Hyouka – 21

by psgels, posted in Hyouka

This was an interesting episode. I mean, movie or no movie: the series is ending next week, so Kyoani can pour even more budget than usual into it. The result is a really well animated episodic story with weird build-up.

I mean weird build-up in the way that this episode on one hand develops Satoshi, it explains his actions of some of the previous arcs, and on the other hand it suddenly turns Mayaka and Satoshi into a couple. Now, I know that my memory isn’t the greatest with these kinds of things… but have we ever seen hints to that twist before? I mean, it’s not something that blossomed overnight: they’ve apparently been going on for more than a year now. And with the incredible attention to detail that this series has, I find it hard to believe that they’d never hint at this. So did I miss something?

But whatever faults Hyouka may have had there, it made up for it by giving a very different meaning to his part in the school festival arc. What he did there wasn’t jealousy, it was a battle of him trying to win from his obsession. He allowed himself to dabble a bit with trying to solve things, but he never went far into it like Oreki did. It makes much more sense: if he’s such a large sherlock-fan, then why doesn’t he try to formulate theories or brainstorm? Well, that’s why. And that’s also why Oreki’s plan last week went wrong.

Also weird was Chitanda. I mean, the usual progression for a character like her is to done down: as she grows up she becomes more mature in the process. She however is completely different and after the school festival arc, she suddenly got more extreme, acting more and more on her feelings than she already did before. The animators really liked to exemplify that with a particular few scenes.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 23

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

You know what? I think that Space Brothers just got better.

I mean really: this episode was just brilliant and I was incredibly moved at the end of it. Seriously, this is how you write your characters. Every single character was enjoyable to watch, and Mutta’s acting was even better than usual. We now know him for 23 episodes already, and he’s still changing. Most notably his confidence in this episode was completely different compared when he went to Hibito for his first trip. Putting him in weird yet realistic situations only made this better, like when he dressed up for Santa Clause for a part-time job, or when he forgot to charge his train fare. Or take the rest of the cast: I loved how Serika randomly danced around at the end of the episode, or the little tantrum that Kenji’s daughter gave when Mutta visited (hiding behind the curtain was just way too adorable!). Despite the slow pacing, this episode had so many memorable scenes here.

But the real star of this episode was Yuri. I already suspected that now that he would be part of the main team, he’d get some more attention and all, but this episode completely went against my expectations. It without a doubt was one of the best executions of the “This character is put on a bus… oh wait, he is not!”-twist I have seen. With just ten minutes, this guy got a ton of depth, and I never imagined that the past episodes were all building up to that moment. I really got his fascination with aliens, and what he feels he should be doing with his life, but especially the talk he had with his father was beautifully and wonderfully down to earth.
Rating: 7/8 (Fantastic)

Sword Art Online – 10

by psgels, posted in Sword Art Online

My memory with these kinds of things is not the best, but if I’m not mistaken, then this was the first time in which Kirito actually killed a person, right? I mean, not indirectly like what happened with that one guild of his, but in which he was actually forced to strike down and kill a fellow player. This episode was stuffed with character-development, of which that was only the tip of the iceberg: Kirito was forced to join a guild and he and Asuna officially became a couple (including the two of them sleeping together, which is something you rarely see outside of the outright porn shows). But I do feel that this episode was rather forced…

Kuradeel… I get why he was used, but I didn’t really like him before, and this episode did not change that. I mean, I like that he’d try something, considering that he hates Kirito quite a bit, but I feel that he also could have done that without the overacting. In fact, I think that the points in which the characters in this show go mental are hard to buy and annoying, and it didn’t really help that this was followed by a badly covered “I nearly killed you but because I like to talk to myself your ally arrived just in time to save you”-twist. If you’re going to go with a twist like that: at least deliver it properly, because to be honest, at this point I have pretty much been programmed to exactly point out the moment in which these twists happen due to how bloody overused they are. You could have shown this from Asuna’s point of view, perhaps. that would have spiced things up a bit, and at the same time it’d also show that she actually did something… other than look at Kirito on her personal map. A few weeks ago I complained that we saw her do very little guild-duties, and that’s a problem that still hasn’t really been fixed here.

The direction on was on other points really good though. I mean, ignore the hapless overacting and I got quite a few chills from how Kirito and that one guy were killed off. I also like how the creators succeeded in making the first night between Kirito and Asuna rather awkward. One complaint to this however is that things moved incredibly fast. I mean, the end of the episode moved right from sex to marriage in an instant. Wouldn’t it have worked better if the creators put some time between that?
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

Eureka Seven Ao – 19

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

Now this was a big episode! It completely changed the plot and setting and after this, the series will look completely different. This is really what this show needed to make it even better and it’s a wonderful twist to prevent it from getting stale near the end.

I generally dislike “let us adults sacrifice ourselves for the younger generation”-twists, however in the context of this series it fits perfectly. The themes have always been that children should be protected, even if they’re the only ones able to pilot mechas, and that’s exactly what happened here. On top of that the creators went even further by giving the kids a good excuse to be the central focus of the plot: it’s exactly because they have been protected and bear no responsibility for the actions of these adults, that they’re able to be free in stopping the real threat: the Scab Coral.

