Some Quick First Impressions: KissXSis, Koihime Musou – Otome Tairan and Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

KissXSis

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live inside a house with two cute girls who pretend to be his sister.
Well… it’s porn. It’s as simple as that. Are people really going to check this show out for a reason other than the teenaged nudity? At the least, I do appreciate that the worst stuff in this season comes first. And yeah, this episode was pretty much even worse than the other shows in this post, and that has to say something. It’s full of the most ridiculous stereotypes that just about every fanservice show has. It’s been one episode and the lead character already has a harem of four girls who adore him for no reason whatsoever. These characters seriously have no lives. It did try to out-gross other fanservice shows with the pants sniffing and all, but seriously. With Chu Bra and Seikon no Qwaser last season, who’s it going to fool?
ED: Godawful J-pop and abysmal CG.
Potential: -20%

Koihime Musou Otome Tairan

Short Synopsis: Our lead character goes on an adventure to search for a bunch of random items to save some random woman.
Again: Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Again: find some other bloody novel to parody! In any case, the third season of Koihime Musou is exactly what this series has always been: realyl stupid slice of life. And seriously, these morons really take the cake when it comes to a lack of brainpower as they believe that someone with stomach cramps as pregnant. Well, i guess that stupid girls are really popular with otaku, which is why these kinds of shows keep getting made, and if this is your kind of humour, then good for you. but this episode felt so unbelievably boring to me. Slice of life series are great when the characters themselves are. With these stereotypical idiots however… ugh.
OP: Cheesy J-Rock
ED: Godawful J-pop.
Potential: 0%

Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor

Short Synopsis: Our lead character thankfully is completely absent in this episode.
Well, I’m at least glad that the worst shows of this season get released first, so let’s just get this over with. The only thing I’ve seen of Ikkitousen are the first episodes of the second and third season (both were godawful), so most of my comments here are about the execution, rather than the story that I know nothing about. Still, I do want to say that the thing I hate most about this season isn’t the fanservice or moe, but the truckload of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Seriously, pick some other franchise to parody. In any case, for Ikkitousen this was actually a decent episode. I expected the same kind of crap that the previous seasons became infamous for, and while the acting still is pretty bad, this actually was an episode in which you can at least shut your brains off and enjoy it as a random action show. The build-up was nice enough, and the lead characters this time thankfully were much less obnoxious as some of the other paper bags that this show has to work with. Nevertheless, the standards to which I’m comparing this are really low. This episode wasn’t abysmal, but one third of it was recap, the jokes were corny at best and the non-action scenes were pretty cheesy. Also, are these men really supposed to be high school students? I mean, how many grades did these punks repeat anyway?
ED: Boring J-Rock
Potential: 5%

Darker than Black – Kuro no Keiyakusha Gaiden – 02

by psgels, posted in Darker than Black - Ryuusei no Gemini



Ah, excellent. The Gaiden OVA is another one of those extra OVAs that aren’t just meant to be side-stories, but a vital part of the series. This episode yet again did a wonderful job of tying the first season to the second. It didn’t just explain what happened to Yin, but also some of the smaller plot-holes of the second season were explained.

The big question is of course: what the heck is that thing that took control of Yin? Izanami seems to be vital to this, and I guess that the entire point of the second season was to explore the possibilities of “Izanagi”. You know, that all just hints at a possible third season. There’s no way for the creators to have considered the end of Ryuusei no Gemini to be the end of this franchise.

I also stumbled upon an interesting article here (translated here), in which the general graphic director of Sora no Oto claimed the following thing: “People won’t be moved nor consented unless someone dies. Why aren’t they impressed by the character’s survival? It’ll be an easy job to create a war anime from now on. You can make a popular anime by letting the characters kill each other!”. To me, that’s not the reason of why I’m such a fan of Darker than Black’s habit to just kill off people. I’m perfectly happy with people surviving, as long as it’s done believably (which is exactly why I have no problems with Hei surviving all this time, because of how this series has shown how careful this guy works). It’s when creators start pulling Deus ex Machina to just keep a character alive that it becomes a big problem. It’s just as bad as them pulling a Deus ex Machina to just kill off a character. In the end it’s the story that should dictate whether characters live or die, not a desire to include more cheap drama.

