Gosick – 04

by psgels, posted in Gosick



Aaahh, I give in. Despite how incredibly flawed the mystery in this series is, I’m going to blog it and drop Dragon Crisis, but if Suite Precure next week is crap, I’m going to pick it back up. I know that I’m really juggling around series this season, but blame their strange airing patterns!

The reason why I originally chose Dragon Crisis over Gosick had a lot to do with my assumption that Gosick would only be 12 episodes long (I mean, how much work can you put on Mari Okada anyway). The characters were just too annoying, and because of that I wanted to give Dragon Crisis more a chance to impress me in a second half, despite being much more cliched (hey, there have been plenty of series that start out really cliched, but get more creative and interesting as they go on). But guess what? Gosick is going to be is going to be 24 episodes long. This actually allows the characters to develop and the shows to evolve. Besides, the stories are small and compact, so there should be plenty to talk about.

Don’t get me wrong though, this episode still was pretty flawed. I’m really not sure why Bones put the director of Heroman of all things on this thing, and it shows: this is miles away from their best work. The one advantage that this series has over Heroman however, is that this time, the source material is actually pretty interesting. If you don’t look at the execution, but just at the story, I admit that this show is pretty interesting.

In this episode, the creator pretty much presented two stories for Victorique, and especially the first one was pretty bad: Kazuya states exactly all of the clues that are needed to solve the mystery including a daydream that just… makes no sense, both in the way that he told it and the fact that Victorique connects this daydream to the culprit. That’s exactly what I mean by that Victorique isn’t a genius at all, and how she simply has access to the script of this series. In comparison, a real genius detective would be Sakon, from Ayatsuri Sakon: that also is a series in which people have been murdered by ingenious plots (but not too ingenious to the point where it gets ridiculous), and Sakon mostly spends his time carefully gathering clues and examining his surroundings, before relating all of those together. In Ayatsuri Sakon, we really get to see Sakon’s thought process. In Gosick, we get none of that.

Instead, we just get some interesting stories. It makes no sense, but I do like how most of the mysteries in this series aren’t standalone and how they eventually become connected with each other. This show outright sucks at the “how” of its mysteries, but one thing I like is that the creators wait really long to explain exactly why things happened. This allows you to fill in some of the details for yourself. At the very least, I can see that the original source material of this series had some very interesting ideas. But was Victorique also a Mary-sue like she is in the anime version, or was this completely different?
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Yumekui Merry – 04

by psgels, posted in Yumekui Merry



Interestingly, this episode showed that this show can be quite good at slice of life. A lot of this episode featured just random stuff as going to a karaoke bar, or characters randomly talking to each other. What makes these random scenes so good in this show is that they always manage to relate it back to the characters and themes, so that none of it is really pointless. It’s also good to have these kinds of scenes, as the characters of Merry were in dire need of some more variation in their personalities, and this episode gave it to them.

Another thing that I just realized that this show is very good at is keeping its random stories short but sweet. I mean, this show spends a lot of time on its main characters, considering how they also need to flesh out a random character each episode, and yet they consistently do this right so far. At the start it seems simple, and not very interesting, but during the action scenes at the last quarter of the episodes things come together quite nicely. The story in this episode had a villain who was very nicely in the gray scale between good and evil: he was simply a lost dream who didn’t know what was going on either, and for the heck of it decided to take control of the girl he came into contract with.

It’s also clever of the creators in the Karaoke scene, where Merry noted that an awful amount of songs were about hope and dreams. Now that they mention it, that is surprisingly true. ^^;

Finally, I like how the terms of this series are really vague: first we had dreams in this series that could both be the strange things that happen to you while you sleep and your hopes and goals for the future. Now this episode comes and gives multiple meanings to sending someone back. Merry just uses it an expression when she gets rid of another Numa that invaded the real world, but the Numa in this episode seemed to believe that she could actually send people back to the world in which they came from.

