Category: Other:

Some Quick First Impressions: Arakawa Under the Bridge X Bridge and Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is working as a waitress.
I’d wish that I could rant about Shaft once more here, but no. Instead, my biggest issue with this episode was that it just went on and on about how waitresses in a maid cafe should behave. It’s another one of those topics aimed solely at otaku and for which I have no interest in whatsoever. Apart from that, though, this was probably the most down to earth Shaft series I’ve seen in a long while now. It still has some of the staples that make their shows so annoying, like the yelling and overacting and the chapter title screens, but again: you can really see that they’ve finally gotten themselves a good budget here, and the animation was much better than what you’d usually expect from them. If you ignore the hordes of maid cafe references and the overacting though, this was a pretty decent episode that simply showed a bunch of people talk to each other and have fun. There is a good chance that this will get boring within a few episodes, but for now this episode was enjoyable enough.
OP: Really good animation. Even for Shaft’s usual standards, this was great.
ED: Obviously inspired by a certain show, but the song is surprisingly good.
Potential: 35%

Arakawa Under the Bridge X Bridge

Short Synopsis: Our lead character hangs around with a bunch of weird people around a bridge.
I did not preview Arakawa’s second season because I’m really biased here: I have yet to encounter a Shaft sequel that did not disappoint me. In fact, the Shaft Sequels are the biggest reason for my huge dislike towards them. But okay, if you really want me to preview its first episode, then I’ll give it a whirl. First of all, I do want to say that Shaft did put the earnings of Bakemonogatari’s DVD sales to good use: this episode was much better animated than expected, and overall it looked pretty good, combining actual animation with Shaft’s visual style works well. But here is something I really want to ask the people who did finish the first season (I never watched past episode 1): is this show supposed to be not funny? I mean, all I saw in this episode was a bunch of characters screaming, yelling and overacting. I could see that they tried to make jokes at times, but I don’t recall even chuckling throughout this episode: everything just felt so forced and humourless. This episode did try to reveal some new things about its characters, but half of those things make me wonder why they weren’t revealed in the first season. I think the worst sketch here was that marathon, especially considering how ridiculously predictable the humour was. I guess that the part I liked best was the very last scene, in which we see what Nino’s dream was about. So is Arakawa Under the Bridge more about the former, or the latter?
OP: Amazing visuals. But then again, it was directed by Ryousuke Nakamura, a guy I can’t hype enough.
Potential: 10%

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a detective who has magical powers. Oh wait, No, she isn’t! Oh wait, I guess she is!
This show is strange. No, really. I expected some generic moe detective series, but this series blew all my expectations by being so ridiculously stupid and nonsensical. I mean, what mahou shoujo randomly strips all of the powers of the lead characters, right at the first episode? This show makes no sense whatsoever, and listing everything that’s wrong with this episode would take an entire essay. At the same time, that also is the charm of this series: it simply had a bit of fun with its characters, it was trying out quite a few interesting ideas, ad it didn’t care in the slightest about making sense or not. This episode was fast-paced and kind of fun, and I enjoyed it. But yeah, there is no way for the creators to keep up with this. The characters are as flat as a pancake, and the reason this episode was fun to watch was because the creators just kept throwing new and surprising stuff at us. Although it will be quite an interesting series if the creators manage to keep the surprises coming throughout the entire series, I see no way for them to be able to do that. It is directed by the director of Lilpri, after all. That one too had a very charming first episode, only to immediately degenerate into nothing but boring fillers afterwards.
OP: I don’t think that the creators couldn’t have been more generic, even if they tried.
ED: FANSERVICE
Potential: 35%

Some Quick First Impressions: The World God Only Knows, Motto To Love-Ru and You Are Umasou

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

The World God Only Knows

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is really good at hentai games…
The reason why I was not looking forward to this series is because it’s got a bit of a “dime a dozen”-premise. Last year we saw the cat version of this with Nyan Koi, and that turned out to be really uninspired, so I really wanted to see with my own eyes what this show would end up as. Overall, while I can’t say that I immediately understand why so many people are looking forward to it, I can say that I’m very intrigued, and this episode was much better than I expected. It had quite a bit of creativity in its scenario, and to be honest, the creators did a decent job of getting a girl to fall in love with the male lead. In any case it’s far more plausible than most other harems. What I’m especially interested in is what the heck the rest of this series is going to look like? My main problem is that ghost girl, who feels rather one-sided, but overall, I’m impressed.
OP: I like the visuals here.
Potential: 65%

