TO Review – 67,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



From the creators of Vexille, TO is their next work as they adapt two stories from the 2001 Nights manga. This manga was a collection of stories (most of them unrelated) that chronicled the challenges of humankind as they ventured into outer space. The two episodes of TO are completely unrelated, and so they can be watched completely individual from each other. Like Vexille, these OVAs are also shot entirely in 3D CG, and unfortunately, they didn’t escape the big weakness of 3D-movies: the botox-faces. But apart from these botox-faces, how do they hold up? As a very mixed bag, actually.

The first story is Elliptical Orbit, and for the most part it’s just average: average action, average, characters, average story; it all feels like it’s been done before. While I do appreciate that one of the lead character is an actual grown up male (somewhere in his forties, I guess), there just hardly is anything interesting or noteworthy. The bad guys are stereotypical bad guys who are evil because they’re evil; the kind that want to blow lots of stuff up and kill as many people as possible.

There is one spark of light in here, though. The twist at the end of this episode is one I really, really liked: it’s creative, and adds quite a bit of depth to at least the main characters. Throughout the average action, the build-up at least came together quite nicely in the end, and so this is a story that left me with a good impression.

Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the second story, Symbiotic Planet. The episode should be applauded for its background art, and design works, which are absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, the rest of the episode isn’t just average like with Elliptical Orbit, it’s just outright bad.

The story is stupid, it centers around a silly love story between star crossed lovers (since their parents hate each other and want to blow each other up for badly explained reasons). The build-up of tension is ruined by very one-dimensional characters who only seem to have one character-trait and nothing more. The real disaster is the climax, though: it’s full of lazy plotholes, deus ex machina, storyboards that just don’t make any sense (about a dozen of people completely vanish at one point, with no explanation of where they went; which is a bit unnerving because they were just infected with a dangerous space virus) and the ending itself is just such an incredibly cheap knock-off that it completely destroys any sort of build-up that still remained.

So overall, Elliptical Orbit has its charms, Symbiotic Planet doesn’t. However, the manga of 2001 Nights has already been adapted once before: in 1987 a movie was created with some of the other stories. Even though it actually has less airtime than TO, it’s a really good story and really well told, giving you a great idea of some of the basics and challenges of space travel. If you’re interested in this story, check out that one before trying trying TO. Unless you’re looking for nothing but action or botox people, I guess.

Storytelling: 6/10
Characters: 6/10
Production-Values: 8/10
Setting: 7/10

Umineko no Naku Koro ni – 25

by psgels, posted in Umineko no Naku Koro ni



This episode was evil. The previous episode left with a huge cliff-hanger, so I was really looking forward to see what would happen with Beatrice next… and here this episode comes and focuses entirely at Ange. That’s definitely not what I expected for a semi-final episode.

It wasn’t exactly a major episode, though for some reason the characters kept using different names for older Eva and Maria’s diary. For some reason, old Eva now changed her name to Kasumi, though this was probably to escape the links she had with the Rokkenjima murders. Maria’s diary somehow is called Mariage Sorciere. We still don’t exactly know the how and why of this, but my guess is that it’s Maria’s magical alter ego who wrote the diary, explaining why the handwriting is different.

I think the most confusing part of this episode was right after Kasumi showed up from out of nowhere, as it took a while to sink in what the heck she was talking about. Basically, Eva refers to Kyrie as her older sister, meaning that she’s actually a part of the Sumadera family. Then really, what does this mean for the Ushinomiya-family? Is Hideyoshi actually Kinzou’s child? On top of that, Kyrie was about to marry this mysterious Hideyoshi, but instead married Rudolf, who then had a son called Battler who isn’t the same Battler as meta-Battler. Damn, and I thought the previous episode was complicated.

EDIT: Ack, I just realized that there are two old ladies in Ange’s timeline: her first aunt is Eva, who apparently did die a few episodes ago. Her second aunt is Sumadera Kasumi, who is Kyrie’s sister. And I kept thinking that they were the same person! Well, this at least makes things a little less complicated, and this episode much more straightforward. Which is a bit of a shame considering that there’s only one episode left!

Ultimately, this was an episode of building up. Which is a goddarn shame considering we have to wait around two years before actually seeing it being paid off.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Five Star Stories Review – 67,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



The coming weeks, I’m planning to hold another movie spree, so you can expect a lot of movie reviews. I’ve been meaning to check out Five Star Stories for quite a while now, but I could never find it. Since a whole string of releases recently became available, I decided to check it out, but ultimately I had to be disappointed. This is another one of those movies that try to put way too much in way too little time.

