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Showa Monogatari Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Showa Monogatari




Anime is dying? Hah. As long as series like Showa Monogatari keep getting released, I refuse to believe something like that. Showa Monogatary may have a few production issues, but I just have to praise the guts that the producers had to actually dare and release it. Here we have a series wit no moe, no bishies, zero fanservice, no pandering and no overblown action. Instead of aiming at teenagers, kids or otaku, Showa Monogatari is aimed at a 50+ audience, portraying the life of an ordinary family in 1964.

Now, this is a slice of life series, so it obviously isn’t for everyone, but I do have to warn people that it’s not what it seems at first sight, because this show has something very misleading about its premise: Kouhei, the rather annoying 9-year-old lead character. Because of him, this show will at first seem like a kids’ series where we see yet another coming of age story of a young boy growing up somewhere. This is not what this series is about, though.

Kouhei is just a member of the cast here. There are a number of episodes that revolve around him, but there are also plenty of episodes that don’t, and instead develop the rest of the cast: his older brother, sister, parents and grandmother. All of them together end up as a charming and down to earth family with real problems, challenges and characteristics. Every character in this series is flawed and this show actually does quite a good job to develop everyone.

This series does have its production issues, though. The animation is quite poor and the direction feels rather mellow throughout the entire series. The worst is Kouhei’s voice actor, though: this guy can’t act for the life of him, and will ruin any dramatic scene he’s involved in. It overall is a series that feels like the production was rushed, and that the creators didn’t get time to make everything click and mesh together, and present things well, because it’s very rough around the edges.

The problems that the cast face are very realistic, but at the same time the creators do force their drama. It’s again one of those cases that has a lot of flaws, yet does a number of other things right, because the cast here remains well developed. In the end though, it does lack a bit of staying power.

Storytelling: 8/10 – The direction could have been stronger, but this one is well balanced and very realistic.
Characters: 8/10 – Well developed cast, but sometimes very badly acted.
Production-Values: 8/10 – The animation is really jerky, but the background art is very accurate. It really feels like 50 years ago.
Setting: 8/10 – Very interesting premise, historically accurate and realistic. Very authentic.

Suggestions:
– Furusato Japan
– Rail of the Star
– Ushiro no Shoumen Dare

July Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

How good do I consider this season to be? Well, to put it like this: I’ve got eighteen series this season that I’d rate at 8,25/10 or higher. In other words, there are eighteen series that I really, really like airing at the same time. The last time such a thing happened was back in September of 2009, and this season we’ve only just started yet!

The main flaw of this season pretty much what has been the main flaw of every season for the past years: length. There are quite a few series that aren’t going t fit their stories in their allotted time, and there again are too few series that dare to go beyond 13 episodes. With the way that the anime sales have bloomed over the past years though, I really hope tat soon we’ll be able to say goodbye to this very annoying trend.

