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)

Aquarion Evol – 08

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

Wtf, Aquarion. Just… wtf.

I feel a bit silly for complaining about the fanservice in Rinne no Lagrange, although my point still stands there: the fanservice there was blatant, overdone and cheap. Here however…. it was used to push the sexual content of this show to the absurd. When I first started to blog this, the males versus females themes were the parts that caught my interest. I didn’t expect Shoji Kawamori and Mari Okada to carry it this far, though.

“Your senses grow sharper as you grow more naked”? Who the hell came up with that? Still, I loved how much tension there was between the sexes in this episode. It’s not just one-sided female fanservice, the males also got pushed into the defensive here; I especially loved it when Amano started stripping for once.

The thing is that usually, I’m really not a fan of series with so much romantic context. I remember immediately dropping Infinite Stratos when it aired a year ago (which by the way also was an 8-Bit series), but that’s because most of them are just so dull and lifeless, with so little ambition. This time though, the plot has just gotten crazy. The combination of Mari Okada and Shoji Kawamori dug up a whole new area of campness in both of them.

But what the hell are they doing next season with that AKB0048 show?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Rinne no Lagrange – 07

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

Eh. This remains Xebec, unfortunately. I’m glad that next season they will end up animating something as manly as Yamato (it had better not be just a recap!). This episode brought back the shameless fanservice unfortunately, and overall only was interesting because of how it completed the bonding between the three main characters, something we knew was about to happen.

With those boob groping scenes, I just can’t help but think back to that parody that B Gata H Kei had in it once, where they showed what the male version of that would be like. Yeah. I would know this, but do females really randomly get naked and grope each other when there are no males around? And okay, if the fanservice was creative I would not have minded. But this was the same stuff we see everywhere.

In any case, there sure are a lot of building up episodes this week, which doesn’t make it the most interesting in terms of anime. The trick with building up is to remain interesting, and Muginami’s backstory just wasn’t interesting enough for that, unfortunately.
Rating: – (Disappointing)

Monster Review – 95/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

And with this, I’ve finally finished this behemoth of a series. Aside from LoGH, this probably is the most critically acclaimed anime out there. And by GOD, I do agree with that consensus.

I already noticed when watching Master Keaton, how much research its author, Naoki Urusawa, puts into his stories and setting. The same influence can be seen in Monster. It’s completely different from Master Keaton, and yet both shows are meticulously well researched: its portrayal of Germany is fantastic, and like Master Keaton: everyone is a professional. This isn’t a series of impulsive plans: everyone all spends a large amount of time preparing and researching. This has two benefits: it’s incredibly believable what these guys do, and it fleshes out whatever they’re investigating brilliantly.

Now, talking about what makes this show so amazing is very difficult without delving into spoilers, so I’ll try to be as vague as possible with this review, as usual. Let me just say that this series has some of the best villains I have ever seen. Perhaps even the best out there. The only thing I’ll say about them is that their character development is just utterly fantastic.

Now, Monster is long. I have found that marathoning these long series, like most recently Hajime no Ippo and Legend of Galactic Heroes, that while they have some amazing parts, there are also parts at which it’s a bit of a chore to sit through with all of the build-up. And here is the thing: with Monster, I did not have that. It immediately starts off with an amazing display of fireworks, and even though it is paced very slowly, every episode delivers an interesting new twist to the story, and every episode had me at the edge of my seat. Even the build-up episodes are fascinating to watch, and in a personal way that really allows you to connect to the characters. It manages to avoid being repetitive by continuing to push its storyline in different directions, and introducing a wide variety of characters. Seriously, even the development of the minor side-characters has its flashes of brilliance.

On top of that, this show also has a stunning direction, use of music and audio. Masayuki Kojima has really shown that he can direct in pretty much any style. And heck, Ryousuke Nakamura (yes, the Mouryou no Hako guy) was actually the assistant director for this. The result shows, with an incredibly solid show that hardly ever shows any bad animation. The animation that’s there feels real and yet very intense when it needs to, and it makes very good use of its camera angles and fluidity. The music is also just perfectly timed.

