Bungaku Shoujo (Movie) Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Bungaku Shoujo is a project consisting out of four OVAs and a movie. I remember not really being impressed by the first OVAs, which didn’t really give me the motivation to check out the other parts of the OVA, so I just decided to go with the movie instead. Which, as it turns out, is completely different.

Before I continue however, I do want to say the following: with most of my series and movie reviews, I try to not include any spoilers. With this movie however, it’s impossible to really talk about my impression of this movie without discussing some of them, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, you might want to skip the rest of the paragraphs of this review.

I say this of course because Bungaku Shoujo marketed itself as some cheesy romance in which the lead character gets to date a cute girl who eats books. The prologue of the movie reinforces this completely when it throws cliche after cliche when introducing its characters. And in the end, this turned out to be a huge red herring for the real subject matter of this series: dealing with a mentally insane childhood friend.

At this point I’m still not sure whether the creators tried too hard with that character, but nevertheless my highlight of this movie was the interplay between her and the lead character as it really took its time to explore how both of them feel about each other. With excellent animation, I felt myself to really care about these two, and to be honest, the entire cast quickly loses the stereotypes associated with them at the introduction. There is a bit of overacting at times, but even there it feels subtle and restrained, to really give off the impressions of a natural cast. I’m definitely surprised by that.

My main problem with this movie was the conclusion. Basically, most of the major conflicts are solved with a cheesy speech that I feel was totally unnecessary. I would have really preferred it if the characters just talked to each other to sort out their differences. Or heck, went to a proper psychiatrist.

The animation for a movie’s standards is pretty good, but average. There are a few still frames and off models here, but characters are well animated. For movie’s standards it’s nothing extraordinary, though. The soundtrack itself is also nothing to write home about.

Nevertheless it’s a compelling teenaged drama with a lot of symbolism to novels (most notable Kenji Miyazawa’s Night on the Galactic Railroad). It’s not the best and the whole “demon eating books” turned out to be just a gimmick that could have easily been omitted without changing anything, but it definitely kept my attention throughout the movie.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Takes its time to tell the story, great sense of mystery.
Characters: 8/10 – The acting tries a little too hard at times, but nevertheless the cast is believable and charming.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Solid and detailed, but doesn’t stand out compared to other movies.
Setting: 8/10 – Aside from one gimmick that’s not used to its potential, it does its job of supporting the story, especially the book symbolism.

Suggestions:
– Night on the Galactic Railroad (one of those movies that I got to appreciate more and more over time, so just ignore that rating).
– Gedo Senki
– Kappa to Coo to Natsuyasumi

OVA Impressions: Yondemasu, Azazel-San – 01

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions



Okay, so I’ve been a bit lazy for the past days so I’ve got a pretty big movie and OVA backlog right now. First up is a 10-minute OVA that I’m really really late with, Yondemasu, Azazel-san. Do give it a chance though if you’re looking for something funny. The episode is only 10 minutes long, but quite funny.

It’s an OVA that pokes fun at demon summoning. It’s a practice that’s usually very serious business, and you can see that this OVA has the time of its life making this look as ridiculous as possible. And it does so with an actual sense of humor. While turning fierce demons into cute animals is nothing new, this show does it with a number of awesome jokes, especially when the deadpan Moloch appears halfway through. The comedic timing and delivery is just awesome here.

Still, this remains an OVA that was shipped with manga volumes, so don’t expect any background or explanation behind everything. In fact, some of the things said at the beginning of the episode are only explained at the end of it. Nevertheless, if you want something short to laugh at, this does the job.
OVA Episode Rating: 8,25/10

High School of the Dead – 09

by psgels, posted in High School of the Dead



Well, I guess we all knew what this episode was going to introduce: the LOVE TRIANGLE. Generally, I hate those things because A) they’re annoying, B) go nowhere and C) they way too often get in the way of the real plot. It was a good episode overall, but at this pace I do hope that the final four episodes will remember that this series is focused on horror and fanservice. The romance should just be there to get the best out of the characters.

Either way though, it’s episodes like this that make High School of the Dead into more than just a gore and boob fest, because Saeko did get quite a bit of attention, and we learned a lot more about her. And to be honest, I actually liked the way that Takeshi developed his crush for Saeko a lot more than his angsty side who can’t get over a childhood crush who dumped him years ago.

That’s not to say that it was actually good romance of course, as according to anime logic it seems that whenever a guy and a girl are together in a tight situation they are 100% sure to fall in love. But still, I never started to watch this series for its realism. One thing that I am very glad of is that this series doesn’t try to be funny. The creators could have easily turned Takeshi into a horny peeping pervert in this episode with a stupid grin on his face, but they didn’t. The creators could easily have made the most horrible puns and fanservice jokes throughout the series, but instead they knew that those jokes suck in 99% of the cases. Instead, the jokes they do make either work decently, or are harmless enough to ignore.
Rating: * (Good)

Giant Killing – 22

by psgels, posted in Giant Killing



Most of this episode was half-time, but it still was an awesome one. The creators really know how to create tension here, with 35 minutes of the match left and still nobody managed to score. The characters in the meantime are as fun as ever. It also helps that Tatsumi continues to hype his own game with his seemingly endless confidence.

