Wolverine – 02

by psgels, posted in Wolverine



As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– Infinite Stratos has a male lead who despite only piloting a mecha once, has 1337 piloting skillz. Yeah right, been there, done that. Moving on,

Anyway, now that the entire season aired, I can really say that it has one HUGE advantage, and one huge disadvantage:
– The great thing about this season is that just about every series has an awesome soundtrack. There really is a TON of ear candy here.
– The bad thing about this season: teenagers. Whether it is the series that continued on from previous seasons or the ones that debuted during the past two weeks: nearly every freaking show revolves around kids and teenagers.

The only exception is this one: Wolverine. So of course I couldn’t pass this up, especially how much better than Iron Man it has turned into. Wolverine pretty much had the worst possible publicity with the disaster that was Iron Man: poor in just about every way. Let me reassure you though: Wolverine was made by an entirely different production team. One of the few similarities is that they had their soundtracks composed by the same guy, and even there Wolverine is better.

Now, I am not really a fan of Wolverine, so I don’t really care whether or not he’s different from his American version. Still, I’m not going to complain that this series is going to adapt a number of the comic books that are integral to his backstory, especially after how Iron Man screwed up with its original story. Wolverine’s action also was much better than the incredibly dull fight scenes of Iron Man. It’s well directed and makes great use of its soundtrack in order to build up and create its atmosphere. The fights themselves aren’t particularly well animated, especially after watching Madoka Magica and Yumekui Merry, but they still work thanks to a good sense of timing and atmosphere.

The acting is very stiff, this episode showed that again, especially during the quiet parts. Still, the characterization is good enough to make up for it. The female character who was introduced in this episode actually kicks ass, compared to Iron Man’s love interests whose roles were completely shallow and corny. Yukio’s backstory meanwhile is simple, yet effective. It fits the whole superhero series much better.

Ironically, two and a half years ago Madhouse and Osamu Dezaki pretty much created the perfect example of how an anime superhero crossover should be done with Ultraviolet: it had interesting plot and characters and a unique style and creative vision. Wolverine ultimately is too simple to be as good, but this simplicity is more than enough to keep my attention here because beyond the stiff acting there’s nothing really wrong with this one. Still, this remains a great sign: all of the marvel anime are going to be completely different from each other, instead of the same. Who knows, perhaps X-Men and Blade are going to be even better?
Rating: * (Good)

Yumekui Merry – 02

by psgels, posted in Yumekui Merry




In a way, Yumekui Merry is quite similar to Madoka Magica: they both deal with magical girls, and both have gorgeous action scenes in a strange kind of dream world. After two episodes, I’m definitely liking Yumekui Merry more. It’s got some of the best direction of the entire season, plus it already packs some good drama and characters after only two episodes, beyond simple introductions.

This episode introduced a bunch of different new characters, including a childhood friend and her awesome father, along with a bunch of other classmates and a girl who wants to be a nurse. I especially like the latter, as they show how many different dream creatures there can be: beyond just existing, they also can inspire people, creating “dreams” in the sense of long-term goals. Especially that scene in which her dream demon got eaten away was just beautiful to look at. This show has some of the best background art and character designs of the entire season.

It’s a shame that this show also couldn’t escape the “walking into the shower naked” cliche, but at least the creators had this “ah, it’s in the manga so let’s just get this over with and focus on what’s more important”-air about them, compared to stalling such a scene for a ridiculously long time and getting the lead character to make a fool out of himself. That male lead meanwhile… this season definitely has a ton of characters like him. He isn’t the best, because we haven’t really learned much about him beyond the fact that he has weird dreams involving talking cats, but he’s also certainly not the worst, thanks to his acting. He’s neither overly whiny or hormonic and so far is doing pretty well to carry this series.

Now, I doubt that this series will be as good as Casshern Sins, but you can really see that the two series have the same director. The camera work especially shows this, with a ton of close ups and shots that focus purposefully on the tiny details on the background, like a bunch of leaves, a can or some chalk.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – 02

by psgels, posted in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica




As for the shows I’m not going to blog:
– Rio Rainbow Gate is one of those rare shows that are so bad that they’re good. But it’s still way too stupid for it to be interesting enough to blog.
– Kimi ni Todoke just was too annoying, despite how the graphics have gotten even better in the process.
Note: this season I’m going to have a bit of a strange blogging schedule, due to Heartcatch Precure and Showa Monogatari, so in about half a month I’ll have room to pick up two more shows (yes, I am going to end up blogging 50% of this winter season!). Even with that taken in consideration though, I don’t think that Kimi ni Todoke will be one of those two, due to the large amount of other interesting shows this season.
Note2: I’m going to be blogging four shows on Thursday. So yeah, some of them will be delayed. Especially because I’m not often in the mood for these low quality versions that often pop up first.

