Category: Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama

Showa Monogatari – 11

by psgels, posted in Showa Monogatari



Okay, so I know that this isn’t getting subbed and all, and the fact that it has only one cute girl and no hot guys were bound to make it ridiculously ignored, but seriously: someone sub this. I know the acting isn’t at its best, but I keep seeing more and more people who want realism in anime. This is by far the most realistic series of the season!

It’s surprising how few anime seem to focus on bad boyfriends, the only recent one that I can think of right now is Colorful. Are moe girls really that pure that they only attract guys with no personality or something? While previous episodes of this show may have been a bit overacted, this episode hit all of the right notes: it never was too dramatic, and yet it revealed that the guy that Yuuko had a crush on was both a criminal and cheating on her. It’s not like these problems resolved themselves in 50 years time in Japan, right?

This was a pretty great portrayal of the teenaged years. It had angst, but this didn’t come with the cliches that you usually see in anime and it really was about problems that anyone could have had. I really liked this conclusion to Yuuko’s arc. I imagine that the final two episodes will be about Kouhei’s brother. He’s been strangely ignored during the past few episodes.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hana-Saku Iroha – 13

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha



This was a wonderful conclusion to the past arc. Instead of using the midway climax as the most dramatic of the episodes so far, it was actually really warm-hearted and entirely focused on character development. Ohana’s mother’s visit was very down to earth and it showed something new about pretty much the entire family. Ohana’s mother’s advice and presence really brought change to this series.

I especially loved that the characters weren’t afraid to use liquor in this. That always turns out to be a great way to flesh out characters. It’s a bit weird for Ohana to get drunk on soda, but the way it finally made her lay out her feelings was really worth it. It also was quite unexpected that Ohana’s grandmother suddenly started drinking. Through this episode you could really see that Ohana, her mother and her grandmother are related: they’re all big workers, even though their personalities are completely different. The only oddball here is Ohana’s uncle: this episode really established him as a third wheel, and I suspect that the rest of this series is going to make use of that.

Also, since next week will be a beach episode, it’s clear now what format this show is going to follow. Setting aside the fact that beach episodes are bloody overused, this show will follow about the same format as Tiger & Bunny: the first half has random episodes with a long climax, the second half also has random episodes followed by a bit of a longer climax.

That’s not a bad thing by the way. When an episodic series is done well, it’s the second half where its episodes really start to shine because it’s there where the characters really start to show themselves off, and it’s here where the creators can really play with their development.It’s been a while since we’ve had series like this, so I’m quite interested to find out whether Hana-Saku Iroha and Tiger & Bunny can pull them off again. It’s a format that I really like because it can lead to a lot of variety. Whether or not we’ll already see this with the beach episode though… I’m not sure…
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hyouge Mono – 12

by psgels, posted in Hyouge Mono



I was surprised to see Christian references pop up at the end of the episode, until I realized that Japan’s seclusion of course only started with the Tokugawa period. Before we already saw Oda Nobunaga as very interested in other cultures, and now it turns out that one of Sasuke’s brothers has taken up Christianity (or at lest, now is the first time I noticed).

In any case, this episode marks the start of the cooperation between Hashiba and Sasuke. Surprisingly Hashiba is a lot more open now, I have no idea whether him killing Oda Nobunaga had something to do with that. The new alliance seems to go against that of Akechi Mitsuhide (who also pulled an interesting act to paint Oda Nobunaga’s castle white, the opposing colour of Sennou Soueiiki’s preference). And to think that that old guy of episode two is returning, this definitely is turning out to be interesting.

For these past two episodes, I’ve also been surprised at the role of the soundtrack in this series. It’s still Bee-Train like in the way that it’s completely unconventional, but most bee-Train series have always had powerful soundtracks with a lot of presence. This one doesn’t, and only pops up every now and then. Overall, it’s not OUtani Kou’s best work. That award goes to either Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino or Haibane Renmei.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai. Review – 92.5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai




Moe in Noitamina. It was a risk. Especially after how Fractale screwed up so badly, seeing A-1 try again in a timeslot whose audience has always been at older audiences with the same teenagers that anime is filled with… I definitely had some doubts right before this series started. And then Ano Hana aired and turned out one of the best written shows of the season.

