Rainbow – 25

by psgels, posted in Rainbow



I love series that try to do something different with their endings. There is of course a fine line between adaptations that end somewhere in the middle, and adaptations that have been carefully planned out to form a whole. Rainbow finally is another case of the latter: there probably is much more manga around, but who cares: the creators really selected the most essential parts of the 22-volume manga, and condensed those into 26 episodes, and yet the series ends completely unlike any other series I’ve seen.

Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a series end with a final arc that was only one or two episodes long, without being rushed. Those are the endings that usually stand out. I’m a bit sad to see that we won’t get the Heitai-arc, but Mario’s boxing career still is very important in the series, and yet it’s so much from what creators would usually chose as a final episode: the bad guys in this series are long gone, all of the biggest drama has been resolved at this point, and instead the final episode is a simple one that will allow Mario to overcome his crippled hand, which very neatly ties his story together.

And heck, even the Suppon arc is so fresh as a semi-final arc. Suppon is one of the most stable members of the cast, who knows very much what he wants, so the drama around him doesn’t involve some dumb mistake he made, but instead it’s all about his huge desire to take care of his new family, after he lost his previous one in the atomic bombings, and coming to terms with the fact that he doesn’t have to be alone. The part in which he single-handedly got that guy to come along to pay his debt really shows that there is nothing wrong with his will power, and it really made for an awesome scene that really turned out to be the opposite of what I expected.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Nurarihyon no Mago – 12

by psgels, posted in Nurarihyon no Mago



With the new villains, do hope that they’re going to be more than what we’ve seen so far, constantly smirking and trying to look evil. They don’t really seem like compelling villains at this point, and I mostly liked this episode because of the small charms of the rest of the characters.

Meanwhile, the rest of the cast is mostly plagued by that love triangle that is developing. I don’t like love triangles because they a) are annoying, b) get in the way of the more interesting stuff and c) never really go anywhere, and that really was the case here. I mean, Kana and Yuki-Onna alone have enough charms at this point, but those get completely wasted on that pointless love triangle.

I liked the parts around Nura and Yura. The art direction of Nura’s special powers was also especially interesting, but also the chemistry between the two of them really works, and it’s a bit of a shame that he seems to be leaving after this (great for the development of the rest of the characters, though). This show is still nothing special, but I have taking a strange liking to some of the characters in this show, most notably these two.

A bit of nit-picking time here… but… um… didn’t anybody notice those HOLES in a freaking building? I mean, no fire-alarms, there was nobody screaming… it just fell apart and didn’t seem to bother anyone who lived there.
Rating: * (Good)

Hikaru no Go Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




I would like to thank Hikaru no Go for some of the most riveting opening episodes of any long series that I’ve seen in a while. The first arc of this series, encompassing episodes 1 to 14 is masterfully written and an emotional highlight in the way that it toys with its characters. It plays out unlike any other shounen I’ve seen in the way that it throws its young protagonist in a world that he totally doesn’t belong in. With a simple, but extremely chilling soundtrack, it really is a roller-coaster ride that combines an excellent build-up with powerful and gripping drama that really blew me away.

In the rest of the 75-episode run of this series, it calms down a bit and it turns into more of a classic shounen set-up, emphasizing slow and gradual development. It’s a bit repetitive, but said development is still more than worth it to continue with this series until the end. 75 episodes is a lot of time for characters to change, and the creators really make use of this by making not just Hikaru change, mature and grow up, but a wide variety of different characters are portrayed growing throughout the series.

This show doesn’t just look at the Go game itself and its various layers of strategy, but what’s possibly even more important is the place of Go in Japanese society, ranging from how simple amateurs play it to the world of professionals of all kinds of levels, with even a few international side-stories: this series explores the full spectrum here.

