Kimi ni Todoke – 12

by psgels, posted in Kimi ni Todoke



This episode was… tedious to sit through. It was basically just Kurumi trying to get a love triangle started, which is probably going to be worthless in the next episode when everyone realizes that it was just a misunderstanding. Agh, it’s like Itazura na Kiss all over, but without the funny parts.

Let me list a bunch of shoujo-series that actually did get the love triangle right (Minor spoilers included):
– Bokura ga Ita: mainly worked because the love rival got fed up with the indecisiveness of the lead male, which was a huge theme of the series.
– Kodomo no Omocha: worked because we actually see both the lead male and female go through other relationships with other people, while it’s actually the distance between them, created by the lead female’s job as an idol that prevents them from hooking up, rather than the ditzy love rivals being the sole reason.
– Ashita no Nadja: we actually see the lead female hanging out with other guys without it suddenly creating a huge drama.

On top of that, we also have shoujo-series as Glass Mask, DNAngel and Full Moon wo Sagashite in which the romances work because of their realism and the way they let their relationships progress naturally. Not in the forced way that Kimi ni Todoke has been doing for the past twelve episodes…

I’m interested to see the other sides of the story, though. I’ve heard quite a few arguments why this show is popular, but those all seemed to come from the ones who didn’t like it. When I look at various blogs, all I see is squealing over various characters, but for the past months I’ve hardly seen any people who liked this show and came with valid reasons.

Sure, that might just been me, looking at the wrong places, but still: fans of Kimi ni Todoke, enlighten me! What makes this show so great that it deserves such a high score on various anime sites? What was so good about this series that everyone vote for it here? Or is this really just another Twillight which has tons of squealing fangirls who like it just because of the hot guys and sparkles?

Whether I’m going to drop this show at the start of the Winter-Season, I don’t know yet. Because Aoi Bungaku, Darker than Black, Erin, Konnichiwa Anne, Kuchuu Buranko, Umineko and White Album are going to be ending all within a week, this means that I need to find seven new bloggable shows among the line-up of the upcoming Winter-season. Which is a lot during such a small season. However, if number eight does pop up, then expect to see this show in the dropped-list.

Right now, this show is just… too convenient. Sawako doesn’t really have to work hard for her newfound popularity. She gets protected everywhere, and her exaggeratedly weird personality makes sure that all the bad guys’ plans go wrong. At first I praised this series because it showed outcasts as they try to live back into society, but that’s not even what this series is about. We’ve just got another Mary Sue here where the entire plot revolves around. Sure, Sawako has flaws, but all those flaws seem to be more and more used in favour of her, rather than creating her as a character.
Rating: — (Lacking)

Mobile Police Patlabor WXIII Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Now this is really why I love anime: it is really one of the very few animation styles that can get away with stuff that’s entirely meant for adults. I’ve seen quite a few comments that the Third Patlabor Movie (which was produced ten years after the second movie) didn’t live up to the standards that were set by the TV-series and the first two movies. Now let me say that I can understand why, but there’s enough that makes this movie worth watching.

Before I list the good points of this movie however, I do want to say a few things about something that probably turned off a lot of fans of the Patlabor franchise: the decision to swap main characters with two completely new characters. Let me say that I do like this idea a lot. It shows that Captain Goto and his team are mere cogs inside the Patlabor setting: they just do the job they’re supposed to do, while others do theirs. It’s a great way to flesh out the setting a bit more. However, when you make such a decision, you do need to take care to give these new characters a good personality and background, and that’s where this movie never really delivers. At the end of this movie, I still don’t have any clue who these people are. How did they become detectives, what drives them, what are their quirks? They’re huge mysteries. For a franchise that stood out with its rock-solid characters, it will be a bit difficult to get used to the two of them.

The good thing of course is that this is really the most accessible of the Patlabor movies: you can really watch this even if you haven’t watched anything of the Patlabor franchise before. The thing that I loved about it was how composed it was: it knew exactly what story it wanted to tell, and it does so with conviction. The pacing is really slow to really allow everything to fall in place, and the exposition is very well balanced so that it’s neither dull nor techno-babble.

The movie really excels in its smart and realistic build-up that really pays off in its climaxes, and while there are a few coincidences here and there, it doesn’t attempt to introduce cheap plot twists at the crucial plot points. While the two lead characters lack in strength, the two main villains do receive a lot of depth, which really culminates in a great ending.

