Inu X Boku SS – 06

by psgels, posted in Winter 2012 Kaleidoscope

So, with Black Rock Shooter still in build-up mode, Ano Natsu coming with that horrid beach episode and Smile Precure still in introduction mode, I do have to return again to Inu X Boku. And don’t get me wrong: I have major issues with this series, but despite that, it’s consistently able to put a smile on my face.

This sixth episode was special: it was the first episode that didn’t introduce any new characters (aside from random classmates perhaps), and instead focused on Karuta (the skeleton). And with that, it did a surprisingly good job. At the very least, Karuta just was completely adorable in this episode. And on top of that, I also feel that the rest of the cast emerged from the better.

Still, my big issue with this show still stands: this is a David Production series, and it lacks ambition. Ristorante Paradiso was a unique look at the Iyashi-kei genre with a ton of really old characters who were all very well depicted, Armed Librarians was an awesome roller-coaster ride with awesome storytelling, Level E was one of the best comedies of the recent years, and Ben-To pushed the boundaries of the fanservice comedy genre. And here we have Inu X Boku… where we follow a bunch of half-youkai. This charm of the characters is nice, but this just isn’t up to their usual standards. Of course, it’s far from their worst (I mean, Dogs was an awful OVA), but still: I’d hate them to turn into another Manglobe.

Also, main character: the next time try to confirm that the monster you killed is actually dead… before turning your back to it.
Rating: * (Good)

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – 19

by psgels, posted in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

And then there were none.

Oh my god. The series has been building up to this point for quite a while now, but today, it’s finally time: this was the episode in which Henrietta finally snapped. The result is a completely action-packed episode in which she single-handedly kicks everyone’s asses in a gloriously badass episode.

This is how you do action. After about five minutes of build-up where Henrietta gets drunk on what looks like ice tea, the rest of this episode was pretty much one big action scene in which the entire cast gets beaten by the main villain when she finally stops being polite. The action was full of creativity, and especially Henriette versus her three subordinates kicked ass. Some other highlights include firing off Kokoro in order to destroy the entire school, and Henrietta getting so angry with Milky Holmes that she actually punched the entire earth. The symbolism also featured some nice touches, with the highlight being the last supper. I didn’t think that the creators would end up comparing Henriette to Jesus…

Heck, this show is pure entertainment. This is what I’m looking for in these kinds of series: the shows that really try their best to be creative and try out new visual things. Sure, it’s incredibly stupid, but I’m enjoying the hell out of this series. I do want to stress that it’s not as good as Level E last year: that one had an actually compelling story, setting and characters on top of being hilarious, while here the overall conflict and setting are quite simple. So no, it’s not going to be a comedic classic. A really entertaining roller-coaster ride though? Most definitely!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mirai Nikki – 18

by psgels, posted in Mirai Nikki

Apologies for the delay. In this season, it’s sunday that’s the crazy day, in which five shows that I’m blogging at the same time, and my sundays are often completely booked in real life. When I need to catch up on these series though, I do want to prioritize on the shows that captivate me more. With that, I don’t mean that Mirai Nikki is bad. It’s a fun show, but it didn’t capture me in the way that the other shows that I’m blogging are doing.

After 18 episode, I think I’m pretty sure of the reason why: the complete lack of good side-characters. Looking back, even Seventh were just one-sided over the top lovers. Everyone that Yukiteru and Yuuno faced was one-sided and in the end not very interesting. Only ninth got even close to being a bit of a dynamic character, but even that was bare-bones and ultimately not very rewarding. At this point, eight of the diary owners have died, but what did they really accomplish anyway? That’s pretty much my big criticism of this series.

This episode meanwhile was all about Yuno and Yukiteru. So yeah, these problems didn’t really apply to it. Yukiteru’s father again was a very one-sided character until nearly the end of his life, but at the very least his death had a very clear meaning for Yukiteru. In this episode he really snapped and actually killed someone (unless of course they’re going to play the same crap was when they did when he first shot that officer…). There was a lot of character development on Yukiteru this episode. On top of his feelings for his father, I also liked how they showed a bit of his past, and how he actually had a crush that he confessed to (and actually was turned down).

Also, we finally got to know Yuuno’s background. With six episodes left, it’s about time they did that, but at the very least this explains why she ended up as crazy as she did: parental abuse. A good reason, and Yukiteru was there at the right time for her. This episode tried to be a bit mysterious to the third corpse that Yuuno carried, but I bet that it was that girl that Yukiteru confessed to. This is anime. A female who once has been hinted towards being a potential love interest will never be able to move on and have her own life.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Another – 06

by psgels, posted in Another

You know what? Everyone keeps praising Ano Natsu for its down to earth romance, but with this, I think that Another has beaten it. Especially after Ano Natsu came with that awful sixth episode.

A large part of this episode just showed Mei and Kouichi casually talk to each other and about themselves, and surprisingly it felt really natural. There were no cliches like shyness or random fanservice, and for once the creators actually allowed them to talk. And holy crap. I just realized how not often such a thing happens: long conversations between love interests. There were also these small scenes of them looking at each other that were neat touches. The only thing that stood out as weird was that dance scene, but even there: I am so glad that for once the creators went with an original fantasy. Most of the time they just stick to males sparkling, and females undressing.

