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)

Rinne no Lagrange – 19

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

This show is building up to something. It’s being very mysterious on what it exactly is, though. We’re given plenty of hints, like with the tragedies of the Rinne that happened, and that something really bad is about to arrive, but beyond that? I mean, this episode also pretty much resolved the tensions between Vilagulio and Dizelmine. This was surprising and all, but I do have a concern.

Here is the thing: so far, this series has been all about reaching out to others. It has mecha, but it has made clear plenty of times before that conflicts should be avoided. And really, in this episode they did that with Dizelmine: something bad is going to happen in a thousand years, however he completely changed his attitude and now has ended up joining forces with Vilagulio and his people to find a solution. Sure, it took the love of a young girl to get there, but it kindof works.

However, where on earth are these themes in the part of the story that is still remaining? What is there to talk about two planets colliding? What is there to talk about random flowers that appear from out of nowhere that have the power to destroy planets? The only thing I can think of right now is that Yurikano is going to go berserk or something, but that’s nowhere near as interesting as what the past arc has been. Plus it’s rather cheesy, even if the show built up to it. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see what kind of solution the creators found for it, but they did kindof write themselves into a corner with this. The challenge now is to leap out of it without getting dirty.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

Hyouka – 18

by psgels, posted in Hyouka

We’re back to episodic stories again for a while, though this episode was slightly different from these kinds of episodes that we saw in the first half of this series. Instead of some small incident happening with Oreki having to solve it, it turned into a bit of a character-study for one of the teachers that the characters had when they were in middle school.

On top of that, this was a really interesting episode for Oreki and Chitanda. The two got to spend a lot of time together, and on top of that they both showed different sides of them in this episode: Oreki for finally being a bit mildly curious on his own accord, and Chitanda for sacrificing a lot of her time to just be with him in this. The end of the episode, in which Oreki explained why he went to the library to check things up really brought out something good out of both of them.

On a side-note: this has piqued my interest after that really long school festival arc: it looks like next episode will be a standalone story as well. That means that the conclusion arc for this series will just be three episodes long (Hyouka only has 22 episodes). So yeah, it’ll be short and sweet for this series’ standards, but I wonder: is it just going to be another arc like the previous ones, or one that actually feels like a really good conclusion?
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita – 08

by psgels, posted in Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita

Oh, this was interesting: episode 8 of Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita is basically the same as episode 7, only with a different focus. Last week was about the fairies and their bananas, but this time it was all about the assistant. The events were generally the same: Watashi still repeated the episode five times and it all ended in the forest, but here she actually is actively looking for the assistant.

Repetition of course has been done before, but repetition with repetition is a different story, and I’m glad that this show had the guts to do it, since we’ve basically now seen variations of the same scene 10 times right now. And beyond that, the episode also adequately explained why the assistant remained in the background so much, to the point where nobody seemed to notice him.

I’m not sure whether I really get his “first” appearance, though. He acts the complete opposite of what he normally is, including all kinds of sexual harassment. He then leaves, we go to the forest scene again and then suddenly every Watashi has a warm feeling of him and that bratty side of his was never mentioned again. I get that he left searching for some part of himself, but what I don’t get get is how that kickstarted the relationship between him and Watashi.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

I’m not sure exactly what happened, but Ghost in the Shell took me much, much longer to finish than usual. That’s not a bad sign by the way, I have this with some series that I really like, that I don’t want them to end, but this still was really extreme. It took me exactly half a year to finish a measly 26 episodes and I still have a second season to go. My life habits have really changed…

But Ghost in the Shell remains a series that is very tough to digest. It is a series that you constantly need to pay attention for, and it’s full of complex dialogues that are a trademark for its director Kenji Kamiyama. And it’s not just the numerous philosophical debates in this series, but the main plot itself is also mind-bogglingly complex. It involves modern politics, has a huge focus on the mass media. The way in which it fleshes itself out is through long discussions and debates, full of speculation and theories. Yes, you will have to work if you want to enjoy this series, and yes: it delivers.

It was hard work to get through this series, but it does feel like an accomplishment to be able to finish it. Seriously, there are very few series that go even further with their dialogue and exposition than this series. The only that I can recall out of the top of my head are Mouryou no Hako and various Mamoru Oshii’s work, and perhaps Ergo Proxy. If you’re looking for something intelligent, make sure NOT TO SKIP THIS SERIES.

What holds this one back is a bit of a mis-managed cast. I assume that this will be fixed in the Second Gig, but the half of the main cast gets surprisingly little depth, even though the cast of side-characters get a ton of this. I feel like this series could have used its episodes better to flesh them out, because with the way this series is, we always see them in perfect control and we hardly see different sides of them as well. The main storyline around the Laughing Man is fantastic, though I did notice that at this point I can hardly remember the rest of the stories that took place in this series.