Shounen series usually have this tendency to drag out their matches, but Hikaru no Go is a big exception here as well: I don’t think I recall any Go match that took up longer than one episode. Instead, the thing that bothered me that there may have been a few too many matches that simply looked like each other, which are played against similar characters with similar premises that play out in similar ways. I mean, 75 episodes is a lot of time here for things like these to get boring, and especially around the middle there just are a few too many Go matches and characters that look like each other for my tastes, despite making full sense in the story.

Nevertheless, this series still is chock full of interesting twists and tons of well written Go matches that put you to the edge of your seat. It especially sets itself apart with its development, which makes excellent use of its long airtime. At times it takes a bit too long levelling up its lead characters’ Go skills, but it remains a very detailed look in the world of Go, with especially the rivalry between Hikaru and Touya standing out as memorable.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Really knows how to make Go matches exciting, and really likes to toy around with emotions.
Characters: 9/10 – Has 75 episodes and makes excellent use of them to show half its cast change and mature.
Production-Values: 8/10 – I can only imagine how pain-staking it must have been for the creators to draw hundreds of different Go-matches, but what especially catches your attention is the hard-hitting soundtrack.
Setting: 9/10 – An excellent portrayal of Go in Japan. Pays attention of the wide variety in which it gets played.

Suggestions:
– Glass Mask 2005
– Nodame Cantabile
– hunter X Hunter

Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin – 12

by psgels, posted in Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin



Not as good as the previous episode, but still a worthy climax for this series. With one exception, everything from the past episode came together very nicely, all of the major questions were answered well and sufficiently, and this episode was overall a great and action-packed closure to this series. So what the heck is up with that final episode?!

I’m surprised how many people disliked the inclusion of black and white mages. I mean, this show is called Occult Academy: right from the start it was clear that it explores occult from all over the world. Don’t black and white mages belong amongst that? Either way though, this episode really explained a lot: all of the previous monsters that tried to kill Maya were sent by that black mage. It makes full sense for her to be the key of Nostradamus, it makes full sense that Maya didn’t go around to carry her notebook everywhere around with her and to prepare some sort of backup plan. And it’s very interesting to see that Maya’s father was still alive: that’s why her death was faked in the previous episode: to prepare for that plot twist. And as if to make up for the fact that nobody seemingly dies in this episode, the creators actually did kill off a few characters.

Now, that ending intrigues me. I mean, while it’s nothing new to have some kind of “bad guy behind bad guy”, it came completely out of left field in this series. I mean, the entire series was supposed to be about getting rid of that Nostradamus Key. Maya even got up a good future when she photographed it. So why is there still an episode left, and why didn’t the future change? I’m really curious whatever plot twist the final episode has in store here.

Now, the only problem I have with this episode was how Bunmei was suddenly unkillable at the most critical moment. I mean, the creators seemed to realize that it didn’t make any sense, but they made no attempt to answer that, and it’s a very strange question to leave unanswered at this point.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Full Metal Alchemsit – Brotherhood – OVA – 04

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



The OVAs so far have been simple side-stories, but this fourth one sure was different. It really added something to Roy’s character by showing the times at which he just enlisted at the military academy, along with some more footage from the Ishbal war.

The asshole sergeants may have been a bit too stereotypical and one sided, they did what they were supposed to do in addressing the discrimination against Isbalians. The sad part was the revelation in which Roy actually met the Ishbalian that he once considered as a friend. And then to think that the first season of Full Metal Alchemist showed him angsting about having to kill some random doctor. It’s like, two completely different characters.

Just one thing: couldn’t you have just made Heiss Cliff miss his shot at Roy Mustang? I mean, it’s a bit strange for this series to use such an overused cliche here that is usually only used by cheesy action titles, by having Mustang’s State Alchemist watch be in exactly the right position to block the bullet.
Rating: * (Good)

Anyamaru Tantei Kiruminzoo Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




I don’t always like Shoji Kawamori’s series. My impressions of the series and concepts he comes up with range from preachy (Arjuna), disappointing (Macross Frontier), absolutely fantastic (Excaflowne), solid (Macross), gorgeous (the Macross OVAs and Movies) to ridiculously unbalanced but fun (Basquash). Still, I have to admit: this guy is creative, and to this day he is consistently coming up with original premises, rather than series based off of some manga, light novel or game. My personal guess as to why all those series are so completely different from each other is the rest of the staff behind it, who seem to get quite a bit of freedom (something a certain Shaft director could learn from). His next concept is Kiruminzoo, a series again completely different from anything that he tied his name to so far.

