Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet – 04

by psgels, posted in Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet

I made a really big mistake when first judging this series by its trailer: I thought that the characters looked really generic. In the end that turned out to be the big strength of this series. The thing with the character here is that they don’t try to force their quirks onto the viewer. Because of that they seem plain at first, but this show managed to flesh them out quite well here. You can see that all characters are based on some kind of idea, but when you look at them, they are more than just that idea. The ones who received attention, anyway.

I really liked this episode, which was all about exploring the cultural differences. On one hand there is Led with his military training and education, and on the other there is the social community on the Gargantia. I really liked how much inefficiencies Ledo saw in the way everyone operated (even though he too had trouble fitting in at times). The development of him fitting in is slow, but he’s constantly changing so far. I also really like how he’s beginning to pick up the language.

Also, yay for continuity. A hole in a roof stays broken until it gets fixed. And it doesn’t just get magically fixed, it takes resources that come from somewhere. That’s what I’m looking for: those kinds of details. It’s a shame that this show only has 12 episodes to flesh out its setting, because the creators are on their way, digging for gold, though the question is whether they’ll reach it in time.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet – 03

by psgels, posted in Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet

This show… it feels like a bit of a combination between Ghibli and Last Exile. But things like the pirates (especially that pirate queen), the atmosphere, the sense of adventure. You can really see that this show takes a lot of cues from them, while at the same time using Leda to create its own identity.

This episode built up some very good suspense of disbelief with how it dealt about the deaths of those pirates last episode. It really put emphasis that that would have some very dire consequences, and that they’re basically at war with the pirates now. The rest of this episode took care of that quickly, but still it serves as a good build-up here. I doubt that that was the last that we’ve seen of them.

The thing right now is that that one robot is pretty much a godmode-button. Normally in storytelling this completely takes away all tension. And this will also go for this season, unless the creators do something with it. That brings us back to Urobuchi Gen, who obviously took that into account. The question now is: what will he do with it? Will he now focus on problems that can’t be solved with brute strength? Will he remain all-powerful, but will this turn into an exploration of the complications that this brings with it? Or will it pull in more people of Led’s kind, throwing the people of the Gargantia in the middle of a conflict that’s way above their heads?
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Gargantia on the Vendurous Planet – 02

by psgels, posted in Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet

Suisei no Gargantia, pretty much the best mecha series of the season. What I like best so far is how it’s more than just mecha: it’s just a story that has a mecha in it, it has a bit of gunplay in it, it has a bit of post apocalypse. It’s very varied and fleshed out. compare that to Majestic Prince, which feels very monotone, or Valvrave that just puts the tried and true school formula in a place where it doesn’t belong. Plus it’s the only show that can actually take itself seriously. That’s also a plus. I mean I like comedy as well and all, but comedy that feels out of place does more harm than good for me.

Not to say that this series is perfect though. The characters strangely remain teenagers, and the lead female in particular needs to be fleshed out more (though granted, she got a lot more tolerable in this second episode), and the same goes for the rest of the cast: aside from the male lead none really stands out so far, so the creators need to develop them somehow. Make them interesting.

What I liked about this show is that you can see that it’s going to escalate. That was quite cleverly done, in the way that those pirates were obliterated so easily without effort. It’s just the build-up to something much bigger and much worse, something that Urobuchi Gen tends to be good at. Though I’m not expecting a gore-fest, I am expecting that things will escalate somehow. It’s up to him to find a good way.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

From the New World Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, From the New World



Shin Sekai Yori, or From the New World, is a series that set out with a mission. Nowadays most anime adhere to their set of stropes. This is one of those shows that just said “screw conventions!” and it just went with an execution that just took so many different risks, taking almost nothing for granted, and ended up as quite a unique experience because of it.

