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Some Quick First Impressions: Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel – Kyun Kyun tokimeki Paradise and Blood-C

by psgels, posted in Blood-C, Some Quick First Impressions

Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 1000%

Short Synopsis: Our lead character enlists on a school for idols.
This. Was camp. Heck, if you took four body-builders and made then play bagpipes while playing monopoly they still wouldn’t be as camp as this. I’m not sure how the creators did it, but they somehow succeeded in getting every single scene in this episode to not make any sense whatsoever. This show takes every reverse harem cliche, and takes it even further. The guys in this episode are completely ridiculous stereotypes, drawn by girls who I can only imagine haven’t spoken to guys in ages: that’s how ridiculously hammy they all were. Seriously,t his series takes bad acting to a new level. An sich, there is nothing wrong with campness: Antique Bakery did it and did this with great results. The thing however was that Antique Bakery had real characters. This is just a collection of badly acted stereotypes with an extra dose of sparkle. The one positive point is A-1: they made sure to make this show look good, plus the soundtrack too is surprisingly good. Whenever characters aren’t singing, though.
OP: This one is just… wrong.
ED: Again: it’s well produced, but the vocals are pretty bad.
Potential: 20%

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel – Kyun Kyun Tokimeki Paradise

Short Synopsis: Our lead character are magical girls who fight crime.
What the..? This is really weird: at first sight this series seems exactly like the OVA. In fact, the entire first scene was completely borrowed from the OVA. However, as the series went on, it became clear that there was one major difference that changes pretty much everything: they changed the villain! If you never saw the OVA you might wonder why this is such a big deal, but here is the thing: the OVA was meant to subvert the magical girl genre: it showed that fighting crime shouldn’t be taken lightly and it uses its far superior villains to teach the lead characters not to goof off just because they have special characters. In this episode however, the creators swapped this villain out for a bunch of total idiots. The result is that this series is now a really camp kaitou-series, with the bizarre effect that it tries to deliver a bunch of really weird scenes straight. This episode tries to take itself seriously while pulling a number of horses who have long since been beaten to death. This isn’t in the way most harems keep repeating each other. This episode was full of the plot devices that nowadays only appear in parodies. They’ve been long since beaten to death that writers don’t even bother with them anymore, and here this show comes and expects them to still make sense. It just doesn’t work, especially with all of the silly acting.
Potential: 20%

Blood-C

Short Synopsis: Our lead character hunts monsters.
Oh boy! Talk about a standard set for the rest of the season. This episode was rock-solid in every single way. Even the Noitamina series are going to have their hands full on trying to come close to the level of detail in this episode. Especially the big action scene at the end: now THAT is how you animate a fight scene. This episode also really screamed Clamp, but I really mean that in a good way. It has some of the elements that return in a lot of their other series, but also plenty of new stuff for them, not to mention the rock solid characterization. Saya is a teenager this time (who has nothing to do with the Saya of Blood+, by the way), but most of this episode was laid back and made excellent use of this to establish the main cast. They already seem like a unique bunch. Everything was really well acted, the pacing was really fluid, the characters are strong. All that’s left now is an engaging story. Please, someone say that this will go on for more than 13 episodes!
OP: A strong contender for the best OP of the year. Utterly gorgeous with music that fits it perfectly.
ED: Simple but effective.
Potential: 95%

Hen Zemi Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




This season had what I’d liek to call “the disgusting comedy block”. It’s a double feature of Hen Zemi and Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san. Both have just 10-minute episodes, both are really extreme in what they do, both were preceded by a far superior OVA and both… had no sense of shame. Hen Zemi was the weakest of the two: it’s fun to watch, but not much more than that.

One big factor in this is that it just never was able to get anywhere near the quality that its OVA had. The OVA really is superior in every way to the TV-series: the animation is much better, the dialogue is much more fast paced and detailed, the characters are more interesting. The TV-series really is a tamed down version, and it loses a lot of charms because of this.

