Um. Yeah. So I did hope for more time to flesh out the characters. With that however, I did not mean to just devote an entire episode on romantic hi-jinks. That’s just boring. At least try to blend things in a bit.
So on one hand this episode was just annoying, with Yukiteru’s mother and all. It’s overdone, it’s not very good, and could have been done much better. It was full of bad cliches from your standard romantic comedy.
What also really bugged me though, was that this episode had no build-up whatsoever. We just have a bunch of random hi-jinks, followed by a shot of psycho Yuno, with no attempts to build up atmosphere. The same goes for the new diary holder. You’re supposed to introduce these characters with an air of mystery. Having a kid as the next diary holder is a surprise. It doesn’t work when you don’t build up this mysterious atmosphere around her and just have her immediately show these dolls of her that have been in the OP for ages. The problem with this show is that nearly every character is crazy. You can’t just throw in yet another crazy character and just hope that it’ll automatically work.
Rating: – (Disappointing)]]>
Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense
Mawaru Penguin Drum – 18
Yeah, this episode was another one of those “batman having tea with superman”-episodes. This episode was just amazing, as it combined the talents of two wildly different directors, Kunihiko Ikura and Shigeyasu Yamauchi, into one. The result was an episode with a ton of weird twists, strong character development and a ton of symbolism, combined with a style that is masterful at getting genuine emotions out of the characters and terrific at subtle pacing.
I can’t believe how well the two blended with each other. Tabuki really got a wonderful episode through this. Ikuhara even gave Shigeyasu Yamauchi the freedom of handling the background art much different from usual, and that too resulted in a ton of eye candy. Tabuki ended up as a great villain through this. On top of that Momoka also got a lot of depth, and the main cast also got much closer to each other. Especially the aftermath of this episode felt very intimate.
Also, the eye-catch. It just revealed another turning-point, as expected. Right now we’re in the background arc, in which all of the side-characters get the chance to show their stories and backgrounds. At the moment the only ones left are Tabuki and the parents who set everything in motion. I can only imagine what the creators have planned for after that. It’s that final arc where they really have to show that they know how to use their build-up.
Rating: *** (Awesome)]]>
Un-Go – 05
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Another excellent episode. Perhaps it wasn’t as good as the previous two episodes, but it still rocked, was well put together and very thoughtful. If only because of how it subverted a very common cliche: the big corporate bastard did it.
In this episode, even the main character got clouded by it, and the corporate bastard indeed wasn’t exactly Jesus in purgatory. He used the death of his subordinates for his personal gain and publicity and embezzled a ton of gold illegally. Normally in anime, this would be the bad guy. Instead though: he’s not a murderer. Finally we get a portrayal f these people that isn’t completely evil at its core.
Also, with the lack of time this show spends on characterization, I do have to say that it has found interesting yet subtle ways to still flesh out its main cast. This isn’t only done by making their beliefs and values a core part of each episode, but also with small things, like when Shinjuurou grabbed all the towels in the restroom. It perhaps doesn’t work as well as just showing these characters during moments when nothing plot-related is going on, but this works too.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Mirai Nikki – 05
It really feels like nearly every diary holder isn’t really interested in winning the game. I mean, so far most of them have been using their diaries to take care of personal grudges or helping in their personal lives or profession. This episode showed that both Twelfth and Fourth had no intentions to kill Ninth… even though she’s a fellow diary holder and helping a professional terrorist bomber escape in a game of life and death is rather… naive…
But yeah, this show is really about the suspense and paranoia. This episode helped to establish that you can’t trust anyone in this show. This is probably going to be very important for the future episodes, when we’re going to delve into more developed characters.
I also wonder what “good end” means in this series. I mean, a bad end in this series is very finite and clear: death. A good end however has a very vague definition, and it’s definitely not the end. For example, the way in which Yukiteru saw the corpses in Yuno’s room had nothing to do with Ninth getting captured. In fact, it seems that every diary seems to have something that it wants to accomplish, and when it does, it leads to the good end, even though you’d think that the only good ending in this show would have been to win the game. It’s heavily implied that for Yuno, a good end means to have sex with Yukiteru, but what about the others? And is there some reward involved? (To people who read the manga: these are rhetorical questions; please don’t answer them with spoilers of future chapters…).
