Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 – War in the Pocket Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



I now fully understand why War in the Pocket is held in such a high regard. At only six episodes it’s probably one of the shortest Gundams out there… but it has BY FAR the best characters that I have ever seen from the franchise. The fact that this series is told from the perspective of the Zeons (the bad guys in UC Gundam) makes it even better, turning this into the most morally ambiguous Gundam series as well.

The character who impressed me the most was Bernie, the lead character. He starts out like your average Gundam lead: young, rookie, ambitious, et cetera. However, the creators still made him competent: he’s a guy who doesn’t just ignore orders on a whim. The veterans around him also treat him as a rookie, and instead of standing in the spotlights he really is a guy who is tasked with the safe, dirty and boring work. The veterans around him also feel like they’re veterans, instead of the usual experienced soldier whose only tasks it is to let the youth take over. At no point does the angst or emo take over the storytelling, and neither do characters suddenly degrade into morons just to spice things up. This series averted a ton of Gundam cliches that originally made me so tired of this franchise.

The excellent characterization also really helps. Six episodes was obviously a bit short to develop a huge cast, but the two central characters get all the time they need to shine. The animation makes sure that the two of them are as expressive as possible, where it favours paying attention to these small details, rather than overblown battles. The side-characters aren’t as rounded as these two, and actually pretty static, but they’re nowhere near bad. They do a great job in illustrating the points that this series is trying to make. It very cleverly combines this childish innocence to the harsh realities of war, without ever going overboard with the drama.

So yeah, this pretty much is the most un-typical Gundam I have seen. While every other Gundam is an action-series, this really is a character-study first and foremost, where the action only takes up second place. For once we also have battles that stay down to earth (no pun intended), rather than going over the top near the end. And despite the lack of any epicness whatsoever, I found myself enjoying it more consistently than any other Gundam.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Perfectly makes use of its time. Great twists, yet remains down to earth.
Characters: 9/10 – Excellent characterization; averts a ton of Gundam cliches, no idiots, morons or emos whatsoever.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Perhaps not the best for a Gundam series, but still very good.
Setting: 9/10 – Puts the loop above settings and characters that are normally just glossed over in Gundam series, and it works perfectly.

Seikai no Senki II Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Seikai no Monshou



While both Seikai no Monshou and Senki were excellent series, to me it seemed like they still were missing something, and I don’t just mean Monshou’s disappointing finale. I still can’t exactly put my finger to it, but whatever it was: Seikai no Senki II has it. The third Seikai series more than surpasses its predecessors.

It doesn’t just take the best of the two prequels: the dialogue of Monshou and the combat of Senki. It also introduces a complete new layer: diplomacy. A huge part of this season is about the two lead characters, in charge of a planet full of prisoners that’s about to descend into a civil war. The planet’s political system consists out of four parties with all their own issues yet who have to live together somehow. I personally loved watching Jinto trying to save himself in this situation: his words suddenly carry the lives of tens of thousands.

The dialogue of Seikai no Monshou and Senki was already really good, but Senki II’s dialogue turns out even better. The creators put so much meaning in just about every sentence. Every sentence is spot-on, whether it’s about the characters in the series, or the politics. The scenario itself is also full of twists and turns that yet make full sense when put into the story itself.

The series thrusts us really in a world that neither the characters nor the audience knows anything about. It cleverly makes use of the fact that it’s already got 26 episodes of established characters, while at the same time it also delivers powerful new characters who are gripping and full of flaws from the beginning. While the first Seikai no Senki was generally very focused (it was very much a series about war), Senki II instead was about a whole array of stuff: it’s a very varied series in which one episode may be about politics on a small insignificant planet, the next about space battles, on to switch back to some banter between a bunch of army commanders. It covers the full spectrum. Seriously Sunrise: why don’t you make stuff like this anymore?

Storytelling: 10/10 – Perfectly paced, varied, hard-hitting; science-fiction at its finest.
Characters: 9/10 – Terrific dialogue, both the old and new characters rock.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Excellent music. The graphics do what they need to do and nothing more.
Setting: 9/10 – Excellent portrayal of an ongoing war on many different levels.

