Jormungand – 02

by psgels, posted in Spring 2012 Kaleidoscope

Okay, so Hunter X Hunter is hereby dropped. I just have no clue what to replace it with. After watching both Nazo na Kanojo and Jormungand’s first episodes, I think I’m either going to blog Jormungand, or go with a Kaleidoscope. I’m leaving that for next week to decide.

The thing is: we really have a special season this time. It really needs to be successful, because it has the potential to raise the bar on anime. Last Summer I also was very enthusiastic about how good it was, but this time it’s different: there are so many series this season that put in a lot of effort to stand out in their own ways. There are no immediate instant classics, but there are so many series that have the potential to become so. This will very likely become the best season of the entire year in terms of overall quality.

My thing with Jormungand is that it does not belong among those series, yet it has the potential to stand out. It’s not the only series this season that has this. Really, I had a ton of difficulties picking between this series and Nazo na Kanojo X. Seriously, the runners-up this season also really have some potential to stand out, and that’s something I haven’t seen in a while. A quick overview of them and why I didn’t decide to weekly blog them:
– Nazo na Kanojo has a great female lead and excellent characterization when it gets down to business. It however has only 13 episodes and I’m not sure whether it’ll be enough to talk about weekly.
– Natsuiro Kiseki is very creative, and again deserves a lot of points with the interplay between its cast. It is also very bold in spending so much time on small things. It however, is too angsty at times.
– Polar Bear Cafe is wonderfully creative and delightful Iyashi-Kei. It’s also so boring.
– Same for Kimi to Boku: I’m only starting to like this show more and more and the characterization only gets better, yet the annoying parts are also still there.
– AKB048 just puzzles me with its bizarrely creative premise.
– And then there is the wildcard of Medaka Box, which is very overblown moe, but I can see it break the boundaries of genres like what everyone says about it… if it ever gets to that point and the director doesn’t ruin it.
– Not to mention that Legend of Korra which promises an interesting look at modern day heroes.

And then there are the series that don’t stand out, but are just very good entertainment:
– Kuroko no Basuke knows how to be fun. But yeah: it’s both too shounen and a shounen jump series.
– Saint Seiya has Yoshihiko Umakoshi‘s animation, but unfortunately it doesn’t really add much to what we’ve already seen from him in Casshern Sins and Heartcatch Precure.

Now that I’m typing this up, I see a lot of potential for a good Kaleidoscope here. The past summer season had me saying that it could become an incredibly good series. In the end it didn’t turn out as good as I expected due to a number of bad and incomplete endings. This season has that much less: only Zetman is an obvious culprit here, and even that show is actually trying to make up for it, rather than ignore it.

Anyway, Jormungand. I actually chose this show because it was out of the ones mentioned above, the show I wasn’t going to blog, yet have the most to say about. Again, this can really grow to stand out: the manga is also fully finished and there will be 26 episodes, not to mentioned that the semi-episodic nature will makes sure for a ton of variety. This can really work, and yet I am missing something from this series. Something that doesn’t place it among the top of this season. I’ll try to explain what that is.

Because really: I am a big fan of war dramas. Anime in the past have done some really great things with it. And that’s a thing: this series does feel a bit derivative. I’ve seen a lot of people compare it to Black Lagoon, but that’s also probably because the OPs sound similar (and indeed: the OP does in no way match the classic OP that Black Lagoon had), but I think that the problem is more with the way it ends up setting itself apart because of this: its humor and entertainment value.

This series indeed is very slick, fun and fast-paced. This episode also threw in a lot of character development for the side characters, which also is a good sign. What I do feel however, is that it has its tongue a bit too far up its own cheek, and overplays the comedy a bit too much for a war drama: it always needs to have a joke ready, or it always needs to have a character looking cheeky. Despite the solid production values overall, this is something that it fails to recognize. It makes this series very one-sided. Especially Coco is guilty of this. Think a bit about the most memorable characters out there who use comedy: they use it with a natural charm: they don’t try to be funny, but this comes naturally to them. Jormungand seems to go for this effect, but ti tries to force this too much by trying to give the characters too much natural charm, making them forced. This is something that this series is going to really have to take care of.
Rating: *+ (Great)

Zetman – 03

by psgels, posted in Zetman

Seriously, I really like Zetman. The manga may be so much better, but something just clicks with the anime for me. Atsuhiro Tomioka‘s adaptations are often like this: incredibly flawed and rushed, but also with some really good parts. Nishi no Yoki Majo for example had some great characters and dialogue, but it just went way too bloody fast. Disgaea on the other hand went way too bloody slow, but it did get some good development out of the characters in the end. Trinity Blood had a horrible ending, but its first half was brilliantly written. Zombie Loan was over before it even started, but it had a cast of really good characters. All of this regardless of how good the source material was, of course.

