Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense

xxxHolic – 27

by psgels, posted in xxxHolic


Before I start with the regular entry: I’ve decided to not blog Toshokan Sensou this season. I just couldn’t find anything to praise it for that other series this season didn’t do better, and the female main character already got annoying after the second episode. I don’t know, but it feels a bit too mainstream for Noitamina.

In any case, back to the latest episode of xxxHolic, and what an excellent episode it was! The second season of xxxHolic is really much darker than the first one, but it makes full use of the fact that the first season fully fleshed out the different characters. The Vestal Sprite was kind-of a strange character in the first season, who never really got anywhere, and yet her character developed so much during this episode.

Watanuki also really shined in this episode. His show-off against the spider queen had me on the edge of my seat. One thing that I do hope gets explained in the next episodes is what it means to lose half of your eye. Does your vision get blurry? Can you only see one part of it? What are the disadvantages of giving away half of your right eye that made Yuuko take so much time in suggesting that option?

Himitsu ~The Revelation~ – 02

by psgels, posted in Himitsu ~The Revelation~


I’m amazed. I’ve now seen most of the second episodes of the major series that aired this season, apart from Kaiba, Toshokan Sensou, Nijuu Mensou no Musume and Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, and without a doubt Himitsu has been the best series of the season so far, and Kaiba is going to have to be really good in order to top it, but even RD, Kurenai, xxxHolic and Amatsuki didn’t match up to the awesomeness that have been the first two episodes of Himitsu.

The storytelling in this series is absolutely amazing. We first get a bit of background on the main character. He’s clearly a rookie (he still lives with his sister and parents), and he still needs to get used to the idea that he’s invading the privacy of the people he investigates. We then switch to the investigation of the murder of the president of America. The only clue (we don’t even get to see the face of the murderer) is a strange picture he shreds, just as he’s about to die. What is this picture, and why didn’t he want anybody to see it?

The irony is of course obvious: it’s the only clue that the investigation-department has, and they’re basically trying to find something that the president wanted to keep secret at all costs, even after his death. The rest of the episode explores this guy’s life as the investigation department tries to find the moment in his life where he got the picture. I think this post by Iwa ni Hana sums up why I love this series so much:

“That, ladies and gentlemen, is the typical pattern that Shimizu-sensei’s stories will follow. The first half typically presents the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and in the second half the action accelerates faster than you can react, and finally the story is brought to a climax and ends like a bang on a forceful note.”

It really makes me wonder why it’s taken this long for one of the artist’s mangas to get an adaptation. Especially considering how she (he?)’s been writing for decades now. You can also really hear that the music has been done by the same guy who worked on the music of Death Note. I’ve said it before, but it’s great to see so much great soundtracks this season.

Before this season started, I expected that my favourite animation-studio of this season would end up being Production IG, but now that I’ve seen every new show, I realize how wrong I was: this really is THE season for Madhouse. They made a great move to transfer all of their bad staff to Kamen no Maid Guy, because their other series really shine so far (okay, perhaps Chi’s Sweet Home shines a bit less than the others, but even that one turned out better than I expected). Before the season started, I was a bit angry at Madhouse because they kept screwing up their adaptations. Claymore’s ending got screwed up, Shigurui missed its entire final chapters in the anime, Dennou Coil’s ending was rather rushed, Saiunkoku Monogatari ran into budget problems for its final episodes, Kaiji disappointed, and let’s not start with Nougami Neuro and Devil May Cry.

But with this season, they really have the potential to redeem themselves. It first started when Mokke suddenly delivered an awesome ending. With Himitsu and Chi’s Sweet home being concepts where you can’t screw up the ending, and the director of Mokke working on Allison to Lillia, the only real fear for a screwed up ending remains in Kaiba.

