Sengoku Basara – 21

by psgels, posted in Sengoku Basara



Boy, Production IG, you sure are planning to make a lot depend on that ending of yours, with yet another episode without much fighting. This episode again continued to build up, it continued to set the stakes higher (Toshiie Maeda now also turns out to have regrouped and will be part of the final battle as well). Most of this episode was focused on tactical plans, rather than actual fighting (which had little tactical purpose). And that with three episodes left.

One criticism to all this build up is that the creators could have told us more about the different characters, like give them more background, show them as they were younger, that kind of stuff. The characters all have their issues here, but I feel like the creators could have made more use of that if they were going to spend a lot of time building up anyway. Still, I admit that the creators did well in fleshing out their characters. While not the best, this show did put in some effort to show different sides of them, another one of the points at which I feel this series is superior to the first season, even though the first season had much more action.
Rating: * (Good)

Giant Killing – 23

by psgels, posted in Giant Killing



Aargh! Stupid cliff-hangers!

I mean… wow. The way this show builds up tension is just amazing. I mean, I can’t stress enough how nerve-wrecking this episode was, and it was just meant as a build-up! It was pretty much all about Natsuki, a character who had just been introduced, less than ten episodes ago. I really did not expect him to steal the show this way.

At this point, I’ve seen quite a few sports series already, and it really is an excellent genre: I hardly ever watched one that didn’t work. I used to be very biased against the series, but when I actually got to try out one of them, I quickly realized how completely stupid my biases were as I discovered a number of amazing sports series. And yet, despite such a high standard (and with “Shion no Ou” not counted as “sport”), at this point I’m willing to label Giant Killing as the best sports series I have ever seen. It rocks at everything: the characters, the tension, the chemistry, the depth, the entertainment. The animation is the only part at which it isn’t amongst my favourites this season, but in exchange it does have excellent character-designs with a unique graphics style, so even there it could be forgiven.

I also loved how this episode took something so obvious as “the ball belongs to the team, and not to you”, and went much further in this. Alone it would indeed have been a bit of a cheesy saying, but it becomes actually pretty interesting when related to Natsuki: I really put my money on how he was once one of those guys who took these crazy egotistical risks while understanding that at the same time the ball belonged to the team, but right now this 8-month leave changed him significantly. He’s no longer able to take the crazy risks due to his fear of getting injured again and having to spend 8 months out yet again (something I actually can relate to a bit).

It’s a bloody shame that the DVD sales are terrible, though, but this had it coming, unfortunately. In Japan, football just isn’t as popular as baseball, and it has very little to do with traditional Japanese culture. Still, I really believe that this show has a market internationally, especially in the countries in which football is really big. It’s a series that will be near-impossible to dub, but I feel that this is one of those series made with an international audience in mind, rather than just a Japanese one.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 22

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



For a moment, I thought that the creators here were building up to one of those “final final bad guys”-twists, in which the guy who had been built up as the final bad guy throughout the series actually turns out to be someone completely different, with the final bad guys someone either his subordinate or employer, hidden somewhere in the shadows throughout most of the series (which is a nice idea of course, if it weren’t for the fact that those new bad guys often have nowhere near the depth of the original bad guys). I’m glad I was wrong with that.

So yeah, Reiga remembers his time as Kanata. At first I found this rather cheesy, but after second thought this makes for a pretty interesting plot twist, because he actually consciously decided to live as Reiga, rather than Kanata, rather than this being a matter of mere brainwashing. This makes me even more interested in whatever the hell it was that Reiga hates so badly.

So here’s the thing: there are two episodes left, and we end this episode with Yuki in an actual position to talk to Reiga. Sure, he’s kidnapped and all, but I really like what the creators are doing here: on one side they’re building up to an interesting set-up for a final battle, in which the characters, especially Luka and Takashiro, promise to go all out. On top of that, a major theme of these final two episodes will also be an attempt of Yuki to get through to Reiga, while Reiga needs to explain whatever the hell he’s been trying to do, along with try and successfully carry out this plan. If well balanced, it will make for an excellent ending.

