Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – 09

by psgels, posted in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica



A very, very macabre build-up here. On one side, the deaths in this series don’t have as much of a shock value compared to what happened to Mami. On the other hand though, the creators just did decimate the cast here. At this point there are only five named characters alive, and two of those have stopped being relevant to the plot.

In about a week the definitive lengths of the series of the current season should get announced, but it looks like there are three episodes left at this point. These should be enough for this series to change its direction, now that it lost some very important side-characters, and use these changes for its ending. The pieces are now all correctly set: Walpurgis Night is coming, and Madoka pretty much is going to have to choose between either becoming a mahou shoujo or having this Walpurgis thingy feasting on the city they’re in.

A lot of the finale is going to depend on Madoka’s development. I mean, she’s probably the most typical character of the entire cast, and spends a lot of time angsting, but a character was really needed for this show to be able to do what it wanted to do. As a deconstruction, this series would not have worked as well if Madoka was more mature. A part of the charm of this series is seeing Madoka nearly giving into Incubator again and again, continually building the tension between them. Because Madoka is indecisive it allows this series to flesh out all possible options for her to a great detail. Sure, weak characters like her can get very annoying when used poorly, but this show shows how to do them right, by having the entire plot revolve around this weakness of hers.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Fractale – 07

by psgels, posted in Fractale




The graphics in this episode were utterly amazing. The animation was as excellent as ever, but that’s not all. This episode had some excellent background drawings, and especially the animation near the end of the episode was full of life and imagination. It’s here where the direction showed its best again: that climax was really drawn and portrayed with power. Finally this show does something with its potential!

It also just shows how this series lacked vision. I mean, the final quarter was pretty much the best thing that happened to Fractale. So how did they get there? By having Clain wander off on some flying machine for no reason, having this machine broken down and somehow ending up in this fantastic Fractale world. It’s completely random! No build-up whatsoever, it’s just there. What is this awesome world doing so far away from the plot here? Why didn’t the first half spend time fleshing this thing out? The creators did not spend enough time here thinking how to fit everything together.

As for Clain… well, he got better. He still had his moments of annoyance, not to mention the strange idea of the creators to suddenly dress him up as a girl and make his hair grow, but once he twisted his ankle he got surprisingly interesting. I really feared this episode once it started off with those boobs and all, but as the episode progressed it twisted those fears right upside down.

This episode improved my impression of Fractale a lot, though. Especially after I found out that the character designer of Kaiba, Kemonozume and Yojou-han was the animation director, and it shows. Variety was exactly the thing that this show needed in order to save itself from being a complete bore-fest, and this episode delivered there, and then some.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Hourou Musuko – 07

by psgels, posted in Hourou Musuko




Hourou Musuko… just surpassed itself. Seriously, this episode was better than any of the previous episodes so far, and convinced me that the creators know what they’re doing. Finally we have another romance that tries to portray love realistically, and FINALLY we have another series that subverts the “lead characters are soul mates” trope.

While Fractale is currently showing just how much of a double edged sword the Noitamina timeslot can be, Hourou Musuko just nailed it. This is the part where we really get to the interesting character development. Nitori suddenly deciding to date Anna was a brilliant move. He’s actually moving on, after being rejected by Takatsuki and exploring the different sides of love, with someone completely different from the one who was first made out to be his soul mate.

It’s here where the power of this show really shines. This show has lead characters, but beyond that the creators make sure to give each of the characters a down to earth portrayal, and it’s not unfair towards anyone: the scenarios are written so that nobody really gets the chance to devolve into a stereotype, even the energetic girl has subtle different sides, miles away from your usual cliched energetic girl. This episode showed the subtle side of this show at its best.

The oddball here is Chiba, who seems to have a lot of issues throughout the series. She’s a great source of drama, and yet she doesn’t devolve into cheese. It’s hard to make a character like her believable, but I think that the creators did it by having her constantly tell how she feels, and what she thinks.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Appleseed Ex Machina Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




They may look similar, but make no mistake: Appleseed 2004 and Appleseed Ex Machina (2007) are two completely different movies. They’re both action movies, but the former’s big focus was on its setting; the latter’s is on its characters.

Seriously, Appleseed has a great and interesting concept. Ex Machina doesn’t really use anything of it, and pretty much reduces everything to “humans, androids and hacking”. It doesn’t ask any of the interesting questions that the 2004 series did, and just takes its setting for granted, coming with a generic brainwashing thriller.

