Category: Other:

Some Quick First Impressions: Jewel Pet – Tinkle, Rainbow, Angel Beats

by psgels, posted in Angel Beats, Rainbow, Some Quick First Impressions

Jewel Pet – Tinkle

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is socially inept and gets to magical girl.
Last year, when the first season of Jewel Pet aired it really had been ages since a good kids’ show had debuted. I was glad enough that at least something was there. This season however couldn’t be any more different: with Marie&Gali, Heartcatch Precure, Kaidan Restaurant and Kiruminzoo, the standard for this season’s kids’ series has been set higher than ever, so for once, I get the chance to be really strict against a kids’ series! This episode was terrible; I couldn’t find any hint of creativity whatsoever. The creators just grabbed the weird animales of the first season and dumped them to another kid, who has been made as purposefully dull as possible. The hijinks that the creators decided to fill this episode with were just abysmal as well. We get to see endless jokes of the lead ‘Jewel Pet”s magic screwing up and causing trougle. And the animation! The characters all have plastic faces. Especially these jewel pets have had WAAAAAY too much plastic surgery in their life. The different expressions of the characters hardly ever change. Not to mention the utterly horrid character-design of just about every character (seriously… what the heck are those heterochromic cats supposed to be…?). If you’re interested in a kids’ show, go for one of the series I mentioned above. Skip this one.
OP: Horribly cheesy J-pop
ED: Uninspired and bland.
Potential: 0%

Rainbow

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are delinquents in jail.
Okay, so it did turn out that this series does not have Madhouse’s best staff. The direction feels jerky, and the voice acting is often over the top and cheesy. These are the type of characters who aren’t going to be the most realistic or believable. Having said that, though, this was one heck of an intense episode. What this episode lacked in terms of good acting, it made up for atmosphere with an excellent soundtrack to boot. The prison here was definitely meant to model the worst kinds of circumstances you can run into: it has a paedophile doctor and a downright abusive warden. On top of that, the OP also very much hinted at the fact that the creators have no intention whatsoever to just cut this series off in the middle: they really want to show what happens to these kids when they grow up later, and that’s what I’m looking forward to the most. This can be an interesting test to see whether you can portray interesting characters, even with sub-par acting.
OP: Whoa!
Potential: 70%

Angel Beats

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is dead.
The thing I love about this season is that it keeps exceeding my expectations. From the outside Angel Beats looked like a bit of a Haruhi-clone directed by a comedy director who has never been known for his subtlety. This episode showed that the Haruhi-references were merely homages: it more than has its own story and characters to tell. The director also gives off a very strong performance in this opening episode, making this an excellent opening. There really was a ton of fast-paced dialogue in this episode, and at the same time it was full of subtle and not-so-subtle jokes. It makes use of the fact that it takes place in a world in which nobody can die by killing off people for fun, while still putting in the tensions and fears of being erased by ‘God’. The climax was also very well written and allowed the build-up to really come together. The animation is a bit simple, but the graphics themselves look pretty good, especially the concert scene. The thing I also loved was how this series showed that the NPCs of the world it takes place in all have lives. The concert, was really something to show that these people also just do things for fun, rather than existing randomly. Thumbs up.
Potential: 80%

Some Quick First Impressions: Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, Ookiku Furikabutte – Natsu no Taikai-Hen and Kaichou wa Maid Sama

by psgels, posted in Kaichou wa Maid-Sama, Ookiku Furikabutte, Some Quick First Impressions

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a teenaged future demon lord.
Again: better than expected. On one hand we have horrid character-designs, some of the most pointless fanservice I’ve seen this season (seriously… why?) and an entire cast of teenaged mages. On the other hand, it’s quite well animated actually plays around with the tropes of its genre. Generic male leads often get confused into pointless misunderstandings. This show takes these to the ridiculous, and plays around with their irony. It actually made me laugh a few times. But yeah: this has the consequence that everyone in this series is a complete moron and just acts how the plot demands it. The jokes also often just fall flat, and are trying too hard. The classroom scene was hilarious. The peeping scene was horribly dull and predictable.
ED: Boring J-Rock
Potential: 40%