Now, I like kids’ shows. The good ones, in any case. There are unfortunately still too many badly produced ones that make cheaply made harem shows look like the combined works of Shakespeare. Kiruminzoo impressed me in this, though. It’s perhaps not as good as Heartcatch Precure, but it really has its heart at the right place. If I had kids and this show somehow made it over to the Netherlands, I really wouldn’t mind showing it to them.

Kiruminzoo isn’t simply trying to entertain, it’s also trying to teach its audience something. It’s all based on a bunch of kids who become able to transform into animals throughout some sort of mahou shoujo devices. The entire reason why they get to be able to do this is to improve understanding of all kinds of animals. This series teaches children about morals, how it’s often more important to understand rather than to fight, and how to treat animals with respect. It’s a great series for people who love animals.

This series also manages to avoid the “adults are useless”-trope that often plagues the kids’ shows. Most of the adults are nowhere near useless in this series, and most of the problems in this series revolve around issues that children can actually deal with, and it forces them to think. Only with the climax of the series does this show start to become a little epic, and even then it’s handled well. Well, for the most part…

This is a bit of a “love it or hate it”-thing, but this show is full of morons. And with that, I don’t just mean one character, but half the cast seems to only have half a braincell. Granted, the series provides an explanation for this, and on one hand, it’s part of the charms of this series to see the beyond stupid antics of certain characters, without that stupidity taking over the show, but on the other hand the stupidity does get taken a bit too far at times.

The main flaw of this series is that it’s too long, though. It’s an episodic series through which the characters gradually discover and explore their powers to transform to other creators, but the creators could have done this in 39 episodes as well. Right now, there are a number of points in which this series drags on, and there are a number of repetitive episodes that could easily have been cut in order to make it a bit more of a snappy series.

On the technical side, this show is very solid. The animation is very consistent, leading to very little distorted faces, and just about everything in this series is as bright, colourful and cute as possible; it just looks really pretty. The voice acting also is very good, and I especially loved Riko’s voice actress.

Overall, if you don’t like kids’ shows, then this series isn’t going to make you see the light. If you do, though, then this is quite an enjoyable series to watch with a charming cast and premise. Perhaps it’s a bit long, but it certainly doesn’t deserve to remain unsubbed.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Enjoyable, educative, and does justice to the animal kingdom.
Characters: 8/10 – A varied and charming cast.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Solid animation and music, very cute art.
Setting: 8/10 – Teaches kids understanding towards animals. Nothing wrong with that.

Suggestions:
– Otogi Juushi Akazukin
– Telepathy Shoujo Ran
– Aoi Blink

High School of the Dead Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, High School of the Dead




With High School of the Dead, you have to know and realize what it is before you start watching it. It’s a series that knows its priorities well: fanservice and zombie-bashing. You shouldn’t expect an innovative story here: it pretty much plays out like your regular zombie story. The characters are high schoolers, so expect a lot of whining. If you hate fanservice with passion, then don’t even bother with this show.

Beyond that, though, it really is quite good.

High School of the Dead doesn’t try to pretend to be anything more than what it is, but what it does, it does well. The production values are solid throughout the entire series, the action is solid (and quite creative at times) and especially the background art for this series is gorgeous. The characters in this series may start out a bit annoying, all of the lead characters have their flaws flaws that are explored throughout the series. There even is quite a bit of character development that, while nothing deep, does show the cast growing amidst the total zombie chaos that they’re in.

