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Phi Brain Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Phi Brain



Apologies for the delay on this review, but I first wanted to get all of the new episodes this season done. Phi Brain was a series that many people probably quickly discarded. It started really silly, and the entire premise takes a lot of suspense of disbelief to accept: “yeah, there is this kid who has to solve puzzles in order to battle this evil organization”. Most of the early episodes just consist out of Kaitou (the male lead) solving a bunch of puzzles.

Now, the puzzles are obviously a very big part of this series. If you can look past the silly premise, then you’ve got a series that can be quite creative when it comes to the puzzles that it throws at its main cast. The show actually presents its big puzzles so that the viewer can try to solve them himself, but only if he uses the pause button in the middle of each episodes. The characters in this series are usually very fast when it comes to solving puzzles, and it’s impossible to take everyone into account here. At a certain point int he series this series turns its puzzles into 1-on-1 battles anyway.

In any case, those who did keep watching were rewarded in the character department, because as soon as this show starts developing its character (I’d say with the arrival of Rook, around episode 10), it never stops. Kaitou in particular grows into a very sympathetic character, and the side characters all work around him, and all of them have a good backstory with especially good reasons for their actions. The creators actually convinced me that the entire premise was at least partly plausible. There are times when this show gets a bit too sappy, but the majority was really well directed and had this great combination between action and characterization.

Were the first episodes wasted then? Nah, they’re just silly. Beyond that are very creative puzzles and good stories, although this series does have its points where it completely ignores all of Newton’s laws. The characters are all enjoyable as well, and especially Gammon stands out in his quirky antics as not your ordinary rival.

Visually this series mostly stands out in its designs. Both the puzzles as the characters look unique. The actual animation of the characters is very inconsistent, but it’s nothing special or bad. The music is very well done, though.

This remains a shounen series, and it loses points for being a bit too sappy at times, but this nevertheless this was a very interesting attempt to do something different with the genre that is usually nothing but people throwing superpowers at each other. With some damn good characterization I do recommend this if you’re looking for something in that direction.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Well storyboarded and manages to make solving puzzles fun.
Characters: 9/10 – There is a surprising amount of depth to these charcters, which especially manifests in the second half.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Great designs, decent animation, good soundtrack.
Setting: 8/10 – Creative puzzles, but completely ignores the laws of physics at times. The whole premise of this show is also really hard to buy.

Suggestions:
– The Law of Ueki
– Kaleido Star
– Princess Nine

Some Quick First Impressions: Acchi Kochi, Sengoku Collection and Shirokuma Cafe

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Acchi Kocchi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a random high schooler.
This is the type of slice of life series that I have a really hard time enjoying. This was basically an entire episode consisting of random incidents of the characters doing random stuff, without much coherence between them other than “they go to school” or “they go to the game store”. A lot of this episode was just random, but didn’t really show much of the characters other than their basic personalities. It’s good to see an actual couple for once (they are, right?), but this overall just was too boring. The moe antics also didn’t really help, because the girls in this show all try way too hard to be cute. Yes, all of them.
OP: Who on earth found it a good idea to make these poor voice actors sing. This sounds terrible.
ED: “Hey, you know you can buy figures from this series? We’re just here to remind you! *wink wink, nudge nudge*
Potential: 20%

Sengoku Collection

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the guy who united Japan when it just consisted out of a number of warring states.
Well, I didn’t think it was possible, but yes: there actually is a series this season that is worse than Queen’s Blade and Naruto SD. Good lord, Oda Nobunaga, what have they done to you? I mean, I knew that this series would turn famous people from the Sengoku era into moe girls, but I didn’t think that it’d be this bad. This series’ Oda was the most annoying tsundere I have seen in a long while. Throughout the entire episode she did nothing but whine and attempt to act cute. even though she didn’t really do anything. Her acting was terrible, and to make matters even worse: she somehow ends up in modern day, and runs into a common loser. This is the worst kind of wish fulfillment. It’s dull, bland, it doesn’t try at all and just relies on the fact that it has a bunch of badly delivered moe antics in the hopes of selling DVDs. I mean, I know that fiction is about taking artistic liberties with history. However, this gimmick isn’t even new. People have been turning famous figures into annoying cute girls for ages now. Are there really people who get turned on by this?
OP: “We couldn’t be bothered to animate the whole thing, so here are a bunch of uninspired slide-shows.”
ED: Very badly sung, especially in combination with those instruments.
Potential: 0%

