Category: Anime Reviews

Jigoku Shoujo Review – 92/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Jigoku Shoujo



The concept: somewhere on the net, there exists a website. When you access that website, you can enter the name of a person you want to take revenge on. This person then gets sent to hell immediately. There is a catch, however. When you die, you also get sent to hell. Your soul will never find peace, and it’ll burn forever. In some anime, concepts like these never work. Jigoku Shoujo, however, somehow manages to turn this into something awesome.

Each episode is a standalone episode, except for the latter ones. In each of these, a person wants revenge on another person, and struggles whether it’s worth it or not. While some of the cases may look like each other, the majority of these cases manage to produce a unique standalone story, with beautiful characters, beautiful motives and furthermore great storytelling. I especially liked episode 7, 16, 22 and 23.

The characters are amazing. Each of the main characters has a unique personality, a good background (in most cases great) and really adds to the story. There were no annoying main characters at all. The characters who only appeared for one episode, even though there were a lot of them, all had something different from each other, and each of them had some kind of background. At the end of each episode, we could really enter the mind of these characters.

The art looks amazing. Especially the character art is among the most crisp ever seen in anime. The music also has turned into a masterpiece. The storytelling also couldn’t have been done better.

Overall, Jigoku Shoujo is an amazing anime. I’ll definately recommend it to anyone. Although, I have to say that there were a number of episodes which didn’t really seem too impressive. Apart from that, I have no complaints about this series.

Final Rating: 92/100

The Law of Ueki Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Law of Ueki



Say hello to the anime with the most creative battles ever. We finally have a series which understands that strategy-based battles are so much better than power-based battles. At least, most of the time.

The premisse is simple: we have this God, who organizes a tournament in order to decide his successor. 100 middle schoolers are picked, and given a power. Then they have to fight each other, and the last one standing wins. The good part: most of these powers make no sense at all. They’re certainly not the thing you’d expect. I’m referring to the power to change trash into trees, tomatoes into magma, bamboo into scissors and a ring into a rocket. And these are just the least original of the bunch. There also is a limit to each of these powers, as in a condition that has to be fulfilled before you can use it. Think of the ability of changing water into fire if you put it in your mouth, the ability to change towels into steel if you hold your breath and many more. When these are used in battle, the results become incredible.

It was really clear that the creators put all of their creativity in these battles. Some of them truly turned into something memorable, as you will have no idea what’s going to happen, or how the antagonists will be defeated. It’s also great that a great deal of humor was put into these battles, and somehow the creators managed to find the perfect combination between comedy and action.

The first thirteen episodes of the series contain either amazingly funny battles, or just a couple of scenes you just need to sit through a bit. Though that may be tedious, the awesome episodes are definately worth it. The six episodes afterwards, are horribly creative, and touching as well. In these episodes, Ueki shows his best side, and the bad guys just keep getting better and better.

The next six episodes, especially the first bunch, are amazing. We get to see some great duels, which contain the best strategies of the series, as the side-characters of the show show off their best. The six episodes afterwards (27-32, if you lost count) follow with a short intermezzo. Nothing special or worthwile happens here, though. There are some funny moments, but these were certainly not as good as the previous ones.

The series suffers a huge blow around episode 32 and 33. These were horrible examples of directions at which you should never go, and the se/ries went there. At this point, it almost made me give up the show. Luckily, in the episodes following, the show manages to steadily pick up, until episode 38. From this point on, The Law of Ueki really begins to shine. We get to see the best fights ever, perfectly combining comedy and action into one gigantic heap of awesomeness. Especially when the side-characters come into the spotlight, the show just switches from one amazing scene to another.

The awesomeness continues until episode 43. After this, the show loses its shine, and eventually manages to produce a decent ending. These last episodes were better than you expect, though they just weren’t on the same level as the previous episodes.

The art of the characters looks a bit different than usual. The unevennes of the faces is heavily accentuated, and every scratch becomes visible. I like this, it’s also what originally turned me on to keep watching the series, although as the series progresses, you become used to this. The backgrounds are a very good piece of art. Although the same ones are used for a couple of episodes after each other, this doesn’t really destroy that effect, it only makes it better. The music, although nothing extraordinary, it used to its full extend. It makes the dramatic scenes so worthwile, and adds even more to the great battles.

