OVA Impressions: .Hack//Quantum – 01

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions




– .Hack//Sign was one of my favourite series. It was one of the first series I watched and it still was completely unlike any other series I watched afterwards, in the way in which it put a huge focus on the social interaction part of the MMORPG, asking deep questions in the process.
– .Hack//Liminality was a step back, but still quite an interesting look at the real versus the virtual world, even though it didn’t really answer all of the questions.

– .Hack//Dusk was a complete abomination that just consisted out of a bunch of boring and childish random stories with a boy who magically received a godmode bracelet.
– .Hack//Roots had many good points, but for every good point it also had three bad points. One of the major ones was that it was so serious business that it didn’t really feel like a MMORPG that the characters were playing in.

Now, I’m really glad that .Hack//Quantum managed to break that trend and how it tries to restore the .Hack franchise to its former glory. This episode portrayed the lead characters really as a bunch of teenaged girls who were messing around in an online world. It showed how they balanced their online activities with their real life ones, and it all felt very down to earth.

That all made the end of this episode really good, in which in true .Hack fashion the lines between reality and virtual reality get broken. Unlike some of the other .Hack installments though, it doesn’t really try to be thought-provoking, but instead is much more an adventure series. In exchange we got nicely written and down to earth characters with a simple but effective plot.

But then again, I’m not expecting that the last two episodes will have the same tone as this one. After all, this comes from the director of Tokyo Magnitude.; let’s not forget the incredible contrast between the first and second episode of that series… The way in which one of the lead characters got seemingly killed is a very big hint to that, and I’m really curious to see what they can do with that.

The animation was quite good. But alas, I do have to say that the soundtrack is unremarkable at best, but then again .Hack//Sign and .Hack//Roots featured the best soundtracks I’ve ever listened to, so the standards it had to live up here were really high.
OVA Episode Rating: 8,25/10

Showa Monogatari – 04

by psgels, posted in Showa Monogatari



A surprising episode in which we get to see some background on Kouhei’s parents. His mother basically takes him to visit the place where she grew up (she needed to be there anyway for a class reunion), and there she tells him about how she met Kouhei’s father. It’s a nice little story of how the two ended up getting married, albeit a bit simple, but again this shows that this is a family series: it can be enjoyed by any age, as long as you like slice of life.

Unfortunately, there really are two annoying characters in this show that make it less enjoyable than what it could have been. The first is the narrator who looks and sounds like she’s talking to a three year old kid. The second is Kouhei. He’s not annoying all the time, but the point in this episode in which he had daydreams about his mother leaving with that crush she once had was just… too much.

Still, it’s a nice nostalgic episode for the characters and it did a good job of showing different sides to the older characters here. I like how the crush of Kouhei’s mother was really a teenaged crush that went over with time.

In any case, the next episode will arrive somewhere in May. I’ll pick it back up there.
Rating: * (Good)

Showa Monogatari – 02 (Not 03)

by psgels, posted in Showa Monogatari



Okay, so apparently I mistook the second episode that I reviewed a month ago for the actual third episode. Today, finally the real second episode and the fourth episode became available It’s confusing, but then again, this show really needs all of the advertising it can get. Especially since it still hasn’t gotten fansubbed…

In nay case, this episode starts with a strange and annoying announcer, and it’s more than apparent that the voice actor of the lead kid can’t act during the dramatic parts. Apart from that though, it again was a pretty good episode here. This time, it focused on the way in which the main cast lived in an era of transition: on one side there was the second world war that people were still recovering from (signified by the scarcity of water), and the way that people started looking towards the future.

The main character is a kid, but at the same time this show also gives ample time to the rest of the characters. I liked how this episode also focused on his brother as he tried to fit into the working culture of Japan, that would later propel the country to becoming one of the top economies in the world.His sister meanwhile also has the problems of finding a guy, and his parents have the problems of trying to raise him, and his grandmother has the loss of her husband. If this show was solely aimed at kids, we probably would never have gotten all of them nicely fleshed out like that.

Oh, and the ED is different this time as well. I’m not exactly sure what the creators are playing, but they sound very authentic. And that’s really a key word for this series. There have been movies that tell slice of life stories that took place around World War II, but there are hardly any TV series that can claim the same. The only one I can think of is Porfy no Nagai Tabi. The animation obviously isn’t that good, but the extra length is definitely going to be interesting here to paint a nice picture of how life was back in those days in Japan. I mean, Rainbow was a very good series and all, but to call it realistic…
Rating: * (Good)

OVA Impressions: Kara no Kyoukai Epilogue

by psgels, posted in Kara no Kyoukai, OVA Impressions



Oooh! It’s really been a long while ago since we’ve seen such an episode, I was afraid that anime creators had given up on them and were too afraid to put them in. This was certainly a pleasant surprise here, because simply labelling this as an “epilogue” doesn’t do justice to what it actually is.

