Halo Legends Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Those who have been reading this blog for a while now probably know that I’m a big fan of those compilation-movies: the ones that challenge all kinds of different artists and storytellers to produce a short animation film of 10 to 20 minutes, and combine them all together into one. The fact that Halo Legends is based upon an American franchise makes it even better, giving these films an international flavour, combining east and west.

Overall, even though I’ve played none of the games, I was very pleasantly surprised by Halo Legends, there are some true gems among these stories. Here are some individual comments on all of them:

Origins – I – Just a background story of the world the games are set in. It’s a standard post-apocalyptic story, but well paced. It’s got a great soundtrack all-round, and the art looks pretty nice. The animation however… not so much.

Prototype – I went into this without any background story whatsoever, so I did miss who these characters were, but that was the beauty of this episode: it possesses enough characterization and background to make them stand apart anyway, and the holes in their background added to their mysterious characters. This one produced a great feel of the battlefields that the Hal-games envisioned.

The Babysitter – This one starts out mundane and boring, but ends as the best one yet. Despite the weak set-up it continues to push the right buttons and even gets some development into the short time-frame. The graphics also move from rather ugly to utterly gorgeous, and you can really see that the guys from Studio 4C are trying out a ton of different animation techniques.

The Package – Entirely rendered in CG – yes, even the characters’ faces. It looks great, but this episode tries to be a bit too much like a game, and the formula hurts a lot. Game adaptations are great, just because out of all possible adaptations they require the most input from the creators of the adaptations, in order to really work (there’s no way to animate game-over screens, after all), and this one took too little liberties, and just went for the eye-candy. I like eye-candy, but not when I don’t care about the rest of the story.

Homecoming – Whoa! Another excellent example of how much you can do in just fifteen minutes. Instead of showing a random story, the creators succeeded in showing a character here, one with actual depth that gets explored perfectly in such a short time-frame. Oh, and best soundtrack yet, and the backgrounds are also gorgeously detailed. The characters’ faces were a bit too much of plastic, though.

Odd One Out – And now for something completely different. Odd one out has no depth, it’s got a basic story, premise and lacks any sort of intelligence. What it is, however is a fun ten-minute shounen episode with lots of loud people fighting. Nothing special, but the characters all have their charms, and that’s what I think the creators of this one tried to achieve.

Origins – II – Oh, the graphics in this short kick so much ass! No frame feels the same, every frame is full of imagination and incredibly varied. This one is again back-story, and the slide-show it presents while the central character has her story does wonders to illustrate her narration. This drew me in far more than the first Origins, and smartly uses the build-up provided by the former.

The Duel – This one also is done entirely in CG, but with a really weird filter put on top of it. It’s… intrusive to say the least. In any case, what sets this one apart is the classic Japanese style of storytelling: here the creators took an evil alien race, and turned it into a Japanese-esque tribe of pride and stubbornness. The characters are pretty static, though, and the scenario was a bit too predictable at times.

If I’d have to rank these eight from least favourite to most, it’d be the following:
8. The Package
7. Odd One Out
6. Origins – I
5. The Duel
4. Prototype
3. Origins – II
2. Homecoming
1. The Babysitter

The top four were a bit of a weird experiment. For those who were looking forward to Mamoru Oshii’s involvement: don’t. He only worked on The Duel, and while it was an interesting attempt to show that animation is more than just 2D and 3D CG and Japanese or American, it was 1) too Japanese for that to really work, and 2) you could clearly see that it was just 3D CG with a random filter. Anyone with a video editing tool could do that.

The bottom four however, were definitely worth it, and Bones, Bee-Train and Studio 4C did an amazing job bringing these short stories to life. I especially loved Homecoming and the Babysitter: even though the characters looked a bit weird in the beginning, they made up with it with some amazing eye candy and a ton of personality. It’s very difficult to get sympathetic characters out of just 15 minutes, but these two more than did it.

