Canaan – 03

by psgels, posted in Canaan



Nice episode. It’s a good thing to see that the creators are delving into the past of the characters early in the series, especially if the series is only going to take up 13 episodes. This episode was all about the friendship between Canaan and Maria, with nice effects now that Maria has learned the darker side around Canaan, and having her actually see her killing someone.

It’s good that this series knows how to keep this series diverse. The first half of this episode was much lighter than the previous episode, the second was much darker. Since this is a series that seems to be going for the entertainment level, it’s good to see that this episode kept me thoroughly entertained this way.

I’m interested to see whether this series can pull off a good and well-rounded storyline this way. After the first episode, it’s definitely shown that it’s capable of directing great action scenes, but there are many potential pitfalls. Like, this series having blown most of its budget on just that episode. I can also see Minoru growing on my nerves if he doesn’t get some development or background. Right now, I’m the most curious for Alphard’s background: there’s too much mystery around her right now for her to be a successful villain.
Rating: * (Good)

Yoiko Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



For this review, I want you to try something. First, visit Yoiko’s MAL page and read the description. Then, take a look at the OP:

While this is also a good opportunity for me to test whether or not embedded Youtube videos work on this site, I now want you to imagine what kind of series this is going to be. It sounds like a heart-warming slice of life series in the same veins of Mokke, doesn’t it? A nice and quiet series about a small child who lives in a grown-up body; an innocent tale of growing up. That’s what I thought, at least.

So yeah… where to start?

Yoiko is a series with twenty episodes of 10 minutes. Every single episode starts with a nude shower scene and a full close-up of Fuuka’s boobs. Every single episode ends with Fuuka’s brother making a masturbation joke. The rest of the series isn’t any different: chockful of fanservice jokes, boob-shots, masturbation jokes and arousal jokes. This series has no sense of shame, and the worst thing is that this is supposed to be a series about elementary schoolers. Time and time again you see grown adults of all sorts of ages getting horny over a 9-year-old who happens to have the body of an 19-year-old.

However, this isn’t the case with most fanservice shows, where I can just label it as crap and get it over with, like To Love-Ru and Kanokon. Yoiko definitely has its merits. For one, I laughed like crazy during a fair number of the episodes. A lot of the series’ humour comes from seeing what borderline of taste the creators are going to break this time, and that results into a number of absolutely hilarious situations and a fair number of actually good sex-jokes.

The other source of humour in this series comes simply from watching elementary schoolers and their usual antics. Despite the huge amounts of fanservice and the creators who keep dancing on your grave because you became aroused by a 9-year-old, this series can boast a charming cast of typical kids and their simple minds. While there are a few stereotypes here and there (like the horny teacher, et cetera), the cast somehow works.

Part of the reason of why the characters are enjoyable is the cast of voice-actors, who do a terrific job of bringing the cast alive. Especially the above-mentioned horny teacher is greatly voiced, but the rest of the cast also sounds awesome, and really like their age.

Granted, this isn’t the best comedy out there; there are a number of dull episodes in which the humour doesn’t work as well as it should have, especially in the second half of the series. Still, this series never gets too dull to just start dropping. There also isn’t really an ending. The show just stops after 20 episodes, without really concluding anything (not that there was anything that needs conclusion, though; this series did avoid going down the emo road in its final few episodes). This series does well in its characterization, but in terms of character-development it doesn’t go much beyond the introductions of the different characters.

What baffles me the most though is that this series was directed by Omori Takahiro, a powerhouse of a director who also was behind awesome series as Baccano, Jigoku Shoujo, Natsume Yuujinchou and Fancy Lala. I guess the best thing this series can be compared with is if you take Fancy Lala, remove the idol bit and any sort of serious storyline and symbolism, let the lead female in her adult body 100% of the time, remove every single border of taste and add in lots and lots of boobs. And then some more.

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

Phantom – 16

by psgels, posted in Phantom



Ah, a calm before the storm. Something’s telling me that in the next episode, all hell is going to break loose and after the relatively light-hearted past few episodes, I’m very eager to see what kind of climax this arc is going to come up with. And this episode wasn’t wasted in any way either: it had a very quiet second half, but that really allowed the character-development between Cal and Reiji to show.

But this episode started out with me getting very surprised at how Claudia suddenly killed off Isaac in order to calm down the angry gang after Ein provoked them. Talk about hitting two flies in one blow, because with this the matter of Isaac’s betrayal is now also solved. But damn, that’s about the least thing I expected. There were no close-ups or dramatic build-up, no long death speeches nor any sorts of melodrama, nothing. Just that guy getting shot and falling down.