#33 (new) – Mayo Chiki – (2,75/10) – Now this was just horrible. Just one big excuse for cute girls and fanservice and nothing more. The premise is based around the entire cast being complete and utter morons, and it’s just another one of those really bad fanservice comedies that pop up every season. Ignore this one at all costs! Dropped.
#32 (new) – Manyuu Hiken-Chou – (3/10) – Look. I often tell fanservice shows to be a bit more creative. I have said before that I have nothing against creative fanservice that fits within the setting of the series. And yeah, I guess that Manyuu Hiken-Chou does get creative… but I DID NOT MEAN CREATING OUTRIGHT PORN!
#31 (new) – Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel – (3,75/10) – What the hell happened here? I mean, the original OVA was decent: it was nothing special, but it had some nice morals and showed that being a mahou shoujo really isn’t as easy as it seems. Then this show comes along and it pretty much turns into a really stupid kaitou-busting show full of the most annoying moe antics and stereotypical characters. There’s nothing enjoyable about this: the characters just try to be as energetic as possible but completely forget to be entertaining or even remotely interesting! Dropped.
#30 (new) – Nyanpire – (4/10) – Unfortunately Gonzo’s first series in two years turned out to be Bad Gonzo. I mean, making a kids’ show is one thing, but this was just one huge commercial for a crappy J-Pop band who does the ED. The jokes are also completely unfunny: when I watch a comedy, I want to watch something that makes me laugh, not cringe! Dropped.
#29 (new) – Uta no Prince-Sama Maji Love 1000% – (4/10) – I prepared myself that this would be a campy series. But I never could have imagined the amount of stupidity and cheese that this show ended up delivering. Just about every character is hamming it up, and not to mention how ridiculously stupid the entire premise of this show is. I gave up at the point where the teachers actually forbade the characters to have any romances with each other. What the hell? Isn’t that why you’d want to watch this show in the first place? Dropped
#28 (19) – Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu – (4,25/10) – I’ve seen this one recommended quite a few times, but based on the first episode of the second season, I really don’t get the appeal. It’s just a show about a bunch of idiots and cute girls. I did not find anything even remotely funny about that one episode I watched, and it was a complete chore to sit through. Was that just me, or was it really a bad episode for this series to start with? Dropped.
#27 (new) – Rou Kyuu Bu! – (4,5/10) – This is bad. I mean, for starters we have a show about grade schoolers with a ton of fanservice, but the creators also succeeded in putting together the most obnoxious cast imaginable. The five lead girls all try to act as annoyingly moe as possible. On top of that though, it tries to have a serious story. Those parts don’t mesh! Dropped
#26 (new) – R-15 – (5/10) – Now, there are shows about idiots. Those idiots however completely pale in comparison to the characters in this series: this is the epitome of stupidity. It’s just a bunch of morons pretending to be geniuses filled with random fanservice. It’s nice to see how creative it can get with that for just one episode, but after that it just gets repetitive and actually tries to take itself seriously. There’s no way in which that’s going to work. Dropped.
#25 (new) – Morita-San wa Mukuchi – (6/10) – So, this is nothing but various sketches around a shy girl, nothing more. While I can understand where the creators are coming from, you can’t just base your entire series around this; it’s way too one-sided and forced. Not to mention the utterly poor direction of this thing.
#24 (new) – Yuruyuri – (6,5/10) – At first it looked to be different, but in the end Yuruyuri unfortunately turned out to be exactly what it says on the title: very unsubtle lesbian jokes. It started off pretty decent, but after only three episodes they ran out of inspiration and just kept going with dull lesbian and boob jokes. Dropped.
#23 (new) – The Idolm@ster – (7,25/10) – The Idolm@ster is tolerable, but after three episodes I have to wonder: what makes this show worth watching? The interesting direction of the first episode was immediately dropped, and instead every episode so far has focused on one of the different girls. The first two being the Kugimiya Rie Tsundere and the really shy girl who is afraid of men. The drama around them was weak (especially the one around the tsundere) and the rest of the side characters only used their airtime to just further establish the fact that they’re a bunch of walking cliches. Dropped.
#22 (new) – Nekogami Yaoyorozu – (7,25/10) – So, this show is tolerable. Aaand… that’s a bit of the problem here: yes, it’s better than most of the moe antics shows out there, but still it only gets a chuckle out of me every few minutes. There really are very few reasons to keep watching this series. Only go for this one if you’re really bored. Dropped.
#21 (new) – Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Uragi – (7,5/10) – Okay, so right before I went on my holiday, I wrote up a quick first impression for this series, and published it. At least, that’s what I thought happened, but that post got lost somehow, so that’s why there is no first impression of it. In any case, beyond being the series with the villain with the silliest name, Itsuten is a very cheesy romance show with a lot of angst and moe. Its story does have some potential, but the annoying moe antics, overacting and fanservice certainly aren’t helping its case at the moment.
#20 (new) – Sacred Seven – (7,75/10) – The big problem with Sacred Seven is that it could have been so much more: it’s an original story, it’s got an excellent director, an excellent scriptwriter, and what do they come with? A school emo mecha series. So far in the past four episodes, the emo part is what hurts this series the most: the characters just aren’t well fleshed out and because of that they feel rather unengaging. There are moments where it really shows to be exciting (most notably the second episode), but so at this rate it’s not going to be amongst the highlights of this season. It does have a very good OP, though
#19 (13) – Showa Monogatari – (8/10) – Oooohh…. what the hell happened to that thirteenth episode? I’ve been waiting for ages now and still nothing. This show has had by far the weirdest airing schedule I have ever seen. As for this month, only one episode aired, and in terms of script it was very good. Overall the cast has received quite a bit of depth by now. The bad part is that Kouhei’s voice actor really can’t act, which really hurt during the dramatic bits.
#18 (10) – Sket Dance – (8,25/10) – The music arc was a bit of a disappointment and it lacked the whimsy of the rest of the series, though the other episodes were as fun to watch as ever. This series is really at its best when it manages to stuff in its high amount of energy.
#17 (new) – Dantalian no Shoka – (8,25/10) – After watching Gosick, it is refreshing to see that the main character here actually has a retort to all of his female companion’s insults. Dalian still is smarter than he is, but at least he can have a normal conversation with her without sounding like an idiot. Overall the mysteries in this series need a bit of work, but the atmosphere is really good, and the animation is also quite impressive. Will this work with only 12 episodes, though?
#16 (new) – Blade – (8,25/10) – You know, after the way in which the X-Men turned into a disappointment, I kind-of wrote this series off. Especially when it showed that it had Madhouse’s acting problem again. It’s indeed a bit of a cheesy action series and all, but I don’t know. This series has something, I just can’t put my finger to exactly what. In either case it still has the potential to become the best Marvel series so far if it pulls through: it wisely spends a lot of time on both its main character and villain, and on top of that the side-characters all wisely avoid some of their biggest pitfalls: the female side-kick is useful without hogging over the screen, the enemy vampires pose a threat by killing people actually very often, the main character is bad-ass yet not overpowered. Oh, and this show follows a black vampire slayer in the middle of the Philippines. Thank you, Madhouse for really trying to go around the world instead of just keeping with the same base setting over and over again.
#15 (20) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (8,25/10)

