Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 09

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




Ooh, what a surprise: this episode was actually quite good again. I didn’t expect this show to pick itself back up after those… rather lackluster previous two episodes, but this episode returned to the parts that made this series good. It was very angsty, but at the same time it allowed Hotsuma to develop quite a bit. We finally get to know him, which is a very good thing to see.

Before this series started I was hoping for it to be something like the next Night Head Genesis. Okay, so in the end it didn’t. It’s got far less interesting ideas, while Uragiri doesn’t really offer anything in terms of its plot. Nevertheless though, the characters do have their charms. The creators know how to develop their characters and they do that very nicely, being just subtle enough to prevent the angst from going out of control *(especially the end of this episode was quite emotionally gripping), plus the pretty good soundtrack are enough to keep me interested for now.

The only thing of note here is how the creators decided to show Hotsuma’s and Shusei’s background. It’s in the same way as Yuki’s background. We don’t get an entire background arc that outlines the lives that the characters used to live. Instead, it’s brought in a bit of a memory-fashion: we get to see the key points in their past, without really learning what kind of children they were. Doing such a thing is risky, but it works surprisingly well for them.
Rating: * (Good)

Tono to Issho OVA Review – 27,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Tono to Issho is one of the series that will be debuting in the upcoming Summer Season, but first a one-shot OVA premiered as some sort of prequel and introduction. To be honest, before watching this OVA I was actually looking forward to a bit of comedic history. After watching it however, I’m considering it to be a strong candidate for the ‘worst show of the season’. It’s unbelievable how incredibly boring this show turned out. It’s just… not funny.

I know that comedy can be something very subjective, but seriously, this OVA had some of the worst comedic timing I’ve seen in a long while now. Every single voice actor always takes about a second of a breath after every single freaking sentence. Jokes that should be quick and fast are here unbelievably slow. Especially during the points at which the creators feel like they’ve made an exceptionally clever pun, they make sure to give the viewer the chance to let this joke sink in.

To add to that, the jokes themselves are corny as hell, and all follow the same pattern: a character does something random. A straight man then yells and makes a weird face. More series of course make use of these kinds of jokes, but this show just shamelessly rips these things off without understanding what makes them work. I had to sit through that same pattern being repeated over and over for nearly forty minutes. This is something that you show someone you really don’t like or something.

And if that wasn’t enough, the characters themselves also have this horrible tendency of dragging any joke they make on beyond belief. Jokes that would have been cute if they were just delivered in fifteen seconds are spread out over five minutes as the creators make sure to milk every bit of boredom from them.

I think out of all the series I have even written for this site, I have never given a rating as low as this one. I admit that I have seen worse anime, (Himitsu Kessha blahblah Countdown and Abunai Sisters), but this one had the bad luck to be a one-shot OVA, and I actually think that it’s the worst non-recap anime I have ever managed to finish. Seriously, if this was five minutes long (with the same content), it would have been a fun though cute OVA. But this… there’s a limit to human tolerance and how badly you can deliver jokes. If this is what we’re going to have to go through for the TV-series… god… I don’t want to imagine that…

Storytelling: 2/10 – Does just about everything wrong in terms of comedic delivery.
Characters: 2/10 – Absolutely terrible. Takes famous characters from the Sengoku era… and turns them into a bunch of dull idiots who only have one quirk and nothing more. Yes, EVEN the main character.
Production-Values: 3/10 – Nothing about the graphics is inspired, and at the end the animators just give up and wiggle a bunch of random drawings of people across the screen.
Setting: 4/10 – At least gets some points for a bunch of historic references, but never does anything with them.

Suggestions:
– Gintama
– Gag Manga Biyori
– Sexy Commando Gaiden
These three shows are everything that this cheap excuse of an anime is trying to be.

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 60

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood




This is it: the episode to which the entire series has been building up to. Because the previous episodes weren’t exactly to this series’ highlights, I feared a bit for a lackluster ending, but those fears were ungrounded: this episode was absolutely fantastic and more than a worthy climax after such an amount of build-up. What an episode!

