Psycho Pass – 07

by psgels, posted in Psycho Pass

I have been waiting for this kind of series for so long. Especially this episode, which just leaves the action for what it is, and instead creates tension through both art and dialogue. This episode was nothing but long dialogues between people about the current case of dismembered schoolgirls in a disturbed Maria-Sama ga Miteru setting.

This is a kind of storytelling style that I really love, but doesn’t happen often. It’s hard to balance because there is so much dialogue, making it hard to add in other stuff, but this episode balanced it out wonderfully in the way that it turned these murders in this weird kind of art, while at the same time exploring what goes through the mind of its creators, from the perspectives of different people.

On top of that, the way in which this case is loosely connected to Kogari’s reasons for becoming an enforcer is quite interesting, especially the backdrop of this series in which his friend was the victim of this deranged artist. Also for this friend to be a complete womanizer that he dfound interesting, rather than some perfect human being.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 08

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

I love what this show does to its hencmen: it only shows the battles against three of them in detail. Apart from that, all of them are instantly just slaughtered by Jojo as he refuses to waste any more time on this. The result was that this episode showed yet another incredibly over the top battle with Dio and Jojo.

And again, the adrenaline between those two. The incredibly crazy gore that this show has is just amazing. Usually when people with over the top powers and strengths fight, it just doesn’t have the impact as when the fights were done realistically. And yet here this show comes with such extreme details in its gore. I mean, did Dio really just pull out a bunch of arteries from Jojo’s neck? And then there are bizarre contraptioons that were supposed to be zombies. Seriously, the author of this thing had one sick mind.

But yeah, the past episodes have pretty much been Jojo punching zombies to death in a ridiculously elaborate fashion. If the rest of the series wil have this as well, it will get old fast, although I’ve heard enough times that the second arc will be completely different, and actually better on each level. Can’t wait!
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Rinne no Lagrange OVA

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

So yeah, for those who haven’t noticed yet: K and Little Busters are dropped. K was just not interesting enough: it’s beautifully animated and there is nothing inherently wrong with its story, it’s just way too unambitious and it’s not interesting to talk about that. Little Busters meanwhile has the problem that the male characters are much more interesting and better portrayed than the fmeale ones, and yet it focuses on the latter. Both of these shows gave me quite a good excuse to cut back on the shows I’m covering weekly. I noticed that I’m way too busy to catch up with every show lately in order to be able to cover other stuff, and I really want to also be able to cover OVAs like this, or do the occasional manga review, which just wasn’t possible with my current schedule.

Now, as for Rinne no Lagrange’s OVA: if you have watched the first season, but haven’t watched the second season yet: watch this one first. It’s there to fill in some of the gaps, and flesh out the cast before the second season starts. While it didn’t fix the flaws of the series, it did improve on it.

I mean, the characters in this series remain well portrayed, and clocking in at 44 minutes, it was quite charming slice of life. The overall theme of this episode was that everyone is apart now, doing their own thing, yet they miss each other, and that’s quite solid for an OVA to cover, albeit unspectabular. Madoka’s birthday also was a nice touch.

But there was one thing that this OVA did, that the series didn’t cover at all: life on the planets of Lan and Muginami. It always kept bugging me how empty those planets felt because we never saw anything from them except a bunch of spaceships. With this we got to see the people who live there, and what they look like from the inside (including that they’re just as corporately selling out as what happens on earth). I mean, compare this with a series as Birdy the Mighty Decode: right in the fourth episode they already went to the alien planet to show what it was like. That was like, the school example for me on how to do the alien planet subplot right, and Rinne no Lagrange… I kept waiting for it but it only focused on Kamogawa. The setting never felt as big as it could have been.

Kamisama Hajimemashita – 08

by psgels, posted in Kamisama Hajimemashita

Just like Sakurasou, a sell-out episode. Where Sakurasou came with the sister, Kamisama Hajimemashita treats us to a beach episode. The big difference is that where Sakurasou got lost in its own cliches, Kamisama Hajimemashita used those clichés to achieve some really good character development.

And the simple reason for this was something major that Tomoe did in the sea 526 years ago. This was back when he was still completely different from who he used to be, and stole one of the eyes of someone called the dragon king, who is very strict with debts, to the point where it gets hilarious. This episode danced around the issue, but this seems to have been a major defining moment in Tomoe’s life. The biggest hint for this was that he was practically baited into it by that tramp: the issue had to be solved somehow, to the point where he felt that it was worth risking Tomoe’s life for.