Ever heard of the phrase “short but sweet”? This is the key to the best Noitamina-series out there: most of them can only be eleven or twelve episodes long, so they really need to know how to use their time, and this series is a brilliant example of how this timeslot should be used. It leaves no moment wasted, it never drags, and it’s always developing its characters, delivering heavy drama, and moving back and forth between showing new things about its characters and fleshing them out.

The show follows six teenagers as they deal with their pasts. All six of them end up as well rounded characters, with their strenghts and flaws: one is an airhead, another is an asshole, another is socially awkward. This series juggles all of them together brilliantly. The acting is excellent and this show is even able to breathe life into the side characters of this series.

Now, this is the kind of series where the characters write the plot. If you like series that have a complex storyline, you don’t need to go for this series: this is just a coming of age drama, but it’s amongst the best I’ve seen. It is very dramatic though: this series really pushes to get as much drama into 11 episodes as possible without making itself shallow: all of the drama here is meaningful and brings out the best of the characters, but if you like series with more restrained and composed acting, you might want to look elsewhere.

If you are looking for an emotional roller coaster however: watch this. Few series can boast to be this well laid out, especially when so small. Everything fits just perfectly. I’m not a fan of moe, but this show is so good that it immediately won me over.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Brilliant at juggling around its drama, never leaves a moment wasted, although the drama can get a little heavy-handed for some.
Characters: 10/10 – A complete tear-jerker; wonderfully rounded characters that play off each other amazingly.
Production-Values: 9/10 – No still frames, no recycled scenes, fluid animation, detailed art, excellent soundtrack. An overall job really well done in every aspect.
Setting: 9/10 – A soothing village back in a forest. Down to earth.

Suggestions:
– Asatte no Houkou
– Clannad After Story
– True Tears

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai. – 11

by psgels, posted in Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai



And it’s finally the time of the season again to review the large batch of series ending. The first one is Ano Hana, and really: I don’t expect any of the other series in the next few weeks to come even close to this one. There is just no way. This episode was completely amazing and it pretty much cemented this series as my favourite series of 2011 so far.

the creators really wanted this to end with a tear-jerker, and BY GOD, they succeeded! It’s not the kind of episode that tries to be as sad as possible, but god dammit it was emotional. Just about every character unleashed the final bits of his or her development. Every character got the chance to vent his or her lungs and confess about his or her problems. Everything came together magnificently. I cried more at this episode than at any other episode of this show so far.

This show… this show really knew how to save the best for last. Menma’s wish is so simple, yet brilliant. It ties everything about Jinta together. It wasn’t something epic, but just a small detail about one of the friends she grew up with. Or Poppo, who finally revealed that… he actually saw what happened in that river. It was clear that he had a secret, and this episode made such a wonderful use of that. THIS is how you build up plot twist and make them hit as hard as possible!

The ending also was just bittersweet. Sure, it still remains unclear why Menma was a ghost, or why everyone was able to see her at the final time, but really: who cares. Ghosts just work that way, and it didn’t go against anything that this series built up for. It was truly excellent as the emotional climax of this series.

There’s just one overused cliche in this episode: Menma’s airheadedness, or “I like everyone as friends”. This is a bad twist because anime often use it to sneak their way around having to seriously develop romance. Can we really fault Anohana for that, though? With Menma, she just feels like a kid who just isn’t bothered with romance, even though everyone around her is. In terms of that, she was a great character. It’s perhaps not exactly realistic, but even then it has some of the most natural characters of the season, aside from perhaps Showa Monogatari that nobody watches.