Still… what was up with that maid outfit?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – 04

by psgels, posted in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica



My impression of this season, now that we’re four weeks in: it’s small, full of teenagers and there are quite a few series that I really don’t want to waste my time on. But holy crap! I’m really amazed at how many really good series have appeared. Madoka Magica’s fourth episode was again a really good one. At this point, Madoka Magica is already my favourite Shaft series since ef – a Tale of Memories.

Where Heartcatch Precure was exactly what the shoujo-targeted mahou shoujo needed, Madoka Magica was exactly what the seinen-targeted mahou shoujo genre needed. This is looking out to be an excellent deconstruction at this pace. To just take an example here: just about every mahou shoujo accepts her fate in the first or second episode. After a few minutes of doubt, she’s willing to change her entire life in order to fight crime because she happens to be some chosen one. In Madoka Magica, Madoka still hasn’t become a mahou shoujo after four episodes. The past four episodes have shown that the downsides to becoming one have some real significance.

This episode also showed that just about everyone has her own agenda, which especially became clear when Sayaka suddenly decided on a whim to become a mahou shoujo, for the sake of her boyfriend at the point where Madoka herself had decided not to become one. This also shows what a bastard Kyubei can be: he says goodbye, but instantly appears whenever he feels that someone is ready to make a contract.

Regarding a bit of a small detail: I wonder what Homura meant when she said that it would take a long time for people to file her as missing? I mean, wouldn’t the people at her school find it strange that she’s gone? I mean, I of course do not know how schools in Japan are supposed to act when students start skipping classes, but in the Netherlands it’s a pretty serious offense for kids of Madoka’s age to be absent unannounced for more than a couple of days.

Which brings me to the next question that may be thinking a bit too much into the setting here, but how many people know about the existence of these mahou shoujo? Do the police know about them, for example? I mean, what happens when one of these seeds explodes without either a mahou shoujo nearby, or one that pretty much kills everyone around it? That’s bound to raise some suspicion sooner or later, isn’t it?
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Fractale – 03

by psgels, posted in Fractale




Fractale is a series that’s pretty annoying when it fleshes out its characters (and sometimes even repetitive with the constant pervert jokes), but it does work somehow. Even beyond this episode’s excellent climax, I liked the characters better than during the previous two episodes. Somehow, they did a good job of letting us get to know the characters, although the constant pervert jokes need to stop.

I also like that the plot is moving at a nice pace here: it’s episode three, and we’ve already pretty much established that the Fractale system is pretty much brainwashing everyone, and that humans have broken away from it, because humans are those pesky creatures who want freedom. Yeah, this show is pretty much combines Ghibli with the Matrix. The lead characters are between the two different parties: they’re neither on the side of the Fractale or the rebels, which also is something that returns in quite a few of works by Miyazaki: just about the entire cast is somewhere on the scale between good and evil, except for the main characters: they’re purely good.

The end of this episode was of course excellent, and I’m pretty surprised at how brutal it suddenly became; that contrast is definitely good for the future. The interesting part with this series is going to be how it’s going to progress from now on: we’ve pretty much established our general formula here. Now it’s up to the rest of the series to use it in a really interesting way.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hourou Musuko – 03

by psgels, posted in Hourou Musuko




Most of the time when anime use far-away shots, this is to save budget: after all, it’s easier to draw something smaller because you don’t need as much detail. Hourou Musuko however puts a great amount of detail into these shots, making them look just great. It’s really something that could not be done before the era of HD. On top of that, I also love the attention this series spends on its backgrounds. I don’t mean the regular background art: that’s just some art with a watercolour filter over it. Instead, I love how this show draws all of the people in the background, with all sorts of realistic poses and make them more than a bunch of cardboard copy-pasted cut-outs that are just there to fill space.

This episode, among many others, also introduced a staple of school-based series: the school festival. Interestingly, with some help from Saori the thing that the class ended up doing was a gender-bender play. Interestingly, the students get to write the play themselves (by Shuuichi and Saori, to be exact). It’s here where Shuuichi shows that he’s actually a capable writer, but like most writers of his age, he’s very much into self-insert fan-fiction.

