Kuroshitsuji II – 08

by psgels, posted in Kuroshitsuji II



…

It’s like the creators made the first episodes crap on purpose.

Seriously, the creators had pure gold with Alois, and yet for some reason they dedicated for consecutive episodes on the silly adventures of Ciel&co. I mean, this episode was awesome. It’s hard to imagine that it came from the same creators as the ones who wrote that silly random flood in the second episode.

I mean, where to begin. This episode was all about Alois’ back-story, and it fully played with the insanity of this character, and how it came to grow. On top of that, the whole backstory behind everything also reached the point in which it actually gets interesting. Alois wants Ciel because Sebastian killed his younger brother in the past? It’s quite interesting to see that he has completely different goals from Claude. Not to mention Alois ACTUALLY DYING at the end of this episode. Bloody hell!? What purpose is that ring going to make in the rest of this series?

Not to mention… Yuki Kajiura!? It’s awesome to suddenly have an insert-song of her appearing again. It also looks like this is going to be the new ED, which makes it even more interesting.

2010 really has been a major year for A-1 pictures. It’s not exactly their best year (heck, they made Birdy the Mighty in 2009), but I really like how their series have been so experimental this year: they’ve been trying out a ton of different things, not just in Anime no Chikara, but also in Ookiku Furikabutte with its unique direction, and Kuroshitsuji as well. Alois may be insane, but he’s one heck of an interesting character to watch. At this point, I somehow understand why there isn’t going to be an Anime no Chikara in the upcoming fall season, though. My guess is that it has more to do with manpower than with popularity. I mean, how many series are they working on in 2010? 7? (including the long-running Fairy Tail). I’m amazed that they kept up such a good quality for most of them: despite a number of hiccups here and there they all had their own parts in which they’re memorable (Fairy Tail excluded perhaps because I’m not watching that one anymore and Togainu no Chi because it hasn’t aired yet).
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Shiki – 07

by psgels, posted in Shiki



One thing I love about horror series is how consistent they are: once they’ve got an atmosphere built up, they can keep this one going for episodes and episodes. This episode yet again was excellent in the way that it progressed the plot, and this solid atmosphere really helped in bringing up the creepiness factor even though this isn’t really scary. That’s the entire point of Japanese horror: it doesn’t intend to freak you out (that’s also why there are so few anime that are genuinely scary), instead it attempts to captivate its audience with exactly that atmosphere.

This episode focused on three different subplots: an exposition part Masao rising from the dead as a vampire (I knew it!) and receiving the explanation behind the nature of vampires in this series, a build-up part in which Seishin and Toshio prepare to try and catch the vampires, and a character-centric part involving Natsuno teams up with Kaori and Akira, and prepares to dig up Megumi’s grave. The latter was where most of the depth in this episode was, mostly thanks to Kaori. I mean, being forced to dig up the grave of your dead best friend. Who wouldn’t be disturbed? Natsuno in contrast is completely different: he hated Megumi when she was still alive, and he doesn’t really care for others’ feelings, allowing him to take such measures that a lot of others would find insane. Akira meanwhile… is just an idiot. He’s impulsive, but I don’t think that he really realizes what he’s about to do.

As for the exposition, I’m very curious why the creators chose Masao of all guys to show all of this. I mean, I keep feeling like his existence in this series is with a very clear future purpose in mind. He’s weird, what kind of a different vampire is he going to become because of that? There has to be something. Either way though, the vampires in this series are weak against sunlight, they can die when a stake is run through their hearts. And there are very rare vampires who are able to just survive in the middle of sunlight. I’m glad that this series is returning to the roots of vampires, rather than the generic schlock that they have evolved into in the past ten years. But yeah, the irony is that the vampire genre came to evolve the way it did, probably because the classic vampire stories were getting overused at the time.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Secret of Cerulean Sand Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




I may be hard on shoujo series at times, but don’t get me wrong: when done right I really love the genre (heck, my favourite series of all time is pretty much a shoujo adventure). Patapata Hikousen no Bouken (otherwise known as the Secret of Cerulean Sand) is a bit childish at times, but it’s a wonderfully charming adventure series that doesn’t shy away from dark topics.

As a story that’s constantly moving forwards, it tells about Jane Buxton and the people she meets as she tries to find her lost brother. While seemingly realistic at first, it quickly shows a number of science fiction roots not unlike Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water. Not surprisingly, since both are based on stories by Jules Verne (a guy who wrote about aeroplanes, decades before they were actually invented). A lot of attention went into creating all kinds of different machines, where this series puts especially its focus on flying machines, but there is a lot more than just that. It’s pretty much the science fiction of 150 years ago. The story also gets pretty epic and fast paced, leaving hardly any time to get bored.

