Umineko no Naku Koro ni – 17

by psgels, posted in Umineko no Naku Koro ni



It’s perhaps taken a long while for this series to really get fired off. Especially how the first two arcs were merely introduction and build-up with hardly any conclusion, wrap-up or answers, But seriously, for me this is a show that just gets more intriguing with every episode. This episode didn’t necessarily contain any new plot twists, but it excellently continued building further upon the plot twists of the previous episode.

We also learn what was up with Beatrice’s sudden change of character in this episode. It wasn’t just that Battler’s words hit her so deeply back then, but while that definitely had its effect, a lot of the blame also seems to lie at the title of “endless witch”. Since for an Endless Witch, the concepts of time really don’t mean anything, and this gets reflected in her personality, turning her into a homicidal maniac. This then brings us back to the element of risk in magic: Beatrice wanted to become a real witch. It seems to me that in order to become the Golden Witch, she needed to make Battler accept her, however it felt to me that if she also wanted to continue being the Endless Witch, she had to give up her personality and become a psycho killer. That makes me wonder about Lambdadelta and Bernkastel.

The thing I liked most about this episode was the powerful dialogues, though. I think that this was the episode most focused on dialogues, as it portrayed a lot of characters, symbolizing their change through this dialogue: Eva rejecting her younger self, Krauss on how he stopped treating his siblings like trash, Beatrice as she tried to make up with Battler by reviving Shannon for George, Battler as he grew up and used his mind much more, instead of his emotions, and Jessica as she lost her parents and her mind. That’s really a lot of development!

And through all these red herrings, you’d almost forget that there’s an actual human killer on the loose, who’s operating under the guise of Beatrice and Evatrice. Why did the killer bother moving Shannon’s corpse? Since it’s also very likely that there are two killers (to match the six locked doors mystery). Right now, it seems very unlikely for any of the eighteen suspects to really have been able to pull off these murders, unless you start to look a bit further.

MAJOR HIGURASHI SPOILERS in the paragraph below.

Remember how in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, one major culprit behind the murders was a simple disease that drove people to insanity. While I doubt that Ryukishi07 is going to use the same thing in both his stories, I do think that we need to look in that kind of a direction. Up till now I’ve simply thought this story to have the simple formula of your average detective novel (you know, “the butler did it!”, and things like that), but what if the real killer never even touched the corpses, and simply poisoned the victims with a strange kind of potion that would make one mentally delusional? I mean, for one thing, it is common for mentally delusional people to see conspiracies everywhere, which could explain the presence of the magical circles drawn in blood.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Again, do note that I reserve the right to delete any comment that spoils what happens after this point in the visual novel.

Kimi ni Todoke – 03

by psgels, posted in Kimi ni Todoke



You know, I’m starting to get into this series. Or rather, I’m starting to care about the relationship between Sawako and Kazehaya, and Sawako’s quest in trying to connect with the class. I’m starting to see her desire to be liked, clashing with her desire not to be hated. On top of that, Kazehaya is finally starting to show some flaws, so I’m liking this series more and more.

But on the other side, Sawako’s facial distortions still are pretty annoying, especially when repeated over and over again. It’s a problem that a few other shoujo-series have, but ironically I ended up really liking those (Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge and Skip Beat both abused them, and yet they turned out to be great otherwise. Let’s hope that this will be the case for Kimi ni Todoke as well, though a lot still has to happen for that).

I think the next episode is going to be a major one to determine whether or not this series is going to work: it’s going to be about the first love rival for our couple. The set-up is pretty obvious: this girl is in love with Kazehaya, she doesn’t like Sawako being near him and starts spreading all sorts of rumours about her. It’s obviously a plan that’s generic and never going to work, so it’s all going to depend on the execution to make up for it.
Rating: * (Good)

Kemono no Souja Erin – 40

by psgels, posted in Kemono no Souja Erin



So in the end I’m not going to blog Winter Sonata, for the following reasons:
– The release schedule that’s even more uncertain than Aoi Bungaku. Besides, I don’t know a word of Korean.
– The producer: only three episodes are finished at the moment because the lead actor was changed at the last moment. It’s the task of a producer to prevent these kinds of screw-ups!
– I’m already blogging enough angst this season (glares at White Album, and based on the rumours Winter Sonata seems to be even more annoying, if that’s possible).

