Hyouka – 14

by psgels, posted in Hyouka

I was surprised that out of all people who Chitanda managed to find to help her, it was that one upperclassman of the previous arc. It made for quite a strange scene with Chitanda being intimidated and all by the tips she gave. Beyond that, this again was a very enjoyable episode in which the characters did all sorts of events. I have to give it to this series: it brought something new to the overused school festival.

This had this degree of detail that is just missing in all of the other school festival arcs I’ve seen. The pacing may be a bit slow, but because of that it could show as much as possible, with the crown being the cooking competition, which showed new things about all four main characters and showed a lot of detail in all of the different dishes that were made and how they were made. This is something that only Kyoto Animation can do, so I’m glad that they at least made use of their talents, as much as I’d like them to do something different from a school series.

I also like how Sayaka pretty much made a big fuss last episode for nothing. As for Oreki, he actually raised his voice. On top of that, I liked how creatively the creators tied in his whole trading subplot with the cooking contest. The next episode will finally be about actual mystery, but heck: this arc already served its purpose to flesh out just about everything in this series. The question now will be to actually use this. It’s of course one thing to have a well fleshed out cast, but what would make that even better is actively using all of that.
Rating: (Excellent)

AKB0048 Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in AKB0048, Anime Reviews



So, AKB was a series that not many people seemed to like, so with this review I’ll try my hardest to explain why it managed to win me over. And let me get one thing straight: it’s not like I’m some sort of idol fanboy. In fact, I hate the idol business. I really dislike J-Pop as a music genre. And I’m really not a fan of abusing moe and cute girls to pander to an audience. So yes: how on earth did this show manage to win me over?

For the people who aren’t familiar at all with AKB0048: AKB48 is an idol group, consisting out of a huge amount of teenaged girls who sing songs and do other cute things. This series is meant to promote them: the main characters are all played by various members, most of whom have no voice acting experience, and the plot is about a world in which music has been outlawed and the girls run around and perform guerilla concerts as a sort of resistance. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right? Yeah, but here is the thing: the two main creators, the chief director and the main writer, are two of the biggest trolls around in the anime business: Shoji Kawamori and Mari Okada. And they were given a lot of freedom. I still don’t know who found that a good idea, but bless this person.

Now, to fully appreciate this series, you’re going to have to need to read inbetween the lines a bit. It’s indeed true that we have a bunch of idols who sing and fight evil enemy soldiers at the same time. But at the same time this series does some really surprising things as a show that’s meant to be a promotion of an idol group. I mean, usually these things are incredibly cheap and superfluous: cartoonified members of the group go on random adventures and try to be as cute or cool as possible. AKB0048 however, completely throws these conventions out of the window and starts to focus on the uglier sides of being an idol; how unfair the business can be sometimes, how hard it forces teenaged girls to work and how it forces some dangerous mindsets on them. This series, on one half is indeed cute girls doing cute things, but that other half is really dark to balance all of that out, with some really cynical messages at times.

Beyond that, this show also is just very well executed. The thing with this show is that nearly all voice actresses are completely new, so they don’t have a stereotype that they all try to fit in like what you’d have if people like Kugimiya Rie were cast and all. There are a lot of characters in this show, but none are unlikable or try to force their cuteness down the viewer’s throats. They’re all well-developed and all have engaging issues that actually differ quite a bit. Beyond that there is excellent animation and musical numbers: the performances in this series really work and its use of music is really excellent.

Having said all that though, the overall storyline of this show IS completely silly. The people who outlawed entertainment are nothing more than shallow villains, and somehow they keep getting beaten by a bunch of little girls despite being in armored tanks and mechas. For as much attention this series gives to entertainment and idols, so little it spends on the actual bad guys of this series. That really is the biggest weakness of this series: at times it will be really, really hard to maintain your suspense of disbelief. The sign whether you’ll like this show or not is probably at episode number two: if at that point the characters don’t interest you, then you’ll have a very hard time with this. That episode however does have the power to really capture its audience though, so if you’re interested in this series, do give it a chance and don’t be put off by the whole premise… too much.