Overall, A-1: we couldn’t have asked for a better apology for Togainu no Chi and Fractale. I love these people, and this is the second time they produced something of classic material, after Birdy the Mighty. Not since Asatte no Houkou have I watched a teenaged drama without anything else that I liked this much (and with Asatte no Houkou only half the cast was actually teenager). Just about everything fits here and nothing feels wasted or out of place. This really was a wonderful watch.
Rating: **** (Fantastic)

Hana-Saku Iroha – 12

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha



And yet again, Hana-Saku Iroha delivers an amazing episode. This… was sharp. It was bloody sharp. The entire episode was pretty much a string of characters doing the complete opposite of what you’d expect them to do while somehow still remaining perfectly in character. Mari Okada: how the hell did you manage to write three original stories and two adaptations in just half a year, and how the hell did you manage to create such sharp dialogue for just about all of them, save for Fractale? Heck, delivering the best screenplay for slice of life dramas is one thing, but doing it multiple times across different series. what the hell has she been taking? This hardly isn’t human anymore…

Okay, so Ohana completely gives a different twist to the love triangle by flat out telling Tohru about her crush, after this show starts to give off hints that he’s now interested in her mother instead. Meanwhile Tohru spend an entire day doing a rather morbid date that really doesn’t sound pleasant, ending. Ko’s co-worker meanwhile reveals herself to be really direct, Tohru forces Ohana to kidnap Ko and Ohana’s mother whom she first wanted to kidnap herself suddenly decides to take a few days off to go to a certain inn.

This isn’t the roller coaster of emotions that the previous episodes were, but instead it juggled the different characters around and fleshed them out brilliantly. It threw all of them in new situations and it just kept coming with detailed dialogues. This episode was also wonderfully paced.

Now, the question is: what is the plan for the creators? Do they actually have what it takes to keep up this pacing across the entire series, or are we simply at the mid-way climax here? Either way though: what an improvement over the first third of this series!
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Hyouge Mono – 11

by psgels, posted in Hyouge Mono



What the hell? Another new OP?

I could understand the first OP change, after the break up of the band who performed the first OP. The second OP was a pretty logical choice seeing the time constraints. The third OP though… is just pure madness. It’s like the creators went “ah, we’re doing these random songs anyway, so we might as well roll with it”. The new song is just completely bizarre and random. Talking about something completely different. This really sounds like they let a cat walk over a keyboard and constructed a nice melody around it. And yet for some reason I like it a lot. It’s been a while since an OP this pleasantly surprised me.

Anyway, this episode continues with the aftermath of Oda Nobunaga. It’s clearly build-up, but it nevertheless retained that great atmosphere, and did a great job of getting everyone to prepare for the inevitable chaos and run for power that will ensue. Mitsuhide realizes that his position is very frail, and Sasuke meanwhile gets a new position offered by his brother. I couldn’t exactly pick up what he’s going to do because the dialogue is so freaking complex, but I understood enough that this could very well become the glory that he always hoped for.

Also, more wtf-news on this series: it just distanced itself from the manga it’s based on. What the hell? Wasn’t this supposed to be an incredibly accurate adaptation? From out of nowhere, the official site lists the manga author credited as “original scheme”, instead of “original story”. They refuse to say exactly why, so did they get into a fight or something? I mean, I can understand why Clamp got angry at them for Tsubasa Chronicle and all, but with such an accurate adaptation?

The weird question right now is of course: what’s going to happen to this series? Will it just continue adapting the manga like it has always had, or will it in a few episodes go into its own direction? It’s here where those 39 episodes really are going to be interesting, because it’s got plenty of time to resolve all of these issues. With Bee-Train, it’s definitely going to be interesting.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai. – 10

by psgels, posted in Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai



What a wonderful penultimate episode. Everything is just culminating to that final climax of this series. Once again, this episode was just full of emotions and it continued to push its characters forward.

It was clear that the fireworks arc was going to be an anti-climax: there was no way in which that really would be Menma’s wish, but damn: this episode nearly made me believe that ti was. The build-up to the eventual launch was really quite sad, especially with Jintan not wanting her to go away. Yet at the same time, his personality would never have made him actually stop the launch. Beyond that though, everyone was somehow deeply emotionally involved in the launch. The climax, now that Menma didn’t disappear, is looking out to be amazing.

