got such a great feeling for their characters.

Helen, who has so far only worked for Scythe, and only lived for the guy finally realizes that there is someone else who cares for her. It must have been a complete shock for her to learn how far Reiji is willing to go for her, even to the point of throwing his entire past away. It turns out that the only reason she appeared so strong in front of Reiji was because Scythe ordered her to.

I was also really surprised at how early Scythe managed to find Helen, and how easily Inferno tracked down Reiji and that they showed hardly any mercy to them. Reiji got punched over and over in order to get information out of him, while who knows what happened to Helen after Scythe found her. The next episode should prove to be yet another treat. There’s no doubt that Reiji is going to succeed in killing Scythe, but just imagine what kind of effect that would have on Helen. I can’t wait!

Rating: ** (Excellent)
A very quiet episode, but Reiji and Helen made it worth every single second.

Pandora Hearts – 09

by psgels, posted in Pandora Hearts



I must say, I like Echo a lot with this episode. Her antics are really fun to watch.

This episode also sheds a bit more light on the mysterious Vincent Nightray, who seems to be central to the plot’s mysteries. The guy looks a lot like the one that was with Alice when she was young, and for some reason he’s very interested to see the potential in either her grown up version or Oz himself. I have reasons to believe that he was the one who sent Break after Oz in the first place. There seems to be a lot going on in that Nightray family that’s being kept secret of us.

In any case, the rest of this episode showed Oz a situation he can relate to very much: fathers. Because he grew up with such a terrible father he really wishes for nobody to go through the same things as he did (speaking of which, what happened to that bugger in the past ten years anyway?). And sure enough, this features a kid who is about to lose his father to a monster of the Abyss. Yet again it’s an episode that’s meant to enforce the bond between Oz on one side and Gilbert and Alice on the other side, who both never had a parent in the first place (or can’t remember them anyway) and can’t relate to how much Oz wanted to have respect from his father.

Rating: * (Good)
Building up, but this show is still going strong.

Eden of the East – 08

by psgels, posted in Eden of the East



Okay, this episode is probably the one that sets up the story for the final arc of this series. With three episodes left until the movie, I have to say that this show turned out to be quite a bit different than I imagined. With 12 Selecao, you’d expect each episode to focus on a different one of them to see how they decided to try and change the world, but the creators cleverly tried to stay out of that formula and instead are going to explore what lies below everything.

Having said that, this wasn’t the most exciting episode though. I really wonder how Akira knew that Shiratori had wings, and what is it with his dreams about “Johnnies”? The parts with Oosugi were also quite annoying, especially when he got jealous for Saki and all. I really don’t know what a pointless love triangle is going to add to this series, especially when there’s no doubt that Akira and Saki are going to end up together.

Still, I like Micchon a lot. Finally we see an actual believable programmer (seriously, most programmers you see in anime nowadays are nothing but l33t hax0rz instead of the software developers that you’d assume them to be, but that’s just me being the computer science student that I am) and that Pants-guy intrigues me, and it’s going to be interesting to see how they’re going to deal with the Selecao system.

Also, I’ve been wondering: what’s up with those squares on everyone’s faces? Are they meant to be subtle shadows or something?

Rating: * (Good)
Quiet building up episode.

Shangri-La – 08

by psgels, posted in Shangri-La



This was a very strange and unusual episode. It was a nightmare for physicists, it featured some strange coincidences, but despite that I still like this series. If only because of the sheer GUTS it had during some of the scenes in this episode, which really showed that this show really isn’t going to pull its punches. This definitely is the most controversial series of the season.

To start with the lesser parts though, Kuniko’s escape is definitely going to raise some eye-brows, but then again, this series has always had its share of strange physics. There is carbon-trade, so why not make a hot balloon fueled on fermented orange juice that’s able to carry two people? That solar eclipse also had a bit too convenient of a timing. But then again, with all of the weird technology it’s of course also possible that the nanomaterial the girls found in the junkyard offered the solution. This is science-fiction, after all.

And yet I really love the rest of this series, and especially the characters. This series definitely has its issues now and then, but Kuniko is truly a remarkable lead who has the guts to go where most people wouldn’t even dare, and inspires others to do so as well, up to the point at which the fellow inmates start flirting with the prison guards in order to get all the preparations for the balloon right, and start offering their bodies.

And god… I was really shocked with how this episode ended. Kuniko has escaped, everyone is happy, people are starting to feel confident that Atlas can be beaten and that they have control… only for all of the inmates to be killed off by a simple order. WTF! It feels nowhere near a heroic sacrifice, and much more a death due to stupidity, and yet these girls did such a wonderful job of getting Kuniko out of prison.

The whole way in which everyone close to Kuniko reacted to the news of her execution: nobody getting scared, and everyone just thought that it was going to be another heroic escape from her with the necessary help from Momoko. It all shows how they’re trying to rebel to Atlas in even the smallest things. And then this episode comes and gives them a wake-up call even though they don’t even know what happened.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
I can really imagine that the cynics like Hanners are going to hate this episode, but for me it served its purpose: I was seriously shocked by what happened here.

Guin Saga – 08

by psgels, posted in Guin Saga



You know, I didn’t really notice this among underlooked series as Shangri-la, Konnichiwa Anne and Natsu no Arashi, but Guin Saga also is starting to move under the radar this season. I mean, for as far as I know I’m the only one who’s still blogging it, and you hardly see anyone talk about it anymore. It’s a shame, because this series is pretty darn good.

This episode was an intermezzo between two big battles against the mongol army, and the biggest focus is Guin, as he tries to go after his past in a gamble that might give him the key to victory. We finally learn a bit about who the heck he was before his mind-wipe, although it’s still a bunch of vague hints. I especially liked that dream sequence of his. It was totally psychedelic, but it was nice to watch. At the end of the episode, we also encounter someone who looks surprisingly much like Guin himself, or at least in terms of clothing.