Where most series that are based on something are based to a manga, visual novel, or things like that, with From the New World they actually set out to adapt an actual novel again, and it shows because the pacing is totally different from any other anime out there, including multiple timeskips that see the main characters grow up from small children to full grown adults. The story… makes use of this really well…

It’s hard to really talk about the story without spoiling, but let’s just say that you should not think that even though there are kids in this series, it’s kid-friendly. Shin Sekai Yori is DARK. It uses a lot of build-up to get to where it’s going, but when it’s there it makes one hell of an impact. It has created this unique setting for itself, and it takes a while to set everything up, but that also makes this series quite varied in its mood. The setting has got a lot of depth to it, and the creators actually managed to pull a ton of potential out of it.

The downside to this series is that it is not the easiest to watch, by far. Some episodes have animation that takes quite a few… “artistic liberties”. On one hand this had some of the best animation of the past half year in any TV-series. It can be absolutely gorgeous when it wants to. For a few shots each episodes. The rest of the airtime is full of inconsistent character-designs, weird camrea angles and jerky direction that makes it really hard to figure out what’s going on. It’s not bad or anything, but this will get jarring on some people.

It’s definitely not a show for everyone. Let alone the dark parts, this is a show for people who are looking for something experimental. A show that isn’t afraid to trip itself up over and over for its vision. And believe me: the vision that this series has is amazing.
One-Sentence Review: Taking a unique setting, along with a “screw conventions!”-mentality, Shin Sekai Yori delivers a storyline with a ton of depth to it for those with an open mind.
Suggestions:
– Bokura no
– Casshern Sins
– Strange Dawn

From the New World – 25

by psgels, posted in From the New World

So after Psycho Pass I figured that I had already seen the best ending of the season. Tempest and From the New World did have a small chance in being able to match it, but not much, or so I thought.

Shin Sekai Yori just delivered the best ending I have seen since finishing Monster. That just was phenomenal, and it’s really been a while since a series managed to drive me as speechless as in this episode. I really thought that the show was over after Squealer was captured and Maria and Mamoru’s child was killed. But this episode really made its impact when it started with Squealer’s trial. And even the fight itself was pretty damn awesome due to the incredibly fluid animation that they showed there.

The way in which this episode exposed the humans for what they did. It was brilliant. There was all this talk about humans, and being human. And then it turns out that even the main characters just helped slaughter what once were basically just humans. Squealer was an excellent villain, and the ending he got makes it all the more sad, despite the things that he did. This show really knows how to hit hard with its gore.

Shin Sekai Yori was awesome. A-1 Pictures took a huge gamble with it, and it worked! It’s one of the most unique series of the past year. And yeah, there were some parts in which the animation was really wonky, but damn: it just did not care about conventions at all. Those are the series that I really like. I applaud you for it.
Rating: 7/8 (Fantastic)

Robotics;Notes Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Robotics;Notes



After the complete disaster that was Guilty Crown last year, Production IG had to make up for something. They did so with Psycho Pass, that really was one hell of a ride. As for their other 2-cour Noitamina-series this half year, Robotics;Notes… it’s a bit more difficult. And don’t get me wrong: this is in no way as bad as Guilty Crown. It’s much better, but also very difficult to judge. This series is really ambitious… it just doesn’t work.

I actually liked Robotics;Notes in its first half. It had this ambition, yet at the same time it spent a lot of time fleshing out its characters and focusing on believability. It might sound weird to see this from a series that has a large robot on its promotional material, but that’s the point: one of the subplots in this series offers a bit of a deconstruction of Giant Robot building as it takes a look some of the issues of teenagers piloting these things that most other series tend to ignore.

Then there is a subplot about solar storms, a subplot about miniature robot fighting, a subplot about an evil conspiracy, and that list goes on and on. This is what I mean by the ambition: in the first half this show balances all of these subplots together that at first sight don’t seem to have anything to do with each other. This build-up for me was the best part of this series, and it’s always a question of what this show will focus on next… in its first half.

And then its second half comes, and it’s supposed to weave all of these subplots together… and it kinda fails. A lot. In many ways. There are some things that you’d think are related to each other, which actually totally aren’t, and the ones that are related to each other are brought together in such a shoehorned way that it breaks all suspense of disbelief that it has previously built up.

