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Some quick first impressions: Monsuno and Wooser no Sono Higurashi

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Chuuninbyou demo Koi Shitai

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives under a cute girl’s apartment.
So, it was tough, but did Chuuninbyou live up to the standards of Hyouka last season? Well… no. This is a show that I’m very likely going to pass up, because Kyoani has pretty much returned to making premises I don’t like again. This episode of Chuuninbyou overall felt redundant: the characters all seem like shallow copies of other Kyoani characters, and the glue that holds them together, the so-called “Chuuninbyou”, or phemomenon that teenagers see themselves as the center of the world, just isn’t strong enough to result to anything interesting. It was mostly used to show the lead female in a lot of cute situations (think like in Kanon), and it lead to some cheesy drama at the end of the episode. The impression I get of this episode that this is a series that focuses a lot on trying to be cute with light humour, and for that it’s just too generic of a romance. Remove the Chuuninbyou and we’ve all seen this before. It’s a shame because the animation is like what you’d expect.
OP: Dull song, but some interesting camera uses.
ED: Very awkward character animation. Also bad J-pop.
Potential: 60%

Monsuno

Short Synopsis: Our lead character can summon a giant polar bear.
The problem with these toy commercials is their entire premise. These things exist just for one thing: promote toys and make them look cool so that kids will start to buy them. The solution that every single one of them revolves around over the top battles that involve either giant robots or monsters that are vaguely related to the toys to sell. The worst part is how incredibly lazy they all are, and Monsuno is pretty much the same. For a show of its kind it does have more action than usual, but that’s not necessarily a good thing because in this way, it just keeps jumping from one action scene to the other without giving the characters any time to flesh themselves out outside of the cliches. The animation is also really bad and jerky. There is one positive thing I can say about this episode though: the music is really good.
OP: Really cheesy 90s opening tune that doesn’t work in the slightest.
ED: Same cheesy style as the OP. Doesn’t work either.
Potential: 0%

Wooser no Sono Higurashi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is this strange rabbit-like creature.
Okay, this was a bit against my expectations. Wooser looks every bit like your average kids’ show, but there is a slight difference: the creators got a bunch of pretty good voice actors and just had them go their way. The result is particularly noticeable with this titular Wooser, who acts completely opposite of what you’d expect in a kids’ show with very bored and biting sarcastic remarks. So yeah, it’s different, yay! Beyond that however, this had very little notable. Yeah, it’s one of those shows that’s inoffensive for one episodes, but that has no real compelling reason to keep watching.
OP: Could have been worse.
ED: This is a song with way too much sugar.
Potential: 20%

Some quick first Impressions: Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter, Liche Ligtht Club and Kamisama Hajimemashita

by psgels, posted in Kamisama Hajimemashita, Some Quick First Impressions

Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter

Short Synopsis: Our lead character just got his driver’s lisence.
Before you write this off immediately: this series is written by Dai Sato, directed by Shinji Takamatsu, and has its music composed by Naoki Sato. There’s talent behind this, yo. So did they actually use it, or did this become the mother of all sell-outs? Yeah, pretty much the latter, this was basically just a glorified car commercial whose only merit is its ridiculous premise. I mean usually with these kinds of mecha series, it’s relatively easy to suspend your disbelief because you know, they’re giant humanoid robots. In this series you have 8-year-olds driving cars like they’re pros. Yes, it’s as hilarious as it sounds. You also have to love the scene at the end of the episode, in which the big bad guy looks over his arsenal of identical evil cars, and they all start glowing with these evil head-lights. The rest of this episode was incredibly bland by the way. I wouldn’t bother with it.
OP: Cheesy shounen OP.
ED: Who found it a good idea to rip off the Precure EDs with robots!?
Potential: 10%

Liche Light Club

Short Synopsis: Our lead character kidnaps innocent boys.
Aww. I compiled my preview before finding out that this would just be a 2-minute short with minimal animation. You know, another one of those really bad flash shows. It’s a shame because with a full release this would have made for a killer anime. In its current form… it degenerated into bad SM-jokes. This is supposed to be a horror anime, but it exchanged all of that for jokes that all fall flat. It’s also got waaay to many characters for just episodes of two minutes. There were like 12 different characters, all of them had to be included with their own joke (which by the way also was their only defining character trait). So yeah… this one definitely should have been handed to an actual animation studio.
Potential: 10%