In any case: yeah, I’m blogging a Shaft series again. Soredemo Machi last season did a great job of taking away a part of my bias for them, and this show holds some nice potential. It obviously takes a lot after Nanoha, but brings enough of its own for now. I’ve seen Shaft do much worse in this area before, in any case.

This episode wasn’t as good as the first, but I still liked it quite a bit. This show is especially good at its action scenes, which are really artistic and well directed and do a great job getting me to care about the characters. This entire episode built up pretty decently to that scene at the end, though I would have liked to have seen more details into the witch, and less general explanations.

Now, this episode did show that we shouldn’t expect much from the humour in this show. There was this one bit in which that classmate of the lead characters started making lesbian jokes… and they didn’t work at all. It just shows how dry Shaft’s humour has become, and I don’t mean that in a good way. Thankfully it was just limited to one scene and this show takes itself seriously during the other parts of this episode.
Rating: * (Good)

Some Quick First Impressions: Hourou Musuko and Fractale

by psgels, posted in Fractale, Hourou Musuko, Some Quick First Impressions

Hourou Musuko

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to be a girl.
At the start of this episode it was a tad hard to figure out who was who because the creators didn’t bother to introduce most of the characters (this episode started in the middle of an already ongoing story), but yeah: this is good. It’s got some of the best acting of the entire season, it’s wonderfully animated with its own distinct art style, and this episode did a great job of portraying its different characters. I like how all these characters have had a history between them, and act like it. It’s miles away from the usual “childhood friends” stereotype that you usually see, and even the fact that the male lead cross-dresses is portrayed in a way unlike I have ever seen. This show takes itself seriously and really knows how to do good drama. The only pitfall that I can see is that this is Noitamina: does the story of the manga fit within 11 episodes, or do we get another rushed ending like with Kuragehime?
OP: Decent, but cliched and nothing special.
ED: Well sung at the beginning, but then loses steam.
Potential: 85%

Fractale

Short Synopsis: Our lead character saves a strange girl from a bunch of bad guys.
Ah, now I understand why this got to be Noitamina: it’s heavily inspired by Ghibli. It’s been a while since we’ve seen such a series. This show pretty much tries to add the moe factor to Ghibli, with some parts that work and others that don’t. In a lot of ways this one reminds me of Dragon Crisis’ first episode. It’s only that the setting for this one is much more creative, while the characterization is far from as good. The annoyance of the characters is definitely going to be the biggest problem for this series: just about every major character had his or her moment that rather got on my nerves due to the stereotypical moe acting, the worst being the male lead whenever his hormones started acting up. Still, this episode brought quite a bit of interesting stuff to make up for it, including a really trippy OP and a very detailed setting that is unlike anything that appeared during the past two years.
OP: Very trippy, excellent example of how to do a low-budget OP correctly.
ED: A bit of a boring ballad.
Potential: 70%

Gakuen Senki Muryou Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Here is one for the category “series with very misleading titles”. This one has two titles: Gakuen Senki Muryou and Shingu – Secret of the Stellar Wars. And yeah, I guess that they make sense when you’ve seen the entire series, but with such titles I expected an epic show about galactic warfare and strategic battles and the role of a random school in them. I was expecting a fully blown action adventure here. Madhouse had different plans, though.

First of all, Gakuen Senki Muryou isn’t about war at all. Sure, there is a war going on and all and there are a few battles here and there, but it’s actually focused much more on diplomacy than actual warfare. Throughout the entire series we get to see all kinds of diplomats, trying to get all kinds of alien relationships to flow smoothly, and trying to take care of the oddball aliens that try to invade the earth. It’s actually quite an interesting concept that the creators got here, unlike any other show I’ve seen here.

Second of all, I did not expect this series to have as much slice of life as it did. It’s even a bigger focus of this show than the diplomacy: this series really shines in the way that it depicts its characters when nothing is going on and they’re just living their daily lives, and it really took its time to portray all of its characters as ordinary humans who have enough things to do on their own when they’re not saving the world. It’s all wonderfully down to earth: often you just randomly see people having dinner, attending classes or trying to get an interesting school project off the ground.

