Category: Other:

Some quick first impressions: Golgo 13, Kyouran Kazoku Nikki and Nijuu Mensou no Musume

by psgels, posted in Nijuu Mensou no Musume, Some Quick First Impressions

Golgo 13

Well, this turned out better than expected, but that may also be because I expected nothing from this series anyway. Golgo may have a laughable name, but it does have a certain style. The soundtrack is effective, though I feel that the manga-chapters don’t really fit the 24-episode formats. In this episode, the only thing that Golgo does is that he comes, he shoots, and then he leaves again. The creators clearly struggle with filling up the remaining 23 minutes of this episode so they just show a random sex-scene. I hope that the future assignments for the guy are a bit more challenging to overcome; otherwise it’d make a pretty boring series. Still, this series has no real flaws so far, apart from the fact that Golgo’s character-design makes it looks like he’s suffering from a bad case of constipation.

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki

Boy… the shounen-comedies sure are dull this season. I’m sick and tired of females that rely just on their energy and moe-ness to deliver comedy. Really, a series needs more than that to be funny, and still there are heaps of series that don’t seem to understand this. Kyouran Kazoku Nikki at least tries to add this extra substance though its side-characters and I guess that they do have potential, but really, how many times haven’t we seen male lead X being beaten up and abused by the female lead? Is it really that hard to come up with something original?

Nijuu Mensou no Musume

Ah, too bad. I had high hopes for this series, being animated by Bones and all, but in the end this one turned into a big mess. This series has nice action and screenplay and all, but it’s mercilessly shatters your suspense of disbelief within the first minute of this episode. This is indeed the problem with thief-series: they’re portrayed in a way too elegant manner. When you steal something, you’re supposed to be hiding in the shadows, making use of the flaws in security, not just use a zeppelin to lift the roof of a building. Again it’s just one character who ruins the entire series. I mean, Chico was nice to watch, the henchmen were very interesting, but that thief… I still can’t believe that the creators were serious with that guy.

Some quick first impressions: Toshokan Sensou, Junjo Romantica and Kaiba

by psgels, posted in Kaiba, Some Quick First Impressions

Toshokan Sensou

With Noitamina, I just knew that this series would be worthwhile. Toshokan Sensou has proven to have the best soundtrack this season, and with Production IG, the art looks terrific. This series also smartly spent its first episode fleshing out its main characters, instead of focusing on a story-heavy start. So instead the characters already feel dynamic for when the story starts kicking in. This series has a limited time to work with, and yet it’s got quite a large premise, so this will probably be one of the most fast-paced series to come out of the Noitamina-timeslot.

Junjo Romantica

Okay, so this was a really weird combination between hilarious and disturbing. This series does have a sense of humour, and there’s some good chemistry between the characters. The only problem is that the chemistry between them might be a bit too good, because the characters wasted no time to get it on with each other. What surprises me, by the way, is that this series has the best OP song this season, strangely enough. The song is standard J-rock, but it works surprisingly well. It’ll be interesting to keep watching this series, if only to laugh at the hot passion that will erupt from it.

Kaiba

Oh my god, I can’t believe how well this series turned out! Even with the fantastic line-up that this season already has, Kaiba has delivered the best first episode of them all! This is EXACTLY the reason why I love experimental anime. Anime should be used as a medium to showcase creative ideas, not to just copy everyone else. On top of that, the mystery in this series is downright excellent. Since 2007 was so disappointing in terms of mystery, my inner-fanboy is loving all the different mystery-series that this season has offered so far! I really urge everyone to check out this series, because it’s without a doubt the most unique anime to come out this year, even taking Hakaba Kitarou in consideration. Don’t be discouraged by the childish-looking character-designs. This series is exactly the reason why simple character-designs don’t mean that the series will be for children.

