Rainbow – 06

by psgels, posted in Rainbow



Looking at this series, I can really tell how good the manga must be. A bit more subtlety, and this really is an excellent look into the depths of corruption inside prisons. If it were so easy for one person (in this case the friendly guard), there would not have been a problem at all, however this episode showed that it’s really impossible for him to stand up to his superiors.

It’s way overdone, but heck, I’m really warming up to the themes of friendship here, and the bond between the lead characters. This isn’t just one-sided, in which An-chan protects the six ones around him because of the suicide of his former friend in prison. You can also see that everyone tries to return his favour, and help him out to defy psycho guard.

This episode also kept hinting at the practices of that really creepy doctor. I tried to look at some statistics about prison rape, and got quite scared of what I found. In 2007, there were already 70000 prisoners raped. Just think of how worse it would have been in a world recovering from the biggest war it had ever run into. I find it really hard to determine whether that creepy doctor is portrayed accurately or not.

Psycho guard is a bit too much though. Even though I have no idea how the minds of these corrupt officials work, he still feels like a caricature: for 24/7, it feels like he’s busy trying to make An-chan’s life miserable. Now there are grudges, and there’s hate so ridiculous that it just stops being believable.
Rating: * (Good)

Senkou no Night Raid – 06

by psgels, posted in Senkou no Night Raid



So this episode shows Yukina’s brother. I’m not sure whether I understand his plans, though, but the dialogue was surprisingly complex in this episode. I just fail to see the reason why he would kidnap Natsume, just to show him an international conference between the Asian leaders, in which he did nothing but talk about how he wants to create a united Asia but doesn’t have any plans to back them up with.

However, this all does show that we’re about to get to the historically sensitive part of the story. Especially considering this. I don’t know anything about Chinese history, so I looked up the “Mukden Incident” in Wikipedia. Apparently, the Japanese staged their own attack to give themselves a pretext of invading a part of China. The controversy about the whole incident is that some Japanese actually blame the Chinese for it (note: this doesn’t mean all of them).

The interesting thing here is that either the broadcasting station or this series is going to be in the wrong, considering that it’s not going to air. There are two possibilities here: the series doesn’t shy away from blaming the Japanese, and the broadcasting station didn’t agree with it, or the series mixed in some weird conspiracy theory that probably has something to do with Yukina’s brother causing the whole incident, which is what the broadcasting station found too much to air.

I’m actually very much interested in the next episode, no matter what the cause turns out to be. It’s been established by now that this is historical fiction: all historical stories end up screwing real history in one way or the other. The danger of these things is of course to not delve into useless nationalistic propaganda. Either way though, I’m very interested in how the creators actually decided to solve this matter.
Rating: * (Good)

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 05

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



Hmm, I’m actually liking the quieter episodes more than the climaxes with this series. The previous episode might have been a tad cheesy, but this episode was actually quite charming. I liked the balance, and the new characters have potential.

The children in this episode are quite an interesting addition. They prevent Yuki from turning into a damsel in distress, and I’m glad that after he left the orphanage, the creators didn’t intend to drop this plot thread. I also liked how the creators used such a long car drive to flesh out the characters: with so many hours being together, the characters all showed a bit of a different side of theirs. I’m also glad to see that the police have also become involved with this series. With so many monsters roaming around, there’s bound to be a few unsovlvable incidents that the police have no idea how to handle. It’s the simple things like this that manage to retain my interest in this series.

The length of this series is going to be a bit of a problem, with just 12 episodes. I hope that the creators are going to either announce a second season at the end of its run, or create something of their own ending to at least close it off a bit without falling into the pit that trapped many series before it by slapping an ending that’s too shallow onto it.
Rating: * (Good)

Giant Killing – 06

by psgels, posted in Giant Killing




Muaahahaha! That was AWESOME! Never since the bald gay ambassador of Samurai Champloo have people talked in actual Dutch in anime. Hearing the voice actors trying to utter the Dutch sentences totally made my day. What an awesome series.

En dan te bedenken dat deze aflevering ook vol zat met Fransen en Engelsen, het zou helemaal geweldig zijn als de Zuid-Amerikanen ook ergens in de serie zullen verschijnen. C’est génial de voir que anime de plus en plus orienter vers un anime international. Wo man früher nur ein paar Sätze in Engrish finden konnte, werden ganze Gespräche in anderen Sprachen geführt.

The creators actually did pretty well. There were some voice actors who just couldn’t take it at one point, but that Dutch coach was voiced really well, he even got that nonchalant monotone tone that you often hear with Dutch guys nailed. He also spoke English with quite a good Dutch accent, without overdoing it. The same goes for the French coach. It’s a shame that Tatsumi himself didn’t get the best voice actor: you could see him struggle with his English, which caused some lines to be just replaced with their Japanese counterparts.

This episode introduced a ton of interesting looking characters. What I also loved was seeing just how many different, varied and unique character-designs the creators could produce. Seriously, every character here has unique character-designs that stand out. Every person has his own features.

