Yumekui Merry – 10

by psgels, posted in Yumekui Merry



This episode only affirmed the strengths and weaknesses of this series. It was a build-up for the finale (this series will have 13 episodes, by the way. It’s officially announced now), but it still showcased its rock-solid characters, excellent acting, and unfortunately not very ambitious backstory.

This episode revealed the backstory of some of the side-characters and while it definitely was interesting, it also felt like they were having a contest of who could have the saddest past. one girl’s parents died in an accident, another guy grew up with his younger sister in the hospital. Twists like these are powerful, but they shouldn’t be used gratuitous.

In the end, by far the biggest mistake that this series made however, was not making John Doe the villain. He’s a much more interesting antagonist than Elcres or Mistletain, who currently are trying a bit too hard to be mysterious and therefore not giving any of us the chance to connect with them. John Doe and his army of talking cats: you could have built an excellent story around that, while still using the unique setting of this series.

I’m a bit harsh on this series compared to others, but I am comparing it to much higher standards than usual. After all, Yumekui Merry is good, but still nowhere as good as Casshern Sins. It also doesn’t help that it airs right after Madoka Magica, which has some similar elements here. I’ve said before that series with a simple plot can be just as awesome when executed well, but here we have a series whose plot just has too little interesting twists and turns that really prevent it from being a masterpiece. Sana about to be kidnapped… I’m sorry, but I’ve just seen that a few too many times by now and this episode just spent too much time on trying to build this up, and it still hasn’t happened yet!

Anyway, enough with the negatives. I mean, Chizuru did get some much needed backgrounds, and she is really promising to be a key part in making plot of the finale less dull, standing somewhere in the middle of Yumeji and Merry and Mistletain and Elcres. And I also remain convinced that Yumeji is a great main character for a guy his age. Instead of doing nothing but angst, whine or look helplessly, he looked for ways to save Sana, and yet this episode also showed him preparing for the worst-case scenario of Merry having to send her dream demon back. Seriously, dream demons holding the dreams of their vessels hostage is something that this series overall used really well.
Rating: * (Good)

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – 10

by psgels, posted in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica



Holy crap, what an episode. We’ve finally gotten to Homura’s past and BY GOD is is awesome.

This may be because I really like the kinds of series that deal with alternative dimensions, but the reason I love the stories like this is because they really allow creators to show different ways for characters to develop when done right (do note that it can be done poorly just as easily, though. Yes, I’m looking at you Yosuga no Amagami). The creators really put a ton of meaning in this episode

With this, I also understand why the creators said, prior to this series, that it would be the type of show that you need to watch two times in order to fully get it. I remember that first episode and how at first it seemed very much like Nanoha. The biggest reason for that was that scene in which Madoka saves Kyuubei from being attacked. Yeah, that suddenly gets put into a completely different perspective, doesn’t it?

One thing that was amusing during the past few weeks was seeing all of the crazy theories from everyone, ranging from speculating that Homura was Madoka to Homura being Madoka’s cat. In the end though, she just turned out to be a normal girl who just matured much more mentally due to the way that she always kept travelling back in time. Plot twists like “character x is secretly related to character Y in some bizarre way” are good, but they shouldn’t be used for the sake of just using them, otherwise they’ll just become forced.

This episode only left one major question: why wasn’t Madoka this awesome mahou shoujo when Homura first met her? This episode strongly hinted at Madoka getting more talent as Homura kept travelling back in time.

Oh, and the release dates for the final episodes are finally out: Madoka will only have 12 episodes. We’re actually ending this thing in two weeks!
Rating: *** (Awesome)

EDIT: holy crap, I knew by now that I needed to avoid that shoutbox before watching this week’s episode, but this is getting a bit out of hand here. Unfortunately due to my schedule I’m unfortunately not able to watch this series as fast as usual (combined with the fact that four of the shows I’m blogging air on thursday evening).

Next week, I’ll create a topic for discussions before the episode airs.

Hourou Musuko – 08

by psgels, posted in Hourou Musuko



This is something that has been baffling me for years now: why are romance shows so scared to show people in an actual relationship? I mean, the climax of 60% of all romance series is the confession, and 30% just refuse to end without anything happening between the lead couple, having them remain forever in this “yes we’re in love but not actually dating so that we can have harems and love triangles forever”-type ending. That, while you can definitely get some good drama out of a relationship, which is what this show is currently doing brilliantly.

