Towa no Quon 02 is an improvement over the first movie, which is good to see. The animation budget went down a bit, but everything else is more interesting than the first movie.
The characters are less annoying, Quon is less perfect, the main side characters are better fleshed out, the lead female is much less of an idiot. Overall it’s a good movie spent, and proves to be a good antidote for all of the optimism that was present in the first movie. This puts it at least above Break Blade, where all of the movies just looked too much like each other. This movie instead is about a supernatural murder mystery. It’s actually well built up and the movie has a clear structure. That helps too.
Having said that though… the culprit behind the murders turned out to be one heck of an emo. The acting for the culprit was very bland, one sided and done to death. And overall, this movie still hasn’t really solved the way in which most of the characters are just too one-sided. This movie fulfilled its purpose in building up well, but it’s not there yet. The next number of movies need to continue this upward trend.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 – Nothing bad, but also nothing to really stand out. Solid build-up at least. |
| Characters: | 7/10 – Too many one-sided character and the main bad guy in particular was one heck of an emo. The main character got better, though. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – Much less eye candy compared to the first movie, but still there is plenty of movement. |
| Setting: | 8/10 – Solid concept and this movie built up well. It’s not used as well as how it could have been, though. |
Oh my god. I’ve finally finished the first part of this behemoth of a franchise. Legend of Galactic Heroes is completely unique. It took more 12 years for it to completely finish, from the opening movie to the final side-stories. It was un-rivaled at the time when it came out, and nothing like it ever appeared again. With amine being as it today, I don’t think there will ever be another series like it. I know that it’s long (it totals a whopping 162 episodes and three movies), however if you have the time to watch it and are tired of anime’s trends towards moe and cheap entertainment: by all means give it a chance.
This is one of those series that actually changed my perception. After finishing this series, my view of how to portray tactical warfare, strategical warfare and politics are completely different. In those three areas, this series just blows every other anime out there out of the water with its complexity, maturity and ingenuity. Instead of basing itself on weird logic, just about everything in this series is carefully thought through and fleshed out. The main cast of this series is intelligent, without being perfect: everyone in this show has his or her flaws to make up for it, ranging from hypocrisy to laziness and temper.
I remember that my biggest criticism for the first movie was that the creators tried to make the main characters smart by surrounding them by rashly thinking officers who can’t see the big picture. This thankfully also got fixed throughout this series. Not by just removing it, but giving it a very deep meaning within the story. Whereas the movie was just a depiction of a space battle, the TV-series has very strong themes about Autocracy versus Democracy, what it means to be a ruler and commander, and what it means to be a hero. The incompetent people who fail at their jobs are used perfectly in order to illustrate how difficult commanding an army can be.
And then, there is the character development. This series has 110 episodes, divided over 4 seasons. All four seasons stand on their own as different, and this particularly shows in the character development, and how the characters think and act. The main cast changes subtly, but significantly, but even the side characters grow throughout this series. And really: the cast of this series is ENORMOUS. What this show also likes to do is take minor side characters who haven’t appeared for what feels like 50 episodes, in order to put them a bit in the spot-lights and show how much they’ve changed.
Now, this series has undoubtedly parts that it does better than any other anime out there. Did it turn into my favourite series, though? For that question, I’m afraid that my answer is no.
At this point, Legend of Galactic Heroes is ridiculously hyped. Let me however clearly state what this show isn’t: it is not a roller-coaster ride. It’s also not a series that is easy to get into, it’s not a series that blows you away time after time, it’s not a series with an impeccable atmosphere, nor is it a series that’s very easy to watch and draw you in.
The storytelling in this series is very composed and polite. It’s so very calculated and the plot twists feel very natural, but I did have to force myself to really sit through such an emormous amount of 110 episodes. The direction delivers its plot twists as they are, and rarely adds extra spices to the storytelling in terms of inventive camera work, or passionate voice acting. The animation as well is very composed: it’s good enough to keep character models consistent, battles interesting, but only one out of 10 or so episodes really goes beyond that. And heck, the episodes with the best animation aren’t the most important ones to the plot, and there is one character death episode that actually suffers from very bad animation. It’s a bit like reading a history book, really: it is incredibly interesting to see how everything plays out, but it still feels like something is missing when you compare it to other forms of entertainment.
110 episodes is really long. Nevertheless though, I still believe that this was the absolute best that anime had to offer until Escaflowne came out.
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a young genius pilot.
