Hunter X Hunter Follow-Up

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

I’m probably going to piss off a lot of people with this post, but look: I’m getting tired of this. I’m in the need of some opinions. There are some very vocal Hunter X Hunter fans, but I also want to know what others have to say about this: do you still want me to blog this series? The thing is, that I’m not enjoying this in the slightest. It’s not just this series, but also the discussions that follow it and the people who all tell me that I’m talking about this series in the wrong way. For the past half year, I feel like I have been trying way too much to please everyone, and I reached my limit here.

It may seem strange, but yes, I have been trying to hold myself with my criticisms for Hunter X Hunter. I realized that today. The way I went on nit-picking: that’s something common for people who don’t like a series but can’t actually explain why they don’t like it. For the past half year I just kept on dodging the entire issue in an attempt to try and please everyone, but I’ll just say it here: my opinion of this adaptation of Hunter X Hunter is that it lacks soul. I can’t get into this series. I can’t enjoy this series in the way I did with the 1999 series due to how the story, music and animation don’t come together. I don’t care if there is CG or how the animation is never off-model: the animation doesn’t evoke anything from me, unlike the first series, which did look very crappy, but put emphasis where it needed to. Who cares if the 1999 series dragged; it had a ton more emotion oozing from every part. Who cares if it wasn’t faithful to the manga: it had its own story and it worked incredibly well.

So, now that I got that off my chest, what’s next: do you people want me to continue blogging this series with this mindset, or are there people not interested in reading that? I’m not going to try and be nice to this series anymore unless it really deserves it, because I’ve pretty much been forced to watch a recap (including two recap episodes) for more than half a year now. That is not how I enjoy anime. In the end, this remains a personal blog about my own experiences, and with this series, I’ve gotten tired of trying to be politically correct.

However, if I am going to drop it, it’ll be dropped forever. I’m not going to pick it back up even when we get to the yorkshin arc or the chimera ant arc. This series had its chances to impress me, but it went on for way too long without impressing me. So, what do you say?

Mirai Nikki – 25

by psgels, posted in Mirai Nikki

Whoa. Mindscrew!

This episode was a lot of fun to watch, and perfect for the penultimate climactic battle. It was completely over the top, but worked really well. It’s a bit of a strange decision to go on for three weeks longer than every other show of the past season, but it really worked out. I have to praise the producers of this series for taking the time for that. It’s a shame that to fill up the lost time, we were treated to those boring skits at the end of each episode, but heck: they can be skipped. I complained about them, but in the end they are a neat trick to get rid of that nasty limitation where episodes all need to be 20 minutes long.

Also, for a minute I was fearing that the series just cheaply pushed the reset button, but the creators really did some interesting things with it, especially with how the different timelines started to intertwine. Especially Yuno stabbing her own father was a bit surreal, especially how we saw a completely different side of him now.

Then this episode also used a classic twist that a lot of penultimate episodes like to pull: the illusion where characters just live their lives without any problem. It was with a little twist, though: Yukki knew what he was going into, and what Yuno was doing, but he was slowly drawn into it.

Oh, when Murmur went berserk, things really got crazy. It also was really well animated. Probably the best animation of the entire series and Asread definitely brought in a talented animator for that scene.
Rating: **+ (Excellent+)

Aquarion Evol – 15

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

So, it’s finally time for the love triangle to get somewhere. This is something that can easily get really annoying when the creators have no intention whatsoever of breaking up th emain couples, but heck: Kagura and Mikono emerged as better characters out of this episode. Kagura for finally showing a different side of himself than that raging beast (it’s about time here…) and Mikono, for finalyl doing something against her part as Amata’s true love (hah! I got his name right this time!).

Amata and Zessica meanwhile still need to have their moments in which they need to grow. Zessica is nearly getting there, but her growth entirely depends on Amata here: if he doesn’t change, the she’ll remain stuck in in her current dull part forever. You’ve just entered your second half, Aquarion, so the time for delaying is over now. You’ve got the luck that you’re an original story, so you can fully make use of the 26 episode format.