Some quick first impressions: Crystal Blaze, RD Sennou Chousashitsu and Himitsu – Top Secret ~ The Revelation

by psgels, posted in Crystal Blaze, Himitsu ~The Revelation~, RD Sennou Chousashitsu, Some Quick First Impressions

Crystal Blaze

Tuesday evening was really my most anticipated day of the new season, so I’m really glad it’s finally arrived, and with such a start I had enough reasons to look forward to it. Crystal Blaze may be a bit rough around the edges, but it’s got definite potential. It’s already the first episode, and not once did I have any reason to look away from the screen. This episode kept me interested throughout its entire run. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen a good mystery-series, and this one might very well be it. It still needs to work a bit on its romanji, but so far, the characters have been interesting and the first episode has been among xxxHolic the best in terms of storyline this season.

RD Sennou Chousashitsu

Like expected, this episode was really solid, although there was some strangely placed fanservice here and there. In any case, the male main character probably has to be the oldest main character in an anime I’ve seen. He even spends some significant amount of screen-time in this episode as an old guy in a retirement home. It’s not the best way to attract the viewers who only like cute girls and hot buys, but I really like this idea, and this series is without a doubt the most imaginative series of the new season. In addition to that, it’s also the hardest to understand, though. Still, I’m expecting some great things from this series once it really gets on fire. One point of critique is that the main female lead feels rather out of place when you first meet her, though she quickly got less annoying as the episode progressed.

Himitsu – Top Secret ~ The Revelation

If you’re one of the people who gets sick of all the anime with teenage protagonists, then this series is a must-watch for this season. Not only is it all about adults and away from annoying teenagers, but it’s also got one of the best first episodes of this season, along with Kurenai and xxxHolic. I seriously couldn’t have expected a better start for this. The cast is so different from usual anime, and yet each member has an already engaging personality, not to mention that the main premise of this story provides so much potential. In addition, the soundtrack is among the best this season as well. Madhouse has really picked out some excellent series this season!

Demashitaa! Power Puff Girls Z Review – 88/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Yes, you’ve read that rating right. I didn’t expect this series to be this good when I started watching it, nearly two years ago now, but Power Puff Girls Z has been a large source of laughs for me whenever it appeared. There’s a good reason why the original length was increased from 39 to 52 episodes, because this series that basically awaited scepsis from nearly everyone turned out to be quite addictive.

If you’ve seen the original Power Puff Girls, then there are a few things you should know: Power Puff Girls Z completely went with its own style. This is a good thing, as in this way it fixed a lot of the mistakes that the original series made. On the bad side, because of these changes it’ll be really easy to see this as a series that only little kids can enjoy.

One of the biggest problems with this series is that it takes a really long time to get used to the bizarre sense of humour that this series has. If there’s any point in the series where you find yourself thinking: “oh god, they can’t go for something that stupid”, it will. This leads to an angry sushi-monster that assaults people who don’t eat the sushi he likes, and monsters in the form of a pen and an eraser who have trouble to understand each other’s feelings.

Fear not, though. Those were just some of the worst examples, and this series especially starts shining once it hits its second half. You just have to love the disco-fever-episode, or the manga-artist one. This series is so incredibly silly at times, but that’s what makes it so much fun. It really doesn’t care about being liked by everyone, and because of that it’s able to come up with these extreme cases.

That, however, isn’t the only reason why I’ve been looking forward for every new episode for the past year. In the original Power Puff Girls, we never really knew where the monsters that were terrorizing Townsville came from and why they wanted to destroy that particular town in the first place, or in what kind of trouble that town must have been before Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup arrived. But Power Puff Girls Z is different. Everything is really explained here. It may seem a bit far-fetched at times, especially at the beginning, but because the first episodes put so much effort into a conclusion, this series actually managed to close off with a pretty good finale, whereas most other comedies are just way too lazy to try and come up with a good ending.

This is also one series that knows how to deliver a good fight. The minor ones aren’t that special, but especially the fights against the big enemies are really fun to watch. You’d think that whenever you’d stand against a very strong enemy, the drama may take over a bit too much, but especially the fights against Him (the major bad guy of this series) are epic, yet hilarious to watch.