The best in terms of graphics came from Studio 4C; while just about every episode aside from the Duel looked great, Origins and The Babysitter push good looking even further by not focusing on extreme detail, but instead on creativity. Their shorts are a visual feast, mostly because they throw in so many different artworks that are varied, bold and all kick ass. The music… hell, do I need to even say it? While the music was excellent for every short, Homecoming had by far the best soundtrack.

All I can say is: Studio 4C, Production IG, Bones, Bee Train, and just about every other anime studio who’s ever participated in these kinds of projects: please keep doing them! The beauty of these projects is that with so much diversity, there are so many interesting and different stories to tell. Sure, there will be some disappointing episodes, but even then the nice ones are bound to make up for them.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Prototype, Origins II, Homecoming and The Babysitter make excellent use of their short time-frame and put forth a truly engaging story.
Characters: 8/10 – A bit held back by the cardboard characters of Odd One Out and The Package.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Gorgeous and varied graphics, though at times the animation itself could be better.
Setting: 8/10 – I’ve never seen Halo, and I’m impressed at how they portrayed such a seemingly cliched back-story.

Durarara – 08

by psgels, posted in Durarara



One of the many reasons why this series rocks is the following: even though every episode is dedicated to one particular character (in this case Celty), it never forgets that it has a huge cast, and also shows some of the lives of the other characters that don’t have anything to do with the episode’s main focus, beyond mere cameos. This is especially important early on in the series, and a lot of series seem to forget the entire rest of the cast when they decide to dedicate an episode to one or two particular characters. This is a great way to breathe life into all of your characters, rather than just one or two.

I also have to say, that this show is very good at red herrings. We finally get to see Celty’s real head confirmed. I could have sworn that it was captured by that scientist woman, but no! It was the girl with the scar after all! In any case, it’s great to finally see an episode from Celty’s perspective. This episode was mostly slice of life, but very enjoyable slice of life nonetheless. We got to see her worries and how much finding her head back means to her, and this episode managed to get much more into her character than in the Shinra-episode, at which she first was properly introduced.

The question-mark in this episode was that strange guy who blew himself up. I mean, what was up with that? We never saw him before, he just appears and then kills himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if Izaya was behind it, but still, that might seem a bit extreme even for him, to suddenly command an army of suicide terrorists…

And yeah, Walker and Erika were really cute together in this episode.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Maria-Sama ga Miteru Third Season Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



With this third season, I’m completely sold on the Maria-Sama ga Miteru franchise. The first season took a while to get going, while the second dragged on a bit too much in its second half, but this series of OVAs is perfectly paced, making for five excellent double-length episodes.

This season is all about character-development. It’s always been a big part of the Maria-Sama ga Miteru series, and it’s something that just gets better and better here in this season. It advances the characters, and also does wonders in fleshing out how exactly the characters have changed from the beginning of the first season.

While at first sight yet another high school drama, Maria-Sama ga Miteru sets itself apart in so many different ways. The unique drama that results from the fact that it’s a very neat school, so much that even the tiniest misunderstanding can create genuine and powerful drama. The way in which each student chooses her own younger sister gives a unique twist to these characters, and really allows them to get the best character-development possible in such a setting. It’s a series that’s elegant and innocent, and this shines through the third season more than ever. Even though some of the most interesting characters of the first two seasons have left now, the remaining characters picked up the pace perfectly and created their own story. Yumi, while I once criticised her for sticking her nose into everything, has developed into a wonderful character at this point.

The OVA-format also means that there was no budget wasted on broadcasting costs, so the graphics also look better and more consistent than ever. This third season is well paced, with just the right balance between drama, slice of life and character-development. Overall, I’m very impressed.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Excellent balance and pacing that gets the best out of the characters.
Characters: 9/10 – At this point the characters all have some sort of interesting development behind them.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Very solid, as expected of the OVA-format.
Setting: 8/10 – Is set in a high school, yet feels unique.

Kobato – 19

by psgels, posted in Kobato



Oh, how I love Madhouse. Kobato has never been among their big-budgeted series, but in episodes like this they just go all out, and produce an absolutely gorgeous episode that has among the best eye-candy I’ve seen this season. The way they handle their CG is miles above most other animation companies.