Still, you can see that after the despair of the previous episode, the defence is starting to get together. With 31 minutes however, the problem is indeed Natsuki. He indeed was a bit different from usual in this game, though I never really thought of why this was. The end of this episode however revealed that Tatsumi made quite a devastating comment about his determination. With that I completely understood why he had been running around like a chicken during the past episodes. I guess that Tatsumi wanted to motivate Natsuki, but here’s one thing that seemed to backfire. And interestingly, despite all of the build up of the previous episodes, we still didn’t get to see anything from Sera.

In any case, I’m still surprised at how well the chemistry turned out here. All of the attention that the series has put into the different characters is really paying off right now, and something tells me that the next few episodes will give the rest of the cast beyond the defenders their time to shine. It’s a shame though, I really don’t see huge DVD-sales for this series, so I really doubt that there’s going to be a second season.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 21

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



Holy crap, here is one series that suddenly became just better and better. Seriously, these past two episodes have far surpassed anything else this series had offered up to that point. And this episode ended with yet another cliffhanger, as if to say that it’s still nowhere near done yet. I keep wondering how many parts of the soundtrack the creators haven’t shown yet.

In a way though: I love these kinds of series: those who for their majority aren’t anything special aside from a few scenes here and there, and suddenly as they enter their final quarter flick the awesome switch and finish with one heck of a finale. Uragiri looks to be well on this path with only three episodes left, same with Kobato half a year ago. The disadvantage is of course that it’s impossible to pick these kinds of series out when they first start. I’m REALLY glad that I took the few hints of episode two and continued to blog this series, because I recall having laughed quite a bit at this series for how silly it looked at times.

One of the things I especially liked here was the way in which Reiga continues to set off hints to Yuki that Kanata was still out there, only to completely trash Yuki afterwards, telling him to get off his high horse. It’s a very interesting way of showing Yuki’s flaws, this naivety in which he keeps hoping for Kanata to magically return really adds to his character, and yet this doesn’t take his naivety over the top like what you see with most naive characters who too often degenerate into utter stupidity.

With three episodes left (according to ANN at least, don’t take my word on that because they still seem to believe that this show is only 13 episodes long), I do hope that the creators still have enough time to put girl Yuki’s background in it. Right now, that’s my biggest question mark along with the reason why Reiga protected Yuki in this episode. If the creators can pull that off, while making these three episodes as good as the past two, then I’ll be entirely happy.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Sengoku Basara – 20

by psgels, posted in Sengoku Basara



As much as I like the soundtrack of Shiki, I do not consider it to be the best of the Summer Season. The soundtrack for Sengoku Basara is just epic, especially after this episode showed that it can also hold its ground in the quiet and subtle scenes. I’m also not sure who that singer was who popped up in the middle, but she has a great voice.

Also, colour me surprised here. At the start of this series, I really thought that this was going to be an action series. As in: we get a bunch of exciting battles every episodes. As it turns out though, I was wrong: this series tries to be much more than just brainless action. This was the second episode in a row that didn’t spend any attention on any kind of action scenes, and instead it again focused on its character background and building up. The side characters may not have developed much, but there is actually quite a bit of character development amongst the main ones, especially Date Masamune and Yukimura, but also Toyotomi changed compared to the flashbacks we see him in in this episode.

The first season tried this too, but the key mistake it made was that it didn’t feel like it was building up to anything. The arcs were all seemingly unrelated, and not really that interesting. But yeah, at the same time I do have to agree: it did lay out the foundation for this second season to work with. Without that first season, this second season would not be as solid as it is now. I still blame it for being boring, though.

In any case, with so much build up, that final quarter had better be awesome. This series may not be the next Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, but I’m still enjoying it a lot. I expected to get bored when I realized that this episode again wouldn’t involve fighting, but this didn’t turn out to be the case.
Rating: * (Good)

Heartcatch Precure – 29

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure




The episodic stories of this series are possibly even better than the multi episode arcs. I know that there have been a few lesser ones, but episodes like this more than make up for it. This show is excellent at portraying the normal problems and worries that kids might have without degenerating in the emo territory, but this episode was an exceptionally charming one.

It was about a boy who set himself a challenge for the summer holidays: bike a whopping 500 kilometers between Tokyo and Kyoto. From the moment that he finished this task it was already clear that he cheated somewhere in the middle: the way he acted, the way in which he wasn’t tired at all or the injury, they all pointed towards this, and the guy himself acted this out really well.

I loved how the episode played around wit this and really portrayed his worries as genuine. You could see that he didn’t like the support he received from everyone, and how he must have felt horrible inside that bus. On top of that, people were actually inspired by him to set their own challenges: Tsubomi set her own challenge of creating her own clothing (which looked awesome, by the way, and I liked how the creators sneaked a bit of character-development into this episode as well).

