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Hajime no Ippo Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




One of the things that I really learned after I started working full time, is how precious time can be. Because of this, I can understand what a daunting task it must be to check out Hajime no Ippo; the total franchise has a bit more than 100 episodes; that’s not something you just watch in a lazy afternoon. However, that’s the beauty of the second season, New Challenger: it’s a sequel, but perfectly allows newcomers to the franchise to pick it up, and it contains some of the most kickass fights imaginable. For those who do have the time and want the full experience, there is the first season.

The length of 76 episodes has both its advantages and disadvantages, but let me first rave about the technical part: Madhouse did the seemingly impossible by having consistently awesome animation during the entire run. The animation is often smooth, punches are animated with a huge weight behind them, a meticulous amount of research went into how boxers move, ranging from the simple jabs to the flash knock-out punches. Do not get mislead by the simple art style, because this allows the creators a great amount of freedom while animating.

Now, the New Challenger series didn’t really have a main character. The first season however does have a clear one: Ippo. The entire series shows about thirteen matches of his, and even the matches in which he doesn’t appear are either 1) cut short or 2) meant to show how awesome Ippo is. Because of this, this series is very, very shounen: wanting to become the best, lots and lots of training arcs and the underdog are very common themes that just keep returning in this series. However, the fact remains that this is no high school series: right from the start this is about professional boxing.

I don’t just say that because I personally tend to like sports series about professionals more than high school sports clubs (for me, this matters more than whether or not the characters are teenagers or adults), but because this also allows this series to really look into the other aspects of professional boxing other than training and fighting. There are some really good arcs throughout the series that look at the personal life and troubles, injuries, and how boxers sustain themselves to get enough money.

The huge benefit of the length is that this series has plenty of time to flesh everyone out, and it makes full use of it. Ippo perhaps isn’t the most interesting character, but this series just continues to develop and change him. Every single side character is given ample time to tell his story. Nearly every opponent that Ippo fights is given a good and non-cheesy backstory and characterization. The most amazing thing is… that there isn’t really a villain here. Al of the opponents that Ippo fights are just professional boxer themselves. At first sight there does seem to be a stereotypical rival, but even that guy steps out of this rival role as the show goes on.

As for the big downside of the length… well, this is a show with 76 episodes that consist out of nothing but boxing. In the end, I still have to say that Hajime no Ippo’s best matches are in the New Challenger series: that just had four fights, and it did everything it could to make those four stand alone and make them as epic as possible. With Hajime no Ippo, the fights fall into a formula. This series especially loves the pattern of pummeling someone to near-KO, only to have him make a miracle come-back, and it unfortunately pulls this twist a little too often, to the point where you can just predict when it’ll happen. The matches in this series are definitely exciting, but they miss the raw power that I experienced in the New Challenger series.

The new Challenger series was compact and perfect. The first season meanwhile was a lot harder to sit through because of its length and monotonous pacing, even though it never really drags on. If you’ve got the time though, by all means watch it, because it remains an incredibly solid sports series.

Storytelling: 8/10 – This one is really dangling between an 8 and a 9. This series is really well paced, but in the end it does get a bit formulaic with its length and big focus over just Ippo.
Characters: 9/10 – Every single character is interesting to various degrees. No villain whatsoever.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Amazing production values for its length. Smooth and fluid animation and well detailed boxing sequences.
Setting: 8/10 – A bit shounen, yes, but still a very good portrayal of the boxing world.

Suggestions:
– Hajime no Ippo – New Challenger
– Giant Killing
– Hikaru no Go

No.6 Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, No.6




For me, the current Summer Season had two series that stood above the others: Penguin Drum and Natsume Yuujinchou. The interesting part was that under that, there were all kinds of awesome series fighting for third place: all shows with amazing concepts, but each of this series has their own HUGE flaw. Number six is one of them, and despite its flaw which I’ll get to below it is worth it for most of its run.

For ten episodes, this is excellent science fiction. It’s set in a dystopian future, but what sets it apart is its cast of characters: the creators try to put as much character development in this series as possible. It’s a bit rushed because of this, but this is one of the rare series that’s just constantly changing and evolving. It’s always interesting to watch and always unpredictable of the direction it sends its characters, and especially the main cast in. The drama and chemistry around them is always delightful to watch with hardly any dull moments.

In terms of production values this series also delivers. Bones do an excellent job on the animation, where it especially excels on the expressiveness of the characters, but also the soundtrack is excellent, and pretty much the best of the season aside from Penguin Drum. The production values perhaps aren’t the best, but they still are very impressive.

But yeah, the big flaw. The thing with this season is that it had so many series that actually could have become classics if these were avoided. Blood-C has its characterization, Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou has the way it acts like it has more episodes than it actually has, and No.6…. has its ending. Oh, the ending.

Oh, with enough suspense of disbelief you might actually not be bothered by what happens, unfortunately for me that did not work. Right from the beginning it was clear that there was no way that No.6’s story would fit into 11 episodes. The ending was bound to be rushed and inconclusive. I did however not expect the amount of stuff that this show pulled out of its ass during the final episode to be as big as it was. The finale of this series is completely inconsequential: its deus ex machina make no sense, are incredibly forced, negate some of the build-up it carefully constructed in the earlier episodes and leave with one hell of a bad taste and even more question marks.

If however you watch until episode 10 you’ll be rewarded with an excellent albeit very inconclusive dystopian adventure series. I really do hope that this was a lesson for future Noitamina series, though: you can’t just pick a story and hope that it’ll work well in Noitamina format!

