Uchuu Kyoudai – 05

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

So… much…. character-development.

I can’t believe how well the creators made use of this episode where Mutta pays a small visit to Hibiki. It just shows how much the two changed over the years. And it’s not a simple change either: the two of them evolved multiple times over the years and are by far the two most dynamic characters of the entire season. The bond between the two of them in this episode was also just amazing to watch. And that for an building up episode.

I loved how Mutta kept criticizing the tiny things that Hibiki did wrong throughout this episode in order to distract from his own inferiority complex. But really, it also showed that Mutta is a perfectionist, unlike his brother. This perfectionism probably lead to his car being a success. And really: it’s not like Mutta is your average Joe with no accomplishments either. Mutta continues to look over it, but pulling off such a thing is no small feat either. Hibiki in any case can’t boast to have created something like that.

I also loved the dialogue in this episode, and the way in which Mutta and Hibiki talk to each other: it really feels like these two knew each other for their entire lives. This episode also finally revealed the identity of that dog in the OP, and it turns out to be Hibiki’s. At first I really feared it to be this series’ annoying animal mascot. And yeah, it was annoying for a while, but the great thing about it: it knew when to quit.
Rating: **+ (Excellent+)

Fate/Zero – 17

by psgels, posted in Fate/Zero

So now that Caster and Lancer are gone, this series immediately moves on to another thing that it has been promising for ages now: Kotomine Kirei. The entire episode was dedicated to just building up to the moment where Kirei would betray his master. The moment itself wasn’t really unexpected, as right when Irisviel requested him to pull back from the Grail war it was obvious that he wouldn’t just let that happen, and afterward he was handed a knife of all things, but the scene itself was very satisfying. Also helped by a lot of budget being poured into that one scene.

Now, let’s see what he can do in this series now that he has some power again, and can act independently. With four episodes this series killed off a huge amount of characters, compared to how relatively few important characters died in the first 10 episodes. It definitely made good use of the build-up.

The one thing I don’t really get as someone unfamiliar with the Fate franchise is the squiggly lines on the priest’s arm that Kirei took over somehow. How does that work anyway? What power does this guy have, and why does he have it? Why did the grail find it good idea to have a guy like this, especially when he’s allied to some of the masters and could have just refueled Tohsaka’s command spells on a whim? Also, if one needs to defeat all seven servants in order to get to the holy grail, then what about Rider’s wish to become human? And does his master know about this? So what’s in it for the servants to win the holy grail war anyway?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mouretsu Pirates – 17

by psgels, posted in Mouretsu Pirates

Now this is where everything just comes together. Talk about an amazing episode here. The plot just got 10 times more interesting.

And the strange thing is that even though when you summarize this episode in just one line, it sounds horribly cheesy: the Bentenmaru saves Jenny Dolittle who has been forced to marry against her will. But the background and detail and all sorts of dependencies and politics that the creators threw into this episode were just awesome. This episode just showed how fragile the pirate business is, and how the Bentenmaru is completely dependent on insurance companies. Those insurance companies can be manipulated. The question remains how Jenny managed to start a company that gained such an amount of wealth, but with her connections, it’s probably not impossible.

Also, I really like how the creators waited 16 whole episodes before revealing that two characters are lesbian. This way it feels much more like being lesbian is just a part of who they are, rather than making their sexual orientation their biggest defining character trait. It worked really well and the two characters in question make for a very interesting and down to earth couple.

Also a nice touch is how this episode toyed around with out expectations and imagination. This series has been so grounded that when the girls started imagining how Jenny must be held captive, in full bride gown and all, it had to be one of those crazy delusions you see everywhere. And in the end, that delusion turned out to be what really happened.

My only complaint is how suddenly everyone is incredibly competent at their jobs. I mostly noticed this at the end of this episode. But really: this episode was the one who put Mouretsu Pirates a notch above the other big Sci-fi shows this year. Let’s see if they can follow.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Spring 2012 Kaleidiscope – Week 17