Motto To Love-Ru

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a typical loser who is loved by about six different girls.
The good news: Motto To Love-Ru is not as bad as Ladies versus Butlers. It at least has something that resembles a narrative and at least the combined intelligence of the cast can be able to outwit a baboon’s backside. The visuals look fairly decent, and especially the far away shots are nicely animated, so at least we don’t get a repeat of that complete disaster here. That’s pretty much where my praises end, though. To Love-Ru still remains a bad harem that is in no way worth watching. Rather than being a show with fanservice in it, it’s a show that is completely built around showing its female cast in awkward romantic situations. It doesn’t make the slightest effort to blend things in naturally, it just throws the cast into a bath house from out of nowhere, and makes the cast bump into each other in the most ridiculous places (a children’s play house? Really?). We’re 26 episodes further, and yet the characters act exactly the same from what I remember from the first season, absolutely no progression seems to have been booked, other than the introduction of a bunch of new characters, who all are simple stereotypical paper bags. What also really bothers me is that Xebec is pretty much outputting the same show twice here this season: both MM and To Love-Ru are harems, both are centred around a high school and both involve beating up the lead character. The biggest difference is that MM focuses more on the beating up and To Love-Ru focuses more on the harem. Really, Xebec: what happened?
OP: A decent J-Pop song. I’ve heard worse.
ED: Again, as bad as the characters are, this one does try to portray them all-right, I guess.
Potential: 0%

You are Umasou

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a dinosaur.
Umasou is a series with five-minute episodes, aimed at 3-year old kids and animated in what looks like flash. It’s a bit of a weird story about a tyrannosaurus rex who ends up adopting a baby ankylosaurus, and it’s pretty much told in the style of a picture book. It definitely has its charms, and I can see how little kids will love it. For the older audiences, though… yeah. It’s very much like series as Chebrashka Arere and Table Cat: fun to watch for a few minutes, but not really worth it in the long run due to the incredibly simple and childish storylines and characters.
Potential: 10%

Romeo’s Blue Skies Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



In the nineties, there was some kind of war going on between Nippon animation and Fuji TV, regarding the broadcast of the World Masterpiece Theatre. This seemed to have started with Little Prince Cedie, and while I’m not sure what exactly happened, the amount of episodes for each series shrunk with every year. Imagine the following: Romeo’s Blue Skies is only has 33 episodes, and yet it aired over a full year. It’s hard to imagine how often this series went on a hiatus sometimes even for an entire month.

In any case the World Masterpiece Theatre was in trouble, Nippon Animation could also get less and less funding for each series, until things eventually imploded with Ie Naki Ko Remi. The interesting thing was that Nippon Animation was really trying out new things in order to revitalize the genre, like adapting a fantasy novel (Peter Pan), revisiting popular installments (Little Women’s sequel), the only anime ever to have been set in Africa (Bush Baby), or Ie Naki Ko Remi’s huge focus on songs and music. The most interesting for me was Romeo’s Blue Skies though, in which the creators tried to be far more action-packed than probably any other installment of the WMT that preceded or followed it.

And really, that resulted in quite an interesting series. Romeo’s Blue Skies is probably the most accessible out of all the World Masterpiece Theatre series, in the way that it tries to have a pacing fitting of your average adventure series, while still grounded in realism, like you’d expect from the WMT franchise. While most World Masterpiece Theatre series are mostly slow-paced (especially in their beginnings), Romeo’s Blue Skies is also very attractive and recommended for the fans of adventure series.

It’s a story that really has this great balance between realism, character development and children’s adventures: all three of those areas receive enough attention in the spotlights. The story is really impressive here, and the creators managed to create an engaging story that keeps changing and evolving, and never tries to focus too much on either the action or building up in order to keep its audience’s attention. The characters are all wonderful, and there hardly is any recurring character who doesn’t develop in some way or another, in true WMT fashion. Romeo himself is a great main character, and he especially works well in combination with every character around him, especially Angeletta and Alfredo.

The themes in this series vary from child abuse to friendship, street gangs, with the most important one being split up from your family: just about every arc in this series involves that in some way or another. And it’s this what really sets Romeo’s Blue Skies apart from most other children’s adventures: instead of creating some sort of epic scenario that tries way too hard, or is way too unbelievable, the action in Romeo tries to stay as grounded and realistic as possible, while it still tries to pack a punch as much as possible. Or at least, this happens much more than with most other adventure series.

I have a lot of praises for this series, but at the same time I also want to stress that Romeo’s Blue Skies is nowhere near the best of the World Masterpiece Theatre: it does not hold a candle to masterpieces such as Anne of Green Gables, Perrine Monogatari or Les Miserables, and that mostly lies with its premise. While it has some points in which this series is definitely realistic, it did need to make a lot of sacrifices here in order to keep its plot action packed.

