Hyouka – 19

by psgels, posted in Hyouka

Once again a really nice standalone episode for Hyouka, so close to the end. I have to say: I’m really enjoying these episodes more compared to the individual episodes of the first half of the series. It’s not just because we now know the characters and that this show is now able to use this in its storytelling (most notably the interplay between Oreki and Chitanda), but the mysteries themselves also have gotten more interesting. I relaly liked the idea of piecing a story together from a random strange announcement over the school intercom.

This was just two people sitting in a room, trying to piece together something that happened, and I like episodes like this, especially considering how much detail the writers managed to put into it and how everything just started with one simple sentence: Oreki picked apart every single detail of it in order to get to his conclusion. Satoshi and Ibara were completely absent, so this was just about Oreki and Chitanda.

Now, I wouldn’t actually mind if the show ended on random episodes like these, or even a short arc of three episodes. In fact, it’s great for the variety in this series to play with the set-up like this, especially after the long school festival arc. Having a series in which the arcs are all the same length does get a bit boring, but here they are able to switch things up, and especially this episode was significantly different from the others. That’s great! Yay for variety!
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Rinne no Lagrange – 20

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

This show is building up to something. This episode however, decided to ignore that for some good old-fashioned character-building. It wasn’t even a calm before the storm, but rather an episodic story that was meant to push the characters a bit further before the climax starts.

So yeah, the student council wants to take away the club room for the jersey club. To avoid that Madoka needs to find an extra member. They find one, but at the end of the episode that member already quit and the clubroom issues stopped being a problem. The new character is also completely insignificant to the story, so the real point of this episode was everything in between.

Aside from fleshing out, what I think was the most important here was the meaning of the Jersey club to Madoka and Youko (who by the way has a way too small part in this second season): how the club was formed, and how they look at it today. It’s a neat piece of character development for both of them.

As for the main storyline, the only thing that was revealed was that that one guy who has been suspicious for the entire series has something to do with it and has been alive for 20000 years now. I’m still not seeing how it’s going to relate back to the themes of the rest of this series though, but this episode was not bothered by that. And in the meantime, the new girl was annoying but had her charms when she revealed her intentions, and it was fun to see Madoka fly off.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita – 09

by psgels, posted in Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita

You know, this was actually very adorable. In this episode Watashi gets sent to some random island along with a truck full of fairies in order to “cultivate” it. A few episodes ago it was outlined that the more fairies there were, the more luck you have. This episode showed that you can also overdo it a bit.

The result is an entire civilization being built consisting out of all sorts of monuments, only to collapse again due to a lack of resources. The whole process was quite interesting; again lots of sweets were involved, but I also liked how the fairies basically invented their own foods on a whim. The different buildings and clothing were quite imaginative.

Also, the episode order of this is completely random: this episode showed Assistant again, and acted as if he had been there for ages. Ideally speaking, I’d have liked it if the creators emphasized this random order a bit more. I mean, at this point there are only two stories that really made use of this: the story about her getting her hair cut, and the story of meeting Assistant. Other than that, I noticed that things that happen in one episode are never mentioned in the other again. Whether it prevents the series from coming together or not… I can’t say that yet at this point.

Also, why is grandfather always messing with a gun during the introductions?
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Sword Art Online – 08

by psgels, posted in Sword Art Online

So, the main storyline has begun. But does that also mean that this show has gotten better? Well, slightly.

I had my problems with this episode, but what I liked about it was that it further developed the relationship between Kirito and Asuna. It’s actually good that they spend a bit of quality time together, and this was done better than with the other girls Kirito met so far, on top of just being good build-up.

However, the one who is responsible for translating the novel storyline into the anime storyline needs to pay more attention to detail. I feel like this episode left out some key parts in understanding the characters and a few things in this episode didn’t make any sense because some key parts have never been shown. They’re small bits of details, but take for example the point at which Kirito enters Asuna’s house and is impressed with how expensive this is.

Now, I’m actually very interested in the story behind this, because it doesn’t really make sense from the perspective of an MMORPG: Kirito solos bosses and is constantly improving himself. Any loot or money he takes is something he gets to keep for himself. And knowing MMORPGs and boss drops, he can probably get quite a bit of money by just selling all of the rare high-level stuff he finds that is inaccessible to the people of lower level. Asuna and her guild meanwhile may kill more monsters together, but I do doubt whether they kill more monsters per person than what Kirito does. So how do they make money? Escorts? Taking on paid jobs from lower level members?

I also have a few complaints about how Kirito’s relationship with Asuna was handled. The scene with that one night was just cheap. It already started off clichéd with that random boob-grab, but even then: he just randomly starts acting possessive, without giving us the chance to see why he does this, especially considering how this guy is probably amongst the oldest people in the game, they just blow it off as stress, but to me this just feels like another one of those “punk”-scenes. You know, the scene where the cute girl is attacked by punks and has to be saved by the lead character for a bit of drama? I feel that the creators are actually doing a pretty good job on the acting for Kirito and Asuna, but this guy was really badly portrayed.

