Gakkou no Kaidan Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



For most of the series I review, I watch them in their original language. There are exceptions, however, and this is one of them. The original Gakkou no Kaidan is beyond mediocre. The characters are shallow, the stories are stupid and formulaic (there are twenty episodes in total, and it rips off The Ring in at least five of them), depthless, predictable, full of plotholes and every ghost is stopped right at the last possible moment. If I were to review the Japanese version, you could subtract at least 20 to 30 points from the rating.

Interestingly enough, the person in charge of the English Dub thought so too, and decided go with his own version. The result is a hilarious parody chockful of American pop culture and jokes that are so wrong that you’d normally never see in anime. Think sex, drugs and violence here. On top, the characters also love to break the fourth wall whenever something doesn’t make sense in the script. And it actually works!

The lead characters also get transformed from just another standard group of kids without much of a distinct personality, to a group with a retarded dyslexic kid, a drug addict, a closet pervert Jew and an obsessively devoted christian. The funny thing is that despite these seemingly offensive stereotypes, the characters are actually much more colourful and developed than their original versions.

I’ve heard plenty of stories about dubs who completely ruin their original series. However, with everything there are some definite exceptions: with Gakkou no Kaidan, there hardly was anything left to ruin, and the writers for the dub had a clear vision of what they were going to do. It’s an interesting experiment that really brightened up an otherwise horribly dull series, and the humour isn’t like anything you’re ever going to encounter in anime. The only thing that really stands out in the original version is some nice shading and the OP. Talk about catchy.

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

Tenchi Muyo! – Ryo-Ouki 2 Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Well, so here’s my review of the second OVA of the series that has the dubious honour of having been ripped off the most amount of times by lazy writers. It also includes the special Bangaihen episode that aired in between the first two OVAs for convenience’s sake. Overall, you can see that this series holds an edge over most other harem concepts. It’s still a bit of a hard to believe premise and the reasons for the different females to stay with the lead characters are… silly to say the least. But hey: at least they’ve got reasons!

I actually like the second OVA better than the first. My big problem with the first is that it lacked balance, especially the serious parts just dragged on for ages. This really was fixed in the second OVA: the action, serious parts, slice of life and comedy are all nicely balanced. At first, this show might make it seem like it starts with a random filler episode (like so many other shows have), but thanks to detailed slice of life and good characterization there’s hardly a moment in this show that’s really boring. On top of that, when it does tend to drag on, some character-back-story suddenly pops up.

The OVA does a great job to flesh out and explore a majority of the characters here, and you definitely get to know them better throughout the series. That’s definitely a plus. And even the purely slice of life special bangaihen is enjoyable to sit through thanks to the characters and the comedy. When the main storyline for this OVA pops up, it actually delivers, and it has a much more interesting villain than the rather dull one that the first OVA had to use.

There were only two major annoyances I had with this OVA. The first is Ryo-ouki. I know that she must have meant well and all, but near the end her excessive nondescript squealing becomes just too annoying. This didn’t work in Pokemon, and it also doesn’t work here. The second annoyance is the final ten minutes of the OVA: for some strange reason, they’re nothing but a slide-show with people talking in the background. Did the budget ran out at that point or something? It’s surprising, because the rest of the budget is actually really good with very smooth and detailed animation.

Tenchi Muyo isn’t really going to make it to my favourites anytime soon. It might be very good for your average harem, but there still are tons of non-harem series that are just better and have more interesting and believable stories. It’s just isn’t my kind of setting here and the seemingly endless amounts of times at which this formula has already been ripped off didn’t really help increasing my enjoyment of it. Nevertheless, this second OVA yet again stands out with some pretty nice characterization of its characters, and that has to say something.

Storytelling: 7/10
Characters: 8/10
Production-Values: 9/10
Setting: 7/10

Konnichiwa Anne – 34

by psgels, posted in Konnichiwa Anne



Okay, so this was a mixed bag. It would have been a great episode actually, but some of the faces in this episode were drawn really weird. When Anne got back to Tessa, the look on their faces was just rushed and overly cheesy. That ruined what could have been a powerful moment.

Nevertheless though, apart from that I liked this episode a lot. The fire arc was solved very neatly, and enough time was given for both Anne and Tessa to sort out their thoughts and make them willing to talk. This episode did a great job in developing the two of them. It’s especially great to see that Anne is finally recovering from the shock she received from the death of Mr. Hammond and all of its implications. Especially the part in which she ran away on her own (Tessa eventually became too scared to go along with her).

I fear however for the next episodes. There are five episodes left. My prediction is that the next episode will focus on Amy Thompson (aka the headmistress). After that we’ll probably get two episodes focused on the evil classmates, while the final two episodes will wrap up the story and send Anne off to the Cuthberts.