Well, first things first: it’s awesome to see Gonzo back. It’s not just the series they make. It’s because of their balls: they like to take risks like no other studio out there, and that’s why I became a fan of them, even though they did release their fair share of crap. Now, as for this series: it looks just gorgeous. The CG is still up to Gonzo’s high standards and the creators didn’t just copy designs from the first season, but came up with a whole new set of eye candy that certainly does not stand out as inferior to its predecessor. As for the story of this episode: it’s definitely more childish than the first season, and shows a bunch of teenagers being able to disrupt an entire fleet. The first season had this too, but was a lot more subtle about it, especially with the enemy fleet having very stuck-up commanders and deploying no vanships whatsoever to intercept the main cast. There’s also fanservice, though thankfully not as much as was feared. The acting is overall very good, though it does have a number of weak points. The direction is also quite solid, despite the lighter tone. This is a typical example of a first episode with a lot of potential to become amazing, but also with quite a number of things that can hold it back and didn’t work out as well as you’d hope. Yup, that’s Gonzo alright.
OP: The OP of the first season was much better.
ED: A familiar voice. The song is a bit redundant after hearing it in other EDs, but the picture slideshow looks nice.
Potential: 80%
Guilty Crown
Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a half-naked girl.
That was absolutely gorgeous. The first episode of Guilty crown is a visual feast, in the way that just about every frame is meticulously detailed and well drawn, in the way that only Production IG can do for a television series. If they keep this up, then this will very likely be the prettiest Noitamina series of the year. As for the rest of the episode though: there were a number of issues I had with it. The biggest is that outside of the visuals, I miss creativity: the scenario of this episode had a been there, done that”-feeling, and the main characters are a bunch of walking cliches. On one hand you have the really bland male main character, and on the other hand we have this female who has special powers, is his childhood friend, and gives the male lead a special weapon that he can use to kick ass. There have been way too many shows already with that premise, and the only thing that this show really added to that was its gorgeous visuals. This is a show that needs to grow significantly. But heck: at least the characters are far from as stupid or annoying as they were in Fractale.
OP: Good idea to combine it with the content of the episode.
ED: A bit of a dull ballad with nice art from the promo images.
Potential: 75%
Un-Go
Short Synopsis: Our lead character solves mysteries.
Here is a very interesting one, and I don’t mean that in the way you might expect. At first this episode started off like your average murder mystery series: the protagonists happened to be stuck in a room full of people where someone conveniently got murdered. It was well built up, but strangely mundane. Then however the second half came around and this episode just kept switching moods, themes and atmospheres. This series is attempting to breathe a new wind into the episodic murder mystery genre. This episode had science fiction, horror, and the post-apocalypse all stuffed together. This was the strange case of not the culprit getting some surprise added depth, but the setting itself became a lot more intriguing once this episode started putting the pieces of its puzzle together. On top of that, this episode was well produced and well directed with very natural camera work. The creators definitely took creative liberties on the original work it’s based on, and the episodic set-up really allows them to try a wide variety of different stuff. Oh, and as an added bonus this episode had the best use of music and sounds of the entire season so far. My only warning for when you plan to check it out: the characters. They are not on the list of priorities for this series.
OP: A bit of a dull song, but lots of neat eye candy.
ED: By far the best ED of the seasons. Heck, even the OPs get nowhere as close to the imaginative visuals and music that was displayed here.
Potential: 90%]]> 
What a surprise: a Deadman Wonderland episode that actually takes its time.
This was actually a very good premise of how an OVA should be done: this neither was pointless fanservice or random gags, but it also wasn’t just “another episode”. Instead we get to see the background of one of the side-characters: Senji. On top of that, this episode did not have the rushed pacing of the TV-series, and it actually gave ample time for Senji to show who he was before he ended up in the Deadman Wonderland prison.
What’s even stranger though is that the creators didn’t decide to show how he ended up in the prison, but instead focused this episode around the time when the prison got built (it was definitely a nice touch to see the setting of the TV-series still in its building stages by the way; that’s a neat way to flesh it out), focusing on how some of his friends got killed by some asshole who also happened to have those special blood powers.
This episode may not have been as interesting as the episodes of the TV-series, but it’s nevertheless a good source of background. The bad guys here were very stereotypical, but Senji got out of it as a better character. We also learn that there are more ways for people to get their special powers, compared to how Ganta got them in the first episode.
Here is the thing, though: Deadman Wonderland has completely bombed in terms of manga sales. Seriously, I couldn’t find sales numbers about this one at all, and that indicates that they were abysmally low. I’m much less bitter about this compared to Michiko to Hatchin not selling well, but the problem is Manglobe overall: they once were among the best animation studios out there, but they have really gone downhill since. Deadman Wonderland was their last chance, with the adaptation of a popular manga, but that too completely failed. With moe shows like Seiken no Blacksmith and TWGOK selling moderately well… the result is Mashiro-Iro Symphony. What a bloody shame.