Shirokuma Cafe

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a panda.
Holy crap, where did this come from? I mean, every season has its set of series that get announced later than usual, and which are usually these bad and minimally produced gimmick series. In this season however, they just continue to surprise me with their solid execution. Shirokuma Cafe turned out to be a bizarre slice of life series, but it’s actually fully animated and the characterization here really is surprisingly good and realistic. The creators here perfectly captured the laziness that you’d expect from a panda without reverting to cliches. It was a tad annoying at times, but this really was surprisingly heart-warming and the jokes were pretty good too. The entire series is based around a cafe, with the three main characters being a panda, polar bear and penguin. You’d expect that all three would end up working there, but no: the polar bear is the only employee, the rest of the characters just are guests. As for what the panda’s job is… well, just watch the episode if you want to find out.
OP: There aren’t many good OPs this season, but the ones that are good are really good here.
ED: Stop-motion using go pieces. Great idea!
Potential: 75%

Some Quick First Impressions: Gon, Arashi no Yoru ni and Kuromajo-San ga Tooru

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Gon

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a dinosaur.
Forget about the title. Forget about the main character, he’s just some random kid with superpowers. No, this series is about a bear named Ussu. This is the guy who made this show surprisingly entertaining for a kids’ show. I was really fearing after having to sit through that Naruto SD show, but these series can actually be funny. Aside from Usu, there are a couple of other characters in this show who had some good jokes, the albatross in particular. Gon really is just a vehicle to bring everything together. In the meantime though, he also is very annoying. Oh, and if you’re wondering what the heck mammals are doing in a dinosaur show: the show also doesn’t explain that. It’s just a random island with a bunch of animals in which a dinosaur randomly appears. This series is obviously very childish and all, but here is the thing: aside from Uchuu Kyoudai (which isn’t a real comedy anyway), this was the funniest first episode i got to sample this season so far.
OP/ED: Warning: do not listen to these songs, unless you want them to get stuck inside your head for the rest of the week.
Potential: 75%

Arashi no Yoru ni

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are polar opposites.
This is what I mean by kids series trying harder: this series has an actual story that challenges the characters, rather than being random fighting or hi-jinks. Movies have already gotten this down, but there are very few TV-series like this, which is why I’m glad this was made, even though it already was adapted into a movie. What I hope is that this show will expand on the movie’s themes and allow everything to flow more naturally. This episode gave a good start: it was pretty similar to how the movie started, only with a bit more dialogue here and there; a good start. I especially liked how this episode focused on how forced this entire premise is, but in a good way. In terms of animation this series clearly is inferior, because the CG can look quite ugly at times, but at least the characters move around a lot here, and they do so differently from your average CG-show. My big fear of this show will be the overacting: this episode kept it from going overboard, but there is potential for this to dive into straight-up melodrama.
OP: Um, guys. A little too much of romantic undertones here…
ED: The same “let’s have the cast walk nowhere”-ed that you see everywhere (this makes three this season already)
Potential: 70%

Kuromajo-san ga Tooru

Short Synopsis: Our lead character does magic stuff.
So, this turned out to be a story of a girl who gets harassed by a black witch and ends up as one in training. Episodes are only 7 minutes long, and it’s all fairly plain and all, but for a kiddie show it could have been worse. If you want your kids to be quiet for 10 minutes, this show is good bait for this. For older audiences though…. I don’t think that this show has much to offer. A lot of stuff in this episode just happened for the heck of it, and this show is also pretty bad at explaining why everything is happening, with pretty minimal animation. It’s not as bad as with the horrid flash shows, but any less animation and this would be a slide-show. Also, the teacher in this series is an asshole. In the end, the creators could have taken more chances. I mean, Risky Safety was a show with the exact same premise, but it was 50 times more adorable and creative than this here.
OP: Cheese
Potential: 40%

Some Quick First Impressions: Lupin the Third – Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna, Medaka Box and Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka – Of The Dead

by psgels, posted in Lupin III - Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna, Some Quick First Impressions