To explain: the big difference between the two is that the OVA really described its disgusting content in full detail. That’s what made it so completely disgusting and if you want to watch something that gets under your skin: that’ the series for it. The TV-series however is just a kaleidoscope of various disgusting practices. It just lists a bunch of disgusting things. The effect of that wears off once the novelty disappears and in the end it becomes more of an exercise. This makes the disgusting stuff just predictable, and the nudity and sex references just plain fanservice.

Where this series does try to deliver is in expanding upon its characters. This admittedly worked out quite well, and there are a few cast members that are well fleshed out this way. On the other hand though, there also are plenty of characters who just have one defining trait or too much of a caricature. Especially the lead character is used as nothing else aside to be the butt of a joke, and the biggest pervert in the series is taken way too far.

So while I liked the OVA, I unfortunately can’t give a high mark for this series. If you’re interested, you can just check out the OVA: they’re short and sweet and perfect for this type of show, and even though the TV-series expands upon the characters, there are tons of other comedies that do that better. This was just too often too mundane. I watch comedies because I want to laugh or otherwise be moved, and that’s where this series had little effect on me as it neared its end.

Having said that though, I do want to praise Xebec for finally going with a fanservice comedy that does NOT revolve around teenagers. At least it’s something, but there still is a long way to go for them. Like Gonzo, there really is a Good Xebec and a Bad Xebec, with a very strong distinction between the two. I guess that this was amongst the best tv-series from Bad Xebec, but it really needs to give more space to Good Xebec, because these guys can really make great stuff when given the chance.

Storytelling: 7/10 – Goes too much into a formula.
Characters: 8/10 – There are some interesting characters, nobody really is obnoxious, but it’s nothing special.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Again solid, but nothing special like the OVA.
Setting: 7/10 – Yeah, it’s a kaleidoscope of disgusting stuff. That novelty wears off quickly, but not as quick as the pseudo-academic air that it wants to give off.

Suggestions:
Hen Zemi OVA
– Mitsudomoe
– Dororon Enma-Kun Meera Meera

Gosick Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Gosick




During the past half year Mari Okada set some sort of record: writing five series in just half a year, two of which original stories. This totaled 70 episodes in just six months. Surprisingly, with the exception of Fractale, all of them were really, really good.

Gosick does have a catch though: a weak start. The first half of this series is pretty much a mystery series that fails at mystery: the stories themselves are good, but the cast that has to solve them is surrounded by idiots who miss vital clues, need everything explained on a silver platter for them and just can’t think for themselves. The mysteries meanwhile get solved so conveniently that the detective in question must have had access to the script in order to be able to figure them out. These stories all don’t really serve any purpose to the plot or characters and are generally pointless and a bit of a chore to watch.

Intead, this series shines when it turns to its main storyline and adventure roots. This amounts to about three arcs and the first half, and just about everything after episode fourteen. It’s here where this show against all expectations reveals itself as wondrous journey throughout imaginative stories and murder mysteries that are deeply rooted within its setting of a small fictional country in Northern Italy in the 1920s. It successfully combines occult, legends and folklore with each other and succeeds in what a great adventure series should be.

Beyond that, it’s also here where the characters really get better. The stupid characters either get better or get shafted in favor of the vast array of interesting ones with great back-stories. There is a ton of character development in this series for both the main and side-cast and this gets woven wonderfully together with the story.

With Gosick you have to be patient. It’s not just that it takes its time to get going: some episodes and stories are downright bad, rushed and make no sense. This gets completely abandoned as the series goes on, though. ‘Engaging” is the best way to describe this series. It may not be amongst Bones’ best work, but once it left its flaws behind, it really drew me in.

Storytelling: 8/10 – It doesn’t get the mystery-genre at times, but as an adventure it hits a lot or right notes, though it remains a bit rushed at times.
Characters: 8/10 – Aah, this is a difficult one to grade because of the sheer difference between the first and second half. The big plus is the huge amount of character development, the big minus is the number of unlikable idiots that walk around in the first half.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Solid throughout the entire series, but not the most remarkable for Bones’ standards.
Setting: 9/10 – Tons of great ideas, settings and backstories that will really draw you in. Even when the characters are having a day off, the setting remains rock-solid throughout.

