Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction Archives - Page 157 of 160

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 01

April 29, 2006 by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari

I have no idea why I decided to pick up the raws for this anime. In fact, I have no friggin idea why I decided to pick up a raw in the first place. The only japanese I know is that which I unconciously picked up from two years of anime-watching. I think I’m just going to blame impatience. I’ve been waiting for this show for a while, and still no fansub group decided to pick it up.

Anyway, this is what I managed to understand: we have a girl, named Siurei (I think that’s how you spell it, please correct me if I’m wrong) who works as a grade-school teacher. She also plays a japanese violin-like instrument, I forgot its name for a bit, with which she tries to get a job. She plays horrible, so she isn’t much of a success. Afterwards, she complains to her boyfriend/friend/future boyfriend/servant/brother/whatever (whose name is apparently Seiran) about how she has to live in poverty all the time, that she hates being poor, et cetera.

When the two of them get home, they are visited by a strange old man, who has an offer for Siurei: she has to work for him, in excange for a fairly large amount of money. If I had to take a guess… it would either be five thousand, or five hundred Ryu, as the man holds up five fingers when he says the amount. Siurei is so stunned by this, that she accepts.

There are some catches to this, though. I still haven’t figured out which, but they aren’t pretty. Anyway, once appointed, it seems to me that she aquired quite an important function, as everyone seems to respect her and is in awe of her. A small girl, probably named Kourin, comes to bring her tea. She trips and falls, spilling tea all over her. Siurei comforts her. I guess that we will see this girl more often.

We then switch to two bishounen, one seriously annoying the other, to the point of yelling. Then Siurei comes across them, the three introduce themselves, and she brings them some lunch. Aparently, there’s only one thing that she can make, though she seems to be very good in this. She then takes some kind of book and leaves.

We then switch to Siurei in a small forest of sakura, awed by the beauty of them. She then meets up with another bishounen, and instantly begins to feel something for him. When she asks for his name, he gives a fake one, as it appears to be identical with one of the two bishounen featured earlier. She lets him have some of her lunch, and then she leaves. The screen zooms out, we see a couple of old men talking and the episode ends.

I think that Saiunkoku Monogatari has lots of potential. After all, its total amount of episodes consists of 39, and the first episode already features a lot of progress. I also like the art, it’s one of the cleanest I’ve yet to see, not to mention the great costumes. It doesn’t beat Tales of Phantasia, though. The music also is very fitting, it conists of ancient japanese musical instruments, which play about half of the episode. A bit too little, though, but it could have been done a lot worse.

.Hack//Roots – 03

April 24, 2006 by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots

The episode begins with the members of TaN discussing for a bit, then we switch back to Haseo, who’s busy levelling. These are also the only fights that happen in this episode. It makes me glad to see that this series didn’t focus on the fights after all. Anyway, after killing a bunch of monsters, he walks into three suspicious-looking PC’s, probably after an easy PK. Then we switch to the members of the Twillight Brigade. Shino and Ovan have a little talk with each other, with Ovan being as mysterious as ever.

Back to Haseo, it seems someone has been spreading rumours about him being the legendary Haseo, with superpowers and super-items. The three PC’s from before were begging him to join their party. Haseo tries to flee, but runs into some other guys who heard about him. These, however, are a bunch of PK-ers, only after his money and items. Haseo gets saved by Tawaraya, the big merchant from TaN. Tawaraya, interested in Haseo’s bond with Ovan, is stunned when he founds out that Haseo knows absolutely nothing. He goes back to TaN, and wonders why Ovan was so interested in this kid.

Haseo, meanwhile, gets bothered by Tabby. She’s the only character in the show I have problems with. In combination with other characters, she works pretty well, but her artwork SO does NOT fit with the others. It’s really another art style she’s drawn in. She also was the biggest reason why I feared that .Hack//Roots might be going into the wrong direction. Anyway, she gives Haseo a special card, which makes you able to join a certain guild, in this case, the Twillight Brigade. The two spend a bit of time together, Tabby keeps bothering him, and Haseo decides to lose her the quick and easy way: by logging out.