I used to watch the original Power Puff Girls a lot, but looking back, it made the mistake of taking itself way too seriously at times. An angry Buttercup or an angsty Blossom can only remain interesting for a very short while, and the original series went way too far in that. Power Puff Girls Z therefore was really refreshing in its light-hearted nature (do not miss the few times at which this series gets to poke fun at its predecessor). It may be a bit childish at times (okay, make that REALLY childish at times), but when it shines, this series really shines like no other comedy. Added to that comes what’s probably the best cheesy J-Pop soundtrack I’ve heard in an anime, the fact that this really is a series that didn’t play all its trumps in the beginning, and you’ve got a very enjoyable comedy-series.

Some quick first impressions: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, Net Ghost Pipopa and Monochrome Factor

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s

Masochists of the world, unite! Seriously, this was without a doubt the worst show of the new season. And without a surprise either. It’s one of these shows that are so bad that it becomes good again. And really, it was a very smart decision from the creators to make all the duels take place on motorbikes now. Everyone’s now wearing helmets, so they won’t burn your eyes with their outrageous hair-styles! If only the same could be said for the monster-design and motorbike-designs. Still, the cream of the crop in terms of badness was without a doubt the fight. It’s so badly written that it’d even give Zaizen Jotaro a run for its money.

Net Ghost Pipopa

While I most definitely won’t watch another episode of this, I can imagine how kids would love it. It’s great to see another kiddie-series that intends to do more than just get kids to buy overpriced toys. Net Ghost Pipopa basically tries to get the young ones a bit familiarized with the internet, by portraying it as a brightly coloured world that some lucky kids can enter. It’s nowhere explained why our male main character is one of those lucky ones, but series of this particular genre could have been much worse (look above). I wouldn’t recommend anyone above 15 to watch it, but if you’ve got a little sibling (and this thing ever gets subbed), you might want to consider showing this to the.

Monochrome Factor

This series has genre-issues! One moment it features a spunky girl confessing over the girl of her love, and yet all the male characters are bishies and two of them even end up kissing each other. In any case, this series isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just boring. It failed to catch my attention at all, and it’s given me no real interest to keep watching it. The fights are dull (monsters just get slashed and that’s it). I also feel that the only female voice-actress was trying way too hard. It’s still better than Hirano Aya’s performance in Zettai Karen Children, but I can’t seem to remember any line in which she didn’t scream.

Some quick first impressions: Soul Eater, Special A and Vampire Knight

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions, Soul Eater

Soul Eater

What a fun series! Really, Bones did it again, creating a series with an absolutely terrific sense of style. Everything about this series clicks so far. It may not have the most realistic storyline, but it’s fun to watch without a doubt. It’s also got a great sense of humour, and I especially love that picture of the moon with a big smile. The banter between all the different characters is also hilarious, so I’ve got high hopes for this series. The question now remains: will this series have enough material for fifty-one episodes (at least, that’s what AniDB and ANN say, but these aren’t the most trusted sources)? I must say that it’s great to see another series that aims for such a length, but you do need to have enough inspiration to pull it off.

Special A

The elite are always portrayed in an exaggerated way in anime, and this series is no different. There are about eight very talented people at school, who are looked up to by everyone, they’ve got their own enormous greenhouse, drink tea all the time and they’re superior in every single way to those measly regular students. Still, at least this series gives a good reason for our main female lead to be in that club, unlike a certain Shugo Chara and dozens of other shoujo. Hikari was already quite talented because of an ambitious father, and then she met her male rival, who always stood above her. She basically spent her entire childhood chasing this guy, walking in his shadow. Also, this series knows very well when it needs to exaggerate and when it needs to be serious, so the ridiculous premise won’t get in the way of what’s really important for this series: the relationship between the female and male lead. And I must say that the creators have tackled it very nicely so far. Here’s Gonzo’s next potential classic.

