Inazuma Eleven GO
Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to play football.
So, on one hand this is a typical kiddie show: we live in a world which is entirely dedicated to football, we have a random teenager who has a simple personality yet a lot of passion for the sport, and there are evil people who abuse their superpowers in order to… close down a school’s football club. Oh, and we live in a world where footballs are like boomerangs: they always come back no matter where you kick them. In terms of that, this was a very formulaic episode. Nevertheless, it’s been a while since I saw the opening episode of a kiddie show actually being able to build up tension this well. This episode was quite silly, especially the guy who was supposed to be the bad guy, but I’ve certainly seen worse kiddie shows. The most notable of it all was that the dramatic scenes actually worked despite the cheese.
OP: Sung by a guy who is really trying to compensate for the fact that he can’t sing.
ED: Generic J-Pop
Potential: 35%
Tiger & Bunny – 06
Okay, so the title of this episode seemed to suggest that it would be an episode about Fire Emblem; it wasn’t. It’s instead about a villain who also uses fire as a weapon. Of course Fire Emblem did make many appearances in this episode, and even though we didn’t get to know anything about his past, he only got more adorable through is antics.
Instead, we got ourselves a major villain. His introduction was a great one: usually when a main villain gets introduced, he just appears in one shot, trying to look cool. This guy immediately succeeded in making himself into a threat by linking him to Barnaby’s past, having him brutally kill previous villains and by by making his flames far more effective than the fire user of the group. This show has a lot with people with the same powers.
The chemistry between the characters is still amazing. Especially the interplay between Tiger and Bunny is great, and this episode also showed Tiger and Fire Emblem together, and they too make a great combo with each other. I especially love how the creators also aren’t afraid to build up jokes during the exciting parts, somehow succeeding not to make the jokes feel out of place. What’s more: this show has these things that you’d think are random jokes at first, yet prove to be important plot points later on, like the prank photo that Tiger made on Barnaby’s cell phone and the suit designer being claustrophobic. It’s all weaved wonderfully together.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Hana-Saku Iroha – 06
So, this show is really seems to be going with the “first half random stories, second half plot”-format. This episode was once again a standalone story. With this though, I also realized what I’ve been missing through the past four episodes:
There are two keys to a great first half for such a format: it needs to have strong individual stories and it needs to use those stories to build upon the main setting and characters. This series has the latter covered: the second half of this show has a ton of potential considering the amount of build up that the past number of episodes have been putting into it. That’s fine. It’s just that I don’t really find the stories of the individual episodes that interesting.
So yeah, in this episode the characters got to dress up in fetish outfits: first there were the china dresses and then there were the maid-ish outfits. The whole story around trying to innovate the bathhouse wasn’t really interesting because of how it just limited itself to random outfit changes. It never bothered to look at the big picture. It’s obviously building up to something, but this episode in itself didn’t really stand out. It was too mundane.
Still, we got a few hints to grandmother’s past and uncle’s background. This episode did serve its job of delivering variety and fleshing out the characters. The only thing I didn’t like about that part was that we now indeed get confirmed that Tohru has a crush on Ohana. Love Triangles are really dangerous: they very easily can take over the entire series if the creators aren’t careful. Please, let them be careful.
Rating: (Enjoyable)
Ao no Exorcist – 04
So this episode showed that this show doesn’t necessarily have to rely on its action scenes. The episode in this episode was short, and instead it was much more about the character who I suspect is going to be the female love interest. Overall, this episode served its purpose quite well: we now have a love interest who already has a good backstory and has been nicely fleshed out.
And that’s the great thing about this series: it may not be anything new, but the things it does, it does really well. For a moment I was a bit afraid of the cliches taking over this series, but by now it has shown that it’s going to turn into one of the examples of how this kind of premise should be done well.
The main character is still a bit annoying, but I doubt that this will remain for long. Even this episode, which focused on a completely different character for once, had plenty of scenes that fleshed out the two brothers again.
Oh, and another plus of this series: I can actually see this working well in a 24 episode series: on one hand it has enough time to create a good cast, and at the same time its backstory is not way too ambitious: we have a pretty clear goal and path laid out by the first two episodes and the main character isn’t the type to beat around the bush as soon as he finds a way to kill Satan. It can be a good yet compact story that can both deliver on the action and wrap itself up without much problems, even if the manga does go on for longer. The creators have already showed that they know how to improve the storyline of the manga for the better (or so I’ve heard, of course).
