Lupin III – Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna- 12

by psgels, posted in Lupin III - Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna

Now this was good. This was a completely trippy episode that had even more visual symbolism than usual. It was both gorgeous, fun and disturbing to watch. It’s in this arc in which we finally get to see the full extent of the trauma that Mine Fujiko had to endure. While all at the same time Mari Okada is on a roll again with bringing her beloved Oscar back on top of introducing yet another person dressing as Mine Fujiko. Dressing up really is a large theme in this series, especially considering how often Fujiko dresses up as someone else.

One thing I’ve noticed is that blogging this series turned out to be more difficult than imagined, mostly because I don’t have much to say about the individual episodes. They really are things to be experienced and there are a lot of very imaginative pieces of art amongst them, and this episode was the same. Just watch this trip.

I do have to say though that the final third of this series is without a doubt its best. It’s filled with imaginative and meaningful episodes that all attempt to be really creative in all kinds of ways: script, setting, theme, mood. And they’re all completely different. The variety between them is great.\It’s here where this series gets much more cohesive, and it really fits this series better than the random stories of the first half of the series.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Sakamichi no Apollon – 11

by psgels, posted in Sakamichi no Apollon

For a minute I felt a bit cheated by this episode. Not because of the start though: I like how it turned the cliff-hanger of last week around by having Kaoru stop Sentarou at the last minute. After that though… Studio Mappa… a slide-show montage? Those are for lazy storyboarders who don’t know how to animate a certain part of the manga.

The real part that made me raise an eyebrow though was when Sentarou went off to return one of the music sheets that Kaoru forgot. You’re really going to end this lazily by killing him? It was all just too obvious. And don’t get me wrong: I really like a good major character death and they should be pulled more often, but this is just the complete wrong place for it.

What happened afterwards totally made up for it though: the revelation that it wasn’t Sentarou who was in critical condition in the hospital, but Sachiko. So yeah, Sentarou who was already facing huge difficulties in accepting his place in the family just drove one of his younger sisters into the hospital. It fits in much more with the themes of this series than just randomly killing him off, and the creators made excellent use of it. I really loved the climax, and it also created an absolutely wonderful set-up for the final episode.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Medaka Box Review – 79/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

If you’re wondering what’s up with the delays: well, right at the busiest time of the season for me (Thursday when the series start to end and I have to write reviews for all of them) my laptop decided that it didn’t like internet anymore, and I’ve been running around trying to get to fix it.

Anyway, Medaka Box: there are exceptions, but in general I tend to dislike shounen jump adaptations: they’re too long, too dragged out, and almost always are badly paced. Whether Medaka Box will also fall into these pitfalls is hard to say at this point because this first season is only 12 episodes long and a second season is on its way that’s supposed to be about the meat of the real series, but on the other hand this was awfully close to an entire season dedicated to introductions.

So here is the premise: Medaka is perfect at everything. Very often this is is a bad thing, but the unique thing about Medaka Box is that it realizes this, embraces it and plays with it. What does it mean to be perfect? Is it really possible to be perfect? What about the people around you? It’s these questions that make Medaka Box worth watching, and make it more than just your average shounen jump series that are all about fighting.

The problem with this series is the way in which it’s set up. This first season consists mostly of episodes that in terms of premise aren’t that different from Sket Dance: someone has a problem and the lead cast solves it, and that someone gets added to the cast of characters. These arcs try to be interesting, and they do their best to outline the backstories of the characters they focus on, leading up to some sort of character-development at the end. But ultimately they end up rather boring.

It’s a combination of the way in which all these stories are meant to just be introductions, along with how most characters are pretty shallow when they first appear, added on a formula that the series sticks to a little too eagerly. Most of the characters only get interesting after their introduction arcs when they aren’t the main focus.

