Nurarihyon no Mago – 17

by psgels, posted in Nurarihyon no Mago



Based on the things I heard about the manga, and how Rikuo’s classmates were supposed to disappear after the Gyuki-arc, I’m actually very impressed here in how well the creators of the anime managed to weave them back into the story. They’re getting better and better at this point, they create extra tension for Rikuo, and yet they don’t feel like the useless damsels in distress that they once were. Which makes me wonder: what was their purpose in the manga anyway?

I can somewhat see that the fight against the youkai who destroyed the shrines was part of the manga, and I really like how the classmates were weaved into that scene as an introduction: it both established Kiyo as someone who can actually use his head with his network, and Shima now turns out to play footbal. It’s definitely interesting to see these guys try to spend their time for multiple days like this.

The main story is still building up, however this episode did mark the first casualty from the bad guys now that the rooster is gone. I have a big suspicion that their purpose goes even beyond destroying the shrines around the city, though. And the build-off is already starting to pay off a bit here, with the atmosphere getting better and better. Yura meanwhile was a bit silly in this episode, but I like how she’s also working alone in order to try and figure out what’s going on.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Shinryaku! Ika-Musume – 04

by psgels, posted in Shinryaku! Ika Musume



This episode started a bit questionable when it immediately started to repeat some jokes from the previous episodes: the scared girl and the fangirl. Some of the hilarious jokes of the rest of the episode made up for it, though.

I was especially afraid for that fangirl to turn stale by now, but I really have to admit that this episode found something interesting, taking her obsession to the absurd by stuffing herself into a shrimp suit. I especially loved the way in which it was delivered: well built up and intertwined with the other stuff that was going on in this episode, with a great comedic timing.

The funniest part of this episode was when the fake squid girl appeared, though. I’m not sure whether it was meant to be a parody of Squid Girl herself, but it was completely ridiculous and hilarious in the way it made a mockery of Squid Girl’s powers, especially the way in which it produced its seasoning. And really, whenever this show uses a cliche, it introduces this one quite subtly: I’m sure that we’re going to get the big boobed chick who has all of the guys around her instantly mesmerized more often in this series, but to introduce her with such a ridiculous mask on top of her head was a really neat idea.

It also helps that Squid Girl is still such a wonderful character. Even when this show isn’t trying to make a joke, just having her on screen is fun enough to keep watching. I loved how she ended up using the 10000 yen of a reward, completely on buying shrimps, or how she when she was bored started playing with the soy sauce. It’s especially the way in which she’s animated that brings her to life.

There are more jokes that are in the danger zone of being milked out now, though. Especially Chizuru needs some new material now. All she did this episode was poke fun at Squid Girl while looking threatening.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Twelve Kingdoms Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




The Twelve Kingdoms: world building at its finest.

After sitting down to watch this series, I can really understand why it still stands high as a classic: I’ve seen a lot of fantasy series at this point, but out of all of them, the setting of the Twelve Kingdoms stands amongst the most detailed, original and imaginative. It comes up with a completely new world; a carefully balanced one by a mysterious deity who randomly selects people to be the king of one of the twelve countries it consists of. Far away from your typical fantasy series, this is a series that tries to portray its setting realistically. And it works out really well!

Everyone in the series has his or her own story to tell. The Twelve Kingdoms is a series that puts a ton of emphasis on character development: there are a ton of characters who go through immense changes, and who overcome huge flaws in their characters. Usually, this is a recipe for cheese, but this show actually pulls it off. It spends long strings of episodes to outline these characters, show their progression and details some of the major events in their lives, showing exactly how they mature and warrant such drastic changes in their personalities.

It’s a series that is wonderfully told, and constantly evolving, Most of its problems come from the fact that it was most likely cancelled before it could get fully completed (do correct me if I’m wrong, but the series was supposed to have gotten 63 episodes, and only ended up with 45 of them). The final five episodes are significantly less impressive than the rest of the series, they’re rather shallow and end the series with a whimper, rather than a bang. It’s a bit of a nasty aftertaste for otherwise such a great series.

Still, the final arc is more of a minor annoyance than a reason not to watch this series. The thing I really loved about this series is how much it speaks to you imagination: through its 45 episodes, this series only tells about a tiny percent of all the stories that it could have told. There is so much more that this series could have shown us, but it doesn’t really matter that the show didn’t have time for that, because it all just speaks to your imagination. There are almost an infinite amount of possibilities here.

