Otome Youkai Zakuro Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Otome Youkai Zakuro was another one of those series that went under the radar this season. And granted, when looking at its premise it seems like a very simple youkai series. However, it’s a series that really shines through its execution and it does a great job combining the youkai genre with the romance one.

It’s the kind of series that perhaps doesn’t do anything new, but what it does it does really well. The three lead couples are all charming, each in their own way and especially Agemaki and Zakuro are two very good main characters who are both more than just romantic stereotypes. The simplicity of this series also allows the creators to put in a lot of detailed character development, and that especially manifests itself in Zakuro’s background, but the entire main cast emerges from this series with some depth.

the only real flaw of this show is its restriction to some cliches, like Zakuro the Tsundere, or a villain who listens to a few overused archetypes. It’s well told though, so despite these cliches it’s really able to put an emotional charge to just about every episode. It’s very consistently told and at the same time the drama is genuine enough to get nowhere near the levels of cheese, thanks to some subtle characterization.

It’s a great recomendation if you’re looking for some light romance. the story itself is well paced and keeps a great balance between the romantic developments between the characters, and the actual story and the growth of their characters. Autumn 2010 had many sleeper hits. This is one of the biggest ones.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Well balanced, treats its cast seriously and can be both very subtle and pack a punch.
Characters: 9/10 – Characters are neatly laid out, the main ones have a lot of depth and backstory, but it’s especially the relationship between them that really well done.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Great artwork throughout the entire series.
Setting: 8/10 – Youkai series aren’t new, but it’s nevertheless a very solid setting for this series.

Suggestions:
– Rozen Maiden
– Ga-Rei Zero
– Natsu no Arashi

Otome Youkai Zakuro – 13

by psgels, posted in Autumn 2010 Kaleidoscope



I really would have liked to see Otome Youkai Zakuro go on for 26 episodes instead of just thirteen, but ah well, at least this was a great ending that was simple, yet very well told: all of the important characters reached their catharsis and the creators managed to add a very nice emotional charge to it. The three main couples all grew even closer together, Byakuroku and Daidai got themselves a great conclusion, and the final twist on Zakuro’s mother also made her into a really sympathetic character, where her love as a mother, that has been questioned throughout the entire series, was restored.

Only Omodaka got a bit of a short straw here with that suicide ending of his. I’m not sure what was up with that and what the creators wanted to prove with him just dying without any reason: he just chose to sit next to his mother as the house around him burned down. And I know that there is the golden rule of anime and all (no character is dead unless this is confirmed), but this is the final episode: there was no hint whatsoever that he survived, despite half the episode being dedicated to the epilogue.
EDIT: oh wait, it seems I missed an epilogue and he really did not die. ^^;

At the end of the episode, the bureau of spiritual affairs also got disbanded, only to reappear only minutes later (with a plausible reason, though). That twist was mostly there to get that kiss out of Zakuro and Agemaki. I guess that there wasn’t time to let it flow naturally between them (because granted, it’s probably going to take a long time for them to stop arguing if their relationship ends up happily ever after in the first place). It in either case was a charming bit of romance.

Overall, this blogging a different series each week turned out to be a nice experiment, that I might do again in another season where there a lot of shows about which I have something I want to say. I’m not going to do it next season, though: when Heartcatch Precure ends I’ll be able to cover nine new series: that’s half the total amount of series in the entire season.

I’m not yet sure which series those are going to be, though. I’m guaranteed to blog Level E, and things also have to be pretty strange if I’m not going to cover Yumekui Merry, Fractale and Hourou Musuko. For Supernatural it’s all going to depend on how the heck they plan to release it. For Rainbow Gate, Freezing and Infinite Stratos it’s going to depend on whether or not they have their mind in the gutter. Madoka Magica, Wolverine and Beelzebub have very notorious staffs so any hints towards that will play a big role in whether or not I’m going to blog those, and Gosick and Dragon Crisis will get covered if they’re not as childishly stupid as they seem to be at first sight. In any case though, I never had to choose nine new shows to blog in such a small season, so I’m at least thankful that it’s going to be a very diverse one.

