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December Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

As usual, my December summary is a bit earlier than usual so that I have time to work on my 2011 summary (I’ve got 4 more posts for that planned; what the hell am I doing?), but it’s not like we’re getting any more episodes after this.

Overall, I will definitely remember this month due to all the things that happened here. I suddenly had to pull a rush job, moving this site to another domain after Blogsome suddenly announced that it was going down (which by the way, it still hasn’t), having to come up with a new design in less than a week. On top of that, it was also a really busy month for me in real life due to me finally moving out of my parents’ house and buying my own place to live.

In terms of anime, this was very consistent with last month: pretty much every series performed like I expected it to do, with only a few minor exceptions. It definitely wasn’t the strongest season we’ve had. In fact, when looking at the shows that debuted this season, this season at this point ties with Autumn 2010 as the least impressive Autumn Season since 2001. It mostly stood out because it broke some nasty trends of the past few years and for that I can say that it headed into the right direction again. And because of this, there are still plenty of series that still need to finish, so let’s find out if it can make me come back to these words in three months time.

#18 (18) – Persona 4 The Animation – (6,5/10) – The pacing in this show is still terrible. Sometimes it tells you which days it skips, at others the change into another day is completely random and unnanounced. I mean, what’s the point of this date system if you don’t use it consistently? Overall, this month this series had some nice ideas, which in the end didn’t really amount to anything. The bear? Cool, I guess, but he’s still bloody annoying. The thing with the killer also is nice and all, if we actually knew something about his character. This show spends so many times on random dialogue, and yet it doesn’t even flesh its characters out well.
#17 (17) – Shinryaku! Ika-Musume – (6,75/10) – That final episode was horrendous. Why on earth did the creators find it a good idea to YET AGAIN abandon all comedy for a serious story in this series? There is no way for that to suddenly work. Apart from that, this month was much of the same, but overall this sequel was a waste of time. I really hope that Milky Holmes avoids this next season, but that show is based on a Pachinko Game instead of a manga, so anything can happen there.
#16 (16) – Guilty Crown – (7/10) – I have watched every Noitamina series except for one. And yet, I can easily say that Guilty Crown has the worst characters compared to any other show from that timeslot. Fractale? The character s there at least were likable. Library Wars? the cast at least was engaging. In this show, no single character is interesting. Everyone is just a tool to make Shu look awesome, even though Shu is a whining protagonists who just keeps changing character depending on what the plot demands. Holy crap he was annoying this month.
#15 (15) – Bakuman – (7,5/10) – Oh for god’s sake, the whole issue with the angry Miura was hard to sit through. I mean, I get the point that they tried to made, but it was just so dragged on. Miura isn’t the best acted anyway so it was rather hard to buy him. I liked Yuriko’s subplot though. It’s short and to the point, and yet in much less time it also gets a lot out of her character. Take an example of that, Bakuman.
#14 (10) – Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – (8/10) – I have very mixed feelings with this series, but in the end I do have to praise it. Sure, it makes no sense with the creators consistently pulling all kinds of rules out of their asses, but these rules were inspired and imaginative, and they actually got some neat things out of the characters this way.
#13 (13) – Mirai Nikki – (8/10) – One of Mirai Nikki’s biggest problems was that most of its villains were dull. They were badly developed, not fleshed out well enough, and just not interesting to watch. A show that’s as crazy as this really needs good and enjoyable characters to make the most out of this. That is what I realized after watching the latest arc, which did have an interesting antagonist. The show suddenly got a lot more enjoyable when that guy took the center stage.
#12 (14) – Kimi to Boku – (8/10) – The final episode of this first half of Kimi To Boku was also the best episode so far. I like that. Overall, the final month only cemented the characters even more as well written. Compared to the first episodes, the characters have gotten less annoying. Yes, even Chizuru. But that guy still gets on my nerves.
#11 (12) – Phi Brain – (8/10) – In this month, Phi Brain finally got to business. And it worked. It remembered to develop the main villain well, and because of this the episodes involving him were a bit cheesy, yet had some solid drama as well. The puzzles also continue to get larger and more dangerous, which is a good sign for 2012
#10 (9) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (8,25/10)

It’s a shame that Nurarihyon ended with a sequel hook, because that ending would have been the perfect time to close off this series. Overall, the last month of this series was really well done. Finally this show got to what it actually was about: a war between small armies. Finally it got down to business. Finally the characters came together, and the graphics looked really solid in the process. It took way too bloody long to get here, but it’s still good to see that amidst an ocean of shounen shows that end on a bad note, this one didn’t.

