Shiki – 21,5

by psgels, posted in Shiki



Throughout the Shiki series, there were these select times where this blue haired woman turned up. The last time was in a bathtub with a corpse, but we really didn’t know anything about her. This episode tells her story.

Having said that though, that particular story felt a bit too one-sided to me, and was the least interesting bit of this episode to me. I didn’t really “get” the insanity of this woman. Instead though, I loved just about everything that happened around her. This episode actually recapped the entire series from the eyes of some of the side-characters, tying things together in the process. It explains how the fire started, it shows a bit more about the family at the drive-by restaurant of the first episode (when that first episode aired I really thought that they would be important characters), we know who the asleep Shiki was in the house that Akira broke into. Oh, and the nurse also got stabbed through the heart. They didn’t show the process, but the aftermath was there.

What’s more is that Ozaki appears every now and then in this episode, and that surprisingly showed really well how his character developed through the series, and I also liked those tiny details like him trying to relax a bit after murdering his wife.

And so, Shiki is finally finished. There were a few plot threads that I would have liked to have seen a bit more of, for example what happened to Akira, or where that crazy occult woman went who once took over an episode, but overall it has been a wonderful series. Furthermore, I really wonder what exactly got this show 22 episodes of airtime in Noitamina of all things. What convinced the producers to go with what pretty much is a perfect formula if kept up with: Noitamina is big enough for this now.

I think it has a lot to do with the irony of Noitamina in Spring and Summer of 2010: it pretty much was the best half year that Noitamina ever had, delivering three utter classics with Yojou-han Shinwa Taikei, Sarai-Ya Goyou and Shiki, although unfortunately they pretty much flopped. My guess is that the producers are playing things safe for 2011 by not straying from the format they built up (which is something I can understand, after what happened to the Noise-timeslot), but I really do hope that 2012 will show more 22-episode series in the timeslot. That’s really something that can make a great timeslot even better.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 30

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou



I glanced at some comments in the shoutbox that this episode was supposed to be amazing. Now that I watched this episode, I agree. The episodes of the third season have been continuously one-upping each other. And we’re only at episode four.

My memory could be wrong, but I think that this was the first episode where Natsume didn’t play the part of main character. Instead, we got to see everything from the point of view of a Youkai he once met as a child. And the way in which it did this was just sublime. It was full of those small encounters, and it really seemed to come from the mind of a youkai whose sense of time is different from ordinary humans.

The way in which the creators portrayed this youkai was just brilliant. Due to the nature of this episode, consisting out of a ton of small encounters, they were really able to nail her development and make her change gradually over time. Her inner monologues were also delightful to watch. It was nothing short of adorable.

It also seems that the creators are shuffling around chapters this time. That’s also the reason why I was so ecstatic when I learned who was going to be behind the series composition of this series: Sadayuki Murai. He pretty much was the best guy that they could have possibly gotten in terms of adaptations. For those too lazy to click the link: this is the guy who adapted the story for Boogiepop Phantom, Kino’s Journey and Mouryou no Hako, on top of writing the scripts for Millennium Actress and Perfect Blue. This guy is a GOD amongst scriptwriters. Natsume Yuujinchou San still is one of the most normal things he’s done, but even here it’s great to see how well the chapters to be animated have been chosen so far. This episode once again delivers a ton of development for Natsume and it falls perfectly in line with the previous three episodes. Heck, this episode’s message about Natsume growing up, changing and appreciating the things that he once found scary was really strong here. I’m really interested in what he can do with the rest of this series.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée – 04

by psgels, posted in Ikoku Meiro no Croisée



Ah, Alice. This episode showed an episode fully dedicated to her… and I guess that she got better. It’s not like she’s an entirely typical spoiled brat, because she actually has a bit of a character beyond being conceited and all, but she still feels rather out of place. So I have to admit that I have no clue how the bourgeosie acted back in those days, but I really often feel like anime misses the mark while portraying really rich characters: they’re either perfectly flawless or conceited bastards with no middle ground. That lack of middle ground really is a problem.

This episode again was really adorable. For once we have a “running into bathing”-scene that actually makes sense and feels different from pure fanservice. Claude also is the first protagonist since ages who actually looked away as soon as he realized what happened instead of just gazing like an idiot. It’s a good way to show the differences in bathing. For more cultural differences, this episode also showed Yune introducing some Japanese food to Claude, after the previous episode’s onslaught of French cuisine.