The biggest roadblock will be Reiga himself: the way he develops will be crucial whether the ending will be great or just dull. What the creators need to avoid at all costs is another one of those cases of “talking the monster to death”. I want to see some genuine tension between him and Yuki, without having him magically changes sides because of some cheesy speech that Yuki holds at the end.

Oh, and about this episode: I’m glad that the creators didn’t waste an entire episode as a calm before the storm here, but instead kept it to about half an episode, while immediately putting more pressure on the cast. It shows that those general classes aren’t just sitting on their chair waiting for nothing, but actually are willing to act on their own beliefs and agendas. Not because they’re simply whimsical like a cliched anime protagonist, but because they don’t trust Reiga.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Heartcatch Precure – 30

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure



This episode reminded me of a mistake a lot of the bad mahou shoujo have made: the mascots. A lot of creators seem to believe that as long as you have them act brightly enough all the time, they’ll end up enjoyable. Instead of portraying them as cheerful characters, they take this way over the top by making this cheerfulness their only character trait. When the series also starts putting these mascots into central roles, you’ve got your recipe for disaster. I think the best example of this is Lilpri, which started airing during the past spring season: what could have been a fun and over the top idol series got completely out of hand when the creators suddenly found it a good idea to make these really badly characterized mascots the lead characters.

Chypre and Coffret know exactly what they are: support characters. They never get into the spotlights, they do their jobs by alerting Tsubomi and Erika as fast as possible about any desatorians, and while both are cheerful, they also know how to… you know, act normally. Then Potpourri came, and seemed to be doing the complete opposite, and she actually got a few episode parts in which she was the central character. Granted, because she was only born recently it makes sense to portray her as a little kid compared to the more “professional” Chypre and Coffret, but something in me didn’t really get used to her. So when this episode again promised to be another arc about her, I had a bit of doubts.

But god dammit, what a sweet episode it turned out to be. I knew from the moment that Potpourri and the little girl stopped playing that my fears were wrong, but even then I was surprised at how GOOD and sincere this episode was. Cure Moonlight’s return alone was already awesome enough, but I love how well Potpourri and that little girl she met acted and made up.

I mean, this show is actually setting out to be even better with its second half than its first half here. There was a far bigger contrast between the light and dark parts, but I like how at the same time the creators aren’t forgetting to keep this a bright and fun series. The creators had a lot of fun with the facial expressions in the bright parts here, not to mention how well the fight was animated (seriously, show: screw the magical beams and instead keep with the martial arts: those really show off how good the animation here is). On top of that, the creators also made excellent uses of Cure Moonlight here, by having her remind her how close Itsuki would have been to losing Potpourri.

I also wonder when we’re going to see the mysterious grandfather again. He hasn’t appeared in ages, but that just shows that he hasn’t been needed, and how the cast has grown.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Some Quick First Impressions: Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a real samurai and fights a bunch of cute girls who are also samurai.
Oh… the pain. Granted: this show looks cool. It’s got this neat filter and background art style that give it a bit of a unique retro feel. The opening of this episode in which those airplanes were sliced down for no possible reason had a great atmosphere. So, what did the creators chose as the first scene to introduce the lead characters with? By having the male lead walking into the female leads as they are changing their clothes. I mean, come on. It’s 2010. Are we ever going to abandon that horrible cliche? Apart from that, there are a number of other things about this series that I just hate. There’s first of all the present: after Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Arms has moved on from that now and chosen Japanese history to randomly rip off without giving its teenaged characters any link or similarity to their respective counterpart, making it rip off one of the parts I hated from Ikkitousen and Koihime Musou. The delivery also leaves a lot to be desired here: when this show focuses on action, and nothing but action, it’s actually pretty good. Anything that involves actual acting though… not so much. The voice acting and the facial animation of the characters are just terrible, especially when this show tries to be funny. I mean, you actually have to try to make jokes that bad.
OP: Aside from the fanservice, I have nothing against this OP. A solid introduction compared to how badly acted this show turned out.
ED: The ED in contrast is pointless fanservice and annoying J-pop
Potential: 5%

Kuroshitsuji II – 10

by psgels, posted in Kuroshitsuji II




It’s great to see that even now the creators are still developing the entire story and coming with new twists. Last week I mentioned like this series felt like it was one of those stories in which the creators make up the events as they go along. This episode surprisingly proved that statement wrong, suggesting more like the entire series had been planned carefully beforehand.

