Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra – 16

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



That was awesome on so many levels! This might actually have been my favourite episode of Armed Librarians yet, even though it’s vastly different from its usual formula, and mostly just an episodic story. But the ingredients! There was hardly anything in this episode that I didn’t love to bits.

The two new characters… you can count on this series to actually turn them immediately into something awesome, in the very first second of their introduction. What kind of nutcase visits an exotic and warm country… in A WINTER COAT?1Especially that woman was beyond hilarious. Her antics, especially when she was drunk were just full of creativity. This show just succeeds at just about everything it attempts, doesn’t it?

Also, I love Minth after this episode. Out of the Armed Librarians, he’s probably the most down to earth character: he’s manly and mature, unlike the inexperienced Mirepoc and Noloty, he’s not over the top like the other ones. And yet despite his manliness he has such an elegant power, one of looking into the souls of people. This episode that dealt with his background, and shows how he came to be the character he is now really established him as one of my favourite side-characters. In most other shows characters like him hardly ever get this much attention (he actually becomes the main character for an episode), but here you can count on every one of them to get his or her share of attention.

I also wonder how this episode was done in the light novels. There was a ton of visual comedy in it that I can hardly imagine to have been written down in text. The witty direction really was one of the things that made this episode work so well.

Oh, and about that main plot: what’s up with that tree? Why does it eat books? Why do the Armed Librarians take care of it? What an interesting twist we have here.

Seriously though, if the rest of the episodes of this series are going to be as good or better as this one, and it’s also going to close off with a good finale, then it’s going to be already one of the top contenders for my favourite shows of 2010, and I can’t even see Durarara topping it at this point in time. In such a dry season as this one, it’s great to have at least one series that pushes all of the right buttons for me.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Seikai no Monshou – 02

by psgels, posted in Seikai no Monshou



So this episode is a more formal introduction of the characters, while the previous episode showed more what the history of the setting was. Again, it has a lot of ingredients that you see in other anime as well, which mostly centred around Lafiel: she’s a young, cute girl of an exotic race that everyone hates.

But the characterization is done so well!

At first this episode took its time to show how Jinto has grown up after the previous episode, and how he kept his nobility secret from the friends that he grew up with. It already added a lot of depth to the guy by showing him close off his childhood, and his anxieties for his future. He’s already someone with his own identity, and who doesn’t have to rely on cheap stereotypes in order to stand out.

And then Lafiel. I really like how direct her questions are. This episode did an excellent job in showing the cultural differences between the humans and the Abh: Jinto has never met one of the Abh, since they hardly ever bother to show themselves among the humans, and at the same time Lafiel has grown up, never meeting a human. This episode portrayed the Abh as a very direct race: it’s common with them to be to the point, to the point where they’ve developed a culture that’s completely void of human laziness.

And again: Lafiel is not just a caricature of this culture. While this episode showed the general traits of the Abh, Lafiel also had her own personality.

It’s also interesting that this series was produced, right at the time where CG became actually possible to include in anime. You can see that there are no 3D models, but the creators do make use of the smaller stuff, like lighting, shadows and some computer screens. It was before companies got too confident and started to overuse it. Turn A Gundam which was produced around the same time as this series showed this as well: it was mostly CG free, though the eye-catch in the middle of each episode experimented with it.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Durarara – 02

by psgels, posted in Durarara



I first want to confirm something: AniDB labels this series as one with 24 episodes, but it’s also the only source to do so (no MyAnimelist doesn’t count, they don’t double-check their sources when putting up information). Can someone confirm that we’re indeed going for 24 episodes here, because AniDB usually tends to be correct with these things, it’s not like them to base information on something that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

In any case, Durarara already was my favourite show this season, and this episode only made it better. I really see no way in which this series isn’t going to work out well. The direction is incredibly solid, the way it combines the dialogue with the visuals, and the way it intertwines the different stories. There are many different characters here, and this episode made it clear that the creators aren’t going to be biased for the main ones, and intend to give every one of them attention. This episode actually showed many scenes of the first episode, but from a different perspective, and so they get a totally different meaning because of that.

Overall, this season is really dry and unimpressive. THIS is one of the few exceptions. It takes overdone tropes, like teen-aged angst and suicide, and gives them a fresh and original feeling. The city it’s placed in feels alive, especially in the first episode.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Some Quick First Impressions: Nodame Cantabile – Finale

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Nodame Cantabile – Finale

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is studying hard.
Well, the big question with this series is of course: is it going to recapture the magic of the stellar first season, or is it simply going to turn into a nice though uneventful romantic comedy of the second season. The big problem here is Chiaki Kon, as she’s well on her way to become Shinbo II in the way that she’s been directing way too many series for the past two years. This episode started off pretty nice, setting up the premise for this season: Nodame getting her own concert. It’s about time for her to really develop, though, because I’m starting to get annoyed with her antics.
OP: Decent, but not very impressive.
ED: A quiet ballad, but again nothing special.
Potential: 60%

Ookami Kakushi – 02

by psgels, posted in Ookami Kakushi



Of course, when I first learned about this new series that was going to be written by Ryukishi07, I was very excited. But Nobuhira Takamoto? God, talk about a double-edged sword.