Kamisama Hajimemashita

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a supernatural bishie
Yes! Yes! This is more like it. I watched this right after Tonari no Kaibatsu-kun, and this episode just was better in every way. Fiunally, after such a long wait, a genuinely good shoujo romance has appeared. It’s about time. Akitaro Daichi‘s directing is as delightful as ever. And really: I already found Tonari no Kaibatsu-kun’s first episode to be quite funny, but this episode just blew it out of the water with its jokes, and it had me giggling uncontrollably through the entire episode. But what’s even more impressive is how well this was all combined with the drama: this show can go from funny to serious and back in an instant, to the point where there were quite a few scenes in which I was both laughing and feeling sorry for the lead female. The animation is also quite interesting: it’s simple where it needs to be, and fluid where it needs to be. This allowed the animators to create a very dynamic-looking series with quite a small budget.
OP: Quite a typical OP with so many close-ups of the lead female. Catchy song, too.
ED: An ED that actually flows quite seamlessly with the end of the episode. Been a while since we saw one of those, and it helps that it’s a pretty good song here.
Potential: 90%

Some Quick First Impressions: Tonari no Kaibatsu-kun, Hiiro no Kakera 2 and From the New World

by psgels, posted in From the New World, Some Quick First Impressions

Tonari no Kaibatsu-kun

Short Synopsis: Our lead character falls in love with a bishie.
So, there’s lots of shoujo on the start of this series. And really: after so many bad shoujo series, it felt very refreshing to see a show that had a lead female with an actual personality. She has elements of your generic shoujo lead, but she also has elements that are completely different from her peers. Especially her wit was nice to watch. Overall this show knows its comedy: the few comedic scenes are well animated and delivered, as expected of Brains Base. The lead male though… I didn’t like him too much. He’s this incredibly smart character who at the same time is this wild beast who needs to be tamed and on top of that this enigmatic mystery… he’s trying too hard. He feels like four cliches thrown into one character. The romance in this episode was neatly done, in the way that the feelings of the two leads kept changing rather than being bland and one-sided, but for a high school slice of life series, it does need to include more than what it showed here if I want to keep watching it. That’s what you get when choosing an overcrowded genre.
OP: Generic song, generic animation, but that art direction is quite nice.
Potential: 70%

Hiiro no Kakera 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to be protected by cute bishies.
Okay. So last season I made the huge mistake of being too guided by my own ambitions and overlooked the gem that was Kokoro Connect, so even though I dropped Hiiro no Kakera after two episodes in anger, I am going to keep an open mind here. Screw biases! Just see for yourself whether the anime has improved or not… wait a minute… why do these scenes seem so familiar? Why do I get the feeling that I’ve seen this all before… it’s a recap, isn’t it? Seriously, Hiiro no Kakera, you are making it very difficult for me to like you. I mean, a recap is okay and all, but out of all series, does this show really need one? Well, with this episode I at least got a bit of a view of what I missed with the first season, but most of these scenes could just be divided into two categories: characters looking at each other with either a very strange smile or the same sad expression, often romantically charged, and a character looking cool while doing something with power. That’s all! It was incredibly cheesy, but the worst part is that it was incredibly generic. And here is the thing, I used to love the production company behind this series, Studio Deen. In the past, their series stood out due to fantastic characterization. Instantly likable characters. The cast here is inconceivably bland. Everyone is either acting like a stereotype, or just vaguely staring into nothing with that strange smile of theirs. I mean, there is definitely an idea behind that smile: the creators probably wanted to go for something warm with that smile, but they don’t seem to understand how acting really works. You can’t just go for one type of emotion all the time. You have to be dynamic in this. It’s like having hot dogs for dinner every day. On the flip-side: the use of the soundtrack was very good. This episode actually had an atmosphere.
ED: Dull J-rock with uninspired pictures.
Potential: 0%