Overall, any action fan will surely just love this anime, or if you’re just in for a couple of good laughs, then I really recommend this anime.

Final Rating: 90/100

Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror Review – 87/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Ayakashi ~Japanese Classic Horror~



Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror is divided in three individual stories. Each of them stands alone and has nothing to do with the other two. They also share a totally different art style, atmosphere, motives and characters for each of these tales.

Ayakashi begins with the story called Yotsuya Kaidan. The first episode is horrible, it starts just so boring, and keeps this on until the end of it. But then again, that was easily the worst episode of Ayakashi. The good part starts at the second episode, when some great deaths come past the screen, ending at the fourth episode with a satisfying climax. The art style is really old-fashoned, though it remains ugly. Though I guess that that was meant to be that way, as the theme of this story is ugly as well. It’s about the evil that humans can accomplish, and these humans eventually get punished. The characters are all horrible bastards, with a few exception, which only makes it more enjoyable to watch when these characters go berserk. Still, even though it was an enjoyable tale, the story itself is mostly one-layered, with a small exception in the second and third episode.

Then comes the tale Ten Shu Mono Gatari, and if it wasn’t for the fact that they share both the name Ayakashi, I would’ve been unable to identify it with Yotsuya Kaidan. Ten Shu Mono Gatari is suddenly a love story, the total opposite of its predecessor. The Horror-part of Ayakashi is also nowhere to be found in this story, it’s just a normal human and a supernatural being falling in love with each other. The art looks really nice this time, especially when compared to Yotsuya Kaidan. The first three episodes build up perfectly, and end into a very satisfying climax. Though, I have to say that Yotsuya Kaidan is the better one of these two, as it featured some memorable scenes, and it has chaos included which Ten Shu Mono Gatari misses.

Then the third story, Bake Neko, comes. And without a doubt it’s the highlight of the series. The art turns into something really unique, I can only say that I loved it, though it takes some time getting used to. The Horror-part is finally clearly distinctable, and the entire three episodes it consists of turn into an amazing roller-coaster ride with a couple of amazing quiet moments. The characters are each wonderful, and I haven’t even began about the story, which was truly one of the best ones I’ve yet to see.

Overall, I’m recommending Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror. Especially to the ones who love great deaths, though the fans of love-stories will also be satisfied, and even if you’re not one of these people, just give this series a chance. The first episode is what turned most people off, though it you manage to survive that one, you get treated to some brilliant scenes. You can also just skip the first eight episodes, and immediately turn to Bake Neko if you wish, as each of the stories have no relationships with each other.

Yotsuya Kaidan Rating: 85/100
Ten Shu Mono Gatari Rating: 81/100
Bake Neko Rating: 94/100
Final Rating: 87/100

Magikano Review – 73/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



What we have here, is an example of an anime containing great, but at the same time, horribly wrong comedy, often combined with huge amounts of fanservice. Although the fanservice is bad, the comedy totally makes up for it. Each episode, we get to see our characters do the most stupid things ever. The characters are brilliant when it comes to comedy. This is a typical harem-series, so there naturally is just one male member in the cast, with the rest filled with women. All of course, in love with our main chacrater. Each of these characters has her own different personality, and in combination with each other, they work absolutely great.

The graphics themselves look pretty decent. The character art can be debatable, but it’s good enough to not be bothered by it. The CG looks very nice. Maybe it’s a bit too much copied and pasted, but I’ve seen anime do this worse. The music itself isn’t really special, but it gives a nice mood to the series. The OP is way too cheesy, however. It fits the anime perfectly, though.

Like I said before: this anime really works, I had a great time watching this series. However. This anime only works when it doesn’t take itself seriously. Every time it attempts to introduce a serious scene, it turns into pure and utter garbage. I especially recommend everyone to stop watching after episode ten, as the last three episode were part of the most boring episodes in the history of anime.

Apart from that, though, I really recommend this anime for the people who are in for a few good laughs, and like some horribly wrong comedy.