Quiet movies like this one of course have their share of setbacks: if you’re not caught in by the build-up, you will be bored. But I really find that these movies have a unique charm in their maturity, where they show that you can also create a good and exciting stories without the over-the-topness that you usually see in anime aimed at teenagers. In fact, realized that the hit to miss ratio of adult movies for me is much higher than the stuff for teenagers. Out of the three Patlabor Movies, I still like the second one best, but WXIII comes in as a close second.

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

Tenchi Muyo! In Love Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



It’s movies like this that really show that the harem genre isn’t inherently bad. There just are a lot of harem shows that are badly executed. I really like how every different installment of Tenchi Muyo so far has chosen three or four characters to flesh out and give depth. The first Tenchi Movie may have a bit of a misleading title: none of Tenchi’s romances are really developed here. Instead, we get to look at his parents. And it turned out to be a great family movie.

The charm of this movie is that it just gets better and better as it goes on. The transition from a silly story of harem hi-jinks to the more serious tale of Tenchi’s parents is really smooth, and well built-up. The former is a bit tedious at times, but it’s fun and innocent enough, while the latter is simple but effective.

The animation during the action-scenes is also exceptionally well done, and really shows the great things that can be done with traditional Cell animation. It’s smooth, it’s imaginative and powerful, and it makes something that would have been a cliched end boss into something really threatening. Seriously, it if wasn’t for the great animation, this guy would have made far lesser impact. Anime has enough badly animated monsters as it is already.

I wouldn’t exactly label this movie as one of the best movies ever, but what it does, it does pretty well, and it is a great way to spend an hour and a half. For me, it loses a few points with the exposition, which for the most part isn’t that interesting, and the harem hi-jinks, while not bad, were done better in the OVAs. Where this movie excels over the OVAs is the animation, storyline, balance and the action. Plus, it makes well use of the fact that the characters have already been fleshed out.

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

Konnichiwa Anne – 38

by psgels, posted in Konnichiwa Anne



Aaah! No, not her! The annoying feminist is back! Get her away!

Yeah, I’m betting my hat that that part was anime-original. I can imagine how it might have seen heart-warming to the creators to bring back a few old characters… but of all the people you could choose, did it really have to be Henderson!? She ruined enough of this series as well. On a good note however: Eliza shows something of her again! Yay!

overall though, this episode thankfully avoided the pitfall that I thought it was doomed to fall in: Amy Thompson. Like expected, she indeed shows her past in this episode, but instead of giving Amy herself some shallow development, it’s used to convince Anne out of her tantrum, and make her go to Prince Edward Island. Okay, I can very much live with that, and I admit that it was very nicely done. Overall, the orphanage arc has been pretty mellow for this series: it was nowhere near the worst, but also nowhere near the best of this series. It’s a bit of a slow way to close off this series, but I guess that it could have been much worse.

It’s a bloody shame though that this means the end of the WMT-franchise, especially because no new series has been announced yet. As much as I loved Les Miserables and Porfy, their sales really didn’t do that well, and this attempt to revive the WMT-franchise was a financial failure, and it just never got the recognition and popularity that it received in its golden age. All we can hope is that Nippon Animation won’t give up with this. Even without the WMT, they’re a great animation company that uses its simplicity, to focus on strong themes or hilarious premises.
Rating: (enjoyable)

My Top 10: Favourite OPs and EDs of 2009

by psgels, posted in Top 10 Anime, Yearly Summaries

I really have too many summary-posts planned for the end of the year. So, here’s a little taste in advanced: my favourite OPs and EDs of the year. Any series or OVA is eligible, as long as they had an episode that first aired in 2009. My list might differ a bit from most people’s lists, but that’s just because I don’t like J-Pop (but of course, there are exceptions in everything. ;))

#10: Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen OP 1

Really: isn’t this the best way to enter a hot-blooded and GAR Mecha-show as Mazinger? This opening always got me pumped with adrenaline for this show, it just screams epic all over. The lyrics are a bit cheesy, but hey: what else did you expect? 😛

#9: Bounen no Xamdou OP 1
It’s of course very hard to write a toplist of this year’s OPs and EDs of this year, and don’t have the OP for Bonen no Xamdou included. What I especially love about this OP is how well the music and animation are tuned to each other: they complement each other in nearly every scene. The song is also very nicely composed with fitting vocals.