What made the beach part of this episode enjoyable was how fresh it was. Rather than just showing the female cast parade in swimsuits, they really added stuff that was personal to the cast: Tomoe being unable to enter the water, Nanami unable to buy a swimsuit, to that one girl skipping along while just being dumped by her boyfriend. This episode really made sure to spice up such a clichéd set-up, and made it fun again, and it was the school example of how to do such an episode right.

Plus, the guy with the scarf just lost all of his dignity with that speedo of his. I burst out laughing there, but at the same time I really like the mystery around him and the irony of how he has basically been watching Tomoe from behind without him noticing it. I really want to see Tomoe’s face when he finds out. The creators already managed to create this expectation that it will be awesome just from the few times he has bene in the picture. Now that is good storytelling.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo – 07

by psgels, posted in Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

Aagh! Not the sister!

This episode made this show cost a lot of points. Mari Okada, you should know better than this. Even if this was exactly like the original source material, this episode had such major problems that they should have been fixed by the script review. I think everyone here is to blame for not noticing it, but even then: someone had to have come up with this.

First of all, the sister was an exact carbon copy of all the other token sisters you see everywhere. That was by far the worst offense this episode made. It didn’t start well when she started by randomly showing her panties, but the rest of the episode did not make this better by making her only defining character trait “I like my brother”. This was just plain bad.

Another problem was that she also dragged the entire show along with her. Previously I said that the fanservice in this show adds to the characters: remove it and the show would be less good. The fanservice in this episode however, was just plain random and pointless. The sister just randomly shows her underwear, the bath randomly breaks down so that we can go to a bath to see the girls grope each other… it’s all incredibly shallow that you’d expect from a third rate hentai game adaptation, not this show that prided itself with quality writing and character development.

On top of that, there was Nanami. Previously she was a character who also had her agenda. In this episode her entire character also got reduced to “I like Sorata”. Again: Mari Okada, you should know better than this.

The sole salvation for this episode was the direction: it knew it had something completely awful to work with, and at least tried to make the best of it. The visual images were great to watch, the use of life action worked great and the camera angles and timing actually made me laugh. Sorata’s straight man act also saved this episode from a complete disaster, and Misaki getting her drivers’ license also was a nice touch. I expect much better next week though. But what do you mean that the sister is going to be a recurring character!?
Rating: 3/8 (Mediocre)

Magi – 07

by psgels, posted in Magi

Well, the start of the episode made it rather obvious that this was originally written by a woman. In a way, I like that this show has fanservice for both genders, and that the fanservice also knows when to shut up. Afterwards this episode turned into a pretty interesting episode for wurld building by showing the city that Sindbad the Sailor founded.

All accompanied by some good old fashioned chemistry. Sindbad already is an interesting character from the start, but he works particularly well. With Aladdin meanwhile it’s good to already spot a bit of character development: he has become more aware of his goal, and he’s definitely less ignorant than what he was in the first episodes.

Also, A-1 is on fire this week. First there was the surprisingly good animation for Sword Art Online, and now this episode too had some really good inbetween animation, although a lot more polished. But the characters here look so incredibly dynamic: everything is just moving, and this definitely is a great use of a big budget. Also, next season A-1 will do seven shows at the same time. Holy crap.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Hunter X Hunter – 56

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

That. Was. Awesome! I mean, I rarely rewatch series for the reason that I’d much rather spend my time on stuff I haven’t seen before, plus that the impact of watching something again is just not as good as when watching it for the first time. And yet I was completely thrilled when watching this episode.

I mean, what can I say? This episode just showed so well why the Spider Troupe is my favorite organization for a shounen series. This time they really act as a team and they are acted so well, and they all make so good use of each other’s powers. This is also where Gon really shines, and does something that no other main character would do: sacrifice himself so that his friend would not get noticed. All of these characters worked incredibly well together, and I’m so glad that this series has also managed to capture that.

The music also was just perfect. I mean, in the past I criticized this show a lot for not using its soundtrack right, but the scene in which Squala died, it was just perfect. It really sent chills through my spine. That scene also showed one of the strengths of this show: from out of nowhere it can take a random side character and make him or her ten times better from out of nowhere in a realistic way. I loved just showing him taking care of his dogs, and his problems of trying to feed them all. I loved how he just has a completely normal girlfriend. THAT was exactly what was missing in the Hunter Exam arc, and the creators actually found it again!