I also have a small question about that Contractor destroyer thingie, shown after the ED. If that doctor knew how to increase the power of a contractor all along… then why didn’t he use it? And what exactly does it mean to become a more powerful contractor anyway? Will their abilities have less limits or something?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Eden of the East I – The King of Eden Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Eden of the East



After watching this movie, I’m sure of it: Higashi no Eden should never have been a Noitamina-series. The time-slot is perfect for those short stories that have a small but dedicated focus a la Tokyo Magnitude, slice of life stories like Hataraki Man and Antique Bakery or episodic series in the way of Kuchuu Buranko or Hakaba Kitarou. Series that want to tell a huge story are far better off with a regular time-slot of 26 or more. This is the mistake that shows as Library Wars and Jyu Oh Sei also made. The series of Higashi no Eden just jumped around too much to really allow the story to develop properly.

The movie’s pacing is completely different. It’s here where Kenji Kawayama has more than enough time to spend on telling his story. And that’s exactly what made it work for me. It’s a shame that the build-up of the first season left things to be desired, because otherwise it really would have been an excellent movie.

And seriously, I was expecting the two Eden of the East Movies to jump around just like the TV-series did. Instead, they focus on believability and realism. The background sounds are kept to a minimal. And instead we get to see long, long scenes of character-building that don’t attempt to cut any corners whatsoever. It really takes its time to let everything flow naturally, which makes for a very slow-paced movie, but the characterization is worth it. This really is just like Seirei no Moribito: not afraid to get boring in order to be realistic, which often has its uneventful times. It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to watch such an anime, and it’s without a doubt refreshing and I’ve got to admire the restraint of this movie, avoiding the use of overly cheesy monologues or over the top plot twists, while occasionally packing a punch where needed.

There are a bunch of weird things with this movie, though. While the TV-series did a surprisingly good job at handling the language barrier, the movie… um… didn’t. One scene shows Saki talk in English to an American with a really weird accent who uses really short sentences. A while later, we see Akira talk to the same guy, in JAPANESE. The American understands him and just talks back in English. Uh, why? How? There are also some of the side-characters that I still couldn’t buy. The comic relief of Saki’s friends… I’m still not much a fan of them.

Nevertheless, I have to admit: a lot of attention to detail was put in the atmosphere of a young company. I can very much relate to that (due to my current internship and all), and I must say that the creators caught it spot-on. And that’s really the great thing about this movie: the realism that you really don’t get to see in many other anime. Despite the hiccups, this movie was really refreshing compared to how the TV-series disappointed me. There are still a ton of questions that need to be answered in terms of the plot. But hey, with 90 minutes, Paradise Lost should be able to do it.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Much more focused than the TV-series. Really slow pacing allows for lots of realism.
Characters: 8/10 – Such a slow pacing gives a nice feel to the characters, but they still spend a bit too much time on exposition + badly portrayed Americans.
Production-Values: 9/10 – No significant increase in quality compared to the TV-series, but that one already looked awesome so there still is a ton of eye-candy.
Setting: 8/10 – I first want to see what Paradise Lost is going to do before celebrating this part: there is a ton of potential in this setting, provided that the next movie handles it well.

Ookami Kakushi Review – 72,5/100

by psgels, posted in Ookami Kakushi



Of course I was excited when I learned that a new series written by Ryukishi07 would premiere this Winter Season. His work on Higurashi and Umineko was brilliant. Well, as it turns out, the only similarity between Ookami Kakushi is a bit of a similar setting. Apart fro that, it’s completely different. And yeah, I agree that change is good, but it still feels like I’ve been wasting my time with this series.

And sure, there are some good ideas in it. The whole story about a divided town in the middle of nowhere, in which everyone acts so creepingly nice towards the main character who just moved in there. It has definitely potential to get somewhere, but this series never uses it and instead opts for a watered-down plot that gets less impressive with each progressive episode.