Oh, and this series broke another big taboo here as well: some people actually have a relationship with each other. Maho (Shuuichi’s sister) actually has a boyfriend; romance isn’t limited to a bunch of love triangles surrounding the main couple! And even the lead couple is more than just “will they won’t they”: while it’s true that it’s still uncertain whether or not they will end up together, it does seem like they actually both considered to go into a relationship, but chose to just stay as friends. That’s actually much better compared to all of those character that are oblivious to their own feelings and refuse to take their relationships anywhere.

Probably the biggest question-mark of this episode was: who actually knows about Shuuichi wanting to be a girl, and who actually knows about about Yoshino wanting to be a girl? I’m suspecting that very few know about the latter, but at this point I’m not quite sure why exactly Mahou didn’t want her boyfriend to see her brother, because Riku seemed more surprised at Maho wanting to strip her brother than that brother actually walking around in girls’ clothes.

Overall it’s a great depiction of middle schoolers, though. Their actions at times are a bit irrational, like when Saori tried to dress up Shuuichi despite earlier telling him not to, and at the same time it’s not like this show is caught up in its own angst at all: the tension comes and goes very quickly and naturally. Is it as good as Aoi Hana, though? At this point, I’d say not yet: Aoi Hana brought in even more layers in making its characters feel alive. At the same time though, I don’t see it doomed to remain in Aoi Hana’s shadow: if the rest of the episodes are good enough, I can really see this show getting progressively better as it goes on.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Dragon Crisis – 03

by psgels, posted in Dragon Crisis




As of this post, Showa Monogatari is being degraded to “Sporadically Updated”, because I have no bloody clue when its final two preview episodes are going to air. I am going to blog it properly once it airs in the upcoming spring season, though. It seriously needs more attention, because it’s exactly the series that anime needs at this point in order to diversify again.

Now, obviously Dragon Crisis has a lot of flaws, Kugimiya Rie being one of the major ones (granted, any voice actress would have been annoying with such a character, but it still doesn’t really help to have her as her voice). The reason I’m choosing this over Gosick is that the cumulative good points impressed me more. Gosick has its creativity, but that’s also about the only thing that has impressed me so far. Instead the characterization is bland and it leaves a lot to be desired when revealing its mysteries.

I think the difference in characterization is best illustrated throughout the male leads. They both have their own backstory, and both are rather girly. Dragon Crisis however acknowledges that its main character is just a kid, while Gosick doesn’t: the male lead jumps back and forth between an annoying whiny brat and a chivalrous hero, while Dragon Crisis looks much more into the characters of its main character and the reason why he refused to do anything at the end of the previous episode: I mean, we pretty much have this kid who is being forced at such a young age to do really dangerous stuff, just because he happens to have crazy parents and huge powers. The expectations that were placed on his shoulders are huge, and for once a show actually tries to highlight that, instead of taking it for granted that a young kid is supposed to be this big hero.

In exchange… the setting doesn’t make any sense. I mean… I still have no clue how Rose ended up in that suitcase if she said earlier that she specifically meant to go to Japan in order to see Ryuuji. Ryuuji’s parents suck as well for failing to give him a safe environment to grow up in. And I mean, this is the umpth wish fulfillment show that we’ve got here, in a world in which dragon princesses hatch in eggs in the middle of nowhere and bond with the first person they lay their eyes on.

The action of this series and especially the use of CG is really sweet, though. This episode as well: the soundtrack and animation both are excellent. Especially considering how we’ve got Studio Deen here. This show really looks unlike any other show they’ve produced so far.

Right now, the biggest potential pitfall is when it goes into something I’d like to call “kidnap ping-pong”, in which Rose just keeps getting kidnapped, waiting for Ryuuji to save her over and over again. I mean, I can understand a storyline that revolves around Ryuuji and Rose protecting each other from the dragons, but please make it a bit more varied than that.