Suggestions:
– Toward the Terra
– Hi no Tori – Uchuu-Hen
– Gasaraki

Some Quick First Impressions: Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru, K-On!! and Mayoi Neko Overrun

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions, Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the reincarnation of some woman.
Well, I’m intrigued. While it’s no Night Head Genesis, this episode of Uragiri was pretty good. It deals with a lot of heavy stuff, like insanity, death threats, parental abuse and orphans, but it handled all of the angst surprisingly well and down to earth. This episode was perhaps a bit fast-paced, but as an opening episode it did well to grab my attention. And best of all: it didn’t turn its characters in those stereotypical gay people you see everywhere. Instead, the lead character is just your typical shoujo lead in a male body (which in a way makes sense when you consider his backstory). We didn’t get to see a lot of teh plot in this episode, but what we saw of it has quite a bit of potential to be this season’s dark gothic series. My only problem with this episode was that group of random punks that just decided to kick that old man from out of nowhere. That’s an anime cliche that seriously needs to die unless you plan to do it well.
OP: Decent rock-song
ED: Again, pretty nice.
Potential: 70%

K-On!!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character enters her third year in high school as a member of the light music club.
You know what? As a slice of life series, this episode was pretty good. My biggest fear for this show beyond the moe overload was that it would go down the same road as Lucky Star (as in, a ton of repetition and no development whatsoever), but the characters have actually evolved beyond what I saw of them when I previewed the first episode of the first season last year. The lead character especially has gotten a lot more bearable now that she actually knows how to play an instrument. What I appreciated the most is that this episode had the characters act like what you’d expect from teenaged girls, without hanging all of the cheap moe stereotypes and paper-thin characters that you regularly see in these moe shows all over them. The animation also was very good, as expected of Kyoani. I was really disappointed by the live performances. I mean, with the budget that Kyoani has, you would expect that they’d… like… actually animate it. Instead, they skip it nearly entirely, even though actually performing is the most fun part of being in such a band. Now, while this episode was decent enough, I do have my doubts whether this series warrants 26 episodes. Do the creators really have what it takes to make it consistently enjoyable, rather than consistently repetitive?
OP: To answer my question below at Mayoi Neko Overrun’s OP blurb: yes.
ED: Hmm, probably the best ED I’ve seen from Kyoani.
Potential: 30%

Mayoi Neko Overrun

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is loved by a cute girl.
Well… we’ve certainly found the series with the biggest amount of overused cliches this season. Where to start? There is the childhood friend, the tsundere, the panty shots, the annoying best friend, the catgirl, the horny sister, the maids, the rich spoiled brat, the parents who are gone, the waking up scene, the abuse of said tsundere whenever fanservice comes into play, and the female voice actresses also really don’t try to hide these stereotypes. While the tsunere was surprisingly likable, the voice actresses of the other female characters were just horrendously annoying and predictable. But yeah, I gotta admit: it’s well made. The direction and dialogue is snappy and funny whenever these three characters aren’t in the centre of attention, and the chemistry is pretty nice. It certainly beats out Nyan Koi and Sora no Otoshimono; AIC’s moe shows of the previous winter season. Due to time constraints I doubt that I’m going to continue watching this (especially when three of the four female lead characters are so incredibly and pointlessly annoying), but really: I expected a lot worse.
OP: Can it get any more squeaky?
ED: Annoying J-pop.
Potential: 30%

Giant Killing – 02

by psgels, posted in Giant Killing




So yeah, out of all of the series that debuted during the spring season so far, Giant Killing had the best first episode, it had the best OP and ED, it was the only series that bothered to experiment with a new art style, it was the first series since ages to have actual English, despite being a sports series it had one of the most diverse casts of the season, it has the best chemistry between the characters, it was the best at portraying the unnamed characters in the background for me. Is anyone surprised that I ended up blogging it? ^^;

Seriously though, I absolutely love the first two opening episodes of Giant Killing. It’s so refreshing to finally see a series not rip off the standard art style that there is for moe and bishies. It’s so refreshing to see these characters and every second so far has been fun and enjoyable. This is like One Outs if it actually had good characterization. It’s witty, unpredictable and creative. There’s a bit of angst, but none of it is pointless: you can really see that these characters have a reason to hate the main characters.

