Gosick – 10

by psgels, posted in Gosick



With this episode, I’m sure of it: Gosick should just have been 13 episodes long. It’s very ironic that out of all the series this season, the only one that goes beyond 13 episodes is the one who doesn’t need that many episodes, leaving series as Yumekui Merry as way too short. Seriously though, if the creators cut off all of the bad arcs and just compiled all of the good stuff into one season, it would have been a very good series.

The current arc really has no business in this series. It completely failed its purpose to give Hair Guy some depth. All we now know is that he feels pressured, but that could easily have been done within a minute inside a different arc. It really made no difference for the story of this arc whether his past was revealed or not.

The story again suffered from the stupid virus once more. I mean, when your house gets searched by the police, and you’ve just collected the most priceless artifact imaginable, not to mention that you’re selling off young children. Even if you’re completely confident that they won’t find anything, why the heck did the bad guys in this episode not try to move everything to a different location? I mean, with the huge crowd he invited, there is just one thing that needs to go wrong and everything is ruined.

Also, did Kujou just really try to drop a priceless jewel on the floor, to test whether or not it was made out of glass? I mean, it didn’t break, but what if that drop scratched it?

Also, it’s a shame to see that this is very possibly the worst animated Bones series in years. I mean, what was up with that action scene at the end? Three frames with speedlines and suddenly everyone was captured. That’s just lazy, but the rest of this episode also just looked too mundane. You can see that at least some budget went into it, but none of the drawings really felt inspired or particularly well animated.

The only merit of this arc was Victorique. Especially that nightmare at the end of the episode was excellent. I’ve said this before: this series sucks in terms of the small picture, but it has some pretty good stuff in the big picture. Just cut away these random mysteries. This show just isn’t good at them.
Rating: – (Disappointing)

OVA Impressions: xxxHolic Rou – Adayume

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions, xxxHolic, xxxHolic Rou



For the fans of Gundam Unicorn who are complaining about slow release dates: the intervals between new xxxHolic episodes is a whole whopping year!

But dear god, was it worth the wait. Unlike what I previously expected, this episode doesn’t really aim to answer any question whatsoever. In fact, it doesn’t even address the cliff-hanger that the previous episode left us with, and no new news about Yuuko appears anywhere. The length of this OVA was about half an hour, and its purpose was completely different from the first xxxHolic Rou.

What this movie did do was incredibly heart-warming, though. It’s an entire episode full of subtle character-building on Watanuki and Doumeki. I mean, the changes that the first xxxHolic Rou episode brought forth were immense. This episode fleshes this out brilliantly by somehow doing the impossible and giving the characters even more depth than they already had. Yeah.

I mean seriously, xxxHolic already was by far my favourite Clamp series, and this episode only made it better. This episode was full of quiet discussions between Watanuki and other side-characters like Mokona, Doumeki and his grandfather. Doumeki’s grandfather is just about the only one who didn’t change significantly, and even he had a wonderful portrayal in this episode, worried about his grandson.

This episode also showed a few flashbacks to Watanuki’s past. And seriously, if there was any series in which such a small recap like that would would, it’s this one. For one thing, it was great to see Watanuki sigh at what a moron he used to be, but it also really reminded how it’s already been five years since I first started watching this series, and it reminded what kind of huge changes the characters went through. If you add all of the pieces of development together here, you really get an amazing cast of characters. And I really don’t hope that this was the last of the xxxHolic OVAs.
OVA Episode Rating: 8.75/10

Letter Bee – 48

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



Ah, this episode explained a lot. It didn’t just contain a lot of backstory, but it also really showed what the creators of the anime are trying to do here: they’re trying to close off the Letter Bee story while resolving all of the major questions and subplots. On one hand, it’s a shame that the sponsors didn’t give them the full chance to completely tell the story of the manga. On the other hand, it’s commendable to see the creators of the anime go through these lengths in order to avoid what is by far the single biggest and most frequent mistake of manga and light novel adaptations: completely cutting off the story and leaving you hungry for a sequel that will never arrive.