And I guess that Alice does spice up this series a bit. As long as she doesn’t take over the series it’ll probably be fine. This, because I do wonder what this series has planned for the long run: how does it want to end? How far will the characters develop? Alice did do a bunch of great things to flesh out the main cast, and without her the whole picture of this series would be incomplete. Really the only problem with her that I have is the way she acts, not how she is.
Rating: * (Good)

Ao no Exorcist – 15

by psgels, posted in Ao no Exorcist



Okay, so the summer season may be one big flop for A-1, this had no effect on their shows of the spring season whatsoever. In fact, this was the best animated episode of the series so far. Okay, so they had to go with a ridiculously long recap of the previous episode to make it all possible, but it was some budget well spent.

We’re now getting to a crucial part of this series though: the part where the special powers of the lead character reach epic proportions and he starts to lose control of them. That’s pretty much the biggest cliche out of the entire series, so the next episode really needs to make it more than a convenient way for the main character to have super powers. It’s already got the perfect set-up for the aftermath done, but after showing exactly how huge Rin’s powers can get, the creators really need to balance out the next number of fights in order to make them not get repetitive by having Rin spamming blue flames onto increasingly stronger opponents.

Ah, but heck: this episode finally made Rin reveal who he is in front of his friends. I am really looking forward to that aftermath in the next episode. Yeah. It’s a bit ironic: this is a shounen series, it airs at the prime time slot, and yet I find myself much more interested in the character interaction than the well animated fights.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hana-Saku Iroha – 17

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha



Ah, I knew it. It was all too good to be true. Despite that though, this episode still surprised me with the direction it took. The whole movie subplot was wrapped up really subtle. In fact, we don’t even fully know the repercussions yet. For this episode, life continued as usual for nearly the entire cast, except for Ohana’s uncle and grandmother.

That uncle who received a ton of depth, by the way. In a way, it’s a shame that the promotional material just contains the cute girls of the series. He shows that the males have just as much right to be there. What this episode did to Ohana’s uncle was excellent: it completed establishing what kind of character he is, and developed him further by introducing romance. This is the kind of change that I was talking about during the last episode.

Now, I also want to see those repercussions. Again, that could very well be the change that I was hoping for. This episode gave away enough hints that something big is going to happen. The most logical thing would be for people to be laid off in order to compensate for the losses that were made, and you can really get some good drama out of that when played right.

Now that Ohana’s uncle received such good development, I can’t help but wonder: what about Nako and Tomoe? These two feel a bit out of it, compared to the rest of the cast. Nako at the moment is just “the best friend”. She always stands in Ohana’s shadow and never really gets to do something herself. Tomoe suffers the same fate: she’s been absent from pretty much all of the parts where this series really hit its stride and showed off how good it was. At the moment there’s not much more to her character than “Ohana’s boss”.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Tiger & Bunny – 17

by psgels, posted in Tiger & Bunny



Okay, and with this we may very well have the best episode of Tiger & Bunny yet. Holy crap, that was bittersweet.

What’s awesome about these past episodes is that they only show how much this series had been planning in advance. Both this and the Sky High episode were some of the most anticipated episodes around. Instead of showing them in the first half, the creators really saved them for the later half of the series, when the cast has already grown significantly.

Yes, there will be a catch: while it would be an awesome twist if Kotetsu really kept true to his words, there has to be some catch for Tiger left. But that doesn’t prevent this episode from being completely awesome. Kaede alone was already more than worth the wait, but this episode delivers and makes both Kotetsu’s brother and mother a delight to watch as well. It was all wonderfully down to earth. Even the thunder storm doesn’t matter. Yes it was very coincidental, but the things it accomplished more than made up for it.

By far the best was Kotetsu’s development though. This guy got a ton of depth with this episode. This episode really showed how he still sees his daughter as a 6-year-old kid, due to the lack of time they spent together, and seeing his mother and brother lecture him about it was also an excellent touch. Finally showing his dead wife only made things complete.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

OVA Impressions: Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kira – 01

by psgels, posted in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, OVA Impressions



Oh god no, it’s as I feared! This episode was horrible. Studio Deen, for God’s sake why!? Hideki Tachibana is an abysmal director. Why the heck did you put him on one of your most successful and popular series?

Look, an episode that would have shown the cast randomly goofing off is something that I would have understood. Higurashi had episodes like these in the past, and they were a lot of fun to watch. It would have been a pity that there wasn’t going to be a serious story, but at least I would have been able to get behind that. This thing however… I did not expect such a horrible premise for an episode.