The most notable is that there are times in which adults become a tad too stupid, weak or short-sighted, but also the important characters are much simpler than you usually expect from the World Masterpiece Theatre, and they’re far less believable and fleshed out than the above-mentioned series. For any other franchise, this would classify as nit-picking, but the standards for this franchise are really high. The World Masterpiece Theatre has produced a number of fantastic, brilliantly written and fleshed out characters, but none of Romeo’s Blue Skies characters stand amongst those. It’s simply a really engaging series, but not more.

But engaging it is! Romeo’s Blue Skies has a wonderful story with an especially great ending. It’s true that the WMT-series of the nineties were less refined than their predecessors (or at least, from what I’ve seen and read about them), but Romeo’s Blue Skies still ends up as a very charming series.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Well balanced, and really tries to give every character and theme the airtime it deserves. Excellent ending, a bit childish at times but makes for a very enjoyable watch.
Characters: 9/10 – Excellent character-development. The characters aren’t as good as some of the other WMT-series, but they’re still very engaging to watch.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Fluid and simple, but works quite well.
Setting: 8/10 – There are some believability issues, but even then the setting around is very lively and realistic for an adventure series.

Suggestions:
– Ie Naki Ko Remi
– Mysterious Cities of Gold
– Perrine Monogatari

Some Quick First Impressions: Shinryaku! Ika-Musume, Otome Youkai Zakuro and Yosuga no Sora

by psgels, posted in Shinryaku! Ika Musume, Some Quick First Impressions

Shinryaku! Ika-Musume

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to take over the world.
It’s awesome to see what a good comedy this turned into. It did just about everything right here with its first episode: it introduced the characters, played around with their characteristics, made sure that they’re not just based around one gimmick but have multiple sides, and it comes with a lot of different and clever little jokes. From watching this episode, I’ve gotten very positive about this series having enough inspiration for at least thirteen episodes: none of the jokes here felt really repetitive, and instead they were all building further upon each other, rather than this series bombarding us with as many random jokes as possible. The characters all have this thing that sets them apart, but they’re at the same time down to earth: essentially this is just a story about a squid girl who starts working with a bunch of siblings who run a bar at the seaside, and they actually have some pretty normal conversations in between the jokes, who both serve as building up the jokes and building their characters. I’m very positive about this, and this could very well be the best comedy of the season.
OP: Mostly foreshadowing a bunch of the jokes of the series, but again: it looks very diverse here.
ED: A decent ballad.
Potential: 80%

Otome Youkai Zakuro

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights evil youkai.
With these first impressions: I don’t just look at the first episodes themselves, but also their potential, and that’s where my biggest issue with Otome Youkai Zakuro lies. I mean, this episode really was excellent, it had a great chemistry between the characters and gave an interesting spin to the youkai genre by just throwing all pretense out and just giving everyone the ability to see them, rather than trying to make one or two main characters feel special. Suddenly, we have a clash of different cultures that was definitely interesting to watch. However, I feel no potential from this one: the chemistry was based on a bunch of gimmicks that will become boring if they get abused too much. This episode gave no indication whether or not this series will use these characters optimally, or just dabble on with them. See, with series like Shinrei Tantei Yakumo, you could really see that the creators make use of every moment of their limited time to add more details to the story and characters. Otome Youkai Zakuro meanwhile dabbles often in useless comedy that, while funny, also can become a problem as soon as it starts getting boring. Still, my biggest fear for this was Chiaki Kon, but she really pulled off a great first episode here. This show can be a hit if it manages to use its episodes right.
OP: A decent OP with quite some solid visuals.
ED: Uninspired, both in the music and the visuals, which seem to be just copied from the manga.
Potential: 70%

Yosuga no Sora

Short Synopsis: Our lead character moves back into the town he grew up in with his twin sister.
God, not even more incest? As if we didn’t have enough of that already. Still, I have to grant this series this: they really seem to want to be doing something with the brother-sister love, instead of either parading around with how it’s supposed to be “daring”, or just inserting stuff for the heck of it: the incest is far from the biggest problem with this series, and works well enough because the brother and sister in question are well portrayed. the main problem with this series is that just about every other character isn’t. They’re all random harem stereotypes, all of them try way too hard and therefore are very badly acted, which only makes them more annoying. This series tries to force an entire harem around the lead male that has no business doing there, and it uses just about every cliche and superfluous plot twist to get girls to fall in love with him: there are a bunch of childhood friends, plus more “loves at first sight” than you can shake a stick at. Overall, this could have been a decent incest story, but it loses a lot of points for trying way too hard.
OP: A decent ballad to start the series with.
ED: I like EDs that show a bit of the past of the characters.
Potential: 35%