Ookiku Furikabutte – Natsu no Taikai-hen

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters continue to participate in the regional baseball tournament.
When comparing to Cross Game, it’s perhaps a bit hard to see, but Ookiku Furikabutte also has truly excellent slice of life, though in a completely different way. This episode showed that more than ever. The creators really managed to show all of the characters as they are, with inspired dialogue as they analyze and talk about the previous and next matches that they’re involved into. On top of that, it turns out that it had no intention to just forget past characters: the opposing team whose match filled the majority of the first season returns in this episode as well, in which we see two of its members (the captain and that first year that never got to participate in the match) deal with what happened at the climax of the first season. A-1 show that they can very much animate three series at the same time with some excellent animation that may not be the smoothest, but is really well directed and inspired, bringing the characters to life. This second season is looking very promising at this point.
OP: Decent enough J-Rock
ED: A bit of a boring song.
Potential: 90%

Kaichou wa Maid Sama

Short Synopsis: Our lead character
works at a maid cafe.
Romantic comedies are one of my least favourite genres in anime. But in this season, they’re either really bad or really good. My favourite opening episodes so far are from those romantic comedies. Again, Kaichou wa Maid Sama has elements that have been beaten to death in attempts to pander to otaku. And yet it gives a fresh look at the genre with well written dialogue and characters. Like B Gata H Kei, the creators really know their characters, and this episode did a great job of not just establishing the characters, but also exploring who they are, what drives them and a bit about their pasts, already slightly developing them. The lead character suddenly feeling ill was a bit forced I guess, but the rest of this episode was a delight to watch.
OP: Nice animation, decent song.
ED: Boring J-rock.
Potential: 80%

Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra Review – 92,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Armed Librarians - The Book of Bantorra




Without a doubt my favourite show during the past Winter Season. Armed Librarians was always interesting to watch, it always brought nice ideas to the table, and it always was wrapped in a tight script. There are just so many thing to like about this series.

For a fantasy series, the premise already stands out with its simple idea to turn people into ‘books’ after they die: these books can be read by anyone who touches them, and the lead characters are basically bookkeepers of these books (so yeah, the term ‘librarians’ in this series has very much a double meaning). The idea an sich is already very creative, but the beauty really lies in how the series makes use of those books to weave past and present into one.

Every arc is basically laid out with a number of seemingly unrelated plot-threads, that get woven into one brilliantly. Past and present cross each other in the explanation of the ties between the different characters in each arc as we learn about why the central characters became involved with the plot in the first place. Each arc really takes care to make its characters complete and even the character-development is very well thought out within the plot. Conclusions are often very clever combinations of circumstances of everyone’s unique circumstances.

And this just goes on for the entire series. Every arc continues to throw interesting plot twists that are full of creativity like it’s nothing! This comes at a price, of course. While this series really has had the best plot I have watched in YEARS, the characters don’t feel exactly like characters, but instead are much more part of the plot. Because of this, you don’t want to watch this sereis for realistic or characterization. The reason the characters rock in this series is because of what they represent, and how their development ties into the rest of the series.

Then there’s also the matter that this show would have fit better within 35 episodes. Throughout the majority of this series, you won’t notice much of it, however the final arcs are clearly rushed, and you can visibly see that the creators have troubles fitting everything into such a short time spam. Nevertheless, whem compared to so many series that were put into the same situation, it really got away with its rushed ending. While cheesy, it always stays true to what it is, and ands with a huge bang that gives it its best shot to resolve the plot as good as possible.

So overall, Armed Librarians has been an utter delight to watch for me. If you’re looking for an exciting fantasy adventure then it’s an excellent recommendation. The production values by David Production get increasingly better after its first episode, and its soundtrack is truly epic and fits its setting perfectly. It’s been a consistently fun an entertaining ride for me, and I hope it will be for you as well.

Storytelling: 10/10 – One of the best plots I watched in years. So many plot threads weaved together.
Characters: 9/10 – Excllent and imaginative development, but no character is realistic.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Awesome soundtrack, animation that may not be the most accurate, but continues to keep the balls in the air for the rest of the series.
Setting: 9/10 – A highly imaginative world that combines many, many interesting concepts into one. Also is the first fantasy I have seen to actually have democracies.

