Category: Finished Series: Romance

Sakamichi no Apollon – 06

by psgels, posted in Sakamichi no Apollon

Yeah, with this it’s yet again apparent that this show is a step above most other shows about teenagers. The bond between Sentarou and Kaoru is unique. This episode was quiet, but chock full of touches that bring tension to their relationship. It’s hard to describe, but most series with relationships like this have very clear borders between how characters behave: first they’re bickering for a while, then they are laughing for a while, and then comes a moment of being heart-warming. The changes in mood are all very simple. Here though, the tone that these guys use towards each other changes constantly. One moment they’re having fun, the other Kaoru’s jealousy plays up again. There are so many subtly different sides to how they act toward each other.

Including things I can’t recall having ever seen before. Like the point where Sentarou sternly lectures Kaoru talking down on that new kid with the mushroom haircut. That really hit me in a way that I don’t think anime has reached before. It’s also a scene that said so much about the two of them, which eventually culminated into the ending. I love how Kaoru was portrayed there and how he knew very well that he acted really childish, not knowing how to really get along with people due to the way he was brought up.

The rest of the cast also changed. Aside from perhaps the three new characters, but they were a great catalyst for change as well, even though they were a bit weird at first. The Jun subplot really got interesting at the end of the episode with that cliff-hanger, while Ritsuko is also visibly changing constantly after what happened to Kaoru with her.

Overall, at this point it really looks like Apollon is Noitamina’s big hitter of 2012. It has such a refinement that is unmatched and I doubt will even be matched by the shows that will follow this year, only if Matsuo Kou manages to surpass himself with Natsuyuki this can perhaps be changed.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Sakamichi no Apollon – 05

by psgels, posted in Sakamichi no Apollon

Watching someone with a broken heart… isn’t the most interesting thing out there. That’s what most of this episode was though: Kaoru formally got rejected, and recovers at the end of the episode. Because of that I wouldn’t really say that this episode was among the highlights of this series. But the creators tried to make up for it in quite an interesting way.

This definitely was an interesting place to put Kaoru’s parents. First of all his father came back (something he longed for for quite a while now), and he also ended up meeting his mother for the first time since he was a little kid. This episode was necessary for Kaoru’s development so that he can finally move on as a character, and because of that mother the creators definitely didn’t waste a moment to do some quality character-building.

This episode also added to the rest of the cast. Ritsuko recovered visibly from the shock of last episode (she was particularly good at the point where she rejected Kaoru). It’s revealed that Jun has some serious issues and Mariko also visibly changed now that she’s in love with him. I do wonder where the creators plan to take things from now though: like I said before: Kaoru’s confession to Ritsuko happened bafflingly early. Did he really get over his crush in this episode and will the real meat of this series be something completely different, or will this show turn into some “will they won’t they” soap-opera?
Rating: *+ (Great)

Sakamichi no Apollon – 04

by psgels, posted in Sakamichi no Apollon

With this, it’s clear that this series is going to go for a love polygon now that also Jun entered the picture. Normally this would make me worry, but with a series that is THIS good, I am getting really curious where this series plans to go to. Things right now are set up that everything can spiral completely out of control with the right amount of development, and there are a ton of different directions that this series can head into at this point

The second half of this episode was really meant to show how admirable Jun is and why Sentarou looks up to him. I especially loved him talking himself out of that failed concert when Sentarou walked out because of that one drunk. A drunk who by the way spoke very commendable English. Of course the voice actor for this guy put a lot of emphasis on his syllables, but that’s what all voice acting is like. Normal voice acting in anime also is also like that. Plus, he was drunk.

The first half of this episode meanwhile was about how fragile Kaoru is as a teenager. What really hit me was when he was playing in front of his family, desperately trying to get out of there in his head. The kiss unfortunately felt a bit too soap-operaish. On the other hand though, I really liked how he got to understand how Sentarou grew up as a half-American.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Sakamichi no Apollon – 03

by psgels, posted in Sakamichi no Apollon

Holy crap. This episode would be about the romance. The girl that caught Sentarou’s fancy last episode turns out to be Yurika Fukahori, who is one year above him. For a moment, this episode really had me face-palm: Kaoru arranges a double date for the four lead characters, and through some well-timed lines Ritsuko ends up thinking that Kaoru likes Yuriko instead. Not another one of those love triangles that take ages to get anywhere! And at the end of this episode, I was blown away.

