Category: Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama

Showa Monogatari – 02 – Take 3

by psgels, posted in Showa Monogatari



Um… yeah. Can someone explain the bizarre airing schedule of this series?

I mean, I don’t get it anymore. Showa Monogatari aired its first four episodes back in January and February. First episode 01 was released, then episode 03 followed, then 02 and then 04. That already was confusing in itself, but I just assumed that this series would just air normally during this spring season. I was planning to just pick it back up as soon as episode 05 aired.

And yet, this week baffled me when suddenly episodes 5, 8 and 9 popped up from nowhere. Those turned out to be episodes 2, 3 and 4 of earlier. Here we meanwhile have episode 2, which turned out to be a completely new episode. Then the day before yesterday we also suddenly got treated to episode 3. I haven’t checked it out yet (too busy!) but what the heck is that one going to be? Showa Monogatari has by far the weirdest airing schedule I’ve ever seen. Never have I seen an airing schedule that was so much over the place.

This episode by the way was really good. Again, this show isn’t about Kouhei, the young kid. He may get a lot of airtime, but this episode was much more about his brother and his sister. Even his father showed something new about himself. Especially his brother got a great episode. Being outright rejected on his first date, that’s really something you don’t see often in anima that highly adheres to the concept of “true love”. And yet at the same time this series has a lot of different romances here: Kouhei’s parents’ marriage was really traditional, while his sister seems to be in a completely different situation with that guy she likes.

I also like how this show isn’t afraid to get a bit corny when it comes to the entertainment of that era. That dance party for example looked really silly when looked at with a modern eye, and the same goes for when everyone suddenly started singing. And yet, those things probably were the most normal things of entertainment in the eras before mass communication.

Oh, and the reunion also explained quite a bit of something that happened in episode four surrounding Kouhei’s brother’s friends. This was the episode that was meant to set that up, and I really suspect that there will be more episodes that are going to focus around him, trying to find a place in society. This episode also gave a lot of meaning to that particular episode as well. The production values may not be good, but it knows how to tell a story.

One thing that I don’t agree with is to have Kouhei’s parent’s background episode air after this episode. I especially liked how this episode told more about Kouhei’s father and how he grew up. I really like the idea of first showing him in his late teens, only to go for him in his early teens afterwards.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
EDIT: I just watched that mysterious episode 03 that popped up the day before yesterday. It’s episode 01 again. What the…?

Hana-Saku Iroha – 02

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha



Hana-Saku Iroha: the series with the best drama of the season. I seriously did not expect this show to already be this good this soon, and Noitamina’s Anohana is going to have some really stiff competition here. What’s best is that finally, PA Works are moving into 26 episoded series.

The strength of this series is that it has a huge cast of characters who all somehow clash with each other, and it plays off of this really well. Ohana is a great lead character whose personality is perfect for this series, but the other main characters are all great to watch. Her strict grandmother and the shy waitress in particular were great, and I also loved the bickering between her and the cook assistant who keeps telling her to die..

What’s interesting is that some of the people have this habit of just walking away when they run into a situation they don’t like. Ohana actually made good use of that at the end of this episode with a particularly wonderful climax and I really hope that this show can keep this up.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Some Quick First Impressions: Hyouge Mono, Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Hakairoku Hen and Sengoku Otome

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji, Hyouge Mono, Some Quick First Impressions

Hyouge Mono

Short Synopsis: Our lead character really likes tea.
I really have no doubt that this will be the most underrated show of the season. It’s just completely void of just about any trope that you usually see in the popular anime: there is no moe whatsoever, nor any bishies. Instead the lead characters are all in their thirties; there is no youth in this show whatsoever. Meanwhile, takes place during the samurai age, yet there are hardly any battles, with this instead being a dialogue-centred series. On top of that, this is Bee-Train, so there is a lot of focus on talking heads. The soundtrack is completely weird and unconventional and the characters all tend to make silly faces. And I absolutely loved this first episode. It’s completely unlike any other series set in the Samurai Age, especially the main character is unique, with his really weird combination of silly facial expressions and down to earth dialogue. Steins;Gate’s lead looks just ordinary compared to this guy. Still, his characterization is excellent, and with Bee-Train, the build-up also was just terrific. Most of this episode was quiet, but the climax of this episode was already amazing. And you know what the best part is? This will go on for 39 episodes. When was the last time that a series of this caliber got more than 13 episodes? Let alone 26!
OP: Quiet and laid-back, with interesting visuals.
ED: I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Bee-Train OP or ED like this. Again really relaxed.
Potential: 90%

Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Hakairoku Hen

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has money problems.
Kaiji is a show about Gambling, but this first episode of the sequel didn’t have any of that. It was just meant to build up, and introduce the next arc, and it was actually very good in doing so. For Kaiji standards in particular, a lot happened here. The creators really wanted to show how deep one could fall if you get on the wrong side of the mafia. They lure you in with the promise that one day your debt will be over, but use very dirty tricks to just push that deadline back and back. This episode did a great job of breaking apart Kaiji’s spirit with basic psychology. That’s the big difference between Akagi and One outs: those are shows to see how well a superhuman can pwn just about everyone around him and their lead characters are more than aware of their own abilities.. Kaiji is at the complete opposite: he’s completely flawed, makes the most stupid decisions, only standing out because he can struggle like no other. Of course, at this point I can’t yet comment on whether this second season has improved the pacing issues of the first season. The only criticism I have at this point is that the narrator is a bit too enthusiastic. Even describing the most mundane activities are announced with that over the top voice of his. But then again, why am I expecting subtlety from this series?
ED: WTF. Just… wtf…
Potential: 80%

Sengoku Otome

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lands is just an average schoolgirl who winds up amongst famous people from the Sengoku Era.
Sengoku Otome’s biggest sin is its blandness. I wouldn’t call this bad.. it just fails to stand out in any kind of way. Just about everything about this show screams “been there, done that”. It has nothing that really sets itself apart of that is actually remotely good. The creators to me just didn’t seem to care here. The premise of a random teenager ending up in a fantasy world has been done a ton of times before, so you really need to set yourself apart in this genre. So what do the creators do? They choose a complete airhead as their main character. They turn it into self-insert fan-fiction amongst famous historical figures. They gender-swap said figures into females. They put no effort whatsoever into the character designs. And okay, the character-designs aren’t as bad as with Dog Days, but they still are pretty bad here. This entire episode just followed one cliche after the other, with nothing really to make up for it. If the characters were likable then this could be forgiven, but even there this show doesn’t do anything. The lead character is beyond annoying, and the rest of the cast is just completely one-sided and uninteresting.
OP: Like the show, bland, both in terms of visuals and music.
ED: Fanservice!
Potential: 10%

Some Quick First Impressions: Hana-Saku Iroha , Toriko and Tiger & Bunny

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha, Some Quick First Impressions, Tiger & Bunny

Hana-Saku Iroha

Short Synopsis: Our lead character starts working at an inn.
Before this series started, I thought that it would be just a simple slice of life series. As it turns out though, Hana-Saku Iroha is as much slice of life as it is a drama. this series made excellent use of its first episode, and it really did a lot in just twenty minutes, especially for a series that will be 26 episodes long. It showed the lead character before, and after she moves to her grandmother after her mother pretty much abandons her. It’s both light-hearted, but also already showed what a huge change in lifestyle the lead character went through. What makes this series especially great though, is how detailed it is. The entire cast is versatile, the slice of life is realistic, the dialogue feels very natural and inspired, and the animation is of PA Works usual high standards. This series is definitely interesting: its series are either really great, or not worth checking out at all. There’s hardly anything in between for me so far.
ED: Decent J-Rock
Potential: 85%

