Mouretsu Pirates – 08

by psgels, posted in Mouretsu Pirates

So, I expected that the mysterious girl at the end of the previous episode would set the actual plot of this series in motion. The timing and mystery around her character seemed just right at this point in the series. What I did not expect however, was that we’ve suddenly got ourselves a princess among the main cast.

Obviously the show wants to go somewhere with this, but with this episode I can’t yet say exactly what. It also doesn’t really help that that princess has been very mysterious about what she actually wants of the Bentenmaru, causing her to actually stow away, leaving everyone around her behind. That’s not something that princesses are known for.

So this episode was mostly clever building up. I admit that the creators did find a good excuse to somehow have her appear at school, especially considering how half-assed these reasons usually are. As by the series standards: she feels very natural as a princess: you can see that the way she acts is princess-like, but at the same time she also just feels like a normal girl. I also liked how the first person who Marika suggested to escort her was Schnitzer. The creators are really building up this guy as the lovable tough guy of this series.

Another big mystery of this episode is why the princess was allowed to board the Bentenmaru while it was known that they would head into a combat situation. Again, a princess is about the last type of person that you’d want to bring there. It probably has to do with whatever she wants from the Bentenmaru.
Rating: * (Good)

Nisemonogatari – 08

by psgels, posted in Monogatari Series, Winter 2012 Kaleidoscope

If I had to give this season a label, it’d be the Winter of WTF. Seriously, Nisemonogatari: you as well?

Anyway, for the reason of this post: there just wasn’t anything interesting this week. Danshi was more miss than hit this week, Ano Natsu continued with that boring beach arc (though admittedly it was much better than the week before), Inu X Boku was the same as what it’s always been and I don’t want to repeat myself on it yet again, Black Rock Shooter has completely descended into forced emo and Smile Precure still is in that boring introduction arc of its. Which brings me to Nisemonogatari.

To my complete surprise: I actually liked Nisemonogatari this month. Heck, for the past weeks, it did exactly what I hoped it would do. Something actually happened, and I actually really liked the way the Karen Bee arc was resolved. It was an anti-climax, but it worked well and was very well built up. Finally I actually got the chance to enjoy this series for what it was and marvel at its animation without being bothered by everything else.

However, the fact remains: this show is just way too long. The first episodes of Nisemonogatari were pretty much Araragi walking around until something happened, and passing the time with tons and tons of fanservice. And it lead to this episode. I have very mixed feelings for this episode. I really want to praise the creativity here. The toothbrush scene was just weird in every single way. The animation and direction were also excellent. At the very least: this was a great piece of animation. But this show has also just completely turned into a farce. Is this show too going for the incest? I thought we finally dropped that dead horse. If this was an attempt to be subtle and clever, that part of it at least failed, because it 1) has already been done by a ton of other shows and 2) exactly went back to the themes of the first few episodes in which hardly anything happens aside from tons and tons of fanservice.

I really consider Nisemonogatari better than Bakemonogatari at this point. Another great annoyance that’s gone now: the series no longer feels like watching a bunch of voice actors narrating over a slide-show. They actually animate the characters here. This episode had some of those “ahoge-shots”, but they were far more balanced than before.

I really noticed that after Bakemonogatari, the animation in the Shaft series improved significantly. They seemed to have especially invested a lot in inbetween animation, and the first series where this really stood out was with Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru. For once, this series actually doesn’t feel rushed. Now that they actually have a period of one year in which they release just one series, they can actually focus much more on making that show good. It’s just a shame that it wastes so much time on pointless fanservice over and over. If it was just some random fanservice I would not have minded, especially with the creativity that this show had been doing it. But there were just large parts of this show were nothing just happened aside from the characters talking about random smutty topics. It’s just too much. Still, this episode did show the most amusing ones, even though in the bigger picture it was just blah.
Rating: #%&! (???)

Last Exile – Ginyoku no Fam – 19

by psgels, posted in Last Exile - Ginyoku no Fam

There are many challenges about series that place children at the center of adult struggles. One of the big ones is making their roles in the grand scheme of things believable. Ginyoku no Fam is struggling with this, clearly. And yet here it barely managed to make things work.

A lot of stuff in this episode challenged my suspense of disbelief, but on the other hand it was exactly what the previous episodes had been building Fam’s character up to. The big problem with that evil empire is that it’s got this very young empress who has been hi-jacked by a revenge-crazed psycho. All it would take is someone who would make her a bit more proactive, and that’s where Fam comes in. This episode had her play the role as a delivery girl, and to be honest, it’s there where she really belongs.

Having said that, though…

Something went wrong with the world building here. It’s been bugging me for quite a while now, but this episode convinced me: the world of Ginyoku no Fam feels empty. This is a very serious issue for a show whose biggest asset is exactly the world it created. My point is: how on earth was Fam the first to suggest to that princess to make them stop fighting? What happened to the to her subordinates here? Aside from the main characters, in the end the world here feels lifeless.