I also decided not to blog 11Eyes: it really only has those tense moments that are good. The chemistry between the lead couple is just… generic to say the least (in the kind of “I’ll protect you and your bosom!”). And since the rest of this season didn’t have anything else that was promising, I figured that I might as well blog the final 11 episodes of Kemono no Souja, to make up for how I ignored it when it first aired.

Overall, this really is a lesser season. I wouldn’t say that it’s the worst Autumn Season ever, that award goes to Autumn 2007, in which there only were like, 6 shows that left a good impression on me, while this season does have more interesting series. The problem with this season also isn’t the moe overload. Previous summer had that too, and that turned out to be a really enjoyable season. It’s also no problem that this is the first season since ages that doesn’t have any mecha in it. In fact, it’s actually quite refreshing.

I think the problem with this season is quantity: when you look at the amount of series that aren’t sequels, we’re back to the amount of 2005 or perhaps even worse. To add to that, while Autumn 2005 did feature a lot of 26-episode series, right now we have like, what? only four series that are going to be more than 13 episodes (Kobato, Armed Librarians, Kiruminzoo and probably Kimi ni Todoke as well, but even that isn’t certain). It’s really such a shame. Let me tell you, if the Sacred Blacksmith would have had 26 episodes instead of 13, I probably would have blogged that one instead. But what can it really do in just 13 episodes?

And that is what I think is the biggest problem with anime: a majority of the series are just too short. And don’t give me that talk of “yeah, but second seasons can be announced”. That’s what I thought with Amatsuki as well and I’m still waiting for that much, much needed sequel. That’s why the past spring was so good: finally we had a good amount of series that even went beyond 26 episodes: these series really took a risk and gave their series the time needed.

And the same Kemono no Souja: I actually remember that a lot of people were scared away by the scheduled 50 episodes, but thinking back, those were pretty crappy reasons to drop this show. I think that Naruto and Bleach really made this long length infamous, and the currently airing Inu Yasha also prevents people like me, who don’t like the genre it’s in to give it a chance out of the fear of committing time to something that was ultimately not worth it, however I’m now starting to see that at least these series give their franchises enough time to play out. Kemono no Souja Erin has 50 episodes, and it still doesn’t look like enough.

Anyway, I’m not going to talk about this episode because it was a recap, but I do want to use these posts as a means of making up to this great series. I originally dropped it for a very clear reasons: the creators. At the time this series aired I really wasn’t happy with Trans Arts: they had this very nasty trend of picking out very interesting premises, only to screw them up:
– Sisters of Wellber? Great premise for a fantasy-series, but THE CHEESE.
– Library Wars? Sounded very nice, but it lacked complete direction and wanted to do way too much in too little time.
– And Chocolate Underground was entirely crap.

So yeah, as interesting as Erin sounded, I believed that they would screw this one up as well, and so when I detected a bit of cheese I dropped it. That was a bit of a stupid decision. This series built itself up very slowly, but in the end it was definitely worth it. This series reminds me of other lengthy shoujo-series as Glass Mask and Kaleido Star, which just focus on one aspect, but really take their time in exploring their subject matter to the fullest.

Edit: oh, silly me. I never noticed that I downloaded the wrong episode.

The “real” episode 40 was indeed much more like it, and did such an excellent job portraying the aftermath of last episode’s shocking climax. The start of this episode was really hectic, in which many things happened at the same time: Erin’s shock at what happened, taking care of the wounded, the queen who collapsed, the fact that Erin pretty much worked herself into trouble by commanding a Beast King right in front of a small army, including Damya.

And yeah, we now know where the Touda eggs which were previously stolen went to. I don’t think that that organization whose name I forgot has that many Touda, but you can clearly see that they’re trying to spark a war between the Queen and the Grand Duke. During these tense times, all Damya has to do is to bite back, and the country is pretty much doomed.