Of course, comparisons with the other major politics series are inevitable in such a review: Saiunkoku Monogatari. About that, I’ll say the following: they’re both very good at politics, both in their own ways. The Twelve Kingdoms’s setting definitely beats the one from Saiunkoku Monogatari, however I do feel that Saiunkoku Monogatari has a better cast: it also has great character development, but on top of that it was much better at fleshing its characters out. Saiunkoku Monogatari has a cast that felt alive, The Twelve Kingdoms has a setting that feels alive.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Wonderfully told. At times it’s so believable that it could double as a deconstruction. It’s got great ideas for character-development, none of the lazy fantasy cliches appear here, though the final episodes can leave a bit of a bad taste.
Characters: 8/10 – Loves giving huge flaws to its characters, exploring them and develop them into a completely different character. In terms of the main characters it works out really well.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Ranges from beautiful to rather ugly. Studio Pierrot provided some really neat eye candy on some shots, while rushed drawings on others.
Setting: 10/10 – Pretty much as good as it gets. Detailed, alive, imaginative. Well worth the watch.

Suggestions:
– Saiunkoku Monogatari
– Guin Saga

Shinrei Tantei Yakumo – 04

by psgels, posted in Shinrei Tantei Yakumo



This series has… something. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I like this show surprisingly much because of it and this episode solidified that for me. I mean, this has been the first fast-paced Bee-Train series since Murder Princess, and even though Koichi Mashimo’s absence is very apparent here, but the charms of the characters still shine through here.

I also like the formula this show is using: the first half of every episode is usually not very special, and mostly used to set things up, only for the second half to set things off with interesting twists, new and interesting pieces of music, and to close off each episode we have those mysterious monologues of the main bad guys of the series that get more intriguing with every episode. I know that the individual stories of this series aren’t exactly mystery, but the overall story is doing a very good job at it.

I think that at this point, the biggest flaw of this series is its coincidences, but it’s nothing too major at the point, and it’s used well. And I guess that it was an interesting twist for Yakumo to learn about his mother by running into someone who happened to know her around the time she was pregnant. It’s definitely an interesting twist here that Yakumo’s mother tried to strangle him before disappearing, rather than having her be the usual “mother who is gone” stereotype.

This show definitely is a good example of how to adapt a show on a tight budget and timespan. It’s far from the best that Bee-Train has produced, but I’m still enjoying it a lot here.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Star Driver – 04

by psgels, posted in Star Driver



Well, so much for the formula: this episode already broke it and instead had one of the cybodies unleash an illusion on Takuto. The characterization here was excellent, and even though this episode was quiet and completely different from the previous three, it developed Takuto and Wako’s relationship quite well and showed a number of pretty interesting things about their pasts. What caught my interest the most however was the things that this episode promised.

I mean, at this rate I can very well imagine that the creators are planning to have Takuto fight a different character each episode. Because of this, it’s starting off with the unimportant characters: they both serve to introduce the concepts, and flesh out the main characters: Utena did the same in the Black Rose arc. In any case, this offers tons of opportunities to weave the stories of all kinds of characters into one, and this show definitely has the potential and creativity to pull this off.

I like how all of the main villains are different, and that has made all of the episodes so different so far, aside from the repeated scenes. The black-haired girl seems to like to brainwash people into submission. The interesting thing is that at the moment that Takuto saw through the illusions, the leader instead said that her plan worked out well. And to be honest, I’m not really sure what they really expected to do with this illusion, but if it had a bigger purpose than just “take out Takuto”, then I’m very interested in what the rest of the episodes are going to offer.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Heartcatch Precure – 37

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure




Agh! Freaking cliff-hanger!

Last week I predicted that this would be another random story. I couldn’t have been more wrong: this episode was chock full of character and plot development. We finally see Dune come into action and threaten the planet, just like he did with Tsubomi’s grandmother. Alongside this comes a monster that really can’t be beaten with the regular powers of the precures, and only now do the four of them search for their power-ups that have been introduced ten episodes ago. I said this before, but power-ups in mahou shoujo (and many other anime as well, by the way) often feel a bit cheap, and are often introduced from out of nowhere. This however was really well done: it was properly introduced, the creators made sure to give it disadvantages, and so the characters tried to survive as long as possible without having to resort to it.