Suggestions:
– Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra
– Pandora Hearts
– Nijuu Mensou no Musume

Some Quick First Impressions: Blade, Rou Kyuu Bu! and Double J

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Blade

Short Synopsis: Our lead character hunts vampires.
And the final installment of the marvel adaptations is Blade. Once again, a solid opening. It really seems like Iron Man was the bad apple in the series, because the others had some pretty good starts. Blade too: this episode was an interesting combination between horror and action, and it hit a lot of right notes: the animation isn’t as good as the X-Men, but it still convincingly takes second place: the action looks gorgeous and the images are very creative, especially that birth scene. The protagonist Blade kicks ass, the female lead looks to be an interesting co-star, the creators made the right decision to immediately establish and introduce the main villain, and there are no teenagers in sight. Oh, and this series of course also deserves points for having an actual black characters. It’s been ages since we’ve had one of those. Overall, this episode feels like it takes the middle ground in the Marvel franchise: it doesn’t have the animation nor setting of the X-Men, but on the other hand it also doesn’t have Hisako and it doesn’t try to pretend to be anything more than it is. On the other hand it doesn’t have the fight choreography of Wolverine, but the animation and acting is much better there (although there is still quite a bit of ham). If this gets done right and if it manages to combine the best out of the previous X-Men series, this could very well become the best in the series.
OP: Pretty much what we’ve come to expect from the Marvel-series, although I have to say that I like the designs a lot.
ED: Unlike the other Marvel anime EDs and a lot simpler. It works.
Potential: 80%

Rou Kyuu Bu!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to coach a junior high basketball team.
Okay. Look. I have been looking forward to this season a lot. It’s promising to be an awesome season. But this was completely abysmal. In every single way. The creators did it: they somehow succeeded into making every single character a pain to watch. This is complete and utter fanservice with some of the most terrible script-writing, just caching in on popular trends. The voice acting is utterly terrible from the moment the five lead girls opened their mouths, and aside from that they all are completely stereotypical. The entire episode was just uninspired dialogue and fanservice over and over, but the worst thing is that it actually tries to take itself seriously: this episode kept hinting in the most unsubtle hints that half the cast has a dark past with some of the ham-handed build-up imaginable. This is pretty much the archetype of what’s wrong with modern anime.
OP: The song… is exactly the same as every other generic moe girls OP. Seriously, it’s like a direct copy with perhaps a bit of a louder drum base.
ED: Brings obnoxious to new levels.
Potential: 0%

Double J

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a random high school girl.
What happened to the days of Hanoka, when the flash anime actually put some effort in their animation? Seriously, Double J is the latest in a string of utterly horrid Flash shows that could have easily been out-produced by a bunch of high-schoolers. I can only imagine how ridiculously cheap these are to make, and ever since Tono to Issho they just keep coming and coming, but there really has been an explosion of them during the past year (most of which I refuse to review). Double J is an evil one, though. It is a very evil one. Most of the episode was exactly what it says on the tin: random girls talking. It’s far from the worst of the genre because at the very least it didn’t try to deliver the most awful jokes with a straight face. But then the ED arrived and they showed that the producers actually DID get a really good animator for this show. Seriously, if the rest of the animation of this series was even a tenth of how good that was, I’d watch it. Instead we got these ridiculously cheap series that just hope that some random otaku find the girls cute enough to buy it…
OP: Just a random CG thingy that even I could have made with the right tools.
ED: Now this is some awesome animation!
Potential: 10%

June Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

This was one of the best months we’ve seen in a long while in anime. It may not look like I followed many series (there WAS a lot of crap this season), but the shows that were good were really, really good, and a ton of them were just amazing. This month showed some rock-solid endings, twists, turns and executions. It turned out to be an incredibly diverse season with series that all stood out in their own ways and not just one genre dominating. More seasons like this, please.