A major improvement. The direction is snappier, the story is more interesting, the pacing moves along faster and the atmosphere is more varied. You can really see that a different staff is adapting this series this time, and alongside all the other flops of Studio Deen this year, it’s good to see that at least here they’re showing that they can still put out a good series.

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

This one turned out to be a series about cultural differences. It’s quite an interesting variation to the usual slice of life set-up, and I really have to praise Satelight for putting down a very authentic portrayal of France of a century ago. the background art in particular is just great. There are some problems in the character department (mostly because of one particularly annoying character), but overall it’s a heart-warming series so far,

#13 (6) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8,25/10)

During the past month, Hana-Saku Iroha has been really good, but not as good as during June. This mostly is because the main cast didn’t receive that much attention and instead the side-cast was really well developed. What the next month needs to do is give the same treatment to the main cast.

#12 (new) – Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou – (8,25/10)

This series stands out because it had the best opening episode of the season amongst Penguin Drum. After that it dulled in a bit in order to focus on character building, but there still is a lot of potential here. It’s especially the dialogue that’s well written and the mysteries are well built up, but there are weaknesses. Some bad guys are just plain stupid, and it also has JC Staff-esque fanservice that is completely overused and often out of place.

#11 (new) – Blood-C – (8,25/10)

This show is definitely not for everyone, in top of being completely different in tone compared to the other parts of the blood franchise. It’s a simple series that really just planned to use its first four episodes to build up its atmosphere, but I really like it so far. The atmosphere works, the fight scenes are just completely amazing, and I’m really eager to get to the point where this show starts off for real. The big potential pitfall is that there will be too much build-up, but so far it’s heading into the right direction.

#10 (new) – Usagi Drop – (8,5/10)

This one’s by far the most realistic show of the season. It chronicles how hard it is to take care of a young child, without exaggerating this. There’s a good backstory due to the strange family construction that this series takes place in and the dialogue is all wonderfully down to earth.

