Last Exile – Ginyoku no Fam – 13

by psgels, posted in Last Exile - Ginyoku no Fam

Now this was a pleasant surprise, to see such a solid build-up episode from this show. These kinds of episodes are often in danger of just becoming boring for the sake of build-up, but they solved it really neatly with a great atmosphere, a small look into Gracies’ culture, and some good characterization. Plus I also really like how consistently the Russian was used here. The creators really put a lot of detail in this episode.

The characterization also really worked well here. The characters in this show are simple, but the acting for these guys is still quite genuine. Milia in particular stood out. It’s a nice touch that she can speak the language of Gracies (being a princess and all), and I think that this episode also showed off that she grew nicely.

Overall, after 13 episodes I do believe that this show is the worst out of the Range Murata Trilogy (Last Exile, Shangri-La, Ginyoku no Fam). It’s not so simple that one is just better than the others in every way, though. Last Exile had by far the best and most mature characterization. Shangri-La on the other hand had a really great plot that dwarfs the other two. At the same time I believe that Ginyoku no Fam is the best at describing its setting. This episode again showed that (also look at the detail that went into the various Gracien dishes, or how the people live there). The other two though, also had very good settings and to be honest, it does have the least interesting plot and characters of the bunch. Adding these together and it ends up as the worst, but even then I still quite like what this show has turned into. It’s just a series of franchises with a very high standard.

Just one thing… where are the men in Gracies…?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hyouge Mono – 37

by psgels, posted in Hyouge Mono

Date Masamune, the one eyed dragon.. playing Jesus with a golden cross. I have no idea how they came up with that. Still, it’s interesting that this show touched a bit upon the Christian issues of that time. It’s not a major theme, but it’s still interesting to see.

In any case, we’re two weeks away from the ending, and this really shows in the catfight between Rikyuu and Hideyoshi, of all things. Surprisingly, Sasuke is not the main drive of the conflict in this series. He’s important, but more like a bystander. When looked at the actual story the finale will be centred on Rikyuu. Although, I know Bee-Train for having really good endings, and Koichi Mashimo very likely wants to keep up this tradition with this show.

The one thing that annoys me about this show is that it’s getting harder and harder to write about this show. Not fully understanding every sentence probably isn’t helping here, but I’ve already said everything I wanted to say about this series, and am starting to suffer from writer’s block with this series. So yeah, these entries are rather short.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Some Quick First Impressions: Thermae Romae, Listen Girls, I am Your Father and Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Thermae Romae

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a roman bath architect.
Yeah, so this was without a doubt the single most unique series of the entire season. Thankfully DLE’s hack-job still didn’t prevent this one from shining. what we have here is a show about roman baths, and on top of that it’s centered on deadpan humour. That really isn’t something that a lot of anime tend to do, even though I really like that kind of humour. Most deadpan humour in anime either misses the point, or isn’t trying to be funny in the firts place. This show is based on such a strange and unusual premise, and thankfully the script can back it up. I can really see how much fun the original manga that this was based on must have been. But yeah, DLE. The thing about animation is that things need to be… animated. The one advantage that this medium has is that things actually move. Not hop around the screen in bad flash transitions. The animation in this show is just plain bad. With this hack-job you could just as well have shown a slide-show of the coloured manga and call it a deal. The one thing I have to give them: they did pick some great music to go with this show. At the very least I can say that this was by far the best thing they ever did. And half a year ago, I never expected to see a show even slightly similar to Hyouge Mono. And yet, while that series is still airing we get another show that’s entirely about a bunch of old guys talking.
ED: Bizarrely enough: the best ED of the entire season.
Potential: 75%

Listen Girls, I am your Father!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live together with a bunch of cute girls.
Urgh. I keep stressing that I like series to focus on a more older cast, just than only teenagers. I know I say that a lot. But when the oldest main character of the entire season is in a show like this, I really make exceptions. This show already stood out as the worst pandering premise of the entire season. Now that I watched this episode, I unfortunately have to say that this show is exactly what it seems at first sight. Only not in the way you first expect it. The weird thing about this episode was that it took an incredibly long time to get anywhere. Most of this episode actually was build up between the lead characters and his friends from college. It really stood out in how dull it was, but with those parts it would have just been a dull average romance. Only near the end of the episode do the lead character’s little nieces start living with him, and it immediately turns into a fanservice fest full of some of the most overdone cliches. That’s where this show really descended from forgettably mediocre to just plain bad. Really, at the very least the largest part of the episode explored who the characters were. But with its true colors really being the way they are… yeah.
ED: Really bland J-pop
Potential: 1%