by psgels, posted in Spring 2012 Kaleidoscope

#1: Nazo na Kanojo X – 03: What sets the soundtrack of this series on top of all of the others is hard to describe, but that one track it has that it always plays at the episode climaxes brings out a ton of emotion. – ** (Excellent)
#2: Natsuiro Kiseki – 04: That rock is very cruel: toying with the wishes of teenaged girls, and giving them a big middle finger when they try to fix it. Nevertheless though, this episode once again had some really good character development. I also really like how well this show uses the fact that some of its characters are athletic, while others aren’t. – ** (Excellent)
#3: Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki – 16: I love how the creators are able to take everyday situations, throw a bit of sadism into them, and make them fun. That Civet cat in particularly worked well with that in this episode. – ** (Excellent)
#4: Shirokuma Cafe – 04: You know I could complain about how Panda was annoying again and all. But they actually showed the polar bear driving a car this episode! The drive-through part in particular was awesome. It’s very hard to correctly explain why this series is so good to someone who has never seen it, though. – ** (Excellent)
#5: Kimi to Boku – 17: This episode was about the twins. Quite refreshing to see the blond kid completely gone. Quite heart-warming to see some of the conflicts between them. – *+ (Great)
#6: Jormungand: The crazy obsessive lesbian is a trope that seriously needs to die. What’s wrong with having just a regular lesbian on the cast? I did like the tension that the boy soldier created in this episode, though. – * (Good)
#7: The Legend of Korra – 03: Very good fight scenes, and the real introduction of the resistance holds potential, but the amount of cliches in the first half was a bit annoying, and this show has this “Saturday Morning Cartoon’-feel to it. – * (Good)
#8: Hunter X Hunter – 28: It’s finally time for the introduction of Nen, the single best power system of any shounen out there. And it lacks a bit of subtlety here. The creators just send waves of random CG without much variation to Gon and Killua. At the very least, comparing the old and new version with each other has given me a new appreciation for how well the 1999 version was made, regardless of how accurate it may have been to the manga. – * (Good)
#9: Medaka Box: If a character is good or bad at handwriting: SHOW this. Don’t just have random characters claim this. Don’t tell me that your animators only know how to do flashy action-scenes, Gainax. – (Enjoyable)
#10: Sankarea – 04: Very annoying episode with lots of cliches. Especially that cousin and those classmates are not interesting to watch at all, not to mention that the creators actually went for a “walking into the shower scene”. this episode was saved by Rea’s changes and development.
#11: Saint Seiya Omega – 04: Rather boring training episode with generic RPG element explanation. – (Enjoyable)

Introducing this season’s Kaleidoscope. I like to experiment with these things, as it’s the perfect format to try out different stuff. This time, because there are so many series that stand out, I’m going to do a ranking: from best to worst, the episodes that caught my attention the most each week of all of the series that I’m not fully blogging, followed by a small blurb for each series (blurbs can also just be “unimpressive”, otherwise it would just take up too much time for some shows). This way I can also share my thoughts of Hunter X Hunter, without having to dedicate an entire entry to it (although I will remove it from this list as soon as the Hunter X Hunter fanbase arrives again and starts telling me how I should enjoy my series…).

Every week on Sunday I will post a new entry for this Kaleidoscope, with weeks beginning on Sunday and ending on Saturday this time. I usually try to have weeks start on Monday, but this is much more convenient because nothing airs on Friday and Saturday, allowing me time to catch up (not to mention the ungodly amounts of series that air all at the same time on Sunday, on top of me being very busy on most Sundays with this thing called real life), and I’ll update this entry as the week goes along.

Also, as for the series that didn’t make the cut (meaning the series that I’m not going to watch this season):
– Arashi no Yoru ni ultimately isn’t worth it. It’s overacted and I’ve already seen the story before.
– Accel World has some potential, but it doesn’t have any interesting characters whatsoever, not to mention that it’s got a pretty dull and annoying male lead.
– Tasogare Otome Amnesia has really bad acting. Plus, the girl turns round and the guy immediately goes for her boob. Now that’s bad fanservice that needs to die.
– Kuroko no Basuke, I don’t think that it can really improve beyond what it has shown here. It’s still a jump series full of shounen powers, and it will probably follow a very constraining format. It in any case doesn’t live up to the standard that sports series have set in the past.
– I actually enjoyed the first two episodes of Saki. However, that got me thinking: the reason I enjoyed them so much, and why I actually managed to finish the first Saki, is because there were no Mahjong battles. I’m bailing out while I still can, because those mahjong matches in the first season were just an insult.
– Shining Hearts needs more ambition. The characterization isn’t good enough to make this a good slice of life series, and for an adventure it just goes nowhere with an entire episode being dedicated to… a nasty storm.
– Acchi Kocchi fails for me as a slice of life due to its annoying characters.
– Kuromajo-San ga Tooru also lacks ambition and is just too dull.
– And then there are comedies like Gon, Haiyore, Zombie and Jewel Pet, which just aren’t funny enough to warrant a watch.

Eureka Seven Ao – 03

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

The setting of Eureka7 Ao is completely different now that Eureka somehow traveled through time, but I like that: it shows that the creators really attempt to go for something different here, rather than to dwell on what worked. The big challenge with this approach will be: what can they do in order to make up for it?

In any case, I like how not nationalistic this series is. After so many series that are about Japan being in danger,this series actually split up the country and made Okinawa declare independence. Of course having this set in a country beside Japan would have been even better, but at least this is a step into the right direction.

This episode also dedicated a lot of time to the islanders and i must say that I like how this series already has many different parties with their different interests. what’s more, the way they are portrayed makes them all feel alive. The best example of this was the scene where Ao arrives back at his grandfather’s house, and saw his grandfather busy salvaging his stuff from his burning house: it shows that even when the camera isn’t focused on them, they’re busy with their own agenda. It’s been a while since I watched a show that had this done well.
Rating: *+ (Great)

Tsuritama – 03

by psgels, posted in Tsuritama

This episode had a lot of build-up in it, with most f it being devoted to Yuki learning how to properly cast a fishing-line in an almost shounen-like way. On top of that we get a lot of character building. This is the kind of episode of which we can only say whether it succeeded or not at the end of this series. It all depends on whether the rest of the episodes use the build-up provided in this episode well.