Some Quick First Impressions: Hakuouki Hekketsu-Roku, Shinrei Tantei Yakumo and Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake Nai

by psgels, posted in Hakuouki, Shinrei Tantei Yakumo, Some Quick First Impressions

Hakuouki Hekketsu-Roku

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is surrounded by the Shinsengumi.
I watch these first episodes of second seasons of series that I originally dropped, in order to check whether or not I missed something: did they actually improve through their course? How have things progressed so far? In the past, I have revisited a few series that I originally dismissed this way. So, what does Hakuouki do? A recap; perfect. I dropped Hakuouki after episode five, and after watching this recap, I have to admit that I probably dropped it at its weakest episode. This episode just kept the twists coming here, which were actually quite interesting. They were a bit cheesy, and I saw little change in the villains, but the story turned out better than I expected: this is not like Vampire Knight which devolved into nothing more than angst and bishies. This second season also promises to be a lot more varied here. I still have two problems, though. The first is that this recap episode nearly worked a little too well. It perfectly summarized twelve freaking episodes in just twenty minutes. These pacing issues also were part of my issues with the first episode: it was just so damn slow at times, with little to make up for it. The second problem is the female lead. I like her premise, but the creators forced her too much into the harem role: she has to be everywhere, she has to be involved with everyone, and her whining holds back scenes that she has no business in whatsoever. For me to actually finish the second season of this series, I demand two things: make every moment count, and develop Chizuru significantly.
ED: Decent.
Potential: 40%

Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a detective who can see spirits.
Yeah, you don’t want to watch this series as a murder mystery. At that area, it’s nowhere near as good as series as Ayatsuri Sakon: the introduction moves too fast, the culprit is revealed way too soon and at no point does it try to make the viewer wondering what’s going on, or unravel clues. Instead, this show is more of a thriller and character study. When looking at it that way, the fast pacing is going to be interesting for the future of this series, it will be more able to concentrating on “why is everything happening”, rather than “what’s going on”, and with the right execution it will be a good way to spend its limited time of 13 episodes on its characters. Koichi Mashimo’s absence on this Bee-Train series hurts, though: I’m really missing his characterization here, and that’s what worries me the most about this series. Still, even though the characters could have been better portrayed, I’m not denying here that this wasn’t a good episode: it started off slow, but it steadily got better and better, resulting in a great climax for a first episode that really made me intrigued, especially when it got all artsy with the buildings and the random people. The soundtrack is not as good as usual Bee-Train series, but nevertheless it’s among the best of the season when it finally shows its real colours.
OP: Quite intense, and surprisingly varied in tone and atmosphere for an OP. Works well.
ED: Beautifully sung. I like the concept of combining pictures from the pasts of the characters.
Potential: 80%

Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake Nai

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has a weird sister.
There is a new male lead cliche that has been emerging during the past number of years to join the ranks of “your typical loser”. I’d like to call him the “Kyon-clone”: neither a loser nor too popular, he snarks himself through the series and tries to be the voice of reason amongst a cast of weird people with his voice acting having nowhere near the charms that Kyon had. It’s a cliche I see quite a while used in harems, and it’s starting to get annoying. Ore no Imouto has another one, and he does little to set himself apart. In any case, I was really fearing this series, though THANK GOD it’s not as abysmal as KissXSis was; there was little fanservice and the two siblings didn’t seem to be in love. Instead, it’s more like Nyan Koi: occasionally able to raise a chuckle, but most of all boring. For now, at least, because I have one HUGE problem with the way this episode portrayed the lead characters’ little sister: she’s a freaking tsundere! I appreciate this series for including a bit of wit in its dialogue and all, but they really weren’t subtle with those hints!
ED: It’s more like some insert song than an ED, but it’s generic J-pop anyway.
Potential: 10%

Some Quick First Impressions: Star Driver, Yumeiro Patissiere Professional and Letter Bee Reverse

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee, Some Quick First Impressions, Star Driver

