Hunter X Hunter – 55

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

Yes! It has finally started! It was just one sentence, but it has started, and… must… AVOID… posting… spoilers…

So… Hisoka this episode. Talk about cunning; this is just one of those cases in which these elaborate plans are entirely justified, because this was the perfect opportunity for him to keep the Troupe in one place that would allow him to fight Chrollo. It entirely depended on Chrollo being smart as well, which only gave him more reason to get excited.

On Kurapika’s side time was mostly spent to get throught he final bits of build-up for Gon and Killua. I won’t comment on what it’s building up for, but I do want to say that I loved Killua at the end of this episode. This is a bit of a short entry, I know, but we’re NEARLY at my favorite point of Hunter X Hunter!
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 32

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

Yes! Finally after such a long wait, we get to look into the mind of Azuma, and boy was it worth the wait. This was a wonderful episode, and I love how Azuma turned out to be completely different from expected, even taking into consideration that the creators were hinting a lot that there’s more to this guy than just the exterior he shows.

What really did it for me was that the creators portrayed him as a real character, just like a lot of other characters in this series. His love for his family was SO down to earth, and they really succeeded in showing how important they are to him without any sort of cheese. His disgust for the media also is very believable, and it does put the interview they showed a number of episodes ago in a very different light.

Meanwhile, the details around Hibito’s mission continue. I loved his media attention, how he described various details about space flight (the watch was a very nice touch, considering how time has been such a challenge for Mutta and the others in the second exam arc). They are really making him out to be some kind of supernatural hero, which I guess is pretty normal considering how today, Neil Armstrong and the other astronauts are regarded. Speaking of heroes: Brian Jay is also more and more turning into one. When we first saw his death, he was just a random astronaut, but as the show goes on, it just becomes clearer and clearer what an important guy this was.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Magi – 06

by psgels, posted in Magi

There is one thing that this series really likes to drive through, doesn’t it? Slavery sucks. Slavery is evil. Slavery should be banished from this world altogether. While I totally agree with that, my problem with that is that it makes the villains of this series rather one-sided. There just are a lot of bad guys in this show that look too much like each other, and I would have liked to see a bit more variety.

On the other hand, I’m really digging the rest of the characters in this series. I even feel sorry for the really minor side-characters, so those villains are at least doing something well. This episode was all about Morgiana (and a half-year time skip!), and I really like that Goltias still plays a prominent role in this series. He could have just been some random goon that got forgotten as soon as he died, but the creators did a great job of making sure that he still has impact.

This show also has the talent to instantly make the people who the main characters run into likable. I’m not yet entirely sure why this is, but it still is something that definitely not every series can boast. Either way, I like the warmth between them, and they’re quite well acted, and together they feel like an actual community: they strengthen each other, which especially was true near the end of the episode.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Little Busters – 06

by psgels, posted in Little Busters

So in the end, Komari: a girl who couldn’t get over the death of her brother. As someone who tends to prefer characters with… at least a bit of independence, I do feel a bit let down. At least Fuuko and the Uguu girl had their reasons for having the minds of five year olds. Setting therapy aside, I really find her to be the most annoying Key character I have seen.

And yet, I actually really liked the rest of the cast in this episode. Riki was the only one who really was able to do anything, but I really liked the way in which everyone supported him. I also quite liked Riki as he tried to get Komari back on her feet. The story is here so simple that yeah, Komari did need to just get hit on the head a few times, so I liked their idea to do this with another picture book, and even though Riki was just terrible at drawing, I like how he still went through with it. That’s for me the biggest difference between the beginning of this series and Kanon: the Uguu girl also was annoying, but beyond that it didn’t have much else that caught my attention, making it a lot less bearable for me to watch.

I expected more from gramps, though. In the end he was also partially responsible for Komari ending up the way she did because he refused to help her, instead just staying away from her. He’s an important person in her life, and yet he just abandoned her under the pretext that she’d cry when he’d die. Well, in that case I’d better stop making friends if all I’m going to do is make people cry when I eventually pass on. This guy needs to be healed too here. Does he also have his own arc? I’d love to see that actually.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

From the New World – 07

by psgels, posted in From the New World

This episode ends the first major part of this series. Where last week left us off with a very bleak cliff-hanger, this time was not as bleak as allied reinforcements arrived. Instead this episode was chock full of hints of how badly things can go wrong. Since we’re only at episode seven, there is plenty of time for the creators to live up to that.

What really struck me in this episode was how Saki and Satoru had to keep trying to look like gods: if they gave up or showed signs of weakness, they’d immediately lose their advantage in the battle, causing them to get killed off really easily. Then there was the threat of the Hornet colony, which really made a presence of being dangerous this episode. Squealer in particular was really good at only enlarging this feeling with his fidgety acting, on top of nearly betraying them once. Something tells me that we’re going to see more of him.