I’ve noticed before, but now I know for sure: the episodes of .Hack//Roots all start out a bit of mediocre, but as the episode progresses, the scenes become better and better by the minute, and the scenes at the beginning of the episode all get their meaning. The result is awesome, and this episode was no exception. We now get our first taste of supernatural events on the show, and finally it becomes clear why Ovan was so interested in Haseo. For some reason, the screen gets a weird tint, all PC’s and NPC’s disappear, and all Haseo’s able to see is Ovan, who’s walking a distance away from him. Haseo tries to follow him, but the screen turns normal again, and he bumps into Tawaraya. Tawaraya soon understands what happened to him, and finally understands why Ovan was so interested in Haseo. He gives him a special card as well. It also now becomes clear why TaN’s so interested in Ovan. A lot of pieces fall into place this way.

Shino, meanwhile sees where she went wrong, and goes back to Haseo. This time, not to convince him, but just to be with him. That’s what I really liked: two characters, just sitting next to each other, saying just nothing. A lot more anime should attempt this. Haseo leaves, but Shino made a big impression on him. The rest of the episode, we see Haseo thinking about which guild to choose. The result is predictable, but the way the decision is made totally makes up for it. After all, it took Haseo three episodes to make a good decision. Each side was explored, he knew the advantages and disadvantages, and he made a choice. You don’t usually see this in anime either.

Overall, this was another brilliant episode. Haseo’s in the guild now, but I like the way it happened. I wonder what he’ll be doing next.

.Hack//Roots – 02

April 14, 2006 by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots

I really like Haseo. Even though he’s shy, he has a strong character. He doesn’t just hear things and obeys them, but he thinks on his own for a chance. Still, my guess is that he’ll end up in the Twillight Brigade. Probably in the next episode. Anyway, today we see the introduction of another pair of interesting characters. They’re both players who abandoned the Twillight Brigade, because they were just used by Ovan. It’ll be very interesting if these characters make some more appearances in the show, as I kindof liked them. After all, a friendly PK-er and a pessimist are always nice to see.

There isn’t really a good side and a bad side yet. There really are lots of differend sides. I hope it stays this way, as it brings potential for so many conflicts.

An element I found interesting is the fact that nothing out of the ordinary has happened yet. In every other .Hack//anime, the first episode would immediately introduce something supernatural which was happening. In //Sign it was Tsukasa being unable to logout. In //Dusk it was the undefeatable monsters appearing (I hope never to refer back to //Dusk again) and //Liminality had (along with //Sign as well) people getting into a coma. //Roots still has nothing, which makes me curious about what will happen in the next couple of episodes.

Revolutionary Girl Utena Review – 95/100

April 2, 2006 by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Revolutionary Girl Utena

Revolutionary Girl Utena is one of those precious gems you rarely run into. There is just so much going on. The characters are just awesome and overflow with character development. The huge symbolism is overwhelming, and till each of these symbols has some kind of hidden meaning.

The story is about a girl whose parents died when she was young. She kept crying, until a prince was there to comfort her. He gave her a ring with a roze crest on it, and left. The girl was so impressed by this, that she vowed to become a prince herself. This girl is named Utena. Hence the title. When she grows up, she eventually ends up in a very strange high-school. In there, the members of a very eccentric student council fight over a girl called the Roze Bride, or Anthy Himemiya. The one who manages to eventually win her gets the power to revolutionize the world in the end. Utena then ends up winning a duel agains the current holder of the Roze Bride. Afterwards, the members of the student council keep trying to take Himemiya away from her. In order to defend Himemiya, Utena has to keep winning sword duels against them.

This anime is divided into three parts. Each of this parts features a special on Utena, but more importantly, each of the members of the student council. This means three opportunities for each of them to delve deeply into their characters, producing magnificent results. In the first part, Utena’s new, and each of the characters gets introduced, including their stories, resulting in a nice climax. In the second part, the story takes a side-road in order to show a side-story of the show, centered around the boys of the black rose. In there, we get to see the characters who are closest to the members of the student council. It’s their turn to get developed and explained. I like the way this starts out extremely serious, and ends more and more chaotic, also resulting in a very satisfying end battle. In the third part, the goodness really starts. The student council members develop even more deeply than before, resulting in amazing scenes. The battles for the roze bride get more amazing by the minute, until the ending really blows you off your chair.

One of the things I really loved about this anime is the amazing cast of characters, and especially the way they were used. The anime basically only plays in a high-school-ground. So everything and everyone should have close contact with each other. But for every arc, only a few characters are selected and we get so see some very in-depth scenes. The other characters, during these moments, are totally put out of the spotlights. Including even Utena at times. This has a great effect. You really focus on nothing else than the creators want you to, but still you long to see the other characters appear again. This was especially noticable at the end of the series.