#9 (12) – Ao no Exorcist – (8,5/10)

At this point, I’m really watching Ao no Exorcist for the characters: they’ve grown into a lovable bunch with excellent chemistry and the relationships between them are all really well done. So yeah it’s a shounen series, with its share of cliches, but that’s not important here at all.

#8 (11) – Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji – (8,5/10)

The past month has been a lot of build-up, but the tension was still very high and it was very entertaining to watch. There were times at which it took a bit long to get to its point, like with the old guy episode, but it’s not like we’re back to the really slow pacing of the first season. Now all that’s left is to wait whether or not it’s actually going to pay off.

#7 (new) – Kamisama Dolls – (8,5/10)

This turned out to be a very enjoyable and action-packed thriller. It’s all well directed and balanced, alternating between action, drama, comedy and horror quite nicely and while it does have some fanservice cliches, it’s got an intriguing and nicely fleshed out cast of characters and the exciting parts of this series are really delivering so far.

#6 (new) – No.6 – (8,5/10)

Excellent music, excellent animation, excellent characters and an excellent setting. No.6 is a very solid adventure series with strong, constantly evolving characters in an interesting setting. There’s only one problem with this show, but it is a really big one: the length! There’s no way in which 11 episodes is going to be the right number for this one.

#5 (12) – Natsume Yuujinchou – (8,75/10)

The third season of Natsume Yuujinchou has had a wonderful start. Somehow, the creators actually managed to make it increasingly better with every single episode. The atmosphere is still really soothing, yet the stories it tells are strong and well thought out. It’s still a heart-warming story and what’s more: Natsume’s development is really kicking in now. It’s been a major theme of this third season and every episode seems to contribute to it in one way or another.

#4 (2) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)

This was a month for the plot to progress for Hyouge Mono: a lot of changes have been made, a lot of characters have developed, and risen up in ranks, giving a completely different feel to the series. On top of that, Sasuke is just as eccentric as he’s ever been, and this series is giving him more and more incentives to show that eccentricity. It’s still a rock-solid series with amazing acting and characterization that obviously isn’t for everyone.

#3 (new) – Mawaru Penguin Drum – (8,75/10)

This is good. It’s by var the best series of the new season. The direction is wild, vivid and detailed with all kinds of references of which you’ll never know whether they’re symbolism or foreshadowing. The characters are great, the chemistry between them is awesome, the story is imaginative. Just about everything works here.

#2 (4) – Steins;Gate – (9/10)

What a plot! This month Steins;Gate really revealed how much thought went into its plot and narrative structure, and it was glorious. There are so many questions that it’s asking and the time travel plot is now really hitting some high notes with all of the interconnected twists and turns it takes.

#1 (9) – Tiger & Bunny – (9/10)

At this point, Tiger & Bunny has become bloody brilliant. Every episode has delivered an amazing story that gave a ton of development to the main cast, the main storyline has gotten better and better, and just about every character ended up more enjoyable to watch.

Mahoujin Guruguru Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Ah, the nineties: a time where you still could make huge series based on a simple premise that aren’t kiddie shows. Mahoujin Guruguru couldn’t possibly have been made in today’s age: it’s a non-stop series of 45 episodes, devoted to nothing but RPG-parodies. And this review doesn’t even include the 38-episode sequel that aired six years later.

Let me tel you one thing about this series though: the jokes in Mahoujin Guruguru are quite brilliant. It may be that I’m a big fan of parodies and all, but even taking that into account I have to praise at how creative this series can get with its gags. This series is sharp, witty and has a great time poking fun at all kinds of RPG cliches. It goes far further than just having characters act silly or have them engage in quirky banter: this show is always looking for situations to make actual good and well thought out jokes and clever situations. This is definitely the biggest selling-point for this series.

The length also allows the creators to tell an engaging storyline that brings the characters to all kinds of places and worlds. The storyline here is pretty simple (bad guy evil. kill him), but the various subplots and side characters keep this series moving. There’s even a bit of character development, albeit nothing special, although it remains a nice twist to see that the creators actually used the RPG leveling-system for the two lead characters.

