“David Production may be a new and young animation company, but they’ve really proven themselves so far. They’ve got their own identity already and they’ve produced nothing but well written series. They’re definitely a new company to look out to.”
Yeah, I wish that I could write that right now, but DOGS is so hilariously bad that it’s a miracle that the producers even agreed to release it. It’s basically a 4-episode OVA (based on the DOGS manga apparently), but it’s so badly produced and written that I don’t think that anyone is going to be able to take it seriously.
The biggest of its flaws is its hopeless overacting. Every single character tries to look as cool as possible, but they overdo their coolness way too much. The result is four episodes full of incredibly cheesy and overacted drama whose only merit is that it’s so hilariously bad that you’re bound to have a laugh or two at how ridiculous it is. There are of course also a lot of emo faces that only make things even less believable, considering how little build-up every story has.
Another problem with this show is that it’s based on a much larger manga, and this series does absolutely nothing to hide it. That’s why the four episodes are just a bunch of random chapters animated, without bothering at all to try and fill us in about what’s going on, why things are happening, who the characters are, and they simply cut off when their time is up, leaving a massive amount of plot-holes open.
Of course, it’s not like this series isn’t enjoyable. This OVA is best watched along with a bunch of friends and liquor; it’s a great way to pass an hour. Obviously, that just doesn’t warrant any kind of praise or high review score. The only praise I can give this series is that the art is pretty decent: it looks crisp and clean and while nothing amazing, you can see David Production’s influences. And of course the Engrish curses were awesome.
I know that this series was based on a much larger manga and all, but that’s no excuse. Hitsuji no Uta for example was also based on a large manga, and yet it did succeed in condensing its story into only four episode, with some amazing results. If that series could do it, then why couldn’t DOGS?
| Storytelling: | 2/10 |
| Characters: | 2/10 |
| Production-Values: | 7/10 |
| Setting: | 4/10 |
Aah, I hate this effect. Do not get me wrong with this entry: this episode still was a really good one, but at the same time I do believe that the creators have jumped the shark a bit and moved away from what made the first five episodes so incredibly good. This effect started at the last episode, but back then I was focusing too much on details that didn’t really matter.
But let me first start with the good parts: it really was a good lesson for Yuki and Mirai this time that they shouldn’t be wandering off at every occasion. Now that they’ve gotten a good night sleep and the initial shocks are gone, they’re starting to get a bit more of their energy back, and so they start to act more child-like. The rain was also nicely preluded with the dark clouds coming up.
As for the robots, they’re an interesting idea, but they could have been made more practical in my opinion. If they were made to scout around for survivors, they should have been made faster and smaller. Otherwise they could have just been replaced by a rescue worker on a bike. Still, it does seem logical to use robots like these if they’ve been sufficiently tested and fail-proof: this way the rescue workers can act more efficiently and don’t have to waste unnecessary energy to search around for survivors, and instead can concentrate on rescuing.
Anyway, my “problem” with this episode was that the creators are trying a bit too hard, which takes away a bit from this series’ realism. And really, Yuki’s sunstroke would have been a great ordeal for the characters to overcome, but it just feels cheap right after Mari succumbed to anemia. It’s nearly like the characters are taking turns in getting sick here. The creators instead should have just focused at the three of them trying to get home.
I realize I’m complaining a lot, but I’m just rather unhappy that the past two episodes didn’t manage to uphold the amazing standards that were set by the first five episodes. It’s in a way like Now and Then, Here and There: the second half there was still really good, but it wasn’t as gut-wrenchingly sad as the first half. This episode also took the focus away from everyone else, in the favour of focusing more on Mirai and Yuki, and while it would have been an excellent episode for most other shows, I just know that the creators could have done better here. The boy with his fascination of robots was also nice and all, but it felt too much like he was reading a script rather than telling about his life.
Rating: * (Good)]]> 
Oh boy, this series has been nothing but awesomeness since the start of the Tokyo Arc. Sure, it’s true that Cal’s body grew a bit too much over two years, but if you blame puberty it could have happened. It’s not really something to be overly obsessive about, because I don’t think that it really gets in the way of the rest of the series.
Even though this turns out to be the adaptation of a H-game, I was quite surprised with how honest Reiji was about Cal. In your average anime you’d guess that for some bit of extra tension the characters would just keep these secrets from each other, but then again: this series already has enough tension as it is. No need to be melodramatic at all, because the characters have reached the point where they are more than able to carry the series along. Cal busting up the rivalling gang for example, was nothing short of kickass. This does show that Scythe has some sort of strange methods of getting the best potential out of his Phantoms.