Storytelling: 7/10 – Excellent build-up, the pacing is rushed, because of that it can stuff a ton of developments in a short time. That ending, though…
Characters: 9/10 – The best part of the series. It’s a bit forced, but nevertheless very interesting with a cast that is constantly changing.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Detailed animation, particularly excellent background art, excellent soundtrack.
Setting: 8/10 – Fairly typical dystopia, but used very well and it forms a good backdrop.

Suggestions:
– Ultraviolet: Code 044
– Amatsuki
– Ergo Proxy

Usagi Drop Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




There was a time when Noitamina basically knew (and popularized) two genres: adult slice of life and experimental horror/adventure. Now, it did branch out to many other genres over the years, but it still retains true to the roots that originally made it big: slice of life series that don’t focus on the usual teenagers, but instead follow college students and adults in their daily lives. All these series have in common that their execution is ridiculously solid, and Usagi Drop is no exception to that rule.

This series chronicles the life of single parents, showing the challenges they face, but also the wonderful things they get back for it. The way this series has handled its themes are quite clever: at the center we have the main character Daikichi who ends up having to take care of his 9-year-old niece Rin. throughout the series, he runs into all kinds of people who are in similar situations, and because of that this series can show many different sides of the same coin.

Another major strength of this series is that it’s pretty much the most realistic series of the entire year so far. It doesn’t try unrealistically force its drama, and the things that Rin and Daikchi do throughout the series all feel wonderfully down to earth. Most of the show is really seeing the two of them live out their daily lives, and this is very well described and written.

The major flaw of this show probably is its lack of ambition. I know that this is a slice of life series and all, but even considering that this series does surprisingly little with the cards handed to it and the series feels incomplete. It introduces a romance, only to randomly abandon that later and also spends time on Rin’s mother without actually much interesting. It also only looks at children of nine years old; the older and younger ones get completely ignored. It would have been really nice to actually see this series evolve, but it chooses to just show one compact part of the lives of the main characters.
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And that, it does undeniably well. I personally like my slice of life series with a bit more spice, but its themes alone make it more than worth watching with excellent acting and characterization that’ll make the cast endearing from start to finish.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Could have been a bit more ambitious and better balanced, but is still wonderfully down to earth slice of life to watch.
Characters: 8/10 – Excellent acting, great characterization, and they’re interesting to watch.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Very solid. Obviously it’s easy for a show with absolutely no action, but the lack of still frames and overall polish still is great to watch.
Setting: 9/10 – The realism is just wonderful. The backstory is very well detailed and the themes of parenthood are well explored: showing the challenges, without only focusing on the worst-case scenarios but instead on things happen to pretty much everyone with kids.

Suggestions:
– Hataraki Man
– Windy Tales
– Showa Monogatari

Steins;Gate Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Steins;Gate




There is one thing at which Steins;Gate is unrivaled at compared to anything else that aired this year: its plot. If it’s originality, creative twists and multi layers that you want, then this is a must-watch. This has a bit of a slow start, but as the series goes on its intricately woven plot about time travel shines like no other and this show is masterful at combining seemingly insignificant hooks into gripping plot twist. This definitely stood out as one of the most solid shows of the past half year.

Helping with that is a unique style of this series. The entire series is animated with dull and washed out colours, the animation is simple and only becomes really smooth when it really needs to (with great effects, by the way),and a lot of time in this series is spent on characters just talking to each other while the plot slowly progresses. It’s slow, but each episode has its purpose, even though this only may become apparent later on. The lead characters’ monologues in particular are well written, but on top of that this is a series that really did its research into time travel. It may not present the most logical way that time travel might be possible (I mean, there are still parts where you’re going to have to suspend your disbelief), but it’s very well researched.

The weakest part of this series is its cast of characters. Obviously they’re not bad, but they do have a few quirks that didn’t make them as interesting to follow as some of their counterparts. In particular, the acting of the main cast leaves things to be desired, in which they’re trying too hard to fit themselves into certain stereotypes. Daru, Kurisu and Mayuri are the biggest examples of this, which often makes them annoying to watch. The main character Okabe meanwhile just tries too hard: during the dramatic parts he tends to act too dramatic, and during the light-hearted parts he tends to act too over the top (which becomes rather repetitive after a bunch of episodes).

That’s pretty much what held this show back for me. Do not let that discourage you however, because there have been plenty of people who experienced the characters in a completely different way. Heck, at the beginning of this season I did not expect another series this year to come close to the amount of acclaim that Madoka Magica got. I personally did have these beefs with the characters, but even there there are still plenty of good parts about the cast of characters, in particular their development.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Really knows how to deliver stunning plot twists. Has a unique and down to earth style and uses it really well.
Characters: 8/10 – Some annoying and forced acting was probably the thing that bugged me the most about this series.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Very smooth animation is wonderful to see, though there also are many inconsistencies during the quiet scenes.
Setting: 10/10 – A truly excellent story about time travel and all of its intricacies. It’s creative and boldly written together.

Suggestions:
– Noein
– Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
– Bokura no

Mardock Scramble – The First Compression Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




And here’s another widely anticipated movie: the first of the Mardock Scramble trilogy. Finally, Gohands could get in a project that actually showed off their talent, rather than making the umpth bad harem clone. The promo art for this series looked absolutely gorgeous, it had the writer of Fafner and Chevalier behind it. There was a ton of promise behind this. So, how did it go?

