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)

Hyouge Mono – 36

by psgels, posted in Hyouge Mono

It really is a shame that the only way to view this show right now is through a very crappy online stream. At the very least this needs to be watched in HD-quality, and unfortunately the probability for this show to get licensed is also really close to zero. Nevertheless, we really need more shows like this. The “screw conventions”-attitude has been getting rarer and rarer these days, and it’s great that shows like these still remind us that it’s possible.

Anyway, about this episode: Rikyuu is getting more and more menacing here. He had this wonderful presence around him in this episode, not to mention him trying to burn his own hand. It may sound strange, but I can’t wait for the finale, because it’s clear at this point that the creators are planning something awesome for him. I’ve been waiting for that moment for months now.

Speaking of the next episodes: this episode hinted that Sasuke and Date Masamune will be spending them together. Gathering the two biggest eccentrics of the show together for the finale. That just has to be awesome.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Some Quick First Impressions: Brave10, Nisemonogatari and Mouretsu Pirates

by psgels, posted in Mouretsu Pirates, Some Quick First Impressions

Brave10

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a bunch of famous figures from the Sengoku Era.
Well, the good news: the lead female is better than her counterparts from Sengoku Otome and Hakuouki because she actually tries to act. The bad news is that she is far from out of the danger zone because she still remains a female who gets thrust in the midst of these famous Sengoku Era figures through really shallow reasons (this time it’s because she possesses some sort of really powerful thingy of doom). The good news about the males is that they are better than the other bishie show this season (Prince of Tennis), because they too actually remember to act. Again though they’re still pretty one-sided. This is really one of those shows that needs time to show whether it’s really going to be worth it. It’s got potential to grow and the characters were at least fun to watch, but this show will have to put a lot of time developing these characters, and not just rely on their famous names. Also, the lead female. She kept hopping back and forth from interesting to Mary Sue to trying to use her female charms a bit too forcedly.
OP: A bit of a bland j-rock tune.
ED: Was it really necessary to put auto tune on these vocalists?
Potential: 65%

Nisemonogatari

Short Synopsis: Our lead character talks a lot.
I want to like Shaft. I really want to like the way they use their storyboards, the way in which they try to show a lot with limited efforts. I really want to like how they use their creativity. But dammit they make it so hard! Nisemonogatari is exactly like Bakemonogatari; most of the things I disliked about it are still there! Or at least the flaws that can be apparent after only 1 episode: this episode did not have any budget issues yet, so thankfully I didn’t have to watch an incomplete episode. Still, my other issues with Bakemonogatari still stand. First of all, watching this episode didn’t feel like watching characters, but it felt like watching a slide-show over which a bunch of voice actors read a script. The first half didn’t have this problem, but unfortunately it returned in all its glory in the second half. The camera panned way too often to random scenery, random images, or the characters making weird poses that had no relation to what they were saying or doing. Second of all: what really happened in this episode? I mean, all it consisted of was Araragi talking to various members of his harem, and his sister. One of the other sisters, who this show apparently is supposed to be about, didn’t even make an appearance. Heck, this arc is supposed to be about this girl named “Karen”, but even she was completely absent here. All this episode did was restore the status quo and reiterate that Araragi is some weird pedophile (seriously, what the hell did he do to Hachikuji?). As for the dialogue: yeah, it had its witty moments and there was some nice wordplay, but it also had its moments where it just blatantly wasted time for the sake of wasting time or deliver bad 4th wall jokes. Now, Shaft does have this habit of airing troll first episodes, so at this point I can only hope that I’ve been reverse trolled and that the next episodes will have something genuinely interesting and new to offer.
OP: More staples. How are these still relevant?
Potential: 50%

Mouretsu Pirates

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a space pirate.
Haha, it’s just as I hoped. This series may look silly, but the acting is very good here: it actually treats its characters like actual characters. The result is a mostly mellow episode that’s full of subtle quips that the characters make towards each other, followed by a random action scene. This is what I’ve been looking for: a show that gets the balance of both silliness and subtlety. That made this a fun episode, even though it was just an introduction episode in which the characters haven’t even entered space yet. There are a lot of parallels with Rinne no Lagrange: they have the same length, same director, they both air outside of the season you’d expect them to air in, and they both advertise themselves as fun teenaged mecha series with a serious undertone. The big difference is that Rinne no Lagrange’s direction is better, while Mouretsu Pirates has better characters. They both can become quite fun, though.
OP: “Hey, let’s try to stuff as much audio ideas into just one song and see how it works!”
ED: Very uninspired visuals and all, but the song could be worse.
Potential: 80%

Last Exile – Ginyoku no Fam – 12

by psgels, posted in Last Exile - Ginyoku no Fam

Now here is a surprise: Last Exile returns with a flashback episode. This episode is actually entirely dedicated to showing one moment in the past of the main cast: the point the fathers of Fam and Giselda participated in a vanship race, which seemed to be a national holiday, and the point at which they died. I did not expect that, but it definitely was a welcome addition.