The second half fleshed out the basic premise of this series more. It’s interesting how there is one guy who pretty much has been with the mystery from the start, and also doesn’t really have anything to hide. Instead, the creators used this artificial amnesia to create most of the mystery after this point: traces of the ghost that it’s trying to hide in order to stay unnoticed. It’s in any case established that the death of Kouichi’s mother was something special. In the meantime though, we have a teacher going crazy.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 46

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou

This arc was just wonderful. Here once again, Natsume’s character gets pushed forward. Before, he kept worrying and worrying about involving his friends in the youkai world, which is why he kept trying to distance himself. This time though, Tanuma actually gets hurt because of this, and actually would have gotten killed if it wasn’t for Natori. With this, I now also get why this season needed to put in episode 44, about the younger classmate that Natsume met: she was supposed to be the lead-in to this story, showing how the people around Natsume have gotten closer to him. That’s slightly different from the third season, which really was all about Natsume.

I loved how this episode placed parallels between Takashi, Reiko and Natori: Natsume is actually walking a path that the other two couldn’t. Natori actually gave up on it, while Reiko actually failed to do it? Is that why she was so involved with Youkai and kept stealing their names? Indeed, in the flashbacks we’ve seen her in, she always was with youkai. We’ve never seen her before with other people.

This episode also had some very expressive animation. There really were a lot of different youkai in this episode, and there were some scenes in which the characters looked really dynamic. It’s interesting how Brains Base have gotten better and better at animating this series here.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Chihayafuru – 19

by psgels, posted in Chihayafuru

So, last week I said that the matches in this series were predictable. Immediately this show goes and proves me wrong. Okay, I take the predictability thing back.

The thing was, that everything here was being set up for Taichi to overcome his struggles and advance to join Chihaya in Class A. And yet, Nishida won. In a way, it makes sense: Taichi has the advantage of just being really, really smart and good at memorization, and he used that well, especially near the end of the match. Nishida however, has the experience. He did quit for a while, but he was the number two of Japan, something that Taichi can’t boast at all. The level at which you play when at that point, even as a kid, is completely different from usual.

That leaves me to wonder: how the heck will this show end? With what kinds of match-ups, I mean? At this point, my guess is that the only way for this to work is that Arata somehow doesn’t make his comeback at class A (Yes! Yes! Yes! He will return in time!), and therefore has to compete with Taichi for the finale of Class B, while Chihaya takes on the Queen, after said queen wins over Nishida. That would be the most predictable course of events. In about a month and a half, it’ll be interesting to see how these predictions held up. Usually it’d be the more it diverges from this predictable path, the better, but we’re talking about an incomplete adaptation here.

Oh, and what’s also really important in this episode: the character development. This was the first time where Chihaya actually became aware of the people around her. It finally occurred to her that Nishida didn’t like his nickname. And in fact, the entire class promotion of this episode was a big symbol of change: Komano and Kana really changed over the past few months as well, which really showed in the aftermath of their match.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Aquarion Evol – 07

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

Okay, with Shoji Kawamori it was inevitable, especially in a serise with so much sexual subtext, but it’s still annoying to see “the pointless love triangle”, as I’d like to call it. This is where there’s an overly obvious main couple, and yet the creators still try to bring in a love rival for the male lead for some artificial tensions. That guy with Mikono is excused because he’s important to the plot. But Zessica… just give her her own love interest. There’s no reason for her to be just part of Amato’s harem.

More criticism arise when you start to compare this series to series as Rinne no Lagrange. I’m especially pointing to how this show uses its setting: in rinne no lagrange, everyone is fully aware of where they’re fighting, and Madoka tries to keep the damages to her surroundings as small as possible for that. In this show, the characters just randomly destroy buildings and roads, which completely disappear again afterwards. Really, who found it a good idea to have these robots duke out in the middle of a city? I mean, I can understand it if the city was the target of these robots (why, though?)
, but with all the fancy technology, they didn’t even have a proper radar to intercept these giant robots or something, allowing them to fight in a place that isn’t as costly to rebuild?

Criticism 3: why the sexual context also involving the little girl?
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Phi Brain – 19

by psgels, posted in Phi Brain

Oho, very clever to use Gammon’s sister at a point like this. Because of this, we’ve only now gotten to the point where we finally get to know a bit more about him. Before it was apparent that he already had a feminine side when he started cross-dressing, but because we’ve nearly always seen him near Kaitou, the most we managed to see of him is his arrogant jealousy.

What’s also interesting is the following: Kaitou didn’t really do anything in this episode. And yet this episode was interesting. What I mean by this, is that Kaitou is an actually good example of a male lead who has episodes of angst. The big reason for this is that the side-characters are interesting enough to take over from him, and he doesn’t force himself into the spotlights when he does need to take a bit of time for himself. Gammon in this episode was more than enough to keep it interesting.

