Tsumiki no Ie Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Hell yeah, 700th review! For this one I again wanted to do something special, so why not look at something that actually won an Oscar?

How much can you do in only 12 minutes? Tsumiki no Ie shows that even within such a short time-frame, you can tell a great story. Tsumiki no Ie is very imaginative, it’s very artistic and is really a must-watch for everyone looking for a bit of time to spend.

Within twelve minutes, the creators make optimal use of their time in order to show what kind of an old guy the central character is, and yet it never feels rushed: the pacing remains slow and natural, and the acting is incredibly subtle, yet full of life. I refuse to spoil what it’s exactly going to be about, but let me just say that the entire idea behind the setting of this very short movie is a unique one.

This is a very short review, because I believe that this is one of those movies of which you don’t need to say much, and trying to analyze it just takes away some of its meaning. Suffice to say that it’s wonderfully executed, blending video, audio and storytelling all into one to create a great experience.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Very natural pacing. Very detailed.
Characters: 9/10 – Great characterization for only 12 minutes.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Excellent and dynamic animation; soothing soundtrack.
Setting: 8/10 – Simple, but unique and original.

Suggestions:
– Comedy
– Genius Party – Hapy Machine
– Kino no Tabi

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? – 07

by psgels, posted in Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?



Yes guys. If you gripe and kiss a girl you only met five minutes before, you will totally get away with it and she’ll even fall in love with you. I mean, I know that this episode provided a reason for it but it nevertheless was a really flimsy one that has been used to death by now.

Zombie’s episodes are either great, or boring cliche-fests. This was a clear example of the latter. This episode had some decent chemistry, which prevented it from being a complete disaster, but still the largest part was pretty boring. I mean, in the previous episode I didn’t complain about the fanservice because of the way it was used. This time it was just tasteless, especially when the X-Ray glasses popped up.

Still, this episode did have some good points, like being able to kill Megalos with noodle soup, or the various things that were written on the Tanabata-notes. The math explanations and weird theories about some demonic Santa Claus showing up at Tanabata also were pretty fun. Those were all mere details, though.
Rating: – (Disappointing)

Level E – 07

by psgels, posted in Level E



Perhaps not the funniest episode of the series, but this episode still is excellent in the way that it completely went against my expectations. Just about everything about it was unpredictable, and it turned the rules of your average RPG completely upside down, multiple times.

The best part was without a doubt the way the creators trolled us with the expectations that were built up in the previous episode. I was really looking forward to seeing the crushes of these five characters pop up in the RPG world…. and instead we got a cross-dressing prince. The teacher meanwhile kept saying that she should do something about the prince, and yet never showed up.

The ending was also brilliant. Virtually every RPG has an end with some ultimate villain who is ridiculously powerful and wants to destroy the world for whatever reasons. This one is completely different and instead just asks the five characters to not turn off the game. At first I also thought that Ouji was being a bit stupid by getting himself caught and all, but the punchline at the end of the episode explained it all: he really isn’t going to let go of these kids until he gets bored.

On a side-note: how far are we exactly into the manga at this point? I know that the manga only has sixteen chapters. Are we about halfway through them right now, or are the creators going to run out of time at this pace?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Fireball Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




So with Firebal’s second season coming up in the Spring Season, I got curious about the first season, so I checked it out. The first season too is entirely done in CG, its episodes are also just two minutes long and it’s also a comedy. What kind of comedy? One with deapan humour. Lots and lots of deadpan humour.

This show is basically two expressionless robots talking to each other while making strange poses. The dialogue itself is really silly, but the voice actors deliver them like they were intended to be serious, and do so quite well without much overacting. And at the same time it’s not like the dialogue is completely stupid either: it’s creative and makes a ton of references to just about anything. Every episode feels different and I can see more than enough inspiration for a second season.

Overall this is a pretty good recommendation for those looking for a quick laugh. You really breeze through these episodes and especially the punchlines of each episode are quite funny and well delivered. The worst part of this show probably is the monkey that pops up in the llater episodes. The creators didn’t seem to really know what they wanted to do with him.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Good comedic timing, very consistently funny dialogue.
Characters: 8/10 – Good dialogue and excellent voice actors for such a short comedy.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Entirely in CG, but the character poses make up for it.
Setting: 8/10 – References everything from dolphins to jetpacks.

Suggestions:
– Usavich
– Omoshi Magical Theatre: Risky Safety
– Cromartie High School

Star Driver – 20

by psgels, posted in Star Driver



It’s the background episode, and it’s quite a creative one. This episode answered a ton of questions about the main storyline, and did so quite creatively. Head’s background is an interesting and untypical love triangle that completely fell apart thanks to his ambitions. We also get to see Takuto’s mother for the first time (albeit in a flash-back) and I’m surprised at how untypical she is as a mother.

Some of the other things that we see confirmed is that the reason he didn’t age was because his heart is trapped in Zero-time (though we still didn’t learn how exactly this happened), who exactly the old eyepatch guy was, how Takuto got his mark and the reason Head has been delaying the seal breaking (because he wants a friend who is going to give him another seal to wake up).