Um, Sakamichi no Apollon… you’ve got eight episodes left, haven’t you? In this episode you went through what most series take 10 episodes to establish. This episode was penultimate episode material, that’s how much stuff happened. For once it had a wonderful combination between characters unable to say anything, and them actually being proactive about their feelings. Both Sentarou and Kaoru managed to overcome their anxieties and confess to the girl they liked. Everyone changed in this episode.

Instead of everyone being completely clueless, people actually picked up on subtle cues on how everyone behaved. Kaoru realized that Ritsuko doesn’t like him, and Ritsuko also realized that Sentaou would go away from her. The scene that made the most impact on me this episode was the one at the roof, where Kaoru’s anger for making Ritsuko cry was really well portrayed (it also was backed by a wonderful soundtrack).
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Sakamichi no Apollon – 02

by psgels, posted in Sakamichi no Apollon

This. This show is just amazing.

This season rocks: it has so many series that stand out in refreshing ways. With Sakamichi no Apollon however, I can actually say that it’s the best at something: this series has the best portrayal of performing musicians I have ever seen, bar none. It has been a long while since a show premiered of which I could say that. This series is currently pushing anime to new grounds.

And this isn’t something of just the first episode: the moment when the characters started playing together, the same incredible animation returned, which perfectly captures the actual soundtrack. In the past there were the series that got close to portraying music really well, most notably Beck and Nodame Cantabile. But this one just nails it completely.

And on top of that, the characterization is also just amazing: the acting is wonderfully subtle and the bond between the three lead character is already second to only Uchuu Kyoudai. This isn’t just Shinichiro Watanabe delivering something amazing; there are a ton of talent people working on bringing this story to life.

I do have a few complaints about this series, though, and that mostly involves its cliches. Most notably the random bullies that it uses to create tension, and how the characters walk in on those bullies at exactly the right moment. These kinds of things really make me wonder what would have happened if they hadn’t been saved at the last moment. But even with that I have to admit: this show makes use of them, and it does so incredibly well. In this episode things weren’t over when Sentarou arrived, but an actually entertaining fight followed. The second time was used to bring in some romance. Cliched again, but the acting made up for it. Sentarou already is incredibly different from the usual “delinquent with a heart of gold”.

Oh, and I also have to praise the use of Christianity in this series. I was quite surprised when Kaoru was surprised that Ritsuko was a Christian, because you really don’t often get to see that in anime. And when it does appear characters tend to dress up like nuns for some strange reason.
Rating: **+ (Excellent+)

Some Quick First Impressions: Sakamichi no Apollon, Jormungand and Haiyore! Nyaruko-san

by psgels, posted in Sakamichi no Apollon, Some Quick First Impressions

Sakamichi no Apollon

Short Synopsis: Our lead character befriends a cute girl on his first day of school transfer.
Yes, this is clearly influenced by Madhouse. their subtle touch is all over this series, and combined that with Shinichiro Watanabe’s excellent sense of style and Yoko Kanno’s music, this was a wonderful watch. Out of all the series that aired this season, this series had the best acting: characters are portrayed wonderfully subtle, and this episode was really restrained. There was a ton of emotion in this episode, yet most of it was hidden between the lines. The point where this series really caught me however, was when one of the characters started to play the drums. That was a piece of incredible animation. Playing musical instruments in anime is something incredibly hard to do, but the creators here did it perfectly. The movements synchronize perfectly with the actual soundtrack, and something like that is incredibly rare in anime.
OP: This definitely is an OP from the guys from Mappa: the visuals really remind of OPs like Mouryou no Hako’s. Again restrained, but very well done.
ED: Simple yet effective.
Potential: 95%