Overall, I’m going to wait until next week before claiming whether or not this was my favourite show of the year. This season also has a lot of series that go past 13 episodes for once, so I also can’t say yet whether it’s going to be the best series of the season. But what I can say is that it has the best eleven episodes of the past season. It left no moment wasted, it always sought to give more depth to its characters and the characters always made sure for hard-hitting and confronting drama. It’s exactly the kind of story that belongs in Noitamina.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Showa Monogatari – 10

by psgels, posted in Showa Monogatari



And with this we’re finally done with the preview episodes, and it’s finally time for this series to wrap itself up. The big focus on this episode was Yuuko. My memory may be a bit fuzzy on this point, but I’m surprised that she still stuck with that guy after he failed to take her to that love hotel. It’s a major episode that shows her getting in trouble by stealing something from a store.

Seriously though: the drama in this series is really down to earth. First of all the big drama of this episode didn’t revolve around the world getting destroyed or somebody dying, but instead on someone stealing a record from the Beatles. This show actually succeeds in creating good drama from that, but what’s even better is that this episode also succeeded in delivering some good drama on something even more mundane: Kouhei’s father having a terrible day at work. Whereas the foreshadowing of Yuuko’s adventures could have been a bit more subtle, her father’s bad temper has been around the entire series and this episode showed really nicely the troubles he has controlling this, alongside raising a teenaged daughter at a difficult age and a son as he hit the bratty age.

Speaking of which: Kouhei was in the background again with his tasks mainly reduced as a narrator, foreshadowing for other characters and trying to draw his father for homework. This is where he fits best. The drama around him has by far been the least interesting of the entire series, so it’s always good to see the focus on the rest of the cast.

Also, it’s been five months since this show debuted, with only one episode subbed. With Hyouge Mono I can understand the delay: it is really complex to understand. But seriously: the dialogue in Showa Monogatari is not difficult and quite easy to understand.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hana-Saku Iroha – 11

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha



And with this, Hana-Saku Iroha stepped out of the shadow of its first two episodes. This episode once again was great, and full of emotions.

It was a bit random, but nevertheless a great way for Ohana to get back to her mother. Ending up writing a scathing review of the inn where both her daughter and mother work. The tension between her and Ohana in this episode was just amazing, and after that this series managed to make things even better by also involving Ko in the equation.

It was indeed a bit early for me to call her part of the love triangle, but at least I was right about her having a crush on Ko: the signs about her introduction were all there. What I didn’t expect however was for Ko to turn her down. That scene between him and Ohana at the Wac Donalds was some excellent romance: it played with the distance between the two and Ohana’s shyness, without making it a simple “will they won’t they?” This episode also rocked because the creators stuffed in a ton of those small details, like Ohana crumbling that piece of straw wrapper.

Overall, I know that I’ve been a bit harsh on this series while it still was building up. In the past I would have had the patience to indeed wait until it get the chance to show its true colours. However, 2010 unfortunately made me very sceptical of those kinds of series that promise to get better later on. It felt like half of the long shows failed to do that despite the huge luxury in episodes they received: Heroman, Nurarihyon, Arakawa Under the Bridge and Index II all failed to live up to their promise to get better. Then there are the series like Kaichou wa Maid Sama which despite the fact that I dropped them early on, I really doubt that they were able to redeem themselves. On top of that there were Durarara and Letter Bee Reverse, which both decreased in quality during their second halves and Star Driver, which promised to get better, only to remain pretty much consistent throughout its entire run. There was only a relatively small fraction of 22-26-episoded that started in 2010 that actually made good use of all of its build-up (Giant Killing, Rainbow, Denyuuden, Uragiri and Shiki).

That’s why I’m really glad that so many long series this season seem to head into the right direction, but as long as they don’t I unfortunately have to remain a bit (okay, very) sceptical.
Rating: *** (Awesome)