But let me first give credit where credit is due: the art in this movie is absolutely gorgeous. The characters are incredibly detailed and well animated. And sure, some characters may look a bit too ridiculous, but you can see that nearly every character and mecha is drawn with a lot of imagination, I can’t think of any other anime that looks quite like this.

But yeah, the manga for Five Star Stories consists out of twelve volumes. The creators tried to stuff this into only one hour. There’s no way that fits, not to mention that only the first two manga volumes were released at the time that this series was produced. It seems like only the first volume got animated or something, which leaves HUGE plotholes behind.

As an example, we have this bad guy, who everyone says horrible things about, and yet we never actually see him do anything illegal. Sure, he’s a bit of an asshole, but in comparison, the good guys of the movie are much worse: they keep talking about morality and justice, but they also don’t resist to kill innocent people, they turn little girls into war machines and the president of a country somehow manages to leave his post for TEN WHOLE YEARS, doing God knows what in the process.

The setting does have potential: you can see some imagination in the political system for this story, the link between mecha pilots, and how these people fit into society, but it’s never really used well with the very limited scope that this series uses. Right now, the good guys do nothing but flaunt their super awesome mega powers, while the bad guys are simply being stupid assholes. There’s hardly any depth to the characters, other than the father of the girls, maybe.

Storytelling: 5/10
Characters: 6/10
Production-Values: 9/10
Setting: 7/10

Kimi ni Todoke – 11

by psgels, posted in Kimi ni Todoke



The final scene of this episode really showed that the creators of this series are biased for the main couple. As soon as Kurumi even mentioned the possibility of talking to another boy, the dramatic music set in and they tried to make it look like a cliff-hanger. Like it’s blasphemy if the two were to even look at each other. Even though Kurumi was doing what she’s been doing ever since the previous episode, and it wasn’t really worse than any of her other plans. This really could hurt this show in the long run.

But yeah, it’s the small things like this that prevent me from fully enjoying this series. When you look at the big picture, there really isn’t much wrong with this series: it’s got a nice concept of an outcast who manages to find herself. The dialogue is well detailed and the characters have good concepts. But then there are times at which the creators are just trying too hard, like for example dragging the evil bitch-arc on for too long (I’m sure that I wouldn’t have complained as much about that arc if it was done in just one episode). This episode also carried Sawako’s naiveness a bit too far, and I feel that Mamiko Nouto doesn’t really fit her as a voice actress.

So yeah, I’m not often one to agree with the “the manga is so much better”-arguments, but I think that it really holds up here. This is not about cutting certain parts off, this is rather about blindly adapting a pretty good manga without thinking about the transition from still frames to animation. I personally couldn’t care less whether creators of an anime delete stuff or add extra stuff in, as long as it works. This goes with series that take a lot of these artistic liberties like Umineko and Full Metal Alchemist, but also with series that do try to put everything in from the original source-material like this series and Bakemonogatari.

Incidentally, I noticed something interesting when I looked at the staff page at ANN. While there is very little to say about the main director, the script has been written so far by two people: Tomoko Konparu, who wrote the majority of the episodes, and Mamiko Ikeda, who wrote episodes 2, 7 and 10. Incidentally, now that I look back, I can say that these three episodes belonged to the best ones of the series so far. My guess is that Tomoko Konparu, who also is doing the series composition, really isn’t having her right year: the series composition she did on Chi’s New Address also left a lot to be desired and while she has worked and contributed to a lot of great and awesome series in the past, this time she just seems to have an off season.

I think another reason why I’m extra critical of this series, even though it seems to be loved by many, is because half of the times, the jokes fall flat. Do other people have this as well? I mean, there are tons of awkward moments in this series for me when the creators are trying to make a joke, which just isn’t funny to me. There really is this thing called suspense of disbelief, and if this series had built up any at this point I definitely wouldn’t be whining as much as I am now, but it’s a shame that this show continues to break this for me. It’s especially annoying now that even Kobato, which once was even duller than this series for me, is getting better and better.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Hashire, Melos! Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Interestingly enough, Hashire, Melos! has already been adapted into an anime once before (twice, actually, but here I’m focusing on the 1992-movie), so while waiting for the final instalments of Aoi Bungaku, I figured that I might as well check out a completely different interpretation of the classic story by Osamu Dazai. It of course isn’t as good as Ryousuke Nakamura’s version, and it even seems that the entire part of the author writing this story was completely new. But nevertheless, this movie shows that even the original story without this interplay between author and fiction had a lot of potential.

