Category: Other:

Summer Season Preview

by psgels, posted in Seasonal Previews

To give an impression of this season: it’s got 25 TV-series in total that are airing. In the history of anime, there was only one summer season that premiered as many TV-series as here, and that was 2007. On top of that though, I’ve marked a whopping six series with a potential of 85% or above (meaning that I’m really, really looking forward to it), and beyond that there also are a large number of shows that seem interesting to watch once you take a bit of a better look at their premise and who is going to create them. As usual, I don’t read any manga so I can’t say anything about original material (aside from that one show that’s written by the same guy who wrote Denyuuden).

it’s a huge season for sequels: a ton of interesting ones are coming out. It’s a big season for slice of life and mystery. Especially Production IG is on fire, JC Staff is doing what it usually does (unambitious but decent looking moe shows), A-1 Pictures is being totally weird, even for their standards and Noitamina is looking out for a very solid season. Oh, and Satelight and Gonzo are finally back.

R-15

Summary: “The story centers around Taketo Akutagawa, a student with a secret: he is a talented pornographic novelist with a newspaper-serialized work. He enrolls in a school that only accepts geniuses, and risque trouble ensues there. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Munenori Nawa
Series Composition: Sumio Uetake
The Positives: Boobs.
The Negatives: So yeah, this is the crappy fanservice show of the season, produced by AIC and none other than the director of KissxSis is directing it. I think that that says enough here…
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Manyuu Hiken-chou

Summary: “The historical story is set in a parallel Taihei Edo period and follows Chifusa, an amply proportioned sword fighter in the Manyuu clan.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hiraku Kaneko
Series Composition: Seishi Minakami
Other Notable Staff: Jun Takagi (Character Design/Animation Director)
The Positives: Seishi Minakami. I like him a lot (more on that below, he’s doing three series this season; Mari Okada showed that that is possible)… but what the hell is he doing here? Much more bizarre though, is that a director of various children’s series and World Masterpiece Theaters… is doing the animation direction and character designs…. wtf…
The Negatives: Just look at the url of this thing’s website. With that, you don’t even need to know that this has the director of Seikon no Qwaser to know that this one’s going to suck.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Morita-san wa Mukuchi

Summary: “The quiet life of Mayu Morita, an extremely reticent high school girl.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Naotaka Hayashi
Other Notable Staff: Satou Yuu (Script)
The Positives: It’s not like Naotaka Hayashi doesn’t have any experience: he has been directing quite a number of episodes of great series before.
The Negatives: Here’s the thing though: the Morita-San wa Mukuchi OVA was really poorly produced. The animation was the bare minimum of what you could get. The scenarios were poorly told, without any kind of dynamics to them. The timing made every scene go on for way too long and it was completely bland in every single way, so much that I couldn’t even go further than 10 minutes in before dropping it. This TV-series has the same creators and I really don’t hope that they will go on with the same bad pacing as here.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Mayo Chiki

Summary: “17 year old Konoe Subaru is the butler of classmate Suzutsuki Kanade. One day, classmate Sakamoto Kinjirou discovers that Konoe is actually a girl.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Keiichiro Kawaguchi
Series Composition: Reiko Yoshida
The Positives: Reiko Yoshida. I mean, the premise is stupid and all, but she’s a very solid writer with a lot of experience. If the manga actually turns out to be good, then she’ll be able to get that into the anime.
The Negatives: Keiichiro Kawaguchi is currently directing Sket Dance. While doing a good job on it, can he really do two shows at the same time? I mean, a premise this crappy really needs all the attention you can give it in order to become a bit worthwhile, and this guy has made a huge share of very generic moe shows as Nyan Koi and Moetan.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 2

Summary: “Advanced placement into a school of higher grade proof-reading is determined by the results of the Promotion Test strictly for class type. Ranging from A class with the best facilities anyone can offer all the way down to F Class which is composed of low dining tables, rotten tatami mats and other worn out facilities. Students can change classes by competing using the Examination Summons Battle system or ESB. Students summon characters with their equivalent test mark scores and use them to compete with other classes.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: None of the staff is announced yet, though it’s probably going to be the same as the first season
The Positives: The director and series composition guy of the first season (Shin Oonuma and Katsuhiko Takayama) are quite solid, having worked on a number of good and very good Shaft shows.
The Negatives: The same can be said for their sequels, though: ef and Natsu no Arashi’s sequel were significantly less impressive and I fear that the same will carry over to this series. Plus, I always felt like this series was a bit of a one trick pony (which is why I never bothered to continue watching it). Yeah, it’s fun for one episode, but do I want to watch this for an entire season, let alone two? Nah. There are many better comedies out there.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Ro Kyu Bo

Summary: “The story centers around a high school freshman boy named Subaru Hasegawa who joined the basketball team, but the team stopped playing due to the captain being suspected of being a lolicon. Subaru somehow ends up as a coach of an elementary school’s basketball team with five girls. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Keizo Kusakawa
Series Composition: Mikchiko Itou
Other Notable Staff: Taizo Yoshida (Assistant Director)
The Positives: The assistant director is the director of White Album’s second season!
The Negatives: Why couldn’t he have been the main director? That’s just what this premise would need. Keizo Kusakawa is a good director and all, but he really needs a good storyline for that. The same for Michiko Ito, the story has potential and all, but this premise doesn’t depend on how good the manga is, but rather how well the creators can make these characters come alive. I don’t see these guys pull that off so easily.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Uta no Prince-sama— Maji Love 1000%

Summary: “In the slapstick romantic comedy, a girl goes to a school for the performing arts with boys who are budding idols. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yuu Kou
Series Composition: Tomoko Konparu
The Positives: I’m a bit baffled here at what A-1 are trying to do this season… seriously… they make two separate shows about a group of budding idols, one shounen and one shoujo. And despite these crappy premises, they do put on talented writers who can make something good out of it. Tomoko Konparu is one of the best writers you can get here, having adapted and written just about everything: Les Miserables, Genji Monogatari, Chi’s Sweet Home, Ashita no Nadja, Glass Mask, Nodame Cantabile, Nana, Oniisama e and the Hi no Tori movies, while Yuu Kou completely baffled me last year with his amazingly accurate and sharp adaptation of Giant Killing. What the hell are these people planning with a show like this?
The Negatives: I also have to remember that Yuu Kou did direct a bunch of really bad moe and bishie shows. Plus, what the hell kind of a title is this?
First-Glance Potential: 50%

The IDOLM@STER

Summary: “In the original Xbox 360 game, the player manages the careers of 10 aspiring Japanese idol singers as a producer.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Atsushi Nishigori
Series Composition: Atsushi Nishigori, Touko Machida
Other Notable Staff: Touko Takao (Episode Director), Akira Takata (Chief Animation Direction), Haruko Iizuka
The Positives: Akira Takata is going to be really busy. He’s currently doing C, and the next season he’ll be supervising the animation for two shows. But he really is an excellent guy to do it, with a ton of experience on beautiful series. Haruko Iizuka makes this even better, especially considering how this is going to be a A-1 Pictures series, who have been really good with animation and eye candy for the past years. The director is also involved everywhere: from the direction to the writing to the animation. This will be the first time he directs a full series, but he’s really making sure to keep control of everything, that’s a great sign. Before this he designed the characters for Gurren Lagann, worked on episodes of Panty and Stocking, Storyboarded the second Evangelion Movie and animated on various Gainax shows. He can really make something awesome out of such a bad premise as managing a bunch of idols.
The Negatives: Touko Machida. A terrible writer. The only good thing to come out of her were GA and Muteki Kanbanmusume’s adaptations. Apart from that, all of her works bored me. Oh, and she also adapted Ookami Kakushi, Lucky Star, Seikon no Qwaser, Allison & Lillia and Sengoku Otome. I mean, the rest of the staff members here are awesome, so don’t let this woman ruin things. That’s very easy with the kind of premise that Idolm@ster is…
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Nyanpire The Animation