There is an aweful lot of repetition in this show. For each episode devoted to the plot, you already know that certain things will happen, including numerous recycled scenes. At first, these scenes may become bothersome, but as the series progresses, the creators manage excecute these repetitions better and better. Here we come to another magnificent point of this series: there may be a lot of repetition. You know that certain scenes and events will be playing. Outside of these scenes and events, however, You absolutely WON’T be able to guess what will happen next. This series always leaves you guessing at those points.

The creators also managed to include an excellent taste of humour in the anime. It doesn’t even need funny faces to be brilliant. It makes brilliant use of the naiveness of the characters, of silly coincidences and characters just acting totally wacky and having brilliant, though insane ideas. I especially loved the Kashira girls, but also Nanami the use of symbols amused me more and more. The Kashira girls are some kind of drama-club, who perform very interesting shadow-plays. They return each episode, and each time their play is about some kind of moral issue debated about in the anime. Each of these plays is just horribly brilliant.

The music is another extremely strong point of this anime. Both in the duels between the characters as in very dramatic scenes, the background music is top-notch, certainly giving even more emotions to the already emotion-packed scenes, turning the fragments into total roller-coaster-rides. The battle choreography is brilliant in the beginning, then slows a bit down in the middle of the show, but then, around episode 25, it turns into some of the best ever. Not in terms of Jubei-Chan-fast-moving, but in the movement of the characters themselves. This is the first anime in which I could actually see the characters giving all they had in defeating the opponent. Other anime try to also create this effect, by making the characters be in pain, or extremely angry. But still, it doesn’t bring the best in them up. Utena, however, manages.

As the series progresses, the episodes get more awesome by the minute. Especially starting from episode 30, the episodes are just incredible to see. The ending episode was also among the best of its kind, which is an extremely good job. I totally loved it. This anime just screams out the word elegance. Starting from the character art, to the way they move, act, speak. Everything is so elegantly executed. This anime has style, and knows how to use it.

Even though the drama is awesome, at times, the show takes its time perhaps a bit too long. Some of the cases are dragging a bit on, even though they provide terrific results. This should be too great of a bother, but still, it might agitate some. Overall, this is just an amazing anime, dated from a couple of years ago. I totally recommend it.

Final rating: 95/100

Revolutionary Girl Utena – 39 (ending)

April 2, 2006 by psgels, posted in Revolutionary Girl Utena

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You see this a lot with good shows: they have awesome pre-ending-episodes, but the ending itself totally sucks.

I am SO GLAD that Revolutionary Girl Utena does NOT belong to this category. I can honestly say that I totally enjoyed the ending of this magnificent anime. The ending would so easily fall in my top-5 of best endings. It was beautiful. Truly beautiful. I’m glad to have seen such an awesome series.

Revolutionary Girl Utena – 38

April 2, 2006 by psgels, posted in Revolutionary Girl Utena

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What the HECK!?!

Okay, that was just a horrible cliffhanger. This really, really was something you DO NOT expect… I mean… Utena will now…. omg.

I’d love to prepare some kind of summary on this episode, but it would just be filled with spoilers. All I can say is, that this was an incredible episode. The duel also was awesome to see. For some reason, Revolutionary Girl Utena always features some incredible battles, and this episode surely was no exception. Certainly with the awesome elegance, even more awesome background music, and even more awesome character development and interaction. Believe me. This episode was NO exception. It also had one of the best cliffhangers EVER.

Revolutionary Girl Utena – 37

April 2, 2006 by psgels, posted in Revolutionary Girl Utena

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The last intermezzo episode before the grande finale starts. This one was mainly meant to get Utena out of her crisis, become more like a prince, and forgive Himemiya. I have to say, that these things worked out pretty well. It’s not the best episode of its kind, however (that credit goes mainly to Mahou Shoujotai), but still, it was enjoying to see. I’m curious about how this will end. The thing I loved most is the fact that Sayonji and Touga are still together. I have no friggin idea why I find the fact of the two of them being together so amazing. Actually, now that I think about it… it scares me a bit…

Revolutionary Girl Utena – 36

April 2, 2006 by psgels, posted in Revolutionary Girl Utena

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WHAT. AN. INCREDIBLE. EPISODE!!!