I also must praise how well the relationship between Erin and Ialu has been built up throughout the series. Now this is romance that really takes its time, instead of going down the cheesy part. Very nice.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Some Quick First Impressions: Winter Sonata, Kuchuu Buranko and Kiddy Girl-And

by psgels, posted in Kuchuu Buranko, Some Quick First Impressions

Winter Sonata

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is angsty.
Thank you Meep for pointing towards the first episode of this new series. This time, you should really consider this entry as a “first impression”, because I ended up watching this series in raw Korean despite knowing not a single word of the language (hey, at least in Spanish I know the words for one, two and three). There were subtitles in both Chinese and Japanese, but that too didn’t help me either since my Kanji is terrible. Anyway, my first impression of this episode: really pretty graphics, but the drama was sappy. It’s of course great to see a romance that focuses on actual ADULTS, rather than teenagers, but I would have preferred a bit more slice of life. Perhaps that’s yet to come in future episodes, but the characters were a bit too often staring into nothingness, rather than interacting with each other. However, I do support this series: it’s the very first attempt at a full-fledged Korean TV-series. If this can be the doorway to more and interesting premises that set themselves apart from both anime and western animation, then it’s definitely a good thing.
Also: Irony. There are a few English-speaking characters in this series. The good news: the creators actually hired properly English speaking people to voice them. The bad news: the creators still screwed up by miscasting a 30-year-old woman as a 10-year-old girl. She sounds like a strange witch now!
OP: Sappy love ballad. Not my style.
ED: Decent ballad. A nice way to end every episode.
Potential: 50%

Kuchuu Buranko

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is stressed out.
What is up with the raw providers this season? First Aoi Bungaku and now this. Are they allergic to shows that don’t focus on cute teen-aged girls or something? Anyway, Kuchuu Buranko… yeah. What is there really to say? It’s really an experience, and an awesome one at that. It’s full of the weirdest animation techniques, surreal art styles, and the direction keeps changing from one mood to the other. It’s really just a game of “let’s play psychologist”, with a different case looked upon during every week. With the best sense of humour of the entire season, I’m loving this series already. 🙂
OP: Heck, this is actually a really good song. Simple, but not annoying, and the strings int he background really work.
ED: Yeah, the best ED of the season. Funky, catchy and a great way to close off this series.
Potential: 100%

Kiddy Girl-And

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a teen-aged maid who kicks bad guy ass.
Wow, Satelight sure is busy this season. With four shows, they’re definitely the most represented in this season. While last season, they produced some of the best-looking shows of their seasons, this time… not so much, and all of their shows look pretty generic on the outside. The epitome of this… is Kiddy Girl-And: yet another moe action comedy in which teen-aged girls have kick the ass of various bad guys. But what about the execution? Unfortunately, this also is pretty generic. The female lead is incredibly annoying to listen to; her voice actress keeps yelling and yelling, hoping to make an impact. The scenario also keeps hanging too long around panty-jokes. The gimmick of this show seems to be quirky and over the top action-scenes, but even they fail to stand out. While they’re nicely animated (especially for Satelight: for once the animation wasn’t rushed at all), but the direction lacks any sort of creativity.
OP: Obnoxious J-Pop. Do not like.
ED: A bit better, but still with that obnoxiously cute J-Pop voice.
Potential: 0%

Konnichiwa Anne – 29

by psgels, posted in Konnichiwa Anne



Well, I actually forgot to publish this post after I wrote it. That’s a headdesk-moment right there.

Obviously I’m not in the mood of writing everything all over again, but I do want to say that this episode confirmed my fears of the return of the cheese in this series. It wasn’t as bad as during the Marysville arc, but nevertheless the climaxes are getting formulaic at this point. This will probably continue for most of the rest of this series.

However, there is good news, because this series promises to end on a good note. This really is a series with its ups and downs, and we’re unfortunately currently in a down again.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 28

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



Any attention-paying viewer will probably have caught this episode’s major plot twist unsubtly foreshadowed in the OP. I did not.

Seriously, I thought that that pony-tailed guy was that bomb dude, the one who kept blowing up his comrades in the first season. Don’t as me why, but I never expected this episode to turn LIN into the new Greed, but it really came as a surprise to me when Father popped up a Philosophers’ Stone and used it on the guy. Now this explains a lot about why Ishbal needed to be sacrificed: they were intended to be the bait for the next Greed, since the previous one ran off. Now apparently, you need to get rid of first Greed’s body first, before you can create a new one.