The whole Silvia & Apollo is something that I, as someone who didn’t watch the first season, didn’t really get, but a quick look on the internet showed that they are the two main protgonists of the first Aquarion series. I like how they didn’t go for the predictable “Amata is Apollo route. What I still dislike about this series is how it still adheres to “true love”: the way in which love is always decided and only two people are meant for each other. Amata is the only one who so far goes against that. It’s a problem that has been all over anime, really, and 95% of the attempts to subvert this just turn into harems or psueudo-harems. Chihayafuru last season was one of the very few series who got it right for me.
Rating: *+ (Great)
ED: Entirely dedicated to Yunoha? Okay. It’s just a pity that her voice actress can’t sing, though.

Uchuu Kyoudai – 02

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– Hiiro no Kakera’s female lead is an idiot and the side-characters are all one-dimensional stereotypes.
– Accel World would have been nice if it wasn’t for the main couple who is way too forced and unlikable.
– Saint Seiya Omega lacks context for me, not being familiar with the rest of the franchise. Also it suffers from overacting.

Uchuu Kyoudai however, is a no-brainer. Out of all the new episodes that premiered this season so far, it was the best, and it has by far the best characters out of any other show. Mutta in particular is just awesome. He’s not just incredibly likable, but within 2 episodes we’ve already seen so much of his character, both from when he was young and his 31 year old version.

This episode introduces us to his two aunts who live together, who also had a lot of influence on him with a giant telescope they have on in their attic. It really feels like they knew each other very well, but what’s also special here: Mutta has two parents who are alive, plus a great relationship with his aunt. It’s really rare to see a family that is this close and intact in anime. Mutta’s parents also really feel like parents. I’m only saying this based on 2 episodes, but based on how well the characters are done already: I actually think that the characters in this series could beat those of Tiger & Bunny. They’ve got this delightful extra touch of realism to it.

Also, with instruments: when characters start playing instruments in anime, usually they are either completely terrible, or amazing. Mutta’s trumpet solo was so refreshing. You could see that he knew the basics, yet had not played in a long while, and the sound really reflected that.

This series by far doesn’t have the best graphics of the season, but even then: the character designs have soul. This series doesn’t care about characters looking completely pretty, and to be honest, I’d much, much rather have characters that look like this, rather than the same moe and bishie designs you see repeated over and over again.

My one fear for this series would be Makoto Uezu, the guy behind the series composition. This guy just is not a very good writer and adapter, with adaptations like Seikon no Qwaser, Kore wa Zombie and Eiyuu Densetsu behind his name, among many mediocre others. Here however, the script was wonderfully translated to animation, getting the best out of the characters. At the moment there are a ton of rumours going around for the total number of episodes for this series. Please let it be 51, because that would just be amazing.
Rating: **+ (Great)

Hunter X Hunter – 26

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

Someone. Please fire the guy responsible for choosing the placement of the music in this series. This episode showed me that he has no clue what this show is about.

It’s bad enough already that this was a recap. That’s the second recap in 26 episodes. For a show that already has a really long way to go before it can get to new material. I’d take the fillers of the 1999 series of this anytime. The premise of this episode was Gon writing to his mother, so I guess it was at least justified that the narrative was very jumbled. One detail is that Gon forgot to explain why Hisoka spared him. That makes that picture slightly different. But for a recap’s low standards, that part at least wasn’t bad.

But dear god, the music. For starters, this episode immediately started by making a mockery of my favorite non-Yorkshin episode of the 1999 series by playing the most generic tune the soundtrack has on top of it. That already was annoying, but I couldn’t believe my ears when Gon got to the part where he was quietly laying in wait for the correct opportunity to strike the bird and later Hisoka… and suddenly the ED started playing. Yes, that incredibly hyperactive song with lots of screaming and grunting. that was about the worst song you could have picked and it completely broke the mood. Hisoka in particular looked completely ridiculous with that hyperactive J-pop looping over his supposedly gloomy face especially when he actually started grunting alongside with it. Just… why? I really want to be fair to this new adaptation, but it doesn’t make it easy. Most of my previous comments can be classified as nit-picking, but this was just plain bad.