The small dip in quality really was their way to carefully wrap up the storyline without rushing it, and because the manga put so much meaning into it, they really had to take their time to let the story play out. Now that that’s happened, the past weeks have finally gotten back to focus on what made this show so great: the characters.

Because, yes! The creators didn’t cop out. I really was afraid when Noir turned back good that the creators would find some excuse to turn him back into Gauche, completely nullifying his development. They didn’t! This episode clearly states that Noir is still Noir. He now just happens to have similar goals as Lag. The scene in that cave between the two of them did an excellent job of using the build-up of both the early episodes and the anime original ones.

Also, finally! Lag’s mother makes her appearance. She’s the centre of all of the mystery here, and even though it was already pretty much established that she was that sun, it’s good to finally actually see her. Again, well worth the build up.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Read or Die OVA Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




The great thing about Read or Die (one of the great things at least) is that you can pretty much watch the OVA and TV-series in any order you’d like. They have one similar character and take place in the same universe, but they’re completely different stories about completely different characters with completely different styles of storytelling.

The TV-series was mostly slow-paced. The OVA’s pacing is fast. It doesn’t care about being solid, and instead its biggest goal is entertainment. It does this with a tight and fast-paced plot and gorgeously animated action scenes. It’s really meant to be an adventure OVA, and does a lot of things right, considering that it’s only an hour and a half long. It’s got a great cast of characters, and especially Yomiko Readman is adorable to watch even if you haven’t watched the Read or Die TV-series.

Like the TV-series though, this is stuffed with neat ideas. The concept of people using paper to fight evil is of course very creative, but again this is just the tip of the iceberg. The different powers and plots of the bad guys in particular are just a delight to watch because of how creative they can get to accomplish their not-so-creative goals (granted, they are bad guys who are evil for the sake of being evil; it’s the ways that they use to destroy the world that are the really interesting part). The plot itself is simple, but effective, neither being too big nor too small for an hour and a half of airtime.

Now, the fast pacing does have the disadvantage is that the only positive thing that I can say about a lot of the side-characters is that they look cool, because we hardly get to know anything about them, the bad guys in particular being a problem with this. Still, for an OVA of this size it definitely could have been done better, and the characters that it does focus on are well explored.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Excellent fast-paced entertainment, though does make a few sacrifices to keep the pace going.
Characters: 8/10 – One-sided bad guys, but the main characters are very enjoyable.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Amazing action scenes.
Setting: 8/10 – Full of neat idea.

Suggestions:
– Read or Die TV
– Yozakura Quartet OVA
– Hyper Future Vision: Gunnm

Heartcatch Precure Movie – Hana no Miyako de Fashion Show… desu ka? Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Heartcatch Precure




After the Precure Allstars Movie and Suite Precure, I was a bit wary of the Heartcatch Precure Movie, especially how it was made by different people than the TV-series. The way in which Toei just keeps coming with these cash-in movies definitely had me worried. That’s why I’m so glad that this movie did manage to capture the charms of the TV-series!

The first thing you have to know for this movie is that it has a bit of a misleading title. Yes, the cast travels to Paris in order to participate in a fashion show, but they end up doing something completely different. The real plot of this movie is very much like the TV-series: it follows your standard movie plotline, conforming to a lot of cliches, but it does this so well that it doesn’t really matter, subverting quite a few other cliches in the process.

You can see that the creators of this movie carefully discussed with the creators of the TV-series what this movie should be, unlike what was the case with the Precure Allstars movie. Imagine the TV-series animation, with a movie budget. The fight scenes here are animated even better with the same addictive combination of close-combat martial arts and long-range beams, rather than just trying to zap everything.

Now, this movie could be seen as a glorified episode, but it’s a bit more than just that. The story in this movie would have never worked as an episode because it really makes use of its allocated time of 70 minutes. It’s a whimsical adventure in a wonderfully portrayed Paris, but at the same time it paints a great picture of the two new characters that are introduced in this movie. Yeah, they both start out as stereotypical, but the movie really spends its time to make their characters more than just cliches. The villain in this movie rocks because of his dynamic personality and he’s got quite an adequate backstory, making him actually more than just someone who is evil for the sake of being evil. That’s not something I expect from a main bad guy in a Precure series.

