Category: Kaleidoscope

Ah screw it, I’ve got so much to catch up to when I get back that I’m just going to combine all episodes that air in the last two weeks of the season into one post. A wrap-up will follow once I finish everything.

#1: Phi Brain – 50: Well, colour me surprised. That was actually really good. Seriously, this was a terrific conclusion that wraps everything up and delivered a really heart-warming conclusion for Freecell. The art was also much better than usual with the cell shaded detail. Congrats Phi Brain, you redeemed yourself there. – 6/8 (Awesome)

#2: Polar Bear Cafe – 26: So this was the episode to close off the first half of Polar Bear Cafe. Since episode 25 dealt with the past of Polar Bear and Grizzly, I was wondering how the creators would follow up with that in orderbring a good end to the past half year. Well, they did so with the best episode since the Penko episode. The second half of the episode in Grizzly’s Cafe had me completely in stitches. This show can really be brilliant when it wants to; I haven’t laughed this hard in months. – 6/8 (Awesome)

#3: Hunter X Hunter – 47: For this episode for the first time in quite a while I checked back on the same episodes in the 1999 series. I shouldn’t do that anymore. The differences again stood out way too much, and unfortunately, the thing is that the voice acting and animation still is better. I also now know why: the 2011 series has a lot of voice actors who keep doing one hammy voice over and over again, while this was more restrained and balanced in the 1999 series: the actors knew when to be subtle and when to raise their voice. Those differences unfortunately undermine the actual story and the fact that what happened in this episode was really awesome. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#4: Kokoro Connect – 12: And with this, the third arc already is better than the second one. It’s much more than jsut people yell at each other, and two members of the cast definitely showed some depth to their characters, and were able to overcome some of their weaknesses. Very well delivered, also making this show one of those series in which romance is something that can change. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#5: Phi Brain – 49: Finally! One episode before the end we finally get to see the meaning of Nonoha pulling her hair down; it’s about time! And really: this was an excellent episode with its focus on conflicting emotions and Freecell’s character. I’m very glad that he ended up the final villain here, because this would not have worked with that other guy still around. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#6: Saint Seiya Omega – 25: Whoa, I thought that this was going to be the climax. Instead this series makes three characters come to terms with their past. A pleasant surprise indeed, especially considering the charms with which it did it. The acting has really improved over the course of the series here and I’m beginning to like the cast more and more. That’s a sign of good character development, although I’d wish that this show cut some of its early episodes to make them not such a pain to sit through… – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#7: Polar Bear Cafe – 25: We’re near the halfway point of the series (I found out about that very recently), and it shows. This episode shows a lot of new things about the cast. The first half was about the interests of the different characters, most notably Penguin and his painting hobbies (which were quite hilarious), the second pulled the adorable card by showing Polar Bear and Grizzly when they were young. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#8: Kokoro Connect – 11: So the third arc has started, and it has been revealed what the characters are going to have to suffer through next. And I have to say that this fits much more than the second arc. The second arc was too direct, and in the end it was hard to really use it well without descending into melodrama. Here however, the way in which everyone gets turned into kids has a much more indirect lead to drama. It brings up some great things about the past of the cast and it also forces the cast to look at what they were, and how they changed. That’s good, now keep it up! – 5/8 (Great)

#9: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 24: The big climax in which the creators just go and throw as much action involving weird powers as possible. It was basically just one whole episode of fighting. It was quite entertaining, albeit that with this the meaning of the individual fights was lost a bit. Still, I have to admit that I enjoyed the baseball team and the chaos during the busiest part of the episode when a ton of different characters were involved. Also: Aoi’s contribution to the episode: threatening to actually do something. There’s your main character. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#10: Phi Brain – 48: L33t h4x0rz episode that made no bloody sense, but was fun. Background was solid, nice plot twists. Looks to be a fun ending, but how on earth did this get a third season? – 4.5/8 (Good)

#11: Saint Seiya Omega – 24: So after all the build-up of needing to find someone who masters the thunder element in order to break the final ruin… someone who has that conveniently shows up right at the exact moment. I mean come on, you could at least have shown the cast search a bit before running into her. It’s not like this show is hard-pressed for time or anything. After that though, some pretty good character development on Eden and Aria made up for this. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#11: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 23: A very, very sentimental episode that was supposed to be the climax for two of the big romances in the series. It was nice I guess, but it could have been more. Overall, I’m not too impressed with how Horizon decided to handle its huge cast. It doesn’t come together quite as well and none of them really has much depth or stands out anymore, and that is quite a shame considering the wide variety in characters. – 4/8 (Nice)

