Supernatural The Animation – 02

by psgels, posted in Supernatural The Animation



Okay, so here I’m going to try and do the arduous task of trying to blog 22 episodes in a month and a half. Do expect some delays on some posts though, but I really want to try and blog this thing. It’s not perfect (the acting could have been better), but I still have a lot to like on this one. So far, it’s got terrific atmosphere, great build-up, gorgeous artwork and excellent climaxes.

We do seem to be dealing with an episodic series here, But the first two episodes have been quite well written. The stories have enough depth to them to make the episodic format work. I especially like how this series likes to present its story as fairly straightforward in the beginning, only to come up with a twist that gives a completely different meaning to the characters involved. Now this is how you should use build-up well!

For most of the first half I found this episode rather confusing. The two lead brothers kept talking about a lot of stuff that they seemed to have discovered off-screen. Especially when we suddenly got the information that they knew about the whereabouts of her husband all along, plus it was also rather strange that she was able to stay in the water for so long without… you know.. drowning. The twist that she had been dead for fifteen years though, it was an excellent one that really put things into perspective. On top of that, the creators also used their red herrings of the ghost couple quite well.

But yeah, the big flaw of this show so far is the stiff acting at times. It’s what you get when you have character-designs like this and try to animate them, without trying to make it look natural. The characters’ faces, whenever they move, move rather stiff and unnatural. At the same time though, the animation does make up for it during the climaxes, due to some really great shots and artwork.

This version I found of episode 2 had English voices on it, instead of the Japanese. Overall they did quite a decent job, with a few exceptions. Grealy’s wife for example was really hammy.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Gosick – 08

by psgels, posted in Gosick



Oh, I have to admit that this show is shrewd. In the previous episode they introduced the most stereotypically evil characters for the story centred around Victorique’s background. Their personalities were so obviously out there , with a group of three random respect-less guys on one hand and this completely deranged maid on the others. I’ve been watching detective stories for so long that it totally didn’t occur to me that they could also be the culprits and that this was just a story in which everything was just as it seems. Har, har, very clever for this show to use an overused trope to its advantage. For once I can’t blame Victorique for refusing to explain how she found out about their identities.

This episode was well told, though. For once the two different murder mysteries in this arc proved to be quite effective red herrings for each other, and the atmosphere was actually quite excellent. Especially that bridge scene was well directed and shot and surprised me how I actually ended up caring for Kujou, of all people.

I also like how the creators wrote their stories into the European history. I mean, it’s not like Seyrun ever existed (or nothing with the same name at least), but this episode came with an entire background of how the village came to exist in the first place and where their ascendants came from. That actually worked very well here.

Oh, and the revelation that Cordellia was still alive only spiced things up even more at the end. This definitely was the best arc of Gosick so far. If it can keep this up, it’s actually going to become a pretty good series here. If not then it still has enough ways to become a total chore to sit through, though.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Fractale – 06

by psgels, posted in Fractale



This episode was completely saved by the last thirty seconds. The majority of this episode really was Clain, trying to see exactly how annoying he could be, and this just kept going on and on. I mean, we’re more than halfway through right now. At this point he really isn’t striking me as a good lead character for this series.

At the very least, this episode wasn’t as bad as the previous one. This episode thankfully went back to the Fractale system in order to flesh it out some more. I especially liked the way in which the antenna was able to catch the Fractale system even without the use of a balloon. It’s this discovery that’s part of the fun of adventure series. On the other side of the spectrum though, we have that new guy from the Lost Millennium introduced. The creators really needed to have been more subtle with this guy. He tried to be all ambiguous but it was obvious that he was a bad guy right from the start because of his character designs.

Overall, now that we’ve passed the halfway mark, I unfortunately have to say that Fractale has my least favourite first half of all Noitamina shows I’ve seen since Toshokan Sensou. I do have to add that I can’t comment on Nodame Cantabile’s finale because I haven’t seen that one, but unfortunately Fractale is suffering from very poor balance. Unfortunately the same thing that made Kannagi such a chore to watch, though not as bad. The thing is, this series spends so much time on randomly fleshing out the main characters… and yet it gives no time at all to give some character to the people from the Fractale system, the refugees, nor the other factions of the Lost Millennium. It’s the typical problem in which the creators have such an interesting setting… so they end up focusing on the least interesting part. In this case, Clain.

