OVA Impressions: Tales of Symphonia – 07

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions, Tales of Symphonia



As someone who played the original game, I am really happy with this episode: the creators did a wonderful job on it. Yeah, sure, it wasn’t 100% faithful, and a lot of the minor parts were cut away, but who cares! This episode really delivered where it should have, and it did especially Sheena justice.

Sheena’s story really took up the main focus of this episode, and I’m really glad to see that the creators of the anime realized that it’s indeed the characters who made the original game so good, rather than its typical story. I also love how much of a bigger role Corrine had here: it even appeared in front of Lloyd, to make him trust Sheena: he never did that in the game. The anime also put a lot more focus on the parallel between Sheena’s two attempts to summon a pact with Volt. The actual fight with Volt was done better in the game, but everything around it was actually way superior in the anime in my opinion.

It’s also interesting to see that the anime creators decided to reveal Lloyd’s father this early here. To come with a bit of a comparison: in the game we’re still on the first disk. Yuan only exposes Kratos, halfway through the second disk. Still, they really didn’t have any choice here, with the really shallow way that they’ve been foreshadowing it. That really was something at which the game was better. But at the same time, the revelation in the anime also really packed a punch: it was well timed and worked really well as a cliff-hanger at the end of this episode.

This is something subtle, but I also love what the creators did with Raine’s powers: in the games she already was one of the best characters in terms of combat, but they really made her kick ass beyond belief here: able to block Volt’s rays for several minutes, and while some of the other characters struggle to just slay one dragon, she blasts an entire army away. On top of that, I also really love the way that the creators found in order to reveal that she’s actually a half-elf: it both showed Regal’s intelligence, and also pretty much enabled that Pope to remain out of the storyline here. It’s much more subtle here, and I like it a lot more than in the games.

There is one part about this episode that I didn’t like, though: it’s the portrayal of Lloyd: he just doesn’t feel like a worthy main character here. In the game, he also had his flaws, but at the same time he was the one who pulled the rest of the characters along with him: he was impulsive, but resolute and that allowed everyone to move forward. The others in the meantime were the ones who provided him with advice when he was having a hard time. That latter is too much overstated in the anime: he just gets pulled around, he is a bit of a whiny brat, especially at the time when Yuan proposed an alliance. He just isn’t the leader here, which on the other hand isn’t so bad, because the rest of the cast is that awesome.
OVA Episode Rating: 8.75/10

OVA Impressions: Tamayura – 02

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions



I didn’t check out the second episode of Tamayura immediately, because I wasn’t really that motivated after its disappointing first episode. Still, on Firechick’s recommendations I did end up giving it a whirl, and I’m glad I did: Tamayura’s second episode is much better than its first. This OVA really redeems itself here.

To me, a good slice of life series is one who fleshes out its characters well. A great one actually manages to use them well. I realize that this OVA still remains in the shadow of Windy Tales, but this episode really was more than just a bunch of random girls talking. Despite being slice of life, it tried to put a lot into just 20 minutes, and instead of animating a bunch of random events, it instead explored the lead characters’ passion for photography, showing how she’s always trying to get a good shot, how things relate to her past, along with the person she looks up to. Oh, and THANK GOD the whistle girl actually knows how to speak.

I still have a bit of a problem with the way in which cats are portrayed as moe blobs, though. I’m not sure, but my guess is that Azumanga Daioh once started simplifying these cats (or at least popularized it), and ever since it seems like everyone and his dog has been drawing these cats in blob-like ways, making them much less interesting than real cats. On top of that, the characters still rely a bit too much on their quirks at times, but the dialogue was well written for once, and really makes up for this.
OVA Episode Rating: 8/10

OVA Impressions: Yozakura Quartet – Hoshi no Umi – 01

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions, Yozakura Quartet - Hoshi no Umi




Please, someone. Confirm that Yozakura Quartet’s OVA is going to be a long one. I mean, seriously: this is way too awesome to just end in three episodes. This was meant to be the real adaptation, faithful to the manga. There is no way that the manga is this small, right? I mean, that Supernatural OVA of Madhouse also has 22 episodes. There is no reason why this shouldn’t be possible for Yozakura Quartet as well, and it’s not like this episode felt rushed in any way. Right?

Let’s start with the animation, which is absolutely fantastic: there are no still frames whatsoever. Most of this episode was build up and slice of life, but even there the animation was consistently fluid and expressive. And then the action-scenes came, at the second half of the episode, and they were even better. If only because of those scenes, this OVA NEEDS to be watched.