Lupin the Third – Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a thief.
The visuals in this series are incredible. The character designs, the background art: it all looks gorgeous and very artistic, and the animation really brings them alive. And this episode revealed something more: you know Shinichirou Watanabe? He’ll be the music producer in this series again, ON TOP of directing Sakamichi no Appolon this season. The soundtrack also was full of Jazz songs that fitted the show really well. Beyond that, this show will probably be a collection of stories around Mine Fujiko, with the center around adventure. This episode was quite interesting and entertaining, and especially Lupin and Mine Fujiko played off each other quite well. This episode showed how the two of them met, so you don’t need to be familiar with the Lupin franchise at all to get this series. There is a lot of nudity in this series however, but thankfully it’s nowhere near the usual fanservice you see all over anime. My one complaint is that the side-characters are rather one-sided. Let’s hope that the next episodes can bring some change into that, because this really deserves it.
OP: One of the most unique OPs I’ve seen in a while. And also the best.
ED: A bit less interesting, though still a good song.
Potential: 90%

Medaka Box

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a student council vice president.
Well, I do admit that Gainax’ execution helps with a premise like this. This episode was over the top and moved fast, which is definitely preferable to seeing another really slow-paced high school series. Overall there are some things in this episode that I disliked, like the camera’s uncanny ability to focus on Medaka’s boobs, or how she’s just way too perfect as a character, and most of the rest of the cast perhaps isn’t the most interesting, but they do have potential for later. At the very least the creators spent quite a bit of time on the main couple and how they were when they were kids. That’s a good thing for an opening episode to do. This probably won’t be anything amazing, but by the looks of it it’ll still be pretty entertaining.
OP: Unimpressive J-pop
Potential: 70%

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka – Of the Dead

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives together with a bunch of cute girls.
This episode really reminded me why i came to dislike Kore wa Zombie so much: it doesn’t even seem to be trying! This show is supposed to be a comedy. Half of this episode was nothing but repeating jokes from the first season and random out of place slice of life, which also just copied the first season. The other half was just building up to one joke, which was incredibly forced and half of which was also copied from the first season. There were two new characters introduced… both of which immediately got added to Ayumu’s harem. And then there was the animation: the creators blew all of the budget on the OP, making the actual animation of this show very dull, again with scenes blatantly copied from the first season. It’s clear that at this point, the creators have completely run out of inspiration and therefore are trying to fill their time with these gimmicks. Comedies should be bold! They should be entertaining and well thought out. Not these uninspired moe hacks like this.
OP: At least this is well animated. But Studio Deen, you’re putting your priorities at the complete wrong place.
ED: Oh come on…
Potential: 10%

Some Quick First Impressions: Recorder to Randsell Re, Naruto SD – Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden and Queens Blade Rebellion

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Recorder to Randsell Re

Short Synopsis: Our lead character stands out.
So, time to check back on how this series turned out. And my impression of this series has gone down even more. We’re supposed to be 14 episodes into the series already, and all this episode did was re-establish the premise of this show: having a very tall younger brother and a very tiny younger sister. What happened in the previous episodes, really? This felt like watching the first episode all over again. There doesn’t seem like any progress was made at all. I know that the episodes are only 2 minutes long and all, but this is a bit too extreme. On top of that, I like my comedies to be well acted. This was the entire opposite of that. Especially the brother was hard to watch.
ED: Dull song. And why the sudden fanservice?
Potential: 0%

Naruto SD – Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a bad Naruto fanfic character.
Oh god… make it stop. One of the hardest types of episodes to sit through with these kinds of first impressions is the bad comedy. I mean, Queen’s Blade was terrible, but it still was kindof bearable due to how bad it was. Naruto SD however, is a series that fails miserably at being entertaining. This was 25 minutes of sitting through horrible jokes. Over and over again. The creators of this series have no idea how to tell good jokes. More often than not we just have Rock Lee act random for no discernible reason, it keeps repeating its bad jokes over and over, and this show thrives on making random toilet jokes that fail at being funny. The characters are all incredibly annoying and probably the only value this holds is for diehard fans of the Naruto franchise. And yet for some inexplicable reason this show finds it necessary to explain the basic premise of this show over and over again.
OP: Cheesy J-Rock
ED: Also dull aside from the random dancing.
Potential: 0%