And about this episode… I can only say how adorable it was. It was all about Kobato and Kiyokazu, and the development between the two was basic, but very heart-warming. Show this as a random episode and it’ll probably fall short. The reason why I enjoyed this episode so much was because of how the characters were already developed at this point. Kobato is the kind of series that doesn’t offer much in the short term, however it’s a gem on the long term.

Also, while he played just a very small part in this episode, I loved Ioryogi. He was just adorable, both in the way at which he kept reminding Kobato (who is more and more trying to avoid that matter) of the konpeito-bottle, and the way that he ended up celebrating Christmas. I really thought that that white creature didn’t want to talk to him anymore, but here this episode proved me wrong. This will offer even more opportunity for the creators to get the finale right. The main focus is going to be on two things:
– What will happen off the nursery?
– What will happen to Kobato?

The former will probably result in a good ending, but I don’t care about that: I’m only interested in the role that every single character will have in it. The latter however has been built up extremely well. It’s about the reverse of Chobits: in there the main storyline started off incredibly intriguing but became less and less interesting as the show went on. Here, I’m looking more and more forward to that ending. I blame Kobato: she’s become such an adorable character at this point.

(Not that I consider Chobits to be bad or anything, of course, but what made Chobits stand out was its collection of themes and subject matters, not the main characters).
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Sora no Oto – 08

by psgels, posted in Sora no Oto



A calm before the storm episode… through a really weird one. I admit that I didn’t expect such an episode at this point of the series.

So yeah. The fluff in this episode was very unconventional. After the hard-hitting previous episode, you’d expect the fun and games to be over, but instead we get a really uneventful episode in which Kanata waits for a phone to ring. The part in which she was about to wet herself was rather uncomfortable to watch. It was well written however, there’s no doubt about that.

However, we finally know what the final arc of this series is going to be about: saving the country. This has been a very down to earth series, but it had it coming: there were a few very clear hints pointing to this. The first one was the legend of the five priestesses: very basic foreshadowing. And then there’s the matter of the princess of the country being mentioned a number of times. This episode also confirmed that Rio has a very high status, and basically came here, running away from that.

The final five episodes are basically going to take care of that, and I bet that they’re going to be completely different from what we’ve seen from this series so far. I really hope that the creators weren’t too ambitious with it, I’d much rather have seen a finale that would focus on the characters. For this final arc, the creators are really going to have to take care to not overdo it and suddenly have our five-some god-mode themselves through this war. That’s the thing I’m most afraid of.

Oh, and Kanata in this episode proved that airheads can use their brains as well, when she revealed that she knew about the secret practices of the platoon. God, more anime should realize this.
Rating: * (Good)

Hanamaru Youchien – 07

by psgels, posted in Hanamaru Youchien



Um… why is this series trying to become a drama?

This was an all-around ‘meh’ episode. It completely dropped the roleplay and stuffed in a ton of cliches that anime creators normally use when they’re out of ideas. The ideas of bringing Tsuchida to his hometown was nice, but we already saw Yamamoto in her bikini last episode. We already saw Tsuchida’s tsundere sister in the last episode.

The summer festival. It’s a staple of generic harems. A ton of girls who comment on how the lead character is nice. Again, a ton of harem series done that before. Fireworks? Been there, done that. And seriously, what was up with that shallow drama between Tsuchida and his sister. I’ve asked this many times before: why is anime so obsessed over brother complexes? It’s less common to have a younger sister who isn’t in love with you!

The adults in this series stood out to me because they were so down to earth. Well… not any more.
Rating: – (Disappointing)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 45

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



That fight between Greed and Wrath… talk about animation! What an epic way to start off this episode. Interestingly enough, the rest of this episode was used to save some budget and the faces were off a bit. Ah well, it was well worth the eye candy.

This episode really formed the prelude to a new major arc in this series. The previous arc was really all about preparation: gathering allies, getting them to the right place and getting everything ready for the “big plan”. Right now, it seems that we’re about to start with the real stuff of this series: Mustang is back, and the characters around him are about to play a bigger role again. Ed is fully recovered and teamed up with Greed. Now everyone seems to be ready to put an end to Father’s plans.