Jane as the lead characters has a ton of charms. She may be a teenager, but she’s smart, knows what she wants, she can think for herself and overall she’s a great character to keep the entire series from flowing smoothly. Among the side characters there’s also quite a bit of character-development throughout the entire series, and I can really only recall two characters whose antics become annoying (a dog and a kid), but even they are not that bad.

While the key animation frames may not look impressive, the in-between animation is where this series really shines. You can spot some repeated frames here and there, but it really is surprisingly smooth and lively at others. The ghibli-esque use of bright colours really makes this a pretty series to look at, despite the seemingly average character-designs. The music is also surprisingly good. Combine this with a solid script and the action scenes are all pretty good throughout the series, ranging from the epic ones to small chases.

You’re going to need a lot of suspense of disbelief, though. It’s entertaining, but this series does remain a children’s adventure. Its main problem is its “children are smarter than adults”-mentality. I mean, I know Jane is smart and all, but when she keeps escaping the bad guys after being captured, time after time, they should have started wondering about how efficient their own security is.

The main bad guy is an interesting one. I mean, he’s as stereotypical as you can get, but the series is aware of it. It knew that it needed a guy like him in order to show the things it wanted to show, and so they did take care in giving him a background, personality and solid motivation… which actually are quite good, and actually result into a surprisingly solid ending. Nowadays, you hardly get to see any new adaptations of classic novels. Which is a pretty darned shame when you see series like this one. It’s not the best, but it has a lot of charms.

Storytelling: 8/10 – If you bring a healthy dose of suspense of disbelief you’ll be rewarded by an exciting adventure whose story just keeps moving and evolving.
Characters: 8/10 – The stereotypical bad guys don’t prevent the charms of the main cast to shine.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Good soundtrack. Smooth animation, surprisingly good for its looks.
Setting: 8/10 – Very neat ideas behind the setting, machines and plot twists. Don’t try to ask the how and why behind it, though. It’s not that solid.

Suggestions:
– Mahou Shoujotai
– Ashita no Nadja

OVA Impressions: Armored Trooper Votoms – Phantom Arc – 03

by psgels, posted in Armored Trooper Votoms - Phantom Arc, OVA Impressions



This episode took this OVA in a completely different direction. Seriously, Chirico finally makes his comeback, but the way in which the creators did it. I really have to applaud their guts. There’s no fancy entrance, he’s just there. We still have no bloody idea what he’s doing, other than the fact that he’s running away from what looks like the cult of the Brilliant Heretic, but the scale of this episode was just so small: it was pretty much all about Sophie. Yeah, that woman. I completely forgot about her, but it’s great to see that the creators ended up giving her so much character-development.

I mean, this entire OVA has been chock full of character-development. Especially for anime, how often do you get to see a time-skip of more than thirty years? I really like how Sophie changed over those years: throughout the tv-series, she really seemed possessed by this thirst for revenge, even though she couldn’t do anything about it. Right now she’s just an old woman in her seventies, and apparently, she still remembers the past, but right now she doesn’t really care for this revenge anymore.

Meanwhile, Chirico’s development has been more subtle. He’s still pretty much the same as he’s ever been, though you can really see that he’s grown older. He’s no longer the young boy that he was at the beginning of the TV-series. I think that the biggest difference is that he doesn’t shy away from people anymore: he still doesn’t say much, but he lost the air of “don’t bother me, I want to be alone”.

Overall, when you put everything of Votoms together, you get one heck of a well rounded and varied whole. I mean, no part in this franchise is the same as any of the others, it’s constantly evolving and changing. The Gen-ei hen was again completely different, but at the same time I loved how it also pays homage to the original Votoms series. Heck, this episode even brought back some of the most iconic background tunes that created that bleak atmosphere in the earlier incarnations. I mean, this isn’t even a homage, or a modern version: they took the exact same songs here. That really turned out to be a wonderful way to bring this series back to its roots.

My only complaint about this episode was: how the heck did Vanilla, Goto and the others find Chirico? I mean, they didn’t know about what Chirico did when he was up in that space ship, so in god’s name how did they track this guy down?
OVA Rating: 8,75/10

Rainbow – 20

by psgels, posted in Rainbow



Ah, finally we get the long awaited Cabbage episode. It probably was the funniest episode of Rainbow yet, but that doesn’t really say much since this has probably been the most light-hearted episode so far. Cabbage is just so adorable with his genuine personality. He’s simple, and I guess that that’s why he’s the character with the least amount of depth of the six lead characters, but he definitely has his charms.