From the New World

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has psychic powers.
Um, let’s just get this straight first: this series may have children as lead characters, it is most definitely not geared to them. The first scene of this episode shows them using their powers to violently murder a number of people around them. And seriously: this episode rocked. The direction was just fantastic. It really toyed around with its timing, camera angles and narrative in order to create this really intriguing episode. tHe music was fantastic and really well used. And then there was the animation: seriously, A-1 gatherered a number of really talented animators for this show. The characters moved in all sorts of interesting ways. There were a ton of very artistic scenes to spice up this episode as well. I’ts probably a level of quality that they won’t be able to keep up throughout the entire series, but still, this was amazing to watch and the perfect way to open the Autumn Season with.
ED: Catchy song, lazy visuals (it basically is just the promo art and nothing else)
Potential: 95%

September Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

The summer season was quite small, but it stood out. It had one of the best shows of the year, and it had creative premises and executions. It perhaps wasn’t the best summer season out there, but definitely worth watching. And really: there was only one show that I kept watching that really went and disappointed all the way. Apart from that, even the ones that didn’t live up to what I expected still had something interesting to redeem themselves with.

#19 (45) – Hiiro no Kakera – (4.1/10) – The biggest crime of this series is being bland. Way too bland. Have an interesting concept. Have charismatic characters. Have interesting plot twist. Have funny jokes, anything, for god’s sake! Dropped.
#18 (16) – Tari Tari – (7.5/10) – Tari Tari… you should have tried harder. I mean, it’s fine and all that you want to just be a random slice of life show, but you should have tried to use your characters a bit more. Wien remained a joke for the entire series, and the eventual pay-off: the final performance, turned out to be a lazy montage.
#17 (17) – Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – (7.9/10) – Very over the top, but there still is something missing here. And don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely entertaining, but I just feel like this could have been much more considering the potential it had.
#16 (10) – Rinne no Lagrange – (8/10) – The problem with this month’s Rinne no Lagrange was that it was trying to be too epic. That didn’t really mix in with the other messages of the show, unfortunately and the characters kept bouncing a bit between two extremes. It had some nice moments, but I feel that it would have been better if they just focused on either of the two.
#15 (14) – Saint Seiya Omega – (8.1/10) – Yet again this show proves that you can be simple, yet effective. It all was basic action right now, but because of how consistent it has been for the past months it worked as the mid-climax for this series. I mean, I’m starting to grow a liking to the characters, which is a sign of good build-up.
#14 (13) – Sword Art Online – (8.1/10)I do want to get one thing straight: I don’t dislike this series, and it does some things fascinatingly well. But at others it’s unfortunately still a wasted potential, not to mention how it came with that bizarre plot twist involving Yui that just felt completely out of place.
#13 (9) – Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita – (8.25/10)

I feel like it would have been better for this series if the episodes of this month were shown a bit earlier, because that’s where we finally saw some depth on Watashi. Still, because of that this ending did have its charm, ending with the beginning and all.

#12 (12) – Moyashimon – (8.25/10)

Moyashimon was very entertaining, and after its dull in the middle it did manage to recover itself. The fact remains however that it had a bit of a bad premise for an entire sequel. I mean, the side plot of the wine brewing girl was much more interesting than Haruka’s arranged marriage. It’s the rest of the cast that really managed to save this series with their chemistry.

#11 (15) – Phi Brain – (8.25/10)

Aaaand the final month of Phi Brain’s second season was also its best. Who would have guessed? The thing is that everything came together, and it actually delivered what it promised: really good character-development. Sure, it was ridiculously silly, but the build-up actually paid off. And for that I’m willing to cut it a lot of slack.

#10 (6) – Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki – (8.4/10)

This show still is just consistently delightful. Every week it just manages to find so many relatable situations that are also just so funny to watch. The alien episode was the best one this month.

#9 (11) – Uta Koi – (8.4/10)

The best month for Uta Koi. It had a lot of interesting stories and it ended with a really neat ending that fitted this show really well. Having an episode dedicated both to Fujiwara no Teika and the writer of Genji Monogatari was really interesting to watch.