What I especially liked was how the creators found a way to show everyone’s past at the same time. By making this a national event they tied a lot of those backstories together, because everyone had his or her own reason to be there, plus it would also make sense for, if you’re planning to assassinate a queen, the best point is where she’s out in the open (this actually also happened once in the Netherlands, although the attempt failed there).

It’s a shame that the animators were clearly forced to rush though this episode, because there was a lot of heart put into it. And heck, we already had seen Fam’s younger versions, but there were so many characters here who also showed off who they were when they were younger, ranging from Milia, to all of the villains, to even the Gracies girls. It’s a huge amount of character development here, and even though it’s a bit dramatic, it did give quite a few hints to how they would grow up, and why they made the decisions they made. Plus, the small Fam, Milia and Giselda were really adorable together.

And yeah, the animation. What’s interesting though, is the way in which Gonzo decided to compromise. This episode forcefully borrowed some animation from the OP directly, even though it didn’t fit at all, there were a ton of distorted faces. There also wasn’t much fluidity in the animation. And yet the one thing that wasn’t compromsied on is the attention to detail. There still were a ton of character designs in all sorts of different shapes, colours and styles. There still were a ton of screens with a ton of different people on it at the same time. The backgrounds still are gorgeous. And yeah, that’s gorgeous: they’re really bad at one thing, and yet really good at the other.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Master Keaton OVA Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

The OVA of Master Keaton is pretty much what you’d expect of it: more Mater Keaton episodes that keep the standards of storytelling quite high with well researched settings and characters. What makes this particularly interesting is that it was written not so long after the Berlin Wall collapsed, and therefore it offers quite an interesting look at Germany compared to the one we have now.

Also, it’s too easy to label the new episodes as more random episodes of Master Keaton, because what the OVA also does is fill in a bit of the gaps here and there. There is an episode that goes for a really intense survival story, every main member of the cast gets his or her own episode, Keaton’s past also gets explored a bit, The cast definitely got better after the OVAs.

And at the same tme I do have to say that the episodes of Master Keaton that made the most impact were in the television series, so it is a bit of a tradeoff. Not to say that the episodes of the OVA aren’t great, of course, although there are a few weak points here and there. It stands out when in a series that prides itself with using really well researched stories, one of the episodes takes out members of the maffia in a way that is surprisingly similar to the way in which most kids movies take care of mafia members…

Those are just small incidents, though, but with a show as well written as Master Keaton, they do stand out. In any case the Television did have surprisingly little character deevelopment, and that’s exactly what this OVA gave us, so I’m happy.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Still well told, still well built up, the fights and heartwarming moments are still very neatly written, with a few exceptions this time, though.
Characters: 9/10 – Some nice extra character development for the main cast really helps.
Production-Values: 8/10 – This was pretty much produced in the same way as the TV-series.
Setting: 9/10 – Still well researched, and it still adds to the universe where this series takes place.

Suggestions:
– Mushishi
– Yugo the Negotiator
– Darker than Black

Some Quick First Impressions: The Knight in the Area, Zero no Tsukaima Final and Sesshou Zenki Symphogear

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

The Knight in the Area

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to play soccer.
This is a strange season. It’s not the best out there, and yet my standards of it are really high due to the best stuff airing right at the start (and don’t get me wrong: I’d love this statement to be wrong). The Knight in the Area finally came with a show that impressed me again, although it definitely isn’t perfect. Sports series are known for being really well executed, but this show doesn’t have that. What it especially lacks is subtlety: the foreshadowing is obvious as heck, it had some really overdone and annoying cliches like the hot transfer student childhood friend classroom introduction, and the acting overall lacks the refinement that you usually see in sports series. Nevertheless, this was an interesting episode that did a great job of fleshing out its lead character. We’re not looking at someone who wants to be the best, but just a guy who is passionate about the game, and this episode already looked at who he is, what drives him, what’s in his past. We really got to know him already, and that’s definitely a plus this early in the series. The soundtrack also is pretty well done, and the drama also works.
OP: Generic sports tune.
Potential: 75%