Summary: “The story follows a black cat who was abandoned and left to starve. Just before the cat’s life was to be extinguished, a vampire emerged from the darkness and gave it blood. Now, “Nyanpire” (a combination of the Japanese pronunciations for a cat’s meow and “vampire”) lives as a seemingly ordinary house cat raised by a human girl. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takahiro Yoshimatsu
Series Composition: Natsuko Takahashi
The Positives: Gonzo! They’re finally back, with a doujinshi about a vampire cat, of all things. I really have no idea what to expect of this one. It’s a really famous doujinshi apparently, and the director is a famous character-designer (think everything from Les Miserables to Basquash, Oh Edo Rocket and Trigun), while Natsuko Takahashi is a prolific screenwriter. All in all the potential to become a funny series…
The Negatives: … and yet it looks like a really cheap flash show. Heck, the director only directed one series before, and that was the really, really bad Kaito Reinya…
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Nurarihyon no Mago – Sennen Makyou

Summary: “Rikuo Nura, is 3 parts human and a quarter Demon, lives in a house of spirits with his grandfather, The current clan head of the Nura youkai. Rikou is set to be the next clan head, despit the fact he dilikes his demon side. He soon come to terms with his demon blood and decides to take his position as young master of the Nura house. However there are those who will certainly not allow it to be easy.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Junji Nishimura
Series Composition: Natsuko Takahashi
Other Notable Staff: Mariko Oka (Character Design)
The Positives: Look, I consider Junji Nishimura to be an amazing director. I still count Simoun my top 5 favourite anime I’ve ever seen, and True Tears and Windy Tales both were just brilliant…
The Negatives: But this just isn’t the kind of series where he can really show his talents. Instead he needs series that are either seinen or transcend genres. In the first season, he just got too much caught up in adding in his own stuff while adapting the manga faithfully as well, making both just mediocre. The second season is bound to be better after all that build-up and all, but if it suffers from the same pacing issues it won’t matter because it’ll be too boring. Natsuko Takahashi can write really well, but she also tends to be really sloppy with adaptations.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Itsuka Tenma no Kuro-Usagi

Summary: “The “reverse school fantasy” light novel series follow an ordinary high school boy named Taito Kurogane who is given a “poison” by a female vampire named Saitohimea, thus changing his life. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takashi Yamamoto
Series Composition: Shigeru Morita
Other Notable Staff: Kiyoko Yoshimura (Screenplay), Itsuro Kawasaki (Storyboard), Takaya Kagami, Masaaki Sakurai (Art Design)
The Positives: Here’s the thing: the premise sounds really unoriginal. And yet the original novels that this is based on are written by the guy who also wrote Densetsu no Yuusha no Denetsu. That has to say something here. Shigeru Morita also is a good designer, and an interesting choice to adapt this story.
The Negatives: First of all, it’s an ongoing series of light novels that they’ll never be able to fully finish. Second of all, they really got a crappy director to direct this thing. Nanatsuiro Drops was okay, I guess, but the other shows he directed (Final Approach and Jewelpet Tinkle) were utterly abysmal and completely unwatchable.
First-Glance Potential: 55%

Blade

Summary: “”Blade” Eric Brooks — known as Blade — seeks revenge on Deacon Frost, the vampire lord who killed his mother while she was still pregnant with Eric. With all the powers of a vampire and none of their weaknesses, Blade’s quest leads him throughout Southeast Asia in search of Frost, and, in Viet Nam, he discovers a vampire plot that threatens to take down the whole world. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
The Positives: It always takes a little longer than usual for the Marvel series to get their creators announced, but that’s going to be a key here in whether Blade will be a worthwhile closure to this experiment. It really deserves to, because in the right hands a modern day vampire story can turn into a great action series.
The Negatives: In the wrong hands though… urhg. Let’s not think about it…
First-Glance Potential: 55%

Kaitō Tenshi Twin Angel – Kyun Kyun☆Tokimeki Paradise!!

Summary: “Haruka Minazuki and Aoi Kannazuki are freshman high school students and best friends. During the day they help with school activities but at night they thwart enemies like Black Auction and other villains as Red Angel and Blue Angel, the Twin Angel team.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yoshiaki Iwasaki
Series Composition: Michiko Itou
The Positives: The original Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel OVA was… mediocre. It actually did take itself seriously though, and I guess that that’s the potential here if the creators can use it well; the OVA just had too much cheese due to its short length, with neither characters being interesting to make up for it. The director of Love Hina, Sky Girls and Ookami-san… it could have been much worse.
The Negatives: But then again: with the way where this is going, there is no way in which this series is going to be anything more than just a decent story. My prediction is that the creators will do well on creating decent and likable characters, but are totally going to mess up the story, both by making it uninspired and completely unbalanced.
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Dantalian no Shoka

Summary: “Hugh Anthony Disward inherits an old mansion and a personal library from his grandfather. In the basement of the mansion, he meets a mysterious girl Dalian. She is a Dantalian and a gateway to “Dantalian’s bookshelf”, which stores the prohibited books of the demons.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yutaka Uemura
Other Notable Staff: Gakuto Mikumo (Original creator)
The Positives: Okay, so this is Gainax, coming with a project that’s being created by people who pretty much all are unremarkable. The director only directed two episodes before, there is nobody behind the series composition and everybody else hasn’t really done or worked on anything that caught my attention. The original creators is the same as Asura Cryin’, but that is a series that I quickly dropped because of bad acting and scriptwriting, not because the premise and story weren’t interesting.
The Negatives: This show will only have 13 episodes, so the creators can’t just sit back and calmly produce a series; it’s too short for that. Fresh blood has always been a big gamble: they have the potential to try something really great there; the premise is interesting enough for that, but at the same time it also can very easily become a bore-fest.
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Yuruyuri

Summary: “Four fun-loving schoolgirls take over the former room of a tea ceremony club for their own “Gorakubu” (amusement club). “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Masahiko Oota
Series Composition: Takashi Aoshima
The Positives: I’m not sure why, but something about this series is telling me that there are lesbians in this show. In any case though, this thing is being handled by the same people who adapted Mitsudomoe. In other words: this could just as well become a really funny series. If the source material has great jokes, then these are the people who have the timing and experience to make them work as an anime.
The Negatives: The people from Dogakobo have been known to half-ass things, though. That’s definitely a bad thing…
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Kamisama Dolls

