Category: OVAs and Movies:

Gunslinger Girl – Il Teatrino OVA

by psgels, posted in Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino, OVAs and Movies:



Short Synopsis: First Rico and Jan travel to Venezia, then Jan, Jose, Henrietta and Rico visit Jan and Jose’s hometown.
Highlights: Haunting as ever.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Am I glad to see more of this or what? The OVA cleverly chose to focus on character-development, rather than action, and it was SO WORTH the fifty minutes of airtime. It would be such a shame if this series was the end of this franchise, because those final volumes of the manga really deserve to be animated. This OVA really reminded me why I labelled this series as the best one to start airing in the past Winter-Season after with Porfy no Nagai Tabi

The first half was basically about Rico, and how she’s probably the most haunting member of this cast. It’s still awkward to see such a killing-machine like her transform to such an innocent girl so easily, and especially that nightmare she had made a lot of impact: to suddenly wake up without having any limbs. During that moment, the creators and especially her voice-actress did a wonderful job at conveying her emotions at that time.

Il Teatrino concludes with the background story of the subplot that had been looming over the entire series: the death of Jan and Jose’s sister, and it’s interesting how both of them decided to live with it in a same way. Jan tried forget her, while Jose tried to not forget her. As a result, Jan has a strange illusion of her when he visits his old house back (and after seeing Henrietta wear some of his sister’s old clothes). At the same time, he also seems to be mourning over the death of a certain “Sophia”, though I didn’t pick up exactly who she was.

I’m also becoming an increasingly bigger fan of Kou Otani as a musical composer. So far, I’m loving the soundtracks he’s produced so far. They’ve all got a folky feel, but all of them are distinctive and different.

One thing that would be an interesting idea for of the third season ever gets highlighted, is for the series to switch production-companies again. In this way, we’ve got a series with three different, yet consistent parts that form a bit story as a while.

Eve no Jikan – Sammi

by psgels, posted in Eve no Jikan



Short Synopsis: Rikuo suspects Sammi of lying to him and wants to get to the bottom of it.
Highlights: Rikuo is turning into a pretty interesting character.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Okay, since I’m pretty much of the beta-sciences, I still have a bit of trouble trying to grasp the notion of real intelligence, as defined in this series. I mean, I fully believe that in the future, as long as the science advances, computers can be built with human consciousness and emotions. I however don’t think that this can just “appear” out of the blue, or as an accident. Why would someone design a cleaning-robot with human consciousness? Ergo Proxy solved this in a pretty interesting way, where it combined science fiction with fantasy by introducing a virus from higher-up that introduces self-consciousness for robots.

Just as I hoped, this episode shed a bit more light about how this could have happened in the first place. The TV-commercials and programs emphasized the evilness of Dori-kei. It’s being made ridiculous everywhere, as if someone high-ranked is desperately trying to give the robotic consciousness a bad name. I think it’s those mysterious people that appear at the end of the episode. I think that these robots originally were designed to really be like humans, and to act as companions, and just when these models were fully designed and produced, and acted just like humans, it turned out that this consciousness had a very nasty side-effect. This is why people who get too attached to robots are made ridiculous, to stop whatever nasty side-effect there is from getting out. I also think that Eve no Jikan is pretty much linked to this, in an attempt to resist these actions.

In the meantime, this episode did a pretty good job at fleshing out its characters. Rikuo turns out to be a closet Dori-kei, while his best friend Masaki seems to be turning into one of this series’ antagonists. It’s also quite fun to see the random people that decide to visit Eve no Jikan. It’s different in every episode, an din this way, it would have been pretty easy to make this series a 13-episode TV-series, simply by showing random visiters to the cafe, and it would also have allowed the setting to get a bit more airtime. Really, something tells me that the ending of this series is about to get rushed.

Detroit Metal City – 05

by psgels, posted in Detroit Metal City



Short Synopsis: Krauser II learns more about the capitalistic pig and visits his hoe during the holidays.
Highlights: Negishi really does have no sense of shame…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
This is probably the last episodic entry I’m going to write for this show. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice series and all, but I hardly have any inspiration about it. Once you’re done with the premise, there really isn’t much left to say about this series. I’m still going to write an overall review, but the other 7(?) episodes aren’t going to be covered. This series gets enough publicity already anyway, and it’s not as underrated as Studio 4C’s other series, so I don’t really see what my entries can add anyway. Besides, taking screenshots is a bitch with this series, because there’s hardly ANY decent frame that doesn’t have subtitles on it. (Especially this episode was extreme, which you can probably see for yourself).