What’s next? Senritsu’s theme song being squeaky J-Pop?
Rating: — (Bad)

Some Quick First Impressions: Phi Brain2, Pretty Rythm Dear My Future and Nazo na Kanojo X

by psgels, posted in Phi Brain, Some Quick First Impressions

Phi Brain 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character solves puzzles.
Okay, so the big question: how on earth will the second season be able to top the first? Well, for starters it’s got a new soundtrack, the graphics got a bit of an upgrade (seriously, the budget for this series isn’t big, but the characters look really good in the shots where some time was spent on). And the new set of villains also has potential. However, these villains use two tropes that can work really well or fail miserably, depending on the execution: amnesia and brainwashing. the exact how and why of things isn’t explained in this first episode, but it was very heavily hinted that these will be major themes of the new season, in which the creators really try to get Kaito’s friends against him. This has a ton of potential, especially with Sato Junichi (who by the way changed positions a bit: he’s now the main writer of this series, instead of the director). However, whatever you do: give these characters a good reason to turn against Kaito. Don’t just do some mumbo jumbo and completely change their character for the sake of drama.
OP: Love the use of guitars. Also dying to see that scene of Nonoha with her hair down.
ED: Such a shame that they didn’t follow up on the first ED by using some other clever visual effect. This was rather all over the place.
Potential: 80%

Pretty Rythm Dear My Future

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to become an idol.
It probably isn’t a surprise to most, but I hate the idol culture. The concept of huge corporations dressing up ditzy girls without any sort of talent and make them sing very cheesy J-pop that is the complete opposite of my taste in music… that is one part of Japan that I have no interest in whatsoever. And yet, I don’t dislike idol anime. There are a bunch of really good ones out there, like Fancy Lala, Full Moon wo Sagashite, White Album and of course Perfect Blue. On the other hand though… there is Pretty Rythm, which embodies every reason I hate idols. This, was an incredibly cheap cash-in that overglorifies idols. It was incredibly poorly produced, the graphics, especially when the characters are turned into CG, look horrible and every single character was incredibly annoying. By far the worst offender was the main character, though. She just keeps whining and whining over and over again about becoming an idol. Even in this season which is full of obnoxious characters, she stands out by being among the worst of them. “Baby… Twinkle Star! It’s… New World!”
ED: Very bad J-Pop
ED: “Who cares about animation? Let’s just advertise some random idol group of ours!”
Potential: 0%

Nazo na Kanojo X

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to date a cute girl.
Okay yes: I have a bias against series with a lot of moe. That played a big part in why I didn’t like Accel World and Sankarea, but this is a genre that has annoyed me so often by now. However, I do give all of these series a chance, and let it be known with this series that I’m more than willing to set this bias aside when the content is actually really good. At first sight Nazo na Kanojo X was a recipe for disaster. I don’t care if the manga was supposed to be good: the porn producers of Hoods could have easily turned this into this bore-fest solely dedicated to the people with a drool fetish. But they actually did it: they took the source material seriously and delivered a very fun and especially weird first episode. The drool doesn’t matter: the two leads play quite well off each other and actually bring something unique to the shounen romance genre. Also, this is a season with a lot of good soundtracks (Lupin, Fate/Zero, Kuroko, Zetman), but surprisingly this one turned out to have the best.
ED: Such a good soundtrack, and then they bring in such an annoying vocalist for the ED.
Potential: 80%

Some Quick First Impressions: Kuroko no Basuke, Upotte and Fate/Zero 2

by psgels, posted in Fate/Zero, Some Quick First Impressions

Kuroko no Basuke

Short Synopsis: Our lead character plays basketball.
Well, they did it again. After the disappointing Prince of Tennis, Knight in the Area and Ginga he Kickoff, there again comes a sports series that really caught my interest, even though I don’t care about sports shows. This episode was fun, and the soundtrack also was great (I like how the guys from RON kept a bit of their influence from when they were working with Bee-Train). The cast of characters is nicely balanced together, and there are a lot of interesting characters in this first episode. It’s not the best, though. The fact that it’s a shounen jump series did come through, in the way that it gives everyone gimmicky powers rather than playing with a more realistic depiction of skills, but at the least they kept these powers subtle instead of over the top. And yeah, by far the big problem with this series will be length. Ideally this should just take 26 episodes. If the creators start dragging on the different matches, it’ll probably lose its appeal quite fast.
OP: Nice inbetween animation.
ED: Guys. If you can’t sing very fast… then don’t try it.
Potential: 80%