So yeah, I was glad to at least see that that old guy was Clain’s father so that we can at least get some good story on what happened to Clain’s parents. He could have outright told Clain that they were related, but I’m glad that the creators chose not to. Clain would probably have gotten even more whiny if he found out.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Yumekui Merry – 08

by psgels, posted in Yumekui Merry



Ah, thankfully this show is back on track here after that beach episode. The quiet scenes were as well directed and interesting to watch as ever, and the serious parts also showed a lot of new things about the characters. Yui’s father’s appearance also was probably the first time since a long while that I actually laughed again at “you brought home someone from the opposite sex. I’ll be a father in law now!”-joke.

Now, there is one major problem that I’m getting with this series: Elcles. This guy needs more screentime, because after eight episode we still don’t know much more about him other than than he’s really evil. And that perhaps he has something to do with Merry. I mean, the creators are currently doing a great job to blend the moral scale around Merry, so do that to the major villain as well. It’s going to make him so much more interesting. Right now the only hint at any kind of depth about him is that Merry is somehow related to that, but there are tons of other anime that do that.

Beyond that, this episode also further developed Isana and her dreams to become a professional painter. I can’t help but think that this is hinting that she too has some sort of dream demon, but in either case it’s foreshadowing something. Yumekui Merry probably isn’t going to become anything amazing at this point, for that its story just is too simple, but it still can get a pretty good climax out of all of the things it’s built up so far. Let’s hope that the creators also actually do that.
Rating: * (Good)

NB: currently I’m trying out Lulzimg. Is there anyone who can’t view the images at the top of this post?

Some Quick First Impressions: Supernatural The Animation

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions, Supernatural The Animation

Supernatural The Animation

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are a bunch of detectives.
So, finally the first episode of the Supernatural Animation has popped up. A very badly encoded version, so I wouldn’t recommend it, but nevertheless this was quite good. The visual style of the designs and the animation all look wonderful, and especially the animation in the action-scenes is stunning and imaginative. As for the story, this episode started off with a random case, which was a fairly straight-forward thriller until it started to get quite creative with its climax. Overall, I’m very interested in this show at this point. The characters are pretty interesting as well, though my one point of criticism is that the acting (especially the way in which the characters are animated) feels a bit stiff. A typical Madhouse problem. There is also this point where one of the lead characters gets hurt, only to completely heal again only hours later. Right after his co-lead specifically points out that that’s impossible. Continuity, guys.
ED: English with a bit of an accent, instead of the usual Engrish. It’s still a bit of a boring ballad, though.
Potential: 80%

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – 08

by psgels, posted in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica



And here this show comes with an episode that to be honest… I only expected to arrive around the penultimate episode or something. Now, that means that if this show knows what it’s doing, it can get an amazing climax out of that, when awesome episodes like this are used as build-up episodes.

The creators really didn’t try to drag out Sayaka’s descend into madness. It’s just been an episode and a half, and she already exhausted her soul gem. So yeah, she’s probably going to remain as a witch starting from the next episode. My guess would be that that’s the point where the creators are really going to go all out on Madoka and Homura. The part in which Madoka nearly gave in to QB (or should I say InQBtor) was really powerful. Now it’s up to the creators to build further upon that.

One point of criticism: here we have the childhood friends that you forgot about cliche again. Very weird place to show such a cliche, but it should be fine if it is indeed central to Homura’s character and her motivation.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Hourou Musuko – 06

by psgels, posted in Hourou Musuko



Usually when an anime shows its characters perform a play, it’s a real highlight. This time though, it’s the aftermath that really caught my attention. The play itself was rushed through and didn’t have much impact, but the impression it left on the different characters was what really caught my attention in this episode.

The big strength of this show is how it’s able to breathe life in a relatively large cast in a relatively small amount of time, and this all came together in that aftermath: just about everyone had something different to say about it and experienced something different, from Saori’s subtle compliment to her co-star to Nitori’s sister commenting how he just wrote himself into the story.

As for the “school festival”-part of this episode, it really was the standard fare that you always see in those kinds of episodes: a huge crowd, a cafe and a haunted house. It’s more realistic than usual, but still it reminded me how the slice of life isn’t why I’m watching this show. Instead, this is all about its characters, and whenever this episode built further upon them, it was really excellent.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
On a side-note: I’m currently experimenting with a new imagehost: upl.co. Has anybody ever had any bad experiences with them? Like, them deleting images or something?