Dansei Koukousei no Nichijou

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a hyperactive middle schooler.
Now here is a surprise: this show turned out to be quite funny, and I laughed a lot with this episode. The characters all have a good chemistry together, and this episode was a lot of fun. The big question is for how long the creators can make it that way. To me, the characters were often not sure what kind of personality they had, and yet they still remain pretty one-sided and some of the jokes were pretty forced. There also is one very interesting thing about this series: Tomokazu Sugita. This show comes from the director of Gintama, and I have a lot of reasons to believe that he really tried to get Sugita Tomokazu (Gintoki’s voice actor) into this series. The result is that finally we can listen to the wonderful rants of this guy. His over the top rants are just hilarious to listen to. But how the heck did he think that he would get away with playing a middle schooler with that kind of a performance? I mean, I know that there are kids who grow up earlier than others and all, but seriously, something really went wrong when his balls dropped when his voice is this masculine already…
OP: Generic J-Rock
ED: Now this is a very witty way to end a comedy with.
Potential: 75%

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – 14

by psgels, posted in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

As for the shows I’m not going to blog:
– What’s the point of giving someone such a ridiculously stupid power as having a tennis racquet with only two stings if you don’t even use it?
– Thankfully Recorder and Randsell 02 skipped the bad humour. There is something really annoying about a grown man whining like a little kid, though.

As for Milky Holmes though.. madness like this needs to be documented. I mean, I wasn’t fully looking forward to this series, due to the comedy sequel syndrome. It’s very rare for a comedy sequel to be able to live up to the first season, especially for the good ones. And it’s exactly that that these past two episodes of Milky Holmes have been completely parodying like no other. Because yeah, the first season ended pretty conclusively. These past two episodes were entirely about that series being so well wrapped up that the main cast had no idea what to do, to the point where their enormous appetites just took over and they started a farm of all things.

Another big change was that the first season was at least somewhat grounded in reality. Season 2 had the creators go just all out. It’s even more extreme than before. But what it really causes to descend into madness are the unbelievable things that it pulls out of its ass. It’s all done for the sake of parody, and this show just pokes fun at everything, including itself. This episode in particular: it took quite a few overused tropes and completely pounded them with its stupidity and over the topness. The chase scene in particular was hysterical. When I already thought that the creators couldn’t go even further with the biggest stereotype of an american I’ve ever seen, that beached whale suddenly showed up from out of nowhere. Seriously. A beached whale?!

Some other things that this show poked fun of that surprised me were various American movies like ET and Pirates of the Caribbean. And seriously… that one beach episode of Ao no Exorcist. Seriously, I have no idea why, but that final scene immediately reminded me of that one episode.

The energy of this show… this show is on even more crack than the first season was. And it’s still very funny and enjoyable to watch. Because of that, I’m going to blog this series, because it was by far my favorite comedy of the season, and I really hope that the creators will have enough inspiration to fill 12 episodes. And if they don’t… well, I can always swap this with Ano Natsu or something.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Chihayafuru – 14

by psgels, posted in Chihayafuru

Okay, I was stupid to think that this show would slowly introduce the main villain. I seriously thought that it would take until near the end of the series for her to really show up, like most villains do. How wrong this turned out to be: this episode was entirely about her, and she immediately gets to play Chihaya. So much for the individual matches being drawn out.

What’s more: the creators are laying a lot of parallels between her and the rest of the cast. She’s a bit weird like Chihaya, she’s calm like Taichi, and she’s incredibly good, like Arata. In fact, the creators hinted a lot that this would be like the first match that Chihaya and Arata had together, only to deviate from it again. It’s a bloody shame that the episode ended before the match was over, because this means that we have to wait a week to show how Chihaya really is going to lose. This can’t be just an ordinary cliff-hanger.

Now, this episode did introduce a bunch of one-like characters, like spectators, other participants and stuff. My one complaint was that they all seemed a bit too lumped together. But then again, this always was a show that focused on its main cast. Plus, there were some nice touches. Despite everyone wearing the same clothes, everyone here has different character designs. And while they may not look as good as the main cast, you can see how much time went into designing every single one of them. The lights guy also was pretty funny and an interesting way to break up the mood for a slight bit.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mirai Nikki – 13

by psgels, posted in Mirai Nikki

The next episode will be important. This episode was mostly dull, but it did promise things to get very interesting next week. In fact, this entire episode was saved by its premise: not knowing what the hell Yukiteru and Yuno have been doing, and yet they dropped a lot of hints about what went on. Next episode should be the explanation, and that will be the opportunity for this series to show whether it can grow or not.

