Mawaru Penguin Drum – 07

by psgels, posted in Mawaru Penguin Drum



WTF, Penguin Drum. Just… wtf…

The first half of this episode was predictable enough. Heck, it was even so predictable that I was ready to label it as the least interesting episode of Penguin Drum so far. That actress is shrewd, and this episode pretty much was dedicated to showing the announcement of her engagement with Tabuki for its first half, with the most worthwhile parts being the references to classic shoujo. Ringo still didn’t really do anything worthwhile to stop it and was about to give up, so probably she shouldn’t have any more need for the diary, which would pretty much allow Shouma to take it. Or at least, that’s what I thought would happen.

Then came the toad scene. What the hell were the creators smoking when they came up with that one?

Ringo in this episode…. got completely deranged. I knew she was a bit weird, but this episode just made her outright crazy. And I don’t mean in the way that anime usually portrays crazy people, with lots of yelling and over the top laughing and stuff. Instead her plans to outright rape her teacher completely took me out of left field. I knew that this series had balls, but I did not expect them to be this big. This looks like it’s full of romantic cliches, and then it just keeps subverting the hell out of them.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Summer 2011 Kaleidoscope – Week 34

by psgels, posted in Summer 2011 Kaleidoscope



Just a note here: I’m going to be really busy for the upcoming weekend again, so expect some delays. This Saturday I’ll be at Abunai Con, one of the biggest anime conventions in the Netherlands. If you happen to go as well, let me know. 😉

Sket Dance – 21
What a surprise: I was getting tired of this series at this point, and here it comes with one of its best episodes so far. The creators pretty much removed one of the stereotypes from this series. Giving the goth emo girl a make over isn’t anything new, but even before that makeover, this episode treated her as a character who could just hold a normal conversation, instead of overplaying her own stereotype. On top of that, it was rather fun to just see the main cast hanging out. And to have a boy and a girl go out without turning it into a romance. It even toys with that very effectively. The drama during the previous episodes of Sket Dance was rather cheesy, but this worked really well. Just… what was that shiritori thing at the end of it?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Usagi Drop – 08
I have one criticism for the episodes of Usagi Drop so far: Compared to other slice of life series my emotional investment is not as big as it could have been. This show is undeniably well executed, but the emotional connection with the characters could have been done better for me. Cue this episode, which was packed with tons of subtle emotions. Rin’s mother was great when she finally saw her daughter again, Rin was great when she learned about grandpa’s flowers, and Daikichi was gtreat standing in the middle of it. This episode was very good at portraying the feelings of the different characters.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kamisama Dolls – 08
Interestingly enough this episode included some nice jabs at the usual fanservice cliches. Beach episode? Haha! Typhoon! Is the restaurant owner going to let his daughter and a young girl dress up in weird outfits? Of course not! There unfortunately was some fanservice that was used straight, but none of it was solely for the sake of fanservice. The second half of this episode once again was excellent, and I especially love the way in which this series is turning the female lead into more than a pair of boobs who stand on the side-lines or get kid-napped. The best part though is that I can still see this one closing off well! The episode ended with everyone back in Tokyo. Five episodes should be enough to give all of them a good climax and to wrap up all of the main plot lines. The thing I’m anticipating the most is Kyouhei’s background. The thing is: the previous episode was excellent, but I really feel like Kyouhei only told part of the truth: it in no way explained why Aki hates him so badly, nor does it explain the very first scene of the first episode.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Sacred Seven – 08
What the hell, man? What the hell? Sacred Seven, you had an awesome OP. Why did you switch it out for something cheesy like that? Beyond that, this series did so many things wrong. It could have been so much, and yet it’s completely boring. As much as the trolls would like to convince you, the reason for that isn’t Arama. He’s pretty good, he just plays his part. He has a decent backstory and he’s interesting to watch as this tall awkward guy. The big problem is that every single other character is completely boring. I actually can’t think of any sort of exception unless you start looking at the characters who just appear for one minute. This episode was without a doubt the worst. Why did the creators find it a good idea to turn this into a dating sim? Ruri completely degraded what character she had left.
Rating: – (Disappointing)

No.6 – 08

by psgels, posted in No.6



Well, so I did not expect No.6 to be this… young. True, everything looks futuristic and there aren’t any real old buildings aside from the slums and all (which probably were built on top of some scrap and ruins), but for this series to be around twenty years old at most They really put in effort to mind-screw everyone within that amount of time. I don’t understand one thing about the background exposition of this episode though: it was mentioned that the six numbers were the only six spots of fertile lands left. So what about Nezumi’s birthplace? That had all kinds of trees growing there and didn’t seem to be a number.