Nitori vs. Anna made this into a really excellent episode. There is some uncomfortable tension between them, but it’s the healthy kind of tension that still leaves plenty of room for them to grow either closer or further away from each other. It’s not cheesy in the slightest, and it’s definitely been one of the most down to earth portrayals of romance in quite a while, even though we’re talking about middle schoolers here.

That little shot of Chiba, Takatsuki and Nitori together when they were younger was a great little addition, by the way. This really was an episode of nostalgia as well, with both Nitori and Takatsuki trying to move on in their own ways. Nitori by exploring other sides of romance, Takatsuki by growing her hair a bit and trying to make up with Chiba again. If I have to critique the creators for one thing, it’s that they show a tad to little of Chiba when she’s not near Nitori. In this episode for example Takatsuki told Nitori that chiba was behaving normally again, but we unfortunately didn’t get to see those scenes.

Instead, we got this former bully. Now, with the way in which bullies are usually portrayed in anime, this guy is a HUGE improvement. He’s bratty, but in a subtle way and he’s definitely having an impact on Nitori. Whether it’s wise to introduce a new character three episodes before the ending is a different story, though.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

OVA Impressions: Trava – Fist Planet

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions




Who is Takeshi Koike, and why is he directing Redline? With that question in mind, I set out to check out the other anime he directed: Trava – Fist Planet. It turned out to be a strange OVA, consisting out of four episodes of between 11 and 14 minutes long; it’s a science fiction story about two random guys having to perform some kind of survey on an unknwon planet.

It’s an OVA that’s definitely all about its graphics, and it definitely has a very skillful direction. Just about every shot in this OVA looks nice. It’s full of weird camera angles and it’s got some unique character designs that it puts to good use. There is a ton of eye candy here, and I can only imagine what Redline is going to look like when it has an actual movie budget.

As for the rest, the only other part that stands out is the dialogue. The characters bickering with each other gives them a nice charm. A lot of this OVA is just them nonchalantly insulting each other, which is enjoyable enough to last for the fifty minutes of total airtime. Beyond that though, the story is completely rushed, especially in the final episode, and the characters also all have just two or three sides to them, and nothing more. It’s enjoyable, but doesn’t do much beyond that. But who cares? The graphics and the direction make it a definite interesting watch.
OVA Episode Rating: 7,75/10

Bobby’s in Deep Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Bobby’s in Deep… definitely took me by surprise. I mean, at first sight it’s just a story about a teenager. With the vast majority of anime being about teenagers, I expected this to be some average romance movie. Nevertheless, after watching this I can say that this movie felt unlike any other anime I’ve seen. The animation, characters, direction and plot: they’re all totally unique.

The movie is a portrait of a 17-year-old guy who likes motorbikes. The thing is, that the way in which he is portrayed is what stands out here. The pacing is really slow, but this allows the creators to show who he is. His problems are wonderfully realistic and miles away from just about any cliche, all really helped by an excellent scriptwriter for the dialogue and narration. This movie knows exactly what to way, when to say it, and when to just shut up and let the animation speak for itself. Together with a very pleasant 80s soundtrack this creates a wonderful atmosphere and character whose realistic portrayal should have been an example for the future, which it unfortunately didn’t become.

And as for the animation: expect a lot of different animation styles here. The director for this one is excellent in the way that he blends all of them together. A lot of shots of this movie don’t contain any faces or close-ups at all, along with a few montages and quite a number of still frames. In contrast however, the animation in some of the other scenes is amazingly smooth. To come with a bit of an indication here: some of the Key Animators for this movie were Koji Morimoto and Takashi Nakamura. Believe me, this shows.

This is the kind of slice of life movie that I really like: instead of random events, every part of this movie is carefully planned out to try and give a complete view of the lead character and portray him for who he is, and do justice to some of the major events in his life. It’s all wonderfully compiled together with an amazing ending in which just about everything comes together with both a great subtlety and a power. This might be the first time where Madhouse really showed how unique they can be when they want to.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Terrific build-up, says a lot with both the dialogue and the nonverbal communication.
Characters: 9/10 – An excellent portrait of a teenager with many subtle characterizations.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Not the biggest budget, but what it has is excellently used. Some of the animation is breathtaking. Excellent soundtrack.
Setting: 8/10 – Excellent backdrop of the way and place where a kid like him would live.