On a side-note: I just realized something: next season, A-1 Pictures will be likely working on six different shows at the same time: Fairy Tail, SAO, Uchuu Kyoudai, Gyrozetter, Magi and From the new World. That’ll be interesting to see if they can handle it.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

Eureka Seven Ao – 17

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

So, this series definitely has this tendency to come with back-stories right from out of nowhere. This episode treated us to the identity of the father of Truth. On top of the nature of the world that the series takes place in: we’re dealing with a parallel universe. Basically this show is what would happen if earth would be invaded by the Scab Coral: it would still thrive, but not as much as we do now. So wait, are the villains in this series trying to move the plot into the current earth?

What’s interesting is how Goldilocks isn’t dead, but instead they never got enlisted. And you know what? I wonder what happened to Bruno in this timeline then: is he still working for Generation Blue, but in a different division or something? Will we actually see him again? What’s also interesting is how Ao nearly loses himself near the end of this episode, leading to quite an interesting cliff-hanger where people actually realize that he is too dangerous with that dimension-altering gun of his. Is that really going to be it, though, or did this episode fail to mention something?

And then there are the characters in this episode who just started to act weird. Elena Peoples… didn’t she try to shoot down the Nirvash a bunch of episodes ago? This episode she apparently decided to try a completely different tactic, but what she has in mind still is a complete mystery. The trio of Gazelle, Pippo and Juno also were different from usual. Juno was in his element when he started explaining things, so that one is logical, but what about Gazelle being so blunt? And has Pippo always been this stupid? The most notable change however was Georg, who sometimes got taken over by a new voice. That one definitely is a plot point that the next episodes will touch upon.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Natsuyuki Rendezvous – 08

by psgels, posted in Natsuyuki Rendezvous

When it was revealed that Atsushi could move objects, I did find myself thinking “now what?” Well, the creators answered that question brilliantly, and at this point it has become clear that the main plot of this show is all about that body takeover, and the conclusion of this series will very likely also be the point where this will get resolved, and no sooner. This episode was meant to build up for that, and what brilliant build-up it was!

Clearly something happened between Atsushi and Rokka that involves mountains. The first half focused on this from Rokka’s perspective as she tried to puzzle what on earth was going on, and what I really loved was how well her acting was when she called up Hazuki. Talk about restraint! It said so much with so little dialogue!

The second half of the episode then moved over to Hazuki as he realized that there was a slight danger that he didn’t anticipate to the body swapping: not being able to return, with as the highlight that part that had the best track of the soundtrack of this series (the one with the bass-like guitar and piano: a simple yet wonderful combination).
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Moyashimon – 19

by psgels, posted in Moyashimon

I liked this episode. This really had the creativity I had been looking for, and the creators actually found a way to tie in the bacteries with its focus on the wineyard that most of this episode took place in. The new girl that the characters ran into started off a bit generic, with how she has been forced to take over the family wine business despite her will, but as the episode went on her reasons for this were quite refreshing: instead of having no interest in wine making, she had a lot of interests, enough to know that her work was not going to become appreciated by the right people. That’s quite neat.

Another big thing of the past episodes wsa that the chemistry between the different characters didn’t really work. Last week was the best example with just the three guys together causing trouble… and not much else. This introduced a new haracter who may whine a bit, but does get some interesting reactions out of them, not to mention bringing Haruka back in a coincidence that I actually enjoyed a lot.

A few nit-picks: I’m not sure whether some of the antics of the bacteria when they start to play narrator actually work. I mean, most of the times they’re just stating the obvious or stalling for time. Just get on with it, or add some more detail to your explanation of where wine is made: the part you’re actually good at. Also the fanservice in this series remains a bit weird. I don’t know many French girls, but do they often run around in strange clothing and strip in front of people they only met a day before?
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

The Manga Experiment – Week 34

by psgels, posted in Manga Experiment

Memories of Emanon – February 24 – 1967 – Afternoon: This is a manga that is just one volume long, and it has a bit of a weird chapter layout. It consists out of three parts. The first parts has chapters named after times of the day and the others don’t. Plus, there are a number of pages in the first part that are a bit of a prologue. I especially like how the chapters titles are basically a way to show the time. From what I can gather from the chapter titles, this is a romance series. Part 1 is about the couple meeting, and part 2 and 3 are about memories. I’m not sure yet what that means, because the start is pretty vague on that. The first chapter shows the couple meeting each other on some sort of ship. It uses a lot of non-verbal communication, which I like and the art is good as well, plus there was some strange symbolism during the prologue. It definitely has potential to be a good short romance.