Well, that was screwed up. Mardock Scramble is science fiction. It’s based around all kinds of interesting ideas, some of which do not care how sick in the head they can get. There’s a ton of nudity as well, but despite all this it has an style that works really well. Its story is dark and well acted, it takes itself seriously and ends up as a great science fiction character study.

There are multiple characters, but within the first hour of this trilogy the focus went mostly to just two of them, and they got a good dose of airtime dedicated to their backgrounds. They’re both pretty interesting for a one-hour movie. Nothing stellar, but the bond that develops between them is quite engaging to watch.

Beyond that, this movie just oozes with style. The animation and art are both utterly gorgeous, especially the use of colours makes this a visual feast. The action is really well directed and amazing to watch as well, especially during the second half of the movie. It’s one of the strengths of the movie, but also one of its major weaknesses: it’s so busy with this style that at times it forces things along, just for the sake of this. This leads to sometimes rather jumpy editing and character development that may be a bit too sudden.

The meat of the story obviously isn’t in this first movie yet, and whether I’m gonna recommend it is going to depend entirely on the direction that the other two movies take it in. It’s very much a continuous story, so this movie doesn’t really just stand alone (especially when considering its cliff-hanger). It set up all of the building blocks. Now it’s up to the other two movies to use it.

Storytelling: 8/10 – A bit jumpy, but nicely paced, good dialogue.
Characters: 8/10 – The development is a bit forced, but good background and the bond between the two main characters is interesting.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Gorgeous; great style, excellent use of colors.
Setting: 8/10 – Lots of neat ideas, though some are just pointlessly gory and are a bit out of place.

Suggestions:
– Kara no Kyoukai- The Garden of Sinners – Overlooking View
– King of Thorn
– Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance

August Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

This month was an interesting one, definitely. There were unfortunately a few series who took a bit of a dip, or a bit of a wrong turn, but what charcterized the series who didn’t do that: charater development. Tons and tons of character development. Characters who one seemed one-sided gain a ton of depth, and just about every series turned out to be excellent in fleshing its cast out and giving more depth to it.

At this point, I won’t be able to tell whether or not this season really belongs among the best summer seasons we’ve had, because a lot of these series depend on their endings. The past spring will be very hard to beat in terms of awesome endings, but if there’s any season that can do it, it’s this one.

OVA Releases
#2: Carnival Phantasm – (5/10) – Okay, so I tried to watch this while not having played Fate/Stay Night. So obviously I did not enjoy watching all kinds of random references that flew over my head. Heck, I even have trouble imagining how those jokes would have worked if you DID know the meaning behind them. If you haven’t played Fate/Stay Night: don’t even bother with it. If you have though… prepare for something really silly.
#1: Milky Holmes OVA – (8/10)

This… was bizarre. It’s pretty much the same as the series, which is a good thing Its high energy just kept on going and going, with surprisingly good animation. It was incredibly cheesy, but knew it and played that for laughs, which worked nicely. My one complaint is that it was entirely fanservice. Especially turning one of the cast members into an is a very trite twist, but thankfully it was nowhere near as badly done as with series as Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka.

TV Series
#19 (20) – Sacred Seven – (7,25/10) – Sacred Seven: just take your characters, design a bunch of interesting looking monsters and just throw one monster at your characters for every single episode. That would have been more interesting than what the creators are currently doing, because the main plot of this thing is so completely and utterly boring. Apart from Arama, there really is nothing that stands out.
#18 (9) – Ao no Exorcist – (7,75/10) – Ao no Exorcist has gone off into anime original material, and I just have one major problem with that: I don’t care about the plot. It’s just not interesting. I’d rather wtach these characters interacting with each other. Satan? Who cares about Satan! Can’t the characters just all have a sleepover or something? That’s something that this show does really really well.
#17 (15) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (8/10) – I’m a bit behind on this series and haven’t watched the latest two episodes yet. This has to do with business, but also because the show is currently building up and so we’re in the middle of a training arc. I do not want to watch yet another season that’s entirely dedicated to build-up! There are hints of things getting better though: the villain looks interesting at the very least. Now, let’s not let her derail like the last one, okay?
#16 (8) – Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji – (8/10) – Aaand here is the point where this series lost my grip on it: in the end, the pachinko arc was too long. This month featured two episodes that just dragged on and kept repeating themselves. The thing is, that with so few arcs, this thing has lost its dynamic: it’s just waiting for the inevitable to happen. It’ll probably be an adrenaline fest when we get there, but Kaiji: you can also create series of 20 episodes long. It’s been done before. It’s even gonna save you some budget…
#15 (18) – Sket Dance – (8/10)

This month, Sket Dance was testing my patience, both in a good and bad way. The thing remains that it’s not as funny and dynamic as it used to. It however still is creative and is willing to try out risks. Just as I gave up on it, it pulls these strange episodes like the one entirely dedicated on bad jokes, or the double date. At first they may not seem much, but they’re surprisingly clever when you think about them afterward. I in any case want to see where the creators are going with this.

#14 (17) – Dantalian no Shoka – (8,25/10)

At first, Dantalian no Shoka seemed to have an excellent pair of main characters. Now, they’re the biggest weakness of the show, simply because they refuse to evolve. In Dalian’s case, she actually devolved. The rest of the cast, and the stories they run into are wonderfully imaginative, though. They’re incredibly far-fetched, but that’s what makes them fun and interesting. Gainax’s animation also helps.

