Holy crap… this series really seems to just get better and better over time. This episode not only was a major step up when compared to the first episodes of the first and second arc, but it was also much more solid, composed and the voice acting was also better than ever. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I really hope that the creators can keep this up.
This episode featured a slightly new op with a bunch of new scenes here and there (nicely shaded, by the way), and it starts out again with a bit of background for the characters Beatrice and Eva. It tells something about the supposed nature of magic (very creative, I must say), and it shows how Eva seems to have created an imaginary friend in her attempts to stand out as a woman in the Ushinomiya family, especially discriminated upon by Krauss and Kinzou.
Speaking of Kinzou, this guy’s an asshole. He isn’t the least bit subtle about his wishes to marry off Eva for his own happiness, is he? Still, in this arc we should probably see a different version of Eva: in the first arc she didn’t have to struggle a lot, because everyone else entitled to her father’s inheritance was presumed dead, and in the second arc she was dead herself. My suspicion is that she, along with some other heir, is going to survive the first slaughter, which should give her character a different dimension.
This episode also destroys the theory that Beatrice herself was the culprit: she’s dead. Rosa killed her. I guess that that’s why she was so paranoid in the previous arc: someone she believed to be dead suddenly appeared. Of course she’d start doubting everyone and his dog. Still, we have no proof yet that there wasn’t a twentieth person on the island, because Beatrice also refused to red text that the minimum of people on the island is twenty. This final mystery person could prove the key to how the killer was able to move around and arrive at the right time to kill everyone. I’m beginning to suspect that the murders weren’t all committed by the same person; it’s either a bunch of accomplices, or two people are killing people on their own with different motives.
And the nature of that meta world indeed is starting to look like a world in which dead people gather. With this, Beatrice’s motive may actually be that she wishes to return to the realm of the living, and there’s this link between her and Rosa that seems hold a key clue to solving this mystery.
Oh and as usual, please try to refrain from mentioning what happens in the visual novel after this point, for the sake of those who haven’t read it.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Umi Monogatari Review – 82,5/100
After watching Kaleido Star and Strange Dawn, you can pretty much consider me a fan of Sato Junichi, the guy who directed them. Umi Monogatari is his latest work; it’s nowhere near his best, however it still is a very solid series: focused, emotional and powerful. This series demonstrates that even with a simple story and clichéd setting you can do a lot of nice things.
What impressed me the most about this series is that it has so many ingredients that anime has become infamous for, and it makes them work. It has a big-boobed hot chick in a swimsuit as a main character, alongside her is her younger sister, also in swimsuit. We have this evil power that brainwashes everyone, there’s an angsty love triangle subplot, people getting into fights over the smallest misunderstanding and let’s not forget the animal sidekick.
There is really a LOT of angst and drama in this series. Usually in anime, this means a lot of cheese, but here the creators manage to make a very emotional series while avoiding getting ludicrous or melodramatic by keeping the characters genuine. Especially Marin and Kanon are a couple of very likable character. They’re well fleshed out and avoid being stereotypes. Especially Marin cries a lot, but for once you feel that it’s part of her character, rather than having her cry for the sake of melodrama.
While a cheesy mahou shoujo at first sight, Umi Monogatari at heart is a story about adolescence: a tale of growing up, expanding your horizons, getting into fights and trying to make up again, which never is easy. It’s also about discrimination and misunderstandings, and it has a lot of meaning put into the emotions of the different characters.
Granted though, the plot is very simple; if you’re not into the characters, or like a fast-paced plot in which a lot of stuff happens at the same time, you’re not going to like this series. Umi Monogatari is more like one of those series that takes its time in subtly developing its characters. Still, that final episode really has been the best ending I’ve seen so far in this season, and has a good chance of being among the best endings of the shows that ended during the Spring and Summer Season, even though I usually dislike those sorts of endings.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 |
| Characters: | 9/10 |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 |
| Setting: | 8/10 |
GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class – 11
It’s interesting that while in High School, I had no interest in art whatsoever. And yet I really find all the references of GA to different artworks, techniques and equipment very interesting to watch. But yeah, in high school I also hated reading, writing and subjects as French and German. I really wonder how my high-school self would react if it learned that its grown-up version would create a blog with thousands of posts, dedicated to an art-form and blogging series in a foreign language learnt as a hobby. ^^;
Anyway, this episode starts out with Kisaragi daydreaming about entertaining an kindergarten class with pieces of art, nearly running into a statue. Next up, due to a shortage of clean sheets, Kisaragi picks up one with a bunch of scribblings on it (including “NICE TRAP” (lol) and a black cat, which Kisaragi obviously can’t resist to add a few more of them.
We then turn to the other Art Club, in which Awara created a cheesy but charming fairytale about a country where all of the colours were solen, and a fairy that somehow resembles Kisaragi being born and having to take care of it. They spend a while thinking of how to continue this (including some really bad suggestions by Oomichi), and Mizubichi ends up inviting Kisaragi for ideas.