As for the story… I really don’t know how the TV-series managed to screw things up this badly. I mean, it’s not like they had a bad director here: it was the director of Red Garden, Kurenai and Rozen Maiden: he really could have pulled this off. Instead, we got a generic shounen series that become boring after just one episode. This episode was much, much better. It knows that its premise around superpowerful teenagers is a bit bland, so it spends most of its time fleshing these people out.

They’re really helped by the animation here, but even there I feel like I’ve gotten a much better picture of the characters than with the TV-series, and in any case they’re a lot more likable now, despite the fact that it introduced another love triangle. It is a bit boring at times, especially when you don’t like teenagers, but it formed a very good base for the final parts of the episode, and the rest of the OVA.

The action was both fun, exciting and brutal. I love how the creators weren’t afraid to insert some humour, turning a bunch of stereotypical bank robbers into a bunch of hilarious scapegoats (something I’ve noticed with very few other anime), and the strong art and animation really did a great job to swap the mood into a much darker atmosphere.
OVA Episode Rating: 8,75/10

Nurarihyon no Mago – 15

by psgels, posted in Nurarihyon no Mago



Okay, now it’s official: this series needs a second season. This episode was apparently also anime original, and yet it blended in really well with the story: I would not have guessed it. The way it detailed the scenario also is bound to be good for this series in the long term. However, at this rate we’re never going to be able to reach the good stuff at episode 25. Studio Deen’s policy around sequels is… a bit weird, though. I mean, they let Kyou Kara Maou go on for three seasons of 39 episodes (directed by Junji Nishimura, of all people as well), and yet Fruits Basket just never went beyond 26 episodes, despite the huge amounts of manga still left.

Overall, I liked some of the ideas in this episode: I like how Gyuki’s subordinates actually managed to track down one of those evil youkai, who on his turn was trying to destroy all kinds of statues in an attempt to destroy some of the defences of the Nura clan, as well as trying to piss them off. On the meantime, you see that the gate that was destroyed gets immediately rebuilt, and a grave has been put up for the youkai that died in the previous episode. This episode didn’t particularly develop any plot or characters, but it made the setting a lot more solid with these subtle details.

As for the rest of the episode, it was average. Rikuo’s classmates are getting better, but they still are not the most exciting to watch. It also was a typical building up episode. This episode had a neat atmosphere, though it still nowhere is where it needs to be.
Rating: * (Good)

Shinryaku! Ika-Musume – 02

by psgels, posted in Shinryaku! Ika Musume



As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– Hakuouki ultimately remains cheesy and boring.
– Yosuga no Sora has actually some decent drama, but at the same time it also tries way too hard to be a harem.
– I’ve also decided not to blog Otome Youkai Zakuro, despite seriously considering this. In the end, I really could not feel any potential from it. It did well in showing the pasts of the different characters at such an early stage, but the second episode was pretty shallow in terms of its message about peaceful coexistence, and too many of the characters are simple stereotypes. The first episode really was excellent, but I fail to see whether the creators can add anything more than what was shown in these first two episodes.

In any case, I’m not yet 100 percent sure whether or not I’m going to continue blogging Squid Girl: if Kuragehime turns out awesome it will probably be swapped out. But I really wanted to try my hands again on blogging a pure comedy. I really don’t blog these kinds of shows often, and there are two basic reasons for that:
1. With most comedies, it’s impossible to predict whether they will remain fresh and funny through their entire airtime.
2. Quite a few of the good comedies are impossible for me to write about on a weekly basis. To take an example, one of my favourite comedies of 2010 is Gag Manga Biyori +. It was awesome in its hyperactive delivery, but I would have gone absolutely crazy, trying to come up with something to write for every single week.

Squid Girl has been the first pure comedy that fell in neither of those points since GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class, and I really want to give it a whirl. I’m really confident that this is a series that will remain funny for at least thirteen episodes: all of the jokes so far have been fresh and diverse. This series never bothered to repeat itself so far, and that’s a great sign. Usually you see great comedies that dull in after a hilarious first episode (take Otome Youkai Zakuro, whose second episode was significantly less funny than its first, even though it’s not a full comedy), but Squid Girl’s second episode was just as fun to watch as the first.

