Hyouge Mono – 18

by psgels, posted in Hyouge Mono




The acting in this episode was sublime. Its biggest purpose was to set things up and hint a lot, but the delightful acting made it a wonderful episode to watch. Especially the tension that was generated between the different characters was amazing.

Something is really telling me that Hashiba Hideyoshi’s days are numbered. In the previous episode he already went with that ridiculous get-up, but this episode really hinted that something’s going to happen to him. Especially since he finally refused to simply be Senno Soueki’s assassination tool, right in front of his face. The artists and animators did an amazing job to really draw all kinds of intricate details in their non-verbal communication. Oh, and then there was also that rape scene.

On top of that, there were also these small details like that small intimate moment in which Sasuke gets his wife a small present. I really like how the creators portrayed his relationship with her: finally we have a romance where everything is right: you can see that they both love each other and to their best to support each other. There is no drama whatsoever and they really fit well together considering the time, setting and culture that they’re in. Heck, even Tiger and Bunny had to pull the dead wife twist: Sasuke really has just a happy family that are a large part of his life, yet know that they have no business in the story.

The real story in which grown up men fight over their toys like little babies! I really cracked up at the scene in which they accidentally broke that precious pot over their negotiations. Negotiations that were serious business, by the way, so I can’t wait to see what comes out of it, especially after what happened to Hideyoshi.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mawaru Penguin Drum – 05

by psgels, posted in Mawaru Penguin Drum



That was… just insane. No, seriously: this episode was completely mind-blowing. Even Utena wasn’t THIS good after just five episodes. And I know that Utena had more episodes and the strength of that series was how well it developed its characters and all, this is still something I did not see coming. This episode took the already amazing cast, and made it even better than it already was.

What especially baffles me is how the transformation scene trope is getting completely redesigned here: normally they’re the kinds of scenes that can’t be interfered. They have this formula and this formula can’t be broken. And here Ringo bloody comes and not only takes Kanba’s place, she also manages to completely turn the scene upside-down by clinging out of the hole she dropped out of and hitting Himari back by taking the penguin hat.

Which all lead to the bloody amazing chase scene of the truck and Kanba. Holy crap, this guy got some extra depth here. The direction was just amazing in how it showed how far he’s willing to go for Himari, right after the creators also brought in the fact that a) he indirectly injured his father when Himari got sick as a kid and b) the house they’re living in could be sold if they don’t have enough money. What the hell kind of a character is he anyways? On one hand he keeps flirting around with women to the most extreme degree, and yet he’s also able to get heaps of cash from mysterious sources and for some reason has grown up to be much more mature than his other brother.

The direction of the rest of the episode was also just amazing: it just kept toying around with your expectations and was full of these subtle mood-switches. The symbolism also really helped here.

And the subway messages of the previous were right again: something got stolen in this episode. I did not expect it to be the penguin hat though, and especially not the way in which it happened. The hint for the next episode… yeah. Kanba definitely borrowed his money from shady sources. Something tells me that this is really going to bite him back.

Speaking of symbolism: the cockroaches that the penguins have been exterminating up till now all died. This time they didn’t though.

And how the hell is this happening this early on in the series? The creators must either have some amazing plans, or are playing their biggest trumps first. Ah well, if this series does dull in, there’ll be enough time to rant about it later. For now I’m just enjoying what is by far the best new show of the summer season.
Rating: **** (Fantastic)

No.6 – 05

by psgels, posted in No.6



This episode really grabbed me by surprise. Not only was it exceptionally good and well produced, but also just about everything that happened here was against what you’d expect or came out of left field. This episode built up a ton of questions, it showed the cast in a completely different light, on top of being absolutely gorgeous to watch.

This episode took two completely unrelated characters: Nezumi and Safu, and had them experience the same hallucination at the same time. Erm, why? On top of that, against expectations the bees turn out to be active during the winter, and they seem to be related to these hallucinations in which they could talk. Again: how the hell is that happening? On top of that, Shion’s mom’s friend is suddenly afraid of mice, Then Shion suddenly comes and catches Nezumi unguarded, and then Safu is coming back, of all things. How the hell are the creators going to weave all of that together? And will the show still be running when we get to that point?

On top of that… that dance scene. Holy crap, that was well animated. The characters really came alive and the visual direction was utterly gorgeous. This episode on top of that had poetry and theatre as well, making it artistic in many different ways. It was a bit strange to see Nezumi in women’s clothing, but it does make sense: traditionally in Shakespearean plays, the female parts were all played by men as well.

Also, shock! This episode actually included a kiss that wasn’t overly romanticized.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Showa Monogatari Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Showa Monogatari




Anime is dying? Hah. As long as series like Showa Monogatari keep getting released, I refuse to believe something like that. Showa Monogatary may have a few production issues, but I just have to praise the guts that the producers had to actually dare and release it. Here we have a series wit no moe, no bishies, zero fanservice, no pandering and no overblown action. Instead of aiming at teenagers, kids or otaku, Showa Monogatari is aimed at a 50+ audience, portraying the life of an ordinary family in 1964.