Final rating: 73/100

Tales of Phantasia Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Tales of Phantasia

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Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Tales of Phantasia is a small OVA, consisting of four episode and based on the RPG with the same name which came out about ten years ago. I truly recommend this to everyone who’s looking for something interesting to watch.

People might claim that this anime is only worth it if you played the game as well. That is absolutely not true. I didn’t play the game either and I totally loved this. Okay, in the beginning, you’ll see a lot of inexplainable thing happen. But don’t see that as a reason to quit this anime, see it as a reason to use your own head for a bit. Try to figure out what happened before. This way, you’ll be able to enjoy this OVA even more.

The graphics in this anime are totally amazing. Perhaps they even stand above the extreme quality of Tsubasa Chronicle Torikago no Kuni no Himegimi. In any case, they belong in the category of top-5 best graphics ever. The CG is just brilliant to see. There’s just so many attention put into the details, and don’t forget the incredible way the creators integrated these with the rest of the graphics. The character designs are also one of the very few today that really are unique. Each and every one of them stick to your mind like superglue. It doesn’t really plan to come off too soon. They look just too awesome, my favourites are Arche and Klarth. The music also is a masterpiece. Ranging from the OP to the ED, from the quiet moments to the dramatic moments to the battles, everything just perfectly fitted.

The characters themselves are also greatly developed. Especially if you consider that this OVA just takes a mere two hours to tell its story. I know some anime which couldn’t even come close to achieving this much character development in four times the same amount of time. I also liked the fact that every personality has something unique, which at the same time really characterizes that particular character. The way each character interacts with the other is also just amazing.

The story itself isn’t too complex. This, however, is greatly made up in the way it’s told. The creators somehow manage to make each second of this anime count. As the tale to be told is huge, and there are only hours available, the pace of storytelling is high. There are some rushed parts, but these take in no way at all away the power of these scenes.

There’s just one thing I don’t like about this anime. It’s just too damn short! I would have loved to see each of the characters fleshed out even more. I would have loved to see even more character developments, backgrounds, stories, et cetera. Maybe four episodes was a bit too little for such an awesome series. Still, I’m glad I was able to see this.

Final Rating: 95/100

Adolescence of Utena Review – 87/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



The Adolescense of Utena is the movie of the show Revolutionary Girl Utena, which I recently finished. It features a remake of the original series, stuffed into about ninety minutes. The characters were a bit remodeled as well. Most of the side-characters were also removed, including Nanami, for some reason. Shiori, however, plays a big role. Utena didn’t have any past with Himemiya or the Prince. She did, however, share childhood memories with Touga. The story Juri told in the last episode of the series also seems to have been integrated somehow. Miki and Jury are also much closer than they were in the series. And I’ll remain silent about Akio, as that might be too big of a spoiler. I also found it fantastic that the Kashira-girls got to play an active role in this movie once more. Not just for comic relief or symbolism, but they played an active part in the story.

The visuals remain stunning and full of elegance. The art of each of the characters has change a bit. Utena got a haircut and a different outfit, Himemiya’s hair has become more flat and less curly. And each of the other characters with long hair suddenly had her or his hair’s length increased by about twenty centimetres. The fun part is, that in half of these cases, it works. Utena looks amazing, especially with her hair. The same goes for Juri, Miki and Akio. For the other half of the characters, however, this new style seems to have taken a step back on the scale of awesomeness. For example, I liked Himemiya’s art more in the series. Touga and Sayonji also don’t look too well.

The first part of the story introduces Utena to the academy once more. She meets the Roze Bride, wins her from Sayonji, and gets to meet Himemiya. Basically, the first couple of episodes from the series. The relationship between Utena and Himemiya is different, though. Himemiya is way more inteded to “obey” her master, and Utena just doesn’t like this. Anyway, after two interesting duels, the move takes a huge leap away from the series, and starts with its own storyline. That was the part that I really liked about this movie, even though it may be bit far-fetched. But still, Himemiya totally steels the show in these scenes. If you combine this with the incredible music that was bombarded during these scenes, if makes for some awesome moments.