Seriously, the twist in which it was Alois’ little brother who made a pact with Claude in order to get rid of all of the villagers was a very nice one: so Claude simply created a random reason to form a pact with Alois, blaming Sebastian who had absolutely nothing to do with it. These demons have the weirdest habits in their attempts to make their souls as tasty as possible. I also loved the reason the creators found for keeping one of the villagers alive in order to explain what happened. Also, what the heck was Ciel’s eye doing inside that maid’s throat? o.O

But seriously, though: after the initial episodes, the plot for this series turned out to be surprisingly non-linear. I mean, the plot is chock-full of fanservice, but it has been surprisingly well plotted and planned out, in order to make the story as interesting as possible. It really makes me think about whether they also have a cool ending in mind, or are just working to a scenario in which Ciel and Sebastian can live happily together.

Either way, this episode again showed how much fun the creators themselves seem to be having with this series. This episode was chock-full of those tiny details like interesting camera angles, nice ideas and all kinds of strange antics from the butlers, from yelling out loud how tasty Ciel’s soul is to pulling a bunch of film out of Claude’s servants’ eyes. Oh, and Alois returned as well… somewhat.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu – 10

by psgels, posted in Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu




Last episode was a bit disappointing considering its material, but this episode made up for it. Now that those two goons are gone, Ferris’ attempts to get Ryner out of his Alpha-Stigma mode were the best part of this series since episode three. It was very artistic, intense and furthered the relationship between the two of them.

I think my problem with this series is that I’m currently watching it, just for Ryner, Ferris and Shion. At this point, I can’t really find myself to care about the rest of the cast. It’s up to the rest of the series to make these guys interesting, because the series moves away from Ryner and Ferris too often for them to be able to save the series. Right now this show is really busy fleshing out its setting with all of the political intrigue, but at this point there are too many shallow characters.

I blame not the lack of development or background, but the lack of fleshing these guys out. Ferris and Ryner are great to watch because we see so many different sides of them in different situations. Most of the people on Shion’s court get too little airtime to show their characters off. Everything is always serious business, and this episode was probably the first that attempted to show a different side of Claugh now that he’s in love with that Blue haired girl. Having this cast come to live is going to be this series’ biggest challenge for me.
Rating: * (Good)

Shiki – 09

by psgels, posted in Shiki




I’m beginning to understand why people were saying that Shiki took a while to get going. This episode showed the series surpassing itself yet again, it was completely gorgeous, well built up, full of tension and atmospheric as hell. If this trend will continue for the second half, then we’re in for an awesome horror series here.

There was something very interesting going on with the graphics in this episode: they were very inconsistent, but I mean this in a really good way. There were a number of off models in this episode, or some hastily animated frames. But dear God, the good shots looked better than ever here. There really were quite a few shots and drawings in this episode that looked utterly gorgeous.

This episode was all about the counterattack of the vampires, but we do have to wait a while before we learn what happened to Natsuno and instead we see them pull a mass attack on doctor Toshio. It’s interesting that he’s one of the few characters that the vampires aren’t going to kill. I suspect that they see him as the one who keeps their attacks within the village: if he dies, there won’t be a doctor to treat the patients, and they’ll be moved to a larger hospital, which probably means trouble as soon as people there start to notice what’s going on.

I think that the fact that this is all happening in a remote town is a key here: that the vampires are relying on the secluded nature of the village and its residents, who tend to try and keep all of their business inside the villagers, and aren’t open to outsiders, even when possibly questioned by the police. And this episode showed that that’s indeed the case: Toshio hasn’t called the police yet: he wants to be the one to save his village. I think that that’s going to be one of the main problems of this series, though: stubborn is one thing, but there has to be a time in which Toshio needs to swallow his pride and involve the police, especially when so many lives are involved. Yet, since we have yet to see any kind of police in this series, I doubt that they’re going to play a role in this story, otherwise we would have seen some foreshadowing by now.