On top of that, the characterization is also pretty good here. The characters here aren’t a bunch of walking stereotypes: instead they are a bunch of normal people with some weird personality traits here and there: they’re all colourful, but they also know how to act normally. The titular Squid Girl meanwhile is very dynamic and lovable with her innocent curiosity. The way the creators have animated her also really brings her to life. Compare that to Panty and Stocking, in which the characters try way too hard to follow their own stereotype so that nothing else remains.

Anyway, about this episode: it was about half an introduction of two new characters (a life guard and one of Eiko’s classmates). Especially that life guard turned out to be a very good straight man for Squid Girl; he treats his job seriously, but not too seriously, like what many characters in his place end up doing, preventing his job from turning into some boring caricature.

The best jokes came from Squid Girl, though. My favourite parts in this episode were the point in which she tried to blow out the candles on her birthday cake, and the scene in which she realized that she forgot how to swim. I like how this series did well in showing her get accustomed to human culture, on top of portraying her like a little kid who’s trying to heckle people whenever she gets bored.

Diomedea is far from my favourite production company; heck, the best thing they made before this season was Kodomo no Jikan and that was about the only decent series I’ve ever seen from them. But you know what, in a season in which a studio like Madhouse has put out its worst performance in all of the five years that I’ve been blogging, I’m really wondering how they’ll pull this one off. So far at least, they’ve really succeeded in breathing life into Squid Girl, making it a very good adaptation (from the perspective of someone who has not read the original, of course).

Oh, and I also love how that hole that Squid Girl blew into the wall during the last episode is still there. Points for continuity.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Shinrei Tantei Yakumo – 02

by psgels, posted in Shinrei Tantei Yakumo



Okay, I may have to explain myself quite a bit for labelling this as one of the two non-sequels that I immediately found good enough to blog this season. I mean, this isn’t because I’m a Bee-Train fan: I’m a fan of Bee-Train because of Koichi Mashimo and he wasn’t involved here, and it’s also not like I have my criticisms about Shinrei Tantei Yakumo. Yet, while this may seem like a Ghost Hunt rip-off, it’s actually completely different.

I know that this is something very subjective, but out of all of the first episodes I watched this season so far, this series is the one that stuck to my mind the most, aside from perhaps Letter Bee. This show is strange, it advertises itself as a mystery-series, while it actually completely isn’t. It makes no attempt to build up it’s mystery: one moment it introduces things and only a minute later it has already revealed the main culprit. Still, the more I think about it, the more I realize how every moment of this series is meant to contribute to its characters: whether this is the main cast or the side-cast, it doesn’t matter: Yakumo has no wasted scenes whatsoever. I mean, I’m crazy if I’m not going to blog something like that.

This episode again: the genre it belongs to the most was freaking Iyashi-kei. I mean, what the heck? The entire episode went completely against the thriller-esque mood that this series built up, and instead told the story about two old guys and the relationship they had with a woman who died in their past. The story they told about themselves was short and to the point, and yet it worked somehow. And Yakumo… from a bishified detective he actually turned into a medium of all things: his purpose in this series revolves more around healing people’s deep scars by letting them meet their loved ones who died, rather than solving some cheesy mystery here.

I also love that this series is episodic: that’s really something that this series needs, considering that it’s only got 13 episodes. The past two episodes have been rushed, indeed. But they were also short and to the point. I really applaud the creators to put so much meaning into them in so little time. Especially considering how half this episode was focused on Yakumo himself, rather than those two old guys. That uncle of Yakumo succeeded in making Yakumo into more than just another stereotypical silent badass.

Yakumo doesn’t have the biggest budget, and at times the acting also feels a bit flat. But unlike Togainu no Chi, this series provided more than enough to keep my interests: it did a lot of stuff here, in just two episodes. I also love those parts at the end of each episode, which try to foreshadow the main plot and try to keep the different episodes together. They’ve got this really neat atmosphere, completely different from the episode that preceded them. It’s there where this series also doesn’t get afraid to get a little artsy, especially in the previous episode.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Star Driver – 02

by psgels, posted in Star Driver



As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls is just bad. Its dialogue is so camp that it becomes silly, no matter what it does. Its voice acting sucks, the premise is worthless and there’s just no hope for this one.
– Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai keeps sending off the same hints that regular romances use for their lead couple. Learn some subtlety dammit.
– Super Robot Wars – The Inspector is full of cheesy morals, plus I know too little of the franchise to really enjoy it.
– Yumeiro Patissiere has its character development, but I’m missing too much in the other areas: the characters are annoying, and the pacing itself drags on, instead of keeping my attention.