Because seriously, what this series also did really well was portraying the football fans: the supporters behind the club. Ranging from the kids to the passionate fans, to the ones who like to yell at everything. It’s such a great and varied portrayal. The creators here didn’t just animate a football team, they animated everyone around it and they gave everyone a character.

And let me also talk a bit about the production values. It’s true that this series doesn’t have the biggest budget, however it’s really well used: the filters may seem cheap, but the audience shots in these filters are some of the best audience shots I’ve seen: the audience in this series doesn’t feel like a wallpaper, but alive. Even though the creators use the known tricks in the book, of using copied and pasted CG, and just random images, they manage to deliver it in such a way to make it dynamic.

On top of that, it also seems like the best soundtrack of this season has reached this series. It’s again not as elaborate as, say, Angel Beats, but the simplicity and creativity behind the sounds that kicks ass. Apparently the composer also did Kuchuu Buranko’s soundtrack, but damn, he really surpassed himself here. Talk about catchy.

So yeah, this is probably going to be the series that I’m going to sing a lot of praises over. It’s really one of those series that got me fired up like hell.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 52

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood




This has got to be among the best Full Metal Alchemist episodes to date. And with more than a hundred episodes on the franchise’s track record, that has to say something! It mostly focused on two fights: the one versus Kimblee and Pride, and the one versus Sloth. Both were awesome in their own ways, full of great twists and turns, making for one hell of a ride.

Seriously, I’m getting the same vibes here as when I watched the action scenes of Bounen no Xamdou. What Bones did here is deliver animation with such a force and power. This is exactly what I’m looking for in an action series. And this time, the stories and backgrounds actually did get well developed. While at this point Full Metal Alchemists’s animation still isn’t quite as good as Xamdou, it has far surpassed Xamdou at this time as an action-series for me, due to the plot, characters and setting in this series.

Kimblee’s death (or at least, I think he died) also really surprised me. In the way that Pride kept playing with his victims like a cat, it was a very good reminder that there are plenty of mortals in this series, and this even showed that having a philosopher’s stone doesn’t make you immortal. To contrast, there were also plenty of heart-warming moments during the same fight: three side-characters who I wrote off as being useless in battle really created an awesome escape sequence.

Also, the clone army really proved to be one of the flaws in Father’s plans: having them rampage around is nice enough, but the way in which they fail to recognize either friend or enemy leads to a lot more soldiers changing sides, especially when you’re in front of such a charismatic leader as Olivier. This episode forced a ton of characters to do things they usually would not: Ed also finally ended up using weaponry, the Armstrong Siblings working together.

One point of criticism for this episode was during the Ed’s fight. I mean, the army of closes did go a bit into overkill there, and it wasn’t that well animated anyway, with a lot of clones just being CG dolls. It reminded me a bit of these cheap fantasy series in which teen-aged leads have to battle on hordes of copy/paste zombies. Not to mention that the clones decide to just stand still whenever some major plot twist happens. Really, if I was such a clone, I wouldn’t care about what happened around me. All I would care about would just be these tasty human beings in front of me.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Heartcatch Precure – 10

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure




Wow, what an episode! It’s here where the creators show how good they actually are. This episode was both beautifully animated, hilarious and tense. It’s here where the Precure are proven to be completely useless and not god-moded at all when it comes to defeating the biggest threats. In typical mahou-shoujo fashion they were saved by some mysterious guys who are also on their sides, but then again: these two high schoolers look so much more interesting than your average prince on the white horse, even though we don’t even know anything about them.