Now that Itsuki is pretty much walking along with Tsubomi and Erika (also, is it me or does Tsubomi still have a crush on Itsuki), I wonder what these kinds of episodes are going to look like when Cure Moonlight is going to return. Is she also going to run along with them? Either way, in the way that Itsuki managed to change this series, I’m really looking forward to seeing what her more mature presence is going to do with the mood of this series.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Durarara – 12,5

by psgels, posted in Durarara



Most DVD-specials are simple side-stories. This one is too, but in this case I really recommend it because it was everything that made the first half of Durarara so addictive. It doesn’t have anything to do with the main storyline, but it’s a really fun ride from beginning to end.

I’m not sure whether this is an anime original chapter or a side-story taken from the light novels, but whoever it came from, they really went all out here. The time line was more screwed than ever. Because of that, the first scenes of the episodes are completely random and nonsensical, but as the episode goes on they all fall wonderfully into place. There are some great plot twists too, I especially had to laugh when the creators explained the source behind those sparkly ufos. The only thing I didn’t get was that really weird Daffy Duck laugh at the five minute mark…

Central to the plot were a number of mysterious red bags that kept travelling from one place to the other in this episode, and even though they mostly served to confuse the viewer rather than the characters apart from the Americans, it worked really well, considering how different their contents were. I also loved how ridiculously cheesy those American thugs were: their accent was horrible, and yet they had no problem pronouncing Japanese names. Ah heck, for all we know they could all be Japanese people who are forced to talk in English for their jobs. Oh, and Isaac and Miria made their comeback again!

Mikado and the others had no purpose whatsoever in the story, but I still like how the creators found something interesting for them to do, just portraying them hanging out and doing nothing with strange ears on. The TV-series should have had more scenes like those.

Speaking of which, yeah. I now fully understand why I didn’t like the second half as much as I would have liked: it had none of this addictive pacing, and instead went for a very straightforward style of storytelling without pretty much any kind of warning. It tried to make up for this with its character-development, but that just wasn’t enough. A second season would completely fix the problems I have with it, though at this point this seems unlikely, considering how the director has already moved on to a new series Kuragehime. I’m really looking forward to what he can do with a josei-series, though at the same time it looks to be one of the weakest premises he worked on for a long while. I don’t really like the thought of yet another one of those otaku-aimed shows. On the brighter side though, I just discovered that the Series Composition Guy has this habit of completely disregarding his original source material, so we might be in for something completely different from the original manga it’s based on. That provides opportunities, both good and bad.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kimagure Orange Road OVA Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




With this, I get it. Kimagure Orange Road is annoying. It got on my nerves beyond belief. But in the end: it really is worth it. I mean, there is so much that modern teenaged love interests can learn from Madoka that it’s almost scary. This OVA at first sight seems much of the same as the TV-series, but there are a number of notable advantages that it has.

The formula is the same: get a bunch of episodes together in which the lead character (often with the use of his psychic powers) accidentally ends up in a really awkward romantic situation. The fact that this is eight episodes however, means that the cast has a lot less time to get on your nerves compared to the incredibly long TV-series. To me, this really worked in focusing on the good stuff of the OVAs: the serious and romantic scenes. And they really get their chance to shine in this OVA.

The graphics also got a major update here. You can really see that the artists especially put in effort to bring the cast to life now that they’re not bothered by a TV-series budget any more. It’s got this great classic look from the late eighties, and it doesn’t look as immature as the series did.

I can’t say that this OVA wasn’t annoying, because it definitely did have its moment. But really: if you finished the daunting task of watching the entire TV series of Kimagure Orange Road, then you might just as well continue with this OVA. At this point they’ve got 50 episodes worth of development behind them, so they sure as heck aren’t going to be shallow here. And besides: it’s great to see a show that isn’t incredibly scared to show teenagers drinking alcohol. Seriously: why does every modern anime try to pretend that teenagers never drink or smoke?

Storytelling: 9/10 – Annoying, but really knows exactly what it does in getting the best out of the characters.
Characters: 9/10 – I’ve said this before, but Madoka is one of the best characters of her kind. The others… they’re nice, but pale in comparison.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Smooth and detailed animation when it matters, with a few bugs here and there though.
Setting: 8/10 – Save for a horrible portrayal of a bunch of Americans, it’s solid and does its job.

Suggestions:
– Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ouki
– Maison Ikkoku
– Mahou Tsukai Tai OVA

Kuroshitsuji II – 09

by psgels, posted in Kuroshitsuji II



Now that Alois is gone, this series did lose a big part of its fun factor, but this episode seemed to realize that and really had fun playing around with the rest of the cast to make up for it.

I mean, a plot to brainwash Ciel and make him think he’s Alois? That’s quite intriguing. If anything because of how the end of this episode promised Sebastian to go completely insane in the next episode. That shinigami that attacked Sebastian with that lawn mower also was another one of those crazy ideas I loved.

Not to mention that, even though this episode had quite a bit of action, the scenes that the animators spent the most frames on yet again was Claude’s hands as he was crocheting. It looked very good and realistic, really. But why that scene, of all places?

Now, the only thing I’m a bit worried about is the conclusion here. I mean, at this point the creators can easily revert everything back with another Deus ex Machna again, because at this point, this really seems to be one of those plots that the creators make up as they go along. I really want to see this show end with something epic. I don’t really care about the depth, this show never was one of those where you can expect that.
Rating: * (Good)