Vampire Knight

This really is THE season for shoujo and science fiction. This season has really turned out better than I expected, and to think that my most anticipated day for this season (Tuesday) hasn’t even come yet! In any case, the thing that really striked me with Vampire Knight, especially after watching Special A, is that its jokes are rather obtrusive. Special A knew exactly when to deliver a joke, though a lot of jokes in Vampire Knight are misplaced, break flow of the drama and aren’t that funny anyway. That was the bad part of this series. The good parts are that the story has a lot of potential, the characters are interesting and the soundtrack is excellent. I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews about the original manga: some people consider it their bible, while others say it downright sucks. Well, I’m interested to find out which is true.

Hatenkou Yuugi Review – 70/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Adapting a manga. From the outside, it looks so simple: you just have to take a page and animate it accordingly. Yet practice has shown that a lot of series have trouble with this. Sometimes entire pages are omitted completely, or the writers think they’re talented and insert some boring inconsequential fillers. A great example of this is Hatenkou Yuugi. Oh, how I wanted to praise this series, but it’s an extreme example of how you can screw up manga-adaptations.

The manga had huge potential, but in the end the only thing that didn’t end up completely botched was the dialogue. It’s deep and detailed, but you can’t really praise the anime staff for it. They only literally copied the dialogue from the manga and inserted it. It’s just a matter of simple copying and pasting, and letting your voice-actors do the rest.

And really, it feels like the creators all went through a major divorce at the same time when making this series, because all other aspects are downright lazy. This series is a string of badly explained plot-twists. Heck, we never know why the third main character ends up travelling with the other two characters in the first place, characters like to god-mode themselves out of any problems and any substance outside of the dialogue has been completely removed.

To top that, the creators apparently found out very late that they only had 10 episodes to work with. The result is a very amusing but downright disastrous final episode that thunders through revelations at a speed of Mach 5 in order to be able to finish on time, and it still remains an ending that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I hope that future directors will use this series as an example of how not to adapt a manga, because it’s such a shame that another story with potential had to be ruined. This series remained enjoyable because of its short length and dialogue, but it could have become so much more.

Some quick first impressions: Wagaya no Oinarisama, Neo Angelique Abyss and Da Capo II Second Season

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Wagaya no Oinarisama

The best thing about this series? The soundtrack. It surprises me as well, but Wagaya no Oinarisama has been the first series this season where the background music has stood out for me. All other series up till now featured either some cheesy J-Pop (not really my taste to say the least) or obligatory dark tunes that do their job. In this series, however, the music is subtle, yet very varied. One moment you hear a violin, then comes a flute, and then it’s the turn for the piano. Also, any soundtrack that has a choir is automatically win in my opinion. About the rest of the series: it’s solid so far. The characters are likable, and there’s some good chemistry between them. The story is nothing special, but this series seems to go for the slice-of-life route anyway. For now, it’s looking interesting enough.

Neo Angelique Abyss

Okay, let me correct that statement a bit: nearly every soundtrack that has a choir is automatically win in my opinion. You can of course always take it too far. I’ve found that obscure series are always either incredibly good or incredibly bad, and this one’s obviously of the bad kind. Really, it’s hilarious to see all the clichés present: a huge cast of bishies, all great fighters, a pretty female lead who has huge powers that enable her to stand in the centre of all these bishies, lots of angelic themes, and as a bonus, the evil power of the bad guy’s monsters turns out to give everyone it touches (except for the bishies for some strange reason) wrinkles. Of course, the worst fear for any young girl! I’ve ranted a lot about bad shounen-series, but that doesn’t mean that the shoujo-series don’t have their disasters as well. 😛

Da Capo II Second Season

Err… don’t ask me why I found it a good idea to check out the fourth instalment of Da Capo. It was worth a good laugh at the predictable plot here (and of course the waking-up scene couldn’t be missing), but I admit that there have been far worse series this season than this one. This is really another one of those “rainy-day anime”, which you can watch on a rainy day if you need to spend time other than taking for example your dog out to walk. However, that takes me to the huge size of this franchise. Including this series, there’ll be 78 freaking episodes. I acknowledge that this is a nice series to relax and all, but I really can’t imagine myself sitting through 10 episodes of virtually the same over and over again, let alone eighty-seven.