The combination between the incredibly silly henchman and the actually competent dark Precure turned out to work really well: because of that we didn’t get a sudden episode full of angst about this unbeatable opponent, but instead the creators balanced the light-hearted parts (and that strange football match) well amongst the darker parts in which that Dark Precure appeared. And remember that we’re only at 1/5th of the way: there’s still plenty of time left to actually develop them.

And the animation! It wasn’t just absolutely gorgeous, it also brought out the best of the characters! That’s really what I consider to be animation at its finest: not the kind with the biggest budget, but one that actually makes its cast alive when it counts. And this episode did that so well: it was full of interesting camera-angles, the characters were full of different emotions and even the action was continuously fun, both in the small down to earth parts as the soccer match, and the over the top parts where Dark Precure stood in the spotlights. Seriously, if this is only a taste of what the creators have in store for us, then I’m really curious to the rest of this series.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Hakuouki – 02

by psgels, posted in Hakuouki



As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– Lilpri is ridiculously stupid, but it has its heart at the right place: you can see that it’s really trying to do something. It just fails horribly at times, but it’s ridiculously entertaining for both the right and wrong reasons. However, me blogging it? Nah.

In any case, I was in a lot of doubts about whether or not to blog Hakuouki. I intended to fill this slot by either one of the three bishie-series this season (Uragiri, Rainbow and this one). While I can’t say anything about Uragiri yet (if that one does turn out awesome I may have to drop either this one or Angel Beats), but the thing with Rainbow is that while it’s got an awesome concept, the acting is utterly terrible. On top of that, I actually doubt that Madhouse is willing to spend enough time to fully animate all of the novels. Normally I love Madhouse, but they have made their share of flops, and the director of these flops is now in charge of that series.

Hakuouki on the other hand is just annoying: it’s one of those series with those few hints of potential that might or might not hint at something better. But I’m deciding to give it a chance, because if it does manage to get everything right it has the potential to become awesome. The biggest reason for this is the dialogue: it really tries to flesh out the characters with it. While the voice acting itself isn’t that special, with that kind of dialogue we really have the potential to get to know our characters. It’s now all going to depend on how the characters are going to develop.

However, do note that I WILL drop this series as soon as I find out that there are only going to be 13 episodes. With these kinds of premises, you really NEED those 24 or 26 episodes to really get somewhere. At this point it’s too late for this series to really stand out if it’s just going to run for one season: it’ll just end up as another forgettable samurai adventure with a bit of random action.

Speaking of the action, that was one of the other reasons that this series caught my eye: it’s damn tense! Well built up, and they’re short but powerful. Most of the time Studio Deen’s animation wasn’t anything special in this series, but that scene in which that guy charged on Yukimura was really well animated. At the same time it shows what the creators are capable of, and yet it’s not one of those cases in which they obviously blow all of their budget in the first episode. Speaking of Yukimura: she has a lot of potential IF (and only if) she manages to grow. At this point, she’s still that typical useless lead who can’t do anything. However, this episode just kept dropping hints that “you know what? This girl is going to develop into a dependable woman.” What I got from her was a strong urge to learn and understand everyone. Standalone, this is just useless, pointless and rather annoying. With development however: ah, the potential.
Rating: * (Good)

Angel Beats – 02

by psgels, posted in Angel Beats



As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou is just silly, but in a good way. Still, it’s just a comedy without much substance. There’s a reason why I don’t blog those: I’m much more of a fan of Dutch and British humour anyway.

In any case, Angel Beats is a series that has one HUGE disadvantage: it’s only going to be 13 episodes. It’s got a huge cast. Will this really be enough to get its full potential out? Despite this however, I’m giving it a chance to impress me, because I really like its opening episodes. While this is nowhere near the funniest comedy out there (pretty much like why I decided to blog Kaichou wa Maid-Sama and not B Gata H Kei), but everything around it screams potential. The fast pacing and dialogue is very addictive, and I really like these stories that play around with life and death.

Immortality is of course a tricky thing to do, because if it’s used lazily you just end up god-moding your lead characters. That’s the problem I have with most series that pull those kinds of things like extremely fast regeneration. This time however, while the characters can’t die when you stab them, it hurts a lot, and they’re up to a pretty much invincible enemy. These twists are nowhere done out of cheapness.