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Hen Zemi – 05 & Yondemasuyo, Azazel-San – 05
This week I’d like to talk about what I’d like to call “The completely disgusting comedy block”. They air right after each other, they’re only ten minutes long and I’d run out of time to talk about the other series this season if I did both of them in a separate post. First of all, Hen Zemi.
The TV-series of Hen Zemi is not as good as the OVA. At first I thought that, if this were to happen, it’d ruin the entire series, but surprisingly it’s still worth watching. It did lead to bizarre situations as the previous episode, which… was entirely censored because of how much nudity was in it. It wasn’t just filled with black screens: it seemed like the animators outright refused to draw any of the explicit stuff.
The biggest downside of the TV-series though is that the dialogue just isn’t as good. The characterization in the OVA was so detailed and dynamic that it really got under my skin. The TV-series mainly is about the antics of a bunch of perverts, nothing more, nothing less. Whereas the OVA would go into great detail about breast sizes, this show just keeps making small boob jokes. That kind of stuff.
The characterization still is good though, and surprisingly enjoyable considering how this is a fanservice show. This episode for example was quite down to earth and actually added quite a bit to the cast of characters. Especially that mother who just keeps interrupting was hilarious, especially with that smirk on her face. The dialogue still is based around people talking to each other, and for what it does, it does this well.
As for Yondemasuyo Azazel-san: I love Tsutomu Mizushima as a director, but he’s not perfect. He is undoubtedly the king of extreme comedy: His series always have the most extreme overreactions and a sense of energy that I haven’t been able to find somewhere else. The big danger is this turning into a gimmick, though. The best example of that are Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-Chan and Dai Mahou Touge: they’re both series that look like cute mahou shoujo, yet instead have a completely brutal and badass main character instead. The big problem with those two shows was that whey were only funny for one episode when they still had their shock value, and became completely tedious afterwards. That was my biggest fear for Azazel-San.
This fifth episode however showed that Azazel-San has enough material to remain hilarious. On top of taking comedic facial distortions to another level, it also has a lot of fun messing with demon summonings and uninspired episodic stories by subverting the hell out of them. The comedic timing in this episode in particular was excellent, but the jokes were also quite creative. I love how the ultimate weapon that any demon can have is simply violence
Apart from being ridiculously over the top I also love these small touches like Azazel continuously ranting and laughing in the background, or how the whole setting is based on something really risky (like how this episode showed what would happen when a summoning goes wrong).
Overall, this is a pretty nice season for comedies. There is nothing side splittingly funny, and yet there are quite a few inspired, well written and well paced series that are quite funny to watch. All of the series however lack something that really places them amongst the great comedies.
Rating: * (Good) (Hen Zemi) / ** (Excellent) (Azazel-San)
Deadman Wonderland – 04
This. Is one heck of a mind-screw. I mean, holy crap: this episode went even farther than this show already has in order to make the main characters’ life hell. Heck, this episode devolved into complete psychological torture! Even Shiro here proved that she isn’t god-moded as well, being captured like that.
This prison is completely crazy. Even the Number Pads on the security locks are scrambled up in order to confuse people. It’s so crazy that it has a badass violent inmate who is scared of breasts and an unregistered prisoner doesn’t even catch their attention.
These don’t have to be criticisms, of course: we have yet to learn of Shiro’s story. It’s already been established that something is really strange about her, and people hardly seem to notice her. Also the boob phobia is a neat quirk as long as it doesn’t overtake Crow’s character (which, in this episode, it didn’t do that at all).
Four episodes in, and the characterization has been pretty consistent: neither good nor bad, but it works. This series mostly makes its characters interesting by showing the way they react when confronted with everything that goes on in Deadman Wonderland. The cast in particular makes sure that the story just keeps going on: there’s always something interesting happening. The downside to this is that the characters never have the time to really sit back and do nothing, which is especially visible in the lead character. So far though, it’s got enough to make up for it, and I can’t say that for every series that has stiff acting this quickly.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
X-Men – 05
Well, the message at the beginning says it all: last week, an episode of the X-Men was scheduled, but it didn’t air. Madhouse too was hit hard by the quake, and this was one episode that they just couldn’t finish in time. The irony is that this episode, despite being an obvious step back, still delivered. Compared that to Iron Man, which also suffered from production issues thanks to Redline: there it didn’t even look like they were trying.
So yeah, this was a build-up episode. It’s quite early, especially compared to Wolverine, but that series also had quite a simple plot. This episode was all about developing the trust between the old X-Men and their new characters. It’s the kind of episode where you can only tell whether or not it pays off when the series is finished. At the very least though: this episode gave some really clear hints that the bad guys will indeed get some major development as well. That’s good.