Queens Blade Rebellion

Short Synopsis: Our lead character boobs.
Look. I’m not against all fanservice. In fact, the series I’m looking forward to the most this season will probably have tons of it as well. However, what I can’t stand are the series who use it as an excuse for being terrible. It really is a shame that pasting a bunch of boobs everywhere guarantees dvd sales like this. This episode was by far the worst first episode I had to watch this season so far. The action was terribly choreographed and made no sense. And really: I don’t care how many famous voice actors you got for this show; the acting still is abysmal. Oh, and I have to congratulate this series, for pulling the dumbest twist I have ever seen while sampling these first episodes. Really: imagine a girl with big boobs (clearly visible) in a short skirt and very long coloured hair. It takes until the armor around her boobs breaks for everyone to realize her gender. I… have no idea. In more than six years of blogging, I have never seen stupidity this big.
ED: Poorly produced J-Rock song. Not to mention the terrible visuals.
Potential: 0%

Some Quick First Impressions: Zetman, Kimi to Boku 2 and Accel World

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions, Zetman

Zetman

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has superpowers.
Whoa, I really love the visuals in this series. The animation during the fight scenes in particular was just amazing. Most first episodes are very crisply produced with a lot of inbetween frames. The animation here however put in something extra. The animation was wild and vivid, and sometimes quite messy, which lead to some awesome camera angles. The character designs also work much better than what I first expected based on the promo art. The faces of these characters have depth, so to speak. My big fear for this series was that the script would move too fast, but that too turned out surprisingly well. The first parts of this episode moved very fast, but the points where it mattered, this episode really took its time to tell its story. This is pacing that’s actually well balanced, rather than all over the place.
ED: Catchy, but a bit too much synth. Why the hell are you spoiling a twists that’s coming up, though?
Potential: 90%

Kimi to Boku 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are a bunch of teenaged boys.
AS much as Chizuru gets on my nerves… I yet again have to admit that this episode was excellent slice of life. In fact, this was one of the better episodes of Kimit o Boku due to how incredibly natural the dialogue was. In particular the second half was really well written, even though it was just characters talking to each other. It’s the kind of slice of life where nothing happens, yet things happen. Instead of a forced moral at the end, the episode just ended with the cast doing something random they felt like. Again, Chizuru still is really annoying, and the random cats still are pretty pointless, but this was a typical episode of Kimi to Boku, which somehow at the end of every episode uses its annoyances to do something interesting with the characters. If you can stand the obnoxious characters, you’ll like it. Otherwise: don’t bother.
OP: Either my laptop couldn’t follow the frame-rate, or the visual effects were rather cheesy this time.
ED: Why that cat?
Potential: 80%

Accel World

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a creepy stalker.
I had no time to also watch the second episode that came out, but based on just the first episode, I really fear that this show will be… annoying to watch. It’s a shame though, because there is some definite potential in the setting for some good science fiction. I actually liked the way in which this series combined the real world with its fictional virtual world on top of it. So why on earth did they have to settle for a harem around such a wimpy protagonist. I like how for once the main character is overweight (although he literally is the only character in this show who is like that), but he was really annoying to watch with his annoying whining throughout the entire episode. This episode already introduced two potential love interests who take interest in him for very flimsy reasons, which really isn’t a good sign for the romance in this show. The rest of the cast also was pretty bland, with the worst being the worst portrayal of bullies I’ve seen in a while with three guys who are constantly bothered by constipation or something and just randomly assault their victims, even in the midst of dozens of people. I’m at this point really doubting whether or not to continue watching this: there definitely are a few good things here; the animation is also very good, but I just know that the cast will get on my nerves a lot.
Potential: 50%

Some Quick First Impressions: Saint Seiya Omega, Folk Tales from Japan and Uchuu Kyoudai

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions, Uchuu Kyoudai

Saint Seiya Omega

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is destined to save the world.
Oh yes. This show knows how to deliver good action. This entire episode was almost non-stop gorgeously animated, with a wonderful use of its character designs, colours and camera angles. There is detail both in the giant blasts that the characters fire at each other, and the subtle character animations. This will be a series chock full of eye candy. On top of that, the creators also succeeded in putting a lot of emotion into just this one episode. Toei, I’m impressed. The one thing that seemed to be missing in this episode however, was context. Who are these people? What are they fighting for? I mean, I understand that they’re protecting the world and all, but what world, and why should I care about it? Beyond the conflict of having two parties who fight each other, there was surprisingly little else in this episode. For an opening episode I can understand that you’d ignore this, but the next episodes should put some focus into that, then.
OP: Nice upbeat rock tune, again with some nice eye candy.
Potential: 80%