The second half of this episode shows Kisaragi as she goes after a bargain day on a local art supplies store, and antics ensue as usual. Yeah, I’ve gotten bored with writing summaries at this point. It still was a really fun episode as usual, though. A real trend of the series for the past half year was consistency: delivering, and doing so consistently for every single episode, and GA is also really good at it. I can hardly remember any weak moment, other than getting used to the other Art Club, which happened soon enough.
it’s a shame that there’s just one episode left, and by the looks of it the creators aren’t going to pull a forced dramatic climax in the end. I know the director, he did Cromartie High School and that one too had an ending that in no way tried to cheap out on the ending. Because of that, I’m looking forward to that final episode. it’s really been a fun series to watch and I was right to blog this one. And the amazing thing is that we’re 11 episodes in now, and it still doesn’t feel like this series has run out of ideas.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Shangri-La Review – 87,5/100
Well, this is going to be my hardest review to write this season: explaining why the heck I considered Shangri-La among my favourites for the past half year. Even though there is a lot to dislike this series for, it’s really a series that proves to be very solid entertainment for those willing to suspend their disbelief.
I think it’s best explained as follows: imagine a series with a straightforward story, a simple and small cast and a slow pacing. Now imagine a series with a huge setting, a large and diverse cast of characters who all have their own motives and stance, a multi-layered story with a fast pacing that delivers buckets of plot twists each episode. Now, which of these two is likely to have more plotholes? And which one is probably going to be more exciting?
That’s basically the thing with Shangri-La. Granted, throughout the series Kuniko does a number of things that are rather hard to suspend your disbelief at (including breaking the laws of physics), and plotholes are also pretty common for those who pay attention. But at the same time, it had just about everything I look for in an anime.
The concept of Carbon Trading might seem weird at first, but it’s a pretty neat idea for this series to work with, and the setting that this series built around this concept is rich and imaginative. There are lots of different parties with all different priorities, morals and values, and the same goes for the cast: there are a lot of characters, and yet there are hardly two characters with the same outlook on life: everyone feels like an individual, and is interesting to watch and develop. My personal favourite was Karin, who gets the most development in this series.
My favourite part of this series was the plot, though. Throughout the majority of the series, you’re never going to know what to expect. Especially a good portion of the middle part of this series is features an truly excellent mystery plot, in which every revelation only makes the setting even more intriguing than it already was. Every character has so his or her own secrets, that together form a multi-layered storyline that just keeps delivering.
Unfortunately, this series plays the “lazy”-card right at its ending, which is without a doubt rushed. I’m not sure why there are only 24 episodes for this series because it definitely could have used two more episodes to wrap up the story better. The story right now just wants a happy ending a little too badly, even though it has to use lots of deus ex machina to get there. A shame.
The visuals for this series are an interesting beast. They range from rushed to absolutely gorgeous. Especially the first couple of episodes suffer from a collection of rushed shots and drawings, but at the same time some episodes feature the single most visually pleasing shots that I have seen for the past half year. The animation also picks itself up very nicely in the second half, and delivers some really good use of CG and shading to make this a very aesthetically pleasing series. The soundtrack of this series is also among my three favourite soundtracks of the past half year (with the other two belonging to Phantom and the Guin Saga).
So yes, you’re going to have to bring a cup of suspense of disbelief when you want to watch this series, and if you’re not trying to turn over every stone in search of a flaw you’ll be rewarded by a great story with a great setting that always manages to bring something new to the table, instead of dragging at the same point over and over. It’s a fun and diverse series, but I can understand why many hate the plotholes with passion.
| Storytelling: | 9/10 |
| Characters: | 8/10 |
| Production-Values: | 9/10 |
| Setting: | 9/10 |
Shangri-La – 24
And so this series has come to an end. Unfortunately it wasn’t the epic ending I hoped for though. In this episode, Kuniko simply kills everyone evil, and this episode unfortunately was rushed in order to get to a happy end. I expected better from this series. There were also a bunch of deus ex machinas, like Miiko suddenly popping up from nowhere and blocking bullets that were aimed for Mikuni. It was explained later, but it still feels cheap.
There also was that matter of Kuniko, somehow not becoming Himiko’s reincarnation. Why did Ryouko not know that that was going to happen? Also, Takehito was just pathetic in this episode. What, he just appears and blows himself up? Come on, that deserves more build-up. Everything just went too easy in this episode. It didn’t really build up to Kuniko’s development of becoming a leader, she simply smacked her way through everything because she happened to be a digma (thankfully she wasn’t Ryouko’s daughter, but instead a clone).