There also was one point in this episode that couldn’t be excused with the budget troubles that Gonzo has been having. It’s the point where the Sylvius appears, and immediately starts shooting down every single warship in its vicinity. And that after all of the previous episodes were building up how hard it is to actually control such a thing: the sylvius spins a bit and suddenly everything is gone and we cut to a new scene. That was just plain laziness.

And with this, the major conflict is over. And the only thing that remains is that bad guy. I mean, he wasn’t involved in this episode for a reason: there’s that doomsday weapon of an exile that’s going to threaten the entire planet, yadda yadda yadda, we know the story by now. I really wonder whether the creators will be able to make that kind of an ending interesting.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – 20

by psgels, posted in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

Oh boy. The writers this week were in for a challenge: the entire premise of this episode was everyone coping with Henrietta’s betrayal last episode. That’s it. No more. This probably was the lest impressive episode so far, although it still had its hilarious parts. And considering the content humping, the creators still did their best to give such an uneventful episode energy.

What hurt this episode the most was the repetition of jokes. I mean, there’s not much you can do with a premise like this. We’ve got seven characters who each in turn turned everything that even remotely resembled a pair of giant boobs into Henrietta. The highlight of that was when they brought that camel in, but the other attempts were rather uninspired. Of course, until Cordelia went psycho and started to turn everyone into camel-humping zombies. That part was without a doubt the funniest part of this episode.

Apart from that, Kokoro was hilarious too. And then there is the cheese. Oh, the cheese. It’s been a while since I watched so overly forced cheese. Of course it was played entirely for laughs, and that at least made the second half of this episode quite entertaining.

This really is the thing about writing a good comedy: writing a good story for it. It’s a great way to prevent things from getting stale, but it is very hard to write one that actually goes somewhere, while both allowing the comedy to remain hilarious. This episode clearly chose building up over being funny, though it still tried to be funny by using its standard over the top chemistry. The big question now is: will this actually pay off? We’re still relatively far from the finale, so one boring episode doesn’t really matter… as long as it’s used well. If in the end there are even more episodes like this, then they should just have cut this episode in half and made this a 11-episode sequel. Heck, that would cost even less to make and it would actually make this show better.
Rating: * (Good)

OVA Impressions: Gyo

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions

So, I just watched Gyo, the OVA. By far the weirdest out of the Ufo Table trilogy that appeared about a week ago. It’s an OVA of more than an hour long, and it’s pretty much like a zombie flick, only much more bizarre. Go for this series if you like the disgusting type of horror stories. Because that what this was: not scary and atmospheric, but completely disgusting.

It’s hard to really review a thing like this. I mean, on one hand it’s the standard zombie flick, but on the other hand the bizarre content manages to save it and makes it worth watching. The creativity, direction and the music were what made this the most entertaining. This is the first thing I’ve read of Junji Ito, and I can immediately tell that he is one messed up sunovabitch. The legged fish were one thing, but as soon as people started transforming into these green giant gas factories I was glad that I didn’t eat right before watching this.

The characters were a mixed bag: the lead female is typical, but good (her relationship with her fiance really saved her, because that was actually very interesting to watch). The crackpot researcher also was fun, taking this series really to the surreal at times. The main character’s female friends were pretty bad, though. They were the usual misguided attempt to make things feel more realistic by having them act like complete and stereotypical assholes. The problem with that in a horror flick like this is that you can just as easily put a sign on them saying “I am going to die next”.

For the creativity in the whole premise andexecution, I’m surprised at how much cliches this OVA also has.

Chihayafuru – 20

by psgels, posted in Chihayafuru

Oh, Taichi actually lost so that he won’t be able to play in the A-Class East Qualification tournament. Oh, wait there’s another chance for him to do so. Wait, he didn’t make that one either? oh, he got offered a promotion instead. What the.. he declined? He’s not focused on making the next tier as fast as possible, but rather as someone who doesn’t run away? Very nice here, Chihayafuru.

On top of that, this episode showed the return of Arata. Finally! Again, the encounter was short, but very sweet. The best part of this episode was how much more we got to learn of Arata’s grown up version. Up till now we’ve mainly just seen flashes of him, but here he was present for an entire episode. His worries about Chihaya and Taichi having become a couple really worked well with Taichi getting more and more depressed in this episode. Chihaya herself was the icing on the cake: her emotions went wild in this episode, and the creators portrayed them really well.

Overall, out of all of the Fall series that are still airing, Chihayafuru still stands out as the best. The way it handles its characters is just unrivaled here. As the representative of its season however, when you start to compare it to other years, it unfortunately isn’t the best: Autumn 2010 is the only fall season in more than 8 years where I didn’t consider the best 2-Cour series to be better than Chihayafuru. (As a frame of reference: 2009 had Armed Librarians, 2008 had Michiko e Hatchin, Clannad and Casshern, 2007 had Shion no Ou and Ghost Hound, 2006 had Red Garden and Bakumatsu, 2005 had Noein, Mushishi and Jigoku Shoujo, 2004 had Fantastic Children and Gankutsuou.

