Supernatural The Animation – 15

by psgels, posted in Supernatural The Animation



Whoa, it’s now really time for the main storyline! And holy crap, talk about being brutal. This episode pulled some pretty nasty stuff on the main characters. This was quite an intense episode especially considering all of the developments that were made on the characters.

Throughout this entire episode, you could see hints that would usually point at a character being about to die (Sam and Dean’s father in this case), and yet he ended up surviving this episode, building even further upon the point that Sam made that killing father was not worth killing the demon. At the same time though, I do wonder why that demon took his time on trying to get that Colt. I mean, even if he didn’t want Sam to die, you’d think that he’d be easily able to just kick Sam and forcibly take the colt from him, seeing as it’s the only weapon that can kill him and all.

By the way, is introducing your girlfriend to your parents such a big deal in America? As in, is that an immediate sign of marriage? Isn’t that a bit extreme here? That twist in which the demon killed Jessica just as she planned that, does add a bit of cheese, but this episode had enough other stuff to make up for it. There was quite a bit of character development in this episode and considering how there still are quite a number of episodes left we’re in something really good here.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

OVA Impressions: Yozakura Quartet Hoshi no Umi – 02

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions, Yozakura Quartet - Hoshi no Umi




Yes. This is EVERYTHING that the original Yozakura Quartet TV-series should have been. Holy crap, talk about amazing action here. This was quite possibly the best action of this year so far. The dynamics and animation are… just totally something else. The fight against the giant golem in particular was just absolutely stunning. It’s not just the awesome animation, but also the creativity that went into it. I mean, how many others have characters summon a legion of stealth fighters from out of nowhere?

The direction really does wonders at bringing the cast alive. They’re all fun to watch, even outside of the action and this episode did not forget to insert some nice drama. Standalone it perhaps wasn’t that spectacular, but the way in which it was delivered worked out really well. The cast of this OVA is surprisingly large, but this show even makes the characters that it doesn’t spend any attention on stand out.

My one point of criticism is that sometimes the dialogue feels a bit uninspired. During the fight the characters just kept talking about special powers and who is stronger than who. I feel like there they could have tried a little harder but then again, the simple dialogue also has its charms.

And thankfully, there will be at least a third OVA in about half a year. Let’s hope that there will be more others to follow after that, because this show deserves a lot of airtime in order to fully tell its story.
OVA Episode Rating: 8,75/10

Supernatural The Animation – 14

by psgels, posted in Supernatural The Animation



Scriptwriting 101: if you’re planning to make a major character return to the main story, don’t name the episode in which this happens “Reunion”. It rather gives some major things away, doesn’t it?

so yeah, this episode was full of recurring characters, so even after that spoiler it still was quite interesting to see not just Sam and Dean’s father return, but also the vampires of a number of episodes back. This episode was surprisingly cold, considering that it was based on the long-awaited reunion that has been built up for thirteen episodes now, but then again:: this guy did leave the two brothers without any hint of what he was doing. It’s good to see that in this episode he finally becomes willing to share his information, rather than be all mysterious.

The story of this episode was fairly straightforward, actually, but it already was disturbing enough on its own. The thing is though, that it’s pretty much a copy of that other story, about the mother who sold her soul to the devil. Was this a red herring or something? Foreshadowing?
Rating: * (Good)

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