Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu! – 03

by psgels, posted in Mitsudomoe



Okay. Um. Mitsudomoe’s second season’s episodes so far have all been completely different. This is very good for a comedy, but this episode showed the bad side of this. I mean… it did just about every bad thing that the previous two episodes avoided so well. What the hell?

Last episode I noted how the previous two episodes now only made a sex joke when they had a genuinely funny one. This episode showed what happened to the bad ones. I mean, seriously: this entire episode was full of bad sex jokes. And a bad normal joke is bad enough already, but when a sex joke falls flat it’s ten times worse. To make things even worse, this episode also brought back the worst misunderstandings that were already milked out too much in the first season.

I mean, this was bad. Really bad. There only were three or four good jokes in the entire episode. Especially the triplet’s father suffered here: he went completely out of character for the sake of a bad nude joke (by far the worst part of this episode was when he randomly started to strip; when did this guy turn into a complete and utter moron?!). Another really bad segment was the earthquake test. Again, there is a fine balance between silly jokes and the utter stupidity that that segment devolved into.

I don’t think I have ever seen a comedy that jumped from this good to so outright bad from one episode to the other. Due to the random nature of this series I’m going to give this one one more chance next week. If next week’s episode is good and like these first three episodes completely different, then there’s no problem. If next week’s episode is as terrible as this one though, then the first two episodes were just flukes and I’m going to swap it in with Gosick…
Rating: — (Bad)

Letter Bee – 41

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



This pretty much was an aftermath, entirely dedicated to the twist at the end of the previous episode. And boy, was it worth it.

Nearly the entire episode showed a search for where the heck Gauche went, along with what happened to Roda after she fell into that canyon. We actually saw some scenes of the previous episodes, from her own perspective, and learn that even she had no idea what happened to him. On top of that, it was also very nice of the creators to bring some of the characters from the first season back. It’s great to see how they have changed.

In any case, Gauche’s eventual appearance at the end of the episode really was worth the wait. This episode built that moment up really well, and really established that the entire heartwarming part of the previous episodes… was just an act. At this point, I do believe that Gauche got his entire memory back, but at the same time also refused to let go of his identity of Noir, even after receiving Lag’s letter.

I also guess that Gauche himself spent this entire episode, looking for Roda, who he probably spotted somewhere in the previous episode. It just shows how different “losing your heart” is in this series compared to its conventional meaning of being heartless and incompassionate, because I think it’s now established that Gauche really cares for at least Roda, and probably Lag as well (otherwise he would not have chosen such a subtle way to run off during the previous episode). “Heart” in this show seems much more like memories and its combination with the meanings and values of those memories, rather than the usual cheesy definition.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Bakuman – 16

by psgels, posted in Bakuman



Bizarrely enough, this episode ended with a twist from a bad soap opera, in which Character A walks in on Character B and C while they’re making out. It’s a good thing that there are no love triangles in this series.

Apart from that, it pretty much was the same old story here: this episode was slooooooow, but some stuff did happen: Akito dived into a bit of a writer’s block, Mio made her first appearance on TV and Moritaka is going to be the assistant of Nizuma Eiji during the summer vacation. That latter was probably the major development of this episode, but the fact that people actually kissed here also is a major breakthrough. As opposed to Moritaka and Mio, Akito and Kaya actually spend time together, which is a much healthier way to develop a relationship.

And yeah… that’s pretty much all I have to say about it. Normally with blogging I try to at least fill three paragraphs, but this is moving at such a slow pacing that apart from that I don’t have much to say about it, hence this fillery paragraph…
Rating: (Enjoyable)

OVA Impressions: Goulart Knights

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions



I really don’t want to waste too many words on this: this OVA really was horrible. It’s another one of those terrible reverse harems that are just there to show off cute guys being cute and angsty.

It’s basically a project to promote a random group of upcoming idols. Now, they are completely talentless: they can’t sing and their acting is also terrible, but even the best voice actors in the world would not have been able to make such an abysmal script work. The dialogue is terrible, the writers also put no effort whatsoever in making this work and the entire premise of this one episode OVA was just laughable. And the character-designs…. oh god, the horrible character designs!

Probably the part that I liked most about this episode was the way in which the end of the episode continued to suggest how one of the characters looked like a girl, and yet they never even mentioned the girliest (and by far most annoying) character with the most ridiculous hair style I’ve seen in a long while. Yes, even the Hair Guy from Gosick looks normal compared to that white-haired kid. I mean, I’m really far from the target audience of this show…. but really?
OVA Episode Rating: 3,5/10

Wolverine – 03

by psgels, posted in Wolverine



It’s great to see that this series is actually getting slightly better again with this third episode. I mean, this show fixes so many of the problems that Iron Man had. Wolverine is quite unique as an anime protagonist, especially in this Winter Season, and thank god the creators actually make use of it. This is what I’m expecting of a superhero action series.