So basically, this episode was nothing but Shiki and Mikiya talking, nothing more. It was entirely set in one place: a lone road with in the background the people of Ufo Table having a contest to see how many snowflakes they could put on one single screen at the same time. Now imagine that for half an hour.

It’s here where you can really see Kinoko Nasu’s unique writing style. Many of you probably know that I love these kinds of “lots of talking” stories, and the excellent writing of this one, plus the extremely calm atmosphere make this epilogue definitely worth watching if you’re into that stuff. If you watched Kara no Kyoukai for the actions and graphics though, then you can give it a pass.

I really liked how this gave a complete new insight into Shiki, and this OVA is pretty much entirely dedicated to this. Because the creators let Shiki (or whatever you’d like to call the entity that was there) talk so uninterruptedly, it gave a lot of depth to her character and that made this episode so much more than just someone reading a boring essay.

Overall, at first I wasn’t too fond of Kara no Kyoukai when it first started. Looking back now though, I really love what it did. Not only did it create a full story, nicely closed off with this epilogue. That’s of course great, but what’s also great to see is the influence it had: it came with a really bold idea: to create a series of movies of which pretty much nobody knew whether it would work well or not. It worked really well, and the result? It opened up a whole new market for for example the Mardock Scramble, Votoms and Berserk movies. Kara no Kyoukai has some excellent writing, but even without that: if this series was never made, those three also probably would not have gotten green-lighted.
OVA Episode Rating: 8,5/10

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? – 05

by psgels, posted in Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?



As for choosing which Studio Deen series to blog this season, last week sealed the deal for me. What does Dragon Crisis do? A beach episode. What does Zombie do? GIANT FLYIONG WHALE! It’s really a shame for Dragon Crisis: it does have a pretty good execution. It’s just that the story is way too cliched.

Now, I am a fan of Studio Deen: whenever they’re good, they’re really good and whenever they’re imaginative, they’re really imaginative. Obviously that part of them is nowhere to be found in this season, but Zombie is still pretty good. I originally didn’t want to blog it because I’m already blogging two other comedies this season, but episode four showed that this show also delivers in the drama department.

Having said that though, this fifth episode was a step down, partially due to the ridiculous amounts of fanservice in it. The saving grace there was that at least the fanservice was diverse: it was not the same scenario repeated over and over like what most harems do, but the creators like to keep it at least a notch creative.

In the same way, the story is pretty cliched and this episode showed that this show also isn’t the best at combat between human-like creatures (the whale battle last episode was very good, though), but it’s the details here that are surprisingly creative, and the dialogue is surprisingly witty at times. Ayumu is quite likable with his nonchalance. For now, that’s enough to keep me interested, though this show WILL get very annoying if the rest of the episodes are going to be like this one.

In the same way, the drama was decent, but it in its turn did turn Haruna in a typical tsundere. Yes, this show is inconsistent, and I hope that the second half will make good use of this. There are only 12 episodes, after all.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Level E – 05

by psgels, posted in Level E



After the end of the previous episode, I already had a suspicion that this episode would focus on Ouji’s plans to create the earth rangers. That indeed turned out to be true, but I didn’t expect him to kidnap a group of innocent children to do it. Seriously, this episode was just nothing but a grown man grabbing a bunch of random kids and playing a ridiculously unfair game with them. And it was hilarious.

It’s perhaps not as good as the previous episodes, but even then I absolutely loved this episode. It again takes a group of random guys, this time in middle school, and this time it’s non fiction. Again, their designs were nicely unconventional for anime, and really feel like Ouji picked the nearest five kids that he could find. The way in which they tried to deal with the fact that they had been turned into power rangers (without any actual powers besides a bunch of illegal ones) in a great little parody of the super sentai genre.

This episode subverted a ton of these tropes, like how most kids who get these powers really aren’t going to play along, and how for some the powers may just rise to their heaDS. Or the way in which they couldn’t use most of their weapons because they were grossly illegal.

I also liked that twist with the teacher, and how she as an alien immediately noticed that something was up, and also how she laughed when she found out that Ouji was behind everything. I’m not sure whether this was a one shot episode or whether it’s going to continue next week. That would be interesting, if only to see a bunch of kids beat up Kraft.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Star Driver – 18

by psgels, posted in Star Driver



Milestone time: this is going to be the 4000th post on this blog. Whoa, I’ve been writing a lot…

In any case: building up episode. I do hope that this was one of the last building up episodes that we’re getting in this series, because at this point it really should start delivering and using this build-up. It was an enjoyable episode nevertheless.

The fireworks and the random games weren’t anything special, but they were fun. I also like how Takuto’s apartment actually got burned out. That definitely was good for his character, even if at first it seems just like a cheap trick to get Sugata and Takuto in the same house. Keito’s twist meanwhile was a bit simple (still clinging to the things she was obsessed with in her early childhood instead of exploring new things), but nevertheless was a nice twist. As for what the hell she was doing at the end of the episode: that’s for the next episodees to answer.