Summary: “The story centers around Kyōhei, a college student who grew up in a village that deified figureheads named kukuri as gods. Kyouhei abandoned his hometown when he moved to Tokyo and immersed himself in college life. However, he comes across his younger sister Utao with her kukuri in Tokyo. He learns from his sister that a fugitive named Aki from his hometown has also arrived in Tokyo (with his kukuri in tow) and is responsible for a horrific crime that Kyouhei had just witnessed. Kyōhei realizes that he cannot escape what he tried to leave behind in the village. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Seiji Kishi
Series Composition: Makoto Uezu
The Positives: The premise doesn’t seem to be anything ground breaking, but nevertheless it has the potential to become really interesting. Ah, Seiji Kishi, the director of comedies such as Tentai Senshi Sunred and Seto no Hanayome, but also of serious series as Angel Beats. He’s definitely an interesting director for this series, especially if the manga this is based on delivers as well.
The Negatives: That is especially important for Makoto Uezu, though: he tends to be a faithful adapter and all, but he really often adapts utter crap (Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka, School Days, Seikon no Qwaser, Tayutama…)
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Nekogami Yaoyorozu

Summary: “Koyama Yuzu is running an antique shop. Mayu, a cat god (nekogami), is living off Yuzu and leads an idle life playing games. Lots of other gods visit Mayu and enjoy merrymaking.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hiroaki Sakurai
Series Composition: Touko Machida
Other Notable Staff: Masahiro Yokotani (Screenplay), Tomoko Konparu
The Positives: Hiroaki Sakurai! Thankfully this series seems much more up his alley compared to last year’s failure that was Kaichou wa Maid-sama. He is a really great director (heck, he directed Les Miserables for god’s sake), but with Maid-sama he just made a bad premise even worse. This reunites him with the ones who wrote the adaptations of GA and Les Miserables (heck, Tomoko Konparu wrote and adapted a huge amount of awesome series), so this has a good chance of being a really fun series to watch.
The Negatives: Machida Touko is actually doing two shows this season. Oh god no. Ah well, at least she produced her best work (GA) while working with Hiroaki Sakurai, so there is hope. At the same time though, Masahiro Yokotani also is among the writers here. I did not like what he did on Maria Holic, World Destruction, and most importantly Beelzebub.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Appleseed XIII

Summary: In the wake of the destruction of a worldwide non-nuclear war, the city Olympus has become the control center of the world. Run by Bioroids (cloned humans made from only the best DNA), it is defended from terrorists by special military forces. Among these are former LAPD SWAT member Deunan Knotts and her multipurpose cyborg partner Brialeos. They face a challenge from the Human Liberation Front and its terrorist underbelly the Argonauts. The leader of this group, Al Ceides, supposedly died 20 years ago in an attack on Poseidon, but now his shadow emerges once again. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takayuki Hamana
Series Composition: Junichi Fujisaku
Other Notable Staff: Masamune Shirow (Original Creator), Takayuki Goto (Character Designs), Yoshiki Sakurai (Screenplay)
The Positives: Originally slated for the Spring Season, Appleseed will finally arrive in the middle of June. The team of Takayuki Hamana and Takayuki Hamana already produced Moshidora this season, which was very good, and especially Junichi Fujisaku wrote some of the most amazing series, with pretty much his only flop being the Loups Garous movie. These people can do a great job on adapting the Appleseed manga and give it more depth than what the movies could give it. With the right balance, it really has the potential to become a great story. Takayuki Goto also is an excellent and original character designer, and the trailer looked quite interesting for a 3D tv-series.
The Negatives: I remain a bit iffy on Takayuki Hamana. He is the guy who always comes with some very imaginative ideas, and yet doesn’t know how to execute them properly. He did well on Moshidora, but even there his usual cheese was really apparent, and that kind of cheese will definitely get in the way for something like Appleseed.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Sacred Seven

Summary: ??
Director: Yoshimitsu Ohashi
Series Composition: Shin Yoshida
Other Notable Staff: Yuki Kajiura (OP)
The Positives: Ahaha! A cheesy mecha series. This can go both ways, really, but with Yuki Kajiura doing the OP it’ll have at least one thing to look forward to. And really: Shin Yoshida behind the script here rocks: he also wrote Argento Soma, Karas and episodes of The Big O, Zone of the Enders and Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto. This guy has the potential to write an awesome script here. Oh, and the director directed Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto alongside Ryousueke Takahashi. that definitely has potential here!
The Negatives: The big problem is that the trailer had a lot of cheese in it. That has me worried the most. Also, the director also was the one behind Aquarian Age and some of Galaxy Angel’s seasons… Oh, and Shin Oonuma is also currently writing Yugioh Zexal…
First-Glance Potential: 75%

No. 6

Summary: “The story is set in No. 6, a future model city in 2013. Raised as a top-ranking elite since the age of 2, a boy named Shion lives in an exclusive area in No. 6. On the night of his 12th birthday, he rescues a boy who calls himself Nezumi (Rat). Nezumi ran away from the city’s Special Security Area. From that moment on, Shion’s life is changed forever…” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Kenji Nagasaki
Series Composition: Seishi Minakami
Other Notable Staff: Keiichi Suzuki (Music), Atsuko Asano
The Positives: Josei and adventure. Those are two genres that we really don’t often see combined, and I love it already. Seishi Minakami, who was behind the series composition of epics as Birdy the Mighty Decode 02, Occult Academy, Asatte no Houkou and Shigurui was an excellent choice for this one. The soundtrack is from the same guy who composed the music for Tokyo Godfathers and the new Enma-Kun series (which really had surprisingly good and creative music, by the way). Bones also selected a director with no prior experience in directing a full series, which also has the potential to go everywhere. He worked on some awesome episodes before though, and being the assistant director of Oh Edo Rocket also really helps. Oh, and this doesn’t have anything to do with a blue submarine, does it?
The Negatives: The key with this series is going to be balance. It’s good to see that the setting is intriguing and exciting, and yet doesn’t sound like it’ll be huge. But still, series length has always been the biggest problem for Noitamina. Let’s see whether No.6 can avoid this.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Kami-sama no Memo-chō

Summary: “The story centers around a “NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) detective” girl named Alice and her assistant, a high school freshman boy named Narumi Fujishima. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Katsushi Sakurabi
Series Composition: Seishi Minakami
Other Notable Staff: Taku Iwasaki (Music)
The Positives: Seishi Minakami! He also wrote the series compositions for Occult Academy and Birdy the Mighty Decode 02 and adapted Asatte no Houkou and Shigurui and I’m interested to see what he can do with this adaptation (which does sound quite interesting in theory despite its lack of originality). On top of that, he gets reunited with Katsushi Sakurabi with whom he adapted Asatte no Houkou. And heck, Katsushi Sakurabi is also an excellent director, having done Uragiri, Tsukihime and Rescue Wings. If the manga is good, then this is promising to be both an awesome drama and suspense series.
The Negatives: … another Gosick?
First-Glance Potential: 85%