On top of that, I’m just completely fanboying over my favorite character. And yet again I’m not telling who it is until the arc for this person is over for the sake of spoilers.
Rating: 6.5/8 (Amazing)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 33

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

First of all, I’d like to share this xkcd comic, just because it just fits this show so well: realistic depictions of spacecraft with tons of dry humour.

Now, this episode was about the moon landing: Hibito finally reaching his dream of setting a foot on the moon, and this was even better than what I could have hoped. This is where everything came together, all of the build-up on Hibito came together, and finally we get to see the moon, but the way in which the creators depicted it was also just amazing: they just showed everyone living towards that moment. All the characters, from the NASA staff, to the JAXA staff, to the major and minor characters, including a brilliant opening of the episode done by Mutta and Hibito’s father.

What also was awesome was that we got to see the creators poke fun at the moon landing of Neil Armstrong. I loved the scene where Mutta found out about the sentence that Hibito uttered as he first stepped on the moon, and how he could have seen it coming from miles away. On top of that, his video message using Apo also had me in stitches.

After this we’ll probably start focusing on Mutta again, but with the pacing of this series you’ll never know. There are just so many great characters that this show can do something with, but on top of all I love how Hibito’s launch has basically been one giant awesome red herring for Mutta’s final exam. These are all tropes that spice up this series even more, and it already was incredibly good.
Rating: 6.5/8 (Amazing)

Star Crossed 7 Year Anniversary

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

Hell yeah! Seven years already. A lot has changed over the past year, most notably for my personal life being much more active so that I lost a lot of time that I normally had to keep up to date with everything. The past year has definitely been a year of experimentation for me, and I’m definitely not planning to quit anytime soon despite having a few backlog issues. In any case, every year I celebrate this with a few statistics. I’m not doing funny search terms this year unfortunately, simply because of how much time it takes to compile them and make them good (seriously, this involved looking through tens of thousands of different search terms, spotting the odd ones amongst them…!)

In the past seven years, I have written 5361 posts, spread over 268 categories. A total number of 47525 comments have been submitted to this site, and that doesn’t even count the shoutbox. That one has 33355 comments already (in less than a year!!). Here is a list of the top commenters for the shoutbox (yes, I can get to my database with this site, so I can gather more useful statistics):

#20: Sei – 311
#19: Jak – 323
#18: Anonymous – 346
#17: imredjimmy – 381
#16: Raggers – 413
#15: kero – 444
#14: TheUltimateReaper – 502
#13: Ninja – 537
#12: Airies – 705
#11: psgels – 874
#10: dango – 877
#9: Juno – 1112
#8: Kaiserin Emma – 1295
#7: Jalapeno Bagel – 1331
#6: Anca – 1382
#5: Armpit – 1439
#4: wicked – 1895
#3: AidanAK47 – 1906
#2: Bunny – 2949
#1: Kaiser Eoghan – 7580

I’m just amazed at how much Kaiser/in Emma/Eoghan has been able to produce for the past year, especially considering how long his comments usually are. In any case, here is the list of the people who left the most comments on this site. And yes, this goes all the way back to the beginning of this site:

#35: reverse – 167
#34: Perrin4869 – 167
#33: senerikfred – 170
#32: Windspirit – 173
#31: Westlo – 173
#30: WatcherZero – 174
#29: Tan-Tan – 179
#28: chounokoe – 182
#27: PL – 183
#26: Wyrdwad – 186
#25: Joojoobees – 189
#24: DmonHiro – 193
#23: Hogart – 211
#22: AKI – 214
#21: c160 – 225
#20: totoum – 229
#19: Anca – 232
#18: m – 239
#17: Anon – 241
#16: Kero – 248
#15: Frost – 254
#14: chris – 261
#13: Alec – 271
#12: windy – 273
#11: Scruffy – 276
#10: Machi – 291
#9: Denizen – 328
#8: Puran – 329
#7: kim – 338
#6: AidanAK47 – 353
#5: Firechick – 360
#4: wicked – 384
#3: Solaris – 531
#2: MeOW – 647
#1: psgels – 2522

This was also the first time I looked at these numbers, and I must say: thank you all for leaving so many comments. I had no idea how many of you provided so much feedback until I actually saw this. Anyway, as for viewer statistics: in total this site has gotten 17294328 page views (that’s 17 million), and 9723537 unique visits. Yes, we’ve nearly reached the 10 million. I unfortunately cannot do a list with the most accessed posts since google analytics screwed up since changing sites, however here is a list of the most common search terms (aside from variations of ‘psgels’ and ‘star crossed’.

