Digimon Xros Wars – Toki wo Kakeru Shounen Hunter
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets a digimon for himself.
I keep hoping for the good kiddie shows to come back, but after Nippon Animation’s demise and how bad the sales were on the WMT revival series, I’ve pretty much given up. This episodes introduces a new low for the digimon franchise. Before, you could still give it credit for originality. With this though, it has given up all pretense and just flat out stated that it aims to be a pokemon rip-off. I could still get behind the first Xros Wars as an experiment, but with this, the creators came with an even more blatant premise, an even dumber male lead and no semblance of progress whatsoever. The worst part of this episode was where the male lead saw a random digimon walking around, and killed it. Yes, kids: randomly attacking strangers is good! The sole salvation of this is that the animators had their moments. Just too bad that they have to work with bland and uninspired character designs.
OP: Bland pop tune, but at least the visuals aren’t bad.
Potential: 0%
Fate/Zero – Again
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is still going to fight in a war for the holy grail.
Erm. Okay. So yesterday when I watched Fate/Zero, I forgot that it was supposed to start with a double episode, and I accidentally ended up watching a version of this episode that just contained the first half. That was a headdesk moment. In any case, now that I watched the second half of this episode, things fall even more into place, because the end of this episode had an actual climax that fitted well: the summoning of the servants. In any case, the second half of this episode pretty much continued in the same style of first wanting to set everything up correctly, rather than start with a huge climax immediately to draw in viewers. I haven’t watched Fate/Stay Night beyond a few episodes, so the only character I recognized was the younger version of a very annoying tsundere, but apart from that the main cast has a lot of potential, and they’re in no way as annoying as from the Fate/Stay Night anime.
ED: Bland J-rock. The visuals are actually well animated, but seem a bit undirected and chaotic. Also, why did you spoil the identity of the seventh magus when the episode tried to be all mysterious about it?
ED2: Just a black screen with credits. The lack of vocals makes it better than the first ED, but still unimpressive.
Potential: 85%
Hunter X Hunter
Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to become a hunter
I may have been bitching about this series, but don’t get me wrong: if this gets done right, it can easily be the best shounen of the past years. The problem is that we won’t know about the intentions of the people who are tasked with adapting this thing until the Yorkshin arc arrives, especially because this series will be aimed at a younger audience. The big question is: do these creators believe that kids are idiots, or will they actually put in effort just like what studios as Nippon Animation do? Now, this episode was definitely faster-paced than the first season, and because of that it didn’t have as much detail in it as well. The hunter that Gon runs into, who tells him about his father? Completely gone, which is a bit of a pity because it gave the first season a unique start. Still, the creators put in effort here. The characters are true to themselves, and especially the captain, who was definitely made to appeal more to kids, actually worked well as this old sea captain. The voice actors do have their issues: Gon yells a bit too much, while Leorio’s voice actor didn’t know whether he should use Leorio’s voice of the first season, or just stick to his own. It definitely was a fun episode. The big challenge for this series seems to be its pacing: this series wants to go fast, which inevitably will lead to some things getting cut. Do not cut the best parts!
OP: Cheesy J-pop and running.
ED: Hisako?!
Potential: 75%]]>
Category: Other:
Ao no Exorcist Review – 75/100
Shounen isn’t my favourite genre, but I have enjoyed plenty of the better series in the genre. Ao no Exorcist is a sneaky one though: at first it first seems to avoid a lot of the overused cliches that plague the genre… only to fall into them anyways.
What sets Ao no Exorcist apart is that it’s typical shounen, but done well. The main character is a hot headed brat, but he’s well fleshed out and has good development and reasons for his actions. The show inevitably ends up at an academy, but school assignments that the characters have to do are fun, interesting and lead to quite a bit of character development.
The big problem is that this series is way too epic for what it wants to be. On one hand it aims for high school hijinks and a look at exorcists in training, and on the other it is involved in an international plot involving to purge the strongest demon known to man: Satan. The main character may be Satan’s son and all, but the two parts don’t mesh at all and leave a terribly divided series.