#22 (19) – Astarotte no Omocha – (7/10) – So I ended up dropping this, quite early in this month. It just went nowhere, it just devolved into a generic romantic fanservice comedy: the exact thing that it should not have done with such a premise. It was good when it still focused on drama, but in terms of romance it has nothing and just kept repeating itself. The worst were the idiot prince and the way in which Asuha completely devolved into someone who can’t stop talking about not wearing any panties. This all was really badly written.
#21 (21) – The World God Only Knows – (7,25/10) – The final teacher arc had the poor luck that it ended in a completely nonsensical way. After that the series decided to end with an episode that would have been good, had it any sense of comedic timing. The end result was a horribly forced ending that was a pain to sit through, and only cemented at how tired I am of this series.
#20 (20) – Inazuma Eleven – (7,25/10) – In the end, I decided to drop this. It’s indeed dark for a kids’ series, but my main issue was that the characterization left much to be desired. In five episodes it introduced like, 30 different characters. Now, who are these characters? Why should I care about them? What makes them different aside from their character designs? Only four or five of them really matter, and they are the typical shounen cliches. In fact, this mostly feels like a rip-off of the original Beyblade series (yes, I watched that one).
#19 (22) – Hen Zemi – (7,5/10) – After twelve episodes, was it really worth it watching Hen Zemi? Unfortunately, I have to say no. The reason why the OVA worked so well wasn’t just the fact that it had much better writing, but also because it was short but sweet. The TV-series now is just an endless string of gross things and fanservice: it gets boring once the shock factor wears off. By now we expect Hen Zemi to be disgusting. It is, and hardly brings any extra spice in that aside from that.
#18 (14) – Yondemasuyo, Azazel-San – (7,75/10) – I’ll get to more detail about this when the final episode airs, but what interestingly seemed to be the biggest pitfall for this series was that it ran out of inspiration for jokes. The otaku arc in particular just seemed to not know what kinds of jokes it should make. The final arc was better, but again: it was a tad forced and predictable in the way it played out.
#17 (11) – X-Men – (7,75/10) – When comparing the X-Men to Wolverine, I still like the X-Men better, but that’s just because Wolverine had a really simple story and had lots of issues with its acting. The X-Men unfortunately did dull in a bit in their final arc when the drama all boiled down to teenaged emo. The big problem is that the creators shafted the main cast in favor of Hisako and Takeo, who were by far the least interesting characters of the entire series.
#16 (18) – Gintama – (8,25/10) – The past arc of Gintama was a great one, although it ended rather xenophobic (but then again, that’s Gintama: the aliens are nearly all portrayed as mind-numbing idiots, punching bags for Gintoki or completely evil bastards). The arc however did deliver a lot of depth to Otose and the people from her past and it certainly was a major improvement over the comedy episodes of the previous months.
#15 (new) – Appleseed XIII – (8,25/10)

Forgive me, but I can’t seem to remember for the love of me where I managed to find the first episode of Appleseed XIII. I liked it a lot though. It’s chock full of symbolism to the ancient Greek mythology and the characterization is a lot better than in the movies. Deunan really acts like she’s on her period, though.

#14 (13) – Fireball – (8,25/10)

Fireball remained a great watch throughout its entire run. Now it’s of course not hard to remain interesting for only two minutes, but this did it with a style that I really enjoyed. The comedic timing and the graphics were still as great as ever.

#13 (11) – Showa Monogatari – (8,25/10)

Irregular releases are still irregular, but we’re nearing the end. This month showed actually some very interesting drama around Yuuko in quite a realistic way. Sure, the acting could have been better, but the themes, and drama really relate back to problems anyone could have had. Of course you have to like history in order to be able to enjoy this, but this by far doesn’t deserve the negligence in terms of fansubs.

#12 (16) – Ao no Exorcist – (8,25/10)

Ao no Exorcist at the moment is surprisingly enjoyable. The fleshing out of the earlier episodes has paid off and at this point there hardly is any boring moment left, despite the generic set-ip. Characters are used well, the banter has gotten funnier, the drama has gotten more sincere. This is the right direction, although it does need to stop putting so much stupidity in its filler episodes.