Technically, this is an excellent director: he knows his characterization, he’s excellent at building up, his climaxes are always very exciting with the way that he combines music with his in-your-face direction. However his pacing is terrible. His series are either too fast or drag on for way too long. Hatenkou Yuugi would have been a pretty charming travelling series if it didn’t keep flying over all the important bits (you also have to love its completely chaotic and disastrous final episode), while 07-Ghost would have been an exciting show it if actually would have gotten anywhere. However, he has made some good stuff: with Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club, he had the exact right amount of episodes to work with, and it became a really charming series. That’s what I’m hoping for here.

Basically it comes down to this: if he can get his pacing right, then this is a good rival for Durarara as my favourite show of the season. If not, then… yeah. If there’s going to be anything wrong with this series’ pacing, then it is that it’s going too fast: lots of stuff happened in this episode, and while it actually worked well right now, there’s no guarantee that it will also go well when everything has to come together. The series composition guy also isn’t helping much, because this is the guy responsible for the incredibly fast pacing of Allison to Lillia.

The success of this show basically comes down to one simple question: did the creators plan out the right number of episodes for this series? With those things, I’m never sure who’s actually responsible for making these decisions, but whoever you are: I really hope you put some thought into it, because you’re going to decide whether or not this show will rock or flop.

Anyway, about this episode: it did a great job of fleshing out the main cast. Letting everyone meet each other, and increasing the tension even more. We’re slowly getting a look at what’s going on here: there’s something really strange going on with the lead character’s new girlfriend, and my suspicion is that this is the central part of the plot. however, what’s the role of her brother, her classmates (why are they incredibly friendly with the lead character)? Is the decision for the lead character’s father to move to the town important to the plot? and what about that strange food advertisement? At this point, I have no idea how many different parties there are in this series.

For now, this series is doing its job: I’ve gotten very excited with this series during the small climaxes in this episode. Now let’s keep it that way!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kobato – 13

by psgels, posted in Kobato



Oh, screw it. I was going to blog Dance in the Vampire Bund instead, but its second episode was so underwhelmingly generic that I see no point in it. It was just another chance for Shinbo to draw more naked little girls and while the first episode was an interesting enough spoof on a Japanese TV-show, the second episode degenerated into a generic teen-aged love story in high school where the lead characters have generic superpowers (you can’t really call them vampires anyway: they’re just another one of these lead characters who have superpowers and who just “happen” to have spiky teeth. Catgirls have those too!). Nothing whatsoever caught my interest in it and I’ve gotten really sick and tired of Shaft and Shinbo at this point.

So yeah, why not? Kobato is definitely in need of more love at this point. It started off a bit iffy, but it has evolved into a surprisingly likable series. Amidst all of the melodrama, moe and stereotypes of this season, it’s good to see such a simple series with genuine drama. It’s a great thing that there are 24 episodes in this series, and at this point the series has really grown on me.

The problem with a lot of stupid characters like Kobato is that it’s very easy to make just stereotypes of them: make them always clueless, limiting their development. But Kobato turned out to be such a lovable character. Sure, she’s an idiot but there’s a lot more to her character than just that. What many people seem to forget is that she also is someone who takes action, and has a lot of passion for helping people. I can respect that of her.

Compare that with the idiots of Baka to Test to Shokanju: The characters are either too “smart” to fit in the characters or just blind sheep who follow behind the smart ones. Beyond one or two quirks, there’s nothing else that defines them. That will remain fun for a one-episode OVA, not an entire series. Series like Kobato on the other hand definitely have an uneventful start, but in the long run they amount to something much more worthwhile.

In this episode, we probably see Kubato at her best so far. Most of the episodes so far have presented some case that would always amount to a happy ending, however this time it’s different. The tree in this story was sick, it was being a nuisance to the neighbours, the people in the neighbourhood found it impressive, but at the same time didn’t support Kobato while she tried to save the tree, and she actually got nearly crushed by it.

Also, as for the thing s that happened earlier in this series: I love that bear. A black bear that has his own Baumkuchen shop as a punishment of some sorts. I have to give Clamp credit for such a great idea. But seriously, even the creators, even though they’re not particularly the best that Madhouse has to offer, did a very good job of bringing these characters to life.