The part of the series that suffers the least is the one that focuses on the high school. It’s not ambitious, but it’s fun, the characters are genuine and they have a great chemistry between them. The plot against satan unfortunately is horribly rushed, with in the end Satan magically forgetting to use a lot of his powers in order to actually prevent the main cast from not instantly dying. It’s full of bland twists and unoriginal plot devices that are way too constrained with trying to go for a “by the books”-ending. This series is based on a manga, but decides to go with its own storyline for its final third. While that isn’t immediately a bad thing, it just doesn’t work here.
A-1 has made sure of great animation, but in the end there are just many better shounen series out there. Ao no Exorcist was a nice attempt, but it lacks vision.
| Storytelling: | 7/10 – Does not know what it wants to focus on and ends up half-hearted. Tries to subvert shounen cliches only to fall into them. |
| Characters: | 8/10 – Saved by a good chemistry and good development. Bad villains, though. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – Solid action, though nothing amazing. |
| Setting: | 7/10 – Tries to deliver a solid setting of exorcists, but in the end there is hardly any gap between the best and the worst of them. |
Some Quick First Impressions: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon, Maji de Watashi ni Koi ni Shinasai and C3
Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gropes boobs.
This show… oh my god. This show. I have no idea what the creators are thinking with this one. Here’s the thing: I wasn’t looking forward to this series for a reason: the main cast. Their character designs were just abysmal (the director of Dragonaut is involved here; it shows). And then this episode aired, and suddenly revealed an incredibly colourful side-cast with a classroom full of blobs, ninjas, body-builders, robots and much more. It then continues on with a very fun training session for all of them, only to consistently show the main girls as overacting harem cliches. And then the main character shows up and starts acting as a huge pervert. Just… why!? The thing is: that the big strength of this series is its imagination. There were tons of ideas put into this episode, there are a ton of interesting designs, the setting of a floating ship is very interesting and an overall storyline is promising to be quite fun. The cast of characters is colourful and fun, and yet the main females are harem cliches. Why!? Ah well, I’ll give it thumbs up, just because of the creativity. This episode hinted at the characters getting better over time. Let’s hope that they pull through with that.
OP: Generic.
Potential: 75%
Maji de Watashi ni Koi ni Shinasai
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is in love with his sister.
Now here is a pleasant surprise. I had no expectations whatsoever for this series, but what I did not expect was that instead of another uninspired harem, this turned out to be a series where several high school classes participate in Sengoku-style battles with each other. This turned out to be 20 minutes of seeing various high schoolers fight the hell out of each other. It was delightfully silly, but also surprisingly entertaining. At first sight it seemed that the characters all would just be based on some gimmick, but especially as the episode neared its end and more and more characters showed up (seriously, the cast of this thing is HUGE), they showed that they’re actual characters, instead of stereotypes that just rely on one simple gimmick. I mean, it’s nothing deep and all, but at least it’s not terrible in any way, and I actually see potential for this to remain fun for a full 13 episodes, rather than it becoming boring after just a few episodes. I didn’t spot any jokes that are in danger of being repeated over and over, and there still is plenty of stuff that this series can do with its premise. It light-hearted entertainment and nothing more (why are these characters fighting anyway? There is no way that the creators are going to be able to give a good reason for that), but if the rest of this series is as entertaining as this episode then I’m in.
Potential: 75%
C3
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live together with a cute girl.
So, in the end this series seems to be want to offer awareness about mental retardation. The lead character’s father sends him a girl who looks like she’s 14, but has the mental capacities of a six year old. This episode focused on showing the struggles of such a family, especially with the absence of adults. The lead girl really was just a little kid who when left alone for even an afternoon caused all sorts of trouble. The rest of this series though was pretty bland and unoriginal. There were a ton of cliches, a ton of boob jokes, and the voice acting was… annoying, the character designs were bland. If it wasn’t for the mental condition of the female lead (or at least, that is the only explanation I can think of for her stupidity), this was just like any other harem show out there.
