Ano Natsu de Matteru – 10

by psgels, posted in Winter 2012 Kaleidoscope

Okay, it’s time to make up the balance. With these two episodes we’re probably done with the heaviest romantic stuff, and it’s time to see whether this series ended up delivering on the things it promised.

Ichika, Mio and Tetsuro: these are for me the strongest characters. Mio is the one who changed the most as a character, and especially came to her right in this episode. Her back-story was really weird and bordering on fanservice, but I can’t deny that I like her growth a lot. Ichika meanwhile rocks in how she subtly gotten used to her life on earth. Her story is no nonsense: she’s not wrapped up in complicated love triangles: she likes Kaitou, it took her a while to confess, but when she did it was great. She finally has someone to confide in. I also like her portrayal as a real character, rather than just another romantic interest. Tetsurou meanwhile mostly rocked for being so direct and eloquent in the first half of the series. I’m not a big fan that he turned this show in something resembling a love tree (Tetsuro has Mio and that beach slut who are into him, he himself is in love with Kanna, Kanna is in love with Kaito, just like Ichika and that random childhood friend; the only exception to this is Kaito liking Ichika back). Still, looking back I like his character development and place in the story here.

Kaito… is a bit of a tough one. He’s got his good points, but also his lesser. On one hand, he actually knows what he wants. Thank GOD, he knows what he wants. As for his portrayal, though… I’ve got to confess something I realized when typing up this entry. I keep confusing his name with Senkawa. Yes, the lead for Birdy the Mighty. I really have to force myself to get his name right. It’s not a matter of the characters being too similar. Heck, Senkawa was far more annoying than Kaito in the first half of Birdy the Mighty Decode, and far more interesting in the second half. However, even in his annoying phase, he stood out. Kaito doesn’t. In the end he just didn’t escape his generic bland stereotype for me.

Then there are Kanna and Remon. Remon is just a walking catalyst: she’s got no character out of her usual snark, just acts there to spark up the romance between the other characters, and provide a light-hearted tune, but I can’t think of any scene where she really caught my attention. Kanna did have those scenes, most notably last episode. However, beyond that she disappointed a bit. In the end, she too isn’t really a character. Her only purpose in this series is to spice up the love triangles. On one side it’s to add tension for Kaito and Ichika, on the other hand it’s for the Mio and Tetsuro story. Beyond that, I don’t think that this series put any effort in giving her an actual character. The rest of the cast of this series can work when you subtract the romance. She can’t. She isn’t the worst character of this series.

The worst character of this series? That honour goes by far to that mascot.

So yeah, it turned out a bit of a mixed bag, but in the end the pros outweigh the cons. Romance series are something bizarre to me. A lot of the romance shows I like have huge flaws and annoyances to counteract some parts that they do incredibly well, and Ano Natsu fits that pretty well. The solid execution doesn’t make it a stand-out and I do feel that it could have tried more to set itself apart from its cliches (especially during that horrid beach arc) but I enjoyed it so far.
Rating: * (Good)

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – 23

by psgels, posted in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

Uh guys… this was actually the penultimate episode. Why did you end with a climax here? Are you really ending this series with this? Did you intend the pig guy to be the final antagonist of this series all along? Don’t get me wrong, this episode was awesome, but it was completely different from what I expected.

Still though: this show did it again: again we’ve got ourselves a great climax for a Milky Holmes series. Both were really over the top, but the differences are… there. The first ending still took itself considerably seriously: it was an over the top and action-packed ending and knew it, ending with a great anti-climax. This though… this episode was one giant joke. This completely took the piss out of your typical anime ending.

This episode was just like your typical overblown ending, with all of the cliches there. The only thing is that the subject material was just completely bizarre. Mot final bosses are generic bosses with a ton of power that need to be taken down. Here though… we have the cast fighting a giant lard monster. It was hilarious how he tried to build up this epic atmosphere, using nothing but lard. It’s been a while since I watched something so ridiculously camp,and have it actually work out. The same kind of energy that the entire series had also worked really well with this.

The animation was interesting here. It’s the kind of episode where the budget clearly was limited, yet they try to make the best of what they have while caring nothing whatsoever about consistency. The result was an episode that had everything: still frames, bland faraway shots, fluid action scenes, very creative camera shots, actual moving cameras (which are really hard to do in anime besides the usual panning) and very creative images (seriously, give these artists an applause: they somehow managed to do the impossible and pulled off an entire episode focused on nothing but lard, and they made it look awesome).

