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Some Quick First Impressions: Total Eclipse, Rinne no Lagrange 2 and La Storia della Arcana Famiglia

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Total Eclipse

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the student of a mecha piloting girls’ school.
This one was surprisingly better than what I expected. I’m still not quite fond of the premise of having a school that teaches teenaged girls to pilot mecha that deploys them in a war as if there’s nobody better around, but at least the build-up i this episode was solid. This episode took its time to set things up, which is rare for a first episode where the norm is to start with an action-packed opening. On top of that, it treated the war that was going on seriously, but I’m not yet sold on the characters. They’re all so.. bland. A lot of the characters either have no personality or are stereotypes. That definitely needs to improve for this series to become successful.
ED: This vocalist sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Here she doesn’t.
Potential: 70%

Rinne no Lagrange 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to pilot a mecha.
And so, the second season of Rinne no Lagrange starts off with a recap of the first season. Very nice. Granted though, it did fresh up my memory of what the series was about and what made it great. Plus, the side-characters narrating it were fun. So yeah, bring on the real new content next week. There is a ton of potential left for this series, although this season it will have to compete with Eureka Seven.
OP: The same OP as the first season?
ED: The same ED as the first season? Or will the real new OP and ED come next week?
Potential: 85%

La Storia della Arcana Famiglia

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has many bishies to fight for her.
The problem with a lot of the bishie shows is that the characters always try way too hard to look cool. Arcana Famiglia has that too, but I have to give the creators this: out of all the bad bishie series to come out during the past years, this one does hold a candle over them. For once, it does try to be fun and over the top; the chase scene in this episode was stupid and over the top, but had some fun moments, rather than being completely boring like in most of these kinds of series. Having said that though, it’s going to be very hard t make anything out of this series. I mean, these characters are the kind that will get annoying really fast with the way they keep relying on their stereotypes. Plus, whatever happened to making shouo heroines strong and likable? This is yet another show where the entire premise is focused around having all sorts of bishies fight for her.
OP: A dull song with an uninspired direction.
ED: Terrible vocals. Terrible image slide-show. Couldn’t you really find more or better pictures?
Potential: 25%

Some Quick First Impressions: Tari Tari, Campione! and Kokoro Connect

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Tari Tari

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is an average high school student.
Okay, since this undoubtedly is going to be compared to Hana-Saku Iroha, let me list the biggest difference between these two series right away: Tari Tari has no Ohana; the kind of character who foces herself on everyone’s problems and who keeps pushing everyone forward. Instead, this episode brought a bunch of characters with all their unrelated issues together. There is a guy who is the sole member of a badminton club, there is a girl who isn’t allowed to sing in her choir club, those kinds of issues. There also is a lot of emphasis on random scenes that don’t really amount to anything, but te animation and dialogue outside of the drama are definitely believable. As for the drama itself… I’m not yet sold. There is potential, but the creators still eed towork a bit on the cast by creating more interesting problems and making the characters slightly less annoying. Right now there also was no remakable chemistry between most of them, and I mostly blame the rather annoying blond girl for that. She tried a bit too hard in this episode. Thebits around the pregnant teacher were interesting though.
OP: A rather cheesy opening.
ED: Also very unremarkable.
Potential: 70%

Campione!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character possesses the magical artifact of DOOM
This episode started with one of the most cliched ways out there for an adventure series like this: there is this seemingly average guy who gets bumped into by a spunky female who starts looking down on him. I was waiting for everything to fall apart, and it sortof did when they brought in alcohol from out of nowhere and the guy ended up stripping her. Yes, the fanservice in this show is really bad and forced. Surprisingly though, after that this episode did pick itself back up and delivered an action-packed finale that balanced the action quite well with the exposition. The male lead reveals that he can ctually do things on his own as weell and while the character-designs in this series are pretty bad, but the monster designs are actually quite well done. The romance came from absolutely bloody nowhere, though. One moment they were just talking to each other, the next goes “oh hey, we’re a couple now!”
Potential: 50%