On the other side of the coin, the characters are far from as clumsily portrayed as the 2004 series. Oh, it’s still cheesy, but it’s nevertheless a major improvement. The characters actually developed a bit in between the two movies (though don’t expect any development in the movies themselves), and the drama between them is simple, a bit cheesy, but effective enough for the action to not become boring.

The 2004 movie also had its botox faces problem. You know, the faces that may look good in screenshots, yet look plastic as soon as they try to move. Ex Machina also has this problem a bit, but it’s much less severe. The cutting and camera work is much more skillfully done and this make the jerky and unnatural movements a bit more bearable to watch.

Basically things come down to this: the 2004 series had a lot of flaws and one thing that it was very good at (the setting), while Ex Machina doesn’t have any flaws that are as big as the 2004 movie, yet also doesn’t really have anything to stand out, and is simply a decent action movie to pass an hour and a half. Take your pick.

Oh, just one thing: this movie does have its share of Deus ex Machina. I mean, what moron really calls his movie “Ex Machina” anyway? You’re just going to draw extra attention to them anyway.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Well cut and unambitious, though nicely built up. If you ignore the Deus ex Machinas in the plot.
Characters: 7/10 – Not as one-dimensional as the 2004 movie, but these people have cheese.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Nothing special, but decent action and a solid soundtrack.
Setting: 7/10 – Loses a point by not using its setting in the slightest and making it really simple.

Suggestions:
– Wonderful Days
– Black Magic M66
– Catblue Dynamite

Durarara – 25

by psgels, posted in Durarara



Not as good as the first DVD-special, but still a nice little aftermath to the series. Like with the actual TV-series, the first special had all the events running through each other, and threw many flashbacks and -forwards at the viewer, only to have everything come together at the end, while this one had that a lot less, aside from one single scene at the beginning of the episode. The creators did succeed however, to put as much characters on the screen as possible.

Instead, whenever this episode had the chance it would show different characters, cleverly using Shizuo’s brother who was doing a live report and finally giving him the chance to show off his acting. This episode was full of these little details and subtle characterizations that ere also prevalent during the first half of the TV-series.

The least interesting parts of this episode were probably the subplots that were already dragged out in the TV-series: Mikado vs. Anri and Shizuo vs. Izaya. As dynamic as this show is, the relationships between these people somehow refused to really go anywhere throughout the series. After 26 episodes, Shizuo still is running after Izaya, and Mikado still is trying to tell Anri that he likes her. (Though granted, at least Anri behaved differently from what she would have done 20 episodes ago).

This episode also provided a few hints for an upcoming season in the form of some new characters. If that’s going to happen though, it’ll probably still take a while, because the director first is going to be busy with Natsume Yuujinchou.
Rating: * (Good)

Supernatural The Animation – 06

by psgels, posted in Supernatural The Animation



Whoa. With the way that the previous episodes were building the back-story up here, I thought that this father of them left Sam and Dean to fend off for their own for more than ten years ago, in typical anime fashion. Of course, this isn’t an anime. This episode revealed that at least three years ago Dean was working together with his father, while Sam was still in college. Looking back, this explains why Dean seemed to be much more… passionate (if that’s the correct word) to any developments regarding their father: he always was the older brother who spent the most time with his father, while his younger brother was still much younger. This episode also hinted that Dean was always with his father, while Sam spend a few years away from him. A few episodes back, I remember how Sam said that Dean was their father’s favourite.

So, six episodes in, and this show is really good. It’s episodic, yet every episode has its purpose. In this case, every episode added new stuff to the main characters’ back-story. Six episodes in, and the pieces of the puzzle are starting to stick together. This episode also introduced the mysterious Jessica. She hasn’t died yet, but the previous episodes are really hinting towards the fact that the same thing that killed Sam and Dean’s mother killed her.

Also, throughout the past six episodes, I noticed that this show likes to use subtle humour once in a while. It’s often just one or two laughs every episode, like how in this episode Sam and Dean’s father delivers a few witty lines about why he didn’t tell Dean that Sam was dating Jessica, but they work surprisingly well. They don’t break the mood, but they nicely flesh out the different characters. In a series that is serious as this one, having a tiny bit of comedy once in a while gets an interesting effect.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Supernatural The Animation – 05

by psgels, posted in Supernatural The Animation



This episode seemed to introduce what looks like one of the major villains of this series. A vampire hunter, who know both the lead characters and their father in the past. At the moment he’s still a tad too one-dimensional for a villain, but with enough work he can get interesting.

