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.

Sora no Oto – 12

by psgels, posted in Sora no Oto



No. No, they didn’t. This didn’t just happen. It can’t be. This show was heading in such a good direction. It was so on its way to be amongst my favourite series of the Winter season. And then it pulls this. I was fearing for this show to end with a cliched route, and it actually pulls off something worse than I ever could have expected.

This is just… unbelievable. The ending went well enough, I guess. It was a bit melodramatic, but okay. Then the action starts, and the spider somehow is totally fixed again. Despite that, it’s not something that was too bad, and I had seen far worse endings at that point. However, then Kanata started playing the trumpet. And every single soldier stopped and listened. What a headdesk moment!

To think that out of all series, this show would end up pulling a “let my song stop all fighting”-ending. What a disappointment. The creators tried to save it by having Rio show up from absolutely nowhere just seconds after that, but the damage already was done for me. It’s one of the first endings I’ve seen this season, but I have no doubt that it’s going to end up as the single worst one. Yes, even Ookami Kakushi’s finale felt more satisfying than this thing.

I’m really thinking of how I’m going to end up judging this series. Before this episode, I had no doubt that my top 3 of the Winter Season would consist out of Durarara, Heartcatch Precure and Sora no Oto. After this episode, I might actually consider to put Gag Manga Biyori + in its place. This wasn’t just a bad episode, but for me it actually destroyed all of the credibility and realism that it built up in the previous things. War should have been a horrible inevitable thing. And here the characters come and solve it like it’s nothing, exactly at the most convenient time for the writers. Blegh.
Rating: —- (Abysmal)

Cross Game – 49

by psgels, posted in Cross Game



Oh god, no. It’s going to continue into the next episode (which is also going to be the final one). This is exactly what I’ve been fearing for 20 episodes now: this show just isn’t good at baseball matches. and to drag them on like this. It’s a shame that this show had to be about baseball. I can understand that without it, the characters couldn’t have developed the way they did, but this also made this kind of finale inevitable.

Overall the creators tried to put in some nice twists and all, but writing a good baseball match is all about building up tension. Over the entire series. At this point Kou and Azuma have been so god-moded that I’m not exactly rooting for them to make it. Even though Kou slipped up, the bugger actually hit a home-run later to make up for it.

In any case, at this point I consider this to still be a wonderful series, but when compared to Touch, in the end I have to say that Touch was better. While its characterization may have been not as good as Cross Game, and it may have been a tad too long for its own good, it was more balanced, and every part about it was well written, even the lesser exciting arcs. It all amounted to some great character-development and excellent baseball matches. Even the final climax was wonderful to watch, despite the seemingly cliched set-up.

I don’t think that the problem with Cross Game would have been solved if the creators spent more effort into the baseball matches. The thing is that the slice of life was just that good. I seldomly have seen it this witty and consistently enjoyable. The biggest mistake that this series made in this that could have been fixed is the way in which they treated the opposing team: the development of these people sucks when compared to the main cast. These guys needed much more attention if they wanted to make impact in this match.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Heartcatch Precure – 07

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure



Agh, no. They’re going to animate the the Precure Allstars Movie in 3D. The promo that took this week’s episode’s OP’s place looked horrible because of it. I really hope that Toei isn’t planning to do that with the Kaidan Restaurant Movie. I’m actually looking forward to that one.

In any case, that student council president! Her story came way earlier than I expected, and it was also completely different from what I expected. She quite forcefully jumped out of her role as romantic interest when her gender was revealed (in a quite funny way, actually), breaking yet another shoujo stereotype in the process.

Her story also contains the opposite of a well used trope: the weak younger sister. Instead, the student council president has a weak older brother. Refreshing; I haven’t seen that since watching Otogizoshi. Her story was well told. It’s also nice how they managed to tie the fashion club into her story: at first I thought it was just going to be a pointless gimmick to keep the characters busy, but it actually contributed to her development a bit.

I also wonder: will the fact that that bishie got smashed have any effect on the rest of this story? Knowing the creators, they might actually include the consequences of having these desatorians turn against their creators.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hanamaru Youchien – 11

by psgels, posted in Hanamaru Youchien



Another episode that was not so much about the kindergarten, but more about Tsuchida himself and his attempts at hitting on Yamamoto, who still remains incredibly dense. Still, I have to admit that this episode impressed me with an actual reason for it: how she wants to devote all of her time to her work, so that she believes that she wouldn’t have enough time to properly invest in a relationship. That just put her one step above all other generic clueless leads.

