Nurarihyon no Mago – Sennen Makyou – 24

by psgels, posted in Nurarihyon no Mago

So, this seems to be heading into an anime original ending? Let me say the following: as someone who didn’t read the manga, I didn’t notice this. In a way, I do agree with the decision to end at this point: this show should not be allowed to drag on any longer. I’ve heard that the next arc will be even longer than this one. There’s no way that I’m going to watch that. This will be good closure, if it indeed is handled well.

My only complaint about this episode was that Abe no Seimei is a very stereotypical villain with one-sided motives. Still, it’s not a case where all hope is lost. This episode was very solid in how it delivered the background of the girl who would once become Hagoromo Gitsune. That was actually a great closure for her story.

The pacing here was fine as well (and hey: people actually bother to distract the main enemy while giving others the chance to talk). A lot of stuff happened in this episode, which is a really major difference to how this show once was with its endless stream of build-up.

Now, for the anime original ending, this series needs to remember the largest flaw of these kinds of endings: the fact that they nearly always tend to play it too safe. That’s the big issue with nearly every single one of them, in one way or the other. I’ll hold my breath for this one, but at the same time: I can actually see an ending being possible here. Much more than usual.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ben-To – 10

by psgels, posted in Ben-To

After two weeks of no food battles, getting to see another one does make it extra sweet. Especially when the creators still haven’t lost it at all, and the battle in this episode was excellent as usual with very creative fights that had some really terrific direction, including a camera that just wouldn’t sit still and a good use of the supermarket as a setting.

I think I get what the creators were trying to build up on here: the two twins are supposed to be the main villains of this series, and instead of immediately showing their strength they just built up their characters through different ways, before heading to this episode. The big problem with this is that they were really annoying characters before the fight happened. The good thing is that this fight indeed served its purpose, and I like them a lot more now.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hunter X Hunter – 11

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

I’m afraid to say it, but this episode was won by the first Hunter X Hunter series. It’s here where the difference in direction and acting unfortunately worked against this series’ favour. The difference is very much in the details, but there are a lot of details here that when stacked up, unfortunately weigh this episode down quite a bit.

First of all there’s that character design of the female prisoner. That was just… way too much. The whole mind game between her and Leorio had much less impact due to Leorio’s overacting. Then there are these details like when Leorio had to grope the girl to confirm whether she told the truth: there they came up with a creative way to censor it. Here, it’s just the same. Or take the part where the ninja manages to finish the trial: the joke the first series had there, with Hisoka and that other guy, worked much better.

Killua’s match was the real downer, though. This is supposed to be one of the worst mass murderers out there. Why then did they play this cheesy rock tune when they explained who he was? The gore was toned down, showing that while this show is willing to get quite gory, it won’t cross the usual borders. There, that scene really made impact, but here it just lacked something.

The strange thing about the music of this series: it’s composed by Hirano Yoshihisa. This guy is usually awesome. He composed the soundtracks for Himitsu, Real Drive, Death Note and the Book of Bantorra. It would have been great to hear his epic and experimental style here, but it really doesn’t sound like he’s trying for this series. What gives?
Rating: * (Good)

Some Quick OVA Impressions: Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, Appleseed XIII, Kung Fu Cooking Girls, The Epic of Zektbach and Koi Sento

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions

This is me, clearing a bit of backlog in terms of OVAs. I’m not going to make a single post for all of them, but I do want to say a few things about them. Hence, a compilation post.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn – 04

This episode illustrates the worries that I had when I started watching this OVA perfectly. Talk about a solid direction! Talk about great action. Some of the characters were really good here, like that female lead, the various captains. This really was epic…. if only it wasn’t for the excessive whining from the male lead. Dear god, I thought he’d never shut up. This episode just kept showing him angst over and over. He ignores orders just like every other bloody Gundam lead, and in the middle of a war he gets too scared and keeps whining towards everyone to stop fighting. Good lord, this really feels like watching Zeta Gundam all over again.
OVA Episode Rating: 7,75/10

Appleseed XIII

Okay, with this Appleseed XIII is much more character-centric than the movies have ever been. this was a bit of a weird episode where the tensions in the relationship between Deunan and Briarios stood central. And seriously Deunan, get some controls on your hormones! Nevertheless, the subject matter of this episode was very inspired. I especially liked the role of Deunan’s father in this episode, and how she both considers his upbringing of her a blessing and annoyance. It’s probably because of this that she’s also trying to get away from Briarios. They are really turning into interesting characters, although the facial animation still needs some MAJOR work here…
OVA Episode Rating: 8/10