Also, here is something I don’t get: this series’ time is valuable. From what I’ve heard, it only has barely enough time to stuff everything in just 26 episodes. So what is this show doing, wasting two minutes of each episode on these silly pointless skits? Over the course of 12 episodes, that amounts to a full episode’s worth of content there. I mean, for god’s sake use your time better. Take a look at Ben-To for example: there the next episode previews are short and concise, while still actually funny, rather than those obnoxious skits that put some of the cast way out of character.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Mawaru Penguin Drum – 17
How rare: a Penguin Drum episode devoted to build-up. Or at least, it’s promising a ton of stuff for next episode and its pacing was surprisingly quiet for this show’s standards, aside from one over the top confrontation between Yuri and Natsume. It did not lack in the plot twist department at all.
In fact, in terms of plot twists, thi episode can actually be seen as a turning point, where most of the things that we had to assume in the first half are canceled. The Penguin Drum isn’t the diary at all, and Tabuki has a very clear hidden agenda that he kept very well hidden. And heck, I just realized the parallels between Yuri, Tabuki and Momoka, and the main trio of this show. Add that to the rumors that Shigeyasu Yamauchi (the director of Casshern Sins) will be working on next episode, and yeah: I can’t wait.
I do want to say a bit about the music, though. It is very good, but in the past weeks I have been rediscovering Utena’s soundtrack, and I’m blown away by the utter difference between the two. The biggest thing is that Uterna’s soundtrack spans a whopping 7 disks in total! The creators went and composed a traditional soundtrack, and then they contacted like, three different musical groups to sing in and compose the different themes for all of the duels. This way they had a different song for every single duel in styles that evolved perfectly. Cowboy Bebob had this too.
Modern soundtracks just don’t have this. And yet, with smart production decisions this can still easily be possible. I mean, those different EDs are nice and all, but the creators could have easily used the budget they used for Triple H’s songs to actually compose songs that fit inside the series, instead of stuffing them into EDs. Having a huge soundtrack gives a lot more freedom and expression in terms of storytelling.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Un-Go – 04
Holy crap. So yeah, last week Un-Go already delivered my favorite episode of all of the new series of the Autumn Season. This week, it surpassed itself. Now this is storytelling!
This episode… it just turned everything about the previous episode upside-down. This episode was brilliantly written and delivered some amazing twists, in the same quick fire delivery of the previous number of episodes. This is also what I love about Science Fiction: there are so many different angles at which you can look at the evolution of technology. This show here is yet another completely new look at it.
On top of combining its plot with its philosophy, this episode also had those nice details, like the talking fridge that reminds you of eating more healthy foods as a poke towards those modern useless programs that exist today.
I also disagree that Un-Go’s pacing is too fast, like what happened to C. The differences between the two are subtle, but if this keeps up, Un-Go is going to end up much better. The thing with C was that it tried to flesh out its characters and develop them, while at the same time telling an epic story about money. Un-Go however is entirely focused on its storytelling and presenting its ideas and theories. It’s in essence a collection of stories, told by its characters and every single line and scene has its purpose. The result is a show with a flat cast, but an amazing sense of pacing, storytelling, twists and setting.
Oh, and on a final note: the music was on fire in this episode. More of this, please!
Rating: *** (Awesome)]]>
Mirai Nikki – 04
Okay, so now there are diaries who can turn people into zombies.
This episode pretty much continued the trend of this series and lapsed Yuno further into her psychotic tendencies. It perhaps wasn’t the best episode so far, but it still was entertaining. It’s a shame that it’s almost impossible to not get spoiled about Yuno, though. The suspense in this episode probably would have worked a lot better if it was unknown what exactly she was.
Now, I do wonder why Twelfth chose a moment in which four diary holders were at the same place at the same time to try and kill even his superior. My guess is that there is some sort of time limitation to his hypnosis diary and that he can only use the servants once or something.
Also, we’re only at episode 4 of 26, but I do hope that this show will take its time to show a bit more about all of the different characters, and who they are. At the moment, I’m still missing something from them, and they could have been a bit more fleshed out at this point, compared to other shows.
Rating: * (Good)]]>
Mawaru Penguin Drum – 16
Right after episode 14 is a popular time for characters to come with their backgrounds. I just love the way in which this episode did it, though. Natsume’s background was awesome in its presentation. It was completely over the top, but it fits this series really well. It was a really hilarious episode, and especially Natsume’s dreams were hysterical.
What’s more is that there still is order within the chaos: you could really see traits that give no mistake that she and her grandfather were related. This episode did a great job of explaining her background, her role in the story (although please: couldn’t they have gotten a younger voice actor for the young Kanba?). Also, the penguin hat isn’t dead!?
