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.

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)