But yeah, when at this point I’m about to call something like that the major flaw of this series, it obviously means that I’m enjoying the rest of the series a lot. It’s been ages since the last good horror show ended, so I’m really glad to see how well this series is doing with its atmosphere. I especially liked how this episode built up its expectations of having a single vampire try to get into the hospital, only to show a whole army of those buggers at the end of the episode.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Rainbow – 22

by psgels, posted in Rainbow



With the arcs around Mario, Joe and Cabbage, their story was all about trying to make their dream come true, or finding their place in adult society: they all had their goals and worked towards making them come true. The big difference with Baremoto’s arc s that his goal was impossible to begin with. His personal growth was all based on a big mistake, rather than a struggle to get rid of his own past.

Baremoto probably is the character who developed the most throughout the series, having the most amounts of flaws of the entire cast that he had to deal with. And this episode really was a great conclusion for him, in which his thoughts of being able to buy women with money is completely trashed. This episode again was very dramatic, like with Joe and Mario’s arc, but this time all of the drama was centred around Baremoto, realizing what an idiot he had been, and coming to the decisions to make up for the things he did wrong. I liked that a lot.

Also, the next episode will be the Suppon-arc, excellent to hear that. With four episodes left, the arc after that will probably the conclusion and I’m really curious to how the creators are planning to end it. Really, could we get a small arc for Heitai to close off this series? That really would make the entire series complete.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

August Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

To be honest, I’m about to consider 2010 as the worst anime year since I started blogging. The summer season overall was held back by its quantity problem, which results in only a few series that I really consider memorable. Does that mean that I consider that anime is dying, though? Absolutely not. I’m very curious to see how it’s going to evolve in the future and in the upcoming years.

In this month, the surprises mostly came from the series that have been carried over from previous season, with a few notable exceptions. Overall it’s a better month than the previous one, and even the series that aren’t going to turn into anything memorable have their share of very enjoyable episodes.

#19 (20) – Amagami SS – (6,25/10) – I’m still watching this show, but it’s still just plain boring. The second arc was simply decent, it at least had some dynamic characters, but apart from that nothing stood out, and the conclusion yet again was too fast and rushed. The third arc however… by god. The portrayal of that shy girl was just abysmal.
#18 (19) – Asobi ni Iku Yo – (7,5/10) – Out of the huge onslaught of moe shows by AIC this season, this one turned out to be the best one. It’s self-conscious and knows that it’s just harmless fun, and the gunfights are enjoyable enough. The characters themselves are really cliched, but they could have been much more annoying. There’s good chemistry between them, which sortof makes up for the huge amount of flaws that this show has in its premise.
#17 (16) – Sekirei – (7,75/10) – The weak point of this series remains the scenes without drama: the voice actors just try too hard to sound cute, and those scenes are just annoying to watch. Still, the main story has been getting better now that the creators revealed the major background behind everything. The characters are definitely coming together now, despite the silly and fanservicey premise
#16 (18) – Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi – (7,75/10) – This one has gotten better. The animation still is consistently good, and it really has been thinking about arcs that give the main characters some depth, rather than the more silly adventures of the first few episodes. My problem with it still is the huge amount of references to otaku pop culture and overused anime cliches that just don’t interest me. Especially the boob jokes have to stop because this show has been overusing those beyond belief.
#15 (6) – Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu – (7,75/10) – This month for me wasn’t as good as the previous one, but that mostly had to do with expectations. It’s mostly been a building-up moth for Denyuuden, and nothing really special happened here.
#14 (10) – High School of the Dead – (7,75/10) – What sets High School of the Dead apart from all other fanservice shows this season is its atmosphere, which is really genuinely good. The action itself is also very entertaining. Beyond that it’s just gore an fanservice, but I’m enjoying it so far.
#13 (12) – Katanagatari – (8/10) – This is a bit of a strange series, but even though its episodes are twice as long as usual, I just don’t have a lot to say about it. Nothing really stands out, good or bad. I hope that the final episodes indeed are going to get more interesting so that I’ll at least have something to say about it.
#12 (15) – Heroman – (8/10) – This show is weird. I thought it was predictable, but in this month it made a bunch of really strange choices. That island arc was a completely pointless filler. I have no idea what it did in this series, it had no relation to the plot whatsoever, and overall was boring to get through. On top of that, ONLY now, after more than twenty episodes, did it suddenly decide to reveal the most crucial background information. I mean, especially the explanation of Psy’s leg should have been given right at the beginning. But yeah: the upside of this is that the past few episodes have been really character-centric, and actually did a lot of good stuff with them.
#11 (14) – Mitsudomoe – (8/10) – You know? Of all the moe shows this season, I’m enjoying this one the most. Sure, it has its mind in way, way deep into the gutter, and most of the series consists just out of utterly wrong toilet jokes, but the delivery is top-notch and actually gets better as the series goes on. I don’t want to laugh, yet I can’t help it here.
#10 (11) – Anymaru Tantei Kiruminzoo – (8/10)

