Is it me, or did Sasuke’s voice just change? It feels much deeper than before. It made this episode a bit weird: he’s still this smug anti-hero who will go through any lengths for the sake of great art, but it didn’t feel like we were listening to the same guy rambling.
Overall, this episode was the first one in a while that felt a bit lukewarm, mostly because it was again dedicated to building up. I was also a bit disappointed that after last episode, Sennou Soueki suddenly got hospitalized. At this point, this show still needs a few trumps to end with. Bee-Train usually knows how to do this, but then again they don’t often do straight manga adaptations, and when they do they pick manga that are impossible to end.
Perhaps the part that I liked the most was the focus on Edo. The modern images made no sense in Blade of the Immortal, but with everyone’s eyes raised at the possibilities of the future (heck, the founder of Japan is a major character in this series), they fitted perfectly, and it’s a nice touch to show the beginnings of Roppongi here.
Rating: * (Good)]]>
Mawaru Penguin Drum – 18
Yeah, this episode was another one of those “batman having tea with superman”-episodes. This episode was just amazing, as it combined the talents of two wildly different directors, Kunihiko Ikura and Shigeyasu Yamauchi, into one. The result was an episode with a ton of weird twists, strong character development and a ton of symbolism, combined with a style that is masterful at getting genuine emotions out of the characters and terrific at subtle pacing.
I can’t believe how well the two blended with each other. Tabuki really got a wonderful episode through this. Ikuhara even gave Shigeyasu Yamauchi the freedom of handling the background art much different from usual, and that too resulted in a ton of eye candy. Tabuki ended up as a great villain through this. On top of that Momoka also got a lot of depth, and the main cast also got much closer to each other. Especially the aftermath of this episode felt very intimate.
Also, the eye-catch. It just revealed another turning-point, as expected. Right now we’re in the background arc, in which all of the side-characters get the chance to show their stories and backgrounds. At the moment the only ones left are Tabuki and the parents who set everything in motion. I can only imagine what the creators have planned for after that. It’s that final arc where they really have to show that they know how to use their build-up.
Rating: *** (Awesome)]]>
Un-Go – 05
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Another excellent episode. Perhaps it wasn’t as good as the previous two episodes, but it still rocked, was well put together and very thoughtful. If only because of how it subverted a very common cliche: the big corporate bastard did it.
In this episode, even the main character got clouded by it, and the corporate bastard indeed wasn’t exactly Jesus in purgatory. He used the death of his subordinates for his personal gain and publicity and embezzled a ton of gold illegally. Normally in anime, this would be the bad guy. Instead though: he’s not a murderer. Finally we get a portrayal f these people that isn’t completely evil at its core.
Also, with the lack of time this show spends on characterization, I do have to say that it has found interesting yet subtle ways to still flesh out its main cast. This isn’t only done by making their beliefs and values a core part of each episode, but also with small things, like when Shinjuurou grabbed all the towels in the restroom. It perhaps doesn’t work as well as just showing these characters during moments when nothing plot-related is going on, but this works too.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Persona 4 The Animation – 06
You know, I’ve seen a lot of people badmouth the first Persona anime (Trinity Soul), but when comparing the first six episodes of both that show and this series, I really have to say that I prefer Trinity Soul over Persona 4. And considering how that series really took its time to get going, compared this show’s rush to skip those boring parts, that’s not a very good sign.
I mean, series like No.6 and C may have been rushed, but that’s nothing compared to the utter speed at which this show is rushing through its stories. This episode blasted through eighteen days at once. That’s more than half a month’s worth of content. My biggest gripe with it however was that it didn’t really make use of its time. This episode was supposed to be about this typical tough guy with a heart of gold, but by the end of the episode we hardly saw anything of him, and most of the airtime here was spent on random hijinks and characters goofing off. It’s a bad sign that the thing that caught my attention the most was a “s bad it’s good”-scene. The chase scene was funny, but part of it was because how badly it was animated and acted.
Also, did the creators just skip a scene in the TV-world completely, only to pull a Tsubasa Chronicle and talk about that moment in flashbacks? Someone, please tell me that I have not been paying attention in the first four episodes. Pulling such a twist makes this just a show to please the fans. As someone who is trying to get into the story without having played the games, I feel more and more left out.
I can only imagine the games, in which that fighting dude probably did not come off as just another carbon copy of the tough character who actually likes cute stuff. I can only imagine how fun the games can be, where you’re just running around town and try to meet all of the characters at your own freedom. This isn’t a compilation of a game though. This needs to be a standalone story. Compressing a large story into a much smaller anime format has of course been done many times before, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen such a jarring cut-and-paste job.