There also were a ton of Anzu-jokes in this episode, but it’s interesting that they weren’t so much random, but instead just an attempt of her to cheer up Tsuchida after the last episode. On top of that, we learned more about Sakura and her job. Consider that this was the penultimate episode. My expectations really were that this series would fall apart with cheesy drama for its finale, but surprisingly this show has never been better than the past number of episodes.

Still, in the end I do want to see more anime about a subject that most romance series try to avoid: ACTUAL RELATIONSHIPS. Romance series seem to be all about the tease: trying to get the two lead characters to be together. What I’d like to see is a couple actually getting together early. You know? The main character already being in a relationship at the start of a series.
Rating: * (Good)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 49

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



Sorry, but I have to get back to Pride again. I just keep wondering what it means to be considered “the strongest” homunculus, and whether he can really be measured as such, especially considering the other homunculus. Does he have the biggest amount of strength of the homunculi? I doubt that actually, considering Sloth and Envy. The biggest defense? Nah, Sloth and Greed are also incredibly sturdy. Meanwhile, I believe that his speed is about equal to that of Lust and Wrath. I think that what sets him apart is more his combination between strength and range of weapons that can hit from multiple directions.

So while he might be considered the “strongest” homunculus, I doubt that he’s been the most useful one. He might have the upper hand in battle, but he never uses that. Ed in this episode could be excused, but what about the others? He could have easily killed all of them, and yet only the lion got a few wounds that don’t seem too serious. Compare that to Wrath’s battle against Greed, in which Wrath just kept pushing his attacks on Greed, leaving as little opportunity as possible for Greed to recover. That’s something I consider stronger than some kid who holds a lot of power but doesn’t use it, and I believe that Wrath would actually be able to make minced meat out of Pride if they ever were put up against each other. And even Ed: why didn’t Pride just grab him in the way that he took control of Al?

In any case, that didn’t mean that I didn’t like this episode. It was another excellent build-up to the inevitable promised day, and how different parties are coming together again. I liked how the four chimeras finally saw each other again (not knowing that they’ve decided to betray Kimblee). And despite my gripes about Pride’s fighting ability, the part about his relationship with his ‘mother’ was definitely interesting.

As for Roy’s plans, I’m also curious about those ones: what was the point in kidnapping Bradley’s wife: the end of this episode showed that the military clearly doesn’t intend to consider her safety; especially with Bradley gone now. Next episode should again start with an intense action scene in which we can finally see Roy in action again.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

On a side-note: I finally changed the banner for this site, after having the previous one for more than three years by now. The image comes courtesy of Rel, an amazing artist. I’ve made a few other potential banners in the process. Do you suppose that these might look more appropriate?

After this I’m planning to overhaul the side-bar. My plans are to:
– Move the most recent post upwards for easier browsing.
– Sort the series entries on recommendation-worthy.
I’ve also been toying with the idea to include a small section containing a link to my favourite episode each week, or something similar. How does that sound?

Cobra The Animation – 12

by psgels, posted in Cobra The Animation



So this was the build-up before the finale. Nothing remarkable is really to say about it, but it wasn’t bad either, and still solid Cobra-esque entertainment.

Overall, I really had my doubts when I found out that Osamu Dezaki wasn’t involved in the production of this series, and it really shows: despite a few shots, this series really went with its own direction in its attempt to pay homage to the Cobra manga. And you know what, it worked? As an adaptation of a very old manga, this series did just about everything it should have done.

But guaranteed, I am still dying for more Osamu Dezaki. It would be awesome if we could get another series like Ultraviolet: Code044 which really allowed this guy’s style to shine at its best. Nevertheless, looking back to this series it really has been fun. And it finally showed that fan-service can be more than just showing under-aged teen-aged girls. Sure, the characterization is as far from realistic as possible, but that’s part of this series’ charms.
Rating: * (Good)

Letter Bee – 24

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



Studio Pierrot… what do you think you’re doing here? My gripe with this episode is small, but it’s still very strange for such a thing to have happened: remember the episode that talked about Zazie’s past? This episode acted like it never happened, showing nearly the exact same flashback twice. Why wasn’t this caught? Adapting a manga isn’t just a matter in which you animate every page accurately. Story flow comes before the need to be faithful and if the creators decided to flesh out Zazie more in a filler episode (which of course was a nice idea), they also need to readjust the point in the manga that they tried to expand.

