Category: Finished Series: Comedy

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – 16

by psgels, posted in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

The big danger of this second season is the entire premise of it: the way in which the lead characters have completely forgotten how to be detectives. I mean, it’s original, but this also means that they’ll be pretty much goofing off instead of doing detective stuff. That’s what this episode was about.

Just… nothing happened here. This really was the characters goofing off on and on. They were just randomly fighting with each other, and playing Jenga of all things. For most of the first half of this episode, I thought that the creators perhaps finally lost their inspiration. And then everyone started sleeping.

The dream sequences were just hysterical. Dreams intertwining has been done before of course, but this one did it with such energy that it just immediately became funny. It was also completely absurd when people suddenly started using their Toys in order to manipulate these dreams. My favorite was turning that clock into the giant robot.

Also, near the end of the episode it also became clear that the goofing off is intentional and part of the story. It heavily hinted that this won’t be the status quo for much longer. Why they decided to turn Hercule into a closet pervert, I have no idea though.

Also, regarding the animation: I found out that Seiya Numata, on top of designing the characters, has also been promoted to the chief animation direction for this series. For the first season he only did a few episodes (which really showed by the way), but here his influence is in every single episode. It’s really great to see that after Shion no Ou he finally can show his an animation across an entire series again.

I also love how different these two series look. Shion no Ou had a limited budget and some unconventional animators, and it turned into a series that made extremely good use of this limitation by making every shot count. Milky Holmes instead has a much bigger budget, and therefore focuses more in bringing life to all of the scenes. It’s all very addictive.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – 15

by psgels, posted in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

…

How do they come up with the premises for these episodes?!

Until now, there at least was some sort of semblance of logic of what each episode was about. Despite all the weird things that happened, at least at the core you could get why it was included in the series, and how the creators came up with. Even the previous episodes makes sense when you see it as an episode that tried to parody as much as possible.

This week though, I’m blank. What crazy mind came up with the following: an island, in which a big muscled man wearing a shark hat and riding an octopus commands a bunch of sea otters who keep people prisoner in order to have them harvest sea cucumbers. What? Why?!

Even so, this episode again was utterly hilarious. The entire context was already completely bizarre, but the extreme hyperactive pacing made it even crazier. The sea urchin song in particular was hysterical, but also Henriette’s disguise in this episode was completely priceless. Other highlights include the scene in which everyone got separated and got stuck with a member of the opposing team and the creators actually managed to make all four of the cases hilarious, again with a ton of self-parody as well. The Toys in the first season were the only serious part of the show. Here, they get played completely for laughs. And then there was the ending. That was awesome as well.

And on top of that: what also shouldn’t be overlooked is how great the animation in this series is. I mean, holy crap. Usually comedies tend to use a lot of still frames and simple animation. Here, the animation was just all over the place. It was full of varied poses and there were a lot of visual ideas and expressions put into it. One of the reasons why the comedy works so well is because so much energy has been put into bringing these characters to life.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – 14

by psgels, posted in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

As for the shows I’m not going to blog:
– What’s the point of giving someone such a ridiculously stupid power as having a tennis racquet with only two stings if you don’t even use it?
– Thankfully Recorder and Randsell 02 skipped the bad humour. There is something really annoying about a grown man whining like a little kid, though.

As for Milky Holmes though.. madness like this needs to be documented. I mean, I wasn’t fully looking forward to this series, due to the comedy sequel syndrome. It’s very rare for a comedy sequel to be able to live up to the first season, especially for the good ones. And it’s exactly that that these past two episodes of Milky Holmes have been completely parodying like no other. Because yeah, the first season ended pretty conclusively. These past two episodes were entirely about that series being so well wrapped up that the main cast had no idea what to do, to the point where their enormous appetites just took over and they started a farm of all things.

Another big change was that the first season was at least somewhat grounded in reality. Season 2 had the creators go just all out. It’s even more extreme than before. But what it really causes to descend into madness are the unbelievable things that it pulls out of its ass. It’s all done for the sake of parody, and this show just pokes fun at everything, including itself. This episode in particular: it took quite a few overused tropes and completely pounded them with its stupidity and over the topness. The chase scene in particular was hysterical. When I already thought that the creators couldn’t go even further with the biggest stereotype of an american I’ve ever seen, that beached whale suddenly showed up from out of nowhere. Seriously. A beached whale?!

Some other things that this show poked fun of that surprised me were various American movies like ET and Pirates of the Caribbean. And seriously… that one beach episode of Ao no Exorcist. Seriously, I have no idea why, but that final scene immediately reminded me of that one episode.