Meanwhile, I like how this episode again managed to relate its story back to Sam and Dean’s father, and how it used this chance to again tell a small part of their past, and who their father was to them. In this episode we learn that Dean has received quite some harsh training from his father, and how he once got to the point where he really hated him after he got scolded.

On the technical side, it is a bit unfortunate that the graphics budget dimmed in compared to the first two episodes. The animation wasn’t as solid, and the climax didn’t look as amazing compared to a few episodes ago, and especially the vampires looked a bit uninspired. Also, what’s the point of including a recap of the previous episodes… on episodes that get released on the same DVD Box set. I’ve hardly ever seen previous-episode-recaps like that done right, and this unfortunately wasn’t one of them. It’s not the worst I’ve encountered, though.
Rating: * (Good)

Supernatural The Animation – 04

by psgels, posted in Supernatural The Animation



So, this is supposed to be the first of the original episodes for this series? Well, I’m impressed. It was a random story like all the previous episodes, but it did fit into them very nicely. There was a story about two brothers that nicely allowed us to relate this back to the lead characters, we learned something new about Dean (his car obsession) and the characters of this story were also quite good and inspired.

The story was quite interesting with the ghost of an innocent police victim, and the police officers’ attempts to cover it up, and how they’re still haunted by it after years. It’s quite straightforward, but worked out quite well.

The climax was the weakest one so far, mostly due to the CG cars that just didn’t look as good as the previous three episodes. Also, in terms of the continuity, I would have preferred to have seen Dean cleaning his car from the paint that Sam put on it, along with him getting angry over the damage that that climax caused.
Rating: * (Good)

Level E – 08

by psgels, posted in Level E



Aah, finally! Finally we have an actually good parody of the romantic comedy. Even without the awesome twist at the end, I just loved what this episode did and how it poked fun at the genre and how it made everything look ridiculous with its ever-sharp wit. There also was a lot of building up in this episode, but in the end, it was totally worth it. This is really what an awesome comedy should be: don’t just show a bunch of random jokes, but have everything build up for each other and create a whole picture that’s larger than the sum of its parts.

The interesting thing is how this was written more than a decade ago, and the things it parodies still are incredibly overused, and it just showed how timeless this episode was. I also love how there finally is a series that acknowledges that love at first sight is pretty implausible, and how it takes this to the absurd by putting the fate of the world hanging on it. The inclusion of Kraft only made this better: his energy and sarcasm were awesome to watch during the building-up parts.

Not to mention the awesome excuse that the creators found in order to leave Ouji uninvolved in this episode. The different combinations of characters for each arc are really dynamic here and instead of overexposing the same characters, the creators really try to give all kinds of characters their own time to shine, going both for the main characters as the new ones that it introduces. And again, the characters in this arc are fairly simple, and make writing good characters look so easy.

The revelation that the lead guy was basically a lesbian was the highlight of this episode. It gave a completely different meaning to the episode, plus it also left a very interesting cliff-hanger for the next episode, which just has to be different from the previous. But then again, this series has shown before that it loves to toy with expectations.

Also, this all took place at a Ski Resort. Take that, hot spring beach school festival pool episodes!
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? – 08

by psgels, posted in Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?



oh boy, this was a disaster. It was an episode that was doomed to fail, simply because of the decision of the creators to include the new girl into the cast of major characters. I mean… what exactly do they hope to get out of someone with such a terrible backstory? This episode could at least have been enjoyable if it wasn’t for her utterly contrived reason to fall in love with the lead character. I mean, is she supposed to be another parody or something?

This pretty much was an episode that contained nothig but character building, oly to come with some drama at the final minute. So, after having to sit through some completely generic dating scenes, what do we get? The lead female gets kidnapped. Ooh, we’re original now. Seriously, what happened? The drama in this show used to be so good. Cliches like these could be excused in the introduction of a series, to get the plot started. Not when you’re nearly done!

The only enjoyment in this episode was in the small details, like surprisingly smooth animation, the hilariously named “Mask Donalds”, good poses and facil expressions and the surprisingly good food jokes ehre, even though cooking girls usually are beating the same dead horse over and over again. Like I said: it could have been an interesting episode, but when the creators have such a terrible premise for an episode, what can really be done with it?
Rating: – (Disappointing)