#11 (7) – Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji – (8,25/10)

The Pachinko arc was intense, but it did suffer a bit from Kaiji’s formula: again we have a set-up that consists out of a lot of money on the line, a seemingly easy game and a predictable outcome. What I liked was the introduction of the old man, who seems different from the other sidekicks that Kaiji had so far. Also, that daughter. What the hell are the creators building up to?

#10 (8) – Sket Dance – (8,5/10)

This month saw the best and the worst episode of Sket Dance so far, but the tournament arc really made up for it by being really fun, yet somehow taking its characters seriously. Now all that’s left is to wonder how long this series can keep up this excellent pace.

#9 (4) – Tiger & Bunny – (8,5/10)

This month we got to see the halfway climax for Tiger & Bunny. It;’s a solid story with a ton of character development, but it also spent a lot of time building up. There’s a lot of promise in this show becoming even better for its second half.

#8 (9) – Deadman Wonderland – (8,5/10)

It really is a bloody shame that Deadman wonderland doesn’t have the time to fully show off its story, because it’s still one heck of an exciting series inside an insane setting. The animation has its ups and downs but when it has its ups it really looks gorgeous, and beyond the insanity, the characters are still surprisingly good. There’s some nice character development, not to mention that the delivery also really knows how to make its scenes count. Only complaint is that Ganta at times may angst a bit too much. At others though, he’s a great lead character.

#7 (3) – Gosick – (8,5/10)

This month wasn’t as good as the previous one, but it really does come close to that. The climax was a wonderful one and the stories again were full of intrigue and imagination. At this point the character development has also really kicked in, which really paid off here.

#6 (15) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8,75/10)

Now this is a major improvement! The past arc for Hana-Saku Iroha has been amazing, and chock full of character development. It kept pushing its characters into situations where they were forced to confront their flaws and weaknesses and especially the acting was just wonderfully detailed, both in terms of voice acting and animation. If this is the pacing that this show can keep up, we’re in for a major treat.

#5 (6) – [C]The Money of Soul and Possibility Control – (8,75/10)

C was really rushed, and yet it pulled off an amazing finale. The main themes and subplots managed to come together, the direction got better than ever and aside from the way its plot evolved, it was just a damn entertaining series to watch. Especially the ending was really well delivered and brought some great closure to this series.

#4 (5) – Steins;Gate – (8,75/10)

Steins;gate’s plot really got interesting this month, but what’s more is that the execution also got rock and rock solid. The animation makes excellent use of its limited budget, the acting just gets better and better, the pacing and atmosphere hardly ever show a weak moment and it looks like this series has only just started.

#3 (10) – Dororon Enma-kun Meerameera – (8,75/10)

The ending to this sereis was absolutely fantastic. It just released all breaks and delivered one absolutely crazy roller coaster ride full of old references and that just kept upstaging itself in terms of downright insanity. This was entertainment at its finest and I had one hell of a time. Oh, and the background music also was as solid as ever. I can’t wait to hear what the same composers end up delivering for No6.

#2 (2) – Hyouge Mono – (9/10)

This month showed an even bigger focus on politics than this show already had before, still with the rock-solid execution and acting of this series, combined with an amazing plot twist along the way. What I especially like about this series is how much balls the delivery has. There’s a ton of detail put in the way that these people interact with each other, making this an awesome “lots of talking”-series.

#1 (1) – Ano Hi Mita no Hana no Namae o Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai – (9,25/10)

And with its final month, Anohana somehow managed to actually surpass itself. Its conclusion brilliantly weaved together everything this show needed and give every character a chance to show a bit of himself, leading to a heart-wrenching ending. It’s perhaps not entirely realistic and yeah, it had its share of overacting, but everything remained well within the boundaries of my suspense of disbelief thanks to the script that just kept pushing the characters forward and once again left no moment wasted.