On top of that the creators also slapped the start of the new football match at the end of the episode. Neat. I also loved the way it was written: everything seemed to be going well, everyone was in the right spirits, the fans even brought a huge-ass sign to cheer everyone on… and suddenly the ball misses and the opposing team makes a goal. It’s really a great way to introduce the next episode.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Heartcatch Precure – 14

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure



Happy Mother’s Day everyone.

You know, I often dislike it when creators kill of a characters’ parent. It’s overdone, a cheap way to care about a character… ah, screw it. This show just surpassed itself. This was the best episodic story that Heartcatch Precure has shown us so far, and it pushed all of the right buttons. Screw cliches, there’s nothing wrong with them if used right!

It’s an awesome idea from the creator to make a mothers day special, because it really fits the main themes of this series (family) perfectly. The main focus of this episode this time fell on one of Tsubomi and Erika’s classmates, who has lost her mother a number of years ago (probably due to the birth of her younger sister). It’s really an episode about the loss of one’s parents, and how this forces her to take on responsibilities, even though she’d rather be playing around.

Shiku really was a strong girl for her age, but at the same time that went at the expense of her childhood. This episode was all about her, sorting out her own feelings about her mother. Her character-development was also handled really well: after she realized that she shouldn’t be so hard on herself, she really started experimenting with being a kid again, joining the fashion club. Speaking of which… this means that we’re going to see much more of her, right? This sounds very, very promising.

As for the bad guys… they intrigue me a bit. With the main theme of this show being family, it really hasn’t been reflected at all in those three grunts that always change people to desatorians and whose name I forgot. However… was it really a coincidence that that narcissistic one was walking around with a bouquet of flowers on MOTHER’S DAY? I mean, something tells me that that was a bit too much of a coincidence.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 56

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



And King Bradley shows his fangs again. Apparently, he’s fast enough to avoid bullets and cut them in half, and his presence is so great that he’s able to create shock-waves of air to smack down his victims. Bones, that may have been a bit too much; those are tricks that cheap shows use in an attempt to make characters look really strong.

Nevertheless, talk about an action-packed episode. The previous episodes were full of euphoria, and here Bradley comes and completely turns the table. None of the characters who have a good chance of actually beating him (Roy, Hohenheim) are anywhere near, so instead characters as Greed and the people from Xing are going to have to keep this guy at bay. This episode already started with the first casualty on the good guys. In any case I love how even in the finale, the creators try to make everyone important.

The promised day was actually a very interesting way to bring everyone together at the same place: everyone currently is in central city, trying to prevent it from occurring. It’s a lot more impressive than what the first season pulled, as it tried to pull some really weird plot-holes, just to keep the characters inside the story. Thankfully, this season really knows that there are some characters who have no business being here, like Rose, and the library girl whose name I forgot. I’m also very glad that the creators also didn’t try to shoehorn Winry in somewhere. She really served her purpose well, but it’d be just stupid for her to suddenly appear int he middle of Central City, just for some extra drama for Ed. Instead, the climax really takes place between a lot of different parties that all do have their business and reasons for being there.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Top 25 Favourite OPs

by psgels, posted in Top 10 Anime

Well, so this was requested a few months ago, and I finally got around to finishing it. I had a lot of fun scavenging youtube and compiling this list, so here are my 25 favourite anime OPs. Before reading, you should note that my taste here is rather weird. I don’t like generic J-pop and J-rock, bar a few exceptions.

What I look for in an OP is song or musical piece that I like, along with creative visuals, but perhaps the most important thing is its context with the series it’s based on. Is there symbolism? Does it capture the atmosphere of the series it’s based on? That kind of stuff. I’m also a big fan of shows that do something interesting with their visuals.
Continue reading “Top 25 Favourite OPs” →

Angel Beats – 06

by psgels, posted in Angel Beats



Well, that was taken care of more quickly than expected. This episode went and completely changed the relationships between the different characters. As it turns out, the new student council president was just as Yurippe: confused, and trying to do something nonsensical because of the regrets that he held from the time that he was still alive.

Otonashi’s dramatic confession scene was a bit weird, since we knew so little about the new president at this point (his backstory yet again felt a bit forced here), but it did show that the real villain of this series is the setting itself. The end boss is probably going to be the one who created it, and I really hope that we’re going to see him soon, in order to be able to give him some depth before the thirteen episodes run out.

At this point it’s also pretty clear that Otonashi is special: he doesn’t seem to hold any particular grudge, or is particularly confused in the way that the other characters are. The creators are probably using his amnesia as some sort of plot device for later, to reveal god knows what kind of a background he had when he was still alive.

One thing that’s been irking me about the backgrounds of these characters is that we hardly ever see how exactly they died. This episode again: that student council president really must have angered the gods badly with his story: first his brother dies in an accident, then his father dies, and then he himself dies. His mother probably died even before that because there isn’t even a mention of her. To be honest, I feel like Key is trying a bit too hard here, like they did with Kanon. But then again, their previous stories have also shown that they like to hold a ton of trump cards for the end, so let’s hope that that’s going to be the case here as well.
Rating: * (Good)

Durarara – 17

by psgels, posted in Durarara




And… things actually make a lot more sense now. It’s convenient to say the least, but with the conclusion of the second arc, this episode revealed the true nature of Durarara: divided into three parts, with Mikado, Anri and Kida at the centre of each respective arc, with Celty meanwhile as the red thread that returns in all of them. Both Mikado, Anri and Kida turn out to be leaders of their own group: the dollars, the zombies and the yellow scarves: in their own ways they all gathered an immense and influential group of people despite being a bunch of teenagers. They did so individually, and just happened to become friends at high school without knowing this about each other.

