Shingeki no Kyojin – 19 – 21

by psgels, posted in Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan)

I’ve said before that the Spring season of 2013 was one single worst spring season in more than a decade. I still stand by that. But holy crap: the epic action series that it brought forth is rivalled by only very few series! I kept hearing that in the manga, this was the point where it got stale and all. If that’s true, then the creators of the anime are doing a mighty fine job at hiding it!

Holy crap these three episodes were just amazing! Production IG really put in effort in order to make the action as riveting as possible. The animation, music and story worked together wonderfully here, and it just kept on going. And it wasn’t just dumb action: everyone here used their heads, even the stupid titans were trying to learn (even if it’s just a small thing as trying to climb trees).

Here it really was established that the traitor could turn into the big female titan at will. And I love how she’s strong, yet not overpowered: she actually got caught in a lot of traps, and she really had to be creative in order to escape those. I really like that. She too ended up tired, although it was shown very subtly.

Also, after watching 21 episodes, I have to say: Shingeki no Kyojin for me is a very strong contender for the best soundtrack of the year.
Rating: 6,5/8 (Amazing)

Uchoten Kazoku – 05 – 09

by psgels, posted in Uchoten Kazoku

In these past four episodes, Uchoten Kazoku really showed itself as a series, focused on the past. In the past a number of major things happened, and these four episodes really explored those in a ton of detail, showing both very carefully what happened, but also the different perspectives that the different characters have on it and how they ended up coping with them.

The big one is of course the father’s death. We got to see the perspectives of the people he left behind, but also of the ones who ended up catching and eating him. It did this really well and I love what an in-depth look we got into the whole process. Unlike the first third of this series it doesn’t jump around from one thing to the other, but instead ties everything together. This all is a sign of excellent storytelling. And after this it’s the task of the finale to really push things forward and be daring.

There is a lot to like about this series and it really plays around with its storytelling in this unconventional manner. Take the way it looks at the eating of Tanuki: it doesn’t try to be preachy and go “all people who eat Tanuki are evil!” and instead goes for a much more subtle message: yeah, it sucks for the Tanuki, but it’s part of life. I really like how this contrasts with the huge impact that the death of the father made. And I also did not miss the symbolism at the end of episode eight, in which everyone is just eating a bit of chicken: it’s part of nature.

What also really struck me is the second oldest son. His story of guilt was a very touching one. He already was lazy and didn’t do anything, feeling guilty about it, and then that happened. That scene at the well for me was the most emotional moment of the series so far for me.

I also want to give a lot of thumbs up for the animation here. PA Works’ series usually are gorgeous, but their style is very easy to recognize usually. This series looks like nothing they’ve ever done, and they still managed to make it look gorgeous. Some of the best camera angles and shots have some awesome uses of colours.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Tamayura – More Aggressive – 08 & 09

by psgels, posted in Tamayura

Yeah, the second season of Tamayura is all about Potte. The rest of the cast, with the exception of perhaps that new girl, don’t get to stand in the spotlights unlike what they did in the first episode. It’s about her coming to terms with her father, and further pursuing photography. The rest… is mere details. The question’s whether that alone is good enough. Up till now, this series left things to be desired. I was really waiting for this show to come with something really good.

That came with episode 9, which showed Potte meeting the other best friend of her father. I love this guy and how he thinks back to who used to be his best friend. The creators nailed this workaholic who has long since grown up and who gave up his passion for photography in order to pursue other things, and yet his old personality is still there. He’s still got the interest in photography, and the memories he made in his past.

For me this was the best episode of the second season so far. It got Potte thinking, it was heart-warming and genuine, and what also was very important was that it didn’t repeat itself.

The rest of the episodes need to be more like this. Obviously not the same, but Potte really needs to significantly develop (given how much buildup she’s gotten) and the show needs to take its concepts further in some way. I’m not sure how they’re going or planning to do that though.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Gatchaman Crowds – 06 – 08

by psgels, posted in Gatchaman Crowds

So far, Gatchaman Crowds has been… interesting. Things are getting action-packed now and to me, they’ve delivered. I quite enjoyed these three episodes.

Episode 06: here Hajime really showed that she’s different from the usual ditzy female, in that she does everything consciously, with a clear purpose behind it. At the start of the series, I worried that she might get too annoying, but for me she didn’t, and this was one of the biggest reasons for that. She’s also doing another very interesting thing here: she completely disregards any sort of bias. If someone sounds like it could be fishy, she doesn’t care. She just does it, and somehow this show manages to stay away from the usual themes about naivety. She’s basically telling the rest of the cast to lighten up.