Obviously Chihayafuru is very well made, and in that aspect it doesn’t lose to the abovementioned series. But if I had to give a reason for why it doesn’t live up to those others for me, then it’s probably a combination of its lack of ambition and variety. The abovementioned series were series who kept evolving and kept bringing new things to the table. Chihayafuru however, has all been karuta matches, karuta matches and more karuta matches. Sure, the characters are evolving, but the plot isn’t. For me, Chihayafuru is a series that does really well when you look at the short picture, but in terms of the bigger picture it’s just karuta over and over. That’s solid, but not solid enough to measure up to some of my favorites.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Another – 07

by psgels, posted in Another

Before, I criticized this show for not having very impressive animation for PA Works’ standards. And then that dream sequence came. Talk about fluid animation here. Overall, it’s clear that after Blood-C, Tsutomu Mizushima really saw the light. Here too the visuals just don’t shy away from the hard-to-animate gore at all, for the scenes where normally the camera would just pan away.

The mystery is also really on track here. On the background, you can really feel the evergrowing presence of that ghost student who keeps picking off dead people. The second half of this series is also going to be very different, now that Misaki is actually no longer ignored by her fellow student, with the plan having failed and all. It’s a good way for the show to evolve.

The challenge for this series was to keep its audience in its atmosphere, even during the building up scenes. For me, it succeeded. I’ve really been caught up in it and even though the start of the show tried a little too hard with the dolls and all, the quiet parts of this series didn’t feel boring at all. This time it’s due to both the interesting characters, and the very solid build-up of atmosphere.

With this, it’ll be up to this series to actually make use of the build-up, and make things come together, and it’s there where the tricky part will start. Bring in enough creative twists that will force the characters to develop themselves, and make the revelation of the real ghost have some real impact. A beach episode isn’t really the right way to do that!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 47

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou

I think that this was one of the least charming episode of the fourth season so far, but that’s like going to a four-star restaurant and ordering the cheapest dish: it’s still delicious!

Right from out of nowhere did we get a background episode on that old lady who kept accompanying Matoba. With this, we finally get to know her and who she is, by telling a story about her past. And screw this episode for teasing so much with Reiko! The start of this episode really made it seem like the two actually met each other, but instead Reiko stole the name of a youkai who happened to have left a large impression on the woman.

And again, this show used the past and present wonderfully to fold out, and the start of the episode was once again hilarious. I’m not sure why it didn’t hit me as much as the other episodes, but that probably is due to the calculating nature of the woman: It’s hard to explain, but at the very least she turned into a much more interesting character in this episode.

Also, the animators. They were very clearly inspired by Ghibli this episode. That one youkai’s animation: that was really good, even for this series’ standards.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mirai Nikki – 19

by psgels, posted in Mirai Nikki

Plothole time: a person cannot just “act well” from out of nowhere. I don’t care if Yuno wrote a perfectly fine script. Yukiteru still had to act it out with confidence. Something that goes completely against his character.

Still, this episode was full of fun twists. Eleventh as the major of the city makes for a nice final villain, and his speech in order to close down the orphanage was a very nice introduction. I just have one message to the creators of the anime: if you show him in the midst of all sorts of telephones, instead of having Eighth, you’re pretty much spelling out that he’s going to acquire her server diary at some point. Way to create tension here!

Now, I had been spoiled about there being two Yuno’s… multiple times (thank you, manga readers…), but still the identity of the third corpse came as a surprise to me. The creators can do some nice things with this. The whole plot twist of deceiving Eighth also was very nice to pull: they know how Eighth’s diary works, and because of that it would be easier to get rid of them, while also making use of the occasion to find out what Eleventh’s diary does. Why Yuno didn’t immediately pull the trigger when she had her gun right next to Eleventh’s nose is beyond me, though.

What also surprised me is how the soundtrack has gotten better recently. The new tracks here feel much more colourful and energetic whan what this show had before, working in this series’ favor.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Phi Brain – 20

by psgels, posted in Phi Brain

With this, I really have no clue: what will the second season be about anyway, and how on earth will it be able to top this? All information that was given was that some new organization would rise up and challenge Kaitou. For a while I really thought that they would just take over Rook’s place and continue with the story, but this episode played out like the finale was about to begin. What the hell?

And this episode yet again was really good here. It build up Gammon even more as a villain, but as the kind of villain who still is under the main one: Rook. It also started pulling the impending world destruction, which usually isn’t really something you pull right in the middle of a series.

In any case though, the portrayal of the characters was once again just wonderful. I especially liked how Gammon pushed away even his potential love interest, but also the atmosphere during Kaitou’s flash forwards was very well done, especially considering they were about the cliche of destroying the planet. Thankfully what the creators meant to portray was that the power that everyone is trying to attain is far too big to be healthy, rather than “oh snap! we need to increase the steaks!”
Rating: ** (Excellent)