ED: Generic harem ED. There’s gonna be a third girl in love with the male lead?
Potential: 20%]]>
Some Quick First Impressions: Fate/Zero, Bakuman II and Shinryaku!? Ika-Musume
Fate/Zero
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is about to fight in a holy war for a holy grail.
Okay, so this was completely different from what I expected it to be. When I started watching, I had something along the lines of Fate/Stay Night in my mind, only better, so I expected some sort of teenaged harem-set up with a lot of action. What I got had no action whatsoever, there was no harem present whatsoever and there were no teenagers at all! Instead of action, this entire episode consisted out of people talking to each other. Awesome! The animation budget was surprisingly limited: only the background art was great, though the animation itself made use of a lot of shortcuts, and far-away shots. Yuki Kajiura also delivered a solid soundtrack, although I wouldn’t classify this among her best. Overall though, this seems like an intriguing series where you need to pay it a lot of attention in order to be able to follow it. This episode gave a solid start, introduced some interesting concepts (I also liked the small details like the magic typewriter). It’ll probably take a while for this one to get going, but the script will probably continue to be interesting until that happens.
Potential: 85%
Bakuman II
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a mangaka.
I do want to stress that I’m not guaranteeing that I’m going to blog the series whose prequels I already blogged before. The competition this season is just too strong for that. Instead, these shows also still have to prove themselves. Not particularly by delivering two awesome opening episodes, but by showing that they’ve got enough potential. Having said that, this episode of Bakuman had an effect that I did not experience at all when watching the first season: I can’t believe that it just took up 20 minutes. In my mind, it felt like it was much longer. For this series’ standards, a lot really happened this episode and instead of dragging on, it kept a steady pace and introduced a lot of new and interesting characters. The animation also feels lightly better than what it was before. Can this pacing be kept up for the rest of this season though?
OP: The OP still is pretty dull, though. The kind that sucks the energy right out of me.
ED: Better than the first ED, especially as it goes on.
Potential: 80%
Shinryaku!? Ika-Musume
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is still trying to invade earth.
Creating a good comedy sequel takes effort, especially when its predecessor already was very good: what are you going to do to match it? Will you still have enough ideas to fill a season? Won’t the comedy get stale? With Squid Girl, at least we’re not having one of those comedy sequels that immediately drop down in quality: it was still pretty funny, albeit nowhere near the best episodes of the first season, so we’re just going to have to wait to see whether this show has what it takes to remain funny (also, what the hell was Tomomi Mochizuki doing there?). Nevertheless, the first signs of decay are starting to show. There are various jokes on the verge of being overused, and this episode did not shy away from them. I also felt like the direction in this episode wasn’t as sharp as in the first season. These need to be fixed in the next episodes.
OP: What happened to that excellent first Opening? This was so bland in comparison!
ED: This feels composed at the last minute in a rush-job.
Potential: 65%]]>
Dantalian no Shoka Review – 82,5/100
I feel that episodic series tend to be dismissed for the wrong reasons. “It has no story”? What do you mea, these series are filled with stories? Personally, I find that an episodic series needs to have two elements in order to really succeed:
1) Strong episodic stories.
2) Something to tie the show together.
Dantalian no Shoka has nailed one of them.
Basically, this is a show that explores various people who were given strange powers through what this show calls “Phantom Books”. These stories start off a bit clumsily, but amongst the episodes there are some real gems to be waiting. Some of the people highlighted are well fleshed out and portrayed, and when it wants to, this series can really create a great atmosphere to support them. These stories are all varied, interesting and aside from a number of duds here and there, succeed in telling their story. I’d say the ratio of episodes that don’t work to the ones that do is about 1:2.