Rui has a very good point that the focus lies way too much with single heroes, and I can get behind trying to want to create a world in which everyone is a hero. But if there are people with special powers, then why not make use of that by cooperating? The villain wanting to update the world is a common trope that is used often, and therefore really needs to put in something special to stand out. This one isn’t quite there yet, but she’s on her way. There are definitely some fresh parts about her.

In episode 07 she starts acting like this big hypocrite when she deletes those three members who made jokes about dropping out, which goes completely against what she’s trying to do… Lots of hints for character-development on her side. That indeed gets used really well in the subsequent awesome action scene. Holy crap that is well directed! I still don’t get Pai Pai and JJ in this series though. What is their role? What’s their point? Why is the former so fidgety, and why is the latter not doing anything? Though Paipai’s transformation was great.

Episode 08 had the characters reveal themselves in front of kindergarteners in the midst of dubstep. I have to hand it to the creators that that was creative. The same goes for how they used that one former member of GALAX who rightfully believes that Rui screwed up. However, I do feel like his character is overreacting. Overall that is one of the big flaws of this series: characters have this tendency to overreact (yes, REact, I don’t mind the over the top acting, but characters end up drawing conclusions a little too biasedly).
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

About Our Site

by K-Off, posted in Currently Watching:

Welcome to Star Crossed Anime Blog! The site originally started out on Blogsome in 2005 by Psgels, where he gained a dedicated following that allowed him to grow the site into what it is today, and move the site into his own domain.

Since 2014, the site has expanded into a multi-author blog, with writers who carry their own interesting insight into the medium we all know and love. We reject the idea that all anime are infallible, and whether it be in our episodic reviews, Seasonal Previews, or even with non-Japanese animated films, we try our best to bring insight to the greatest and latest anime because it’s fun! Psgels is currently in hiatus owing to a particularly malicious writers block, but we wait for his return!

Current Writers

psgels

Hey, I’m psgels. I live in the Netherlands and I’m the founder of this site. The idea of the site started back in 2005, when I was a really big fan of series’ like Mahou Shoujotai, but couldn’t find any blog that covered them. In response to that I decided to create my own blog in order to vent my opinions. It started rather silly, but eventually it grew much larger than I ever thought it would.
My taste is weird. I look for series that dare to screw conventions. The ones that are ambitious in their storytelling, and dare to go off the beaten path. Anime is an art form, and it should behave like that.

SuperMario

Unlike most anime-fans, I did not grow up watching anime – yes, I had read some manga and had watched some anime when I were young, but I have forgotten mostly those now. Instead, my love from anime came from my passion for films (I consider myself more of film-nerd than anime lover) and my absolute appreciation for the medium of animation. Anime seems like a brainchild between those.

AidanAk47

An Irish Anime fan. Though well versed in Visual novels, manga and video games. If it’s got an anime adaption chances are I have seen the source. Quite fond of the works of Kinoko Nasu and Gen Urobuchi. I don’t really have a favorite genre though I am not really fond of slice of life or sports. Well, lets have fun shall we?
Profile picture of SuperWooper

SuperWooper

I’m an educator and avid consumer of both music and anime. As a former English major, characters and story structure are my primary areas of expertise, though I’m learning to appreciate visual direction more and more. Not a fan of anime’s tendency to paint by numbers. Odds are I’ll blog just one series at a time, but I hope to lend a big hand for seasonal first impressions and yearly roundups. Thanks for having me!
Avatar

Lenlo

Your everyday average Renaissance man. I Box, Fence, paint/wargame 40k and I work my 9-5 as a Software Engineer. What can I say, I like to keep busy. I got into anime on your normal Shonen of Yu-Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, and Naruto, and to this day they are near and dear to my heart. Since then though I have branched out, falling in love with darker, more tragic works such as Berserk or Vagabond, focusing on more Seinen works. I hope you enjoy my writing, let’s go find a series that can make us cry!

K-Off

K-Off checking in. I’m formerly the main resident technician of the site since Psgel’s hiatus. I write the occasional game reviews, and when I’m not working on the site or writing a review, you can find me keeping up to date on my favorite manga and games.

Other Writers:

Ninjarealist

LightningBolt

HelghastKillzone

afgm

Uchuu Kyoudai – 67 – 70

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

For the past months I have been losing interest in Space Brothers, due to the huge standard that it set in the past. Sure it was still great, and had great moments, but it was not as good as what it once was. It lacked that spark. Even Sharon, while really sad, didn’t have that. A character is about to die: in essence every show is doing that (though granted, this series did it different from usual). I missed that spark: what made Space Brothers really special.

