Fireball Charming Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Milestone time! This is going to be the 750th review I’ve written for this site. Only 250 more until I achieve my goal of 1000 ones! And what a random show to end up reviewing with Fireball Charming that just consists out of 13 2-minute episodes that just feature two robots talking to each other and do random things.

It’s the perfect series for if you’re looking for a quick watch, though. The original Fireball series already was this, but Fireball Charming actually manages to improve on the original series in a lot of different ways. Instead of going with much of the same formula, Fireball Charming aims to be bigger, faster, more random and more dynamic and creative. And it succeeds.

What you often see with comedy sequels is that they end up running out of inspiration, and yet none of this applies for Fireball. Heck, I could listen to Drossel and Gedachtnis for ages at this rate. The creators try to stuff a lot more dialogue in each episode than even the original Fireball, making every second interesting. One nasty side-effect of this is that it really jumps around: there’s no lead-up to anything. and the characters just randomly jump from one topic to the other as you’d expect from two hyperactive robot who have been stuck in the same castle for thousands of years.

The biggest difference with the first season is that this time, the creators really like to show off how good their animation is. Not only does this show look absolutely gorgeous and makes full use of 3D technologies, it also takes every chance it gets to show interesting images, animation and it really likes to throw in as much creativity as possible.

Now, random humour alone isn’t necessarily funny: if Fireball would just have been randomness for the sake of randomness it would have gotten boring really quickly, even for its length. However, it has a great comedic timing and a very eccentric sense of humour that is hard not to like. Not to mention that it has two very likable main characters.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Short but sweet. Completely random and jumpy but consistently interesting to watch.
Characters: 8/10 – No depth whatsoever, but a likable cast this certainly is.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Absolutely gorgeous CG. A feast for the eyes.
Setting: 8/10 – Has a virtually limitless supply of random things to throw at the viewer, and interestingly uses its own setting.

Suggestions:
– Kimagure Robot
– Marie & Gali

Showa Monogatari – 11

by psgels, posted in Showa Monogatari



Okay, so I know that this isn’t getting subbed and all, and the fact that it has only one cute girl and no hot guys were bound to make it ridiculously ignored, but seriously: someone sub this. I know the acting isn’t at its best, but I keep seeing more and more people who want realism in anime. This is by far the most realistic series of the season!

It’s surprising how few anime seem to focus on bad boyfriends, the only recent one that I can think of right now is Colorful. Are moe girls really that pure that they only attract guys with no personality or something? While previous episodes of this show may have been a bit overacted, this episode hit all of the right notes: it never was too dramatic, and yet it revealed that the guy that Yuuko had a crush on was both a criminal and cheating on her. It’s not like these problems resolved themselves in 50 years time in Japan, right?

This was a pretty great portrayal of the teenaged years. It had angst, but this didn’t come with the cliches that you usually see in anime and it really was about problems that anyone could have had. I really liked this conclusion to Yuuko’s arc. I imagine that the final two episodes will be about Kouhei’s brother. He’s been strangely ignored during the past few episodes.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Steins;Gate – 13

by psgels, posted in Steins;Gate



Okay, so I’ve complained that the characters in this series are too one-sided. Okay, I take that back. With such brilliant acting as in this episode, Okabe and Mayuri have more than shown that they are awesome characters. This episode was just amazing.

Let alone the plot twist at the end of this episode, it rocked because of Okabe and Mayuri’s rock-solid performance. The trust between everyone also was incredibly well detailed, and I especially liked Mayuri as she got dragged around without knowing what’s going on, and how Okabe traced back what she had been doing in the past episode. With this episode the relationship between the two of them really shined.

The biggest questions were asked at the beginning of the episode, and most of them revolve around the part-timer: why didn’t she warn about the obvious villain of Shining Finger, but instead was so hung up over Makise Kurisu? She seemed to know her when she talked to her with those cryptic lines. Also, “42”? Was that really meant to reference the answer to life, the universe and everything or is it just technobabble that we’re only supposed to understand over a few months?
Rating: *** (Awesome)

The World God Only Knows II Review – 72,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




The second season of The World God Only Knows has some good points. At the very least the girls that Keima has to conquest (read: get a kiss from) aren’t as terrible as the idol or the rich girl of the first season. Unfortunately, there just still is too much wrong with it for me to really rate it any higher than its predecessor.

Really, I only barely managed to finish this series. If I had to give a tip for anyone checking this out: don’t expect anything from it. The world God Only Knows doesn’t aim to be anything big or spectacular. It’s just there for really light entertainment and to provide some interesting observations about dating sim games. It’s not deep, it’s not funny, it doesn’t have any good characters, nor does it have particularly impressive animation (this is without a doubt Manglobe’s least visually impressive series; just about everything looks generic here). In every area, it does just enough to be watchable.