#12: Hunter X Hunter – 48: Back to Gon and Killua again, a fairly dull episode, though it did have interesting information about appraising items… that I already watched before once. I remember again how these things also tended to break up the mood in the 1999 series. – 3.5/8 (Enjoyable)

#13: Tari Tari – 12: One thing that could have improved the past episodes is by having people other than the main characters motivated to keep the school festival going. Like what was stated before: a lot of clubs have passionate people who like what they’re doing. This sudden twist that they’re all too scared or unmotivated to do something… it doesn’t really work and feels rather forced. The stereotypically evil corporate businessman behind the whole plan didn’t really make things better. – 3.5/8 (Enjoyable)

#14: Tari Tari – 13: So it had it coming that the big climax of Tari Tari would be a musical singing number, and with this, we’ve finally gotten to the ending. Unfortunately though, the creators really rushed through that song there. Instead of taking its time and delivering something heartfelt, they turned into a montage! That’s now that I signed up for. It turned this whole ending into a rather cheesy climax, and the epilogue that showed how they all moved on was just too little to make up for that. Tari Tari definitely had potential, but unfortunately it didn’t really realize this. Have more guts dammit. – 3.5/8 (Enjoyable)

#1: Hunter X Hunter – 46: It’s as I hoped: the creators really nailed Uvogin here. He’s not just your average strong guy, because in this episode he really showed that he also has a pair of brains that he can use. In the meantime Gon and Killua make their appearance again. While they definitely aren’t the stand-out characters of this arc, without them the parts with Kurapica and the Spider Troupe wouldn’t stand out so much. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#2: Kokoro Connect – 10: And with this the second arc of Kokoro Connect ends. To be honest, I liked the first arc better: it was sharper and lead to better drama, and the climax here felt like it would have happened even when Heartseed came up with something completely different (although it definitely sped up that process). Still, Inaba got a great conclusion to her feelings here. – 5/8 (Great)

#3: Saint Seiya Omega – 23: Saint Seiya isn’t the most complex series. This episode again was focused on a bunch of simple fights. But to be honest, it did get its build-up right, which is why I’m enjoying it quite a bit now compared to the first half. This episode was about Soma’s story again, and I must say that I like the direction that it’s heading into, now that we get a bit more detail in how he looks at his own quest for revenge. – 5/8 (Great)

#4: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 22: A very enjoyable episode for this series. The insert songs were quite well used, and there were quite a few well delivered climaxes. The creativity also had a bit of wit added this time, which helped to differentiate this episode with the other episodes of Horizon (as creative as it is, creativity for the sake of creativity stops being interesting at a certain point; you have to do things with it). – 5/8 (Great)

#4: Polar Bear Cafe – 24: Ideally, Polar Bear Cafe should have been shorter. I’d say 20 episodes was fine, because then the creators could have skipped the boring parts and the good parts could have been more concentrated. The first half of the episode was nice and had some good laughs, but wasn’t good enough to keep my attention. The second half with the sports festival though was hilarious. This show again takes something completely normal, and puts talking animals in it and lets the chaos unfold, and this was one of the best examples of that. – 5/8 (Great)

#5: Tari Tari – 11: Um… okay. So this was supposed to be Tanaka’s arc. And what did he end up doing? He drew badly and accidentally saw the panties of one of the female cast members. Nothing about badminton whatsoever, there was nothing about his future or his past, and instead this show went on with this bafflingly random and forced twist about the school. Beyond how bad that twist was, what I really don’t like about these past episodes is how I get more and more the feeling that Tari Tari is looking down upon its male cast. They’re just there for comic relief and instead it’s up to the females to be all heart-warming. I mean, the past episodes have systematically avoided any kind of serious depiction of them in favor of comic relief, even though this was supposed to be their point to shine. PA Works, I expected better of you. – 3/8 (Mediocre)