OVA Impressions: Mars of Destruction

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions



So, I’ve been told to check this one out because of how notoriously bad it is. After watching it, I can understand why this show is so notorious. It’s not the worst anime I’ve seen, I mean it’s not at Himitsu Kessha Countdown or Gundoh Musashi levels, but still: seriously, don’t watch this. If you want an OVA that’s so bad that it’s good, go for the Garzey’s Wing dub. Mars of Desturction is the kind of bad that isn’t enjoyable at all.

The biggest reason for this show’s notoriety is its ridiculously poor direction. The way that the scenes move follow each other is downright amateuristic. Scenes have this tendency to always go on for a second longer than what feels comfortable, and none of them really mesh well together. Added to that is also one hell of a small animation budget: there is hardly any movement and most of the faces are off-model.

The story itself is simple, but doesn’t make one iota of sense. Especially the big plot twist at the end was just painful: here we have an OVA that tries to be a simple action OVA (very poorly directed action), and right from out of nowhere try to make things not as they seem. You need build-up for that dammit.

To the OVA’s credit, it has brilliant music. But then again, that’s what you get when you blatantly copy and paste some of the most famous pieces of classical music. To the characters’ credits: they could have been much more annoying. If I for example were to have to choose between this and Goulart Knights, I’d label Goulart Knights as the worst. These characters here are simply one-dimensional and not particularly abysmally written. Nevertheless though, there are so many alternatives to this series, it has simply no value at all. Onyl watch this if you really don’t know how to spend 20 minutes.
OVA Episode Rating: 4/10

Appleseed 2004 Review – 70/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Now that the Appleseed TV-series is about to air in about a month, it seemed to me a good idea to take a look at a few of the movies that were released earlier. This particular review is about the one released in 2004, also completely done in 3D CG. My overall impression: it’s got nice ideas, but the TV-series is going to have to try harder than in this thing. The 2004 Appleseed Movie has good action, excellent architecture and mecha designs and a very solid and imaginative back-story, but the story and the characters couldn’t catch my attention.

One of the problems I have with this movie is a problem I have with a lot of other 3D movies: the botox faces. Especially considering how this was made in 2004, the characters just look like plastic dolls and have a hard time expressing themselves. This especially hurts the movie during the dramatic parts, where characters who are intended to look angry or sad just look silly. And beyond that, the characterization isn’t really impressive. Most of the characters are completely one-dimensional, and none of the main characters are particularly interesting to watch.

I see this movie as wasted potential. Here we have this interesting premise about humans versus clones, and this movie also has a few long strings of exposition, meant to flesh this setting out (and it does so quite effectively), only to switch back to a generic action movie plot afterwards. The way in which this movie plays out is surprisingly shallow: the villains are flimsy and have back-stories that just seem to be there to get to some good action, and the drama between the main characters is uninspired and has unlike the setting nothing interesting about it.

Overall, Appleseed 2004 is unbalanced. If the upcoming TV-series comes with a good plot and takes its time to flesh out the characters though, then it can get pretty good. The setting here has definite potential. this movie just didn’t use it.

Storytelling: 7/10 – The action is good, the exposition is good. They just don’t mesh together and this is not helped by a very standard and uninspired action movie plot.
Characters: 6/10 – Static and mostly one-dimensional.
Production-Values: 7/10 – Botox faces (seriously, there’s a reason why the screenshots don’t contain any close-ups), but saved by its great to look at action and architecture.
Setting: 8/10 – Thought-provoking, asks many rhetorical questions, and has a ton of potential. Too bad that this movie didn’t really use it.

Suggestions:
– TO
– Ghost in the Shell (don’t ask me what I was smoking when I rated this review, though)
– Black Magic M66

Imageshack, what the hell are you doing?

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

By far my least favourite part of keeping up this blog is the headache that is image management. I had at last found a good, stable and easy source to host all of the images I use, but now they suddenly changed their policy, causing them to block their images for some unregistered users.

If I understood things correctly, they stopped serving images that are uploaded on registered servers and viewed by unregistered visitors. Now, I’ve just registered this website at some form that I found on the Imageshack Website, but I have no idea when it’ll be reviewed (yes, apparently all registered members need to have their websites reviewed).

Personally I don’t have this problem and I’m able to see all the images just fine, so let me know if you see any changes.