The ED said so much about this subject. I love how much different parties are now working together at this point, and everyone is doing something different, meaningful, something that fits his character, doesn’t get neglected and has his own circumstances. I really have to praise the mangaka for weaving everything into one. She really did a wonderful job.

Also, @Mae Chung: I’m really glad that she’s not on a bus after all, but oh god… I really fear for her.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Heartcatch Precure – 03

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure



So, this is where the random cases start. It’s always been early with these kinds of shows, but there are hints! This episode actually had some small references to the previous two episodes, and actually progressed the characters a bit with their fashion club. Compared to say, Fresh Pretty Cure last year where beating the monsters felt as mundane as eating lunch, the creators created some sense of urgency and threat into the monsters of this series, and yet they add in enough touches of comedy, so that the mood never gets too serious. Trying to describe this made me realize how hard it is to actually pull this off, especially with such a predictable formula.

At this point, I’m just looking for these small details and references. The girl in this episode was upset because she couldn’t join the boy’s football club, which tied in nicely with the two lead characters, who were also trying to find new club members. Also, when her inner heart was defeated, she didn’t get exactly a happy ending in the way that the soccer club magically allowed her, but rather she stopped whining and instead tried to do what she could. I also liked how at the beginning, we got an entire bird’s-eye view of the town that this show plays in.

They’re small details, but probably the next 13 episodes will be pretty much of this formula. It’s up to the creators to make every episode enjoyable fun, and that’s exactly what this episode did, even though it wasn’t as good as the first two episodes. And heh, this episode was also full of eye candy during the ton of transformation scenes. Not since Utena have recycled scenes looked this stylish.
Rating: * (Good)

Cross Game – 46

by psgels, posted in Cross Game



I must say, I enjoyed this episode a lot more than I thought I would. The baseball part is still pretty shallow (Kou and the others just blew themselves through the semi-finals without a scratch), the atmosphere was excellent and the different characters were pushed even more forward.

Two annoying trends finally got broken: Akaishi and Senda’s uselessness, as both of them manage to hit a homerun. But a major part of this episode was dedicated to Akane: she’s about to have surgery. While it’s probably going to be just fine, you can see the effect this has on the rest of the characters. Especially Akaishi, as he finally managed to pull himself out of this dip he’s been having.

I was afraid that this series would lose its charms during this final arc, but the characters have gotten more enjoyable than ever right now, even without the usual snarky way of storytelling: these past episodes have gotten much more straightforward than the rest of this series, and yet this series didn’t self-destruct with this change of pace. Now that’s the sign of a good series!

It’s just a shame that the budget was lost in this episode: the match was just a bunch of still frames…
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Letter Bee – 20

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



Oh, this is bad. This is not looking good. Take a look at the DVD-page of the official website. Especially the caption: テガミバチ DVD ＜全７巻＞.

巻 (kan) means volume. 全 (zen) can mean “all”, “whole”, or “complete”. So yeah. Letter Bee is only going to consist out of seven volumes, standing for about 25 episode. Dammit Studio Pierrot. If you’re going to have the balls to drag this series on with a ton of filler, you’d better animate the entire series. At this point, there’s no hope for a second season: the series is nowhere near popular, and if Studio Pierrot wanted to drag on this series, they’d just throw in some extra fillers.

I’m getting very tired of this. If you’d ask me what I hate the most about anime, it’s not the crappy moe series, it’s not the endless teen-aged angst, and it neither is cardboard characters or badly developed characters. It’s the fact that so many series only plan to animate a part of their story with no intention to cover the rest of it if it’s not popular enough.

With a series as Guin Saga, I can forgive the creators: it was epic, and I had a lot of fun watching it. Letter Bee however… meh. The entire point of these fillers was to build up an atmosphere just for when the story gets good. It doesn’t make any sense if we’re never going to get to that point.

Be prepared to see this show dropped. I’ve lost my motivation for it now. It’s not even an issue of time: I would have gladly blogged this series if it took up 50 or more episodes. However, this… I fail to see the point of it.
Rating: (Enjoyable)