Rinne no Lagrange – 02

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

Rinne no Lagrange’s biggest flaw is its pointless fanservice. Aside from that, it definitely doesn’t stand as inferior as the other Tatsuo Sato series this season. Where Mouretsu Pirates had its characters that impressed me, Rinne no Lagrange surprised me with how creative its direction can be. And I don’t mean in the big lines; that part is pretty standard. Instead, I’m referring to the small scenes and scenarios. These were written with inspiration.

The result is a standard mecha show at first, with some nice touches once you look more closely. Ships that were destroyed last episode are still broken and help bring continuity in the world, to that one robot that was defeated being towed away… still upside down. But I’m also referring to things like getting lost while trying to find a hotspot for your cell phone. Oh, and the regular weapons actually aren’t useless this time, but actually serve their purpose to buy time.

The crowning moment of this episode however was the underwater scene. It’s a very neat idea at that point in the episode, to just have her quietly talk with her sister. when she felt down. And Youko, you made my day. You are without a doubt my favorite character of this series.

The cast in this series is fleshed out very differently from Mouretsu Pirates. Mouretsu Pirates did it by giving characters really time to play themselves out. It had humour, but that was secondary. In this show though, the tongue-in-cheek nature is much more a core part of this show, and the characters are fleshed out in how they react to everything, rather than how they act.

Oh, and that soundtrack of this show is really good here.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Phi Brain – 15

by psgels, posted in Phi Brain

Okay, who again said that this was a silly show that shouldn’t be taken seriously? I mean, whoa: this episode yet again delved into the past of Rook and Kaitou and developed the two of them even more. And in contrast to the larger parts of this series, this is some pretty heavy handed stuff. I really did not expect there to be so much psychological abuse in this series.

I mean, first there was Rook, who was used as some kind of test tube child, being confined in a freaking prison of all things. And now his grown version is trying to break Daimon Kaitou down psychologically in an attempt to make him even stronger. And heck, ever since Rook appeared, there has not been one wasted episode: every episode after that made leaps in terms of character development. The random stories of the first half did their job of building up the world, concepts and characters in this series, and right now the creators finally can start to play with them. I like this formula a lot, because even though it takes a while to get going, it’s varied, and a great way to flesh out the characters by showing them in different situations.

Also surprising is how this episode went further with Ana’s themes of Kaitou being the sun and Rook being the moon.Heck, there were a ton of moon themes in the puzzle in this episode,but what was also interesting was how they linked things to Great Henge. I mean, the concept of it being a literal puzzle like in this episode was of course a bit stupid, but Stonehenge in a way also is just like a big unintentional puzzle. It also serves as a great symbol of the sun.

The one thing I am not sure of is why the creators found it a good idea to just randomly destroy “Greathenge”… after the entire puzzle had already been solved. It made for a bit of a weird appearance by Cubic and Gammon, followed by a bit of a strange sequence in which nobody really found it sad that suddenly a millennia-old artifact got destroyed…Or did the creators need a way to get rid of that stupid robot of Cubic?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hunter X Hunter – 15

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

I’m now really starting to see the purpose of the fillers of the first series, and especially the boat arc: they gave character to the other contestants. At this point, the difference is really starting to show, even when I’m ignoring the fact that I can see all of the plot twists coming. Back when I watched the first series, I actually cared about the other contestants. This new version though, only gave them a few lines here and there. It’s a shame, because this bonding with everyone was one of the things that made the Hunter Exam arc so great there.

While watching this series, I’ve also gotten a bit of understanding of why why people keep going on about faithfulness in an adaptation. I’m starting to notice myself that because I already know what’s going to happen, I end up focusing much more on the details. Even small flaws stands out now. You have this image of how this series should be, and when it deviates from this, it feels more annoying than anything. Because I’m so focused on this, I’m not really enjoying this series like I used to in the first season. This is really a dilemma, because really: this remains the best shounen plot we’ve had in years. How come there weren’t any more series like this that showed up in Shounen Jump? Did the manga have no influence whatsoever on other authors or something?

This is also why I hate recap movies, and I can only watch these series when they actually try to stand on their own, instead of trying to tell the same story with only slight differences. I think that the bare minimum of changes was the Nanoha Movie: the story might have been the same, but the creators there successfully brought it down to an hour length and made it watchable for the people who didn’t watch the series. These two series however… they’re just way too similar. Right now my advice is just to watch the Hunter Exam arc of the Hunter Exam arc. After that you can just swap back to the new series for the next arc, because that will likely be done better. They’re completely interchangeable right now.

This is also why I fail to understand why people would want to watch the anime version of a manga they’ve read, when it’s just going to be the same anyway, save for some minor details that stand out.