#13 (16) – Blade – (8,25/10)

Yeah, something has to go really weird for Blade to not end up as the best Marvel series. Sure, its action isn’t as good as some of the other installments, but apart from that it has them beaten in pretty much every other category: the story takes actually interesting detours and has surprisingly engaging (albeit a bit cheesy) sideplots, the cameos are used in the best way so far, so that they actually enhance the characters playing a cameo, the characters have received much more depth than the previous ones and the bond between Blade and the people around him is much more interesting than that of the X-Men and Wolverine, and in terms of setting the characters aren’t wandering around random places, but instead are traveling all across southeast asia. Often visiting places that anime almost never (if they do it at all) touches upon.

#12 (14) – Ikoku Meiro no Croisée – (8,25/10)

Out of the slice of life series that I’m still watching, Croisee is the most overly sappy one. Because of that though, it can also get really genuine, which is an interesting trade-off. Its main selling point is its focus on cultural differences, which is really explored well. There’s a ton of interesting stuff discussed each episode, which very neatly relates back to the characters, instead of being just a kaleidoscope of random peculiar cultural differences.

#11 (10) – Usagi Drop – (8,25/10)

The interesting thing about the slice of life series this season is that they’re all excellent in totally different ways. For Usagi Drop, it’s the realism that really shines. Before I’ll fully judge this series though, I want to see how the creators are planning to end it. It won’t have the infamous trainwreck of the manga ending (which I thankfully have yet to be spoiled about) , but the anime still is going to have to tie itself together and I’m really curious how they’re gonna do that.

#10 (11) – Blood-C – (8,5/10)

It’s actually been a while since I’ve blogged such a controversial title. With that, I mean that Blood-C joins the ranks of series of which people have hugely diverging opinions. Personally, I’m at the positive side of the spectrum: I find this to be a very effective horror series with a gripping atmosphere and top notch fight choreography all around. The cast of characters admittedly aren’t the most interesting of the season, but they do really well in holding my attention and remaining plausible.

#9 (13) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8,5/10)

The thing that sets Hana-Saku Iroha apart? Its drama. The characters themselves are… annoying to watch at times, but the drama between them is excellent to watch. It’s creative, gets some terrific development out of them, it shows new sides of them, the script is surprisingly well written when tit wants to and it weaves its various sideplots surprisingly creatively together. Because of that I find this to be a very engaging series, desipite how much the characters may get on my nerves.

#8 (6) – No.6 – (8,5/10)

Number 6 has only one problem. That didn’t change at all during the past month. It’s still wonderfully written, makes great use of its time to stuff as much plot and character development into its episodes, is really well animated, has an excellent plot and setting… but there still is no way that this one’s gonna end well.

#7 (7) – Kamisama Dolls – (8,5/10)

This still is rock solid entertainment: this month in particular upped the ante by giving the cast some depth to the main cast. Former one-sided characters actually were put in interesting situations and dilemmas, and gained a lot of depth. The storyline is also very effective and keeps making things interesting and entertaining to watch. Sure, there’s some badly placed fanservice, but that’s a minor issue.

#6 (12) – Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou – (8,5/10)

Finally in this month Kami-Sama n Memo-Chou stopped goofing off and showed one heck of a great storyline. Four episodes of undiluted awesomeness with a tight script, creative twists, excellent characters and a wonderful pacing. This is what mystery I expected from this series. It still has the JC Staff Cliches, but it executed them in a completely different manner compared to how they usually do them. Overall this finally lived up to its promise.

#5 (5) – Natsume Yuujin-Chou – (8,75/10)

There was one two episode arc and three episodic stories this month. The arc was great, but the episodic stories really stole the show here. The big advantage of the third season is that Natsume is developing like hell here. Every episode is dedicated to his growth. When you’ve also got heart-warming stories added to that, you’ve really got an amazingly charming series.

#4 (4) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)

The one annoying part about Hyouge Mono this month was that it took a two-week hiatus, so we only got two episodes. What we got though, was absolutely wonderful. The acting in this series just gets better and better, and is without a doubt the best of the entire season. Just about everything is portrayed with the utmost subtlety, only to break that again with the bombastic emotions, and the cast plays excellently off each other. It’s still incredibly slow, so if you don’t have patience this really isn’t the thing for you, but for those who have it really is rewarding. But yeah, the dialogue is still incredibly complicated, so the chance that it will e picked up by subbers is very slim.

#3 (2) – Steins;Gate – (8,75/10)

Steins;Gate showed itself as the series with the best plot of the season. It’s full of intricacies of time-travel and its multi-layered plot is really starting to pay off now, and I especially like how suddenly, the first half of the series gets a completely different meaning. The least impressive part still is its characters, but they are nowhere near bad. They’re well developed, but perhaps just not as dynamic as they could have been.

#2 (1) – Tiger & Bunny – (9/10)

The plot with which Tiger&Bunny decided to go into its finale with was just awesome. Well built up, imaginative, but most importantly the characters were just awesome to watch. Just about every character shined during the past month and it’s incredibly fun to watch these people together. So yeah, it uses a plot device here and there. Who cares when it’s this awesome?

#1 (3) – Mawaru Penguin Drum – (9/10)

Now this one without a doubt stood on top of all of the other shows this month. It’s got a rock-solid direction and just keeps throwing the viewer for loops over and over. It’s chock full of red herrings and symbolism, the animation has a ton of neat details in it, the acting is absolutely wonderful, the characters all stand out and are wonderfully fun to watch. Seriously, if the other episodes are as good as this, then it’s a very strong contender for the best show of 2011.