Kokoro Connect

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are a bunch of high schoolers.
So, there was a pre-air of the first half of the first Kokoro Connect episode. I have no idea what happened to the second half, but I might as well check this out. And unfortunately, this has Silver Link written all over it: the set-ups have potential, but any potential is ruined by incredibly annoying and badly acted characters. They’re still in their shaft-wannabe phase, in a bit of a different way than usual. The visuals are more reminiscent of Kyoani-series, while the dialogue is typical Shaft. The character sin this episode just wouldn’t shut up, and even though the series started well in its prequel, once the series actually started they wasted no time in making really bad fanservice jokes. The biggest insult was that this half-episode wasn’t really about anything, other than a REALLY BAD FANSERVICE JOKE. I see no potential whatsoever in this one.
Potential: 0%

Nazo no Kanojo X Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

If there is one Studio that I consider to be the absolute worst out there, it’s ARMS. They only made one good series once, with Elfen Lied in 2004, and after that they have been churning out one crappy and poorly fanservice series after the other. A few years ago, a Studio named Hoods came along, formed by former Gonzo employees, and it was actually heading to surpass these guys by completely dropping all pretense and producing outright porn, disguised as television-series. Thank god for Nazo no Kanojo, which shows that they’re also willing to go for actually good premises, and treat them seriously.

Okay, the essence of this series is about the relationship between a couple of horny teenagers. This could have been done so badly, but instead this turned out to be a very refreshing and charming take on teenaged relationships. The characters aren’t dabbling in a constant “will they won’t they” loop, and instead start dating right from the first episode, and this series explores their relationship. It’ also helps that the lead girl is rather… weird.

Yeah the tag-line of this series is its drool exchanging, or a metaphor for kissing. Beyond that though, the female led Urabe has a bunch of mysterious powers that really give a fresh dynamic to the teenaged relationships. Her dialogue is often very sharp and unexpected, and she makes for a very interesting character. The male lead is a bit less interesting, but eventually he grows into more than just your average teenaged main character.

Amidst all of the romances in anime that are focused on characters not being able to say anything, the chemistry between these two characters is also really refreshing, as they very often talk out their problems and issues they have with each other. In fact, it’s the chemistry between the two of them that is the most worthwhile of this series, and how subtle the creators managed to portray the sexual tension between them with all sorts of metaphors. The use of fanservice in this series also tends to be very good and fits in the story quite well, rather than being forced to watch the “oops I fell and my panties are showing!”-routine over and over.

So yeah, charming, subtle and sometimes clever romance involving a couple of horny teenagers. This is pretty much one of the best and most believable renditions you can get of that even though the characters have rather weird ways of exchanging their own saliva.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Mostly subtle romance, although there are times when this series loses it a bit.
Characters: 9/10 – Very good chemistry for a teenaged romance. This series knows exactly what it is.
Production-Values: 8.5/10 – The creators got themselves a particularly good soundtrack for this series. You’ll understand when you hear it, but it really contributes a ton to this series.
Setting: 7.5/10 – Standard high school setting. Not the main cfocus of this series, but still.

Suggestions:
– Bokura ga Ita
– Seikai no Monshou

Mouretsu Pirates Review – 86/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Mouretsu Pirates



A series about pirates in space. The creators could have easily put a ship in space and have the characters go “RRRR!” a lot. Not Mouretsu Pirates though. This show is ambitious.

Instead of going with the tried and true formula, Mouretsu Pirates managed to completely create its own setting. It asks the question of what pirates would look like in a futuristic setting in which mankind has ventured off to space. The result is a setting in which Pirates are bound by insurance companies, and are kept afloat as this cultural heritage who raid people as a form of entertainment, and it manages to create all sorts of interesting stories and concepts based on this.

Now, Mouretsu Pirates has a series structure that has some very interesting parts, but also a few downsides. Now, the series consists out of about five major arcs. All these arcs are completely different from each other, they all focus on different characters, they all have different moods and themes, and most importantly: they all get increasingly better. what this pretty much entails to is a series that is a bit hard to get into at first, because the first arcs put a lot of emphasis on world building and setting things up just right, but once it takes off, this series really takes off into a really entertaining roller-coaster ride that just keeps changing.

And also on the character-department this series stands out. The cast of this series is HUGE; every arc introduces a ton of new ones, and I’m glad to say that this is one of those series that handles a huge case really well: it’s diverse and full of all sorts of colourful characters. It’s of course impossible to develop all of them in 26 episodes, but this series chooses very wisely who it wants to develop, while for the rest of the cast it always finds something interesting for them to do or base some interesting revelation around them.

