Is Sasuke seriously walking around the battlefield with a bunch of wooden bars tied behind his back, out of fear of being shot in the back? Seriously, I know that Warfare isn’t the main focus in this series, but the tactical ideas that spring forth from the minds of these characters are just brilliant. It’s been a while since dropping giant logs on your enemies was such an effective weapon. The best one though still stems from a number of episodes ago, with Hideyoshi’s brilliant plan to build the front of a house on top of a hill to scare away his enemies.
Also, there are a lot of things that this show does really well. The one that really stood out though, was the way it handles its death scenes. They’re all incredibly well acted and delivered, although we hadn’t seen one recently. This episode however… holy crap, they did it again. First of all at this point I did not expect the person in question to die, but also the way in which Bee-Train delivered it was incredibly well done.
It is unfortunately getting clear that the budget is running out. Or at least, this episode had quite a few rushed shots. I guess that it’s inevitable due to this series’ length and the way that this is a series that under any other producer never would have been green-lighted, but I do hope that the creators can keep at least their standards going. At the very least there are some really talented artists working on this show that can really draw its character models with a ton of details and shadows.
Rating: *** (Awesome)]]>
Persona 4 The Animation – 05
This episode was… annoying. In fact, I didn’t enjoy it at all, and I can only hope that the next people that the male lead runs into will be better.
I have no idea why this show suddenly decided that it wanted to be a high school romance for one episode. I mean, that is a really tricky genre to get right: it’s overcrowded and the competition there is huge, and this wasn’t really the best type of execution. I can see how the story of this episode would have worked on paper. Heck, the protagonist here actually got himself a girlfriend, though completely platonic. That already brings him further than 90% of all other male leads. But the delivery of this episode was just bland.
Also, I know that the people from AIC aren’t the best animators, but at least have them try to put a bit of believable emotions into its characters. I mean, there are more studios that have acting problems, for example Madhouse, but at least they try to actually emote their characters, even though they lack the budget for it. Aside from a picture, the male lead in this episode only showed two emotions: bland neutral and badly animated bland embarrassed. It just… did not work. The gimmick of this show is that this guy’s personality grows based on these game-like traits. I’m not seeing that.
There are a lot of these teenaged high school shows that start off promising… only to devolve into badly told stories that don’t go anywhere. Especially the past winter season left me a bad impression with series like this, and this episode was really starting to show the first hints of the likes of Kore wa Zombie, Dragon Crisis and Yumekui Merry. Please let it get better instead of dabbling on in mediocrity like this! The past winter season was bad enough, and I don’t want to lose even more patience than I already have.
Rating: – (Disappointing)]]>
Mawaru Penguin Drum – 17
How rare: a Penguin Drum episode devoted to build-up. Or at least, it’s promising a ton of stuff for next episode and its pacing was surprisingly quiet for this show’s standards, aside from one over the top confrontation between Yuri and Natsume. It did not lack in the plot twist department at all.
In fact, in terms of plot twists, thi episode can actually be seen as a turning point, where most of the things that we had to assume in the first half are canceled. The Penguin Drum isn’t the diary at all, and Tabuki has a very clear hidden agenda that he kept very well hidden. And heck, I just realized the parallels between Yuri, Tabuki and Momoka, and the main trio of this show. Add that to the rumors that Shigeyasu Yamauchi (the director of Casshern Sins) will be working on next episode, and yeah: I can’t wait.
I do want to say a bit about the music, though. It is very good, but in the past weeks I have been rediscovering Utena’s soundtrack, and I’m blown away by the utter difference between the two. The biggest thing is that Uterna’s soundtrack spans a whopping 7 disks in total! The creators went and composed a traditional soundtrack, and then they contacted like, three different musical groups to sing in and compose the different themes for all of the duels. This way they had a different song for every single duel in styles that evolved perfectly. Cowboy Bebob had this too.
Modern soundtracks just don’t have this. And yet, with smart production decisions this can still easily be possible. I mean, those different EDs are nice and all, but the creators could have easily used the budget they used for Triple H’s songs to actually compose songs that fit inside the series, instead of stuffing them into EDs. Having a huge soundtrack gives a lot more freedom and expression in terms of storytelling.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Un-Go – 04
Holy crap. So yeah, last week Un-Go already delivered my favorite episode of all of the new series of the Autumn Season. This week, it surpassed itself. Now this is storytelling!
This episode… it just turned everything about the previous episode upside-down. This episode was brilliantly written and delivered some amazing twists, in the same quick fire delivery of the previous number of episodes. This is also what I love about Science Fiction: there are so many different angles at which you can look at the evolution of technology. This show here is yet another completely new look at it.
