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top action scene, with its anatomically correct character-designs, large emphasis on dialogue and surprisingly thorough historical references.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

Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu – 03

by psgels, posted in Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu



Wait… what the hell? How did this series suddenly become so awesome? I mean… just… wow. This episode was unbelievable. It was so completely different from the previous two episodes, it stopped with playing these silly games and actually put forth a genuinely good and emotional episode. I don’t get it! The staff for this series is crap; how… why… when?

I don’t know what’s going on anymore. This… just is one of those episode you have to see to believe. The previous two episodes were all pretty light-hearted in their build-up. This episode promised to be exactly the same as the previous one: we go on some small adventure along with the lead character and his side character friends, while we get to know the setting a bit more. Seriously, I really believed that those guys would be major unimportant side characters throughout this series.

But what took the cake was how the creators portrayed Raina, unleashing his inner powers. I mean… wow. They did just about everything right there. The budget here may not be the best of the season, but damn, was it well used! It really was an excellent portrayal of his inner struggles of keeping such a power locked inside of him, and yet it didn’t drag on like you see with most other people who unleash their hidden powers.

And holy crap, this episode also turned the romance into something good. In the previous episode it was a bit forced, but damn, that romantic tension here really added even more to this episode. With a series that started off so silly, the creators surely squeezed a heap of drama out of its premise in this episode.

When I started blogging this show, I wasn’t expecting anything. You know, perhaps in its second half it could turn into a nice action series of some sort. This episode however… that was about the last thing I could have expected. And it’s not like this can just be attributed to the fact that the creators finally have some good source material: it really was the direction here that gave the scenario its extra edge. This really came from people who spent a lot of time thinking of making this episode as awesome as possible.

I’m definitely extremely interested in this series right now. This could just have been a one-shot episode of awesomeness. It could still derail in the rest of its airtime, but damn, this was just unbelievable. I’m seriously interested about the rest of this series now. But still, it’s episodes like these why I love anime: those series that you have no expectations of that suddenly turn out to deliver so well.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Shiki – 02

by psgels, posted in Shiki




First, let me put up this disclaimer: this blog will discuss Shiki the anime, not the manga or novel. If you want to talk about stuff that happens there, then go to some website that discusses spoiler material. I’m usually very lenient on comment moderation, but I will get poisonous and delete comments that discuss spoilers.

The only thing I want to know here is the following: Shiki is an adaptation of a manga that is an adaptation of a novel, right? Wouldn’t it have been better if this series would have directly adapted the novel, rather than going for a strange double adaptation?

Either way, this is one of those rare second episodes that actually surpasses the first episode for me, even after an already favourable first impression. The direction was excellent here, the acting was very believable and the animation had quite a few interesting cuts and angles. We’re really in for an awesome series if this keeps up.

Having grown up in a small village, even smaller than the village that is portrayed here, I can somewhat understand the feelings of Natsuno feeling cramped up. It really is a village in which everyone knows each other, and there is hardly anything to do, other than to sit inside. I like how the creators portrayed the village, and actually put a lot of attention in making the bird’s eye view connect with what happened in the series. The strange thing about this village is how many doctors there are. I mean, in an entire village that’s loaded with old people, one out of every 216 people is a medical staff.

I’ve also gotten used to the character designs y now. They’re a bit weird, but definitely original. Especially the older people look great here. Daume… turned out to deliver a surprisingly solid series, considering that they only did silly moe shows up till now. It’s actually great to see that Noitamina allows all kinds of animation companies to produce a series for its timeslot, and it’ll be interesting if Daume made more of these serious series in the future, in other time-slots.

Interestingly, the series s taking the approach of a bit of a medical thriller: some kind of disease is causing problems (probably having something to do with that castle that was built). In the first episode, it still seemed a bit too similar to Higurashi and Ghost Hound, but with this episode it really set itself apart.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kuroshitsuji II – 03

by psgels, posted in Kuroshitsuji II



I tried. I really tried watching the first Kuroshitsuji series, but yet again I only got as far as episode two before it became too much of a chore to watch. Shallow, predictable, annoying, I really don’t want to watch more of it. I know that I don’t have the right to criticize the second season without having fully watched it… but I’m gonna do it anyway. Thanks to that first episode, I’m really willing to give it a chance. This show was advertised as that you could watch it even without having seen the first season, so the creators had better live up to that.