Suggestions
– Vision of Escaflowne
– Hi no Tori
– Pandoa Hearts

Some Quick First Impressions: B Gata H Kei, Heroman and Marie&Gali 2.0

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

B Gata H Kei

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to have sex with 100 men.
Look. Those who know this blog know that I often talk down on fanservice and moe series. I do not do that for the sake of fanservice. However, it’s more because shows that have lots of it tend to be really cheaply written without any depth whatsoever, and have a type of comedy that I don’t find funny at all. There really are too many of these things! Yet, when a fanservice series comes around that’s actually good… then who am I to complain? Really, B Gata H Kei is indeed full of fanservice. It has a lot of boobs, along with your typical male lead character. It also however, had the best opening episode I have ever seen of a shounen romantic comedy (and seriously, that has to be the most densely populated genre in anime out there). What made this episode so awesome was that even for a romantic comedy, it was surprisingly clever. It was full of a ton of witty jokes about the two lead characters. The dialogue really made this episode and you can really see that the creators have understood the characters they’re working with. Rather than just inserting random panty-shots, the creators really play with their premise, making for a hilarious episode.
OP: Well, decent enough for J-Pop
ED: Again, decent enough.
Potential: 80%
(Yes, this is the fifth year that I’ve been doing these first impressions. And yes, I have never given a fanservice show such a high rating before. I really hope that it continues to be as good as this episode.)

Heroman

Short Synopsis: Our lead character finds his own giant robot in the trash.
Yeah, so it’s no surprise that the first episode of Heroman would be a rather bad one. The lead character starts out as even more of a wimp than your average lead character (nerd: check. Unpopular: check. A cute girl is in love with him: check. Really high-pitched voice: um, check?). The bullies and popular kids also were just… bad. This episode was clearly rushed and not as solid as we’ve come to expect from Bones’ opening episodes. My least favourite part was probably the part at which the hero’s romantic love interest just ‘happened’ to end up in a car crash accident (of course without any scratch whatsoever other than unconsciousness), right when the titular Heroman makes his appearance. Whether this show is going to be good or not is very hard to determine at this point, because the scenes in which Heroman starred were actually interesting enough, and had some potential, confirming even more that this series works best as an action series. And that’s the biggest potential pitfall of this series: there was surprisingly little action there. What if the rest of the series is also going to drag on like this episode did?
OP: Boring J-rock.
ED: Interesting style.
Potential: 40%

Marie&Gali 2.0

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is forced back to this series.
I’m really glad to see that this awesome series has made it to a second season. This episode was a bit low on the science, but that’s understandable since it was meant to introduce the premise of the new season, and introduce the new kid. The show still has its wonderful sense of timing that made the first season such a wonderful comedy. You can also see that the creators have taken a lot more liberties with Marika as well: she’s no longer the deadpan straight man she once was, but she also manages to keep the balls high. The new girl has this strange posh accent that moe series often like to abuse (seriously, do people actually talk like that in Japan?), but she has potential to be hilarious. The animation wasn’t as solid as it used to be, though. It’s still very creative, but the characters’ faces were a bit too often rushed.
OP: Um yeah, a rather annoying J-pop, but it’s not like the first OP was good either.
Potential: 80%

March Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

Ah, it’s finally spring. It’s a season of lots and lots of rain that eventually turns into nice weather. Seriously though, the reason I’m looking forward to it because this time it really is a season of opportunities: Noitamina is growing, and besides that there is a ton series that either have a great staff with a dull premise, or a great premise with a dull staff. It really can go anywhere, and that’s why I’m looking forward it to it a lot, despite that it may not be as full as compared to the spring seasons of previous years.

As for this season, I’m actually glad that there were rather few series worth watching, because my schedule has become much busier over the past two months, which really allowed me to get used to it. It’s not my favourite season by far, but it did excel in terms of comedies and kids’ shows. The best company of this season was Toei: they didn’t just come with one great series, they had three of them. Four if you also count One Piece, but I’m not watching that series (WAY too long and intimidating).

As for this month’s rankings, aside from my favourites, my rankings got completely jumbled up in comparison to last month. This mostly is due to some excellent series with disappointing finales, and series that I considered to be only decent suddenly turning awesome.