Now that the climax has started this show has definitely been delivering, and everything seems to be coming together now. I still believe that this could just as easily have been a 39 episoded series, but it’s been an entertaining month for Anymal Tantei Kiruminzoo.

#9 (7) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (8/10)

Gyuki’s arc was quite good, even though it spent most of its time just building up for the rest of the series. Now that we finally got the introduction arcs done though, we should get to the interesting parts of the story, to which I’m looking forward to a lot. It’s perhaps not the most exciting series, but still a very solid one.

#8 (17) – Kuroshitsuji – (8,25/10)

Now that Alois is in the picture again this show has become a whole lot more interesting. His insanity is just so interesting to watch, and I love all of the interesting plot twists the creators try to put into this. However, it would suck if the sole purpose of this series was just going to be a plot device to get Ciel and Sebastian to happily coexist together.

#7 (8) – Sengoku Basara – (8,25/10)

Building up, building up, building up. Really, this month has been either building up to the finale (which had better be damn awesome with all this hyping) and one particularly crazy action episode that blew all my expectations. I expected this to be just one string of action-scenes, but instead this series went for just a couple of them, while trying to make THOSE as epic as possible. Well, I must say that so far they’re doing a good job because episode 18 (or 6) had without a doubt the best action I have seen this month, but this is all going to depend on these final episodes.

#6 (4) – Rainbow – (8,5/10)

This month we got various mini-arcs that were meant to develop and explore the characters as they move on with their lives, and I’m really liking this show more and more. Some characters can be a bi stereotypical at times(specially the thugs), but it’s still both fun and exciting.

#5 (2) – Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin – (8,5/10)

Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin took on a completely different direction from expected this month, by taking on a much quieter and controlled pacing. I still consider it to be the series with the most solid execution of the Summer Season, though. The episodes ranged from really well executed (episode 06) to a bit disappointing (episode 08), but overall they were all focused on developing the lead character Maya. Whether it’s going to work depends on the final third of this series.

#4 (5) – Shiki – (8,75/10)

An excellent atmosphere that just continues to get better. This show is very good at building up, and that really starts to show at this point, not to mention that the soundtrack also just gets better with every episode.

#3 (9) – Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – (8,75/10)

I’m not sure what happened, but somewhere the creators suddenly decided to flick the awesome-switch here. This series improved beyond belief during the past month, with a number of awesome episodes in which all of the build-up of earlier on in the series is coming together. The music especially has exceeded all my expectations here.

#2 (2) – Heartcatch Precure – (8,75/10)

You can really see the show evolving now that Cure Sunshine has appeared, and it has possibly made this show even better. Some of the fights have become a bit beam-spamming, but the individual stories for each episode have been incredibly charming.

#1 (1) – Giant Killing – (9/10)

I love this show! Especially now near the end now that everything is coming together, the entire cast is just one chunk of personality. The opposing team is just awesome, not to mention the huge amounts of Dutch that the creators managed to insert. Every single character still stands apart as individual despite the huge cast, and not to mention how great the creators are with the build-up of the past arc.