Storytelling: 7,5/10 – An excellent animated musical, but the action scenes make no sense!
Characters: 8,5/10 – Large cast with actually likable characters, rather than characters who put too much emphasis on moe stereotypes. They actually got a balance here.
Production-Values: 8,5/10 – Eye candy! Great use of music and songs.
Setting: 8,5/10 – A very cynical and interesting look at idols that you would not expect from a show that’s meant to promote idols.

Suggestions:
– Aquarion Evol
– Macross Frontier
– Nerima Daikon Brothers

AKB0048 – 13

by psgels, posted in AKB0048

Okay. That was awesome.

With this final episode, AKB0048 managed to surpass itself. It was a really cheesy episode, and yet everything just worked. With this, I really understand

why Shoji Kawamori was assigned to oversee this project: he really knows how to create an animated musical. I mean, I have a lot of problems with Macross Frontier, but it really was one of the few series to have nailed the animated musical (other examples of this done right are the Nerima Daikon Brothers and Beck). This was a wonderful climax that had his name all over it.

And meanwhile, I guess that the plot of it all makes sense here: apparently Lancastar is this special planet that these fairy-things really like. That’s why the current generation of AKB is so special: there are a lot of people from Lancastar on it. At this point this remains a mcguffin, of course, but it’s good to have some sort of reason behind everything right now.

AND OMG YES< SECOND SEASON! It'll probably be very different from the first season, and my guess is that there are two ways it can go: more light-hearted and away from the criticism, or completely insane. The thing is, that both can work, because at this point, the cast is more than strong enough to carry this series. Every character right now is likable and engaging to watch. The idol commentary was great to watch, and I'd love it if the creators would carry this further in the second season, but I also won't mind it if they will focus on something completely different there. This series doesn't just have potential, it has potential for many different possible directions. Rating: (Awesome)

Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita – 04

by psgels, posted in Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita

So unlike the previous episode, this episode was actually about the fairies again, as they created this bizarre manga world that traps people and forces them to create stories that excite readers. Y being the bad writer she is, completely ruins this by trying to tie as many cliches together as possible and making a complete mess of a story. It’s a nice parody of bad manga.

One thing I did notice is that the blond kid doesn’t really feel like a character. I mean, being mute is of course one thing, but oftentimes he’s just there to provide a handy note from the creators in order to keep the story going or get Watashi out of a pinch.

One wasted opportunity was that the creators didn’t show the other manga that the characters were competing with. That would also have been interesting. Still, this was a nice episode that was interesting to watch. I’m still waiting for the characters to really set themselves apart, but there is still time for that.

Regarding the soundtrack though, I feel that this is one of Kou Otani’s lesser works. It just doesn’t seem to fit the satirical atmosphere of this serise, and disappears just too often into the background to the point where I hardly ever notice it. It’s still typical of his soundtrack, but that’s just because he uses that one instrument that nobody else uses. (That one synthesizer)
Rating: (Good)

Rinne no Lagrange – 15

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

So, the progress of the second season is again slow but steady. This was the kind of episode that just built up to one climax, and like the first season it put a lot of emphasis on random events (this time the alien trio tried to run a haunted house). The plot is definitely going somewhere though.

So, the Vos, when it tries to enter Rinne, has the power to destroy planets. This is quite a convenient solution to Dizelmine’s problem of the impending two planets that are going to be destroyed, and the main point of this series will be to prevent the war, while also solving the problems of these planets. Because of that, the characters are finally starting to research what the powers of the Vox actually entail to. So yeah, in this episode the characters actually start to experiment with world-destroying powers.

It was all quite intense. The episode started out with finally some good fanservice jokes again (which was definitely needed after those eels of last season), followed by a complete mood-switch when that giant red blob appeared. I liked this a lot, and this also shows that there is some kind of brain in that gate of Rinne, hinting at that it’s much more than just something really powerful.
Rating: (Great)

Sword Art Online – 03

by psgels, posted in Sword Art Online

Okay, a comparison between Total Eclipse and Sword-Art Online. I waited until I had watched the third episode of SOA because Total Eclipse did only show its uglier side there. And yes, with Sword Art Online, its third installment also was the weakest so far. So, how do they compare:

Length: Sword Art Online is confirmed for 2 cours. Total Eclipse hasn’t had its length confirmed yet, but I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt. Winner: tie.