La croisée dans un labyrinthe étranger

Summary: “The story takes place in the second half of the 19th century, as Japanese culture gains popularity in the West. A young Japanese girl, Yune, accompanies a French traveller, Oscar, on his journey back to France, and offers to help at the family’s ironwork shop in Paris. Oscar’s nephew and shopowner Claude reluctantly accepts to take care of Yune, and we learn how those two, who have so little in common, get to understand each other and live together in the Paris of the 1800s.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Kenji Yasuda
Series Composition: Junichi Sato
Other Notable Staff: Mamiko Ikeda (Screenplay), Ko-Ko-Ya, Hnata Takeda, Thomas Romain, Yann Le Gall, Stanislas Brunet (All three are behind the Art Setting)
The Positives: Satelight is finally back, and how! With Sato Junichi they really promise to make a unique slice of life series that promises a ton of character development and historical background. Heck, they even got three French people to help them on the art setting, and these are the ones who also created Basquash and Oban Star Racers, so they definitely know what they’re talking about in terms of creating a unique setting. The creator of Gosick’s art as the original manga creator also really helps as well, along with Ristorante Paradiso’s soothing background music.
The Negatives: The director here is the only weak spot: it’s the director of Shugo Chara, which went on for bloody ages, never advancing whatsoever. Obviously Sato Junichi is bound to prevent this, but still.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Usagi Drop

Summary: “In the story of the original Usagi Drop manga, 30-year-old bachelor Daikichi comes home from his grandfather’s funeral to discover a little girl named Rin in his garden. Rin is the 6-year-old illegitimate daughter of Daikichi’s grandfather, and Daikichi decides to take her in when no one in the family accepts the responsibility. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director:
Series Composition: Suguru Kishimoto
Other Notable Staff: Tasuku Yamashita (Character Designs)
The Positives: That is just one heck of an adorable premise. Plus, it’s always awesome to see protagonists that aren’t in their tens or twenties; the current Spring Season also rocks partly because of that. On top of that, we have the director of Tales of Vesperia, a guy who managed to make an awesome game adaptation by being not afraid to take liberties. A real plus considering Noitamina’s limited time.
The Negatives: The guy behind the series composition is either a pseudonym, or a completely new writer. In both ways, this can be either good or bad, but I’m definitely intrigued as to why this guy was chosen to adapt this series.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Natsume Yuujinchou San

Summary: “Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him. Containing the names of these spirits, a binding contract was formed between the spirits and the owner of the book. Now, Natsume is determined to free the spirits and dissolve the contracts. With the help of a spirit cat, his days are filled trying to return the names to these spirits.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takehiro Omori
Series Composition: Sadayuki Murai
Other Notable Staff: Akira Takata (Character Design)
The Positives: Of course, normally I’d already be very excited for a third Natsume Yuujinchou season. But heck, this time the creators got an absolutely amazing writer to adapt the source material: Sadayuki Murai wrote the adaptations for Mouryou no Hako and Boogiepop Phantom, two utterly brilliant adaptations in their own unique way. Having written many more excellent episodes for many other series, I’m really excited to see what he can do with Natsume Yuujinchou. Add that to Takehiro Omori who has already proven to be an excellent director for this series.
The Negatives: Now, I did find the second season to be less impressive than the first. It just lacked something in comparison. Will the material for the third season be back to the old level again? Seriously though, that’s about the only criticism I have at the moment: this series really has an all star cast.
First-Glance Potential: 95%

Blood-C

Summary: “Teropterids are evil beasts which pose as humans and live only to drink human blood. Fortunately for the human world there are groups dedicated to destroying them. A brooding and mysterious girl named Saya is the best teropterid slayer there is, and now, in 1960’s Japan, she is sent to a U. S. army base which may be infested…” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Tsutomu Mizushima
Series Composition: Nanase Ookawa
Other Notable Staff: Junichi Fujisaku (Screenplay), Naoki Sato, Hiromasa Ogura, Takayuki Goto (Chief Animation Director), Kazuchika Kise (Aniamtion Character Design), Tomoki Tsukamoto (3D Director), Kazuchige Kanehira (Art Setting)
The Positives: Holy crap! Production IG is on fire here. I mean, talk about an utter dream-team here, having Clamp write a completely original TV-series, including the director of xxxHolic who did an amazing job on their manga in the past was already enough to make me anticipate this wildly. And yet the rest of the staff here is just godly: the soundtrack guy also wrote the epic soundtracks of X, Eureka7 and Heroic Age, the director of the Blood+ series is behind the script so that he can write awesome episodes, and yet doesn’t have to worry about the ending (Blood+’s biggest weakness), we have the art director of Last Exile, Ghost in the Shell and FLCL, the animation director of Eden of the East’s second movie, Ghost in the Shell and Seirei no Moribito, the character designer of xxxHolic, a 3D director who worked on quite a few episodes of the beautiful RD Sennou Chousashitsu and Seitei no Moribito, plus as a dessert, the guy who did the freaking art setting and design of Birdy the Mighty, Noein, Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood and Ayakashi Ayashi! How much talent can you put into a series anyway?
The Negatives: None. Well, if I had to say something, then it’s Junichi Fujisaku working on too many other series with Appleseed and Moshidora.
First-Glance Potential: 100%

Moshidora Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




2011 is surprisingly short on sports series. Moshidora was pretty much the only new one we got here. But at the very least, it did come up with a really interesting premise: instead of being just another group of high schoolers, it focuses on a “what if?”-scenario: what if a high school girl got her hands on a business management guide and applied that to the management of a high school baseball team?

Throughout the series, we see a high school girl apply the basics of management to high school baseball, and succeeds at this pretty well. It takes a look at things as marketing, innovation, performance, and yet it also criticizes itself, and doesn’t take everything for granted. It’s quite an inspirational work, and the series also doesn’t forget to give some colours and development to the characters themselves. It’s a short series with only 10 episodes, but it makes optimal use of its time.

Now, this show was produced with a really small budget, though: the animation is simple and full of distorted faces. You really don’t want to watch this for the eye candy. But on the other hand, it’s not like this gets in the way of the storytelling. Instead, this series’ biggest flaw is its cheese. It really tries to pull at your heartstrings without restraint at times, but fails due to either insufficient build-up, acting, or questionable coincidences.

The baseball matches in this series also suffer from these coincidences: from start to finish, they feel completely directed and unnatural. It’s clear that the major focus of this show are management and its characters, and the baseball is just something that they happen to have as a common goal. It’s not the most believable at times, but definitely an interesting watch.

Storytelling: 7/10 – Makes good use of its time, but can’t control its own cheese.
Characters: 8/10 – They’re cheesy at times, but still remain surprisingly likable and developed for a 10-episode series.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Nothing special. Does what it needs to do to not get in the way of the other parts of the series, though.
Setting: 9/10 – An original idea surprisingly well fleshed out.

Suggestions:
– Cross Game
– Ookiku Furikabutte
– Touch

Some Quick First Impressions: Inazuma Eleven Go

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Inazuma Eleven GO

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to play football.
So, on one hand this is a typical kiddie show: we live in a world which is entirely dedicated to football, we have a random teenager who has a simple personality yet a lot of passion for the sport, and there are evil people who abuse their superpowers in order to… close down a school’s football club. Oh, and we live in a world where footballs are like boomerangs: they always come back no matter where you kick them. In terms of that, this was a very formulaic episode. Nevertheless, it’s been a while since I saw the opening episode of a kiddie show actually being able to build up tension this well. This episode was quite silly, especially the guy who was supposed to be the bad guy, but I’ve certainly seen worse kiddie shows. The most notable of it all was that the dramatic scenes actually worked despite the cheese.
OP: Sung by a guy who is really trying to compensate for the fact that he can’t sing.
ED: Generic J-Pop
Potential: 35%

April Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

The main reason why I run this blog is to praise stuff that I like. Criticizing once in a while is fun too, especially when an anime has both good and bad things, but I tend to not focus on hating. Having said that though: enter this season.