Kurogane Communication Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




I’m a fan of the small and relatively unknown company APPP. Nowadays, they’re just busy doing (pretty excellent) inbetween animation for all sorts of series, but ten years ago they actually made their own array of series. Those series stood out because of their simple, yet very imaginative and original premises. Premises that include a runaway hospital bed, an angel and a devil caught in the same body, and yes. They were also the ones who went with the premise of a show focusing on a middle aged guy saving the universe with hard rock. They showed that you can create so many interesting stories without relay trying hard, if you’re just willing to just ignore conventions.

Kurogane Communication is the same: it’s premise is so deceptively simple: we have a girl who is the last living human on earth. There’s so much interesting stuff you can get out of that. The animation is simple, the budget is small, the story moves slowly and it doesn’t try to build up an overly complicated plot. We never really know exactly why humanity nearly died out beyond a few hints here and there. It’s really trying to be simple, yet engaging. And to me, it succeeded.

This series takes an in-depth look at loneliness. Haruka, the lead character, may live together with a bunch of robots, and while this is a series where robots can act just like humans, there still is something missing. The relationship she develops with them as she tries to live her daily life is the highlight of the series, especially with the robot who eventually takes up the position of a mother figure in her life. This show really takes a look at the nature of robots, even if they were to get enough artificial intelligence to become as smart as humans, and what it means to be alive. It’s definitely a unique little series (the episodes are also just 12 minutes long each).

Also helping are a top notch portrayal of the lead character, Haruka: she’s well acted and is a great lead character to follow. As for the rest of the cast, there is a bit of a catch here: they’re nearly all robots with various levels of artificial intelligence. The dumber ones can get on your nerves, but the creators did this intentionally, and over time their purpose in the series will become more than clear. The smart robots by the way are all great to follow.

It’s overall a heart-warming series that makes great use of its bleak themes. The storyline that pops up in the second half does come across as forced here and there, but it has good points that it wants to make, and it ends with a satisfying conclusion. The production values behind this one are low, so there are quite a number of distorted frames and the animation certainly does not look as good as APPP’s other series, but this is a series with its heart at the right place. If you want to watch a calming series that’s something different from usual, then this is an interesting recommendation.

Storytelling: 8/10 – At times it does get a bit forced, but it’s well paced, quiet, and interesting.
Characters: 9/10 – The strength of the characters lies in their simplicity, and how it still can create memorable relationships between them.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Simple and low-budget, but the great art and soundtrack are enough to not make this one a major flaw.
Setting: 8/10 – The premise of this show is pure gold. Simple, but so effective, and it shows that creativity is far from ran out. It’s deliberately vague on its details, and that gives it a very interesting effect.

Suggestions:
– Uninhabited Planet Survive
– Black Heaven
– Omoshi Magical Theatre Risky Safety

Which Autumn Series do you want me to Blog?

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

Okay. It’s time again for a contest that I hold every year before the start of the Autumn Season: you all nominate one series, and I’m going to force myself to weekly blog that series no matter what. This is your chance to make sure that I blog a certain series, orforce me to cover a series that I normally wouldn’t even think about. It’s all up to you!

Last year I used a survey for it, but in the end that was a bit too much of a hassle to keep up with, so I’m going back to the method I used before, using comments. I’m not going to use a poll, because I want this contest to be amongst my readers. Not random people who just click every poll they happen to stumble upon. Here are the concrete rules:

– To make a valid vote, drop a comment leaving your selection. You can select up to two series from the upcoming Autumn season.
– The anime with the most amount of votes in the end will be blogged for at least 12 or 13 episodes.
– Here is a list of all of the series that are applicable for this contest.
– The poll will end at September 30, 23:59 GMT. All votes that arrive after that will be ignored.

Results will be posted on this topic, though don’t expect me to be as up to date as I used to be during previous years.

Here are the results so far:

Persona 4 – 52
Kimi to Boku – 46
Guilty Crown – 45
Mirai Nikki – 37
Chihayafuru – 28
Shakugan no Shana 3 – 24
Last Exile – Ginkyou no Fam – 25
Fate/Zero – 27
Bakuman 2 – 19
Hunter X Hunter – 22
Un-Go – 27
Tamayura Hitotose – 11
C3 – 13
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai – 10
Lupin III – 9
Working’!! – 5
Phi Brain – 16
Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 4
Ika Musume 2 – 3
Cross Fight Bedaman – 2
Gundam AGE – 5
Shumanchu MiRiKa – 1
Mashiro-Iro Symphony – 2
Ben-To – 4
Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai – 1

Redline Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Aah, apologies for the delay, I’ve been really busy for the past weeks with all kinds of appointments. I finally got the chance to check out what pretty much is the single most anticipated movie of 2011: Madhouse worked for seven years on this thing. They put their top animators on the project (to the point where its production schedule even ruined that of Iron Man’s). So, did it live up to its hype?

Well, let’s get the following out of the way first: while it perhaps did not have the best animation I’ve ever seen, I will say that it’s without a doubt within the top 10 of best animated anime of all time. Possibly even the top 5. The thing with this movie isn’t just that it has unique designs: every single shot is imaginative, and the amount of shots with really fluent animation that has characters moving in all kinds of interesting ways is amazing. This could only have been done with a tremendous budget, and they make the eye candy within this movie virtually limitless. You have the over the top action scenes, but even the quiet scenes look absolutely gorgeous due to the amount of subtle movements that are in them. The best parts was the part by Shinya Ohira: they actually gave him full freedom in creating a truly gorgeous scene.