Some quick first impressions: Toshokan Sensou, Junjo Romantica and Kaiba

by psgels, posted in Kaiba, Some Quick First Impressions

Toshokan Sensou

With Noitamina, I just knew that this series would be worthwhile. Toshokan Sensou has proven to have the best soundtrack this season, and with Production IG, the art looks terrific. This series also smartly spent its first episode fleshing out its main characters, instead of focusing on a story-heavy start. So instead the characters already feel dynamic for when the story starts kicking in. This series has a limited time to work with, and yet it’s got quite a large premise, so this will probably be one of the most fast-paced series to come out of the Noitamina-timeslot.

Junjo Romantica

Okay, so this was a really weird combination between hilarious and disturbing. This series does have a sense of humour, and there’s some good chemistry between the characters. The only problem is that the chemistry between them might be a bit too good, because the characters wasted no time to get it on with each other. What surprises me, by the way, is that this series has the best OP song this season, strangely enough. The song is standard J-rock, but it works surprisingly well. It’ll be interesting to keep watching this series, if only to laugh at the hot passion that will erupt from it.

Kaiba

Oh my god, I can’t believe how well this series turned out! Even with the fantastic line-up that this season already has, Kaiba has delivered the best first episode of them all! This is EXACTLY the reason why I love experimental anime. Anime should be used as a medium to showcase creative ideas, not to just copy everyone else. On top of that, the mystery in this series is downright excellent. Since 2007 was so disappointing in terms of mystery, my inner-fanboy is loving all the different mystery-series that this season has offered so far! I really urge everyone to check out this series, because it’s without a doubt the most unique anime to come out this year, even taking Hakaba Kitarou in consideration. Don’t be discouraged by the childish-looking character-designs. This series is exactly the reason why simple character-designs don’t mean that the series will be for children.

xxxHolic – 26

by psgels, posted in xxxHolic


I am so glad that this series is back, if only for the banter between Watanuki and the different members of the cast. And to make things even better, this arc promises to be among the best, if not the best arc of xxxHolic yet. It’s also the longest one yet, as the original one never went beyond two episodes per arc.

Also, here’s an interesting link, with some interesting news, for those who haven’t seen it yet: http://www.xxxholicanime.net/2008/04/xxxholic-kei-13-episodes-long.php – It’s a bit disappointing to see that this series just has thirteen episodes to work with, but at least in this was it’ll be short and sweet, and there’ll be no way for it to get boring, as there seems to be enough inspiration to fill these 13 episodes.

On a side-note, I never understood why people hated the long limbs of this series. It’s not like anime-faces are the most realistically drawn anyway, with their exaggerated eyes and all, so what’s wrong with exaggerating the limbs as well? In my opinion, it’s much better than just going with character-designs in the same style of every other series.

Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 25

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


Yup, like expected: the entire success of this arc will depend on whether the final episode will deliver or not. Unfortunately, I’ve also been spoiled about it, so it’ll all depend on the execution. What I’m most curious about is the chairman himself. We know Kaiji by now and his fear is nothing new by now. But what I really want to see is the tricks up on the sleeve of this old master. He says that he’s a king and he can draw whatever he wants on a second turn, but it this just a bluff?

My guess is that he very well knew that Kaiji was cheating. I mean, what other idiot would just throw away his fingers? The guy checked out all possibilities, and probably found the second winning lot when he was checking every corner inside the box. He didn’t draw it, and instead mixed it with the other lots in order to make the gamble more “fun”, and make it last longer.

I admit that the choice to blog this series was a wrong one. During the past fall-season, I ended up blogging a lot of “wrong” shows. Shugo Chara, Suteki Tantei Labyrinth and Gundam 00 were also nice series and all, but I didn’t feel like blogging them was really interesting, especially with Shugo Chara. During the past Autumn-season, I really found out that I have the most fun in blogging a series that I can sing praises over and over about. Of course, making fun of bad series is fun as well once in a while, but you don’t want to do this for every episode. This is why the final episodes of Claymore and .Hack//Roots also felt such a chore for me to blog.

It’s the same as with Kaiji, although I don’t mean to say that this series isn’t good. This isn’t a show like Jigoku Shoujo that’s different with each single episode, so that I can have something to say for each single one of them. This is a series that is intended to be marathoned for entire arcs, just to beef you up with adrenaline for some kind of major sporting event or something.