Folktales from Japan

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters come from classic folk tales.
Yes, this is actually a kiddie show that actually wants to tell stories, rather than sell merchandise. The stories here involve money, but apart from that there is nothing commercial about this series and instead the creators decided to bring life to a collection of folk tales that people used to tell children. The animation in this episode was realyl simple, but I appreciate what it’s trying to do. As for the stories themselves, they’re nicely told for a kids’ series, but when you start to look at the moral of each story things get a bit weird. At first sight it’s the standard “bad karma will bite you back”-stuff, but this series takes it a bit too much beyond the comfort zone: if you do good stuff you will be rewarded with vast riches, but if you do bad stuff, or even look like a bad guy, you get to live in poverty. I’m not expecting Mouryou no Hako or anything from this series of course, but the way in which nearly every good character got incredibly rich in all of the three stories in this episode was a bit too much.
OP: They actually got a good singer for this.
ED: Another “let’s have the cast walk”-ED. Good singer, though.
Potential: 40%

Uchuu Kyoudai

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to be an astronaut.
Now this was good. This was really good. First of all, we’ve got another series where the main character is a guy in his thirties. The kid who showed up in the promo art of this series is just there to symbolize his inner child and how he grew up. The meat of this series really is about how this guy is going to go into space. And that with a series that will be 51 episodes long. Considering the length, this episode did an amazing job to show who this guy is, what drive him, how he changed over the years and what his personality is like. This episode would have even be sufficient if the series only had 13 or even 6 episodes. The main character himself is really likable, and this episode had a number of very good jokes around him. Yes, this series set a very big standard for the rest of the series this season.
OP: A definite contender for the best OP of the season. Amazing use of images, and a great song
ED: The same “let’s have the characters running over a dull j-rock song”-ED that you see everywhere.
Potential: 95%

Some Quick First (and uh.. Fifth) Impressions: The Legend of Korra, Ginga he Kickoff and Natsuiro Kiseki

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

The Legend of Korra

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the legendary chosen one.
Allright already! I give in; I’ll watch the first episode of this Avatar sequel. Normally I don’t cover American animation, but with this there were so many people requesting it. My impression is, that it’s indeed a pretty good series based on this first impression. The animation is really good: it is inspired by anime’s level of detail in its art, yet manages to retain the amount of fluidity that’s typical of American animation. There are some cliches in the cast of characters, like the spunky kid in the middle of a dignified Asian-inspired setting, which is quite common in these types of stories, and Korra herself definitely has her annoying moments. I am intrigued however by the politics in this series, although I have no idea what role the main character will end up playing in this. Everyone keeps talking about how she’s special as the avatar, but most of the problems that are presented in this episode don’t really seem like problems that can be solved by someone who just happens to be able to “bend” multiple elements.
ED: Very fast credits. Good music.
Potential: 80%

Ginga he Kickoff

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to found a football team.
Uh so yeah. Don’t ask me why, but we suddenly got treated to the fifth episode of Ginga he Kickoff. As for what happened to the first four… I have no idea. So I just watched the fifth episode of this series, and really, it’s fairly representative of the nature of this series. There were parts I enjoyed. The cast of side-characters is fairly nice. Better than Area no Kishi in any case. It just has one really, really big problem: the main character! Good lord, this kid is horrible. He keeps yelling and whining throughout the entire episode. In this episode he wants a certain person to become the coach of his football team, and do you know how he ends up doing it? By whining and whining and whining until the coach can’t take it anymore. Yes, the parents in the world will be thankful to this series.
OP: Very cheesy J-Pop
ED: Another dull song.
Potential: 10%