#8 (8) – Kokoro Connect – (8.5/10)

The third arc was better than the second, and not as good as the first. With three episodes the creators definitely managed to do some interesting things, and especially the character development was top-notch with the way the arc was set up.

#7 (7) – Shirokuma Cafe – (8.5/10)

There was one episode that had me completely in stitches. It’s been months since I laughed that hard, and that is really important for this series at this point: it shows that it still has more than enough material for its second half of 26 episodes. Really , that’s my biggest fear for this series: that 52 episodes will be too much for it to handle. That episode beyond being utterly hilarious was a big confidence boost.

#6 (new) – From the New World – (8.6/10)

What an opening episode! I mean, with the very first new episode of the season, From the New World set a damn high standard to live up to, with a fantastic directing style and an intriguing setting. On top of that A-1 pulled some top-notch animators out of its hat.

#5 (4) – Hyouka – (8.6/10)

The height of Hyouka was the Juumonji arc. The past number of episodes were still really good, but didn’t show the series at its best. Nevertheless, it definitely was a fitting way to close off the series with some very character-focused episodes.

#4 (3) – Eureka Seven Ao – (8.6/10)

We’re nearly at the climax, and Eureka Seven just continues to deliver its plot twists. It does so in a very good way though. There may have been a number of plotholes, but the twists themselves were fun and were very entertaining to watch.

#3 (5) – Hunter X Hunter – (8.75/10)

Yes! We’re nearly at the best part of Hunter X Hunter. The past month was already amazing, but I am so pumped for what’s coming. The only blemish is that the exposition is really boring to sit through, because I already watched the series and all. Because of that there was one dull episode this month, but at the very least Gon and Killua redeemed themselves really well with the episode that followed that.

#2 (1) – Natsuyuki Rendezvous – (9.25/10)

What an ending! It all went perfect, and after all the build up, Natsuyuki Rendezvous closed off with a perfect ending that flowed like water. Every character got some extra depth, it was still wonderfully produced, and it left a wonderful taste behind. Without a doubt the best show of the Summer Season.

#1 (2) – Uchuu Kyoudai – (9.25/10)

The characters in Uchuu Kyoudai already were amazing. And here this month came and made them even better. I mean holy crap, the episodes in this month were just stunning in how much charm every character had, and on top of that the newly introduced characters were also all incredibly interesting to watch.

Code Geass – Bokuko no Akito – 01 Review – 81/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

So, I did not like Code Geass. The first season just shattered my suspense of disbelief and even throughout the second season it just wasn’t able to restore this, making it a chore to watch. So when another sequel was announced, I was mostly indifferent to it. And then it got announced that it would be directed by Kazuki Akane, my favorite director ever. Yeah, my opinion changed.

What I love about this guy is that he understands action like no other, and he manages to combine this astonishingly well with his storytelling. His stories are always awesome to watch, he knows how to flesh out settings really well. It’s just the total picture of everything that comes together so wonderfully in his series.

Now, Bokuko no Akito consists out of four movies, so this first movie was just a lot of build-up, so whether the characters and plot will work is still a bit hard to say at this point. I will however say that as a build-up movie this was really solid and it did everything that it was supposed to.

It still takes place in the setting of Code Geass, but on a completely different location. It’s still about a bit of an anti-hero, it still is about the military and it still is about the discrimination of Japanese people, but it removed all those ridiculous elements that the Code Geass TV-series had. There is also no school whatsoever, which also helps. The discrimination issues are also done much better than in the TV-series: the movie added some depth to these issues. In Europe, they’re turned into immigrants and these issues are fleshed out with a slight bit of subtlety that the TV-series completely lacked. All of this together really helped in making me take this series seriously again, something that at the end of the second season, I never would have expected.

And then there is the action: and it really is really well done. The animation is very crisp and clean. The CG stands out, but it’s really well used with intense movements that are all over the place, and are filled with energy. All action scenes just have this sense of power behind them, typical of Kazuki Akane’s action scenes, and they can only get better over the next bunch of movies. The action scenes are also quite grounded for an action series: the creators put thought in their use of explosives and used different ones depending on the situation, and they studied the human anatomy so that when someone is disarmed, it actually looks painful.