Star Driver

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the legendary pretty boy.
Hell yeah! This is the series I’ve been looking forward to the most this season, and it does not disappoint. It’s a bit silly and nonsensical, but it really turned those would-be flaws into a really charming series, full of neat ideas, homages and a diverse cast of characters. You can really see the influences of the guy who wrote Utena, and at the same time this series packs enough new stuff with a delightfully refreshing and upbeat mecha series. The direction is also excellent, and makes optimal use of its time, the characters and really manages to make their charms stand out as much as possible. And the animation! Without a doubt the best of the season so far. Characters move very smoothly, and the show is chock full of interesting poses, and especially the mecha fight in this episode looked absolutely gorgeous. This episode was stylish, adorable and while the story may not make the most amount of sense, that really doesn’t matter in the big picture here.
OP: Great to see an OP with some actual visual inspiration, rather than doing what every other OP is already doing.
ED: Neat animation, though that pop song is rather generic.
Potential: 90%

Yumeiro Patissiere

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a high school student of a pastry school.
I watched about five episodes of the first season of Yumeiro Patissiere, but ended up dropping it because it was getting repetitive and I saw no real future in it. I did not expect this second season. At all. I’m not sure whether I’ll end up watching the first season (50 episodes is really long), but this episode nevertheless was really good, showing just about every character significantly grown up, heading into the direction of their dreams. The cast surely looks a lot more diverse, interesting and colourful than what I watched of the first season. I’m really surprised here. There are some downsides, though. the most notable is the portrayal of Americans: what the heck was that?! I guess I’ve been spoiled a bit too much by Giant Killing and all, but the American in this episode had just about every stereotype you can get with the portrayal of Americans in anime. And he’s supposed to be a major love interest? On top of that, I also don’t quite get the premise of this new season. Despite what the title of the title may suggest, the lead character is only in high school, but she and three other students are asked to run a street full of pastry shops. Now, this has some interesting potential as you never see series about managing a large amount of shops and all, but I really wonder how the creators are going to solve this without introducing a a huge amount of shop employees (we saw absolutely no hints in the OP about it), and why they would leave such an important task to a bunch of high school students, despite their talents.
OP: Probably the biggest surprise in terms of OPs this year. It’s rather weird, yet surprisingly good and lively.
ED: Again, I expected something really generic and instead got a bunch of bicycles flying around in the air. Definitely better than your average ED.
Potential: 65%

Letter Bee Reverse

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is still an incredible crybaby.
I know that this series is cheating a bit and all, but I see no way in which Letter Bee Reverse is not going to have my favourite opening episode of this season. I mean, after such an incredible cliff-hanger, the creators made this episode into an aftermath that worked better than I could have expected. I seriously teared up at seeing Lag Seeing and Nichi, after what happened at the end of the first season, and this episode really gave both of them the time to really develop their feelings. I mean seriously, Letter Bee is a unique little shounen series that’s mostly plagued by the fact that the fillers are a bit annoying to get through. The plot, the setting, the characters: they’re all much more interesting than your average shounen series, and this episode could have been no better proof to that. I mean, I can only imagine how amazing this second season will be if the creators end up toning down the fillers here.
OP: I can only imagine what kind of spoilers this OP is trying to refer to.
ED: Screw Naruto, screw Bleach, I’m really glad to see that Studio Pierrot have finally found themselves another series to show off their creativity in art. This ED looks absolutely gorgeous.
Potential: 100%

Some Quick First Impressions: Bakuman, MM! and Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt

by psgels, posted in Bakuman, Some Quick First Impressions

Bakuman

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to be a manga-writer.
The season so far has really had its ups and downs. The biggest down however was the characters department: none of them tried to be anything deep, nearly all of them were just simple and one-dimensional, based on a gimmick or stereotype. Bakuman changes this, however: within its first episode it establishes its two main characters, it clearly shows what kind of past the lead character lived in and how this managed to shape who he is today, and it detailed what he likes how he looks at life. This is how first episodes should be done… aside from the romance, perhaps. That was pretty forced, cliched and unnatural.
OP: A very interesting emulation of the old kids shows.
OP: The refrain is pretty decent, but the rest of the song is a bit boring.
ED: Interesting art, upbeat, quite a good way to close off each episode.
Potential: 80%

MM!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character likes to get beaten up by cute girls.
Yesterday was quite a good start for this fall season, but I also fear that that marks the ending of all of the good fanservice shows. MM is just another in the line of uninspired Xebec shows with shallow attempts at comedy. Basically, this entire episode was mostly just cute girls, beating up the lead character, but if you ignore that, then all of the stereotypes of your generic harem are there. There is no creativity whatsoever in the set-up here and everything has been pretty much taken from other series. The only thing that really sets this series apart is its extreme focus on sadomasochism, but that is nowhere near enough to carry this series: no matter who beat up the lead character, it all looked the same, it wasn’t funny at all and the entire episode was a chore to sit through. At the end of this episode the creators also tried to insert a little drama, but that just felt incredibly forced and out of place. There is no creativity, there is nothing that stands out, I really see no potential whatsoever for this series.
OP: Is that supposed to be a song?
ED: Again, horribly sung and utterly generic.
Potential: 0%