The thing is, that the matter of Cal’s revenge is also taken care of. The question now becomes “how to get Cal out of this mess”, but the matter get srather complicated when Cal has grown a bit too fond of Reiji, and is seriously trying to become an assassin herself, because it was the first time she felt appreciated. At the same time, Reiji is torn between leaving Cal and making sure that she doesn’t grow up to be a broken human like he is, and staying with her because of how she managed to mentally help him get over his past.

Okay, so the past few episodes weren’t as intense as the Ein Arc, but definitely awesome in their own way. Cal is an excellent character, and I really liked how the creators portrayed her influence on Reiji, and how the two of them gradually get to understand each other. Really well done.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Pandora Hearts – 16

by psgels, posted in Pandora Hearts



Okay, so in this episode we continue where the previous episode left off, at which Oz and Alice end up returning in the middle of one of the Pandora council meetings, of all things. It was definitely fun to see the chaos that erupted from such a weird scenario, and this also allowed the proper introduction of Oz to the rest of the people from Pandora when Jack took over his body. That does leave the question of what he actually is, and if that was the real Jack, then what the heck was he doing in Cheshire Cat’s dimension, of all things?

But my favourite part of this episode was that we finally get to see a really different Break, now that Vincent pretty much screwed up his plans of getting to know what really happened at the tragedy of Sabrie. His hate and annoyance for Vincent is strangely adorable. At the same time, we finally get a bit of insight into Vincent’s intentions. Or at least, some of them: he kidnapped Sharon to prevent information about him being behind the tragedy of Sabrie from leaking out, but something tells me that his ambitions are far bigger than that.

There’s also this revelation that the leader of the Baskervilles turns out to be still alive, which for some reason is something that onnly Jack knows. My guess is that that guy is hanging around somewhere in the Abyss as well, and Oz was targetted by them because they believed that his powers could end up bringing him back, though that failed.
Rating: * (Good)

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 – 02

by psgels, posted in Tokyo Magnitude 8.0



You know, I previously kept saying that Aoi Hana was my favourite summer show and all. But that was before I watched this episode. After this episode, I’m going to take that statement back entirely: Tokyo Magnitude is without a doubt the best show this season. This episode was utterly amazing and exceeded all my expectations. Even for Noitamina, this episode stood out as one of the best.

What baffles me the most is that it’s only been two episodes: this series only needed one episode of build-up and character-introduction, and after that it was able to put down such a sad and depressing episode around Mirai, who saw her entire world crumbled. What made the most impact on me was how she was separated from her brother at the time of the earthquake, and so she had no idea whether he was alive or not. She was all alone amidst tons of people who also struck with the same fate.

And the thing is, that if she listened to Mari it might have taken ages before her brother was found and he might have died of smoke. Only because she kept looking for him was she able to figure out that he went to the toy store afterwards, and got trapped underneath the shelves. The first episode really put her down as your average whiny teenager, but this episode most definitely made her human, and just a weak little girl.

And yeah, this episode also did a fantastic job of not just showing Mirai, but also how just about everyone else in the area is suffering because of the earthquake, all in their own ways. This is one of these series in which every random bystander is a character, rather than a paper bag who is just there to fill air.

This obviously isn’t a series for you if you hate depressing series, but damn. I really hope that the creators can keep this up. I’m going to be a bit careful expecting the rest of this series to be amazing after Eden of the East dulled in a bit after its introduction, but with this series, all the creators have to do is logically progress the story, throw in lots of realism and keep up with their realistic characterization. I really hope that the creators are going to be able to pull it off, because this episode was just too good to just waste on a mediocre series.
Rating: **** (Fantastic)

Basquash! – 16

by psgels, posted in Basquash!



Okay… so this series has just delved into WTF-territory. I think it’s best to just quote Random Curiosity’s summary to show what I mean:

“Flora explains that, in the past, descendants of giants related to the creation of the universe lived on the moon. Earthdash was created by gods, and mankind’s playing of sports with balls stems from the fights of those gods. The legend is of someone with the ability to manipulate the ball of thunderbolts saving Earthdash and the moon, and the trajectory of that ball shows the shape of the creation of the universe.”

I mean, who in his right mind can come up with such a ridiculous back-story? And that’s just the tip of the ice-berg in this episode. From the moon they ended up at what seems to be the place where Iceman grows up and lost his arm and leg, called Dead Bottom. In there, Sera and Flora (who blew her cover, by the way, with nobody being really surprised) somehow end up working at a night club while Miyuki fixes their bigfoots which were badly damaged in the crash. Miyuki then runs into another tech geek who hates her last name.

