Mawaru Penguin Drum – 10

by psgels, posted in Mawaru Penguin Drum



That boy!! I should have known!

This episode played some delicious mind game son Kanba (or Kamba… I’m not sure whether that’s his official spelling or the creators wanted to show that a certain character is a bad speller…). The second half of this episode rocked in particular because of how well it used all of the build-up in the first half. Things that just seemed completely random actually got a whole deeper meaning as the episode went on. It all came together in a greatly addictive climax.

Every character in this show has his or her flaws: Himari’s we got to see last week, Shouma is way too damn nice, the penguins are just complete scum bags and Ringo is an obsessive stalker, but the most interesting is the womanizer Kanba, simply because we hardly ever get to see characters like that in a main role. The last time we had a major character of his caliber was with White Album. The women in this series are obsessive, but this guy also deserves points in the asshole department by not caring at all about his past dates. And again the reasoning behind it seems deep. That speech of Kanba about the things he hates to get from a female sounded very deep seated. Something happened between the two of them…

Also, watching the penguins in the background was as hilarious as ever.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

No.6 Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, No.6




For me, the current Summer Season had two series that stood above the others: Penguin Drum and Natsume Yuujinchou. The interesting part was that under that, there were all kinds of awesome series fighting for third place: all shows with amazing concepts, but each of this series has their own HUGE flaw. Number six is one of them, and despite its flaw which I’ll get to below it is worth it for most of its run.

For ten episodes, this is excellent science fiction. It’s set in a dystopian future, but what sets it apart is its cast of characters: the creators try to put as much character development in this series as possible. It’s a bit rushed because of this, but this is one of the rare series that’s just constantly changing and evolving. It’s always interesting to watch and always unpredictable of the direction it sends its characters, and especially the main cast in. The drama and chemistry around them is always delightful to watch with hardly any dull moments.

In terms of production values this series also delivers. Bones do an excellent job on the animation, where it especially excels on the expressiveness of the characters, but also the soundtrack is excellent, and pretty much the best of the season aside from Penguin Drum. The production values perhaps aren’t the best, but they still are very impressive.

But yeah, the big flaw. The thing with this season is that it had so many series that actually could have become classics if these were avoided. Blood-C has its characterization, Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou has the way it acts like it has more episodes than it actually has, and No.6…. has its ending. Oh, the ending.

Oh, with enough suspense of disbelief you might actually not be bothered by what happens, unfortunately for me that did not work. Right from the beginning it was clear that there was no way that No.6’s story would fit into 11 episodes. The ending was bound to be rushed and inconclusive. I did however not expect the amount of stuff that this show pulled out of its ass during the final episode to be as big as it was. The finale of this series is completely inconsequential: its deus ex machina make no sense, are incredibly forced, negate some of the build-up it carefully constructed in the earlier episodes and leave with one hell of a bad taste and even more question marks.

If however you watch until episode 10 you’ll be rewarded with an excellent albeit very inconclusive dystopian adventure series. I really do hope that this was a lesson for future Noitamina series, though: you can’t just pick a story and hope that it’ll work well in Noitamina format!

Storytelling: 7/10 – Excellent build-up, the pacing is rushed, because of that it can stuff a ton of developments in a short time. That ending, though…
Characters: 9/10 – The best part of the series. It’s a bit forced, but nevertheless very interesting with a cast that is constantly changing.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Detailed animation, particularly excellent background art, excellent soundtrack.
Setting: 8/10 – Fairly typical dystopia, but used very well and it forms a good backdrop.

Suggestions:
– Ultraviolet: Code 044
– Amatsuki
– Ergo Proxy

No.6 – 11

by psgels, posted in No.6



Wut?

Okay, that was the complete opposite of what I expected.

Let’s start with the good parts: this show actually delivered quite an emotional finale, much more than I expected and I don’t just mean in the way I’m going to rant below. Safu’s death, the gunfires, plus the huge explosions. Everything was very well delivered at least. Plus, some of the best background tracks that the series had showed yet popped up.

But seriously. I’m stunned at just how much crap the creators pulled out of their ass! I mean, what the hell? So many bloody things were introduced from out of nowhere it’s not even funny:
– Safu magically controls the bees to first attack everyone and then form giant twisters that bring down the walls of No.6… where the hell did that come from? I mean, I understand the super powers and all, but super powers should not be an excuse to just pull whatever the hell happens to be the most convenient for the script.
– The entire building blows itself up as soon as the main computer gets destroyed? That’s one pretty big design flaw, isn’t it?
– Why didn’t they take Safu with them before blowing the thing up in the first place? There was no guarantee that she had been changed forever.

