Category: Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama

Michiko e Hatchin – 13

by psgels, posted in Michiko e Hatchin



Short Synopsis: We learn what happened to Atsuko after episode 10.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Good to finally see a bit of quality airtime devoted to Atsuko. Most of her airtime so far has simply been a few minutes here and there, but this time she has an entire episode for herself, and she uses it quite well. It’s a shame that there wasn’t even a second of Hatchin, but nevertheless I really enjoyed this episode.

What I especially loved is how much Atsuko hates her new job. She never actually mentions it, but her expression says a thousand words. The once proud police woman who climbed her way up from a mere street-punk is now cleaning cans at a local Aztec ruin and chasing runaway pet monkeys. This episode was mostly about her getting her motivation back, and that’s mostly done by her, meeting a child who strangely resembles a younger Michiko. (And her, finding a newspaper article about Hiroshi’s newest movie, of course).

I do hope that Satoshi is also going to get an episode like this one. Like most people in this series, he’s been a very interesting character, but only appeared in one episode for as far as my memory doesn’t deceive me. Imagine the potential when he gets even more time devoted to fleshing out his character. But then again, that’s probably going to come along with Hiroshi’s development, who also is about to get into the spotlights. What is the guy doing on the silver screen, and if he’s that rich, then why did he abandon his daughter to some random evil pastor family?

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 16

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou



Short Synopsis: Natori returns and invites Natsume to… a hot spring?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Best episode of the second season so far! This most likely is because it involves a recurring character again: Natori, and indeed confirmed my suspicion that the best part of the second season is going to be the stories that evolve around him and the recurring characters, rather than the standalone stories which hit their height with the firefly episode (I think I mentioned this a few too many times by now…).

And was it me, or was Natori much kinder this time to Natsume? He needed a genuine favour from the guy and his book of friends, and instead of straightforwardly asking him to cooperate, he made up a story of going to a hot spring resort in order to relax a bit. This episode also showed that he isn’t perfect: if Natsume didn’t help that big youkai at the beginning of the episode, the two of them would be screwed right now.

But my favourite moments of this episode were the quiet ones, where the pacing was really slow to show the different characters together. I was especially touched by the dream Natsume had, where it appears that he’s still really troubled by his past and hated how he showed that weak side of his to Natori. Speaking of which, I wonder how Natori spent his childhood, with his ability and all. It’s going to be interesting to see how this guy grew up.

Michiko e Hatchin – 12

by psgels, posted in Michiko e Hatchin



Short Synopsis: Michiko catches a cold.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 9/10 (The clear winner of the “most original fish-placement”-award)
This episode showed that Hatchin isn’t the only one who is made out of awesome and win in this series. Hatchin may be the Wonder Woman of this series, but Michiko also has proven to be downright awesome to watch. Especially in this episode, where she caught a cold and was supposed to stay in bed, her stubbornness made the entire episode a delight to watch.

You also have to love the weird ideas that the creators put into this episode. A psychedelic doctor/fraud who pulls fish out of his patients’ bellies?What? The visions Michiko had were also hilarious. Never thought it would be this disturbing to see Hatchin with an evil laugh…

But progress has been booked! Michiko actually tried to hide from Hatchin that she’s been smoking and drinking, despite her cold. It might be because she didn’t want to get into any useless arguments with her, but at least it’s a start: she’s finally starting to take Hatchin into consideration. Hatchin on the other hand has started breaking rules because of Michiko’s cold. I loved that line “If you need to become an angel, I’ll become the devil”. It’s a phrase that you see in more anime (out of the top of my head, Kaleido Star also used it), but the context in this episode that it appeared in is most definitely interesting.

And it’s finally confirmed: Hiroshi’s still alive. Okay, so Michiko was drunk and sick when she saw him, but his images were somehow different from the visions she had after that.

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 15

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou



Short Synopsis: Natsume teams up with a bunny-youkai in order to get rid of an evil spirit.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
It’s really good to see this series back again, and I’m interested whether the second season will be able to top the first season. Unlike shows as Shikabane Hime and Birdy the Mighty, there’s no real clear distinction between the first and second season of this series, but this really is the point where the show is going to have to evolve.