The thing is that after these three episodes this might become the best series he worked on yet. The rest of this series has for me really made up for his rushed script: the original story, however butchered it may have been, shines through, and there are some really good animators and storyboarders working on this series. This is slightly different from Deadman Wonderland, which I covered last year: that show was a very entertaining over the top trainwreck. Zetman however, has something more, and it’s not a trainwreck. It’s very genuine at what it does, and I really like that about this series.

Also, this series has the kind of rush I don’t mind. The big problem I had with Persona was that it rushed through everything, yet spent way too much time on things that in the end didn’t matter. This script however allows the characters to show their emotions and development. While the plot itself has a lot of unexplained things, it’s not to the point where this series becomes incomprehensible, and it becomes fun to try and puzzle what this series is trying to do. If this series does that consistently, it can work out well. You don’t want to have a series that thrives on being solid and believable, only to have one gigantic plot-hole in its middle. That just breaks suspense of disbelief.

This episode also revealed that Kanzaki’s grandfather is still alive, and not only that: Kanzaki was his creation, attempting to make the Zet monsters that we’ve been seeing more human. If the rest of this series can explore more about this humanity I’ll be very interested. If this series can get to that, in any case. I really like this series, but I also have no clue whether this will be the same at the end of this series.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mirai Nikki – 26

by psgels, posted in Mirai Nikki

So with this we’ve gotten all of the endings of the past season. And it’s pretty weird indeed. At the very least, I’ve got to praise the creators for delivering a solid and climactic ending. This episde was fun, and also had a ton of character development. It was a bit cheesy when Yuno stabbed herself, but heck: she’s crazy, and this episode had far bigger question-marks.

First of all, I’m not sure whether I missed this or not, but the way in which Eleventh changed everyone’s future, was an explanation given of why he knew now that he Mirai Nikki project would fail? There’s also the question of Murmur’s intentions: was it ever revealed what she wanted anyway? I mean, she had captured the Murmur of the world anyway and eventually would have continued to e the assistant of the new God.

The strangest part however, was the sequel hook. I mean, I knew beforehand that Mirai Nikki isn’t going to end here and that some sort of sequel got announced at the end of this episode. However, what the heck did Yukiteru turn into anyway? He couldn’t get over Yuno… for 10000 years? It pretty much sounds like he reverted back to his old self and has been sulking for an eternity.

Still, I enjoyed this episode a lot. This series definitely had its issues, and being spoiled along the way also didn’t help, but it did come together quite nicely.
Rating: *+ (Great)

Phi Brain – 27

by psgels, posted in Phi Brain

What on earth is Root Gakuen? I mean, anime often tends to exaggerate schools and all, and this IS Phi Brain. But this episode revealed just how crazy that building actually is. Why on earth was a landing platform for helicopters installed? Were the giant metal sliding doors always there? Were the creators preparing for some nuclear war or something?

In any case, the second season just revealed how it plans to top the excellent first season: brainwashing. This is something akin to handling a double-ended chainsaw: awesome and very effective if you can get it to work, but you can just as easily slice your own fingers off. This episode established the rules for how the brainwashing works, and it has a lot to do with how the Orpheus bracelet works: by accelerating and changing the brain levels of its victims. Kaitou nearly succumbed to it, so it is plausible if you change its powers a bit.

The most important part however is that it is very much hinted that while the earrings will cause you do to things you normally would never do, there needs to be a reason for this. You can’t just go “Haha! Brainwash!”, but instead the victim will need to have a reason for getting rid of Kaitou. And that will be the key of whether this series is going to work or not. Provide interesting reasons, go deep into the characters for reasons to dislike Kaitou. Combine this with a lot of good character development.