Having said that, the second half of this episode was probably the funniest one ever since the introduction. It’s both Negishi’s surprise at how his brother changed, but also the way he used Krauser II in order to teach him a lesson. It’s indeed like he said: the guy (and as it seems most other of Krauser’s fans) are incredible idiots.

And really, “Death Penis” probably is the worst title you can think for a song ever. And that’s why it fits this series so well. ^^;

Detroit Metal City – 04

by psgels, posted in Detroit Metal City



Short Synopsis: Krauser II gets invited to sing his pop songs in a trendy bar and meets one of his former classmates.
Highlights: The drunk Krauser was hilarious.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Another hilarious episode from Detroit Metal City. I was beginning to fear that the creators would keep the bit where Negishi loses himself in front of Aikawa going a bit too long, but this episode goes into other directions, and Aikawa finally hears him sing. The irony in this episode seems to be that everyone thinks that Negishi’s music sucks, apart from the friends he had on high-school.

Although, I guess that Tetrapod Melon Tea did receive some popularity for them to be featured in a karaoke magazine. I think that one of the big problems with Negishi is that he hangs out with the wrong people; otherwise he’d never have been able to found Detroit Metal City and met the sadistic president. Although frankly, his sweet songs are badly written and way too sugary. I can imagine how not many people would like it.

Detroit Metal City – 03

by psgels, posted in Detroit Metal City



Short Synopsis: The president visits Krauser II’s apartment.
Highlights: Just when you thought that this series couldn’t get much worse…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Okay… I think we explored some new depths here at this episode of DMC. Finally there’s another episode with 100% original content, and the result is an episode that goes even further than the introduction went… And here I thought that the image of death metal-fans couldn’t get more butchered…

In the first half, Aikawa attends one of the concerts of DMC to report on how awful their music is, and subsequently Negishi calls her a pig slut whore. This caused Aikawa to develop a deep hatred for pigs, and Krauser to feel even more sorry for himself. I also love the voice Negishi adapts when he slips into his Krauser II-role.

There’s just one thing that’s really bugging me in this series, though: the music is beginning to sound tamer and tamer. I can understand why the creators did it, to focus more on the dialogue, but it sortof misses that heavy-feeling of heavy-metal (or as Aikawa calls it: death metal).

The second short was awesome, in which the president turns the owner of Negishi’s apartment (an average middle-aged guy), where in the end three guys ended up stripping and dancing very strangely to DMC’s music (really, haven’t those creators ever heard of head-banging?).

Detroit Metal City – 01

by psgels, posted in Detroit Metal City



Short Synopsis: Krauser II records his first music video.
Highlights: Again, first half is original content, the second half is the same as the introduction.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
Okay, so I mistook the introduction and the first episode for the same, while in fact the introduction took parts of the first two episodes. If you haven’t seen the introduction yet, just skip it and go with episode 01 and 02, as every scene in it is included in either one of these episodes. This post is also more for completion’s sake.

In any case, the new part of this episode nicely added to Negishi’s bipolar and schizophrenic personality. This guy really has issues, but I guess that it’s also a strange form of social commentary, which takes the Japanese attitude of staying politically correct all the time to the extreme.

Detroit Metal City – 02

by psgels, posted in Detroit Metal City



Short Synopsis: “Krauser II” and his friends go on a date to make up for what went on in the music store.
Highlights: Half of it was already showed at the introduction.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Wait, am I missing something here? The first half of this episode was exactly the same as the first half of the introduction. Does that mean that the first episode contained the second half of the introduction, along with more original content? Talk about a confusing episode order.

In any case, the second half of this episode was less exciting than the introduction, with as highlight the sudden appearance of the band “Tetrapod Melon Tea”. The introduction got away with the huge stereotypes, but they’re already getting dull in this episode. Especially that drummer didn’t work too well. Although I do admit that it was interesting to see the split personalities of the DMC-members.