Kung Fu Cooking Girls

I jus realized that I forgot a bunch of OVAs throughout the year. This one is a Chinese production, but it’s a really good example of interesting animation. It’s only eight minutes long, the animation is a bit messy, but very detailed and especially the fight choreography is really well done. Apart from the animation though, there’s not much more that makes it worth watching. There is in particular this very annoying guy who keeps looking for food who distracts the flow a little too much and the pointless fanservice is also pretty pointless here.
OVA Episode Rating: 7,5/10

The Epic of Zektbach

This is an attempt to tell an epic ancient warfare story… in just under 30 minutes. Okay, I give the creators credit for actually trying this, but the results are just completely bizarre. In the first ten minutes a massive war that is spread across the entire country is being one… by just one woman who happens to have a really powerful sword. This could have been something if 1) it had more time (seriously, the things it tries to cram in here lack serious development) and 2) better actors. Aside from the main character, none of the characters stand out and are just complete archetypes, and even the main character is forgettable. I appreciate the experiment though: now we know that you can’t tuff an epic storyline in half an hour.
OVA Episode Rating: 6/10

Koi Sento

This is a romantic adventure of about 20 minutes long, fully animated in Cell Shaded CG. Its content is really romantic fluff, but the execution is really fun and enjoyable. It’s got good acting and characterization and the characters are all pretty colourful and enjoyable to watch, and it’s got some great ideas to fill its airtime with. In particular the deer was hysterical. I love that animal. I believe that this aired right next to Norageki, which is pretty similar in terms of production (although completely different in terms of story content). Norageki is much better in the end, but as a way to randomly burn 20 minutes, this is quite an enjoyable way.
OVA Episode Rating: 8/10

Tekken – Blood Vengeance Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

For those of you who don’t know, Dai Sato was the one who, a while back, unleashed a rant about the current state of anime, claiming that it’s dying and that fans lack respect for good stories. Seeing as this comes from one of the best writers in the business (we’re talking about the guy who wrote Ergo Proxy, Eureka 7 and episodes of Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell and Toward the Terra, this made some impact.

His next movie is Tekken – Blood Vengeance, and with this I seriously wonder what happened to that statement, and in particular the line “Sato vowed that he would still continue to work on it in attempts to avert that bleak fate.”. My biggest guess right now is executive meddling.

Tekken – Blood Vengeance certainly isn’t a bad movie. However, I went into this movie expecting a lot of over the top martial arts fights and an over the to action-heavy plot. What I did not expect is that this movie got stuck inside a high school for about half of its time. I’m not kidding here: the main character is this high school girl and for most of the movie she’s sent to infiltrate some random high school in order to find someone with special powers. The lengths that these creators will go through to force a school setting in is unbelievable sometimes.

This movie is actually quite funny, albeit unintentional. I wouldn’t say it’s so bad it’s good: the direction is solid, the pacing is nice, and when the action does arrive it gets quite enjoyable. But the plot is just completely silly and over the top, while the characters all take it seriously. This campiness in which the characters just assume that riding a panda or a very ditzy and pushy android are part of everyday life are hilarious. The only really bad part about this movie is the romance, which comes out of bloody nowhere, which makes it even more hilarious.

It also should be noted that this movie assumes that you’re familiar with the rest of the Tekken universe. And don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that it’s full of techno-babble that you can only understand by having played the games. No, this movie just refuses to devote time to flesh out about half of its cast, because apparently, this has already been done in previous installments. Because of this there are points where random characters completely take over the show, especially near the climax. Although the ending was wonderfully cheesy again.

And really, the direction is competent here: 3D animation is still continuing to evolve, and the character models get more expressive every year. The movements still are clunky, but when you compare it with 3D movies of a few years back there is some definite improvement, which much less of the botox-faces syndrome apparent.

Tekken Blood-Vengance is by no means a good movie though, due to all the cheese and undeveloped characters. If you want cheese though, then this is a good choice: this movie knows that it’s cheese, but it tries to deliver itself anyway. It’s enjoyable, though not much more. Dai Sato: get back to write stuff like Ergo Proxy again.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Very camp, but well enough paced and executed.
Characters: 7/10 – Some of these characters are really out of place, and others just assume you’re familiar with the Tekken Franchise.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Solid 3D character animation.
Setting: 7/10 – A high school in an over the top martial arts movie. Why?