As for this episode, my biggest problem with it was that the characters it did decide to focus on were rather dull and didn’t really keep my attention. In particular the classmates were dull and just bait for pointless fanservice at the beginning, while Akise himself showed that he’s a decent character in that he at least is smart, but can’t really carry an episode alone. Not to mention that convenient brain-fart he had when he walked right into an obvious trap. A lot of people seem to like him, but I don’t see why he’s so enjoyable yet.

This is something I realized when writing up my end of the year post, but in terms of crazy series with over the top and psychotic characters, Mirai Nikki wasn’t my favorite of 2011. That was Deadman Wonderland. Sure, it was incredibly rushed, but nearly every episode had something interesting and was over the top, with all kinds of larger than life characters. This show in its turn has the advantage that it’s twice as long, so I really hope that it can take advantage of that. What I’m really missing so far is some good character development. Because of that this episode was rather sneaky, because Yukiteru and Yuno are about to change into something interesting that can keep the show going. This episode served as build-up and there it did its job really well. However, I do hope that these side characters will either change for the better, or just disappear, because I still don’t really have confidence in them.

And for god’s sake, the skits at the end are actually only getting worse…
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Phi Brain – 14

by psgels, posted in Phi Brain

Phi Brain returns in the new year with an episode about the side characters, since Kaitou… didn’t really do anything here. There was a lot of angst, but it was delivered actually pretty well. This episode was all about how much everyone in the series cares about Kaitou. What a bizarre sort of harem it turned into.

What also stood out is that finally it’s Cubic’s turn to solve a puzzle all by himself. It’s the same kind of puzzle that could have killed him when he messed it up, but the interesting part is here that he completely doesn’t understand Kaitou and what he’s trying to fight. He was even warned that he could just run away, and yet he didn’t. Not for the obvious reason (that the POG guys are a bunch of lying bastards), but rather because Kaitou would also never run away. He’s so lost in his numbers that he can’t discern different kinds of circumstances.

It’s likely that the other side-characters will also get an episode like this one. What I’m especially intrigued about is the character development that will result from it. I mean, this episode was really meant to change Edison’s role in the series and his role is probably going to be completely different now. It would be great if the creators can do the same for the other characters and play with this.
Rating: * (Good)

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 41

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou

And the first series this season also is very likely going to be its best. I mean, it’s Natsume Yuujinchou. The other shows this season are going to have to be really good if they want to be able to match it, but based on just first impressions, there doesn’t seem to be any other series that can get close to it anytime soon. I do emphasis “seem” here, because things haven’t aired yet and I do stress that this is just a prediction, but I will be really surprised if I turn out to be wrong here. I wouldn’t mind this at all, though. Does that make this season bad? Nah, but more on that later. I first want to rave all over how good these two episodes were.

But seriously: this fourth season wasted no time at all. This episode already was amazing. This one was one of my favorite arcs of Natsume Yuujinchou so far. This episode immediately took the third season, and went even further with it. Matome became an even better villain in this episode due to how he immediately researched Natsume, and checked up on his background, and tried to use this against him. I mean he probably too knows how it must be to be looked at weirdly. He just grew up being expected to head the Matoba house, and was surrounded by like-minded people. Natsume meanwhile had to do everything for himself.

Matoba really is a great villain. The research this guy does makes excellent use of this series’ arc-based nature, and how the arcs are relatively small. He is a villain who experiments. He’s constantly looking for things he can use, and if things don’t work out, then ah well; he learned something new, he can move on to the next, and he actually has a lot of different ways of accomplishing whatever the hell he needs to accomplish. This guy is very, very flexible for a villain. That’s not something we see often, considering how often villains need to be thwarted by a bunch of teenagers.