FREEDOM Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, FREEDOM



With the guy behind Kakurenbou as director and the director of Akira behind the screenplay and character-designs comes the ambitious project called FREEDOM, one of the few anime to be totally rendered in 3D cell-shaded CG. It’s obviously a technique that has its pros and cons, and most people will probably need to get used to the style, but once you can look beyond this, you’ll be rewarded by a charming little science-fiction series.

The big strength of this series is its cast of characters. Even though they’re a bunch of hot-headed 14-year-old guys, this series somehow makes them worthwhile. The stereotypes are there, and yet the antics of the main protagonists turn out very charming. The flaws in this series mostly pop up in the final episode, where the creators try to be a bit too epic for their own good.

Ah crap, this review is rubbish. Apologies, I’m having a blackout right now. A tip for all you reviewers out there: do not write a review if it’s been half a year or more since you saw the majority of it… If you want to get a better idea of this series, then read the rest of the posts I’ve written about it. It’s a very nice OVA to watch with great characters and it’s got a soundtrack that’s among Ike Yoshihiro’s best work. Period.

Storytelling: 8/10
Characters: 9/10
Production-Values: 9/10
Setting: 8/10

FREEDOM – 07

by psgels, posted in FREEDOM



Short Synopsis: The big finale of Freedom, where Takeru tries to reunite Earth with Eden.
Highlights: Straightforward but fun finale.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Well, the final episode was bound to lack in terms of realism. It’s impossible to change the entire political structure of a country with just the words of one guy. Why else do you think that China is currently still happily continuing its violations of human rights? The main leader of Eden also just didn’t get enough proper time to be fleshed out, so his rather stupid decisions were the worst thing of this final episode of Freedom.

I mean, making Kazuma, the one who helped Takeru escape, into one of the highest ranking-officers in just two and a half years. Who in his right mind would do such an unsafe thing? Kazuma was bound to use this power to rebel. There was also this strange fight scene between Kazuma and Takeru, which left both with scratches and bruises… only for these to magically disappear in the next scene…

Still, apart from that, the finale was done very nicely. The ones who were left behind on Eden changed very interestingly, especially Taira turned from Takeru’s rival to the one who organized the rebellion. For a bit, I feared that Ao would turn into a damsel in distress when she got caught, but at least she didn’t sit still and do nothing, but instead tried to convey her ideals to the people from Eden.

It was obvious that despite the doubled length, this wouldn’t be the best instalment of Freedom, but thankfully it could have gone a lot worse. I liked the romance: it was there, but it was really subtle and never really interfered with what was really important.

Eve no Jikan – Akiko

by psgels, posted in Eve no Jikan



Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives in a future Japan where Androids are common and often used as tools
Highlights: The umpth anime about androids, let’s see what this one can add.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
So, the six-part OVA Eve no Jikan is the product of the creator of Aquatic Language and Pale Cocoon, and this seems to be set in the same world as Aquatic Language. The focus isn’t as much on the graphics as the ones above: the animation is way more static, and there’s not much experimental animation like in Aquatic Language either. Eve no Jikan is really about its setting: androids, and the difference between humans and androids.

It’s definitely not a new topic these days. There already have been so many android series that I’m wondering what this Eve no Jikan can add to this. The first episode was decent enough, but I like how the setting so far hasn’t tried to rip off other ideas. I think the best way to describe the level of androids is a more pessimistic look at the time-setting of Real Drive, and I also was reminded of the beginning of the Second Renaissance from The Animatrix. It’s at the border where androids have become nearly identical to humans, but still miss some subtle differences, which I expect to get blurred more and more in the rest of the six episodes of Eve no Jikan.

Real Drive showed these differences between Androids and Humans when the androids needed to do something that they weren’t designed for (the combat android, who tried to take his glasses back, for example). In Eve no Jikan, these differences seem more psychological. This episode suggested that androids very well have a human consciousness, but this continues to be repressed due to their servant-functions, but I first want to see more of these Doji-kois: what happens to those people who don’t oppress their androids, and treat them as regular humans instead? I also wonder, why design a sentient android when it’s just going to be a servant? I fail to see the economic purposes of designing androids that can feel sad when they’re abused. Either that, or the bartender’s owner bought the wrong sort of android…