And to top things off, the movie also contains just the right amount of slice of life, in which the creators get the chance to show off both the excellent cast of characters and the tourist areas of Paris. It’s the kind that isn’t just random fluff to sit through just to get to the good parts, and instead they’re all really enjoyable to watch, wisely making use of the TV-series that already did a ton of build-up on their characters.

It’s not like this movie came with some brilliant idea like with the first and third movie of Digimon; this movie isn’t going to break any bounds, but on the other hand, it just did everything it was supposed to. It’s a must-watch for fans of Heartcatch Precure. For people who have never seen it I wouldn’t recommend it, though. The best place to start this show is really the first episode.

The reason why I’m rating this lower than what I did for the TV-series simply has to do with its length. Heartcatch Precure was a consistently entertaining ride for fifty episodes that just kept amazing me and completely redefined what it meant to be a good Mahou Shoujo. This movie lacks that value and instead just does everything it does right. Blame me watching the Third Digimon movie for that.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Whimsical, exciting, charming and adorable. Conforms to cliches but does them really well.
Characters: 9/10 – Both the recurring and the new characters are wonderful to watch.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Perhaps not the best animation for movie standards, but compared to the TV-series the extra inbetween animation really had an excellent effect.
Setting: 8/10 – Actually expands on the Sabaaku history a bit, plus an excellent portrayal of Paris without being either Xenophobic or overly obsessive. Just don’t expect much from the fashion show…

Suggestions:
– Digimon Movie 3 – The Golden Digimentals
– Arete Hime
– Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea

OVA Impressions: .Hack//Quantum – 02

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions



Ah, so this episode revealed the genre of .Hack.//Quantum to be a thriller. A thriller with as major villain the cat who in the real world is just a young boy. In true .Hack fashion, a lot of things are different from what they seem. People are really able to create a second identity this way.

It’s a shame that this one is just three episodes long, but I like how the creators found a way to turn this into a dynamic story by revealing that the entire Goal of the Cat was basically for naught. By timing this right, the creators allowed this OVA to evolve in a short time: this episode felt completely unlike the first episode. It’s good for an OVA to be varied.

One thing that I do wonder about was the reason why the creators decided to just reveal all of the major questions in this episode. I mean, this episode left hardly any questions or mystery left unanswered, aside from the Cat’s backstory. Again this hints at a completely different third episode, but that one will be hard to pull off without the mystery.

Also, on a side-note: very short Tsukasa cameo hell yeah!
OVA Episode Rating: 8.25/10

Wolverine – 10

by psgels, posted in Wolverine



This episode kicked ass! It was just simple action, but that’s exactly what this show is best at. Wolverine isn’t anything deep, but the things that it’s supposed to do, it does really well here. Ten episodes in, and it’s still consistently entertaining action that has shown very few, if any, unexpected weak moments. It pretty much delivered exactly what it promised. Nothing more, but certainly nothing less.

Also, in these types of action and adventure series, how often do we really see the creators killing off the cute moe character? Unless we’re talking about a mostly female cast, it’s always the older ones, or some of the guys that die in the middle of a battle. here in Wolverine though, the creators just killed off just about the only moe character of the entire series. The only teenager actually DIES here, due to her inexperience and naivety. That’s rare!

The strange thing about this episode is that it also flew by: I really got the feeling that it was less than 20 minutes of total airtime, that’s how it caught me up in its pacing. It’s again something that we’ve come to expect from this series: the battles are long, but not too long, and most importantly: they’re not drawn out but actually play out without characters just standing there and looking at each other for what feels like ages. Wolverine’s motto is “don’t talk, just act” and the anime so far has made great use of that.

Oh, and Yukio: she’s a great co-lead. For once she actually isn’t the romantic love interest for the main guy, but the way in which this episode had her both busy fighting the bad guys and fighting alongside her grandfather that she had many problems with, seeing the girl who replaced her die… that definitely was a nice touch for her character.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Junkers Come Here Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




There have been many slice of life movies about a young boy or girl growing up and the problems they face. Junkers Come Here is Sato Junichi’s attempt at this genre, created ten years before he would come with Aria. And really: it is among the best ones of the genre.