Storytelling: 10/10 – That dialogue. It’s great to see another series that takes its audience as seriously as with this series.
Characters: 8,5/10 – Half of the cast really is great. Others are completely one-dimensional though.
Production-Values: 8.5/10 – Here is a tough one: back when it first aired, the graphics were revolutionary. And subsequently it inspired everyone to try harder and surpass the animation here, making it feel rather dated at this point. Yoko Kanno still is godly, though.
Setting: 9/10 – Excellent science fiction, innovative concepts and really makes you think about both technology and politics. Although the standalone episodes could perhaps have been better used.

Suggestions:
Ergo Proxy
Seirei no Moribito
Mouryou no Hako

Uchuu Kyoudai – 21

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

Oh Space Brothers. You are so evil. This episode finally showed the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the rock paper scissors game that everyone has been waiting for. The episode got to it very quickly… only to then hide its results. Especially since it afterwards became clear what the selection procedure meant: a ticket to the next round. It’s not concrete: JAXA will select a few more people they feel are worthy, and if you got selected and they don’t like you you probably also won’t survive that round, however it does give you an extra chance to show yourself off. Plus you get to go to Houston and meet real astronauts.

So all we know right now is that Furuya and Mutta didn’t make it. This episode didn’t say a word about the other three though. Instead, it went full background on Furuya. It’s like saying: “You thought that this was the end of the arc? Hah! We haven’t even started yet!” – That background by the way was really good and definitely puts Furuya on a different perspective.

There also is this bit of news that really intrigued me. It’s a list of the most viewed anime on TV, and if you take a look there, then you’ll see that Space Brothers is actually amongst them! This usually is a list for either kids’ shows or shounen series, and yet here this series about all adults has managed to place itself in it! This shows that there is an audience for these kinds of series, which will allow to draw in more interest from advertisers. The series airs on 7am on sunday morning, so there probably are a lot of kids who watch it, but even then this is a wonderful development, because it shows that there is interest in series that take themselves and their audiences seriously. Compared to the usual kiddie shows which just try to see who can rip each other off the most.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Sword Art Online – 07

by psgels, posted in Sword Art Online

Look, I don’t mind that we’re in the middle of side stories right now. That’s fine, especially conisdering that this will be 2 cours long, and in fact, I like that this show is taking its time to show its world. But please: change things up a bit. This was yet another episode about a girl who falls in love with Kirito.

On hindsight, the previous arc was good in how it avoided this (the purple haired girl turned out to be acting). And what bothers me the most is that I don’t really buy how all these girls fall for him. This episode was probably the worst here: Kirito arrives and breaks her most prized sword, and then starts flirting with her. On one hand, this episode showed nicely how blacksmithing works, but Kirito really: couldn’t you really find a better sword? And if her swords are so weak, why did you stick with her? How does blacksmithing work anyway? Do you just need a title of “master smith”, which will allow you to create any weapon possible, or are there levels in creating weapons? This episode hinted at both: on one hand Lisbeth being able to make an item way above anything she ever made before, and on the other hand there was the amount of heart and skill put into it that Kirito commented on. Which is a bit odd, considering how easy blacksmithing is in a game.

I also wonder: how come no girl has a boyfriend until they meet Kirito? Have all of the other guys already died at this point? That’s the only explanation I can think of right now: in this setting it’s of course understandable that people fall more quickly for each other. If this indeed takes place more than half a year after everyone got trapped, it can only mean that all the guys immediately rushed off into their deahts, leaving a population with more girls than guys. There was this one picture of Lisbeth surrounded by three guys, hinting that those guys are now dead, so that seems plausible.
Rating: 3.5/8 (Enjoyable)

Mardock Scramble – The Second Compression Review – 77.5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

Mardock Scramble 2 is a build-up movie. It’s clear to me now that the first movie was meant to be the introduction, and the third was meant to be the conclusion. The second movie is divided in two halves, which both set up this conclusion in their own ways.

The first half is all about world building and the background of some of the concepts that were introduced in this series. The second half will then completely change the setting. I won’t say into what, but it’s basically dedicated to character and atmosphere building, on top of being an interesting change of pace.

So whether the buildup will actually pay off is something I can’t yet comment on until the third movie arrives. What I can say is that it did a pretty good job of remaining interesting, especially in its second half. It’s not as good as the first movie and it doesn’t have the thriller aspect, but it does a good job of developing the chemistry between the characters. As for the character-development itself though… there is only one character who really changes here: the female lead.

The graphics are as polished as you’d expect. Gohands really loves to use CG lighting in lots of different colours, and everything looks really pretty with a lot of good camera angles. The second movie also still has the creative gore of the first movie, albeit in lesser doses. There is one thing that I did notice about the use of colours though: they’re spammed throughout nearly the entire movie, making everything look a tad similar and the same. A bit more variety in this area would have worked wonders. It in no way is a standalone movie though. Watch it inbetween the first and the third.

