Hajime no Ippo Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




One of the things that I really learned after I started working full time, is how precious time can be. Because of this, I can understand what a daunting task it must be to check out Hajime no Ippo; the total franchise has a bit more than 100 episodes; that’s not something you just watch in a lazy afternoon. However, that’s the beauty of the second season, New Challenger: it’s a sequel, but perfectly allows newcomers to the franchise to pick it up, and it contains some of the most kickass fights imaginable. For those who do have the time and want the full experience, there is the first season.

The length of 76 episodes has both its advantages and disadvantages, but let me first rave about the technical part: Madhouse did the seemingly impossible by having consistently awesome animation during the entire run. The animation is often smooth, punches are animated with a huge weight behind them, a meticulous amount of research went into how boxers move, ranging from the simple jabs to the flash knock-out punches. Do not get mislead by the simple art style, because this allows the creators a great amount of freedom while animating.

Now, the New Challenger series didn’t really have a main character. The first season however does have a clear one: Ippo. The entire series shows about thirteen matches of his, and even the matches in which he doesn’t appear are either 1) cut short or 2) meant to show how awesome Ippo is. Because of this, this series is very, very shounen: wanting to become the best, lots and lots of training arcs and the underdog are very common themes that just keep returning in this series. However, the fact remains that this is no high school series: right from the start this is about professional boxing.

I don’t just say that because I personally tend to like sports series about professionals more than high school sports clubs (for me, this matters more than whether or not the characters are teenagers or adults), but because this also allows this series to really look into the other aspects of professional boxing other than training and fighting. There are some really good arcs throughout the series that look at the personal life and troubles, injuries, and how boxers sustain themselves to get enough money.

The huge benefit of the length is that this series has plenty of time to flesh everyone out, and it makes full use of it. Ippo perhaps isn’t the most interesting character, but this series just continues to develop and change him. Every single side character is given ample time to tell his story. Nearly every opponent that Ippo fights is given a good and non-cheesy backstory and characterization. The most amazing thing is… that there isn’t really a villain here. Al of the opponents that Ippo fights are just professional boxer themselves. At first sight there does seem to be a stereotypical rival, but even that guy steps out of this rival role as the show goes on.

As for the big downside of the length… well, this is a show with 76 episodes that consist out of nothing but boxing. In the end, I still have to say that Hajime no Ippo’s best matches are in the New Challenger series: that just had four fights, and it did everything it could to make those four stand alone and make them as epic as possible. With Hajime no Ippo, the fights fall into a formula. This series especially loves the pattern of pummeling someone to near-KO, only to have him make a miracle come-back, and it unfortunately pulls this twist a little too often, to the point where you can just predict when it’ll happen. The matches in this series are definitely exciting, but they miss the raw power that I experienced in the New Challenger series.

The new Challenger series was compact and perfect. The first season meanwhile was a lot harder to sit through because of its length and monotonous pacing, even though it never really drags on. If you’ve got the time though, by all means watch it, because it remains an incredibly solid sports series.

Storytelling: 8/10 – This one is really dangling between an 8 and a 9. This series is really well paced, but in the end it does get a bit formulaic with its length and big focus over just Ippo.
Characters: 9/10 – Every single character is interesting to various degrees. No villain whatsoever.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Amazing production values for its length. Smooth and fluid animation and well detailed boxing sequences.
Setting: 8/10 – A bit shounen, yes, but still a very good portrayal of the boxing world.

Suggestions:
– Hajime no Ippo – New Challenger
– Giant Killing
– Hikaru no Go

Blood-C – 10

by psgels, posted in Blood-C



Here is the thing, I have to confess something about this series. I can understand some of its flaws. The characterization does leave a lot to be desired.

And yet, I find myself invested more emotionally than any other summer show aside from perhaps Penguin Drum. And it’s like that for nearly every episode. Because of that I just keep trying to describe why I’m exactly like this. But the thing just is: this show is simple, flawed, but I love every minute of it. And on top of that, unlike most of the other shows this season, it actually looks to head into an excellent conclusion. It’s been promising this from day one.

This episode, well it had it coming that some of the things happened the way they did. However, what I consider to be bad predictability is not when you can tell what is going to happen, but rather how and when it will (after all, a good story foreshadows or builds up its plot twist). The way in which the teacher broke the illusion was a gripping way to do it, especially with the use of the books. The whole scene in the cafeteria also had something really surreal about it. After all that carnage, Saya just sits happily in the cafeteria like nothing happened. It all fits into all of the other moments where she just felt… distant.

Call me a horror fan, but I again loved the fights and the atmosphere here. It’s not even the gore that gets to me the most, but rather the build-up and the constant tension, the slightly surreal setting and the brutal gore strengthen it even more for me.

And of course, I agree that simply being different does not necessarily make you good. A leap-frog getting drunk in a graveyard is different, but also terrible. However, it definitely does help!
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Hyouge Mono – 22

by psgels, posted in Hyouge Mono



Oh god, Sasuke, you’re killing me! This was the best Hyouge Mono episode of the past few weeks, and finally we get to see again what a complete crazy bastard Sasuke can be. The stuff he pulled (and actually got away with) in this episode was just absolutely hilarious.

It already started at the start of this episode when he and his henchmen climbed the castle of the Akizuki clan. The way in which he used his subordinate as a chair was definitely not something I expected him to do now that he’s got actual power over people. After that he rams the castle and instead of his original goal of taking the third of the legendary jars, he then runs into the daughter of the Akizuki clan and proceeds to seduce, deceive and kidnap the daughter of the Akizuki clan.

I also love how this guy takes advantage of every single chance he can get. At the end of the day when he found out that the Akizuki clan used a fake for the lid of the jar, the look on his face was just priceless. In fact, I just love that smug arrogance of his and this episode was full of opportunities to show this.

The second half of this episode then proceeded to go in an entirely different direction: Europe. Suddenly Sasuke’s younger brother came into the picture and we actually got to see quite an interesting turn of events on his part, when the relationship between the Hashiba clan and emissaries from the west take a hit due to an unfortunate incident with Hideyoshi. It’s completely different from the first half, but it fitted in really well. Hideyoshi also screwed up by completely getting upset, and I can feel that this is going to mark the start of his fall. I can’t wait!
Rating: *** (Awesome)

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.
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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)