Ironically, the main characters are some of the least interesting characters of the series. They feel more like plot devices that the show needs in order to be able to move from story to story than actual characters most of the time, and their development is just shallow, and they fail to really tie this series together or give it a satisfying conclusion. Especially Dantalian herself is just an annoying brat who spends every episode randomly insulting people and not really doing anything at all to contribute to the story.
Standalone though, the episodic stories and characters are more than enough to make this one worth watching. On top of that, Ganiax threw in a lot of eye candy as well, with some gorgeously animated action scenes (oh, ad Osamu Kobayashi also pays a visit to do one episode). The main couple is annoying, but this show has more than enough to make up for it.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 – An excellent array of strong individual storylines, though this series’ attempts to tie them together doesn’t really work. |
| Characters: | 8/10 – Dull major characters, minor character. |
| Production-Values: | 9/10 – Gorgeous visuals, animation that isn’t afraid to try out stuff. |
| Setting: | 8/10 – A bit far-fetched at times, and the phantom books in the end are just mcguffins, but when you look at each episode individually, their settings are well fleshed out and described. |
Fafner in the Azure – Heaven and Earth Review – 85/100
For a long time I wondered what happened to the good parts of Xebec. I mean, it’s been ages since they released anything. Now however, I know: they were working on this movie. This was one heck of a roller-coaster ride.
The Fafner TV-series set itself apart with the way in which it took the “teenaged mecha”-formula, and executed it well. Not partially well, like what Ao no Exorcist is currently doing, they really came up with a great setting, premise and storyline for their run. This movie carries on this tradition, with a significantly upgraded budget. This is a real feast for the eyes and especially the action scenes are just gorgeous. Oh, and the music kicks even more ass than it already has.
Heaven and Earth makes terrific use of its time. The TV-series did enough building up. Using this, it can really deliver climax after climax after climax, with a very good balance between the quiet scenes that never drag out. On top of that though, it does manage to push the themes of the TV-series further, like the enemy, who is trying to understand human nature, or the way in which the main cast uses children, just because they happen to have special powers.
This movie is an action movie, but it puts its characters’ emotions above all else. It successfully introduces a new cast of characters who manage to show themselves off, without taking over the series in favor of the main cast. The main characters themselves also have some great scenes themselves, while also giving plenty of time for the side characters to shine (another great point of the TV-series that managed to carry over). The creators really tried to turn this into an emotional roller coaster, and combined with some excellent character development, they really succeeded.
This has one downside, though: it refuses to explain most of the stuff that happens. I mean, it describes what happens, but as for the why behind everything this is a movie that really likes to leave its viewers into the dark.
Let me stress this to the people who haven’t seen the Fafner TV-series: watch that one first. Heaven and Earth is really meant as a continuation, not to mention that it’s filled with spoilers from the TV-series. If you have watched the TV-series and liked it however, then there is no reason not to watch this movie. It delivers an excellent emotional climax to an already excellent franchise.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 – Great pacing, emotional and exciting. There’s a lot of teenaged angst and it may not explain exactly what went on, but nevertheless this was very solidly told. |
| Characters: | 9/10 – This movie really gets the emotions out of its characters, without delving into cheese for even a second. A genuine roller-coaster. |
| Production-Values: | 9/10 – Gorgeous graphics, action scenes and dogfights. Awesome soundtrack. |
| Setting: | 8/10 – |
September Summary
This month was not as good as what it could have been, because here the big flaw of this season really surfaced: the length. A lot of shows unfortunately were held down by it, but on the other hand: a lot of shows were not. We got to see some excellent finales, although granted, perhaps not as consistently good compared to the spring season.
In any case, I’m looking forward to the upcoming autumn season, because it really does not have the same problem: just about every show is planned to go on for more than 13 episodes. Instead, the major flaw will be the series composition writers: there aren’t many solid ones floating around, and a lot of them don’t fit the shows they’re assigned to. On the other hand though, this will be the perfect chance for them to really set themselves apart.