Rating: – (Disappointing)]]>
Princess Tutu Review – 87,5/100
Now that I’m getting so close to the end of my to-watch-list, and really to the series that I’ve been looking forward to the most, this really does give a different kind of expectation compared to usual. This goes in particular for Princess Tutu: aside from one particular series, it has been the series that you have recommended to me the most often (that other series is Monster, by the way). With such a critically acclaimed series, I went into this series with a completely different mindset than others and it generally leads you to expect things in a different way from usual.
What I mean by this is the following: after completely finishing this series, I’d have to say that Princess Tutu isn’t the best shoujo series I’ve seen. Normally for an average show, this really wouldn’t mean much, because you can say this for 99.9% of all of the series out there, but this statement does gain a different meaning for something with the caliber of Princess Tutu. That doesn’t however mean that this show isn’t awesome and if you even remotely like shoujo and haven’t seen this one yet, you’re doing yourself a great disservice.
First of all, Princess Tutu is about ballet. That alone gives this show an air of elegance unlike any other, and the creators make full use of this with some excellent choreography. This show doesn’t have fancy graphics, but it still looks gorgeous due to the time that went into portraying all of the different dances that are incredibly prevalent throughout the entire series. A good dancer is able to entice an audience, just by performing, and the creators of this series did just that.
What really caught my attention about this series however, was how well this show develops its characters. In particular the most important characters change tremendously throughout the storyline, and this change ends up being a very important theme throughout the entire series. These characters are round and dynamic, they change naturally, yet you can’t see them coming. Even the side-characters evolve subtly throughout the series. Everyone is well acted, and the cast is immensely fun to watch, both during the light hearted moments and the serious ones.
This series is also able to tell a great story, with a beginning and an actual ending, where it makes great use of its build-up. Where it left things to be desired for me was at some points while building up, where it tended to get a bit too formulaic. This series also depends a lot on brainwashing and using love as a plot device. It actually gets away with it quite decently, but there are times when in particular the side characters suffer losing their free will too much, so that they can’t really show what kind of character they actually are. Brainwashing in general is very tricky to do right and Princess Tutu remains one of the better examples to do it because it’s a major theme of the entire series, but it does lead to a lack of freedom that holds the show back at times.
Still, with the current state that shoujo anime is in today, it’s great to look back at how grand it was in the past. This show combines innocence with dark and deep characters really well and with the ballet, it turns turns into a wonderful emotional ride. Oh, and the soundtrack cannot go unmentioned here. The use of classical music in this show is just a perfect match.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 – Great use of build-up, original and clever plot twists, but a tad too formulaic at times, and makes a bit too often use of brainwashing and love as a plot device. |
| Characters: | 9/10 – Wonderful development, especially on the main cast. |
| Production-Values: | 9/10 – The animation may not be big, but the characters are wonderfully animated to life, and the soundtrack makes this show still a feast for the senses. |
| Setting: | 9/10 – Very creative premise with a deep setting and unique atmosphere. |
Chihayafuru – 06
The new side-character is really necessary for this series. Up till now, the Karuta in this series could just as well have been replaced with Rock Paper Scissors; we knew that it was a game that involved some cards, but that’s it. Instead, we got to see a lot of Chihaya’s and Arata’s passion about the game. This time, we get a character who can put meaning behind the game, the cards, and the traditions behind it. For such a seemingly simple game as Karuta, that really is a very welcome addition.
It’s indeed a bit of a strange start for this series: Arata was a professional. He was someone who was playing the game for the sake getting as good as possible at it, and that’s what drew Chihaya in. She never went into the basics and the meaning behind the cards and the game, and instead she immediately learned to not care about what the poems say, but what characters they consist of.
The thing is, that this new girl set a really high standard, and there are still two side characters left, according to the OP. I really wonder what the creators have in mind to show even more different sides of Karuta, because at this point it’s clear that this show is very well planned out. This episode once again pushes the storyline forward, and once again it’s completely different from the ones before. It will be awesome if this show can keep this up for its entire airtime, but I can hardly imagine how the hell it’ll be able to do that.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Tamayura ~ Hitotose – 06
Now this was just adorable.
Okay, it was an entire episode dedicated to the whistling, but it also showed a lot about who Maon was in the past, and how she got to know the rest of the main cast. At first I thought that we’d first get some more episodes dedicated to the rest of the characters, but things didn’t turn out to be that formulaic.