There are many culprits for this one, but my biggest problem with this series are its main character and main villain. Let me start with the former. Even though he’s the central character to the story, this guy… just doesn’t do anything. Seriously, every time something serious happens, he just stand there and looks. He never acts, he never tries to think of something, he never accomplishes something. He’s just… there. His central role in the series makes no sense and feels artificial at best. On top of that, the worst thing probably is that we never get to learn anything about him. At the end of the series, I knew as little about his life as at the start.

The villain, on the other hand, is ridiculously stupid. His motivations are cheesy and are just explained with one lazy line. His plans are full of holes and not clearly thought through. In fact, most of the adults in this series degenerate into complete idiots by the end of the series, just in order to have the various kids of the series in the centre of the conflict. As a result, the ending just makes no sense and is stuffed with a bunch of ridiculous plot twists.

The final nail in this series’ coffin for me was the acting, which was mediocre at the times where this series needed to deliver the most; especially the final third of this series suffered from rushed acting that failed to convey any emotions beyond the cheesy. While I feel like I cared about the characters in the beginning, but eventually they lost all believability due to the lukewarm execution. I guess that Ryukishi07 wanted to try out the shounen genre in this one, but he pretty much failed at it in my opinion.

Storytelling: 6/10 – Cheesy, never gets more interesting after its introduction.
Characters: 7/10 – Some characters have potential, but the lead character is useless, the lead villain is a paper bag and the adults are complete morons.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Hardly any animation errors, but nothing special.
Setting: 8/10 – The concept is nice enough. If the execution was right this could have had a lot of potential.

Maria-Sama Ga Miteru Fourth Season Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



The previous seasons all sort-of picked a bunch of characters, who surrounded the two lead characters of Yumi and Sachiko, and developed them. This season however, is different. It leaves most of the characters for what they are, and instead just picks one: Touko. While she might not have the most airtime, the entire fourth season is so written to explore her character to the fullest. Considering that she already had quite a bit of depth thanks to the second and third season, it’s perhaps not much of a surprise that this fourth season of Maria-Sama ga Miteru is my favourite one yet.

You could see Maria-Sama ga Miteru as a slice-of-life series, and indeed there are a ton of scenes in which we see the regular lives of the characters. However, I prefer to see it much more as a character-study: it’s always thinking to show off new sides of characters. It’s always thinking of ways to evolve them or give them more depth. You can see this not just in the main ones, but also the side characters. And really: we’re four seasons in at this point. When you add everything, the total amount of character-development in this season reaches higher than ever.

But the real star of this season is Touko. Basically, the creators try to pull something similar as to the climax of the second season, but it’s much more well balanced, and the conclusion is much more satisfying. The interplay between Touko and Yumi is explored really well. It’s emotional, and yet it doesn’t try to be too melodramatic (especially not when compared to the standards of most other anime).

Unfortunately, the animation isn’t up to par with what we’re used to from this season. Granted, it did have to follow up the great standards of an OVA, but I guess that at the time of this series’ production, Studio Deen’s best artists were working on… Jigoku Shoujo, Higurashi Rei and 07-Ghost, I guess. Faces in the background are often distorted and ugly and lack a quality check. There’s enough movement, though, so at least the creators didn’t try go take the cheap way out. This show certainly can’t complain about its inbetweeners.

But yeah. This is pretty much what you get when you give series the opportunity to fully shine by not suddenly cutting them off after 26 episodes: they really get to show their full potential. With nearly 50 episodes at its disposal, its character-development really set itself apart from most other high-school series out there. Here’s to hoping that many more series get this chance.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Well balanced slice of life and drama. Makes really well use of its setting as an elite high school.
Characters: 10/10 – Continues building up to the huge amount of character-development that this series already had.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Great inbetweeners, key-frames often lack quality checks.
Setting: 8/10 – There are already tons and tons of high school series. This is one of the few that actually makes this setting stand apart from the others.

Kobato Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Kobato




Kobato is one of those series that at first sight isn’t anything special. It starts with a premise, and repeats that for a bunch of episodes with a number of questionable results. In Kobato’s case, she has to heal a number of people’s hearts. I too wasn’t that much interested by this premise, having seen a few too many series with similar premises that never really went anywhere in the end. Kobato however, did.