It all meshes surprisingly well with each other and often times the line between slice of life and diplomacy gets pretty blurry, with some wonderful results. It also really helps that this show is really good at fleshing out its characters: the dialogue is often quite witty, the lead characters, especially Nayuta, receive quite a bit of depth throughout the series, and even the smallest side characters here feel like actual people that have their own lives. This show also likes to sometimes focus on random discussions from people that just happened to be in the neighbourhood, and this show actually succeeded really well in making its setting come alive.

This show also subverts a ton of stereotypes: one thing that I especially loved about the first half of this series is that nobody really turns out like what he appears to be at first sight. The show comes with a ton of surprises because of that, which made it very fun to watch, even during the slow pacing of the plot and the childish (but hardly ever annoying!) characters.

Now, first and foremost this is a series about middle schoolers, but it’s also one of those shows whose target audience is pretty vague: there is also quite a bit of attention to the large cast of adults that roam this series, there are no high schoolers whatsoever and the elementary school kids that pass by are also wonderfully characterized (I especially loved Hajime’s sister). On the other hand, all of the scientific theories, diplomatic discussions and the entire backstory will probably fly over the heads of most kids (because really, there is a ton of depth behind the world that this show attempted to create).

It’s pretty much a series for many different ages, especially if you like middle school adventures and the combination of slice of life with something else (in this case science fiction and diplomacy). Just don’t watch this for the action alone: the battles are few and far inbetween, and it’s about the only part of this show that isn’t creatively portrayed. Shingu is a very obscure series, but it really doesn’t deserve that: it’s got more than enough to like.

It’s definitely not the most exciting series: it always favours its laid-back style and pacing, even at the darker parts in the series, but at the same time I can hardly see anything that this show does wrong. Yeah, perhaps it has one tsundere and perhaps the ending could have been less rushed, but that’s just nitpicking here.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Slow paced, but great slice of life, creative depictions of the characters and great combination with diplomacy.
Characters: 9/10 – Greatly written characters, both the main ones, the side ones and the very small side ones: everyone feels important in this series. There’s also virtually no cheese in the drama here.

Production-Values: 8/10 – The animation itself is nothing special, but the art is quite consistent and creative.
Setting: 9/10 – A unique setting thanks to the unusual different focuses of this series. It’s very well detailed and explored throughout the series.

Suggestions:
– Level E
– Maria-Sama ga Miteru-franchise
– Tytania

Showa Monogatari – 02

by psgels, posted in Showa Monogatari



Erm… what is going on here? Wasn’t this thing supposed to air in Spring? I can understand previewing the first episode a few months in advance, but to air the second episode a week later… what are the producers trying to do here? Is there some announcement that I missed or something? In any case, if this does end up airing weekly then you can consider it as one of the shows I’m going to blog. If it has some really weird airing system, then… to be honest I have no idea. I still have no bloody clue how I’m going to cover Supernatural the Animation this season…

In any case, one thing that I DO know about this show is that it’s another product of Wao World, the people who were behind the movies Nitaboh, Furusato Japan and Symphony in August. This series misses their flagship director, but a lot of other people who worked on these movies are also working on this series. Especially interesting is going to be the upcoming movie, which is going to be directed by someone who went from a special effects expert to an executive producer to a director. That should be interesting (because yes, both the movie and the TV-series are made by different people).

Wao World, for those who don’t know about their previous works, pretty much is a company that tries to celebrate the Japanese cultural heritage. They’re the perfect antidote for the moe and bishies that have invaded anime nowadays and I’m really glad to see that they’re actually doing TV-series now. The big difference with their previous movies is that Showa Monogatari isn’t about performing: it instead tries to depict the daily lives of a typical family in the 1960s.

It’s got a pretty good balance between the uneventful parts and the drama that comes along with being a kid those days, like the tension with your parents. This episode also showed him getting into trouble for something as simple as secretly buying manga with his parents’ money (plus: ah, the sixties: the time in which children still could buy cigarettes unsupervised). This episode also touched upon the relative poverty that some families lived in, yet also makes sure to not portray it as one sided as you’d expect. On top of that, the past two episodes have devoted enough attention to a lot of other characters besides this kid: his parents and friends also received quite a bit of attention.