This show is amazing. I’m very sure that this show is better than anything else that’s going to appear this year. Did it become my favorite series? Well, it’s certainly amazing, but near the end of its run it does lose a little steam, and the ending itself was excellent, yet left me hungry for more answers. It’s not like the ending is rushed, but because it wasn’t rushed it couldn’t answer as much as I had hoped to. Still, a spot in my top 20 favorite anime has most definitely been conquered.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Brilliant atmosphere and pacing.
Characters: 10/10 – Deep and diverse characters, both main and side. Fantastic development.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Perhaps not over the top or anything, but the animation is very refined and very realist, plus the soundtrack is terrific.
Setting: 10/10 – Again, meticulously researched. A very realistic and believable portrayal of Germany.

Suggestions:
– Gankutsuou
– Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette
– Mushishi

Hunter X Hunter – 20

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

First of all, I’m a bit puzzled about one thing. I’ve been reading a few reactions to the past arc, and there is one thing that has bugged me: what’s wrong with tournament arcs? It’s not just this series, but whenever a shounen series refers to a tournament arc, I always see some people complain about it. I do wonder why that is, though. It’s not like they appear all the time, and I consider them a great excuse to have a wide variety of different fights and battles. Especially series like Hunter X Hunter, which give a new spin to the whole set-up by having the losers advance. Personally I consider the big battle against the evil that is about to destroy the world worse than the use of a tournament arc.

In any case: this episode surprised me. There were a few parts that it could have done better, but it also had a number of very good parts. As for the disappointing bits: it’s a bit of a shame that they skipped over Kikkua and Hisoka’s fight, even though that was the perfect way to show their characters off. I also didn’t like the narrator at the end of the episode. The 1999 series also had people narrate, but when they did they did get into more depth about what was going on. This episode went “Gon is angry” at the end, and kept repeating that a few times. I mean, there is narration, and just plainly stating the obvious.

Killua’s brother however, was delightful. The creators perfectly captured the relationship between the two brothers, and in particular the parts where he threatened to kill Gon was really well executed. I also really like his voice actor here. My only gripe with this scene was at the point where he claimed that Killua cut his sister and mother and that his mother was crying. Leorio’s reaction to that was just completely weird: instead of being surprised that Killua attacked his mother, he was angry for the brother for telling the last part so nonchalantly. As if violently attacking your family is the most normal thing to do in the world. I mean, I know that the world of Hunter X Hunter is screwed up beyond belief and all, but I don’t think that it’s going THAT far.

Also, gasp! What happened to the soundtrack? In this episode I think we got to hear three new tracks, and all of them were really good. Especially the track that started playing when Killua’s brother started talking down on him and on how he was raised. Now that is much more like the Hirano Yoshihisa that I know. The track just kept changing and swifting moods with all sorts of different instruments. It still misses the catchiness of the 1999 series and Hirano Yoshihisa’s other works, but it’s definitely a step into the right direction. My best guess is that they used his most one-sided tracks for this first arc, in order to save the best for the rest of the series. That’s the only explanation of the random drum solo and the monotone upbeat tunes that sound absolutely nothing like what Hirano Yoshihisa is normally capable of.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mouretsu Pirates – 07

by psgels, posted in Mouretsu Pirates

This was a build-up episode that was mostly meant to flesh out Marika as a pirate. She developed a bit, got used to her life as a captain, and continued with her education.

Bizarrely enough a lot of her jobs are to act as entertainment for large cruisers for a very heavy fee (oh, the insurance will cover things anyway). What struck me in particular is how it focused on human errors. Usually in science fiction settings, everything is managed perfectly. Here however, this episode stressed that there are humans behind these controls, and that these humans can make errors. We have no idea who they are, but by describing who they are and what they’re doing, they are getting fleshed out quite well. That’s very good for later on in the series. I also like the solid advice that they kept giving Marika. If anything, Misa Grandwood is a very good teacher.

The end of this episode also showed the first glimpses of the overall plot of this series. The small girl who snuck aboard the Bentenmaru. She will very likely be the catalyst that will trigger everything that’ll be happening for the rest of the series. I’m glad to see that the creators waited relatively long with introducing her, in order to allow the characters to play themselves out. And all that, while avoiding the big problems of building up: not being interesting.
Rating: * (Good)

Last Exile – Ginyoku no Fam – 18

by psgels, posted in Last Exile - Ginyoku no Fam

This was pretty much a build-up battle. Nearly the entire episode was dedicated to it, but it was just there to build up to the next episode, and the visuals also weren’t as good as with the major battle scenes in this series.