Most of my issues were with the characters. The main cast is fleshed out well, they’re likable and interesting, but there is this mindset in this series that I don’t like: the “young people rock adults suck”-mindset. Nearly everyone in this series over 25 years old is incompetent and badly portrayed. This show looks down on them and does not provide an adequate enough reason for it. I hope that this will get fixed somehow in the later movies, but I’m afraid that that will be quite hard to do.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Build-up, but solid build-up.
Characters: 7.5/10 – Some badly portrayed minor characters, but the main cast is solid for the next movies to use.
Production-Values: 8.5/10 – Excellent animation for the fight scenes. It’s a build-up movie, so it’s definitely saving the eye candy for later, but there is a lot for the eyes to admire.
Setting: 8.5/10 – They took the Code Geass setting and removed the ridiculous aspects. The result is quite interesting and it’s good to see this show take itself seriously this way.

Kokoro Connect Review – 84/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Here is my policy on reviewing series that still have important DVD specials coming up: I do not include those DVD specials in these reviews. The reason for this is quite simple: I guess most of you know that my blogging style is very spontaneously: I write down whatever comes to my mind. Most of those DVD specials take months to arrive, some even half a year. At that point my memory of the series in question just isn’t sharp enough to write an accurate review. Kokoro Connect is a special series: it has four episodes scheduled on DVDs that tell its final arc, a procedure that I very much encourage, but this review does not take those into account, other than ignoring the unfinished ending. I’ll talk about it later when everything has finished.

Especially because Kokoro Connect created some very interesting memories during the past season. I mean, every season I watch a ton of bad romantic comedies when every series starts, to the point where I’ve become a bit too biased on some of the clichés and early warning signs. The victim of this was Kokoro Connect, which started off with half an episode of school girls whining and delivering bad sex jokes (just like so many other shows out there do). I completely wrote off this series, and then it turned out to be this genuine and insightful drama. Talk about a surprise here.

So yeah, give this show a chance if you want drama that takes a very deep and close look at its characters. The thing with Kokoro Connect is that it consists out of three arcs, each of them throwing the cast into a situation completely beyond their control, and designed so that they are forced some of their deepest issues. The first arc for example has the cast switch bodies. This brings out tons of interesting issues, both with it shedding a serious look on what it would be like to spend time as a different gender and delving into the characters and their problems.

The first arc is particularly good at this, mostly because of its incredibly sharp dialogue that cuts right to the chase. This sharpness is unfortunately lost on the later arcs, but these still are really good and chock full of character development. The weak link is the second arc in the middle, which just ends up too forced. It’s nothing but the characters yelling at each other, and the creators make too little use of it. It also breaks up the pacing a bit after how good the first arc was: you’d expect something of the same quality, but the end result just doesn’t match up.

What also made this such a surprise is the studio behind it: Silver Link. My opinion of this before this show started was as a collection of bad Shaft-wannabes. That definitely changed with this series: they stopped trying to adhere to their Shaft roots and instead try to go with their own style (albeit slightly inspired by K-On). The animation ends up surprisingly good. Perhaps not Hyouka-levels, but the attention to detail still is quite impressive. The voice acting also is quite good, and unlike any of Silver Link’s previous hammy series. They really did something different here, and while it suffered fierce competition this season in the drama department (Natsuyuki Rendezvous, Hyouka), it held its own and delivered a high school drama that actually managed to stand apart from the rest.

Storytelling: 8.5/10 – The dialogue at worst is pretty forced. At best however it’s incredibly sharp and insightful.
Characters: 8.5/10 – Excellent cast of characters, with issues that play off each other really well and lead to quite some interesting drama.
Production-Values: 8.5/10 – Good animation, though it does still look a tad generic.
Setting: 8/10 – Um yeah. Perhaps this gets explained in the final arc but things just… happen. It’s done believably, but this is one example of a setting that exists just for its characters to develop. Nothing wrong with that, but it also doesn’t get extra points for that.