On top of combining its plot with its philosophy, this episode also had those nice details, like the talking fridge that reminds you of eating more healthy foods as a poke towards those modern useless programs that exist today.
I also disagree that Un-Go’s pacing is too fast, like what happened to C. The differences between the two are subtle, but if this keeps up, Un-Go is going to end up much better. The thing with C was that it tried to flesh out its characters and develop them, while at the same time telling an epic story about money. Un-Go however is entirely focused on its storytelling and presenting its ideas and theories. It’s in essence a collection of stories, told by its characters and every single line and scene has its purpose. The result is a show with a flat cast, but an amazing sense of pacing, storytelling, twists and setting.
Oh, and on a final note: the music was on fire in this episode. More of this, please!
Rating: *** (Awesome)]]>
Chihayafuru – 05
The great thing about this series is that it doesn’t leave you hanging at all. This episode fulfilled all of the things it promised last week: we got to see why Arata went away from Karuta, and more importantly how he changed and what he had turned into. the characters actually immediately went to visit him. This also shows that this series doesn’t necessarily need to have a karuta match in every episode, and that it can also deliver in these kinds of episodes.
The real key in this episode was the moment in which Arata was chasing the train on his bike. It’s nothing new, but that point revealed a lot about what he turned into. Before that he kept hiding into this emo shell of his, but it all came together when he couldn’t keep up with the train and it turned out that he was very ashamed of his own inability to get over his grandfather’s death.
I like how these first five episodes didn’t dilute themselves with too many side-characters, but instead really focused on the three leads. It lead to some wonderful drama, and this feels like a good point to introduce them. They will really be necessary to keep the Karuta matches interesting, because seeing nothing but Chihaya’s style over and over for 26 episodes will very likely just get boring. The side characters will be key in spicing up the rest of the series, although they also need to know when to give the stage to the main trio, because the fact remains that these kids are really, really well portrayed.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Tamayura ~ Hitotose – 05
It’s not like Tamayura is the perfect slice of life series. there are the characters who sometimes are a bit annoying, and I also really dislike how it draws its cats. I think that this is a trend that started with Azumanga Daioh, but I really wish that anime would draw cats like… actual cats, rather than just blobs. The other extreme of this is of course Kimi to Boku, which does have normal looking cats, only they serve no purpose whatsoever in the series.
However, when I think that only half a year, I tried to give shows like A-Channel and Yuruyuri a chance, I really have to praise this show for avoiding their pitfalls and instead of immediately losing all inspiration and turning into a slew of unfunny repeated lesbian and boob jokes, this one stays true to itself and continues to develop its characters. The same goes for Kimi to Boku, by the way.
This episode it was the turn for Fu’s mother and childhood friend. It is a very nice touch for her mother to be a former biker, and I’m glad that the creators took their time to show a bit of her as well. In any case, this probably means that we’ll have two or three more character-focused episodes (Kou, Kaoru, and possibly Sayomi). After that, it’s the point where this show can really set itself apart… hopefully.
In any case, The atmosphere still works: it’s this light-hearted kind of mood that doesn’t get broken even with Norie ranting at her fullest. That is what I believe holds this series above Kimi to Boku. Both shows are very solid slice of life, but Kimi to Boku just tends to break its mood whenever the yellow-haired guy opens his mouth. Kimi to Boku on the other hand has a more creative flow with its drama. It’s ironic, but the more these shows go on, the more similarities I find…
Rating: * (Good)]]>
Mirai Nikki – 04
Okay, so now there are diaries who can turn people into zombies.
This episode pretty much continued the trend of this series and lapsed Yuno further into her psychotic tendencies. It perhaps wasn’t the best episode so far, but it still was entertaining. It’s a shame that it’s almost impossible to not get spoiled about Yuno, though. The suspense in this episode probably would have worked a lot better if it was unknown what exactly she was.
Now, I do wonder why Twelfth chose a moment in which four diary holders were at the same place at the same time to try and kill even his superior. My guess is that there is some sort of time limitation to his hypnosis diary and that he can only use the servants once or something.
Also, we’re only at episode 4 of 26, but I do hope that this show will take its time to show a bit more about all of the different characters, and who they are. At the moment, I’m still missing something from them, and they could have been a bit more fleshed out at this point, compared to other shows.
Rating: * (Good)]]>
Phi Brain – 05
Well, in any case it’s clear that Sunrise put most of its staff this season on Gundam and Horizon. That’s the only explanation of why the animation is already rushed at this stage. Especially considering how Persona with its staff issues looks even better. This episode was full of distorted faces.