In any case, before I move on with this episode, I do want to say a number of general comments towards the Autumn Season, and my main problems with it: I’m lacking some kind of adult touch here. Iron Man just sucks. Panty and Stocking does focus on adults, but it also has the toilet humour of a teenager, Togainu no Chi has its lackluster direction, the same goes with Hakuouki, and Arakawa just is hit or miss. What I’m trying to say is that, while these characters are technically all over 18 years old, there’s nothing mature about them other than Panty’s sex addiction. The good series that feature adults are Yakumo and Otome Youkai Zakuro, but those seem more aimed at a teenaged audience than a mature one. That just leaves Kuragehime and we don’t even know yet whether that one’s going to be good.

So yes, teenagers. That’s really the biggest fear I had for Star Driver, but this series has more than enough to set itself apart from all other teenaged series. This episode really established this series as Utena’s spiritual successor, and yet still feels new, refreshing and full of potential. I also really like how this is supposed to be a mecha series, made by people who don’t have anything with the genre: this way they can really go into their own ways, rather than follow all of the examples that have been set by series in the past.

Based on the fact that this series was going to be completely original and the exceptional staff, this really was the series I was looking for the most. The thing with the staff is that they may not be the best choice when it comes to adaptations. Yoji Enokido, the guy behind the series composition and script, also wrote the series composition behind Sailor Moon SuperS (haven’t seen it, but it seems regarded as the worst Sailor Moon series), Ouran High School Host Club (which I didn’t really like: it was unbalanced and there were too many boring episodes) and Nodame Cantabile: Paris (again unbalanced and nowhere as good as the first season). The director, Takuya Igarashi‘s previous two series also weren’t much to my liking: Soul Eater and Ouran High School Host Club. I’m not sure whether this was because of the material that they were working with, or whether they simply didn’t portray them right, but they have been involved with some disappointment.

And yet, we’re also talking about the guy who directed Ashita no Nadja, an incredibly charming and uplifting shoujo adventure and three of the Ojamajo Doremi, one of the supposed best mahou shoujo franchises, along with the guy who wrote Utena, a ground-breaking title with brilliant characters, a brilliant script and chockful of symbolism, and FLCL, another highly experimental anime with a ton of neat and original ideas, being consistently entertaining to watch. How could I not look forward to this? We could have a potential classic if these two manage to get in their element here.

And overall, I’m really pleased with the results. You can really see the influences on Utena, but instead of its elegance, the director here swapped that with flamboyance. On top of that, this episode toyed around with interesting ideas. I mean, take the kissing: at first it may seem random, and then it turns out that people have different powers. Also, “kissing through the glass”, could that be a reference to the strange glass balls in which everyone is caught during the fights in that strange dimension?

I love the concept of a mecha who can only move around in zero time. I’m expecting a lot of this series, though: if everything goes right, it can really become a potential classic. It’s only one of the two series this season that is really trying out something new and fresh. And since the other series that does this is Panty and Stocking, this really is one of those series that NEEDS to work out well, in order to set an example for many other series to follow.

Also, Shinichiro Watanabe (the director of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo) directed the OP for this one. How cool is that?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Heartcatch Precure – 35

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure



This pretty much was the school example of how you should do a school festival episode. Seriously, school festivals in anime really are a staple, but I don’t know how long it’s been since I watched a school festival episode that did so many things right. And it’s not even over yet: this episode just showed the preparations, while the festival is only going to start next week.

The thing is, at our school we never had clubs like the baseball club, fashion club, et cetera: if you wanted to join such a club, you’d have to join it outside of your school. These school festival episodes are obviously meant for the Japanese audiences to relate to them. For foreign audiences meanwhile, these episodes are instead a chance to see different cultures. After a few of those episodes, this just gets old and rather shallow: the lead characters work hard on whatever they’re working on, they make their deadline and they present their work, often with not much meaning put into things.

This episode of Heartcatch Precure really had me surprised, though. It really managed to put a lot of different things into just one episode: there first of all was the fashion club, and the creators portrayed the stress of Tsubomi and especially Erika, trying to get everything ready. There were many things that had to be done, and many errands that had to be run, on top of Tsubomi who was running around the school, trying to find where the heck Yuri went. This episode didn’t focus on the making of the clothes: it has already been established that the cast knows how to do that. Instead, it really detailed what needed to happen, what they were planning to do, and some of the challenges they faced.