Going back to the early episodes that put a lot of focus on build-up, that has another advantage: The creators re also really good in letting the characters just play out their actions. The result is a series that while being hard science fiction, has a cast of characters that feels real and relatable. I mean, this series may be about pirates, but there are also a surprising amount of arcs dedicated to a high school gir’s yacht club (yeah…), but these characters are portrayed so down to earth and likable that it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.

A few weeks ago I’ve seen someone describe this show as “Shoujo in Space”, and that pretty much is the best tagline I could find for it: if this term appeals to you, then by all means give this show a chance, because there is a lot to like in it for shoujo fans as myself. This definitely was a very clever series that went from very careful set-up to a really entertaining ride with a ton of colourful characters. If it wasn’t for Natsume Yuujinchou this would have been the best series to debut in Winter 2012.

Storytelling: 8.5/10 – Excellent sense of build-up and variety through its run, but it does take a while to get going.
Characters: 9/10 – Has a huge cast and knows how to use it.
Production-Values: 8/10 – This is a Satelight series, but a low-budget one: it has nice CG at times, but they’re not spamming eye candy like in their usual series.
Setting: 9/10 – This setting here is very creative and well fleshed out. The creators defiitely put thought into how to give a new spin to “pirates in space”.

Suggestions:
– Infinite Ryvius
– Gankuen Seni Muryou
– Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra

June Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

Apologies, this entry is slightly shorter than usual. I’ve basically been writing up entries all day now, because there is way too much ending at the same time. With this, I’ve finally caught up with everything aside from the movies and Mouretsu Pirates (which I’ll cover tomorrow).

In any case though: this season rocked. It may not have had a series like Ano Hana, Yojou-Han Shinwa Taikei, Phantom, FMA, Himitsu or Kaiba, but what it did have was quantity: a huge amount of diverse and worthwhile series. There was a ton of stuff worth watching here, much more compared to the seasons of recent years, and I had a lot of fun following it.

#26 (new) – Kingdom – (4/10) – I still can’t believe how much melodrama there was in this series. I mean, there is bad acting, and then there is this series that seems to believe that the harder you scream the more impact it makes.
#25 (new) – Kokoro Connect – (4,5/10) – The episode started off all-right, but as soon as the characters opened their mouths, I knew that watching this series was going to be incredibly difficult. Filled with bad fanservice jokes and characters who can’t shut up talking yet ultimately hardly say anything worthwhile.
#24 (20) – Phi Brain – (6,5/10) – Phi Brain… what the hell did you do this month? I mean, we’ve seen a string of six or so episodes that completely failed their purpose and destroyed my suspense of disbelief. Instead of developing, the characters actually regressed back, the main motivation for the villains is really stupid and forced and in particular Nonoha completely got her chance to shine wrong (“I’ll just remain in the kitchen while you boys be cool and solve puzzles”)
#23 (new) – Campione! – (7/10) – Again the fanservice is really bad, but not a complete disaster. Could make for some good action fodder if it heads into the right direction.
#22 (22) – Saint Seiya Omega – (7,75/10) – There was one really good episode of Saint Seiya. Apart from that, it has been mostly forgettable, but things can change with its second half.
#21 (21) – Sankarea – (7,75/10) – Ultimately, Sankarea needed more to do. These final episodes really felt like they were struggling to fill in their time, and the annoying characters didn’t really help its case. Which is a shame, because in terms of acting it really had a lot to like.
#20 (19) – Jormungand – (8/10) – It’s a shame that Jormungand’s problem was that it couldn’t come up with interesting villains. It showed several attempts at creating them this month, but quickly abandoned mot of them, or left them for the second season to use. It’s a shame: Black Lagoon shined because of how different all the arcs were, but here they end up feeling just too similar to each other.
#19 (9) – Legend of Korra – (8,1/10) – Yes, that ending. I’m not so much bothered by the fact that it felt like a deus ex machina for someone not familiar with the first Avatar series, but rather how it canceled out a lot of the most memorable moments of the Television-series, and removed a lot of the tension from the series. A shame, because this really had potential.
#18 (10) – Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki – (8,25/10)

Poyopoyo is still dabbling along with its unique charm of combining slice of life with a round cat and huge laughs. And that’s the thing: every character here is full of life, not just the animals.

#17 (23) – Medaka Box – (8,25/10)

Well, this month definitely was the best month for Medaka Box: the plot finally got interesting and it finally got the chance to use all of the build-up. The battles were interesting, now let’s hope that the second season won’t take this too far.