#23 (19) – Sacred Seven – (6/10) – For the final two episodes, the creators just gave up and went “what the heck, we know this is bad so let’s just overact the hell out of it in order to make it at least a bit fun”. It worked, in the way that the finale wa so bad that it was good. It was enjoyable, but it remains bad. Especially the main villain was an overacting mess.
#22 (new) – Battle Spirits Heroes – (6,5/10) – For the standards of kiddie shows, it’s not the best nor the worst. It’s still is blatant commercialism, but at least it avoided a few cliches here and there and it wasn’t as painful to watch as some of the other series of the genre.
#21 (16) – Ghakkyou Burai Kaiji – (7/10) – There were too many manly tears, there were too many moments who dragged out. It’s a shame, considering how hyped the pachinko arc was. If only this show was six episodes shorter, it would have worked a lot better and the creators wouldn’t have had to repeat themselves so often, but even then I have no idea what happened to the characters near the end. Here, they really reached the point of overacting and acting out of character.
#20 (new) – Busou Shinki Moon Angel – (7,25/10) – This one turned out to be decent. That however is not good enough considering the people who created this. It’s just a blatant commercial, unfortunately.
#19 (19) – Working!! – (7,5/10) – Well, I guess that the slice of life parts of this series turned out to be better than expected. That part of this show was nice to watch. This show completely lost me with its comedy though, with a lot of jokes that I remember from the first episode of the first season.
#18 (18) – Ao no Exorcist – (7,5/10) – The anime original material had potential. For most part it stayed true to its characters, and especially the episodes in which nothing happened were fun. For the climax however, the creators wanted to go too much with a “by the books” ending, which resulted in a very cheesy and predictable climax.
#17 (12) – Shinryaku! Ika-Musume – (7,75/10) – So far, I wouldn’t call the first episode of Squid Girl 2 among its better episodes, but it still had its funny moments. It will need to pay attention to not repeat its own jokes too much though. That’s by far going to be its biggest potential pitfall.
#16 (15) – Sket Dance – (7,75/10) – The Switch arc didn’t really work for me as well as I’d hoped. It probably has to do with how it was bound to have a twist: The really bad part of this month was the Gintama cross-over, though. It s big problem was that it had no idea what it wanted to be, so it jumped back and forth between Jump commercial, recap, Gintama-episode and parody. The pacing was just weird, and the second part of the episode was way too rushed. The random powers and plot twists that the creators pulled out of their ass was just way too much, and only served to remind me that I’m done with Gintama’s style of humour.
#15 (17) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (7,75/10)
The problem with Nurarihyon no Mago is that it’s still building up. Get down to business for god’s sake!
#14 (8) – No.6 – (8/10)
Right from the start it would be obvious that No.6’s problem would be its ending, but I really did not expect that it would be this BIG of a problem. Pulling just about everything out of its ass, it closed off with a very bad aftertaste. And that, while the episodes before it were so good!
#13 (13) – Blade – (8,25/10)
It was a fairly straight-forward ending, but really: I liked Blade a lot. I’m a bit baffled as to why AniDB‘s rating is so abysmally low; I mean, it had solid action, great characters, a terrific soundtrack. Sure, it tended to get a bit cheesy at times, but is that really a reason to give it such a treatment?
#12 (2) – Tiger & Bunny – (8,25/10)
It’s a shame, but the final month of Tiger & Bunny wasn’t its best. Overall I ended up enjoying the episodic stories of this series a lot more than the climaxes, with the best of the series taking place back in August. The final plot just wasn’t as interesting, and while the main villain was excellent, he was a bit underused, and his underlings were just one dimensional villains. The main characters however were still great to watch.
#11 (11) – Usagi Drop – (8,25/10)
And thsi show ended with quite a charming finale. Overall, I would have preferred a bit more character development, but it was a nice little series to watch, and very realistically told.