In any case though, Star Driver is one of those series where a lot is going to depend on the ending. Because of that I’ll withhold judgement for now whether this is a really memorable series, or simply a really enjoyable one. I do want to say though that my initial hopes of this series becoming the spiritual successor of Utena are probably not going to be met. The entire series could have had more variation and creativity for that at this point in the story. Plus, it also turned into a bit too much of a harem. I mean, Utena had a ton of fangirls and all, but it did have a ton of other complex and deep character relationships and didn’t boil down to the entire cast only liking one or two characters (the recently introduced romance story of Ruri is a welcome addition because of that).

Also, the animation of this episode seemed surprisingly mediocre for Bones’ standards. This can point at one of two things: 1) the budget ran out or 2) the creators are saving the best budget and animator for last.
Rating: * (Good)

Some Quick First Impressions: Suite Precure

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Suite Precure

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters can become mahou shoujo.
Um, yeah. The differences with Heartcatch Precure are ufortunately apparent: this much more goes back to the standard that the old Precures set with silly non-threatening villains, and uninteresting stock characters. The biggest issue though, is that compared to Heartcatch Precure this series lacks life. The poor animation is nowhere near good enough to really portray the characters beyond their stereotypes (the usual tomboy and smart girl who hate eeach other but actually love each other). Compared to the first episodes of other Precure series though, it’s not the worst. There were strings of good drama here and there, and the soundtrack is also really excellent. What stood out the most though was the obligatory magical world for this mahou shoujo. It’s completely bizarre with singing cats,living instruments and not to mention the three henchmen of this series’ villain: they communicate entirely bBY SINGING. The thing is, the Precure series is highly repetitive: it needs some sort of hook right at the beginning to get its audience’s attention. I did not see that hook here yet.
OP: Two small scenes of great animation. Apart from that, pretty generic.
ED: Even Heartcatch Precure’s EDs were terrible, but this one is even worse.
Potential: 30%

Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu! – 05

by psgels, posted in Mitsudomoe



Not the best we’ve seen from this sequel, but still really funny. There were some jokes that were of the milked out category, but there also were enough new and hilarious ones.

To start with the positives: this episode finally made Satou’s three stalkers into three individual characters. Satou meanwhile also kept himself out of awkward situations and instead works much better as a straight man type of character. Usually the creators seem to try too hard with his character, but this episode avoided that. Oh, and to my delight the female teacher also finally proved to be more than the dumbest woman on earth, when she ended up teasing the girls and their attempts to screw their own measurements.

Now, as for the bad stuff… the lesbian jokes were kindof out there. Generally this show is at its worst either whenever it’s milking the misunderstanding jokes (although that quick dog poo joke in this episode was dumb, yet strangely hilarious) or when it’s artificially making its characters dumber than they usually are. I mean, a lot of this episode was about the usual nonsense talk between kids of their age, but the point Miku started eating the cookies of that occult girl’s face was just… weird. The same goes with that scene of Miku’s mother, sneaking into the classroom, but that one was saved by the way in which she smacked Mitsuba’s face on the table when she got caught.

In a way, Mitsudomoe is also a lot more nostalgic than I’d want to admit. Sure, it’s very exaggerated and all, but at that age I too was just discovering toilet humour,and started caring about what my classmates thought of me. This is also why I appreciate how the second season has gotten more down to earth compared to the first that just tried too hard. I’m not fond of admitting it at all but some of the scenarios and lines in this showw are surprisingly easy to relate to…
Rating: * (Good)

Letter Bee – 43

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



That OP just looks amazing. I guess that we now know why the previous episodes suddenly came with a recap OP: Studio Pierrot was still working on the real one in order to get it just right. When it looks this good, it really was worth the wait.

Also, I’ve said this before, but my stance on anime original material is that, as long as it works, I don’t mind it at all. With that in mind, I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. There were some strange technical issues, like a giant explosive garbage disposal machine that can be turned on by a big ripple in the water, but it’s easy to forget about that as it lied in the middle of a huge corpse graveyard!

This episode also made great use of the fact that the Letter Bees aren’t on the right side of the moral scale, despite believing to be so. Despite the services they provide to deliver hearts, they’re still on the side of the government, which has made quite a few enemies. This makes choosing between which side to join a much more interesting dilemma beyond the usual “am I good or am I evil?”

Regardless of however good the manga may be, the anime so far did create a pretty interesting job of coming up with an original story, but it’s not there yet. It’s clearly currently building up to something, and that really does need to pay off in the end. In particular, the creators are apparently no longer bound by a manga-format, so I hope that they make use of that instead of playing for safe.
Rating: * (Good)