After a bit of fights that were meant to close off the last bits of character building (Scar, revealing that he shed his prejudices, and went along with his brother’s plans, gaining the strength he needed to surprise and win from Bradley; Ed’s revenge on Pride for what he did to Al (he didn’t outright say it, but to me it seems like he went after Pride for exactly that reason; if not he would have been the one to step up and save Mai Chang)), this episode was all about opening that gate. At this point it’s clear that Bones did not save some Xamdou-level animation for its finale, but with the resources they had they portrayed the euphoria of Father, who finally was able to reach his goals after putting an ungodly amount of work to reach “The Truth”, was really well portrayed. Father has really been an excellent villain so far: from start to finish, he remained in control.

The part in which the entire country was killed off was also very well done: haunting, especially seeing everyone just disappearing like that. The creators really made sure to show nearly everyone Ed and Al met disappearing. Aside from Yoki, perhaps. I’m not sure why he suddenly comes to my mind here, but he was surprisingly missing in those scenes.

Of course, they’re still not there: there are a bunch of nasty potential cliches between the end of this episode and the ending. Most notably, Father’s demise: he’s so powerful now. He’s huge, he’s incredibly close to the truth, and everything points to him achieving his plans. There are so many ways that can screw this plot up in the next three episodes. Let’s hope that the creators realized that as well and instead will deliver an awesome ending, rather than a cheesy shounen one.
Rating: **** (Fantastic)

Giant Killing – 10

by psgels, posted in Giant Killing



As this series is very fast-paced for a sports series (I mean, it’s been ten episodes and we’ve already seen what? Six matches?), I’m actually very surprised at how colourful the creators still made the enemy teams. This time with the Brazilians as well: it’s not like these guys are rounded characters, but their roles in their own team were really well explored in this match, in between the action of the football match.

I at first thought that this episode was entirely going to be about trying to stop that threesome, but that turned just to be one part of the story. A lot of focus also went in the original ace of that team, whose ego is suffering pretty badly now that he’s not in the spotlights anymore, even though the coach may still see him as a key to winning this thing. The playful portrayal contrasting with those grudges was just enough to make all of then dynamic and interesting to watch.

As for the main cast, as this was the longest match in this series so far, I love how it involved all of the major characters here, whether they did well (the defenders) or whether they just couldn’t get through (the attackers, note how Tsubaki just couldn’t get his attack right). Tatsumi may just keep bragging that this will be the match that will turn the tide, and the time indeed seems about right for them to start winning a bit, but the creators still portrayed this episode as a struggle to keep those Brazilians at bay.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Katanagatari – 06

by psgels, posted in Katanagatari



Not exactly the best episode of Katanagatari so far, but definitely fun. This episode had fun in making the tiniest character ridiculously strong, and most of the combat played with that. Her back-story was very simple, but it worked (was it just me or did it seem like her family got killed off by that guy Shichika ‘defeated’ in episode four?), but to make up for it we got a much more prominent role for the Maniwani.

The beheading scene was a bit too much, though. Even though there was a good reason for that badger (at least, I think he was dressed up like a badger), to kill him at a point when more than half of the other Maniwani are already dead is just stupid. And to do this in front of Togame and Shichika made even less sense.

Oh, and the creators used blushes in this episode to develop the relationship between Togame and Shichika. Simple, but refreshing considering how oblivious they were for each other early on in the series. In any case, this seemed like an episode meant to set a bunch of things up. The fights were quite exciting, nevertheless.
Rating: * (Good)

Angel Beats – 10

by psgels, posted in Angel Beats



This episode contained the best joke of this series so far. The scene at which Tachibana stole Yui’s guitar was absolutely hilarious.

