Category: Finished Series: Horror

Shiki – 14

by psgels, posted in Shiki



Holy crap! This episode was unbelievable. It was quite possibly the best episode that Shiki has shown us so far, but dear God was it morbid and depressing.

For the most part, this episode continued the trend that the previous episodes had set up: the vampires are having their way, and get more and more powerful as they go along. We learn what happened to Masao: in the end he was just too chicken to kill a human, but strangely enough he was kept alive. We also learn another reason why the vampires chose a small village as their base: its cemetery, in order to ensure that as little people as possible get cremated. Oh, and unfortunately it seems like finally the Awesome Beard Guy’s family is going to be on the list of next victims, along with one of the nurses of the infirmary: Yuki.

But Toshio… the things he does in this episode… at first I thought that his eyes meant that just like Natsuno, he gave up, and collapsed under the stress. But to keep the corpse of his wife hidden, only to brutally experiment on her and kill her afterwards in order to find out the secret of the Shiki, it was just creepy beyond belief. Especially in the way that she actually kept screaming and pleading. Heck, we know that she may have been in a state of confusion when she woke up, but to wake up, only to find your husband trying to destroy your brains…. It’s just completely disturbing, but I loved how well this episode built everything up.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Shiki – 13

by psgels, posted in Shiki



Finally, this should put an end to the constant hiatuses of this series. But damn, what a depressing episode to start off with here.I mean, I know that this is a morbid series and all, but there was absolutely no bright side to this episode at all. All of Shiki’s episodes so far have shown someone struggling against those vampires, but this was just a one-sided slaughter.

The vampires just picked apart some of the few people who still were alive, and nobody really did anything to stop them: Natsuno dies, Toshio’s sister dies, Natsuno’s father gets bitten, Natsuno’s mother leaves the village (aka, she’s already dead), Kaori’s father is meanwhile bitten and Nao’s father also is going to bite the dust. This episode was just completely desperate, even Toshio didn’t do anything due to the refusal of all of the victims to stay at his clinic, which now can be accessible to vampires anyway because of Tatsumi.

And this doesn’t even seem to be the turning point. My guess is that it’ll take one or two episodes before Natsuno wakes up again. My guess is that that’s going to be the point at which he can really fight back the vampires, but what will happen until then? Could Seishin finally end up doing something? I mean, out of all of the major characters, he has by far been the most passive, not really doing anything.
Rating: * (Good)

Shiki – 12

by psgels, posted in Shiki



It’s taken three weeks, but it’s worth the wait. This episode was mostly one that was delaying the inevitable, but it did so really well, with the same atmosphere that made the first half so good.

The focus surprisingly fell on Kaori and Akira, especially in the second half, since Natsuno was too busy dying and his father was being an asshole. Still, I thought that Natsuno might have tried to escape the Shiki, but to me that seems like it’s going to be Toshio and Seishin’s role. Throughout this episode, Natsuno focused more and more on getting Tooru back, and in the end he seemed to have just accepted that he’s going to be a vampire. Speaking of which… what the heck happened to Masao?

But those vampires are really shrewd: they systematically aim to disable parts of the village, they take over the entire village council, so nothing will go outside the village, they try to stop anyone who tries to go to Toshi’s house, and they’re really thinking of exterminating the entire village.

On a side-note: is the manga actually finished at this point? If not, then we’re having a potential pitfall here, because this is just one of those stories that would suck if it were cut off in the middle (pun not intended). Of course, the novel has an ending, and I really hope that the creators manage to blend in this ending well enough with the manga’s storyline. That really seems much more complicated than simply adapting a straight-forward manga story.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
OP: Better visuals, but the song isn’t as good as the first.
ED: This one’s really good, though: haunting soundtrack, beautiful visuals. Much better than the first ED.

Rainbow Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Rainbow



Madhouse is at its best when it’s dealing with mature series, boasting a refined execution and storytelling. Rainbow is not that. It’s bloody intense to the point of melodrama, and it wants everyone to know about it as it tells about a group of youths as they spend time in prison.