Obviously the end of this episode was annoying and quite sappy. And yet, it also felt surprisingly genuine to me. I can’t really put my finger on why that was, but it’s another of the reasons why I decided to pick up this series.
Rating: * (Good)

Level E – 03

by psgels, posted in Level E



That. Was amazing. Seriously, this show completely blows 95% of all comedies completely out of the water. These past three episodes have been absolutely fantastic.

I was really wondering how the creators were planning to top the first two episodes. Somehow, they did, with one heck of an awesome anti-climax. To think that a show would start with an introductory arc that was pretty much one big joke, I just love the guts that this series has. All of the build-up and the bloody drama of the previous episodes was rendered completely useless. In the last episode I noted how this series really knows how to plan ahead. I didn’t think it would be to such an extent, though.

I also remember noting how, before the twist, some of the aliens were acting a bit weird, and how the Diskonians were getting a bit too one-sided when their attack begun. To think that they were all acting this. Even the prince’s outrageous behavior now totally make sense when you think that throughout the entire airtime of these first three episodes, he pretty much was nothing but being one giant troll.

What also made this such an amazing episode was the characters who were on the receiving side of the prank. You could really see that that prince completely got on the nerves of his three subordinates and it was completely awesome to see that one bodyguard’s eyes twinkle at the prospect of getting to kick the prince in order to attempt to restore his memory.

The time-skip of three months is also getting interesting (I also like how the main character actually got a tan from practicing outside so much). After this the main storyline should probably start. With this kind of series, it can really be anything. Level E has been by far my favourite show this season, and to think that this only was the introduction. Seriously, it’s been a long while since I’ve seen a show that had SUCH a good start: there have been plenty of series with excellent first episodes, but the ones who can keep this up for three whole episodes are really rare.
Rating: **** (Fantastic)

Heartcatch Precure – 48

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure




There are some series that leave their climax for the final episode. There are others that put the climax in the penultimate episode so that they can use the final one for an epilogue. Heartcatch Precure… to be honest I’m not sure into what category it falls. This episode ends at the exact point where Dune gets pummeled by the ultimate Precure attack. At this point it’s not yet certain whether the creators intend the final episode to be the aftermath of that battle, or whether he still manages to pull some sort of trick out of his sleeve.

Either way, whichever case it may be, this episode was just awesome. The first half was entirely dedicated to Yuri, her father and Dark Precure. And I mean, Christ: people actually died in a kids’ show! The creators didn’t chicken out from this controversial topic, in which most kids’ show refuse to show anything in that direction thanks to censors. It’s awesome to see how much screentime Yuri has actually gotten in this finale: I mean, she really was the main character of the final few episodes of this series. That is just awesome. I know that this series’ fault is that it adheres to a ton of mahou shoujo cliches and all, but for every cliche it follows, it also excellently subverts one.

The creators here really set up the perfect prototype for the mahou shoujo of the new decade and I really hope that it inspires many more mahou shoujo to really put effort in its visuals, characters and stories, because it was really a genre that was about to die out before Heartcatch Precure aired (and this is coming from someone who at one point used to be a big fan of the mahou shoujo genre, and this series definitely reminded me again why).

The second half of the episode was the battle against Dune. It’s not like it got a better budget than usual, but dear god, the animation really was gorgeous, and the action was worthy of this series climax. The action was over the top, and yet not too crazy, and the art too was gorgeous during the busy parts (I love it when the creators sacrifice their character models in favor of fluidity and dynamics).

I do have one point of criticism here though: Dune. The next episode may prove me wrong, but unfortunately he remains a flat final villain who is just evil for the sake of being evil. I really would have loved to see the creators gave the same kind of depth to him that they gave to the other characters, but alas. The final fight against him also made him much weaker than what he once used to be, but I’ve seen much worse in this area.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Star Driver – 16

by psgels, posted in Star Driver




And that takes care of the second act of this series. And it really was an awesome way to do it! Mizuno had a great episode here and her character developed even more from what it did in the previous episode and we finally get to see Takuto’s past as well!