Natsuiro Kiseki

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are a bunch of middle school girls.
Okay. I am intrigues. I’m definitely going to keep watching this series. I’m not going to say why; you just need to watch this episode for yourself. Instead I’m going to talk a bit about this episode in general. Natsuiro Kiseki was a series that I really feared would just become another copy and paste moeblob clone. However, the execution is different from your average series. There is actual tension between the characters, and not in the usual clown-straight man pairing, but it feels much more natural than usual. It still has its problems of being way too angsty. There is in particular a blond girl in this show who needs to lay off the angst, because she kept causing drama that could have been solved by proper communication. Despite that though, this series doesn’t feel random, but the characters are actually talking about something. Some characters are a tad cliched (the deadpan girl in particular), but others are actually pretty inspired (the green-haired girl in this show is actually an interesting variation on the “ditzy girl”-archetype).
OP: Dull J-rock.
ED: Dull J-pop (for those who are new to this blog: yes, I kindof dislike these genres)
Potential: 80%

March Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

Okay, so during the summer season of 2011, I remember how I kept saying that modern anime are too short, and how more series should try to be longer. Well, the past half year showed the other side of that extreme when a large amount of the big flops were… series that went on for longer than 13 episodes: Bakuman dragged, Persona was terribly paced, Guilty Crown was terribly written, Last Exile had a bit of a bad main character syndrome and Squid Girl II was a pointless sequel.

And at the same time, the three best endings of this season… all were from series based on manga that are still on-going. Hmm…

#23 (new) – Hiiro no Kakera – (4,5/10) – Yet again Studio Deen keeps making the same bloody show that is as lazily executed as ever. Yet again we have a really dull bishie show with cardboard cut-outs. And what I really don’t get is why this show has the character designer of Ergo Proxy. I mean, the characters in this series look utterly terrible. What was the need to bring a guy like him around if you’re not going to use him?
#22 (new) – Gakkatsu – (6/10) – A random flash show, thankfully better executed than usual. It still was very dull and gimmicky, though.
#21 (20) – Guilty Crown – (7/10) – I… guess that this month wasn’t the worst month in terms of plot, but it was the month that convinced me what a huge waste of time it was to keep up with this series. I really got nothing out of it, other than bragging rights that I managed to finish such a dull and badly written series. And heck, even the ending was full of the most stupid plot twists. I am not looking forward to Accel World, considering how it shares the same scriptwriter.
#20 (new) – Ozuma – (7,6/10) – Considering Ryousuke Takahashi’s involvement, this was a bit of a disappointment in how sloppy it was, and how annoying the main character is. I like the idea of a sand submarine though, and with that the creators played a nice homage to the likes of Das Boot and other submarine flicks. There is way too much techno-babble, though. You can really see that this is a story from the early 1980s that got adapted almost page to page, without any attempt to give it a modern edge aside from the graphics.
#19 (18) – Black Rock Shooter – (7,75/10) – Thankfully Black Rock Shooter redeemed itself in its second half. Finally there was a bit of a link between the two worlds beyond both having similar characters. Having Mari Okada as the scriptwriter really helped in making everything come together, even though it also lead to perhaps a bit too much sappiness at times. Still, the action was awesome as well and while it’s definitely among the least interesting Noitamina series, it wasn’t the disaster that Guilty Crown turned out to be.
#18 (17) – Papa no Iukoto ni Kikinasai – (7,9/10) – I disliked the open ended nature of this series, because there still is some stuff that really needs to be tackled for the main characters. Still, I can’t deny that it was a very heart-warming month for this series, that really put emphasis the situation that they’re in. This also was the least annoying month for Papa and I’m glad that I kept watching it, despite the very obvious flaws it has.
#17 (19) – Smile Precure – (8/10) – Heartcatch Precure was immediately awesome: right from the start you knew that you were watching something special, so you didn’t have to sit through a string of really boring episodes, just to know whether it was worth it or not. With Smile Precure, this was not the case: the introduction episodes were really boring. I kept watching because of how it wasn’t entirely stupid, unlike Fresh Precure and Suite Precure. The patience was rewarded when this show actually immediately after the introductions got significantly better. The main character is still really annoying, but the characters are actually getting some very good development already.
#16 (15) – Last Exile – Ginyoku no Fam – (8/10) – Thankfully this series didn’t fall apart with its ending. Everyone thankfully stayed true to his or her character, and that’s what made this ending work. The plan of the final villain still was a bit flimsy, and he definitely should have been better fleshed out, but at least he did close off the series well. The final action scenes were again beautifully rendered, but this wasn’t the amazing comeback that Gonzo hoped for. For that, they needed to put more creativity in the plot and characters, beyond the world building.
#15 (16) – Ano Natsu de Matteru – (8/10) – That final twist with Lemon… urgh. The final episode overall was interesting in how it was completely different from the rest of the series. It worked, but the ending was nowhere near the best of the season, nor the highlights of the series itself. Still, it’s a solid ending.
#14 (11) – Nisemonogatari – (8/10) – The strongest point of this series for me was probably last month. The final arc of this series still was pretty good though, and the time that this show was side-tracked was thankfully rather short compared to Shaft’s other series. The pointless incest wasn’t necessary in the slightest, but the creators got a good story out of the characters when it actually tried to be on topic. The gorgeous animation also helped.
#13 (14) – Danshi Koukousei ni Nichijou – (8,25/10)