So yeah, that and the dull fight in this episode didn’t impress me at first. I think that overall, the Gaichuu fights in Letter Bee have all been unimpressive and mediocre. All of the interesting stuff happened around them and the fights were just something necessary to get to them. You really don’t want to watch this series for its action.

Still, when that Gaichuu started gobbling away that girl’s memories, I have to admit that I was totally reminded of why I’m still following this series. That’s the strength of this series: it’s seemingly stupid at times, and doesn’t have the best writers, but surprisingly heavy. Characters may seem like annoying stereotypes at one time, and yet I find myself to care about them once their memories get shown. It’s strange, but as mediocrily (is that a word) told as the regular story is, these memories are all told remarkably well.

Also, Gauche still remains a mystery. Considering that there are only two episodes left, I really wonder how much we’ll get to know of what the heck happened to him, before the long six-month wait until the second season appears. Right now things hint at an accident that happened somewhere around Honey Waters, and could it be that particular Gaichuu that got him? It’s unlikely, though: he was supposed to be the best Bee out there.
Rating: * (Good)

Musashi – The Dream of the Last Samurai Review – 57,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Mamoru Oshii… what exactly did you have in mind when you thought up the premise for this movie? What was the point? What did you want to prove? For God’s sake: why?!

I was actually looking forward to an anime documentary of Miyamoto Musashi’s life. Especially with the staff behind it. I’m a big fan of historical stories, and also of anime that put a heavy emphasis on dialogue, which is amongst Oshii’s trademarks. But this was just… too much. This movie is just… unbelievable. It’s seventy minutes of incoherent rambling that never seems to stop. As an anime, it fails. As a documentary… it fails as well. And as an experimental work… well it is unique, but this just didn’t work.

Ultimately, this movie has become “Musashi’s best fights animated, while some badly animated narrator gives a lecture about warfare”. And when I say badly, I mean that the animation for this guy is utterly terrible. There are so many things wrong with him, and he should never have been animated. The 3D CG he is animated in looks horrible, and the overall animation of this guy screams cheapness. He also has this strange female assistant who keeps making unfunny slapstick joke after unfunny slapstick joke in the background. These two distract way too much of what’s really important in this movie: Musashi himself.

Speaking of distracting… the dialogue also gets distracted by a ton of unrelated things. An example is one of the narrator’s seemingly endless monologues about warfare in Medieval Europe and Asia’s mainland. The topics he discusses are varied, but the dialogue itself is also so boring that I stopped caring about it it halfway through the movie, as it failed to give any characterization to Musashi himself, who really does nothing but fight as he’s shown on the screen.

Aside from the ugly CG, there also are a ton of live-action shots, and pretty much the only images where some effort has been put in is the shots of Musashi. Which basically amounts to 10% of the total airtime. And yes, this is coming from Production IG, Mamoru Oshii and the director of Otogizoshi. The music is pretty much the same: it’s catchy and nicely composed whenever Musashi is in the image. When he’s not, however, the music starts playing random classical tunes that have nothing to do with what’s being discussed, and were probably just chosen because they lack any licensing issues.

It’s also a joke how this show was advertised: “After years of movie hagiographies and mythification, the great Mamoru Oshii has seen to promoting this funny and profuse documentary that combines the most diverse animation techniques with historical rigor and rokyoku sung narrative.”. Mamoru Oshii originally thought of the premise; it’s no wonder he would promote his own creations. It talks down on all of the Musashi films and adaptations. It’s not funny. The animation is in no way diverse: it just has three styles: ugly CG, live-action backgrounds and traditional animation. Studio 4C could out-animate this movie to the moon and back in terms of diversity. And the “Rokyoku sung narrative” has been done by a ton of other series already, defeating the purpose of this experimental movie.

I hesitate in using the word ‘pretentious’, because I often see it misused by people for ‘a show with a ton of complex dialogue’. But I actually believe that this movie comes pretty damn close to it. It treats itself like it’s the best adaptation of Musashi out there, while the dialogue looks more like endless rambling rather than contributing to the characterization or actual storytelling.

Storytelling: 5/10 – The only things we get to actually SEE of Musashi are his most famous fights animated.
Characters: 6/10 – Musashi never speaks. Instead, the narrator does everything for him, and this guy is ANNOYING.
Production-Values: 4/10 – Pointless use of famous classical music, really ugly CG. Only Musashi looks good but it’s nothing compared to Production IG’s usual standards.
Setting: 8/10 – But I guess it’s a nice enough show about medieval warfare in general.