#30: kekkaishi review
#29: black lagoon review
#28: overdrive anime
#27: best anime 2007
#26: ergo proxy
#25: top ten anime
#24: hakuouki
#23: xxxholic rou
#22: shigurui
#21: heroic age review
#20: casshern sins review
#19: clannad after story review
#18: bakumatsu kikansetsu irohanihoheto
#17: baccano review
#16: angel beats review
#15: kaze no stigma (this is one from way back; I once wrote a really bad first impression of it and it somehow landed high on Google; it kept haunting me for the next year afterwards)
#14: mahou shoujotai
#13: seirei no moribito
#12: toward the terra
#11: clannad review
#10: blassreiter review
#9: eden of the east review
#8: dennou coil
#7: school days review
#6: mouryou no hako (I love how people were actually looking for this one; it’s still generating traffic, although not as much as a few years ago)
#5: saiunkoku monogatari
#4: aoi bungaku (I did not expect this one to generate so much traffic as it did)
#3: top 10 anime
#2: that anime blog (I still like how people basically come here looking for the wrong blog)
#1: darker than black review

Eureka Seven Ao Review – 87.5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Eureka Seven Ao



The original Eureka Seven is a classic. If you like teenagers and mecha, then by all means give it a chance: it has a very rocky start, but has so many defining moments. And so, six years after its end, Bones came with a sequel. It’s quite an interesting series: you really need to have seen the first series in order to enjoy it, yet it is nothing like its predecessor.

The series takes some of the core concepts of Eureka Seven, it takes its defintion of Trappar and Corallian, it grabs the son of the two lead characters of Eureka Seven, puts him into a completely different location and even time, and just goes with it, trying to explain what the hell is going on as it goes along. Where Eureka Seven focused on showing children’s naivety, this series instead turns this around by forcing children in the center of conflict, while emphasizing that they do not belong there in the slightest. With these themes, it tells a story that with one crazy amount of plot twists.

After a bit of a warm-up period, this show just delivers plot twist after plot twist after plot twist. It’s a really good mystery series, with a lot of interesting ideas and twists that come from out of nowhere and give completely different turns to what the plot was before. This obviously has its advantages and disadvantages.

I mean, back with Un-Go, that was a series that had perfect control of its fast pacing. Ao does not, and there are quite a few plotholes. On the other hand though, there are plenty of moments that might seem ludicrous, only to make sense when you start thinking about it. A lot of the plot twists aren’t explicitly explained, or require the viewer to constantly pay attention to what’s going on: this is one series that does not plan to hold the hands of its viewers, and you definitely cannot watch it when you’re tired, otherwise you’ll miss stuff.

Anyway, I have seen plenty of people turned off by the plotholes, but I personally loved what this series tried to do. It’s all about the suspense of disbelief for this series, and let me tell you: if this suspense of disbelief holds, then there is a lot to like about this show. Helping are the characters, who may not be as good as the cast of Eureka Seven, but still are very likable, diverse and entertaining, and this show is also full of unexpected character-development.

What I really encountered here that this show does like none other, is how it treats the old characters of the first series. Out of all the sequels I have seen that focus on different characters than the first, this is BY FAR the best use of the old cast. They are used at the exact right moment, and this show pays homage to them, yet also shows their flaws, it shows who they turned into after the end of the series, and it gives them their own storylines that are more than just “let us old guys just watch over you new guys”. It’s fanservice, but I appreciated it so much.

This is a very ambitious series. You can also see this though the production values, which were some of the most consistent of the year for an action series, containing a lot of fluid and fast-paced action scenes and a really good soundtrack. The plot twists and characters on top of that made it a really fun and entertaining series for me, although this ambition does have its prices to pay with the rushed plot that is easy to get bored with.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Love the ambition of this series of delivering as many plot twists as possible that attempt to weave a whole storyline together. Great mystery, though the rushed pacing and plotholes will be a turn-off for some.
Characters: 8.5/10 – Briliant use of the old Eureka Seven cast, Enjoyable and gripping cast of both main and side characters, although the cast is too big for every character to really show his/her best.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Great production values, excellent soundtrack, really fluid animation at times.
Setting: 8.5/10 – Takes the setting of Eureka Seven, expands upon it, turns it into something completely different and completely changes what it stands for. Might be hard to swallow for fans of the first series hoping for the same.

Suggestions:
– Darker than Black – Ryuusei no Gemini
– Un-Go
– Noein