The energy of this show… this show is on even more crack than the first season was. And it’s still very funny and enjoyable to watch. Because of that, I’m going to blog this series, because it was by far my favorite comedy of the season, and I really hope that the creators will have enough inspiration to fill 12 episodes. And if they don’t… well, I can always swap this with Ano Natsu or something.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Some Quick First Impressions: Natsume Yuujin-Chou Shi, Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2 and Rinne no Lagrange

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou, Rinne no Lagrange, Some Quick First Impressions, Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

Natsume Yuujin-Chou Shi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character can see youkai.
Usually the best of a season is aired last. This time, it’s completely different when the first three series are the big original series, the best comedy, and what’s likely going to be the best overall series for the next three months. Seriously, I can not imagine the rest of the season to live up to these three shows at all; perhaps only Rinne no Lagrange will get trumped. In any case, this was another very solid story for Natsume Yuujinchou. As opposed to the other seasons, it immediately starts off with an arc. And compared to the other first episodes of the arcs we’ve seen so far, it really holds up. This episode was both heart-warming as tense as a cat and mouse game between Natsume and what looks to be the series’ villain Matoba. Nyanko-sensei was as delightful as ever, the animation was also as rock-solid as usual. Now let’s hope that the series will capture the same heights as the third series.
OP: Very clever little op, completely dedicated to character development. The song could have been better, though.
ED: In the same style as the previous ED, with some nice animation and a gentle song.
Potential: 95%

Tantai Opera Milky Holmes 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a detective. Or at least she’s supposed to be one.
Oh my god. What the hell did I just watch here? You see, comedy sequels are very hard to do. Most of the times, the sequel is the point where the jokes get stale, overused, and there the creators get too scared to deviate from the formula that made the first season successful. Milky Holmes does not have that problem. Oh no. This episode was actually different from the first season. The creators definitely went into a slightly different direction. I mean, the first season wrapped up pretty conclusively, so the creators had to go for something different. I did not expect that “something different” to mean complete madness. Seriously, this show has turned into an extreme self-parody. This entire episode made the entire first season look completely ridiculous. This only was the first episode of the year, but already I cannot imagine any other show this year to have a DUMBER cast than this here. It was crazy beyond belief. And it was utterly hilarious. Also, what the heck is Artland doing here?
OP: Really, really bad.
ED: Really, really bad.
Potential: 90%

Rinne no Lagrange

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to pilot a mecha.
Happy new year, everyone! And so the Winter Season of 2012 starts, and it already does so with the original production of the season. Because of this, it was one of my most anticipated non-sequels for the upcoming start of the new season, despite the obvious problems. The obvious problems here are the fanservice, and indeed this episode had quite a bit of the pointless variation, from some of the outfits to the lead character running around in a swimsuit. Overall though, it definitely has promise, and in particular the direction of this episode was good. This show knows how to deliver tense mecha-battles, and the acting too is quite well delivered. Madoka as a lead character so far has her pluses and minuses. I like how she is a strong female character who is confident and gets along quite easy with others. On the other hand though, the creators also made her just too perfect: she excels at everything, whether it’s kendo, acting, sports or anything else it seems, and she manages to pilot the big mecha of the show like it’s nothing. The creators had better provide an explanation of why 1) she’s able to do that, and 2) she somehow is the only one who is fit to pilot an alien craft.
OP: Quite a standard set for the visuals for the rest of the year. The song is generic, but the use of colours and textures is excellent here.
ED: Dull song, but neat visual ideas.
Potential: 75%

Shinryaku!? Ika-Musume Review – 70/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Shinryaku! Ika Musume

The big disadvantage of having a successful comedy is that people want to make sequels of it. It sold well, so hey: why not try milking it out some more? What/ You mean to say that the first season already exhausted all of the possible jokes that could have been made? Who cares! People will buy it!

So yeah,Squid Girl 2 is much of the same. And in this case, this is a bad thing, because “much of the same” in a comedy pretty much means that the entire second season is derivative. There is no reason for it to really exist. This season doesn’t really advance the show or characters aside from perhaps a few minor details here and there that you could have made an OVA out of. And for the rest of the time this show spends repeating some of the jokes and scenarios of the first season.

It becomes clear very early on that the creators are struggling to find new material to fill 12 episodes. The creators at least try to squeeze some new jokes out of things, but this series never really introduces new characters, so its only option is to try some variations of some of the jokes we’ve seen so far. The result is that there are a few characters who just keep returning. In particular the crazy scientists are guilty of this: their crazy inventions are really often used to create random wacky situations for Squid girl to be in. Also milked to death are Chizuru, and worst of all: the crazy stalker. The stalker was completely horrible in the way that just REFUSED. TO BLOODY. GIVE UP. She tries to glomp Squid Girl more than five times every single episode, for god’s sake!