Some quick first impressions: Zettai Karen Children, Code Geass – Lelouch of the Revellion R2 and Nabari no Ou

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Zettai Karen Children

Well, here’s a surprise. I was about to condemn this series to the depths of hell, but it actually turned out quite entertaining for a light watch. It’s definitely not meant to be taken seriously, but series like that are nice once in a while as well. It really reminded me of a raunchy version of Power Puff Girls Z, and that definitely has potential for the future. There’s just one thing: I still don’t understand what people find so good about Hirano Aya. Her voice is annoying and way too exaggerated, and probably the most annoying thing of this first episode. What this series needs to do now is introduce interesting side-characters, and keep itself fresh throughout its entire run. I also hope that the big bad guy isn’t entirely serious and has a humorous side as well. A lot of good comedies have been ruined before because the major villain took himself too seriously.

Code Geass – Lelouch of the Revellion R2

No, that’s not a typo. Apparently, it’s the official spelling of this series according to this episode. In any case, this episode had a few too many things in common with a bad soap. Amnesia? Suzaku who has become even more stereotypical than he already was? The military knew about Lelouch, and yet they didn’t kill him as soon as they got the chance? This series is becoming harder and harder to take seriously. Ah well, at least it’ll be good for some brainless action, and with a bit of luck the upcoming episodes will become so over-the-top that they’ll be worth a good laugh.

Nabari no Ou

That main character sounds way too much like a girl! Whenever he talks, I keep seeing a strange Shana/Nagi/Louise clone acting tsundere. In any case, Nabari no Ou has solid production-values, but I’m not that excited about this series. Perhaps its the fairly generic premise so far, perhaps it’s the fact that the main cast all consists out of bishies while all the bad guys are ugly, or perhaps it’s because none of the characters has been particularly interesting so far. It’s not like I expected anything from this series, but it’s still a shame that it turned out so generic so far.

Some quick first impressions: Kanokon, Blassreiter and Kamen no Maid Guy

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Kanokon

Xebec has really fallen. Once they were a studio that brought quality-series like The Third and Hitohira, though this season their only focus seems to be fanservice. Really, I don’t know what’s left to say about these series in which the male main character suddenly gets loved by a bunch of beautiful girls for no reason. They’re bad, and just depend on their fanservice to make as many otaku buy their DVDs as possible. At least, I have to give this series credit that the dialogue seems a bit more inspired than usual series of this kind, but that’s to be expected with this being based on a light novel.

Blassreiter

To be honest, this episode didn’t give me any reason to condemn this series as an utter failure. There were a few problems here and there, where the animation looked rather unnatural, but overall this turned into a very capable action-series. And therein lies the problem, though. It’s been a really long time since I watched a “good” action series, and something really has to be wrong when the most satisfying action scenes I’ve seen for the past year came from Power Puff Girls Z. Action-series like Devil May Cry, who had great first episodes also turned out to consist of nothing but fillers, and while Gurren Lagann was entertaining, it still wasn’t really what I was looking for. Blassreiter definitely has the potential, but I first want to see whether it won’t screw up its future episodes before I get my hopes up too high.

Kamen no Maid Guy

Well, it’s a good thing that this seems to be a season of shoujo anyway, so I didn’t have any big expectations for this series. I maybe chuckled trice during this episode, which is way too little for a good comedy. This series really seems to try too hard, but all it does is waste a lot of energy on fanservice jokes that get boring really fast. I don’t even mind the bad animation, but there’s so much you can do with a concept of a GAR maid with a mask, and this series seems to choose the most predictable route through lots and lots of fanservice. I’m going to give this series one more chance, to see whether it’s perhaps like Muteki Kanbanmusume, though for now I won’t recommend this one.