With the length also come a number of problems, though. The jokes of Mahoujin Guruguru are really good, but it does not have enough material for 45 episodes. The result? Running jokes and repetition, while refusing to repeat jokes that had the potential to be even funnier with more fleshing out. It’s not like this series suddenly features a dip in quality along the way: it’s pretty consistent with alternating its good jokes with its overused jokes and its jokes that just don’t work. That doesn’t prevent that from really weighing down on this series.

the mostt notable of the overused running jokes is the old man. This guy. This guy is beyond obnoxious: he will do everything in his power to annoy both the viewer and the characters. And he just. refuses. to. freaking. quit. In the same way there are a few more jokes that are used way too much, and on top of that there are a number of episodes that just aren’t interesting. I’d say: cut this thing down to about 30 to 35 episodes and you’d have a classic.

Right now, this series is fun, but long-winded. On one hand you don’t want to watch this if you’re looking for something exciting, because the good jokes are just a tad too far in between compared to today’s standards. If you want to watch a laid-back series and don’t care about time though, then this is a great recommendation for light-hearted fun. Most shows that claim to be just light-hearted fun hardly have anything that makes them worth watching. Guruguru however has plenty of them.

Storytelling: 9/10 – This show has aged: its pacing is a tad too slow for today’s standards. In terms of the joke department though, this is really, really good.
Characters: 8/10 – There is character development, but again: this is small for the standards of a 45-episode series. Then again though, it does have quite a likable cast that are fun to watch throughout the entire series. WITH a number of exceptions, though.
Production-Values: 7/10 – Again: dated. Very simple graphics and animation that doesn’t make use of this. Good Monster designs, though.
Setting: 8/10 – Has a ton of fun poking, subverting, averting and analyzing the RPG-genre.

Suggestions:
– Kero Kero Chime (This is what I’m talking about with more compact: the characters are a tad more annoying, but it is shorter and its good jokes to unfunny jokes ratio is a lot higher)
– Mysterious Cities of Gold

Yona Yona Penguin Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Rintarou. He’s one of my favourite movie directors, only surpassed by Satoshi Kon (and perhaps Hayao Miyazaki, but that’s more because Hayao Miyazaki is incredibly consistent, while Rintarou most definitely isn’t). Yona Yona Penguin was his latest work, so I’ve been wanting to check it out for a long time, but it just didn’t show up anywhere. After watching it, I can sort of understand why: it’s a kids’ movie that’s completely different from any other series he has directed or worked on, and entirely in 3D CG. I really liked it, though.

Now, Yona Yona Penguin is neither nowhere near Rintarou’s best nor his worst work. It is merely a whimsical really young kids adventure: the main character is around six or seven years old, and the entire movie has this mentality. It doesn’t try to be anything other than that (a mistake that actually a number of other movies of this genre did make, like Haruka and the magic mirror for example), and just focuses on delivering a heartfelt and adorable adventure. And succeeds.

Let me get this out of the way here: Yona Yona Penguin is absolutely adorable. The main character runs, jumps and dances around the entire movie in a penguin coat. The soundtrack is as whimsical as the premise of this movie and only makes her even more fun to watch. She’s really just an innocent child who likes to play around, yet also is serious enough to know when not to goof off and continue on with the plot of the movie. A plot that seems simple at first, but becomes surprisingly heartfelt after a while due to a number of simple but interesting twists.

Rintarou’s experience also really helps during the finale of this movie. I mean, you shouldn’t expect anything as amazing as Metropolis or anything, but nevertheless the climax of this movie is beautiful wonderfully atmospheric. This is something where a lot of other movies don’t know how to deliver, but here it’s the highlight of the entire movie.

It’s a kids’ movie, but if you’re looking for something really innocent, then this fits the bill. Just know that it’s entirely based on kids’ logic: it’s not supposed to be logical…

Storytelling: 9/10 – Ah, why not? This has a childish innocence that a lot of other kids’ movies and series lack, and even during the dramatic parts, it never lets go of this innocence.
Characters: 8/10 – They’re kids, and the characters feel like kids. At first they’re simple, but the movie gives main cast some surprising depth.
Production-Values: 8/10 – 3D CG entirely, which doesn’t look as good as regular 2D animation, but it still has a number of gorgeous scenes. The soundtrack is also really excellent.
Setting: 8/10 – Actually a ton of creativity went into this, from the backgrounds to the world it’s set in. It’s imaginative, yet retains its simplicity.