The thing with Junkers Come Here is that even compared to the other slice of life movies, it’s realistic (if you ignore the fact that it has a talking dog and all, but you know what I mean). This comes courtesy of an excellent characterization and a consistently detailed animation that causes the characters to nearly just walk off the screen. Hiromi (The lead girl) here just feels like a real teenaged girl and her problems are wonderfully down to earth.

On top of that, it’s also much more tightly paced compared to most slice of life series. Most of them follow the formula of first half random slice of life, second half serious story. With Junkers Come Here it’s only the first half hour that will be a bit uneventful. The movie has found a perfect balance between slice of life and character building: the events of Hiromi’s childhood that it focuses on all have a major impact on her and create a wonderful picture of her, coming together in an absolutely amazing climax.

It’s a movie with many truly heartfelt moments, even though at first sight it may be nothing more than a story about a girl and her talking dog. Everything here is very calculated, though, and it’s not just wasting time for the sake of wasting time. That’s the kind of slice of life that I personally really like.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Wonderfully paced. It’s really slow, but makes excellent use of its time.
Characters: 9/10 – even for a slice of life movie, the characters are believable with real problems. The characterization is just wonderful throughout the entire movie.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Very smooth animation that brings the cast to life.
Setting: 8/10 – Solid.

Suggestions:
– Anne no Nikki – The Diary of Anne Frank
– Aria the Animation
– Kiki’s Delivery Service

Some Really Quick OVA Impressions: Gunpla Builders, Ciel in Wonderland and Fortune Arterial OVA

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions

I originally planned to use the shoutbox for this, but unfortunately it’s down right now. Basically I just tried to watch a bunch of OVAs and failed to get through all of them. This isn’t really meant to be a full review in any way, but more a list of short explanations of why I couldn’t bother to finish any of these three.

Gunpla Builders

I already was not very motivated to check the Gunpla Builders OVA out. I lasted only two minutes with this thing. The reason for that was that in only the first two minutes alone, the characters managed to mention the word “Gundam” a whopping twelve times already. I know I’m biased, and the animation was very good here, but I really don’t want to watch this kind of propaganda!

Kuroshitsuji II: Ciel in Wonderland

This is an OVA that consists out of two episodes, putting Ciel in the Alice in Wonderland story (the Disney version). Here, I lasted until ten minutes into the second OVA. In the end, it’s just fanservice: Ciel gets put in a dress and all of the side-characters make an appearance and act weird. It’s full of the kind of humour that’s just random for the sake of being random. That doesn’t remain fun for a full hour.

Fortune Arterial OVA

This one was just terrible. The TV-series was pretty good, but the OVA is just a random side-story in which nothing happens with a climax at an obligatory scene of the lead guy walking into all of the females bathing. YET AGAIN. Stay far away from this one.

Fractale – 08

by psgels, posted in Fractale




The animators are really saving this series here. Seriously, that’s something I don’t get to see often with a TV-series, but I have to applaud A-1 with probably the best animation of the entire season. Eight episodes in and it’s still consistently fluid. Now that we’re into the action-packed episodes again, they especially deliver here. This episode didn’t look as good as the previous one, but even though I couldn’t care less about the story nor the characters at this point, they did put a lot of soul into the drawings and animation here.

When this show actually tries to deliver, it really succeeds. This episode was dark and disturbing and that worked out wonderfully well. It’s just such a shame that it sucks at building up. It’s dull and generic and completely ignores the interesting parts of the story in favour of the ever-boring Clain.

Here is something that dawned to me while watching the opening of this episode: this series is called Fractale, but if you removed the Fractale system and just replace it with your average fantasy science fiction setting, you don’t really need to change much, do you? The Fractale system was a nice idea, but it’s like the creators ignored it completely for a generic adventure story. Also, the creators really let a chance slip by by not trying to find some sort of link between the Fractale system and the fractals that it was named after. I mean, that’s what the OP has been hinting after again and again, and yet there’s nothing regarding this.
Rating: * (Good)