Setting: Sword Art Online’s setting is a bit of a cross between .Hack and the Tower of Druaga, but less creative than both. It really feels like a MMORPG where the main goal is to fight monsters, but it does portray that very well. Total Eclipse meanwhile is in a setting that is somewhat like the prequel to Blue Gender, in which giant bugs come and invade the earth and entire continents have already been annihilated. SOA wins in terms of potential and detail.

Production-values: Sword Art Online is produced by A-1 and looks gorgeous during its action scenes. Yuki Kajiura made the soundtrack, and even though it’s not among her best work, it still delivers. Total Eclipse on the other hand looks ugly, sounds ugly, and the director broke down due to work overload. Winner: SOA.

Pacing: Total Eclipse took its precious first two episode to go into anime original territory in order to flesh out the lead female more. Sword Art Online… I can’t put my finger on this because I’m unfamiliar with the source material, but it feels like a lot of scenes are skipped here. This third episode was particularly bad with that, but I also disliked how they decided to skip through the first month of content of total chaos, in which everyone has to figure out for themselves how to survive in this game. Winner: Total Eclipse.

Characters: this is a big one, so I’m splitting it up in some side-categories.

Side Characters: This is where both series dropped a lot of points. It’s not like all side characters leave things to be desired: Total Eclipse had the lead female’s former classmates. They were pretty well portrayed. Sword Art Online meanwhile had that one guy of the first episode, along with the mysterious blue-haired guy. The bad stuff in Total Eclipse is its main side-cast: they are annoying, one-sided and stereotypical. In Sword Art Online, the side-cast also lacks life: it’s hard to tell who is an NPC and who is a real character. The minor ones indeed lack any personality (like the blind sheep of the second episode). Still, it does have more and diverse good ones. Winner SOA.

How on earth did these idiots manage to survive? Both series take place in a world in which it’s very, very easy to die. And yet both series have a side-cast of idiots. For Total Eclipse, the most plausible explanation would be that they all grew up in locations without war, and that they haven’t been to the front-lines like the main female character. For SOA though, I’m not sure whether I can answer that question. The party of this episode: how come they’re still alive after they blindly dive into a room they don’t know anything about? I mean, considering the setting, wouldn’t it be the most logical that the only ones to survive up to this point would be the people who are either smart or cowards? Which also makes me beg the question: why are some of these guys fighting as fast as possible? Can’t you just take your time and just raise your level on the lower floors? I mean, the first episode said that these resources are limited, but this episode’s party didn’t seem to have any trouble to find monsters to fight. Winner: Total Eclipse.

Main Character: Both main characters (for Total Eclipse I’m using the main female character, because she is the only one to have been featured in all three episodes) are angsty and gloomy, but only SOA’s main character is that to the point of being unlikable. This also can be blamed very much on the pacing: he’s there, then he joins a party, then he and a girl fall in love from out of nowhere, then she dies and he gets even more angsty. But what surprises me the most is how he had his entire party die in front of him, and yet when the chance to revive someone appears, he ONLY thinks about that one girl, and doesn’t bother to give a second thought to the other party members who died, effectively treating them as NPCs. In fact, this highlighted my biggest problem with Sword Art Online: it acts as if human life is precious, but that only goes for certain characters with important character-designs. Apart from that, it doesn’t seem to care. Total Eclipse does. Winner: Total Eclipse.

So, a mark of 3-3. Great. In the end, I’m going to blog Sword Art Online, because its flaws are less bad than with Total Eclipse, and they can be fixed with the right build-up. With Total Eclipse though, we’re going to wait for the director to have his breakdown around episode 9 or 10…
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Summer 2012 Kaleidoscope – Week 29

by psgels, posted in Summer 2012 Kaleidoscope

#1: Polar Bear Cafe – 16: I have no idea whether Mr Necktie was just a one-shot character or whether he’s going to make more appearances, but seriously: this guy is awesome! I know it’s getting boring to keep putting this series at #1 for these rankings, but this episod had me yet again in stitches. The first half was incredibly corny, while the second half really shined with Mr Necktie’s inner monologues. – (Excellent+)