And it’s indeed easy to look at Rainbow and get annoyed by its cheese and melodrama. Storytelling is a balance between trying to tug your emotions, and showing restraint. Rainbow instead just attempts to show the intense suffering in prisons with as much drama as possible by either being overly dramatic, overly sappy or overly cheesy. Having said that though, this show does pack an excellent plot and the characters are more than charming and developed enough to make up for it.

Because as overdramatic as they are, the heavy scenes in this series make one hell of an impact. This series shies away from nothing to prove its point, and this can be seen as early as episode two. As overblown as some of the scenes are, prisons in the years following the second world war were a pure hell, and the creators really succeeded in getting this effect. One guard in particular is just a complete and over the top nutcase that is both easy to hate and love, especially as this guy develops.

Speaking of development: the biggest reason why this series is so memorable is because of the huge amount of time it spends on showing the characters growing up. The entire second half takes place a year after the lead characters leave prison, and try to pick up their lives again. We get to see their troubles fitting into society, chasing after their dreams, and dealing with the pasts they grew up in. Whereas the first half of the series is dark, depressing and hopeless, the second half is bright, heart-warming and hopeful. Throughout both, the themes of friendship remain a red thread throughout the entire series, and together the two halves, as different as they may be, form an excellent whole, leaving behind a very well developed cast.

Whether or not you’ll be able to enjoy this series depends entirely on how you’ll be able to stomach the overly sappy and dramatic nature of this series. Especially psycho guard (as I’d like to call him anyway) will be… hard to swallow at times. It’s never going to be a masterpiece, and Madhouse has certainly done much better in the past. Nevertheless, for those who don’t mind there is a lovable and heart-warming cast, well thought out and planned plot and a great soundtrack.

Storytelling: 8/10 – The plot itself is really excellent: perfectly paced, makes optimal use of its 26 episodes, throws in plenty of twists and turns. It’s just the delivery that will tug your suspense of disbelief with how over the top it is.
Characters: 9/10 – Wonderfully developed, each character has his own strengths and flaws.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Average for Madhouse standards. Lots of still frames that do look quite pretty at times. The soundtrack is excellent, though.
Setting: 9/10 – A very interesting twist on “old versus young”, this series shines in portraying the lead characters’ attempts to fit into society, and the darker sides of the period after the second world war.

Suggestions:
– Death Note
– Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji
– Red Garden

Rainbow – 26

by psgels, posted in Rainbow



Aww. What a heart-warming way to close off this series and the past half year of anime. Really, the creators resisted the urge to force in some last-minute overly ambitious climax, and instead chose a wonderful little story that brings perfect closure to this series. In one way it’s a bit of a shame that Heitai didn’t get the time to show off his arc, but Mario undergoing surgery in order to go back to boxing, it fits exactly with the sappy nature of the series, and at the same time it was the perfect excuse to bring the focus back to An-chan. And we actually got to meet his mother, that was a very pleasant surprise!

The thirty percent success of the surgery of course did not matter in terms of plot: the surgery would be successful. The creators indeed wisely decided not to create any fake tension by dragging out the surgery scene. Mario just enters the surgery room, and then we cut to a boxing match. That’s not rushed, that’s perfectly paced, and I love the guts of the creators to actually do that. Instead, the thirty percent was mostly meant to show Mario’s resolve to continue with An-chan’s dreams: even if it would have been one percent, he would have gone with that chance if it meant a chance to continue An-chan’s dreams.

Overall, yes the second half of this series was sappy. But at the same time it was just incredibly heart-warming. It’s in the same way that the first half was melodramatic, yet incredibly intense. It’s the combination of the two that really made this series memorable, though. The direction for this series is flawed, but by god, the story is so well rounded that it perfectly makes up for this.