Oh my god… I knew that this was supposed to be the end of the Touga-arc, but I never could have imagined the awesomeness it contained. First of all, they give a very nice variation to the car-theme, by suddenly showing up in a motorcycle with a side-car. Akio entirely stays out of the picture in this episode, and the only times he gets mentioned are when people talk or think about him. This alone made it into such an incredible episode, but I NEVER could have imagined to actually feel sorry for Touga. Firstly, he ACTUALLY confesses his love for Utena. Then we get to see his reason for duelling her. Really, if I were to see this after episode 10, I would not have believed it. I can hardly believe it even at this time.

Anywya, he and Sayonji make some plans, which actually made me dislike Utena more and more. Especially because of the mistrust she puts in Touga, even after all this. In the end, when the battle began, I actually chose sides for Sayonji and Touga. Which has probably been a first time ever.

Speaking of the devil, eh… battle. It was AWESOME! I so kept hoping for Utena to lose. But then again, after Touga’s reasons were revealed, how couldn’t I? The cars may have been a bit too much this time, especially after being followed up by the motorcycle, but the climax was great. Also the beginning of the battle had me glued to the screen. The elegance of all of the characters only added up to the awesomeness. The aftermath was amazing. I am SO wondering what will become of them in the last couple of episodes. Actually, I’m curious about every single one of the side characters. They all got their place in the spotlight. Only Utena, Akio, Himemiya and the Prince remain to have a conflict. What will the side characters do!?!

And if even this wasn’t enough, the cliffhanger of this episode just blew me off my chair. Okay, it had it coming for a long while, but still… OMG!

Overall, this was probably the best Utena-episode yet. I’m really dying to find out what the last couple of episodes will be about.

Revolutionary Girl Utena – 35

April 2, 2006 by psgels, posted in Revolutionary Girl Utena

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An intermezzo. Still, one heck of an intermezzo. The focus lies mostly on Touga and Utena. The symbols are as existant as ever, the Kashira-girls are awesome again, and what the heck is up with Himemiya!?

Utena’s herself doesn’t have any problems at all. At least, in her opinion she doesn’t. She’s actually moving farther and farther away from her goal. She begins to act more and more like a woman, the opposite thing to do in order to save Himemiya. All because she loves that idiot of an Akio. Dammit! I want Himemiya to be saved!

The awesome part, however, comes from Touga. The next episode will feature the last of the rose-bride duels, with the third duel between Utena and Touga. That won’t be everything, however, as there are still four episodes left. Anyway, this episode, we finally see Touga himself struggle. Sayonji helps him brilliantly in this. I so love it when the two of them are together (except their Yaoi-ness, perhaps…). You can really see that they are good friends. Sayonji is probably the only real friend Touga has. Touga only lives using people as objects. He’s a playboy, and he never really loved anyone. Though, the upcoming battle with Utena sets him to think. I also was exremely surprised at seeing his relationship with Akio. On one side, he wants to be like him. On the other side, I can’t stand the look on his face once he saw Utena and Akio happy together.

Revolutionary Girl Utena – 34

March 5, 2006 by psgels, posted in Revolutionary Girl Utena

OMG. OMG. OMG!

Okay, let’s recap, what do we see in this episode: Utena’s history (OMG), the Shadow-Play girls (apparently their name is the Kashira-girls) actually PERFORMING a 10-minute-long play of goodness (OMG), Himemiya’s history (OMG), the Kashira-girls without the shadow-play (OMG), the largest amount of symbols and metaphors yet to be seen in any other Utena-episode (OMG), a horrible cliffhanger (OMG) and what the hell is wrong with Himemiya!?!!? (OMG)

When I look back at this, I’d have to say that this was an OMG-episode. So many things get revealed, so many things finally make sense. So many new misteries are introduced. This really was one of the best Utena-episodes yet.

Before this episode, I could rather precisely identify the good guys from the bad guys, and vice versa. Well, that also changed after this episode. I can’t possibly tell right now who the bad guy of this show might be, because so many hints are flying in all kinds of different directions.

Okay, five episodes left. I wonder when we’ll get to see the prince in his current form. And what will be the role of his mysterious companion, who only appeared at the recap episode after the first part? In fact, these are just two of so many things I’m wondering about this show.