#16 (15) – Nazo no Kanojo X – (8,25/10)

This has always been a series about a young couple, but in this month the two of them really started getting horny, and the pas month has been chock full of teenaged hormones running wild. The chemistry between the lead couple still is quite strong.

#15 (13) – AKB0048 – (8,25/10)

AKB0048 was slightly weaker this month because it spent a lot of time building up, but it still was quite impressive how it managed to get away with such a bleak setting for a show that’s supposed to be about this idol promotion. There is a lot of interesting drama between the characters as well and I like so far how this series is both energetic and depressing as hell. It still makes no bloody sense though.

#14 (14) – Zetman – (8,25/10)

Here is the thing: Zetman actually wrapped up right. Amidst all of the rushed series out there, this was a breath of fresh air. They did have to derail Kouga’s character for this to happen, but overall I’m really satisfied with how this show turned out considering the restraints it had.

#13 (18) – Aquarion Evol – (8,4/10)

Well if anything, the past month has been really fun to watch. It’s been totally over the top mecha action with a ton of plot twists along the way, and it worked. A worthy finale for the first of the big sci-fi series this year to end.

#12 (8) – Kimi to Boku – (8,4/10)

Kimi to Boku went with the “life goes on”-ending, but in the meantime it did have a bunch of very interesting and well delivered episodes that have been typical of the second season. I’m glad I stuck with this one.

#11 (16) – Shirokuma Cafe – (8,4/10)

Panda turned into a complete and utter troll this week, but that made him so much fun to watch. The highlight however, was the episode about the date with Penko. That was the single funniest episode of the entire season and made me nearly fall off my chair laughing.

#10 (17) – Hunter X Hunter – (8,4/10)

The fight between Gon and Hisoka: that’s the first time in which the animation team really impressed me here. They dropped all of the still frames and yelling out attacks, and instead delivered some excellent fight scenes. I’m getting psyched because we’re just one arc removed from where the story gets really, really good.

#9 (12) – Hyouka – (8,5/10)

Hyouka is definitely interesting. Now that we’re near the end of tis second arc, it still consistently well animated and acted with mysteries that are down to earth, rather than overly complicated. This series definitely stands out in how it’s able to flesh out the small things.

#8 (5) – Natsuiro Kiseki – (8,5/10)

Natsuiro Kiseki closed off with a very heart-warming finale and overall it has been as strong as it has ever been with a lot of great character-development to close off.

#7 (11) – Tsuritama – (8,5/10)

the final month was definitely the best month for Tsuritama so far. This is where things got really fun and whimsical with a lot of very creative twists thrown at the screen. The final episode was not was creative as what I’d hoped, but still it was a very entertaining finale.

#6 (6) – Lupin the Third – (8,5/10)

The ending was weird, but for me, it worked really well, and was the second-best ending of the past season due to the balls that the creators had to pull it off. Overall the final third of Lupin has been the best, with a lot of interesting scripts and twists.

#5 (3) – Fate/Zero – (8,6/10)

Ultimately, it’s a shame that I wasn’t familiar with the rest of the fate franchise, because I feel that this has held back my enjoyment for this finale, as it suddenly introduced a lot of concepts that can only be understood if you have seen Fate/Stay Night. Nevertheless though, the actual ending on hindsight was really good. Third best ending of the season.

#4 (7) – Eureka Seven Ao – (8,6/10)

Eureka Seven went completely crazy this month. This was chock full of mind games and the creators playing tricks on you, filled to the brink with all kinds of plot twists that are deliberately vague and hard to understand, and I loved it.

#3 (4) – Mouretsu Pirates – (8,75/10)

Hell yeah, this show is awesome! The past month let loose of all the brakes and this show surpassed itself many times with a ton of fun and interesting twists and a cast of characters that seems to have a ton of trump cards hidden in their sleeves that they decided to reveal all at the same time. This show completely exceeded my expectations here.

#2 (1) – Sakamichi no Apollon – (8,75/10)

I personally loved the ending for Sakamichi no Apollon. And how it said so much with so little. It definitely was the best ending of the season.

#1 (2) – Uchuu Kyoudai – (9/10)

Uchuu Kyoudai pulled an amazing new direction here: introducing fifteen new characters, all with their won characteristics, strengths and weaknesses and forcing them to live together for two weks in an attempt to become an astronaut. This month was full of great moments for both Mutta and the rest of the cast, and everyone plays off each other wonderfully.