Going back to Otome Youkai Zakuro, my initial worries were that it wasn’t ambitious enough with its story, and granted its story isn’t as complex as, say, Shinrei Tantei Yakumo, but it still developed into a very nice and simple story that pushed a lot of right buttons. A definite recommendation for those looking for some light romance.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Nurarihyon no Mago – 26

by psgels, posted in Nurarihyon no Mago



I didn’t know that there was supposed to be a 26th episode of Nurarihyon no Mago, but it turns out to be a recap. A nicely cut recap that actually shows the core of the past arc, but a recap nonetheless. There was no new content and no hook for the second season.

Whether I’m going to blog the second season depends entirely on the season it airs in: if there aren’t many great series I’ll cover it, if there are however many awesome series then I’m going to prioritize those. I just have one major request for the creators: just pick what you want to focus on. Either go for a completely original arc, or just faithfully adapt this thing. You can’t do both at the same time.

Oh, and small Rikuo with an adult voice… it’s still creepy after watching it a second time.
Rating: – (Disappointing)

Heartcatch Precure – 45

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure



The previous episodes were surprisingly light for a show that’s so close to its end, so I figures that it was using these quiet moments in order to build up to something. And dear God was it building up to something!

I mean, talk about overkill: Dune easily beats just about every main character, he easily takes back his old powers, nearly destroys the Heart Tree and all of the hard work that Tsubomi and Erika put into it, turns the entire world into a desert and its entire population into crystals. All in about five minutes.

And I mean, at the end of the series there will probably be some sort of magical power that can restore everything back the way it was once Dune dies (though interestingly Tsubomi and Itsuki did destroy a building in this episode), and there were a number of survivors, but the only people who survived were the ones who were previously turned into a Desatorian: everyone’s parents are completely gone, despite being a HUGE theme of this series. Only Itsuki and Erika got lucky that their respective sister and brother managed avoid being turned into a crystal.

Also, this pretty much puts an end to the episodic nature of this series: there’s no way that Kumojacky and Cobraja are going to be able to turn anymore people into Desatorians. With four episodes left, there is plenty of time to give all of the villains a worthy conclusion, and I really hope that the creators use that opportunity.

On a side-note: Koppei was bad-ass.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Star Driver – 13

by psgels, posted in Star Driver



Yeah, sorry for the lateness on this episode. I was away for most of the evening yesterday and there were too many other posts that I had planned.

This is a major episode for Star Driver though, along with the previous one. The halfway point is especially for original series a good turning point. Star Driver doesn’t show this with some midway climax, but rather by making the characters finally deliver and develop. And sure, this episode marked the first Cybuddy that got revived, but what made the past two episodes special was that they revisited characters who had already been the focused on previously.

This time it’s Benio’s turn, and I really liked her increase in character in this episode.This episode delved into her past and how she grew up, it shows her as a skilled practitioner of Kendo, while still in the shadow of Sugata. She got much more interesting than the girl who keeps running after guys thanks to her convenient first phase that we came to know her as in the previous episodes. Star Driver may pull all these fancy red herrings and flashy fights, but it really is a series about its characters, and this episode really showed that it started delivering in that are.

A big Issue I have at the moment is that the creators are still god-moding Takuto and Sugata a bit. It’s not just in the way that they keep winning fights, but this episode showed the umpth girl who fell in love with one of them. At this point I’m not really sure whether the harem elements are really working or are going to work.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Arakawa Under the Bridge X Bridge Review – 70/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




I never watched more of the first season of Arakawa than an episode and a half, and I originally had no intention to keep up with its sequel. After hearing so many praises and requests though, I eventually decided to check out Arakawa Under the Bridge X Bridge, and surprisingly actually stuck with it for thirteen episodes. Now… was it worth it? No; I still feel like this series was a waste of my time.

I can see the intentions of this series: it’s a series in which a bunch of nutcases gather themselves under a bridge, don’t care about what anyone outside thinks of them and just are having fun with each other, all kept together by a central character Nino. As the show goes on, a potentially interesting subplot of space travel also pops up. There went quite a bit of imagination into the different character designs, from a guy with a star mask on to a washed up samurai and a little girl who can transform into a bodybuilder.

That’s all fine and dandy, but this is supposed to be a comedy. And I didn’t find it funny, at all. It perhaps got a chuckle out of me three or four times over its entire run, which is way too little. The jokes are all just horribly dull and look way too much like each other. It’s typical Shinbo esque humour of a lot of people screaming and yelling, but they fail to deliver anything actually funny. The humour also uses a ton of anti-climaxes, but they’re all so poorly timed that you can see them from miles ahead. The rest of the humour is all based on characters acting weird or acting strange, or some of the minor characters just showing off their stereotype. Everything is told in the same way, so when you’ve heard one joke, you’ve pretty much heard them all.