#9 (5) – Last Exile – Ginyoku no Fam – (8,25/10)

Overall the strongest month for Last Exile was the first month. Right now it’s still very solid, but there are a few too many inconsistencies for my tastes. Shangri-La had this too, but to make up for it it had a crazy plot that kept moving, whereas Last Exile is much slower. The build-up still is pretty solid though, and the characters still are pretty good and well acted. Bring on that second half!

#8 (8) – Hunter X Hunter – (8,25/10)

The thing with this show s that it’s just too similar to the first season. The surprise and suspense is gone because of that. Those who haven’t seen the first season however, are in for something awesome here. This does remain as one of the best shounens out there.

#7 (7) – Tamayura Hitotose – (8,25/10)

Tamayura ended with a very solid note. The character development really stood out in these final episodes, plus it ended with a heart-warming finale. Perhaps it wasn’t th best slice of life series I’ve seen, but nevertheless it was a very solid attempt.

#6 (11) – Ben-To – (8,5/10)

What I especially liked about the finale is how well built up it was. This lead to a few episodes without food battles, but the pay off in the end was really worth it. The characters all were interesting to watch, and everything came together wonderfully for the ending. This definitely was what I expect an action comedy to be.

#5 (6) – Fate/Zero – (8,5/10)

This was the month in which Rider really showed what an awesome character he can be. Things are definitely slowly getting better and better, and even though we have to wait three months for the next episode, it overall was one of the most solid shows of the past three months.

#4 (4) – Chihayafuru – (8,5/10)

This was the month of the first Karuta tournament, and I love how short and to the point it was. This show has a wonderful balance: it makes sure to spend enough time on everything, yet it also never drags on or feels padded out. By far its biggest virtue here was how in every episode, it involved every character, and added a bit to every one of them. Now that’s some solid writing to nail consistently.

#3 (3) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)

It is really impossible to find episode 36 anywhere. This is a bloody shame for a show that consistently ranked among my top 3 this past season. Especially Rikyuu’s development over the past episodes was memorable here, with a few misers involved, though. When this ends, I can only hope that Koichi Mawshimo will continue make many more series, despite his age (he’ll be turning 60 this year).

#2 (2) – Un-Go – (8,75/10)

This month, Un-Go ended pretty much as solid as how it’s ever been. The plot twists it came with were really well done, and it still left no moment wasted. I like how you really needed to pay attention to this series in order to be able to follow it. This show just kept throwing you for a loop with some really plausible scenarios, only to turn things around completely.

#1 (1) – Mawaru Penguin Drum – (9,25/10)

The ending may not have explained everything, but who cares? It did give conclusion to the things it should have. It all fitted wonderfully and it did push the characters to new levels. It was a very sad ending that worked really well as the conclusion of this series.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon is… weird. I mean, Kimi to Boku was annoying, but that was part of the reason why it worked. Most of Horizon’s flaws are completely pointless. For starters, this is directed by Manabu Ono. This guy has found himself a trademark. A very annoying trademark that involves pasting enormous boobs on his characters.

The result is a show with character designs who are indeed very varied and inspired, but look absolutely abysmal. The enormous hair of the characters looks like this series is still stuck ten years ago. Because of this, even though this show has a large budget, there is hardly any room for eye candy at all.

To continue: the great thing about the characters in Horizon is their diversity: it’s chock full of colourful characters of all kinds of ages, shapes and forms. And yet the main character is an incredible pervert who considers groping boobs a greeting. The fanservice in this show is so completely out of place and gets thrown so often into otherwise serious scenes that it’s not even funny.

Overall, this is a show that thrives on chaos: it tries to put an immense amount of content into just 13 episodes. The result is a massive cast of characters, a huge setting, and very fast-paced dialogue that have their good points and their bad points. The good points about the characters are that when they want to, they can deliver some interesting chemistry. Alone they’re cliches, but together their relationships become quite unique. The bad points re the aforementioned fanservice, and the huge amount of underdeveloped ones. It unfortunately… doesn’t really mask that.