This season is huge, which has its pluses and minuses. The plus is that there are a lot of well written and interesting series, which either have great visuals, a compelling background, well written dialogue, excellent characterization or any combination of those. The downside is that there also was a lot to whine about. The result is one of the longest monthly summaries I’ve written in a long while, containing a lot of rants. This season had a lot of great surprises, but also a large amount of disappointments.

Oh, and from this month, I’m going to include most of my OVA impressions in these summaries, rather than doing an entire post about them. They just consume too much time.

OVA Releases
#6 – High Schooll of the Dead – Drifters of the Dead – (3,5/10) – Terrible, terrible OVA that had the entire cast act incredibly out of character just for the sake of fanservice (and with this show, that’s saying something!) and a whole slur of unfunny jokes.
#5 – Votoms Finder – (7,25/10)

It wasn’t terrible by any means. This just lacked ambition, and I have no clue what to recommend it for. Everything was simply decent at best, but nothing really was interesting to watch. The plot was too simple, the characters were likable, but too one-dimensional. Overall it was just a bit of a waste of time.

#4 – Tansuwarashi – (8/10)

The final part of the Young Animator Training Project. It was really adorable, and the creators got a surprising amount of character out of only 20 minutes.

#3 – Otona Joshi no Anime Time – (8,25/10)

Whoa, where did this come from? And why is it so good? This was actually a really interesting look in the life of a married woman with a kid of four years old. At only 20 minutes it really got some depth out of her character. I applaud the creators for actually making such a thing. Encore!

#2 – .Hack//Quantum – (8,25/10)

The finale of .Hack//Quantum was a solid adventure. Overall I expected a bit more about this series, though, but given its length, I’m happy enough to see that the creators actually came up with a full story for just 90 minutes. The third episode held little surprises, but it wrapped itself up quite nicely. It didn’t became anything amazing, but the climax itself was nicely paced and had a good atmosphere. A solid adventure overall.

#1 – Yozakura Quartet – Hoshi no Umi – (8,75/10)

Amazing direction and animation. This OVA was incredibly entertaining and a ton of imagination was put into the action scenes. The characters are all consistently fun to watch, and really brought to life. Only criticism is that sometimes the characters didn’t know what to talk about so they kept talking about their powers.