Thankfully the creators realized that there was no way for them to remain funny for 12 more episodes, so at least they tried to shift their focus a bit: they at leas try to make sure that the ending of each story comes with an original twist. For this, I can at least say that they’re hit and miss: sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. But at least they’re not as derivative as the rest of the series.

But seriously though: there is no real reason to watch this; over these entire 12 episodes, there was only one sketch that I considered to be genuinely funny. That’s way too little. Ideally if you’re interested in this series: watch till episode 11 of the first season. That’s all you really need, because this series has the really weird tradition of suddenly turning to a serious story for the final episode. And yes, this second season has this too. And yes, it’s baaaaaaad….

Storytelling: 7/10 – Repeated jokes and scenarios from the first season that while mildly funny, are not enough to sustain interest.
Characters: 6/10 – Only a few details are really added to the characters. That’s not good here, and it’s a good thing that the characters still have a bit of their natural charms left.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Still solid, but the animation too has gone downhill.
Setting: 7/10 – This show is completely derivative. Again nothing is added here.

Suggestions:
– Mitsodomoe
– Tentai Senshi Sunred
– Demashitaa! Power Puff Z

Ben-To Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Ben-To



To say that the moe genre nowadays is overcrowded is an understatement. I’m sure my bias against this genre wouldn’t be as bad if it wasn’t just so bloody everywhere, and I don’t even like most of them, and the comedies in this genre are no different. The exceptions for me are the ones who really put in effort. Not the ones who get lucky on one episode and then keep screwing up afterwards. No, the ones who try to be genuinely entertaining, week after week. Ben-To understood this.

This show just pushes the boundaries in the genre of the fanservice comedy. Gone is the copy and paste formula: this show just takes a crazy formula and goes to town with it: people fighting over half-priced lunches. There is a lot of neat stuff you can do with that, and this show realized that.

And the setting isn’t the only thing that the creators spent attention at. The animation and action are really meant to be as fun as possible. The soundtrack is actually the single best soundtrack of the past season in how over the top it is. The action scenes are excellent because of this. Every single one of them is really fun to watch.

And on top of that, this also is a very well told series. The build-up in this series is actually very good: it knows exactly how to lead its atmosphere into the food battles with a slow and subtle parts to increase the tension. The acting also is far from the usual you see in moe shows. Sure, it’s incredibly over the top like it should be, but at the same time the actors also know when to show restraint. The characters in this series are because of this much more colourful than usual.

Overall the story in this series also keeps it nice and tight, and both major arcs in this show are interesting enough to keep up with this series. It’s unfortunately not the most consistent series, and there are a few parts here and there that go off track. Especially in the second half the fanservice suddenly goes out of control at times, which leads to shows that are just too forced because of this. Thankfully this doesn’t involve the final episodes, so this show can still close off with a bang, but still. The fanservice in this series usually is subtle (especially for Yarizui), however at others the creators go completely overboard on the penis jokes. Thankfully these scenes are a minority, rather than the majority.

Ben-To and Dororon Enma-Kun. If you want to watch fanservice series that are actually entertaining, rather than completely lazy in terms of storytelling, these are the two shows I recommend above all others with on a third place Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. Especially the first two though: these two realize that pushing boundaries doesn’t mean trying to out-gross each other, but to try out new things in terms of storytelling and scenarios.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Really knows how to be entertaining. Great build-up, really fun food battles.
Characters: 8/10 – Nothing amazing, but this show still has some really solid characters that are surprisingly well acted at times.
Production-Values: 9/10 – This has the best soundtrack of the season, and while the visuals are inconsistent, they do know how to animate a good action scene with restrictions.
Setting: 8/10 – Thank you for being a moe show with an actual inspired premise.

Suggestions:
– Dororon Enma-Kun Meerameera
– Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt
– Hyakko

Ben-To – 12

by psgels, posted in Ben-To

Okay, so I had an entire post written up, only to accidentally delete it. *headdesk*

In any case, this was a wonderful way to end this series. This really was entertainment. The ultimate bad guy turned out to be much better than I expected. He’s not just this guy who is ridiculously strong and beat Orthros three years ago. With daily fights over food, that would be a bit against the point of this series. Instead, his psychological attacks were wonderful. Especially with his own theme song, the way he stepped on their pride was a very nice idea here. Sato also proved that he’s worth it as a main character when he actually used the same tactic as the villain of the first arc. Everything came together really well. It’s unfortunate that Yarizui wasn’t involved, but heck; she was sick. Finally someone’s being responsible here.