On top of that,the creators also brought the rest of the school alive: Tsubomi and Erika were nowhere near the only ones who were also busy trying to meet their deadlines: this episode saw all kinds of different clubs running around, like the drama, art, movie, photo, baseball and Judo club, alongside Itsuki’s tasks as the student council president. It really stressed that everyone was having the same stress as Erika, and everyone tried handle this deadline in his own way.

Really, I think that this was one of the very few school festival episodes that really showed me how those school festivals must feel to Japanese teenagers.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Letter Bee – 27

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



This season I have room to blog 7 new series. After the first week, there was one show that you forced me to blog, two shows that instantly convinced me that they’re interesting to blog, and one series that I was guaranteed to blog right from the start. I’m still not really sure about the final three, though.

In any case, Letter Bee was the only series that I was guaranteed to blog (I blogged the first season, after all), but for it to turn out this good was beyond what I could have expected. The first episode was already a fantastic aftermath, and this episode again blew my expectations, especially considering so little happened. I mean, this pretty much is an episode in which Nichi runs away, gets a bit of time to think for herself and then goes back to Lag in the end. On paper it should be nothing special. But dammit, Nichi was beyond adorable.

I’m not really sure what it is about her, but just her being on the screen is fun enough to watch. And on top of that, this episode was just really subtle. Again, it rushed nothing and actually took its time to flesh Nichi out a bit more, on top of showing much more about the gunsmith and his bread baking wife who were already introduced in the first season. The time that Nichi spent with them felt really natural. I also loved that a lot was also going o off-screen, like how we suddenly switched to Lag, trying to keep that drunk performer under control: we didn’t exactly see how it happened, but knowing both of them, there really was no need to animate those scenes, as you’d know what happened to them anyway.

This was quite a unique start to a sequel. I mean, even sequels like to start off slowly, or with some kind of introduction or semi-introduction. Letter Bee instead goes for a very touching opening arc that is chock full of character-development. Most of that happened in the previous episode, but this episode also had plenty of it. In particular, it brought the relationship between Lag and Nichi much closer. By far my favourite part of this episode was the point in which Lag and Nichi rejoined with each other.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Bakuman – 02

by psgels, posted in Bakuman



As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– The only good thing of Iron Man is its soundtrack. I mean, I can understand that Madhouse had to sacrifice the animation in favour of Redline, but that’s far from the only problem here. Who the hell wrote this rubbish?
– MM had together with To Love-Ru the worst first episode of the season for me.
– Probably the biggest dilemma this season is whether the comedies are going to be interesting to blog, because this season they’re blessed with some of the best direction out of all of the premiering series. Still, if I’m going to blog a comedy then it’s going to be Squid Girl. Panty and Stocking really does have a very shallow characterization and I’m not getting happy if Sora no Otoshimono II is based around a girl whose only defining traits are boobs and stupidity.

In any case, every year I hold a contest in which you can force me to blog one series without question. In the past, this resulted in me blogging Claymore, Gundam 00, Tytania and Kimi ni Todoke (I love how diverse the results turned out to be, by the way). This year was by far one of the most close calls, in which Bakuman just barely managed to beat Psychic Detective Yakumo with just one vote difference.

Had I not been forced to blog this series, then I probably would have ended up blogging it as well, though it wouldn’t have been one of my top choices. Most of this would probably be thanks to Kenichi Kasai, who is a very solid director, since I knew absolutely nothing about the manga, other than that it was about manga artists and written by the same guy from Death Note. Out of all of Kenichi Kasai’s series, Bakuman didn’t have the strongest opening episode (that title goes to probably Aoi Hana), but it still was quite a solid episode, and this episode continued that trend.

The creators used the death of the lead characters’ uncle well to create their drama here. I really liked how realistic they kept Moritaka’s relationship with his parents: it’s obvious that they’re still thinking about his uncle and how he died, but they quietly discussed how they felt about it. I especially liked that grandfather: you’d expect him to take Moritaka’s decision to become a manga artist as some kind of bad omen, but instead he’s actually very glad that Moritaka has found a passion for himself.

As for the romance… you really could have fooled me here. This episode again spent quite a bit of time on the romantic relationship between Moritaka and Miho. I’m not sure what to think about them at this point, really. Just get the two dating, or at least do something with it, because at this point it feels rather pointless.
Rating: * (Good)