#2: Hunter X Hunter – 39: YES! YES! This is the episode I’ve been waiting for. The point at which this series goes “Shounen conventions? Screw shounen conventions, we have a story to tell!Ägainst my fars, this episode worked, plus there were a ton of new background songs introduced, which indeed confirms my suspicion that the creators have been saving the best tracks for later. – (Excellent)

#3: Sword Art Online – 02: Two questions: if everyone is playing with their real-life avatar, then what about the guy with blue hair? Why do creators bother with hiding the faces of important characters if they’re prominently featured in the OP? Beyond that, awesome animation! More detail on Episode 03. God, I am so late. – (Great)

#3: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 15: I do think that the male lead is trying a bit too hard to brighten up the mood at this point. I mean, there’s being silly, and there is taking that oo far. But using Macbeth as a weapon? This episode has definitely made up for it. – (Great)

#4: Tari Tari – 03: While I do appreciate that more and more foreigners are appearing in anime and that those voice actors doing a better and better job of not sounding too Japanese, can we now please portray these characters as actual people, rather than one-joke characters? Just look at Gunslinger Girl: not all Italians are weirdoes or players. – (Good)

#5: Kokoro Connect – 02: Okay, I have to admit that this was pretty amusing, and much better than the first episode. Rather than throwing some lesbian scene fro out of nowhere the characters actually went into the gender issues and what it’s like to be suddenly personality-swapped, rather than Ömg I’m a girl now! Must touch boobs!” – (Good)

#6: Tanken Drilland – 02: This episode introduced the third main character. And he is annoying. And uselesss. Thankfully, he realizes that he’s useless and annoying, so at least the creators are using this. Also, a fantasy series in which bullets are limited is not something you see every day. – (Good)

#7: Saint Seiya Omega – 15: The side-character of this episode apparently was someone from the original Saint Seiya series. So let me ask the people who saw that one: was he always such an idiot? I mean, the concept behind this episode could have worked, if only he didn’t have such stereotypical character-design (this is especially surprising considering one of the best character-designers out there worked on this series), and he wasn’t such a moron. “You are my enemies! So let me carefully explain what’s going on to you.” Also, that summoner silver saint… did he actually do anything this episode? I mean, I know this episode wanted to point out that he is just interested in his creations, but also the golems just… stood there. – (Enjoyable)

#8: Phi Brain – 40:So, Rook has finally returned. With this episode it’s finally time for him to show what he’s made of after such a long absence. So what’s his match against? An old dog…. truly an opponent worthy for what once was the main antagonist of the series. Seriously, I get that this was meant to show how ruthless the Orpheus Order are, but why spend this story on Rook? Why so late in the seris? This just felt like any other episode now, and nothigng would really have changed if any other character replaced him. Even Nonoha could have dealt with this! Also, the long-haired bad guy has reached the point where he’s so bad that he becomes funny. Not a good sign for a show that takes itself seriously. – (Disappointing)

#9: Dog Days’ – 02: I couldn’t complete this episode. In the end, the fight scenes, the central focus of this series, just aren’t that good. People just spam beams and make weapons explode until the armor of the opponent breaks (or in the girls’ cases: their clothes tear up). I mean, I can understand it if you want to have a premise that trivializes war and all, but if you do: go for it all the way and actively use this. – (Disappointing)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 17

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

Ah, I finally got a new PC to replace my nearly broken old laptop. Finally I don’t have to worry about being unable to play files and lagging framerates (Seriously, there were times especially during flash mecha-series, in which its frame-rate just couldn’t keep up on files with normal resolution). Thankfully this is a thing of the past now.

Now, as for this episode: it finally confimed what has been clear for a while now: JAXA has sent instructions to some of the contestants to screw things up and create stress: the broken clock was meant to kill their sense of time, while the alarm at the middle of the night was meant to disturb their sleep (which WILL happen if you’re in a space shuttle). After everything was cleared up though, I was wondering how the creators would follow up with this. I mean, for Team A there is no reason for stress anymore thanks to a combination between Mutta’s luck and his observational habits (by the way, it’s interesting to have two members in the team who are bothered on the small things, yet in completely different ways).