This show really got me thinking on how to evaluate first impressions, because I nearly didn’t blog this show… in favor of Kaichou wa Maid Sama (yeah). After the first episode, I remember not seeing any future in this series because of the hopeless overacting of this series. That overacting of this series was indeed the reason why this show never had the chance to become a masterpiece, but in the end it brought enough to the table to make up for this. That’s something I’ve got to remember when doing the upcoming first impressions of the new Autumn Season.

I can blog seven new series, and yet there are ten shows that I’m really interested in covering. There’s only one show that I’m guaranteed to blog (Letter Bee), plus the series that you’re going to force me to blog (only two days left on that one, by the way!), leaving me to choose five series out of eight potentially very interesting ones, which makes choosing the ones that will be the most fun to blog, rather than failing to see potential between flaws.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Rainbow – 25

by psgels, posted in Rainbow



I love series that try to do something different with their endings. There is of course a fine line between adaptations that end somewhere in the middle, and adaptations that have been carefully planned out to form a whole. Rainbow finally is another case of the latter: there probably is much more manga around, but who cares: the creators really selected the most essential parts of the 22-volume manga, and condensed those into 26 episodes, and yet the series ends completely unlike any other series I’ve seen.

Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a series end with a final arc that was only one or two episodes long, without being rushed. Those are the endings that usually stand out. I’m a bit sad to see that we won’t get the Heitai-arc, but Mario’s boxing career still is very important in the series, and yet it’s so much from what creators would usually chose as a final episode: the bad guys in this series are long gone, all of the biggest drama has been resolved at this point, and instead the final episode is a simple one that will allow Mario to overcome his crippled hand, which very neatly ties his story together.

And heck, even the Suppon arc is so fresh as a semi-final arc. Suppon is one of the most stable members of the cast, who knows very much what he wants, so the drama around him doesn’t involve some dumb mistake he made, but instead it’s all about his huge desire to take care of his new family, after he lost his previous one in the atomic bombings, and coming to terms with the fact that he doesn’t have to be alone. The part in which he single-handedly got that guy to come along to pay his debt really shows that there is nothing wrong with his will power, and it really made for an awesome scene that really turned out to be the opposite of what I expected.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Shiki – 11

by psgels, posted in Shiki



To the people who have yet to check out this episode: be careful. The entire ED is full of spoilers for the second half. >.< Either way, this was a bit of a bizarre way to end the first half with: an entire episode dedicated to none other than Itou Ikumi. Didn't see that one coming, yet it worked surprisingly well to show how the villagers are starting to suspect things. This episode did really well in portraying such a weird character as herself, and she's actually quite charming. I remember some commenters talk about how I should hate Shiki because its story is just a standard vampire story and has hardly any originality. The thing with this show is indeed that the general story is about a bunch of vampires attacking a town, nothing special with that. The reason why I love this show is the huge amount of creativity and energy it puts in its delivery and storytelling. It's true that I like shows with a lot of plot twists (provided that they don't take this over the top and are too lazy in other areas), but I also love the series that have simple stories, yet excel in their delivery, storytelling, or characters. That's pretty much the reason why my review scale talks about "storytelling", rather than "story". I don't care how big your story is, I'm mostly interested in how it's used. I think the best way to describe the storytelling in this show is that it leaves hardly any room for the audience to take a breath: every second is busy showing something. There seem to be hardly any seconds there to just fill time. It's also a series that makes excellent use of its soundtrack to create its atmosphere: it knows when to start playing its tunes, and it also knows when to keep quiet. It works really well so far. On top of that, I also love the kinds of series that actually make their setting come alive. At this point, it's actually working pretty well so far, and this episode was a key to it: it showed that the lead characters aren't the only people in the world, and the villagers are definitely also involved here. I feel like the creators can take this even further, but that completely depends on the kind of direction that the second half will go into, and whether it will abandon the rest of the villagers, or instead focus even more on them. Series that really manage to portray an alive setting are very rare, but it would be awesome if this show manages to do it. Rating: ** (Excellent)

Rainbow – 24

by psgels, posted in Rainbow



Okay, so contrary to what I first thought, the Suppon arc is going to take up three episodes. That makes me all the more curious to that mysterious final episode through which the creators are going to close off the series (please! Heitai!), but as the final multi-episode arc of this series, Suppon’s story works really well. For the biggest amount of drama, the creators could have chosen to save Mario or Joe for last. Instead, they chose the much more mellow and melancholic Suppon: a guy who really embodies the major theme of this show through and through.