And then there was that scene in which all those larvae were captured. I mean, there have been many series about war and all, but I can’t recall one showing such a bleak picture, in which basically thousands of babies were taken hostage ON SCREEN, pretty much doomed for slavery for their entire lives. There have been enough series that implied this. But has it ever been shown so clearly?
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

K – 06

by psgels, posted in K

We’re nearly at the halfway point of this show and it’s time to bring in the background episode: the episode that shows who it was that Yashiro supposedly killed. It was a strange guy who liked to try out a lot of different things, hung around with thugs, even though he wasn’t one himself and who was also very charismatic to boot. This episode seemed to hint that at one point he split in two, with Yashiro being his other half, who afterwards just lost his memory. What the cat has to do with this… I have no idea.

Again, this episode was neat, but again I feel like the creators could have done more with this. It’s all very straight forward, and none of the characters really stands out or sets himself apart. What I liked best was Yashiro this episode as he realized that his memory was fake, but even that was a bit monotone.

Oh, and I still quite like the detail that the creators put in their environment. The backgrounds in this series are probably rendered photos, but they still look gorgeous. Plus, you can see that the creators of this show like food quite a bit, with all of the details they put into the different kinds of food that the characters eat. Whether this will be enough for this series though… I’m not sure.
Rating: 4/8 (Nice)

Robotics;Notes – 05

by psgels, posted in Robotics;Notes

This episode really reminded me of Sword Art Online, and how much better the execution of this show is. The big difference is that Robotics Notes isn’t all about wish fulfillment: the male lead can normally interact with girls without romantic hints being dropped over and over. The AI that appears actually acts a bit believably as an AI, instead of having a ridiculously contribed backstory, and the girls do no revolve around the main guy at all. That alone made this episode very refreshing to watch.

But there is more: as a big mystery-fan, I loved the second half of this episode when it started focusing on this. Where did that AI come from? What makes her so special in a series that’s actually about robots? Who made that prediction, and why did he know the exact times when the solar storms would happen? Why did this Kimjima Kou know Mizuka?

Also, Steins;Gate turned Cern into an evil organization. This show seems to do that with NASA and JAXA. I also like that they used their real names this time. I like this back-story as an added intrigue. The pacing of this show is slow, but it does add in quite some significant new stuff with every episode.

What I also liked what this episode did, was how it focused on the world itself: with beached whales, and talking about the wheather around the world. They’re small details, but these bring life to this series.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 06

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

After watching this series, so much has suddenly become clear. The influence that this series has had is unmistakable on some other series. Perhaps there has never been another series like it, but I really recognize its “anything can be awesome”-mentality. For example, something tells me that Death Note’s chips-eating scene took some of its inspiration from this series.

In the second half of this episode, it showed that even something as simple as opening a door can have impact if you just put enough passion into it. That scene was amazing due to all of the build-up it has gotten, and how badly everyone wanted to open that door (“Let me try to punch this iron door in!”), and how it caused Poco to do something.

Then there were things like turning a bunch of leaves in a large magnetic hang glider. Just… how did these guys think of this? I also love the ridiculously overblown symbolism, like when Bruford was defeated and suddenly flowers started growing around him. When pulled half-heartedly, this can get so incredibly cheesy, but here it just becomes awesome, especially accompanied by Speedwagon’s overly emotional and elaborate ways to state the obvious.

Though turning luck into pluck… that is one of the most bizarre uses of Engrish I’ve seen in a while…
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Psycho Pass – 05

by psgels, posted in Psycho Pass

You know? Psycho Pass is very good at using its build-up. This arc was rather strange at times, but what I really liked was the climax of this episode in which the villain of this arc was apprehended. The directing there was really good, the music rocked, and everything came together. Of course it got quite surreal in a way that wasn’t for everyone, but I liked how creative it was (also, that use of alcohol rocked).

I also liked how this episode went much more in-depth into the existance of online idols. Last week we were introduced to the concepts, but this time showed much more details, and what it means to be an online celebrity. The scriptwriter also really liked to quote famous philosophers in this episode. It also made me wonder: if someone killed me, and still kept posting at the same rate that I do… would people notice?

This also showed a bit more about the world of Psycho Pass: the world here seems to have its own method of determining psychological coefficients, but not optimal search algorythms: people still need to search smartly if they want to find something, because there is so much information. On the other hand, Holograms have gotten to such an advance state that even a computer can’t tell the difference; that, or there are tricks to fool the visual sensors for the computers (which is why everything looked so trippy).
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Zetsuen no Tempest – 06

by psgels, posted in Zetsuen no Tempest

This is the episode where Zetsuen no Tempest set itself apart. It already had hints before that its story was very different from the usual, but here this really paid off when suddenly everything is turned upside down.

I mean, before it just seemed that there were a bunch of parties that were all acting independantly. This episode revealed so much connections between the different characters, and all of those connections are different. This episode was full of all sorts of bonds, from alliances to truces; I really liked the diversity.

Especially Mahiro impressed me in this episode, though. His mistrust of Yoshino, combined with how Yoshino seems to trust him completely worked really well in this episode, especially combining the tensions with Aika. It’s an interesting episode to reveal that the two of them were more than just siblings. And as much as I’d like to pull the hate card for doing the not blood-related thing again, they actually chose that relationship themselves, rather than making it some contrived excuse to have incest.

Also, Hakaze actually being the one more likely to destroy the world. Nice twist.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excelllent)