This really was a past episode: the present made no appearance in it whatsoever, contrary to episode 01. It first shows a moment in which all of the members of the cast just happened to bump into each other, and then jumps to the part when she makes friends with… Norie of all people. It’s a very good way to flesh out not just Maon, but the entire cast. And as annoying as the whistling may be at times: it’s no longer a random gimmick with this.
Now, there are seven DVDs scheduled for this series, which are pointing towards 13 episodes in the end. That means that next week will pass the halfway point of this series. I’ve been hammering on this, but right now this series is very charming. The second half needs to use this to grow even more. It’s the perfect set-up for this kind of series. I realize that I’m gambling here, but with the nature of this series it can in theory do great things.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Mirai Nikki – 05
It really feels like nearly every diary holder isn’t really interested in winning the game. I mean, so far most of them have been using their diaries to take care of personal grudges or helping in their personal lives or profession. This episode showed that both Twelfth and Fourth had no intentions to kill Ninth… even though she’s a fellow diary holder and helping a professional terrorist bomber escape in a game of life and death is rather… naive…
But yeah, this show is really about the suspense and paranoia. This episode helped to establish that you can’t trust anyone in this show. This is probably going to be very important for the future episodes, when we’re going to delve into more developed characters.
I also wonder what “good end” means in this series. I mean, a bad end in this series is very finite and clear: death. A good end however has a very vague definition, and it’s definitely not the end. For example, the way in which Yukiteru saw the corpses in Yuno’s room had nothing to do with Ninth getting captured. In fact, it seems that every diary seems to have something that it wants to accomplish, and when it does, it leads to the good end, even though you’d think that the only good ending in this show would have been to win the game. It’s heavily implied that for Yuno, a good end means to have sex with Yukiteru, but what about the others? And is there some reward involved? (To people who read the manga: these are rhetorical questions; please don’t answer them with spoilers of future chapters…).
Also, here is something I don’t get: this series’ time is valuable. From what I’ve heard, it only has barely enough time to stuff everything in just 26 episodes. So what is this show doing, wasting two minutes of each episode on these silly pointless skits? Over the course of 12 episodes, that amounts to a full episode’s worth of content there. I mean, for god’s sake use your time better. Take a look at Ben-To for example: there the next episode previews are short and concise, while still actually funny, rather than those obnoxious skits that put some of the cast way out of character.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Phi Brain – 06
The reason I’m a big fan of Sato Junichi is not because of his slice of life. Aria and Tamayura are very good, but he isn’t the best slice of life director out there (that honour goes to Tomomi Mochizuki). Instead, this guy’s ability to portray emotions is what really won me over. My favorite show of his, Strange Dawn, doesn’t rock because of how much sense its plot makes, but instead it became among my favorite series because of how it nailed the emotional states its characters were in.
Now, Phi Brain is obviously nowhere as good as those series, and it’s definitely the weirdest show he’s ever worked on, but his influence is still noticeable. This was a very emotional episode, and even though it was about solving puzzles, it actually worked because of the chemistry between the three lead characters.
There also was a strange team of animators behind this episode. One that didn’t worry about keeping with the character models, and the consistency was all over the place. But ah well: the animation of this show is very limited, so it’s at least nice to see that they’re trying out different things. Heck, in the case of the big bad they actually improved his looks, and with such a small animation budget, a bit of inconsistency is actually quite nice to get some more expressiveness out of the characters.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Ben-To – 05
Okay, this was just hilarious. This was meant to be the episode to set up the main conflict of this series: a huge battle between the people from the east and west side of town, but in the meantime the creators inserted a ton of comedy around Sato cross-dressing. The creators still manage to create fresh ways to do it. The best part is how they used the serious Kaneshiro in order to make him even more embarrassed. This really shows that with good direction, even overused jokes can be get new life.
The best part about this series for me is how it balances its serious and silly side, and how it does both parts well. Because of that it’s ridiculously fun to watch, while at the same time it has a story and characters that can be taken seriously. The main storyline is quite silly when you think about it, but because everyone takes it serious without being parody-like, it somehow ends up working.
My only gripe is the new girl: she feels out of place, because she is exactly the kind of one-sided character and moe stereotype that this show has averted so well. Thankfully she played a small role here and there was plenty of fun stuff about this episode as well. But at the very least, I can appreciate her place in the story as a random friend that Shaga hangs out at school with.
It’s something subtle, but again: this show really hints that the characters have lives and do stuff whenever they’re not on the screen. Or at least the good guys. I still can’t imagine the main villain that was introduced in this episode doing something other than looking scary, sitting in his chair and starve himself….
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>