And frankly, I like it that the creators used the least sappy story for last. This series always had its cheese problem: despite its excellent plot, it’s the reason why I’m never going to rate this show as a masterpiece. Still, it is one of those examples which really makes up for its cheese. Out of all of the arcs of the second half though, I find the Suppon arc the most interesting. That’s not to say that the other arcs didn’t stand out, though: Mario’s was the most intense, Joe’s was the most heart-warming, Cabbage’s was the funniest and Baremoto’s made the best use of the flaws of its character. They all had their own way in which they stood out, and that’s what made this second half work so well.

As for the Americans… yeah, they were decent I guess. The biggest problem was that they were portrayed like most thugs in anime: without much of a personality (except for that one boxer guy perhaps). The voice actors actually got their accents quite right and it wasn’t like the usual Engrish here. But at the same time, you can really hear that this dialogue was written by a Japanese, and then translated to English without trying to make it sound natural from the mouth of an American. But yeah, this is just me, saying things. I have no idea how natural anime sounds in the ears of Japanese people.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Shiki – 10

by psgels, posted in Shiki



Oh, I love series when they take unorthodox plot twists. I have to admit: the vampires’ counterattack went completely different from anything that I could have expected.Both with Natsuno and Toshio, their reaction was bold, creative, ruthless and effective. This episode again: it rocks for so many different reasons: the things they throw at Natsuno, Natsuno’s reaction to this, Natsuno’s relationship with his parents, the way that they finally portrayed the vampires as surprisingly human, and especially that twist at the end.

Of course death I this series isn’t exactly permanent, but I still love it when creators find a way to kill off their main characters. Natsuno isn’t exactly dead yet, but I do feel like the creators are really trying to turn this guy into a vampire. And while vampires doesn’t exactly equal death, it does seem like a pretty irreversible process. It really shows that there is no way that this is going to result into a “and they lived happily ever after”-endings.

It’s also great that the creators took this chance to show more about Natsuno’s relationship with his parents. They’ve got a very interesting chemistry with each other, showing that they’ve been living together for a really long time, yet don’t seem to fully get along with each other. Typical of puberty, actually and I like the subtlety in which the creators handled it.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Rainbow – 23

by psgels, posted in Rainbow



Awesome to see that alongside Suppon, the creators also took their time to show Lily’s story here and have her develop. Again, it’s an arc completely different from the previous ones so far, in the way that Suppon doesn’t really have any problems fitting in. The only thing that’s seriously getting in his way is the trauma from 13 years before, in which he lost his entire family.

The fact that he still hasn’t gotten over it was pretty sad, and that combined with Suppon’s usual maturity made this quite an effective episode. As for Lily, I like how this series really doesn’t try to avoid sensitive subjects here. The childrape of the earlier episodes were much worse, but I can very much imagine of how the problem of foreign soldiers having their way with local women, only to abandon them afterwards, is addressed here, as usually anime are too politically correct to talk about it. Really, 2010 has been an interesting year for the portrayal of WWII with this series and Senkou no Night Raid. This series takes care to show the horrors of that time period, while also showing that every side had its share of assholes.

And I know that I’ve been saying this often enough, but damn, I’m really impatient for that Heitai-arc. This guy is one heck of an interesting guy, so I really hope that the final two episodes, or at least the semi-final one, will be his.
Rating: ** (Excellent)