At the very least the puzzles themselves are still interesting and haven’t lost their edge and still are very creative. The soundtrack also surprised me by being actually new, and the build-up of tension still is as good as it’s ever been. This really has the potential here.

Phi Brain, you are one of the very few series nowadays who can get 50 episodes and actually deserves it. Unlike the Jump series who drag on for way too long, you actually are using your time well and are quite balanced. This is a huge chance: now live up to it and show those endless Jump shows how a shounen adventure series is properly done!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Aquarion Evol – 16

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

Okay, so with this episode it’s clear that this show intends to screw destiny. The important part is how it’ll end up doing this. This episode had a lot of build-up for that, alongside a completely overblown love confession that was really fun to watch when taken out of context s it created an infinity punch that even traveled through time.

However, I still am a bit afraid of Kawamori trolling again. What I mean by “taken out of context” mostly refers to the aftermath, which didn’t really use the fact that Zessica confessed to Amata, and instead focused more on how Aquarion nearly went berserk (by the way: did I see this right and did they just casually wipe out an entire island? I sure as hope that they picked some sort of uninhabited island and didn’t train in the midst of school grounds, like how they’ve been fighting most of the battles). Zessica’s confession has the most terrible timing: it’s too late to really make an impact on Amata, but it’s too early to really actually do something in the grand scheme of this. Instead the creators made this a bit of a stepping stone for the later romance, reducing Zessica yet again to nothing but a mere love plot device for the male lead.

Also, a new season and a new sequel that refers the original. After Last Exile’s recap episode of its first season, this episode also continues to show old material. What really caught my attention was how seamless the images looked of Last Exile, while the transition from HD to a smaller format really is quite noticeable with thick lines of animation used back there. This is a compliment to the original Last Exile, by the way, because it’s definitely interesting to see how Satelight’s animation has changed over the past ten years.

Oh, and this episode finally showed Bianca and Dorezza in a battle, revealing what powers they have. And they are actually quite awesome. Why weren’t they used before? I mean, if Zessica didn’t confess they would have kicked ass. The only reasonable explanation for this is that Amata is special somehow, and that he can awaken special powers that others can’t. Weren’t you trying to screw destiny, Aquarion?
Rating: *+ (Great)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 03

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

Okay, with this this show also has the best romance of the season. The one thing that I hardly ever buy from anime is the moment in which the couple actually falls in love. They either do so for no reason, they pull the childhood friend trick, or pull one superficial reason, or they just stuff the main couple together for a while and they automatically start to develop feelings for each other. This episode was the first time since ages since this actually caught my attention.

The build-up was perfect:there were a few scenes here and there of Serika catching Mutta’s eye, and at the end of this episode the creators threw in something quite funny that both had in common. Both Mutta’s characterization as hers was great in this. Overall though, I really think that Mutta’s voice actor is giving off a wonderful performance in this series.

This episode was mostly focused on the physical exams. Though it also raised an interesting question: how on earth is Mutta going to make it? I mean, Serika excelled everywhere, while Kenji is a great example of someone who is very solid at everything he does, yet doesn’t excel at any specific point. Mutta however… there doesn’t seem to be a reason for him to stand out, both in his average performance as in his physical abilities, mental abilities or knowledge. The only mystery is how on earth he managed to design such a hot selling car. The creators are probably going to use that somewhere later in order to make him pass.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Fate/Zero – 15

by psgels, posted in Fate/Zero

Overall, the competition that Fate/Zero faces this season is larger than what it faced for its first season. But really; the great thing about this season is that every series has its own point at which it really stands out. There really are a lot of well produced shows, but each stands out in its own way: Zetman through its expressive drawings, Lupin with its experimental and artistic style, Apollon through its fluidity and accuracy, Tsuritama with its whimsicality, Eureka Seven with its epic action, and Fate/Zero has the incredible polish that has become even better from what I remember of the first season. Seriously, this was probably the best episode of the series so far.

With this I can understand the need to take a 13 episode break, because the creators really used it. The CG in this episode was amazing, ranging from the dogfights in the air to Saber regaining her noble phantasm. Caster was also used much better than in the last episode, as the focus was much more on the characters fighting out a way to stop it, rather than blindly attacking it. The monster appeared in fewer scenes, which definitely made it more menacing. It’s also good that my least favorite character of the series is gone now, because that now makes way for the rest of the cast to shine.