The ending was pretty good. The final episode in particular had a lot of sketches that worked really well. Overall the abusive girls parts definitely got annoying and repetitive, but once again this month had a number of great jokes.

#12 (5) – Another – (8,25/10)

Another’s ending was not as good as what I hoped. It put a lot of build-up into it, but the finale was full of strange leaps in logic. Still, the revelation of the ghost was very good, the aftermath was well done, and as a gory horror series, it definitely did its job.

#11 (9) – Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki – (8,25/10)

Akitarou Daichi for god’s sake: stop doing these small comedy series. Don’t get me wrong, Poyopoyo is awesome and hilarious, but a guy of your caliber deserves to work on an actual ambitious full series. Go and have tea with the people from Noitamina or something, because I really do miss that brilliant serious side of yours.

#10 (10) – Mirai Nikki – (8,25/10)

It took a while to get there, and being spoiled in the process definitely wasn’t fun, but now that we’re getting near the end I have to say that the plot took quite a number of entertaining and intriguing turns. In a way, the second half of this series is everything that Guilty Crown should have been, save perhaps from the production values.

#9 (12) – Rinne no Lagrange – (8,25/10)

Overall this was a very solid midway climax. It actually closed a few things off, while giving a hook for the second season and there was a nice amount of character growth. Overall its first half was probably the weakest of the three sci-fi series of Winter 2012, but still the witty direction also was very enjoyable to watch during its final episodes.

#8 (6) – Hunter X Hunter – (8,25/10)

The most annoying thing about watching this series is my patience. I mean, with Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, the recap just took 15 episodes. It was a bit annoying, but it was manageable. Hunter X Hunter has been going on for 25 episodes and we’re still nowhere near any new material, and to this point while there are some minute differences. At this point, I do not feel like it’s worth it to watch this series. Sure, there are hints here and there to later on in the series and all, and when we get to them it will probably be awesome. But still: 25 episodes. Still, at the very least this series goes at a faster pace, which really helps during the building up arcs. This month also delivered the background of Killua, which also again was quite good. What I currently like most about it is how it still keeps changing with every episode. It’s not as strong as when the series first started out, but it’s still very much there. That’s exactly what a shounen jump series needs to prevent itself from dragging on horribly.

#7 (8) – Aquarion Evol – (8,25/10)

Aquarion Evol still is consistently enjoyable. It’s over the top romance action, but it combines them all so well that along with the action and the best soundtrack of the season it remains a ton of fun to watch. The past month spent a lot of time on its characters, which also really helps for the second half of this series.

#6 (7) – Mourestu Pirates – (8,4/10)

The conclusion of the Serenity arc was above all very interesting science fiction. Seriously, the promotional material for this series looked very silly, but the creators did deliver some really good ideas, and twelve episodes in they still take their audiences seriously and they don’t just spoon-feed everything on a silver plate. Overall, out of the three big sci-fi series this season, this one turned out to be the most solid.

#5 (4) – Phi Brain – (8,5/10)

The annoying thing about finales that schedule them on April 1st is that I can’t comment on them in these compilation entries. Damn you, high school basketball for delaying that finale one week! Seriously though, everything so far is heading into the direction that we’re going to get a very good midway climax. I still have no clue how on earth the second season will be able to top this, but this is Sato Junichi: he did this before. Seriously, this month has shown some really good twists that fit in perfectly with the story and characters who keep developing. The focus on solving puzzles has gone to the background now: the creators turned them into very creative action-scenes instead, while at the same time the concept of puzzle solving remains the central theme of the series.