Suggestions:
– Gosenzosama Banbanza
– Hitsuji no Uta
– Nasu – Suitcase no Wataridori

Digimon Movie 3 – The Golden Digimentals Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




The first season of Digimon has a lot of sentimental value for me. I discovered it back in high school, when I was about 13 years old, and after Pokemon, it was the series that made me aware of what anime was, and how different it was from all the other cartoons that aired on television. And on top of that it had a great and very enjoyable cast of characters.

The second season, though… was a different story. Looking back, I have very little positive to say about it. It’s not really the ending that bugged me, aside from the epilogue, the final episodes were actually some of the few parts that did catch my attention, but overall it just covered boring and repetitive stories, while completely abandoning the few interesting subplots it introduced completely. The characters were nowhere as interesting as the ones from the first season, who were demoted into side-characters for very shallow reasons. It was overall just one big letdown, so originally I wasn’t planning on watching any more of the movies beyond the first two. Until I found out that Shigeyasu Yamauchi (the director of Casshern Sins and Yumekui Merry) directed the third movie.

And I’m glad I did. I mean, seriously: this movie is absolutely not what you’d expect from a movie targeted at kids. The direction of this movie is just unique for such a movie: it’s both adventurous, has gorgeous action and yet has many quiet and down to earth parts that make the characters wonderfully believable. This movie is without a doubt the best part of the second season.

The bad guy in this movie actually isn’t someone who is just out to destroy the world, or wreak havoc for the sake of wreaking havoc. His personality is simple, but he has a great backstory. The second part that makes this completely unlike most other adventure movies is the build-up in the first half. It’s nearly entirely dedicated to just showing the characters slowly travel from place A to place B, taking its time to bring them to life. There is none of the cheesy dialogue that you usually see in adventure movies, but instead the characters talk with each other believably, both verbally and non-verbally.

Now, the budget of this movie isn’t stellar, but still very impressive. The result is smooth animation during the quiet parts that really brings the cast to life. And as for the action scenes: they’re completely gorgeous. Shigeyasu Yamauchi knows like no other how to direct compelling action sequences, and this movie is another excellent example of this.

The flaws in this movie are in the details. Te most glaring is the one that has the characters hitchhike from New York to Denver. Now, I’m no American or anything, but is that even possible? Not to mention that the movie takes place in America, yet everyone talks Engrish. The cutting overall is a bit erratic. Sometimes this works great, but at others it feels like entire scenes are cut off. You especially need to watch the second half twice in order to really get what’s going on.

Despite these flaws though, I praise this movie for trying to be different from the original, its solid storytelling, its imagination and the way that it doesn’t try to spoon-feed itself to its audience. This movie has the mindset that I really wish more franchise-based movies would do nowadays, instead of just making movies for the sake of making movies. Yes, Toei, I’m looking at you.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Wonderfully told for a kids’ movie; great pacing, excellent climax.
Characters: 8/10 – The characters never really caught my attention in the TV-series. It says something for this movie when it actually made me care about them.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Shigeyasu Yamauchi excels in both the action and quiet scenes.
Setting: 8/10 – Dares to be different from the TV-series, though it does have a bit of a bad portrayal of America.

Suggestions:
– Digimon Movie 1
– Yumekui Merry
– Casshern Sins

Level E – 09

by psgels, posted in Level E



I love how despite there being multi-episode arcs in this series, every episode still feels different, and this arc in particular was an excellent example of this. The romance gets dropped, and instead this turns into a bit of a thriller, and as for the lead characters… Ouji returns and the episode is chock full of the addictive chemistry between Kraft and Ouji, making this episode even better than it already was.

I also loved that for once, an arc with a gimmicky premise like this doesn’t end with a cop-out. I mean, usually when the creators put the stake of the entire earth on something silly like this, they end up writing themselves into a corner and end up with a very cheesy and rushed ending. Here however, Ouji actually comes up with a plan to save the entire earth using clones and a whole lot of breaches of intergalactic treaties.

This episode also contained a few nice jabs at alien abductions, in quite a few different ways, from abductions while asleep, those classic light beams and suddenly feeling like 30 minutes disappeared. I also keep getting amazed at Ouji. His trick is that he’s either completely honest, or not honest at all, and his lies sound so sincere. When he said that he used to be a woman… oh lord.