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights crime with her underwear.
Without a doubt the best action so far, the most interesting direction, the best art style, the best humour, the most entertaining episode, the worst taste, the most amount of fanservice, the biggest amount of toilet jokes, the most creative scenario and the most shameless first episode of the new season. And yes, considering how we already got Sora no Otoshimono, Iron Man and Super Robot Wars, who were also focused on most of these areas, that has to say something here. Panty and Stocking is a show of extremes: it’s really trying to push boundaries here, and you can really see that this was made by the same creators of Dead Leaves, rather than Gurren Lagann. Some of the jokes are completely disgusting and tasteless, but it is refreshing for once to see a show treat the matter of sex so nonchalantly seeing as how most supposed fanservice shows try to pretend it doesn’t exist. And when disregarding the fanservice, I really have to praise what the creators did with the action here, especially that chase scene was a lot of fun. There’s one HUGE problem, though: the characters. Panty and Stocking were pretty much both based on a gimmick each: Panty likes sex and Stocking likes eating. To stay funny and enjoyable they’re going to have to try harder than that!
OP: Short but sweet.
ED: It’s catchy and all… but who thought that this would be a good fit for this series?
Potential: 75%

Some Quick First Impressions: Sora no Otoshimono Forte, Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector and Iron Man

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Sora no Otoshimono Forte

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives together with a bunch of cute girls.
As much as I’d hate to admit it… this episode actually made me laugh, and it actually was pretty good at times. I mean, the direction, the ideas including this “new world” and “dream diving”, the huge production values, this episode was actually pretty good… despite the huge amounts of fanservice. This series has its mind completely in the gutter, but at least its fanservice jokes are actually inspired ones, compared to the same stuff you just get to see over and over again. Of course, this show does have its share of cliches, the male lead is beyond annoying at times and I doubt that I’ll be able to watch much of this series either way (last season I gave up as soon as the flying panties arrive), but still it’s good to see that at least there is a fanservice show that puts in some actual effort. This episode was a bit slow, and nowhere near as good as B Gata H Kei’s opening episode, but on the flip-side, I can easily see this one top shows as Asobi ni Iku Yo.
OP: Very clever start there. The song is badly sung, but at least it’s an improvement over the regular cheesy j-pop you usually here with these shows.
ED: Better than your average ED on a moe show, but still dull and pretty uninspired.
Potential: 50%

Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights mechas.
This is a bit of a hard show to gauge for its story, based on just its first episode because it starts right in the middle of an action-scene without really much of a context: most of this episode consisted just out of a bunch of giant robots piloted by a bunch of kids and young adults, without much of an explanation of who they were beyond a bunch of one-liners that also still lacked their context. It’s all up to the rest of the series to make some sense out of this, because right now they’re just a bunch of one-dimensional cardboard cut-outs with rather bad character-designs. The action itself was pretty good, though. This episode was nicely paced and it kept my attention, which is what I can’t say of the first season of Super Robot Wars (which seems to be a completely different series, by the way: this episode showed no characters I recognized). Still, seeing as this series really didn’t make any attempt to make sense of what the hell was going on, I really fear that it’s just going to devolve into a random string of action scenes. And fanservice.
ED: Well yeah… it’s obvious what the creators were going for with this one, eh? Let’s just move on here…
Potential: 40%

Iron Man

Short Synopsis: Our lead character hits on women and flies around in an armoured suit.
The first thing that immediately stands out with this series are the visuals: no effort has been spent at all in making them look good. The amount of inconsistent and distorted faces leads to a number of embarrassing shots, especially with character-designs that are this detailed. At this episode, the animation itself was still good and detailed, but I fear what’s going to happen in the rest of the series, when the budget is going to force the creators to come up with a lot of still frames. As for the story: this series assumes you know Iron Man’s background: it is just another adventure in Iron Man’s life, focusing more on his future than his past. The acting was downright bad at times, and it also doesn’t look like the setting of the series will be important: Iron Man crashed randomly into concrete, blocking the road for countless of cars, and he just walks away with nobody finding it strange (“Screw the rules, I have money!”). The whole premise of a hijacked suit is standard comic book fodder, but with the right development it could be made into something interesting. The creators are really going to have to try, though. With the half a year of delay, the direction of this episode should not have felt as rushed as it did here.
OP: Pretty good music that fits Iron Man very nicely.
ED: Very good. There is little animation, but it actually has a good artistic direction compared to the actual series.
Potential: 50%

September Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

Of course, in the past number of years there have been quite a few small Winter and Summer Seasons. However, the big difference with previous years is that there always were plenty of interesting series that were carried over from previous seasons. That’s pretty much the biggest problem with the past summer season: too much of the spring season series stopped after just 11 to 13 episodes, leading to this seasons’ quantity problem.