Because of the different ages, direction, themes and focuses, you really end up with two completely different stories that just happen to have some of the same characters. The dialogue in the movie isn’t as complex as the Aoi Bungaku version, nor is it an as big of an emotional roller-coaster, but it does allow for much more time to flesh out Melos and Celine, the two lead characters. And it’s in these two that the power of this story lies.

They’re both two men with their own strengths and weaknesses, and my favourite part of the movie were their reasons for doing the seemingly stupid things that they did: they’re well-backed up and powerful motivations. The ending is a bit rushed and predictable, but it’s not what’s important to the story at all; heck, even the movie realizes this by telling how the story ends right at the very first scene.

The music isn’t anything special, but the animation is really what you’d expect from a movie: very smooth and detailed with a real minimum of still frames. Despite again, this animation being not as expressive as Ryousuke Nakamura’s version I still very much recommend this movie because it really has its own points where it shines, and despite my rather repetitive complaining, I didn’t feel like watching a copy of something that I already watched once before at all. This movie adds quite a bit of depth and colour to the already interesting characters of Melos, Celine and Dionysius.

Storytelling: 8/10
Characters: 9/10
Production-Values: 8/10
Setting: 8/10

Kara no Kyoukai – The Garden of Sinners – A Study in Murder (Part 2) Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Kara no Kyoukai



The seventh and final Kara no Kyoukai Movie is another long one, clocking in at two whole hours. This really gives more than enough time to properly give attention to the story that explains the rest of the mysteries that the previous six movies have left behind. And really, these past seven movies have been a real treat. They’re all different and don’t try to rip off each other, contrary to what you might expect. They’re a great recommendation for any mystery-fan, though do note that the seventh movie isn’t the best.

I’m pretty surprised with some of the flaws that actually managed to slip by in the second part of A Study In Murder. The focus this time is the shock-factor: there is a lot of gore, even more disturbing than in the previous movies, and it also touches upon a big taboo in anime: drugs. While I applaud this series for actually going there, I do think that they could have spent a bit more time making them work out right. Bluntly said: this is the most unrealistic of all the Kara no Kyoukai movies.

The gore really is gruesome, but there are times when it’s overdone a bit too much. Characters who are badly wounded (even those without any sort of supernatural powers) just walk away without even flinching (or bleeding, for that matter), and not to mention Shiki’s ingenious “handcuff-escape-trick”. hello? You have a mechanical arm! What was the point of giving her that anyway? The effects of drugs on people also didn’t seem too well portrayed. Especially for a movie of this caliber, I expected a lot more detail. This also was the only movie in which the CG didn’t blend in well with the other graphics. While most of the movie looks as gorgeous as ever, the CG saliva just looked way off, and some of the goreish flesh-wounds had this as well. Really, what happened?

But despite these, does it have enough to make up for it? Plenty. The interplay between Shiki and Mikiya in this movie adds a lot of depth to their characters and it provides a satisfying closure to the questions that were asked throughout this series of movies, mainly in the second one. It’s pretty unpredictable as well: before starting this movie, I had a completely different image of the true culprit.

The direction is also as solid as ever, and the double length really allows the story to play out like it should have. It’s just a shame of the above-mentioned flaws though. In the end, my favourite movie of the seven remains the fifth one, closely followed by the fourth. This one hovers somewhere in the middle: still very good, but hampered by strange flaws and a story that just isn’t as strong as some of the others.

Storytelling: 8/10
Characters: 8/10
Production-Values: 9/10
Setting: 8/10

Kuchuu Buranko – 09

by psgels, posted in Kuchuu Buranko



At this point, it’s pretty clear what the general message is that this series wants to convey: nobody is perfect, not even your role models. So instead of trying to be perfect, you should try to live with who and what you are. Overall, these past nine episodes did a good job in showing the ins and outs of this: from the more extreme to the less extreme ones: you should just accept what you have to live with your entire life. overall, pretty well done, if I say so myself.