The reason why I consider Level E to be one of the best comedies I’ve seen though, is really because of the big picture. I mean, standalone comedies that are funny are nice, but this series adds in so much more. The standalone stories that it tells are actually very good ones that could have worked well even without the humour, it has consistently created down to earth characters that are believable and relatable, and its backdrop of 90s alien fiction continues to create interesting backstories and fits really well in terms of the big picture. It’s just everything that this series does that still makes me consider this to be an amazing comedy, even though I do admit that the funniest arc was the first one.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

OVA Impressions: Seikai no Danshou

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions, Seikai no Monshou



The Seikai franchise has two OVAs, one that takes place after the three TV-series, and one prequel. While the former felt like the creators were stuffing an entire novel into just fifty minutes, the latter is an interesting little side-story. Like the title suggests, this isn’t about Lafiel, but instead about her parents.

This OVA works as a background OVA, telling a bit more about who Lafiel’s parents were (about which we were mostly left in the dark throughout the TV-series), but as a standalone short story it also works pretty well. It’s got a good atmosphere, and although it’s simple it’s well told and paced.

And of course, as expected from this series the dialogue is excellent. The characters are once again very eloquent and a lot of this OVA just consists out of Lafiel’s parents talking to each other. The script continues to be interesting and blend in well with the story that’s going on.

If you’re planning to watch this OVA, I’d recommend to at least watch it after watching the first half of the first season, otherwise it will lose some of its meaning. It’s a nice watch for any fan of the franchise, though.
OVA Episode Rating: 8,25/10

Windaria Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Fantasy stories that focus on a war between two kingdoms, a light and a dark one, are a dime a dozen. When you make one, you really need to set yourself apart. Windaria did this through its development. If for the first half of the movie, you feel that the story is perhaps a bit too generic, then don’t worry: it’s meant to be that way.

Windaria takes your general fantasy set-up, and does a lot of things right with it. The animation is pretty good for 1986 standards, with a lot of fluid movements. The story at the beginning may be generic, but it’s well told: ample time is given to each of the major characters to flesh them out, the artists do a wonderful job to draw and animate the people from the two different countries, and the biggest flaw is probably the very stereotypical evil king.

Obviously since the development is the strongest part of this movie, I’m not going to say much about what happens next due to the spoilers and all. Let me just say that this movie knows how to use its build-up. Its ending especially is wonderful. The second half of this movie did some really neat things to the cast of characters and made sitting though the first half entirely worth it.

This one is definitely recommended if you like old fantasy movies. It’s underrated, exactly because of how much the first half looks like your average fantasy that DOESN’T develop its characters well, but this is one wonderful exception to this rule. Well acted, well developed and averting quite a few cliches, Windaria was a very interesting movie.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Excellent use of build-up, and a very solid fantasy story overall.
Characters: 9/10 – Excellent development.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Very fluid and a good soundtrack, though not the best for movie standard.
Setting: 8/10 – Starts off with a few too many cliches, but ends up as a great story of fantasy war.

Suggestions:
– Escaflowne – A Girl in Gaea
– Tales of Vesperia
– The Cockpit

OVA Impressions: Angel Densetsu

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions



In another case of “don’t judge a book by its cover”, we have Angel Densetsu, a silly premise of a guy who has an incredibly scary face, made a lot better thanks to a very capable director. The budget of Angel Densetsu is very low, but despite that the timing of the different shots, plus the impact they make, is impeccable.

If there’s anything that this OVA is good at, it’s creating an atmosphere with minimal resources. The artwork in this series is simple, but it can be downright freaky at times, and the way in which everyone is just completely terrified of the lead character creates a wonderful little atmosphere here.

The story itself is just downright bad though. I mean, the dialogue and the scenario are just terrible and shatter any sense of suspense of disbelief. The story tries to portray this guy with a scary face but a heart of gold, but his inner monologues make it sound more like he’s some kind of deranged lunatic. His naivety also knows no bounds. Even in the most obvious cases, he sees no sense of hostility towards him at all. Heck, this guy makes Sawako from Kimi ni Todoke look like Stephen Fry in comparison.

The characters around him also make an elephant out of the tiniest mosquito around him, just to keep the story and the misunderstandings around this guy going. The big problem with Angel Densetsu is that it’s ridiculously forced. Not to mention that it’s based on a much larger manga, and that it just ends right after introducing a bunch of story-lines, making it more a commercial than an actual story. Check it out only if you’re looking for a good atmosphere, otherwise, give it a pass.
OVA Episode Rating: 7.25/10