But there’s one thing I really liked about this episode: Karin’s end. She really feels like she developed her character and I liked how despite being in despair, she still managed to stop Medusa in time, and it was very nice to see Claris and Jean appear in the end. Her ending was really cute.
But yeah, overall I’m really afraid that this downer ending is going to leave me with a rather negative impression on this series, which is a shame because the middle part of this series really was everything I look for in an anime. Thinking back, I think the turning point was the burning of Tokyo: after that, the stories started to converge with each other, and it lost that bit of chaos that it was so good at in the middle part. In a way the hardest part of a mystery series is its ending: making the revelations count.
In any case, I do hope that this isn’t going to form the ending of Gonzo. Like ’em or not, they do have the guts to take risks, even when they’re about to go bankrupt. Risks like these are much better than playing it safe. Shangri-La… if it were well executed it would have belonged to my absolute favourites. Unfortunately, the shoddy execution made it less impressive than it could have been. Still, it’s still likely to end up somewhere at the end of my top 10 for 2009, unless the fall season turns out to be really, really good. Which I really doubt until proven wrong.
Rating: (Enjoyable)]]>
Guin Saga – 24
Oh my, the creators actually found a solution to the badly animated wars: skip them, and just show the aftermath. Oh boy, I never saw that one coming. While at first sight cheap, I believe that this was the best choice that they could have made. Imagine what would have happened if they did animate those fights: it would have overrun the screen with fake CG, unbelievable animation and stock footage that probably would have been used over and over again. It would have ruined the suspension just like what it did in the Nosferas Arc.
They also give an interesting anticlimactic air to the battles, which in turn works SO well with Amnelis’ development: here she is, ready to kick Naris’ butt for betraying her, and then her father collapses, she’s forced to retreat, gets cornered and charges anyway, only to be mercilessly slaughtered. It spells pathetic all over her, and yet that only solidifies her growth as a character, and develops her even more. We probably have to wait for the second season (SECOND SEASON WHERE!?) to see what it exactly paid off for, but I really loved Amnelis throughout this episode, even though just about everything went wrong for her.
If anything, the deletion of the battles show that the creators more than anything know what they’re good at, and focus on those things while leaving the large-scale battles for what they are, because they simply don’t have the budget to make them work. I must congratulate Satelight for making this decision, because despite these battles, this episode rocked beyond belief.
Also, it’s interesting that Guin’s side-story has been anime-original, but I can somewhat understand why the creators chose to do it. After all, this series is called “Guin Saga”, but his role has been that of a mere side-character for the past arc. Instead, the series could just as sell have been called the “Naris Saga”, “Amnelis Saga”, or perhaps even the “Remus Saga”. So yeah, after all that he does deserve his own place in the spotlights in the end, saving Remus and Linda from that blond guy. it forms a nice conclusion and yet at the same time isn’t going to get in the way of that second season (SECOND SEASON WHERE?!).
Rating: *** (Awesome)]]>
Tetsujin 28-Go Review – 85/100
After watching the new Mazinger, and realizing how well it was written I started to wonder whether the director,
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Konnichiwa Anne – 24
Oh my god… it’s happened. It’s bloody happened. What an incredible episode this was, it totally changed the way I look at this series. I know that I’ve talked down to this series a lot for the past months, but damn. This episode really reminded me why I’ve become such a huge fan of the World Masterpiece Theatre… BIG SPOILERS coming up!
But yeah, that disclaimer must have been a bit redundant, because it’s an event that probably everyone knew about before this series started: the death of Bert. And that’s one thing that makes the World Masterpiece Theatre stand apart from all those other series: you know bad things are going to happen; you know that the shit is going to hit the fan, but you just never know when exactly it’s going to happen. Especially Les Miserables loved pulling this.
But seriously, the end of this episode took me utterly by surprise. The build-up for this episode was just SO adorable. Because of all the things with Henderson, I was really starting to forget what makes the World Masterpiece Theatre stand above 90% of all other anime: the character-development. And of course: that’s going to take about 25 episodes to really pay off in your average series. This episode really was where everything came together in terms of development in a really adorable Christmas episode. From Bert finally selling his trophy, to the villagers forgiving him because of how he risked his life to save Noah in the previous episode. It all fit incredibly well.
It’s really a shame that this series was wrongly advertised as Anne of Green Gables’ prequel, because that would suggest that Anne is the only important character here, while in fact this series is just as much about Bert, Johanna and the rest of the Thomas family.
I really wonder how this series is going to play out now that Bert is about to die. Not in terms of where the plot is going, but whether Anne’s second family is going to be able to match up to the Thomas family, or whether they’re going to be more like the stereotypical Henderson, Randolf and Mildred. I really have no bloody clue, but the past few episodes have really made up for how this series just kept going on about Henderson in the Marysville School Arc.