Some quick first impressions: Crystal Blaze, RD Sennou Chousashitsu and Himitsu – Top Secret ~ The Revelation

by psgels, posted in Crystal Blaze, Himitsu ~The Revelation~, RD Sennou Chousashitsu, Some Quick First Impressions

Crystal Blaze

Tuesday evening was really my most anticipated day of the new season, so I’m really glad it’s finally arrived, and with such a start I had enough reasons to look forward to it. Crystal Blaze may be a bit rough around the edges, but it’s got definite potential. It’s already the first episode, and not once did I have any reason to look away from the screen. This episode kept me interested throughout its entire run. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen a good mystery-series, and this one might very well be it. It still needs to work a bit on its romanji, but so far, the characters have been interesting and the first episode has been among xxxHolic the best in terms of storyline this season.

RD Sennou Chousashitsu

Like expected, this episode was really solid, although there was some strangely placed fanservice here and there. In any case, the male main character probably has to be the oldest main character in an anime I’ve seen. He even spends some significant amount of screen-time in this episode as an old guy in a retirement home. It’s not the best way to attract the viewers who only like cute girls and hot buys, but I really like this idea, and this series is without a doubt the most imaginative series of the new season. In addition to that, it’s also the hardest to understand, though. Still, I’m expecting some great things from this series once it really gets on fire. One point of critique is that the main female lead feels rather out of place when you first meet her, though she quickly got less annoying as the episode progressed.

Himitsu – Top Secret ~ The Revelation

If you’re one of the people who gets sick of all the anime with teenage protagonists, then this series is a must-watch for this season. Not only is it all about adults and away from annoying teenagers, but it’s also got one of the best first episodes of this season, along with Kurenai and xxxHolic. I seriously couldn’t have expected a better start for this. The cast is so different from usual anime, and yet each member has an already engaging personality, not to mention that the main premise of this story provides so much potential. In addition, the soundtrack is among the best this season as well. Madhouse has really picked out some excellent series this season!

Some quick first impressions: Allison to Lillia, Kurenai and xxxHolic Kei

by psgels, posted in Allison to Lillia, Kurenai, Some Quick First Impressions, xxxHolic

Allison to Lillia

Ah, the first good series of the season. This episode was pretty solid; it started out as not anything special, but as it went on, it became more interesting by the minute, and this is just the first episode. You can really see the influences of both Mokke and Kino no Tabi, and yet this series goes into its own direction. It turns out that this series will be about two couples: Allison and Will, and Lillia and Treize, who have yet to be introduced. My only point of critique would be that Will’s voice-actor sounds a bit too young for his age, but that should be easy enough to get used to. Another interesting thing is that the female lead likes to ignore rules if necessary. It never really came to me, but you don’t often see people that break rules as easy as she does in anime. One thing I’m hoping for the future episodes is to explain a bit more about the politics of the country that the two main characters live in, but with 26 episodes there should be plenty of time for that.

Kurenai

Whoa! Here’s a contender for the best first episode of the season. You can really see that Brains Base (who did the animation for Baccano!) worked on this series, and the result looks absolutely gorgeous. There are hardly any still frames, characters make subtle gestures, the 7-year old girl really sounds like a young girl instead of a squeaky 30-year old voice actress and the OP has been done entirely in flash. The art style is a strange combination between that of Red Garden and Baccano, which only makes things better. The scriptwriting also is quick and witty. Here’s a potential classic, if the creators can keep up this level of quality, at least.

xxxHolic Kei

What an awesome episode to start off the second season! This episode was exactly the reason why I fell in love with the first season. Watanuki is downright hilarious, and stands miles away from your “typical high school boy”. On top of that, this series has always featured thought-provoking cases, and this episode was no exception. I won’t spoil anything, but if you liked the first season, you just have to watch this episode. Really, this series makes coming up with an entertaining storyline look so incredibly easy.

Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 24

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


When most other series build up for one big event, they usually have plenty of time with one episode that’s entirely meant to build up for that particular scene.