I was actually hoping for this episode to delve a bit more into the Cal vs Reiji, but it seems that the creators are still saving this for later. Instead, this episode’s end showed the next best thing: Cal vs Helen. Next episode surely is going to rock!
If the rest of the finale continues to be as good as this, Phantom is definitely going to be my favorite Bee-Train series since .Hack//Sign, and out of the shows that premiered during the past spring season, it’s pretty likely that this series is going to end up as my favourite. Sorry Shangri-La, but this series has simply gotten that good.
Rating: *** (Awesome)]]> 
Hell yeah! I’ve been waiting for this for more than four months, but Birdy the Mighty Decode’s OVA is finally here. While it’s not exactly what I expected it to be, I don’t care. It’s always awesome to see more of your favourite series of the year.
So yeah, basically this episode takes place between the first and the second season, and ties both seasons together. We get to see Capella as she gets picked up by the old hag, we get to see what happened to Nakasugi after the end of the first season, and we get our first glimpse of Natoru, who would become such an amazing character later on. A lot of the time in this episode was spent on slice of life, and Shion had to give a concert at the same place that Nakasugi stayed at, so she paid a little visit to her. There also was some marionette after her because some aliens feared that she still had some traces of Ryunka in her, but that also was more meant to flesh out the setting rather than to create some sort of climax. Still, I don’t care. I’m glad enough to be able to watch some more of this amazing series, and this episode only contributed to it.
It’s great to see how Senkawa developed from the annoying brat in the first season to that likable side-character he became in the second one, and this episode really showed his transition. He’s so much more mature now, and let Shion approach her, instead of going after her himself. Also, I’ve heard people getting annoyed at Arita Shion’s typical voice, but I think it’s hilarious. Especially along with Capella and the old hag, the comedy becomes utterly priceless when the three of them are in the same room.
I’m also intrigued. The final frame showed the following lines. Now, I’m not sure whether that meant the second season or whether it was referring to something else:
“bye-bye
and
To be continued…”
If it turns out to be referring to that “something else”, and that “something else” turns out to be what I think it is: HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!
Rating: *** (Yes I’m biased!)]]> 
Oh boy, even more questions are asked throughout this episode, but at least the premise of this series is starting to become a bit clear now. It’s indeed a series very much like Higurashi, but the whole iterations are much more similar and the whole ghost world around it has a much bigger role here than it had in Higurashi. I’m not sure yet whether or not the endings for each arc are going to be the same, but who knows?
In this arc, it was pretty clear that some of the scenes are viewed by ghost Beatrice and ghost Battler, while others aren’t so much and are rather a speculation of how Beatrice would make Battler believe things went. Otherwise I can see no way to explain Beatrice suddenly summoning walking bunnies and two of the seven sins to kill a bunch of people. Also, Battler never mentioned the deaths of Kanon and Jessica even though he was very much trying to explain the deaths of the first six corpses.
Speaking of which, he’s really been reasoning with the assumption that Maria had nothing to do with the murders, but she’s been acting so evil that she’s turning into some sort of reverse red herring. I mean, for a girl with a bipolar disorder who doesn’t seem to think it weird that blood is everywhere, I wouldn’t be surprised if she did turn out to be the killer in the end. A lot of things would make sense if this was true in any case.
In any case, this episode destroys the theory that one of the six people who were murdered first might have prepared a fake body. Instead of Maria’s mother Rosa, Natsuhi got killed off this time, Shannon stayed alive in exchange for Eva and Gouda wasn’t killed in exchange for Hideyoshi. This could mean that Shannon, Rose or Gouda did use the trick of the fake body in the first episode, but this time decided for a different strategy.
Another big difference with the first arc is that the killer showed some of the gold. This is going to bring actually finding the gold as a much more important goal than it was in the first arc. On top of that, the second set of sacrifices is also going to be different this time. Who know, perhaps this arc is going to end in an entirely different way.
Oh, and when discussing this episode: please refrain from mentioning events that happen after this point in the visual novel.
Rating: * (Good)]]> 
Here’s another one I haven’t heard anyone talk about, or even mention for that matter. Kaze no Youjinbou is an obscure series that aired back in 2001, but seems to have become nearly forgotten over the past eight years, which is a bloody shame because it’s a really good series. Recommended for anyone who’s into a good mystery series.