Rating: * (Good)]]> 
And so ends the second third of this series. Yes, we still have 13 episodes to wrap everything up in what still is the must unique show of the year. The past ten or so episodes in particular, as they have completely forsaken warfare, in favor of diplomacy and esthetics. In this episode, Sennou Soueki stood out.
I’m still watching this thing raw, and this show still has unforgivingly difficult dialogue, so I didn’t get this perfectly, but my impression of this episode was that Sennou Soueki went a bit too far in promoting his ideals. Because he’s so revered, there are countless of cheap attempts in showing beauty through poverty and simplicity that completely miss the point. People like Sasuke who completely miss the point of art, just for the sake of being ironic. Again, this seems ver much like a satire on postmodernism. Also, I didn’t expect the creators to show his younger version with actual hair.
Beauty in the eye of the beholder was a theme that went throughout this episode as well, when it showed that weird frog painting and the weird expression statue, which elicited very different reactions from everyone.
And then the second half of this episode came with that very vivid nightmare of Hashiba Hideyoshi, in which he was the one cut in half. I swear, something is going to happen to him, but this show just keeps stalling that fact. It’s not necessarily dragging on, because it has enough to do in the meantime, but seriously, seeing this smug guy actually cut up would lead to some really interesting situations.
It’s also great to see that after 26 episodes, this show still is as detailed as it ever was. In particular that fire scene: the props were drawn with a ton of details within them, and you could really see how they were made. In fact, there have been many historical series before, but I can’t recall any that has this part nailed as well as this series.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]> 
Holy crap. Is there any limit to how high this show is willing to aim? This episode once again was completely amazing and heck, I can’t remember the last time in which this series didn’t deliver an awesome episode.
The twists in this episode were very surprising, and yet they fit so well. And heck, why didn’t I ask this myself sooner: what happened to the lesbians in a Kunihiko Ikura series? Well, this episode gave the answer when it suddenly revealed Yuri’s background from out of nowhere. I should have known: she was a bit too composed for this series. She was just very good at hiding her own issues, but her quirks fit in perfectly with this series. It’s a neat little twist for her to have been best friends with Ringo’s sister, and it actually gives a pretty plausible excuse for Tabuki to know her.
The rest of the cast was also excellent. The creators put a ton of emotions in the characters, and it really was a great example of angst done right: emotional, yet avoiding the story or characters to stagnate just because of that angst. Himari in particular was adorable (and seriously: something tells me that somewhere in the near future, her two friends are going to make a return, and I’m really looking forward to that). Kanba meanwhile was put into a bit of a strange situation: Natsume basically offered to cover the expenses for Himari, and he refused. He didn’t really strike me as a proud person before, so what could it have been that he’d even prefer cooperating with these shady men in suits?
I’m not sure if I’ve said this before, but one thing I also love about this show is how brilliantly it uses its music. Instead of just staying in the background, it is really well timed, and forces the atmosphere of each scene to really stand out. The best example of that in this episode was the car scene at the beginning, but also the ending did this really well.
This episode really didn’t attempt to hide the fact that this came from Utena’s director when it introduced cars and lesbians like this. The thing is however that he’s putting in so much new stuff in this series that it doesn’t really matter that he’s using ideas that he used before.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
ED: New song. Not as good as last week, but still some nice ideas and especially the second half is quite catchy.]]> 
As for the shows I’m not going to blog:
– Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai is trying too hard. Both in being moe, and with the main character being a straight man.
– Maken-Ki is just stupid fanservice
– Mashiro-Iro Symphony… poor Manglobe. How deep you have fallen.
As for Persona, it won the contest, so I was guaranteed to blog this one. The worst case scenario has happened, however: it didn’t really have the best staff imaginable.
Now, for the record: I liked the first Persona anime, even though it had huge flaws. It was a good mystery story, with the big flaw that it kept using anti-climaxes over and over: every time you thought that an interesting cliff-hanger would finally spice things up, the next episode just continued like nothing happened. Now, this show will definitely not have this problem.
As for the shows I’m not going to blog:
– Tamayura is great, but I’d rather cover a more eventful series. Let me get back to it when Bento or Last Exile turn out disappointing, though.
– Same for Kimi to Boku.
Chihayafuru though would be a no-brainer.So far it delivered the best opening of the new season so far (with Fate/Zero on second place, by the way). It sets itself apart through its characters: this and Tamayura are the only shows where they already come alive. And Tamayura cheated by already having four OVA episodes that preceded it. It’s a combination of a lot of factors. The animation is for example excellent, especially during the Karuta matches, but also the best still frames feel like the characters could just walk out of it.
The character designs here are wonderfully subtle, and Madhouse actually got itself a budget to make them shine. In fact, this season they are in no way plagued by their acting problem that has been bugging them for years now. Hunter X Hunter and Chiyahafuru have the perfect combination between good character-designs, while not being to complex, making them hard to animate.