Then there is the storytelling: the setting in this series is full of ideas. every single character has this really weird and unique power that he or she uses to fight. The good thing about this is the imagination that went into it. The bad thing is that all of the battles in this series make no sense. It feels like the animation staff at times just doesn’t know what they’re animating. The battles furthermore completely create pull their own rules from out of their ass, depending on what is most convenient for the plot, and this changes with every battle. This is a show that on one hand forces its viewers to think and pay attention, but on the other hand it demands a ton of suspense of disbelief and expects the viewers to not really think about the logic behind each battle. That doesn’t really match here!

Above all though: Horizon wants to tell a story, no matter how crazy and incoherent. The ideas in this series are like a blast from a shotgun shell: some hit, while others completely miss the target. There is one thing I cannot fault this series for, and that’s for being generic. Compare that to Koukaku no Regios, which at first started out with a similar setting. only to refuse to focus on it. Horizon refuses to not focus on its setting. It definitely needed to be more refined, and the story desperately lacks some kind of editor. But it is a great trainwreck to watch.

Storytelling: 8/10 – This show is a complete chaos. It’s well written, but also lacks direction at times.
Characters: 8/10 – Huge and diverse cast of characters, with some characters who work, others who don’t, or characters who do work, but make it really hard to actually be likable (the male lead for one)
Production-Values: 7/10 – This show has a large budget. So why go for these abysmal character designs that make any possible form of eye candy impossible?
Setting: 9/10 – Really diverse, full of ideas, tries to put as much into its setting as possible.

Suggestions:
– Overman King Gainer
– Turn A Gundam
– Baccano!

Kimi to Boku Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

The two big slice of life series of Autumn 2011 were Tamayura and Kimi to Boku. Overall I ended up liking Tamayura better, but I also recommend this show. Plus: this show isn’t even finished yet, while Tamayura was a sortof sequel.

With a show about a group of five high school goys, there is one thing that you need to understand before watching this series, though: Kimi to Boku is annoying. This show is obnoxious, and fully aware of that. In fact, it actively tries to get on your nerves. You need patience with this show. This might sound weird, but this show has an overall “bored” atmosphere. The characters are mellow and lethargic. Most of this show is actually a bit of a chore to watch.

But here is the thing: with every episode, this show redeems itself. Whereas episodes start unbelievably boring, they always lead to some redeeming point where this show suddenly delivers heart-warming drama and acting. And not only that, it actually uses the annoying episode to build up and develop into something that catches your attention.

These characters really got on my nerves, but the fact remains: these are really well written characters. Their acting is really believable. They’re far from the usual stereotypes and they’re already quite well developed.

There are two points at which this show leaves things to be desired, though. The first is the random cat shots that often have absolutely nothing to do with the scene they’re shown in. I still don’ really understand what’s up with them. The other, is Chizuru. Being annoying is one thing. This guy is annoying, every single time he opens his mouth. And he never shuts up. And I mean, I know that real high school boys are annoying as well and all, but a show about watching paint dry is realistic too, but that doesn’t make me want to watch it. This guy is not interesting to watch at all and the moments where he redeems himself are far too few to make up for him constantly trying to be an ass.

Let me stress though: he is the only character with this. The rest of the cast more makes it worth watching this series and sitting through the awkward moments. This show tried to invade a genre where the majority of characters are usually girls, rather than guys, and actually upstaged a lot of them here. That’s quite impressive.

Storytelling: 8/10 – It might not seem so at first, but this show knows how to tell a story.
Characters: 8/10 – With the exception of Chizuru they’re all surprisingly well written. They will be annoying, though. Be prepared.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Nothing special here, but nothing that gets in the way of the rest of the series.
Setting: 8/10 – Little detail is given to where this show takes place, although the past of the characters is nicely laid out.

Suggestions:
– Hourou Musuko
– Showa Monogatari
– Bokura ga Ita

Shinryaku!? Ika-Musume Review – 70/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Shinryaku! Ika Musume

The big disadvantage of having a successful comedy is that people want to make sequels of it. It sold well, so hey: why not try milking it out some more? What/ You mean to say that the first season already exhausted all of the possible jokes that could have been made? Who cares! People will buy it!

So yeah,Squid Girl 2 is much of the same. And in this case, this is a bad thing, because “much of the same” in a comedy pretty much means that the entire second season is derivative. There is no reason for it to really exist. This season doesn’t really advance the show or characters aside from perhaps a few minor details here and there that you could have made an OVA out of. And for the rest of the time this show spends repeating some of the jokes and scenarios of the first season.