Suggestions:
– Natsuyuki Rendezvous
– Asatte no Houkou
– Hourou Musuko

Phi Brain Season 2 Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Phi Brain



So, Phi Brain. A show that baffled me for the past year more than any other series, and it did so in many ways. It was the source of many frustrations, but also many surprises. When the first season started it seemed like just an ordinary shounen series with very good characters. Then a second season got announced and things started. The thing is that the first season was very conclusive and didn’t really leave many plot threats behind. On top of that, it was all about Kaito and his history, and it really had this storyline that used its main cast at its best. So how on earth were they going to top that?

Well indeed, the second season didn’t turn out to be as good as the first, but it did so for complete different reasons than what I imagined. The creators actually came up with a new set of very good villains here. The charm of the first season, it surprisingly good characterization: it stayed here. There was cheese, Oh GOD, there was cheese, but it used this cheese really well to create memorable villains and actually ended up very heart-warming with a very good chemistry between all of the different members of the cast. The themes were great and it ended with a satisfying climax that really exceeded my expectations. So what went wrong?

Well, the balance is all over the place. The thing is that the stories of the first and second season are about equal in size, but the way in which they spend their time is very different. The first season had random stories: a first half of completely unrelated stories to flesh out the cast. In the second season however, every episode is important to the plot in a direct way. The problem however is that this show doesn’t have the material to fill 25 episodes. The result? Well, four episodes of solving the exact same puzzle over and over again. In a series that prides itself with its creative puzzles, that indeed is as fun as it sounds.

On top of that, the way in which this series manages its cast in this season is really bizarre and questionable. It all works out in the end, but oh boy, it has a lot of hurdles. Most importantly, the central focus of the plot is brainwashing. The entire cast of villains is brainwashed into acting weird and illogical. You do not want to know how long it takes for this to get properly fleshed out and some actual depth, because this series has spent nearly its entire airtime to get to that point. At the start the characters come off as shallow stupid and illogical bastards.

And then there is the great cast of characters of the first season, who honestly have trouble figuring out what to do in the sequel here. In one way it’s good, because the characters who did not have a focus in the first season can now really shine here (with the best example being Ana Gram), but it also is a bit of a shame to see once strong characters wander around slightly aimlessly and looking for things to do. Gammon especially suffered here, but also Nonoha is pretty bad. She keeps wanting to do something, and yet the creators hardly ever let her, despite hinting at how she still is important. Only near the end does that start to matter, and in the meantime she is just there for the token female to cook dinner.

Beyond that, the usual issues with Phi Brain still stand: when you think about it, it just makes no bloody sense. Especially the way in which this series seems to think that you can hack anything and do some mumbo jumbo in order to gather data are really bad if you start thinking about it even once. This show just has a story to tell and doesn’t care how illogical it gets, and yet it does this better than the likes of Horizon, because the story it does end up telling becomes pretty damn good when it wants to and is actually focused. I mean you can say a lot about Phi Brain, but it has a damn good cast of characters.

Storytelling: 7/10 – You call that balance?! Riddled with issues, way too long (we’re at 50 episodes now and a third season has been announced!), yet surprisingly focused and well built up.
Characters: 8.5/10 – The saving grace for this series. Very good and heart-warming all around. A bit too heavy on the cheese though.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Definitely not Sunrise’s dream team here, though it has its moments at the beginning and end where it looks really pretty.
Setting: 8.5/10 – I have to give points for this series: it took a setting that seemed impossible to make believable: people fight using puzzles and brainwash each other in order to evolve human kind. And it pulled it off. Sure it took a lot of trouble, but it did.

Suggestions:
– The Law of Ueki
– Spiral
– Suteki Tantei Labyrinth

Uta Koi Review – 84/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Uta Koi



Anime is a commercial medium. It has to be catered in a way in order to attact sales, so concessions have to be made with the premises that get adapted. With that in mind, there sometimes just appear series that make me really glad that they got made, while avoiding all this. Uta Koi is one of these. It’s based on a manga that wasn’t even officially published at the beginning. It’s about freaking poets in the 10th century. No marketeer in their right mind would usually pick this up immediately, and yet the anime of Uta Koi has been made, showing that yes: we can still get things that aren’t catered in any way.