This series is about criminal gangs in a small mining town, and the street-punks, corrupt politicians, villagers and police officers around them. Street-punks and yakuza in anime are very often incredibly stereotypical. They’re either a bunch of screaming and evil paper bags who appear just out of random and attack the lead characters in order to insert some random tension, or they’re portrayed as those cheesy thugs with a heart of gold and a strong sense of 
This entry starts with a spoiler so you may want to look away if you’re skimming through this paragraph. Holy crap, they actually broke up, and this doesn’t look like they’re going to get back together at this rate. It’s a bit of a shame though. It’s a bit predictable that Fumi is going to end up with Akira after all, since I really liked how originally this series didn’t seem to go down the clichéd road of childhood friends becoming lovers. Nevertheless, this was yet another truly excellent episode for Aoi Hana.
Anyway, I have no idea what’s going to happen with this series. Everyone says that this series is only going to last for 11 episodes, but I really doubt this. The reason why Michiko e Hatchin and Ristorante Paradiso had so few episodes was because they had a really strange broadcasting policy: Ristopara had a bunch of hiatuses in the beginning, while Michiko e Hatchin had one of the weirdest broadcasting policies I’ve ever run into when it kept getting to hiatuses one week and air double episodes the next. With Aoi Hana however, every episode aired like it was supposed to, and I find it really hard to believe that it’s already going to be over in three weeks. Speaking of which, is it already known which series is going to be the next one to fill in the Noise time-slot, or is that even unknown? Because in the case of the latter, we might have ourselves a 26-episode series here….
Anyway, what struck me the most in this episode was the incredibly cold way in which Yasuko talked to Kyouko, who found out that Fumi was dumped through Akira. That was absolutely nothing like what I expected from her. She must have been really upset with her sister marrying the teacher that she was in love with, and so she vented all of her frustrations on Fumi and Kyouko. In that way, she’s even worse than Fumi in her sulking about her past crush. And it took me a while to realize how similar the two of them are. It’s really a huge shame that they broke up, but unfortunately it really seems that Fumi has lost her feelings for Yasuko.
Also, the drawings and animation in this series are incredibly good when two people are touching each other in some way, whether messing with each other’s hair, hugging, or just holding each other’s hands. Those are the scenes that you can almost feel coming to life.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]> 
As if this series didn’t already have enough characters, this episode introduces even more of them! Is that a bad thing? Not really. It really goes along with the notion that you can really meet a lot of people at school, rather than only talk to four or five people and ignore just about everyone else like what you see in most anime. Anyway, this episode was about exhibitions, in which the lead cast visits two art exhibitions. And really, there was lots and lots of dialogue this time, including some pretty in-depth stuff about art…
But first the episode plays around with perspectives a bit. First we switch to the Art Club, who had to make a large drawing assignment that consists out of several sheets taped together. Awara and some mysterious new character created a surprisingly convincing drawing of a corridor which took me a few seconds to realize that it was actually drawn. You have to love how this series makes use of the fact that it’s an anime.
The rest of the episode is about the members of the Art Design, which carries further on the 
And so the finale for this series has begun. This episode was mostly building up, but as usual with this series it came with tons of revelations. And heck; the creators might actually be able to pull of a satisfying conclusion at this rate.
I’m glad to see that even though we’re nearly at the end, the creators still show a bit of what happened to the folks of Duomo after they were evacuated inside Atlas. With this, Kuniko also got her wishes through that every last bit of space in Atlas would be used for the people, rather than simply letting them be wastes of space.
In this episode something that rather gets in the way of my “Kunihito is Kuniko’s brother”-theory, when some actual romance starts to develop. Thankfully though, there wasn’t a lot of cheese among the two and the situations that made them realize their crush was pretty creative (Come on, Kuniko hugging Kunihito when she tried to find out where the sudden lights came from was really cute). It’s a bit disturbing though, because aside from the blushes, their “lover’s quarrel” looked more like the fights that siblings would have, rather than lovers.
And then the pattern with Atlas in the middle. It turns out that it was supposed to be the whole pillar that would make Atlas the most influential city of the world. When Nagiko and Sergei was younger, this was their motivation to construct Atlas. It was an attempt to escape earthquakes, but it failed. That’s why they created the Hiruko: young sacrifices that would end up stopping the effects of the earth on Atlas, and which is also what killed Takehito’s sister.