Toriko

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has a straw hat and is a pirate.
No. No, no, no. They just didn’t do that. There must be some mistake. Did Toei really just use One Piece’s popularity to introduce the Toriko anime?! What the heck was Luffy doing there? What the heck was the entire One Piece cast doing there? Toei is known for their sell-outs and all, but this just takes the cake. It doesn’t even make any sense either: the One Piece cast just wanders off and runs into Toriko, with the rest of the episode just being people talking about food and eating. The One Piece cast was just… there. They were more obnoxious than helpful. And as for Toriko, the only thing it pretty much has going for it is its creature design. Seriously, I am no fan of Shounen Jump and all, but setting aside To Love-Ru, Toriko has to be the worst Shounen Jump anime I’ve seen in a long, long while and this episode showed that Toei has no intention whatsoever of making something good out of it. This was a terrible introduction, for a show that basically advertises poaching to young kids. Toei already have more than enough money. This is commercialization at its worst.
OP: “Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow?”
ED: At least the song is decent here.
Potential: 0%

Tiger & Bunny

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a superhero who fights crime.
This season rocks. I mean, for one: only four series have premiered so far, and already we have two of them that features main characters that are older than 30. Heck, the lead of Tiger & Bunny actually has a daughter; when was the last time that we actually had such a series? On top of that, I love the concept of this series, as a kind of semi-satire on modern mass media that’s focused around a program that exploits superheroes, complete with sponsors and everything. The action is excellent, combining both great stunts and nice humour, and it just keeps changing dynamically due to all of the different characters involved. Characters who already have all kinds of charms. This can make for a very interesting series, especially if it will go beyond 13 episodes. My complaint about it is that it does tend to overuse CG, and the director of the whole Superhero show was a bit of a stereotypical corporate bastard who’ll do anything for money. Apart from that, this was a wonderful episode.
OP: The OP is just a collection of boring still shots and a dull J-rock song, though.
ED: As excellent as the OST is, this is just another dull J-rock song.
Potential: 90%

Bakuman Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Bakuman




Bakuman was the slice of life series of this season. It shows the struggles of two guys as they aim to get their own manga published in Shounen Jump (or Jack, as it’s called here). It’s slow-paced and really not much happens for the standrds of a 25-episode series, but if you like the kind of series that take their time to tell a story the nit has nice things to offer.

Bakuman is slow, but never stagnates. It is a shounen jump adaptation itself, and in the same veins it’s constantly pushing its own story forward, albeit with tiny steps at a time. Moritaka and Akito grow into solid main characters, and also the side-characters all have their charms. The show also offers a nice look into the process of making a manga, along with the process of getting such a thing actually published.

Nothing really stands out for this show aside from a few select episodes, but it’s a perfect series to just sit back, watch and relax to. Its content and plot are definitely interesting to keep your attention, though it is a hard show to get into. It takes quite a while for the characters to get some signfiicant development to the point where they’re actually interesting enough, and this show is full of shounen cliches until that point. Becuase of that, I can’t fully recommend this series yet before having gotten the chance to judge its second season (because yes, that ending does leave you hanging a bit without resolving much or making much come together).

Overall Bakuman should have used its time a bit more efficiently. I know that the screenshots above make it seem like really exciting, but that’s just because the manga it’s based on is fast-paced. The anime isn’t. There are really few series that can claim to have as much time as Bakuman to tell their stories, and with that in mind the pacing does move rather slow and overall, too little happens for a 25 episode series. It does a lot of thing sirght, though.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Slow, but solid.
Characters: 8/10 – The cast of this show is dynamic and interesting to watch… as soon as they’ve received some development.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Neither impressive nor flawed, the animation is simple but does what it needs to do.
Setting: 8/10 – The analysis on the manga making process isn’t anything deep, but interesting nonetheless.

Suggestions:
Touch
Glass Mask 2005
Hikaru no Go

Bakuman – 25

by psgels, posted in Bakuman



A decent ending. It’s not bad, but it didn’t stand out either. It was probably the most shounen episode of this entire series: the lead couple got through, while some of the minor rivals did not and have to wait for their next chance. Not very exciting, although the creators did do a nice job on the build-up and the arduous wait.