The biggest reason why I’m praising this series however is its atmosphere. Usually, fanservice series don’t really care about such a thing and are too busy with their uninspired antics, but High School of the Dead is different. Its atmosphere really draws you in, both during the action-packed parts and the quiet scenes in which the characters are simply waiting for the inevitable moment in which the zombies find them. The atmosphere is over the top when it needs to, but most importantly: it is also restrained when it needs to. This allows the characters, who may be quite simple, to show their best sides. It’s the atmosphere that really makes this series into more than just another action flick.

Don’t think that the execution is perfect, though. There still are the times here and there in which the fanservice takes over. There also are a few side characters who are trying way too hard to be evil or controversial, most notable that evil nazi teacher. He adds nothing to this series and only ends up being silly with how ridiculously over the top he tries to be. The zombies themselves also are really basic villains: they have no motivations, no origins, nothing. The only thing that is on their mind is “humans tasty; rawr”. Having said that, they are some very selective zombies. The creators tend to slow down time or make them oblivious, just for the sake of the plot. That’s a case of lazy scriptwriting!

Overall, High School of the Dead seems to be one of the most popular series of the past summer season, but don’t go in expecting a masterpiece. It’s simply a show to sit back with and enjoy the atmosphere and the zombie-bashing, and that is something that this series does really well, and you can see that the creators are having fun with this unpretentious horror-fest.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Solid action, very good atmosphere, tons of fanservice.
Characters: 8/10 – Annoying, but the main characters are well portrayed and have well balanced flaws. The antagonists don’t, though.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Very solid, excellent background art, great animation during the fight scenes, solid soundtrack. Great EDs.
Setting: 7/10 – It’s zombies, and it’s pretty much your standard zombie storyline with some strange holes in the zombie-logic.

Suggestions:
– Kurozuka
– Ga-Rei Zero
– Shikabane Hime

High School of the Dead – 12

by psgels, posted in High School of the Dead




So, the good thing is that the creators really pulled up and delivered a worthy finale for this series. The bad thing is that the story just stops in the middle, the show stops just as the characters are about to find out whether Takagi’s parents are alive. There is one OVA left, but with that one I again doubt whether it will provide full closure.

Now, we could hope for a second season, but Madhouse has a bit of a strange policy when it comes to its sequels. To name an example, they did make a sequel for Saiunkoku Monogatari and Chi’s Sweet Home, but they did not for Claymore. Generally speaking, they very rarely make sequels.

In any case though, I’m not unhappy with the way this series ends. This episode was restrained, yet entertaining. The atmosphere never faltered, and I like how this episode did conclude the story of Saya’s parents. We’re not exactly told what happens to them, but this can be left to imagination easily, and I actually think that it’s more powerful than if the creators would have outright stated whether or not they survived or got slaughtered. This episode also put a lot of meaning into their relationship with Saya, and it’s also good to see that the nurse and her friend got one final conversation.

Oh, and especially the backgrounds in this episode were better than ever. I’m surprised that that’s where most of the budget went here, but works really well, and this episode looked utterly gorgeous because of it.

Overall, out of all of Tetsurou Araki‘s works, this does remain my least favourite series. However, he still put forth a very skillful adaptation here, with some great production values and atmospheres, he really did the story justice for as simple as it may have been. This was the first fanservice series I have ever blogged. It’s a genre that I usually dislike because they often focus too much on the fanservice and forget to make the rest of their series interesting and compelling. High School of the Dead did not. Overall I consider 2010 to be one of the least impressive years of anime since 2005, however the fanservice genre is one of the few for which I feel that it has gotten better. That’s not to say that we’ve gotten rid of the crappy fanservice series of course (*coughkissxsiscough*), but I admit: we’ve gotten quite a few good ones.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru




Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru (henceforth abbreviated as Uragiri) is a series that doesn’t start out as anything special. Its first ten episodes don’t really stand out aside from a few well written action scenes and overly campy dialogues. Still, it managed to pull itself together as a solid character-study in the end.