I have great expectations for the final two episodes, but the other three are going to be the problems: they’re exactly the type of episodes that this show just ISN’T GOOD AT. The headmistress episode reminds me of the midwife episode: she started off so promising, but when she got her own episode her development was just cheesy. The same goes for the evil classmates: I really like how thus far, the only reason why they’re bullying Anne is because it was Anne who started fighting with them. However, who knows what kind of cheese they’re going to fall into as soon as they’re going to get developed?
Rating: * (Good)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 33

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



Haha! I knew it! Even though the creators may have been trying to not show Marcoh’s new face for a while, they still were trying too hard in the way that absolutely nothing of his face was shown. Not even hints. Besides, the total absence of Mai Chang also showed that the hooded guy that travelled with Scar was one big decoy; otherwise there was no reason for him to split up with Mai Chang and the moustache guy.

Nevertheless though, that fight between Scar and Kimbley kicked ass. While not the deepest character, Kimbley has this air around him that makes him fun to watch. He’s definitely a big change from the first season. It’s one thing that he was a purely evil maniac back there, but the absolutely pathetic way the creators used him in the final parts of the series really made him into one my least favourite characters of the first series.

It’s also interesting that the creators actually paid attention to the effects of heat and cold on metal in this episode. It seems that the winter has arrived, and on top of that Ed and Al have travelled to a high and cold mountain range in the middle of a blizzard. And his automail actually causes him troubles. The strange thing however, is that alchemy suddenly also stopped working. Seeing the nature of alchemy and Rentanjutsu, could it be that something exists that only allows alchemy to be used in certain places? Like, rentanjutsu is the alchemy that’s used throughout the world, but someone created renkinjutsu, which only can be used inside the country.

Armstrong’s older sister is also quite different from what I imagined. While Armstrong always had something comical about him, his sister is dead serious. Or at least, at first sight. And yet, she seems to be even more dangerous than he is.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Aoi Bungaku – 07 & 08

by psgels, posted in Aoi Bungaku



Holy crap, a double feature of one of my favourite currently airing series. Can things get any better? Episodes 7 and 8 animate the story of Kokoro. I’m not going to bother making separate entries for these two episodes, because they were bundled together as one. And really, Kokoro is just as good, if not better than the previous stories!

During the first half, it might seem a bit like a step down in comparison to In the Woods and No Longer Human, in which we have this lead character who lives together with a woman he likes, and he then invites a friend of his to live in his house, to study with him. This friend quickly steals the girl he likes away. For the most of the first episode, it’s a bit too one sided.

Then the second episode starts, and the fun begins, and the story gets a completely different dimension.

The second episode actually shows the same story from the perspective of the friend. While he was this big brute who took advantages of women in the eyes of the lead character, his real character is completely different. What an awesome idea, and it’s really well executed. This episode is really about love and prejudices, and what they can do to people who normally would just hang out peacefully together. Because they only know part of the story, people’s imaginations start filling in the blanks. Notice how some details of the story differ from the perspective of both of them: the parts in the first episode in which the tall guy was alone simply are what the lead character thought that he was doing at the time.

The rest of this series’ schedule also seems to be a bit weird. Hashire Melos! seems to air regularly during the next two weeks. After that, there is a break of TWO WEEKS, until the second day of Christmas, at which both the final stories will air. I really love the tight schedule of the past few weeks: sundays have always been a blast thanks to this series, but those two weeks are probably going to be one hell of a wait for the final two stories.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Cross Game – 34

by psgels, posted in Cross Game



Japan: the only country in which elementary schoolers can become masters of aikido. After watching anime for quite a while, I still haven’t figured out how they manage to pull off their notorious work ethic.

In any case, another very nice episode for this show. There’s lots of slice of life, as this episode shows the start of the new year. Although I don’t think that you should be watching this series for its plot, there were quite a few new developments in this episode: Momiji has herself a boyfriend (interestingly enough, she denied it in front of Kou, and yet she called him her boyfriend (in third person, strangely enough) during her silly little “Cross Game Quiz” at the beginning of the episode.

Also, this episode returned to Aoba’s own ambitions: she’s never going to be able to participate in Koushien, and instead of joining a female baseball team, she just stubbornly hangs around with Kou’s team. Kou in the meantime also keeps hanging around Akane (helping her with delivering). It just shows how the two of them, even six years after Wakaba’s death, still are very much influenced by her memories. After all, if Akane would have looked differently, I doubt that he would have given her as much attention as he is now.

Overall though, this was a very fun episode. Seeing everyone hang out and spend the first day of the new year in their own way was very enjoyable to watch. Screw the baseball matches, this is what makes Cross Game awesome.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kemono no Souja Erin – 45

by psgels, posted in Kemono no Souja Erin



whoa. Just when I thought that this show couldn’t pull any more plot twists. This episode yet again pushes the story into a completely different direction. Obviously, if you haven’t seen this episode yet: beware for spoilers because this episode ties up a lot of the mysteries in this series.