Jormungand

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a giant sea serpent who surrounds the entire earth and… wait, wrong story.
So, this turned out to be quite a slick action-series with a heavy emphasis on gunplay. It’s got a neat soundtrack and the action scenes are well polished, with quirky humour on top of it. It had charismatic characters, especially the lead female, and quite a few characters were already likable in just this episode. I twas pretty much a textbook delivery. Now, textbooks are boring, so what does this show plan to add in order to really stand out? How do you plan to keep your 26 episodes interesting? Will your plot be varied or will most episodes be like this? Is 26 episodes the right amount for this series, or is the manga this is based on still on-going?
OP: Good visuals, but too much autotune on the vocals.
ED: Prertty picture… and that’s all this ED is.
Potential: 80%

Haiyore Nyaruko-san

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live together with a cute girl.
Surprisingly, this didn’t turn out to be the worst of the season. The reason? This turned out to be a self-aware parody of the moe genre. It actually poked fun at the overused tropes you see in this genre, and Nyaruko’s energy was surprisingly addictive, rather than annoying. It’s strange to admit, but I actually laughed during some of the jokes it made. Unfortunately it also has the elements of a bad parody. You know, the shows that try to parody by just adhering to the tropes they’re making fun of while trying to look tongue-in-cheek. Another problem that this series has is that the moe genre is overcrowded: a lot of the jokes this series made were just copied from other bad shows, perhaps only done slightly better. If this series wants to be a good comedy, it really needs more material and it needs to keep the jokes coming. Since comedy is the only thing that this series has, it needs to be consistently funny, but for that, it still falls short: it had a few good jokes, but not enough of them to warrant 20 minutes.
OP: Terrible song.
ED: Parody 101: an ED is also a very good thing to make fun of. This instead was completely generic
Potential: 40%

Kimi ni Todoke Second Season Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Kimi ni Todoke




Each year, before the start of each Autumn Season, I hold a little poll in which you can all force me to blog a series I wouldn’t normally even consider to cover. The only time at which I could not complete such a series was in 2009, with Kimi ni Todoke’s first season. It had very solid production values; Production IG made sure of that. However, as a romance it just had no idea what it wanted to do. Any scene that focused on Sawako’s (the lead character) growth as a character was overshadowed by its romantic drivel that refused to go anywhere.

It really was the classic syndrome of romance shows, where the creators just refuse to let relationships play out normally, in favour of forced and artificial cheese and drama. It’s because of this that I wasn’t looking forward to its second season. But lo and behold: it actually redeemed itself a bit. The biggest surprises of this season definitely lie in its sequels.

This second season really shows that the creators took a good look at what happened to the first season, with the intention to fix its major flaws. They put aside the romantic nonsense and simply constructed a series with the sole purpose of resolving the romantic relationship between the two lead characters. It’s an in-depth look at how the relationship between the two lead characters grows. It’s no longer another simple “will they won’t they”-story, but instead the series changes into a “when, how and why will they hook up”. A much more interesting premise, and to make matters even better: the creators also figured out how to use slow pacing. Instead of using it for stalling, they use it to slowly build up everything they need, deliver one hell of a climax, and afterwards carefully wrap up everything that needed to be wrapped up. It’s a massive improvement over the first season.

At the same time though, I wouldn’t say that this is the second coming of White Album. The fact remains that the first season just left a lot to be desired, and it didn’t even seem to build up for this second season. The second season does make use of some of the things that happened throughout the first season, but it mostly feels like the creators went “oh crap, we actually need to develop these people”. Kimi ni Todoke still is an overly pure portrayal of teenaged romance: great to swoon away, but at the same time it’s not like the story behind it is really deep and thoughtful. The characters remain one-sighted teenagers who only seem to think about romance and the drama still is based entirely around the fact that they refuse to talk to each other. They’re just much better written and portrayed than in the first season.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Has exactly what the first season lacked: focus. Carefully builds up its simple but effective romance.
Characters: 8/10 – They refused to develop in the first season. In the second season however, they do, and IT’S ABOUT BLOODY TIME.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Production IG is solid as expected, though there are too many distorted faces.
Setting: 8/10 – Nothing special nor nothing bad here aside from an overly idyllic portrayal of teenaged life. But then again, something tells me that was very much intentional.