And really, Uta Koi is such a fascinating series. Very rarely we see series that also end up strengthening other completely unrelated series. This show attempts to show the mindset of famous poets as they wrote the various works that were used to compile the famous collection of 100 poems. Yes, the same poems that were used in Chihayafuru. This series gives such a wonderful background to all of the poems that appear in that series, adding even more depth to them. One episode in this series is also dedicated to the author of Genji Monogatari. It’s such a wonderful opportunity to see something about the people behind the stories for once, making this show without a doubt the most unique series of the entire year.

Now, as for the actual execution, there is also something interesting going on, plus a number of things that take a bit of time getting used to. Most notably the animation is quite bare-bones: the character-designs here are very intricate and detailed, but the downside of this is that they’re very hard to animate, and the budget for this series is not big at all. This leads to great drawings that move around really akwkwardly, and that sometimes don’t move at all. On the flipside, this series is wonderful in the audio department. Voice acting is top notch and the huge cast of characters are all very well delivered. The music also is really good and fits the romantic setting perfectly.

Now, Uta Koi is a collection of stories: every episode tells a different one, sometimes even two, so this show does not have much time to dedicate to each of its characters. Some of the characters end up forgettable this way, and it does have a tendency to get a bit cheesy in its worst stories, but there are also more than enough characters that make an impact. It’s not a series that thrives on hard-hitting storytelling, because the animation simply is not good enough for that, and a lot of the stories are strangely focused on forbidden relationships. It’s biggest strength is definitely how well it provides background.

But it’s nevertheless an excellent view to how life was in the upper classes in those days. Being a woman basically sucked, and this series has many stories dedicated to that, but also focuses on how these women found their inner strengths. Court politics also are very much present in here, not to mention that one episode in which it deliberately takes the piss out of everything it stands for. If you’re looking for something with historical depth and don’t mind a lot of awkwardness, then this is a fine choice.

Storytelling: 8.5/10 – Episodic, but very well laid out, moving though time across various poets.
Characters: 8/10 – Huge cast, so there are a number of forgettable characters, but also a bunch of great ones.
Production-Values: 8/10 – The animation is having a lot of trouble and looks awkward. The music and voice acting are brilliant though.
Setting: 9/10 – An utterly wonderful look at poetics of 1000 years ago and the people behind famous poems and stories.

Suggestions:
– Chihayafuru
– Genji Monogatari Sennenki
– Aoi Bungaku

Tari Tari Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



So, I like slice of life series with a clear narrative structure: the type that shows every day life, but where there’s also some kind of story going on with clear plot progression. Because of that I was looking forward to Tari Tari… but in the end it seemed to be missing something.

So we’re basically talking about the story of five teenagers. They’re all different, but have one thing in common: they’re the members of the same choir club. The series explores their stories with the main focus being the troubles that the choir club faces. It could have been charming, but I don’t know. It all ended up too dull, took a few too little risks, was a bit too unbalanced.

I mean, it’s not like the characters aren’t well fleshed out. The series definitely tries, and some of the characters have good stories behind them: one of the girls’ issues with her dead mother were well explored, the horse riding girl also was well explored. But that’s just one portion of the story. There also are plenty of portions and characters that just don’t work and take too little risks to really get somewhere.

Talking in terms of balance, there are some characters who are overrepresented, and others who are underrepresented. The choir girl is very annoying, yet she is the main character of the show. It’s nice to watch her actually try to realize her ideals, but she never really has that moment that redeems her; the other characters tend to do that. On the other hand, the male characters actually get very little time to really show themselves compared to the females. There is the badminton guy who gets like… half an episode maybe? And the Austrian guy’s arc gets hi-jacked by the rest of the cast so that he hardly gets to do anything, turning him to a bit of an unsuccessful joke character. It all just never comes together and creatively they could have done so much more with this.