The weakest part of this show is probably its production values: the voice actors for the kids lack experience, and the animation is often quite jerky and off model. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a series like this, though and I like it a lot so far.
Rating: * (Good)

OVA Impressions: Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail – 03

by psgels, posted in Black Lagoon, OVA Impressions




The contrast with the previous episode couldn’t be bigger here. Where that one was mostly focused on building up and dialogue, this was was nearly entirely focused on the action part. The first half of the episode showed different skirmishes between all of the different fractions that happened to come together. The second half. Oh boy. Talk about nightmare fuel.

There are still two episodes left, so the combat in the first half was only just the tip of the iceberg of the things that are about to happen. They were quite well written, though: every fraction had its own way of combat and the different skirmishes were quite varied throughout the episode. At the same time, there were also a few great dialogues, like the one between Rock and Chang, and Revy and Fabiola.

In the second half meanwhile, Garcia runs into Roberta. This scene takes up around ten minutes in total, and it was relentless in the incredibly slow way in which it unfolded itself and where Roberta’s demented acts completely destroyed the image Garcia had of her. It was really disturbing, and just shows how completely drugged up Roberta must be at this point. That cliff-hanger especially is a really nasty one to have to wait for another two months.

On a side-note: this episode also featured foreign languages, but instead of voicing them over in that very confusing way like they did in the second season, this episode instead simply subtitles them. Works much better.

Also, I’m not sure if I’ve said this before, but I quite like the OP and ED of Roberta’s Blood Trail. Especially the ED: there is something wonderfully ironic to have such a semi-upbeat tune after all the depressing stuff and for once it doesn’t feel out of place unlike a ton of other dark shows that have bright EDs (I’m looking at you, Uragiri…). I just wonder why they showed so much of Balalaika, because she doesn’t really have that big of a part in this arc of the story.
OVA Episode Rating: 8,5/10

Some Quick First Impressions: Dragon Crisis, Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? and Level E

by psgels, posted in Dragon Crisis, Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?, Level E, Some Quick First Impressions

Dragon Crisis

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a cute girl who can only think about him.
Hmm, this is one with a lot to like and a lot to dislike. To start with the positives, it has one of the best soundtracks of the season so far (and with this season, that is saying something), the animation is surprisingly good for a Studio Deen series and this feels unlike any other series they’ve done before. The action is creative, the car chases are exciting and the characterization for half the cast was actually pretty decent. Ryuuji may be very girly for a guy, but this show actually acknowledges it and gives him more personality beyond “ew, a naked girl!”, and Eriko also turned out to be much more than just that fanservice character which she appeared to be at first sight. Now, the bad thing about this show however is that it just doesn’t make any sense, and it believes that it actually does. This leads to some bizarre situations like hordes of incompetent faceless mafia members that are involved in a plot that has so many holes that there is no way that it can ever be explained, a guy who just skips school for the heck of it and BY FAR the most clingy female lead I’ve ever seen. It’s a very strange combination between something that tries to tell a serious story and something that just wants to act as wish fulfillment by having cute girls continuously spoon over the male lead. The different parts of this episode didn’t mesh well together at all, but I do admit that there’s some potential here.
OP: One of the most unique OP songs I’ve heard in a long while.
ED: Again unique, but this time in a bad way.
Potential: 60%

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives together with two cute girls.
Here is one that turned out better than expected. Of course, this show still has a completely stupid premise and it had quite a bit of fanservice, but it’s surprisingly well executed: the male lead has an actual personality, the scenarios are well written, the jokes are well built up and actually very funny and the action too was surprisingly good for a Studio Deen series. It’s a pretty effective romantic action comedy that knows when it needs to be completely over the top, and when it needs to be completely serious. Because of this, the few serious moments actually worked well and didn’t end up cheesy, and yet the crazy jokes also fit this show. But yeah, if you want to check this out, be aware of the fact that characters have bizarre costumes and very easily lose their clothes in this series.
OP: Decent song, but especially the visuals are nice.
ED: This one is just terrible, though.
Potential: 70%

Level E

Short Synopsis: Our lead character starts living together with an alien.
Hell yeah! Level E just delivered the best first episode of the new season, it had the most interesting back-story, it was the most intriguing opening of the entire season, it neither was overly moe or bishie, it had the best jokes of the new season, the best OP. For me, it completely blew all of the other episodes that have debuted so far this season out of the water. It’s one of those series of which I have no idea what genre it’s going to be: it has a high school student as a male lead, and yet it’s miles away from your average high school show. For a shounen series there was too little action, for a shoujo series there was too little sweetness. For a slice of life series it had a plot that is just way too interesting and a drama also doesn’t really fit. The episode was wonderfully told and I love the creativity that was put into a simple concept of an alien crash landing on earth. The chemistry between the lead characters was just fantastic. None of the characters here are typical. Hell yeah, if only because of this show, this season is going to rock!
OP: Best OP of the season BY FAR. Excellent song, great visuals.
ED: Much more generic J-Rock, but nothing bad.
Potential: 100%