Suggestions:
– Andersen Monogatari
– Swan Lake
– Metropolis

Precure All-Stars DX3 – Mirai ni Todoke! Sekai o Tsunagu Niji-Iro no Hana Review – 65/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Heartcatch Precure




So, because of Heartcatch Precure I’m doomed to watch every All Stars Precure from now on until eternity, just to see more of Tsubomi, Erika, Itsuki and Yuri, even though they’re all pretty bad movies. Imagine this: a movie with 21 main characters. To give an indication of how incredibly crowded this is: it took this movie three minutes and twenty seconds to get through the transformation scenes of everyone. There was like… no end in sight to them!

What’s more is that the Precure Franchise has always been very clingy to its own formula. What this means for this movie is that it’s pretty much the same as the previous All Stars movie. The general plot outline in any case is like an exact copy. Heartcatch Precure solved this with really good characters, animation and storytelling. This movie however… yeah.

With 21 main characters plus a truckload of mascot characters that gets a bit hard if you refuse to stay with the same formulaic premise. Usually stories just pick four or five characters and give those some depth, but even that doesn’t happen here: the main characters from Suite Precure just get a few more lines, that’s all. Apart from that, everyone is equal. And equally bland if you haven’t seen the series they belong to.

I will say this, though: this third movie IS better than the first. The animation is more creative for one, but it actually does attempt some serious drama other than “bad guys evil. Kill them again”. It doesn’t pick out any characters to focus on, but instead it goes with a theme that everyone can relate to: partnerships. These themes are explored without any subtleties at all (even going as far as to make Heartcatch’s Erika act out of character just for the sake of getting its message through), and its messages are really obviously shallow, but at least it gives the movie more of a structure than what happened with the second movie. Oh, and the ending is a Deus ex Machina ending. That doesn’t help either.

Aside from that, this is a very bright, flashy and colourful movie. Flashes, beams and sparkles are incredibly abound, and this all happens with a huge amount of fluidity. The interesting thing however is that this movie really leaves things to be desired in terms of hand to hand combat: it looks gorgeous during the long-distance fights, but when characters actually need to touch each other the animation resorts to shortcuts, still frames and awkward cuts. This leads me to think that Toei put a ton of money and talented animators on this thing, but left things to be desired on the animation direction and production.

Now, I do wonder about the point of these movies. Of course it’s fun to watch your favourite characters all together in a movie. I get that. But the first precure series is already seven years old by now. That’s older than actually some of its fans and the franchise’s target audience. I mean, there’s a reason why Disney re-releases its movies every seven years: there are going to be so many kids who wonder who the heck the older characters are. And this movie is purely fanservice. It’s not like it’s doing a good job introducing the characters to people unfamiliar to them or anything. This movie was entertaining. I give it that. But not much more, unfortunately.

Storytelling: 7/10 – At least it’s mildly fun and the action is good to watch, but it depends way too much on its own formula.
Characters: 6/10 – You’re going to have to put in effort to make a story with 21 main characters work. The characters who ended up stand out the most to me are actually the exposition mascots!
Production-Values: 8/10 – Really, really flashy, sparkly and beamy with often fluid animation, but leaves things to be desired on the hand-to-hand combat.
Setting: 5/10 – Forgets some of the things it introduces, brings characters out of characters, completely contrived set-up.