It becomes clear very early on that the creators are struggling to find new material to fill 12 episodes. The creators at least try to squeeze some new jokes out of things, but this series never really introduces new characters, so its only option is to try some variations of some of the jokes we’ve seen so far. The result is that there are a few characters who just keep returning. In particular the crazy scientists are guilty of this: their crazy inventions are really often used to create random wacky situations for Squid girl to be in. Also milked to death are Chizuru, and worst of all: the crazy stalker. The stalker was completely horrible in the way that just REFUSED. TO BLOODY. GIVE UP. She tries to glomp Squid Girl more than five times every single episode, for god’s sake!

Thankfully the creators realized that there was no way for them to remain funny for 12 more episodes, so at least they tried to shift their focus a bit: they at leas try to make sure that the ending of each story comes with an original twist. For this, I can at least say that they’re hit and miss: sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. But at least they’re not as derivative as the rest of the series.

But seriously though: there is no real reason to watch this; over these entire 12 episodes, there was only one sketch that I considered to be genuinely funny. That’s way too little. Ideally if you’re interested in this series: watch till episode 11 of the first season. That’s all you really need, because this series has the really weird tradition of suddenly turning to a serious story for the final episode. And yes, this second season has this too. And yes, it’s baaaaaaad….

Storytelling: 7/10 – Repeated jokes and scenarios from the first season that while mildly funny, are not enough to sustain interest.
Characters: 6/10 – Only a few details are really added to the characters. That’s not good here, and it’s a good thing that the characters still have a bit of their natural charms left.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Still solid, but the animation too has gone downhill.
Setting: 7/10 – This show is completely derivative. Again nothing is added here.

Suggestions:
– Mitsodomoe
– Tentai Senshi Sunred
– Demashitaa! Power Puff Z

Ben-To Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Ben-To



To say that the moe genre nowadays is overcrowded is an understatement. I’m sure my bias against this genre wouldn’t be as bad if it wasn’t just so bloody everywhere, and I don’t even like most of them, and the comedies in this genre are no different. The exceptions for me are the ones who really put in effort. Not the ones who get lucky on one episode and then keep screwing up afterwards. No, the ones who try to be genuinely entertaining, week after week. Ben-To understood this.

This show just pushes the boundaries in the genre of the fanservice comedy. Gone is the copy and paste formula: this show just takes a crazy formula and goes to town with it: people fighting over half-priced lunches. There is a lot of neat stuff you can do with that, and this show realized that.

And the setting isn’t the only thing that the creators spent attention at. The animation and action are really meant to be as fun as possible. The soundtrack is actually the single best soundtrack of the past season in how over the top it is. The action scenes are excellent because of this. Every single one of them is really fun to watch.

And on top of that, this also is a very well told series. The build-up in this series is actually very good: it knows exactly how to lead its atmosphere into the food battles with a slow and subtle parts to increase the tension. The acting also is far from the usual you see in moe shows. Sure, it’s incredibly over the top like it should be, but at the same time the actors also know when to show restraint. The characters in this series are because of this much more colourful than usual.

Overall the story in this series also keeps it nice and tight, and both major arcs in this show are interesting enough to keep up with this series. It’s unfortunately not the most consistent series, and there are a few parts here and there that go off track. Especially in the second half the fanservice suddenly goes out of control at times, which leads to shows that are just too forced because of this. Thankfully this doesn’t involve the final episodes, so this show can still close off with a bang, but still. The fanservice in this series usually is subtle (especially for Yarizui), however at others the creators go completely overboard on the penis jokes. Thankfully these scenes are a minority, rather than the majority.

Ben-To and Dororon Enma-Kun. If you want to watch fanservice series that are actually entertaining, rather than completely lazy in terms of storytelling, these are the two shows I recommend above all others with on a third place Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. Especially the first two though: these two realize that pushing boundaries doesn’t mean trying to out-gross each other, but to try out new things in terms of storytelling and scenarios.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Really knows how to be entertaining. Great build-up, really fun food battles.
Characters: 8/10 – Nothing amazing, but this show still has some really solid characters that are surprisingly well acted at times.
Production-Values: 9/10 – This has the best soundtrack of the season, and while the visuals are inconsistent, they do know how to animate a good action scene with restrictions.
Setting: 8/10 – Thank you for being a moe show with an actual inspired premise.