Zero no Tsukaima Final

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has ended up in a fantasy world.
With these first impressions, I also like to include episodes of series whose prequels I didn’t finish, for the small chance that I did miss something interesting. However, with this season’s trend to concentrate all of the bad shows together, I was really prepared to rant at how bad this franchise had turned out… but yet this episode was better than I imagined. Oh, it still has plenty of bad parts, like I have no idea how Saitou managed to make four girls fall in love with him, or how this episode immediately started with all kinds of boob jokes, but afterwards this series showed that it can actually… tell a story. I have to say, this episode did have some solid build-up and nicely balanced exposition with things that actually happened. What surprised me the most though, was that Saitou and Louise actually talked to each other to sort out their differences, rather just not saying anything to each other for the sake of drama. I like that. Whether I’m going to keep watching this time though… the harem elements really have to improve for that, because it’s still really annoying and I still fail to see the point in Saitou dating anyone but Louise. Also, THAT VOICE! MAKE IT STOP!
OP: Cheese.
Potential: 35%

Senki Zesshou Symphogear

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to be an idol who fights crime.
Good lord. Were they actually serious about airing this thing? You know, I criticized a lot of series this season for being too bland. The problems with this series are completely different, but it still has the worst and most uselessly pretentious plot of the entire season so far. To explain exactly how wrong this show is means to delve into spoilers, but here it is: finally we’ve got another animated musical. It’s about a bunch of idols who battle incredibly deadly alien monsters who only they can beat, apparently. So here is what they do at the beginning of this episode: they h old a concert, gathering ten thousands of people in one spot with really bad escape routes and no security whatsoever. And after that they get all surprised when the aliens indeed do attack and kill thousands of their fans. What the hell, people? Did nobody read the script and consider what an incredibly shameless premise this is? And the worst thing is, that that was just one of the plotholes and issues the plot has. Another plothole magnet in this episode was the female lead, a random girl. The main idols of this series watch thousands of people get slaughtered, but they don’t get sad at all. But when the main character gets shot in the chest, they suddenly break down in a huge slur of melodrama. Later when the main character is revived (yes), the same alien monsters who before slaughtered a ton of people… just stand a bit around her to give her the time of escape. I mean hell, I thought that High School DxD was the most shameless of the season here, but this just takes the entire cake. This is the problem with shows that are entirely meant to promote a bunch of idols; they do nothing but glorify them. Seriously, this is a really strong contender for worst first episode of 2012, because it’s been a long time since I watched a plot that was so offensively bad. And it’s a pity, becaus eyou can really see Satelight’s influences in the battle scenes: everything is grand, the transformation sequences are intense and imaginative. But when the script feels written in five minutes by a guy whose mind was on something completely different, it’s just completely wasted.
OP: Random J-Pop
ED: Random J-Pop
Potential: 0%

Some Quick First Impressions: High School DxD, Amagami SS+ and Recorder to Randoseru

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

High School DxD

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a really horny teenager.
Aaand we’ve got another bandwagon. Really, only in Japan it’s possible for a guy to be murdered in a gruesome way, only to be revived by a cute girl able to become an overused cliche. In any case, High School DxD pretty much has the least pretense of any other show this season. What this show is about is incredibly simple: boobs boobs boobs boobs action boobs boobs action gore. So yeah, if you’re looking for porn: go ahead. If not, then it’s not worth it. It’s well made and certainly doesn’t have the worst direction or anything, but when it’s already so honest about what it’s going to be about there is little to make it worth watching aside from that.
ED: Fanservice
Potential: 0%

Amagami SS+

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to date a cute girl.
Thursday used to be a day where many groundbreaking and interesting series aired all at once. This season, only Hyouge Mono is left of those, and that will too be ending soon too. Instead, we get many dull and lifeless teenaged comedies. And here AIC comes and adds even more insult to the injury. They are by far the worst of the big animation companies out there. Amagami SS’s sequel stood for the task of how to continue with this sequel. After all, the lead character had already scored six girls in the first season, and apparently the concept of being in a healthy relationship is completely unknown to the moe show. So what premise do they come up with? A love triangle! Sure, the third girl isn’t really in love with the male lead (who by the way still is incredibly dull and terrible to watch, especially when horny), but the end result is just the same: a ton of drama is created when she suddenly kisses the male lead, jealousy, yadda yadda yadda. Moving on…
OP: Decent vocalist, wasted on this bland song.
ED: Dull ballad
Potential: 0%

Recorder to Randoseru

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is really tall.
Ugh, I really hoped that the creators would get something nice out of this premise, but alas. From the makers of Morita-San wa Mukuchi comes an even worse series. In fact, this pretty much was the worst episode of the new season and I’m getting really tired of seeing all these lifeless productions here. The thing with Kill Me Baby was that at least it had some good jokes beneath its blandness. Recorder to Randoseru then comes with a bunch of really bad innuendo jokes that everyone has already seen before. A show about a kid stuck in a grown up body has been done before with Yoiko, but even though that was a fanservice fest, it actually did treat its characters like actual characters, rather than some random cardboard box to tell bad jokes.
ED: As dull and uninspired as the rest of the show.
Potential: 0%