But Kaiji is different. Kaiji doesn’t need one episode, no. It needs three of them.

And so we’ve passed the second episode. All that’s left now is the final episode of building up, after which the episode where stuff actually happens will finally close off this series. The narrator was right: it has been a real night of lunacy, and I can expect someone to go crazy if you marathoned it entirely.

And although I admit that the pacing could have been a bit faster, I like the themes a lot. Here, people really try to outsmart each other, with carefully laid-out plans. This is much more interesting than a bunch of guys being scared to death on top of a beam that hangs 80 meters above the ground.

Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter Review – 86/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter


Shigofumi is another episodic series that takes an in-depth look at death. At first, it may seem like some strange cross between Shinigami no Ballad and Jigoku Shoujo, but it quickly finds its own style and identity to work with. The earlier episodes mostly focus on random cases, where Fumika, our lead girl for this series, delivers the final memories of a person who just died to his loved ones, while the latter episodes focus on Fumika herself, and why she ended up delivering these letters in the first place.

Shigofumi’s strength is how it’s able to deliver a quiet and engaging atmosphere, with the subtlety of a herd of stampeding elephants. One moment, you’re enthralled by the versatile characters, the next you’re freaked out by some disturbing plot twist that came out of nowhere. The interesting thing is that this series knows fully well how to combine its quiet moments with its eventful ones.

Another strength about this series is the cast of characters. The writers make sure that all the characters are likable before they start playing with them. Especially Fumika turns into a well-rounded character for such a small series. Her development is started early, and not at the semi-final episodes, which seems to be a mistake that many series seem to make.

But yeah, I mentioned that this series has the subtlety of a herd of stampeding elephants. This is in both the good and the bad way. If things seem a bit too quiet, you can bet your hat that a candle will fall over and set a house on fire, just too spice things up a bit, and the entire series is filled with these kinds of plot-twists.

The individual stories basically range from one particularly far-fetched tale of bullying, to very subtle and insightful views on death, and especially the people who have been left by them. Shigofumi definitely has its flaws, but because of this it also has its own identify. You may try, and Jigoku Shoujo and Shinigami no Ballad indeed at first sight seem similar, but you won’t find any series that’s really captured the same essence as this one. If you want a series that’s short, sweet, and yet still packs a punch, then this one could be worth to check out.

Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter – 12

by psgels, posted in Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter


And so Shigofumi has ended. Surprisingly, it didn’t go as I planned. Fumi didn’t turn into a psychotic killer at all, and she instead became surprisingly likable throughout the episode. It’s really sad that this series is so short, as it would have been able to do great things if it was allowed twelve more episodes. Shigofumi really has its own style, and I believe that it wouldn’t run out of inspiration with two seasons. Ah well, in exchange for its short length, it turned into a short but sweet series.

Basically, Mika went back into Fumi for a while and temporarily disappeared, so that Fumi would be able to lead her own life. Fumi, however, had a lot of trouble in her own life, and just wasn’t suited to be transferred to school so quickly. Everyone took pictures of her, she became paranoid, her own mother didn’t want to have her anymore. In the end, when she runs to Mikawa Kirameki’s house, Mika finally appears again, and smacks her for running away every time. While it wasn’t the best ending, it was great to see the “internal” struggle between Fumi and Mika. In the climax, it finally turned out that both of them had their own needs, but were holding back because of the other. Nice. I like it.

But why? For GOD’S SAKE WHY!? Who the heck found it a good idea to suddenly make Natsuko fall in love with Kaname? It comes from nowhere, serves absolutely no purpose, is very badly developed, and turned her entirely character into a joke. I suppose that the writers wanted to add a bit more extra tension, but that rather backfired on them, just like every umpth series that attempts such a freaking twist!

Ah, now that that’s out, I do hope that more series like Shigofumi appear. Series that create their own style, and don’t try to be like others. This really has been a series with its own identity, and even though the plot was a bit boggled up at times, I had a blast watching it.