For the people living in Berlin and Antwerp

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

Sorry for wasting the time of everyone else again, but between July 9th and July 14th, I’ll be on holiday in Germany, so there won’t be any posts published during that time. On July 11th, 12th and 13th I’ll be in Berlin, so if you happen to live there: how about we meet up?

Also, on July 23rd I’ll be on Antwerp’s Atsusacon, so the saem goes there to the people who were also planning on going.

I’ve never used this blog to try and organize meets like this, but I figured who cares. It might lead to something interesting.

Fireball Charming Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Milestone time! This is going to be the 750th review I’ve written for this site. Only 250 more until I achieve my goal of 1000 ones! And what a random show to end up reviewing with Fireball Charming that just consists out of 13 2-minute episodes that just feature two robots talking to each other and do random things.

It’s the perfect series for if you’re looking for a quick watch, though. The original Fireball series already was this, but Fireball Charming actually manages to improve on the original series in a lot of different ways. Instead of going with much of the same formula, Fireball Charming aims to be bigger, faster, more random and more dynamic and creative. And it succeeds.

What you often see with comedy sequels is that they end up running out of inspiration, and yet none of this applies for Fireball. Heck, I could listen to Drossel and Gedachtnis for ages at this rate. The creators try to stuff a lot more dialogue in each episode than even the original Fireball, making every second interesting. One nasty side-effect of this is that it really jumps around: there’s no lead-up to anything. and the characters just randomly jump from one topic to the other as you’d expect from two hyperactive robot who have been stuck in the same castle for thousands of years.

The biggest difference with the first season is that this time, the creators really like to show off how good their animation is. Not only does this show look absolutely gorgeous and makes full use of 3D technologies, it also takes every chance it gets to show interesting images, animation and it really likes to throw in as much creativity as possible.

Now, random humour alone isn’t necessarily funny: if Fireball would just have been randomness for the sake of randomness it would have gotten boring really quickly, even for its length. However, it has a great comedic timing and a very eccentric sense of humour that is hard not to like. Not to mention that it has two very likable main characters.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Short but sweet. Completely random and jumpy but consistently interesting to watch.
Characters: 8/10 – No depth whatsoever, but a likable cast this certainly is.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Absolutely gorgeous CG. A feast for the eyes.
Setting: 8/10 – Has a virtually limitless supply of random things to throw at the viewer, and interestingly uses its own setting.

Suggestions:
– Kimagure Robot
– Marie & Gali

The World God Only Knows II Review – 72,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




The second season of The World God Only Knows has some good points. At the very least the girls that Keima has to conquest (read: get a kiss from) aren’t as terrible as the idol or the rich girl of the first season. Unfortunately, there just still is too much wrong with it for me to really rate it any higher than its predecessor.

Really, I only barely managed to finish this series. If I had to give a tip for anyone checking this out: don’t expect anything from it. The world God Only Knows doesn’t aim to be anything big or spectacular. It’s just there for really light entertainment and to provide some interesting observations about dating sim games. It’s not deep, it’s not funny, it doesn’t have any good characters, nor does it have particularly impressive animation (this is without a doubt Manglobe’s least visually impressive series; just about everything looks generic here). In every area, it does just enough to be watchable.

There are a number of good arcs in this series, in particular the middle one that actually makes use of the build-up that the first season provided (something that unfortunately the rest of the arcs don’t do). It’s here where this show jumps away fro its formula, delivers its best characterization and the most interesting and least stereotypical character of the series. The problem is that all of the other arcs left something to be desired with.

This series follows the same format as the first: we first get a long arc detailing a “conquest”, followed by a short arc detailing something random about either the world of this series or dating sims in general. The long arcs suffer from stereotypical and one-sided characters along with nonsensical conclusions. The short arcs suffer from being completely stupid and moronic. Really, those episodes are completely terrible.

The thing with this series is that it does take care to give its characters interesting back-stories. That’s why I’m not giving this one a terrible rating, and all of the main arcs have their points that make them worth watching. But there’s just way too much fundamentally flawed with this series. This series doesn’t feature a series where a guy needs to save random girls who are infected by evil spirits, it feels more like a guy who needs to collect various characters who magically escaped from his games.