The thing with Hisako is mostly that she just feels out of place. It’s great to see an entire series about adults, and the tension between Emma and Scott is just much more interesting at this point than Hisako trying to gain control over her powers. And yet, I totally understand why the creators put her in the series. The X-Men have always been about providing a stable environment for mutants to grow up in. Youth is a very big theme in the franchise, despite the main cast all being adults. And Granted, Hisako could have been a lot more annoying. She may be whining, but she’s always to the point, and… well, with the way she’s been treated, I don’t blame her in a lot of cases. Just… don’t let it go on for too long. The key to good whining is balance and granted, this episode did not have a perfect balance there. My main issue with her is just that she may have been a little too quick in becoming a part of the X-Men…
Rating: * (Good)
Gosick – 16
Yes! That’s the right direction, Gosick! These are the stories that I want to see. This episode was once again excellent, and focused exactly on what this series is good at. This really is the right direction for this series. Now don’t lose it!
Setting aside that this was probably the first episode f anime I ever saw that took place in Lithuania, this episode also showed Kujou at his best. He may have needed a little help to find out the place that Victorique was brought to when she was taken away from the academy, but I still loved how he pretty much did everything that he was supposed to do, and did not get bogged down by stupidity.
The train journey was also wonderful. It’s a great and down to earth way to introduce the major characters, but it also was quite an interesting way for Kujou to socialize a bit with his fellow passengers. The build-up around Brian Roscoe was also excellent. Not to mention how this episode introduced a certain famous chess machine that was used: The Turk, who even defeated Napoleon Bonaparte. Sure, the time frame is a bit off, but it’s nevertheless pretty neat to consider the idea that someone (Brian Roscoe) actually rebuilt it at some point.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Hyouge Mono – 05
A new OP? Already? For a 39-episode series? The ED also got a make-over. That certainly was… random, and yet it gave a totally different feeling, even though the visuals stayed the same. Ah well, it probably has to do with some licensing issues surrounding the break-up of the band who sung the original opening theme. And I must say, for something that had to be done on such a short notice, it works surprisingly well.
This episode wasn’t mostly about Sasuke, but he still cracks me up whenever he appears. As someone obsessive over aesthetics, he first marvels over the beauty of a horse, only to later outright steal. I must say, it’s very subtle how he did it, but especially his face as he swapped the wooden stir thingies was priceless. Bee-Train have always been really focused on non-verbal communication, but this show is on a completely different level on that. It’s both really subtle, and straight at your face.
What this show is also excellent at is keeping up its atmosphere throughout these long conversations between two people. The music obviously really helps there, but it’s also the above-mentioned characterization that’s just excellent: characters aren’t just talking with words, but also with their expressions and gestures. That makes the talking in this series much more than just exposition for the sake of exposition.
Oh yeah, and I know that I just keep repeating this and all, but I just can’t get over it that someone actually had the balls to make this series. Beyond being really good, Hyouge Mono is also the most unique series that Bee-Train made since .Hack//Sign. It probably won’t turn this way, but I really hope that this series’ mindset catches on. And with that I don’t necessarily mean make more shows that are about old dudes talking, but rather the mentality to take risks: the mentality to just immediately plan out the full length of your series, or the mentality to try something completely different for a change.
My only criticism with this episode: recaps. What were they doing there, and more importantly: will they get annoying in the future?
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai. – 04
What makes an amazing 11~13-episoded series is completely different from what makes an amazing 24~26 episoded series. The latter has time to build up and flesh out characters. The former however doesn’t need that luxury, and needs to deliver right from the start. And Anohana did that wonderfully: all four episodes so far have delivered, and all have been amazing so far.
The strength of this episode was that it took the heart-wrenching formula and added even more to it: a completely weird plot twist. When Hana-Saku Iroha did this with its third episode, it lost part of its charm, but this episode retained the tension and the emotional connection, while it also showed how Jinta isn’t the only guy member of the cast who completely lost it.
The awesome thing about this episode was that just about every character shined: Matsuyuki for insulting himself, Jintan for having the guts to actually try and talk to him, Chiriko for getting tired of him, Menma for consistently encouraging Jinta, Tetsudo for joining her and trying to keep the group together and Naruko for still trying to get Jinta to go out more. These characters all have their flaws, but this show always makes them play with these flaws.
Rating: ** (Excellent)