The writing and acting also shine here, depicting the cast as gifted characters, but at the same time they’re still kids. The least interesting part is the reasons behind the drama and the cheap tricks that were pulled in this episode like hiding glasses (hey, they’re kids), but the way in which this show portrays emotions was really outstanding.
My question is: what can you do with Karuta to make this last for 26 episodes (and possibly even longer in manga-form)? Compared to Go and Shougi, it doesn’t seem as deep. I mean, as soon as you’ve reached the point where you remember every card in the game, doesn’t it just become like a contest of who can recite the digits of pi the fastest?
This is where the first episode comes into play though, because there that red-haired guy had the exact same worries that I’m having right now. This really started as a kid’s hobby and the three main characters will probably have a lot of fun playing Karuta in the future. However, the red-haired boy eventually grows to like other things, while the lead female wants to go further with it. I’m looking forward to see these kids change and grow apart, and Chihaya’s reasons for continuing to play on.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]> 
Short Synopsis: Our lead character receives a baby from out of nowhere.
Just… what the hell was that supposed to be? This was… so bad that it became hilarious again. This episode was five minutes long, and it featured some of the worst animation and most wooden characterization of the entire season. The plot where a bullied girl takes care of a devil baby who is literally dropped into her bed (I really do mean literally: there are two hands visible who really drop that thing from out of this random hole in the air) is just ridiculously stupid and the acting may be so stiff and wooden that it becomes hilarious, it’s the kind of hilarious that’s probably going to be fun one episode. Of five minutes.
OP: Those vocals! Make them stop!
Potential: 0%
Mirai Nikki
Short Synopsis: Our lead character has a stalker.
Ooh, I like this one. This one turned out to be an excellent suspense series, with a very creative premise of using diaries that can predict the future. This episode was especially good at portraying the main character, and especially relating in how he slowly realized how badly he has been screwed over; his reactions were just priceless, and it gives this show a whiff of psychological horror that I can really appreciate. This episode was well animated, which is also a plus and for once an episode was fast-paced, without rushing though everything. There was one part where this episode fell down, though: the bad guy of this episode. He was just… there and we really don’t know anything about him. The creators had better try harder for the next characters to run into our main character, because this has potential to become a really fun series. Oh, and finally a series has the balls to have school that doesn’t feature school uniforms. That gives the character designers much more freedom, and it shows: this show really has this unique look without having a particularly different art style.
ED: Clever
Potential: 80%
Mobile Suit Gunam AGE
Short Synopsis: Our lead character pilots a giant robot.
Oh you’ve got to be kidding me. The big selling point of Gundam AGE was that it would show a completely different version of the regular Gundam series. In the end though, all that that amounted to was a new coat. It actually did nothing to remove the most obnoxious parts of the franchise. The male lead still is a teenager who for very convenient reasons ends up piloting a giant robot stronger than all others, he instantly knows how to pilot it, the female lead is completely useless, and there is a lot of angst about how bad war is. Sunrise, for the love of god try something new for a change. Probably the most insulting part is how pathetic the military is: even though they have never been attacked, they’ve only got one capable pilot. On top of that, they allow a twelve year old boy to design new mobile suits for God knows how much money. Really guys: designing and coordinating such a large-scale project isn’t so easy that you can just take off to school at the same time. Oh, and another cliche: everyone is an idiot in order to make the male lead look smart. Throughout the entire episode he is the only one who worries about the incoming invasion. Please Sunrise: you’re mecha series rocked because of how creative they were. This is not the way to do it.
OP: You can see that a lot of budget was put behind this, but it’s just too mainstream to really work. The flying scenes are good, though.
ED: This is pretty decent, though.
Potential: 30%]]> 
Well, so unfortunately the only part that didn’t turn out worse than the previous episode was the female lead. She’s likable, plus she knows her role as a support character. Apart from that, this episode had some annoying parts with the introduction of a new, rather obnoxious character.
Overall, this series is interesting, but flawed so far. The biggest flaw is that I have no idea how it’s going to be able to answer the why of everything: what is that bracelet that the main character found last episode and why is there an evil organization dedicated to making puzzles?
Also, you’d think that this series would focus on solving puzzles. Things turned out quite a bit different, though. The creators don’t even show the solutions to some of the puzzles, especially the smaller ones. Instead, this show is all about trying to come up with the most creative puzzles. When I first read about this series I thought it would feature a number of riddles in the same vein as Professor Layton and Spiral, but surprisingly every single puzzle in this show is an actual puzzle that is based on numbers and figures.
And granted, the puzzles that the creators came up with so far are very creative.
Rating: (Enjoyable)]]>