There are a number of good arcs in this series, in particular the middle one that actually makes use of the build-up that the first season provided (something that unfortunately the rest of the arcs don’t do). It’s here where this show jumps away fro its formula, delivers its best characterization and the most interesting and least stereotypical character of the series. The problem is that all of the other arcs left something to be desired with.

This series follows the same format as the first: we first get a long arc detailing a “conquest”, followed by a short arc detailing something random about either the world of this series or dating sims in general. The long arcs suffer from stereotypical and one-sided characters along with nonsensical conclusions. The short arcs suffer from being completely stupid and moronic. Really, those episodes are completely terrible.

The thing with this series is that it does take care to give its characters interesting back-stories. That’s why I’m not giving this one a terrible rating, and all of the main arcs have their points that make them worth watching. But there’s just way too much fundamentally flawed with this series. This series doesn’t feature a series where a guy needs to save random girls who are infected by evil spirits, it feels more like a guy who needs to collect various characters who magically escaped from his games.

The characterization in this series leaves much to be desired: everyone in this series just has one side, sometimes that side has a twist, but there is nothing other to these characters beyond that twist. Even the main characters suffer from this! I could forgive the first season for that due to the lack of time, but come on: it’s already been 24 episodes and they’re still the same stereotypes.

This series advertises itself as a light-hearted parody, but the problem is that it’s just not funny. This show just doesn’t know how to write comedy: Elcea still is the most obnoxious character, and any joke this show attempts to make falls flat on its face due to poor timing: everything in this show is slow and mellow, even the delivery of the jokes. This show includes a lot of references to other stories, but that’s just what they are: random references that try to be clever, yet aren’t.

At the very least Elcea doesn’t try bathing with Keima anymore, and that second arc finally took this show somewhere other than just a cliche fest, but the main reason why I’m rating this series lower than the first is because it’s a much bigger chore to sit through. The terrible, terrible side-arcs are part of this, but the big factor is that this show has had 24 episodes now and I’m getting really tired of it. I don’t enjoy watching the majority of this series. It’s a miracle that I even kept with it, but that is mostly because people keep telling that the future arcs get better. I’ve been hopelessly caught in this series, hoping for it to finally turn good, fueled by a few good parts here and there that affirm this and yet this bloody show keeps testing my patience over and over with its cliches and complete stupidity.

Storytelling: 7/10 – It’s sufficient, but refuses to try and stand out. There’s a lot of meh in the way it delivers its story, most notably on how slow and monotone it can get.
Characters: 7/10 – It’s a character study, so the characters at least are well explored. They’re all (with the exception of perhaps one) still game stereotypes, though. If they were enjoyable to watch then okay, but more often than not they’re not!
Production-Values: 8/10 – Adequate. But for Manglobe’s standards it doesn’t stand out in any way.
Setting: 7/10 – Offers nice trivia at times, but most of this series isn’t about games, it’s about games in the eyes of an obsessed fanatic. This show did the opposite of what it was supposed to do and made my (someone who never plays visual novels) image of dating sims even more jaded than it already was.

Suggestions:
– Kuragehime
– Hanamaru Youchien
– Skip Beat

Ao no Exorcist – 11

by psgels, posted in Ao no Exorcist



Just… what?

So it was clear that we were getting a filler episode in this episode, and a beach episode at that. Obviously I wasn’t looking forward to it. But what was that? Who the hell wrote this? There was so much wrong with this episode, but I have no idea whether it was in a bad way. In either case it was completely stupid. And next week we’re going to an amusement park?!

Rather than a filler, this feels like we’re in a completely different series. The beach part doesn’t even matter anymore. From out of nowhere the creators suddenly introduce a young boy who acts like he’s been part of the main cast for ages. The show does the same with a guy who obviously looks like he’s cross-dressing in his spare time and then it suddenly comes with a giant squid story. The subsequent fight establishes the squid as the dumbest monster alive, only followed by a completely bizarre anti-climax.

T=Here’s the thing: as stupid as this episode was, I enjoyed it. The creators actually tried to do something different, and I admit that that climax had me in stitches and the episode overall was a unique experience that was definitely creative…

But it also completely destroyed the credibility of this series…
Rating: @!# (???)

Hana-Saku Iroha – 13

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha



This was a wonderful conclusion to the past arc. Instead of using the midway climax as the most dramatic of the episodes so far, it was actually really warm-hearted and entirely focused on character development. Ohana’s mother’s visit was very down to earth and it showed something new about pretty much the entire family. Ohana’s mother’s advice and presence really brought change to this series.

I especially loved that the characters weren’t afraid to use liquor in this. That always turns out to be a great way to flesh out characters. It’s a bit weird for Ohana to get drunk on soda, but the way it finally made her lay out her feelings was really worth it. It also was quite unexpected that Ohana’s grandmother suddenly started drinking. Through this episode you could really see that Ohana, her mother and her grandmother are related: they’re all big workers, even though their personalities are completely different. The only oddball here is Ohana’s uncle: this episode really established him as a third wheel, and I suspect that the rest of this series is going to make use of that.