In any case, the really awesome part of this episode came when everyone had to take the test in order to obtain this power: fighting your shadow self (who all looked awesome, by the way). While this has been done before, the unique twist to this was that instead of defeating these shadows, Erika, Yuri and Itsuki all ended up accepting and embracing these sides of them: they weren’t trying to run away from them, and I especially love how the creators did this with Yuri.

But god dammit, we have to wait an entire week in order to see the best part! I mean, Itsuki, Erika and Yuri at this point are pretty stable characters: this episode really completed their character development, by convincing them that they shouldn’t hate the way they were. Tsubomi however was completely different: throughout the entire series, she was the one who kept running after everyone: first this was Erika, then it became Itsuki. She really helped and supported both of them.

To me, it really seems like she’s looking up to her other three companions, and that’s what the end of this episode pointed at: she wants to improve so badly so that she’ll keep within their shadow, that she can’t accept her own shadow. Or at least, that’s what I make of it. Next week can’t come too early.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Letter Bee – 29

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



What a wonderful little episode about a lighthouse keeper. it was told in a completely different style than usual, with us as viewers thrown right in the middle of a story, only revealing bit by bit what’s going on. I love these kinds of episodes in which a series just abandons standard storytelling and tries out something different, and it worked delightfully well here.

The story itself was also excellent here. There have been stories about old men who are abandoned by their children who don’t want to succeed their professions, but it still stood apart as unique by making the old man dead for years, not solving anything other than ridding the world of another Gaichu, and having the man create fake stories and letters in order to escape the loneliness. It’s totally bittersweet, even for a ghost story.

Nichi was also as adorable as ever here. We never actually saw her attempts to get Lag back, other than a bunch of silhouettes, but based on the things she said, along with the bruises she left on Lag’s body we can only imagine what it must have looked like. On top of that, we finally got to see Lag, meeting Jiggy Pepper, and he really turned out to be much more of an interesting guy than I thought.

I know that episodic series are often looked down upon and all, but I love them, exactly because they can be able to pull off episodes like these: it’s something much harder for series with a continuous story, which have their own advantages. For that to happen of course, the series in question does need to have the guts to abandon these conventions, of course, and I’m really glad that Letter Bee belongs to the series who do.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Bakuman – 04

by psgels, posted in Bakuman



If I had to describe my feelings of Bakuman so far in one word, it’d be “solid”. It’s not the deepest or most exciting show of the season, nor does it have the best characters yet, but at the moment it’s happy enough to just carefully set up its story and premise. This episode continued that trend, as it discussed Moritaka’s conviction.

Moritaka is actually in some way similar to Yagami Light: both start out as seemingly regular students at the top of their class, with nothing really meaningful to do. Light then gets corrupted by the arrival of the Death Note, while Bakuman takes a completely different turn by having the guy work hard to become a manga artist. This episode really showed his talents, on top of his willingness to make something successful out of it, as he’s willing to let his grades drop significantly in favor of the manga he’s writing.

This episode also established that he might just as well be the guy to actually pull it off: he’s got the right mind-set, and once he starts writing he gets totally caught up in it. I mean, it’s one thing to be experienced in how a manga gets created through his uncle, but even considering that, this guy has talent and the right personality for it. Contrast that with Akito, who probably did not realize all of this when he first proposed his idea to Moritaka.

As for the side-characters, this episode introduced a bunch of new ones. I didn’t really like the wannabe artists whose only purpose was to make Moritaka look smart. Miyoshi meanwhile has me a bit indifferent, as her introduction didn’t really show much of her, and we’ve got a fifteen year old mangaka who probably will serve as some kind of example for Moritaka and Akito, and he’s who I’m interested in the most here. Oh, and Azuki’s scenes were a lot more bearable in this episode, mostly because the creators didn’t try to use any weird coincidences here, but instead just tried to show it progressing naturally. My only gripe is that the mostly down to earth Moritaka somehow becomes a little toogullible when he starts talking with Akito about Azuki.
Rating: * (Good)

Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu – 16

by psgels, posted in Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu



Yes! This episode headed into the right direction! These are the episodes I want to see! Screw the politics of this series, the finale of this show needs to be about its characters. This episode really added a lot of depth to them, especially to Ferris and her brother. With this episode, I at least got a glimpse of why the second half of this show is supposed to be awesome.