The Music of Marie – Ch.05-06: Whoa, talk about a cliff-hanger here at the end of two episodes of build-up. These two chapters were all about the culture of the world that this plays in, and it again has so many ideas in it, ranging from how people live to how the rituals of marriage are different in different countries. The designs still are really good, especially that plane that Pipi (the female lead) got for her birthday.

Shingeki no Kyojin – Ch.04-05: All this talk about chapter four piqued my curiosity, and yes. That was definitely unexpected and really bold from the authors to do, and I feel like I’m warming up more and more to this series. It’s still not the type that I can read for hours (which is also why I again just checked out two chapters this time), but what this show does really well is show the utter despair in which the characters are, combined with the art for the giants.

A Million-Pound Love – Ch.04: This is the final story of Reiko Shimizu’s collection of short stories, about an assassin that is sent on a job to kill some rich guy, but who falls in love with his daughter. After reading more manga for the past month, it still really surprises me how much stuff she can actually put into just one page. The panels are all very small and the lay-out between them just keeps changing. In terms of the story, it had the most questionable content compared to the other three stories of A Million-Pound Love, but the twists at the end were still very good.

Summer 2012 Kaleidoscope – Week 34

by psgels, posted in Summer 2012 Kaleidoscope

#1: Hunter X Hunter – 44: This really was the single best episode of the 2011 Hunter x Hunter series. THIS is why I kept watching through the first arcs despite my issues. And tho think that we’re not even near the best parts yet! This really was unique in a shounen-series how they handled the battle and especially the aftermath with Uvogin, this is really where the creative powers and uses of those powers start to appear. And in most series, they would be completely overpowered, but Hunter X Hunter managed to balance them out in a really good way. – 6/8 (Awesome)

#2: Saint Seiya Omega – 20: Holy crap! This really was the second stand-out episode for Saint Seiya omega: the director personally oversaw the episode direction here, the character-designer personally directed the animation, and it really shows. The fight scenes were short, but really powerful, the animation was really expressive and the build-up to the end of the episode was just perfect. What happened in this episode was on hindsight not that special, but damn: the execution made it work so well! – 6/8 (Awesome)

#3: Kokoro Connect – 07: It’s interesting: the climax of the first arc of this series may have been a bit contrived, but it is getting used here really well: without it this episode would have been completely different and everyone would just have hidden in their room much more easily. The rest of this episode consisted out of everyone blurting out attacks at each other with a lot of drama being created from that. The most interesting part ended up being the effect that it had on the different characters. – 5/8 (Great)

#4: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 19: This episode was all about politics, a good change of pace and I actually liked the ideas that the characters had, even though they remain in the veins of this show of not making any sense. This actually was a good change of pace, because I had gotten a bit tired of the constant action. Unlike that, the dialogue and diplomacy has gotten far from boring in this series. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#5: Phi Brain – 44: Well, “it” has finally happened, although it was mostly meant for build-up here. Something interesting is going on here though: at that point where this show started to do the whole “four episodes in a row about the same puzzle”, my suspense of disbelief got completely broken. At this point it has really recovered again. There were some things in this episode that just didn’t make sense, but I didn’t really care about them, and instead I was much more interested in Kaito and how he is trying to save Freecell. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#6: Polar Bear Cafe – 21: The first half of the episode was standard panda trolling, brought up by Lama’s antics. In the second half… things got a bit weird. We finally get an episode dedicated to Panda’s little sister, but the way in which it did it was just surreal, even for this series’ standards. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#7: Tari Tari – 08: This week showed the conclusion for Sawa’s story. It was nice, but also a bit forced in how it solved everything. The lead-up to it was good, and Sawa has definitely gotten fleshed out after this arc, but I’m still missing something from Tari Tari. So far the only episode that really stood out was episode 2. Aside from that I’m getting a bit of a “been there, done that”-feel from it. It’s still charming and enjoyable, but I get the feeling that it could have been more. – 4.5/8 (Good)

Uta Koi – 08

by psgels, posted in Uta Koi

One thing that this series has made clear by now: living in history sucks. Especially for women. The women featured in this series were great poets… and yet most they do is sit in a room and wait for their loved ones who are often gone for years. This episode was all about that. To the point where relationships just fell apart because of that.

And once again, this series actually links all of the poems together. This episode was about the poet who was the servant of one of the characters from last week, and it first shows a failed relationship she witnessed, and then a relationship she was in herself. Next episdoe seems to continue with her even more. Seriously, watching Chihayafuru’s second season is also going to be a treat now that the background of the characters has been fleshed out so well.

Something I did notice during the past weeks however was that the music isn’t as striking as what it used to be. Especially in this episode it was rather in the background, and most of the standout tunes that caught my ear in the first episodes are gone now. I do hope that the creators saved something for the final episodes, because a correct use of music is also a skill that can make an anime much better when used correctly.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)