This episode was an insult. It wasn’t about the characters having fun. It ENTIRELY consisted out of IMAGINATION. This episode just kept going on and on with Keiichi, Irie, Ooishi and Tomitake imagining the female cast in sexy situations and drooling over it. And it just kept going ON and ON, it’s unbelievable. Imagine that this episode was half an hour long! At a certain point the creators run out of females, and that’s where the episode really loses it and just delves into random gay and slaughter jokes.

Oh, and the new OP and ED are absolutely terrible as well. Did the creators even listen to the OPs that were created for the other Higurash-series?

The most shameless part was Tomitake taking pictures of Rika in his imagination and everyone getting a blood nose out of it. This like, completely misses every single point of Higurashi’s light-hearted episodes.
OVA Episode Rating: 5/10

Summer 2011 Kaleidoscope – Week 29

by psgels, posted in Summer 2011 Kaleidoscope




Okay. I know what I’m going to do this season: another Kaleidoscope, though in a different format from the previous times I’ve done one. There’s just too much interesting stuff this season, it’s unbelievable. Instead, I’m going to be writing short blurbs and impressions about all (or most) of the episodes that interest me. It’s an experiment. I have no idea whether it’s going to work, but this seems like the perfect season to try it out, with so many great series.

Dantalian no Shoka – 02
Ah, you can see that this show too is in need of more time: this episode felt a bit rushed, and yet it did retain its atmosphere. Overall this seems to be much more about atmosphere than its mysteries compared to its sister-series of Gosick and Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou, and I guess that that’s where this fast pacing works. Now, this episode was flawed (“You may have thought that you stabbed me, but I was saved by this book that I conveniently carried in my pocket at exactly the right place!” – that is one twist you should not pull!), plus the transformation sequence was significantly less interesting when we saw it for the second time (especially in contrast with Penguin Drum), but I really like the experimental animation, the banter is quite nice, the male lead is no pansy and isn’t the idiot that Kujou was. Oh, and another plus is that Dalian so far has been the only teenager in the series. That helps too.
Rating: * (Good)

Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji – 42
It’s really hard to imagine what the rest of this arc is going to look like. I mean, normal conventions would say that the next episode would focus on breaking the second barrier, the episode after that on the third layer, leaving a final climax to wrap everything up. This thing however still has a whopping eight episodes left. At the very least. Seriously, this already is an intense thriller and I really like the mind games so far: is it just going to drag on over and over, or is there really such an awesome climax waiting?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Sacred Seven – 03
The main problem with this show so far is not that it’s generic. That’s just something that doesn’t really help. Instead, this show is too one-sided and does a poor job at fleshing out its characters: there are way too many dark and brooding emo characters with very little other traits to their character. Seriously, the main couple is emo, the newly introduced villain is emo, the main side-kick is emo, half of the side characters are emo. That’s not the most interesting combination to work with! The one exception was the action scene of episode two. More of that, please!
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Usagi Drop – 03
Usually when a series addresses workaholics, it’s done quite one-sidedly: parents who fell in love with their jobs and forget about spending time with their children. Even with that, you can get some good drama out of it (the most recent example of this is Showa Monogatari). Usagi Drop however rocks because of how well it takes a look at this topic, how the main character is trying to balance his life as a typical salaryman while suddenly having to raise a child. This third episode made things even better by showing other cases of this with Daikichi’s mother and a coworker of his. I don’t have a child myself, but a lot of my coworkers are in that stage of their life, so this series hits surprisingly close to home for me right now.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Blade – 04
I’m still not sure whether Blade is going to work or not. On one hand, the writing can get incredibly cheesy at times (though thankfully still nowhere near Iron Man levels), and the facial animations also leaves a lot to be desired. And yet this series abandons Japan and goes to the Philippines instead, and out of all of the Marvel-series so far, it has by far devoted the most time to the past of the main character and is by far the most character-oriented of the four series. A main theme of this series is also for Blade to be saved from his really, really dark childhood, which also provides a good reason for the female lead to be there (so likely no more Hisako-esque debacles). Nevertheless though: Madhouse. Please try to spend more time in how to correctly animate facial expressions. It’s really getting silly now.
Rating: * (Good)