This also was an interesting place for this show to explore the yakuza of those days a bit. And thankfully, the yakuza here are well portrayed: they’re neither the stereotypical punks who can only yell, and neither the over the top manly men here. Aside from the guy who randomly burst in with a sword, of course, but that made sense. ^^;

This episode also had a nice anti-climax. It had it coming, but it was still pretty funny how Cabbage explained what happened to him when he stood face to face with that sword. To think that he actually called an ambulance in the middle of a yakuza-building.

Throughout all of the episodes though, there has been one theme that’s been huge, no matter what the series is focusing on: friendship. It sounds cheesy, but when the characters time and time again show how far they’re willing to go to protect this friendship that was build up in their time of jail, it has really worked as a red thread that keeps the different arcs together.

On a side-note: it’s a nice touch that the insert-songs here sound pretty authentic for the time this takes place in. We first had the rock and roll in the Joe arc, but the insert song at the end of this episode also feels part of the fifties and the early sixties. It’s a shame that the OP and ED couldn’t be the same. Although granted, that OP is great in its own way.
Rating: * (Good)

Katanagatari – 08

by psgels, posted in Katanagatari



Whoa, we got a musical upgrade this episode. There were new background songs and a brand new OP and ED. I like the former a lot. The latter… not so much. I finally realized what has been bugging me about the ALI Project. I mean, their biggest complaint is that all of their songs sound the same, but that’s nust one part of the problem. They’re really good composers, and you can only say that their work looks the same on their least inspired OPs and EDs. The thing is more tha their OPs and EDs often feel completely out of place.

I mean, their OPs and EDs are perfect for chaotic series, or series with a soundtrack that is all over the place like most of the Bee-Train series. Most of the time they’re into series that completely don’t fit the mood of these chaotic and random songs, and the same goes here: the new OP is nice and all, but it in no way fits Katanagatari’s style or substance. The ALI Project really have a unique sound, and most anime producers just don’t seem to know how to use them well. I don’t like the ED either, but the reason for that is far simpler: the incredibly squeaky voice annoys me.

This was a fairly standard episode, though I liked the chemistry between Togame and Shichika in this episode. They were just like a bickering couple. The interesting part is that the sword in this episode was a doll, where the main battle against it consisted out of fighting it until its energy was drained.

On a side-note: as soon as the upcoming autumn season start, I might stop blogging this series. This first of all is because it’s going to be the first season this year in which I won’t have a quantity problem and there actually seem plenty of bloggable series to debut, but the biggest reason is going to be that… I just don’t know what to write about this series weekly. And really, don’t get me wrong: this is far from a bad series; it really is quite good, and I’m enjoying it a lot more than Bakemonogatari. The episodes are well paced and told as well with few hiccups and no moments of stupidity. But the thing is that for me, nothing stands out: neither good or bad. For the past number of episodes, I have found myself struggling to come up with things to actually say about the episodes of this series, more and more with every episode. This episode was no different, unfortunately.
Rating: * (Good)

Nurarihyon no Mago – 07

by psgels, posted in Nurarihyon no Mago



The first half of this episode was very good, though the second half was a bit lost on me. Let’s just start with that one. To start off with, it again was a bit of an anti-climax, but what mostly bothered me was the part in which Nura talked to Kana. We’re supposed to feel along with her and all, but really: who is she? It’s been seven episodes so far, but what exactly have we learned about her so far? That she likes Rikuo and gets jealous. I didn’t really notice this up till now because she has always rather remained in the background, but this girl is even blander than the rest of Rikuo’s classmates, who despite being annoying at least have gotten some characterization. Was she also this bland in the manga?

I liked that fight in the first half, though. There were a number of rather standard still frames used, but at the same time there also were quite a number of well drawn poses for Rikuo, in which you can really see that he’s using his entire body to support this sword. That’s not something I expected from a series like this.

Yura also didn’t really accomplish much, but I like the build up that has been put into her character. She’s obviously meant as a character for later arcs, and the current arc is bit by bit trying to get her close to Nura’s secret and I’m quite interested in how the creators are going to end up using her.
Rating: * (Good)

Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin – 07

by psgels, posted in Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin




The execution in this episode was completely different from the previous one, but the basic premise was the same: a lot of build-up that comes together wonderfully at the final few minutes of the episode. This episode wasn’t as good as the previous one, but it still was a great one.