Suggestions:
– Dororon Enma-Kun Meerameera
– Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt
– Hyakko

Fate/Zero Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Fate/Zero



First of all, for those who are wondering: Fate/Zero is a prequel of Fate/Stay Night. You don’t need to have seen Fate/Stay Night in order to enjoy this, although it would be wise to first read up on a bit of the terminology, because that is pretty much the only thing that this series assumes its audience to be familiar with.

Now that that’s out of the way: this definitely was a unique and interesting series to watch. It has a few flaws here and there, but on the other side of the coin we have a very original and well researched setting here. This series grabs many classic references and figures from all over history, ranging from Alexander the Great to King Arthur, and puts them all together. Chivalry is a huge theme in this series that gets looked upon from all sorts of different angles.

What’s also great here is that it’s really hard to pinpoint the actual main character in this series. Of course, in theory this should be Saber and all, but you’d be surprised at how little airtime and attention she gets in this series. The character development of some of the other characters is far more interesting, and she’s very often outclassed by the rest of the cast here. In particular Rider is just one of a kind. He’s without a doubt the best character of the bunch and his monologues are incredibly well written. But really: nearly all of the characters here are interesting and colourful, perhaps with the only exception of the rather one-sided Caster-duo.

The main flaw of this series is the pacing. Very often this show just doesn’t flow well. The first episode for example is 50 minutes of random people talking without giving the viewer any reason to care for them, and the battles in this series are often a bit understated because the characters keep interrupting them to talk to each other about their strategies and powers. Fate/Zero spends a lot of its time on building up for the second season. At times this goes at the sacrifice of its pacing.

Still, this is a show that definitely gets better over time, as you get to know more and more of its characters. The characters slowly reveal more about themselves and their backgrounds and motivations. It’s here where the dialogues in this series really shine, to the point where they become the thing to recommend this series for. Make no mistake, the script in this show is very well written here and when this script combines itself with the character development, it’s when this show is at its best.

So yeah, the pacing has issues but really: in a time when anime diverts more and more into teenagers, it’s great to see a series that fully focuses on adults, and actually delivers a really solid storyline here. Seriously, this was one of the most solid series of the past three months.

Storytelling: 8/10 – A few pacing issues, but excellent dialogue.
Characters: 8/10 – A rich and diverse cast that will take a bit of time to fully blossom. Also a lot of the development seems to be saved for the second season.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Yuki Kajiura perhaps doesn’t bring in her A-game for this series, but still pretty solid all around. The animation is very good too, with especially the combination between 2d and CG being very good..
Setting: 9/10 – Well researched, imaginative and quite unconventional.

Suggestions:
– Le Chevalier d’Eon
– Rose of Versailles
– Amatsuki

Sengoku Basara – The Last Party Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Sengoku Basara

Okay, it may seem like a strange idea to watch and review the Sengoku Basara movie of all things on Christmas Eve, but I really have to say: if you finished watching the first two series: just watch this movie and enjoy the fireworks. It’s one hell of an enjoyable way to spend an evening.

You can definitely see that the creators wanted Sengoku Basara to end with a giant bang. Everything here is just completely over the top. Every single voice actor is having the time of his life, hamming up his role. And it actually works with such a series that’s so full of manliness. The first two series already developed the characters, and this movie realizes that it only needs to work a bit on the new ones. The result is that a far bigger portion of this series is devoted to the action than the second season, and the action is far better and over the top than in the first.

The downside is that this movie throws away all pretense. While the first two seasons had interesting storylines, this one has just has one goal: being over the top. We’re done with the complex plot lines, here is just an over the top and emotional epic ride. So yeah, when you boil down the storyline they used for this movie, it’s full of cliches and overdone tropes, packed together in a very simple premise. It may not seem so at first, but yeah. At a certain point, you’ll understand why.

And yeah, this movie is pretty much fanservice. I don’t mean that it suddenly grew boobs or that the characters suddenly start stripping for no reason, but I mean this in that this movie is entirely dedicated to pleasing the fans. Because of that it’s in no way accessible to those who haven’t watched the other Sengoku Basara-series, but this movie took the things that stood out the most in the TV-series, and built a movie around them.