#8: Birdy the Mighty Decode 2 OP

I usually hate J-Pop, but it’s for songs as this that I’m willing to make an exception. This song really has a wonderful arrangement and a rocking refrain. The visuals also give a small taste of the amazing animation in the rest of the series, and overall it was a great way to enter this series each week.

#7: Zan Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei OP 2

You can say a lot against Shinbo, but the guy at least knows how to create good OPs. While I really didn’t like the series, at least I could enjoy a minute and a half every week of this excellent rock piece with an excellent direction throughout.

#6: Bakemonogatari OP 1

Oh, what an incredible TEASE this one turned out to be. I really was pumped when I started up the first episode of Bakemonogatari, and it came with this visual masterpiece. Even though what the series eventually turned into became a huge disappointment, I still have to admit: this is one heck of an OP that really gets you interested in the rest of the series.

#5: Kuchuu Buranko OP

Denki Groove already composed an OP once before: the very funky one for Hakaba Kitarou. Kuchuu Buranko once again brings nothing but funkiness with its OP, combined with the trademark weird visuals of this show. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an amimated version of this online since Youtube keeps deleting them.

#4: Phantom OP 1

Overall, this is just a very varied song with great dreamy vocals. Phantom was an anime with a huge focus on music, and this piece did a great job of introducing us to the whole series. I really think that it’s among Bee-Train’s best opening songs due to its grace which looks exotic and down to earth at the same time.

#3: Eden of the East OP

For this opening, the creators managed to get Oasis to perform, and it really shows. Noitamina has always been a timeslot of great OPs and EDs, and Eden of the East shows this yet again with not just a well composed song, but it also makes very good use of its sound, and combined with the well detailed and very imaginative animation, I was completely sold when I watched this for the first time.

#2: Shikabane Hime Kuro OP

Definitely and without a doubt Angela’s best work. This song really allows her to get the best out of her voice, and it shows that she has a really wide range and is able to control this really well. Combine this with Gainax-esque smooth animation and a great choice of instruments, and this really is my favourite OP of the year; I can really listen to this over and over without getting bored of it.

#1: Guin Saga ED

Okay, so while the rest of this top 10 has probably shown that I like more upbeat songs, my favourite in the end does remain a ballad. Why? That voice! It’s apparently sung by Kanon, who really has an amazing set of vocals. The full version allows her voice to come out even better, and it really screams epic in a subtle way. It always was a great way to end this series with.

Letter Bee – 12

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



Oh gawd, an actual Christmas episode. For the majority of the first half, I was really laughing at how silly Lag looks with that fake beard and moustache of his. And yet, despite this silly premise this was a heart-warming episode, and the creators really should do more episodes like this. It’s ironic, but this filler was exactly what this series needed.

At least, I assume it’s a filler, because otherwise the timing would have been a bit too perfect. I’m not exactly sure whether I understand this premise of the Christmas of this series correctly, does everyone go around and help little orphan kids or something? In any case, it again showed the rather cruel nature of the world this is set in, in which most kids and orphans are just left to their fate, to take care of themselves. Often shunned. I’m not exactly sure where they get their money from, though.

In any case, the girl was heart-warming in the way that she still kept living her life, despite having lost her parents. A very nice episode overall and while Zazie’s little bit of development may have been a bit cheesy, it still was pretty nice in the end.
Rating: * (Good)

Kuchuu Buranko – 10

by psgels, posted in Kuchuu Buranko



Now THIS really is this series at its best: a great sense of humour, a very fine selection of references to past episodes, it continues fleshing out this series’ themes in a rather clever way, and it actually has a really good story with a great main character this time. It’s really here where this show makes use of its formula that it’s built up over the past few episodes, and gives it a very interesting and creative twist.

It’s interesting how in this episode, the lead character didn’t turn into an animal. Or to be more specific: he didn’t need to be turned into an animal because he already had taken on a strange form: that of his 30-year-old self. Throughout the entire episode, we just see this version of him. There are quite a few points at which things don’t really make much sense this way: how can such a young person be president of a country, why does he have flashbacks of the construction of Tokyo Tower and why is Irabu suggesting retirement to him at that kind of age…?

