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)

Eureka Seven Ao – 16

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

Finaly! After two weeks of waiting (those bloody olympics!), Eureka Seven Ao is back! And it still stands out as a very entertaining action series with hard-hitting plot twists. I again went wtf the end of this episode when it became clear what the creators were building up to: completely erasiing Goldylocks from existance.

Again what I like about this series is how vague it is on what’s real or not. This episode also had these strange dreams, but how real these were (whether they were just simple projections of Ao’s fears, or something more) is also very vague. Not to mention that giant superweapon that Ao pulled out of nowhere: what does it actually do? Does it remove people from existance, or was Goldilocks never there and was everything before just an illusion?

Surprisingly, this episode didn’t have Truth in it. Instead the main enemies were the Secrets, which surprisingly were revealed previously to be not as bad as we thought they’d be. Also, what was Naru doing again at the beginning of this episode? My memory from three weeks ago may be have been failing me on that one.

Beyond that, this show knows its action: it often uses this technique known as the Itano Circus, which basically is showing a huge amount of bullets and following them through complex camera movement. Add that to the techno-soundtrack, which I actually think fits better compared to the soundtrack of the first Eureka Seven, and you’ve got the best action of the season by far.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

The Manga Experiment – Week 34

by psgels, posted in Manga Experiment

Hotel – Ch.04: Wow. I think I understand now why this manga by Boichi was recommended to me. Here this story starts out similarly to the second chapter with a sick girl who turns out to be pregnant, and from there on it changes… oh boy, it changes. This one took me completely by surprise and I spent about a minute with my mouth open. Good stuff. Hotel would make a fantastic anime with the right people working on it, by the way.

Shingeki no Kyojin – Ch.02-03: One thing that I did notice now that I’m checking out multiple chapters at a time is that with some series, I find it very difficult to remain interested. Before starting these chapters I told myself to read up till chapter 4, but during chapter 3 I already noticed that I was trying to force myself through it. The art for all of the giants in this manga is really impressive, and the creators made this interesting world where they’re basically running humanity into extinction, but I dunno: I don’t really get the same urge to check out what comes next. I know it’s all build-up, but at this point none of the characters really stands out as interesting.

Coelacanth – Ch.02-03: And this one did manage to keep my attention, and I wonder why. I mean, it’s not the best I’ve read during this experiment, and it suffered here and there from being too vague with its dialogue (something I’ve been noticing with a number of other shoujo manga as well), but still: its murder mystery half turned out to be a little darker than expected with hints of pedophilia for more things to come, and the romance half felt surprisingly dark.

That alone however probably isn’t enough to really get my attention, so what did this episode have as well? I guess that it kept me guessing: these two chapters were being really vague in where they actually wanted to go to, and the twists kept it fresh. Oh, and the dialogue that was clear was very straight to the point, and very un-shoujo like, for something with so many shoujo elements.

A Lollipop or a Bullet – Ch.04-06: This manga really has a knack for drama: it loves the saying “a picture says more than a thousand words”, and it loves to casually hint to the disturbing stories of its characters. Only very few panels actually show the darkness of this story. On top of that, the faces in this manga are also really expressive: they show exactly how the characters feel.

Dengeki Daisy – Ch.01: In the preparation of next season’s surprisingly huge batch of shoujo romances, I ended up checking a critically acclaimed shoujo manga: Dengeki Daisy. Unlike the other shoujo I’ve checked out for this experiment, this one was fairly typical in its set-up: it’s just a school life story and nothing beyond that, with a mysterious guy watching over the lead female. This however did feel rather refreshing for a shoujo romance, in that both the guy and the girl had a personality, the drawings were dynamic and energetic and it could be funny when it wanted to. Still, what worries me is that the build-up to the good parts is going to be too long again.