I think that the episodic storylines have already hit their height with the Hotaru-episode, but there’s still plenty of potential left for when a big storyline appears, so I’m keeping my eye out for Natori. Until that happens, I’m going to enjoy the stories as they flesh out Natsume and Nyanko-sensei, along with the setting. And laugh at Nyanko-sensei’s antics, of course.

This episode definitely showed a side of the world that we haven’t seen yet: where do evil spirits come from? This episode shows that most spirits start out without any malicious intentions, but some sort of grudge can turn them into evil one. Just as how one act of kindness can have a huge impact on them, they’ll never forget an act of malice and these acts influence them very strongly. I’m not exactly sure about the difference between regular Youkai and things like Nyanko-sensei, who behave very un-youkai-like, though I think that that’s because he’d had a lot more to experience, whereas most Youkai simply stay at one spot.

This episode may have been a bit too cheesy at the end and one-sided on the environmentalism messages, but nevertheless Gen was an adorable character, especially since he spent most of the episode in the form of a snow bunny. ^^; I liked the comment that Nyanko made at the end of the episode: youkai aren’t as fragile as you’d think.

I’m not sure whether I’m going to continue with HorribleSubs’s releases for this series. Sure, it’s nice to watch this show with subtitles for once, but I miss Natsume Yuujinchou in HD. ^^;

Michiko e Hatchin – 11

by psgels, posted in Michiko e Hatchin



Short Synopsis: Hatchin gets used to life within the circus, when she meets a certain Michiko
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Seriously, Hatchin is an awesome character. At this point, I don’t care what kind of direction this series is going to go into: when she’s around, it’s going to be lots of fun either way. Another thing I like so much about this series is that it rapidly switches from hilarious comedy to powerful drama, and especially this episode was good at that. The news reporter in this episode was hilarious, even though he was trying to deal with such a serious topic as child exploitation.

It seems that Michiko didn’t have to search long for Hatchin. I’m not sure what part I missed where she found out about the circus, but I expected a lot more time to be spent on it. I’m still surprised at how long it took for the two of them to make up: normally things like these are resolved in one episode, in extreme cases two. The way they made up was also delightfully far from cheese, and it felt really true to their characters.

In the end, Michiko’s pride and Hatchin’s responsibility just remain adorable. I loved it when Michiko found out that Hatchin preferred her to the fat lady Michiko, and Hatchin, even though she despises Michiko, did rescue her in the end. There are a lot of things in this series left unsaid by the two of them, but that’s also what makes them such great characters to watch.

Some quick first impressions: White Album, Minami-ke Okaeri and Zoku Natsume Yuujin-chou

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou, Some Quick First Impressions, White Album

White Album

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has an idol as girlfriend.
Chance of me Blogging: 60% (It’s actually good… wut?)
Saying that shounen romance isn’t my favourite genre is an understatement, so when I learned that this series would revolve around a guy whose girlfriend was an idol, I definitely didn’t expect much from it. And yet at the end of the episode, I was convinced that this show has easily the best first episode of the new season so far. This show isn’t as much a romantic comedy, but rather as how you deal with being away from your girlfriend. What I especially liked was, however, the male lead: he has a personality, he works part time at a local cafe: the guy actually has a life! That’s something that’s really rare in this genre, and this show reminds me a lot of True Tears. Despite the whole idol-bit, this series feels refreshingly down to earth and true to life.

Minami-ke Okaeri

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters… do various things.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (What is there to write about this series for every consecutive episode… seriously?)
Okay, so this is my third attempt at following a Minami-ke series, after having failed both previous ones. It’s not like this is a bad series, but more like other series were more interesting at the time (but then again, if I dropped Dragonaut back then I could have easily kept watching this series…). In any case, this season actually looks like I might last until the end. It felt quick and fresh, and the fast pacing never gave me the chance of getting bored. For once Haruka also felt like more than just a clone of your typical elder sister that you see IN 100 OTHER SERIES ALREADY. The good thing about this series is that you can just join in at any episode you’d like without missing much, and this episode proofs that.

