Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 49

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou

This show is such a troll. First it promises a Reiko episode, only to be about something completely different. And now it turns out that the hints for Matoba being involved again also are false and instead some random exorcist was the one who sealed off Houdzuki. I can understand why this is done though: the fourth season is really dedicated to expanding the world of Natsume Yuujin-chou. It’s episodes like this that show that this series isn’t just about the main characters and that they live in a very expansive world.

In this episode, Natsume really pushed himself to his limits. Physically, at least, to the point of exhaustion. Where the third season focused more on his growth as a character, in the fourth season he seems much more scared of something bad happening and puts in much more effort to prevent that from happening. I also loved Nyanko-sensei in this episode Where I previously complained that he was a bit repetitively getting removed from the plot, here he was an active part of it. I especially loved how a the end of the episode, he got back at Natsume for abusing him so much in his rush to solve things.

Now, I also am going to have to be a bit negative, though. The fourth season had the best opening episodes of all four Natsume seasons, but after that things changed a bit. In particular, there has not been a stand-out episode like the Hotaru episode or the episode where Natsume meets Touko. ?The past episodes were still really good and among the best of the season, but for Natsume Yuujin-chou’s standards, they were missing something. That little edge in storytelling that makes you leave episodes with a heart-warming feeling.

The third season would have been a great point to actually end the series. The manga was incomplete, but that incredibly heart-warming ending was awesome and well built up. The fourth season though, is building up for something that still needs to arrive. It’s fleshing out the world of Natsume Yuujin-chou for awesome stuff, but with these kinds of things it’s always a matter of hoping that the producers will green-light a fifth season, a treatment that only the most popular series or shounen fighting shows manage to acquire. The thing is also: the more episodes that this show takes, the harder it becomes to recommend it.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Chihayafuru – 22

by psgels, posted in Chihayafuru

Holy crap, Chihayafuru. Out of all of the minor characters that Chihaya had to face so far, this was by far the best match against it, and it totally went against my expectations. Yamamoto Yumi was wonderfully fleshed out in just one episode, and as a first I actually found myself rooting for both, rather than the match being a simple “protagonist versus non-protagonist”.

I really thought that at this point, Chihaya would get to the queen finals, but then again that may also be because the story is nowhere finished, I kept hoping for some sort of finale with Arata and the Queen. At this rate that ending is not going to be about an important match at all, but who cares? With this series’ writing talent they can still find a ton of great points to end on.

I loved how this episode was even more full of emotion than usual. The hot sun had a lot to do with that, but also Yamamoto and her coach really brought life to this episode, and did so in a way that I’m really not used to for characters who only appear in one episode. And as an added bonus, she wasn’t one of those “I’m really pretty”-girls like you see everywhere in anime, and yet she still looked great. The thing with anime is that it’s so focused on “hot” looking characters that more often than not, it’s the plain looking characters who stand out (and more often than not, the supposedly “hot” characters try way too hard to look good). In this case the animators gave her just as much attention as the rest of the cast, and it showed here.

Also, Chihaya: I really thought that she learned by now. And yet she was taken over by her instincts again. It just shows how hard it is to get rid of things that you’ve been doing for years. Just one tiny incentive is enough to get back to your old patterns. This episode was a great point for Chihaya to actually mess up on the show’s title card “Chihayafuru”.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Another – 09

by psgels, posted in Another

This series really loves its red herrings. It doesn’t really work to make this show unpredictable (the two deaths of this episode had it coming from a mile away), but ti does make the episode ery nerve-wrecking. It cannot keep pulling this forever, though: all deaths in this series have happened right at the end of each episode. This cannot carry the series forever at this pace.

I like the use of the tape, but it’s too simple. Because of that the creators had to pull that weird twist of one of the characters screwing up before the most important parts were revealed. If you’re going to do that, then build in some extra challenge in trying to find the tape or something. Instead, this just screamed “oh no, we need to pad out this story a bit longer!”

In any case, Misaki was acting a bit weird in this episode by almost playfully nearly triggering accidents. I doubt that she is the real shost, though: that would be too obvious. My biggest candidate for this right now is Naoya, that blond kid who broke the tape. After all, that action does make perfect sense if he was the ghost, and either consciously or uncosciously wanted to prevent people from finding out about what stopped him. And with this episode, I also think I have an idea of what that might have been, after he called it a “sin”: he probably ended up killing the ghost student somehow. In the wy he told it it probably was a fortunate accident, but that would also explain why no student turned out to be the ghost that year.

There was also one particularly interesting twist that I realized just as I finished writing up this entry and taking screenshots. I’m not going to say it right now because I think it’s something everyone should figure out for himself, but I finally realized the link between a lot of the deaths.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Aquarion Evol – 10

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

I’m reviewing this episode a day late, but still: there are two shows who, on the same day, decide to air an episode that feature an alien just arriving and goofing off while trying to make sense of this new world.

The big difference between the two is that the alien in question had never met a girl in his life, and therefore was constantly dazzled by all of the girls here. The creators also waste no time in creating another couple in this series, as the frog doll girl immediately starts hitting on him (and vice versa).