Overall, Kore wa Zombie Desu ka nearly killed my faith in an entire genre last winter. At that point, I was really consented with the idea that unfortunately, for a few great episode, we’d have to sit through hours of the creators not even trying to be entertaining. Thankfully, the rest of the year proved me wrong though.

I’ll just say it: Ben-To and Dororon Enma-kun were the best fanservice comedies I have ever seen. Ben-To may not have been the best show this season, but it did push the boundaries within its own overcrowded genre, and set the standards of it higher. I count that as a job well done for David Production. Let’s hope that they can do the same for Inu X Boku.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ben-To – 11

by psgels, posted in Ben-To

This episode ha lot of very good parts, and a few parts I didn’t like about it. As for the good parts though: finally Orthros are getting some good characterization, which is really great to see. With this, they actually pose much more of a threat than what they were when we first saw them. Especially the way in which they were inspired to become wolves was just completely hilarious. That actually was a very clever parody to the usual motivation tropes.

Also, Yarizui was really good here. First of all: so far this was the most realistic depiction of a cold I’ve seen in a long while: the creators actually remembered that heavy breathing are completely different symptoms, and finally someone doesn’t just realize they have a cold when they collapse. On top of that, her characterization was just damn awesome. And while this show is completely over the top in terms of fanservice at times, the creators have been very consistent with Yarizui’s fanservice: here it actually feels very natural. She’s not parading naked all over the place, but instead you can see why Sato is getting attracted to her through the camera angles. Which for one don’t just focus on her boobs or ass.

The part that I didn’t like is the classic example of fleshing out the main villain… by inserting an even bigger villain. Of course, this makes sure that the villains are fleshed out. That’s not the problem. The problem is that this bigger villain is very often a complete stereotype and powerhouse that can only go down in the usual ways. The characterization of these guys is very often below average because they’re all introduced so damn late.

Also, again there were no food battles here. I think that this has to do with expectation management, though this is very difficult to do. The creators are definitely going for the “climax”-climax, in which they carefully build up tension, only to release all of that at the same time for the final episode. This can become awesome, if they actually manage to pull it off. I remember last year, with Sengoku Basara Two as an example of how this can backfire on a series. There too the creators put everything on the final battle, and actually had a ton of different animation directors working on the final episode. And yet, the production took shortcuts, fights were skipped, the action didn’t really come together, and things ended with a bit of a downer. Episodes like these really need someone who knows how to make these over the top battles work. This needs to be the crowning moment of awesome for this series.

Also, the joke after the credits. How wrong can you get?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ben-To – 10

by psgels, posted in Ben-To

After two weeks of no food battles, getting to see another one does make it extra sweet. Especially when the creators still haven’t lost it at all, and the battle in this episode was excellent as usual with very creative fights that had some really terrific direction, including a camera that just wouldn’t sit still and a good use of the supermarket as a setting.

I think I get what the creators were trying to build up on here: the two twins are supposed to be the main villains of this series, and instead of immediately showing their strength they just built up their characters through different ways, before heading to this episode. The big problem with this is that they were really annoying characters before the fight happened. The good thing is that this fight indeed served its purpose, and I like them a lot more now.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ben-To – 09

by psgels, posted in Ben-To



You know, I really want to hate this episode for having so much episode and main character abuse. But it was done so well. It’s been a while since I laughed at an episode as much as with this one. laughed, and the direction was amongst the best of the series so far.

And don’t get me wrong: if the creators would have just regularly animated this episode like how most moe shows do it, it would have been absolutely horrible. The direction really made this episode. This ranges from interesting camera angles, the way in which the first half show the same events at different angles, and the incredible force with which they showed Ume here. Both as this obsessive stalker as tour de force.

The part before the OP was also utterly hilarious. Finally! A version of the “terrible cook”-trope that isn’t derived! Instead of just having a character screw up majorly when scrambling an egg, or just throwing in random stuff that makes no sense, this dish here was so bizarre with its flavors that it finally brought some new life in a horse that I once thought was dead.

Seriously though, with Basquash, I already noticed that Shin Itagaki was a special kind of director, who really had a knack for making things unbelievably fun, despite seeming juvenile at first. With Basquash, he lost his touch after about 6 episodes, until being fired from the show completely, but here we’re at episode 9 and you can still see his influence on making the scenes have impact and doing the manga source material really justice. He’s still rather inconsistent, as evidenced by last week, but still: I notice a definite improvement and maturation in his style, and I look forward to seeing more of him.

My one complaint is that we haven’t seen food battles in two episodes now. What the hell?
Rating: *** (Awesome)