For most of the episode, I actually didn’t think this was the case. I mean, I could see what it was trying to do: showing different sides of the characters and flesh them out. That’s great for a series with 26 episodes. For 13 of them… not so much. I mean, there is a plot that you’re meant to tell. If you’re going to keep wasting episodes like this the ending won’t have any build-up.

But really, after the climax everything made sense. This episode did more than just flesh out the characters, it really developed them a bit, and added extra depth to them. The climax was completely different from the climax of the previous episode, which was strong, full of energy and visually powerful. This time however, the episode ended with this awkward silence when two people in a group are fighting. I loved how Maya clashed with everyone else in this episode, who without knowing pulled a completely inappropriate prank on her.

This episode was a bit shaky at times, especially Kozue was reduced to a walking stereotype, but when it mattered this episode really delivered. Ami’s father really stepped too far when he tried to turn Maya back to the way she used to be. When Maya was slapped, it didn’t suddenly make her nice again like you’d expect in some cliche. It was rather Ami’s words that calmed her down. I loved how realistically this was portrayed.

The storyboard of this episode also was… interesting. Especially in the first half, it just kept switching back and forth to close-ups, regular shots, far-away shots and close-ups at random objects or limbs. I wouldn’t call it low-budget because it was as detailed as ever (save from a few notable far-away shots here and there).
Rating: ** (Excellent)

High School of the Dead – 07

by psgels, posted in High School of the Dead



… they really are going to remain in those outfits for the rest of the series, right? Ah well, I guess it’s nowhere as bad as in the previous episode, and this is something that should have been expected from this series from the start. What matters is the atmosphere: as long as that one’s good, I’ll be happy with this series. When the fanservice gets in the way of this atmosphere, that’s when I’m going to start whining.

This episode did its job well: the city is in a complete chaos and people are continuing to kill each other. People who once were kind now are just looking out for each other. The lead characters are one of the very few who are in the position in which they can really use their heads and start saving people, because they ran into a house with enough supplies and guns to take care of themselves. And I really liked the part in which the characters decided to save that little girl. The CG-zombies were one thing, but the atmosphere and music was very good there. The insert songs also worked surprisingly well. I’d only wish that the creators would have been more subtle with that peeing scene, but why am I expecting subtlety from this series?

This is pretty much wishful thinking on my part, but I’d love to see an epilogue of this series, after everything is over. Like, at the end of the final episode of this series we get a quick view of what the world is going to look like, one year from now. Whether humanity survived, or that there were still no organized actions taken against the zombies. I’d love to see the creators’ take on that, even though I know that that’s far from the focus of this series.
Rating: * (Good)

Giant Killing – 20

by psgels, posted in Giant Killing



I’m really glad to see that everything just worked perfectly in this episode. The banter between the different characters was absolutely hilarious, the match itself was very exciting despite its predictability, the characters shined more than ever here, the Osaka team itself is just awesome to watch in their relentless onslaught. If anything, Giant Killing has the climax that I’m looking forward to the most this season.

Hauer’s accent is hilarious. His voice actor isn’t as good as with Dulfer, but I can now somewhat understand what your regular anime voice actors may sound like to Japanese people. The thing is, most Dutch guys have a bit of a monotone voice. This guy, whoever he may be, speaks with so much passion in his voice though that it becomes hilarious. He also has this really weird but awesome sense of dramatically stopping for a split second in the middle of his sentences. Take for example the line “Je hebt me…. BELEDIGD HE!”, which can be translated to “You have…. INSULTED ME!”. Imagine saying that with the passion of an Italian soap opera actor.

But yeah, that could be the whole point. We’ve got a number of famous Dutch soccer players who are notorious for their strange personalities, so why not?I’m not sure whether the creators actually intended this, but I love this guy. In one way, he’s really trying to look cool, especially considering his huge posture. And yet the way he keeps his hair so cool and the huge accent end up only backfiring, making him look a bit adorable in a strange kind of way.

Either way though, I’m very surprised at what this episode decided to focus on. Of course it’s something we could have expected, but it didn’t occur to me until now: after all of the build-up the previous arc did towards the battle of the battle of the forwards, we actually didn’t get to see them at all in this episode. Instead, this episode was all about the defence, with Kuroda at the center.
Rating: *** (Awesome)