Hana-Saku Iroha – 03

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha



True Tears was a show that just kept you guessing. Whenever something major happened, you never were sure whether things were what they seemed. In Hana-Saku Iroha however, things are exactly what they seem. I know that Mari Okada wrote both of them, but the two shows had completely different directors, and yeah, that really showed in this episode. Talk about something completely different.

“Out of place” is the best way to describe this episode. To think that the creators would actually take the porn novelist seriously. The most surreal part was where Ohana started reading some of his work and started relating to a silly porn script (it’s good to see a girl to not act so stereotypically embarrassed like with a ton of other anime, but going too far into the other direction also leads to questionable acting…), but that suicide attempt of that novelist also was just plain weird.

Whether this episode was good or bad depends pretty much on the rest of this series. This is a show of 26 episodes and with the right amount of development this could be a neat way to flesh out the characters and show something new of them. It’s definitely good that this show tries to be different, but at the moment though, it felt like the majority of the cast was just acting out of character in this episode.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Tiger & Bunny – 03

by psgels, posted in Tiger & Bunny



Three episodes in and I must say that this series is making good use of its time. The past two episodes have put some good effort into developing the dynamics between the two lead characters and didn’t make them as cliched as they could have been. The previous episode was meant to set everything up, while in this episode they’re already changing. This holds great potential for the rest of this series.

The same goes for the setting: instead of doing random crimes each week, the creators make sure to make all of them count. The monsters and villains perhaps aren’t the most complex, but they each do their job of focusing on a different part of the setting. In this episode it was the boundaries of film crews, and how far people can go to capture exciting footage. I loved the twinkle in that director’s eye when she saw this opportunity to film two heroes diffusing a bomb in their spare time

As for the CG in this series, it’s obvious that the creators did not put in effort to make them blend in with the rest of the animation, but at least the creators are consistent: characters drawn in 2D area always in 2D, and 3D always remains in 3D. This is better than having animators randomly switch to 3D models that suddenly look completely different. Plus, the rest of the animation has quite a bit of movement in it, so for now I’m not too bothered by it. I’ve definitely seen worse.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Some Quick First Impressions: Ao no Exorcist and Deadman Wonderland

by psgels, posted in Ao no Exorcist, Deadman Wonderland, Some Quick First Impressions

Ao no Exorcist

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the son of a demon.
So, this turned out to be Shikabane Hime without its subtlety and without the girls. It’s definitely very shounen, even for the usual standards of the Prime Time Anime of the season, but it definitely has its good points. While it’s definitely aiming to be the epic of the season, it also can be quite charming when it wants to (that scene with the little girl and her father in particular was done really well). The characterization is also pretty good as well: the lead character looked like a moron on the promo art, but he’s surprisingly normal throughout most of this episode. That of course also has its disadvantages, most notably the way in which this episode started with him meaning well, but causing trouble at everything he does. Those kinds of scenarios are really getting old now, but at least this episode put more meaning into those scenes than just wasting time or going for cheap laughs. Oh, and the good news is that according to ANN, this will be 24 episodes. That’s definitely good news because 12 would not have fitted this story.
ED: I like the concept of a car driving across a highway, but the vocals remain cheesy.
Potential: 75%

Deadman Wonderland

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is sent to prison for a bunch of murders he didn’t commit.
Okay, we’ve found our horror seriers of the season. Seriously, that was intense. The majority of this episode was pretty much nothing but the creators doing everything in their powers to torment an innocent fourteen year-old boy. This definitely wastes no punches; heck, it delves into the bizarre, just to be as disturbing as possible. This show is definitely not trying to build up suspense of disbelief, which could hurt it in the longer run. The prison that the lead character ends up in in particular is just completely crazy, based around some rules that would normally cause a complete outrage and I can only imagine the deranged sociopaths that actually created it. But at the same time that’s also one of the potential strengths of this show. It may not have an ounce of subtlety, but this episode definitely was very creative. It has both huge flaws and huge strengths, so this really can go anywhere. Provided, of course, that twelve episodes are enough. the length will probably be the single biggest pitfall for this series.
ED: Unfortunately this is just a boring composition. Does not fit the dark mood of this show at all.
Potential: 80%

Supernatural The Animation – 13

by psgels, posted in Supernatural The Animation



For most of this episode, I was a bit disappointed. This series was being all mysterious, but it was obvious that the monster of this episode was a kappa. It was just another average story about a town getting attacked by what looked like a demon. Even the twist that the creature was good natured was predictable. At first sight, at least.

However, at that time I still expected this episode to end with some sort of action-packed climax as usual. And instead, this episode ended without conflict. Everyone just accepted the kappa story and moved on. That’s pretty neat. On top of that, stories about Kappas in regular anime are always told with the Japanese audience in mind: an audience who grew up with stories about Kappas. They’re always portrayed as these silly goofballs, and I never really got their appeal. Here though, Supernatural is aimed at both worlds, and because of this, this episode was actually able to give quite a detailed description on the nature of kappas. I like that.