And yeah: Generation Blue has been disbanded because it has been causing too much trouble and acted way too much behind the scenes. Beyond that Fleur got some really good development out of everything, Elena finally came clean with her story (what the hell has Eureka been doing?!), and Truth also is moving more and more away from the perfect villain that he was when he was first introduced. He may not be dead (unfortunately, I have seen too much anime at this point to know the trick of that cliff-hanger), but even considering that, his role in this series has been completely changed after this episode.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

The Manga Experiment – Week 36

by psgels, posted in Manga Experiment

Regarding next season: I am not going to continue this experiment there, and instead I’m going to take a more laid-back approach and focus more on finishing longer manga. The poll I ran last season really showed three things that stood above the others of possible things that I can cover: manga, some extra series, and recommendation posts. Next season I’m going to focus on the second one, and blog 12 series at once again (so no Kaleidoscope either). As for the recommendation posts… I’ll start on them as soon as I finish my to-watch list of Ghost in the Shell, Planetes, Texholnyze and Twin Spica.

With the Light – The Raising of an Autistic Child – Ch.01-??: When this was recommended, I searched for it online a lot, however I couldn’t find it anywhere. But then, a few days ago I was at a local manga library, and thankfully I managed to run into it. I don’t recall exactly what chapter I reached (probably around chapter 03), but this was definitely an interesting and realistic look at what it means to raise a child with autism. These first chapters only delved into the time when the kid is 2.5 years old and the first signs of autism start to change, but I especially loved the depiction of the stress that this can cause to the mother.

Hito Hitori Futari – Ch.14-15: These two chapters really exemplified the strengths of this series: it’s a very dark, yet also very warm story, and the two are combining more and more seamlessly here, especially in chapter 15 in which we see a more human side of that mysterious antagonist. I can see that the author loves to draw this guy, because there are a ton of stunning panels featuring him.

Shingeki no Kyojin – Ch.08-09: Holy crap! I mean, there are twists, but this really came as a shocker. And don’t get me wrong, the next chapters have a lot of explaining to do, but still this is something that I did not see coming, and it was made even better by the intense style in which this manga is drawn. The author really likes to abuse speedlines, but the intense effect that this has is really working with these kinds of twists.

Summer 2012 Kaleidoscope – Week 36

by psgels, posted in Summer 2012 Kaleidoscope

#1: Hunter X Hunter – 45: God, this only reaffirms that Hunter X Hunter has the single best storyline out of any shounen series I’ve seen. This episode was entirely dedicated to Uvogin and the unique situation he was in. On top of that, the spiders all have a great chemistry together. Next season I’m very likely going to cover this show weekly again. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#2: Kyosogiga – 01: God, Kyosogiga is good. And with episodes that only take up ten minutes, it’s extremely accessible to watch. This first episode details the past of the female lead, but what makes it stand out is how well it is directed, combining both its dialogue with its animation to show various moments in her childhood. Not to mention the characterization, who really manages to nail her as this spunky yet innocent kid, especdially taking the first OVA into account. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#3: Polar Bear Cafe – 23: That new ED is awesome. As for the actual episode: the first half was utterly hilarious, the second half didn’t work for me. It had a lot of food jokes based on obsessively saving money, but I didn’t find them that funny. Hamda’s romance however is getting better and better in the way that every single animal is poking fun at him. – 5/8 (Great)

#4: Kokoro Connect – 09: Interesting episode this week. It was mostly about resolving things, and that indeed was the highlight of this episode, seeing the different characters talk out their issues with each other. The oddball turned outto be Inaba, who had a bit of building up for later going on. – 5/8 (Great)

#5: Saint Seiya Omega – 22: Yet again a great episode from Saint Seiya, this time about the ninja. Sure, it’s simple and all, but it worked surprisingly well, especially considering it was about completely different characters this time since the party split up. – 5/8 (Great)

#6: Phi Brain – 47: Well, the climax has begun and Klondike actually did something. I’m glad taht eh didn’t wait for the last possible moment. However, with this the focus on “saving” the villains has pretty much disappeared and this show has turned again into “defeat the villains”. Can they make that work for the climax? – 4.5/8 (Good)

#7: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 21: Horizon’s cast is HUGE. But did it make good use of it? Well, this episode had a lot of build-up, plus the climax for two characters who I believe we saw eight episodes ago. It was this dramatic climax about sacrifice, but what interested me the most in it was its context in the story, and not these actual characters. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#8: Tari Tari – 09: Hmm, this is an episode that I missed amongst last week’s slew of OVA releases, apologies for that. This starts the arc for Wien-kun. But really: is this arc actually about him? I mean yeah, he likes sentai shows and all, but we hardly see him do anything. Most of the organization is done by the girls and he doesn’t really seem to have any problems that he needs to overcome… – 3.5/8 (Enjoyable)

#9: Tari Tari – 10: Well… so much for Wien then… he got a total two minutes to shine, and the rest of this episode was about something completely different. We didn’t really learn anything new about his character, he didn’t really overcome a problem of his, he didn’t really gain any depth. I mean, it was fun how they captured that pickpocket and the vice principal suddenly turning tsundere was forced, but had a few charms, but nevertheless this was a missed opportunity. Are they also going to ignore the tennis guy’s story like this? – 3.5/8 (Enjoyable)

Moyashimon – 21

by psgels, posted in Moyashimon

For as much as I’ve ranted about this sequel, I do have to say that this was one of the best episodes of Moyashimon here. Finally this series gets down to business and the drama that results from it is actually pretty good here. With this I also realize the main problem of Moyashimon’s sequel: it took too much time building up.