Probably the most interesting was actually Fam. Yes, I’m surprised to say this too, but for once she could act according to her role: a teenager who is caught up in the middle of a war, and who happens to be a really good pilot. With this, it’s natural to assume that she would try her best to help her side win the war, but this conflicts very much against her previous ideals of not wanting to kill others. Finally the creators actually made her torn a bit between this dilemma, and finally it seems like she is starting to understand the situation she’s in. In the second half she goes back again to trying to disable warships, but that’s completely in-line with her character, and for once she actually fails at doing this.

I might also have to correct something I said earlier. About a month ago, I found out that this series is supposed to have 21 episodes. I thought that that was with the recaps included, but the official website of this series seems to suggest otherwise. If I understood things correctly, then there will be 21 regular episodes, 2 recaps, and one special episode (presumably at the end). This episoe at least makes more sense that way: with three episodes left, this wasn’t the kind of finale buid-up that I’d expect, with the main villains doing… absolutely nothing. With two extra episodes focusing on the side villains like here though, it makes sense.
Rating: * (Good)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – The Sacred Star of Milos Review – 82.5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood

Out of the entire FMA franchise, the worst part for me was the movie to the first season. It just mad eno sense, was badly animated, especially for movie standards, mad a mockery of the characters and the plot, and overall wasn’t the least bit enjoyable. Thankfully, The Sacred Star of Milos is nothing like that, and is actually a pretty good movie.

Let me first debunk some overall fears that arose with the announcement of this movie: do you remember how in the promo art, Winri looked really inaccurate to her designs in the other series? Well, that is because that wasn’t Winry at all. She’s a character original to this movie, and pretty much the main character. I know a few people who were turned off by the art style of it (yeah), but let me tell you that that is no reason to skip this movie. One thing that you do need to take into account that this IS made by different people as the anime staff, so the animation IS different from the style of the TV-series. The character designs in this movie are a bit more rough and simple. This movie also doesn’t really bother to keep its faces consistent. As a tradeoff however, ti did get a lot of very good inbetween animation. It’s been said before, but this movie has some very good action, and especially the choreography of the different action scenes is very good and creative.

So, what about the story? As it turns out, this takes place around the second half of the Brotherhood TV-series. It’s an original story that doesn’t have anything to do with the main storyline of the series, but it does flesh out the world the world it’s set in. As for the plot: it has some good and bad parts. The good parts was that it packed a good amount of twists that were well built up throughout its airtime. It created a new city in the FMA universe, and actually successfully populated it and created an epic storyline around it. Although… near the end it does get a little too epic.

What I mean by that is the following: you can really see that the creators put some good thought into some of the twists that are pulled. Near the end of the movie however, they just run out of time and momentum to keep that up, resulting in a rushed ending and a final villain with very flimsy motives who continues to spout random moral crap at the main characters. The themes and morals also are a part where this movie leaves things to be desired. Like the TV-series, it’s full of morals, and it doesn’t just copy them, but also adds in its own themes. At the end of the movie though, it didn’t really do anything with them, and most of the final quarter was just completely inconsistent with the morals it tried to build up, and not in a way that makes things come together.

So yeah, it’s a very nice movie, which unfortunately suffers of the common flaw of trying to do too much and trying to be too epic. Still, I’d recommend it. It’s a solid movie with likable characters, and I’d say that out of the Primetime Timeslot movies to come out in the recent years, it is so far the most solid and enjoyable.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Solid storyline for a movie that is just about a random story, albeit a bit too short to give everything the time it needs to build up.
Characters: 8/10 – A solid cast, both the old and new characters. The main villain is flimsy, though.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Great action choreography.
Setting: 8/10 – Doesn’t build much on the themes of the TV-series, but does flesh out the world it plays in.

Suggestions:
– Cowboy Bebop – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
– Heartcatch Precure Movie
– Metropolis