Nevertheless, I still don’t agree with this series’ concept of luck. This episode had this again: without the Kappa’s inference, the town in which the main characters landed would have been a notorious ghost town, with so many accidents happening at the same time. It looks more like the Kappa causes disasters, only to save people from it. This also appeared in the unlucky coin episode. Interestingly, the few clips I’ve seen from the live-action TV-series (most notably this one, suffered from the same problem.
Rating: * (Good)

Cowboy Bebop – Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door is a movie of the category “glorified episode”, and it’s an excellent example of how to do such a movie right. It’s got a strong villain, interesting story, a varied scenario, gorgeous animation, makes good use of its airtime and pretty much delivers on all that it attempts. It doesn’t really add anything to the Cowboy Bebop Universe, but it’s still an excellent watch.

The movie has great action, not to mention that all of the action scenes are completely different from each other. The creators had more than enough experience for this movie, and this this leads to a number of amazing action scenes that actually are animated even better than the TV-series was. Like the TV-series, this movie is fun one moment, and incredibly tense the next.

The main villain is completely new, but the movie does a good job of making him into a threat. Careful attention has been put into his background and motivation, and yet these are delivered with as little words as possible. The subtlety of the TV-series also returns with some really good results in this movie, and the acting is wonderful again as well.

Now, I would not label this movie amongst the best episodes of the TV-series, though. Those episodes were masterful in telling a short story in a very short amount of time (just one or two episodes), while this movie does feel a bit too long compared to them. Obviously this is comparing it against a very high standards. Again: it may not add anything to the main characters, it’s still a very fun movie to watch.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Subtle, yet very well told.
Characters: 8/10 – Good villain, great acting.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Gorgeous action scenes and life-like animation.
Setting: 8/10 – Not the most interesting backstory of the TV-series, but still quite interesting and detailed.

Suggestions:
– Trigun – Badlands Rumble
– Mobile Police Patlabor Movie 1
– xxxHolic Movie (Warning: the review I wrote about this one is terrible)

OVA Impressions: Roujin Z

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions



Next up in the line of movies and OVAs with bizarre premises: in Roujin Z the city gets terrorized by… a hospital bed. For more details on exactly how and why, just watch this OVA, because it has quite some excellent action scenes, plus an interesting look at the problems of elderly care. Oh, and the director of Akira wrote the script of this one.

Above all, Roujin Z is meant to be a fun ride, with its bizarre premise that is both exciting and genuine at the same time. It’s the kind of action movie where things just keep spiralling out of control, and it makes good use of this. You also have to love how this movie specifically celebrates the old people: they get more than enough opportunities to shine in this movie, and most importantly of all: it’s very creative. Really, I applaud the creators for going with such a strange premise for a movie.

The action is also wonderfully animated when it wants to. This may just look like a random OVA, but quite a lot of budget went into it. The result is smooth animation, and a lot of creativity. with especially the climax an action-packed thrill ride. As usual with these kinds of movies, the characters aren’t the biggest focus, so they do lack in terms of depth, but make up for it in terms of charms.
OVA Episode Rating: 8,25/10

Take the X Train Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Ah, Rintaro. I’m quite aware that this guy has made some of the most notoriously bad movies in existence, and I refuse to review his bad stuff. But boy, when he is good, he really is amazing. I’ve rated three movies he directed with 90/100. Add that to the storyboard he wrote for the adaptation of the Diary of Anne Frank, and that makes four of his works that I consider to be absolutely fantastic and among my favourite movies ever. I LOVE this guy as a movie director. Now, Take the X Train is nowhere near his best work; it’s much more an experiment than a full fledged movie. But it’s definitely an interesting experiment.

It’s this weird 50-minute movie about a ghost train and some salaryman that is in some bizarre way connected to it, but it isn’t about the story at all, really. Instead, Take the X Train is all about its atmosphere, and in this way it stands out as something unique. It’s really bizarre at times, especially considering that it’s also an homage to Jazz music, but the direction makes this short look utterly gorgeous. The animation isn’t as consistent as some of Rintarou’s other works, but the visual images still can get quite amazing.

It’s quite an experience, and again I don’t think that there’s anything like this. This just tells nearly its entire story about a ghost train with this unique style, animation and weird characters. It’s hard to find, but worth the watch if you’re into something artsy.

Storytelling: 8/10 – The atmosphere has this undeniable charm to it. It’s really hard to describe.
Characters: 7/10 – completely one-dimensional, but likable.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Lots of creativity has gone into these visuals. This show is ugly, yet somehow looks great.
Setting: 8/10 – It’s a simple, but unique movie, definitely.

Suggestions:
– Memories

X-Men – 03

by psgels, posted in X-Men



The big question right now is whether or not that new character will go down the Mary Sue path: will she be a stable addition to the cast or will she completely take over the show with her powers? As a teenager, she doesn’t really fit amongst the characters of this series, but if she just remains in her role as victim who needs time to learn how to control her powers, then she’ll be a good addition to the plot.

Thanks to these cliches this episode was the least interesting X-Men episode so far. As build-up it should be fine, but at the same time this pace should not continue onto the next episode. Still, Emma Frost is a good addition to this cast, and she did a good job of being not obvious whether she was lying or telling the truth about having nothing to do with Jean’s death. That’s a nice thing for later on.