#1: Hunter X Hunter – 45: God, this only reaffirms that Hunter X Hunter has the single best storyline out of any shounen series I’ve seen. This episode was entirely dedicated to Uvogin and the unique situation he was in. On top of that, the spiders all have a great chemistry together. Next season I’m very likely going to cover this show weekly again. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#2: Kyosogiga – 01: God, Kyosogiga is good. And with episodes that only take up ten minutes, it’s extremely accessible to watch. This first episode details the past of the female lead, but what makes it stand out is how well it is directed, combining both its dialogue with its animation to show various moments in her childhood. Not to mention the characterization, who really manages to nail her as this spunky yet innocent kid, especdially taking the first OVA into account. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#3: Polar Bear Cafe – 23: That new ED is awesome. As for the actual episode: the first half was utterly hilarious, the second half didn’t work for me. It had a lot of food jokes based on obsessively saving money, but I didn’t find them that funny. Hamda’s romance however is getting better and better in the way that every single animal is poking fun at him. – 5/8 (Great)

#4: Kokoro Connect – 09: Interesting episode this week. It was mostly about resolving things, and that indeed was the highlight of this episode, seeing the different characters talk out their issues with each other. The oddball turned outto be Inaba, who had a bit of building up for later going on. – 5/8 (Great)

#5: Saint Seiya Omega – 22: Yet again a great episode from Saint Seiya, this time about the ninja. Sure, it’s simple and all, but it worked surprisingly well, especially considering it was about completely different characters this time since the party split up. – 5/8 (Great)

#6: Phi Brain – 47: Well, the climax has begun and Klondike actually did something. I’m glad taht eh didn’t wait for the last possible moment. However, with this the focus on “saving” the villains has pretty much disappeared and this show has turned again into “defeat the villains”. Can they make that work for the climax? – 4.5/8 (Good)

#7: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 21: Horizon’s cast is HUGE. But did it make good use of it? Well, this episode had a lot of build-up, plus the climax for two characters who I believe we saw eight episodes ago. It was this dramatic climax about sacrifice, but what interested me the most in it was its context in the story, and not these actual characters. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#8: Tari Tari – 09: Hmm, this is an episode that I missed amongst last week’s slew of OVA releases, apologies for that. This starts the arc for Wien-kun. But really: is this arc actually about him? I mean yeah, he likes sentai shows and all, but we hardly see him do anything. Most of the organization is done by the girls and he doesn’t really seem to have any problems that he needs to overcome… – 3.5/8 (Enjoyable)

#9: Tari Tari – 10: Well… so much for Wien then… he got a total two minutes to shine, and the rest of this episode was about something completely different. We didn’t really learn anything new about his character, he didn’t really overcome a problem of his, he didn’t really gain any depth. I mean, it was fun how they captured that pickpocket and the vice principal suddenly turning tsundere was forced, but had a few charms, but nevertheless this was a missed opportunity. Are they also going to ignore the tennis guy’s story like this? – 3.5/8 (Enjoyable)

#1: Natsuiro Kiseki OVA: Oh my god. This OVA was just seven minutes long, so not a lot of stuff happened in it. But I really have to say to every fan of Natsuiro Kiseki: WATCH THIS. You’ll understand why once you do. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#2: Nazo no Kanojo OVA: You know what? This actually was a better conclusion that the one of the TV-series. whereas Milky Holmes below was just a random alternative story, this one continues where the series left off and develops the characters even further. It does introduce a bunch of ghosts from out of nowhere, which was a bit out of place, but the effect it had on the characters made it worth it. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#3: Kokoro Connect – 08: This was the best episode of the second arc so far. Up till now things were just build-up with a lot of angst, but this one carried it further to the people around the main cast, and the characters started thinking on how to solve their problem and deal with it, rather than running away from it. It definitely made all characters stand out more, even Yui, who didn’t make an appearance. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#4: Phi Brain – 46: With this episode we really have a side-cast in which the members all stand on their own. They’re no longer part of that group of side-characters standing between the male lead and the main villain, but they all developed differently throughout the series. I have to say, after how repetitive this series used to be, they definitely made up for it with these latest episodes and their variety. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#5: Polar Bear Cafe – 22: This really was another hilarious episode. The first half had Polar Bear at his trolling best, while the second carried the Penko story further, and both really made me laugh. Polar Bear Cafe still misses something at this point, though: a great ending. If they can manage that I’ll be entirely happy with this series. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#6: Space Battleship Yamato 2199 – 02: Oh god, no: not another Supernatural that releases batches of six episodes at once! That’ll be a pain to cover. Anyways, this was great build-up. The storyline is still the same as the original Yamato-series, but with a ton of stuff added and updated to modern standards. Think of a bunch of new characters, extra detail in showing how everyone prepares for such an epic journey ahead. Oh, and the soundtrack is still godly. – 5/8 (Great)