As for Nonoha, I don’t mind her, but she’s also not really the reason to make this series worth watching. She served her purpose, though: again of allowing Kaitou to angst and instead taking it upon herself to push the story further. At this point though, she still is a bit too much like “the love interest”. In fact, a lot of the females in this show are that: Gammon has two of them, who are basically just used because they flesh him out, rather than that they’re a major force in the storyline.
Rating: * (Good)

Hunter X Hunter – 19

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

Okay. I’m going to be a fanboy now. You see, this episode in the first season was my favorite Hunter X Hunter episode ever, outside of the Yorkshin arc. If I blogged it, it would have gotten a fantastic rating, and quite possibly even higher. There was no way in which this episode of the second season would surpass it. This entry will probably go a lot more in-depth than usual about the differences between the two adaptations. I know that these are two adaptations and should be judged as such. But I still consider this version to be inferior.

There first is of course the matter of the animation budget. That was probably the biggest disappointment of this episode. I rewatched this episode, and there Nippon animation really went all out. The art perhaps wasn’t consistent, but the way in which the characters moved around was incredibly dynamic. Here? We got several still shots of a fountain, and suddenly three hours pass. It’s a shame: apparently the producers seem too focused on making Hisoka look scary in that episode, but here they really passed up a chance. In fact, the animation in this episode looked too much like they just coloured in the manga pages, and had the animators put a bit of movement into them.

On top of that, there was the dialogue: some was the same, but the most disturbing parts were cut. In the first series’ version, Hanzo also disabled Gon’s eyesight and ears. It was completely disturbing to see how Gon was slowly being beaten to a pulp, and also how Hanzo described everything in the slightest details. Here, the dialogue was much more childish. However, I do admit that it was quite intense for a while.

And when, when Gon put up his anti-climax, something felt missing. Animating isn’t just about moving things around, it’s also about bringing things to life. It’s here where the way in which Gon immediately recovering from the poison dart starts to bite back: he’s not the fragile child he used to be in the first series. The first season really made it look like he was in pain. This was much more cartoonish. It didn’t really look like Gon was in pain when he stood up.

What also starts to bite back, is the lack of characterization on Hanzo. What I loved about him was that he wasn’t a major player in this story anyway: he was just a skilled warrior who also wanted to get his hunter’s exam, and completely disappeared from the story afterwards. And yet the first season treated him seriously. In this episode though, the acting of this guy was wooden. He just had two moods: quirky and serious. There was no subtle difference in it. It’s interesting: the dialogue between the two is similar at a lot of points, but this episode felt so barren, compared all of the little details that the first series put into it (everyone laughing at Hanzo’s blood nose, for example, or Hisoka laughing at Gon’s stubbornness, which made him much more than the usual psychotic clown). This is also why I pay so much attention at the people who are going to be adapting source material: the mentality that the creators are in when they depict their characters has a lot of effects on how well the source material is translated. Having good source material of course also is very important (heck, this episode remains very good either way), but it’s not the only thing.

What I also think played a part here was the use of the music. Like, the point where Gon kicked down Hanzo when he used that strange handstand of his: the music immediately started to play this out of place upbeat tune that somehow ruined the mood, rather than building up for it. Scenes that should have progressed slowly to build up an atmosphere suddenly had fast-pacing drums accompany them. It all just… didn’t fit here.

I understand that in this season, this episode could have just been building up to something. I did recognize how Killua was much less supportive of Gon, and I can imagine that this jealousy of Gon is going to play a major theme later. But heck, I’m being a fanboy here. Like I said above: this episode was my absolute favorite outside of the Yorkshin arc, and I am a bit sad to just see it delegated to buildup episode. I’ve got the same fears of the Yorkshin arc: I closely rewatched the original episode this time for some good comparison, and the dialogue was cut at a lot of points. The best thing about the Yorkshin arc was how well the dialogue was written.

And I know that I’ve been one-sidedly praising the first season. Don’t worry. Next arc will be the opposite. It’s there where the first season just dragged on for too much and took way too long to get going. That arc was why I ended up rating the first season of Hunter X Hunter relatively low, and where this new adaptation will really set itself apart. I admit though: I am completely biased. I know that it’s very annoying when people start talking about how differences in adaptations, and I apologize for that. This week though, my inner fanboy just couldn’t hold itself in.
Rating: * (Good)

Rinne no Lagrange – 06

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

That was yet again an excellent episode from Rinne no Lagrange. The creators had a particularly nice role for Muginami here, leading up to a finale that finally made the whole premise behind this series a bit more intriguing. And on top of that the artistic direction was particularly solid this episode.

Also, this show has found a very good way to keep me entertained during the quiet parts when it’s building up. The chemistry between the characters still is as sharp as ever. I’m referring to those small details, like Madoka getting lost inside the building for a while, or the way in which the officer forgot one of her hair curlers. The energy drinks were fun too. It all just brings life to these characters, much more beyond what you would have expected at first.

The battle in this episode also wasn’t brainless action, but instead really focused on the characters here, as the titular Rinne finally makes its appearance.
Rating: ** (Excellent)