Now, this is a slice of life series, so it obviously isn’t for everyone, but I do have to warn people that it’s not what it seems at first sight, because this show has something very misleading about its premise: Kouhei, the rather annoying 9-year-old lead character. Because of him, this show will at first seem like a kids’ series where we see yet another coming of age story of a young boy growing up somewhere. This is not what this series is about, though.

Kouhei is just a member of the cast here. There are a number of episodes that revolve around him, but there are also plenty of episodes that don’t, and instead develop the rest of the cast: his older brother, sister, parents and grandmother. All of them together end up as a charming and down to earth family with real problems, challenges and characteristics. Every character in this series is flawed and this show actually does quite a good job to develop everyone.

This series does have its production issues, though. The animation is quite poor and the direction feels rather mellow throughout the entire series. The worst is Kouhei’s voice actor, though: this guy can’t act for the life of him, and will ruin any dramatic scene he’s involved in. It overall is a series that feels like the production was rushed, and that the creators didn’t get time to make everything click and mesh together, and present things well, because it’s very rough around the edges.

The problems that the cast face are very realistic, but at the same time the creators do force their drama. It’s again one of those cases that has a lot of flaws, yet does a number of other things right, because the cast here remains well developed. In the end though, it does lack a bit of staying power.

Storytelling: 8/10 – The direction could have been stronger, but this one is well balanced and very realistic.
Characters: 8/10 – Well developed cast, but sometimes very badly acted.
Production-Values: 8/10 – The animation is really jerky, but the background art is very accurate. It really feels like 50 years ago.
Setting: 8/10 – Very interesting premise, historically accurate and realistic. Very authentic.

Suggestions:
– Furusato Japan
– Rail of the Star
– Ushiro no Shoumen Dare

Showa Monogatari – 13

by psgels, posted in Showa Monogatari



Okay, so it turns out that the final episode of Showa Monogatari aired quite a while ago. Nobody just bothered to release it aside from a random upload on Megavideo. the long wait wasn’t really good for my appreciation of this series: looking back, the previous episode actually left a lot to be desired due to both Kouhei’s acting and pulling a sickness bomb for the final climax.

This episode meanwhile didn’t really feel like a climax. It was interesting though, because of how it forced some of the characters to think about their futures. Ironically though, Kouhei still is a pretty flat character, but thankfully he didn’t play the biggest part in this episode.

Overall, the biggest flaw of this series is the way it presented itself: the script is good, but the way in which the characters are presented, and acted lacks ways that catch your attention and end up memorable. This is indeed tricky to do with a slice of life series, but also probably the biggest reason for why this series got ignored so badly, aside from the chronic lack of moe.

Overall, Showa Monogatari was good, but not up to the standards of Wao World. Their other movies, helmed by their flagship director, did have a strong direction and focus, starting off slow and continuing to build up to a great climax where not drama stood central, but performances. Furusato Japan still was the best at this.

Now all that’s left is the movie, and do note that that one’s being created by a different staff compared to the TV-series. The director is someone who normally does just special effects or producing, so who knows what kind of things will result from a director like that
Rating: * (Good)

Steins;Gate – 18

by psgels, posted in Steins;Gate



One thing that we’ve never seen in this series: what happens after a D-Mail gets sent in the time-line that Okarin leaves behind? Does Okarin just split in two, where one version leaps to a different time-line and the other stays behind? I mean, this episode created a lot of drama around Rukako having to change her gender back, and yet that version of her shouldn’t notice any change and instead she’s sending a consciousness of Okarin to a different time-line. Would the time-line in this episode just result in a full fledged romance between Okarin and Rukako?

In any case, Rukako requesting a date made this episode a bit sillier than I expected. It unfortunately lead to Daru showing once again how far removed he is from reality (by far the most annoying part of this series), and unfortunately I have to admit that the reason why the creators made Rukako fall in love with Okarin was a very flimsy one. The kind you expect from a bad harem show.

The reason for the IBM5100’s disappearance however, was very good. Here I thought some big conspiracy was behind it, and it turned out to be a mere accident. It was such a key point in the story that changed everything for the worse.

Beyond that, the part few episodes have also been terrific build-up by preparing for the inevitable attempt to retract Shining Finger’s D-Mail. She’s been completely absent from the past episodes. And after that, things should only get even more interesting. It’s hard to believe that there are only 6 episodes left, and yet I feel that that could be the perfect number for this show to close off satisfyingly.
Rating: * (Good)

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 31

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou



Hmm, I don’t see what’s so particularly bad about this episode. Sure, it indeed wasn’t as good as last week, but it still was a very interesting story with a ton of character development for Natsume and two of his friends, alongside some pretty good background on one of their families.