Now, these past four episodes. Nearly all of them reminded me why this series stands out. Sure, the pacing still is very slow, and the recaps at the start of the episodes have become even more annoying. But it had what I’ve missed for quite a while now: scenes that really hit me, whether they’re large or small, serious or comedic.

Episode 67 stood out not because of one moment, but how Mutta and Deniel grew closer together. The bond that developed between them in which they could just do stuff without saying things out loud, and how they both very well understand the dangers of being a fighter pilot.

Episode 68 had me laughing harder at an anime than what I’ve done in a really long while when Mr Hibbit appeared. Oh, how Hibito’s words come to bite him back!

Episode 69 again had me laughing again just as hard at Mutta’s photo that was taken. Sure they’re small things, but for some reason, that face he made really cheered me up. Also he’s an astronaut now!

Episode 70: Mutta actually got an offer to go into space that was not what he was after. It would realize his dream of becoming an actual astronaut, but he’d get nowhere near the moon. It really forced him to think about his future. Also holy crap, Vincent hasn’t been to space yet?!

It’s one thing to write a good story about astronauts. You can also get in pretty good character development. If you have that you generally have a pretty good series. What Uchuu Kyoudai did in the past was more than that. It’s the thing that is hard to describe, because a lot of it lied in the details: in both the script and the characters it went the extra mile and threw in lots of nice details and touches. Ever since the desert arc, that has been lost a bit (honestly, it started showing when Hibito was stuck on the moon). It’s all hard to describe, but I think a variation: don’t stay hanging around the same thing for too long, and if you do: spice things up. That was something that the first forty episodes of this series were just brilliant at.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Silver Spoon – 05 – 07

by psgels, posted in Silver Spoon

These past three episodes of Silver Spoon have continued very strong, and you still can see the series’ strength in the way that it combines comedy, personal drama, and the realities of farming. And all of them are really good!

First, the comedy: some episodes focus on it more than others (the crop circle episode focused on it the most), but the jokes are awesome, and not just random: they really are intertwined with the actual plot of the episode. It was an episode in which the characters made no sense, but they were so hilarious in their quest to just view this new big truck that was supposed to come out, and I love how creative they were in creating their own obstacles, making elephants out of mosquitoes.

The character drama here is subtle, but I really like it. Occasions such as when the male lead was surprised that people were more worried over him being gone than that he didn’t do his job: that really felt a great conflict for his character, since he never really was used to the fact that people care about him. The rest of the cast as well: they’re all seriously thinking about their future, which is very nice to watch.

And then, there is the farming. I did not expect this series to show a cow giving birth. That was heavy stuff, but I have to give props to the animators here: that is not an easy scene to just show on the screen, and they did it really well, and realistically (for as far as I know; I am not a cow gynecologist at all). The same goes for how it doesn’t shy away from showing modern technology taking over farms. Perhaps it didn’t show animal abuse, but it did show how hard it is for the farmers who didn’t adapt to modern technologies, how they basically can never go on a holiday, and how children are pretty much destined to carry over the business because there is nobody else.
Rating: 5,5/8 (Excellent)

Rozen Maiden 2013 – 05 – 08

by psgels, posted in Rozen Maiden 2013

Now that I’ve caught up four episodes of this series, I’m seeing even more what an amazing story this series has. It just took Rozen Maiden, and made something completely different out of it while still staying true to the original. That’s great, rather than just doing the same thing all over again. Of course, going into a different direction from the original when done bad, becomes really, really bad. But these kinds of series: they have their own idea and they just went for it, even though it’s completely against the mainstream.

What I think caused this, is that the original fans of Rozen Maiden have grown up, and therefore the series got to be aimed at older audiences. And it really was cleverly done: the annoying characters are nearly entirely removed: Suiseiseki is just gone, Kanaria has made a few apppearances in which she had a really good role, and Hina Ichigo is practically dead. The characters got older, and the themes got much, much more geared towards mature audienes.

All of the cute girls fighting is gone now, and it has made way for the focus on being trapped. Nearly every single character in this series is trapped, in one way or the other. Old Jun is trapped in his daily life, Shinku and Suigintou are trapped in the old world, a ton of characters are trapped by that seventh doll, who in her turn is trapped with her lack of body.

As a result, a lot of this series is just characters, waiting to be set free. Some take action, others just sit there, unable to do anything, but I really like this theme, and how well this show explores it by showing so many different perspectives. And it’s expecially fascinating to see how everyone deals with it. The small comforts they find, what they use for their hope, or the things they try to escape this emptiness. And also how they relate to the other characters, who are going through the same thing they are. Very touching stuff.