The characterization in this series leaves much to be desired: everyone in this series just has one side, sometimes that side has a twist, but there is nothing other to these characters beyond that twist. Even the main characters suffer from this! I could forgive the first season for that due to the lack of time, but come on: it’s already been 24 episodes and they’re still the same stereotypes.

This series advertises itself as a light-hearted parody, but the problem is that it’s just not funny. This show just doesn’t know how to write comedy: Elcea still is the most obnoxious character, and any joke this show attempts to make falls flat on its face due to poor timing: everything in this show is slow and mellow, even the delivery of the jokes. This show includes a lot of references to other stories, but that’s just what they are: random references that try to be clever, yet aren’t.

At the very least Elcea doesn’t try bathing with Keima anymore, and that second arc finally took this show somewhere other than just a cliche fest, but the main reason why I’m rating this series lower than the first is because it’s a much bigger chore to sit through. The terrible, terrible side-arcs are part of this, but the big factor is that this show has had 24 episodes now and I’m getting really tired of it. I don’t enjoy watching the majority of this series. It’s a miracle that I even kept with it, but that is mostly because people keep telling that the future arcs get better. I’ve been hopelessly caught in this series, hoping for it to finally turn good, fueled by a few good parts here and there that affirm this and yet this bloody show keeps testing my patience over and over with its cliches and complete stupidity.

Storytelling: 7/10 – It’s sufficient, but refuses to try and stand out. There’s a lot of meh in the way it delivers its story, most notably on how slow and monotone it can get.
Characters: 7/10 – It’s a character study, so the characters at least are well explored. They’re all (with the exception of perhaps one) still game stereotypes, though. If they were enjoyable to watch then okay, but more often than not they’re not!
Production-Values: 8/10 – Adequate. But for Manglobe’s standards it doesn’t stand out in any way.
Setting: 7/10 – Offers nice trivia at times, but most of this series isn’t about games, it’s about games in the eyes of an obsessed fanatic. This show did the opposite of what it was supposed to do and made my (someone who never plays visual novels) image of dating sims even more jaded than it already was.

Suggestions:
– Kuragehime
– Hanamaru Youchien
– Skip Beat

X-Men Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, X-Men




Overall, the past season has turned out to be excellent, but there is one interesting are where it is below average: the animation. Unfortunately, the earthquake’s mark on the anime industry shows up the clearest here. And so we got quite an interesting series to walk away with the award for the best animation of the season: this one.

This series doesn’t look as good as Madhouse’s best looking series, but it still is a wild and vivid looking series. the colours are really varied, the animation is bold and strong and the character designs are completely unlike any other anime out there, even considering that this is based on an American franchise.

If you’re also looking for good action, then this show has it, and buckets of it. It’s a really well directed show in technical terms: the action is plentiful and always moving, making sure to alternate enough between characters to keep everything dynamic. Couple this with the gorgeous animation and you’ve got a very entertaining series to watch.

Now, where this show falls down a bit is the plot. It’s not bad like Iron Man or anything, but it made a number of core design decisions that prevented the story from fully delivering. The creators unfortunately tried to do two things at the same time: first of all they wanted to make an epic and action-packed action series, and on the other hand they wanted to create a serious drama about mutants and teenagers with powers and the people around them. These don’t really blend well together.

The result is an action-packed series that tries to be deep, yet doesn’t have the time to actually flesh out its characters. It has like five different villains who all are tied together, and yet it has nowhere near enough time to focus on all of them, leaving some key villains as dull and uninteresting. On the side of the good guys meanwhile, the creators introduce a rather annoying new character. You want to see the X-Men kick ass? Well, there’s a Mary Sue amongst them who keeps stealing their spotlights. This reduces Storm in particular to someone who doesn’t just do anything, but the rest of the cast also particularly near the end is ignored in the favour of some random whining teenagers. Essentially the entire final conflict is nothing more but dictated by Teenaged angst and emo. This doesn’t work with characters who aren’t well fleshed out!