And BY FAR the worst of all:
– That was one of the most blatant revival scenes I have seen in a long while. Holy crap, the point where Shion revived was utterly terrible. The creators completely used Safu’s powers to pull whatever they want out of their ass. Nothing was built up or prepared for it. Also, Safu: why the hell did you turn into a giant bee? You seriously wasted the best parts of the soundtrack on THAT!? What a waste!

Seriously, at the start of this week, I was pretty much convinced that No.6, Kamisama Dolls and Kamisama no Memo-Chou would end up fighting for the spot of my third favourite series this season. The only one still standing straight after this is KamiMemo. KamiDolls looks to head into an utterly generic conclusion, while No.6 ended up at the complete other side of the spectrum where it tried to do way too much and therefore negated a ton of what it had been building up to. Heck, Blood-C may even enter my top 5 of the series that debuted during the Summer Season because of this.

So yeah, this season of Noitamina was definitely weaker than during the spring season: I do consider both Usagi Drop and No.6 to be worse than Anohana and C. Especially where C surprised me by having an awesome conclusion, this one surprised me by how utterly forced it was. The difference was that with C, everything was wrapped up, it got to make the points it wanted to make, and it had its awesome action. The reset it pulled made actual sense and delivered a wonderful sense of irony. No.6 meanwhile came completely out of nowhere.
Rating: — (Lacking)

Usagi Drop Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




There was a time when Noitamina basically knew (and popularized) two genres: adult slice of life and experimental horror/adventure. Now, it did branch out to many other genres over the years, but it still retains true to the roots that originally made it big: slice of life series that don’t focus on the usual teenagers, but instead follow college students and adults in their daily lives. All these series have in common that their execution is ridiculously solid, and Usagi Drop is no exception to that rule.

This series chronicles the life of single parents, showing the challenges they face, but also the wonderful things they get back for it. The way this series has handled its themes are quite clever: at the center we have the main character Daikichi who ends up having to take care of his 9-year-old niece Rin. throughout the series, he runs into all kinds of people who are in similar situations, and because of that this series can show many different sides of the same coin.

Another major strength of this series is that it’s pretty much the most realistic series of the entire year so far. It doesn’t try unrealistically force its drama, and the things that Rin and Daikchi do throughout the series all feel wonderfully down to earth. Most of the show is really seeing the two of them live out their daily lives, and this is very well described and written.

The major flaw of this show probably is its lack of ambition. I know that this is a slice of life series and all, but even considering that this series does surprisingly little with the cards handed to it and the series feels incomplete. It introduces a romance, only to randomly abandon that later and also spends time on Rin’s mother without actually much interesting. It also only looks at children of nine years old; the older and younger ones get completely ignored. It would have been really nice to actually see this series evolve, but it chooses to just show one compact part of the lives of the main characters.
‘
And that, it does undeniably well. I personally like my slice of life series with a bit more spice, but its themes alone make it more than worth watching with excellent acting and characterization that’ll make the cast endearing from start to finish.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Could have been a bit more ambitious and better balanced, but is still wonderfully down to earth slice of life to watch.
Characters: 8/10 – Excellent acting, great characterization, and they’re interesting to watch.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Very solid. Obviously it’s easy for a show with absolutely no action, but the lack of still frames and overall polish still is great to watch.
Setting: 9/10 – The realism is just wonderful. The backstory is very well detailed and the themes of parenthood are well explored: showing the challenges, without only focusing on the worst-case scenarios but instead on things happen to pretty much everyone with kids.

Suggestions:
– Hataraki Man
– Windy Tales
– Showa Monogatari

Steins;Gate Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Steins;Gate




There is one thing at which Steins;Gate is unrivaled at compared to anything else that aired this year: its plot. If it’s originality, creative twists and multi layers that you want, then this is a must-watch. This has a bit of a slow start, but as the series goes on its intricately woven plot about time travel shines like no other and this show is masterful at combining seemingly insignificant hooks into gripping plot twist. This definitely stood out as one of the most solid shows of the past half year.

Helping with that is a unique style of this series. The entire series is animated with dull and washed out colours, the animation is simple and only becomes really smooth when it really needs to (with great effects, by the way),and a lot of time in this series is spent on characters just talking to each other while the plot slowly progresses. It’s slow, but each episode has its purpose, even though this only may become apparent later on. The lead characters’ monologues in particular are well written, but on top of that this is a series that really did its research into time travel. It may not present the most logical way that time travel might be possible (I mean, there are still parts where you’re going to have to suspend your disbelief), but it’s very well researched.

The weakest part of this series is its cast of characters. Obviously they’re not bad, but they do have a few quirks that didn’t make them as interesting to follow as some of their counterparts. In particular, the acting of the main cast leaves things to be desired, in which they’re trying too hard to fit themselves into certain stereotypes. Daru, Kurisu and Mayuri are the biggest examples of this, which often makes them annoying to watch. The main character Okabe meanwhile just tries too hard: during the dramatic parts he tends to act too dramatic, and during the light-hearted parts he tends to act too over the top (which becomes rather repetitive after a bunch of episodes).