The most disappointing of this episode was the silly bad guy, though. He looked so cool, yet when he actually started fighting he completely lost control for no reason. I mean, Wolverine’s villains were also quite simple, but at least all of them kicked ass and were threatening in a fight.

Which brings me to the one thing that Wolverine did better than the X-Men: it had a convincing villain. Shingen perhaps was a bit too cool at times, but he stood apart, was a force to be reckoned with and he always had his presence. The bad guy here though… the U-Men still haven’t convinced me whether they’re something special.
Rating: * (Good)

Urusei Yatsura Movie 2 – Beautiful Dreamer Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Urusei Yatsura was the first series that Mamoru Oshii fully directed, having previously worked on episodes of Yatterman and Nils no Fushigi no Tabi. Now, it has 195 episodes, so I refuse to actually go sit down and watch it, but I always wanted to check out the first two movies of the series, which he also directed.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get past even twenty minutes of the first movie due to its incredibly cliched premise. I know that it was fresh at the time and all, but that single movie has been ripped off so many times by now that it has become a chore to watch. Not to mention that it has one of the worst male leads imaginable. The second movie though, is a different story. It’s probably the first point at which Mamoru Oshii first showed his unique style of directing that would later go on and create many classics.

You can pretty much watch it without having seen anything of the franchise before. I mean, the premise is just that an alien falls in love with a loser of a playboy, and the side-characters also all speak for themselves. This movie still pretty much features the main cast goofing off, but it actually has a very interesting plot.

My biggest praise at this movie is how balanced it is: there is just enough time devoted to people goofing off, there is quite a bit of attention to the setting and ideas behind the movie, there is the right amount of philosophy, romantic antics, action and weirdness. A lot of different characters all have their moments in the spotlights and yet it still feels like a complete movie.

On top of that, the animation is also pretty excellent; this movie especially shines in its portrayal of the chaotic scenes, whether this is focused on school life or some of the weirder plot twists in the story. The characters here all like to goof off, but yet they are portrayed with the kind of life that a lot of modern anime are missing. Instead of the excessive whining that you usually see in these teenaged school series, these people actually feel fun to be around. This movie is versatile enough to not make them boring, and the first Urusei Yatsura movie just showed how easy it is to just screw up with that.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Well written dialogue, well paced, really well balanced. A lot of fun to watch and pretty much succeeds at everything it attempts.
Characters: 8/10 – the characters still remain simple teenaged brats, but they are fun and interesting to watch thanks to the pacing and dialogue.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Very good animation, though admittedly not the best for movie standards.
Setting: 8/10 – An interesting premise based on bending reality.

Suggestions:
– Mahou Tsukai Tai OVA
– Maison Ikkoku
– Ranma 1/2

Tetsuji 28-Go – Hakuchuu no Zangetsu Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



If you thought that the 2004 series of Tetsujin 28-Go was obscure: meet the movie. Seriously, I could hardly find anything about it online. The only working version I found was a random raw somewhere on Megaupload. With so little attention on it, you might think that this is just another one of those recap movies. And actually, it isn’t.

This movie is standalone from the series, but I would recommend having seen the series before it. It builds further upon its themes, characters and setting. It really serves as an excellent complementary to the series, while having a good story for itself as well. Again, we see here focus on the 1960s. While most anime set in that era are focused on looking towards the future, Tetsujin 28-Go looks back. In fact, this movie is all about the fear of another atom bomb, and about the huge effects that the second world war had on the people of Japan. The TV-series already had this, but it really turned into the core theme of the movie. This relates back to the original Tetsujin 28-Go (pretty much the first giant robot series ever), which also was created with the earth shattering devastation of these weapons of mass destruction in mind.

This movie is 90 minutes long, but what surprised me the most is that it had relatively little action, especially compared to the TV-series. The action is only focused on a select number of key climaxes, with the rest of the movie being build-up and character-building. It took a bit to get used to, but it works surprisingly well. This movie also introduces one particular new character and it makes sure that he really makes his own impact on both the story and the characters. And yes, this remains a Yasuhiro Imagawa anime. The ending really is an excellent one that wonderfully uses its own build-up. It has nice action, but the real meat actually lies in the dialogue here.

Having said that though, this movie does get quite a bit far-fetched at times. Especially Tetsurou’s father did things that just… make you wonder about his sanity, but there also are other plot twists in this movie that perhaps took a few too many creative liberties. They’re used well, but seeing a things as an enormous robot with bombs as back-hairs gets a bit… hard to buy at times.

Storytelling: 8/10 – A bit long on the build-up, but comes together wonderfully when it counts. Excellent dialogue as well, though a bit far-fetched at times.
Characters: 8/10 – One particular character has suddenly gotten really annoying, but the rest of the cast is still very likable, plus the now characters are excellent.
Production-Values: 8/10 – The creators couldn’t get themselves a movie budget here. Pretty much looks the same as the TV-series.
Setting: 9/10 – Makes terrific use of its legacy, being based on the first mecha show ever made.

Suggestions:
– Giant Robo
– Rainbow
– The Big O