Seriously, especially that latter point just confirms how this entire series was just basically Head waiting for a guy to get out of a coma. That’s why none of the characters had this sense of urgency, and it’s also how the creators managed to keep the characters able to enjoy their school life. Most of the fights here were just random quarrels that in the end mostly were just red herrings for the real main story. Looking back, I expect the guts of this show to do that, and it all ties down to the decision of the creators to focus a lot on school life, but in the end this slice of life wasn’t solid and realistic enough for this show to really become a masterpiece.

Despite that though, I’m still enjoying this show a lot, because what is there in character analysis is still really good, as this episode showed. That guy clawing his eye out was perhaps a bit extreme, but that power does explain why Head knew just about everything he needed to do. But then again, how the hell do you defeat a guy who can look into the future?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mitsudomoe – 07

by psgels, posted in Mitsudomoe



The Christmas sketch at the beginning of this episode may very well have been the best sketch of Mitsudomoe yet. It was just absolutely hilarious to see the different kids try and pretend to be Santa Claus in front of Miku’s younger brother. Every time when I thought that things couldn’t get any worse, they went even further. The punchline was in true Mitsudomoe fashion completely wrong, but the funniest part of the entire thing. If the creators are indeed saving the best for last, I’m really looking forward to the next episode. Just don’t ask me why we’re already back at Christmas again when we just had that episode a month ago. That makes three Christmases in 20 episodes…

Anyway, the second part was all about the interplay between Miyashita and Hitoha. Especially Hitoha’s deadpan humour was wonderful, but Miyashita also had her moments near the end when she got overly excited. The same excitement got taken too far in the next too sketches, though. The third had the typical Mitsudomoe problem of making characters artificially stupid for the sake of a joke that doesn’t fall. It was mostly about a teacher who was standing in for Yabecchi (who was sick), her chemistry between Futaba and her lack of speech was just too forced. At the same time though, her worries about her age made up for it: those were quite funny.

After that we got a sweaty Mitsuba getting worked up over how hot it is. This was the weakest of this week’s episode, because it’s just Mitsuba overacting and screaming the entire time. That one-sidedness is not what makes Mitsudomoe funny. It’s instead the interplay between the different characters and their constantly changing emotions. This was just forced and went on for too long.

Finally, the show gets quite creative when everyone ends up playing human curling while cleaning the pool. Okay. I have to give points for the idea there. It perhaps wasn’t the funniest skit, but the punchline still was a great one.

On a side-note, I’ve looked into the mysterious ninth episode for this series. It looks like it’s just going to be a compilation episode, so I’m just going to review Mitsudomoe’s second season next week. Heck, one of the reasons I decided to blog this series was because of its short length, which would make blogging Supernatural a bit easier, so it would have been quite inconvenient if this series went on for a few more weeks…
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Bakuman – 20

by psgels, posted in Bakuman



One thing I noticed is that in this second half, the creators (of the anime, I mean), have felt a bit freer with the drawings in this series. I don’t mean freer from the manga, but instead freer from the fact that this is aired on NHK. The drawings are messier, the camera angles are more creative, and especially this is a good example of it. Heck, there have been plenty of series that aired on the NHK Educational characters that were completely unconventional and kicked ass (Giant Killing for example).

This episode again was great.The characters in this series, safe from perhaps Miho, are starting to feel like genuine high school students. They’re genuine and at this point they’ve become pretty well fleshed out with believable characters. This episode also formed a major benchmark: if they didn’t make this episode’s goal, Moritaka would not have made his goal. On top of that, I also laughed harder at the jokes in this episode than with any other episode of this series so far. Great sign.

Also, this episode had this strange quirk of introducing timeskip with that random woman who was handing around fliers of some sort. Neat addition. On top of that, is it me or are the voice actors in this series also getting better?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Letter Bee – 45

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



This could be me, but I have a strong feeling that this was one of the chapters of the manga again. And I can understand why the creators just had to include it, despite how they’re trying to wrap up the series while the manga is still on-going (that’s the only reason I can think of for why the previous episodes went into anime original territory anyway. It really is a shame that Pierrot couldn’t get a third season for this show in time). This chapter is fairly standalone, simple and away from the main plot, but it contained a ton of heart.

Connor obviously had been missing from the past episodes, and this episode explains what he had been doing. It turned out to be a wonderful piece of character development. This really was an excellent aftermath that made Connor into a much better character than he already was. It was overall a very quiet episode, even for Letter Bee standards, but that really gave Connor the time to show how Connor and Sunny changed.

the big question at this point is of course going to be: will the final episodes be able to do the story of this series justice? I’m hoping for a few more episodes like this, plus a very solid finale that tries to do more than just answering the major questions and wrap up the story.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Gankutsuou Review – 95/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews





So, I watch a lot of anime. With this, I’m only two reviews away from my 700th review on this site, and I really try to watch as much anime as possible. So with that in mind, I do not make the following statement lightly: Gankutsuou is my favourite series of all of the anime I’ve watched during the past year and a half, and perhaps even longer. It’s often referred to as one of Gonzo’s masterpieces, and I wholeheartedly agree. This is everything that I look for in an anime, and then some.