For example, I’m not sure if this was in the first season or not (my memory of it isn’t THAT good), but it really bugged me that that monkey guy did such a terrible job at hiding himself. He went into a completely different direction, and yet they easily caught up with him. I do think however that I would have brushed this aside as a minor detail when watching the story for the first time. And I really fear that I’m going to have the same reactions when we get to my favorite part of this series, the Yorkshin Arc.
Rating: * (Good)

Mouretsu Pirates – 02

by psgels, posted in Mouretsu Pirates

As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– Kill Me Baby just is too dull for a comedy.
– High School DxD is just another shallow fanservice fighting show.
– Symphogear’s second episode thankfully wasn’t as mind-numbingly stupid as the first episode, but it still forgets to build its characters, setting, and just about everything else and just degrades to boring exposition.
– I really bet that I wouldn’t mind Nisemonogatari nearly as much as I do now if the topics that the characters talked about were actually interesting. So why do these characters keep returning to talk about pointless fanservice?
– Amagami SS: hell no.
– The Knight in the Area just doesn’t live up to the standards of the sports series genre.

I’ve already pretty much figured out which series I want to blog this season. I only have one dilemma: I’ve got room for 7 new series this season. There are 7 shows that have so far aired that I want to blog. The problem is that Smile Precure and Black Rock Shooter haven’t aired yet. So if either of those turns out awesome, I may have to drop one of the other shos I’m blogging to make place for it. I doubt that it’ll be Mouretsu Pirates though, because it’s been quite a solid show so far.

I like that despite the silly looks, this show takes itself seriously. The characters here are well acted. They’re nothing amazing yet, but for a first episode they are solid and believable. From here on, the creators can start to play with them. This definitely is a series that keeps its trumps hidden for a while, because after two episodes the lead character hasn’t even decided yet whether or not she wants to be a pirate. This show has 26 episodes, so it can take its time for that.

This kind of pacing reminds me a lot of Tatsuo Sato, especially Stellvia of the Universe and Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars. In fact, this show feels like a bit of a combination between the two, as both placed a lot of emphasis on letting scenes play out between the different characters. I’m especially intrigued what will happen once the huge cast of this show turns up. Do I think that this show will become a classic, like what happened last season with Hourou Musuko, Madoka Magica and Levele E, though? That, however, I doubt.

This episode had some good stuff in it. While I’m not sure how a mere high school club got their holds on an actual space ship, the way it was operated had something whimsical to it compared to the usual older crews of these things, seeing as this is mostly done as a hobby. I also really like the relationship between the lead character and her mother, ad how the lead character is given ample time to make up her decision. The hacking… was done decently. At least they went further in detail than just “oh look! we’re being attacked! let’s try to type as fast as possible to make it go away somehow!”. The way that they explained how it exactly worked really helped here.

Right now I’m going to hijack this post a bit to compare my first impressions of the season to that of other Winter Seasons, because that’s the best way to show the strenghts and weaknesses of this season. I mean, last year, Winter was awesome in the way that it delivered three amazing series: the abovementioned Hourou Musuko, Madoka Magica and Level E. Winter 2010 had only one such series: Heartcatch Precure (let’s say now that for me to consider a series to be awesome, I’d rate it 85/100). Then look at 2009, which had a whopping seven of those series (Rideback, Erin, Birdy, Shikabane Hime, Genji Monogatari and Hajime no Ippo). 2008? Also seven (Gunslinger Girl, Hakaba Kitarou, Spice and Wolf, Porfy, Shigofumi, True Tears, Aria), 2007 had three again, but two of those were classics (Nodame Cantabile and Les Miserables), while 2006 had the awesome Ergo Proxy, Rescue Wings and Ayakashi.

Based on this, the minimum of awesome series for a winter season is around three series, ignoring 2010, which was by far the worst season I ever blogged. In fact, apart from that year every winter Season had me rank three series of 87,5/100 or above (which pretty much stands for exceptionally good to me). Do I believe that this season will do the same? Well, things can still grow of course, but at the moment I do not think that this season has the caliber for that. Only Natsume Yuujinchou seems to be heading into that direction, and that’s a sequel.

However, let’s then look at a tier below that. The kinds of series that may not be anything amazing, but still well executed, fun and interesting in their own ways. The tier that Mouretsu Pirates belongs to. Setting aside the best seasons for a minute (2008 and 2009, which really can’t be beaten), and look at 2011, 2007 and 2006: then they don’t really have much else to offer. 2011 had shows as Wolverine, Gosick and Yumekui Merry. Apart from that there was mostly bland stuff. 2007 had even less: apart from Msater of Epic, Nodame Cantabile and Les Miserables, ultimately only Rocket Girls and Deltora Quest were interesting, and even then only just. 2006? Um, Hantsuki and that animated musical Nerima Daikon Brothers.

That is the tier in which this season really delivers: we’ve got Rinne, Mouretsu Pirates, Aquarion, Milky Holmes, Another, Knight in the Area, Inu X Boku, Ano Natsu de Matteru, Dansei Nichijou and if you like Shaft there’s also Nisemonogatari. Not to mention the upcoming interesting arthouse project of Black Rock Shooter, which might very well also make this list. All of them are just a lot of fun to watch and interesting to keep up with, and that’s where the real strength of this season lies. And if I turn out to be wrong and one of those does end up awesome, then that only is a very pleasant surprise.

After all, if you look at the list of awesome shows I gave for each winter season: in more than 50% of the cases I did not realize that I would end up liking these series as much as I ended up doing. After only two episodes.

Rating: ** (Excellent)

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)