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)

Gosick – 23

by psgels, posted in Gosick



Oh what the hell. This week has been absolutely amazing in terms of anime. Here we yet again have an awesome episode. Steins;Gate, Anohana, C, Enma-kun and now Gosick. All of them completely delivered. This week has turned out to be an amazing closure to the past season!

This was the kind of episode that was entirely building up to its final minutes, but those minutes were extra sweet because of that. I’m really surprised how this episode shifted Kujou’s role, and actually made him enlist in the military in order to prevent getting kicked out of the country. From that position though, he couldn’t really do anything, and instead the one who saves everything turned out to be… Cordelia. The fight between her and Marquis de Blois was really well animated, and a fitting climax. I really admire the creators that they didn’t go with the most predictable turn of events.

Overall the plot too wrapped itself up quite nicely. This episode really focused on Marquis de Blois’s obsession over the Occult, and how he’s using it to deceive people. The only question mark is why he found it a good idea to allow Victorique to speak. That’s the kind of logic that ends up killing your average bad guy, but in this case this was not vital to Cordellia’s plans: all she had to do was dress up as Victorique and Marquis de Blois would come to her eventually. Red Haired guy’s illusions would have been more than enough for this switch trick to work.

Also, I’m a bit puzzled as to why this show is already announcing the third world war when it’s only 1925. This is an alternate history of course, but I do wonder why the creators decided to speed things up aside from it being handy for the plot.

Also: next episode. It should be entirely focused on Kujou and Victorique trying to find each other again, which really seems like a great conclusion for this series. It’s interesting that that there is no big mystery in these episodes, but that would have felt really out of place in the plot at this point. Either way, I’m really curious how they plan to end this thing.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Dororon Enma-kun Meerameera Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




I love remakes! I’m not sure what it is, but they nearly always seem to get made by big fans who really want to make something special out of them in order to do them justice. Take Casshern Sins with its amazing style and direction, or Tetsujin 28-Go which brilliantly made the context under which its original series was written into its storyline and made it a central theme. This also goes for the silly series. And damn. Dororon Enma-Kun’s new coat turned into a wonderful and outright crazy series to watch for the past season.

Let me first put up a fair warning though, because this show isn’t for everyone. I really mean it when this show is crazy. It’s also a fanservice series: the main character is a huge pervert and this show won’t shy away from any opportunity to show naked girls. It even has a character who runs out completely naked throughout the entire series. It’s filled with sexual references, and it’s completely juvenile in every single way.

In fact, when this series started I was really close to drop it. The first two episodes of this show are really bad, and they just feel like some random adventures with a lot of annoying kids and fanservice that just wasn’t entertaining at all. Only at episode 3 does this series show its real colours. From this moments, it just takes its fanservice to complete absurds. No idea is stupid enough for this series. From episode three onward, this series gets completely over the top in every single way. It’s filled with the most bizarre scenes, parodies some obscure references from the time in which the original Dororon Enma-kun was written, and the overacting reaches bizarre levels of ridiculousness.

I’d even label this over Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. It’s true that that series looks more unique and that it also have some really good ideas to base its episodes on, but Dororon Enma-kun has it completely upstages in terms of entertainment. If you can appreciate the juvenile humour, it is a ridiculously entertaining series. It takes one crazy idea and just makes it spiral out of control over and over without any sign of slowing down. Not all of the episodes are of the same level, but the really crazy episodes (there are about five of them throughout the series) are just completely awesome from start to finish and one hell of an entertaining ride.

Basically, this is the kind of series that I want to watch when I don’t feel like watching an intricate plot or deep characters: a show that really releases all brakes in order to be as entertaining as possible. This show knows how to upstage itself time and time again, and while it uses several running gags, there is so much creativity put into this thing that it never feels repetitive or dragged out. It uses its own ideas incredibly well and I had one hell of a time watching this. Pun semi-intended.