Oh, and the comic relief is still there, it’s only much more subtle. It actually juxtaposes the dolls against real life quite well. My favorite joke was how Shinku and Suigintou made this big mess of Jun’s room, and how after getting told off they actually kept the place clean, despite their huge egos.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Update on Majestic Prince

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

It took me ages to catch back up on this one. I originally intended to drop it, but then I heard strange positive words about it. Now that I’ve caught up to episode 20, I have to say: whoa. What happened?

The series originally struck me as this decent mecha show that was doomed to not stand out due to characters who were way too busy exhibiting their own quirks. For its first half, it was there, I guess: surprisingly charming, but nothing special, and then its second half came. And it was a bit weird, but it actually managed to improve in every single way. Even the animation.

Seriously, most series have gorgeous first episodes and then settle for this average animation quality afterwards. The cg battles of Majestic Prince have had some really good production values! Not to mention that the fights are all really well directed and intense.

But what really struck me was that I was completely proven wrong about the characters. Episode 19 in particular: oh my god what happened there. I mean, when the kid left on this dangerous mission saying stuff like “when I get back, I’ll tell you my crush on you”, he was obviously setting his own death flag here. But the way it happened. That actually made me teary-eyed.

The character development in this series actually turned out to be really good. It made me really think of how I originally labelled these characters too cartoonish, choosing it over Valvrave, which at the beginning seemed to have more solid characters, and yet the complete opposite turned out to be true. What Majestic Prince actually did was take these quirks and develop them. You have the guy who always wants to be a hero: he still does, but he showed much more stuff about his character, plus throughout these episodes we got to see different sides of what it means to be a hero. The ditzy girl? She’s still ditzy, but she actually got to see the upsides and downsides of being ditzy, she both got in trouble and the spotlight, sometimes thanks to this ditziness, others due to complete other reasons. That’s good storytelling! Compare that to Valvrave, which never really did anything remotely similar to these subtle characterizations and just went for shock value.

The question is: how do you recognize this as early as possible? I mean, there were hints right in the first episode that the charactrs were more than just their quirks, but they were very subtle, and could be very easily confused with a series that just had bad characters. I think that the thing with having quirky characters is that you need to balance things out: you need to know the difference between using these quirks for sympathy, and just using them to be obnoxious. Being creative helps. Having a straight man who is an actual straight man helps too: someone with an actual brain. Good chemistry will also be a hint: see if the characters work well together.

And most importantly: Are these characters one-trick ponies?

Also, did episode 20 just hint at what I thought it hinted at?

Tamayura – More Aggressive – 05 – 07

by psgels, posted in Tamayura

Something weird happened. Like, I watched these three episodes over the course of multiple days (time issues), and now that I’m sitting down and writing an entry after watching episode 07, I realize that I have no clue anymore about what episodes 05 and 06 were about. Seriously, I remember dreaming away a bit and all, and they went on a trip… thingy… but apart from that I’m blank.

Now, there are two possible reasons for this:
1) My memory is degrading really badly.
2) Nothing worth remembering happened in these two episodes.

While I fully admit that my memory isn’t perfect, it’s time to give a bit of a critical eye to this second season of Tamayura, and mostly the big picture: what exactly is the point of this sequel? At the beginning, this seemed to be about Potte starting her own club, and taking her passions further by standing out of her comfort zone. Beyond that though… what else?

We have this new selection of characters… who are there but have yet to make a lasting impression. The cast beyond Potte made no development whatsoever so far; like, has anything been added to their characters, AT ALL in this second season?

In the meantime I’m still dreaming away with that awesome soundtrack, but what were the characters doing in this episode for example? Potte entered a competition, they attended a festival, they went to Potte’s childhood friend… haven’t we seen this in some way before or am I going crazy? To me it really seems like this show is just repeating itself. Though granted, the ending wwas charming.

Why did I originally like this series? It’s because it did more than most slice of life series about a bunch of random girls: it had strucuture, and characters who felt charming and had depth. I feel like that depth and energy is missing in this sequel. Or more like, it lacks: it’s not completely absent, but not fully there either.

Comparing this to Aria The Natural, Aria’s second season: that series was rather tough to get through due to how slow it was, but it was varied, and it continued to add to its cast. And it didn’t do this just by introducing a bunch of new characters, but also slowly building further upon the main cast. When is More Aggressive going to do that?
Rating: 4/8 (Nice)