Suggestions:
– Heartcatch Precure Movie – Hana no Miyako de Fashion Show… desu ka?
– Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva
– Digimon Movie 2 – Bokura no War Game

Some Quick First Impressions: Dantalian no Shoka

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Dantalian no Shoka

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a mysterious detective girl.
Aaand the last series to debut this season… also is really good. Holy crap, I can’t believe the amount of awesome seasons this season. Dantalian no Shoka is the third of the Gosick series this year, where a guy and a genius detective girl work together. The thing is, that it’s surprisingly well executed. Gosick, Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou and Dantalian no Shoka are all based on the same premise, but their execution is completely different. The most notable parts of Dantalian are its visuals, and the main couple. With Gosick, one of the big problems was that Kujou was an idiot, while Victorique was a genius: they were no match for each other when they were just solving a case. In Dantalian no Shoka, the two leads feel equal. Sure, the girl is smarter than the guy, but the guy certainly is no idiot, and actually a very likable airplane pilot, who simply isn’t a genius. He’s not overwhelmed by the girl, and neither is the girl a complete Hikkikomori who lets others do the work of gathering clues for her. It’s much more balanced this way. Now, as for the visuals: Gainax definitely did some interesting stuff with them, in the veins of “screw conventions”. The action scenes look gorgeous and very imaginative for once, but they also weren’t afraid to hide the fact that they used life-action images. Both for backgrounds, and for slideshows. It actually fits well, it’s used well, and it gives this series a unique look.
ED: Whoa, surprisingly good. Entirely life-action film and images, but a great mysterious atmosphere that works really well.
Potential: 85%

Some Quick First Impressions: Manyuu Hiken-Chou, R-15 and Nekogami Yaoyorozu

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Manyuu Hiken-Chou

Short Synopsis: Our lead character runs away from her village which cuts the breasts out of women.
Okay. Wtf did I just watch? I knew that Manyuu Hiken-Chou’s premise would be ridiculous and all, but this was just completely stupid in every single way. A world in which everything is dictated by breasts? Okay, you have to give this show credit for actually going for such a premise and all, but these are the kinds of shows where you wonder: why aren’t the creators just going for straight-out porn? Why is it still pretending to be anything other than that? The parts where it tries to be serious were also completely ridiculous due to the context in which it all played. This one was worth a laugh for how ridiculous it gets, but it’s not like it’s well written or anything: the action is dull (the creators put more effort into breast movement than actual animated action scenes), the characters are all complete and uninteresting stereotypes. It’s just porn: it’s got boobs (or at least, the uncensored version will. This was also an onslaught of white stripes), watch it if you’re horny or something. Apart from that, don’t bother with it.
OP: At least it’s a bit upbeat, but it’s still very uninspired.
ED: Again a dull ballad.
Potential: 0%

R-15

Short Synopsis: Our lead character writes porn novels.
So… this actually wasn’t the worst show this season. It’s not as vapidly uninspired as Mayo Chiki or Rou Kyuu Bu. It was, however, by far the dumbest show I have seen this season so far. It’s like, the entire cast of this series comprises of morons trying to be geniuses, not to mention the huge amounts of things that are just wrong with the setting here (if you didn’t know this yet: this show is about a school full of geniuses, where the main characters’ talent is writing porn novels). The series realizes that it’s got this completely nonsensical premise, and just roles with it. The result is a ton of bad fanservice, bad acting, uninspired animation and character designs, a dull soundtrack and completely one-dimensional characters, but at least it’s trying to be creative. It’s still among the top 5 worst series this season, but I did expect this to be a lot worse, actually.
OP: Dull and generic J-Pop.
ED: Again, dull and generic J-Pop.
Potential: 15%

Nekogami Yaoyorozu

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a youkai who lives together with people.
This turned out to be a laid-back comedy in an overcrowded genre: cute girls doing cute stuff while talking to each other a lot. Having said that though, this probably was among the better versions to come out. For once, the dialogue doesn’t just feel like random banter, but actually tries to go somewhere. There also are a lot of flashbacks, and this episode did try to establish its characters a bit versatile and especially the main character is a likable snarker. These aren’t the type of characters who you get sick of after a few minutes. They’ve got good chemistry and this might actually work with a good combination between random adventures, slice of life and comedy. The key is not having this show repeat itself.
OP: The copy paste OP again.
ED: Nothing special either.
Potential: 70%