So why do I still consider Medaka Box worth watching? Well, there is one particularly epic arc in the second half of the series that does let go of all these formulas and shows the series completely changing genres and making great use of the build-up of the earlier duller episodes, both in terms of its characters and its themes. This was where the series really starts toying with shounen conventions and subverting them. This really was interesting and shows a lot of the potential that could possibly be within the second season.

So yeah, let me get back on this one. I mean, the original manga is written by NisiOisin, a guy who is infamous for wasting ungodly amounts of time, but I can’t deny that when he gets down to business he can write some very interesting stuff; even the dull episodes did have interesting ideas behind them. And the energetic Gainax behind the wheel does balance out with his dialogue more than what I’ve usually seen from his adaptations.

Storytelling: 7,5/10 – A season of introductions. It’s building up right and all, but there is only one arc that really makes use of it. That arc is excellent though.
Characters: 7,5/10 – Again, Medaka Box has good characters that do play around with shounen tropes, but it doesn’t use them enough. Yet.
Production-Values: 8/10 – The animation in this series is inconsistent: there are times in which you’ll be wondering what happened to Gainax’s usual animation. The points where it does show itself though make up for it.
Setting: 8,5/10 – This series has really – < interesting ideas and concepts, waiting to be fully explored in the second season.

Suggestions:
– [C]
– Heroic Age
– Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin

Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

Ah, Medaka Box can wait. First there is a movie I want to talk about: Buddha. It’s been a while since a movie really made me go “wow”.

Of course, I am a big fan of Osamu Tezuka. Next year it’ll be fifty years since the debut of the anime Astro Boy, and his stories still stand out as unique. Some of the movies and series that are adapted from his works stand among my favorites. The reason why this movie surprised me however was because of how it started; not every adaptation of Osamu Tezuka is brilliant, and a lot of them are either too childish or just too silly to properly enjoy, and the Buddha movie starts as the latter. The opening scene had a point to it, but it’s just so bizarre with some of the weirdest acting by animals that it made a very nasty opening for this series.

And after that though, this movie completely delivers. The storyline really is typical Osamu Tezuka, as it shows a very liberal interpretation of the man who would later be Buddha. The movie has the st-up that many other works by the God of Manga have: many different characters who all have their own stories that sometimes intertwine, a story that only shows its true self once it has been going on for more than half an hour (heck, Buddha isn’t even born yet in the movie’s opening 30 minutes), lots of time-skips and most importantly: tons and tons of character-development.

All of those things make his stories unique, but the character-development really stands out: just about every important character goes through a complete change that is meaningful and well built up. Buddha is no different here. I still can’t believe how much change the creators managed to put in just two hours.

It also shouldn’t be surprised that there are huge Buddhist themes in this movie. Osamu Tezuka has used them in some of his other stories, Hi no Tori notably featured some brilliant insights in both its good sides and bad sides. Buddha meanwhile is a more positive look on the faith, which brings me to what really caught my attention about this movie, because everything else about it is completely and utterly dark.

Seriously, don’t let the looks fool you. This movie is full of abuse, death, pain and suffering. Its characters are constantly struggling to get better lives, only to suffer huge life-changing set-backs. There are some huge karma themes in this movie, as with some of Tezuka’s other works, but I can’t recall any other work that has so many of them. This movie also has some incredible plot twists that just keep pushing this further and further. Serioulsy, this movie is 2 hours long and hardly ever takes things slow. It always manages to find something interesting to throw at its characters.

Toei also put some really good animators on this movie. At first it might not seem that way because there are plenty of rushed and simple shots, but some of the fight scenes have really smooth animation. In particular there is one huge battle scene between two armies that manages to bring every soldier to life, on top of having completely fluid animation that on top of that has some really creative and dynamic animation.