TV-Series

#43 (new) – 30Sai ni Hoken Taiku – (3,75/10) – This is the kind of show with bad sex jokes that all fall flat. Moronic characters, bad delivery, terrible animation. Dropped.
#42 (new) – Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai – (4/10) – Oretsuba is abysmal. There’s no way around it, but it’s bad in a completely bizarre way. It’s absolutely nothing but whining, pointless talking and fanservice. And I mean the kind of talking that’s nothing but filler, the type that just goes on and on between terribly written characters. Dropped.
#41 (new) – Hoshizora e Kakaru Hoshi – (4/10) – This was just nearly unwatchable. It committed just about every sin of the generic moe show, but worst of all was the utterly abysmal voice acting. Every time a girl appeared on the screen she was completely unbearable to watch, due to both the acting, the situations they were put in and the utterly contrived and cliched portrayal of these cardboard boxes. Dropped.
#40 (new) – Hidan no Aria – (4,75/10) – Oh god… the pain. Hidan no Aria was a total chore to sit through with these characters who do just about everything to get on my nerves. It’s a boring cliche fest with nothing original about it so far. If it’s supposed to get good later on, why can’t it do this immediately instead of forcing us to sit through yet another Kugimiya Rie Tsundere. This girl is probably the worst one she’s done. Dropped.
#39 (new) – Pretty Rythm – (5/10) – When will we finally get another GOOD shoujo adventure again? This one is terrible, it has all the tropes and isn’t even aware that it’s blatantly lying in front of its audience. There’s no build-up whatsoever, just a girl who randomly gets good at figure skating (at least, according to the audience in the anime. She still looks terrible). Dropped.
#38 (21) – Seikon no Qwaser – (5/10) – Okay, this show has completely stopped pretending. Just label it as porn and watch it for the boobs. Otherwise stay far away. Dropped.
#37 (new) – Fujilog – (5/10) – I really dislike most sitcoms, and Fujilog reminded me why again. It’s just another show about a whining middle aged guy who does random things in order to attempt to be fulfilled. It’s got no charm, no humour, just move on. Dropped.
#36 (new) – Sofuteni – (5,25/10) – There are the good slice of life series like Tamayura, which show the daily lives of the lead characters, making sure to create a versatile cast with characters who have depth to them. And then there is Sofuteni, which is just a collection of random moe antics, fanservice and characters who have just one trait to them. What’s even more annoying is that the lead character’s trait is ditziness, and she surely loves to remind us of that. I like the slice of life genre because it’s able to create really down to earth and life-like characters. It doesn’t really work when the entire cast is too busy desperately trying to be moe. Dropped.
#35 (new) – Dog Days – (5,75/10) – The premise of this show could have actually worked out. But not with such a flimsy delivery. The acting is terrible, the visuals bland, and the characters are all just boring. None of the scenarios are written to be interesting, and overall this was a big waste of time for me. Dropped.
#34 (new) – Sengoku Otome – (6/10) – Sengoku Otome’s biggest sin is its lack of creativity, or any other kind of ambition to do anything interesting. It’s just another bastardization of famous historical figures by reducing them to a bunch of silly cliches in the midst of a random adventure that somehow involves a teenaged girl. Nothing stands out and no attempt is made to make this setting any more believable due to bland characterizations. Dropped.
#33 (new) – Toriko – (6/10) – You know, I refuse to give this series a chance when it keeps testing my patience like this. I tried watching the first three episodes, but the first was a pointless one-piece cross-over, the second was exactly the same as the OVA and the third, while new, was as utterly boring as the other two. Toriko has the kind of charm that wears off after five minutes. Oh, and I also hate this show for making me hungry, only to show terribly animated people eating, taking away all this hunger again. Dropped.
#32 (29) – Jewel Pet – (6,5/10) – This show tries to be completely chaotic. While it is a step above the second Jewel Pet series, it does get old really fast. Dropped.
#31 (30) – Maria Holic – (6,5/10) – I refuse to touch anything more of this sequel unless I see a lot of people claim that it’s much better than the original. At this point my patience on Shaft Sequels has completely run out. I’ve said this many times before, but I have yet to run into a Shaft sequel that wasn’t disappointing. Its first episode also didn’t seem to change that, as it’s yet another one of those comedies that aren’t funny. Dropped.
#30 (new) – Suzy’s Zoo – (6,5/10) – I can really imagine that Suzy’s Zoo must be wonderful for its target audience. The thing is, that that target audience ranges between the ages of 2 and 4 years old. Seriously, even for a kids’ show, nothing happened here. Again, only go for this one if you’re really, really desperate for a big hug. Dropped.
#29 (new) – Happy Kappi – (6,75/10) – This is one for the youngest kids, though it didn’t really capture me. There was just too little that happens, plus the characters are just too annoying. Dropped.
#28 (new) – Yugioh Zexal – (6,75/10) – I actually used to watch the first season of Yugioh a lot before I discovered the internet. Of course, that show was terribly flawed as well, but there is one major difference between that series, and Yugioh Zexal: Yugioh Duel Monsters actually genuinely took itself seriously. It was out there to deliver a serious story. Sure, it was a story chock full of plotholes, but nevertheless, it had a solid story. Yugioh Zexal is more like that obnoxious brat that you just ignore because he’s trying too hard to get attention. It’s not trying to tell a serious story, it’s just showing another random brat and a lot of overacting without any build-up. Because of this, Duel Monsters’ campness became a lot of fun to make fun of, while Yugioh Zexal just gets old really fast. Dropped.
#27 (new) – Lotte no Omocha – (7/10) – Lotte no Omocha is… annoying. Its premise already is questionable, but it also is unnecessarily padded, so things take bloody forever to get somewhere. That’s not good in a show with tons of fanservice, one-dimensional characters and Kugimiya Rie as a tsundere. Dropped.
#26 (new) – Dororon Enma-kun Meera Meera – (7,5/10) – I was about to give up on this show, being really disappointed at how lazy and repetitive it was. And then episode 03 aired. Oh boy. What the heck was that? It’s an entire episode dedicated to fanservice, but it did so in such a bizarre way that I couldn’t help but laugh over and over. Was it a fluke? Were these first episodes just build-up? I mean, the director of this thing remains a very creative guy, so I still have hopes for this series.
#25 (new) – Nichijou – (7,5/10) – Nichijou sets itself apart from the other slice of life series that Kyoani has done with its creativity: it’s about completely random things that took quite some imagination to come up with. Unfortunately though, it lacks in its delivery: the characters are all bland and one dimensional, and the humour is just not funny. The randomness also just feels too much like randomness for the sake of randomness, and what could have been an enjoyable slice of life show just doesn’t have enough substance or anything that could catch my attention. Dropped.
#24 (19) – The World God Only Knows – (7,5/10) – The only reason why I’m still watching this is because of how people have been saying that the future arcs would be good. And granted, episode 03 was slightly better, if only because a character appeared who actually appeared to have half of a working brain cell. She’s still pretty dull, though. At this point, her only function seems to be to show how awesome Keima is. You don’t make characters awesome in that way! Make your characters awesome because they’re awesome. Not because the rest of the cast is a bunch of one-eyed dimwits!
#23 (new) – A-Channel – (7,75/10) – A Channel is enjoyable, nothing more, nothing less. At the very least it does not commit the great sin of having shallow characters, but they’re actually quite enjoyable to watch, and all of them have more to offer than just the cliches that they’re based around. The humour and pacing is very formulaic, though.
#22 (13) – Gosick – (7,75/10) – Aagh! This show gets on my nerves. It’s not that Gosick is bad. Heck, when it wants to be, it can be really good. Episode 12 was excellent and showed more than anything what an excellent cast it has. And yet it just keeps wasting time on these boring characters or stories who just aren’t interesting, and most bizarrely refuse to develop themselves even when they’re in the spotlights.
#21 (new) – Hen Zemi – (7,75/10) – This isn’t as good as the OVA, but to my surprise it’s still worth watching. It’s still completely disturbing and the chemistry between the characters still shines through.
#20 (new) – Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san – (7,75/10) – Azazel-San is not as good as its OVA, and that mostly is because it might be trying a bit TOO hard to be funny. It’s just so incredibly extreme, and that gives me flashbacks to Dokuro-chan,which also was funny due to the shock factor. Still, it’s working so far, so let’s see whether the creators can keep up this momentum.
#19 (new) – Moshidora – (7,75/10) – It’s a tad cheesy, but Moshidora is quite an interesting series about management and high school baseball. It makes use of its bizarre setting to really take an in-depth look into the different characters, and the challenges that the baseball team that this series focuses on has to face. The drama works sometimes, though at other times it doesn’t and moves a tad too fast, though.
#18 (new) – Fireball – (8/10) – It received a number of upgrades here and there, but the premise still is the same and a quite enjoyable way to spend 2 minutes. The banter remains fun.
#17 (19) – Gykakkyou Burai Kaiji – (8/10) – The definite winner of the most WTF-ED of the season, Kaiji is nicely bubbling along where it left off. I haven’t had the chance to watch the fourth episode yet, although the third episode did show that the current arc is quite lazily written. I mean, the creators manipulate lady luck a little too much in order to get to the maximum amount of tension. The first season of Kaiji stood out because above gambling, it was a battle of wits. This is just about people rolling dice and being lucky and unlucky at exactly the most convenient times.
#16 (new) – Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi – (8/10) – This pleasantly surprised me. Alongside a romance, this also is a pretty neat story about a bunch of people who work at a manga publishing firm. The characterization is quite good and it can get quite funny when it wants to. The bad point is that it’s still too eager to get the lead characters to kiss and sleep with each other, though thankfully this isn’t as bad as in the OVA.
#15 (new) – Sket Dance – (8/10)

So far, Sket Dance is a bit forced, but fun to watch. It’s especially the scenario that is addictive and keeps me going back to watch, despite the characters who could have easily been really annoying. On top of that, the creators succeed in making the school it takes place in feel alive. If it can keep up this pace it can become a fairly enjoyable series.

#14 (new) – Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko – (8/10)

I’ve only had time to watch the first two episodes so far, but if this pacing keeps up we could get yet another great series from Shaft. It’s very annoying, and the characters all try to be way too cute, but the dialogue is well written and drew me in. The rest of this show needs to keep this dialogue going, while at the same time not pull a Bakemonogatari and make these dialogues go on and on and on.

#13 (9) – Showa Monogatari – (8/10)

If you’re wondering why I haven’t blogged episode four yet: I can’t find the bloody thing anywhere. This show is so obscure that people even won’t bother releasing raws, which is such a shame, because despite its flaws, Showa Monogatari has a very good cast of characters to work with. It knows that it shouldn’t only focus on its lead character, and instead gives the guy’s entire family some depth. So come on, don’t let this sink into oblivion without at least giving people the chance to watch it….

#12 (new) – Deadman Wonderland – (8/10)

So, apparently a lot of changes are made compared to the manga. That does explain the random plotholes that just stand out so blatantly, but at the same time I don’t consider this series bad yet. At the moment, I’m still enjoying this series: it does a lot of thing wrong, but it also does a lot of things right. Seriously, the lengths these creators to through to torment this fourteen year old boy is just amazing. At the moment, I’m willing to forgive the plotholes for that.

#11 (new) – X-Men – (8,25/10)

Where Wolverine was a major step above Iron Man, the X-Men is another step above Wolverine by actually having great characters and gorgeous action scenes. Wolverine is adorable in everything he does, and and the rest of the cast members complement each other quite well. If this trend of improvement continues, then I can’t wait to see what Blade will be like.