On top of that, this series is also horribly paced, dragging on jokes beyond belief. Every time when you think that they’ve finished with a joke, they just return to it and milk it out some more. Compare that to Squid Girl: even in its arcs, it always was changing its scenarios and really tried to not stay on the same topic for too long. This series instead has little inspiration and therefore tries to stay at the same spot for way too long. Especially the muscle jokes get over-abused, but the Amazoness also makes way too many appearances for her character to be worth it.

I tried. I really tried giving this show a chance despite my biases for Shinbo at the moment (and I do really like the different OPs and EDs of this series). But in the end, I just couldn’t find anything funny about this series. What kept me watching was the space travel subplot, but in the end this never reaches a conclusion: the characters are just randomly running around, often completely abandoning it and the final episode doesn’t resolve anything, only ending with a last-minute cheesy moral.

I haven’t watched the first season, so I can’t be sure of this, but here is one thing I want to ask of the people who did watch it: was this season really necessary? To me, I completely failed to see the point behind this sequel, like what happens with just about every Shaft Sequel that has appeared. To me, Arakawa’s biggest problem was that it got adapted by Shaft, because I had the same problem with this series that I had with a ton of their other series, simply because of how apparently Shinbo doesn’t allow his directors to have any individual style except for his own.

Storytelling: 6/10 – Very uninspired comedy, poorly paced, isn’t funny and drags its jokes out way too much.
Characters: 7/10 – Most are just to caught up in their own gimmicks and stereotypes and aren’t enjoyable to watch in the slightest and the entire cast never really gets anywhere.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Granted, some of the visuals are neat, but for a well animated Shaft series you should go to Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru.
Setting: 7/10 – Doesn’t really do much with its setting, it’s a neat idea but I don’t think that anything really stands out about it.

Suggestions:
– Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru
– Kuchuu Buranko
– Cromartie High School

Shinrei Tantei Yakumo Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Shinrei Tantei Yakumo




Bee-Train’s installment for 2010 is called Shinrei Tantei Yakumo, a 13 episode series about a psychic detective who can see ghosts. Lacking their usual director, Koichi Mashimo, the characterization is not as good as we’ve come to expect from them, but there still is a lot to like about this series.

Let me first put a few disclaimers here though, because this isn’t the most accessible series. First of all, despite the “Tantei”-part of the title (tantei = detective), don’t expect this to be a murder mystery: it isn’t. The culprits are often immediately revealed without really giving the audience the time to speculate wht happened. The mystery of this series instead mostly lies in its overall story.

Second of all, adapations whose stories don’t exactly fit within either 13 or 26 episodes nowadays often have slow paced beginnings and rushed endings. Yakumo is completely the opposite: it rushes through its first chapters, just so that it can take its time with the final two arcs of the story in which everything comes together.

So the first half of this series basically consists out of random stories for every episode. The pacing is really fast and some things are rather rushed in order to get everything to actually fit within twenty minutes, but overall these stories work surprisingly well. They’re especially good a using their own build-up and almost all of them end with a neat and interesting conclusion.

The main story that pops up in the second half is actually very interesting. The show boasts a number of very interesting characters (another plus point is that this is one of the very few series of the past season that isn’t about teenagers and actually make suse of it), with some badass characters that are very likable to watch. The show can also boast a neat cast of major villains here, who really are built up as a menacing bunch with a very interesting backstory. The voice actors meanwhile are good, yet composed, so there is none of the usual annoying overacting. There however are a few characters that can get on people’s nerves. Most notably Haruka, the romantic interest, but she’s far from the worst of her kind.

With 13 episodes, the characters aren’t as deep as your usual Bee-Train series, but they are great nonetheless. I especially loved the way in which the second half interweaves all of their stories together, and there is quite a bit of good development in this series, both for the main characters and the side characters.

The music this time is compoed by the relatively unknown RON, who deliver a great little soundtrack that is surprisingly varied. There are a ton of great tracks that the creators use really well, and this show just continues to introduce new ones. The character designs are simple, but the inbetween animation is quite good.