Suggestions:
– Bokura ga Ita
– Aoi Hana
– True Tears

Some Quick First Impressions: Showa Monogatari, Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season and Rio – Rainbow Gate

by psgels, posted in Kimi ni Todoke, Showa Monogatari, Some Quick First Impressions

Showa Monogatari

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a regular kid who grew up before WWII.
Whoa, where did this come from? Wasn’t this supposed to not air for three months or something? Anyway, this was a pleasant surprise: it’s basically a slice of life series of a young boy in what I presume to be the part of the Showa Era somewhere before WWII. I’m especially impressed with how much the creators did in just one episode: they showed about him, his friends, his family and even a friend of his sister. It gave all of them a bit of attention and personality, and it even included some good drama that centred around the typical problems that a guy of his age had. By far the worst of this episode was voice acting of the different children that appeared. I have to applaud the creators for making them sound like kids, and the rest of the voice cast is also pretty decent. But the voice actors for the kids just can’t act. This especially hurts when they’re just unable to raise their voice when they’re angry. In any case though, this thing has potential. Whether the second episode airs next week or next year, it’s something to watch our for if you like historic slice of life series.
OP: Minimalistic, but effective.
ED: Neat idea to use a radio tune from those days.
Potential: 80%

Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season

Short Synopsis: Our lead character hardly ever appear in the start of this new season.
Okay. So it’s been more than nine months since Kimi ni Todoke first ended. The staff has had plenty of time to prepare for the second season, so naturally they start off with a recap. Yeah, this episode pretty much retells Kurumi’s side of the story. But then again, like with a lot of other series that take FOREVER to get from A to B, it wasn’t really bad for a recap: it neatly compacted Kurumi’s story into a digestible 20 minutes, rather than the seemingly endless 17 episodes that it took up in the first season. And also, this episode wasn’t bad at all in the technical terms. My problems with this series really lie when you look at the big picture: it’s pretty much angst, angst and more angst; Sawako is too pure, Kazehaya is too perfect and the angst itself is decent, but it lacks fleshing out and therefore it has no chance of remaining fresh for a whopping 25 episodes. Let alone this second season!
OP: Granted, by far the best theme song this series has shown. Neat visuals.
ED: Bland song, neat visuals.
Potential: 50%

Rio – Rainbow Gate

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a really famous dealer at a casino city.
My biggest concern about Rio Rainbow Gate was whether or not it had its mind in the gutter. As it turns out, it did: the camera just refuses to focus on anything other than Rio’s ass or boobs and the entire premise of the show is meant to get her into as many sexy outfits as possible. Beyond that, the direction for the most part is also pretty bland and the acting also leaves a lot to be desired. As for the entertainment value this show has some potential, though: the climax of this episode was ridiculously stupid, but surprisingly enjoyable in a “so bad it’s good”-way, including a pretty creative depiction of Poker. At this point, the only way that this show can make it is as a guilty pleasure, but for that it needs to pack variety: think of many crazy anime variants of casino games and vastly different premises other than “let’s stuff Rio in the umpth sexy outfit here”. At the very least, this show really knows that it’s a silly fanservice show and there are no signs whatsoever of teenaged romance or an annoying male lead or shallow drama.
ED: Another one of those boring fanservice EDs.
Potential: 25%

Kimi ni Todoke Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Kimi ni Todoke



Romances often are annoying, which can often be attributed to characters acting completely irrational, illogical and against their own feelings. I’ve watched quite a few series that created a well developed cast this way, like with Bokura ga Ita and White Album. Kimi ni Todoke however… just… didn’t work for me.

The first half of this series really was a pain for me to try and sit through. The premise is simple: a very shy and socially inept girl (Sawako) and a popular, good-looking guy (Kazehaya) fall in love with each other. Fair enough, but the execution left a lot to be desired, especially when the creators started focusing on the love triangles. Hordes of girls turn out to be in love with Kazehaya as well, and the drama that results out of it is horribly dragged out for way longer than it should have, and the creators treat it like some kind of blasphemy if any of the two lead characters even dares to talk to someone of the other gender.