Storytelling: 9/10 – A “No idea is too crazy”-mentality. Completely over the top in every single way and uses its huge amounts of creativity to deliver a really entertaining series.
Characters: 8/10 – Obviously you shouldn’t expect any development here, and they really take time to get used to, but their antics get hilarious to watch.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Amazing soundtrack (seriously, this thing is completely awesome) and while the character designs look simple at first, there is a ton of creativity put into it.
Setting: 8/10 – Obviously it’s nothing special at first look: youkai invade the world and they need to be stopped. But it has so many ideas put into its run that it it becomes amazing.

Suggestions:
– Hoshi no Umi no Amuri
– Hakaba Kitarou
– Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen

Dororon Enma-kun Meerameera – 12

by psgels, posted in Spring 2011 Kaleidoscope



Okay, I know I already made a post for my Kaleidoscope this season, but I just can’t help but gush at how absolutely fantastic this ending was. This ending… it’s just unbelievable. If you thought the previous episodes were crazy: this one actually tops them. It’s been a long while since I saw an ending with this much BALLS. It was the perfect closure for this series. But what the hell did I just watch!? Seriously, who came up with this stuff?

This episode already started off hilarious with a Wacky-races parody of all things, but after that the characters just continued to pull all sorts of random powers out of their ass to upstage each other. It was a really creative final battle where things like popcorn were used to fight Enma’s fire for example, or glowing tangerines turned Kappaeru into a professional wrestler. Just when you thought that this couldn’t get any crazier, this episode pulled something more bizarre out of its ass.

And then… the finale. That was just… surreal. The entire series had been building up to Enma losing control of his fire powers. The OP kept unsubtly foreshadowing it, and when it finally happened… it just turned out to be a side-effect of his powers. I’m not going to say here what the real reason why his powers were sealed was. Just… watch this episode.

What I’m really amazed at is how all three endings of this season so far have been much better than I ever could have imagined. Anohana, C and Enma-kun: they all ended with completely amazing endings that brilliantly made everything come together that they had been building up to. Enma-kun has been incredibly juvenile, but ridiculously entertaining. If you’re looking for a series that’s completely crazy: go for it.
Rating: **** (Fantastic)

[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, The Money of Soul and Possibility Control




I’ll start off this review with a ranking of Kenji Nakamura’s series so far:
4. Kuchuu Buranko
3. C
2. Mononoke
1. Bake Neko

This guy is an excellent director who comes out every two years or so with new and interesting concepts, that are especially well directed, with bright and colourful graphics and interesting messages that other anime wouldn’t bother with. He has gotten to direct more different series than any other director so far. Even when he’s flawed, his series are just plain interesting. With C, we have his first series that follows a full storyline, rather than just a collection of short stories.

Now, C is an interesting thriller. Like Eden of the East, it focuses on social commentary, but this time it takes a look at the financial crisis. The best way to characterize this show is as “interesting”: the world it created is very original, the people that the main character meets throughout the series all have their own stories to tell to flesh out this setting, the battles and action scenes are really well directed: all of this is really interesting to watch, despite some major flaws.

Because yes, unfortunately this show is of the kind that tries to stuff way too much in way too little. This show is rushed as hell, which leads to problems that it can’t fully explain its setting, or that it can’t take the time to quietly flesh out its cast. A lot of plot twist happen completely out of nowhere because this series didn’t have time to build them up, because it was focusing on more important parts. But for a rushed series though: it held itself up really well.

This of course all depends on how easily your suspense of disbelief can be broken, but the pacing and scenario of this series continue to prevent this show from getting boring at all. Whenever this show is glossing over a detail, it’s doing so because it’s focusing on something else. The music in this series is really, really good, and the action scenes consistently belonged to the most creative and vivid of the entire season. Beyond that, it knows what parts it’s building up to and because of that it’s able to close off with a excellent finale that gives a satisfying conclusion by bringing the bits and pieces that it did manage to build up through its run together.

Now, C does not have the best acting here. It’s because of this that the characters take a bit of a time to get used to. The animation is unfortunately not the most detailed, and the entire series is full of distorted faces. The characters range from nothing special to actually quite interesting, but a big problem is that the main character belongs in the former category for a large part of the series. There are enough good characters to make up for that, though.