Good Gonzo has always stood out with how damn innovating they kept trying to be. Gankutsuou is a fantastic example of this, but that’s far from everything about this series. Aside from being consistently experimental, it’s also extremely well executed.

I have not read the story of the original Count of Monte Cristo, but regardless, the creators did a fantastic job of converting it into a story that fits perfectly into 24 episodes. They took the entire setting and turned it into a futuristic setting that at the same time retained the atmosphere of France of more than two hundred years and the aristocratic culture of the days before the french revolution. It’s completely fiction and even through the weird graphics style, it feels strangely authentic. The setting here is really solid, and yet it’s the part of this show that impressed me the least.

Instead, we have some fantastic acting from the cast of characters that really brings them to life. There is a ton of character development in this series, and the creators even managed to make an often whining teenaged lead into a compelling character (though granted, before his development he does not stand out as the strongest member of this cast). The characters in this series all have a ton of flaws, and this series uses those brilliantly. The entire plot weaves together all of the different characters and their backstories, and just about everyone gets his or her moment to really show off his or her character.

And the way in which this is done was a really emotionally resonating one. This series knows exactly when to be subtle, and when to release all brakes and go over the top. The delivery in this is just perfect, with creative poses and animation in which a lot his happening at the same time, yet the story remains focused on what it wants to show. It’s really well shown with a lot of detail in how the characters are reacting to each other.

And as for the graphics… they’re some of the best you can get if you don’t mind the intrusive CG. This series is full of excellent visual ideas. I mean, just about every shot is absolutely gorgeous and it’s ridiculous how creative the visuals can get. The creators really tried to stuff a ton of ideas into the visuals here, as long as they all fitted into the story. The result is a show that looks absolutely unlike anything else. The animation itself isn’t the most consistent, but when it delivers, it really delivers some amazing and hard hitting inbetween animation that combines perfectly with the storytelling. Gankutusou really was a show in which Gonzo could show off what it was able to do with its CG, and while this show is obviously heavy on the CG, it doesn’t feel out of place. Instead, the graphics create this gorgeous whole.

Overall, I found this series one heck of a ride, and Gankutsuou is very likely going to end up in my top 20 favourite anime, somewhere between #15 and #20. I absolutely adore these kinds of series that can get a huge emotional response out of me. It’s obviously not a show for everyone (and I did hear that this anime changed a ton of stuff from the original novel), but to me, Gankutusou took a while to build up, but as soon as it hit its stride just about everything fitted together perfectly.

Storytelling: 10/10 – Wonderfully paced and balanced, just about every episode significantly advances the plot and comes with new developments that are delivered strongly, knowing exactly when to be subtle and when to be over the top, all culimnating into an amazing ending.
Characters: 9/10 – Excellent dialogue and acting with really dynamic characters. There are a few stereotypes like the angsty male lead, but even he is portrayed and developed wonderfully.
Production-Values: 10/10 – Unique. Stuffed with tons of visual ideas, both in terms of art and animation.
Setting: 9/10 – Takes France of centuries ago, and successfully transforms it into something futuristic and unique while still remaining authentic.

Suggestions:
– Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette
– Mahou Shoujotai
– Casshern Sins

Wolverine – 07

by psgels, posted in Wolverine



The background episode for the side characters. And it’s as I hoped: it again is so much better than Iron Man’s. Iron Man had a former ally who suddenly turned into a villain, and used the corniest background story just so that it would be able to explain that ludicrous plot twist. There was nothing interesting behind it. Wolverine meanwhile uses this episode to tie some of the backgrounds of the side characters together, and it does so quite effectively.

It’s a shame that Yukio turned into a damsel in distress, but then again Logan had this coming to him, in the way in which he just kept leaving her in the most impossible situations that even he would not have gotten out of if it weren’t for his healing powers. Ah well, Yukio still deserves points for trying to drown that giant monster in some conveniently nearby concrete. That “convenient” isn’t meant as a criticism here, by the way. This series consistently makes use of its environment in its action scenes in a way that I’d wish more anime would do, and so this concrete thing is a nice touch here. Oh, and that teenaged girl nicely averted the “useless teenaged sidekick”-trope when she actually proved to be quite useful. I really thought that she would only get in Wolverine’s way, but she even injured herself in order to get rid of that giant monster.

On a completely different note: the X-Men promo aired. Like expected, it will be done by a complete different team, because even the character designs for Logan and Cyclops are different. I do have to say though that it has the best looking designs of the Marvel anime so far. For once, the characters actually looked cool. As for the acting though, they unfortunately didn’t show anything about that, but it does seem that the same voice actors of Logan and Cyclops of Wolverine will return. I really hope that their dialogue will be more than their exchange of one liners in the previous episode, though. It was passable for one episode, but not an entire series!
Rating: * (Good)