Overall, this was an awesome movie. Still, I have to say that I liked the series better. 90 minutes is just not enough to include the incredibly deep characters the series contained. Still, if you have seen the series, I totally recommend the movie. Especially the last part is incredibly unique.

Final Rating: 87/100

Mai Otome Review – 63/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

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Mai Otome is the successor of the popular Mai-Hime. It’s not like a sequel, more like a remake in a different setting and with a different plot. The setting is more fantasy-like, and each of the characters got a new outfit, a new personality and a new role to play. Does this also mean that it’ll be as good as Mai-Hime?

Well, it actually doesn’t. The two main characters (Arika and Nina) are just plain and uninteresting characters. Especially Arika was a pain to watch. The first fifteen episodes are mostly just boring scenes with a couple of amusing moments thrown in (the best one being a certain kissing scene). Apart from that, the comedy doesn’t really work, and most of the drama just doesn’t mean anything. Then the sixteenth episode begins, and it is awesome. The awesomeness continues in the seventeenth episode. I could really see the Mai-Hime-influences, and it was great. Especially Mashiro’s struggle. Afterwards, however, the awesomeness completely disappears, and somehow the creators managed to choose the cheesiest plotline of all possible plotlines to continue. They never manage to fix this afterwards.

It’s not like this series can’t be good if it wants to. For example, the first half of the final episode was just great to see, with finally successful comedy thrown in. (then again, that may also be because the main character didn’t appear that much) There are some drama scenes which are totally worth it, and some characters are great. The only problem is that this series just tries too hard in order to be good, which, of course, is never a good thing.

In some cases, the characters managed to get an improvement when compared to Mai-Hime. Haruka, for example, was always fun to see. In most cases, however, the make-overs members of the wonderful cast of Mai-Hime totally ended up wrong. Natsuki, for example, or Mashiro. I haven’t even started about the main characters. These were original characters which somehow reminded me of Mai and Natsuki. At least, on the outside. Their personalities are just boring, like stated above.

The music overall isn’t really special. But, there are one or two tracks that are simply awesome. I can just forever listen to these soprano’s without getting bored. Graphically, the show has some nice effects, but still, it’s nothing special.

Overall, this was a series that wanted to be too much, and kindof failed. Still, it might be a nice watch if you’re bored.

Final Rating: 63/100

Revolutionary Girl Utena Review – 95/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Revolutionary Girl Utena



Revolutionary Girl Utena is one of those precious gems you rarely run into. There is just so much going on. The characters are just awesome and overflow with character development. The huge symbolism is overwhelming, and till each of these symbols has some kind of hidden meaning.

The story is about a girl whose parents died when she was young. She kept crying, until a prince was there to comfort her. He gave her a ring with a roze crest on it, and left. The girl was so impressed by this, that she vowed to become a prince herself. This girl is named Utena. Hence the title. When she grows up, she eventually ends up in a very strange high-school. In there, the members of a very eccentric student council fight over a girl called the Roze Bride, or Anthy Himemiya. The one who manages to eventually win her gets the power to revolutionize the world in the end. Utena then ends up winning a duel agains the current holder of the Roze Bride. Afterwards, the members of the student council keep trying to take Himemiya away from her. In order to defend Himemiya, Utena has to keep winning sword duels against them.

This anime is divided into three parts. Each of this parts features a special on Utena, but more importantly, each of the members of the student council. This means three opportunities for each of them to delve deeply into their characters, producing magnificent results. In the first part, Utena’s new, and each of the characters gets introduced, including their stories, resulting in a nice climax. In the second part, the story takes a side-road in order to show a side-story of the show, centered around the boys of the black rose. In there, we get to see the characters who are closest to the members of the student council. It’s their turn to get developed and explained. I like the way this starts out extremely serious, and ends more and more chaotic, also resulting in a very satisfying end battle. In the third part, the goodness really starts. The student council members develop even more deeply than before, resulting in amazing scenes. The battles for the roze bride get more amazing by the minute, until the ending really blows you off your chair.

