Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense

Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou – 05

by psgels, posted in Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou



The entire theme of this week seems to be doing things against expectations. After the previous episode I expected another mystery story where Alice had to solve another case. Instead, we got this strange mish-mash of slice of life, character development and… organizing the stage for a band. I’m not sure where that all came from, but it was definitely something different for this series.

The thing with this episode is that the characters got side-tracked A LOT, however the things it got side-tracked with are actually pretty unorthodox and creative. They range from being ordered by Alice to go to the zoo, picking up a new apron, doing the laundry, meeting this strange rock guy and again: promoting this indie band. It’s a pretty whimsical episode and whether it’s good or not entirely depends on the length of this show.

The thing is, that for a 13 episode series it’s just goofing off too much. For a 26 episode series however this was some great material to flesh out the characters. It’s all going to be a matter of waiting what it’s going to be.

Now, as for the JC Staff cliches, there was a good thing and a bad thing about this episode. The good thing is that the main character isn’t just randomly running into females all the time: it’s actually nicely balanced at this point with that rock guy. The bad thing however is that for some reason beyond me, the creators are trying to make Alice into a Shana-clone! Thank God she’s a lot more eloquent than her counterparts, but it’s really getting annoying to see that JC Staff are trying to shoehorn the same bloody character in every bloody show of theirs. I keep complaining about this, because it really feels like someone took a look at the script and changed Alice to act more like every other bloody tsundere, especially after how different she was in the first episode.
Rating: * (Good)

Mawaru Penguin Drum – 05

by psgels, posted in Mawaru Penguin Drum



That was… just insane. No, seriously: this episode was completely mind-blowing. Even Utena wasn’t THIS good after just five episodes. And I know that Utena had more episodes and the strength of that series was how well it developed its characters and all, this is still something I did not see coming. This episode took the already amazing cast, and made it even better than it already was.

What especially baffles me is how the transformation scene trope is getting completely redesigned here: normally they’re the kinds of scenes that can’t be interfered. They have this formula and this formula can’t be broken. And here Ringo bloody comes and not only takes Kanba’s place, she also manages to completely turn the scene upside-down by clinging out of the hole she dropped out of and hitting Himari back by taking the penguin hat.

Which all lead to the bloody amazing chase scene of the truck and Kanba. Holy crap, this guy got some extra depth here. The direction was just amazing in how it showed how far he’s willing to go for Himari, right after the creators also brought in the fact that a) he indirectly injured his father when Himari got sick as a kid and b) the house they’re living in could be sold if they don’t have enough money. What the hell kind of a character is he anyways? On one hand he keeps flirting around with women to the most extreme degree, and yet he’s also able to get heaps of cash from mysterious sources and for some reason has grown up to be much more mature than his other brother.

The direction of the rest of the episode was also just amazing: it just kept toying around with your expectations and was full of these subtle mood-switches. The symbolism also really helped here.

And the subway messages of the previous were right again: something got stolen in this episode. I did not expect it to be the penguin hat though, and especially not the way in which it happened. The hint for the next episode… yeah. Kanba definitely borrowed his money from shady sources. Something tells me that this is really going to bite him back.

Speaking of symbolism: the cockroaches that the penguins have been exterminating up till now all died. This time they didn’t though.

And how the hell is this happening this early on in the series? The creators must either have some amazing plans, or are playing their biggest trumps first. Ah well, if this series does dull in, there’ll be enough time to rant about it later. For now I’m just enjoying what is by far the best new show of the summer season.
Rating: **** (Fantastic)

Steins;Gate – 18

by psgels, posted in Steins;Gate



One thing that we’ve never seen in this series: what happens after a D-Mail gets sent in the time-line that Okarin leaves behind? Does Okarin just split in two, where one version leaps to a different time-line and the other stays behind? I mean, this episode created a lot of drama around Rukako having to change her gender back, and yet that version of her shouldn’t notice any change and instead she’s sending a consciousness of Okarin to a different time-line. Would the time-line in this episode just result in a full fledged romance between Okarin and Rukako?

In any case, Rukako requesting a date made this episode a bit sillier than I expected. It unfortunately lead to Daru showing once again how far removed he is from reality (by far the most annoying part of this series), and unfortunately I have to admit that the reason why the creators made Rukako fall in love with Okarin was a very flimsy one. The kind you expect from a bad harem show.

The reason for the IBM5100’s disappearance however, was very good. Here I thought some big conspiracy was behind it, and it turned out to be a mere accident. It was such a key point in the story that changed everything for the worse.