#7: Saint Seiya Omega – 21: In this episode Mars reveals his evil plans: he wants to recreate the world because it is rotten. It’s a bit unfortunate that he doesn’t explain exactly why it is rotten… Either way this was a training episode that was meant to bring Kouga on his feet again and at the very least the atmosphere of this episode was rock-solid. I have no idea who that cameo was, but he definitely convinced me that he was what was needed to get Kouga to stop angsting. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#8: Dantalian no Shoka OVA: I’m not sure why, but this week has a lot of OVAs released. Dantalian no Shoka’s OVA is the most conventional of the bunch: it’s just another episode indistinguishable from the TV-series. It’s neither the best nor the worst story of the series, and the atmosphere still is as good as I remember it to be. So yeah. It’s a nice watch if you liked the series, though not really a must. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#9: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 20: I just realized: did Tori actually do anything this season? I mean, his charm in the first season was that he was completely different from the rest of the cast, yet was forced to stand in the center of everything. Here he just runs around naked while everyone else solves all of the problems. – 4/8 (Enjoyable)

#10: Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – Alternative One: Wtf… just, wtf. I was looking forward to this one, being a fan of the TV-show and all, but this one really took me by surprise: it actually takes itself seriously. Honestly: this episode was what Tantei Opera Milky Holmes would have been if they didn’t put effort into making a premise that stood out, and if they didn’t throw in that hyperactive nonsensical storytelling and just went with a conventional direction. There now is a male lead as well, for some bizarre reason. This just shows how easily Milky Holmes could have sucked, with a clichéd set-up, stupid mysteries and unremarkable dialogue. This OVA definitely was not good, but it reminded me why I became a fan of the TV-series. – 3/8 (Mediocre)

Edit: ah, that explains: the creators for this short are completely different. This episode didn’t have the original director, but instead we have the director of Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel. Things make a lot more sense now.

#1: Hunter X Hunter – 44: This really was the single best episode of the 2011 Hunter x Hunter series. THIS is why I kept watching through the first arcs despite my issues. And tho think that we’re not even near the best parts yet! This really was unique in a shounen-series how they handled the battle and especially the aftermath with Uvogin, this is really where the creative powers and uses of those powers start to appear. And in most series, they would be completely overpowered, but Hunter X Hunter managed to balance them out in a really good way. – 6/8 (Awesome)

#2: Saint Seiya Omega – 20: Holy crap! This really was the second stand-out episode for Saint Seiya omega: the director personally oversaw the episode direction here, the character-designer personally directed the animation, and it really shows. The fight scenes were short, but really powerful, the animation was really expressive and the build-up to the end of the episode was just perfect. What happened in this episode was on hindsight not that special, but damn: the execution made it work so well! – 6/8 (Awesome)

#3: Kokoro Connect – 07: It’s interesting: the climax of the first arc of this series may have been a bit contrived, but it is getting used here really well: without it this episode would have been completely different and everyone would just have hidden in their room much more easily. The rest of this episode consisted out of everyone blurting out attacks at each other with a lot of drama being created from that. The most interesting part ended up being the effect that it had on the different characters. – 5/8 (Great)