Also, since next week will be a beach episode, it’s clear now what format this show is going to follow. Setting aside the fact that beach episodes are bloody overused, this show will follow about the same format as Tiger & Bunny: the first half has random episodes with a long climax, the second half also has random episodes followed by a bit of a longer climax.

That’s not a bad thing by the way. When an episodic series is done well, it’s the second half where its episodes really start to shine because it’s there where the characters really start to show themselves off, and it’s here where the creators can really play with their development.It’s been a while since we’ve had series like this, so I’m quite interested to find out whether Hana-Saku Iroha and Tiger & Bunny can pull them off again. It’s a format that I really like because it can lead to a lot of variety. Whether or not we’ll already see this with the beach episode though… I’m not sure…
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Tiger & Bunny – 13

by psgels, posted in Tiger & Bunny



And wit this we conclude the first half of Tiger & Bunny. This episode was… interesting, because it wasn’t exactly the best episode of the TV-series. Because the previous episodes built it up so meticulously this episode pretty much did everything you’d expected, without much surprises aside from Kotetsu using his head again. It’s good build-up though: Barnaby and Tiger will receive a lot of development from this episode.

The thing with Tiger & Bunny is that it’s really entertaining when building up, and it looks like the random episodes will continue again after this arc, so this is definitely promising to become even better. It’s there where this series can really start using its build-up of the first half. I expect the second half of this series to continue with a similar pattern as the first half, with it ending with a climax that focuses both on Lunatic and the fact that the entire city looks like the Ouroboros logo.

What I do hope is that that final arc will use its characters more. That’s the only thing that really bothered me in this episode: in the end everyone aside from Kotetsu and Barnaby was pretty useless and the only parts where they actually helped to solve things were just… cut out. I want to see the creators come up with a story that doesn’t just require the powers of everyone, I want them to come up with a scenario that puts all of them in the spotlights. They’re all great characters, they deserve that.
Rating: * (Good)

Deadman Wonderland – 11

by psgels, posted in Deadman Wonderland




Holy crap! Now that’s some awesome animation worthy of the label of Manglobe. This episode was really well produced, the camera angles were strong and the animation for once was dynamic throughout the entire episode, instead of leaving that just to the money shots. That really was the kind of animation that brings something extra to the characters.

And this entire episode was just wonderful. It had neat ideas, and even though Ganta’s new powers made no physical sense whatsoever they were damn well animated, and I like that the creators used his anemia to just prevent him from going all out. This should have been used better by other characters though, like how does the Branches of Sin armor work? that also looks like it drains a lot of blood there.

But… unfortunately we’re nearly at the end. The problem with this episode was that it asked some really intriguing questions that it’s never going to be able to answer in just one episode, even if they go with an original ending. There are like, what? nine villains left at this point who all still need to be wrapped up? Yeah, that ending isn’t going to be pretty. Not to mention that little girl, who I just realized has a father in the ED that looks a bit too much like one of the members of the resistance.

What especially intrigued me abut this episode, aside from the obvious excellent direction and characterization, is the scars on both Mockingbird and Shiro. What happened to them? How are they still fine after the crazy kinds of operations that this show likes to perform on its prisoners?

Oh, and take that, Sailor Moon!
Rating: *** (Awesome)

X-Men Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, X-Men




Overall, the past season has turned out to be excellent, but there is one interesting are where it is below average: the animation. Unfortunately, the earthquake’s mark on the anime industry shows up the clearest here. And so we got quite an interesting series to walk away with the award for the best animation of the season: this one.

This series doesn’t look as good as Madhouse’s best looking series, but it still is a wild and vivid looking series. the colours are really varied, the animation is bold and strong and the character designs are completely unlike any other anime out there, even considering that this is based on an American franchise.

If you’re also looking for good action, then this show has it, and buckets of it. It’s a really well directed show in technical terms: the action is plentiful and always moving, making sure to alternate enough between characters to keep everything dynamic. Couple this with the gorgeous animation and you’ve got a very entertaining series to watch.

Now, where this show falls down a bit is the plot. It’s not bad like Iron Man or anything, but it made a number of core design decisions that prevented the story from fully delivering. The creators unfortunately tried to do two things at the same time: first of all they wanted to make an epic and action-packed action series, and on the other hand they wanted to create a serious drama about mutants and teenagers with powers and the people around them. These don’t really blend well together.