Now, is this the best adaptation we’ve seen from Osamu Tezuka? No, but that’s because it’s competition is just so damn strong: most of these adaptations just seem to fit perfectly into the movie format, while I feel that Buddha was a bit rushed here and there, especially in the beginning, plus some of the acting can get a bit weird at times. Nevertheless, the creativity of this movie is really something to be praised. Best movie of the year so far.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Just keeps the plot twists coming, and manages to weave a ton of different storylines together.
Characters: 9/10 – Amazing character-development, as expected from Osamu Tezuka.
Production-Values: 8,5/10 – The animation is inconsistent, but when it’s good, it’s really good.
Setting: 8,5/10 – Very creative, uses its Buddhist themes really well, but there are also a few things here and there that are portrayed a bit too silly.

Suggestions:
– Metropolis
– Hi no Tori – Uchuu-Hen
– Hi no Tori – Houou-hen

Zetman – 12

by psgels, posted in Zetman

Okay. And here this episode comes and does something very interesting with Jin. After first challenging Kouga’s sense to be a hero, this episode was all about challenging Jin’s resolve to protect others. On top of being completely action-packed that really put the detail in the facial expressions in this series to good use, I really liked the part in which Jin was forced to choose to die, or get his powers back with the risk of turning evil. The thing was that Haitani could have easily been bluffing and there were a lot of ways to interpret his words, yet just dying and leaving everything to the psychotic Kouga also wouldn’t have helped anyone.

The result was very interesting for his girlfriend, who turns out to have been a player, set up by Haitani as a psychological warfare. Kouga meanwhile completely lost it by shooting both his father and mother, although he missed the vital organs of his mother apparently (makes sense, as he wasn’t aiming for her).

Zetman is rushed. But for a rushed series that is based on a much larger manga, it really has done a great job here. In fact, what I really hope for is that the creators just close off the story next week and treat the anime as a standalone series, rather than something incomplete, like what happened to shows as Deadman Wonderland or Kamisama Dolls.
Rating: **+ (Excellent+)

AKB0048 – 08 & Aquarion Evol – 25

by psgels, posted in AKB0048, Aquarion Evol

AKB0048‘s episode this week caught me off-guard with how good it was. I thought that the building up could continue for a while longer, but this episode very harshly returned to the theme of how competitive the idol business is, especially when the girls involved are still so young and pushed to practice almost non-stop.

What I especially liked is how this episode was about the relationships between the ones who made it and the ones who are still struggling to get a place as a successor. The main cast isn’t bothered by this yet because they are relatively new, but seeing the older generations being broken up like that due to the system of AKB really makes me wonder what the creators have in store for them later on in the series. The battle at the end of the episode worked really well because of that and I hope that that was a great hint for things to come.
Rating: *+ (Great)

Aquarion meanwhile had this one scene in which Amata had some flashbacks of Mikono. And Okada, Kawamori… who of you got the idea to make one of the first scenes for him to remember that one time in which he landed with his face in her crotch? The first half was incredibly sexually charged by the way, thanks to Andy and Mix having their own over the top finale.

The second half of the episode was standard penultimate episode build-up, although Mikage was nice enough to fill me in about what all happened in the first season of Aquarion. Things were pretty crazy, and seriously: I did not expect Fudo to be the reincarnation of Apollo, though that does make perfect sense on how he managed to stay alive for so long. The creators in any case made things very epic by moving an entire freaking planet for Mikage’s plans. So yes, he’s going to kill off everyone. At least this is a series where that completely fits, with the rebirth themes and all.
Rating: *+ (Great)

Phi Brain – 36

by psgels, posted in Phi Brain

The beach episode actually wasn’t done yet? We’re spending one more episode in that resort? Why, Phi Brain? Did you run out of ideas for a setting or something?

It’s a good thing that this episode had a completely different premise than last week. Although I am not really sure what the point of it all was. Basically, after more than thirty episodes Nonoha finally realizes that she doesn’t fit in with the other main characters. Even though there were plenty of people who also went along with the trip and who were also bad at puzzles that she could have hung out with.