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets one of Nyanko’s old friends
Chance of me Blogging: 100% (Hell yeah!)
This season lacks originality! More than half of the new shows so far have been sequels… what happened to original content? Nevertheless, I’m really glad to see this series back, and it already starts off with a very strong episode. Nyanko-sensei especially was a delight to watch, and the chemistry between him and Natsume gets better and better. Now all that’s left is to see whether the second season can surpass the hotaru-episode of the first season, and perhaps bring a bit of continuity to the entire story.

Porfy no Nagai Tabi Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Porfy no Nagai Tabi


Porfy no Nagai Tabi is the second series of the revival of the famous World Masterpiece Theatre franchise, a long-running collection of series based on popular children’s novels, made accessible for every age. The franchise is typically very slow paced, combined with genuine, true to life and realistic characters, and it’s a formula that’s proven itself over and over again; though it’s definitely not a series for everyone.

Like the title does suspect, this instalment is a travelling series. It consists out of roughly five arcs, each of them being completely different from the others in tone, mood, pacing and execution. It starts out as a gentle and calm slice of life series, then it turns into a dark tear-jerker, then it becomes a slow laid-back travelling-series, then a haunting fast-paced one, and the final arc yet again goes into a completely different path, making sure that the 52 episodes of this series don’t drag on.

One of this series’ strengths is that it’s absolutely masterful at building up. Every single episode is chockfull of cross-references to either past or future events, the amount of foreshadowing is huge, and yet in half of the cases you won’t recognize the foreshadowing until what they wanted to hint at has already happened. When you see something randomly happen, especially in the first quarter of the series, you can be sure that one of the later episodes uses or builds further on this.

The same goes with the characters. The amount of development that goes into Porfy and Mina is immense. The show may not have as huge or complex of a regular cast as Les Miserables, but in order to make up for that it does what it can to make the lead cast as true to life and realistic as possible, and they really succeed at that. Porfy and Mina aren’t exactly immediately likable, but as the series progresses they and the other characters become very easy to relate to, simply due to their different sides and many subtle quirks that shaped their characters.

Another strength of Porfy no Nagai Tabi is the travelling-part of the series. Especially the second half really managed to catch the essence of travelling: meeting many different people, and not knowing beforehand whether they have ill intentions or are cooperative. Everyone that Porfy runs into is different, and the contrast between the loneliness of travelling alone without knowing anybody, and talking to random people you meet on the way really works.

The weakest part of this series is around the middle, where the travel arcs are long and a bit too tedious to get through. Porfy meets the right people a bit too conveniently, and overall there are times when it just feels a bit unrealistic when Porfy gets involved in large dramas, and in the end manages to make people who originally hate each other make up again like nothing happened. Thankfully the later travel arcs fix this wonderfully, and provide a more realistic view to this.

And yes, this definitely isn’t a show for the impatient. Especially since hardly anything happens aside from building up in the first twelve episodes, you need to be able to enjoy slice of life moments if you want to enjoy this series, but that’s the case with nearly every other WMT-series: the characters are amazing, but there’s an amazing amount of time needed to flesh them all out.

Since the character-designs look fairly simple and childish, do not make the mistake to think that the graphics are all very dull and simple. Sure, the character-designs aren’t complex, but to make up for it this series has some of the most beautiful background art in all anime. For 52 episodes, the creators consistently deliver the most gorgeous landscapes full of life and detail, perfectly representing the area that Porfy finds himself in at the time: you can really see the changes as Porfy moves through Europe.

Overall, Porfy no Nagai Tabi isn’t as incredible as Les Miserables, yet it’s a wonderful series nonetheless. I really hope that these guys succeed in fansubbing this series, because it’s definitely been one of the most under-looked series of 2008. You obviously don’t want to watch this, expecting nothing but juicy plot twists, but for those who can appreciate a bit of slice of life here and there, it really is an excellent recommendation.

Storytelling: 9/10
Characters: 10/10
Production-Values: 9/10
Setting: 8/10

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 52

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi



Short Synopsis: I think we all know what’s going to happen. ^^;
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
Talk about cruel: out of all possible episodes, this one gets delayed. The BIG finish of Porfy no Nagai Tabi took bloody ages to come out on share, but I must say, that IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT! This ending did exactly what it needed to do, and even though it’s not very unpredictable, it’s just so awesome that everything went well for Porfy and Mina, after the huge amount of ordeals that they had to endure. A predictable yet wonderful ending, if I have to say so myself.