Ie Naki Ko Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




… this was made in 1977. It’s amazing to think that even at a time when anime was only fifteen years old, and mostly consisted out of cheesy and episodic kiddie shows, some people were already making these highly detailed, imaginative and well told storylines.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Ie Naki Ko’s graphics were the best out of any TV-series at its time: Osamu Dezaki as a director was consistently experimenting with new animation techniques in order to simulate movement. The backgrounds also give a wonderfully detailed and realistic depiction of the french landscapes of 140 years ago.And I mean, the show is old, so the graphics obviously look dated, but there still is enough great art and eye candy for today’s standards. I especially liked the technique where layers of background art moving on top of each other. The things that worked least were probably the “shocking moments”. Those were probably a bit too dramatically drawn.

This series tells the story of the travels of a young abandoned child. Unlike most of the World Masterpiece Theatre Series that first take about twelve episodes of build-up, it immediately starts off as an engaging series. The show is 51 episodes long, but it has plenty of material to fill it up with, perhaps with only the episodes between 15 and 25 dragging on a bit. The show goes through some huge changes in both mood and storyline, and there’s an array of very different and interesting goals and trials that the creators throw at the poor young Remi.

Because of this, his growth throughout the series is a really memorable one, but the side characters are also wonderfully portrayed. The major side characters all receive their own share of development, and the minor ones all feel wonderfully down to earth and realistic. Even all of the animals in this series have their own personalities, flaws and strengths.

Now, comparing Remi to other World Masterpiece Theatre series, there are two areas at which it is unfortunately notably weaker than some of the best ones. The first is the acting, which sometimes gets a bit too dramatic and not as realistic as the best WMT series out there (emphasis on “best”; with that I mean series as Perrine Monogatari and Les Miserables, not the Trapp Family Story or even Romeo’s Blue Skies). The show really tries to be out there and catch your attention, and with that come these sacrifices as the almost theatrical type of acting, plus a rather worrying amount of disasters that seem to cling to Remi. Seriously, the amount of coincidences that hit this kid may be a bit worrying here…

Overall though, this is a wonderful series for both kids and adults. It’s just one of those examples that show that the gems of anime can be found in any decade; it leaves many series behind it, both modern and old. If you like the World Masterpiece Theatre type of series but would like to see a different twist on them, then by all means give this one a chance.

Storytelling: 8/10 – The acting is a bit too theatrical at times, but it’s an excellent take on a classic story with a diverse plot that keeps moving forward.
Characters: 9/10 – Great character development, themes and just about every character has something to like.
Production-Values: 9/10 – For its time: just fantastic. For today’s standards it does look a tad dated but there is still a lot of neat stuff to look at if you don’t mind the vastly different art style.
Setting: 9/10 – Very realistic, well detailed believable. An excellent backdrop for this series.

Suggestions:
– Ashita no Nadja
– Perrine Monogatari
– Porfy no Nagai Tabi

Heartcatch Precure – 46

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure




Ah, it’s just as I hoped: this episode was entirely devoted to the final fights with Cobraja and Kumojacky. They’ve consistently used Desatorians during the series when they fought with the Precures, so what is the final tactic that they choose to go all out with? One on one fights! Awesome!

The animation strangely had its ups and downs here, where some parts were really good, while others were surprisingly off model in a way that seems strangely sloppy for this series, but the fights themselves totally made up for it, and it was a worthy ending for the two of them. I’d just wish that we got to see what their human forms looked like, but perhaps the creators are saving that for the ending. Either way, I really like that both of them got their final bit of development here: this episode really made use of the fact that they’re just simple desatorians: Kumojacky is someone who loves fighting, while Cobraja was more about the dark side of beauty. They weren’t really fighting for a reason though, which fits this kind of shoujo series pretty nicely.

Also, next week: Dark Precure vs Cure Moonlight! This episode did a great job of hyping it up, especially in the way that it kept hinting towards Professor Sabaaku, and the way in which the episode closed off with Grandma begging Cure Blossom not to fight them. With three episodes left, the creators have enough time for a smashing finale that can give plenty of time to the remaining three villains, so I really hope that they make use of this opportunity.
Rating: *** (Awesome)