In any case, this is the Yui episode, and guess what? The Key bed-ridden girl finally shows her face. Her back-story was again rushed through, but it worked surprisingly well with Otonashi’s attempt to make her disappear. Otonashi’s weird plans in this episode really fall into line with the chaos that has been reigning over this series so far, which was mostly visible in the soccer match.

Right now I am beginning to see why Maeda Jun said in an interview that there were a ton of things that he wanted to put into this series, but couldn’t, due to restrictions. We’ve still got a huge cast left that needs to disappear. I feel that this series would have been better with an entire run of 24 episodes. The same of course goes for many other series, but this is an original series: the creators knew that this series would be popular and sell a lot. They could have easily planned the series across 24 episodes.

this episode was pretty good, actually. The confession scene at the end was cheesy in a good way, but at the same time I feel that this show could have been significantly better if it were longer. Seriously, something needs to come that will break the increasingly annoying ‘thirteen episodes’ trend that has been growing in anime for the past few years.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Durarara – 21

by psgels, posted in Durarara



“Oh yes, a girl from my school with glasses and big boobs. That sounds just vague enough to be Anri.”

I know it’s nitpicking what I’m doing here, but when this episode kept repeating it I really couldn’t help but notice how such a vague hint convinced everyone immediately about Anri’s identity.

In any case though, aside from that I can’t say anything new about how this series disappointed so far. This episode was clearly building up the things it had already established (ie, the drama around people who just refuse to talk to each other), but at this rate the series could still very much end with a bang.

Not sure whether this has to do with Mikado coming back into the picture, but I actually really enjoyed the time that was spent between him and the Dollars. To come with a bit of an analogy: it feels like Kida is trying to lead a group of dogs: loyal, but when left alone they might start barking and attacking. Anri on the other hand is leading zombies: brainless and completely obedient. Mikado on the other hand is trying to herd cats: it doesn’t work and more often than not they’ll just go with their own ideas. I find the relationship between Mikado and the dollars by far the most interesting of the three fractions that are currently about to go to war with each other.

I’m not really interested in the chaos that’s going to follow from now. Rather, I’m waiting for the moment in which the first of the three friends starts to speak up. That should prove to be very interesting. But at the same time… it’s still a pity that there are only going to be 24 episodes in this series. It really feels like the wrong place to end this series at.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Yojou-han Shinwa Taikei – 07

by psgels, posted in Yojou-han Shinwa Taikei



Awesome, this is exactly as I hoped: this show just continues to get better and better. Screw the repetition, every episode manages to add ten new things for everything it recaps. I was a bit fearful of the prospect of having an episode more similar to its predecessor than ever (who knows, perhaps it might even have pulled a “Seraphim Call”), but this episode very skillfully took the the previous episode, and built further upon it.

The overall scenario is pretty much the same as in the previous episode, it’s just the focus and ending are different. Instead we gloss over Hanuki and the pen pal, and instead this episode is about the love triangle around between Watashi, Jougasaki and the love doll. Oh, and Johnny. He has gotten way more extreme with this episode.

This episode really was masterfully written, not just how Watashi’s feelings kept spiralling out of control, but also that Jougasaki kept entrusting Kaori more and more to Watashi in a surprisingly similar way as how we’ve seen him in the second episode. On top of that there were also a ton of parallels with that proxy proxy war of episode four. Seriously, it felt like Ozu kept pestering him even without Watashi’s help. That could explain why he’s been so relatively absent in the past few episodes. It would be pretty awesome if he was some kind of ever-present prankster.

The next episode will be about the pen pal. the end of this episode even hinted at that. But what about episode 10 and 11? Especially Akashi had a really weird role in these episodes, as she was supposed to be the female love interest and instead Watashi has chosen three other girls to fall in love with. Will episode 10 actually be the same as these past two episodes, but on the perspective of Akashi?