In any case, tired of doing nothing but cooking, Nonoha finally realizes that she also wants to do something and starts to solve puzzles along with the rest of the main cast. This really is the chance for the creators to find something specific or unique that she’s good at. Midway through the episode, we are re-introduced to Nonoha’s amazing memory, which is the perfect ingredient for giving an extra bit of dynamic to solving the puzzles. Unfortunately, Nonoha doesn’t realize that, completely fails at any kind of new puzzle she’s handed, and ends up back in the kitchen where she started. And feminism marches on!

I really don’t get what the creators are doing with Nonoha here. I mean, she has a ton of potential to contribute, but she completely fails to use them. Compare this to a series as the Law of Ueki: that series had a similar character to Nonoha: Mori. She usually stood on the sidelines as the main supporting character as well, but once in a while the creators did put her in the spotlight by finding a situation which would allow her to be able to show off her character. The result was beyond awesome, among the highlights of the series and part of the reason why that turned into my favorite comedy ever. Compare that to Phi Brain, where Nonoha gets a mid-life crisis episode that doesn’t really go anywhere.

And here is the bizarre thing: it’s not that hard to show her potential. She is the most athletic member of the cast. Give her an action puzzle or something. Get her to save Kaito by having someone attack him or something. Or what about her incredible memory? Put her in a maze or something!

Instead of that, the most creative that the creators have done with her is making her swim for six hours, which is completely unrelated to anything that this series is about. In the first season, she had a clear purpose: give support to Kaito as he was losing his mind. That worked. In the second season Kaito still needs support, but now Cubic and Ana have taken over that role, rendering Nonoha’s part in this series completely useless. Out of all the places the creators could have gone with Nonoha, they chose that damn kitchen!
Rating: – (Disappointing)

Hyouka – 09

by psgels, posted in Hyouka

So, this episode was there in order to analyze the mystery presented at the previous episode from many different angles, both from the perspective of the three amateur detectives, and from the main characters themselves. The three theories from the amateur detectives were pretty quickly shot down, but this was definitely an interesting episode, as they all had their own theories, and used their own perspective.

Now, knowing this series, there probably is a very important grain of truth in all of their stories, yet the truth is much more nuanced. There was one point when the characters discussed a murderer using the window to escape, and then mentioned leaving traces in the grass. Now, I’m not sure whether they have a special kind of grass in Japan, but the grass I know doesn’t really get destroyed when someone just walks on it.

And inbetween the theories, the creators also found some interesting ways to flesh out the characters, like Satoshi admitting that he’s a big fan of Sherlock Holmes, and Chitanda not being a fan of mystery at all despite starting the classics club. And yeah, Chitanda getting drunk on whisky bonbons. I like the use of alcohol, since it often shows characters showing new sides of themselves, and it’s often strangely ignored in anime. The animators also did a great job of showing Chitanda fiddling with these bonbons and their wrappers.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 12

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

Now this was some of the most uncomfortable romance I’ve seen in a long while. That’s a good thing though, because while it was hard to watch, it wasn’t annoying or contrived. There was no pointless love triangle or people being in denial, this is just about two people who find things they have in common with each other… and Mutta being absolutely terrible at flirting.

About the clock: I turned out to be completely wrong. I already knew that from the comments you all posted last week, but even then I didn’t imagine that Mutta would make this even better by creating some made-up story about the car’s velocity and the amount of miles it traveled. It’s a very important point in this arc though, because this is what creates a great first impression of him, a leverage which can be used later in the arc.

On top of that, I loved how every team made up its own rules and habits already. They came up with three totally different methods of determining the two who go through tat the end, using rankings, votes or just not thinking about it at all. With this, I now understand why we suddenly got to follow fifteen whopping characters with this: it’s to show the difference between how people might approach the problems they’re put into. And Space Brothers, you are awesome for attempting that. I mean, with this this series has by far the best characters of any currently airing series.
Rating: **+ (Excellent+)