Overall, JC Staff has the potential to become as bad as AIC and Xebec, but what sets them apart from all the other companies that focus excessively on moe is that they do put in effort to make their series actually good, and they do allow for experimentation. Or at least with a much bigger frequency than most of those other companies. And as for Artland… if there’s any company who baffles me the most, it’s got to be them. I mean, these were the guys who animated Mushishi. They made significant contributions to Legend of Galactic Heroes. And then they come with series like this. In fact, all of their moe shows are much better than usual, even though their series usually look very cheap. This was by far their best animation since Mushishi.

Also, do I want to know what next week will be about? Will that be the real ending, or some random side-story?
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Mirai Nikki – 21

by psgels, posted in Mirai Nikki

Apologies for the delay. There are times when I’m just a bit lazy with my entries. In any case though, the second half of Mirai Nikki has proved to be much more entertaining than the rather boring first half, and especially the final quarter of the series is without a doubt the best part of it.

Ninth’s death was really sappy, but it worked pretty well when Ninth suddenly started to relate to Yukiteru and realized the similarities they had. Oh, and I also love how the saves in this series have a mind of their own: out of their own volition they close off to protect Yukiteru, they only grant access to the makers (including their daughter) and even if you’re similar to said daughter you can get in. Again I’ve unfortunately been spoiled about the reason why, but the death of Eleventh was still very satisfying.

What I do like about Mirai Nikki is that, while it’s not the best of the season, it actually will end well. It waited until the manga was finished and allocated enough episodes to do it. With three episodes left and what seemed like the major antagonist Eleventh gone, I’m pretty excited for the final three episodes.

I do wonder, though: why is Akise in favor of making Yukiteru the next god, when he still has Eighth? I mean, he said that Yukiteru had a valid reason for bringing back his parents and restoring things to normal… but can’t eighth do that as well? He seems to forget that Yukiteru also has the makings of a psychopath and is incredibly emotionally unstable. I’d rather trust eighth, to be honest.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Chihayafuru – 23

by psgels, posted in Chihayafuru

Okay. We’ve finally gotten near the point that has been looming over the entire series: the ending. At first I thought that the creators wanted the finale to focus on a really important match, but Chihaya’s loss last week made that impossible. This episode instead was really different from all of the previous episodes. And to be honest: this would have been a great point to close off this series, knowing that it had to.

Finally Chihaya is doing something other than Karuta. Finally her character is growing and experiencing new things. The romance subplot also would have worked even better if the creators didn’t shoehorn such an obvious loser into the picture. With this episode I also realized how rare these kinds of parties are in anime. Usually everyone focuses on festivals and all, but simple events where everyone goes to some bar or something hardly ever happen.

Also, I would have said that Taichi is getting on my nerves. But I really liked the part where Chihaya locked herself into the closet. My big fear is that with two episodes left, his angst won’t go anywhere. This guy still needs to develop and as corny as it is, I hope that the final two episodes will focus on this. I also do this because at this point, it will get really hard to use Karuta as the climax for this series. And don’t get me wrong: there have been plenty of series with one-episode or two-episode finales, and I loved many of them. But not with series who only adapt part of their manga and cut off right in the middle of their story.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 50

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou

Okay. Best episode of the fourth season yet. I was wrong.

This episode started out like your average episode: trolling about Reiko, only to go into a completely different direction. That direction was Natsume’s parents. Nowadays I rarely cry in front of an anime anymore. But this one did it. Halleluja, this show just got even better.

It’s also amazing with how little this episode ended up as a heart-wrenching story. The emotions in it were incredibly subtle, and Natsume was hiding his feelings the entire time, but this was so well portrayed that it worked wonderfully. Parts where he says that as a child, he tried to not look at the picture of his parents may seem light-hearted, but it says so much of the cold environment he grew up with. Dead parents are a cliche, but when it’s developed so well I just can’t get annoyed about it at all.

The scene that really hit home was when Natsume lost the picture of his parents. Being shy myself, I could really relate to him there and how he tried to hide all of his problems out of fear of getting too much in their way. Heck, I’ll just say it: this was the best episode of the entire season. This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for.
Rating: **** (Fantastic)

Another – 10

by psgels, posted in Another

This episode would have been totally AWESOME… if it weren’t for two specific things. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I had that feeling when the class photo of the dead Misaki was shown. I’ve been dying to see a picture of who he actually was, because all we know about him is that he’s some dead ghost who has been haunting the same class for more than 20 years. That was some awesome build-up there. The rest of this episode also had a really terrific atmosphere that really kept me on the edge of my seat.

But really, are you going to play the padding thing again in two consecutive episodes? This is the reason why I don’t rank Another among the best horror series. And don’t get me wrong: it is really good, but at these points it just tries too hard. The kinds of twists where right when something is about to be revealed something jumps up to break the tension completely misses the point of an anti-climax.