The show basically tries to run through a checklist of all stories that it needs to wrap up, without any care of making them flow into each other. Because of this entire subplots are conveniently forgotten until they are relevant again without much reason. But granted, the stories that it try to tell have some good concepts and ideas behind them. the character-development also works well enough and it has still enough to make it worth watching. And then the finale comes. I have no idea what happened, but things totally go wrong. All of the build-up just gets thrown out of the window and the show turns into a cheesy mess of plot devices. Talk about a let-down.

So yeah, solid show. Bad ending. That makes it really hard for me to recommend this series, because this series doesn’t just have a bad ending, it’s got a bad ending that invalidates much of the earlier build-up. Watch this if you want a different take on Super Robots. But then again, there are enough shows that also do that.
One-Sentence Review: Robotics;Notes is a very ambitious series that juggles around all sorts of stuff, which works well in terms of build-up, but not in terms of pay-off.
Suggestions:
– Bokura no
– Birdy the Mighty Decode
– Dennou Coil

Robotics;Notes – 22

by psgels, posted in Robotics;Notes

Well, there you have it. The ending of Robotics;Notes. Did they seriously just do that?

I really dislike these types of endings. I was hoping that they would at least put the focus on the robot battles and all, but that just came second place. No, at the first place in this episodes were the attempts to talk the big evil monster to death. This is exactly why I dislike brainwashing: you take away all free will, and it’s just vague enough to conveniently stop working at right the exact moment. After all that build-up, this sure was a big let-down.

What did the creators really want to show with this series? What was all of the build-up with the realistic looking robots good for? Why did Kimishima Kou really want to wipe out the entire earth and what kind of point would that have made for the story? I think that airing this series aside Psycho Pass was also a bad idea, because of how well that series wrapped itself up. Here we have a solid build-up that eventually just ignores everything and goes to end with a cheesy robot battle… yeah. I did not like this at all.

Judging this one is going to be hard, because by far the worst part of this series is its finale. But yeah, I keep saying that endings are really important for a reason. Perhaps not in the sense of storytelling, but they are the last thing you remember when you think back to a series. Now, when I think back to Robotics;Notes, I will think back to that cheesy ending more than the other parts. It hurts even more that in the end, it never really used its best parts to their full potential (the mecha deconstruction and all).
Rating: 2.5/8 (Lacking)

Psycho Pass Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Psycho Pass



Psycho Pass belongs in the category of series that base themselves on a futuristic world that center around a basic premise. Take for example Kaiba, in which people’s minds can be extracted from their bodies, Real Drive, with its evolution of the Internet or Himitsu, where people can download the memories of dead people. In Psycho Pass, it’s all about creating the perfect society without crime. Everyone is monitored and has their own “Psycho Pass”, and as soon as your mind starts to think criminal thoughts, you’re arrested. With that as a building block, it makes its story.

The story is set to explore this setting. I won’t spoil exactly how, but I will say that over its course, it shows many different opinions about this setting. And it doesn’t just try to answer whether the setting is wrong or right, but it goes more in-depth. Every character has some good or bad points to make, and every one of those points is open to interpretations. It’s a show that aims to make you think, and even the things it just spells out for you have a lot of depth behind them. This goes on for 22 episodes and I have to say that after Guilty Crown, this has really shown how a 2-cours Noitamina series should be done.

Especially at the end of the series everything comes together, and the build-up for the story really pays off. At the beginning of the series though, this series loses some points for focusing on the same things for a bit too long. The big problem is that it focuses too much on one particular aspect of the setting, so that it has to rush to get everything else in in its second half. It manages to do this somehow, but the transition could have gone smoother.

On the technical terms, Production IG delivered some really good choreography and camera angles that really make their impact when they need to. The soundtrack for this series also is really good, and it doesn’t just have one style. It just makes use of whatever track it thinks fits the best to the scene, whether this is classical music or techno. Oh, and that’s another thing that this series loves to do: quote some famous literary works. Call it pretentious. I call it interesting if it contributes to the story. Which to me, it did.