#10 (12) – Ikoku Meiro no Croisée – (8,25/10)
This show had an adorable ending that finally made Claude come out of his shell. It was a very nice climax for the main cast, and it was the emotional height of the series. Looking forward to Tamayura next season.
#9 (7) – Kamisama Dolls – (8,25/10)
Inconclusive, but at the very least a solid finale with a lot of focus on Kyouhei himself. Overall the new girl really was the worst character of the series, but even then the finale was as action packed as it should have been.
#8 (14) – Dantalian no Shoka – (8,25/10)
This month, this series surprised with a lot of very strong standalone episodes. There was of course the Osamu Kobayashi episode, but also the episode with the airplane pilot was really good and very atmospheric. However, after 11 episodes, what’s still missing is something that ties the series together. Why did the penultimate episode suddenly introduce a bunch of new characters?
#7 (9) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8,5/10)
Hana-Saku Iroha really delivered a wonderful ending with a lot of strong character development. The graphics also looked better than ever, and I’m really glad to see that every single character here received a satisfying conclusion.
#6 (6) – Kamisama no Memo-Chou – (8,5/10)
The show ended very strongly, even though this series is incomplete. The final story was excellent and used the main cast well. The solution to the mystery was tragic, yet made sense. The cast developed a bit, and overall I’m very happy… if it weren’t for the fact that this really needed to be longer.
#5 (10) – Blood-C – (8,5/10)
In the end, I do have to say that this is my third favourite series of the shows that premiered in the Summer Season. The characterization had its problem, but overall this was one heck of an emotional ride with an amazing conclusion that paved a great road for the upcoming movie to follow. I really hope that in the upcoming fall season, there will be a series that will take as many risks as this series did.
#4 (4) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)
Sasuke was on fire this month, which was especially dedicated to his rise as a daimyou. His antics still haven’t gotten stale, and he’s consistently evolving. The rest of the cast meanwhile is building up a very solid back-story, that has me really intrigued in where it’s going to take us.
#3 (3) – Steins;Gate – (8,75/10)
Steins;Gate’s ending did pull a bunch of twists convenient for the sake of storytelling, but overall the ending was amazingly executed and short, but sweet. The story made great use of its red herrings and came together wonderfully.
#2 (5) – Natstume Yuujin-Chou – (9/10)
This show closed off with two wonderful standalone episodes that did an amazing job developing Natsume. They were wonderfully told and a perfect ending to the third season.
#1 (1) – Mawaru Penguin Drum – (9,25/10)
This show is amazing. And yet, in this month it even surpassed itself. It came with huge twists, huge character development, the graphics got wilder and more imaginative, the background art in particular was a very creative. And it just keeps on building intrigue. This was by far the top of the Summer Season
Blood-C Review – 85/100
Blood-C is a very difficult series to recommend. The thing is that this is one series where if you like it, you’ll like it a lot. However, if you dislike it, you’ll grow a deep seated hate against the main cast of this show. I belong in the camp of the former (hence the high rating for this review), but I do want to give out a warning, because this is a rather hard series to get into.
For starters, at heart Blood-C is a mystery horror series, with a high emphasis on building up and atmosphere. It has the building up pacing of a Bee-Train series, but differs completely in the characterization department. What this means in practice is that the entire first half will be spent on nothing but very mundane daily life, intermixed with various battles and action scenes, with very few hints towards the overall storyline. The characters all are very mundane and by far the weirdest part is that this show for a long period of time hardly ever tries to give them some depth. Instead, they’re just like the random people you might run into in a class room or on the street. Oh, and the characters have strange tendencies to make weird decisions at times.
Now, I refuse to spoil the exact how and why of things, but the second half is where this series really shines, and slowly begins to uncover its mysteries. Its plot is so constructed that as a viewer, you can be able to figure out what’s going on by yourself, but even then the final episodes in which everything is revealed pack a great punch and justify a lot of the weird things that happened throughout the series. If, at least, they didn’t get on your nerves too much. The thing is, that that is very easy, and as soon as this series loses your suspense of disbelief with it (which is rather easy with annoying characters), the atmosphere also stops being captivating, and you’ll be even more bored.