Also… Misaki knew who the ghost was? That sounds like pretty big information to conceal, isn’t it? I mean, I understand that she didn’t feel like telling her classmates after what they did to her, but she never mentioned this to Kouichi, someone who she has been very open with? I mean, she said that she preferred to conceal her eye in the class and all, but she sat in the back of the class: she should have had one point where she she found a good way to take a peak at the entire classroom (a test for example), so she knew who the bad guy was all along. The next few episodes had better offer a very good explanation for that.

And on the other hand, this episode did end with one heck of a cliff-hanger.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Aquarion Evol – 11

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

Amano, you idiot. Don’t you know that confessing in the middle of a series is like signing your own divorce letter? These things never go well! And indeed,the bad guys picked that exact moment to unleash that wench-obsessed beast–guy again and before you know it we’re in yet another cycle of “will they won’t they?” all over again. I really hope that the creators will end up avoiding this because nowadays those kinds of plots are incredibly boring.

It’s a shame, because most of the romances of this series have been very straight “they will” right from the beginning: everyone was very straight-forwardly developing feelings for each other. I liked that. I know romance isn’t that simple, but it’s just that the alternative anime usually finds for it sucks.

Apart from that though, I liked this episode; this was some good build-up. There was more focus than ever on the bad guys, who really needed that extra bit of development. The inner conflicts of interest between their two top guys will prove to be fun later on. And once again, the action scenes were really well done.
Rating: * (Good)

Phi Brain – 23

by psgels, posted in Phi Brain

The move to HD five years ago improved a lot for anime in terms of eye candy, but there also are drawbacks. By far the biggest is that the character designs of anime has on average become less interesting and often very similar. Of course there are exceptions, but compared to ten years ago, things look much more alike. The rise of moe and bishies certainly hasn’t helped. Overall I really like the character designs of the first half of the 200’s better, but it’s great that those exceptions are still there today, though. Phi Brain’s character designs are of the type that are very hard to animate, but the direction in this episode really made them work, and it showed how much they can do when used well despite the relatively low budget.

This episode once again was wonderful. This was the climax for Kaito’s inner struggles, and the creators came up with a great puzzle for that indeed. The cast got brought back together, and Ana’s return also worked really well. And the best thing is: we’re not even halfway yet!

I’m really puzzled as to what the second half will be about, but the more I watch this series, the more this is in a good way. I mean, at this rate the finale will wrap up the POG: Pythagoras is dead, and the finale is really set up as a battle between Kaito and Rook. I can see parallels between two other series right now: The Law of Ueki and Kaleido Star. To remain as vague as possible for the sake of spoilers, both wrapped up their first half fairly well, and then used their second half to bring in new characters, only to grow even better than they already were by developing their characters in a totally different direction. Since Sato Junichi directed one of those, I can really see the same thing happen here. At this point I just cannot fathom what that new organization is going to have to be in order to beat the POG.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Rinne no Lagrange – 10

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

Aah, again that bloody school festival episode. It’s a good thing that this episode was good, because it gets harder and harder to do something interesting with them the more they get used. I know that they must be a very large part of Japanese culture and all, but when every show and its dog pulls one it gets a bit annoying.

What saved this episode was that it had a point. At this point, the school festival episodes that immediately bore me are the ones who are just there to fill time. The school festival as climax of the series also is starting to get very repetitive. This episode though pulled an interesting turn when they revealed that Madoka was getting jealous of Ran and Muginami making other friends. And unlike Black Rock Shooter, she knew that these feelings didn’t make any sense, making these feelings very genuine.

Also, this episode convinced me again: the villains of this series are really good. It’s hard to label them as the best of the season because that would mean comparing them to Another’s villain, who is fleshed out in the complete opposite manner, but what I really liked in this episode was that they really had their doubts about fighting. In any case they are the most down to earth villains of the season.

Another criticism I have about this episode is that I wonder what the point was of not having Madoka pilot. It’s indeed as I feared: the enemy arrives and she immediately ignores her resolution for not piloting Midori. Then what was the point of all that? That will be a tough question that the next episode will have to answer.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hunter X Hunter – 22

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

Another part of what makes Hunter X Hunter so good is that every part is different. Unfortunately, this does mean that we’ve just entered one of the two most boring arcs of the series. It will very likely take much faster to go through than the 1999 series, but this episode remained a bit boring.

The biggest reason for that is having already seen this episode. Again. During the previous episode I wasn’t bothered by this too much, but now that the pacing has slowed down again it gets a bit tedious again to watch the same thing twice. Next week will probably be the same. The only part which really caught my attention her was the point where the hunting dog Mike was revealed, and where the butler started talking.

Still, this episode is necessary for building up for later. It’s because of this episode that Killua’s family gets fleshed out, but I do think that it could have gone though things a bit faster. Not showing the family is also a good way to flesh them out.
Rating: (Enjoyable)