In the rest of the episode, the rest of the cast is fleshed out a bit. Remus gets finally a bit of confidence when he succeeds in making an arrow, while Amnelis is shown to be the stuck up princess that she is when she’s wasting precious water in the middle of a desert by washing her hair.

Though I do have some things that I’ve been wondering: why did the ape-men have an armour that perfectly fitted Guin? How did they get him a horse when they don’t use those animals themselves? It remains a bit strange. Also, I’m not really sure why Guin chose this moment to chase after his path. I didn’t exactly pick up what exactly he felt was so important about his past that made him so confident about winning.

Rating: * (Good)
A building-up episode, but it had a very good air of mystery.

Phantom – 08

by psgels, posted in Phantom



Phantom already was one of my favourites this series… and with this episode it became even better. Seriously, what an amazing episode. This is EXACTLY why I’m such a big Bee-Train fan.

This really is the episode where the plot takes a complete shirt, and how well it works! We first start out with McCunnen showing Zwei the passport of his pre-mindwipe self, allowing him to remember some vague parts about who he was. He even goes as far as making a phone call to his former family! The reason why she’s doing this is also revealed: Mad Professor betrays Inferno! He has enough confidence in Ein in order to defy such a powerful organization.

Since Ein was a bit of a puppet to the guy, McCunnen tried to make Zwei make his own decisions, in the hope that he’d return to her on his own will. And yet she didn’t take into account how close Ein and Zwei have grown for the past number of episodes, and so Zwei instead decides to run away. So much potential for character-development!

But oh god, the scene that really hit me was the one in which Zwei (or Reiji, as his real name turns out to be) stood next to a badly shot Ein and was forced to take out the bullet that launched itself inside her hip, with only primitive tools and no anaesthetic whatsoever. That really was fantastically executed and SO full of emotions.

Really, this series just continues to amaze me. You’d think that this would be a simple assassin series in which the characters kill a bunch of people as ordered by their organization, and then WHAM: it comes with this episode. With this, it has really set itself apart from Noir, which was much more episodic, and had completely different themes from what Phantom has developed into.

Rating: **** (Fantastic)
Utterly amazing, this episode completely exceeded my expectations.

Pandora Hearts – 08

by psgels, posted in Pandora Hearts



Ah, now that most of the major questions that were asked in the first episodes have been answered, it’s time to start developing the characters, with the biggest issue being Oz’s parents. His situation was already pretty weird when he was still living a normal life, this episode reveals that he can’t even remember his father’s name, and on top of that we still have no idea what happened to them through the past ten years. There’s this on-going question of what exactly eh turned into when he was sent into that abyss and now that his clock started ticking he’s not going to last for a long while anymore.

On top of that, the creators continue to develop the bond between Oz, Raven and Alice. I noticed that whenever Raven leaves Oz, he leaves behind his hat. Not only does this hat look pretty good on Oz, but it also symbolizes how the two are going to stay together from now on, especially since Raven was separated for ten years from him. Raven may really be a bit too keen on protecting Oz because of this: he knew that Oz’s parent’s story is a bit of a taboo with him, though Alice on the other hand doesn’t seem to mind, since she only knows the strong side of Oz.

On a side-note though, one of the biggest reasons why I’ve seen people drop this show is because of the animation, which is something I don’t quite get. Sure, this series definitely doesn’t have the best animation this season, but what makes the animation bad enough to drop an otherwise excellent series? Especially since there’s much worse animation out there this season (Tayutama, anyone?)

Rating: * (Good)
Nice build-up; plus: Break was hilarious.

Eden of the East – 07

by psgels, posted in Eden of the East



Whoa, WTF…

Here I thought I had this series figured out, and then it comes with this episode. Looking back, there were indeed a lot of signs foreshadowing that the Selecao system had something supernatural about it, but for someone to be sprouting wings and defy the laws of gravity… I didn’t see that coming. Especially so soon, even though the dog with wings was pretty much an obvious hint for this. This episode seriously added tons of intrigue to the series, and really: I am SO looking forward to that upcoming movie.

That Mr Outisde… I really don’t know what this guy was thinking. It’s of course one thing to pick out individuals that didn’t turn out to be fit for the task of saving the world, but making a mass murderer a Selecao? What the hell was he smoking?! As it turns out, she cuts off the Johnnies of the hopeless men in society because she has some deep-seeded grudge against males for some sort of reason.

And really, the Saki Running scene really has to be the best animated scene of the season so far. Her movement is really life-like, and for once no corners are cut in a running-scene at all. And I must say that the creators have really succeeded making Saki a part of the storyline, and making her important for Akira even though she has nothing to do with the Selecao. The kidnapped guy didn’t even turn out to be Oosugi, it was just one misunderstanding. Though that does beg the question how the guy got Oosugi’s bag and where the real Oosugi ended up. My guess is that his bag got stolen and he had no way to get back home.

It’s also interesting that Number 11 is really planning to defy the system. What seemed like an absolute truth at first may turn out to be rather vague; either that or she really believes Akira to be the supporter and that made her confident enough to just ditch her cell phone. But really: she knows Number one. If she does, then why didn’t she know that he was the supporter? I mean, if she calls him on a regular basis, she must have expected something, no?

I also wonder, the number 20000 just keeps returning, doesn’t it? With your given budget, you can kill 20000 people, Akira chose 20000 NEETs to send to Dubai, Number 11 has cut off 20000 Johnnies by now. I wonder if it’s another sort of foreshadowing, or whether it’s simply a nice coincidence that the creators wanted to insert.

Rating: *** (Awesome)
Some of the best animation this season, and really an episode where things start coming together.