And of course, what also rocks about this series is that it’s not necessarily a show about teenagers, but it’s one of those rare series that’s about people of all sorts of ages: there are little kids, middle schoolers, teenagers, college students, young adults, adults and even the elder. It’s got a bit of everything, and Kobato is actually one of the few teenagers here, without making it seem that the world revolves around them. While from the outside, you’d never suspect it, but this series has a lot of things that other anime can learn of.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Gag Manga Biyori Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Okay, so I got interested in the rest of the Gag Manga Biyori after watching the first episode of its fourth season, so I tracked down the first season (unfortunately, the complete second and third season are nowhere to be found). I’m glad I did, because it really is an awesome comedy. Good luck finding a series with more energy than this one.

To give a bit of an indication of the chaos of this show: imagine one of the fast paced episodes of Gintama. Make that pace twice as fast, and you’ve got your average episode of Sexy Commando Gaiden. Double the pacing yet again, and you’ve got an average episode of Gag Manga Biyori. It’s just insane in every single way. After watching this series, I actually tried watching an episode of Hetalia Axis Powers in between. While that usually was an energetic comedy, it suddenly became incredibly boring and slow paced in comparison.

Every episode is five minutes long and shows a standalone story that shows a bunch of random people doing something random. About half of them take place in the past and show famous historic people, while the other half takes place in modern times and parodies something to the extreme. Every episode is funny in its own way, and three in particular were absolute classics for me (the sticker, the end of the world and the death episode). There are a few episodes that drag on a bit too much, but the set of brilliant episodes more than make up for it.

This type of humour of course isn’t to everyone’s tastes, but if you liked Sexy Commando Gaiden then you’ll also like this, because it’s taken its randomness much, much further. I really urge people to at least not ignore the fourth season that’s currently airing. Somehow get it subbed, because it’s a unique comedy. I also loved how every episode has a different ED, where only the… um… lyrics… remain the same. I really wonder what mindset the performers were in when they recorded them…

Storytelling: 9/10 – Insane. Just insane.
Characters: 8/10 – Nearly every episode has completely new and unrelated characters.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Looks simple, but the animation is surprisingly fluid for a comedy.
Setting: 8/10 – Instead of taking the more obvious historical figures, this chronicles the people that most western anime fans have never even heard of.

A Quick Look and Review of AnimeTV

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

If you’re wondering what’s up with this post: I was actually asked by the marketers of AnimeTV to review their first episode. It’s awesome to see such a request from a professional company, but at the same time that’s not going to stop me from giving it a fair review. AnimeTV basically is presented by Johnny Yong Bosch and Christina Vee, and it shows reviews of mainstream anime and interviews of important people in the American anime business. Right from the start it’s clear that it’s aimed at teenagers, rather than a wider demographic, so I’m not exactly the target audience, but here’s what I think about it:

Episodes are split up in three parts. The first part is called the “Hima segment”, where a panel of four people basically discusses what they’ve been watching, reading or playing. Basically a round of quick recommendations. The first part is a pretty nice recommendation for the Strongest Disciple Kenichi; it discusses why it’s more interesting than your average shounen, and even though it would have been interesting to see them discuss some of the lesser parts of the manga, it piqued my interest. After that there was a nice part about a new manga from Clamp and how they refuse to do cute stuff.

The segment completely derails after that, though. An overly obsessed Naruto fangirl starts rambling a completely incoherent story that clearly wasn’t prepared beforehand. In about one minute, she basically did just about everything that you shouldn’t do when making a quick recommendation: it’s incredibly disjointed, nonsensical for people who aren’t familiar with the Naruto franchise, instead of talking about what makes it good, she starts shipping her favourite couples, she imagines herself in the storyline and she actually spoils part of the storyline (way to go in a segment that’s meant to get people interested in a franchise…). This is the kind of talk that you’d expect in a bad fanfiction forum, not in such a professionally produced video like this.

After that another guy talks about the Yugioh trading card game, but he never really says anything about it. If I watched this video without knowing about it, I’d still be clueless. He just rambles on and on about how he pwns at the game, but that’s about it. People from Revision3: you wanted my opinion on this bit, and here it is: dump these two dimwits and replace them with two people who do know how to voice their opinions properly. You’ve got such a great opportunity to record a program to promote anime in a professional environment. You can’t waste it on these two people.