Dan meanwhile ends up arrested from out of nowhere by strange masked people, and then ends up fighting in some sort of bloody arena to the death. He ends up beating his enemy with… a basketball. When he’s forced to kill his opponent, he runs away and a bounty is suddenly on his head. He then ends up in a weird place with huge lizards and another mysterious bigfoot. Yang meanwhile pops up from out of nowhere and hires a prisoner to kill off Dan.

Does it make any sense? No. Did I like it? I guess so, yes. The setting has definitely gotten heaps more intriguing with this episode. Setting aside the really weird story of how people are playing basketball today because that’s how the Gods fought with each other, Dead Bottom looks like a really interesting setting, that’s definitely shown a different side of the world that Dan and the others live in. This episode also debuted a bunch of new background tracks, and they really fit with the dark and mysterious image that comes from this city.

In the next episode, we should see the new director taking over. It’s going to be interesting whether he can give this show the finale it deserves.
Rating: * (Good)

Argento Soma Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Argento Soma is one of the post-Evangelion series. Like series as Betterman, Reideen and Dai Guard, and even awesome series as Figure 17 and Bokura no, it features a series of smart and very hard to destroy monsters that need to be destroyed, and the lead characters have some sort of huge mecha that can do the job. There’s a lot of potential for this kind of formula and granted, Argento Soma isn’t the best of the bunch, but it’s a fine attempt nonetheless.

Argento Soma chooses for a slow-paced approach with some subtle angst, and I must say that it works quite nicely. For once we don’t have any teenagers piloting the giant mechas, but instead we have a team of people well in their twenties. In fact, there is only one child in the story, and with her it’s made clear over and over that she actually doesn’t belong in the military. Central to the story, and the definite highlight, is the relationship between the two lead characters: the young girl and one of the main pilots that is to fight the evil “aliens”, as they’re called in this series. They’re both heavily traumatized and scarred by things that happened in the past and through the series they help each other growing over their troubles.

A major theme in this series is also symbolism. There are two particular characters who have a habit of comparing the situation they’re in to either random anecdotes or figures of speeches. This show also has a nice little pattern with its episode titles, which are all emphasized at the end of each episodes. In some cases the symbolism is a bit silly, but most of the times it works pretty nicely.

You don’t want to watch this series for the battles, which more often than not take just a back-seat to other things. Central to this series is its cast of characters, which develops nicely throughout the series. There are a lot of episodes that don’t have anything to do with fighting, but instead focus on other things, like one episode is fully dedicated to politics (a very well done episode, by the way), and there are quite a few episodes dedicated to character-development. The battles themselves quickly turn repetitive though. There are also a few random plot-holes that pop up near the ending, and I also think that Soma’s voice actor isn’t fully able to make his character believable once he starts angsting. The villains in this series are also very stereotypical and really lack any sort of impact.

This series does stand out in its soundtrack and character-designs: both give this show a unique feeling. Overall though, this series could have done with a bit more ambition. It never really reaches any heights: the story is very simple if you start to see the bigger picture, and the characters themselves do feel like they could have been fleshed out a bit more, but that too has its charms: it’s not trying to become the best thing since sliced bread, but instead just puts down an enjoyable little series with a bit of depth, yet doesn’t hit heights and at that, it succeeds.

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

Umineko no Naku Koro ni – 03

by psgels, posted in Umineko no Naku Koro ni



I have two problems with Umineko: Eva is too much stuck in her Takano-voice, and Maria is trying too hard to sound like Rena. Especially Maria gets on my nerves. I’m not really bothered with how she’s a little girl, but the way the camera keeps giving her close-ups when she’s making Higurashi-faces for no reason. I mean, one thing is that you can almost hang a sign on her with “Yo people, I am evil”, but the stranger thing is that nobody even seems to notice this. I mean, doesn’t anyone find it weird that a nine-year-old can quote and redraw exact passages on the bible?

But yeah, apart from that I’m getting really fond of this series: it’s basically one really big murder mystery so far in which the characters themselves try to find out what the heck is going on. This episode even continued to reduce the body count by killing off Eva and her husband. That killed off just about all of the direct heirs and their partners, aside from Natsuhi. Also, if the killer was just after the money, then why did Gouda and Sharon also die?

Right now, the most suspicious ones are Natsuhi, because she now is the most likely to succeed Kinzou and has shown to be the least emotionally stable of the cast, and Genji, who was alone outside of Eva’s room for a while and therefore could have made the blood drawing. Since the chain wasn’t cut or anything, it was very likely that Eva’s body already lied on the bed when he opened the door, but he skillfully hid it from Kanon.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
I’m going to remove these blurbs after this entry, because it’s getting tedious to write them for every single episode. Episode ratings will remain, though.