At this point, I had been exactly waiting for this series to go all out, which is why I’m very pleased with this movie. It definitely washed away the disappointment of the ending of both TV-series, because they just weren’t epic enough for what this show promised. This movie finally delivered on that promise. I just can’t take this franchise serious anymore after this, though. Especially after the ED, which was all kinds of awesome, but just doesn’t belong in a series that expects you to take it seriously. Merry Christmas everyone, by the way.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Completely over the top and it works.
Characters: 8/10 – Makes good use of the fact that it already fleshed out its characters.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Solid as usual.
Setting: 7/10 – Please don’t believe that Sengoku Basara is an accurate portrayal of the Sengoku Era…

Suggestions:
– Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection
– Tailenders
– Shin Mazinger Shougeki Z-Hen

Onigamiden Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

Um. Yeah… about this movie.

It already had an unusual staff behind it. It’s directed by the director of Spriggan, written by a guy who worked on all kinds of series from Element Hunters to Spice and Wolf, the character designs are by the same guy who designed the characters for Ghost in the Shell, Jin Roh and the Sky Crawlers, the storyboards are done by the guys who animated things like Cannon Fodder and A Tree of Palme and it’ produced by Studio Pierrot. Oh, and just a small detail: the animation director is freaking Shinji Hashimoto. If you don’t know who Shinji Hashimoto is, watch this. That’s just a small portion of the talent of someone who is amongst the best animators in the business.

If you’re wondering what good animation is: just watch this movie. The animation here isn’t necessarily flashy, but the fluidity and the motions are just incredible. There are so many visual ideas in this movie. There is so much motion in it, even for movie standards. This really is the first production in more than half a decade in which Studio Pierrot really got to show off their unique animation style if you don’t count a few random episodes here and there that just happen to have the right staff. It is great that producers still continue to give people like Shinji Hashimoto opportunities to oversee the animation of entire productions, because like this movie shows: the result just looks incredible. As for the rest of the movie though….

Look, the problem isn’t with the acting. The voice acting is perfectly fine. The pacing is also pretty acceptable: it’s slow, but it never drags. The choice of music is a bit weird for a series that is about Japan of 1200 years ago, but it ends up working very nicely. The setting is also something that interests me a lot. A time when Jesus wasn’t even a thousand years old yet is not something we get to see often. This would have been a very good movie… if it wasn’t for the story.

Because yes, this is a serious story about the history and heritage of Japan. And yes, it’s about a random boy who gets transported there and gets to command dragons for no particular reason. Whoop-dee-doo.

Now, this alone isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it all depends on how well it’s handled. Unfortunately, everything just goes too easy for this kid. All he has to do is glow a bit, and then suddenly he can command this huge dragon (who has no personality whatsoever by the way, even though he’s the titular Millennium Dragon). Because of this lack of urgency for him, he starts worrying about morals. The result is that he spends a large part of the movie whining and trying to convince everyone not to fight.

I don’t know what’s worse: the fact that he’s actually trying this, or the fact that the potentially interesting setting was reduced to such a farce to make this actually possible. This movie is completely shallow. At first things the sakes seem huge on this series, but eventually things degrade into a conflict because this kid has a trauma because his parents died. The only things that actually resemble this setting are the images. Apart from that it seems that the writers put in no research whatsoever into the setting they were dealing with.

This is the kind of children’s movie that dumbs itself down way too much, for the sake of appealing to kids. It’s such a shame, when the animation is so good, it just doesn’t have the story to back it up with. There are just fundamental problems with the writing staff here.

Storytelling: 7/10 – Solid storytelling, but there is hardly any substance.
Characters: 7/10 – Well, it has potential, but the main character is just too young and puts the priorities on the wrong place.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Really great animation, a ton of fluidity, a ton of animation ideas.
Setting: 7/10 – Interesting setting, but underutilized.

Suggestions:
– Yona Yona Penguin
– A Tree of Palme
– Kai Doh Maru

Mawaru Penguin Drum Review – 92,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Mawaru Penguin Drum



Revolutionary Girl Utena aired in 1997. When I watched it, it immediately conquered a spot on my list of favorite series ever, and still stands there. After that its director, Kunihiko Ikuhara, put out the Utena movie, and after that things became eerily quiet around him for more than a decade. Once in a while he did a random storyboard, but apart from that he really was strangely absent. So imagine my surprise when it was announced that he’d do another full fledged series again.

