Magi – 05

by psgels, posted in Magi

I see that it’s a bit of a challenge for this series to balance out its morals and stories. What I mean by that is the following: the past episodes focused all on this community of ordinary people who are about to be annexed, and a lot of focus was put into not fighting, resulting even in the death of the village elder as she tried to promote her ideas. Those ideas got through, the villagers decided to abandon fighting… only for the main characters to pick up their arms instead and slaughter the enemy nevertheless. Screw negotiations.

It’s obvious why they did it of course: the villain in this episode could not be talked out of his plans, but still: this set-up does deminish the storlyline for the tribe a bit: these two stories next to each other don’t really strengthen each other. Yet, this is still much better than Sword Art Online, which doesn’t even seem to care about its unimportant characters. Magi definitely does care about them, and that care definitely made it through in this episode.

Also, this arc seemed to be for Aladdin to realize what his purpose is, and to meet other kinds of genies and magi that also were there to select kings. I’m definitely feeling the grandeur of this setting with this, and this episoe showed that there is so much more to this setting than what has been shown so far. And really: I like the village elder a lot more than I thought I would. Because of that, her realization of what Aladdin is at the end of this episode made all the more impact.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

K – 05

by psgels, posted in K

This was one of those annoying episodes of which you won’t know whether it was good or not until the series ends. Annoying to review, I mean, not to watch, mind you.

But yeah, in terms of plot, nothing concrete really happens: people search for someone, they don’t find him. People fight, they retreat. People prepare for something, but that is left for the next episode. A cliff-hanger promises a lot of intrigue… yet not in this episode.

No, this was all about character building. Fleshing out the cast and making the audience more familiar with them, in particular the skateboard guy and his companion, along with Saruhiko (who is not Reishi by the way, a mistake I made at first). Highlight was the gorgeously animated fight scene between these guys.

But yeah, this build-up is nice and all, but it’s pointless if you ain’t gonna use it, and shows like this tend to forget that, getting so much caught up in their build-up that they forget to deliver. this show has the luxury of being anime original, so not bound on any kind of original source material whatsoever, so in theory it can really do as it pleases. Now make use of that!
Rating: 4/8 (Nice)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 31

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

So, this is the episode: they actually got an astronaut to voice a version of himself, as he was in space. You really could hear that he wasn’t a professional voice actor, and instead someone who was more used to giving press conferences.

I kept wondering in what kind of context the creators would put it, but they actually did it in a flashback to when Mutta and Hibito were still kids and got to talk to him along with a number of other kids. That’s quite neat. I also like how they could have shown this segment at any episode the creators would have liked, yet they chose Hibito’s big moment: the moment where he finally achieved his dreams and arrived into space.

The launch itself also was just perfect: there was just as much detail here as last episode, and it’s amazing to actually see so much time spent on just a single launch of a rocket.

This really was an episode that said “You’re next, Mutta”. With all the build-up I kept thinking that they were leading up to this huge death scene, but instead the creators just really wanted to show in full detail what the launch of a rocket would be like, and what it all entails. It’s completely different from the second exam arc in that the number of characters was much smaller, and this wasn’t aimed to get to know them better at all. Still, it worked really well, just because it was so unique. Slow paced series like this are really rare, especially when done right (dragging on is a really big pitfall for them), so I’m really glad with this series.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Hunter X Hunter – 54

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

YES! YES! YES! OH GOD YES! It has begun! That one phone text is something I have been eagerly anticipating for more than a year now. The scene where Hisoka sent his message was the point where the original 1999 series ended, and this episode showed the first bits of what would continue in the OVA: the very best parts. Why it’s the best part will become clear in a few weeks, but oh god. This episode was so chockful of hints for that it’s unbelievable.

I am not going to mention these hints for spoilers’ sake. Let me just say that seeing the fortunes read for every spider member is amazing when you know what’s going to happen. Holy crap, I just cannot wait for this.

Also, I want to rain praises at the spider troupe for one more thing: they’re cautious. Most evil organizations glorify death or something like that: they take risks way too easily and they don’t have any value for human life. Here however, it’s more complex than that: some members are valueable and therefore cannot be permitted to die. Some members have a very strong bond together. This whole rope-tagging alone made this episode more than worth it. I just cannot think of any other evil shounen organization that comes even close to how well thought out these guys are.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

From the New World – 06

by psgels, posted in From the New World

Another great thing from From the new World is that it’s different with every episode. This was quite an eerie episode, in which Satoru fights off small armies of those Ground Spiders after getting his powers back.

I’m not quite sure how he got his powers back. I mean, I get that Saki used Satoru’s mantra to get his Cantis back, but I’m curious why Satoru didn’t do the same for Saki. After all, they were in a situation of life and death, which meant that even there, the thought of crossing this taboo didn’t occur to them.

This episode worked really well despite its problems though, in particular the change within Satoru was great as he plowed through these groups of Ground Spiders, actually enjoying himself. Only to run into this actual army at the end of the episode. Although I have to say that some of the 3D animation could have been blended a bit better. In particular the flying rocks and trees.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 05

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

The soundtrack for this series… I remember at the beginning of the season that I noted that the best soundtracks of the season were from Zetsuen no Tempest and Psycho Pass. Here’s the thing: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s soundtrack was awesome as well, but over the past episodes, it has actually improved, whereas Tempest and Psycho Pass mostly stayed with the same tracks. This episode also had a new track for the ED to work with. I’m amazed at how much work was put into this, because out of all the series this season, this is the show where the soundtrack plays the most prominent role here.