So, as for the most burning question: no, there were no Alois and Claude in this episode either. Again, this episode acted like nothing happened. My guess would be that this series is flashing back without announcing it, or something in that direction. Either that, or that mysterious spider hints that Claude was behind the incident of this episode, which if true would really suck because even for him it would make no sense.

This episode wasn’t as awful as episode two, but it still was pretty unimpressive. It showed another character who seems to be a recurrent one: that red haired guy with a chainsaw. I don’t like him, especially in the way that his voice actor continues to ham up his performance. This episode was a bit of a murder mystery thriller, in which someone is setting people on fire.

It all was pretty shallow, the culprit revealed herself pretty early, there wasn’t much attempt given at fleshing her out, so the creators just sent her into a maniacal killing spree without making her really interesting to watch. Her weapon (photographing people to death) was a nice idea, but that also was all it was: a nice idea. It’s neither used well nor would this episode have been any different if she just stabbed people with a knife.

For some weird reason, Tetsuya Endo turned out to be the episode director of this episode… which is strange because he should be working on Digimon Xros Wars. Either way, both here and with Digimon he’s not really showing his best side. This confirms to me that he really is one of those directors who needs good source material in order to really shine. I admit that you couldn’t do a lot with an episode that had a premise like this one.

Okay, so the original author said to give this series a chance until episode four or eight, so I will withhold judgment for now. But seriously, this series is going to have to become a lot better than this now. What I want to see are bold, new ideas executed well. The way that this series has been set up, it’s the perfect opportunity to try out new stuff, but instead it’s been stuck with ideas that it never uses. I mean, this is A-1: they’ve been doing nothing but that in 2010, despite a shaky production at times. I understand that Kuroshitsuji isn’t one of their main series, and that it’s really apparent that they are focusing on Occult Gakuin this season. I’ll be fine with the lackluster animation or the CG horses, as long as the storytelling tries out something interesting.
Rating: – (Disappointing)

Rainbow – 15

by psgels, posted in Rainbow




The upcoming arc turns out to focus on Mario. Interestingly, it’s him who ended up back in trouble due to violence. I actually like how the creators are using the fear to go back to prison, in order to create the drama here, and the story still is carrying on its pacifist themes of the first half: that there is no need to beat up people who annoy you.

It was over the top, but at the same time this episode also tried to make a point of the rather hypocritical stereotypes people have over these violent youths,. On one hand, they often fail to see the people behind those stereotypes, but on the other hand the fact remains that Mario beat a guy into the hospital. Seriously, the story of this thing really is excellent, and I’m really glad to see that this still applies with the second half here.

The first half of this episode also felt a bit weird, but in a good way. With this incredibly dark series, we suddenly have half an episode dedicated to young and innocent crushes. For ten minutes, there actually were no apparent conflicts in this series. As for the arranged marriage… yeah, it’s been done before. But at the same time I can imagine that especially in these times, parents were very desperate to marry off their kids to a solid future. If I am wrong with this, please correct me on that, because I in no way claim to know exactly how things went on in Japan, 11 years after the second world war.

There is one issue that I had with this episode, but that’s more of a personal annoyance of mine. Personally, I dislike it when creators use thugs in order to create cheap drama. The drama here of course wasn’t cheap at all, but still felt like it was started too easily, without much of an introduction: that businessman had the depth of a paper bag. And this is something that annoys me with nearly all thugs in anime. It could have been done much cheaper, though, and I definitely see why it was necessary.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Nurarihyon no Mago – 02

by psgels, posted in Nurarihyon no Mago



Most of the shows this season are energetic, over the top and fast-paced. I think that it’s because of that that this series is quite refreshing. I men, for a shounen series, it’s got a pretty calm and relaxed atmosphere, while the foundation it lays for its future drama is serious and well thought out.

It has unfortunately some production issues, like in this episode the point at which Yuki-onna tripped and the point where that snake youkai revealed his intentions: they could have been animated more solid. Overall though, I’m really liking what this series is building up to, with on one hand Rikuo’s alter ego that he has no idea of, while pursuing the life he chose for and on the other hand there’s the politics between the different youkai clans. This episode also used the youkai’s nature to cause trouble quite well in its drama.