For a series that’s about the high school years of a bunch of people, Sawako and Kazehaya don’t really feel like interesting characters at all. Sawako is way too pure: whenever someone tries to take advantage of her feelings (by making her jealous for example), her incredible naivety just feels incredibly unnatural and it quickly turns into a bit of a lame gimmick. Kazehaya on the other hand is just so bland as a male romantic interest. He’s just… there, with hardly any personality about him other than some guy who just keeps smiling.

What also did not help was this series’ facial expressions, especially the chibi-distortions that you see in most of those other shoujo series as well. Usually they’re used with stylistic purposes; you know, colour each character with these seemingly over the top reactions. Here however, they felt more like “Okay, you can laugh now”-signs. They’re often badly animated in contrast to the rest of this series’ beautiful looks, are forced and hardly ever are actually used in funny situations. This show just continuously tried to be subtle, while it ultimately just wasn’t.

The only subtle part that I actually found about this series was its character-development. THANKFULLY, this show gets better in its second half as soon as the main love rival is put on a bus away from the main plot. From there on the characters change ever so slightly: Sawako learns how to appreciate life more and Kazehaya becomes less bland, but it’s not that the creators try to shove this development down your throat like they did with the love triangles. it really helps for a series if its final arc is the best one, and that pretty much was the case here.

Still, I don’t think that this show is the same as White Album, in which an excellent second half made up for an incredibly annoying first half. In the end I still see Kimi ni Todoke as a bit of a half-baked series with characters that never really stand out at anything. It’s overall something that will keep you busy on a rainy day with not much else to do, but there are a lot of better series out there.

Storytelling: 7/10 – Lacks subtlety, drags on for way too long.
Characters: 8/10 – Decent enough in its focus at being in love, with slight development that at least makes the final parts of the series interesting enough.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Great visuals, as expected from Production IG, but the chibi-drawings annoy.
Setting: 7/10 – Pretty much your standard high school setting Nothing that really stands out.

Suggestions:
– Bokura ga Ita
– True Tears
– Kimikiss – Pure Rouge

White Album 2 Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, White Album



If you’re planning to watch the first season of White Album: good luck. Have fun sitting through one of the most frustrating series of the past years. However, for those who do manage to get through it there is a reward, because the second season is much, much better. In fact, it’s a breath of fresh air for both the harem and hentai game adaptation genre.

The first season really had no idea how to write good drama. It really tried, but revelations were poorly built up, the romance was shallow, and it used really cheap plot devices in an attempt to create drama (answering machine?!). Thankfully, Seven Arcs noticed this, and actually changed the directors, in favour of someone who did know what he was doing. The result really allowed this series to show the best of its daring premise.

The result managed to add depth to nearly all the characters. I really loved the execution of this series: a lot of bad stuff happens in this series, Touya for a large part is an incredible bastard who fools around with tons of women, however everything still progresses naturally: it never goes over the top or forces climaxes. Characters don’t suddenly turn emo because of one simple revelation, but what goes on inside their heads is much more complex than that. Every character has his or her own issues that get explored really well and the way that the creators manage to interweave all these stories is really skillfully done. There’s hardly any moment of boredom.

And then Touya. He really is one of the least likable lead characters after Makoto Ito, but in comparison to the latter he’s actually really well written and receives some memorable development. In fact, he’s so incredibly refreshing amongst most other harem leads with their wimpy and one-sided personalities. This guy’s issues are deep and yet they come together wonderfully at the end.

I really was prepared to hate this series when it first started, but it really proved me wrong when it improves on the first season in a lot of ways. It’s at times very emotional, but at the same time also very subtle and realistic. This really is everything I want romance to be, and it’s truly a leap forward for the harems and hentai game adaptations. If you’re tired of seeing the same thing over and over again in these genres, then this is a series that you should check out. However, be warned: it makes no attempts to make its characters easily likable. It’s realistic, but hard to get into as well.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Realistic, poignant, weaves many storylines into one and yet it progresses very naturally.
Characters: 9/10 – HUGE improvement over the first season. Touya is one of the best developed harem leads out there.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Better animation, great use of music.
Setting: 8/10 – Accurate and finally stops using it as a cheap plot device to get Touya and Yuki to miss each other.