#22 (new) – KissXSis – (3/10) – This is just.. awful. Nothing but an excuse for porn, with hardly anything else. I don’t think that anyone is going to watch this show for something other than the nude girls here. For me, it’s already the worst of the new season even though only four shows have aired yet.
#21 (new) – Koihime Musou – (3,5/10) – It’s exactly the same as it’s ever been: incredibly stupid moe humor. Bored me to death. Dropped.
#20 (new) – Ikkitousen – (4,5/10) – Here’s the thing: for Ikkitousen, it wasn’t that bad of an episode. If I’m not mistaken, the appeal of this show is fighting + fanservice, and that’s pretty much what that episode delivered on, compared to the godawful Dragon Destiny and Great Guardians. Still, with regular standards the show still is pretty cheesy and full of stupid and stereotypical characters.
#19 (new) – Working!! – (5/10) – I’ve been looking forward to this series, but alas. It’s sense of humour is completely different from mine, and as a result I only was annoyed by the countless teenaged antics that the creators kept trying to push forward. Dropped.
#18 (17) – Ookami Kakushi – (6,5/10) – Well, everything pretty much derailed for this show. While it looked like it was actually trying in the beginning, the ending was just terrible thanks to the useless male lead and the really cheesy villain. The adults all started acting like complete morons, and nothing really got solved in the end. The final gag episode also was a pain to sit through.
#17 (16) – Kimi ni Todoke – (7,75/10) – Granted, this finale was definitely more bearable than the rest of this series, but it never really solved anything. All we got was a message that said that if you ‘liked the story, you should check out the manga and a second season might be made’. Gee, how subtle.
#16 (11) – Cobra The Animation – (7,75/10) – Not the strongest month for Cobra, as I liked it best when it was episodic. The final arc took up four episodes, and it could have been condensed a bit as it dragged a bit for too long. Nevertheless, it was entertaining and kept me busy.
#15 (4) – Sora no Oto – (7,75/10) – The first two thirds of this series were truly excellent. However, I just can’t say the same of what Sora no Oto showed us the past month. It tried to do way too much in way too little time, and it wanted to be way too epic, forgetting that it was supposed to be a slice of life series. The final episode was way too rushed and pulled way too many convenient plot twists. The best that this month has shown was probably the German.
#14 (10) – Tentai Senshi Sunred – (8,25/10) – The final episodes weren’t among the highlights of Sunred’s second season, but I still got a good laugh out of them. It’s sad to see this show go, as it’s been one of those rare comedy sequels to actually surpass its original.
#13 (7) – Marie & Gali – (8,25/10) – So the finale took up this month’s airtime for Marie & Gali, so it wasn’t exactly amongst the series’ highlights. However, it was nowhere near bad. I love how the finale, instead of creating a cheesy climax that had nothing to do with the rest of the series, instead forced Marika to think for herself. That’s of course the perfect ending for a series that’s about exploring the wonders of science.
#12 (5) – Cross Game – (8,25/10) – One thing that I didn’t like about Cross Game this month was that most of its time was spent on its rather boring baseball match in the finale of the regional championships. It was the thing I had been fearing for twenty episodes now, and it indeed was nowhere as good as the truly excellent slice of life of this series. Nevertheless, the actual ending closed off the series really well.
#11 (15) – Katanagatari – (8,25/10) – Episode 3 was heaps better than the first two episodes: an interesting scenario, an interesting villain, the dialogue was much more focused and the fight again was short and sweet. It’s definitely an interesting series to watch like this.
#10 (12) – Anymaru Tantei Kiruminzoo – (8,25/10)

Episode 25 started this series mid-way climax. And it was… unusual. Completely different from the laid-back nature of the rest of the series. I’m actually quite curious what the creators are planning for the second half of this series.

#9 (9) – Kaidan Restaurant – (8,25/10)

I’m also pretty amazed at how well this series is doing in terms of popularity and audience numbers, and it pretty much deserves it. I can very much imagine that kids are loving this little horror series, and it’s still delivering simple but fun and varied horror stories that are consistently scary.

#8 (18) – Hanamaru Youchien – (8,25/10)

I’m a bit sad about that open ending. I mean, if there’s one series that could have easily made up its own ending, it would have been this one, and it would have been much more satisfying than what we got to see right now, which basically was a build-up for nothing. Ignoring that however, then Hanamaru Youchien has gotten significantly better in its final third. The characters came together, the comedy became funnier, the characters developed a bit. Overall a very enjoyable finale.