This episode pretty much didn’t touch the story of the warring nations, and instead it showed some of Ferris’ background, her relationship with her brother, and it developed Ryner’s relationship with her as he found out more about her. This is the kind of character development that I’ve been waiting for for what feels like ages now. I also really liked how this episode cemented Ferris’ brother as one heck of a sunovabitch here. And to make matters even better, the creators are also really making Milk more bearable. She was just as annoying in this episode, but the few bits of drama around her felt much more genuine than in those earlier episodes.

Still, this episode in no way fixes all of the problems of this series: its politics still are uninteresting, and the reason why this episode was so good was because it didn’t put any attention to it. Now that I mention it, the reason the first four episodes were so good was because they also didn’t have much of a focus on the politics. It’s usually a genre I really like, because of the many different directions you can go in, and how it can provide pretty deep insights on its setting, though Denyuuden never really felt like that. I’m also missing creativity.

On top of that, I still don’t trust the anime creators, and whether they’re going to be able to stuff the good parts in the nine remaining episodes. They did take an awful lot of time for the boring stuff and the introductions, not to mention that I have seen the previous works of the director, which were all badly planned out. And I know that directors are accompanied by writers who do the series composition and all, but that doesn’t make me less worried here when we’re talking about the guy who wrote the anime adaptation of Kurogane no Linebarrels…
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – 03

by psgels, posted in Autumn 2010 Kaleidoscope



I’m going to try something completely different this season. I’m pretty happy with blogging Bakuman, Yakumo, Letter Bee, Star Driver, Kuragehime and Squid Girl this season, but I just couldn’t make up my mind on the twelfth one. Neither TWGOK nor Togainu no Chi seems really interesting enough to cover weekly for an entire season. So yeah, Togainu no Chi is hereby dropped. Instead, I’m going to try and blog a different series each week.

There are a lot of shows this season that I want to say something about, without having to discuss it every single week. I’ve got about 8 to 12 of them, depending on my mood and how they turn out. In the final weeks I’ll cover the most interesting ones once more. Oh, and for the record: a week for me starts on Monday and ends on Sunday.

This week, I’d like to talk about by far the most underrated series of the season: Milky Holmes: it averages a score of 6,28 on MAL, and a whopping 5,41 on AniDB, and while I admit that this is a very guilty pleasure of mine, I also want to say that none of the comedies this season has managed to make me laugh as hard and consistently as Milky Holmes.

It’s utterly stupid, and yet has flashes of brilliance in its jokes. The jokes are all completely fresh: this episode had the cast, among others, play twister in an ancient museum in order to get their powers back, end up in jail and liking it because at least it had food, and locked up in an ancient tomb with a horny English teacher.

Speaking of which, that English teacher is probably the funniest guy on the entire show. For a show that has relatively little fanservice for a moe show aside from the ED, it does have a few points that are just completely wrong, and most of those really involve that teacher. That trunk scene was both utterly hilarious and utterly disturbing.

As a parody, this series rocks, though, as it completely tears the kaitou genre apart. I’m not really sure why, but most Kaitou-parodies in anime turn out more like homages, even though it’s often a very silly premise. The whole premise of this series takes this just to the absurd: just about everything about it is over the top, and yet it doesn’t lose itself in its insanity, as it does have a narrative and a plot that keeps it going. As a moe parody, this also has everything that I have been missing in TWGOK: it knows that it’s completely stupid, and therefore likes to break a few conventions here and there, like that trunk scene (no, I can’t let go of that. I mean, even the most graphic and controversial fanservice series this year didn’t bother to go that far).

Most of the time with moe series, creators use these cliches to make their cast seem stupid or cute. And the thing is, that I see no cliches whatsoever in Milky Holmes, other than the ones it makes fun of and even at episode three it still shows no signs whatsoever of slowing down. This series turned out to be much more creative than I could have expected, but its stupidity will probably turn me insane if I were to try and blog it every single week.
Rating: ** (Excellent)