Both Iron Man and Wolverine had to find ways to balance their characters, and prevent them from being too god-moded, and it’s hilarious how badly Iron Man failed at this by turning into an ignorant wimp at times. There was really no tension to this character as you could completely predict when he would win and lose. Wolverine is different though: the past three episodes showed that he’s an unstoppable beast, and yet there are plenty of people who have more refined combat techniques. Everyone in this series actually has a different way of fighting. This episode also showed that with the help of his female side-kick, Wolverine can come up with quite some interesting ways to fight back, like with the Molotov cocktail bombing.

Above all though, I love how well this series makes use of its simple storyline in order to never really slow down. It always keeps the balls in the air. The action scenes are long, but not too long and make sure to provide new small twists in order to prevent it from getting stale. The soundtrack is even better than the one from Iron Man and really helps to complement the action. It’s a simple action series, and it definitely isn’t as well animated as some of the other action this season (Madoka Magica and Yumekui Merry in particular), but it’s definitely some good, clean fun that I dearly missed t Iron Man.
Rating: * (Good)

Yumekui Merry – 03

by psgels, posted in Yumekui Merry




So this is going to be one of those series that’s going to flesh out its setting with random episodic stories during the first act of the story. It makes sense, as it looks like the dream world has a lot of different features, and this way we can get a good look at the ins and outs of the setting, at the expense that we might have to wait quite a while before the main storyline pops up.

So far, it’s been the visuals and the characterization that have made the past two episodes worth watching. Out of all the shows this season, Yumekui Merry has my favourite background art (and that is in a season that also has Fractale, Hourou Musuko and Madoka Magica), and the rest of the animation is also really well directed and very imaginative. Meanwhile, the acting is also wonderful, especially near the climaxes, and this episode was no different.

This episode also spent quite a bit of time on fleshing things out. I especially liked that Super Sentai Fortune Teller and his warning of overhead danger, and how this returned throughout the entire episode. There were a ton of other scenes which just slowly let the viewers get a grasp of who little girl in this episode, and also the side characters got a few nice scenes for themselves.

In this episode, Yumeji also gave his best performance so far. And I mean, this guy still needs some sort of backstory and all, but I liked his wit in this episode, and he worked together very nicely with Merry and the girl of this episode. I hope that he can keep this up, because there really are a ton of other characters this season that have the same role as him. It’s in any case a good thing that he’s neither a wimp or obsessively hormonal.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – 03

by psgels, posted in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica



Well, I guess that this shows that this series knew exactly what it was doing. The twist that this episode pulled… I did not expect that so early on in the series. It was by far the best episode of Madoka Magica so far. This is another one of those SPOILER episodes, so you might want to close this window if you haven’t seen the episode yet.

Of course, “mentor deaths” have been used before, and this episode did contain a ton of foreshadowing (I mean, there were a lot of lines by Mami that could easily be translated to “I’m about to die”), like you usually have with these kinds of episodes. The actual death scene was really well executed, though: there was no overly long death speech or melodramatic yelling. It was simply over in an instant. It didn’t even have time to sink in due to the huge sudden mood whiplash. On top of that, this wasn’t just about Mami who just found herself some new friends, but this episode also questioned what it means to be a mahou shoujo, almost like a deconstruction.

As for the next number of episodes, it’s probably going to focus on Madoka and Sayaka becoming mahou shoujo. The interesting part is going to be how it’ll happen. This episode pretty much analyzed why they want to become one, and after what happened at the end of this episode, it’s especially going to be interesting to see how Madoka ends up becoming one. Is it just going to be for the sake of Mami, or will there be more involved?
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Hourou Musuko – 02

by psgels, posted in Hourou Musuko




Finally! Another good AIC series!. These guys really got on my nerves in 2010, in which they released a truckload of series and I only ended up liking one of those (Tentai Senshi Sunred, to be exact). This however is an excellent depiction of the bustling school life. It’s perhaps a bit on the angsty side, but the creators somehow succeeded in making a very slow paced slice of life series in which a lot of stuff is happening at the same time.

As someone who hasn’t read anything about the manga, I like the decision to start out in the middle of the manga. There are already too many series that only end up animating the first X volumes of their source material, and this is an interesting twist on the matter, especially considering how there is no way that Hourou Musuko is going to be longer than 11 episodes (Noitamina and all).

At first it’s a bit confusing, but this show explains where necessary and at this point I’ve finally got a good image of who the characters are. Whereas Aoi Hana’s cast was really small, Hourou Musuko’s is quite large, but that’s what I like about it. My problem with a lot of high school series is that they only bother to give a character to four or five important characters. Here, the entire classroom feels alive.

During this episode, I also nearly forgot at times that this is about cross dressers. It’s so unlike any other cross-dressing show I’ve seen, and this episode was about many more things than just the male lead’s gender issues. A major theme was with the female lead and her friends. It was nicely built up in the way that you only realize that it was building up to this when the major parts already started.