Beyond that, the part few episodes have also been terrific build-up by preparing for the inevitable attempt to retract Shining Finger’s D-Mail. She’s been completely absent from the past episodes. And after that, things should only get even more interesting. It’s hard to believe that there are only 6 episodes left, and yet I feel that that could be the perfect number for this show to close off satisfyingly.
Rating: * (Good)

Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou – 04

by psgels, posted in Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou



The fourth episode is traditionally a place for either the first big climax of a series, or a silly episode meant to flesh out certain characters. This was the latte, in which the cast tries to sniff out an underwear thief.

And yeah, that could have been better, and it could have been worse. I mean, it’s obvious that a show like Kamisama Dolls is better at these kinds of scenes because it’s got an actually good comedy director, but I do like that this episode tried to be serious despite having such a silly premise. It did make the revelation of the true culprit strangely contrasting and funny.

I can understand the need for this kind of an episode: it’s good to break up the mood and show more of the characters. I’d just wish that JC-Staff would pick something other than weird fanservice. The underwear thief wasn’t really the bad part of this episode: it had this nice camp-ness. Instead the creators couldn’t refuse to bring Alice in and start making small boob jokes. That’s where it really turned into the bloody overused territory. Go for something different, will ya!?

But I digress: this was a very good episode for Min. At the end of the episode Alice delivered a very good twist to the story, and I did not suspect that the creators would bring in her father at this point. The story between the two of them is very good, down to earth and yet a bit silly, and it worked out really well., on top of asking a few more questions (why didn’t she recognize her own father).

What puzzles me though is why the creators picked Min of all people to give some real depth. Seriously, she’s the most fleshed out character at this point, having gotten two full episodes of attention. Of course, it would be great if she were just the tip of the iceberg, but that entirely depends on the length of this series. This show is one of the very few series this season of which it’s still a mystery of exactly how long it’s going to be, but Ideally you’d want 24 episodes for this thing. Especially considering how large the cast is, and how much time this episode just devoted to one of them.
Rating: * (Good)

Summer 2011 Kaleidoscope – Week 30

by psgels, posted in Steins;Gate, Summer 2011 Kaleidoscope



Nurarihyon no Mago – 30
Talk about a massive improvement here. There are the types of stories that should be slow-paced. Nurarihyon no Mago is not one of them. Another big disadvantage of the first season is how little time it spent on backgrounds, so right now this series is really catching up on that, with half of the second season consisting out of background and all. Junji Nishimura really did not fit this series: he should be busy with original stories. That’s where he really shines at. The snappy direction here is much better, especially in this episode. The art also looks much crisper. This could very well be the only actually good thing of Studio Deen this year.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Steins;Gate – 01
After many people recommended it, I re-watched the first episode of Steins;Gate and holy crap What the hell!? If you haven’t re-watched that episode by now: go and re-watch it. Don’t read the rest of this paragraph of analysis and just watch it. This episode did the opposite of what I expected and actually asked more questions than it answered. The big one is the message that Okarin sent to Daru: how the heck did that happen? How the heck did Okarin send a D-Mail when it hadn’t been invented yet? It’s going to be the key to save Mayuri, though: if Okarin never sent the message back to Daru, Daru would never have been able to warn Okarin, and CERN would never have been able to track them down. And holy crap, this show will also turn into a quest to save Makise Kurisu. I totally forgot that some version of Okarin actually tried to warn Makise Kurisu. Now… has the future Okarin created a freaking time-loop for himself? This plot just got even more amazing than it already has.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Sket Dance – 17
This arc was really strange. I really got the impression that it didn’t know what it wanted to do here: there was this huge build-up with the members of the Sket-Dan joining all different bands and having practicing for an upcoming school concert championship… and here this episode comes and throws in a bunch of illnesses and broken arms causing these bands to disband (no pun intended) immediately. It then turns into some moral life-lesson for a violinist as the three members just do the predictable and form a band themselves. I was really looking forward to see all of the different bands compete with each other, but instead this episode skipped across most of the acts for just a few seconds and the only one that we really got to see was this really cheesy J-Rock song in which Bossun suddenly revealed that he has the singing voice of a J-Pop Idol. This series always did so well in capturing school life, but to me, it felt like it didn’t really do this with the school concert. It all just felt too clean. The song that the Sket Dan performed was just too rehearsed (remember that these guys had very little time to prepare. I don’t care how much you practiced, you’re not going to get THAT good in that little time). It’s a bloody shame, because these school concerts are often very fun to watch. Especially because this one looked to be a REAL concert, unlike those silly unimpressive idol acts.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Usagi Drop – 04
Do note that I’m not guaranteeing to blog every series every single week in this kaleidoscope. This time I was merely late with checking out Usagi Drop’s episode, but there may be weeks where I just don’t have any inspiration about the latest episode. In any case, I like how the children in this series really sound like young children, rather than voice actresses trying to act really high-pitched. I also like that this episode introduced yet another single parent, with whom Daikichi can relate with. He’s by no means a perfect parent, but the tension between him and Rin is quite interesting to watch.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mawaru Penguin Drum – 04

by psgels, posted in Mawaru Penguin Drum



Okay. That was awesome!