This episode did particularly interesting things around Saber. With this episode she felt more like the main character of this series, with her Excalibur that allows her to cleave an entire fortress in one blow, but Archer and Rider made it look more like a curse than a blessing at the end of the episode. This will definitely return later.

The best looking scene of this episode was when that bug guy was burning. The animators really went for something different there, but there was a ton of raw emotion in that scene, and I loved what the creators did to him.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Mouretsu Pirates – 15

by psgels, posted in Mouretsu Pirates

Generic mecha protagonist who can instantly understand mechas as soon as he touches it: eat your heart out. This episode went pretty much as you thought it’d go when a group of teenaged pilots are forced to operate a ship they don’t know: with problems. You can see that they know a fair bit about operating space ships, probably both due to school and their work at the yacht club, but if they don’t know the quirks of a particular vehicle it’s going to be very hard to actually get it to work.

It probably still is a bit simplified (one look at the manual was enough for everyone to understand everything about a heavily customized vehicle), but I’m still really glad that this series addressed this. What’s also is interesting is that we got to see an interesting flaw of Marika here: her self confidence. In this episode she really underestimated what it would take to pilot the Bentenmaru and didn’t tell its crew about what she was going to do, and it’s a nice touch to have the crew rush out a bunch of manuals to guide them along the way. I also loved their reactions when they found out what Marika was up to.

And then there is the subplot of Marika’s mother going for a career switch. With this series finding very erm… “creative” ways to get its characters at the right place, I’m wondering what they’re going to do to her. Is she going to return to the Bentenmaru as well or something?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Some Quick First Impressions: Shining Hearts – Shiawase no Pan, Eureka Seven Ao and Tsuritama

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao, Some Quick First Impressions, Tsuritama

Shining Hearts – Shiawase no Pan

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives together with three cute girls.
This episode threw me off. With a title like “Shiawase no Pan”, I thought that there was a character named “Pan” or something. Not that the main characters would actually be bakers. Beyond that, this episode… it felt like playing an actual RPG: the characters went from one place to the other, talked to a few people and then went home again. That is not the way you should adapt something like this. RPG adaptations are meant to take liberties in order to weave their storylines because RPGs have things that just cannot be translated to anime format, more than any other kind of source material. So yeah, this was a bit of a boring way to close off such a streak of excellent first episodes. All the characters do is walk around and sell bread. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There were some intriguing parts that will probably be explored later, the characters were all moeblobs with really bad character designs, but they weren’t forced into stereotypes, and this show had a relaxing atmosphere that would have worked… if it wasn’t for one thing: throughout this episode I really got the impression that the creators have no idea what they’re talking about. I’m referring to the bread: it just assumes that the characters can make great bread, but it doesn’t even put an ounce of thought into why this bread is great, or how it’s made, or where they get their ingredients from. It’s just “Okay, we have bread! Let’s give it to people and make everyone happy!” I mean, if you’re going to bother making a show about bread, you should at least do your homework, right?
OP: Granted, this does have that RPG-feel, despite the annoying vocals.
ED: I… just… what did I just watch? Who found this a good idea?
Potential: 30%

Eureka Seven Ao

Short Synopsis: Our lead character will supposedly pilot the strongest mecha in existence.
With Eureka Seven it is of course a bit difficult to really judge its first episode. I remember how I actually dropped it for a while, until I saw how good it got after a while. This epiode of Eureka Seven Ao definitely made a better first impression than the first episode of Eureka Seven did. For starters its lead character isn’t as annoying as Renton, and the creators immediately start by showing some good drama around him, and his feelings towards his parents. His girlfriend still fits the bill of “female lead”, but there are small parts where she sets herself apart from her counterparts. The action and soundtrack also sound very promising based on the small tastes they gave us here. I do have to say though, that this episode also had a lot of parallels with Bounen no Xamdou’s opening episode, and compared to that series’ opening episode, this unfortunately lost out, especially in its characterization. Still, the potential is definitely there for this series to both deliver engaging action and characters. It’s now up to the rest of this series to develop the rest, and it definitely has some good papers for that. It’s a shame that this couldn’t get 50 episodes, but 25 works too.
ED: Not the most memorable ED, but also definitely not the worst. Also who’s the kid?
Potential: 85%