#10 (23) – Gintama – (8,25/10)

I may be in a minority here, but I don’t really like Gintama’s sequel as much as I thought I would. I mean, it’s still funny, but at the same time half the jokes are stale or predictable, try too hard or just fall flat. After watching 120 episodes of Gintama already, I’ve gotten too much used to their brand of humour. It’s no longer the comedy classic that it once was, unfortunately.

#9 (new) – Ao no Exorcist – (8,25/10)

Ao no Exorcist is really aiming to be the shounen epic of the season. So far, it does not have the most interesting characters of the season, but it does have a rock-solid execution. The action and the delivery of the drama is excellent and this can promise great things for this series in the future.

#8 (new) – [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control – (8,25/10)

C is originality combined with a few cliches here and there (the lead character being the “chosen rookie” being the most notable), and the animation also clearly shows that the creators don’t have the correct budget for that they want to do, but it still has a lot of imagination put into it. The setting is imaginative, the storytelling is solid, it leaves no moments wasted and it takes care to give depth to its characters. It’s a diamond in the rough, so all that’s left is for the creators to polish it.

#7 (new) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8,5/10)

Hana-Saku Iroha had some really amazing first two episodes. That was like, True Tears material. Unfortunately, the two episodes afterwards were a step backwards again, most notably stepping away from the wonderful subtlety. The question is really: was that intentional, or did the creators play their biggest trumps right at the beginning? Even beyond that though, Hana-Saku Iroha has an excellent cast of characters, both the teenagers and the adults are really interesting to watch. It’s definitely one of the top two high school dramas of the season.

#6 (new) – Steins;Gate – (8,5/10)

Steins;Gate is well researched, has excellent dialogue and a great main character to watch. The whole concept of a time machine is looked into with a lot of depth, and at the same time this doesn’t forget to flesh out its characters. The pacing here is slow, but it gets more addictive with every single episode.

#5 (new) – Tiger & Bunny – (8,5/10)

Here’s a show that did a lot of things right. It’s got a great cast of characters, an imaginative setting that both criticizes as celebrates the superhero business, an excellent scenario, it’s consistently fun to watch and it does an excellent job of fleshing out both its cast and setting. Definitely amongst the top of this season.

#4 (5) – Supernatural The Animation – (8,5/10)

Supernatural impressed me. The third batch was all about the main characters, and it really put them through excellent development. It’s here where this series showed that it’s got an excellent plot and that it can do more than enough to make up for the stiff acting (which really wasn’t much of a problem this month).

#3 (3) – Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – (8,75/10)

Madoka Magica was awesome, but I don’t think that it’ll make my top 10 anime or anything. It really was an awesome ride, but to me it didn’t set itself apart from the other series that also were awesome rides. I hate to be negative on such a series and all, but the characters overall could have been a bit better fleshed out. The final episodes were excellent as well, containing very interesting plot twists, though they didn’t blow me away.

#2 (new) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)

Not only is Hyouge Mono amazing, it also has balls for attempting to do such a commercial risk: stating beforehand that it’ll be 39 episodes long, having no moe nor any bishies and being fully centered around a bunch of old guys talking. And it does that incredibly well. The main character in particular is incredibly eccentric and a complete delight to watch, but the rest of the cast also consists out of a bunch of complete weirdos. The facial expressions in particular are unique in this series, and to boot, it also has an excellent plot and dialogue. It’s different, yet well written and executed, and I love how this series can be both serious and hilarious at the same time.

#1 (new) – Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai. – (8,75/10)

This show got a huge emotional response out of me. The characterization is just wonderful, the entire cast feels alive and the themes are very strong here, about growing apart. Every character has something likable about him or her, and they all play brilliantly off each other. It’s been only three episodes, but that was just an emotional roller coaster and definitely among my favourites of the season.

Some Quick First Impressions: Moshidora

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Moshidora

Short Synopsis: Our lead character enlists as the local school baseball team manager.
Here’s the weird thing about Moshidora, besides its premise: most series try to stand out with their first episodes. They really try to catch the audience’s attention. Moshidora doesn’t do that in the slightest. This episode was mundane, the budget was the minimum of what would be tolerable, and there are no attempts made to make the setting seem any more exciting than it already is. It’s clear that this show has hardly any production values and there are a lot of still frames all around For the most part of this episode I just kept wondering whether anything was actually going to happen. And yet, this series is definitely not bad. This show knows how to write characters, it knows how to stay away from making them pure stereotypes, and despite being slow-paced, it’s not wasting time either. This first episode explored the different characters, it took a look at the baseball club’s history, and it introduced the principles of Drucker’s management book neatly. These characters are not bad, and I’d much rather see Trans Arts put focus on their writing insttead of their animation.
OP: Quite dull
Potential: 60%

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica




Ah, the deconstruction: taking a genre or trope, and examine it, put it in a real life situatio, or take a look at it from a completely different angle. I personally love these kinds of series (heck, some of my favourite series are deconstructions). Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica finally shows us another deconstruction of the Mahou shoujo genre, and it is glorious.

This series takes the well known formula: a cute animal comes to a girl, gives her superpowers, and they fight evil. It then examins what it means to be a magical girl. It actually uses its setting quite cleverly in order to really give the life of a magical girl a set of huge advantages and disadvantages. Really, the graphics may be simple, but underneath is a very, very dark storyline.

Teh thing that’s especially amazing about this series is how well everything fits together. It’s twelve episodes long, but it makes excellent use of its time, the characters all fit the story perfectly and everyone serves his own purpose to the points that this series is trying to make. The show really makes sure that it doesn’t waste its time and just about every episode adds something to the overall story and characters. This creates quite a bit of nice development for such a short series.

The graphics are also gorgeous in this series. Unlike a lot of other Shaft series, the animation knows exactly when to be normal, and when to be experimental. The action scenes in this series look really great thanks to all kind of strange and artistic images that are inserted in the surreal battle scenes. Yuki Kajiura is also behind the music, and while this may not be amongst her best work, she still delivers an excellent soundtrack.

It’s definitely a well written and thought-provoking series that continues to evolve. It deserves to be watched, and I see no way for this series to not show up in the top 10 of best eries of 2011. I don’t think that I’ll end up ranking this amongst my favourites, but that entirely because I just consider a lot of other series to be better, not for this show to have major flaws or anything. If I had to nitpick and mention a flaw of this series, then I’d point at the characterization: if the characters here were put in any random slice of life or a more conventional action series, they wouldn’t be interesting to watch at all. It’s entirely the story and the setting that makes something memorable out of them. Again though: this is just nitpicking.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Really well balanced and evolves really well for a 12 episode series. Maks excellent use of the ingredients handed to it.
Characters: 8/10 – Nice development, interesting backstories.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Successfully experiments with its graphics, resulting in some gorgeous action scenes that form a stark contrast with the quiet scenes.
Setting: 9/10 – A terrific deconstruction of a genre that really needed some nudge again.