This really sends back memories to the episode in Utena, where Nanami tried out various plans to get rid of Himemiya. It was really bizarre and hilarious from start to finish, not to mention the hilariously over the top delusions that Ringo had. Finally there’s another series who does them right!

A date going wrong is nothing new, but this episode knew that and just went with trying to create the most bizarre and over the top ways for things to fail, playing around with things like “destiny” at the same time. Now THIS is what I consider to be a good romantic comedy: one with creative jokes that doesn’t just try to regurgitate the same things over and over again with characters who are basically just morons. The direction once again was just wonderful in this episode which made it all the more fun to watch.

The chemistry between these characters is also just amazing, and even when the characters aren’t doing anything there’s the penguins who fill in to keep things interesting; because of that there’s always something going on, and then this episode also brought in that skunk. With so many penguin references throughout this series it’s hard to guess whether it’s actually important or not.

Because that’s the great thing of the symbolism in this series: this series doesn’t just list a bunch of references; it actively plays with them, like the advertisement of the opera that sparked Ringo’s fantasies turning out to be related to her love rival, the penguin pictures, or how apples and trains keep returning in the actual narrative without any kind of forced plot device. Or take the train advertisements: the previous episode pointed to being smelly, and guess what? This episode has a skunk on the loose. Logically that must mean that the next episode will feature something getting stolen. The diary, perhaps?

What’s more, I’m also impressed that this show is already building up arcs, even though the current arc isn’t over yet. This episode suddenly revealed that Kanba has made quite a number of enemies through the girls he dated, and the creators are actually planning to turn this into a major plot point. I’m still really impressed at how good the writing in this series is!
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Steins;Gate – 17

by psgels, posted in Steins;Gate



Talk abOUt a bloody moral dilemma here. Whereas the previous episode was all about Feyris, this one is all about Feyris. I had my doubts about her at first, but heck: this episode really gave her character a different twist by explaining what the message was that she sent back. Spoilers coming up.

So in order to save her father from being killed, Feyris sent a message to her father in ordedr to get rid of a bizarre coincidence that happened to her in the past. Or at least, this is what I made of it: she got kidnapped, at the same time that her father died in a crash. For some reason the kidnappers weren’t able to contact Feyris’ father in time, and my guess is that after that, Feyris probably used her inheritance to set up Akihabara.

Basically Feyris had to choose between her father and Mayuri. If she saved her father, he would still have had to deal with the kidnappers, and he would have gotten the message telling about the IBN5100. I have no idea where that one came from yet, but that is one message that will probably be impossible to erase. In any case, usually when anime pull something like this, they come with this convenient way that allows for both options to come true. Not here though: Feyris deciding to change the past back made all that happened into a bit of a dream.

I really have to praise the creators here by the way: this show isn’t spiraling out of control; it’s getting more and more entangled with itself. It’s currently trying to re-engineer the plot, to the point where the time machine never got made. This forces the creators to go back to all of the major events of the first half. Talk about an awesome plot.

by the same logic, the next episode should then delve into the gender change again. The episode ended with the IBN5100 still not present at the shrine, and this makes sense: it disappeared after the gender change, not after Akihabara’s change. We’re about to find out what the heck could have caused that to happen: why would the girl version of Ruka want to get rid of that machine?
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou – 03

by psgels, posted in Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou



And this show too breaks the Kujou-syndrome. Finally, this episode gave the male lead some character. He may not be a detective, but this episode instead established him as a con-man, and certainly something other than an idiot who just holds the others back. Instead, his main flaw is that he’s physically weak, which is something that plenty of other characters have covered here. In other words: the main cast are all filling in for each others’ weaknesses, which is a very good thing to spice things up.

On top of that, the fanservice in this episode was a lot more subtle and actually didn’t feel out of place, plus the comic relief also got better and balanced. This may seem like small nitpicking, but when it was the main flaw of the first two episodes, it’s really great to see this improve as well.