It was definitely a nice twist, and out of all the Kuchuu Buranko lead characters, the personality of this guy ranges among the most colourful. With him, you can really see his development in a way that isn’t superficial, cheesy or rushed, but it’s really genuine.

And I’m actually pretty curious to see what the creators have planned for that final episode. Especially with this kind of a series, you can really put anything there. Considering that it airs at Christmas Eve in Japan, not to mention that the creators have been dropping countless of Christmas hints for the past few episodes, I really can see them doing a Christmas-themed ending. Pretty heart-warming for the holidays, if this turns out to be true.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kemono no Souja Erin – 49

by psgels, posted in Kemono no Souja Erin



So this is it: the moment where this series doesn’t just need to show off the build-up of the previous episodes paying off, but the creators also need to show that even when shifting the focus to the war between countries, instead of raising beasts, it can deliver. And you know what, it actually did.

The big question-mark here of course was Damya: would such a stereotypically evil person really be able to pull off a good villain during this show’s climax? Well, he didn’t really get much depth in this episode either, but his betrayal to the queen, his plans to use the Touda army to crush the duke’s army even after Seimiya’s surrender and his constant evil presence did great preparations to the real point of this episode: the decision that Erin had to make: resent war in every way possible and never use Lilan to fight, or take up the role that was given to her, and making use of the power that she controls, even though the potential for a complete disaster is oh so great.

And that’s really what made this episode work and tied this arc in with the rest of the series. I must say, that the build-up during the past episodes has been really great, and seeing it actually pay off makes it even better. I suppose that it would have been even better if the villain was fleshed out a bit more, but ah well. This is a series about Erin. Not the country. The politics in this series were interesting, but they were always inferior to Erin and her struggles into better understanding beasts like Lilan. For a series that’s purely about politics, there’s always Tytania anyway.

Now: that final episode. I can sort-of guess what’s going to happen, so it’s all going to come down to execution. I really hope that the creators are going to be able to use this episode to create a great ending.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 37

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



Whoa! Shadow! Spoilers ahead! Do not read if you didn’t watch this episode yet!

I was already told that Pride’s identity would be the biggest spoiler of the series, that we’ve already seen his human form. Because of that, I occasionally imagined who the hell he could be, but who it eventually turned out to be… I never considered that option. I really thought that it was going to be some sort of obscure adult.

There still are a lot of questions remained about why the son of Bradley of all people turned out to be Pride. Out of all the disguises, that has to be one of hardest to keep up. The people around him (maids, et cetera) should all be aware that something is wrong with a kid after a few years. I especially wonder how long Pride has been playing for Bradley’s son anyway: if he doesn’t age, then there are bound to be people who find it strange what’s happening to this kid, and why he refuses to grow up.

One theory is that he can take up multiple forms, and only recently decided to play for Wrath’s son, because Father’s plan is about to come to fruition. In this episode we’re shown that Kimbley wasn’t just set out to catch Scar, but also to instigate the final massacre at Briggs. And finally I’ve gotten my respect for Winry: she finally ends up doing something relevant, and I admire her courage in this episode despite finding out that she’s basically a hostage.

With this, I can see the big lines of the plot that’s currently still left: protect Briggs, go after Father, and in the meantime provide adequate background for all of the important characters. Sounds promising!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Cross Game – 38

by psgels, posted in Cross Game



This is a question for my Japanese readers, but it’s something I’ve been wondering for ages: is it customary for Japanese High Schools to plant at least one sakura tree near the entrance or something? Or is this just one really big stereotype that you only see in anime? Seriously though, I can hardly recall any high school in anime that doesn’t have those pink petals flying around when spring hits..

Setting that aside though, the past episodes of Cross Game have been nothing but goodness. This episode yet again had a wonderful slice of life feeling to it, as the new school year starts and Kou has finally moved into his final year of high school. Oh, I wish that the upcoming baseball tournament would never come.

This episode was all about Kou dating Akane, and Azuma hanging out with Aoba. It’s quite charming in the way that this series develops its love triangles: it’s done with the same subtlety as ever. And I’m someone who usually hates love triangles with passion. In Cross Game, they’re nowhere near as whiny nor do they have any intention to take over the series and destroy its real focuses. In this series, it’s very refreshing to see that potential couples don’t immediately get incredibly angsty once their loved ones are hanging out with another member of the opposite sex.
Rating: ** (Excellent)