So, the visuals are absolutely amazing. But what about the rest of the movie? Well, the setting is really imaginative, plus the entire concept of basing your movie round a race also isn’t something we’ve seen in a long while. This movie found an interesting way to still have a ton of explosions and over the top action scenes, and the amount of ideas that has been put into this movie is very commendable.

The weakest part is probably the characterization: it just isn’t as good as most of the other top movies out there, and doesn’t really seem to focus on them anyway. The characters are all interesting and likable, the main characters have a neat and down to earth backstory, but beyond that there is little that sets them apart: the cast of this movie is just too large and there are too many side-characters who are just uninteresting and seriously were in need of more depth. This is the most noticeable with the bad guys: nearly all of them are just random one-sided goons.

The ending is indeed predictable, but I didn’t find that a major issue. The build-up of the climax of this movie was excellent, and I really liked the ending for how it stayed true to itself, and how it didn’t pretend to be anything more than what it was, while at the same time having a number of interesting stories behind it. It’s a well balanced movie that knows when to pack some action, and when to just be quiet and let itself build up.

When you go into this, don’t expect the best movie ever, because it isn’t. It remains a really good movie though, and if it’s a visual orgasm you want, you really can’t go wrong here.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Simple story, but effective execution and balancing, with over the top action scenes that work.
Characters: 7/10 – I expected more of this. They just are too one-sided and there are too many one-dimensional characters.
Production-Values: 10/10 – Incredibly high budget, tons and tons of eye candy and fluid animation.
Setting: 9/10 – A ton of neat ideas were put into this, and the premise is simple, yet works really well.

Suggestions:
– Macross Frontier – Itsuwari no Utahime
– Trigun – Badlands Rumble
– Trava – Fist Planet

Autumn Season Preview – Movie and OVA Edition

by psgels, posted in Seasonal Previews

Ooh, this is a very dark season for OVAs. Probably the worst we’ve had in years. Do you want to know how many original OVAs are going to be released over the next three months, so the ones who aren’t based on a TV-series? One. And that one show got delayed half a year. Beyond that, out of all the OVA episodes that will be released, there will only be four that are really worth watching, with perhaps one getting the benefit of doubt. Apart from that, it’s all going to be moe and fanservice. And occasionally bishie harems.

As for the moies: again, really barren. There’s hardly anything new coming out, but the stuff that does come out will be great at least. Don’t expect a lot to come up, though. Like, the two movies… yeah. In the seasons that I’ve been doing these movie and OVA previews, I have never encountered a season that looks as empty as this one.

Unlike last season’s preview, I do have a bit more time to go into more detail for the DVD Specials, Ongoing OVAs, Ongoing Movie Series and Franchise Movies (you know, those shows that have a movie coming out each year). I still refuse to keep listing their staff list, especially since they’re either nothing to really write home about or exactly the same as their predecessors, so I’ll just group them together at the start of this preview.

DVD Specials/Single Franchise OVAs:
Infinite Stratos – Koi ni Kogareru Sextet

Description: “Koi ni Kogareru Sextet” means something like “A sextet in love”.
The Positives: Um.. it sold well?
The Negatives: The past winter season was full of disappointments. None was as big as finding out what Infinite Stratos turned into, though. They weren’t even trying! With this OVA, they completely stopped pretending to be about anything: it’s just another cheesy harem now.

The World God Only Knows – Four People and an Idol

Description: This will apparently adapt chapter 54 of the manga, which apparently focuses on some of the girls of the previous arcs making a light music club.
The Positives: This probably is good news for the fans of this series, because the creators are actually willing to animate more of the manga.
The Negatives: I really doubt that this is going to save this series for anyone who got tired of TWGOK, like myself. The one redeeming factor of this series was that it did spend a lot of attention to get some depth into its characters. This is just another silly side-story, which were by far the worst parts of the anime.

Boku wa Tomodachiga Sukinai

Description: It will be bundled with the seventh volume of the novels it’s based on, which chronicles a bunch of kids who start a club for people who don’t have many friends. I couldn’t find anywhere which chapters it’s going to be adapting, though.
The Positives: I still think that this premise has potential, if it just hadn’t blatantly written “moe” all over it.
The Negatives: With AIC though, I really don’t have any expectations for this one at all. Nearly all of their series are only interested in delivering pointless moe unless it’s explicitly clear from the beginning that they’re not, like with Hourou Musuko or Sunred. Persona might break that trend, but Bokuwa Tomodachi ga Sukinai has no chance.

Deadman Wonderland

Description: This is going to be an unaired DVD episode for Deadman Wonderland.
The Positives: Finally! This will be one of the very few OVA episodes that I’m looking forward for the upcoming season. Deadman Wonderland is in dire need of more episodes, so even an extra DVD episode that shows more of the story is good here.
The Negatives: Now, Manglobe: please continue with this series instead of continuing with bad and pretentious hentai game adaptations. This series deserves to be finished!

Ongoing OVAs :
VitaminX Addiction

Description: Based on a dating sim. This is the second of three episodes.
The Positives: None.
The Negatives: Oh god, there’s going to be more? The shoujo genre is already completely stale. We don’t need any more cheesy harems like Uta Prince.
Aah Megami-Sama

Description: It continues the story of Aah Magami-Sama, in which the lead character Keiichi gets his wish fulfilled and gets to live together with a bunch of goddesses. The tag line will be “Keiichi-san, do you wanna kiss me?”
The Positives: Well, it’s about bloody time, isn’t it?
The Negatives: I still don’t get Aah Megami-Sama. Sure, the premise is nice for a short series and all. But 96 TV-episodes, three OVAs and one movie? Is its character development so amazing that it warrants so many episodes? And for that matter, if it is indeed so amazing, why is their relationship still at the point where they haven’t even kissed yet? Is this really more than a really endless “will they won’t they”-show?