Suggestions:

Fate/Zero – 11

by psgels, posted in Fate/Zero

Now I understand why the first episode felt so underwhelming to me: I just didn’t care about any of the characters. Normally I really like the “lots of talking”-series, but something didn’t quite work with me. Now, I realize that those first episodes were like some random stranger coming up and starting to quote Shakespeare for more than an hour: why should we care? I mean, even Mouryou no Hako didn’t immediately start with its incredibly long dialogues, but first created a hook with that fantastic first episode of its. So yeah, now I understand. This was by far the best episode of Fate/Zero so far and significantly increased my opinion of it.

Nearly the entire episode was just one big monologue of Rider. And it was glorious. I mean, the best character of the series just got even better when he explained exactly why he’s in the tournament, and what he thinks a king should be. It clashed wonderfully with Saber, and interestingly used the way in which Saber has been so timid for a king in a way that I really did not expect. The decision to include Archer made things even better, because now we have this drinking talk between three people who couldn’t be any more different from each other. I also love how everyone’s master just stood around, not knowing what to do in this situation.

But oh my god, it’s been a while since we had an episode that put so much emphasis on well written dialogue that worked so well outside of Hyouge Mono. I really began to fear that my tastes changed a bit after such an absence of series that would dare it. Especially after how Shaft hi-jacked this genre with shows as Denpa-Onna and moved it from well written dialogue to just random blabber that doesn’t go anywhere. With this episode, it’s great to see that the “lots of talking”-genre still is alive.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

Makoto Shinkai got famous for his movies and short films that were just completely unique and unlike anything else in anime. I always found it really hard to judge these movies, but there is one thing that I want to praise all of them for: their sense of distance.Even after watching so many anime, I never encountered any other anime that portrayed that so well and indescribably.

Now even though I’m saying this: Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo is completely different from his previous work. Apart from She and Her Cat they were all simple romances. This is an adventure movie. In fact, Makoto Shinkai watched a lot of Ghibli movies inbetween directing this one and 5cm/Second, and this really can be viewed as his portrayal of a ghibli movie. With that, I’m not saying that it’s a Ghibli-rip off, by the way. This movie definitely takes the

classic Ghibli style into a different direction compared to Miyazaki’s change over the past 10 years. Clocking in at two hours, this is a slow-paced adventure movie about a random schoolgirl and teacher of her. It makes use of its slow pacing by animating the two characters very life-like. The acting is very realistic without any weaknesses or bad lines. The world it takes place in is very creative and full of ideas, and feels very believable for a fantasy world. A lot of work went into making the characters easy to relate to here, and Makoto Shinkai really succeeded in this.

This movie definitely is more accessible than Makoto Shinkai’s previous movies. That does have its downsides, though. The sense of distance that I mentioned above: this movie has it too, but while the previous movies gave unique interpretations to this theme, in this movie it simply turns into “death”, which has a bit less substance and has been done before many times. And unfortunately, better. Overall the biggest flaw of this movie that it seems to lack a bit of substance here and there. Its messages are simple, the characters are simple, and the setting, instead of going in-depth on one of its ideas instead remains on the surface with a bunch of ideas inspired by random ancient cultures, ranging from Middle America to ancient south-west Asia. It’s pretty much a family movie… for a bit of an older audience than usual, perhaps. This does have gore, so if your son or daughter can’t stand blood then you might want to give this movie a pass.

What stands out the most here are the visuals. Oh my god, these are gorgeous. This movie is two hours long and absolutely chock full of all sorts of visual ideas. I mean, like I said: Makoto Shinkai is inspired by Ghibli this time, but it still is undoubtedly a Makoto Shinkai movie. The artistic direction is a brilliant blend of the two styles and while the budget of this movie may not be as big as your average Ghibli movie, the animation is still very life-like, some frames are incredibly fluid, and the background art is just absolutely fantastic. Here, he actually surpassed Ghibli with its sheer versatility.

And really, this isn’t one of those movies that are all style and no substance. It still stands out as a very solid and enjoyable movie, but I do feel that Makoto Shinkai could have gone more in depth to his material.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Believable storytelling, slow but very good pacing and kept my attention through the whole movie.
Characters: 8/10 – Realistic characters, albeit a bit one-sided.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Amazing background art.
Setting: 8/10 – Imaginative, though not very deep.

Suggestions:
– Yona Yona Penguin
– Gedo Senki
– Princess Mononoke

Last Exile – Ginyoku no Fam – 09

by psgels, posted in Last Exile - Ginyoku no Fam

Now this is a quiet episode that I can get behind. It had some flaws, but overall it was very heart-warming. Also, another old face appears!