Aoi Hana – 03

by psgels, posted in Aoi Hana



At the moment, there is no doubt for me that Aoi Hana is the best series to debut this summer season, and this episode only reinforced this. From the very beginning, it’s been a consistently excellent yuri series with believable and charming characters. I’m also really glad to see that the great animation wasn’t just something of the first two episodes: this episode yet again looked great, with detailed animated shots and some great artwork, despite the down to earth character-designs.

This episode also surprised me with how the two lead characters didn’t become a couple. Instead, Fumi started dating the captain of the basketball club, while Akira had simply been going out with her friends and is still looking. But then again, this is anime. Has there ever been a romance story in which two childhood friends did not fall in love with each other at some point?

I’m curious as to how many episodes there are going to be. Unfortunately, the episode page of ANN is completely messed up in this case, so there is no way of telling whether there are actually going to be 11 episodes, or whether there are going to be more. Interestingly, the manga this is based on only has two volumes. That’s pretty short for a manga, and yet it feels perfect for a short story like this one.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Very nice romantic developments, especially for Fumi.

Shangri-La – 15

by psgels, posted in Shangri-La



Okay, you know that a series is is badly received when even the raws of the local World Masterpiece Theatre series get released faster. It’s really such a shame to see that Gonzo is going through such bad times right now. In July 30th, they’re going to be delisted from the the stock exchange, and a large part of their staff has left by now. We can only hope that they’ll end up well in other places, like for example David Productions. It’s going to be such an incredible shame to see all of their talents to waste like this.

In any case about the episode: for each season I obviously have my favourite series, and damn, this time my favourite show of the season really is the most controversial one I’ve had so far. With these kinds of episodes, even I have trouble to suspend my disbelief: where did the poisonous gas come from, and why did it disappear so conveniently? Why, after the cease-fire, did Takehito suddenly appear somewhere completely different? Why, after the cease-fire, did Kuniko and Momoko decide to wander off to Atlas’ residential area?

Agh, this is really driving me crazy! These flaws are definitely there: the plot is really stupid at times. And yet I still love this series, and not in the way of a guilty pleasure like I do with 07-Ghost. Even though there are series that are much more solid this season, like Pandora Hearts and Phantom, Shangri la still stands out the most for me. I’m still surprised myself, but aside from the really sloppy scriptwriting, this series does have everything that I’m looking for in anime: a grand and evolving storyline in which there’s always something going on, a diverse, well developed and fleshed out cast of characters, an imaginative setting with a lot of different settings and layers, an excellent sense of mystery that slowly but surely reveals itself to the viewer, and making the story more intriguing with every revelation, a terrific sense of eye candy. It’s ambitious, experimental and always offers something interesting.

My guess would be that Gonzo indeed is in a lot of trouble, and so they simply lack the resources at this time to properly pace and plan out the storyline in the finest detail, and so instead they’re trying to end this series with the biggest bang possible. And seriously, that’s something I appreciate a lot. Nevertheless, we can only imagine how incredibly awesome this series could have been if it was animated during the height of Gonzo’s quality.

This series is also making me question what it means to be a good series. For example, Code Geass also had a lot of flaws, yet was very ambitious, but it really didn’t work with me. I think that the reason why I wasn’t able to stomach Code Geass at all, while I continue to sing praises for Shangri-La that for the latter, I’m able to give an entire washing-list of things that it does right and which I love about it, while Code Geass… never really impressed me anyway. Characters felt flat, the plot tended to repeat itself, there wasn’t much variation and the plot was mostly dull and incredibly politically incorrect.

Okay so yes, this series isn’t going down history as the best series ever, but I’m definitely going to remember it, because this is one series that made me really question what it means to be a good anime. You of course have the powerhouses that are Kaiba and Birdy the Mighty Decode 2, which are awesome in every single way, but the reason why they were awesome was because they took risks: they looked outside of the box and came with a story that rocked in nearly every single way. However at the same time, it’s incredibly hard to come up with such a storyline. It’s not a matter of “is this flawed or not”, but “is this good enough”, and I admit that in my recent reviews and summaries, I’ve been focusing a bit too much on pointing out random flaws instead of looking at what’s really important. We all know that plotholes are a bad thing, but in what way and how much do they bring down an otherwise awesome story?
Rating: ** (Excellent)
MAJOR plotholes, and yet the setting and characters thicken even more. This is a really weird series to be a fan of.