Overall, Bakuman never really made itself stand out, aside from perhaps one episode in the middle (the one where Niizuma Eiji suddenly decided to write the wrong manga and where Moritaka and Akito suddenly switched over to a battle manga). Bakuman has been more of a show to just casually watch, which it did nicely, and it kept my attention, but I’m still feeling like I’m missing something here.

In any case, for a series that you all forced me to blog, it was pretty interesting. I still really like the way that I’ve been having this contest for four years now, and yet you somehow always manage to pick out a different series: Gundam 00, Tytania, Kimi ni Todoke and Bakuman all were wonderfully diverse, and I’m definitely going to do this again for Autumn 2011.

Now that most of the Autumn 2010 has ended (with the exception of Star Driver, which will end tomorrow), it’s also time to look back on the past Autumn Season. And overall, I’d call it interesting, fun, yet also underwhelming. The thing is, that Autumn Seasons always have many more series than Winter Seasons. And yet none of the series that premiered during Autumn 2010 came close to matching the top three series of Winter 2011.

It had a lot of interesting (Yakumo, Letter Bee), unique (Panty and Stocking, Soredemo Machi) and hilarious (Milky Holmes, Squid Girl, Kuragehime) series, and yet none of them really stood out or ended up as amazing, and all of the ones that did have ambition were held back by something (almost always having to do with being too short and failing to actually notice that). We’ve had more major seasons that only showed four shows to continue past 13 episodes, but the shows that did continue were absolutely amazing. Take Spring 2008: Himitsu and Real Drive were some of the very few series that were actually long, but they really were some amazing and unique series. Here, Letter Bee, Bakuman and Star Driver: they all just didn’t want to be the hit of the season, it seems. Instead, it mostly stands out as an overall very fun season to watch, because again: there were a lot of fun and interesting series.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Hourou Musuko Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Hourou Musuko




The past season had three series that really stood with head and shoulders above the rest. They were all genuinely good and took their genres into new and fresh directions. Hourou Musuko takes a look at cross dressers. Most of time when they’re portrayed in a medium, they’re portrayed for laughs or flamboyance. Hourou Musuko however is entirely built around showing the issues that boys who feel like they are girls (and vice versa) run into while growing up. And it does so brilliantly.

For starters, this is one of those series that has a slow pacing, yet somehow manages to make a ton of stuff happen in each episode. It’s full of subtlety, and because of this it can get a ton of genuine drama out of the characters using its limited time of only 11 episode excellently.

This show actually made quite a bold statement by not animating the first X volumes of the manga it’s based on, but instead starting somewhere in the middle. The great thing about this show is that despite this, it still doesn’t feel incomplete. Characters sometimes refer to things that have happened to them in the past, but it’s apparent enough to the viewers to figure out what happened. This method gave the characters both a rich past and future and it gives the impression that there really is much more to them than what we see in the series. It’s a terrific way of characterizing them, and the entire cast of this series pretty much feels incredibly genuine and believable. Oh, and finally we’ve found another show that takes a realistic look at romance, as opposed to the overly sappy view you see in nearly every anime.

It’s a series for which I’ve had hardly anything to criticize for. The story is perfectly balanced, the plot twists are amazing in their subtlety, the cast is amazing, the animation brings both the cast and setting come alive and there is hardly anything that this show does wrong. If I had to nitpick at something then it’s that the characters are portrayed a tad too mature for their age. But so what? This is a wonderful portrayal of growing up. The cross-dressing is only a tiny part of this series. There’s so much to this show, and it’s only 11 episodes long.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Wonderfully subtle, with some amazing plot twists.
Characters: 10/10 – Amazing portrayal of young teenagers growing up,and their issues dealing with it. Wonderful development.
Production-Values: 8/10 – This show is really good at far away shots, with restrained animation, still bringing its cast to life.
Setting: 8/10 – Excellent portrayal of a school in japan. This show knows how to ring its environments to life.

Suggestions:
– Aoi Hana
– Asatte no Houkou
– Sasameki Koto

Hourou Musuko – 11

by psgels, posted in Hourou Musuko



Okay, so this was supposed to be episode 12, even though it was labelled everywhere in the episode as episode 11. It contained no recycled material whatsoever however, so I guess it’s safe to assume that it was really episode twelve. I’m not the only one who is a bit confused, right?