Also: Father. How completely different from an evil overlord he started out, personality-wise. He’s actually behaving like a nice grandfather, until Ed and Al make clear that they have no intention to cooperate with him. What’s even more peculiar is that while he knows Hohenheim, this guy seems more like some sort of distant relative to him, even though Hohenheim’s dream hinted that the two hate each other.

That room had even more unexplained things: for some reason, Ed and Al’s alchemy didn’t work, and for that matter no alchemy was supposed to work, and yet Scar wasn’t bothered by it at all. Then there’s also Father’s Philosopher’s Stone-like alchemy, but my theory of that is that he’s got a whole bunch of Philosopher’s stones living inside of him, which also keep him immortal.

What’s also interesting: this episode introduced a second door-thing. Lin’s case isn’t just a matter of simple brain-washing, and something tells me that like with the Heaven-like door in which Al is still waiting for Ed, Lin is also still somewhere inside that Hell-like door. If that’s true, then what about the first Greed? And Wrath?

Also, in this episode I discovered that this show has been showing plot twists after the ED. And it’s a good thing I did this time, because Gluttony died inside of it. Agh, I hate it when series pull these things, because I always skip next-episode previews. Did this series do this more often, or was this the first?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Cross Game – 29

by psgels, posted in Cross Game



Well, for a moment it might have seemed that the excessive hinting from the creators would ruin the surprise. I’ve said this many times before, but the baseball matches of Cross Game just don’t match up to those of Touch, in which you hardly ever knew how a match was going to end. Cross-Game instead just kept hinting at how this match was going to end throughout the first half of this episode, but nevertheless the eventual result hit hard.

So yes, Kou eventually suffered in his left arm, causing him to miss the crucial pitch that gave away the game. With this, he finally became a mortal again. Granted, that new pitcher was entirely fresh, and had only been playing for two rounds, but it’s nevertheless a mistake that could have happened with any other batter. And there’s the strength of the team they had to face: they didn’t just have good batter and pitcher, they had two of each. Individually, these people don’t match up to either Kou or Azuma, but when their strength is divided over half a game, they become a very formidable opponent to beat.

The aftermath was well delivered. You can see that the creators really took some time to let this sink in, and show Kou’s disappointment in his loss, even though nobody really blames him for it (after all, he did nearly win from the top-rated team in the area). It was also hilarious to see Senda, having been abandoned by the bus. ^^;

And at the end of this episode, we finally see Wakaba 2.0, and with that we move to the second half of this series, if I’m not mistaken. The characters really have been fleshed out enough by now. It’s time to develop them!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Aoi Bungaku – 02

by psgels, posted in Aoi Bungaku



Yes, with this episode I’m sure of my Top 3 of the autumn season: 1) Aoi Bungaku, 2) Armed Librarians and 3) Darker than Black. Kuchuu Buranko is indeed awesome, but it’s only awesome for its style, not its substance. Aoi Bunagku is awesome for both its style AND substance. This episode really was the best I have seen during this season so far.

The previous episode was meant to be confusing, it seems. This seems to be a pretty big story in this series, and this episode really started to explore his youth. My assumption is that the childhood friend of his later grew up to be that cartoonist, with whom he remained friends. We still don’t know exactly what drove him to commit suicide in the first place, though. That’s probably going to be saved for the next episode. All we just know is that he was bullied a lot during his youth, and something has been bugging him, ever since he survived that suicide attempt.

With a title as “no longer human”, I thought that this was going to be a supernatural horror story. Instead, it seems to be a story about a man losing his humanity. The way in which he survived the suicide attempt seems to have just been the final straw. After that, he starts to have visions of some sort of drawing he made when he was a kid (that was that strange black figure that showed up in the previous episode, signifying that it’s been there, even before the suicide attempt).

This episode introduces a woman who I think works at the local newspaper, however the way she collects bread crusts for her only daughter (her husband seems to have died) seems to show that she’s not paid well. On top of that, what was she thinking, trying to commit suicide? In the next episode, we’ll probably see how she’s going to fit inside the story. That cliff-hanger didn’t promise anything good: the lead character has accepted his hallucinations for what they are, and stopped paying attention to them, and yet he walked towards this woman in the end.