The next and final arc will probably focus on the yellow scarves and Kida, where Izaya will play a very prominent role as the main villain. It’ll probably also involve much more of the other groups than the previous two arcs. Now the question remains what the rest of the cast is going to play in this.

In any case, the second arc for me was less impressive than the first arc. It’s a lot shorter, that’s one thing. But to me it feels less varied than the first season, with the eventual background of Anri being a bit cliched, and nowhere as interesting as the reasons Mikado provided for becoming the leader of the Dollars. It felt a lot less spontaneous, if that makes any sense.

But then again, that may have been the purpose: central to the first arc were the dollars, which are meant to symbolize freedom and individuality: everyone is free to do what he wishes, and it allows everyone to act on his own. The first half was whimsical because of that: it stressed how Ikebukuro was full of interesting people that you could run into. The second arc was completely different: Saika was more about enslavement: forcing your love upon others. The pacing became much more straightforward, and in a way more personal compared to the characters in the first arc who felt like they came and went.

Now, if this was just build-up, I’ll be happy enough. I’m a big fan of shows that completely change direction, but this shouldn’t be so extreme as a shark jump. I know the director, his finales are always very good and well built up despite a few lesser moments. Unfortunately, I do not know whether the novels allow this as well. The yellow scarves to me seem based around the flock-instinct: blindly following each other without putting emphasis on individuality. It’s in between the freedom of the Dollars and the brainlessness of Saika. I have no clue how the creators are going to weave that into the other hanging plot threads such as Celty’s head, but it had better be good. I’ve often had it that the final episodes of a series completely changed my opinion of it, so there’s still plenty of room for Durarara to be a classic if it makes well use of these final seven episodes.
Rating: * (Good)

Sarai-ya Goyou – 04

by psgels, posted in Sarai-ya Goyou



This series just surpassed itself. This really was a wonderful episode that wasted no time to get to the bottom of its characters, this episode was all about subtle hints at the background of various characters. We learn about how Matsu met Yaichi, and also that Otake knew him for the longest.

But the best thing about this episode was again the interplay between Masa and Yaichi. The way in which Masa tries to find out more about the Masa who never talks about his past was really well portrayed. Especially when Masa hit the nail on the head: Yaichi doesn’t seem to be doing the kidnappings for the money. The way he throws around money… it’s just as if he’s asking for it to run out faster so that he can do another job.

Then consider what Matsu said: he has really changed. Could it be that this change started when he started the kidnappings? Like Ume said, they haven’t done even 10 of them, and Yaichi was already involved with three of them, so they probably started quite recently. Because of whatever caused him to change, he started getting interested in Masa, and doing stuff that wouldn’t really be important contrary to what he would have done when Matsu first met him. Either that, or Matsu always had the wrong image of him: you never hear the other characters talk about his change.

On another note, it’s a shame that even though Noitamina is currently so well written and produced, with Sarai-ya Goyou and Yojou-han, the tv ratings have reached a depth for the series. 1.7%… that’s even less than Kuchuu Buranko. I have a hard time grasping the cause for this, actually. Noitamina has always been a timeslot that was also popular amongst non-anime fans.

It seems that the best-rated shows of the time-slot play in modern settings. There are exceptions, like the early Honey and Clover and Paradise Kiss, which aired when the time-slot was still young, and Hakaba Kitarou (the best rated Noitamina show ever), which made use of its huge nostalgia factor, but Nodame Cantabile, Moyashimon and Hataraki Man all are about down to earth characters that anyone could relate with. The same with Eden of the East and Tokyo Magnitude: it’s very easy to relate to these characters. And I guess that that’s something that Yojou-han and Sarai-ya Goyou do not have: it’s hard for your average person to sympathize with a bunch of kidnappers, or a ridiculously fast talking loser. This trend is probably going to continue for the next summer. And don’t get me wrong, I’m really looking forward to Shiki, but again: it doesn’t look like the mainstream will have much to relate to there either.

It’s interesting how the people in charge of Noitamina don’t seem to be marketing geniuses. And that’s a shame, because Noitamina is such a great timeslot because it has proven that in order to go mainstream, you can also appeal to adults: instead of trying to win viewers with panty-shots and yelling teenagers, it has shown time and time again that anime is also very appealing for adults. While I love Sarai-ya Goyou and Yojou-han, I’m a bit sad that they’re doing so badly in the ratings, defeating the entire purpose of the timeslot. The thing I’m worried about isn’t exactly Noitamina changing, but rather that the ratings will end up in a downwards spiral, causing it to get cancelled. That’s what I’m most afraid of.
Rating: *** (Awesome)