Storytelling: 7/10 – A build-up movie. It does the build-up well, but it remains build up. I wouldn’t recommend to watch this one standalone unlike the first movie.
Characters: 8/10 – They got nicely fleshed out, the few new characters are interesting and they managed to keep my interest through the whole movie, which is good for something that builds up.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Very pretty colors, albeit a bit one-sided for movie standards.
Setting: 8/10 –

Summer 2012 Kaleidoscope – Week 33

by psgels, posted in Summer 2012 Kaleidoscope

#1: Hunter X Hunter – 43: This is looking really good. Beyond the hardcore action with a lot of gore that showed just how much of a threat the Spider troupe is, the creators also made sure to show the other side of the coin: the mafia. The come into action immediately, they track down the spider troupe immediately and they put their best men on the job. Take that, generic evil organization! It’s great to see Kurapica&co as just a small part of that. Oh, and my inner fanboy is jumping up and down because they got a certain character right. I’m not going to say which character for spoilers’ sake though, but seriously: this is the point at which this series has set itself apart from all other shounen series. Except the first Hunter X Hunter, of course. – 5.5/8 (Excellent)

#2: Kokoro Connect – 06: This was the start of a new arc. The body swapping is gone, and they returned with something just as diabolical. And again, it really lead to some excellent chemistry between the characters. It was build-up, but the build-up was really good. – 5/8 (Great)

#3: Phi Brain – 43: Yes, finally Nonoha actually does something. Or at least, she doesn’t really do anything in the end but at least she gets some things out of Freecell, who got hit with the “I’m going to become more evil”-card. It’s good to finally see this happen though, although I’m still having trouble to sympathize with the villains due to those rings of them. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#4: Saint Seiya Omega – 19: This episode was surprisingly good. The action flowed well, the story around Ryuho delivered and the music also contributed a lot. It also helped that Kouga was really in the background so that he couldn’t just win the fight with his deus ex machina powers. Also that Shiryu guy must have been a nice treat for the fans of the original series. – 4.5/8 (Good)

#4: Tari Tari – 07: So this time it’s the time for Sawa to tell her story, and this time it’s about her future as a horse archer. It’s charming, although Konatsu in the background still is rather annoying even when the spotlight isn’t on her. – 4/8 (Nice)

#5: One-Off OVA: Well, this is what you get when you pair up Sato Junichi with the guy who adapted Kanokon: the former is trying to tell a charming slice of life story in the veins of Tamayura, and the latter is trying to paste boobs and annoying stereotypes all over it. You could really see the influence of both: it’s got a soothing soundtrack, the chemistry between the characters is good for a one-shot OVA (it’s 30 minutes long, by the way) and the addition of motorbikes makes this one stand out from the rest of the slice of life anime about a bunch of cute girls, but the annoying characters bring it down. In particular Cynthia was trying waaaaaaay too hard. – 3.5/8 (Nice)

#6: Polar Bear Cafe – 20: Polar Bear Cafe’s weakest episodes are when they focus too much on panda trolling and causing trouble. Unfortunately, that took up most of this episode. It had its charms when he kept promoting penguin as his servant, but this isn’t something you want to dedicate entire episodes to. – 3.5/8 (Nice)

#7: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 18: “Oh no! We need to deliver a lot of exposition! The viewers will never be able to keep their attention this way! Quick, throw in a lot of ass jokes!” – Setting that aside, this episode afterwards delivered again on some nice battles with crazy powers… but I dunno. The gimmick of these powers is starting to wear off for me, and this show will need to start offering something else in return. – 3.5/8 (Nice)

#8: Corpse Party Musume OVA: This one was probably a pilot for Corpse Party Musume. What really stood out at first: it goes from a ton of gore to really, really bad fanservice. Seriously it’s the kind where brother and sister bathe together, followed by some psycho lesbians that we see everywhere. After that this episode turned to foreshadowing with a decent background track. I’m not that positive about it though. Setting aside the fanserice, the gore in this the prologue felt like it missed something: context. The thing with the kids who were slaughtered is: who are they? Why should I care about them? It’s easy to just show a lot of blood, or do crazy stuff like murder children, but the difficult part is actually making you care about them. This felt more like gore for the sake of gore. So yeah, these are the two parts that the anime for Corpse Party Musume once it arrives is really going to have to pay attention to: for god’s sake have better or no fanservice, and use its gore effectively. – 2/8 (Lacking)

#8: Code Geass – Nunnaly in Wonderland OVA: I didn’t finish watching this (I lasted about three minutes before concluding that this wasn’t worth my time), but I do want to warn people who are interested in checking this out: it’s a slide-show! – 2/8 (Lacking)