In any case, this was an excellent closure to an excellent series. Even with an episode cut out, Hourou Musuko felt like it had no weaknesses whatsoever to me. It consistently engaging, from start to finish. This episode really ended at the perfect point, with Nitori’s voice changing. It denotes the start of a huge change for him. The time where his body starts changing has finally arrived, and within a few years, he’s going to make the decision whether or not to get surgery.

And yet there was so much more that happened in this episode that developed so many other characters: Doi, Chiba, Takatsuki, Anna: this show took its chance to give all of them even more development than they already had.

Overall, Hourou Musuko understood what it means to be a Noitamina series: you only get 11 or 12 episodes, and that’s the length that you have to work with. They took an excellent part of the manga and made it feel like a complete story: characters have lives that continue on both before and after this show takes place, and yet the series feels complete. I especially loved that talk that Nitori and Anna had, right before the play started.

I’m looking forward to next year’s Noitamina. C is bound to be awesome. Even Kuchuu Buranko, Kenji Nakamura’s least impressive work, was really enjoyable and interesting. Anohana meanwhile is one of those shows that doesn’t seem to belong in Noitamina at first sight. Along with Hana Saku Iroha, it’ll have to take Hourou Musuko’s place as the serious teenaged slice of drama of the season. If they’ll end up as well balanced and written as Hourou Musuko, we’re really in for a treat here.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Bakuman – 24

by psgels, posted in Bakuman



Aah, it’s like Kimi ni Todoke all over again!

Leaving that aside though, I liked what this episode did with its pacing: it went fast, then slow, then fast, then slow again, alternating between the developing the romance and the manga publishing. This show has always had its fast paced and slow-paced moments, but I don’t think that they ever meshed together as well as this episode, especially its first half. This kind of balance was especially missing in the first half of this series.

The worst part of this episode was the way in which the creators tried to introduce this new characters. “Oh no, I’m not conspicuous at all. I’m just reading a magazine here”. I mean, I can understand hiding the face of your villain for building up tension, but in a manga writing anime it just has no purpose and just ends up looking silly, especially when they try to play it straight like that.

Overall, if I had to congratulate the creators of the anime for one thing, it’d be making me think that the pacing of the anime went up during the past episodes, while in fact they animated even less of the manga for each episode. To me, someone who hasn’t read the manga, it did not feel out of place, unlike the first half that was in retrospective rather boring to sit through. At this point, I don’t think that I’d recommend this series, but that mostly is because of the reason that this series doesn’t feel complete at this point. With that, the first half just isn’t worth it. It’ll be up to the second season to change that.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hourou Musuko – 10

by psgels, posted in Hourou Musuko



I am confused here. Basically, this link explains how this week showed a compilation of episodes 10 and 11, with the real episodes 10 and 11 being released when their DVDs get released. that’s nice and all, but what the heck is next week’s episode going to be about? The preview says that it’ll be episode 11 again. If I had to guess, then that will probably be a compilation of episodes 11 and 12. AIC probably ran into some delays in the same way that Madoka Magica has been delayed.

Setting that aside though, this episode was brilliant. It was just an amazing aftermath to last week’s episode and made even better by a time skip along the way that showed Nitori actually growing up. The condensed nature of this episode left out quite a bit, but the added a whole bunch of new stuff to this series. Never did this series address Nitori’s anxieties and the people who make fun of him so directly. This episode rocked because it did a truckload of new things for this series, and yet nothing felt out of place. Or apart from those guys who confessed to Takatsuki, perhaps.

Overall though, this has been an excellent season, and it has set the bar for the rest of 2011 very high in terms of romance, comedy and mahou shoujos. Hourou Musuko, Madoka Magica and Level E: all have just been brilliant. Hourou Musuko took a while to get going, but it can really call itself equal to Aoi Hana: they’re both amazing series, but both are in their own distinctive ways.
Rating: *** (Awesome)