I do agree that the pacing was a bit more jumpy than usual, and this episode indeed wasn’t of the soothing kind that we’ve gotten used to. Instead, this episode was full of character. Taki’s grandfather’s story was particularly interesting, in the way that he unknowingly set up a bunch of random things and seals, and it also explains how Taki got that seal that shows Youkai.

I also really liked the ending of this episode: with these two, Natsume has finally met two people who understand him, and in this episode he definitely got closer to them, up to the point where he can actually tell them about the youkai he encountered. I mean, he’s still very shy: the scene in which they were just randomly sitting around the table chatting: we get the big impression that Natsume was mostly sitting there and the other two were mostly talking about random classmates. This is like, the fifth episode in a row that contributes in some way to Natsume’s development.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hana-Saku Iroha – 18

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha



An interesting, albeit very annoying episode.

So, I asked for a Nako episode, and I got one. This episode dealt with her shyness, and unfortunately in order to do that it had to have her act like a bit of an idiot The entire episode was about her trying to change herself, with the result that she did a ton of things that she wouldn’t do. It definitely wasn’t bad… but she did get rather on my nerves. The only real criticism I have right now is the random guys who popped up in this episode (they were really annoying in the bad ways…) and that Nako probably is the first who begged her employer not to give her a raise…

This definitely was an episode for the long term of this series: what the next episodes need to do is show how she changed. She really didn’t appear much during the past months, so the shyness also suddenly returned from having been gone for like, what? 10 episodes?

Interestingly though, this episode also secretly fleshed out the rest of the cast when the four girls went shopping and we got to see some unexpected sides of them that we had not seen before. Ohana’s grandmother’s part in this episode was also very strong: the main theme of this series is working, and the end of this episode really delivered on that again.

This probably won’t happen, but what I’d like to see the most out of this series at this point, is a significant time-skip: show these characters as they’ve grown up. What has become of them? How did their character development during the past few episodes change them?
Rating: * (Good)

Ao no Exorcist – 16

by psgels, posted in Ao no Exorcist



So, this series is going into an original ending, eh? I have just one question for that at the moment: the part at the beginning of this episode, where Rin was brought back through the power of love: was that anime original as well?

I ask that because that was the weakest point of this episode. The rest of this episode threw around some strange coincidences, but on the other hand it handled the aftermath well, and I especially liked that inclusion of that courtroom scene: it may not have been exactly an accurate trial, but it shows Mephisto having to explain and defend his actions in front of a supreme court and give s a different twist to the whole Vatican subplot.

An anime original ending isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the creators do need to pay attention: writing an original adaptation and adapting something are completely different. What Ao no Exorcist is currently trying to do is wrap everything up without just working towards that ending of Rin fighting Satan. Interestingly, just like Letter Bee, the writing is not as solid as it used to be. This time it feels a little jumpy, though it’s nothing bad yet. What this series shouldn’t forget though, is that it needs to devote a lot of time to the main cast as well: they were the selling point of this series so far, and it’d be a shame to just abandon them, just to get the plot right.

It’s all going to depend on Ryota Yamaguchi here. His work on Escaflowne is definitely promising, but apart from that he mostly wrote mediocre screenplays (including the one for the Tekken movie…). Oh, and let’s not forget the previous series he created together with Tensai Okamura: Project Blue Chikyuu SOS… things can go anywhere still.
Rating: * (Good)

Tiger & Bunny – 18

by psgels, posted in Tiger & Bunny



Yeah, this really was meant to be a hard to watch episode. Finally Kotetsu mans up and settles down in order to raise Kaede… and then his partner breaks down. This was something that was bound to happen: Barnaby’s rise in popularity couldn’t last forever, and with this he didn’t just find out that Jake wasn’t the murderer of his parents, but someone has also been screwing with his memories.

Of course he doesn’t know yet that Ouroboros is as corrupt as hell, so he can probably only guess what the hell happened there. It’s a really scary thought of suddenly figuring out that half your memories may be fakes. My guess is that his mind was probably changed in those relaxing chamber thingies, in order to 1) divert attention from the real killer, 2) boost Barnaby’s popularity, 3) boost ratings, and possibly even 4) get rid of Sky-High, who still is by far the strongest hero out there. Just try figuring that out from Barnaby’s position, though.

Now, thanks to Kotetsu this episode wasn’t as enjoyable as the previous ones, but the creators were really deliberately trying to turn him indecisive. With this, I can understand the creators’ decision to make him retire a bit more: he will probably retire, but this will most likely happen at the end of the series. Just randomly quitting right now would be too irresponsible to Barnaby, while not quitting would be too irresponsible to Kaede.

These are some very interesting dilemmas here, and I hope that the creators won’t a) use something cheap by turning Kaede into a bad guy or b) come with some very convenient solution out of nowhere that allows Kotetsu to solve both. If this doesn’t happen, then the finale has just become even more potentially interesting.

Also, who the hell in that village has magnetic powers?
Rating: ** (Excellent)