It makes me think about the one oddball episode about this series: the one about Higuchi’s disciple. All of the other episodes were about portraying Watashi as some sort of socially awkward loser: the past two episodes were all about his desire to remain pure, and the other episodes really all stressed what a social dork he is. That episode was different, though. His life was miserable there not because of his own actions, but rather only because he ended up choosing the wrong club at the beginning of his university life. That proxy-proxy war was completely different from Watashi’s other struggles, not to mention that really weird scene in which Higuchi suddenly started riding a giant whale.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Sarai-ya Goyou – 08

by psgels, posted in Sarai-ya Goyou



This episode seemed to me like the start of the arc before the finale. You know, the arc that isn’t exactly at the centre of the plot, but rather is meant to develop some of the most prominent side-stories. With this series, that is about Matsu: in this arc we finally get to know him for real, and it’ll probably get resolved in the next episode, before the series can close off with a finale dedicated to Masa and Yaichi. At least, if the creators know what they’re doing and don’t just cut off this show without any conclusion or second season in sight. That’s the ONE disadvantage of this series: it’s an adaptation.

In any case, this episode was as wonderfully paced as usual. The plot is a bit more straightforward, now that Matsu has been captured and all, but the creators really made sure for it to make sense within the story. Matsu is portrayed as the noble thief. He may steal, but he’s doing it all to repay the debts that were paid to him to save his son. by a store owner. Before, we’ve already seen that when he operates alone, he becomes very reckless. He’s only the careful Matsu when guided by Yaichi, and I think that Yaichi knows this very well.

What made this episode for me however were again the tiny things, like the interplay between Masa and Yaich, and how at first sight Masa might be another one of those wimps, though his lines are all surprisingly calculated and sharp. This episode also stressed how important the friendship is in keeping Goyou together. I mean, if Yaichi wasn’t there, there would be no reason to keep doing it. Instead, everyone is acting not just out of loyalty and admiration of Yaichi (which only seems to be the case for Matsu), but also out of loyalty for each other. Masa is indeed very interested about Yaichi, but he has also gotten attached to Ume and Otake. Ume on the other hand actually nearly left, however due to what happened to Matsu he just couldn’t leave.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ookiku Furikabutte – 36

by psgels, posted in Ookiku Furikabutte



Ah, crap. Even I could see that this episode was rushed. The thing that set Ookiku Furikabutte apart from all of the other baseball series is that it takes every pitch seriously: it spends time at animating even the most unimportant pitches, treating them like they have the potential to change the entire game. In this episode, you could clearly see the creators rushing through these unimportant pitches. This really sucks. Even though there hasn’t been an official announcement yet, it really looks like the creators are planning to end this match at episode thirteen. There can only be one reason why they would suddenly decide on that.

I knew it was too good to be true, for A-1 to keep such an incredible animation-quality throughout this entire second season, while also animating Working and Senkou no Night Raid alongside it, added to Kuroshitsuji II, Occult Academy and Sora no Oto. They like,tripled their capacity in 2010 or something? The worst thing here is that trying to cram a new season into thirteen episodes just doesn’t work for this series. The reason why the first season was so awesome was exactly because of that gruelingly long match that took up eleven episodes. With this, they took away one of the best parts of this series.

And that really is a shame because this episode really was excellent as usual. Take a look at the point where Abe grabbed Mihashi’s arm tightly and let go of it again: it actually changed colour like you’d expect with a real arm. This episode was full of these tiny details that by far would have surpassed the first season if it actually would have gotten 26 episodes to fully drag out this series.

You can see the lack of time the most at the opposing team. Really, we only got to see a lot of the pitcher and catcher. Who are the other guys? To be honest, I have no idea. They lack the individuality of the team of the first season.

I know that there is still an option for a third season, but seriously: don’t hope for it. There have been plenty of series (and sequels) who suffered the fate of never being completed, even the very popular series couldn’t escape it. It’s the one thing I hate the most about anime: the tendency to not just fully animate something but rather just animate the beginning and then see whether or not the sponsors still feel like it.
Rating: ** (Excellent)