C has ambition and knows how to use it well. That’s the kind of series that I really like. This is the kind of series that would have been even better if it had more episodes to work with, but it prevented itself wonderfully from just driving into a wall. Instead this is a runaway truck who somehow manages to emerge still running at full speed despite having hit various things alongside its rampage.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Excellent scenario, and while the pacing might make you think that it’s going to turn into a trainwreck, it never does and only gets more dynamic and exciting.
Characters: 8/10 – Varied, from interesting to a bit of a boring main character.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Gorgeous art, though too many distorted faces and out of place CG.
Setting: 9/10 – Very creative backstory, interesting developments and while this obviously isn’t meant as an analysis of the financial crisis, it’s still very interesting in what it does with its setting. It leaves many things unanswered, but not enough to break suspense of disbelief.

Suggestions:
– Eden of the East
– Kuchuu Buranko

[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control – 11

by psgels, posted in The Money of Soul and Possibility Control



And with this, Kenji Nakamura shows that he can direct a climax. heck, I’ll go out on a limb here and claim that this was his best episode since Bake Neko. This episode…. I have seen too many unbalanced series up till now, so I really didn’t think that this show would be able to do it. This show was ambitious; there’s no doubt that it would have been even better had it had 24 episodes. Many shows preceded it: Fractale, Kuragehime, Eden of the East, Toshokan Sensou, Moyashimon, and Jyu Oh Sei: all didn’t seem to understand that they only had 11 or 12 episodes. And yet this show knows its limitations and tries to make a rushed, yet exciting and interesting compromise.

This ending left stuff unexplained, but it did give the key questions a satisfying answer. I especially like how this was resolved: in the end the financial district collapsed because the yen it was based on collapsed. It wasn’t even Kimimaro who ended up solving everything: it was the golden teeth guy who brought it down. Apparently that would also cause the world to reset itself. Mikuni probably didn’t chose this option because he was afraid to lose both his sister and his money. He kept clinging to the present, which is why he was able to so easily sell off his future.

Oh, and that fight. That fight between Kimimaro and Mikuni was absolutely wonderful. The animation and direction made it into an epic ending, the type that I stopped hoping for because there are just too many shows who promise this, and end up too mundane. This was bold, daring and excellent to watch. This is really what I’m looking for in action scenes.

Thinking back, Kenji Nakamura has always had a knack for endings, but it still came as a surprise as to how good this episode was. It was obviously rushed, but it didn’t break my suspense of disbelief. Of course series that are completely logical and explained are wonderful too, (and again, C would have been even better if it got the chance to explain all these things), but the kinds of shows that test the boundaries of suspense of disbelief, yet never actually cross them are awesome too. Although with those shows you really delve into “your mileage may vary’-territory, since everyone has a different suspense of disbelief.

As the final twist, I really liked that in terms of the big picture… nothing really ended up being solved. In the new world, there just was another Financial district lending out Midas Money. Kimimaru&co didn’t really change anything, they just prevented one guy from destroying countless futures.

Overall, if this wasn’t Noitamina and gotten its length doubled, it could have been better than even the likes of Madoka Magica. Unlike most rushed series though: this series rocked. It had its problems, it didn’t have the best acting, but it had more than enough to make up for it.

As for the next Noitamina: Summer will have two adaptations, while Autumn will have two original series. With that, the writers are really going to have to pay attention to make everything fit, and end at the right moment. For examples of how to do this right: Sarai-ya Goyou, Genji Monogatari and Hourou Musuko. As for Usagi Drop, the guy behind the series composition will be a complete mystery, so we can’t say anything about that, yet. As for No6’s Seishi Minakami: he’s more of a really, really good writer than a good pacer: some of the shows he wrote and adapted are perfectly paced and fit really well in their time, while other are either too long or too short, with the biggest offender being Shigurui, who just ended. If the story itself is any good though, he is the guy who can make it even better and that’s why I’m looking forward to it. But yeah, I am not going to expect the endings for the upcoming Noitamina series to be as good as the two we got to see with C and Anohana.
Rating: *** (Awesome)