The result is an action-packed series that tries to be deep, yet doesn’t have the time to actually flesh out its characters. It has like five different villains who all are tied together, and yet it has nowhere near enough time to focus on all of them, leaving some key villains as dull and uninteresting. On the side of the good guys meanwhile, the creators introduce a rather annoying new character. You want to see the X-Men kick ass? Well, there’s a Mary Sue amongst them who keeps stealing their spotlights. This reduces Storm in particular to someone who doesn’t just do anything, but the rest of the cast also particularly near the end is ignored in the favour of some random whining teenagers. Essentially the entire final conflict is nothing more but dictated by Teenaged angst and emo. This doesn’t work with characters who aren’t well fleshed out!

This is a shame, because the parts about the X-Men themselves are quite good Wolverine in particular is a lovable character, but the tension between them is also healthy and interesting, and whenever the teenagers aren’t at the centre of the attention this show really kicks ass. It’s just a shame that the finale of this series, the place where everything was supposed to come together, gets completely dominated by teenagers who don’t know what they want to be. Compare that to the Wolverine series: it knew exactly what it was, it knew exactly what it wanted to do and all of the characters knew their roles and were fleshed out sufficiently, while at the same time the series delivered a lot of neat action. Its acting and production values may have been horrible, but this balance is something that unfortunately the X-Men lacked majorly, and that’s why they get the same rating.

Storytelling: 7/10 – Doesn’t know what it wants to be, and therefore doesn’t come together at the end leaving a bad taste. It’s really good at writing action scenes, though.
Characters: 8/10 – A bit of a mixed bag, but most of the characters are interesting enough to keep watching. The teenagers just aren’t.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Gorgeous animation and visuals and a strong soundtrack to boot.
Setting: 8/10 – The backstory behind the X-Men remains a fascinating one.

Suggestions:
– Wolverine
– Toward the Terra
– Read or Die OVA

X-Men – 12

by psgels, posted in X-Men



So, I guess that this is where the string of awesome endings ends then. This episode on its own was already pretty lukewarm, but I have to be harsh after having seen such a string of fantastic endings: this episode could have been much better.

First of all, the technical terms. This series had consistently the best animation of the entire season, so you’d expect the animators to really go all out this season. And instead they come with a finale where people mostly stand and talk about cheesy morals and values. Oh sure, there was eye candy, but everything suddenly happens in still frames. It still looks better than many other series this season, but it just didn’t live up to the standards this series set.

The production values weren’t necessarily the problem, but the dialogue was: it was dull. not well built up and wasn’t what this series had been building up to in the first place. Characters just stand helplessly after attacking… once, and they just talk about trying to convince Takeo not to emo. That’s just cheesy.

In the end, my biggest fear for this show turned out to be true: Hisako is a freaking Mary Sue. None of the regular characters did anything in this episode, just so that Hisako could take the spotlight. This series refuses its cast to shine just because of Hisako. Cyclops only got a few lines to get over Jean’s death while this episode just kept repeating Takeo over and over.

In the end, I’m unfortunately going to have to rate this as high as Wolverine. I still think that it’s better than Wolverine: its action and animation are just too superior for that, but the plot of the X-Men just turned out to be a disappointment. The only thing that I can really praise is the way in which Sasaki Yui was actually the villain, but even that was just glossed over in this episode thanks to Hisako’s “Sasaki is a good person!”-thing. The thing is that I really like a good action series, but this series ignored just too many chances to shine thanks to Hisako. Storm and Cyclops got reduced to mere side characters who never got to do anything. The direction of the series in the small scale is really good. In terms of the bigger picture though, it left a lot to be desired. Compare that to Wolverine: it knew what it was, it delivered on that and it made sure it was really entertaining in the process. The token female also knew who she was and what her part was, and it nicely made all its subplots come together and give all of them a nice conclusion in the end.

It’s a shame, because I saw the two big flaws of this series coming from very early on in the series. The way in which the series kept juggling around villains was bound to backfire: Sasaki Yui was the big exception because she tied the U-Men together, but when the focus suddenly turned to Takeo the show fell apart: we know just too little of him, and the cheesy messages to get him back in this episode had no meaning behind them whatsoever. It’s just the same cheesy morals that you see everywhere. We never really saw anything from Takeo to warrant this.

It’s the thing about enjoyment again: I really enjoyed the X-Men, but the flaws are big enough to leave a bad taste; especially this episode. Wolverine in comparison was consistently entertaining and left no bad taste whatsoever. The big problem with this series in the end was that it didn’t know what it wanted to be: on one hand it wanted to be an action series. That’s fine, but then don’t throw in Takeo or Hisako. On the other hand they wanted to focus on child mutants and their issues. If that’s the case, then drop the action or at the very least make it a much less significant part of the series, get a good voice actress for Hisako and focus more on their characters. This series tried to do both and got tied up.

And I now just realize that I typed up half of the review of the actual series. Um yeah. Expect a lot of repeats in the actual review…
Rating: – (Disappointing)