With this, it really seems that this show is going for the couple root. That leaves a few oddballs: Shrade, the fangirl, Mikono’s brother, and the green haired girl. I do not feel like looking up all of their names right now. Aside from the fangirl, there strangely hasn’t been any hint that they will hit it off somehow, but I can really see this series trying. Especially Shrade seems weird in a series like this that is so focused on romance. Mikono’s brother and the green-haired girl meanwhile are just pointless love triangle bait for the main characters. They should just hook up together and everything will be solved. (Well, maybe not everything, but you get the point).

What also surprised me here was the complete lack of action in this series. This is Satelight. I’d at least have figured that the creators would stuff in a random reason to show another overblown fight, but instead this was all character-building. It wasn’t exactly the most interesting or exciting episode of this series, but this show will be 2 cours long. I’m intrigued in how the build-up will pay off.
Rating: * (Good)

Phi Brain – 22

by psgels, posted in Phi Brain

I really am amazed: this show was already doing incredibly well. And here it surpassed itself yet again. This episode once again was stunning, acting like there’s not going to be anything such as a sequel, and packing some awesome plot twists. I mean, this is the episode where everything comes together. Seriously, I’m not kidding when I say that Phi Brain has just become my favorite Sato Junichi series since Kaleido Star.

At my February Summary, I remember someone asking whether the puzzles in Phi Brain improved somewhat. Like, a big criticism of the first few episodes was that we as the viewer weren’t given an opportunity to solve the puzzles ourselves. And to that, I have to say: at this point, that doesn’t really matter anymore. This episode had no puzzles whatsoever. At this point it’s not about solving puzzles, especially once the puzzles changed into actual battles. Right now what’s important is how this completely warped organization exists who trains kids into puzzle solving and making machines.

Jin’s background was awesome. He really changed many times in the different flashbacks in this episode. There was a point at which I really thought that he’d be Baron Pythagoras, but with this episode that theory also seems dead. Speaking of which: him being dead was a great twist for Rook, not to mention how in the visions of the future, it was Kaitou who stood there, rather than Pythagoras who apeared in Jin’s visions.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Rinne no Lagrange – 09

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

And yet again this show is building up. Thankfully the creators did give a reason for it: everyone is pretty much waiting for back-up to arrive. So yeah, in the meantime nothing much is gonna happen. It’s a stark contras with Aquarion, which figures out a big battle in every episode. If this show can pull it off in the end, it will be the better approach, because it can put more focus on the individual battles, rather than them turning into some sort of unity sausage (is that a proverb in English as well? I’m not sure…).

The big pitfall of this approach is that the series isn’t going to pick up enough momentum. In the end, what really happened in this episode? Some of the villains wandered around and met a bunch of people. The direction and timing made for some funny moments and Madoka’s past was nice, but it’s still missing something. If this was just one episode I wouldn’t be worried, but this has been going on for quite a few weeks now. Still, this is a Tatsuo Sato series. In the end, this series too puts emphasis on letting characters play out, it just does this a bit later than Mouretsu Pirates. Because of that, Mouretsu had a dull beginning, while it’s getting really interesting now, whereas Rinne no Lagrange’s start was excellent, only for it to catch up on the build-up right now in order to prevent the characters from turning into underdeveloped stereotypes.
Rating: * (Good)

Hunter X Hunter – 21

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

When I first heard Gon’s voice actress, I felt that she yelled a bit too much at times. I still think that, especially in the second half of this episode, but nevertheless, Gon’s acting was awesome in the first half of this episode. The camera work and the timing of it really hit the right notes there. Hunter X Hunter is a show where, the more important a scene is, the bigger the budget allocated to it, and Gon’s serious scenes, along with Hisoka’s moment were apparently seen as very important here. Most of the eye candy in this episode came from really well drawn and shaded frames, but the part where Gon grabbed Gitarakur’s arm was actually animated really well.

On the other hand, I’d like to talk about the concept of pain in this series: there isn’t any. After 21 episodes, I’m sure now: pain in this show is just a small annoyance. It’s something that a lot of other shounen series suffer from. Again, I’m comparing with the 1999 version: there, the pain the characters felt was actually portrayed; when characters did something straining to their body, it actually looked like they were straining themselves (take for example the part a few episodes ago, where Hanzo balanced on his two fingers: in that episode he just did it like it was nothing, whereas the 1999 series actually animated tension on those fingers).

Gon’s part in this episode was pretty much done better compared to the 1999 series. But in terms of his father, I believe that the 1999 series holds the upper case, due to one big part that was cut here. I’m not going to spoil here which part, but the people who watched the 1999 version know what I’m talking about, and it lead to a different image of Gon’s father here, that to be honest lacks the same impact.