Because holy crap, it was Damya all along. This guy really struck me as someone with ambitions, however also with loyalties to the Queen. Turns out, it was all an act: he was the one who ordered the collection of Touda eggs, the attack on the queen, and all of the other things that those masked guys did. On top of that: Kirik is one of them! He was the one who nearly escaped from Ialu a couple of times, and now he’s been sent to keep out an eye for Erin.

This episode also put in some major development for Kirik, and it really paid off. We finally get to fully see what that flashback of his meant: he and his sister were orphans, and were taken in by people who just wanted to kill the two, so he ended up poisoning them. The climax really worked, between him and Ialu.

But yeah, the worst part is going to be Erin: we now know that she’s really been tricked, and that Damya has no good intentions for her whatsoever. Throughout the entire episode, we could only see her sitting in a corner, thinking of the possibility of having the Beast King force disbanded. With only five episodes left, the end is finally getting in sight.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Letter Bee – 08

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



While still formulaic, this show has just gotten an a bit more interesting. We’re still in the formula of “Lag meets someone related to the plot, Lag cries, lag tries to save”, but the plot in question has gotten quite a bit more interesting now, and this episode did well in exploring it.

Right now, this series’ biggest enemy is cheese. This episode kept it within bounds and even Lag’s crying felt genuine, but that was because it was simply building up. The next episode is going to have to put in some real effort in preventing this episode from going down the same route as episode 6. That plot definitely has potential, and I like the subtle ties that are created between the different characters (that blond-haired office Bee turns out to be a former friend of Gauche, for example).

What stood out in this episode were Nichi’s weird antics again. I’m not sure what’s up with her, but she constantly manages to amuse me, even when she’s supposed to stay in the background while Lag is talking to someone. It’s not much, but it’s things like these that keep me from getting bored during the more quiet parts of this series.
Rating: * (Good)

White Album – 21

by psgels, posted in White Album



Oh god, guess who’s back? The one guy who could only turn this into an even bigger drama than it already was. He’s changed a lot, though. He was this confident asshole, but now he’s more like a wimpy moron. However, the impression he left on Misaki remains.

In any case, this episode marks the beginning of the climax. My guess would be that the creators finally found it time to start with the drama, and my guess would be that each of the successive episodes will now deal with and close off the stories of the various characters. The one to kick off, is Mana.

So yeah, she’s been paying Touya out of her own pocket money to keep Touya with her. In this episode her mother finds out. Since this is the same mother that employs Touya, this also means that Mana figures out that Touya is working as Rina’s manager. In any case, Mana runs away from home, Touya figures that she might have gone back to Haruka (involving her back into the storyline), but at the end of the day, she’s still missing.

The next episode should give us a bit of a hint into exactly what kind of finale the creators are going for. In terms of Mana’s story, there’s no reason for them to hold back anymore: the next episode is going to climax her story, as Touya either finds her back, or she commits suicide or something else that’s crazy. I see no reason why the creators can just make this into a temporary climax, because running away from home is pretty radical: Mana’s mother now also has to see that something went wrong with the way she raised her daughter. She’s a smart woman, so she will learn from this incident.

Also, I loved that little scene in which Touya ran into the girl he stood up earlier. ^^;
Rating: * (Good)

Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra – 08

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



This show just continues to blow my mind with every episode. This episode again did such a wonderful job of tying the whole arc together in one heck of a climax. This show doesn’t show any signs of slowing down, does it?

Okay, so the big secret? The white-haired guy can absorb books. Therefore he can absorb souls and gain their powers. Absorbing powers isn’t totally new, but within the context of this series it gets a totally new dimension. The kid (Enlike Bishile) whose story we kept seeing is basically just a Meat with his bomb removed (I assume this, at least), who was trained in a magic power, just so that his book could be absorbed by this guy.

What caused the breakdown of this guy was that Enlike somehow managed to take control over the guy’s original body. I can see this happen: nobody said that those powers are 100% accurate. His powers are very rare and unknown, and therefore he might indeed not have known what would happen if one would absorb too many books. Really, the magic system in this series is just so imaginative and well-detailed.

And the animation! While the fight scene with Noloty wasn’t quite of Birdy the Mighty, it actually came damn close; I totally take back when I said that the animation in this show would be simple. These animators here rock.

There was one part that I might have missed though: what did the old guy mean with that Enlike rejected Hamyuts Meseta’s smile? Or is this something that still needs to be revealed. After all, what was up with that blond guy? I suspect that he also has an entire backstory left to tell. And the old, bearded guy also is still a complete mystery: In the last episode, you could see that he was against the church, but here you can see him talk with other people from the church like it’s nothing. What is up with him?

Seriously though, this series is exactly why I like anime. Those series that show up completely at random and blow you away.
Rating: *** (Awesome)