Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 40

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



I really want to thank all of the manga readers who drop by here to leave a comment for staying away from the spoilers. Even though I don’t reply often, I do read all of the comments that get posted, and they’re often insightful, yet don’t give away what’s going to happen next. That’s something I realized especially after this episode, where we suddenly get treated to Hohenheim and Father’s backstory!

This was an awesome episode, that filled in a lot of the blanks in the back-story. As it turns out, everything started with a king, tempted with the prospects of eternal life. It all started with one successful attempt to create a homunculus, if I understood correctly. In order to create it, the blood of a slave was used, who would later become Hohenheim. The problem was that that was a really weak homunculus, who could only exist within a glass flask. That homunculus tricked the king of the country (who was really gullible, apparently), to create a huge transmutation circle, which sacrificed the entire population of the country to create two philosopher’s stones: Hohenheim and Father.

Now we also know why it was so easy for Father to take control of an entire country: everyone was killed off in the first place so he could very easily take control. Now, one thing that this episode seemed to hint at was that there are philosophers’ stones of different levels, depending on how much people are sacrificed. In fact, note that huge picture that we also saw earlier on the ruins? This episode only showed the inner points in that picture to be lit. currently, father is trying to lay out a transmutation circle that covers the outer reaches of the circle.

Also, what about the door? This episode also showed that “the truth” was already there before father arrived: it was probably this truth that showed our little homunculus how he should create such a philosopher’s stone. My guess is that for Homunculi, it somehow is very easy to get to this door. So here’s my guess as to Father’s plans: the philosopher’s stones that he’s made of is very powerful, but not exactly the “perfect” thing, the thing that will give him true freedom. My guess is that he has to make use of people who have seen “the truth”, and create an even bigger transmutation circle to achieve full immortality. This episode established him again as a patient person who’s willing to go through great lengths in order to accomplish his goals. It’s perhaps a bit cliched for a villain, but at this point I really think that he’s trying to become superior to whatever is on the opposite side of that door, “the truth” that showed him about alchemy, and who keeps taking away body parts from people who attempt human transmutation.

There are still a lot of questions lingering, though. What kind of homunculus was Father before this transmutation? Was he an early form of Pride, or were there actually more homunculi? I also now see that homunculi need a philosopher’s stone to function properly. And only one stone per homunculus seems to be the limit, otherwise he’d just keep feeding them these stones in order to make them more powerful and efficient.

Also, what has Hohenheim been doing for the past centuries, really? It took him something like five centuries to figure out something that Ed and Al figured out in a couple of years. A lot of his life is still a puzzle at this point.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Cobra The Animation – 03

by psgels, posted in Cobra The Animation



This show is really something else. It’s very much a guilty pleasure, and I’m actually enjoying it more than most other shows this season. But damn. the things it tries to pull are just completely ridiculous.

So get this: Cobra and the girl arrive at the core of the planet, and are about to shut off its propulsion system that threatens to destroy it. A gravity field then gets triggered that traps them both. Cobra then trips, falls down a trap hole, ends up in a weird city, hits his head, loses his memory and suddenly an the show suddenly turns into a mafia street-fighting story. I mean… wtf?

The worst thing is that while Cobra (erm… or Joe) is spending days in that underground city, fighting, Secret is still there in the same place, being crushed by the gravity trap. I can understand Cobra himself: after all with amnesia he wouldn’t know what was going on there. What I can’t understand is the mindset of the writers when they came up with this? I mean, amnesia already is a cheap and overused plot device (just look at Dance int he Vampire Bund), but this just takes the cake in complete over-the-top and ridiculousness.

But yeah, I guess that that’s the charm of this series: it’s completely ridiculous, but at the same time it never claims to be something deep or realistic. And unlike most other shows this season, it’s actually got quite a bit of creativity and originality, and it’s one of the few series that doesn’t follow any of the modern bandwagons, other than being another remake. And this is why I love remakes: every single one of them tries to pay homage to its original series in its own way.

This episode thankfully looked a lot nicer than the previous ones. The direction still was lazy (one shot we see Cobra carry a naked Secret… the next shot she has her clothes back on. But the CG was really well done in some of the scenes. The art looked actually pretty good, and at least I’m glad that this isn’t a series that blew all of its budget in the first episode.

But yeah, the only tension in the fight is there thanks to Yoshihiro Ike’s soundtrack. It’s really getting ridiculous how insanely powerful Cobra has become, up to the point where the enemy has to poison him in order to win. It’s so obvious that in the next episode, Cobra is going to pull yet another ridiculous stunt in order to get back at them like that.
Rating: * (Good)

Letter Bee – 15

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



Oh boy, it’s been a while since I blogged a series with this many anime original fillers. Or at least, this episode had nothing to do with the main plot, was poorly animated and was very much a standalone story. The Irony is however, that the anime fillers are actually better than the manga fillers. That is to say: the stories in the manga about characters who are only going to play a role in their respective arc and completely disappear after that were much less interesting and atmospheric than what the anime came up with. Of course I’d rather see the main storyline animated, but seriously: I’m not exactly regretting watching the past number of episodes.

This episode was of course nothing spectacular, but it could have done a lot worse with the ingredients that were given to it. Right from the start it was obvious that the woman was deceiving her boyfriend; her acting was shallow enough for that. The pacing of this episode, along with Lag’s usual meddling made it interesting to watch, though. And the ending was actually pretty nice in the way that the creators cleverly stayed away from a forced happy ending, and that the two just broke up after Lag’s powers revealed Bonnie’s lies.

These fillers aren’t perfect of course. This episode was badly animated, and the creators clearly didn’t have the budget for it. I’m also not that happy with how Lag just “happened” to run into them. Still, for a filler it was pretty good. My only hope is that the creators aren’t going to let them take over the show in order to wait for the series to progress, especially since the manga is still relatively short. In most cases I really advocate long series lengths, but thanks to Studio Pierrot this is turning into an exception: I really hope that this series closes off at 25 episodes, only for a second season to be animated in a few years time.
Rating: * (Good)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – Simple People OVA

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood

There are no screenshots because it’s a pain to take them from a streaming site and I’m feeling lazy

Well, because you kept bugging me about it: Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood seems to have a set of OVAs episodes, of about 13 minutes in length, which deal with some background issues here and there. The second one talks about Winry’s earrings. At the latest episode I was already wondering what was up with them. I never knew that she had that many of them.

And as it turns out, they were gifts from Ed and Al in order to make up for how Ed kept breaking his metal arm. It makes sense for Ed to hold on to them, and actually have it as a meaningful symbol for the danger that she has put herself in.

During the first twenty episodes of this series, I really disliked Winry, as some of you may remember. Now I see that this wasn’t just her character there that got on my nerves, but also the way that the first Full Metal Alchemist used her series. For some characters, it actually created a very interesting story opposed to the manga, but the other characters received such pathetic roles that it completely prevented them from getting any depth, and Winry was one of those. I never really understood why she kept tagging along, and the situations and adventures that the creators put her in were uninspired and lazy.

I think that the biggest mistake that the first season made was that it tried way too hard to give every character something to do. It’s one of the strengths of the Brotherhood series, but the first series did that up to the point that these reappearances made no sense whatsoever, or like with Kimblee, Winry and that Library girl, just felt so out of place and pointless. The overall story was good, and isntead of the politics that Brotherhood has it instead was much more about morals and values.

But yeah, I like the Winry of Brotherhood much more than her first season version. She feels much less ditzy here, and especially in this episode you could see that she really cares about Ed and Al. She really ditched her old earrings, and instead kept all six of them on at all times. At least until the latest episode.
Rating: * (Good)

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)