Upotte

Short Synopsis: Our lead character teaches cute girls.
I tend to like bizarre stuff. Upotte is bizarre: rather than with Strike Witches, the girls here really act like guns and go to school to learn how to be guns. It had the potential to be this surreal comedy, but instead most of this episode used its premise… for innuendo. Yes guys! Whenever you can’t remember the name of a girl you met, just refer to her by her underwear. You’ll be beaten up, but the girl will take the blame for it! Apart from that, a lot of this episode was about comparing underwear to the handle of a gun, and firing it to an orgasm. Yes, like all other Xebec shows this has its mind in the gutter. The girls also all have one defining personality trait, and it’s pretty much exactly like their other dull, uninspired and completely stupid comedies. The only positive thing I have to say about this series is that at least one of the writers did some research on guns. Also, I get that the main character is offensively dull and all, but why did you censor his face?
OP: Copy&Paste OP with the same dull J-rock you hear everywhere else.
ED: FANSERVICE
Potential: 5%

Fate/Zero 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights giant monsters.
Most series that consist out of two seasons have a clear separation between the two. Not this one: it continues immediately where the first season left off, in the middle of a huge climactic battle. So no, this is not a good point to enter for those who haven’t seen the first season. My impression of this episode was that it was pretty interesting. There also was this particularly interesting dogfight, and especially Archer caught my eye. There were some moments that were a bit silly, like when two random fighter jets randomly popped up. Also, Ufo-Table need to work on how they animate monsters. The whole caster thing didn’t really feel threatening, more like very annoying and hard to get rid off. The CG for this thing just wasn’t used well.
OP: A Yuki Kajiura OP! Not her best work, but still very nice to listen to.
ED: A bit cheesy, but it’s an ED that actually tells a story rather than showing a bunch of random pictures.
Potential: 85%

Some Quick First Impressions: Jewel Pet Kira Deco, Yurumates 3D and Sankarea

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Jewel Pet Kira Deco

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a mascot.
Jewel Pet always was this really annoying series with WAY TOO MUCH SUGAR, even for your average show for young girls. This time though, it seems like some crack slipped in with the sugar, because what the hell did I just watch? This episode got surreal at times, as some really bizarre ideas passed the screen. I am really not sure who found it a good idea to turn the moon into a television or a disco-ball, or why there is a sentient bus made completely out of jewels. Speaking of which: this show has a really, really unhealthy obsession with Jewels. I know it’s called Jewel Pet and that the first episodes of the previous seasons had a gair amount of them in it. But it’s just taken completely overboard. These guys stick jewels on almost everything. I’ll never be able to look at “bling bling” the same way… But granted, due to these surreal ideas, this was indeed the best first episode of Jewel Pet that I got to sample. Not that that standard is particularly high to beat though…
OP: Terrible song.
ED: The singer here can’t sing, but also doesn’t help that the song is again terrible..
Potential: 40%

Yurumates 3D

Short Synopsis: Our lead character moves to Tokyo.
Here is another one of these series with 5-minute episodes. And again it was pretty dull. It’s about this girl who moves into a new apartment and gets totally overwhelmed by her new roommates… and that’s it. This series did try to be funny using the usual tricks… only it wasn’t. I really don’t have much to say about this one: this is just a boring slice of life series, nothing more and nothing less. Oh, but the voice actress of the female lead is very annoying. Way too high-pitched.
OP: Bad J-pop and giant robots.
Potential: 0%

Sankarea

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to date the hottest girl in town.
Well, this was also pretty boring. Sankarea is like the show you sometimes see, that has a lot of moe, yet decent dialogue and good acting, yet still consists out of way too many cliches. This episode already established a pseudo-harem of three girls for him (no, I don’t care that two of those are his sister and cousin; that’s never stopped anime before anyway), there is the standard whining best friend, and the encounter between the main couple happens the same way as usual, with the male lead running into the main girl’s moment of weakness. Too much of this episode was “been there, done that” and there was little to make up for it. The only thing that caught my attention was the main characters’ feelings for his dead cat, of all things. But yeah, other than that this pretty much is Studio Deen’s second zombie show this season, only this time it’s the girl who gets to be one. At least the visuals looked pretty. I could recognize that the artists who worked on this episode also worked on Jigoku Shoujo.
OP: Creative use of visuals, at least.
ED: Actually good song.
Potential: 30%