Right from the start it’s obvious that these two are from the same makers: this show is chock full of symbolism. Everywhere, the creators stuffed in references, cross references and visual symbols that only became apparent episodes after they appear. At first sight this is just random, but the great thing is that every symbol here has a meaning and place in this series. At first sight this series may seem like it’s complete chaos, but it’s actually surprisingly well structured on hindsight.

And yeah, this show pretty much has the best direction of the entire year. The way it combines the visuals, music and story together: no other show did it better during the past 12 months. The music does an excellent job of fitting within every scene it’s used, the animation really makes the characters come alive, the timing of all of the scenes flows really well. And the acting of the characters is really solid, especially considering the amount of broken characters in this series.

The excellent acting also leads to an excellent cast of characters. Just about everyone develops throughout the series. It also makes use of a ton of flashbacks and flash-forwards, to illustrate this, also giving the cast a ton of background in the process. The cast in this series really is dynamic, and engaging beyond belief.

And then there are the plot twist. This series really likes throwing plot twists, and being as unpredictable as possible. This makes for one heck of a plot. At first it might seem that this series is just throwing around twists for the heck of it, but nearly everything in this series is properly foreshadowed and hinted at on hindsight. The plot of this series is so tightly put together. This is an anime original series, so there is no need to be afraid of rushed endings or stories that just stop in the middle. The ending of this series is amazing and closes off this series wonderfully. This really is one of my top picks of 2011.

Storytelling: 10/10 – Great sense of timing and bringing out all different sorts of emotions. Really tightly written plot.
Characters: 9/10 – Excellent character development, very likable characters, although some take a bit to get used to (Ringo!)
Production-Values: 9/10 – Very solid and inspired animation, excellent soundtrack.
Setting: 9/10 – Penguin Drum is highly symbolic, and even its setting makes use of this. Because of this, things aren’t made 100% clear, but this is a very interesting way to get its messages across.

Suggestions:
– Revolutionary Girl Utena
– Simoun
– Noein

Un-Go Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Un-Go



Ah, the Noitamina Timeslot. It’s been going solid for more than six years now. Making a Noitamina series is a tricky thing to do, especially with the way that timeslot has evolved during the past three years. Series in it need to be both ambitious, yet fit in a very limited time and space (with only a few exceptions). There have been quite a few who miscalculated on this, like what happened with No.6, Eden of the East or C. Or Library Wars, Jyu Oh Sei and Moyashimon for that matter.

Here comes a show that does this in a different way, though. Un-Go realizes that its time is very limited, and yet it tries to put a lot of stuff in each of its episodes. This is a formula that can screw up in so many different ways, and yet here the creators actually nailed that balance that gets everything right. This show is half-episodic and half-continuous story, and for each of its arcs, even the ones that just take place in one episode, it makes sure that their murder mystery stories deliver. It’s great at build-up, and the twists it delivers all kick ass. It’s fast, but never too fast or too rushed. It’s definitely something where you need to pay attention if you want to be able to get it, but that’s the great thing: it forces you to think and pay attention.

As for how this show managed to be able to do this? Well, it just has no space reserved to flesh out the characters. There are no scenes in this series where we can just see the characters take a bit of time, and show off their characters’ sides. Every scene and line of dialog has a meaning to the plot. This posed another challenge to the creators, because they had to find another way to make these characters interesting and make them carry the story. The result is that the characters are fleshed out through their actions, ways of speeches and their reactions. It’s all carefully intertwined with the dialogue. This doesn’t lead to the most memorable cast, but still to one that works. The characters in this series somehow end up being fun and nice to watch.

The mysteries in this series are also carefully intertwined with this series’ setting. It’s post apocalyptic, but it uses this really well to spice up its stories, and it does so in quite some imaginative ways. This series really loves to pull heel-turn twists, in which things turn out to be completely different from what they seem at first. You can definitely see that a lot of time was spent on the script of this series, and that makes it consistently enjoyable for those who are in for something with a very fast pacing. It may seem overwhelming at times, but it’s because of this that the creators were able to put so much in so little time and somehow make it work.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Some excellent mystery storytelling here. Very fast paced, though.
Characters: 8/10 – They’re not fleshed out in the usual ways, but they still have some nice details to them.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Very solid graphics, but in particular the music backs up the show really well.
Setting: 9/10 – Uses its setting really well in the backgrounds of each of its stories, with a great look at modern technology.

Suggestions:
– Mononoke
– Shigofumi
– Yojou-han Shinwa Taikei