In any case, I’m still curious as to how this series is planning to make sense of all that’s going on. This episode added a special club-house for the four geniuses with free food included to the mix, along with a scooter WHO CAN CATCH UP TO A FREAKING PLANE. The above-mentioned animation also lead to a bit of awkward acting here and there.
I will say this, though: this show is working on the emotional level. This episode was meant to explore Daimon’s trauma of losing his parents… and it actually worked. It used its side-characters well to keep the flow o the episode going, and present interesting puzzles that were all based on some kind of mechanical premise. The creators also actually used a cliche well in their advantage: in anime, characters are either great or terrible cooks, so I already rolled my eyes when the characters brought up Nonoha’s terrible cookies. And in the end this just turned out to be part of Damon’s trauma.
In a way I feel sorry for Kaito to have everyone push expectations and tasks onto him even though he’s just a teenager at this point. In a way the red-haired guy is the perfect antidote for him, because he can take these expectations away from him. Apparently he was sent to study in england abroad on his own against his consent.
Rating: * (Good)]]>
Ben-To – 04
Okay. So this episode had fanservice. Heck, there was more fanservice than compared to most moe shows.
Thank god this show knows what it’s doing, though. The fanservice in this episode thankfully 1) was creative and 2) didn’t reduce its female characters to morons. There were times when it went a bit too far like with the incest jokes, but this episode made me laugh quite a few times thanks to the great characterization of this show.
There are also these weird characters like that girl whose eyes we never see, and who looks like an important character, yet has nothing to do with the story. Or take Ume Shiraume, who has absolutely nothing to do with fighting over lunches, but makes the rest of this show hilarious with her antics. With the way that Shaga was introduced in this episode I expected this stereotypical love interest who walks over everyone, and yet she was actually no match for both Shiraume and Yarizui. Combined with good acting around this parts lead to a well fleshed out character within the episode she was introduced in, even though she started as a big stereotype. It really is the big difference between this show and just about all other moe shows for me: the acting nearly always seems either too bland or too forced to me. Here, the characters have their over the top concepts, like obsessive stalker, deadpan and tomboy, and yet manage to give enough sides to them to have them move away from these stereotypes.
And on top of that I have to praise David Production for animating great fight scenes over and over. It’s not like they have a lot of budget, but the sense of timing in these battles is just impeccable. The rituals before and after each battle (quietly waiting for the discounts to be handed out, and collecting the spoils of war) also work really well with it.
I have been criticized of treating some of the moe shows like Mayo Chiki, Utapri, Sofuteni and Idolmaster too harsh, when they’re supposed to be light entertainment. but the thing is, for entertainment, I sure as heck wasn’t getting entertained by these series that all just look like each other and feel half-hearted in their execution. These criteria are of course different for everyone, and if you enjoy them: good for you. But when I watch a show that focuses on entertainment, I really want to watch something that actively tries to be as entertaining as possible (not just in the way of Majikoi of having one entertaining episode… only to be followed by a ton of boring stuff where you feel like hardly any effort was spent on it). I found these series earlier this year with shows as Level E and Dororon Enma-kun, and now I’ve found another with Ben-To. It’s only got 12 episodes, so let’s see if it can keep this pacing up all the way.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Fate/Zero – 05
Um, people. If an entry of my is delayed, It just means that I’m busy with this thing called life. I really try to update fast, but there are times when I’ll be busy with either work or friends. It doesn’t mean that I’ve dropped something, just because I’m late with it.
Now that that’s out of the way, this was a definite improvement over the previous episode due to all of the characters involved. Aside from the Caster-Duo, all of the major master-servant pairs were involved here in this episode, which fits this series much more compared to the previous episode’s duel with lots of talking. There was a lot of stuff that everyone had to take into account, and everyone arrived at the battlefield with a different agenda, and a completely different battle plan. If the rest of the battles are like this the we’re really in for an awesome show.
I’m probably not the only one in this, but the one who really stood out for me was Rider. His chivalry along with his air of just not caring to be careful really stood out. Apart from that I also like Kirei and Kiritsugu, as they seem to know what they’re doing the most. There are a few characters who are still a bit too one-sided at the moment, like Caster’s master and Lancer’s master also needs a bit more attention. I also find it a bit of a pity that Saber is being pushed in the underdog category. That just doesn’t fit this series where the themes as chivalry are huge.
I also have to praise Ufo-Table for their great work on the CG. I mean, it has the bad luck that it airs in a season with both Last Exile and Guilty Crown, but if those two weren’t there it would without a doubt had the best visuals of the season.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>