This is a shame, because the parts about the X-Men themselves are quite good Wolverine in particular is a lovable character, but the tension between them is also healthy and interesting, and whenever the teenagers aren’t at the centre of the attention this show really kicks ass. It’s just a shame that the finale of this series, the place where everything was supposed to come together, gets completely dominated by teenagers who don’t know what they want to be. Compare that to the Wolverine series: it knew exactly what it was, it knew exactly what it wanted to do and all of the characters knew their roles and were fleshed out sufficiently, while at the same time the series delivered a lot of neat action. Its acting and production values may have been horrible, but this balance is something that unfortunately the X-Men lacked majorly, and that’s why they get the same rating.

Storytelling: 7/10 – Doesn’t know what it wants to be, and therefore doesn’t come together at the end leaving a bad taste. It’s really good at writing action scenes, though.
Characters: 8/10 – A bit of a mixed bag, but most of the characters are interesting enough to keep watching. The teenagers just aren’t.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Gorgeous animation and visuals and a strong soundtrack to boot.
Setting: 8/10 – The backstory behind the X-Men remains a fascinating one.

Suggestions:
– Wolverine
– Toward the Terra
– Read or Die OVA

Dororon Enma-kun Meerameera Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




I love remakes! I’m not sure what it is, but they nearly always seem to get made by big fans who really want to make something special out of them in order to do them justice. Take Casshern Sins with its amazing style and direction, or Tetsujin 28-Go which brilliantly made the context under which its original series was written into its storyline and made it a central theme. This also goes for the silly series. And damn. Dororon Enma-Kun’s new coat turned into a wonderful and outright crazy series to watch for the past season.

Let me first put up a fair warning though, because this show isn’t for everyone. I really mean it when this show is crazy. It’s also a fanservice series: the main character is a huge pervert and this show won’t shy away from any opportunity to show naked girls. It even has a character who runs out completely naked throughout the entire series. It’s filled with sexual references, and it’s completely juvenile in every single way.

In fact, when this series started I was really close to drop it. The first two episodes of this show are really bad, and they just feel like some random adventures with a lot of annoying kids and fanservice that just wasn’t entertaining at all. Only at episode 3 does this series show its real colours. From this moments, it just takes its fanservice to complete absurds. No idea is stupid enough for this series. From episode three onward, this series gets completely over the top in every single way. It’s filled with the most bizarre scenes, parodies some obscure references from the time in which the original Dororon Enma-kun was written, and the overacting reaches bizarre levels of ridiculousness.

I’d even label this over Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. It’s true that that series looks more unique and that it also have some really good ideas to base its episodes on, but Dororon Enma-kun has it completely upstages in terms of entertainment. If you can appreciate the juvenile humour, it is a ridiculously entertaining series. It takes one crazy idea and just makes it spiral out of control over and over without any sign of slowing down. Not all of the episodes are of the same level, but the really crazy episodes (there are about five of them throughout the series) are just completely awesome from start to finish and one hell of an entertaining ride.

Basically, this is the kind of series that I want to watch when I don’t feel like watching an intricate plot or deep characters: a show that really releases all brakes in order to be as entertaining as possible. This show knows how to upstage itself time and time again, and while it uses several running gags, there is so much creativity put into this thing that it never feels repetitive or dragged out. It uses its own ideas incredibly well and I had one hell of a time watching this. Pun semi-intended.

Storytelling: 9/10 – A “No idea is too crazy”-mentality. Completely over the top in every single way and uses its huge amounts of creativity to deliver a really entertaining series.
Characters: 8/10 – Obviously you shouldn’t expect any development here, and they really take time to get used to, but their antics get hilarious to watch.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Amazing soundtrack (seriously, this thing is completely awesome) and while the character designs look simple at first, there is a ton of creativity put into it.
Setting: 8/10 – Obviously it’s nothing special at first look: youkai invade the world and they need to be stopped. But it has so many ideas put into its run that it it becomes amazing.

Suggestions:
– Hoshi no Umi no Amuri
– Hakaba Kitarou
– Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen