Cross Game Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Cross Game




It’s easy to dismiss Cross Game as a baseball series, but make no mistake. This is much more a slice of life series about characters who just happen to play a lot of baseball. Cross Game is much more a tale of growing up, with a healthy dose of humour along the way. And it does this oh so well.

Seriously, in terms of slice of life, you can hardly get any better than this. The seemingly endless amount of wit with which the writers spice up the daily lives is incredible, and they love to play with this. Whenever you see a character do something seemingly out-of-character, there’s always some sort of very logical explanation behind this.Think about a character making an important confession at first sight, only to reveal that he’s talking about something completely different. The entire series is chock-ful of these moments that have a ton of fun playing with the characters in this way.

Obviously this gives the show an awesome cast to work with. We see them grow up through the series, from when they’re still small children to their third year in high school. As a viewer we really get to know who they are, and because of that the slice of life works so well: these characters rock right from the first episode of this series, so it becomes a really enjoyable ride to just see what they’re doing in their everyday lives.

The problem with this series is, in fact, the baseball, for multiple reasons. First of all, the slice of life is just that good. Every time a baseball match started, I felt like something was missing, and just kept hoping that they would wrap up as soon as possible in order to get more of the quiet moments in this series. That, and the baseball matches aren’t that good anyway. Especially when you compare them to other series, they’re poorly built up, hand together with cliches and the teams that our lead characters match against are hardly ever fleshed out properly. There’s no tension in them, and all you’re doing is waiting for them to finish.

Cross Game is based on a manga by Mitsuru Adachi, who pretty much can only write one type of series, but he can do that incredibly well. Cross Game is the same, and although I do prefer Touch (due to its longer length and because it did have excellent baseball matches, despite its lack of wit in the slice of life department), Cross Game nevertheless is excellent and its execution is one of a kind.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Wonderfully witty in its portrayal of the characters’ daily lives. Baseball matches suck, though.
Characters: 10/10 – Take perhaps a bit long to develop, but a lot of the cast members end up well rounded at the end of the series.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Nothing special, asice from a good soundtrack perhaps.
Setting: 8/10 – Not a fan of the way it portrayed baseball, but did a good job of the high school setting.

Cross Game – 50

by psgels, posted in Cross Game



Awww, what a lovable end. I was a bit afraid that 10 minutes would be too little for the big finale (yes, I do not consider that baseball match to be the finale of this series), but the creators ended up making something nice out of it. Ideally of course, this series should have screwed the Olympics and just have gone for 51 episodes, but even these 10 minutes reminded me exactly why I fell in love with this series.

It’s such a shame to see this series go, though. I mean, I could totally see a series in which we follow the lives of the characters after Koushien, which would rock even more. Still, this has really been a wonderful series.

The baseball series of the upcoming season also promises to be interesting, because it proves to be good at exactly the thing that Cross Game was worst at: the baseball matches. And on the other hand of course, there’s no way that the slice of life of Ookiku Furikabutte is going to be as good as in Cross Game. At least, the conclusion of this baseball match was a lot more enjoyable than the previous two episodes, because it turned Kou into a mere mortal again.

And yeah. Kou and Aoba holding hands together. That was totally worth the wait of these 2,5 episodes of baseball.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 50

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



Okay, so we may not have Roy Mustang in action for about twenty episodes or so, same with the people around him, but I loved how in this episode it becomes clear how much he managed to prepare in the time he was away from the spotlights and how many allies he managed to gather. And even Ross and Havoc, who disappeared for even longer, have been carrying out their own agenda in an attempt to assist him. And while they pretty much slaughter the army in this episode, the creators did take care to give every one of these soldiers their own identity with this subtle characterization, rather than just packing a clone army of mindless slaves or something.

The second half of this episode was more about the stealth, as Ed and his father try to get to Father. In the meantime, we have also three homunculi who are trying to do the same (Envy is nearly at Father, Pride will get rescued by Sloth any minute now, and Wrath also should show up somewhere in the next few episodes). Truly promises to be an action-packed finale. Especially considering how at the end of this episode the clones were activated. I really have to give credit to Bones: that was one creepy scene.

In the next episode we should also see the new and final OP, if the creators indeed planned to have a new OP at the start of every season. I wonder whether it can beat the current one, though. It’s been by far the best OP of Full Metal Alchemist yet for me (including the first season, of course). But damn, this really means that at this point the total amount of Full Metal Alchemist Episodes is already in the three digits. The thing I really hope for this season is for its success to inspire more series to just go with the right amount of episodes that their story requires, rather than just stick to 26.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Tentai Senshi Sunred 2 Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




It’s extremely rare for a comedy sequel to be better than its predecessor. Most of the times, the best jokes are already exhausted, the characters have gotten dull, it takes its style too far, et cetera. Here is one, though. The first season of Tentai Senshi Sunred was a nice super sentai series parody, but there were a number of episodes that just dragged on or weren’t funny. The second season isntead is much more consistent and hilarious.

Tentai Senshi Sunred 2 doesn’t just show that it has plenty of ideas for a second season, it also shows that it’s been saving its best ideas as well. It cleverly makes use of the build-up and character introductions that became rather boring in the first season, and uses them to back up these jokes. The jokes often revolve around a silly monster that Sunred has to battle, or a ridiculous plan of his ‘arch-rival’ vamp that just makes no sense, but a lot of the humour also comes from the monsters themselves as we’re introduced to some hilarious problems that they’re worrying about, like their own identity as a monster, or just every day problems that become just hilarious when put into the context of this series, considering how nobody seems to find it scary that a bunch of random monsters walk around.

There still are a number of monsters that just aren’t funny, like the two moles, or the animal soldiers also tend to drag at times, but overall Tentai Senshi Sunred succeeded yet again with its unique brand of humour. Take a regular slice of life setting, and make it the centre stage of a battle between a hero and an evil organization, sombining a huge amount of realism with a huge amount of stupidity with a combination that works perfectly.Sunred himself always provides a great chemistry with the rest of the cast as just about the opposite that you’d expect of a fighter for justice, and the rest of the cast all plays their part wonderfully.

Storytelling: 9/10 – A much larger percentage of the jokes hit the spot compared to the first season.
Characters: 8/10 – Excellent chemistry between them, plus a number of lovable monsters.
Production-Values: 7/10 – Still very simple and basic animation, but the character poses are very detailed and expressive.
Setting: 9/10 – The detailed and strangely realistic dialog really made me buy the very take on the super sentai genre.

Letter Bee Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Letter Bee




This is a bit of a difficult review to write. The reason for that is simple: Letter Bee is a series chock-ful of potential. That potential however, is only going to be realized in its second season, while the first season… is mainly dedicated to build up. You know, fleshing out the characters, giving the setting the right background, and building up the huge mystery surrounding this series.

While the series starts off with a very intruiguing opening, most of the rest of the series consists out of small arcs that involve Lag Seeing (the lead character) meeting different people. The people Lag meets vary from ridiculously cheesy to compelling and interesting, it’s really all over the place. In the meantime however, you can really see this series putting a lot of attention to flesh out the recurring cast-members, working on their development. Sure, Lag starts out as an incredible crybaby, but his development throughout these first 25 episodes makes him into quite an interesting character. Nichi on the other hand is just consistently lovable. The members of the main side-cast also all have the poihts at which they stand out.

This show also has quite a few fillers in its middle part. They’re used well, though. There are a few godawful episodes (when you get to the “race”-episode, just skip it alltogether), but also a number of surprisingly good ones. But most importantly: instead of being entirely pointless, they try to flesh out the characters a bit more, and give them a bit more character than what was present in the manga.

So yeah, this series served its purpose well: that second season has a lot of potential to rock due to the build-up that it has provided. Its voice acting is really excellent all around, and the few moments at which it does get to show some of the huge potential behind the storyline that it’s been building up, it’s truly an amazing and intriguing series, and it ends with one hell of a cliff-hanger. The highlights of this series are truly sad and melancholic; they’re just few and far in between, hence the relatively low rating.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Excellent build-up. Some not-so-excellent episodic stories.
Characters: 8/10 – Excellent main cast and voice acting. Hard to like lead characters. some underdeveloped side-characters.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Gorgeous images, inconsistent animation, beautiful soundtrack.
Setting: 8/10 – A ton of potential…. for which we have to wait until season 2 to fully see it.

Letter Bee – 25

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



Okay. So I was prepared for a huge cliff-hanger. What I did not expect however, was that Letter Bee’s first season would end with by far its best episode so far. How are we supposed to wait SIX MONTHS for the next episode, after seeing such an amazing episode?

Seriously, all of Lag’s build-up, both from the fillers and the manga-episodes, it just came together wonderfully in those final ten minutes. Most series usually take an episode or three for their mid-way climax. This show did it just in ten minutes, but those minutes did just about everything right. It’s such a short but gripping conclusion, which completely made up for the duller moments of the rest of this series. The attention this series has spent on fleshing out Lag has surely paid off!

As for the Honey Waters Arc, that one too was very heart-warming as it concluded. I especially like how the creators weren’t as conceited in trying to make the rest of the villagers have a change of heart either: these people have a deep seeded hate against the government. Just a few words of love and peace from Lag ain’t going to make them change that easily.

Overall, I’m glad to have blogged this series, as it definitely was an interesting ride, even though its beginning wasn’t exactly impressive. And hey, this show had the best ED of the past winter-season, its characterization of Nichi was excellent, Lag himself also grew into a fine young man, and the potential of the series’ back-story has only grown over the course of the series. Yeah, there are enough things to praise this series for.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Cobra The Animation Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Cobra The Animation




Cobra’s premise at first seems one doomed for failure. In a world where all girls walk around in ridiculously revealing clothing, an invincible superman walks around and pretty much succeeds at everything he tries. Characters should be flawed, but Cobra is one of those guys who is perfect in every single way. Noramlly this would lead to rather boring television, but the creativity that has been put in the stories, along with Cobra’s charisma make this into a surprisingly enjoyable series.

The adventures, and the different places that this series shows make for a perfect light-hearted watch. The stories are nearly all well told and while they may not make too much sense at times, they’re well paced and built up and manage to draw you into its atmosphere.

I probably like this show even better than the original Cobra series of 1982. While that one was more of an action-series that focused on killing bad guys, the 2010 Cobra puts a lot more focus on adventures and exploration and instead of Cobra killing hordes of bad guys, it’s much more about his interatcion with the side-characters that happen to be tagging along with him.

On top of that, this series can boast the best soundtrack of shows that premiered in the past Winter-season. Yoshihiro Ike is a brilliant composer, and here again he delivers an exciting and perfectly fitting soundtrack to accompany the series. The graphics all look solid, but the animation itself is sub-par.

The arcs that this series decided to show differ a bit in quality. The mountain climbing arc is by far the best, while the two longest arcs at the beginning and end tend to drag on for a bit too long than necessary, and their plot twist may be a bit too non-sensical than what’s good for this series.

Cobra isn’t a series you want to go to for depth or realism at all. The stories are all very simple and the characters are all more charicatures than that they resemble actual people. But here’s the thing: it knows what it is, and it does this well. Cobra the Animation was very obviously made by passionate fans of the original Cobra 1982-series, who wanted to do the source material as much justice as possible. And you know what? They succeeded.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Rather cheesy at times, but knows how to draw you in.
Characters: 7/10 – Caricatures, Cobra is god-moded, but they all have their own charisma.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Animation isn’t impressive, but the graphics are. Plus a fantastic soundtrack.
Setting: 8/10 – The Cobra-universe is full of interesting places and settings.

Cobra The Animation – 13

by psgels, posted in Cobra The Animation



Hmm, I’m not sure whether I actually get the plan of the major villain in this one. It’s a bit weird. First she invites thirteen people to help her retake Shiva’s castle from the Chaos Troopers, which was already in the hands of the Chaos Troopers anyway. Out of these thirteen people, she invites a bunch of other Chaos Troopers as well. She then immediately kills those Chaos Troopers off, revealing her own fatal weakness by stating how you can recognize one. Honestly, I don’t get it. Also, how did she know that Cobra had been to Shiva’s castle before?

Overall, my favourite arcs of this series were the short ones: the ones who just took up one or two episodes. This really isn’t the type of series that should drag on for long with elaborate story-lines, instead it should be a quick-fire series. This final arc… it could have been done in about half the time as well.

Nevertheless, I also pretty much enjoyed this episode for what it was. I’m still hoping for Osamu Dezaki’s next series, but in the meantime this was a nice enough substitution. As an adventure series, it did pretty much what it should have.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Durarara – 12

by psgels, posted in Durarara



And we’re half-way through. I’m really curious to the second half of this series, considering how well written the first half has been so far. This episode really hinted at a completely different focus with Izaya’s proposal to give that ‘fallen angel wings again’. Because Baccano was only 13 episodes, I have no idea what to expect here. And that’s one of the great things about this series.

And again, I really have to praise the creators for how well written this episode was. The dialogue was very inspired and even allowed the seemingly one-sided Seiji Yagiri to shine. Izaya’s ramblings were also better than ever. I’m not sure when it was that he found out that Mikado was the founder of the Dollars; I actually believe that Izaya helped a lot in making the Dollars big. it’s just something for him to go and experiment with it.

Celty in the meantime also developed a bit,which is always a good thing, especially considering this only is the halfway point. Apart from that, the characters in this series have been rounded in their background, but not so much changed as us learning more about them. My guess is that the creators are saving the bulk of this character-development for the mysterious second half.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra – 26

by psgels, posted in Armed Librarians - The Book of Bantorra



yeah, so there is no doubt that this show is getting cheesy. The thing is, however, that I’m much more interested in how this finale uses the build-up that has been provided by the rest of this series. In a way, I can understand the criticisms to this series: standalone the characters indeed aren’t the reason to watch this show.

I haven’t really been watching this show for its characters, though. The reason I became a huge fan of this series was because of its storytelling: the way it managed to weave so many storylines together. The boldness of the script and the way that it was able to write these gripping action scenes, simply with this plot that had so many interesting ideas stuffed into it, combined with its powerful and over the top soundtrack.

I really love it when anime decide to show off what they’re good at. The reason why I’m also such a big fan of Noloty and Volken was not because what they were, but what they represented. I really believe that every anime should focus what it’s good at, and this finale has been truly action-packed, throwing tons of plot twists and ideas into the mix and exactly what I’ve been looking for! While other series this season have more realistic characters, none of them really excell in the same magnitude that Bantorra’s plot has been impressing me with, week after week after week. THAT’s exactly why I already consider this to be a huge contender for my favourite show of 2010, even though we’ve still got three seasons to go before I can say for sure. it’s SO going to be a shame to see this series end next week, because I’ve been enjoying every single minute of it.
Rating: *** (Awesome)