#4: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 19: This episode was all about politics, a good change of pace and I actually liked the ideas that the characters had, even though they remain in the veins of this show of not making any sense. This actually was a good change of pace, because I had gotten a bit tired of the constant action. Unlike that, the dialogue and diplomacy has gotten far from boring in this series. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#5: Phi Brain – 44: Well, “it” has finally happened, although it was mostly meant for build-up here. Something interesting is going on here though: at that point where this show started to do the whole “four episodes in a row about the same puzzle”, my suspense of disbelief got completely broken. At this point it has really recovered again. There were some things in this episode that just didn’t make sense, but I didn’t really care about them, and instead I was much more interested in Kaito and how he is trying to save Freecell. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#6: Polar Bear Cafe – 21: The first half of the episode was standard panda trolling, brought up by Lama’s antics. In the second half… things got a bit weird. We finally get an episode dedicated to Panda’s little sister, but the way in which it did it was just surreal, even for this series’ standards. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#7: Tari Tari – 08: This week showed the conclusion for Sawa’s story. It was nice, but also a bit forced in how it solved everything. The lead-up to it was good, and Sawa has definitely gotten fleshed out after this arc, but I’m still missing something from Tari Tari. So far the only episode that really stood out was episode 2. Aside from that I’m getting a bit of a “been there, done that”-feel from it. It’s still charming and enjoyable, but I get the feeling that it could have been more. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#1: Hunter X Hunter – 43: This is looking really good. Beyond the hardcore action with a lot of gore that showed just how much of a threat the Spider troupe is, the creators also made sure to show the other side of the coin: the mafia. The come into action immediately, they track down the spider troupe immediately and they put their best men on the job. Take that, generic evil organization! It’s great to see Kurapica&co as just a small part of that. Oh, and my inner fanboy is jumping up and down because they got a certain character right. I’m not going to say which character for spoilers’ sake though, but seriously: this is the point at which this series has set itself apart from all other shounen series. Except the first Hunter X Hunter, of course. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#2: Kokoro Connect – 06: This was the start of a new arc. The body swapping is gone, and they returned with something just as diabolical. And again, it really lead to some excellent chemistry between the characters. It was build-up, but the build-up was really good. – 5/8 (Great)

#3: Phi Brain – 43: Yes, finally Nonoha actually does something. Or at least, she doesn’t really do anything in the end but at least she gets some things out of Freecell, who got hit with the “I’m going to become more evil”-card. It’s good to finally see this happen though, although I’m still having trouble to sympathize with the villains due to those rings of them. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#4: Saint Seiya Omega – 19: This episode was surprisingly good. The action flowed well, the story around Ryuho delivered and the music also contributed a lot. It also helped that Kouga was really in the background so that he couldn’t just win the fight with his deus ex machina powers. Also that Shiryu guy must have been a nice treat for the fans of the original series. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#4: Tari Tari – 07: So this time it’s the time for Sawa to tell her story, and this time it’s about her future as a horse archer. It’s charming, although Konatsu in the background still is rather annoying even when the spotlight isn’t on her. – 4/8 (Nice)

#5: One-Off OVA: Well, this is what you get when you pair up Sato Junichi with the guy who adapted Kanokon: the former is trying to tell a charming slice of life story in the veins of Tamayura, and the latter is trying to paste boobs and annoying stereotypes all over it. You could really see the influence of both: it’s got a soothing soundtrack, the chemistry between the characters is good for a one-shot OVA (it’s 30 minutes long, by the way) and the addition of motorbikes makes this one stand out from the rest of the slice of life anime about a bunch of cute girls, but the annoying characters bring it down. In particular Cynthia was trying waaaaaaay too hard. – 3.5/8 (Nice)

#6: Polar Bear Cafe – 20: Polar Bear Cafe’s weakest episodes are when they focus too much on panda trolling and causing trouble. Unfortunately, that took up most of this episode. It had its charms when he kept promoting penguin as his servant, but this isn’t something you want to dedicate entire episodes to. – 3.5/8 (Nice)

#7: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 18: “Oh no! We need to deliver a lot of exposition! The viewers will never be able to keep their attention this way! Quick, throw in a lot of ass jokes!” – Setting that aside, this episode afterwards delivered again on some nice battles with crazy powers… but I dunno. The gimmick of these powers is starting to wear off for me, and this show will need to start offering something else in return. – 3.5/8 (Nice)

#8: Corpse Party Musume OVA: This one was probably a pilot for Corpse Party Musume. What really stood out at first: it goes from a ton of gore to really, really bad fanservice. Seriously it’s the kind where brother and sister bathe together, followed by some psycho lesbians that we see everywhere. After that this episode turned to foreshadowing with a decent background track. I’m not that positive about it though. Setting aside the fanserice, the gore in this the prologue felt like it missed something: context. The thing with the kids who were slaughtered is: who are they? Why should I care about them? It’s easy to just show a lot of blood, or do crazy stuff like murder children, but the difficult part is actually making you care about them. This felt more like gore for the sake of gore. So yeah, these are the two parts that the anime for Corpse Party Musume once it arrives is really going to have to pay attention to: for god’s sake have better or no fanservice, and use its gore effectively. – 2/8 (Lacking)

#8: Code Geass – Nunnaly in Wonderland OVA: I didn’t finish watching this (I lasted about three minutes before concluding that this wasn’t worth my time), but I do want to warn people who are interested in checking this out: it’s a slide-show! – 2/8 (Lacking)