Suggestions:
– Fancy Lala (Very, very different and slow-paced, but shows a completely different yet just as brilliant take on how to deconstruct the Mahou Shoujo Genre)
– Mahou Shoujotai
– Figure 17 – Tsubasa & Hikaru

Some Quick First Impressions: Ao no Exorcist and Deadman Wonderland

by psgels, posted in Ao no Exorcist, Deadman Wonderland, Some Quick First Impressions

Ao no Exorcist

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the son of a demon.
So, this turned out to be Shikabane Hime without its subtlety and without the girls. It’s definitely very shounen, even for the usual standards of the Prime Time Anime of the season, but it definitely has its good points. While it’s definitely aiming to be the epic of the season, it also can be quite charming when it wants to (that scene with the little girl and her father in particular was done really well). The characterization is also pretty good as well: the lead character looked like a moron on the promo art, but he’s surprisingly normal throughout most of this episode. That of course also has its disadvantages, most notably the way in which this episode started with him meaning well, but causing trouble at everything he does. Those kinds of scenarios are really getting old now, but at least this episode put more meaning into those scenes than just wasting time or going for cheap laughs. Oh, and the good news is that according to ANN, this will be 24 episodes. That’s definitely good news because 12 would not have fitted this story.
ED: I like the concept of a car driving across a highway, but the vocals remain cheesy.
Potential: 75%

Deadman Wonderland

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is sent to prison for a bunch of murders he didn’t commit.
Okay, we’ve found our horror seriers of the season. Seriously, that was intense. The majority of this episode was pretty much nothing but the creators doing everything in their powers to torment an innocent fourteen year-old boy. This definitely wastes no punches; heck, it delves into the bizarre, just to be as disturbing as possible. This show is definitely not trying to build up suspense of disbelief, which could hurt it in the longer run. The prison that the lead character ends up in in particular is just completely crazy, based around some rules that would normally cause a complete outrage and I can only imagine the deranged sociopaths that actually created it. But at the same time that’s also one of the potential strengths of this show. It may not have an ounce of subtlety, but this episode definitely was very creative. It has both huge flaws and huge strengths, so this really can go anywhere. Provided, of course, that twelve episodes are enough. the length will probably be the single biggest pitfall for this series.
ED: Unfortunately this is just a boring composition. Does not fit the dark mood of this show at all.
Potential: 80%

Cowboy Bebop – Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door is a movie of the category “glorified episode”, and it’s an excellent example of how to do such a movie right. It’s got a strong villain, interesting story, a varied scenario, gorgeous animation, makes good use of its airtime and pretty much delivers on all that it attempts. It doesn’t really add anything to the Cowboy Bebop Universe, but it’s still an excellent watch.

The movie has great action, not to mention that all of the action scenes are completely different from each other. The creators had more than enough experience for this movie, and this this leads to a number of amazing action scenes that actually are animated even better than the TV-series was. Like the TV-series, this movie is fun one moment, and incredibly tense the next.

The main villain is completely new, but the movie does a good job of making him into a threat. Careful attention has been put into his background and motivation, and yet these are delivered with as little words as possible. The subtlety of the TV-series also returns with some really good results in this movie, and the acting is wonderful again as well.

Now, I would not label this movie amongst the best episodes of the TV-series, though. Those episodes were masterful in telling a short story in a very short amount of time (just one or two episodes), while this movie does feel a bit too long compared to them. Obviously this is comparing it against a very high standards. Again: it may not add anything to the main characters, it’s still a very fun movie to watch.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Subtle, yet very well told.
Characters: 8/10 – Good villain, great acting.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Gorgeous action scenes and life-like animation.
Setting: 8/10 – Not the most interesting backstory of the TV-series, but still quite interesting and detailed.

Suggestions:
– Trigun – Badlands Rumble
– Mobile Police Patlabor Movie 1
– xxxHolic Movie (Warning: the review I wrote about this one is terrible)

Take the X Train Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Ah, Rintaro. I’m quite aware that this guy has made some of the most notoriously bad movies in existence, and I refuse to review his bad stuff. But boy, when he is good, he really is amazing. I’ve rated three movies he directed with 90/100. Add that to the storyboard he wrote for the adaptation of the Diary of Anne Frank, and that makes four of his works that I consider to be absolutely fantastic and among my favourite movies ever. I LOVE this guy as a movie director. Now, Take the X Train is nowhere near his best work; it’s much more an experiment than a full fledged movie. But it’s definitely an interesting experiment.

It’s this weird 50-minute movie about a ghost train and some salaryman that is in some bizarre way connected to it, but it isn’t about the story at all, really. Instead, Take the X Train is all about its atmosphere, and in this way it stands out as something unique. It’s really bizarre at times, especially considering that it’s also an homage to Jazz music, but the direction makes this short look utterly gorgeous. The animation isn’t as consistent as some of Rintarou’s other works, but the visual images still can get quite amazing.

It’s quite an experience, and again I don’t think that there’s anything like this. This just tells nearly its entire story about a ghost train with this unique style, animation and weird characters. It’s hard to find, but worth the watch if you’re into something artsy.

Storytelling: 8/10 – The atmosphere has this undeniable charm to it. It’s really hard to describe.
Characters: 7/10 – completely one-dimensional, but likable.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Lots of creativity has gone into these visuals. This show is ugly, yet somehow looks great.
Setting: 8/10 – It’s a simple, but unique movie, definitely.

Suggestions:
– Memories

Urusei Yatsura Movie 2 – Beautiful Dreamer Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Urusei Yatsura was the first series that Mamoru Oshii fully directed, having previously worked on episodes of Yatterman and Nils no Fushigi no Tabi. Now, it has 195 episodes, so I refuse to actually go sit down and watch it, but I always wanted to check out the first two movies of the series, which he also directed.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get past even twenty minutes of the first movie due to its incredibly cliched premise. I know that it was fresh at the time and all, but that single movie has been ripped off so many times by now that it has become a chore to watch. Not to mention that it has one of the worst male leads imaginable. The second movie though, is a different story. It’s probably the first point at which Mamoru Oshii first showed his unique style of directing that would later go on and create many classics.

You can pretty much watch it without having seen anything of the franchise before. I mean, the premise is just that an alien falls in love with a loser of a playboy, and the side-characters also all speak for themselves. This movie still pretty much features the main cast goofing off, but it actually has a very interesting plot.

My biggest praise at this movie is how balanced it is: there is just enough time devoted to people goofing off, there is quite a bit of attention to the setting and ideas behind the movie, there is the right amount of philosophy, romantic antics, action and weirdness. A lot of different characters all have their moments in the spotlights and yet it still feels like a complete movie.

On top of that, the animation is also pretty excellent; this movie especially shines in its portrayal of the chaotic scenes, whether this is focused on school life or some of the weirder plot twists in the story. The characters here all like to goof off, but yet they are portrayed with the kind of life that a lot of modern anime are missing. Instead of the excessive whining that you usually see in these teenaged school series, these people actually feel fun to be around. This movie is versatile enough to not make them boring, and the first Urusei Yatsura movie just showed how easy it is to just screw up with that.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Well written dialogue, well paced, really well balanced. A lot of fun to watch and pretty much succeeds at everything it attempts.
Characters: 8/10 – the characters still remain simple teenaged brats, but they are fun and interesting to watch thanks to the pacing and dialogue.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Very good animation, though admittedly not the best for movie standards.
Setting: 8/10 – An interesting premise based on bending reality.

Suggestions:
– Mahou Tsukai Tai OVA
– Maison Ikkoku
– Ranma 1/2