Uragiri is restrained, but it knows what it’s doing in terms of characters. Their development throughout the second half is well worth the wait, especially because the creators know how to use it in its action and exposition scenes. This goes for both the main and side characters, who manage to grow together into a neatly packaged whole.

There really is hardly a boring moment in the second half because of this. The entire series has this slow atmosphere, but the series never drags on: it is always exploring its characters, showing new things about them and fully detailing their worries, motivations, and the bonds they have with each other.

The action scenes get surprisingly badass as time goes on thanks to their excellent scenario, the unique visuals for this series (this show is especially good at blending in CG effects with 2D animation in order to give the whole series a very gothy feeling) and a soundtrack that on top of being excellently used, also only continues to get better and better as the series goes on.

Now, this series is technically based on a shounen ai story. To the people who are scared of gays: don’t worry, this show is nowhere near yaoi, and the gay undertones never end up taking over the show. Having said that, though, this series does have an array of very campy characters, ranging from the very eccentric dress sense that the demons in this series have, how underdeveloped the villains are compared to the lead characters and there is matter that the lead character Yuki may be a tad too much of a heaven-descended flower-child at times. There is of course being nice, but there are points in which the creators play a bit too much on his good-natured character.

This series however still has an excellent sense of build up (except for the ending; don’t ask me why, but somehow this show ends with a Deus ex Machina without resolving anything while preparing for a second season that is never going to come) and it skillfully builds its characters throughout its 24-episode run. It’s a very nice example of those series that start off without much of a fuss, but actually get pretty damn awesome near the end (emphasis on near!).

Storytelling: 8/10 – Starts off unimpressive, but gets much better as time goes on. Well balanced, a solid script and knows how to build up save for the ending.
Characters: 8/10 – A solid cast: well analyzed and developed. The bonds between them are very important in this series, and quite a bit of meaning has been put into them.
Production-Values: 9/10 – The character animation may not be much special and the characters-designs may be a bit too bishiefied, but the background art and CG are utterly gorgeous, and the soundtrack is really excellent.
Setting: 8/10 – Does what it needs to do, there are interesting concepts behind the setting and it forms a solid base for the characters to work with.

Suggestions:
– Shingetsutan Tsukihime
– Night Head Genesis
– Kobato

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 24

by psgels, posted in Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru



I often see people hoping that anime creators don’t pull an anime original ending and adapt their source material faithfully, but this would really have been a case in which the series would have been better off with an anime original closure: just have a battle between everyone, like what was set up in the previous episode, and have those battles resolve everything. I really would not have minded the few questions that would be left after that (like Reiga’s motivation, or how Luka and Yuki met).

Instead, Yuki starts glowing and forces everyone to retreat with some last minute slapped on powers in which he suddenly has the powers to completely eradicate the darkness and make people realize their mistakes. Um, where did that come from? On top of being a bit too close to a Deus ex Machina for comfort, this episode also introduced a rather large plothole in Reiga’s reasoning.

Because in this episode Reiga also claims that he kidnapped Yuki because he believes that Yuki’s light has the power to make his darkness stronger. A bit silly at first, but I guess that in terms of symbolism when you combine light and dark with yin and yang, it makes sense. If it weren’t for the fact that that theory completely backfired when Yuki turned on his god-mode. And survives with pretty much the same exhaustion as the other times in which his powers went out of control.

So no, I can’t call this ending good. It didn’t do what it was supposed to, it hardly resolved anything, and it failed to use the build-up that the previous episodes worked so hard for to set up. For an ending of a series that was hoping for a second season that’s never going to come, I’d call this one average, though: it didn’t ruin itself, it did neatly to prepare for the second season (that is never going to come), and the final fight before Yuki flipped out was excellent.

I can see the potential of a power that shows everyone their mistakes. A second season would have been able to do neat things with that. However, there is no way in hell that that second season will arrive. As a result, we’re stuck with a Deus ex Machina ending. Such a shame, considering how this series was doing so well. Unfortunately, this series couldn’t fully follow in Kobato’s footsteps.
Rating: – (Disappointing)