The people that Kobato heals in the first half of this series range from nice enough to mediocre, so it’s understandable to get turned off at first. But oh, the character-development in the second half more than makes up for it. This is one of those series which is greater than the sum of its part. Through its entire airtime, it never forgets what it’s supposed to be, and what it’s supposed to build-up for. Every of the early episodes spends time to flesh out the characters, while the later episodes use this build-up to deliver with an excellent emotional impact, resulting in a heart-warming series.

Kobato truly stands out in how incredibly genuine she is. I found her an airhead at first, but her personality and innocence turned out to be so addictive that I couldn’t help but root for her. And true, the story in the second half can get pretty soppy at times, but this isn’t the show that tries to pull deus ex machina for extra drama, and instead carefully builds it up.

Madhouse has done the animation, and despite that you can easily see that this wasn’t the series that their best artists were working on, they still delivered great graphics, allowing Clamp’s character-designs to shine, along with a few episodes that look absolutely gorgeous.

Kobato’s story is very simple, but it has really proven that it’s in no way a disadvantage. Due to its simple plot it had all of the time it needed to properly tell the story that it wanted to do. the ending is wonderfully un-rushed, and provides an amazing conclusion to the series that made optimal use of the time it spent on building up. This isn’t a series for people who dislike overdramatic-ish series due to the soppy parts, but this series’ second half hit all of the right buttons for me.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Never forgets the meaning of build-up. Simple, but very effective.
Characters: 9/10 – Excellent character-development, though the drama can get a bit soppy at times.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Madhouse rocks, even in their less-budgetted series.
Setting: 8/10 – Good attention to detail to the series’ small surroundings, plus some Clamp references that don’t feel forced or rushed.

Kobato – 24

by psgels, posted in Kobato

This is going to be a really short entry because I also still need to write this series’ review and get up early tomorrow as usual so I’m sorry but there’ll also be no screenshots for this one because I watched it streamed. I had to watch too much awesome stuff today in too little time…

Hell yeah! Kobato! Best ending this season! That was so adorable!

Rating: *** (Awesome)

Marie & Gali Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



One of the many things I love about writing this blog is being able to promote those unknown gems that most people haven’t heard of. Whether it’s because of a lack of subs, bad advertisement, a kiddish look or something else that caused only few people to give it a chance. Let me now sing praises over the series that I consider to be the best comedy-series out of all the series that I watched during the past four seasons: Marie and Gali.

From the outside, this looks like a cheesy kids’ show. And you know what? It is. However, it very quickly set itself apart as a one of a kind kids’ show. Episodes are only five minutes long, but every single episode delivers. Every single episode is hilarious. There are absolutely no weak moments. There are no jokes that fall flat. Heck, there are hardly any jokes that even get recycled! Every second of this show just sparkles with creativity.

Basically, this is a series that has been designed to make science fun for kids. And you know what? It more than succeeded. License this series, put a bunch of kids in front of it and they’ll love it. Throughout the series, great names as Galileo Galilei, Marie Curie, Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, Archimedes, Charles Darwin and a bunch more explain the principles of physics. It parodies them, but it also celebrates the great achievements that these people made in their times. It never takes itself seriously; instead, every moment was dedicated to make the different topics it discusses fun.

But what really set this show above all other comedies for me was its seemingly endless pit of creativity. The examples that the creators use in order to illustrate their points are beyond imaginative. It always has something unexpected in store, and every episode has something original. The entire script just sparkles with tons of nice ideas that the creators stuffed into the scenario. Because of this, I just kept looking forward to this series week after week.

Granted, the characters themselves are nowhere near realistic. They all act incredibly over the top, and often act a bit too much to their character-traits. However, I couldn’t help but love to seeing Marika (the lead character) gradually getting caught up in the frantic pacing of the rest of the characters. This show is incredibly hyperactive, but I truly consider this to be amongst my top 10 of favourite comedy anime that I’ve ever seen.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Every single episode delivers. Consistently hilarious and over the top and always pulls something unexpected.
Characters: 8/10 – Wonderful characters, although a bit too one sided, perhaps.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Everything looks like a visual feast, courtesy of Toei.
Setting: 10/10 – Makes science even more awesome than it already was. Sparkles with creativity.