What’s also quite strange: Nezumi wore girls’ clothes even in his flashback. I guess it makes sense for him to pursue his acting career after that and all, but I still find it intriguing that this series acts like it’s the most normal thing in the world. This really is the age where his parents really had to consciously dress him up like that.

In any case, this episode was a great one for the plot. When the show will close off in three weeks with a ton of loose threads, we’ll at least know how No.6 originated and how it so rapidly grew to be such a totalitarian distopia. This really answered the biggest lingering questions, which is good for now. At this point it’s also obvious what the creators are going to intend to end this thing with: Safu’s rescue. That’s the problem with kidnapping, really: the character in question is rendered useless through the entire process. It’s aggravating when said character is such a good one and you don’t have many episodes to really show her off otherwise.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Steins;Gate – 21

by psgels, posted in Steins;Gate



Out of all of the endings that are coming up next month, Steins;Gate is the one I look forward to the most, with on second place Hana-Saku Iroha. It’s really going to be something that could potentially make the entire series come together and boil down to a wonderful conclusion. But first, an episode entirely dedicated to the characters.

This episode didn’t really reveal any new information, but it really solidified the cast. The past between Okabe and Mayuri got fleshed out some more, same as Mayuri’s worries about Okabe, along with Kurisu. My favourite part of this episode was when she learned that she’d die if the cracking phase was completed.

The people who rewatched the first episode pretty much know what’s going to happen next, so the question of this episode wasn’t really “if Okabe is going to continue with the cracking”, but when he’ll do it. There’s also still the question of how he’ll be able to find a device that allows him to travel further back in time (what happened in the first episode can not be explained with just the thoughts-back-in-time transferer).
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kurogane Communication Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




I’m a fan of the small and relatively unknown company APPP. Nowadays, they’re just busy doing (pretty excellent) inbetween animation for all sorts of series, but ten years ago they actually made their own array of series. Those series stood out because of their simple, yet very imaginative and original premises. Premises that include a runaway hospital bed, an angel and a devil caught in the same body, and yes. They were also the ones who went with the premise of a show focusing on a middle aged guy saving the universe with hard rock. They showed that you can create so many interesting stories without relay trying hard, if you’re just willing to just ignore conventions.

Kurogane Communication is the same: it’s premise is so deceptively simple: we have a girl who is the last living human on earth. There’s so much interesting stuff you can get out of that. The animation is simple, the budget is small, the story moves slowly and it doesn’t try to build up an overly complicated plot. We never really know exactly why humanity nearly died out beyond a few hints here and there. It’s really trying to be simple, yet engaging. And to me, it succeeded.

This series takes an in-depth look at loneliness. Haruka, the lead character, may live together with a bunch of robots, and while this is a series where robots can act just like humans, there still is something missing. The relationship she develops with them as she tries to live her daily life is the highlight of the series, especially with the robot who eventually takes up the position of a mother figure in her life. This show really takes a look at the nature of robots, even if they were to get enough artificial intelligence to become as smart as humans, and what it means to be alive. It’s definitely a unique little series (the episodes are also just 12 minutes long each).

Also helping are a top notch portrayal of the lead character, Haruka: she’s well acted and is a great lead character to follow. As for the rest of the cast, there is a bit of a catch here: they’re nearly all robots with various levels of artificial intelligence. The dumber ones can get on your nerves, but the creators did this intentionally, and over time their purpose in the series will become more than clear. The smart robots by the way are all great to follow.

It’s overall a heart-warming series that makes great use of its bleak themes. The storyline that pops up in the second half does come across as forced here and there, but it has good points that it wants to make, and it ends with a satisfying conclusion. The production values behind this one are low, so there are quite a number of distorted frames and the animation certainly does not look as good as APPP’s other series, but this is a series with its heart at the right place. If you want to watch a calming series that’s something different from usual, then this is an interesting recommendation.