The characters in this series are perhaps not its most memorable parts, but even they have something to write home about. It’s got an excellent villain in the form of Makishima Shougo, who for once actually has some good and interesting motivation to back himself up. Akane also might seem out of place when you first see her, but she really shines in her character-development. The rest of the side-characters also manage to have their impact, even though this series does not have the “Let’s devote all our time to the backstory of this side-character”-episodes. Instead their depth is subtly woven into the story. If you like serious series and believe that anime is too cute nowadays, then this is one series that you shouldn’t pass up.

Note: I’m going to experiment a bit more with this review format, simply because of making the Storytelling, characters, production-values, setting”-list got a bit too annoying to write down every time.
One-sentence Review: Psycho Pass explores its unique sci-fi setting really well with thought-provoking dialogue, characters and a great plot, and mostly keeps true to its promise that there would be no moe included.
Suggestions:
– Kaiba
– Himitsu The Revelation
– RD Sennou Chousashitsu

Psycho Pass – 22

by psgels, posted in Psycho Pass

Now that actually was an incredibly solid ending. I think that I could not have hoped better from this series, because it formed a terrific closure here. My memory is not good enough to remember whether or not it answered every question or not, but it did succeed in wrapping itself up in many different ways.

It really dawned here to me this episode: this series doesn’t really claim to be right with any of its characters. All it does is present a lot of different viewpoints on its setting, every one of whoch has some good points about it. This episode was meant as a chance for everyone to give his or her conclusion to what they have been preaching throughout the series. I really liked that idea to base your ending on this, and everyone actually the opportunity to make their final point in the debate without simply reiterating themselves.

The personal conflict between Shinya, Makishima and Akane also got a great conclusion, also helped by some great cinematics. The soundtrack was as sharp as it has ever been, and fields of grain made for quite an atmospheric setting for Makishima to die. Shinya managed to kill him in the end. Or at least, I hope he did. The only thing I did not like about this episode was that sequel hook at the end. That was a bit of a cop-out.

But the actual end of the episode. I thought that that was pretty brilliant: ending with the same way that the series has started. a

Overall, Psycho Pass was a really big success. Sharp from start to finish, and consistently interesting to watch. And I have to say: the past year for Noitamina has been its best since 2010. Apollon, Natsuyuki Rendezvous and Psycho Pass were all delights to watch, Tsuritama was really fun, and even the lesser shows of Moyashimon and Robotics Notes had enough to write home about. Let’s hope that it will be back in full force after its hiatus!
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Robotics;Notes – 21

by psgels, posted in Robotics;Notes

Robotics;Notes’ penultimate episode. Its main point was a romantic confession. Why?

I think that that symbolizes my big problem with this series. And don’t get me wrong, I like its ambition. You can really see that this series set out with a mission. It wanted to do so many things, and for that, I give it credit. It just didn’t really work out. I personally really like series in which everything comes together. The more ambitious the better. Robotics;Notes started out with a ton of different side plots and topics. But I see no link between most of them. They all just feel hacked together without much glue, as if they’re about to fall apart at any minute. The confession in this episode: what was the point? Why did it have to take up such an important part right near the end? It established nothing for the rest of the series. The main characters are a couple now, but how much did that change, really?

Also, with this it’s established that the final episode will be a big robot battle. It’s here where some subplots do come together, but if I have to be honest… it does feel rather flimsy here. Like, the creators tried way too hard to set everything up like that. Everything is build up and all, but it feels like some things were done only to get to this particular conclusion. The problem is that it’s not really an interesting one: it just screams been there done that. Was it really worth that build-up? Compare this to Steins;Gate, which meticulously set up ever single one of its plot twists as it went along.

That’s the key of storytelling: balance. There is not one formula to determine what works. You can do things right and wrong, but in the end it all depends on the harmony between all its different elements, and the soft spot is different for everyone. Robotics;Notes got a lot of points for its ambition and realism, but really lost a lot of them in the plot of its second half.
Rating: 3.5/8 (Mediocre)