Eden of the East 2 – Paradise Lost Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Eden of the East



It’s hard to judge Eden of the East: it started out as a series that promised to be amongst the best of the year… and failed to live up to that. It tried to do way too much in too little time. The movies tried to make up for a lot by deliberately keeping the pacing slow, but in the end, even that wasn’t enough to turn this into the masterpiece that it could have been.

In the end it joins the list of flawed series that actually do have quite a few points to make up for it. Paradise Lost is really no exception. It wraps up a lot of plot points, it reveals quite a number of interesting twists that tie the plot together and it still manages to keep the pacing restrained, with a lot of focus on the dialogue between the characters.

On the downside, there are quite a number of glaring holes left open. Some other revelations lack their build-up so that they fail to make any impact for a mystery series of this scale. Other revelations just come out of nowhere and really would have benefited from more foreshadowing and others just don’t make any sense. I want to be as ambiguous for this as possible due to spoilers, but let’s just say that the final resolution felt weak to me. The fate of the NEETs also is something I didn’t buy.

Now that everything is over, I also have to say that the series just didn’t have the time to flesh out its characters. Because of that, there really is just one character who actually develops when you ignore the memory loss devices of this series. I think that out of all the flaws of this series a lot of them can be forgiven, though this is one of those key flaws that caused me to enjoy this series a lot less than I would have liked. Most of the characters are just walking plot devices that just didn’t feel interesting to watch beyond the plot they were trying to tell. And its a shame, because that plot really was pretty good and imaginative.

Despite its short length, this did turn into one of those series that actually evolves: Paradise Lost really is completely different from the first episodes of the TV-series, and through its run this is one series that has been constantly changing. Because of that, every part of this series is different and fresh, not ripping off itself and it wonderfully manages to avoid the formula that it promised in the first few episodes.

On retrospect, I don’t think that even 26 episodes and two movies would have been enough here. To really be able to flesh out everyone, and give the story really its time to be complete, the creators would have needed at least 39 episodes. But really, I do want to say that despite my bitching, I really like what this series was trying to do: here we have the brain child of a very talented director. A series that’s not based on anything and a completely original story that really benefits from its format by including some of the latest technologies, feeling like this is one of those few series that really takes place in 2009, rather than something that also could have played in the year 2000. I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped to.

Storytelling: 8/10 – A good number of twists and yet a slow and restrained pacing. The story is great, but it uses too many plot devices to get there.
Characters: 7/10 – In the end, the big weakness of this series. I tried, but I failed to care about most of the characters here.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Again, Paradise Lost’s graphics weren’t exactly better than the TV-series. It’s still very consistent and detailed though. The use of music was also very excellent.
Setting: 9/10 – I like the guts of this series. It’s not afraid to think beyond the box, try out new stuff and overall I really like the different ideas put into this movie.

Suggestions:
– Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
– Tokyo Godfathers
– Key the Metal Idol

Rainbow – 18

by psgels, posted in Rainbow



Well, this episode was one heck of a build-up. Not necessarily because Joe is still getting bugged by those assholes who were jealous of his talents, and therefore at the end of the episode were about to put a bullet between his eyes. That’s just something the creators used to spice up this arc. Instead, we’re about to get to the point where Joe is going to meet his sister again! Based on the past episodes of this series, the creators are bound to make a fantastic spectacle out of this moment.

In this episode, there really was a ton of support for Joe, as he tried to achieve his goals and was visibly having a hard time. The tension just came from one bunch of assholes, but I like how the creators wanted to show that there were plenty of people in their time with good intentions who didn’t want to make the lives of everyone around them miserable. The pianist and his son especially were quite charming.

The problem here is obviously those five lemons who may have been a bit too obsessed over trying to kill Joe here. But of course, this is just me who doesn’t know how bands used to operate back then, and how fierce the competition was for fame. Plus, if they really wanted to kill Joe, then I doubt whether that kid will make it in time to warn Mario about it. Still, this is just minor stuff. As long as in the next episode, it doesn’t get in the way of Joe’s and Megu’s development then I’ll be happy.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mai Mai Miracle Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Mai Mai Miracle is a clear Ghibli-inspired film, and another one in the collection of slice of life movies about a young child. Not the most original concept perhaps, but it’s still a well executed and very detailed movie.

Especially the characterization here rocks. The kids here tend to act just like real children: the way they play around to their animation, this movie manages to capture this wonderfully. As it’s focused on kids who grow up in a rural town, this movie mostly follows their imagination and how they grow up together. There’s actually quite a bit of character-development in the movie, and it’s handled quite well and believably.

What sets this movie apart I think is that it manages to avoid the classical trope of these kinds of movies, where they use their first parts of slice of life, just to build up to the serious part at the end. Mai Mai Miracle does have a serious part at the end, but it does not feel like the entire movie is just trying to build up to that. Instead, it’s the combination of everything that happens in this movie that makes the characters what they are, and the movie does a great job in making all of the subplots and events important.

It’s a movie that’s wonderfully unambitious: its main purpose isn’t to show an as big drama as possible. It just wants to show the lives of a bunch of kids growing up together. The drama flows naturally and in no way tries too hard. It’s great for nostalgia, but this also doesn’t make it the most exciting movie.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Uneventful, but realistic and well balanced, making it more than just a Ghibli-wannabe.
Characters: 9/10 – Great characterization, realistic and believable characters, very good character-development for a movie.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Pretty good for movie standards. Detailed animation that captures the movement of the characters, very charming but subtle soundtrack.
Setting: 8/10 – Not the most important part of this movie, but it still made good use of the differences between rich and poor, and the rest of the setting.

Suggestions:
– Arete Hime
– My Neighbour Totoro
– Whisper of the Heart

Nurarihyon no Mago – 05

by psgels, posted in Nurarihyon no Mago



Interesting romantic build-up here, in which people start mistaking the brother-sister relationship between Rikuo and Yuki-onna as something more. Still, I liked those small details of holding hands, and how Yuki-onna’s loyalty was portrayed. This mostly was a build-up episode so this was the thing that stood out the most, but it definitely wasn’t a chore to watch the rest of this episode.

A lot of the build-up went into some followers of Nurarihon, who apparently don’t like Rikuo becoming the third heir (speaking of which, we haven’t seen Rikuo’s father, have we? Same for his grandmother: what happened to them? My guess is that the creators are saving those stories for somewhere in the future), and therefore try to kill him along with his friends. Now, with the overwhelming power that Nura has, they really must have come up with something that can actually kill him. After all, the rats were simply underestimating Rikuo’s power. The same can’t exactly be said from the people of the Nura clan, who pretty much saw the guy grow up.

I think that the evil youkai are a bit too stereotypically evil here (as in, they have no other sides than those evil ones), but apart from that I’m surprised how I didn’t really get annoyed by this episode even though not a lot of stuff happened and there were a lot of teenagers being typical teenagers. The fact that there was at least some plot here also probably helped, but as far as build-up goes I’ve certainly seen much worse.
Rating: * (Good)

Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin – 05

by psgels, posted in Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin



The focus is away from Bunmei, and so this episode was much more enjoyable than the past one. It was all about the occult, and really chock full of references to all kinds of ideas and superstitions around the world thanks to a character that I once thought was pretty useless (the girl who is obsessed over occult stuff).

It actually made this episode pretty interesting. I’m a big fan of the series that put a lot of research into their subject matter here. While the previous episodes were all about “what if folklore was true”, this episode broke that part and instead talked about superstitions that are just products of the imagination of humans, ranging from spoons that can’t rust to monks who bury themselves alive and even the five second rule passed (called the three second rule here).

At first I really thought that that girl would be annoying with her optimism, but the comedy around her was again really excellent. This series definitely has the best sense of humour of the entire season, and its jokes are well built up and varied and the repeated jokes are handled with restraint.

Also, the previous episodes were certainly annoying, but they did what they were supposed to do: Maya really loathes this guy right now, and the previous two episodes really turned that into a deep-seated loathing, compared to the “this guy is weird”-kind of hatred of the first two episodes. Now, if she suddenly starts to develop feelings for Bunmei this would of course ruin everything (“you guys are fighting a lot so you must be in love with each other”… blegh), but I have faith in this series. And heck, the next episode will be staffed by Ryousuke Nakamura of all people. While I’d rather see him get another full series over which he has total freedom, an episode directed of the best and most imaginative series of the current summer season certainly isn’t bad either. I’m really interested what he’s going to do with it.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

High School of the Dead – 05

by psgels, posted in High School of the Dead



Well, yeah. There isn’t much to say about this episode, really. It was clearly building up to that one fight scene at the end, and while nicely animated, this episode lacked the atmosphere of the previous episodes. We’re also introduced to a new major character, who turns out to be one of the best snipers of the country who just happens to be a childhood friend of the nurse.

Most of all, this episode was used for the background of the different characters, most notably the people who remained on the bus and who weren’t hypnotized by that psycho teacher. It’s not the most exciting episode because of that, but it’s good to see that we finally get to see for exactly what kinds of relatives they’re worried. Now, all that’s left is for the rest of the episodes to actually use this.

The one major event was that psycho teacher was finally ditched, which definitely is a good thing. However, I doubt that the creators intended him to be just a plot devices to get the characters out of the bus, only to lead them to another vehicle they can use (that armoured car). Especially considering that the creators in no way have explained what was up with that one student who was suddenly yelling at Komuro. Because of that I fear for the future of this series, especially because the creators were hinting at a bath episode next week…
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Giant Killing – 18

by psgels, posted in Giant Killing



YES! YES! The Dutch coach has returned! Now this is really going to give this show the potential to become even better than it already was. The next match against Osaka should really prove to be awesome, and not just because that means that there’s going to be a ton of Dutch in the next number of episodes.

But yeah, I really have to say that this series has the best use of foreign language of any anime series I’ve seen. We had entire conversations in Dutch and french in this episode, and while I can’t speak for the accuracy of the French accent, the Dutch one was really nailed. Dulfer does speak with a lot more passion than your average Dutch guy, but I still wouldn’t be surprised if they got a voice actor who actually lived in the Netherlands for a while. The accent of his translator was abysmal, like you would expect of a native Japanese, and I think that most Dutch people probably would have to ask him twice in order to really understand what he means, though it’s easy to get used to when you spend a lot of time with him.

I’m also very excited to see how much detail has gone into the character designs of the Osaka team. There were a ton of players whose character-designs received as much attention as the lead characters, and even the ones in the background all had distinct ones. If anything, this promises that the creators have great plans, and this might be an even bigger match than the one against Sapporo.

In the meantime, it’s really hard to imagine what the upcoming arc is going to focus on, since so many stuff happened in this episode at the same time. The only thing I’m able to put money on is that the ETU will be victorious, but how and why… I have no bloody clue. This episode continues the battle of the forwards by healing Sera’s leg, and hinting at how the second half was much better played, though leaves it for us viewers to imagine whether or not there was any correlation between these events. On the same time, this episode grabbed some more characters who haven’t had their own arc yet: the forward mid-fielders aside from Gino. This episode just didn’t want to say whether they just had a standalone conflict because everyone was pissed off by the goal against, or whether the show is to continue developing their characters.

Then there also was this thing that this series loves to use: Tatsumi apparently announced a crazy strategy, based on the expressions of all of the players. Unfortunately, we don’t get to hear it as viewers, and instead we just have to wait for it to actually happen. Either way though, I’m really getting hungry for more.

Oh, and I also really loved that scene in which the team got into that fight, as it just showed how everyone had different reactions. Seriously, the cast of this show is huge, and I love how this series plays around with characters with a huge variety of different ages, with only three characters not being adults. That scene really showed how all of the players in the team are unique, and how even when they’re together in a group they still stand out.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Sengoku Basara – 16

by psgels, posted in Sengoku Basara



Here’s a strange twist: the creators decided to revive the single most annoying character of the first season. Okay.

This isn’t a bad thing per se, it’s all going to depend on how the creators handle her. Ichi wasn’t necessarily bad, she just got on my nerves due to the poor balancing of the first season, combined with the fact that she DIDN’T DO ANYTHING. She was really being set up as the useless character here, which was really obnoxious considering the huge amount of screen-time she received.

HOWEVER, this is where the character-development kicks in. In the first season, she had plenty of reasons to be useless. With all of those reasons dead now, she’s bound to be different here, and she’s bound to evolve, especially when the creators went through such trouble bringing her back to life (or rather, making use of the fact that her death wasn’t 100% confirmed. Make sure that this is the last time that you pull this, series!). I mean, that haunting scene in which this series shortly changed into a horror atmosphere was really good!

Also, while this is the typical time-slot for big budgeted action series, It still is great to see that we can have episodes like this, with long dialogues that intend to build up this atmosphere and the action, making sure that it’s as interesting as possible, rather than a bunch of random endless action scenes. The dialogue here works because of this build-up, as it’s able to keep in this atmosphere of the series.

Meanwhile, Toyotomi, I like him much better as a villain than the demon lord of the first season. The latter, while really badass, only had one gimmick, and apart from that he just sat on his chair, being evil throughout most of the series. Toyotomi actually does stuff, he has a past, and he isn’t as outrageously evil either. That scene in which he spared Date Masamune may have been a bit cliche, but it did show that this isn’t really a fight between good and evil, but instead it’s just a complete chaos in which many different parties with the same goals are trying to create peace while getting as much power to themselves as possible.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 17

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



Now that the background of Takashiro finally is told, it’s great to see that this series is so good at revealing its mysteries. After all of the build-up, the flashback itself was surprisingly short and to the point (it only took up half an episode), and at the same time it did more than answer questions. In fact, this episode created even more questions than it answered.

I really expected this episode to, like, serve all of the answers on a silver platter. Instead, it turns out that Takashiro himself doesn’t even know why Reiga set fire to his village and killed half of its residents, along with Takashiro’s fiancee (I guess). This episode made a few things clear, especially Takashiro’s motivation, but in terms of Reiga we still don’t know a lot. Could it be that he pulled the same thing that he pulled with Yuki? That he was just another reincarnation who went berserk the minute he awakened? Or is there more.

What’s also interesting here is Yuki’s parents, especially how this episode hinted that they’re still alive (the golden rule of anime: characters aren’t dead unless confirmed so). Now, there’s a good chance that this father is Takashiro, although that wouldn’t fit in everywhere, as people don’t seem to treat Yuki as an important heir, so my money is on another character who has already been introduced. Oh, and Yuki actually finally got to meet genuine family of his with his aunts. That was quite a touching scene.

Now, the manga is still on going, right? That’s going to be the major challenge for the creators of the anime right now. So far they did a great job to adapt the source material, but let’s face it: this show ain’t going to get a second season. It’s nowhere as popular to warrant one. The creators are therefore going to have to come up with their own ending that really makes use of the build-up of the past few episodes, or in some other way create a decent closure for this series. I don’t expect a fully wrapped up plot, but I do want to see a conclusion that makes use of this build-up.
Rating: * (Good)

Heartcatch Precure – 25

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure



With all of the careful build-up of Cure Sunshine, it’s a bit ironic to see that the creators have no intentions to get Cure Moonlight back into the series. But you know what? This is even better news here. Especially considering that Itsuki really became a main character here, instead of some side-character who is doomed to remain in the shadows of Blossom and Marin. If the same is going to happen to Cure Moonlight, my guess will be that the series is going to get quite a bit more mature, as we now really have the contrast between the two innocent characters of Tsubomi and Erika, and the more matured characters of Itsuki and Moonlight.

But yeah, this episode already showed what a major impact Itsuki has had. The bad guys now really need to take more risks, resulting in that Sasorina nearly got caught. I’m not sure if that scene was building up to something, but if it was then it’s going to be awesome. What I’m hoping for the most right now is that the creators won’t pull some sort of deus ex machina that won’t give Tsubomi and Erika some amazing powers to match Cure Sunshine. I really hope that that’s going to be one of the formulas that the creators will be able to avoid. In fact, I can imagine that with Cure Moonlight, the combination of the four Precures will be about as strong as Dark Precure, which will probably result in some epic battles. Make Tsubomi and Erika too strong, and that whole balance is gone again.

The best part of this episode was the gasshuku, though. It’s great to see the fashion club again, and it’s great to see that all of the members have been portrayed really well as girls of their age. It really helped to show Itsuki’s development, and how people are starting to see her beyond her image of the student council president, while she at the same time doesn’t try to be someone she isn’t.
Rating: ** (Excellent)