OVA Impressions: Black Jack Final – 01

by psgels, posted in Black Jack Final, OVA Impressions

In case you haven’t noticed: the final Black Jack OVAs have finally been subbed. Yes, two episodes of 50 minutes, which were the final things that Osamu Dezaki worked on before his death. I’ve been waiting more than a month for these to come out, because even though I sometimes watch raws, there is no way in which I’m going to try that with a series that’s so chock full of medical terms as this one.

And holy crap, this first episode was worth the wait! I was a bit weary at first when the episode immediately started by promising that it would center around Pinoko, but seriously: her background is amazing. This episode seriously gave me a totally different perspective of her. This is much, much more than just another nostalgia remake.

The whole concept of having her be a Zyst who for more than 20 years lived inside this actress’ body, which was afterwards taken out and reassembled by Black Jack. Holy crap, now that’s something else. At this point I thought that I couldn’t be surprised by Osamu Tezuka anymore, but this episode did it.

And yes, this episode was 50 minutes long, and told in the same style as the other OVAs. Because of this we got a long and detailed look at the actress in question and who she is, and what the impact of her illness was on her life. This lead to an amazing ending and I loved the bond between her and Pinoko.

And yes! This really still has Osamu Dezaki’s influence all over it. The graphics and especially the multiple drawing son one screen are really typical of his, and I’m really glad that we can see them for one last time. He was by far one of the directors with one of the most unique styles out there. It’s something that I’m missing with a lot of debuting directors nowadays: they seem too afraid to put a bit of their own style in. This really shows that you can very faithfully adapt a story, while putting plenty of your own style in it as well.
OVA Episode Rating: 9/10

Towa no Quon – 06 Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

As the final movie of the Towa no Quon series, it indeed closes off with a nice action-packed finale. The action s very solid, and the animation also is overall the best out of all the six movies so far. Overall I like it much more than the Break Blade movies, which was just a collection of uninspired movies. This movie has personality and the themes to back it up with. On the downside however: it was just too much run of the mill.

And with that I mean that this finale did succeed in creating a satisfying climax, but not really much more. It really is the standard finale against an overpowered bad guy that every other series ends with. In the meantime it did wrap up its storylines, but that too was done in the most obvious way. This series of movies is well laid out because of this, and there is nothing rushed or dragged out. That’s good, but I would have wished that the creators took a bit more risk. But then again: this was made to commemorate the death of Umanosuke Ida, so the creators probably focused more on delivering a solid portrayal of his vision.

With the last episode I noted that the villain had become a lot more menacing. And yeah, this was done with this typical ending in mind: he needed more power to actually be a threat, and that was the purpose of Movie 05. In the end though, he’s your typical villain with hardly anything original to him. The big cliff-hanger he ended the fifth movie with? In the end he never really did anything with it and the whole point of that scene was probably the most underdeveloped part of this movie. For the sake of the epic finale, it did focus much less on the themes of the other movies. On the other hand though, the bad guy’s subordinates suddenly got characters and started thinking on their own. That was a surprise.
\

Storytelling: 8/10 – Solid climactic ending. No rush.
Characters: 8/10 – Enjoyable characters throughout the movie, though they remain not very deep.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Best animation overall of the six movies.
Setting: 8/10 – Solid for what the movie is trying to do, however could have tried more in the end.

Towa no Quon – 05 Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

The fifth Quon movie is meant to be a typical preparation for the finale. Standalone it definitely should not be watched, but it’s essential for building up the atmosphere and storyline for the sixth and final movie to close everything off. The major villain gets a lot more threatening as well, and the entire cast continues to head into the direction in which they had been built up to.

Overall, Towa no Quon isn’t exactly anything new, but what made this series work is how it stayed true to its themes. The characters in this series are all hunted for their powers and because of that they had to abandon everything if they wanted to be able to live happily. This movie actually makes great use of this.

The main villain was both the best and worst part of this movie. On one hand, he really turned into a threat, and became more than just someone who sits into his chair and gives orders, making excellent use of the above-mentioned themes. On the other hand though, he remains a very typical villain, still without any background an still very one-sided. Plus, I have no bloody clue why any of his subordinates still dare to follow him after what he did in this movie.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Solid build-up, the atmosphere and overall themes made this work.
Characters: 8/10 – Consistent character build-up, though there still are too many undeveloped characters left..
Production-Values: 8/10 – Solid and expressive enough.
Setting: 8/10 – Albeit nothing new, the themes are well explored.

Steins;Gate – 25

by psgels, posted in Steins;Gate

So, a number of people wanted to know my views on the Steins;Gate OVA that recently came out. I finally had some time today, so I finally got the chance to check it out. And really: to be honest I found it rather boring.

I don’t mean the episode in its entirety: the way it ended obviously was quite good and a nice lead-in to the movie to have Okabe and Kurisu finally become a couple, and the revelation of Daru’s future wife added to that made this definitely an OVA with a point, rather than the usual DVD specials we usually see. I liked that.

Apart from that though, the rest of this episode was just random banter while everyone went for a trip to America. And that random banter still was quite annoying to sit through, and it just wasn’t fun to watch, having Okabe act like an ass throughout the entire episode. This is already something that got on my nerves a lot throughout the TV-series, and at the very least Daru wasn’t as annoying this time.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

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)