Kobato – 23

by psgels, posted in Kobato



Aww. What a wonderful episode. It was perhaps a bit too dramatic, but I love this kind of stuff. It’s awesome to see a series which has entirely been building up to its final episode, and having that final episode actually pay off. This series did not try to be too epic. Instead, it remained true to itself and based on its simple premise. And while it may have been simple, this episode proved that it ended up way more effective than I could have expected.

What made this such an awesome episode wasn’t exactly because it was a bad ending. Rather, I absolutely loved this episode because of what it meant to the characters: here Kobato was, with the decision to either try and raise more konpeito (which may have not been enough at that point), or spend the rest of her time with Fujimoto. While at first it seemed a bit weird for her to spend time with him for an entire month (and seriously: Fujimoto’s still injured. that’s something you hardly see in anime, especially with such small wounds), it all made sense once we found out her secret. She’s dead.

The first part of this episode was slice of life, and the reason Kobato shined so brightly in this episode was because she knew that she was spending her last time and wanted to make the best out of it. It’s not far-fetched, and actually an adorable premise. The fate of the world was never involved, and instead this episode really was all about its characters, allowing it to really get the best out of them. I have just found my contender for the best ending of the season right now.

As for that final episode, I really wonder what it’s about. I mean, the main character has just died and we still have one episode left (let me by the way praise the creators for doing such a thing. I don’t recall any other show in which the lead character dies before the final episode), but my guess is that it’s going to close off the story of Fujimoto and Ioryogi. I especially want to see the latter. By the way, wasn’t this week supposed to air a double episode? I’m not seeing episode 24 yet…
Rating: **** (Incredible)

Sora no Oto Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Sora no Oto



Sora no Oto is another one of those ‘don’t by fooled by its looks’-shows. Sure, it may have the same character-designer as K-On, but its content is completely different. Instead it takes place Switzerland, in some sort of mysterious post-apocalyptic world of a threatening war and child soldiers. It tells the story of a military outpost, which can sometimes be quiet and laid-back, but at others dark and powerful.

This series has really been one of the very few series that can boast an original storyline nowadays. In 12 episodes, it paints the picture of a mysterious setting in which a ton of stuff happened in the past, and it’s truly at its best when it can flesh out this setting. It’s amazing how well detailed it describes the village that everything in this series takes place in, and the story that lies behind it. It leaves a lot to your imagination: it doesn’t reveal everything, but instead relies on the viewers to piece together all of the clues.

The characters themselves also have imaginative backgrounds. Through the series I liked how they first start out as those seemingly annoying moe stereotypes, but ended up developing in sympathetic ones. My personal favourite was the Felicia episode, which was a true triumph in storytelling. The slice of life is also very imaginative and has an interesting presentation, rather than trying to rip off the ton of other slice of life series that exist out there.

With a series that’s completely original, you’d expect that the creators would have the perfect opportunity to create a story that fits that 12 episodes that it consists of perfectly. But, now. The creators took too much on their plate and tried to be way too epic for their own good. If the characters didn’t somehow end up standing at the centre of a huge war, then it would have been significantly better. Instead, this show is stuck with an utterly terrible ending that doesn’t just fail to answer some of the most important questions, it’s utterly cheesy, nonsensical and furthermore it destroys a ton of build-up that the previous episodes tried to create so pain-stakingly. It’s a huge step beyond a simple ‘disappointing ending’.

In the meantime however, A-1 are showing more and more what an excellent production company they can be. This series looks utterly gorgeous, and the animation is vivid and imaginative, with especially the backgrounds being really well drawn.

But yeah, in the end this remains a series that went too epic than what was good for it. It’s a shame, I really liked it in the beginning, but for me, it left a nasty bad taste behind in its final minutes. I’m still recommending this show for its first two thirds, but just be aware that this show can’t fulfill the things it promises.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Very solid writing in the first two thirds. Last third is too rushed. Bad ending.
Characters: 8/10 – Interesting development, but some get taken a bit too far.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Beautiful animation and background art; the best OP of the past season.
Setting: 8/10 – Incomplete, but fascinating and well detailed.