One of the things I really loved about this anime is the amazing cast of characters, and especially the way they were used. The anime basically only plays in a high-school-ground. So everything and everyone should have close contact with each other. But for every arc, only a few characters are selected and we get so see some very in-depth scenes. The other characters, during these moments, are totally put out of the spotlights. Including even Utena at times. This has a great effect. You really focus on nothing else than the creators want you to, but still you long to see the other characters appear again. This was especially noticable at the end of the series.

There is an aweful lot of repetition in this show. For each episode devoted to the plot, you already know that certain things will happen, including numerous recycled scenes. At first, these scenes may become bothersome, but as the series progresses, the creators manage excecute these repetitions better and better. Here we come to another magnificent point of this series: there may be a lot of repetition. You know that certain scenes and events will be playing. Outside of these scenes and events, however, You absolutely WON’T be able to guess what will happen next. This series always leaves you guessing at those points.

The creators also managed to include an excellent taste of humour in the anime. It doesn’t even need funny faces to be brilliant. It makes brilliant use of the naiveness of the characters, of silly coincidences and characters just acting totally wacky and having brilliant, though insane ideas. I especially loved the Kashira girls, but also Nanami the use of symbols amused me more and more. The Kashira girls are some kind of drama-club, who perform very interesting shadow-plays. They return each episode, and each time their play is about some kind of moral issue debated about in the anime. Each of these plays is just horribly brilliant.

The music is another extremely strong point of this anime. Both in the duels between the characters as in very dramatic scenes, the background music is top-notch, certainly giving even more emotions to the already emotion-packed scenes, turning the fragments into total roller-coaster-rides. The battle choreography is brilliant in the beginning, then slows a bit down in the middle of the show, but then, around episode 25, it turns into some of the best ever. Not in terms of Jubei-Chan-fast-moving, but in the movement of the characters themselves. This is the first anime in which I could actually see the characters giving all they had in defeating the opponent. Other anime try to also create this effect, by making the characters be in pain, or extremely angry. But still, it doesn’t bring the best in them up. Utena, however, manages.

As the series progresses, the episodes get more awesome by the minute. Especially starting from episode 30, the episodes are just incredible to see. The ending episode was also among the best of its kind, which is an extremely good job. I totally loved it. This anime just screams out the word elegance. Starting from the character art, to the way they move, act, speak. Everything is so elegantly executed. This anime has style, and knows how to use it.

Even though the drama is awesome, at times, the show takes its time perhaps a bit too long. Some of the cases are dragging a bit on, even though they provide terrific results. This should be too great of a bother, but still, it might agitate some. Overall, this is just an amazing anime, dated from a couple of years ago. I totally recommend it.

Final rating: 95/100

Shakugan no Shana Review – 51/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Let’s see, what have we here… Girl with superpowers runs into boy who holds the key to the bad guys for their ultimate plan in order to gain an infinite amount of power. Boy and girl fall in love. The end. Let’s see, where have I seen this before?

The anime starts out pretty nicely. Yuji (the boy) discovers that he died a long time ago and that he had been temporarily replaced by a blue flame which keeps getting weaker and weaker. All this is told by a very nonchalant girl who couldn’t care less about him. Yuji just doesn’t accept this and keeps bothering this girl. After he sacrifices himself in order to save others, Shana (the girl) finally realizes that not all humans are selfish and care only about themselves. Then, at the point of a dramatic ending, Yuji convieniently appears to have a unique power to restore all his lost energy by midnight. Even though that minor detail ruined a couple of scenes, I found myself enjoying these parts. The only problem: these were only the first four episodes.

The episodes that followed featured some kind of bad guy who had to be defeated. Some of them were kindof interesting to see (for example, the doll fetishist), some were just plain boring (for example, the flashback arc). But the biggest problem I had was our main character: Shana. She managed to change from a nonchalant red-haired warrior to a whiny little girl. Not particularly the best development ever and as the episode progressed I began to hate her more and more. In an attempt to counter this, the creators made her obsessive about melon-pan, which she then tried to eat in a very cute-like way. When they first introduced this, Shana was still in nonchalant-mode, so it didn’t really fit that character at all. As the series progressed, that behaviour fitted her character more and more, but I really couldn’t care less about this, and it wasn’t really the cutest thing I ever saw. If you want cute, you should see Becky in a cat-suit, bottle-fairies playing pirate or Mori doing a cossack dance.