I also love the use of background music in this episode. It’s really simple, but compared with the awesome visuals it really manages to create one of the best atmospheres this season.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Letter Bee – 03

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



As your typical shounen-series, we’ve now gotten to the point in which Lag is going to have to take the examinations of the Letter Bees. This isn’t bad at all. Although overused, even the best shounens as Hunter x Hunter used it, with a number of great results. As long as Lag grows beyond the crybaby that he currently is, there shouldn’t be that much of a problem.

In the meantime, we learn what’s going to set Lag apart from all of the other Letter Bees: he’s going to have a human Dingo. The creators just keep hinting at this, so something really weird is going to happen if this isn’t going to be the case. It’s really standard shounen stuff again: the lead character comes across a cute girl, he helps her and somehow she’s thankful enough to become his companion. Again, while this is definitely annoying, as long as the rest of the series makes up for it, I guess it’s a good enough for setting up the story. And really, I’ve seen many, many series who did this premise worse than what we saw in this episode.

What I found interesting in this episode was how we basically glaze over the past five years, and yet we know that Lag hasn’t been sitting still. While the camera was off,he studied hard to be accepted as a letter bee, and he even met a bunch of them, including the one who likes to eat, whose name turns out to be Connor. I like how the creators made it seem like Connor was going to be a dumb stereotype through the OP, yet he had an actual personality when he shows up.

Also, what is up with the names in this series? “Lag Seeing”? “Niche”? “Love Someone Down”? Ah well, I can imagine how this could be a stylistic choice. The only real complaint I have about this series is the following: based on the architecture, while people don’t live in luxury, they don’t seem to be that poor. Is Lag really the only one who felt sorry for her? Were there really no passers-by who felt sorry for her as well, and tried to help her out?
Rating: (Enjoyable)

White Album – 16

by psgels, posted in White Album



Surprisingly… I found very little to rage about in this episode… Instead of that, I should congratulate Touya for finally getting himself an answering machine. Damn, if he had that thing, how different would the first season have looked?

However, the cast of characters still are a miserable bunch. The premise of it was about a new performance for Yuki, while Touya’s father collapsed again. To start with the first, Yayoi makes a bold move: for once, she invites Touya without the intention to kiss or screw him, but rather outright tells him to stop seeing Yuki for her own good. This seems to contradict her behavior up till now, in which she kept calling Touya more and more often…

Later, Eiji indeed reveals that he’s planning to star Yuki in some big event. However, the rule is that each production can only be allowed to submit one idol, so yeah: he pushes Rina aside for Yuki. In response to this, Rina declares that she’s going to start her own production, and move away from her brother. Rina indeed seems like the most stable member of the cast (okay, that’s not saying anything, really), but that also may have been because she’s the most mysterious at this point. We hardly ever know what she’s thinking, are we? Did she work with her brother for so long because it were his connections that allowed her to grow big in the first place, or is there something more to it? I mean, there has to be a reason why she’s the focus of the OP, hasn’t there?

Then there’s the matter of Touya’s father collapsed again. He seems to be fine according to Touya, but it’s gotten much harder on Misaki, who somehow ends up staying longer with him than Touya while Akira leaves prematurely. On top of that, Misaki later discovers that Touya was outright lying to her, and he’s in much worse shape than he said, even needing a pacemaker.

But yeah, one of the big complaints about the first season was simply the following: ANSWERING MACHINE! As it turns out, the creators didn’t forget this at all, Touya just didn’t have one. I wasn’t of course born in those days, but in a way I can imagine a poor student in those days, not being able to afford one. If I recall correctly, the first answering machine was marketed 3 years before. I don’t think that at that point, they were as common yet as ten years later.

And yet, even with the answering machine ready, the problems still aren’t as easily solved, like the end of this episode showed. That yelp of attention of his in the final scene can have a lot of different meanings: is he afraid that he’s going to lose Yuki? Does he finally feel remorse for his father? Or is he just lonely because he can’t see Yuki? Anyway, considering the things he’s done so far…
Rating: (Enjoyable)