And then the climax of this episode came, and it was glorious. I mentioned before that Space Brothers has some of the best romance of the season, and this episode only made this better. Before, the creators already nailed the way in which the two of them could be a couple: similar interestsspending time together, etc. This episode was wonderfully creative in how it used all of the build-up together.
Rating: (Awesome)

Eureka Seven Ao – 14

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

At this point, I think I’m pretty sure of the big difference between Eureka Seven and Eureka Seven Ao in terms of series structure: consistency. Based on the past fourteen episodes, I can say that Eureka Seven’s stand-out moments were much more shocking and much better delivered than Eureka Seven Ao’s. On the other hand, Eureka Seven Ao just had a streak of awesome episodes that doesn’t seem to end anytime soon. Compare that to Eureka Seven’s season of build-up. Which one’s the best? I’d say that Eureka Seven still edges it for its world development and these mind-blowing standout moments. But seriously: I love its sequel as well.

This episode also had an awesome plot twist to add to this show’s vast array. And really, these are the kinds of plot twists that make me wtf out loud. They toy with your expectations, and strike when you’d least expect it (I really thought that Eureka immediately knew that Ao was her son, but holy crap Ao has a sister!), and yet they feel part of the plot, instead of just shoved in for the sake of having plot twists.

The rest of the small plot twists were also very fun and interesting to watch, but there is one in particular that caught my attention: Ao hating his father. I originally thought that there was some deep reason behind that. I mean, this series likes to withhold certain pieces of information from the viewer, even when it’s about the main character (which is great, by the way: it shows that said main character had a life before the start of the series), but in the end, he just blamed him for being there with his mother. Which, you know, is pretty reasonable for a kid his age.

This episode also made me realize what the creators were trying to do with him. I mean, the one thing that makes Ao stand out: he acts mature for his age. Why? Because he had a bad childhood. He never really got to be a child because of all that island and discrimination stuff going on. This is the biggest reason why he is so fundamentally different from Renton, who despite losing his parents (he did, right? My memory si fuzzy about that one), did grow up happily and he even had an idol to look up to. And that brings us back again to the main theme of this series: kids don’t belong in war. You could see that again when that one smirky officer was about to shoot Ao, and how many people jumped on him.
Rating: (Awesome)

Natsuyuki Rendezvous – 03

by psgels, posted in Natsuyuki Rendezvous

If it was just the voice acting in this series that was as great as it was, this series would already be amazing. But it’s not just that: the music is brilliant, and in fact got even better in this episode with its combinations of piano and string pieces. And on top of that the expressions are wonderfully drawn in this series: its ability to convey emotions also is completely unrivaled in this season. And the bizarre thing is: this is Dogakobo. What really surprises me is how they suddenly got themselves some awesome producers who could bring together some people who really know what they’re doing. What triggered that? I mean, these are the guys who are behind the many seasons of Koihime Musou. They only did one series once that didn’t involve blatant moe: Ryoko’s Case File, but that was nowhere as well executed as this series is.

I mean, there is also the way in which they got Ryo-Chimo to direct the OP, but what also surprises me is how tightly everything is produced: Kou Matsuou is involved everywhere: he directs, he writes the script, he even directed the ED. On top of that, every episode director so far also personally wrote the storyboard. I know that originally these roles were pulled apart in order to allow for more consistency in the anime production process, so that even with an average staff you could produce a great episode because the workload is divided, but it’s still good to see that the people who have the time and skill to do both at once are still there, because this in my opinion allows for a more creative control over each episode.

What the creators did in this episode brilliantly was show how hopeless Atsushi’s situation is. He’s pretty much forced to watch some random guy start hitting on what he still considers to be his girlfriend, and being sick for his entire life he really became a sympathetic character here after his charades last episodes. And really: Hazuki is one of the most flawed main characters out there, but in a completely different way from usual. This guy is cold and brash, not polite at all. Yet at the same time, he’s very sharp-witted which despite him being an asshole at times, makes him really great to watch. My one nitpick about this episode was that we got to see very little inside the head of Rokka herself. That was what made her so interesting in the first two episodes.
Rating: (Awesome)