Overall though, this was a very interesting month: some series really exceeded my expectations, while others failed to live up to them. There were fewer interesting series than usual, but the series that stood out really did stand out, and that’s why I see no reason to call it as dry as the past Winter season.

#19 (19) – Amagami SS – (4,25/10) – Just… make it stop. No more, I give up. The first two arcs still had their charms and all, but the shy girl arc has become downright unwatchable. I’ve been stuck at episode eleven because I couldn’t get myself to listen to her abysmal voice acting anymore, let alone the horrible scenario and character-development that the creators have given her. Dropped.
#18 (18) – Asobi ni Iku Yo – (7/10) – I went into this series, expecting entertainment. In the end, I didn’t really get a whole lot of this. The final twist to resolve the love triangle in this series was just completely stupid and out of left-field, especially how everyone just bought it. Way to negate all of the build-up you put into this, guys.
#17 (12) – Heroman – (7,25/10) – That one scene. The one in which Joey started glowing. It made no bloody sense at all, but it was damn cool to look at, and just about the only highlight of the finale of this series that I can remember. It tried to be way too epic for its own good, making the big bad guy way too strong, with all of the disastrous consequences. The whole finale never really used any of the build-up that the previous arcs tried to give it, and it really didn’t leave with a good aftertaste.
#16 (16) – Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi – (7,75/10) – It’s a bit of a weird choice for its final episodes, to have the climax at the semi-final episode, which ultimately didn’t really accomplish anything. It’s not been the strongest month for Ookami-san, but it still was pretty enjoyable, not to mention gorgeously animated.
#15 (11) – Mitsudomoe – (7,75/10) – I’m really worried about that second season. With the way that the creators have been repeating their jokes at this rate, that second season is bound to be not as good as the first season. Still, the repeated jokes still were within bounds this months, and I got a number of good laughs out of every episode.
#14 (15) – Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu – (7,75/10) – My main issue with this month for Denyuuden was that it spent a bit too much time trying to show how much the people with Alpha Stigma are suffering. We know that already, no need to shove it up our faces. Overall I’m still missing something with this series, though episode thirteen was a very interesting hint of more interesting things to come.
#13 (7) – Sengoku Basara – (7,75/10) – With the huge amounts of build-up that went into it, that final episode was not good enough to make up for it. It lacked the creativity of episode six, it skipped one fight completely and the creators overall should have tried harder. Nevertheless, it still was a short but sweet ending that was a lot of fun to watch. Just be sure to balance out your show next time, Production IG.
#12 (9) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (7,75/10) – Thirteen episodes in, and unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be able to compete with Studio Deen’s better works. It’s a nice adventure with a couple of pretty charming characters, but so far it’s nothing special, and it should really try in its second half to do something more.
#11 (17) – Sekirei – (8/10) – Overall, this series had quite a strong month, considering the main goal of the side-story that took most of its focus. There still needs to come some kind or third (or possibly even fourth) season to wrap everything up, though.
#10 (10) – Anyamaru Tantei Kiruminzoo – (8/10)

It’s a bit of a chaotic finale here, but that’s what made it a fun way to close off this series. The final bad guy was one incredible moron in the way that he went down, but with the stupidity of some of the characters through the series, I guess that that was meant to be his charms. The creators came with some neat twists and the characters could really show themselves off. Overall, I’m quite happy with how this series turned out.

#9 (14) – High School of the Dead – (8/10)

A surprisingly quiet end for what’s supposed to be a zombie bashing show, but I liked the charms that that had. It really allowed the characters to show a bit about themselves.This show just ends without any resolution, which did annoy me a bit, though.

#8 (3) – Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – (8/10)

This series should have ended with an anime original ending. The build up to the final episode was perfect for that, and it would have been able to close off this series perfectly instead of the half-assed deus ex machina ending that we ended up getting here. The ending for this one was probably the most disappointing ones of the season, but before “it” happened, this series really was incredibly solid.

#7 (13) – Katanagatari – (8,25/10)

I think the part about Katanagatari that I like the most is how it’s basically an exploration of all kinds of martial arts and swordplay. The double-length episodes really allow the creators to delve into these mechanics, much more than you usually see in series like this. The latest episode was down to earth, but worked exactly because of that, along with the wit that it sometimes shows (Shichika trying to learn sword fighting stances for example was hilarious) and the increasingly interesting chemistry between Togame and Shichika.