Rating: *** (Awesome)]]> Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 23
Another excellent episode, aside from the parts that focused on Winry. You know, I understand what purpose she has: keeping Ed and Al down to earth. The thing is that she just keeps hogging up too much screen-time even though she’s mostly unrelated to the story. Especially since the creators are pulling this series at a high pace, cutting several scenes along the way, and yet they seem to refuse to want to cut any of her airtime. It’s a good thing that she’s returned to the Auto-mail City. That’s also going to enable her to grow as a character.
Anyway, this episode really showed Lin and Lan Fan’s abilities, both as thinkers as as fighters. I really expected this fight to end with both parties simply retreating, what seems to be the trend in a lot of other series with lots of fighting, but Lin actually succeeds in not only capturing Gluttony, but he also manages to trick Wrath at the same time. Lan Fan cutting off her own arm… that just shows how well she must have been trained and how deep her devotion is. I personally can hardly imagine how one would be crazy enough to successfully cut off one’s own arm, but if the alternative is death…
But at the same time, Hawk did make the mistake of using a bit too obvious of a disguise. Anyone who works for the military who has worked with her could have seen through her, which is especially risky since they’re suspecting King Bradley to have something to do with her. Interesting subversion of the “Sailor Moon”-syndrome, though.
Anyway, that little girl that was with Scar finally comes in action. I have no idea who she is, how old she is, why she’s helping Scar and how she became so incredibly good at alchemy despite being just a child, but she seems to be someone to look out for.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]> Cross Game – 24
I’d like again to hijack this post for a bit to post up some impressions of the past half year of anime. Now that most of the series of the past Spring and Summer Season are about to end, it’s time to reflect on them again, and how they matched up to previous years. My general impression of the past Spring and Summer Season is that they’ve been completely different from those a year ago.
The spring season of 2008 was all about fooling the viewer: making the viewer think that the focus of the series will be on something completely different from what it actually is, and this air that you never know what to expect of an arc or episode, for the good and the bad. This spring and summer however, have instead been about consistency: delivering, and doing so over and over. Even the series which focused on surprising did so consistently.
Because of this, there’s no way to say “Spring 2008 was weaker/better than Spring 2009”. The individual highlights of the Spring and Summer of 2008 were better than of the current season. As much as I like Tokyo Magnitude, Phantom, Shangri-La and the Guin Saga, their highlights simply don’t match up to Kaiba, Himitsu ~The Revelation~, xxxHolic and Amatsuki. However, at the same time I have a lot less to get angry about this season: 2008 had a lot of disappointments, and series that ended with a bitter taste for me (*ahem*, Allison to Lillia, Soul Eater, Macross Frontier, Mission-E, Nijuu Mensou no Musume, et cetera, et cetera). The current season of course has shows with a lot of flaws, but you could have seen all of them coming. I’ve watched 30 episodes this season, and only one of them was offensively dull (Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei), and the good series have really been consistently good, with hardly any weeks that didn’t deliver.
The reason why I’m hijacking this post of all things to write this down is because I’ve had this strange feeling that something was missing this season, and now I finally know what it is. The biggest reason why the Spring and Summer of 2008 were so inconsistent was that they featured a lot of case-based series: in them, characters either had jobs that involved meeting lots of different people, travelled around, or just met different people, allowing these people to tell their stories. while episodic and fillerish at first sight, it resulted into a number of amazing and really well written episodes, and because of that I’ve become a really big fan of those sorts of series.
to my surprise, the past half year only featured one such series: Bakemonogatari. And that one turned out disappointing for a whole set of reasons involving Shinbo. Guin Saga and Tokyo Magnitude may seem like it, but the people that the main characters run into don’t really get an in-depth look, and their main purpose is instead to bring the setting alive, rather than standing out as a character with depth. And really, while there are a lot of very enjoyable series currently airing, I’m missing these quick series in which you never know what to expect. It’s those kinds of series that I’m going to look for especially in the upcoming fall season.
Anyway, to segue back into this episode, the epitome of consistency this season is of course Cross Game. This episode shows the first matches of the local tournaments, that will eventually lead to Koshien. However, I KNOW Adachi: Kou isn’t in his final year yet, so they’re going to lose at some point. The question is: when?
I liked how this episode also subverted a very common trope: “prettyboys are awesome”. This episode really proved that that isn’t necessarily the case, and it’s really good to see a group of people with normal looks in the centre, rather than a bunch of bishies or overly moe girls in the spotlights.
Other events in this episode showed a small glimpse of what happened to the members of previous year’s baseball team. They’ve all picked themselves back up in other teams, including Miki who’s looking much more healthy. This episode also marks what would have been Wakaba’s birthday, so Kou is out to collect another birthday gift for her.
One thing I didn’t like about this episode is that it was a bit too un-subtle about the Kou vs Aoba relationship. Especially the point in which Aoba looks at the camera and a soft wind conveniently starts blowing… that could have been done more subtle.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>