Overall I really like slowly learning more and more about these characters who already have a heap of backstory prior to the start of this series. The main downside is that I still have no idea which character is named which. I usually have to look up some characters’ names while writing these blog entries, but in this series it is really extreme: I even have no clue what the names of the two lead characters are…
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Fractale – 02

by psgels, posted in Fractale




So, the first time in which Noitamina is featuring on a moe adventure. On one hand, this did lead to this season having nothing but teenagers in it (save for only Wolverine), but for Noitamina it’s interesting to see that they’re trying out new things and directions. The announcement of Usagi Drop says enough that they haven’t sold out, and that this series is merely a way to diversify the timeslot. it’s setting in any case is bringing enough interesting stuff to the table.

Last week, I mentioned how the annoyance of the characters was probably going to be the major issue with this series. After the second episode, I still stand by that, but things did change a bit. In particular, the male lead showed that he can actually be a male lead: this episode showed enough of his sides, both his strengths and flaws. With a bit of development he should be fine to push this story forward, provided that his hormones aren’t going to act up too much like they did in the previous episode.

Instead we have this new girl, along with that team rocket clone. My problem with them is that they feel artificially stupid and oblivious to their surroundings. The team rocket clone are just a bunch of annoying morons whose saving grace is that they seem to work for someone who knows what he’s talking about, while the new girl (who is probably going to be the female lead) acted really strangely when she ended up destroying that trailer camp. She got better as the episode went on, though.

I was going to write the following down as a flaw: the way in which nobody really seems to notice that new girl as she ended up destroying the trailer park. But then again, as I rewatched the episode, I pretty much realized that people aren’t able to see her. The setting is definitely the best part of this series: I like its ideas, the way it’s portrayed, and this episode also showed that it knows how to put in these small details in its storytelling. Oh, and the background art is also really gorgeous.

Now, compared to Kannagi’s first two episodes the starting episodes of Fractale didn’t have the same production values or slick characterization. Still, after the episode 2 point Kannagi pretty much went nowhere and drastically decreased in quality, while I don’t really see the same thing happening with Fractale: it’s got a lot of potential in its setting. All that’s left is to hope is that the more annoying characters won’t get in its way.
Rating: * (Good)

RahXephon Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




It’s amazing to think that even in the early days of Bones, they already managed to gather a ridiculous amount of talent. I mean, they immediately showed how good they are with animating down to earth fight scenes with Angelic Layer, they got to do the Escaflowne movie, which had some fantastic animation, and not to mention Cowboy Bebop’s movie (of which I’ve heard many good movies). Then they came with RahXephon and really cemented themselves as a unique production company.

First and foremost, RahXephon is an example of the heights that anime can attain when they make full use of of their creative liberties. For something that aired nine years ago, it just has absolutely fantastic ideas within its graphics. The mecha design is exquisite, and unlike any other series I’ve seen. The use of CG is brilliant, especially for its time. The cleanup animation may leave a lot to be desired, but this show more than makes up for it with its gorgeous artwork and animation. The scenes in this series are also really well directed: this show is full of ideas, from the small details to large plot twist.

Now, as for the story itself though, you’re definitely going to like a bit of a mind-screw once in a while if you want to be able to enjoy this series. In particular, this is in no way a series that tries to explain everything that’s going on through it’s airtime: it leaves a lot unmentioned, and it especially refrains from mentioning exactly why everything is happening in this series. Instead, it just leaves this up to the viewers to make their own interpretations. I personally really like these kinds of series, but if you don’t then prepare to go “wtf” quite a few times throughout the series’ airtime because even for my standards this show ended up leaving a bunch of crucial unanswered questions behind.

Now, one thing that annoyed me a bit is that the cast of characters in this series is a bit of a mixed bag. It can be very good, and the acting is mostly rock solid, and the backgrounds of the characters are overall pretty interesting, but at the same time this show also spends quite a bit of its time on teenaged angst, unfortunately to the point where it takes up too much of the storyline and just goes on for too long. Characters refuse to talk to each other for strange reasons, and various romantic relationships take ages to get from A to B due to superficial padding.

Overall though, while this isn’t a show to watch for its cast, it still has a lot to like here, and I’m impressed what the people from Bones pulled off here. And to be honest, I had a really difficult time deciding whether to give it a rating of 85 or of 87,5, because even nine years after it aired it still is unique. Unfortunately, I do have to admit that it had some parts that were annoying. Nevertheless, it did have got the kind of mindset that I really like, where it put more focus on being interesting than on being flawless.

Storytelling: 9/10 – A lot of subtle details in the storytelling, the pacing is slow, the story is vague on purpose and yet packs some great and interesting scenarios.
Characters: 8/10 – Too much teenaged angst and characters who make strange actions, but the rest of the cast is solid enough to make up for it.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Unique graphics for a TV-series. Brilliant use of CG, especially for its time.
Setting: 8/10 – Inspired by Evangelion, but packs more than enough great ideas and details of its own. Could have been more solid, though.

Suggestions:
– Neon Genesis Evangelion
– Argento Soma
– Darker than Black