Now, I did cringe when the male lead suddenly claimed that banks could easily be hacked and all, but thankfully they realized that such a thing was impossible. That’s also quite rare in series that feature hacking: generally those seem to believe that even potato chips can be hacked. . Now, this episode did not have the most interesting villains who on top of that were dumbed down in order to make them a) believe this b) fail to overtake a high school kid dragging another high school kid around and c) not taking a lot of security measures in case something went wrong. I can forgive this for the sake of variety, though, since the first episode did have interesting villains.

I can understand using Yakuza as a villain and all, since they’re pretty much one of the biggest criminal organizations in the world and all, but the problem is that they’re always portrayed very stereotypically. Kaiji is currently one of the few series who really made them an actual threat. This is not just criticism on this episode, but on anime in general.

This is just nit-picking, though. the dialogue is still among the best of the season, and once again this episode put a ton of new information about its characters in just these 20 minutes. For variety’s sake this episode also had much less Alice than usual, which also is good to spice things up and prevent one character from standing out too much. I’m surprised at how large the cast already is in this series, but I have to say that this is a great attempt at a series with a huge cast so far. The key is to give everyone enough time to show off, while at the same time not trying to make everyone equal a la Idolm@ster.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mawaru Penguin Drum – 03

by psgels, posted in Mawaru Penguin Drum



Okay, Penguin Drum has definitely made the best first impression of the entire season. There are just so many details stuffed into it that do an amazing job at fleshing the story out. The creators really nailed the dialogue of the stalker girl. Combined with the background music they did really well in portraying a young girl in love. The stalker part is there, but subtle enough to not take over her entire character. You don’t see that often with crazy characters.

This series also does a ton of things that play around with known tropes. I mean, at first sight it’ll look like this series will be moving around from side-character to side-character, and yet the OP and ED are full of apple symbolism. Much more than what you would expect if the character was just going to disappear once her arc is over.

I also really want to praise the creative symbolism here. The apples are of course the obvious ones (not just in terms of all the images, but also in Ringo’s apple curry for example), but that cat with that fish, or that cow suit also were great, or take the ads in the train that just keep changing with every episode. And the creators just continue to stuff details into that. I really feel like no moment of this show is wasted.

On top of that though, this series has also plenty of deep points. It’s like Kanba said: how far are they willing to go in order to protect Himari? There are 21 episodes left. I really suspect that this line will come to bite him back in time. At this point the Penguin Drum is still pretty much of a McGuffin, but will it remain like that?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Steins;Gate – 16

by psgels, posted in Steins;Gate



This is one of those spoilery episodes. Spoilers I will be talking about below, so if you haven’t seen this episode yet it’s probably wise to just close this window and watch the episode. This line is to make sure that those spoilers don’t show up in blog aggregators.

I’m of course not talking about the identity of Suzuha’s father: Daru. I think it really was clear with the name of the time machine: if Okabe was really Suzuha’s father, then it’d have a really fancy and screwed up name, and yet her father just had to be an important character. I still think that Daru’s voice actor was a bit of a mis-cast. There was this one line where he tried to act cool, but instead sounded more like he does usually. Overall he just sounds strange, in a way that he’s forcing a different voice from his usual range a bit too much.

In any case though, what really struck me about this episode was Suzuha’s death, and how she failed to change the future for more than one percent. Throughout the entire scope of Steins;Gate, the concept of travelling to the future has never been hinted as plausible, and this episode really confirmed that it’s a one-way ticket. On top of that she also gave really strong background to the landlord.

I’m also fascinated at the complication that this has for the future. Especially since this episode was purposefully really vague on what else has changed: what happened to Makise Kurisu? What happened to the IBM5100? I mean: what was the reason why Mayuri’s death was evaded? I see three possibilities:
1. John Titor II never existed and he never gave Okabe the inspiration to experiment with time travel.
2. The message that Okabe received from himself scared him really badly and made him decide to abandon the time machine research.
3. Makise Kurisu never got involved and therefore the time machine is currently different.

I really suspect that a lot here is connected to each other. Suzuha travelled back in time, pretending to be John Titor probably was the cause that Makise Kurisu became a lab member. Interestingly, what would have happened if Okabe never went back in time to where Makise Kurisu was alive, back in that first episode? That also would have been a big setback for CERN. It’s also interesting how the time machine really seems like something that Daru would have built: one that focuses on sending stuff back to the past. It was Makise Kurisu’s influence who suggested sending thoughts back in the past, which so far turned out to be by far the most convenient time machine. I also suspect that that’s the reason why CERN was so easily able to take over the world.
Rating: ** (Excellent)