Tsuritama

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live together with a cute boy.
Above all, this was really refreshing. In a world in which most of the teenaged series try to see who can rip each other off the most, here we have a show who really makes a point in being original. It’s not just the theme of fishing, but the characters and their antics are all delightfully fresh and the cliches that are there are executed different from usual. For example: for as many transfer students that we see in anime, we actually rarely see people move. the lead characters’ grandmother also feels refreshing in her light-heartedness: she was old, yet not the same kind helpless old woman you see everywhere. And yeah, in a season with Shinichiro Watanabe and Sayo Yamamoto, you’d almost forget that Kenji Nakamura also is an incredibly good director. This episode was fun and whimsical, and A-1 at the helm combined with a number of very interesting animation techniques. The end of this episode also hinted that there will be much more than meets the eye at first sight, and I feel like this time, Kenji Nakamura went with a series that DOES fit perfectly in just 11 episodes. After sitting though Guilty Crown, I am really glad to see that Noitamina is back again.
OP: Some actually decent J-Rock. Finally.
ED: Dreamy song, and surprisingly catchy.
Potential: 90%

Some Quick First Impressions: Sakamichi no Apollon, Jormungand and Haiyore! Nyaruko-san

by psgels, posted in Sakamichi no Apollon, Some Quick First Impressions

Sakamichi no Apollon

Short Synopsis: Our lead character befriends a cute girl on his first day of school transfer.
Yes, this is clearly influenced by Madhouse. their subtle touch is all over this series, and combined that with Shinichiro Watanabe’s excellent sense of style and Yoko Kanno’s music, this was a wonderful watch. Out of all the series that aired this season, this series had the best acting: characters are portrayed wonderfully subtle, and this episode was really restrained. There was a ton of emotion in this episode, yet most of it was hidden between the lines. The point where this series really caught me however, was when one of the characters started to play the drums. That was a piece of incredible animation. Playing musical instruments in anime is something incredibly hard to do, but the creators here did it perfectly. The movements synchronize perfectly with the actual soundtrack, and something like that is incredibly rare in anime.
OP: This definitely is an OP from the guys from Mappa: the visuals really remind of OPs like Mouryou no Hako’s. Again restrained, but very well done.
ED: Simple yet effective.
Potential: 95%

Jormungand

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a giant sea serpent who surrounds the entire earth and… wait, wrong story.
So, this turned out to be quite a slick action-series with a heavy emphasis on gunplay. It’s got a neat soundtrack and the action scenes are well polished, with quirky humour on top of it. It had charismatic characters, especially the lead female, and quite a few characters were already likable in just this episode. I twas pretty much a textbook delivery. Now, textbooks are boring, so what does this show plan to add in order to really stand out? How do you plan to keep your 26 episodes interesting? Will your plot be varied or will most episodes be like this? Is 26 episodes the right amount for this series, or is the manga this is based on still on-going?
OP: Good visuals, but too much autotune on the vocals.
ED: Prertty picture… and that’s all this ED is.
Potential: 80%

Haiyore Nyaruko-san

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live together with a cute girl.
Surprisingly, this didn’t turn out to be the worst of the season. The reason? This turned out to be a self-aware parody of the moe genre. It actually poked fun at the overused tropes you see in this genre, and Nyaruko’s energy was surprisingly addictive, rather than annoying. It’s strange to admit, but I actually laughed during some of the jokes it made. Unfortunately it also has the elements of a bad parody. You know, the shows that try to parody by just adhering to the tropes they’re making fun of while trying to look tongue-in-cheek. Another problem that this series has is that the moe genre is overcrowded: a lot of the jokes this series made were just copied from other bad shows, perhaps only done slightly better. If this series wants to be a good comedy, it really needs more material and it needs to keep the jokes coming. Since comedy is the only thing that this series has, it needs to be consistently funny, but for that, it still falls short: it had a few good jokes, but not enough of them to warrant 20 minutes.
OP: Terrible song.
ED: Parody 101: an ED is also a very good thing to make fun of. This instead was completely generic
Potential: 40%