In the meantime Karin (apparently Akihabara was spared in the bombings) has been stalking Kunihito with her subordinates, and so obtained the final dagger. Apparently, this is going to make Mikuni the true heir of Atlas (so that’s what was the purpose of these daggers). Medusa in the meantime is getting rather out of control, though Karin realizes it a bit too late when it’s already planning to crash the entire market through Antarctica. Now that’s going to be the turning point for her wealth, it seems.
The whole deal around Titan confused me a bit, especially since we never actually get to SEE it, but we’re very much given the impression that it’s an aerial fortress of Titan came to Tokyo after Ryouko tipped them off that the person behind Medusa is in Akihabara. Because of this, it launches a pillar of light at Karin. She probably hasn’t died yet, because we’ve yet to see her actually die, but someone else did die: Hiruko, aka Miiko. WTF.
So wait… Ryouko actually meant to kill Hiruko?! And we only just learned that it’s Hiruko that prevents Atlas from collapsing under its own weight. What the hell could her purpose be? I mean, if she wanted to crash Atlas, couldn’t she just have used a bunch of explosives? With this however, the finale has really been set up. I have no idea what’s going to happen to Atlas right now, but it’s definitely setting up for some sort of grand finale.
I’m also really glad to see that at this point, the budget still hasn’t run out. The final scenes, in which Miiko showed her last moments, were really well drawn and they looked absolutely beautiful. It’d be awesome if Gonzo is saving the last remains of its budget to go all out on that final episode.
With four episodes left, this series has a lot cut out for it, but if it manages to do everything right, then this finale is going to rock. Right now, it really seems like Ryouko is going to be the final villain. She might or might not be planning to use Titan for the final episodes, but it’s now clear that she’s really planning something that really shouldn’t be allowed to happen, and four episodes seem just about right to flesh it out enough, after all the build-up that she’s received up till now. Karin and Kuniko are probably going to form the centre of her opponents. And also, what’s the carbon trade going to do in the final episodes? Is the market really going to crash, or will Karin be able to salvage enough of her money to set up a small army?
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]> 
I went into this series quite a false assumption of what it was going to be about. With a title as “Yugo the Negotiator”, it sounded like a mature and realistic series in which the lead character Yugo would calmly negotiate himself through various circumstances. Little did I know that this is a series which tests the boundaries of what the human body can take, a series which tests the boundaries of credibility in its plot twists and a series which tests the boundaries of how much tension you can insert in a story with such a dull sounding premise.
So yeah, this series features two arcs, both of which are about Yugo trying to rescue a person who has been captured by really dangerous people. The key in is success is investigation: he always carefully checks the background of the people he’s dealing with and you can also see that the creators of this series have taken their time to give a very detailed portrayal of the countries that this series is set in (Pakistan and Russia). With such a detailed setting, you’d really expect that the rest of the series is also going to be very realistic and believable, but unfortunately the rest of the plot is really shoddy, ludicrous and often loses focus of what’s really important.
In the end, while it had a lot of potential, Yugo the Negotiator to me stands out as one of those series with an identity crisis. Its focus should have been the negotiating: getting hostages away from danger, but quite a few episodes are simply dragging Yugo’s body to hell and back: we see him being tortured by 50 degrees of heat, minus forty degrees of cold and some other of Russia’s cruelest torture techniques. And while this would have been fine on its own, it gets a bit hard to believe to simply see him stand up and walk away afterwards like nothing happened.
The ending of the series also carries this air that you just can’t take seriously, in which just about every plot twist in the final two episodes stretches the limit of suspense of disbelief. Add to that the mysterious reason why the creators have Yugo team up with a sexy woman who falls in love with him but is generally useless to the plot and the fact that most of Yugo’s plans leave an awful lot to a very flimsy lady fortuna and you have a series that simply fails at being credible.
However, don’t get me wrong in that there’s nothing to get from this series, because it is a very intense ride from start to finish. If you can accept the fact that there is no way that this show is ever going to make any iota of sense, then you’ll be thoroughly entertained by all of the different and creative twists and turns that the plot makes and the horrible things that the characters have to go through. In terms of storytelling, it fails; but in terms of entertainment it definitely isn’t a bad way to spend 6 hours.
So yeah, in the end Yugo is pretty much the epitome of a Marty Stu. The plot often doesn’t make any sense, but if you set your mind on zero you’ll be fine with this series. It has enough to offer to keep people in for an intense ride throughout the 13 episodes, but really… do not take it seriously.
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