Takemitsu Zamurai – Ch.01: This one is a samurai story, with a very distinctive art style. Everything looks crude and messy, but there is actually movement between the panels. The story and set-up don’t say much yet after only the first chapter, and it mostly dealt with an eccentric ronin who moved into a new village with a lot of hints at murder, but it did give a good description of how these people lived, including small details like the focus on a kid’s hands or an octopus salesman.

Suiiki – Ch.01: From the author of Mushishi, here is a story about a girl who enters this strangely nostalgic dream-world, filled with slice of life. I really like the background art for this one: it is crude at points and looks a lot like rough pencil sketches, but in those sketches the artist stuffed a ton of details. Beyond that, this was just a really charming chapter. Great characterization and very down to earth and believable characters.

Natsuyuki Rendezvous – 07

by psgels, posted in Natsuyuki Rendezvous

After compiling the preview for the next season, at this point I’m about 90% sure of this: my favorite series of 2012 will be either Uchuu Kyoudai or Natsuyuki Rendezvous. Both series stand far above the other series this year in terms of characterization and acting. This episode of Natsuyuki Rendezvous only reaffirmed this.

It went on even longer with the body takeover: this episode still didn’t resolve it, but instead it was entirely dedicated to Atsuhi coming ot terms with his own death, and Rokka moving on. This episode didn’t pull the soap opera card by hammering on that Rokka was falling in love with him again, but rather it was about how he realized that she had fallen in love with someone else. Something that both of them couldn’t imagine for years.

Even at the end of the episode when Rokka realized the hints of Atsushi, this again wasn’t with a soap opera in mind, but again with the themes of goodbye. I love how the creators used that small potted plant thingy as the way for him to leave Rokka, in order to “correct his own mistakes”. I have no clue what that means, the way in which it symbolizes his character-development was really well done.

What’s more: this series really was made for Noitamina. 11 episodes is the perfect length for this story, and that makes it also very easy to pick up and just watch for those with little time. And really: this series wastes no minute of its airtime: every scene feels like it contributes subtly to the cast.
Rating: 6,5/8 (Amazing)

Moyashimon – 18

by psgels, posted in Moyashimon

Only three monthsago I was a weekend in Paris for a holiday, so it was kindof nice to see it in animated form. And some parts of this episode definitely rang home to me, like how on one hand it profiles itself as this hip charming city, yet still is full of merchandizing stuff, how the hotels are small and how things are pretty expensive. There was one part that I found a bit fishy: the creators handled the language barrier right, but how did they know the exchange rates between euros and yen instantly?

But still, there is something I’m really wondering here: what’s the point? Why is Paris important fo this series? All the characters did in this episode was eat out expensively and spend money. There were hardly any microbes, plus it doesn’t really add anything to the premise, setting or characters. Haruka’s whole wedding has been going on for nearly the entire season, but has much changed?

On top of that, this episode also wasn’t really fun, it wasn’t surprising, it wasn’t entertaining. It was just… there. I’m really starting to wonder whether my original assessment for this sequel was right: why was it made? What does it have to add? Right now this feels like the Paris-hen of Nodame Cantabile: sure it has its moment, but was it really necessary? There are virtues in being concise, you know?
Rating: 3/8 (Mediocre)

.Hack//The Movie Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

So, the new .Hack Movie: how did it turn out? Well, you can see this as the spiritual sequel to .Hack//Quantum. It’s got a similar kind of set-up, it’s got a similar main character and its story progression is kindof similar. It’s just slower-paced and more epic.

But yeah, for those who are unfamiliar to the franchise: take Sword Art Online, and instead of putting the focus on combat, you put the focus on adventure and social interaction. Where Sword Art Online has a lot of shounen elements, .Hack on the other hand has more shoujo-esque elements in it, although it does tend to blur the lines between the genres more often. Of the .Hack franchise, I really recomend.Hack//Sign, which has been among my favorite series for eight years now. This movie simplifies a lot of the setting, but it has its merits.