As for the comedy, it’s definitely the weakest part of this series. It’s pretty much what you would expect from the director: lots of over the top and quick-fire jokes that either hit the mark or don’t. I’m much more of a fan of the adventure part of this series: exploring different places, in order to get to some kind of goal. There’s a lot of creativity in these scenarios, and that’s what I like best about this series. From the cave with the strange traps to the concert stage in the previous episode, it’s a very fun ride to watch.

Also, the backgrounds. In this episode we got our first taste of it, and while the visuals in Yuri’s flashback looked gorgeous… it was one of those “let’s give her the worst possible childhood muahahaha”-backstories. While it looks like her backstory is going to play a bigger role in the rest of thsi series (heck, her younger sister appeared on the promo-art), at this point it feels a bit pointless and a cheap way to get us to sympathize with her, rather than adding to her characterization. Instead, her characterization came much more from what she did in this episode. You can see that she’s a born leader who worries about her subordinates, and also gets her point across. And really, you don’t really need to have lost all of your siblings in an incredibly traumatic event to emerge that convicted.
Rating: * (Good)

Durarara – 13

by psgels, posted in Durarara




Now… this is just so good. The entire start of this episode screamed build-up: we skip forth half a year, we get to see new characters (like Shinra’s father who suddenly pops up), while the narrator is Anri. The build-up however was just so excellent, the final scene of this episode made a lot more impact than I could have expected at this point. And we’re only at episode one of this series’ second half!

It’s now when this series really has to prove itself by surpassing the already excellent first half. And based on this series, the creators really might actually do it. I love how well written the dialogue of this series is. This episode did so many things at once: it established who the characters were, giving everyone a short scene to confirm that things have settled a bit, only to hit right back at this notion of no development with sudden new plot twists that set the character-development in motion again. The police officer, for example. That was a surprise for him to be bugging Celty so much that she’d lose her nerve over it.

Like its predecessor Baccano, the script for this series again is truly excellent, but in a completely different way. The way the creators in this episode played around with all kinds of different moods and themes, while keeping true to their characters was truly excellent, including the way the creators use their background music and sound effects, which is bold and varied. I’m really curious to see how far the creators are going to be able to take this.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Kaichou wa Maid-Sama – 02

by psgels, posted in Kaichou wa Maid-Sama



I’ve been thinking a lot about whether or not to blog Kaichou wa Maid Sama. Basically, the big reason I hardly ever blog Shoujo romantic comedies is because the genre has evolved in such a way that it’s a bit impossible to really tell whether they’re going to be awesome or not, just based on its first episodes. Ten years ago it may have been different (I mean, one look at Kodocha and His and Her Circumstances would tell that they were going to be awesome), but nowadays, I find it very hard to determine whether a shoujo romantic comedy is going to be another Ouran or Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge. Just take Itazura na Kiss, for another example: hilarious in its first few episodes, but completely falling apart after that.

But you know what, I decided to have faith in this series. It’s perhaps not the funniest series this season, but I like its sharpness. The drama is awkward to watch, but in a good way. This isn’t just a series about the romantic adventures of two random teenagers, but it’s also a bit of a battle between the sexes, and it also focuses a lot on freedom and its limits. It lacks subtlety in this department, but that’s one thing that made the drama and the parts in which Misaki forced down her biased opinion on all of the guys in the school. Even though I’ve often seen comments on how this series has nothing original, that kind of drama taken seriously is something I have yet to see in a shoujo series, and because of that I’m giving it a chance.

On top of that, I also have a lot of faith in the director, Hiroaki Sakurai. This guy has really shown that he can be hilarious, while also really good at drama (heck, he co-directed Kodocha and directed Les Miserables, for goodness’ sake). A lot is of course also going to depend on the manga, but this guy is going to be able to get its full potential out of it. And it really shows so far. The past two episodes have been well paced and calculated, with just a right combination between comedy, drama, chemistry and those awkward moments.
Rating: * (Good)