Natsuiro Kiseki Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

By far the biggest surprise of the past season was Natsuiro Kiseki. I mean, it looked like an unoffensive series about four girl who live together, like a Tamayura light or something. The end result being so damn good though… I did not expect that. Natsuiro Kiseki turned out to be completely different from Tamayura. And even better.

So, this series is about this very sadistic rocks that takes the wishes of a bunch of teenaged girls and grants them in a way that troubles all of them. It’s pretty much a writer’s excuse to throw all sorts of wacky situations at the lead cast, like making them invisible or getting the literally stuck at each other. What makes this show so good is how well it makes use of this.

All of the rocks diabolical plans force the characters to develop, grow closer together, face things they have been avoiding, all sorts of stuff lfike that. It’s also a great way to flesh them out and makes for some really varied episodes in which there is always something interesting happening. This transforms a show that could have been just another group of stereotypical girls to a heart-warming full fledged character study with well rounded characters.

There are two main weaknesses with this series. The first is that it’s obviously forced: the characters are always put into the situations most convenient for their development. In this context, I didn’t really mind that though. No, the biggest flaw of this series that I can find is that it can be a bit overacted at times. The characters themselves are easy to create drama, and while they act very subtle on some occasions, on others they just try to hard. But heck, this was incredibly heart-warming in any case and a very enjoyable series from start to finish regardless.

Storytelling: 9/10 – A versatile series and uses its own plot devices wonderfully for the points it wants to make.
Characters: 9/10 – Well developed characters who are continually challenged and forced into coming to terms with their issues.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Sunrise solid animation and production values.
Setting: 8/10 – Juts based on one summer holiday and some local folklore. Works well though.

Suggestions:
– Hana-Saku Iroha
– Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club
– Windy Tales

Sankarea Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

When I try to sample each series at the start of each series, I try to look for potential. I mean, some series are undoubtedly worth watching, but others perhaps might need a bit more time to get going or take off. Sankarea was one such series: it was difficult to sit through, but it definitely had its strong points. After watching the entire series, I have to say that it definitely had its redeeming moments. I’m just not sure whether they are enough to make this series worth watching.

Okay, so here is the thing that sets Sankarea apart from your average moe series: the acting for the main cast is very believable. The male lead, while weird and a geek, isn’t the same harem lead you see everywhere, but instead his characterization is subtle and his worries are very grounded. Rea, the main female lead feels fresh and her father and mother makes for some very interesting and diabolical villains. The combination of these four ingredients didn’t really take off right at the start, but across the series they have quite a few interesting moments and developments that make great use of how genuine and well characterized they all are.

The big problem is that that is about the only noteworthy praise i have for this series… and it has its moments in which it gets really, really annoying. The male lead has this pointless love triangle with this very annoying cousin shoved in, his classmates somehow managed to accomplish ticking me off in every single scene they appear in. I understand having these light-hearted moments in order to balance out the dark stuff, but the light-hearted moments completely fail at being funny, they break up the atmosphere rather than contribute to it and they have the characters trying way too hard to be archetypes.

And that’s strange for a series that really aims to get its basics right. Seriously, it really feels like the writers only read parts of “writing 101”. It’s got a whopping three characters who are entirely dedicated to just one side-character in order to give them background and development, but in the meantime, it forgets to be interesting. I would really recommend watching up to episode three of this series, because that really is where this series shines. After that though, it dabbles on a bit with a good moment here and there, but not really enough to stand out anymore, which is a shame because this really had the potential to go somewhere.

Storytelling: 7/10 – This series puts too much emphasis on the basics it feels like it often struggles to find things for the characters to do.
Characters: 7/10 – Some characters are really good, others are really, really bad and are a pain to sit through. That should not be the case in an anime you watch for entertainment.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Granted, Studio Deen has been improving on its visuals lately. It’s the completely wrong area for them to improve on, but granted this show looks pretty when it wants to.
Setting: 8/10 – Neat ideas, especially around Rea’s character. They could have been used better, though.

Suggestions:
– Phantom
– Natsu no Arashi
– Asatte no Houkou

Sakamichi no Apollon Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Sakamichi no Apollon



Last year Kunihiko Ikuhara of Utena fame made a surprise comeback after many years of absence. This year, it’s the turn for Shinichiro Watanabe to direct his first full series again after Samurai Champloo. Sakamichi no Apollon is a full drama. He already experimented a bit with this with the surprisingly good Baby Blue of Genius Party (much like how Masaaki Yuasa’s entry there became the prototype for Kaiba), but here he could go all out with a 12-episode Noitamina series.