Here is the thing with this movie: don’t expect anything from the plot. You’ve seen this story before, especially if you’re familiar with any other .Hack installment. All you need to know is that the story is epic, the protagonist is an average teenaged girl and that it has romance, and you can pretty much fill in how it’s going to progress on your own. Where this movie delivers instead is with its atmosphere.

The plot is simple, yet the movie clocks in at an hour and 50 minutes. That time is used to make everything play out very slowly. Because of this, it does a proper introduction of the characters, it does the development and the progression believably, the acting is down to earth and credible and the build-up all gets used well in the climax and it closes off satisfyingly. It’s also helped by a composer who obviously is a big fan of Yuki Kajiura, yet manages to keep her own influences.

So yeah, it’s not a movie that people are going to talk about for long, because there’s not much to say about that hasn’t been said in other .Hack anime, but what it does, it does well. It’s also completely done in CG, but this is handled well: in the virtual world this makes sense, and the characters manage to avoid the “botox”-face syndrome decently. It’s in any case better than the other CG .Hack Movie (Trilogy) which was heavily over-acted.

Storytelling: 8,5/10 – The pacing is slow, but skillful and the build-up is good.
Characters: 8/10 – Well acted and engaging characters.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Pretty good CG, and an impressive soundtrack.
Setting: 7.5/10 – It’s the .Hack franchise well portrayed, but it doesn’t really add something new to it.

Suggestions:
– .Hack//Sign
– .Hack//Quantum
– Digimon Movie 2 – Bokura no War Game

Uta Koi – 07

by psgels, posted in Uta Koi

After compiling the preview for the next Fall Season, I just realized how special this current season is. Sure, it may not shine in the quantity department, but what really makes it stand apart is the imagination in its premises, compared to next season in which everything sounds surprisingly similar. And among those series, Uta Koi once again showed that it stands among the most imaginative and different shows of the season.

This episode contains two romance stories in one again, just like in the first episode, and they’re about the members of the Fujiwara clan (which appeared to be quite big). One story revolved around a guy who died early, the other about a guy who had a full life. The first story was about living life to the fullest, and the second was about long-term relationships and fear of faithfulness. I can understand why the two of them were compiled together, because they contrast very nicely with each other.

Still, this series remains kindof silly. I mean, I’m not sure who found it a good idea that the way to flesh them out would be a random test of courage, which turned out to be a silly joke by an old man. I mean, I get the historical significance of the romance and the stories around that, but the thoughts behind that test of courage seem a bit lost on me. Out of all of the things to highlight the difference between the two main characters of this episode… why that?
Rating: 4,5/8 (Good)

Hyouka – 17

by psgels, posted in Hyouka

Well done, Hyouka. I applaud you. This episode brought things together perfectly and it gave everyone a conclusion after so much time of build-up.

Chitanda had her part with the broadcasting club, followed by that interesting advice Irisu gave her. After so long trying to advertise the club, she indeed ended up doing things a bit ham-handedly, and got pointed out for it, and I like that she too realized that she’s not going to do that again and that it was just something necessary to sell all of those anthologies.

Ibara meanwhile had this really genuine conclusion with that one girl, and I like how it indeed was true that there was a reason for her acting like that. That on its own was perhaps nothing special, but it removed so much stress from Ibara that it was really charming to see her, after how well the previous episodes portrayed her state of mind.

The real stars of the episode were Hotarou and the actual culprit: the vice president of the student council. My guess turned out to be half-right, I guess. Hotarou just went with his hunch speculated a bit and successfully managed to unmask the guy. And I think that that is the difference between him and Satoshi: imagination. Hotarou is really able to think between the lines. And the story behind everything was awesome, in which the whole plot was used as a way to ask a really good writer to continue with what he was doing.

This is really how you create a slow-paced series right. Instead of dragging things out, you use the extra time to give mode detail to the setting, characters, storyline. It’s because of all that build-up that this episode was so good, and I really like how believable the cast turned out here. If the creators can take this even further for the final arc, then it’ll really become amazing.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)