That’s pretty much what held this show back for me. Do not let that discourage you however, because there have been plenty of people who experienced the characters in a completely different way. Heck, at the beginning of this season I did not expect another series this year to come close to the amount of acclaim that Madoka Magica got. I personally did have these beefs with the characters, but even there there are still plenty of good parts about the cast of characters, in particular their development.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Really knows how to deliver stunning plot twists. Has a unique and down to earth style and uses it really well.
Characters: 8/10 – Some annoying and forced acting was probably the thing that bugged me the most about this series.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Very smooth animation is wonderful to see, though there also are many inconsistencies during the quiet scenes.
Setting: 10/10 – A truly excellent story about time travel and all of its intricacies. It’s creative and boldly written together.

Suggestions:
– Noein
– Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
– Bokura no

Steins;Gate – 24

by psgels, posted in Steins;Gate



And here we really see the advantage of adapting a medium that has already finished: it’s so much easier to plan in a great conclusion. This episode really impressed me by how it did exactly what it needed to close this thing off. I do have one question about the plot, though. Did I miss this somewhere by not paying attention?

When Okabe traveled back in time with his time machine, shouldn’t he have seen his version of the previous episode together with him? I mean, I was really looking forward to seeing Okabe stop not just Kurisu’s father, but also his own blunder of killing Kurisu last episode. He didn’t use any D-Mails to undo that, right?

Either way though: the rest of this episode rocked. The metal Upa thing took a while to hit home, but again I have to praise this series for putting so many huge consequences on such a tiny little thing. The finale was over the top, but it was wonderfully animated. This series has definitely found a unique style of animation, and even though it only had the budget to show this once every three or four episodes, it really made huge additions to this series. This episode was also where that came together wonderfully.

Oh and yeah: a movie just got announced. This episode closed off nicely, while still leaving a number of key questions unanswered. There are things like Suzuha’s mother, but the biggest is probably: why didn’t Kurisu start to work for Cern? In fact, that whole subplot is still pretty unexplored, because she only became like that in the Mayuri-death-timelines: where she met Okabe. Something happened there that killed Okabe and Daru, caused such an unlikely scenario to happen. I hope that the movie is going to focus on that.

Overall, the past Spring had four shows that stood head and shoulders above the others: Ano Hana, Tiger & Bunny, Hyouge Mono and this one. Overall, I think that I do like Anohana better. As for second place though, that’s really going to be a tough one: Tiger & Bunny had much better characters, while at the same time it had a less impressive plot, and the settings of both all were incredibly well constructed, while Hyouge Mono has better acting, while its plot will entirely depend on what it has planned for its final 13 episodes. All in all though, it was one heck of a ride, and definitely set a standard for the other endings this season.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 37

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou



and once again Natsume gets closer to the people around him. Seriously, are the creators really planning to keep this up for the entire season? There are two episodes left at this point (yes, this series has been confirmed for 13 episodes), and I’m eagerly anticipating what they will end up delivering.

Looking back, Brains Base really has been dominating this season. My two favourite shows that premiered back in July come from them, and heck: their third series Kamisama Dolls is currently fighting with No.6 and Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou for my third place. It’s been a while since the company with the most releases of a season actually delivered so well.

I already thought that Tatsunoko last season did well if you ignore Pretty Rythm. Studio Deen of Winter 2010 meanwhile was a complete disaster, while JC Staff delivered an impressive batch of four series, albeit it was flawed by both Bakuman and Index II dragging on for too long. Meanwhile AIC of Summer 2010 failed to deliver on every single series they came out with. I think it’s not until Autumn of 2008 when I can recall a single studio dominating an entire season more, bakc when Madhouse was on fire with six new series in one entire season, including the classics of Mouryou no Hako and Casshern Sins. Next season will have three studios with three or more series: Sunrise (4), JC Staff (3) and AIC (3). All of them are really looking out to be mixed bags, unfortunately: AIC has one very promising series, next to their usual moe shows again. Sunrise meanwhile has Phi Brain, next to the questionable Gundam Age, next to the even more questionable Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon, next to another kiddie show. JC Staff meanwhile has Bakuman, whose first season while impressive does seem to lack something, Kimi to Boku, which I really fear is going to be overshadowed by Tamayura, and… more Kugimiya Rie with Shana. To be honest, I really doubt that they can get anywhere near the level that Brains Base are currently delivering.

Anyway, I’m digress. The youkai in this episode was nice, but what really made this episode was Takeda getting a taste of what it’s like to be Natsume, and being able to understand him a bit more. By actually being able to see Youkai, he finally could relate to him in the same way that we have been for the past thirtysomething episodes. It was a great little premise for an episode.