Overall though, I really am serious here: these were the best two opening episodes of all of the Natsume series so far. The other three needed to take their time to really get going. This one immediately is awesome. Now talk about promise here!
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Some Quick First Impressions: Another, Ano Natsu de Matteru and Aquarion Evol

by psgels, posted in Another, Aquarion Evol, Some Quick First Impressions

Another

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a transfer student.
To the people who claimed that the season sucks after only half of the shows had aired: perhaps a bit of patience would have been in order, because this season also has a very good horror series. Another again doesn’t have the best premise. Heck, it yet again takes place at a high school. If there’s one flaw of this season, it’s that everything is centered around bloody schools. In any case though, this show understands horror. This episode built up this wonderful horror atmosphere with a good script, neat camera work and some subtle mystery that combined all really drew me in. This was the kind of horror series that combined the ordinary life with a lot of creepy hints. This episode was very uneventful, but it slowly revealed more about what was going on, which will very likely get continued into the next episodes. The ordinary parts about this episode in any case were a neat way to flesh out the cast, and in particular the script gave them some character that made them interesting to watch. They all had something interesting to say here.
OP: Ah, the ALI Project. That’s long ago. Their style still doesn’t really match here though…
ED: Dull ballad with dull images.
Potential: 85%

Ano Natsu de Matteru

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets killed and then revived again.
Here is the thing with this season: its premises are crap. In fact, it’s been years since we had a season with less interesting original series. And yet, it’s got so many big names, there are so many talented people working on all kinds of different series this season. The best example of this is Ano Natsu de Matteru. Here we have a show which follows all of the romance cliches… only it actually is well executed. What does this mean? The characters act and feel real. The animation and acting is realistic and believable, rather than the overacting moe stereotypes that you usually see in those types of series. On top of that, this doesn’t feel disjointed, but introduced a few different subplots that should keep the show interesting, rather than having it hang apart from random incidents. This show has a degree of believability that a ton of other shows of the genre lack. And yet the lead character is wimpy, there were quite a few romance cliches, there is the ditzy blond girl. And yet it feels strangely interesting when it’s delivered so much better than usual.
OP: Finally some J-pop I like this season. The really good use of instruments did it.
ED: Simple yet interesting graphics. The j-pop was a bit dull, though.
Potential: 75%

Aquarion Evol

Short Synopsis: Our lead character can pilot a mecha.
There is one way in which this season stands out: the amount of teenaged sci-fi mecha epics in it. Rinne no Lagrange, Mouretsu Pirates and Aquarion Evol are all ambitious action/adventures, while they still all pursue a different direction with a different kind of execution. Rinne no Lagrange focuses a lot on its direction and script, Mouretsu Pirates placed emphasis on its characters, and Aquarion meanwhile has gorgeous action and a ton of eye candy. I mean, this is the kind of big budgeted flick you’d expect in the big seasons, not the small ones. Besides that, Aquarion has the least interesting characters of the three, yet they’re still an interesting bunch. Their biggest problem is that most of them blend into each other due to the cast being huge. A long show can fix that nicely (and it’s Mari Okada behind the script. She has shown often enough that she’s able to do this). The plot had these interesting elements of males versus females. I haven’t seen the first season, but heck, I’m curious where this will go.
ED: A well produced song that fits the epic nature of this series really well.
Potential: 80%

Hunter X Hunter – 14

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

Now, this was actually the point in the first TV-Series that I became a fan of this show. The point where Gon realized who he was going to have to hunt just blew me away with the kind of subtlety that I just did not see in any other shounen series. And ever since I have not seen any other shounen show that could equal this.

This episode had the disadvantage again of having the exact same plot, so the surprise was ruined and it didn’t make the impact it did as when I watched it for the first time. But damn it still was really damn good! The creators still nailed Gon as he realized the kind of task he stood before. I loved how they handled the part where he and Killua show each other their numbers. This still stands as one of the highlights so far.

Also, this episode just pretty much nailed the training arc. Screw overly complicated plans: Gon didn’t even spend half an episode preparing for his task, but this practice was essential. This wasn’t about him learning a new technique for the sake of being stronger. He analyzed his opponent and the situation he was in, and came up with a strategy to take him on. This is done in a way that again very few other shounen series have. Without actually dragging on, this episode accomplished a lot here.

One criticism is that female announcer: if you want to break the mood, go for it all the way. Her acting felt really out of place, and missed the anti-climax that she intended to be. I’m also glad that the creators kept the soundtrack to a minimum this episode. The one good track was used well when Gon observed what the other contestant was doing, and the scene on the boat was completely silent. Apart from that though, this show really needs some more tracks that really stand out. Hirano Yoshihisa usually excels at those kinds of tracks, but yet here he for some reason feels too constrained.
Rating: ** (Excellent)