Overall, Yakumo is another series that went a bit under the radar this season (despite the HUGE hype leading up to it) but this is quite a good series to watch, even for some people who usually don’t like Bee-Train’s really slow sense of storytelling, because the pacing of this series is much faster than their usual series. Just be aware of some sloppy and rushed storytelling here and there.

Storytelling: 9/10 – A bit rushed and lacks attention to detail in the beginning, but makes up for it in the way that it manages to weave its different stories together and how well it uses its own build-up.
Characters: 9/10 – Great and diverse cast of well developed characters, there are plenty of strong and likable characters around. And a few that are hard to like, though.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Great soundtrack, decent animation, unremarkable art.
Setting: 8/10 – Seeing spirits is nothing new, but this series does give a fresh spin to it.

Suggestions:
– Madlax
– Soultaker
– Matantei Loki Ragnarok

Shinrei Tantei Yakumo – 13

by psgels, posted in Shinrei Tantei Yakumo



That turned out to be a very nice little ending. It’s far less exciting than I expected, but it formed a very good conclusion to the series. Unlike the rest of this series, nothing was rushed about this episode at all.

So the plot of the bad guys was indeed to try and get the ghost of Yakumo’s father a real body. For that, they needed him in despair and that’s why all of his family members were killed. Miyuki Nanase indeed shot Gotou, as the final straw. The way in which things eventually got solved is a bit weird, yet interesting. It’s not like some deus ex machina suddenly makes the villains incompetent or stupid: their plan just failed. The reasons why exactly are a bit vague, but Yakumo simply refused to give into his despair.

In the end, the villains probably waited for too long to inhabit Yakumo’s body: it would have been much easier to drive him to despair while he was still a teenager (but then again, I think that Yakumo’s father was too much focused on acquiring an actually good vessel, and not a teen-aged one which I can somewhat understand). They tried to make him into a broken character, but in the end Gotou, Isshin and Haruka pulled him out of it. It’s cheesy, but this is one story where the power of friendship is actually quite acceptable to be the final twist. It could have been better, but it also definitely could have been worse.

I also really like that the creators really took their time for the epilogue. I’m not sure how Gotou wasn’t hit at a vital spot, but at least he does spend quite a bit of time at a hospital. Isshin however… actually died. It’s a great idea to base the epilogue of this series around his funeral, it’s a perfect way to close off the series.

Overall, Bee-Train’s series usually last for two seasons: that really gave them the opportunity to come with some really great plots and characters. With just 13 episodes however, Yakumo actually gave a very good attempt. It’s nowhere near Bee-Train’s best, I really noticed that while watching Madlax, but it’s still very good. I’m really thrilled for 2011: not only will Koichi Mashimo return, but he’s actually going to do a series of 39 episodes. I’m really glad that after 2010 that had so few series that dared to be long, 2011 finally is showing series again that go beyond 26 episodes.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – A wakening of the Trailblazer Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Mobile Suit Gundam 00




Gundam 00’s Awakening of the Trailblazer is one of those movies where you need to have seen the series for. Spoilers for the Gundam 00 will follow in this review, otherwise I can’t properly explain the impression that this movie left me.

Anyway, I was ready to just get this movie over with, expecting the Gundam 00 Movie to be another forgettable flick. But, to me surprise there was one thing about this movie that made me really happy as soneone who sat through the fifty episodes of the two Gundam 00 series: it has no annoying characters!

Seriously, half of the annoying characters is already dead at this point. The others really impressed me how they managed to spend the entire movie from whining: two years have passed again since the end of the second season, and finally everyone seems to have settled down. Saji and Louise who once urged me to break the screen of my laptop once every episode are actually a cute couple now. Mister Bushido finally dropped that ridiculous mask of his and stopped being a char clone, Marie and Allelujah also are quite happy together. All of the innovators who are still alive have become more than paper bags of characters and even Setsuna has a romantic interest now other than his Gundam.

The cast of this movie is still HUGE. I can’t recall any movie with more characters than this one, and I’m impressed with how it managed to involve all of them in this movie and developed a surprising amount of them at the same time while also introducing a bunch of new ones. It’s definitely much more than I expected.

