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)

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)