The key will be Yuki’s grandmother. This episode revealed that Yuki has very big psychological issues and he gets even worse when something happens to his grandmother. his episode had him sorting his thoughts out on that, but it’s not enough. And no, having his grandmother collapse for real later in the series won’t be enough either. That’s just cliched.

What I did like in this episode was the use of emotion in this episode. Especially the end of this episode where everyone was just yelling out their frustrations worked well with me. This show is well acted, and the characters are quite diverse, while having their distinct personality. The only exception to this is Haru. He’s a bit too overacted.

Also, Tapioca is a duck!? I could have sworn it was a goose.
Rating: * (Good)

Sakamichi no Apollon – 03

by psgels, posted in Sakamichi no Apollon

Holy crap. This episode would be about the romance. The girl that caught Sentarou’s fancy last episode turns out to be Yurika Fukahori, who is one year above him. For a moment, this episode really had me face-palm: Kaoru arranges a double date for the four lead characters, and through some well-timed lines Ritsuko ends up thinking that Kaoru likes Yuriko instead. Not another one of those love triangles that take ages to get anywhere! And at the end of this episode, I was blown away.

Um, Sakamichi no Apollon… you’ve got eight episodes left, haven’t you? In this episode you went through what most series take 10 episodes to establish. This episode was penultimate episode material, that’s how much stuff happened. For once it had a wonderful combination between characters unable to say anything, and them actually being proactive about their feelings. Both Sentarou and Kaoru managed to overcome their anxieties and confess to the girl they liked. Everyone changed in this episode.

Instead of everyone being completely clueless, people actually picked up on subtle cues on how everyone behaved. Kaoru realized that Ritsuko doesn’t like him, and Ritsuko also realized that Sentaou would go away from her. The scene that made the most impact on me this episode was the one at the roof, where Kaoru’s anger for making Ritsuko cry was really well portrayed (it also was backed by a wonderful soundtrack).
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Lupin III – Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna – 04

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

This episode revolves around the Phantom of the Opera, with Lupin making a return as people run around a theater while a performance is going on in order to steal the mask of the lead actress who has been hiding her face ever since it got scarred. It was quite a strange episode, but I like how the creators got actual opera singers for this.

This episode also showed how hard it is to animate people singing. And I don’t mean the cheesy J-pop idols that you see everywhere, but actually well sung songs. But especially with Opera in which singers have to hold high notes: that must take a lot of effort, and actually portraying that in animation is something that I have no idea on how to actually do, making the singing in this episode look a bit weird.

I also like how pretty much everyone was trolled in this episode at the end. It was quite an elaborate plan set up by two lovebirds who didn’t seem to care about anything. It was a great anti-climax to a fun chase sequence, made even more interesting with everyone attempting to just make the show go on, even though a horse randomly walked off the stage and a light just fell. Imagine how Sengoku Basara would be when Date Masamune’s horse from out of nowhere dropped its owner and took off with that ninja woman.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Zetman – 04

by psgels, posted in Zetman

Interesting: someone actually saw a bunch of thugs beating up someone, and did the most sensible thing: run away. Unfortunately this was nullified a bit when she headed outside again afterwards, but at least this was for a better reason than the usual “I want to help too!”

In any case, what also was interesting about this episode: all of the people observing Jin. They feel different from your average support crew. For one they feel like having actual characters and worries beyond their professionalism. It doesn’t feel like they exist solely to support Jin, but have a more complex job.

With the players, the creators also made random thugs better than your average thugs you see in anime. What I mostly like about these characters when they’re used is how they’re devoid of any sort of character. It’s like, “we need drama! throw in some random thugs with just one line!” These guys actually had a personality though. And they were actually a bit smart in when to run away. Two of them, at least.
Rating: +* (Great)

Phi Brain – 28

by psgels, posted in Phi Brain

This episode confirms that we’re first going through the cast of side-characters, beign possessed by some sort of Orpheus accessory. The beauty of this is that it makes use of this to turn even the most minor characters into interesting ones by showing their worries. This time it’s the turn for the girl member of the puzzle club.

What was cute about this episode was that for the first time in a long while the puzzle wasn’t exactly deadly. From the way things were set up, it was indeed very likely that Nonoha being a damsel in distress again was one big lie, but it’s still great to see that the creators actually went through with it. It just makes the villains much more interesting than if they were just using the same methods over and over again. And of course it was quite hilarious to have them actually dig up and steal this model kit that Kaito has in his room.

I do hope that the other members of the puzzle club will also get their episodes like this, because at the moment, they’re probably the worst characters in this series. They’re always used as plot devices and have no character on their own whatsoever. Their behavior in this episode also was just plain weird and forced. They’re minor characters, so they only make a minor impact, but it would be a good choice to see these guys improve as well.
Rating: *+ (Great)