The next segment shows an interview, as we get to see inside the Bang Zoom studios (the same that was invaded by Conan o’Brien a few months ago, apparently), and an interview with a voice actors and one of its executives. This may just be me being outside of this show’s target audience, but that interviewer got very much on my nerves. He placed too much emphasis on himself, and too little on the actual people he tried to interview. I’m not sure whether teenagers would appreciate that style of interviewing more, though. When the interview actually gets to business, I guess it’s interesting enough, though not anything special. The second interview was a bit cheap, because the guy who was interviewed also worked as the producer of AnimeTV. It must not have been hard to get an appointment with him…

The third and final segment is an actual review of a mainstream anime, and I think that this is the best part of AnimeTV. What makes it more interesting than your average review is that the creators basically put four people in one room, and all of them have different opinions on what they watched. This is actually a pretty good way to collect different opinions. The fanboy and fangirl are back, though, and while they’re a bit better here, they pretty much stated the obvious and the girl again couldn’t resist to comment on the hotness on one of the male characters.

My basic issue with AnimeTV is that while they have nice ideas, a lot of the reviewers and interviewers don’t really make use of the unique opportunity here. They’re part of the Invision 3 network, which also has many other shows that are not about anime, and thus it has the potential to get non-anime fans curious into the franchise. If you then have a rambling Naruto fangirl going on and on about how she’d like to marry one of the characters, then that’s only going to have the opposite effect. With good reviewers however, it has the potential to be an interesting show.

Sora no Oto – 02

by psgels, posted in Sora no Oto



Yeah, with this episode I’m sure: the thing that’s keeping me interested in Sora no Oto is the setting. This episode did a great job of fleshing out the abandoned school building that the lead characters live in. I’m interested in the customs that these girls have, the history behind the people who once were in the school, and the overall culture in the country of Helvetica. It’s imaginative, detailed and inspired. I love how this episode took its time to introduce the various rooms in the building. That’s why I think that this show rocks.

As for the characters… yeah. They could be better, they could be worse. Rio is about the only one with a bit of an interesting personality. The other four are just archetypes. In this episode, they behaved too one-sided and according to their role (the big boobed mother-figure, the optimistic girl, the tsundere and the sleepyhead). If someone has an optimistic character, it doesn’t mean that she’s happy 24 hours of the day!

I’ve seen much worse, though. They’ve got the potential to grow, and as long as the drama isn’t going to get either too heavy or rely too much on these stereotypes, they shouldn’t get in the way of the rest of the series, and they’re fairly enjoyable so far.

The director himself is promising, but not flawless. He’s done Elfen Lied and Denpa-Teki na Kanojo, so he’s great at building up tension, but usually doesn’t seem to care about believability, which is pretty much shown in the character stereotypes here. Still, I can see how he can make this story work. I’m not that sure about the series composition, though. Hiroyuki Yoshino doesn’t really have a good track record, having been involved in quite a few unbalanced series with an original plot. Still, A-1 has struck me as a company who doesn’t like to interfere as much with its content as Sunrise or Satelight like to do, so perhaps this will allow him to finally show what he can do without being marred by production executives.

Because yeah, the big advantage of this series is that it’s an original story for as far as I can tell. No manga, no light novels. There’s not going to be an issue of chapters that don’t translate well or manga fans that go berserk because a certain part was left out or done wrong, and the potential for this series cutting off in the middle of its story is also very low. It’s great to see that amidst the crisis, there are still anime that dare to go with original stories that haven’t been tried and tested before.
Rating: * (Good)

Maria-Sama ga Miteru – Haru Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



I now see that it’s not exactly right to call Maria-Sama ga Miteru a shoujo ai series. If you want lesbians, there’s Aoi Hana, Sasameki Koto, Blue Drop or Candy Boy. Instead, it’s more like a relation-focused drama series that just hardly has any male characters in it. The second season continues pretty much where the first one left off, but it focuses more on drama than on the slice of life.

And it’s really the same typical drama of this series, that tends to make an elephant out of a mosquito. Because of how elegant the culture inside the school and especially the “student council” that this series focuses on is, the creators can really make the simplest things seem like huge problems, without overdoing it and delving into melodrama. Though granted, the second season seemed to be edging for that line a bit more than the first season did.

However, it also continues developing its terrific set of characters, who still remain the selling point of this series. What’s special about this season is that various characters come and leave, and so the main cast at the end of the series looks quite a bit different from what it looked like in the beginning. There’s a ton of background, extra depth and character-development in this season, which makes it worth watching if you enjoyed the first season.

I still think that my favourite episodes are in the first season (the Sei episode), however on average the second season is superior: it’s more consistent and overall more interesting development, although the final arc may have taken things a bit too much overboard. The graduation arc however rocked. It was subtle yet touching, and so many characters were developed in that arc alone.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Elegant atmosphere, subtle drama.
Characters: 9/10 – Tons of extra development, background and depth for the cast of characters.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Great character-designs, gentle music.
Setting: 8/10 – An unique portrayal of a catholic school, unlike most stereotypical portrayals of the elite you see in your average anime.