Now, this series is a teenaged romance, which unfortunately is a very, very over-saturated genre, so the creators really had to do something in order to stand out. They found several ways. The first way is bringing in music. Playing instruments is a huge theme for many characters in this series, and it deserves to be praised how well the musical performances in this series look. the creators made use of Rotoscoping in order to make the animation of every single musical performance play synchronous with the actual music. This is something i have never seen before in a Television-series, especially with so much detail. Because of this, the creators are able to say so many things throughout these performances alone, and they often are the stand-out moments for every episode.

Second of all, there is the way in which this series portrays its characters, which is a huge level above what you normally see. At first sight they look like the ordinary stereotypes, but they immediately set themselves apart through their acting and by how self-aware they are. The series very subtly shows many different sides of them. On top of that, the series is chock full of events that force them to change and adapt. These are by far the most well-rounded, dynamic and fleshed out characters out of any other series this season. Probably of the entire year.

This season of Noitamina was definitely what the time-slot needed after the disaster that was Guilty Crown. There is jut one downside to it, and that is the huge amounts of angst that the creators use to keep the story going. Kaoru in particular is a character who is hard to like due to his social anxieties, and there is this constant tension between the characters that depends a lot on this angst and social phobia. Unlike other series though, the characters are fully aware of this and it gets used brilliantly for their development, rather than stalling for time.

Storytelling: 8.5/10 – Keeps the twists coming, very well paced for a Noitamina-series. A bit too much angst though.
Characters: 9/10 – Really well rounded characters in the end. Their acting is definitely a step above the norm.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Amidst all of the series with great visuals, Apollon stood out with its amazing rotoscoped musical performances. Plus, Yoko Kanno is awesome.
Setting: 8.5/10 – The setting isn’t the main focus of this series, but really allows the creators to do stuff with the characters that would not have been possible if the time period was any different.

Suggestions:
– Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai
– Nodame Cantabile
– True Tears

Tsuritama Review – 84/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Tsuritama



Back in 2006, Kenji Nakamura surprised probably everyone with his three episode masterpiece that was Bake Neko, part of the Ayakashi-television series. It was trippy intense and brilliaantly written and built up, Together with Kenichi Kasai’s adaptations, it defined and popularized Noitamina and brought it to a mainstream audience. Ever since, Kenji Nakamura has been releasing a new series every now and then, with 2012’s installment being Tsuritama, at which he completely diverges from the types of shows he normally does.

I loved all of his previous works, but they collectively all had one downside: the characters. Relatively little time was spent on fleshing them out, and most of them were pretty one-sided and didn’t really come to life. Tsuritama is entirely dedicated to attempt to do this correctly, and it works. The plot is simple on purpose exactly to allow the characters to play themselves out naturally. There are relatively few action-packed climaxes in this series, but all of them have clear meaning and kick ass and ultimately make it a really fun show to watch.

And even though this series takes it easy in terms of pacing, it definitely doesn’t take it easy in terms of the ideas it has. This series really thrives on originality: it may have a teenaged cast, but within that it has many fresh ideas, like an alien with a watergun, a duck named Tapioca, or how about an entire series dedicated to fishing? Especially in the second half of the series the scenarios get particularly creative.

A downside is that this series does take a while to get going. The first half of this series contains a lot of build-up and is pretty much fishing 101 as it drills the necessary fishing skills into the main charachter in order for him to function properly in the second half of the series. While this can get a bit boring at times, I can’t deny that this series has a really well written structure: it knows exactly how much story it should have to not get rushed, it knows how much time to spend building up an make its characters feel alive, while stil having enough time to actually deliver on the fun and action-packed bits. Noitamina-series are infamous for their pacing issues, but Tsuritama is a series that gets the balance and format just right.

Storytelling: 8.5/10 – Fun to watch and a greatly paced out structure and a creative scenario.
Characters: 8.5/10 – The series is fun because the characters are fleshed out well and get to play themselves out naturally.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Not as trippy as you’d expect from Kenji Nakamura, but still has a unique and colourful look and wild animation where it matters.
Setting: 8.5/10 – Really tries to be original amidst all of the teenaged series that try to see who can rip each other off the most.

Suggestions:
–