The characters in this series may not be as well portrayed as with the first season of Last Exile, but this episode showed that they’re still really good when it comes to the light-hearted scenes as well. Giselda’s arc of the past number of episodes concludes here, with some very neat shots about how the two of them grew up. It worked. The team building hockey match? It worked. The birthday subplot? It worked.

Now though, this still is Gonzo. And this episode unfortunately got the short stick of the animation budget. The backgrounds still looked fantastic (Seriously, nine episodes and these still are consistently gorgeous), but there were more still frames in this episode than you can shake a stick at. The hockey match was a bit over the top, but that was to be expected, though I feel that this especially does disservice to the crew members of the Silbius: these guys both do not have good animators behind them, and their voice actors are also pretty bad. Only the superiors do not suffer from this and they indeed were great (I loved the head mechanic as he wondered where everyone went). This was actually something that the first Last Exile was very good at: even the random soldiers were very well acted.

Also, regarding the plot, I still don’t really get it: last episode, the enemy massively abandoned a sinking ship. They withdrew everyone from it… and just left it there without actually blowing it up, or making sure that it didn’t fall into the hands of the enemies. Why? I get that they can’t salvage the remains due to the proximity to the border of Gracies, but they pretty much handed the enemy a really good warship there.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Towa no Quon – 04 Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

For the first two Towa no Quon movies, I began to fear that it would be like the Break Blade Movies, and just be too dull to really work as a movie series. Movies 3 and 4 managed to prove me wrong with a significant improvement in both its content and characters. Having said that though: movie 4 is not as good as movie 3.

Movie 3 had a very good concept behind it. Movie 4 meanwhile is more straightforward, and is totally devoted to the thing that the previous episodes have been hinting at constantly. The content of this movie isn’t as interesting as last time, which really had me on the edge of my seat. The predictability of this installment worked a bit against it.

Nevertheless though: this movie had some good character development in it. The characters are far from the shells that they used to be in the first movie. There is one particular character who changed significantly in terms of character. The rest of the main cast didn’t so much change, as we got to see much more of why they’re doing what they’re doing, and interestingly enough it’s the side-cast of characters that’s also developing really well. This combination really works, and serves as the backbone of this movie.

Towa no Quon is a series of movies with a really heavy emphasis on ethics and morals. With that I don’t mean that it includes really difficult moral dilemmas; we’re all pretty much supposed to root for the main character. Instead though, this movie, through its main character Quon, devotes a lot of time and effort to show its vision of what’s right. Quon’s present version is the epitome of righteousness, even though some of his actions aren’t the most logical ones. The actin of this series unfortunately isn’t perfect, so this does sometimes lead to cheese. Still, beyond the cheese there also is enough genuinely good drama in this movie to keep you interested.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Straightforward, but well built up.
Characters: 8/10 – The character development is the highlight of his movie, though the characters do get a bit cheesy at times.
Production-Values: 8/10 – This show just doesn’t have your average movie budget, but the soundtrack makes up for it.
Setting: 8/10 – Huge focus on morals as always.

Mawaru Penguin Drum – 22

by psgels, posted in Mawaru Penguin Drum

Well, so I kept hoping for these final episodes to bring everything together. And with this episode, they did. The developments in this episode took this show to a new level. With things finally concluding, the twists i this episode brought in the best out of the characters. The twists in this episode made terrific use of the build-up.

The great development here was the family breaking up. For so many episodes it seemed just natural for the three siblings to stay together no matter what. And yet in this episode things really go horribly wrong. Himari had died before in this series, but this time, it actually seems that this is for real (although I wouldn’t be surprised if she still had some part to play). She finally stepped up and realized what she caused Kanba to do.

What’s also surprising here is how powerless Shouma was: for a long while it seemed like he was going to be the main character of this series, and yet he hardly had any role, aside from the moment we’ve been waiting for: Double-H to make an appearance, only to disappear again. Overall, this is something that I really have to give to Utena: the shadow play girls in the end turned out to be much more awesome, even though you can see here how the creators tried to give them a very important role in the story.

Apart from that, I’m not going to compare the two shows just yet, due to how important the ending was for both of them. There are some very obvious differences, and the next two weeks it will be up to this series to show how well its ideas worked. This episode really was in the right direction, but was it right enough?

What also made this episode awesome was Natsume. Again her role changed completely last week. In this week, we get to see the results of this change, and how her attempts to get her brother back failed. It’s in a completely different mood from her earlier attempts when she tried to get him back with that sweater she knitted. That sweater by the way was a very sneaky hint to the two of them being siblings, when you compare them to Himari’s knitted clothes for her “brothers”.

And on a side-note: what was Shouma doing in that box?
Rating: *** (Awesome)