Queen’s Blade

Description: “The art collection books will include two DVDs with about 40 minutes each of all-new original anime . About 20 minutes will be a story about the Rebellion characters who have not appeared in Queen’s Blade anime until now. About 20 more minutes will be devoted to an anime in which the character Alleyne and Siggy give private lessons. “ – (Taken from ANN)
The Positives: Well, if you want to see boobs then this series surely is catering to you.
The Negatives: Ugh… why is this one still pretending that it isn’t porn?

Higurashi n Naku Koro ni Kira

Description: This one will adapt four random stories. This tie it’s the turn for the Ayakashisenshi-hen -Do- and later in November the Kichienshi-hen -Ai-, unlike the first episode completely original stories.
The Positives: Well, at the very least Toshifumi Kawase is still involved. This guy rocks…
The Negatives: But unfortunately he just can’t do miracles. Seriously, what a disappointment this first episode was. Who on Studio Deen found it a good idea to put one of their worst directors on this job? It was nothing but characters imagining pointless fanservice, without any connection whatsoever between all of the scenes. To make matters worse, the episode director of the second episode seems to be Fumihiko Shimo. When working on an adaptation, he can really make this adaptation shine: Clannad and Air really rocked. When he’s doing an original story though… yeah. Hello, Infinite Stratos, Bakuretsu Tenshi and Gravion. Studio Deen, seriously: get back to making awesome series again.

Seitokai Yakuindomo

Description: “It is the start of Takatoshi Tsuda’s second year as the put-upon vice president of the student council and his sister Kotomi is entering school as a first year. New friends and double entendres are made.” – (Taken from ANN)
The Positives: Seitokai Yakuindomo is about one thing, and one thing only: dirty jokes. If you liked the first season, you’re bound to like this upcoming OVA.
The Negatives: Granted, it was much, much better than Princess Lover, but what turned me off of this series was its endless repetition. It just kept repeating jokes over and over to the point of annoyance, so I didn’t last long with this show.

Hakuouki Sekkaroku

Description: Third, Fourth and Fifth episode of this OVA will debut next season, continuing the story of Hakuouki and the Shinsengumi.
The Positives: Kou Outani behind the music is really good. and it’s not like Hakuouki is doomed: a story about the Shinsengumi could have been very good…
The Negatives: … if only the main character wasn’t such an idiot. Instead, this now just turned to be Deen and its bishies again. Did it get any better in the meantime?

Kaibutsu Ojou

Description: Third episode of an OVA of a show about a guy who gets brought back to life by a monster princess.
The Positives: I never checked it out because I really didn’t like the premise, but at the very least this OVA has a different staff from the TV-series. That’ got to be intentional, right?
The Negatives: I am glad that I didn’t check it out though, because just LOOK at that promo art. On the main website, I mean. here it reveals its colors as just another fanservice OVA.

Carnival Phantasm Second Season

Description: “The anime adapts an anthology of Type-Moon manga short stories by Kannagi creator Eri Takenashi to celebrate Type-Moon’s 10th anniversary” – (Taken from ANN)
The Positives: Yasuharu Takanashi behind the music and Seiji Kishi behind the direction should be fun.
The Negatives: The original writer of Kannagi is a very big problem, though. Especially with
Description: Not the DVDs, but the manga will bundle episode 12.5 of the series. Very subtle.
The Positives: Again, Sekai-Ichi hatsukoi wasn’t bad. It was a nice look at the life of a manga-publisher, and at least this OVA will be about the main couple, and not the side ones.
The Negatives: The longer this goes on though, the more I’m reminded of Junjo Romantica all over again. I really don’t think that this series has as much staying power as the creators would like you to believe. Oh, and the manga also still is on-going, so a good ending also won’t be possible.

Saiyuuki Gaiden – 02

Description: “500 years before Saiyuki, a heretic child with golden eyes is brought to Heaven and given into the reluctant care of a minor deity, Konzen, nephew of the Merciful Goddess Kanzeon Bosatsu. Konzen eventually names him “Goku”. Goku befriends two other minor gods, Marshal Tenpou and General Kenren of the Western Army of Heaven, and a boy who seems to be his age, the War Prince Nataku. Though Goku is happy in his new home, Heaven is not kind to heretics.”
The Positives: I haven’t seen the first OVA of this thing due to time constraints, but did it turn out worthwhile? It’s in any case at least not moe fanservice. That’s good.
The Negatives: I still have a bit of doubts about Naoyuki Kuzuya, the director of Bus Gamer, behind this thing.