The animation… is of course not that good, but that was to be expected. Deen’s staff has always been more a collection of artists, rather than animators, and that really shows here in this series again with some of the intricate youkai designs, plus that really cool-looking snake head in the action scene of this episode. I’m also really digging the soundtrack. The composer, Kouhei Tanaka turns out to be incredibly experienced, with a wide variety of different series he worked on. None of those really turned out to be memorable, but you can see (or hear) the care he put into the soundtrack here. It’s varied, yet very atmospheric. It could be his best work yet if this goes on.
Rating: * (Good)

Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin – 02

by psgels, posted in Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin




Occult Academy for me had the best first episode of the season. Of course I’m going to blog it! It’s great to see that all of the Anime no Chikara projects get progressively more interesting. Occult Academy once again is an ambitious series that really wastes no time with its limited format of only 13 episodes. A great mentality!

But there’s more. Take a look at Anime News Network, and the staff of the third episode: Osamu Kobayashi will be its episode director. You know, the director of Beck, Natsu no Sora, Paradise Kiss and his unique style. To make things even better, none other than Mitsuo Iso (Dennou Coil!) will finally make his reappearance to be the animation director. And to make things even better, if this guy is correct, the sixth episode will have Ryousuke Nakamura as its episode director. You know, from Mouryou no Hako and Hashire! Melos. Can anyone confirm somewhere whether this is true?

Either way, I’m already a fan of this show. This episode may not be as good as the first, but it still was witty, interesting and the chemistry between the two lead characters turned out to be really good. This series does really well in combining the occult from east (youkai, demons, etc) with that of the west (Nostradamus, the doom scenarios). When I first saw the lead male in the promo art, he really looked like one of those stereotypical scapegoats: you know, those who exist just to get stepped on by the lead character who is eccentric. It turned out to be a bit more nuanced than that, though: the guy is actually fairly normal, though a bit eccentric. It’s only the lead female who he can’t handle. Because he popped up naked in front of her and all. The lead female on her turn isn’t your typical tsundere in the way that she has very strong ideas and beliefs, and really likes to act when she puts her mind on something.

The thing I also really like about this series is its witty direction. I mean, take a look at that flashback at which Abe tells about why he travelled through time, and how he appeared with sunglasses and a holiday suit. Do you really think that that’s how he looked back then? I really think that he was trying to make himself look bigger in his own narration. The episodes so far are full of these nice details. This series also continues to go back to the backgrounds of its characters, rather than saving that for later. Again, a great mentality.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

High School of the Dead – 02

by psgels, posted in High School of the Dead



As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– Shukufuku no Campanella… who the hell found that a good idea?
– Seitokai Yakuindomo just keeps repeating the same jokes over and over again.
– Mitsudomoe has some actually funny moments. But it’s also utterly disgusting and it tries way, way too hard.

High School of the Dead of course has its problem, but in terms of atmospheric zombie bashing it’s a pretty solid choice this season. Tetsurou Araki, the director of Death Note, Kurozuka and that story with the really long title in Aoi Bungaku was the perfect choice to animate this thing and make it as atmospheric as possible with his unique style.

This episode wasn’t as good as the first, though. Mostly, this can be blamed on some of the new characters. The school nurse is just about an exact carbon copy of any other school nurse out there. Now first of all, this is something I’ve been wondering since ages: why are school nurses necessary in Japan? Really, at our high school the janitor knew first aid, and whenever an accident happened (which really was not often), he would take care of everyone. Are Japanese schools really so accident prone that they need to reserve an entire room for it, and hire someone who doesn’t need to do anything for most of the time?

But yeah, the big problem with that nurse is that she’s really annoying, along with that annoying sound that her boobs make whenever she does something. I really hope that we don’t have to listen to that for the entire rest of the series. Still, I’ve got to give credit where credit is due: she was decently fleshed out in this episode, and she isn’t an entire stereotype.

The other annoying character was that pink haired girl. Again, a collection of moe cliches: genius, tsunere, twintails, glasses, etc. The worst though was the part in which in she made NO ATTEMPT TO HIDE HER VOICE. She had the right intentions, she didn’t hide in the obvious places, she’s careful on where to go, she carefully analyzes the situation around her and yet she fails to think of one of the most obvious ways to give her away. Yes, it’s a zombie outbreak people. Let’s start yelling to everyone! Again though, credit where credit is due: her breakdown at the end of this episode promised good stuff. As long as she doesn’t continue yelling like that throughout the rest of the series, I’ll be happy.
Rating: * (Good)