For the final two episodes, I really hope that they make use of this development. I know that the story is still going on and that the manga is nowhere near finished and all, but that would be the perfect time for a great climax.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée – 11

by psgels, posted in Ikoku Meiro no Croisée



This episode increased Yune’s charms even more. It started with all kinds of hints towards Claude’s father, but eventually moved on to Yune confessing some bad experiences she had with her sister… while being rather tipsy. It was a really heart-warming scene. And at the same time we also pretty much know what the finale of this series will focus on.

Speaking of performances, Alicealso showed an interesting side of her when she wasn’t allowed to take Yune to the Grand Magazin. In fact, I have to give the overall cast a lot of praises for doing such a wonderful job of acting out the characters throughout the series. I think the only weak spot at this point is Claude, who has the tendency to just be a bit too angsty at some points. It’s up to the finale to make up for that.

An interesting part about this episode was also the theme of eye color. I actually was under the impression that Japanese people just had brown eyes, but Yune and her sister in particular seem to debunk that myth. I watched this episode raw so I might have missed something, but it’s still quite interesting that there are Japanese with such eye colors.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hana-Saku Iroha – 24

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha



… have I just been trolled by this series?

I mean, I was really looking forward to the characters all going their own way and moving on. And here this episode comes and hints that the Kissuiso actually isn’t going to be shut down. The only one who is still on my side is grandma.

This episode was incredibly unpredictable and created drama in the exact opposite of what I expected. That drama though… again was really good, like what we’ve come to expect from this series. We suddenly got to see a totally different side of Ohana’s grandmother, and her performance in particular was stunning throughout the entire episode.

I have no idea what the creators have planned for next week, though. The thing is that a cheesy life goes on ending just doesn’t seem to fit here after all that build-up. Will it work well as an anti-climax? If the creators can pull that off though, then I admire their guts. Either way though, they have something planned here…
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Summer 2011 Kaleidoscope – Week 36

by psgels, posted in Summer 2011 Kaleidoscope




Sacred Seven – 11
Ah whatever. With this, at least this series entertained me like it should have done at the beginning. Finally this show just said “screw it”, and realized that it wasn’t going anywhere. Don’t get me wrong, this was bad. It pulled all sorts of ridiculous twists out of its ass and all, but for once it was action packed, like it should have been from the beginning. The main villain also reached the “so bad he’s good” territory here. His performance was ridiculously hammy, but that was far better compared to how ludicrously boring he was throughout the rest of the series.
Rating: * (Good)

Dantalian no Shoka – 09
Awesome! Three episodes in one week are experimenting with a new style, visual and direction. What a timing! This episode looked amazing, with its washed out colours, and it had a great premise behind it. Probably one of the best episodes so far. And the best thing is that we’re not even done yet. Keep an eye out for episode eleven: Osamu Kobayashi is going to return again. That should be completely awesome!
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Blade – 11
Yeah, Makoto is the best female companion out of all of the marvel series. She was much more than just a token female, and she actually got something out of Blade, and made him a different person. There was no attempt to make her as obnoxious as possible, nor was there any attempt to try to get her hog fall of the screen-time in favour of the main cast. This was balance. Now, as for the final episode, I really wonder how it’s going to fare. Iron Man’s ending was abysmal, and the ending of the X-Men significantly lowered my opinion of it, while Wolverine’s ending did about the opposite. Where oh where will Blade place itself?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Sket Dance – 23
Anime needs to be more experimental and we need to see more episodes that toy with their animation style. Because of that, this week really delivered here. First we had Penguin Drum, but also Sket dance actually tried to shade their characters smoothly, plus throwing in all sorts of interesting visuals in the background. It was a bit of a silly episode, but it worked surprisingly well. It in any case was much better than the first kid episode, which was a bit annoying. Bossun’s frenetic energy worked well here though.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Appleseed XIII – 02
This episode was actually surprisingly interesting. It was based around an interesting premise, and the dialogue of most of the characters was well written. The dogfights in the air were also quite interesting to watch, and the background music turned out to be excellent. It’s got its flaws, though. First of all, with a huge plane being jacked, the only people who are sent in to take care of it are two people on a holiday. That’s some serious understaffing if you ask me. Also, most of the cast is well acted, but Deunan is trying too hard. At this point I can’t blame it on her period anymore.
Rating: * (Good)

Kamisama Dolls – 10
You know, the thing about insane characters is that you can always try too hard. That made the first half of this episode amongst the most cringe-worthy parts I’ve seen of this series. The second half however got back on track thankfully. Overall I like how just the introduction of two characters answers a ton of questions that have been lingering since the first episode, and at the very least the creators did well and immediately got it on with that psycho girl’s background. It redeemed her a lot. The animation was also gorgeous, although it’s a bit of a pity of the CG.
Rating: ** (Excellent)