It’s all just too standard, and the few things it does to stand out fall out flat more often than not. The central storyline of the Choir Club tends to be very forced, with characters forcing themselves to be the villains in order to add some tension and the eventual pay-off ends up as just an auto-tuned montage with very little effort put behind it.

So yeah, this definitely was the disappointment of the season for me. I mean, I can see that it has the intention to create likable characters. And indeed, this show fleshes its cast out better than some other shows do, but it’s just isn’t enough for me to really recommend it for anything. It’s got its charms here and there, but there are so many series that do this better and that’s the problem here: it just fails to stand out. It’s a nice series and all if you’re really bored, but it just doesn’t take much risks, and the risks it does take all fall flat. The exception probably is the second episode. That is the only point that genuinely impressed me on hind-sight with tight storytelling and a great concept that involved a lot of different characters coming together. After that it never really gets to that level again unfortunately.

Storytelling: 7/10 – Charming at some points, but is often just a bit too dull, plus the plot it uses is rather forced and predictable.
Characters: 7.5/10 – Some very good characters, but others are rather under-utilized. The Choir girl will also get on a lot of people’s nerves and has no moment to redeem her.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Good animation from PA Works, that has to be said. Although it does sometimes cut a few annoying corners.
Setting: 7.5/10 – A typical school setting, although a bit more forced than usual in order to get its choir plot going anywhere.

Suggestions:
– Hana-Saku Iroha
– Tamayura
– Hyouka

Rinne no Lagrange Season 2 Review – 81/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Rinne no Lagrange



Mecha series today are a bit rarer than what they were in the past, but they definitely still keep getting made. 2012 gave us shows as Eureka Seven Ao, Aquarion Evol and the entirely original Rinne no Lagrange. In the first season we already got to see its rather interesting sense of plot progression, and with this we finally finished its long-awaited conclusion.

Now, let me start by saying that Rinne no Lagrange is very unconventional as a mecha series. It’s usually a series of action and lots of fight and over the top plot twist. Instead the mecha fights only take up a small portion of this series. The first season spent much of that extra time building up and creating characters, whereas the second season is more about developing a plot about two warring planets and the mindsets of the leaders. At the same time it still tries to keep true to its themes of reaching out to others, rather than fighting and the slice of life. It’s a daring combination indeed, and unfortunately it does have a few hiccups, but also interesting results.

The most interesting of the results is that it has quite a good cast of characters. It really devotes time to explore the relationships between the different members of the cast, and this definitely pays off in the second season, whether this is the bond between the three female characters, or between the kinds of the two worlds. Again this uses the theme of reaching out and talking to each other above fighting quite well. It also leads so a number of very enjoyable and whimsical scenes.

The hiccups result from trying to be too epic at the same time as trying to be personal. On one hand it tries to create this huge setting involving three planets, on the other it tries to revolve everything around five characters. It doesn’t combine too well, and especially in the final arc of the story it doesn’t really seem like it really knows how to deliver an action packed climax so it just pulls a berserk button on one of the villains, removing any personal aspect of his character.

At its best though, it is kindof refreshing to see this series deal so lightly with politics that are usually entirely serious, and it still manages to take itself seriously despite of it (compared to series that turn politics into a joke for the sake of moe…). It still didn’t quite exactly strike the right balance, but it’s an interesting attempt nevertheless. However, I do have to say that I expected more of this series. It’s all a bit too careful, especially considering the ingredients it had as a fully original story, not based on anything. Take Madoka’s aunt for example: a wonderful character, who mostly just stands on the sidelines doing nothing. There were points at which it should have taken a few more risks. It’s a tad too mundane to really make an impact, and it definitely had the potential for it.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Gives a different spin to the mecha genre by combining politics with slice of life, but failed to tweak the balance.
Characters: 8.5/10 – Great and enjoyable cast with a good resolution, though had the potential to be more.
Production-Values: 8/10 – There are a few moments of eye candy, but apart from that the animation is pretty average. Soundtrack is as good as ever.
Setting: 8/10 – Could have been great, but is a bit stuck in a limbo between this show’s wishes to be both epic and down to earth.

Suggestions:
– RD Sennou Chousashitsu
– Mouretsu Pirates
– Simoun