#7 (14) – Gag Manga Biyori + – (8,5/10)

Absolutely hilarious. Especially the Wolf-man episode was beyond funny, but the other new episodes were also classics.

#6 (8) – Heartcatch Precure – (8,5/10)

It’s great to see that this series is currently working diligently to introduce all of the major characters, rather than wallowing away too much in random stories. It’s exactly what this show should be doing at this point.

#5 (13) – Letter Bee – (8,5/10)

You know, I was just going to casually enjoy the rest of this series and wait for the second season to really start off the plot. But damn… that final episode. The final ten minutes of this show single-handedly increased my opinion of this series significantly. It’s a huge cliff-hanger, but at the same time it was a wonderful way to end the first season with.

#4 (3) – Durarara – (8,75/10)

This month Durarara really managed to elevate itself to a higher level, and became something unique. The dialogue has been really well written in order to get the best out of the characters, and it’s really been working so far. More and more characters are shedding the seemingly stereotypical look that they had in the beginning.

#3 (6) – Kobato – (8,75/10)

Kobato really surpassed itself this month, with a very solid and heart-wrenching conclusion that really made use of its time. For me, it’s had the best ending of the season.

#2 (2) – Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – (9/10)

We’re really moving to the climax now, as this series has been ramping up the action while still developing the plot at a steady pace. Exciting is an understatement to describe this series.

#1 () – Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra – (9,25/10)

The big problem with this show right now is that it should have been 35 episodes long, instead of 27. So yeah, it’s a bit rushed, but seriously, that still doesn’t make it any less awesome than that it already was. I’m still enjoying this show more than any other at the moment and despite the rushed plot the creators did manage to capture the essences of the final chapters of the story. Because of that it’s awesome to see everything finally coming together.

Kimi ni Todoke Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Kimi ni Todoke



Romances often are annoying, which can often be attributed to characters acting completely irrational, illogical and against their own feelings. I’ve watched quite a few series that created a well developed cast this way, like with Bokura ga Ita and White Album. Kimi ni Todoke however… just… didn’t work for me.

The first half of this series really was a pain for me to try and sit through. The premise is simple: a very shy and socially inept girl (Sawako) and a popular, good-looking guy (Kazehaya) fall in love with each other. Fair enough, but the execution left a lot to be desired, especially when the creators started focusing on the love triangles. Hordes of girls turn out to be in love with Kazehaya as well, and the drama that results out of it is horribly dragged out for way longer than it should have, and the creators treat it like some kind of blasphemy if any of the two lead characters even dares to talk to someone of the other gender.

For a series that’s about the high school years of a bunch of people, Sawako and Kazehaya don’t really feel like interesting characters at all. Sawako is way too pure: whenever someone tries to take advantage of her feelings (by making her jealous for example), her incredible naivety just feels incredibly unnatural and it quickly turns into a bit of a lame gimmick. Kazehaya on the other hand is just so bland as a male romantic interest. He’s just… there, with hardly any personality about him other than some guy who just keeps smiling.

What also did not help was this series’ facial expressions, especially the chibi-distortions that you see in most of those other shoujo series as well. Usually they’re used with stylistic purposes; you know, colour each character with these seemingly over the top reactions. Here however, they felt more like “Okay, you can laugh now”-signs. They’re often badly animated in contrast to the rest of this series’ beautiful looks, are forced and hardly ever are actually used in funny situations. This show just continuously tried to be subtle, while it ultimately just wasn’t.

The only subtle part that I actually found about this series was its character-development. THANKFULLY, this show gets better in its second half as soon as the main love rival is put on a bus away from the main plot. From there on the characters change ever so slightly: Sawako learns how to appreciate life more and Kazehaya becomes less bland, but it’s not that the creators try to shove this development down your throat like they did with the love triangles. it really helps for a series if its final arc is the best one, and that pretty much was the case here.

Still, I don’t think that this show is the same as White Album, in which an excellent second half made up for an incredibly annoying first half. In the end I still see Kimi ni Todoke as a bit of a half-baked series with characters that never really stand out at anything. It’s overall something that will keep you busy on a rainy day with not much else to do, but there are a lot of better series out there.