It does remain a wonderful atmosphere though. The creators make excellent use of the soundtrack handed to them, and the storytelling combines gory horror together with classical Japanese horror, which tries to capture its viewer through its slow storytelling. Especially the juxtaposition between the very mundane slice of life and the intense fights creates a wonderful tension that can be cut with a knife as the series goes on.
Also, the action scenes. Blood-C really sets itself apart through these things, and they are absolutely brutal and really well choreographed. Instead of the usual shortcuts, Saya is fully animated as she struggles with all sorts of blood thirsty monsters who make it a huge challenge to be actually beaten. The animation in the first number of episodes in particular is just absolutely wonderful, but even in the latter episodes as the budget dies down, the creators still aim to tell as much as possible through the action scenes with as much life-like animation as possible. The gore also is gore on a completely different level in this scene. It absolutely spares nobody. Usually when people die, the camera conveniently focuses on a different shot. Not here: here we can see all of details. Or at least, in the DVD versions we will.
There are a few acting problems here and there, and in particular the characterization has some major flaws in not trying hard enough to flesh out the cast, but overall I really liked this show for what it accomplished, and for the huge risks it took. This really isn’t for everyone. If you find yourself not able to get into the atmosphere because of the characters, then it’s very likely that you’re not going to enjoy this series. If you do however, you’re in for one heck of an intense ride.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 – Hard to get into, but excellent atmosphere, excellent sense of mystery and build-up and great plot twists. |
| Characters: | 8/10 – Leaves things to be desired in the characterization department, but nevertheless an enjoyable cast that especially gets interesting near the end. |
| Production-Values: | 9/10 – Absolutely wonderful animation and action scenes. Production IG really are un-matched when it comes to hand to hand combat. |
| Setting: | 9/10 – A great concept, great ideas behind the whole story, and it’s great to see how many risks this show takes for the sake of its plot. |
Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji Review – Hakairoku-Hen Review – 75/100
I personally had a hate/love relationship with the first season of Kaiji. Of course the concept was awesome: gambling and mind games? this series would have been awesome to watch… if only it didn’t take forever to get from A to B. The first season just consisted out of four arcs, but in the end it was just too dragged out for me to really recommend it. Now, the second season only has two arcs. And yes, it’s just as long.
Again, it sounds wonderful on paper: this series continues with Kaiji having to find a way to win seemingly simple gambles, which prove to be exceptionally devious. The first arc is actually very good: it’s got excellent build-up and knows exactly what it wants to be. There is a good balance of Kaiji to figure out a plan to win his bets, the execution is short but sweet and it overall reaches a very satisfying and adrenaline filled conclusion.
The problem with this season lies with its monstrous second arc: the pachinko arc. Oh my god, that was way too long. In total, this one takes up a whopping seventeen episodes, even though its story really isn’t that complicated. The creators could easily have done this arc in about 11 episodes. The result? is that the remaining time is spent on stalling time.
Now, delaying the inevitable on its own can be quite effective. This show however takes it way too far. It starts off nicely with a crazy premise, intriguing build-up and an atmosphere that just tightens with every episode. After a while though, the creators just start to repeat themselves to increase tension. They repeat over and over how characters are feeling, they explain over and over what’s going on, and this just goes on and on, without going even further. On top of that, they just keep inserting these pointless and inconclusive symbolism scenes that all try to be different yet all just try to say the same thing. This show tries to build up an over the top atmosphere filled with adrenaline, but it lacks the substance to keep it up. I’m willing to say that if you marathon the first season, you’ll get an adrenaline filled roller-coaster ride out of it. I can not say the same for the second season, however.