Mirai Nikki – 24

by psgels, posted in Mirai Nikki

Okay… so now this show just pulled stuff out of its ass to push its plot further. The result was weird and kindof interesting, don’t get me wrong, but where did Ninth’s resurrection suddenly come from, and why does she suddenly have flying, time travel and teleportation powers. Overall this episode was a bit too much convenient storytelling.

Still, I have to admit: this episode did something new to the resurrecting and time-travel tropes. I mean, for a minute I face-palmed when I found out that the creators were basically going to resurrect the cast again (so much for those death scenes, eh), but I actually really liked how this episode brought distinction in the people from different time-lines. It acknowledged that everyone Yukiteru knew is still dead, and it clearly labeled Yukiteru as an idiot for trying to save yet another Yuno. Time really got screwed over here, and that was a nice idea.

Oh, and this episode also explained why it was such a big deal that Yukiteru saw the corpses of Yuno’s family… only that it doesn’t… I mean, first of all they were terribly hidden. Yuno had plenty of time to clean things up, and she invited Yukiteru to her house, knowing that there was a really obvious room that anyone with a curiosity would want to check out. Second: wasn’t it Akise who found out Yuno’s identity? Didn’t he find out about that on his own?

Also, I keep finding it a bit morbid that the day that the creators chose for the world to end… happens to be my birthday. Are you trying to send me some sort of subtle message, Mirai Nikki?
Rating: *+ (Great)

Phi Brain Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Phi Brain



Apologies for the delay on this review, but I first wanted to get all of the new episodes this season done. Phi Brain was a series that many people probably quickly discarded. It started really silly, and the entire premise takes a lot of suspense of disbelief to accept: “yeah, there is this kid who has to solve puzzles in order to battle this evil organization”. Most of the early episodes just consist out of Kaitou (the male lead) solving a bunch of puzzles.

Now, the puzzles are obviously a very big part of this series. If you can look past the silly premise, then you’ve got a series that can be quite creative when it comes to the puzzles that it throws at its main cast. The show actually presents its big puzzles so that the viewer can try to solve them himself, but only if he uses the pause button in the middle of each episodes. The characters in this series are usually very fast when it comes to solving puzzles, and it’s impossible to take everyone into account here. At a certain point int he series this series turns its puzzles into 1-on-1 battles anyway.

In any case, those who did keep watching were rewarded in the character department, because as soon as this show starts developing its character (I’d say with the arrival of Rook, around episode 10), it never stops. Kaitou in particular grows into a very sympathetic character, and the side characters all work around him, and all of them have a good backstory with especially good reasons for their actions. The creators actually convinced me that the entire premise was at least partly plausible. There are times when this show gets a bit too sappy, but the majority was really well directed and had this great combination between action and characterization.

Were the first episodes wasted then? Nah, they’re just silly. Beyond that are very creative puzzles and good stories, although this series does have its points where it completely ignores all of Newton’s laws. The characters are all enjoyable as well, and especially Gammon stands out in his quirky antics as not your ordinary rival.

Visually this series mostly stands out in its designs. Both the puzzles as the characters look unique. The actual animation of the characters is very inconsistent, but it’s nothing special or bad. The music is very well done, though.

This remains a shounen series, and it loses points for being a bit too sappy at times, but this nevertheless this was a very interesting attempt to do something different with the genre that is usually nothing but people throwing superpowers at each other. With some damn good characterization I do recommend this if you’re looking for something in that direction.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Well storyboarded and manages to make solving puzzles fun.
Characters: 9/10 – There is a surprising amount of depth to these charcters, which especially manifests in the second half.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Great designs, decent animation, good soundtrack.
Setting: 8/10 – Creative puzzles, but completely ignores the laws of physics at times. The whole premise of this show is also really hard to buy.

Suggestions:
– The Law of Ueki
– Kaleido Star
– Princess Nine