This movie can very much be compared to Gundam Wing’s Endless Waltz: its villain is completely new but has a vague connection to something important in the original series, it’s much paced very differently from the TV-series that dragged on and it’s actually quite effective that way despite a few glaring problems. This movie takes a lot of time for its build-up, which makes the action scenes stand out even more. The action scenes themselves are actually pretty varied and don’t get boring, yet stay in the same Gundam-esque tradition of having space battles on a huge scale.

As for the plot itself… yeah. The villains are aliens now. Still, it’s handled decently: any kind of realism in Gundam 00 was abandoned anyway since the arrival of the Trans-am system, and this movie just rolls with it, while at the same time tying in neatly with Aeolia Schenberg’s ultimate objectives. The aliens themselves though are as flat as a pancake in terms of character and the ending of the movie is just.. ridiculous. Seriously, it feels like that ending was thought up at the last possible minute.

The graphics of the movie is a very mixed bag. The character animation is surprisingly mediocre for a movie by Sunrise. Instead however, the biggest part of the budget went into the CG near the end of the movie, and granted: that is a visual feast.

Overall, the ending is of headdesk and facepalm level, but apart from that this movie was surprisingly refreshing compared to how annoying and forgettable Gundam 00’s second season was.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Actually well paced for Gundam 00’s standards. Good action, good build-up. STUPID conclusion.
Characters: 8/10 – Shallow villains, but the other characters surprised me a lot: they’re not annoying and are actually able to show off their development.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Gorgeous CG, simple character animations for movie standards.
Setting: 8/10 – It adds on the Gundam 00 franchise in its own way. Some things work well, others don’t work at all.

Suggestions:
– Mobile Suit Gundam Wing – Endless Waltz
– Macross Frontier – Itsuwari no Utahime
– Digimon Movie 2 – Bokura no War Game

Yumeiro Patissiere – Professional Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




The first Yumeiro Patissiere series had 50 episodes. Its sequel only has 13, don’t ask me why. Still, it’s the perfect length for those who find the pacing of the original series too intimidating and boring: the Professional-arc of Yumeiro Patissiere is short, compact and diverse, a unique shoujo series and a great example of how you can make a lovable cast even on a really small budget. As long as you’ve seen the first two or three episodes of the original Yumeiro Patisiere, you can easily follow what’s going on in this season and appreciate its character development (that’s what I did, anyway).

The thing with this Professional arc, is that unlike the first season, it’s not really about making sweets: that was already touched upon plenty by the first season. At this point, the characters are all very proficient at creating delicious stuff. Instead, the great thing is that it looks upon the business part of making sweets: actually selling them, attracting customers, getting the right ingredients and creating a good work atmosphere. It’s quite a unique twist for a shoujo series, and while it’s light-years away from a realistic representation (the creators completely ignore logistics for one, and they often prioritize neat ideas over actually making sense), I really loved how the business consultant part of this series turned into a unique shoujo. With the shoujo genre in its current state of seeing who can deliver the most generic storyline, this series is EXACTLY what the genre needed at this time.

What really made this show work was that it had a wonderful sense of chemistry. I mean, the first season of Yumeiro Patissiere was really, really long, but it developed its characters really well over the course of several years. The characters play off each other wonderfully and make this into quite a successful comedy (even though comedy isn’t the main focus of this series).

At the same time though, the flaws in this series stand out like a herd of elephants in a pet shop. Some of the characters in this series have characterization that is just… bizarre. This show strangely enough takes already badly used stereotypes… and somehow makes them even worse. Miya Koshiro takes the “spoiled princess”-archetype to ridiculous new heights, and Johnny…. just… Johnny.

The entire premise of this show makes no sense whatsoever, having a bunch of teenagers travel around the world (and also to another dimension), help all kinds of shops while maintaining a shop of their own at the same time, and the entire series is riddled with those kinds of questionable plot twists (especially the conclusion is just coincidental beyond belief). The animation and character designs are as simple as they can get, but it was a fun and interesting series, great for light entertainment.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Surprisingly addictive, really. Brings in many neat ideas on the cost of not making any sense.
Characters: 9/10 – Some of the worst portrayals of Americans can be found in this series, but the chemistry between the characters definitely makes up for it.
Production-Values: 7/10 – As simple as things can get.
Setting: 8/10 – Unrealistic, but a very interesting twist to the usual shoujo genre that is fleshed out surprisingly well.

Suggestions:
– Skip Beat
– Kodomo no Omocha
– Glass Mask 2005