To make matters even worse, this season also features its share of character derailment, especially near its end. The old man of the first season devolves into a deranged lunatic for no discernable reason whatsoever. Kaiji himself also starts to act really weirdly and against his character near the end, and the final episodes are also way too filled with manly tears. There’s a difference between acting over the top and overacting, and this series ends up crossing that line. And this takes into account the first season, in which that line wasn’t crossed.
What also makes this less adrenaline filled as what it could have been is that the stakes at the final arc… really aren’t that severe when you compare it to what Kaiji had to go through in the first season. That season was completely crazy in what Kaiji all had to do in order to win. When you compare the gore with each other, the second season is really tame. In the first season Kaiji was pretty much scarred for life or even dead in the case of a lost bet. The second season reduces the stakes to life time imprisonment. I mean, that’s pretty bad too and all, but not for watching a hot blooded adrenaline show.
There were months in which I rated this second season quite highly, and its first fifteen episodes or so pretty much do what they need to do. Looking back though… I really can’t recommend this show in its entirety. Just watch up to the Chinchiro arc for a nice conclusion, but there’s no need to bother with the incredibly long pachinko arc. It’s just not worth it.
| Storytelling: | 7/10 – Is way too long for its own good and drags on needlessly by repeating itself. It’s a shame, because the first arc is well written. |
| Characters: | 7/10 – The final parts are bogged down by tons of bad overacting. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – The unusual art style is definitely appreciated, and the animation does what it needs to do, although it’s nothing amazing. |
| Setting: | 8/10 – This show does have the uncanny ability to portray gambling well. The best parts of this second season are the plans that Kaiji comes up with. |
Suggestions:
– Kurozuka
– Touhai Densetsu Akagi
– Rainbow
Kamisama Dolls Review – 82,5/100
If there was any studio that stood out this summer season, it has to be Brains Base. In fact, they were completely dominating the entire season. Out of the three seasons they released, Kamisama Dolls was the lesser one. And it still is very good.
Kamisama Dolls’ formula is in fact very simple: you have a storyline with a lot of drama, comedy, action, and a whiff of romance, and put it in 13 episodes. The result is some top notch entertainment that balances those four elements together into a very enjoyable series from start to finish. If you’re looking for something quick and exciting, then this series is a pretty solid choice.
The setting to back it up is solid with the backdrop of a corrupt village that houses ancient fighting machine. The cast too knows what it is, and is accurately developed, fleshed out, and in particular the acting fits the series perfectly: the main cast in particular knows how to keep the balls into the air and keep the story exciting. In fact, this really is a series whose story is dictated by its characters, even though this may not be apparent at first sight.
There are some weaknesses, though. The biggest being that it’s ridiculously incomplete, and another case of “read the manga if you want to know what happens next”, cutting off its story right in the middle. There are also a few characters who bog the show down by being way too over the top, and this show tries to be a harem show and a straight romance at the same time, which really doesn’t fit together: there is an obvious main couple in this series, and yet the creators somehow find it a good idea to introduce a crush on the male lead’s sister and a completely over the top childhood friend. Especially the latter is the worst member of the cast of this series, and it’s a good thing that the pacing of this show is nice and quick, so these things become just minor annoyances.
This show isn’t really trying to be anything deep (heck, the majority of the plot is based on characters acting unreasonable for various reasons), so don’t expect really deep characters, or many attempts to subvert cliches or tropes, but what it does, it does well. It’s nice, straight-forward and well produced entertainment.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 – Ridiculously unfinished, but a nice combination between action, comedy and drama. |
| Characters: | 8/10 – Solid and fun characters, with a few particularly good ones, and a few particularly annoying ones. |
| Production-Values: | 9/10 – Top notch action scenes, well directed and animated characters. |
| Setting: | 8/10 – Its themes have been done before and better, but nevertheless it’s quite solid to support its series. |
Suggestions:
– Narutaru
– Seto no Hanayome