The characters I did like were the side-characters, especially Yuji’s classmates. If you ignore the fact that each flame haze that visited the town convieniently chose one of them to be their side-kick, then they have some very interesting personalities. I especially liked Yoshida. I kept hoping for her to beat Shana and just make Yuji fall for her, although I knew that this was false hope, as Yuji and Shana were meant to be together for the sake of being the main characters. Anyway, I had a very enjoyable time whenever one of Yuji’s classmates came in the spotlight. I especially loved the confession between two of them. It was the last thing I expected from a show like this.

Then the ultimate bad guys. These guys really are 1-dimensional characters, being bad for the sake of being bad. We never get to hear their intentions, or why they’re doing what they’re doing. For example, I’d have loved to see a bit of background from Hecate, but no. Apparently, Shana’s more important, so she’s the only one who we get so see some background of (which by the way, was really disappointing. It didn’t feel special to me at all, except maybe Shana’s outfit. There’s also the question remaining as to why Shana turned so cold, as she was pretty energetic when she was young).

The ending of the series was horrible. Giving me fake hope like that! And yes, all of the side-characters are conviently put out of the picture as our hero sets off to the ultimate showdown. Anyway, blah blah, fight fight, drama, blah blah, drama. *yawn* The aftermath shows us an open ending, which shows some hints for a second season (>.<) Shakugan no Shana does excel in the music department, however. The tunes are nice and catchy, especially at the beginning of the series. They turn a bit repetitive at the end of the series, though, but that's a minor issue. I just don't like the tune the creators used for the commercial-introduction-sequence. It doesn't really work along with a very dramatical scene right before it. The art itself is also pretty decent. The eyes of the characters might be a bit too much, but apart from that, it didn't bother me much. The CG also looks very interesting, except for the fact that there seemed to be a thick imaginary line between the usual art and the CG. I could exactly distinguish both of them, and they really were not blended in too well. That was a bit of a pity to see. Overall, this is a pretty popular series, but I just don't like it. Period. Overall Rating: 51/100

Tsubasa Chronicle Torikago no Kuni no Himegimi Review – 87/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



What we have here, is the Tsubasa Chronicle movie. Like I said before: the characters seem to have gotten a total restyling for this. Syaoran is more confident and less hestitant. Kurogane’s become more energetic. Fye lost a bit of his sarcasm. Sakura’s more outspoken and less shy. Mokona has become less energetic and more calmly, which is totally different from his black counterpart. But the thing that’s really different from the series is the character art. It takes a bit to get used to, but once you do, it looks awesome.

The main reason you should watch this is because of the incredible graphics. Both traditional art as the CG look absolutely astonishing and the choreography is some of the best ever. Especially the flooding scene was beautiful to watch. The battles themselves shine like none other.

The story is also a masterpiece. As the movie took just half an hour, in comparison with xxxHolic, which took more than whole an hour, the scenes followed each other in a fast pace. Nevertheless, the movie didn’t really feel rushed. The setting is just perfect for a show like Tsubasa Chronicle. After all, what’s better for a story which revolves around wings and feathers to play in a bird-country? In this bird country, everything has been locked up in a gigantic bird cage. The bad guy wants to use this cage to make him uberpowerful. It may seem dull, but it were the actions surrounding this story which saved it.

For example, the character development between Syaoran and Sakura was just great (but then again, they were put together in a perfect situation *wink wink*). The royal guards performed a nice twist in the beginning, and it was just awesome that the wound from Fye’s boot was still clearly visible in the aftermath, while nobody seemed to notice.

Okay so what if the bad guy is bad because he’s bad? I had a very enjoyable time watching this. This movie never leaves a boring moment. You’re either gaping at the awesome graphics, or you’re trying not to miss any of the plot elements thrown in. Oh, and if you plan to watch both this movie and xxxHolic, then I recommend to watch xxxHolic before seeing Tsubasa Chronicle. This way, you’ll enjoy the easter egg the creators put in even more.