Gundam Unicorn – 04

Description: “The year is U.C. 0096. Three years have passed since the end of the Second Neo Zeon War. It is said that the Vist Foundation manipulates the Earth Federation and Anaheim Electronics from behind the scenes. Hoping to create a new world, the Foundation attempts to hand over a certain secret to the Neo Zeon remnants known as the Sleeves. This will mean the opening of Laplace’s Box, which holds a great secret tied to the origins of the Universal Century. The exchange between the Vist Foundation and the Sleeves is to take place at the manufacturing colony Industrial 7. This is the home of the student Banagher Links, who rescues a girl he sees falling through the colony’s zero gravity area. The girl gives her name as Audrey Burne and says she wants to prevent a war, spurring Banagher to step into the conflict surrounding Laplace’s Box—almost as if he is drawn in by his own bloodline.” – (Taken from ANN)
The Positives: This is where this series is going to have to deliver. It’s past its halfway point, so now it’s all up to the creators and prevent this show from turning into yet another string of random battles, and instead make good use of the build-up of the first three episodes. Gundam Unicorn has the big benefit of having a ridiculously solid director. Make use of that!
The Negatives: By far my biggest problem with this series has been the male lead. Please, make him the next Amuro, not the next Kamille!

Yozakura Quartet

Description: Third episode of the OVA, which intends to follow the manga, rather than what the TV-series did.
The Positives: Hell yeah! More Yozakura Quartet with its beyond awesome action and fun and interesting characters! There aren’t many OVAs worth watching this season, but this one is an absolute must-watch.
The Negatives: The only criticism I have at the moment is that the dialogue sometimes feels a bit uninspired. But heck. This OVA has more than enough to make up for that.

Franchise Movies:
Suite PreCure: Take it back! The Miraculous Melody that Connects Hearts!

Description: The title seems to suggest that this movie will focus on taking back a miraculous melody that changes hearts.
The Positives: Now, the movies of the Precure series are always produced by different people, so there is hope. The Heartcatch Precure movie was really charming, despite not having the same director and scriptwriters.
The Negatives: That title still puzzles me, though. The Heartcatch Precure at least had an interesting premise: coming to Paris for a Fashion show, and around that it built its drama. This though… yeah, we’re gonna save the world again! Whoop-dee-doo.

Actual new Releases
Scryed Alteration

Summary: A strange environmental phenomenon 22 years ago in the Kanazawa prefecture caused the land to split and protrude upwards reaching unprecedented heights, creating the secluded area known as The Lost Ground. Kazuma is a young mercenary who lives in the Lost Ground, looking for any work he can find to sustain his livelihood within the harsh environment. He is one of the few people that are gifted with the Alter ability, which allows him to plaster his right arm and torso with a metallic alloy. When this mercenary encounters HOLY, an order whose purpose is to suppress and capture what they call Native Alter Users, and one of the elite members of HOLY, Ryuho, an epic rivalry begins. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Recap Movie with New Footage
The Positives: It will look more polished.
The Negatives: Don’t buy that “new footage”-thing. Nine times out of ten it’s just some subtle reworkings of scenes or like, two minutes of new scenes. I never really started Scryed, because… well… it looks silly. The promo art has two overly emo dudes yelling and trying to beat each other up. Sacred Seven had more subtlety than that. Also, why a recap movie? those things usually suck.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki

Summary: Blazers are gallant warriors that consider the well being of others and the safety of the land as their priority, and work hard to defeat monsters and criminals. Estel is an aspiring Blazer who lives near the city of Rolento in Rebel Kingdom. Together with her friend Yoshua, Estel continues to train herself in the arts of Blazers. The story begins when Estel’s father receives a strange letter, starting a chain of events. – (Taken from IGN)
Type: OVA adapted from an RPG
Director: Masaki Tachibana
Other Notable Staff: Atsuko Nozaki (Character Designs)
The Positives: This one got delayed for half a year, so I’ll just write down what I had on it during my previous preview. We have the character designer of Tokyo Magnitude here. Plus its director. That’s plenty of reasons to look forward to this one.
The Negatives: Eiyuu Densetsu seems a lot more generic than .Hack//Quantum though, but I’m still very curious what the creators can do with this.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

To Aru Hikuushi e no Tsuioku

Summary: To Aru Hikūshi e no Tsuioku’s story revolves around Charles Karino, a Revaamu Empire mercenary aerial pilot who mans the twin-seater reconnaissance seaplane Santa Cruz. One day, he receives a preposterous assignment: to fly solo over 12,000 kilometers of enemy waters to protect a girl named Fana del Moral. Fana happens to be the next in line to the empire’s throne and a girl possessing beauty “equal to 5,000 beams of light.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Jun Shishido
Script: Satoko Okudera
The Positives: Um, beyond the awesome premise: it’s written by the same woman who wrote The Girl Who Leapt through Time, Summer Wars and Miyori no Mori and directed by the director of Saiunkoku Monogatari and Hajime no Ippo New Challenger. The two of them really have the expertise to make this a wonderful movie. I’m a big fan of stories that focus on traveling, and this premise holds a ton of potential.
The Negatives: This is an adaptation of a light novel series. I didn’t manage to find the answers about this, but: how large is the story? Are the light novels already finished?
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Horutabi no Mori e

Summary: The story of Hotarubi no Mori e centers around Hotaru, a little girl who gets lost in an enchanted forest where apparitions reside. A young boy, Gin, appears before Hotaru, but she cannot touch him for fear of making him disappear. – (Taken from AniDB)
Type: Movie
Director: Takehiro Omori
Other Notable Staff: Yuki Midorikawa (Original Story), Makoto Yoshimori (Music)
The Positives: As if Brains Base isn’t good enough already this year: here is a movie from the creators of Natsume Yuujin-Chou. It even has Takehiro Omori as the director, and this is going to be the first time where he actually gets to handle a movie. The premise for this movie is absolutely adorable and I see no way in which it isn’t going to turn heart-warming.
The Negatives: Negatives? We don’t need no stinkin’ negatives!
First-Glance Potential: 95%