Storytelling: 7/10 – Lacks subtlety, drags on for way too long.
Characters: 8/10 – Decent enough in its focus at being in love, with slight development that at least makes the final parts of the series interesting enough.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Great visuals, as expected from Production IG, but the chibi-drawings annoy.
Setting: 7/10 – Pretty much your standard high school setting Nothing that really stands out.

Suggestions:
– Bokura ga Ita
– True Tears
– Kimikiss – Pure Rouge

Gag Manga Biyori+ Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



BY FAR the most underwatched and underrated series of the past winter-season was Gag Manga Biyori’s fourth season. There were no subs, the first season was already very much unknown, and its random and unimpressive promo-art that lacked any moe whatsoever lead to only few people to give it a chance. On top of that, it also didn’t help that half of this season was a recap: only the odd numbered episoded episodes were new, while the even ones were just episodes taken from previous seasons.

But here’s the thing: never since the best episodes of Gintama have I laughed as hard at an anime as with this series. This isn’t just a case of a series that’s ‘decent despite its popularity’, no. Gag Manga Biyori+ is one of the funniest things I’ve seen since ages. Besides that, it has nothing: there’s no plot, no characters, the graphics suck. But the new episodes were so awesome to watch that I just don’t care. Even the first season wasn’t as good as the episodes here.

Of course, its sense of humour is not for everyone. If you’re into moe humour then you don’t want to watch this series. However, if you’re looking for hyperactivity, then you really can’t get anything more hyperactive than this. This show elevates energetic to completely new levels, the pacing is absolutely through the roof. It never waits for its audience to catch a bit of breath, it just keeps bombarding it with joke after joke after joke, all of them over the top. With episodes of five minutes, it’s also no commitment at all to try and watch this season. My advice is that if you want something energetic to laugh at and happen to know some Japanese, then give this show a shot. If you don’t know Japanese, then you can at least check out the first season, which did come fully subbed.

Storytelling: 10/10 – Absolutely hilarious. I haven’t laughed this hard in ages.
Characters: 8/10 – Um, yeah. Random characters for every episodes. But they don’t really need to be anything more.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Smooth animation, but simple art style and a lot of still frames. But it doesn’t really need to be anything better.
Setting: 8/10 – Um, yeah. It’s knowledgeable about the things it parodies, I guess.

(So yeah, this is pretty much an incredibly subjective review: I’m only rating it this high because I found it so incredibly funny ^^;)
– Excel Saga
– The other Gag Manga Biyori Seasons
– Kodomo no Omocha
– Sexy Commando Gaiden

Shoka Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




The Animax Grand Prix is something like a contest for amateur writers: submit your story, and the winner gets his story animated in a 20-minute OVA. Up till now, the results have been mostly simple kids stories: Yume da Maya Kidan for example was about a girl’s relationship with her brother who got kidnapped by an angry demon, while Takane no Jitensha was about a boy’s relationship with his younger sister. Shoka however, is completely different.

From the screenshots you can pretty much see its unusual art style, and ultimately Shoka is an action OVA: its animation is truly gorgeous. The animation is messy, but detailed and very imaginative. And for once, you can actually see that the animators have put some attention in the lip movement of characters: their mouths don’t just simply move up and down whenever they’re speaking, but you can actually see their mouths form the syllables that they’re trying to say.

The action and animation is really why you should want to watch this little OVA, because apart from that it doesn’t have much else. The story is just there to show the action, and the characters too are pretty simple. The dialogue is also nothing special, as shown in the minute of cheesy comedy that is tacked at the end.

So yeah at the end this OVA knows how to build up tension, and how to write excellent action. But the thing is that these things can all be attributed to the adaptation staff. For once I’d like to see an actually great short story being picked up by the Animax Grand Prix. There are enough amateur writers who are capable of such a thing.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Nice action.
Characters: 6/10 – Just serve as tools for the action; cheesy dialogue.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Gorgeous and detailed animation.
Setting: 7/10 – Nice idea of calligraphers, but 20 minutes is way too short to really explore it to its fullest

Suggestions:
– Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi
– Kai Doh Maru
– Manie Manie

Hanamaru Youchien Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Hanamaru Youchien




Here’s a slice of life series that’s slightly different from what you usually see. The lead character is really a typical lead character, but he’s an actual adult. The series takes place not at a high school, but a kindergarten. Add a whole dose of role-play to that, and you pretty much get the formula of Hanamaru Youchien. A fun and relaxing series. And as an added bonus, the characters are well written as well.