Kamisama Dolls – 03
A killer is on the loose, so what does the village responsible for him send to get him back? A little girl. Okay, so this third episode takes care of that by introducing more different characters, and spicing things up quite nicely. The second half of the episode had great chemistry, acting and the dark atmosphere that also made the first episode really good. As for the first half… at least it was funny. Having a comedy director on this thing really helps to get the delivery right. But what’s this about the Kamisama Dolls manga not being finished? I mean, here we have the perfect set-up for an action-packed 13 episode series. Is the story really large enough to warrant more time than that? On one hand, this is a good series to create an anime original ending for. On the other hand: Makoto Uezu is adapting this series. You do not want to give him freedom, because that just screws everything up into a boring fanservice-fest.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou – 03

by psgels, posted in Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou



And this show too breaks the Kujou-syndrome. Finally, this episode gave the male lead some character. He may not be a detective, but this episode instead established him as a con-man, and certainly something other than an idiot who just holds the others back. Instead, his main flaw is that he’s physically weak, which is something that plenty of other characters have covered here. In other words: the main cast are all filling in for each others’ weaknesses, which is a very good thing to spice things up.

On top of that, the fanservice in this episode was a lot more subtle and actually didn’t feel out of place, plus the comic relief also got better and balanced. This may seem like small nitpicking, but when it was the main flaw of the first two episodes, it’s really great to see this improve as well.

Now, I did cringe when the male lead suddenly claimed that banks could easily be hacked and all, but thankfully they realized that such a thing was impossible. That’s also quite rare in series that feature hacking: generally those seem to believe that even potato chips can be hacked. . Now, this episode did not have the most interesting villains who on top of that were dumbed down in order to make them a) believe this b) fail to overtake a high school kid dragging another high school kid around and c) not taking a lot of security measures in case something went wrong. I can forgive this for the sake of variety, though, since the first episode did have interesting villains.

I can understand using Yakuza as a villain and all, since they’re pretty much one of the biggest criminal organizations in the world and all, but the problem is that they’re always portrayed very stereotypically. Kaiji is currently one of the few series who really made them an actual threat. This is not just criticism on this episode, but on anime in general.

This is just nit-picking, though. the dialogue is still among the best of the season, and once again this episode put a ton of new information about its characters in just these 20 minutes. For variety’s sake this episode also had much less Alice than usual, which also is good to spice things up and prevent one character from standing out too much. I’m surprised at how large the cast already is in this series, but I have to say that this is a great attempt at a series with a huge cast so far. The key is to give everyone enough time to show off, while at the same time not trying to make everyone equal a la Idolm@ster.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Blood-C – 03

by psgels, posted in Blood-C



I don’t know who are exactly the ones who put together the fight scenes of this series, but I once again have to praise them, because in that aspect this series is the best of the season. Even though the runner-up Dantalian no Shoka has a bigger budget and also plenty of interesting visual ideas for itself, this one goes a step further in the way in which it animates Saya’s struggle with the monsters she fights. It’s not the writing that rocks here, it really is the animation that really brings those to life.

As for the rest of the series… I still like it a lot. It’s indeed unfortunate that it uses many cliches, but for me at the moment, the good points overshadow the bad points enough to make me not bothered by it. I mean, this show has obviously been building up for its first three episodes, and with that I don’t mean a complex story, but I’m more pointing towards its atmosphere. Whether everything has been balanced out properly is unfortunately something we can only say a year and a half from now, when the movie has properly aired. With that, I can understand the inclusion of the fights that Saya has: they have two functions: to build up the atmosphere themselves, and offer a sharp contrast with the slice of life scenes to prevent this series from really getting dull, seeing as how mundane the quiet scenes in this series are.

At this point, I don’t feel yet that Blood+ is wasting its time. But then again, we can only tell that for sure when everything has aired. In my experience the really unbalanced series only tend to show this from their middle part, not their first three episodes.

As for the criticisms on the characterization, I can understand some of them. Saya is a bit dull, and it’s during the quiet scenes that the animation also dulls in. I still think that these past episodes have been great ways to get to know the cast, though, as ordinary high school students. This episode explored how they spend their time after school and other mundane stuff. What makes it different from the series with dull characterizations is that 1) the acting is good and solid (most of the overacting you’ll hear here is those twins, and Saya actually doesn’t have the vocals of a J-pop idol), along with the dialogue that talks about inspired topics, courtesy of Clamp.

Now, the end of this episode was excellent foreshadowing, and it seems like the plot is also going to get interesting next episode.
Rating: ** (Excellent)