I’m really starting to suspect that Head somehow has the ability to stop time as his first phase. Or at least, that would fill in the plothole of why he said that his father was the painter R. In this episode, it becomes clear that the entire reason he swam over to the island was because he wanted to punch his father. And this is where Marino comes into play: on top of being a great character, her case also relates to that of Takuto.

Also, here is a question that has been bugging me for quite a while now: why are there only two seals broken at this point? I mean, it feels like the Crux Brigade has no intention of breaking Keito’s seal, even though this would have been quite convenient throughout… well… the entire series basically. The fact that they were only looking for the West Maiden shows that they knew about Keito and all, and yet they never even mentioned her as a maiden. What’s going on here?

In any case, the great thing here is that after this point, this show can pretty much go anywhere. We’re getting closer and closer to the point of this series that I’ve really been looking forward to. Furthermore, I HAVE SEEN Melody of Oblivion’s final four episodes. I know what a messed up sunovabitch Enokido can be when it comes to ending his series. My problem with Melody of Oblivion was that those final four episodes were just about the only thing about that series that caught my attention, but Star Driver has been much more solid and interesting at this point. It’s true that it could have been better during its first half, but it always was building up its characters, and fleshing them out. Now, if the creators really want to make this into a memorable series, the time has come to actually use this build-up. The past two episodes were a great start, but it’s definitely not there yet.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Heat Guy J Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




I think it’s no surprise that my favourite director of all time is Kazuki Akane. If you look at my Top 10 favourite anime, this guy directed three of those spots, and even his flawed series of Geneshaft was fascinating science fiction. Now, I’m not going to compare Heat Guy J to his other series, though. The entire review would then pretty much look like “Yeah, the [insert element here] is very good, but not as good as Escaflowne, Noein and Birdy” over and over again, because as a standalone series, Heat Guy J has a lot to like.

Starting off, the action in this series is really good and also surprisingly varied. The animators here ended up experimenting with a ton of different styles for animating their action scenes, you have clean brawl-fests, there are fights with messy yet very expressive animation, there are gunfights, car chases, sword battles. This wide array of different styles makes every action scene here worth watching. If anything, just watch the first episode for some superbly directed and animated action. The soundtrack too is very excellent and varied as well. The character designs will probably take a while to (this and Escaflowne have the same character designs ;)), but once you do they too look great, diverse and imaginative.

The show is pretty episodic, and the ratio of random to plot related episodes is about 30 to 70, and even episodes that might seem random at first turn out to have some significance as the story goes on. Heat Guy J’s story is very much dependant on its cast of characters, which really is excellent. The acting is perhaps a bit stiff at times, but the entire cast grows into something lovable by the end of the series. All of the major side characters either get some significant development or an interesting back-story, and I especially loved how the final fight with the major villain at the end ties everything together, wrapping this series up very nicely without leaving any bad aftertaste whatsoever.

The series takes place in another one of those post-apocalyptic futures, but what’s interesting is that while most shows of this kind tend to have a very bleak and depressing outlook, Heat Guy J balances this out with also a lot of positive energy. On one hand, it delves into corruption and crime, but on the other it’s having fun and celebrating humanity’s collective ability to survive a harsh environment and making the best of what they have. This balance they create is great and definitely gives this show an interesting setting to work with.

So yeah, to get back to the first paragraph: this show has a lot of good stuff in it, though I also admit that it did not reach the heights of Birdy, Noein and Escaflowne. Most of the difference lies in the details, though: the latter ones were much better fleshed out and the only real flaw of Heat Guy J is its stiff acting at times, Still, it’s hard not to love the titular J and his constant one liners about what a real man should be, or any of the other characters for that matter.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Nice pacing, interesting stories.
Characters: 9/10 – Great and lovable characters with diverse backgrounds. Nice depth and development to them as well.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Excellent animation, especially during the action scenes. Awesome soundtrack.
Setting: 8/10 – Simple but effective. It’s well fleshed out at the end.

Suggestions:
– Noein
– DT Eightron
– Turn A Gundam