Hanamaru Youchien basically spends its time either role playing, or fleshing out the characters. The former is just fun: we get to see inside the imagination of a bunch of five-year olds and their crazy ideas, and all of the adventures that they go on are consistently enjoyable, carrying an air of homage and parody that the creators (both Gainax and its director Seiji Mizushima) are famous for. The latter actually succeeds in making all of the adults into actual characters rather than stereotypes and paper bags.

Especially Tsuchida, the lead character, is one of those rare examples of a typical male lead done right. While he can be a loser at times, he also has enough things that he’s good at, his character is dynamic enough to allow him to evolve, rather than staying in the same one-sided stereotypes. The side-cat is also excellent in their support to the main cast. We get to know the backgrounds and motivations of everyone, and why they become involved as kindergarten teachers. In the end, the adults in this series get fleshed out so well that they actually manage to trump the adventures of the different kids in the series.

The biggest problem with this series however is that it doesn’t know whether it wants to also have romance or not. The ingredients are there: the lead character has someone he’s in love with. she’s just ridiculously clueless and at the end they’re still not together. I mean, if you’re going to set up some romance, at least have the decency to not build a brick wall between the lead characters.

There’s also a bit of an annoying sister, but she only appears in two episodes or so. The rest of this series is light-hearted and down to earth, but still has this sense of maturity that contrasts really well with the younger kids. The drama that’s there is short and focused, and doesn’t come across forced or too dramatic at all, so this series both ended up delivering in its serious and funny parts. On top of that, you also have to love what this series has done with its EDs: every episode has a completely different one, with a completely different style, genre and soundtrack.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Varied, fun and adorable.
Characters: 8/10 – This show confirms why I keep advocating adults in anime.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Solid animation and cute graphics.
Setting: 8/10 – Not the most creative series out there, but creative enough to fill 12 episodes, and the kindergarten itself and the world around it is also well portrayed.

Similar Series:
– Ristorante Paradiso
– Yume de Aetara
– Bottle Fairy

Cross Game Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Cross Game




It’s easy to dismiss Cross Game as a baseball series, but make no mistake. This is much more a slice of life series about characters who just happen to play a lot of baseball. Cross Game is much more a tale of growing up, with a healthy dose of humour along the way. And it does this oh so well.

Seriously, in terms of slice of life, you can hardly get any better than this. The seemingly endless amount of wit with which the writers spice up the daily lives is incredible, and they love to play with this. Whenever you see a character do something seemingly out-of-character, there’s always some sort of very logical explanation behind this.Think about a character making an important confession at first sight, only to reveal that he’s talking about something completely different. The entire series is chock-ful of these moments that have a ton of fun playing with the characters in this way.

Obviously this gives the show an awesome cast to work with. We see them grow up through the series, from when they’re still small children to their third year in high school. As a viewer we really get to know who they are, and because of that the slice of life works so well: these characters rock right from the first episode of this series, so it becomes a really enjoyable ride to just see what they’re doing in their everyday lives.

The problem with this series is, in fact, the baseball, for multiple reasons. First of all, the slice of life is just that good. Every time a baseball match started, I felt like something was missing, and just kept hoping that they would wrap up as soon as possible in order to get more of the quiet moments in this series. That, and the baseball matches aren’t that good anyway. Especially when you compare them to other series, they’re poorly built up, hand together with cliches and the teams that our lead characters match against are hardly ever fleshed out properly. There’s no tension in them, and all you’re doing is waiting for them to finish.

Cross Game is based on a manga by Mitsuru Adachi, who pretty much can only write one type of series, but he can do that incredibly well. Cross Game is the same, and although I do prefer Touch (due to its longer length and because it did have excellent baseball matches, despite its lack of wit in the slice of life department), Cross Game nevertheless is excellent and its execution is one of a kind.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Wonderfully witty in its portrayal of the characters’ daily lives. Baseball matches suck, though.
Characters: 10/10 – Take perhaps a bit long to develop, but a lot of the cast members end up well rounded at the end of the series.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Nothing special, asice from a good soundtrack perhaps.
Setting: 8/10 – Not a fan of the way it portrayed baseball, but did a good job of the high school setting.