In any case though, after this this show can really start to shine over the 1999 version, because from this point onwards, that version starts to drag horribly. I only rated the main series as 82,5/100, which is relatively low for all of the praise I’ve been giving it. The reason for that is the next arc and the arc after that, so from now on this series can make up for a lot of stuff. And I hope that they are going to cut the obnoxious episode intro that has been appearing each week.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mouretsu Pirates – 09

by psgels, posted in Mouretsu Pirates

You know, when I saw that picture of that castle I realized how un-typical this series is for Satelight. I mean, their trademark is spamming eye-candy, and lots of it, even with the series that Shoji Kawamori has nothing to do with. Mouretsu Pirates however doesn’t care about that in the slightest; that castle picture was probably the work of one of the artists behind Guin Saga who was brought in temporarily to make it look authentic.

The character-designs in this show are varied, but I really wouldn’t call them eye candy, and this is pretty much common over a lot of other works from Tatsuo Sato (most notably Stellvia of the Universe, where the CG looks really out of place when you think about it). However, this series does look very consistent, and it shows that with effort you can make a great show even on a limited budget without trying to be all visually fancy. This is a great example for the projects who don’t have great artists to back themselves up: instead of focusing on a few money shots here and there while ignoring the rest, it’s also very much possible to just deliver consistency without standing out, in order to focus on the characters. In this case, it worked nicely to bring life to the characters.

In any case, this was the type of building-up episode that I like: the ones that are interesting. This episode added a lot to Gruier by showing what her home country looked like. The Ghost Ship also turned out to be the first manned space flight meant to cross light-years, which is a clever way to again flesh out this setting.

Marika is also really getting the hang of being a pirate captain. She takes initiative when she needs to, but also listens to advice when she needs to, and this episode once again balanced this out really well.

I also liked that anti-climax that was used when the princess’ new dress was delivered. The two servants really looked dangerous and the music that accompanied it was really well chosen, and yet nothing really happened other than a few things being delivered. After all that build-up, it seemed kindof odd, but in a good way. We’re definitely going to see those two again, but this was a very interesting introduction for them.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Last Exile – Ginyoku no Fam – 20

by psgels, posted in Last Exile - Ginyoku no Fam

Hah! Now this is more like it. This episode had really little action, and yet it’s my favorite Ginyoku no Fam episode in quite a while now. It had this genuine warmth that I have been missing for a while now, it was different from the previous episodes and offered some variety, there was a lot of focus on the different politics of this series and again Fam knew her role and wasn’t shoved at the center stage.

With this episode I realized that the previous episodes of this series have been a tad monotone, and really needed a bit more variety than what they have shown so far. Probably the big culprit of that was how this show had to focus on cute girls and all. This episode also finally developed the themes of war further. Thins really got resolved now, yet at the same time the ending of this episode showed how fragile peace can be. It was a particularly good twist to have the Gracien girl try to assassinate the big bad guy, and Lilliane’s death definitely made an impact, especially considering how she consciously sacrificed herself. Also, Fam is a princess.

The next episodes have a tough question to answer: why was that necessary? I mean, with Shangri-La it always was obvious that Kuniko was special in the way that the villain was intereseted in her. Here though, I’m not sure what the purpose of all of this is other than making Fam feel special. This is episode 20, there are only three or four episodes left. It feels tacked on at this point.

What also worries me a bit is that we still haven’t gotten any new information about new Gonzo projects. The sales of the second volume of the DVD were about as much as the first volume (around 3000 copies), which thankfully isn’t the disaster that was Shangri-La’s record, but still means that Gonzo probably made some losses, having also financed a lot of this project themselves. However, what are their plans for the rest of the year? They’re awfully quiet, considering taht they should be nearly done with Last Exile here.

The impression I get from watching Last Exile is that most of Gonzo’s talented animators went over to David Production, along with a bunch of producers (you can really see Gonzo’s boldness in a lot of David Production’s projects), while Gonzo’s 3D department, the part at which they were the most innovative, remained at their side, along with most of their bad animators (the badly animated parts of this series are animated in the exact same way tht other badly animated Gonzo shows were). It’d be a shame for them to go bankrupt anyway.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – 21

by psgels, posted in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

The premise of this episode was a bit boring, and it took a while for it to get going near the middle, though it was as bizarre as expected once it indeed took off. Kokoro is a bit of a stale character at this point, so at this point having her as the center of an episode that adds something to the entire police force except for her is a case of misplaced priorities. Still, showing the other three police girls on their days off finally shows a bit more about their characters.

The weirdest part of this episode started when the bank robbers arrived. Their character designs were just brilliantly silly considering how they tried to look like serious police officers. The weird vehicles they chose also had me in stitches. Why do bank-robbers ride on Segways and where did they get that rowboat from?

In fact, this entire episode was just full of the weirdest yet surprisingly varied character designs. That’s a problem I have with a lot of anime nowadays and of which Milky Holmes is also partially guilty: all of the characters designs and styles just look way too much like each other, especially compared to how things were around ten years ago. At the very least though, this episode contained a ton of different character designs in a ton of different styles.

Also wtf, what kind of a live concert was that?

Also also: good luck watching Saki after this.
Rating: ** (Excellent)