The general message that I got out of this particular episode however, is something completely different: Japanese TV-shows are weird. To think that people are actually willing to put morons on the screen who do nothing but smile cheesily over and over. And I thought Dutch TV was bad…

I’m surprised how little crossovers this episode had, though. Where the previous episodes threw references with heaps at the time, I don’t think that I spotted any reference to a past episode in this episode other than the usual bucket of syringes. I think that because of that, and how I had absolutely no interest in the subject material this time (child stars and variety-shows… *yuch*) that it disappointed a bit compared to the previous ones.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Konnichiwa Anne – 37

by psgels, posted in Konnichiwa Anne



Well, there’s no denying that this episode had cheese, but it’s of the good kind. After all of the badly written episodes in this series, it’s at least good to see a heart-warming bitchfight between Anne and Edna that works reasonably well as long as you suspend your disbelief. Thank god Edna wasn’t another one of those stereotypical side-characters, but instead got a bit of depth to her. Even though her mother is the umpth mother who suffers from the “useless and sick mother”-syndrome.

Thinking back, it’s definitely been interesting to blog such a flawed series as this, mostly because while there were plenty of cringe-worthy moments, it never derailed completely: there always was something interesting going on that gave me plenty of inspiration to write about, compared to other rather one-sided shows as 07-Ghost, Valkyria Chronicles and some of the other shows that were a pain to blog for me. It’s really been a joy to blog Konnichiwa Anne throughout the past three seasons, despite it’s large share of problems. In the end, where this series truly shined was right after Henderson left, up to the point where Anne arrived at the Hammonds: these episodes were absolutely amazing, and the rest of the show really was hit or miss. I’d really say: crew Anne, Bert is the best character in this series. It’s not like Anne is the Anne of Anne of Green Gables anyway. Try saying that three times.

But yeah: there still is that matter of the two final episodes. The final episode will be fine. I’m not worrying about that one. My biggest worry is about the next one: the Amy Thompson episode. The creators have been hinting towards her quite a while now, but she never had her own episode yet, so there’s no doubt what next episode’s going to be about and that has me worried a lot. This show has a really nasty tendency to ruin perfectly fine characters with one-sided and shallow development.
Rating: * (Good)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 36

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



Whoa, this really was one of the best FMA episodes we’ve seen for quite a while now. It’s great to see this series fired up again. There were a lot of great things that happened in this episode.

First of all: Hohenheim’s background. We learn that he put forth that scary look of his on purpose. It’s interesting that he didn’t realize what kind of effect this would have on Ed. Why he did that, I’m not yet sure, but I think it’s pretty obvious right now that he holds some sort of Philosopher’s stone. In fact, I believe it to be created from those children we saw him with during the recap episode. What’s also interesting is that he actually discovered Father’s plans, while Ed was spying on him, thinking that he was just busy with another one of his experiments. But there’s still so much about this guy that still needs to be revealed, though. I’d love to see an episode dedicated to when he met his um… wife. (Did they ever get properly married anyway?)

The part where Olivia killed off Raven was also really well delivered, it’s amazing how good of an actor Olivia turned out to be, although it’s a bit of a shame that they had to resurrect Sloth in order to get the right information out of him, but at least she now has confirmed that the military is up to something huge.

Also, Wrath is getting more and more scarier in the way that he keeps using Winry as a hostage, when he actually invites her to Briggs in this episode, as his way of saying “don’t try anything stupid”. I must say, that even though I disliked her at first, this is a very plausible reason for her to get involved with the main plot. Instead of the first series in any case, in which she just… appeared and never really left for God knows which reason?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Cross Game – 37

by psgels, posted in Cross Game



Oh god, I should have known that the creators would update Momiji’s little bit at the start of every episode a Christmas theme. One thing that bothers me though is why she’s still portrayed as a six-year old. I mean, saving budget is one thing, but if you’re going to bother to give her a Christmas outfit, then why not redraw her entirely?

In any case, this episode really was as good as ever. Aoba’s accidents brought forth so many subtle developments in so many different characters, and on top of that some of the other relationships that didn’t have anything to do with her also developed. To think that Akaishi finally tried to make a move on Akane. It’s a shame that he chickened out later, though: I guess that he still doesn’t want to betray Kou in this way. Oh, but we do have ourselves a proposal with a ‘certain’ other couple.

Also, if the girls’ baseball tryouts really were anime-original, then I really have to congratulate the creators of the anime: I didn’t notice a thing until people pointed it out. It’s great to see that the creators know how to adapt a story, but also to add a bit here and there, where they see a chance for improvement, and to actually integrate this seamlessly with the main storyline. I loved the way how this episode blended the new scenes of Aoba, failing to make the selection due to her illness, together with the Azuma, who feels guilty about what he did (especially considering his brother), and Kou, at whom the creators still throwing hints that he’s really caring for Aoba.
Rating: ** (Excellent)