The episode starts with Porfy waking up and Rose wonders whether her eyes look funny, since she spent the previous night pretty much crying. It’s snowing outside, so Rose comments that they’re going to get a white Christmas. In the end, Porfy couldn’t find an appropriate present for her, but she’s happy enough with a bolt that he happened to have in his pocket.

Rose then figures that she needs to give Porfy his present too, and she goes out to make a certain phone call. In the meantime, the creators tease us for one final time by letting Natalie and Zaimis bump into each other. Since Natalie is carrying a heavy shopping bag, they stay together and talk for a bit. Natalie notes how she can immediately see that Zaimis is not from Paris, since he looks so bewildered at the snow (it seems to be an often-used metaphor in this series: symbolizing things you’ve never seen before). Just before he’s about to tell that he’s from Greece, Natalie’s car arrives and they say goodbye.

Tiffany meanwhile receives Rose’s phone call, where Rose says that she needs to talk about Mina. They decide to meet at the film studio. Zaimis meanwhile has immediately developed a crush for Natalie as Porfy calls out to him. Porfy then gets a bit nostalgic now that his journey is about to end, and talks about how he’s seen many places. His mother used to say that the world is big, though at the time when she said it, he didn’t really understand what she meant, but now that he’s seen so many different places and people, he understands. Zaimis also appears to have worked hard, in order to protect his mother and little sister. The two then end up arm-wrestling, which is won by Porfy.

At the studio, Rose and Tiffany meet again, and Rose is finally able to say to Tiffany that her latest film was a great one (she did watch it with Porfy, after all), and that she lost to Tiffany: even without the cheating, Tiffany simply was meant to be a star. Rose then tells Tiffany about how she met Porfy, and the two then decide to give the two of them their best Christmas presents ever.

Porfy and Zaimis then talk a bit about how big Paris is, and Porfy still rather doesn’t want to talk about what happened to Simitra anymore, compared to Zaimis who still often thinks back to the incident. This again symbolizes the difference between the two of them: they both ended up dealing with the new situation in their own way, and grew in their own ways.

That evening, Rose tells Porfy about how she’s found Mina. Tiffany’s driver then comes to pick them up, and drives them to the movie theatre where they went to see Tiffany’s movie. In there, Porfy and Mina finally meet each other again, and the episode and series ends. That was just so adorable.

This episode really showed how Porfy no Nagai Tabi may not have been as beyond awesome as Les Miserables, yet it was a wonderful series on its own. This episode lacked the aftermath that closed off Les Miserables so well: we never get to see what happens after the two meet again: it’s left up to our imagination, but nevertheless the reunion between the two was very fit for a climax of this series. I’m only bitter due to the lack of Alecia, but that’s just personal preference.

Speaking of fanboying: the trailer for Konnichiwa Anne was pasted at the end of the episode, and I have to say that Anne looks AWESOME! April 5th can’t come soon enough!

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 51

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi



Short Synopsis: The final bit of build-up before the big climax!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
Well, so it really looks like the creators planned to reunite Porfy and Mina at the very last episode from the beginning. Ooh! It’s going to be epic!

The episode starts as Porfy is very glad to meet up with his old friend again (who changed significantly, actually. In fact, Porfy’s character-designs have also very subtly changed throughout the series). As it turns out, Zaimis has managed to win an international competition that’d allow him to study music in Paris (if I understood correctly). He asks about what happened to Mina, after which Porfy answers that he might have found her, and shows him the poster. Zaimis wants to see the movie to check for sure.

After the movie is over, Porfy still doubts whether it was really Mina, but Zaimis is utterly convinced that she’s the one, and that Rose was the one who was wrong. Porfy refuses to believe that, and figures that maybe it was Amelie who made a mistake. Porfy then introduces Zaimis to Rose, taking him to her apartment. She’s been waiting for him, actually. It also seems that Porfy has written a lot about Rose to Zaimis, so he’s already heard about her. He tries to convince Rose that it was really Mina who he saw, but then she starts yelling and leaves.