#4 (3) – Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – (8,5/10)

Bizarre. Just completely bizarre. The finale of the first season took its ending with a lot of grains of salt, but at least it still was a bit comprehensible. The finale of this season, made no complete sense. Oh, it still followed the general conventions of what a finale should be. But the context was just.. completely weird. The intentional cheese was particularly hilarious.

#3 (13) – Inu X Boku SS – (8,6/10)

And so, out of bloody nowhere, Inu X Boku suddenly got 10 times better in its final two episodes. I did not expect that, but the finale of this show was really well written, and everything just came together wonderfully. This show really is weird. There were long strings of episodes where it felt like it could have been so much better… and here the finale comes and delivers with a great character study. It consistently put a smile on my face, and Miketsukami was the first time in a long while where a show actually did justice to a bishie, and actually portrayed one well, rather than making him a walking stereotype. This still is David Production’s worst series, but damn: this made up for a lot here.

#2 (1) – Chihayafuru – (8,75/10)

One of the most difficult parts about compiling this month’s ranking is deciding my favorite series of the season. Usually I have a clear winner: Penguin Drum, Ano Hana and Level E were obviously the best for me in 2011. Here though, I have no idea: my number 1 and 2 are both awesome. Both were by far the best of the past three months, yet lacked that extra oomph to really give them a rating of 90/100. With Chihayafuru, it’s the lost potential of not having a second season. But really,despite such an obvious disadvantage, this series still delivered an amazing ending that managed to push the characters forward. Yes, all of them. Really, the creators should not have bothered with that sequel hook at all. Without that, this really would have topped this montly list.

#1 (2) – Natsume Yuujin-Chou – (8,9/10)

This month however, I really have to give the edge to Natsume Yuujin-Chou. Here is the thing with the fourth season: when compared to the other seasons, its middle arc isn’t as good in comparison. The beginning and end however, are the best so far. The arc with which the creators decided to end was just wonderful. It was an arc that we’ve been waiting for ages now, and really: if it turns out that no more sequels of Natsume Yuujinchou will be made, then I’ll be happy with this as an end. The third season already developed Natsume incredibly well. With this, he got even better.

Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou Review – 81/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

The past winter was a pretty interesting one for comedies; we were treated to no less than three good ones: Milky Holmes, Poyopoyo and Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou. Out of those three, I’d say that I found Danshi Koukousei to be the least funny. But heck, it’s still great to see a comedy that manages to bring so much creativity in something as overused as following the lives of a bunch of high school kids.

Every episode pretty much consists out of a collection of pretty short sketches, ranging from one to five minutes in length. In terms of humour, it uses the shotgun shell approach: deliver as many and as different jokes as possible in the hopes that some hit. Because of that, it’s always a bit of a question whether a sketch will work or not, and the ones who don’t work indeed fall flat pretty badly. I’ve got a lot of praise for the ones who do work, though.

As said before, my favorite thing about this series is how creative it can get when it wants to. It loves subverting generic high school cliches, but it also isn’t shy for random slapstick and it also loves to poke fun at Japanese cultural values. The direction and delivery for the jokes is also pretty well done, and in particular Tomokaze Sugita (who also played Gintoki in Gintama) really is on fire as the voice actor of one of the characters. This series also has the same director as the first 100 episodes of Gintama, so it’s no wonder that this guy’s acting talents are used to their full potential. The cast does have a few problems though, most of it has to do that half of the cast can’t decide what kind of character they want to play, and the other half that did decide on this ended up with a cardboard cut-out. Yeah, characterization is not this show’s strongest point.

Probably the weakest sketches are when this series tries to swap gender roles. I’ll leave it in the dark for the sake of spoilers how it exactly does it, but these sketches are too overused: they drag on for too long, they repeat each other too often and they appear too often. The best sketches can’t really be labeled like that. It’s completely random whenever the creators got a brilliant idea, and part of the fun of this series is waiting for those ideas to come. I’d say the ratio between the good and dull sketches is about 50/50. It’s not consistent enough to be a great comedy, but it’ll definitely give you a few good laughs.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Very funny and creative when it works.
Characters: 7.5/10 – A few too many cardboard cut-outs. The characters are funny, but have their moments of annoyance.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Solid sunrise production values.
Setting: 8/10 – Doesn’t get in the way for a comedy.

Suggestions:
– Gintama
– Hyakko
– Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu