Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin – 03

by psgels, posted in Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin




This wasn’t what I was expecting from the third episode of this series. I mean, it wasn’t that this episode was badly executed, or that it wasn’t original. It’s just that more than half of it was spent on Fumiaki chasing after some girl he met in a restaurant.

It’s not that i can’t understand where this episode was trying to go. I mean, it’s a terrific way to flesh out Fumiaki and all. This also has to be the first moe girl who actually knows how to drive a car. But the thing is that it’s all just going very, very fast. The guy just walks into a restaurant who must get a lot more male customers, and a few days later she’s in love with him. It’s too fast. I’m not buying it. Especially with that kind of a voice actress. Seriously, was she trying to be this annoyingly moe on purpose?

But yeah, you could see that this episode was building up. Something has to be up here. We already know that this series has a tendency to not show anything inside the minds of anyone who isn’t a main character: this series is entirely told from the perspective of these two. Take that girl who randomly disappears for days: that has to be some sort of subtle hint for the future. That girl that Bumnei met is the same: in this episode we mostly saw Fumiaki’s hormones working: we don’t know at all what she’s hiding.

Because this episode was quite well written: it was very different from the first two episodes, and in a good way: this episode was great in bringing in a bit of variety in the series. Fumiaki’s character made leaps forward here and even though Maya played a small role, she still was very enjoyable to watch. I also love how the animators really managed to bring these characters to life. That animation realyl made up for those forced moe scenes.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Thank you all for voting

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

To be honest, at the start of the Aniblog tournament I didn’t think that I’d be able to get so far. I’m really surprised at how many people turned out to support htis blog. Even the ones who never comment but simply read this blog occasionally: thanks. I’d also like to thank Scamp, RP and mefloraine.

Now, since I’m not got at these “thank you”-posts, I’ll just stop here.

Some Quick First Impresions: Kaichu and Cat Shit One – The Animated Series

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Kaichu

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a member of his school’s archery club.
I’m… astonished. This is an OVA, apparently consisting out of only two episodes. The first episode was four minutes long. There was no second that wasn’t filled with some cliche here… I mean… I guess that the creators were going for some sort of high school adventure about archery, targeted at people who get turned on by young boys who dress as girls, but this takes poorly executed to a completely different level here. The acting is abysmal, the script is dull beyond belief. the animation was terrible… what the hell were the creators thinking when they made this?
Potential: -50%

Cat Shit One – The Animated Series

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a battle-hardened soldier.
I’m not sure what the format of this thing is going to be exactly, whether this is just one shot or a longer production, as the hints it has given so far are rather contradicting each other. In any case, this one is entirely in 3D CG, but the creators avoided the botox-faces problem here by simply making their characters animals. It’s a bit weird to see rabbits battle a bunch of dromedary, but nevertheless this episode was quite gorgeous. Especially the backgrounds were really well rendered with a lot of attention to detail. The episode itself feels very much like a first-person shooter, there is a nice use of military tactics and overall this is a pretty nice recommendation for those who want to spend a bit of time with some solid action. There are downsides though: the dromedary here look like a bunch of noobs and a lot of this episode feels like murdering cats with a bulldozer. There’s also no background whatsoever on what’s going on, beyond “we good they bad”. There was a bit of drama, but it’s mostly cheesy action fluff. Don’t expect anything from that. Nevertheless though, I’m impressed. Apparently this one was done by some independent animation production. They could make it big with a more solid scenario.
Potential: 70%

Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



You know these puzzle games? Well, someone actually found it a good idea to make a movie about one, impossible as it may seem. The creators of this movie really were put in front of the daunting task of coming up with some sort of epic story that involves solving puzzles, and while the result is far away from perfect, I’m still surprised at how interesting this movie became.

Let me start with the good: the back-story. The story behind the mystery that Professor Layton and his assistant have to solve is imaginative, and actually a pretty good mystery-story. In the beginning it throws in a ton of red herrings and hints at you, and as the movie progresses it shapes together quite a nice overall story. This pacing, along with its ideas are bound to hold your attention and the characters that the mystery focus on are good and well fleshed out.

The animation by PA works also was quite interesting. The character-designs are simple, but quite varied and aesthetically pleasing. The animation is consistently fluid as you could expect from a movie, and the soundtrack is equally excellent.

Right, now that that’s out of the way: the bad stuff. Well, first of all, the movie assumes that its watchers are fans of the games. This means that you’re not going to get any background information about the main characters. Who is professor Layton? Why does he, one of the apparently most brilliant “puzzle scholars” (actual quote from the movie!), have a ten-year-old kid as his assistant? Who is that charming but mysterious Scotland yard cop? Especially the intro of the movie is just weird, unnecessary, confusing, stupid and never explained. Expect none of this to be addressed throughout the movie, even if they’re jarring. It’s just there to focus on the story of the Eternal Diva.

Then, the plot. As imaginative as it may be, there are just large chunks of it that don’t make any sense whatsoever. Most notable is the plan of the bad guys, which is just ridiculously complicated no matter how you look at it. The reason that this movie has so many red herrings is because of how incredibly needlessly elaborate their actions are, considering the goals that they’re trying to accomplish. You’d need to have looked at the script of the movie in order to be able to understand what’s going on (yes, that’s also a criticism to a bit more spoilerific part of the movie).

Overall, the movie is too forced. It’s too focused on its storyline (which really is quite good) and forgets the fine details as avoiding deus ex machina, completely writing characters out when they’re not needed anymore, making sense, that kind of stuff. Still, I’d especially recommend the first half of this movie, because that really is build up for a mystery done well.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Deus ex machina, lacks attention to detail, but is actually pretty good at building up and creating tension.
Characters: 8/10 – No depth on the lead characters, but the side-characters are pretty good for a movie.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Pretty good for movie standards, though not the best.
Setting: 7/10 – I’m very torn on this one. The setting behind this movie is very imaginative… it just doesn’t make any sense and really doesn’t seem to care about this at all.

Suggestions:
– Laputa: Castle in the Sky
– Gedo Senki
– The xxxHolic Movie (just ignore that review. It’s crap)

High School of the Dead – 03

by psgels, posted in High School of the Dead



Here’s one thing that I’m a bit afraid of: this series falling into the formula in which the main characters find survivors, who all just get killed off anyway in favour of the lead characters. I mean, the first half of this episode was really predictable in the way that you just knew that these kids they picked up would just end up getting eaten. I guess that that’s why it’s a good thing that this series will only have 12 episodes.

In any case, this episode tried a bit too hard in my opinion to introduce an asshole. For this guy to work, the creators really need to give more attention to the groupies around him, and give them personalities just like the main characters. The guy himself also needs to get a bit more of those normal scenes in which he isn’t acting like a total snob.

On the bright side though, the fanservice was pretty much toned down in this episode compared to the previous ones, which is a good sign. If anything, the lead characters are all likable despite their flaws, and I like how at the end of this episode the creators tried to break up the two lead characters from the rest, in order to avoid the formula from getting stale. Zombie killing can only remain interesting for so many episodes, so I’m glad that the creators have spent their time to at least give us some solid 12 episodes here.
Rating: * (Good)

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 15

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



So, this mostly was a build-up episode in which Yuki travels to the main Giou mansion. We get to see some new characters who live there and a lot of hints at the long-awaited background of Yuki and Takashiro. This series often puts a lot of emphasis on travelling to build up its tension: first Yuki’s journey to the Twilight Mansion and now again.

The light hearted moments still are… awkward though. I understand what the creators are trying to do, but most of the attempts to create laughs worked mostly unintentional because of how stupid they were.

Despite that, this wasn’t a wasted episode at all, and thankfully we got a number of scenes that showed a bit of the depth of the characters. Takashiro’s worries were addressed here, plus one of the new characters (a genius professional shougi player) sent out a strong hint to Yuki at how serious the fight against the dumas should be taken.

Also, there’s a new OP and ED this week. The OP is fine, interestingly it’s Takashiro again who steals the show. But the ED… oh, god. Talk about an anti-climax. Who found it a good idea to end such a gloomy series with silly upbeat j-rock?
Rating: * (Good)

Giant Killing – 16

by psgels, posted in Giant Killing



It’s interesting to see how many things this series is doing at the same time. I mean, every episode has its main focus, in this case Sera, but at the same time it really takes every chance it gets in order to flesh out its other characters a bit as well. I mean, we have Sera here who is worrying about his position in the team, but at the same time: he isn’t the worst player in the team. His attacks may not have been scores, but he actually kept quite a bit of pressure on the opposing defences, which allowed Murakoshi to score, which at the same time showed that he had very much learned from Tatsumi, back at the start of the series.

Also, while Sera is currently fearing Natsuki to kick him out of the team, Natsuki isn’t the least bit worried about Sera, but rather only has eye for Tatsumi, wanting recognition. In the meantime, this episode kept dropping hints that Sera’s stand-in, Sakai also has his own issues. So, if I got this right, then we have Sakai who has issues with Sera but is being ignored, Sera has issues with Natsuki but is being ignored, while Natsuki is having issues with Tatsumi while he’s (largely) being ignored.That’s quite elaborate, considering that this episode also succeeded in throwing in some tactics, making every team different with minute details and how past plays affected their strategy, while it at the same time didn’t forget the fans and the press, which also got their moments in this episodes beyond mere cameos.

Also, Sera’s injury. Seriously, I don’t know anymore. This is the third time now that this series has made a big deal of an injury that afterwards didn’t turn out to be anything major. They’re definitely building up to something with that, but I think that episode sixteen is still a bit too early to start using this trump…

Speaking of which, can some manga-readers confirm how far we’re into the manga right now? As in, how many volumes does it have, and does this series look to be on schedule?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Heartcatch Precure – 23

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure




Now, with all that build-up, this episode had better be worth it: we finally see the entrance of Cure Sunshine! And indeed, the animators were at their finest, and they really made sure to give the third Precure an adorable entrance. The entire episode was really well directed, with some top-notch jokes, instant chemistry between Potpourri and Itsuki and gorgeous transformation scenes.

Seriously, Sunshine’s transformation scene completely blew that of Cure Blossom and Cure Marin out of the water. Talk about fluid animation here, this looked even better than some of the best animated scenes of the Precure DX movie! The rest of the visual direction of this episode perhaps was nowhere as fluent as that, but there were a ton of interesting shots and angles, without going over the top.

What’s also interesting is the following: since Cure Blossom and Cure Marin were the two weakest Precure ever, this addition of Cure Sunshine is bound to throw the plot into a new direction. After all, Itsuki isn’t just great at martial arts, she also contains a shield. She was easily able to beat something that Blossom and Marin had a ton of trouble with. Now, there is no way that the creators are going to have nothing happen at the villains’ side: they need to include some sort of a reason to give Itsuki a challenge. Whether this means that Dark Precure will come more into action, or that it’s going to be something else, I really sense that something is going to happen that will turn this series a lot less linear now.

As for Itsuki’s brother, I can understand his fears of going into surgery, which make him forget to be that cool brother that Itsuki always looks up. His angst was well delivered… and why did this episode end before he was turned back?
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Sengoku Basara – 14

by psgels, posted in Sengoku Basara




Of course, I’d rather see more of the old production IG, with is mature and imaginative premises of Real Drive, Chevalier or Ghost Hound. But really, this isn’t bad either. I’m really willing to give this series a chance now that they got rid of the old director (who, ironically, is directing another show that I’m blogging this season). Seriously, the first season had the ingredients to become a great action series if it wasn’t for this guy.

With every series, it’s different how much influence the main director has over the series as a whole. With the first season however, that influence was so dull and average that it lacked passion. There was overacting, and characters with ridiculous powers, but the overall atmosphere of the series didn’t make use of any of it. There was just one exception to this: episode 2. Naoyoshi Shiotani (who also created the amazing-looking third OP of Blood+) just took over the entire episode and delivered one heck of a creative episode. But that also was part of the downfall of the rest of the series: it just couldn’t live up to that particular episode and it looked like it wasn’t even trying at times.

With the new director, I hope that he can achieve this balance between its action and plot. Because with Production IG behind the helm, it’s definitely different from your usual over the top action scene, with its anatomically correct character-designs, large emphasis on dialogue and surprisingly thorough historical references. I’m not expecting the next Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto here, but still an action series that entertains, and yet does remain with a good storyline.

The past two episodes have yet to surpass the second episode of the first season, but they were a massive improvement over its other episodes. The set-up for this sequel is in ways similar to the first, in which we have one ridiculously over the top bad guy being badass, while his right-hand man pulls all sorts of sneaky tricks from behind the scenes. Their presentation is a lot better though. This episode also hinted at how they’re going to be more than bad guys, and actually tried to flesh them out for about half a minute. That’s also a pretty good sign, considering how the previous bad guy, while badass, also just sat on his chair for entire episodes.

The animation still makes use of CG people, but thankfully they’re only used for the background, and nothing that goes on in the foreground (which is what the first season tended to do at times). The animation overall is pretty detailed, and the animators also take care of these small things as animating the characters’ chins when they talk. There was one particular shot in this episode that just showed a piece of sky when Katakura Kojuurou was getting beat up. That was a bit lazy, but some of the other shots of Date Masamune attacking made up for that.
Rating: * (Good)

Aria The Animation Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



it’s been a long while since I took so long in finishing a mere 13 episoded series, but this is not meant against this series: the episodes here just have this tendency to suck all energy out of you, but for once in a good way. While I wouldn’t consider this anywhere among Sato Junichi’s best series, I still enjoyed its calm atmosphere.

Aria’s genre, the slice of life moe series, is a genre that I usually don’t really enjoy. It’s definitely one of the better series of the genre, though. While a lot of time is spent on just showing the every day lives of its lead characters, it sets itself apart with two things:

First of all: its dialogue. Between the characters it feels natural, while the voice overs have this tendency to talk about pseudo-philosophical themes that have to do with the episode’s content. It actually works quite well in both making the episodes interesting and fleshing out its characters. The characters in this series aren’t exactly well developed, but they’re neither stereotypes or one-sided. They’ve all got this natural charm to them.

Second: it actually takes place in quite an interesting and original setting. Instead of yet another high school series in Japan, we’re brought into the future, where Mars has been colonized and a new Venezia has been founded. This series is excellent at portraying the city, as well as the jobs that the main characters have as gondoliers. The series explores the past as well as the present, and also managed to create an entirely new culture. It’s this part that managed to impress me the most about this series so far.

By far the most annoying part of this series was the portrayal of cats, especially the strange blob that is the pet of the lead character (named as President Aria). This cat is just way too over the top with its attempted cuteness, and a large potential turn-off for future audience. I know that this was the case me, when I first tried to check it out, back in 2005 when it first aired.

Overall though, you can see that Aria the Animation is only the beginning for its story: the side-characters actually received much more development and background than the lead characters, while instead a ton of time is spent on building up its setting and fleshing out its characters. Things really have to move in a weird way if its sequels aren’t going to surpass it.

Storytelling: 8/10 – A ton of slice of life, but also doesn’t forget to put meaning to its scenario.
Characters: 8/10 – Not much development, but the human characters are all nicely down to earth. The animals are annoying, though.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Not the best, not the worst. The soundtrack especially has its moments.
Setting: 8/10 – Original, interesting.

Suggestions:
– Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
– Anne of Green Gables
– Kino no Tabi