Overall, in a way I can understand where the people are coming from when they say that this show throws random stuff at the viewer. I have this same problem with most Shaft series, like the later series of Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei and Bakemonogatari: the creators there really seemed to throw in just whatever the hell they’d like based on shallow wordplay that eventually got way too predictable in its unpredictability. Penguin Drum however has for me achieved the perfect balance between chaos and order: everything is related, but the things it throws at the viewer are all very creative and imaginative, and yet all of it is meant to flesh out the characters. And the thing is that this show is continuously changing: it still has the same style and mood, but it keeps finding new ways to play with its scenarios in lots of different ways.
And granted, Utena WAS better at this. It was completely un-rivaled in how well it used its own repetition to create excellent drama. However, we have yet to reach the ending of this series. Overall it’s a bit hard to compare two series of different lengths at this point, but what I can say at this point is that Utena’s brilliance lied in how much it did with so little. At this point it too still hadn’t shown its trumps yet, but instead of trying to be the roller-coaster ride that Penguin Drum is trying to be, it really tried to go for an as elegant series as possible. And with that it ended up being un-rivaled.
Rating: *** (Awesome)]]>
Un-Go – 03
Oh, I loved this episode! In fact, I’d even argue that it was my favorite episode of all of the new series this season so far. The thing that this series has above all other shows this season, is how much details it has put into its stories and episodes. It’s incredibly creative; not just in its themes and setting, but also in how it sets up its stories.
This episode in particular was really well constructed, and it made perfect use of its time to play out; everything was perfectly foreshadowed. The characters involved were all interesting, and at the same time this series just continues to throw in interesting tidbits about its world. I like how the creators chose to evolve smartphones, and how people make use of technology after nearly the entire country has been demolished with little efforts to restore actual structures.
Smart androids are of course nothing new, but the context in this episode was excellent. I especially loved the ending of this episode. As the episode went on, I kept thinking: aren’t we nearly done yet? Why hasn’t this been resolved yet? The murder of this episode suddenly gets resolved in like 20 seconds and the episode ends. That was a very neat idea that really broke away from conventions.
Inga’s powers, I’m beginning to understand their appeal: at first sight they’re just a cheap plot device to resolve mysteries quickly, but they’re much more than that. This show really plays around with certainty: because of her, there’s always one thing that’s certain of each episode: the fact that her question will be answered in truth. It’s something that Osamu Tezuka also loved to play with.
The reason I’m a big fan of episodic series, is because they really have to create a compact and standalone story, for every single episode. They can’t just take one episode as a build-up or aftermath: they always have to be interesting and this format allows much more for experimentation than regularly paced anime. And seriously, Un-Go has been the best version of this in quite a while so far. Each episode so far has been different and very detailed. Every episode has been fun and interesting, to the point where so many details become clear only after a second watching. And in the big picture, it’s creating a very interesting post apocalyptic science fiction world, based on modern technologies. Which it then uses again as the basis for its individual stories.
This episode also was the first that wasn’t just standalone. This still was pretty much the story of one murder that got resolved at the end, but there still is the question of who originally murdered the father, and why the victim here got burned. That’s up for next week. I like this: instead of just focusing this week on build-up, the creators decided to deliver every single week, while building up at the same time.
The worst part of this series is its cast of characters. Most of the time my favorite series of a season has really dynamic characters that are fun to watch. In Un-Go however, they take a back-seat. They’re well acted… but pretty much static. They do their job so that the storytelling and setting can shine, and as long as they don’t get in the way of those, I doubt that I’ll mind them.
Rating: *** (Awesome)]]>
Mirai Nikki – 03
Okay, I can see why people said that you shouldn’t pay attention to the plotholes in this series. If you’re trying to lure a terrorist bomber out of her shell, then don’t do it in a theme park full of innocent people who can get hurt!
In the first half, you could really see that this came from the same direcor as Shuffle (I have no idea why I fully watched that show). Heck, that fanservice scene was directly copied and pasted here. Here though, it was more than just a boring waste of time, because an episode like this was really needed to take a step back. The characters were nicely fleshed out, while at the same time the plot didn’t come at a stand still because enough went on with Uryuu Nenene. And holy crap that ending!
The gore in particular was disturbing, but in this episode we got confirmed what was hinted at in the first episode: that Yuno has killed before. Heck… since there is only one way in which “Happy End” could have been interpreted: if they started to live together, there is no way in whichi that room would have been unconcealed. She actually tried to kill her new boyfriend.
It’s good suspense and makes great use of its insane cast of characters. I also do wonder a bit about Deus ex Machina’s intentions regarding Yukiteru. I mean, from the looks of it he grabbed the most psychopatic characters he could find, and handed them the future diaries. So where does Yukiteru come in? I wouldn’t be surprised if he eventually becomes some deranged mass murderer or something.
Rating: * (Good)]]>