Also, the powers of the different characters just rock. Here is a kid who launches himself with a catapult, the ripple energy that can be used to tiptoe over water, a guy who uses his hair to attack and the most gigantic sword I have ever seen in an anime. It’s all so ridiculously overblown on one hand, yet so detailed on the other with fingers being the single most effective murdering weapon in the entire series. Or that “Let me heal your frozen arm with my burning body heat!”-scene. That was so ludicrous that it became awesome again.

This episode also brought back two famous figures from history back to life as incredibly badass zombies. Even their backstories were over the top, and I love the way how this was portrayed. It was another one of those moments where I nearly had the urge to yell along with the characters. It has been so long that I’ve seen an anime that had so much manliness in it. The previous attempt, Kaiji was horribly dragged out. This is the complete opposite: perfectly paced and I’m not feeling like I’m missing anything.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Robotics;Notes – 04

by psgels, posted in Robotics;Notes

This episode was mostly basic fodder for competition-based series: the part where the rivals end up working together after having shown off once, while other build-up stuff happens at the same time and new characterts get properly introduced. These were the most unremarkable parts of this episode: Fraukojiro turned out to be this shut-in who talks with internet speak, who really needs some time to warm up, and to be honest the world championships felt rather boring to me.

But then there were some parts in this episode that really impressed me: the background for the characters and the mystery. In particular the latter, as it’s finally revealed what some of the strange moments of the previous episodes were about, and it’s this strange phenomenon that occurred putting everyone to sleep. I really like the idea of one person experiencing time really fast, and the other really slow.

I like how they establish that this is a realistic setting, with supernatural events, right at the beginning, rather than pulling the magic card somewhere in the middle. This was a problem I had with Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head, so what I like about Robotics;Notes, even though Steins;Gate’s first four episodes still were much better, is that it does attempt to fix some of the issues that I had with its predecessors.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Zetsuen no Tempest – 05

by psgels, posted in Zetsuen no Tempest

I must say, this episode found quite an interesting place for its characters to fight: inside an aquarium. They also used this whale skeleton, and I have to say that it’s quite a bit better than “generic street 232”.

But that was not what this episode was really about: it was about the villains. Even though most of the screentime showed the lead characters, it detailed the back-story for this series, who Samus is, what he does, why he left his strongest enemy on an island instead of just killing her, and it’s revealed that he instead just declared her dead.

Also, everything happens for a reason. The show will very likely build further upon this theme for the rest of the series, but for now it’s already quite interesting in the way that the dead girl used to say this. After dying…. this left quite an impression on Yoshino. Also, this may have been me missing something, but has it already been revealed how she died?

At least we now know why he has the hairstyle he has: it’s something she gave to him. Should have seen that coming. I do wonder what happened to his glasses, though. Did he end up wearing contacts?
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Psycho Pass – 04

by psgels, posted in Psycho Pass

This episode was… odd. Very odd. I liked it and all, but it shows this future rendition of online communities that just made no sense. Or rather: things have to move in a very strange direction in the future for it to make any sense.

THe thing with this episode was that it had some nice ideas, but it combined them in a really weird way. Central was a new way for people to interact online with each other: using Virtual Reality that allows them to create their own persona. Logically there are pepole who stand out as celebrities in this setting. And after that it gets weird.

These celebrities have much more elaborate designs than the others. Why would that be? Computing power or something? What also akes them famous is that instead of creating content, like what a lot of today’s famous people on the internet do, they create personalities that people want to be with. Okay. Later on in the episode, a character calls this a “forum”. Okay. And for some reason, even though a computer monitors the entire cities, it cannot keep track of all the proxies it inhabits. Did the privacy laws on the internet survive this well, even though the rest of the setting is so well managed?

The question here: would the internet really evolve in such a way if virtual reality were introduced? I mean, that community definitely wasn’t mormal and all, with tons of shady guys hanging around it (so how on earth did Akane end up there), but this feels like a bizarre way for things to evolve.

What I did like was that there was one thing that this episode did show offline meetings, to show that not everything is virtual. Oh, and this episode was worth it to see Shinya float around as a talking coin. And I admit that I am intrigued as to what on earth the motives of the villain of this arc are.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

Kamisama Hajimemashita – 05

by psgels, posted in Kamisama Hajimemashita

Now that was just completely adorable. This episode was the best episode of Kamisama Hajimemashita so far since episode 01. It was all about the recurring characters this time. And Tomoe gets turned into a kid.

What I’ve noticed with a lot of comedies that lost my interest is that they introduce these characters with gimmicks, and the blow all of their best jokes on the episodes that these characters are introduced in. The result are heaps of characters who feel like one trick ponies. Then Shinjirou Kurama returned in this episode (the idol), and he was much funnier in this episode compared to the second episode. The chemistry between him and Tomoe and Nanami in particular was hilarious.

And at the same time, the serious bits again were really good: this episode again kept switching back and forth comedy and drama. The drama was really genuine, especially near the end of the episode. With the previous episode we already got to see Tomoe’s worries about Nanami, but this episode went even further with him feeling depentant on Nanami, and being ashamed of showing his weak side to her. Nanami on the other hand was really well acted when she properly fell in love with him there after seeing Tomoe’s new haircut.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)