Storytelling: 8/10 – At times it does get a bit forced, but it’s well paced, quiet, and interesting.
Characters: 9/10 – The strength of the characters lies in their simplicity, and how it still can create memorable relationships between them.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Simple and low-budget, but the great art and soundtrack are enough to not make this one a major flaw.
Setting: 8/10 – The premise of this show is pure gold. Simple, but so effective, and it shows that creativity is far from ran out. It’s deliberately vague on its details, and that gives it a very interesting effect.

Suggestions:
– Uninhabited Planet Survive
– Black Heaven
– Omoshi Magical Theatre Risky Safety

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 34

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou



Yeah, with this I remember again why I found the episodic episodes of Natsume Yuujinchou to be better than the arcs. It wasn’t that the arcs were flawed or anything. But the episodic stories were just that good. The drama is written so wonderfully in a way that only very few series can match. They’re so tranquil, yet incredibly heart-warming, and this episode yet again improved on it, and quite possibly was the most heart-warming episode of the third season so far.

I loved it that the fox spirit returned. And even there, the creators handled it wonderfully, just having Natsume meet him for a small, but very emotional moment. The rest of the episode was dedicated to show how he’s changed (it’s been a year since!), and to establish how he’s still longing to see Natsume again. The concept of time for youkai was really big here again, where they live for huge amounts of time, yet their lives consists out of long bursts of silence, with several short moments of activity inbetween. The watch was a great way to symbolize things.

On top of that though, I also love the things that the characters did in the slice of life part of this episode. For Natsume to go on a weekend trip with his foster father for a pottery master class. That’s really creative, and it really feels like a new experience for Natsume. Madara was also wonderful in trying to rest while waiting for his wounds to heal: he really looked in pain and disabled, rather than what you usually see where people can just walk around perfectly fine with a few bandages on.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Ikoku Meiro no Crois̩e Р08

by psgels, posted in Ikoku Meiro no Croisée



We’re now really getting down to the characters. This episode had a lot less cultural differences, but instead it spent a lot of attention on giving its characters some depth. And it looks like that this wasn’t even the background episode (that’s for next week).

The talk between Claude and Camille started off okay, but it all was rather predictable. As it went on though, that air of predictability vanished. There seems to be something interesting behind their break-up, though when this episode really got going was when Camille started talking with Yune. Comparing the way both think of him was an excellent touch. In fact, this episode really shined because of how it underlined the differences and similarities between the different characters. I talked down on Alice when we first saw her, but she really turned out much better than expected.

Overall, Sato Junichi is going to be one of the most interesting creators of the second half of 2011, due to his involvement in three different series. Two of which original. Ikoku Meiro no Croisee will probably have more drama than Tamayura, but I’m still really interested in how it’s going to treat its story: we will have one of the first actual slice of life original stories since ages (not dramas like Anohana or Hana-Saku Iroha, but actual slice of life). It’s a genre I tend to dislike because of repetition and no incentive for the characters to really show their characters off, but if anyone can do the genre justice, it’s him. And then there’s going to be Phi Brain, in which we finally get to see him outside of this genre again, where he’s even better.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Which Autumn Series do you want me to Blog?

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

Okay. It’s time again for a contest that I hold every year before the start of the Autumn Season: you all nominate one series, and I’m going to force myself to weekly blog that series no matter what. This is your chance to make sure that I blog a certain series, orforce me to cover a series that I normally wouldn’t even think about. It’s all up to you!

Last year I used a survey for it, but in the end that was a bit too much of a hassle to keep up with, so I’m going back to the method I used before, using comments. I’m not going to use a poll, because I want this contest to be amongst my readers. Not random people who just click every poll they happen to stumble upon. Here are the concrete rules:

– To make a valid vote, drop a comment leaving your selection. You can select up to two series from the upcoming Autumn season.
– The anime with the most amount of votes in the end will be blogged for at least 12 or 13 episodes.
– Here is a list of all of the series that are applicable for this contest.
– The poll will end at September 30, 23:59 GMT. All votes that arrive after that will be ignored.

Results will be posted on this topic, though don’t expect me to be as up to date as I used to be during previous years.