Zaimis then suggests to confirm it once more. Instead of leaving it to rose, he plans to go along with Porfy to the movie studios without letting Rose know. Porfy is a bit puzzled as to why he has to keep it a secret for her, because he still doesn’t suspect that he lied to her. Mina meanwhile is in awe at the huge Christmas tree that Tiffany had planted in her back garden (that’s rather cute, ending the series at Christmas).

The next day, Porfy tries to find an excuse of getting out on his own. It almost backfires, since Rose offers to go along with him to show Zaimis the city of Paris, but luckily she realizes that the two of them haven’t met for a while. She then gives Porfy some money, and asks whether he’d like something for a Christmas present. Porfy really doesn’t have anything he wants, aside from meeting with Mina.

Because of this, Porfy is late and has to apologize to Zaimis, who avoid the question of why Rose know about their little trip. At the movie studio, they face the same problem as before: the annoying gate keeper. In the end Porfy gets in by letting Zaimis distract the guy so that he can sneak behind a large prop. In the studio, Porfy accidentally meets someone who takes him for someone who works at the place, and ends up accompanying him, carrying boxes.

The next person Porfy meets is a guy who mistakes him from yet another someone who has fallen in love with a certain actor, and managed to sneak in (apparently, the guard hasn’t been doing his job that perfectly). He doesn’t know Porfy, but he does know Amelie. Amelie then tells Porfy the same that she told Rose, and also how she told Rose about Mina. This is where Porfy realizes that Rose lied to him.

When Porfy returns, his sad look first makes Zaimis think that it was indeed a misunderstanding, but instead Porfy is wondering why Rose lied to him. Mina meanwhile is asked the same thing as Porfy was earlier: what would she like as a Christmas present. Obviously, she only wants to meet Porfy. ^^;

That evening, Rose returns and is shocked to see Porfy in a room without lights. Porfy then says that he’s met Amelie. He first believes that it was because of Tiffany, but then Rose tells him the truth, while crying. That she doesn’t want Porfy to leave. After that the episode ends.

There’s only one downside to this whole final arc: NO ALECIA! Apart from that, it’s been such a creative and solid finale for this series. I’m also really surprised. I originally believed that the creators were planning to turn the finale into an even bigger tear-jerker than the earthquake-arc, but instead they’ve chosen for a much more quiet pacing, that instead is building up to the two of them finally meeting again. After the very dark episodes of Porfy’s journey in France, I really never expected this.

And yeah; so what if the creators are recycling their old background art with different colour filters run through them! They still look freaking awesome!

Michiko e Hatchin – 10

by psgels, posted in Michiko e Hatchin




Short Synopsis: Satoshi plans to hand Michiko over to the police.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
Wow.

I must say, that I’m really impressed by this episode. The huge intensity of this episode was amazing, considering it’s finally showing the development of the past nine episodes. The entire episode was really intense, and formed a huge contrast with the heart-warming previous Hatchin-episode. On top of that, the art looked better than ever in this episode.

I also really appreciated the bit of background about the time when Hiroshi and Satoshi met each other. They’re really fleshing out these characters, and I can’t wait to see the second half of this series. According to MyAnimelist, this series is going to be only 22 episodes, but I want to wait for other sources to confirm that before believing it. The problem with MyAnimelist and especially its episode numbers is that they just take any rumour, without checking whether it comes from a valid source.

Heh, I remember how I compared this series to El Cazador when I first saw it. How wrong I was to assume that. The beatings that Michiko received in this episode were downright gruesome, and nowhere near the cheerful tone that El Cazador brought us. I’ve probably said this before, but damn, that OP is misleading!

Atsuko’s change of heart may have been a bit too sudden, but at least I can understand it, having been betrayed by her superiors like that. I just think that she was a bit too burned on catching Michiko in order to just forgive her and let her escape.

I also think that there’s much more to Hatchin than her being a simple random girl. On top of that, we’re still not sure whether Hiroshi lives or not. Satoshi is convinced that the guy died at the bus accident, and yet Michiko seems convinced that he’s still alive somewhere. But then again, that could also be simple lovesickness.