That thing with Hasegawa has been going on for the entire season now, and aside from perhaps the things around Hazuki, everything was vaguely leading up to her talk with her fiancée in this episode. The thing however is that that story isn’t really that complex so it feels like in terms of storytelling, it could have been done much more concise, save from the fact that we’re now in france and that they needed an excuse for that. The conversation she had with her fiance in this episode standalone was very good, but I can’t help but feel like it is a bit of an anti-climax in the grand scheme of things and how the build-up doesn’t really come together here.

On the other hand, I really, really liked Marie’s story with her father. It already was an interesting spin on the story about succeeding your family’s business, but this episode threw in a very nice bit of irony about her father not liking alcohol and basically devoting his life to something he doesn’t enjoy due to the pressure from his father. The relationship between the two really got its time to shine here.

Oh, and I also quite liked how easily Takuma and Kaoru made friends with the bodyguards.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Natsuyuki Rendezvous – 10

by psgels, posted in Natsuyuki Rendezvous

Natsuyuki Rendezvous! That was amazing! This is what a penultimate episode should be. It’s finally time to see where all that build-up went.

I love the twist in this episode. For a long time we just saw Hazuki interacting with various versions of Rokka acting as various fairy tale figures. Only for it to turn out that that indeed was the subconsciousness of Atsushi, resulting in Hazuki really trading places with him and becoming a helpless ghost himself.

The moment in which he found out what all happened was wonderful. His reaction was priceless. I really admire how the creators pretty much pulled him away from all action for so long. Right now a ton of stuff has happened outside of his knowledge (including that new look of his, but also the change in feelings from Rokka), and it’s awesome to think how he’s going to react and adapt to all that.

And as for that final episode, Rokka’s final like is just the perfect lead up to that. This is where she addresses her worries for Hazuki, and very likely it will become clear that Atsushi has done something with him. It’s going to be a perfect climax for all three of them together. All at a place in which nobody can bother them and which has a huge value for both Rokka and Atsushi. The ending I’m looking forward to the most this season definitely belongs to Natsuyuki Rendezvous.
Rating: 6.5/8 (Amazing)

Uta Koi – 10

by psgels, posted in Uta Koi

Dressing up like towers… I get that kind of symbolism. The silly fifth episode had a great point to make. But why, dear god WHY, did you stuff Fujiwari no Teika in a tutu and make him perform bad ballet? Just… what was the meaning of that?

After that the episode started, and I actually found it among the better episodes of Uta Koi. It still is about Sei Shonagon (probably the last at this point). Whereas two weeks ago we saw stories from her past, and last week we saw her own romance, this episode shows some stories from after that, and how she dealt with the death of the important people around her. I like how this was all told from the perspective of yet another poet.

Especially the second half of the episode had some very good chemistry between Sei Shonagon and this poet, which can be attributed to both very good dialogue, and a very good delivery from the voice-actors, combined with some of the best tracks of the series. It’s here where the storytelling brings all of those together. If only the show had a bigger budget then it would be even better.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Rinne no Lagrange – 21

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

So, I thought that at this point, Rinne no Lagrange would dive straight into its climax like what happened with Mouretsu pirates. Instead we get a calm before the storm episode. While I did not expect this, it’s a very good calm before the storm nonetheless.

It’s basically an episode that looks to the future: the three aliens who pretty much haven’t had anything to do in the second season are finally all going their own ways, with two of them returning back to their home planet. Even though their characters at this point are pointless from a plot perspective, it’s still nice to see what’s going to happen with them.

Beyond that this episode also addressed Madoka’s refusal to change. It’s interesting, as she hasn’t really changed over the series, even though everyone around her has, and with that she’s about to be left behind when the series closes off. I liked how both Lan and Muginami decided to return back to their home planets when everything is over.

Overall though, I do have to say that out of the three big mecha-series that debuted in the past Winter-Season, Rinne no Lagrange probably will end up with the least impact, unless something amazing happens in these final few episodes. The best ended up without a doubt Mouretsu Pirates with how it completely changed as it lead up to its finale, and Aquarion Evol also for me holds a candle above this one due to its plot twist. Of course, the characters of Rinne no Lagrange are much better written than Aquarion Evol, and possibly even Mouretsu Pirates, but there is one thing that I am still missing in this series: something that makes them stand out and memorable. I guess that that’s the frustrating part: this show has the wonderful ingredients. The characters are really well fleshed out at this point. They just don’t come together as well as the other series. Unless Tatsuo Sato has something in store for us for the ending, of course.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)