Here are the results so far:

Persona 4 – 52
Kimi to Boku – 46
Guilty Crown – 45
Mirai Nikki – 37
Chihayafuru – 28
Shakugan no Shana 3 – 24
Last Exile – Ginkyou no Fam – 25
Fate/Zero – 27
Bakuman 2 – 19
Hunter X Hunter – 22
Un-Go – 27
Tamayura Hitotose – 11
C3 – 13
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai – 10
Lupin III – 9
Working’!! – 5
Phi Brain – 16
Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – 4
Ika Musume 2 – 3
Cross Fight Bedaman – 2
Gundam AGE – 5
Shumanchu MiRiKa – 1
Mashiro-Iro Symphony – 2
Ben-To – 4
Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai – 1

Redline Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Aah, apologies for the delay, I’ve been really busy for the past weeks with all kinds of appointments. I finally got the chance to check out what pretty much is the single most anticipated movie of 2011: Madhouse worked for seven years on this thing. They put their top animators on the project (to the point where its production schedule even ruined that of Iron Man’s). So, did it live up to its hype?

Well, let’s get the following out of the way first: while it perhaps did not have the best animation I’ve ever seen, I will say that it’s without a doubt within the top 10 of best animated anime of all time. Possibly even the top 5. The thing with this movie isn’t just that it has unique designs: every single shot is imaginative, and the amount of shots with really fluent animation that has characters moving in all kinds of interesting ways is amazing. This could only have been done with a tremendous budget, and they make the eye candy within this movie virtually limitless. You have the over the top action scenes, but even the quiet scenes look absolutely gorgeous due to the amount of subtle movements that are in them. The best parts was the part by Shinya Ohira: they actually gave him full freedom in creating a truly gorgeous scene.

So, the visuals are absolutely amazing. But what about the rest of the movie? Well, the setting is really imaginative, plus the entire concept of basing your movie round a race also isn’t something we’ve seen in a long while. This movie found an interesting way to still have a ton of explosions and over the top action scenes, and the amount of ideas that has been put into this movie is very commendable.

The weakest part is probably the characterization: it just isn’t as good as most of the other top movies out there, and doesn’t really seem to focus on them anyway. The characters are all interesting and likable, the main characters have a neat and down to earth backstory, but beyond that there is little that sets them apart: the cast of this movie is just too large and there are too many side-characters who are just uninteresting and seriously were in need of more depth. This is the most noticeable with the bad guys: nearly all of them are just random one-sided goons.

The ending is indeed predictable, but I didn’t find that a major issue. The build-up of the climax of this movie was excellent, and I really liked the ending for how it stayed true to itself, and how it didn’t pretend to be anything more than what it was, while at the same time having a number of interesting stories behind it. It’s a well balanced movie that knows when to pack some action, and when to just be quiet and let itself build up.

When you go into this, don’t expect the best movie ever, because it isn’t. It remains a really good movie though, and if it’s a visual orgasm you want, you really can’t go wrong here.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Simple story, but effective execution and balancing, with over the top action scenes that work.
Characters: 7/10 – I expected more of this. They just are too one-sided and there are too many one-dimensional characters.
Production-Values: 10/10 – Incredibly high budget, tons and tons of eye candy and fluid animation.
Setting: 9/10 – A ton of neat ideas were put into this, and the premise is simple, yet works really well.

Suggestions:
– Macross Frontier – Itsuwari no Utahime
– Trigun – Badlands Rumble
– Trava – Fist Planet

Hana-Saku Iroha – 21

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha



I’m sorry for doubting the ending of this series. I should have known: writing good drama is what this series is best at, and this episode wasted no time: we’ve finally gotten to the finale of this series and so every moment of it should count.

So yeah, last week I said that this show has the tendency to completely ignore certain subplots, only to randomly make them appear later on. And guess what? It pulled that again. We don’t see Enishi and Takako for a few episodes, and WHAM: they’re suddenly getting married. I did not see that coming.

What I did see coming was that finally the love triangle would start moving again. The way in which it happened though… I have to praise the creators for it when Tohru just said so many things he shouldn’t have said. Minko was finally pushing herself to get closer to him, and then he starts to praise Ohana for all the things she’s done, right in front of her.

The wedding planning by the way also was great. There was some great tension between Enishi and Takako about the costs of the wedding after Ohana’s grandmother forced them to hold a ceremony. They’re a bit of a strange couple, but that makes it all the more worthwhile (after all, how often do we get to see actual marriages in anime?). It wasn’t romantic, but it did feel very genuine.

The biggest WTF was the cliff-hanger though. You’re forcing us to wait a full week after THAT?!
Rating: *** (Awesome)