#6 (6) – Rainbow – (8,5/10)

I really liked the arcs the creators chose to close this series off with, exactly because they were by far the least depressing and overly epic arcs of the entire series. Instead, what we got here was a heart-warming closure that was really focused on the hopeful future. Most of the major conflicts were resolved already, and instead the series’ finale was fully focused on the future of the characters.

#5 (8) – Kuroshitsuji – (8,75/10)

This series really impressed me. The plot in the final episodes just kept the interesting twists coming, making optimal use of not just Alois and Claude, but also Ciel and Sebastian shined. I have a hate/love relationship with the ending, but I still really liked it.

#4 (5) – Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin – (8,75/10)

A few Deus ex Machina, but apart from that the final three episodes left a strong impression behind, and especially episode eleven was just amazing. It’s a shame that this series had its balancing issues, because it really could have been one of the best series of the year if managed to fix its biggest issues.

#3 (4) – Shiki – (8,75/10)

“Natsuno did something stupid”. That pretty much describes all my problems with this series. The rest is just absolutely delightful with its art and atmosphere, especially in the way that the past few episodes have used the build-up of the earlier episodes. The idea around which this series is based is nothing new, but it throws in more than enough to make this series worth watching.

#2 (2) – Heartcatch Precure – (8,75/10)

A ton of plot and focus on Cure Moonlight this month, with some really adorable results. Like Cure Sunshine, she is completely different from Cure Blossom and Marin, and so the mood of this series this month also was bit more mature than usual and it’s great to see this series evolve like this.

#1 (1) – Giant Killing – (9,25/10)

A fantastic month for Giant Killing, the finale closed off the series perfectly, and yet it left enough room open for a second season. That final match was incredibly dynamic: it evolved with every single episode and it really used its teamwork to make it an awesome watch against the Osaka team, who were some worthy opponents.

Rainbow Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Rainbow



Madhouse is at its best when it’s dealing with mature series, boasting a refined execution and storytelling. Rainbow is not that. It’s bloody intense to the point of melodrama, and it wants everyone to know about it as it tells about a group of youths as they spend time in prison.

And it’s indeed easy to look at Rainbow and get annoyed by its cheese and melodrama. Storytelling is a balance between trying to tug your emotions, and showing restraint. Rainbow instead just attempts to show the intense suffering in prisons with as much drama as possible by either being overly dramatic, overly sappy or overly cheesy. Having said that though, this show does pack an excellent plot and the characters are more than charming and developed enough to make up for it.

Because as overdramatic as they are, the heavy scenes in this series make one hell of an impact. This series shies away from nothing to prove its point, and this can be seen as early as episode two. As overblown as some of the scenes are, prisons in the years following the second world war were a pure hell, and the creators really succeeded in getting this effect. One guard in particular is just a complete and over the top nutcase that is both easy to hate and love, especially as this guy develops.

Speaking of development: the biggest reason why this series is so memorable is because of the huge amount of time it spends on showing the characters growing up. The entire second half takes place a year after the lead characters leave prison, and try to pick up their lives again. We get to see their troubles fitting into society, chasing after their dreams, and dealing with the pasts they grew up in. Whereas the first half of the series is dark, depressing and hopeless, the second half is bright, heart-warming and hopeful. Throughout both, the themes of friendship remain a red thread throughout the entire series, and together the two halves, as different as they may be, form an excellent whole, leaving behind a very well developed cast.

Whether or not you’ll be able to enjoy this series depends entirely on how you’ll be able to stomach the overly sappy and dramatic nature of this series. Especially psycho guard (as I’d like to call him anyway) will be… hard to swallow at times. It’s never going to be a masterpiece, and Madhouse has certainly done much better in the past. Nevertheless, for those who don’t mind there is a lovable and heart-warming cast, well thought out and planned plot and a great soundtrack.

Storytelling: 8/10 – The plot itself is really excellent: perfectly paced, makes optimal use of its 26 episodes, throws in plenty of twists and turns. It’s just the delivery that will tug your suspense of disbelief with how over the top it is.
Characters: 9/10 – Wonderfully developed, each character has his own strengths and flaws.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Average for Madhouse standards. Lots of still frames that do look quite pretty at times. The soundtrack is excellent, though.
Setting: 9/10 – A very interesting twist on “old versus young”, this series shines in portraying the lead characters’ attempts to fit into society, and the darker sides of the period after the second world war.

Suggestions:
– Death Note
– Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji
– Red Garden