#1: Hunter X Hunter – 42: Half a year ago, when the build-up still was a drag to get through, I remember noting how it was impossible for this series to get Senritsu (or Melody in some subs) right. Imagine my surprise when in this episode, the voice actress gave a great performance as the gentle yet sharp music hunter. Beyond that, Madhouse delivered some really good animation on the arm wrestling, and it’s just so much fun to see all of the chess pieces moving into the right position for the action to start. Rewatching the Hunter Exam arc really took a toll on my patience, but it was worth the wait. – 5,5/8 (Excellent)

#2: Tari Tari – 06: Ah, I see the formula now: every member of the cast gets a few episodes of time to tell his or her story. This concludes Wakana’s story, and to be honest this was really heart-warming to watch. The use of a dead mother was a dangerous cliche to use, but the way she came to terms with everything really worked quite nicely here. 5/8 (Great)

#3: Kokoro Connect: I tend to dislike plots like the one of this episode, because they’re rather overused and often underutilized, but at least it was well explained. I like this series and its really sharp dialogue, but it is not my favorite of the season and I do have a bit of criticism for it: this could be more balanced and sometimes feels a tad too forced. It’s either really silly for a long time, or really dramatic for a long time. Change things up a bit. Play with the scenario. Flesh the characters out in interesting ways. Also, this is a light novel adaptation, right? Will this all fit in just 12 episodes? – 4,5/8 (Good)

#4: Saint Seiya Omega – 18: Interesting. A few years ago I watched a lot of those episodic travelling adventures, and what annoyed me with most of them is a refusal to split up the main party, even when this would have been the most logical turn of events. Because of this, I like what the writers did here and did not expect that to happen. The character in question definitely emerged as a better one out of this episode. – 4,5/8 (Good)

#5: Polar Bear Cafe – 19: An average episode for Polar Bear Cafe’s standards. It brought in a lot of new characters, though. The penguins in the first half in particular were funny, but in the second half there were a few too many of them, to the point where they took over the entire story. Which wasn’t really that interesting. – 4/8 (Nice)

#5: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 17: This was a much better improvement and a very fun episode to watch. The innuendo jokes perhaps were really cliched, but everything else was pretty damn interesting. The best was that wolf guy who literally fought with the justice of England on his side. How do they come up with it? – 4/8 (Nice)

#6: Phi Brain – 42: I’m actually liking this series again, and the new direction of trying to save the villains is starting to work for me again. It’s still not as good as what the first season was at this stage, but it’s definitely getting there. The puzzles are also interesting and varied again, thank god for that. – 4/8 (Nice)

Maji de Otakuna English! Ribbon-chan OVA: This is an OVA that appeared a few weeks ago, along with Kyou no Asuka Show. It’s five minutes long, and it’s pretty much a parody of really bad otaku-targetted mahou shoujo. It had some nice ideas highlighting how hopeless these productions sometimes can be, and the way in which it was basically the same take trice with different narrators was a nice touch. Do I recommend it though? Nah, the jokes just weren’t good enough for it, and even though it was parodying cliches, most of its jokes were dead horses themselves. Only check this out if you’re a fan of the genre. 3/8 (Mediocre)

#7: Total Eclipse – 06: Oh for god’s sake, Total Eclipse. This was the final straw. You already were on a thin line, and then you come with such an atrocious episode as this one. This was the kind of episode that I feared would appear ever since the director got announced. And yeah, with this he strikes me as a guy who is just plain incompetent. He tried to do both the direction and series composition here, so I can see that he’s a fan of the Muv Luv franchise, and I like how he focused the first two episodes on one of the side-characters, but beyond that, he just has no clue how to tell an interesting story and instead just heads off into bad acting and fanservice. It’s a pity for him that he ended up getting that depression, because he probably worked really hard on this, but a directing job is just way above his league. Dropped. And Welcome to Island!!! – 1/8 (Terrible)

#8: Kyou no Asuka Show OVA: Ah, people warned me not to check this out, but I just had to give it a try for myself. Kyou no Asuka show is basically a 5-minute OVA, and it turned out to be about one single joke: a girl whose skirt was stuck under her bag. This episode was basically every guy who ran into her getting flustered and horny, and this was as badly delivered as it sounds. Who greenlighted this? – 1/8 (Terrible)