I’m Back

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

Hey everyone, I’m back from my holiday to Germany. For those intereseted, some highlights include:
– Being completely overwhelmed by the Castle Neuschwanstein and the most beautiful views I have ever seen in my life.
– Meeting a ton f great people, including a Spanish couple, some architecture PHD students, some Belgian travellers, Dutch Students, English students,, a Vietnamese fashion designer, Americans from Oregon, New Jersey and a guy from Seattle travelling together with his daughter, a member of the Australian women’s soccer team as they were about to play the quarterfinals of the world bup, but most importantly Sasa, ChobitsChi and liangchaos. You guys were awesome and it was great to actually meet you in person.
– Walking outside of the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, only to realize that I left my bag in the train. Having to travel to Rostock of all places to get it back.
– Completely randomly bumping into this huge building chock full of grafitti and indie art. I usually don’t like art museums, but this was one big exception and very impressive.

Overall: Germany. Awesome country. Awesome vacation.

In any case, for the next number of days I’ll try to catch up tot he anime I missed, and the comments you all posted, along with deciding which series I’m going to end up blogging this season, and how. The big question being which of the excellent series this season I’m not going to cover weekly.

Some Quick First Impressions: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni, Mayo Chiki and No.6

by psgels, posted in No.6, Some Quick First Impressions

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is an idiot.
Oh god. The creators just completely gave up. I dropped the first season quite early on, but I refuse to believe that it was as bad as this first episode of this second season. This was completely dull in every single way. For some reason, the creators decided to introduce the new season with a beach episode, and a completely uninspired one at that. If this is supposed to be setting the standard, then I really don’t want to know what the rest of this season is going to be. Really, this episode somehow accomplished to not get even a chuckle out of me during the entire episode. It was just random unfunny banter, characters abusing their quirk that already was established in the first episode of the first season and the main characters trying to hit on girls while screwing up miserably. This seems to have been one of the most anticipated series of the season. Why? This was just like any other moe show, aside from perhaps some Shaft-esque visual ideas in the banter that looked suspiciously much like budget cuts.
OP: Boring song, but not the worst, and the visuals at least try out something interesting.
ED: A really bad joke.
Potential: 0%

Mayo Chiki

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live together with a cute girl who pretends to be a guy.
Now this was just stupid. It’s your standard bad fanservice comedy, but with the worst parts only enlarged. The result is a first episode that makes even less sense than usual. The entire premise of this series hinges on this girl pretending to be a guy, where for some reason it’s really bad if even someone found out about her. The problem is that this disguise is utterly terrible and yet this show tries to tell us that nobody figured it out by now. Heck, even when the main character catches her in the toilet (Locks? We don’t need no stinkin’ locks!) he still doesn’t get the hint, and needs to bump into her causing her shirt to burst open (no, really) in order to finally get the hint. The rest of this episode was filled with those bizarre leaps in logic, not to mention that the main characters is overly sensitive to females, making his nose bleed whenever they touch him. Who the hell found that a good idea?
OP: Why do these generic moe shows always need to have the exact same terrible OP?
ED: Again stolen from “Generic EDs 101”
Potential: 0%

No.6

Short Synopsis: Our lead character runs into a fugitive.
If there was one genre that I’d have to label as my favourite, it’d be the adventure/mystery genre. By far the most of my favourite series hover around those series, so because of that I was quite looking forward to this series. As it turns out, Number Six is an adventure series that’s really well acted. Against my expectations it takes its time to show the two main characters get to know each other, and as a result they’re both miles away from stereotypes, even though at first sight they may seem a bit cliched. With that, we come to a bit of a problem though: the pacing. This is a show with just 11 episodes; 12 if it gets lucky. At this point it’s impossible to say whether it knows what it’s doing due to this being a manga adaptation. However, if it can use its slow pacing, yet mysterious setting (that also was well portrayed from the eyes of a teenager by the way, and this episode only skimmed the surface) to actually build an 11 episode story, this can really turn into something special. It’s got the potential, a lot of attention has gone into both the characters and the setting, the soundtrack kicks ass: it has the ingredients. But yeah: manga-adaptation.
OP: Another good song that fits the show quite well.
ED: A simple ballad. Nothing special, but nothing bad.
Potential: 80%