Kurokami The Animation Review – 67,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



When judging first episodes, I always try to look at the potential for the rest of the series. Kurokami had a fairly generic beginning, but I saw potential for the rest of this series. I believed that the Dopple-liner system, in which every person has two clones living somewhere, with these clones destined to die when they get too close to their “Root”, definitely had the potential to become interesting later on. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

As a typical Sunrise-series, Kurokami is all about action: every single episode is really written for the battles, which use the aforementioned Dopple-liner system as a shounen-esque base to explain the various superpowers that appear through the series, but it’s all fairly generic: the side-characters all have interesting powers, but the lead characters and villains don’t have any fighting style other than “lots and lots of power”. Still, the battles are what made me keep watching this series: they’ve got this sense of despair when Kuro (the lead character gets beaten over and over again. It’s fairly formulaic, but especially in the beginning it’s strangely watchable.

But all goes down the drains in the second half. Up until the halfway point, despite the formulaic battles the series had actually done a fairly well job in letting us get to know the main characters. The story was finally coming together… until the writers completely jumped the shark with a string of the most blatantly obvious Deus ex Machina. The storyline that was up to that point at least fairly layered turns into a dumb “beat the bad guy”-storyline and turns completely ridiculous. My biggest gripe was with the episode that revealed why the major villain of this series became the bad guy. I won’t spoil it, but let me just say that those plot twists feel so incredibly contrived that they really destroyed any suspense of disbelief I still had for this series.

The characters are mostly just okay, but the male lead character is such an annoying character. He only has two personalities: an emo one (“leave me alone! I don’t want to fight!”) and a fearless one (“Let’s beat them, Kuro!”). I was hoping that he would change over the course of the series, but unfortunately he only got more and more generic as the show went on. So in the end, the only thing that this series did well is its pretty pictures. Sunrise is behind the animation, so at least the action looks solid and consistent, and the background art is very stylish.

Still, I really don’t recommend this series for anything. There really is much better stuff out there, and this series fails to stand out in any way aside from its Dopple-liner system, which it never really goes in-depth with anyway. The story is full of holes and power-level inconsistencies, battles are written so that Kuro wins them at the last possible moment and overall, it just smells of mediocrity.

Storytelling: 6/10
Characters: 7/10
Production-Values: 8/10
Setting: 6/10

Ristorante Paradiso – 10

by psgels, posted in Ristorante Paradiso



Ah, of course: for the conclusion, the creators didn’t just try to focus on the relationship between Claudio and Nicoletta, but also they’re going to try and give a conclusion to Luciano and his dead wife. This episode was much more about the latter, while the final episode next week will probably focus at the former, especially considering that next-episode preview: we now already know how it’s going to end, but I’m curious to see the context in which it’s going to happen.

I loved how in this episode, both Nicoletta and Luciano tried to encourage each other to pursue a bit of romance, but neither of them really got anywhere. Luciano just stubbornly ignored the advances that the woman in this episode tried to make on him, while Nicoletta, who was supposed to invite Claudio to a concert that they were all going to attend, ended up chickening out and invited Vito’s wife instead. I also liked how a bit of extra attention was given to the rest of Luciano’s family. It really makes his back-story more complete to not just focus on him, but also his offspring.

At the same time, this episode also built up the fact that Claudio really doesn’t want to forget about his old marriage, and he still hasn’t properly gotten over the divorce. As a conclusion, it definitely makes sense for this series to wrap up that part of the show, but like with every series: pulling off a good conclusion is hard, and probably one of the things that’s the easiest to screw up in, or to become lackluster at. Let’s see whether this show can pull it off, though I’m confident for now: the director has pulled off great conclusions before with Saikano and Crystal Blaze, which both closed off their respective series pretty nicely. Let’s hope that he can do the same here.

And overall, I don’t think that David Production could have hoped for a better debut in the anime scene. It smartly chose not to go the way that’s been travelled a thousand times already, but instead they went with their own style, and it pretty much worked, and they put down a pretty good series without any major flaws. The artwork also looked really good, with hardly any screw-ups. Now all that they need more is the ambition to continue to produce new series, instead of to simply give up.

Rating: * (Good)
Pretty quiet but solid build-up for the finale, and it’s good to see that even with the finale this close, this show doesn’t forget what it’s good at.

Sengoku Basara Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Game adaptations are of course notorious in how they tend to fail more often than not, but Sengoku Basara at first sight looked like it was going to be among the good ones. It was full of manliness and great fights, but along the way it didn’t really manage to fully live up to its expectations. Sure, there still is potential for that second season in January, but when taken a look at this series individually, it isn’t really worth the time you invest on it.

So yeah, Sengoku Basara is based on a game which is very, very loosely based on the Sengoku Era of Japan, when the country still was populated by a number of smaller countries, all looking to become the sole ruler of the island Honshuu. Its trademark is manliness: lots and lots of it. The dialogue is extremely exaggerated and passionate, full of righteousness, justice and inner conflicts. This isn’t a show about a bunch of teenagers; this is a show about true men.

Unfortunately, the rest of the execution falls short a bit. The characters… really are nothing to write home about. There is some small development in a select few of them, but none of them really make an impact. Also, for a show that aims for entertainment, this series tends to get side-tracked into angst too often. It feels that it’s in its own identity crisis at times, not knowing what it really wants to focus at.

In the end, there’s just one reason to watch this series: the battles. This series is animated by Production IG, who really are the masters of realistic animation and character-designs, and here they use them really well in combination with the incredibly unrealistic nature of this series. There are two fights that really were worth the watch: the ones from episode 2 and episode 12. These battles really kick ass and are really fun to watch. Aside from that though, this series simply remained overshadowed by better productions: in terms of entertainment and manliness, the new Mazinger this season is doing a much better job at it, and for manly historical supernatural swordplay there are shows like Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto which really surpass this show in nearly every single way.

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

07-Ghost – 11

by psgels, posted in 07-Ghost



Oh my god. I couldn’t stop laughing this episode. Even five minutes after that doll went down I was still snickering like an idiot. It’s been a while since I laughed so much at one single joke. I still keep seeing Frau running around like crazy with that very weird laugh of his. I’m not sure who exactly voiced that very high-pitched laugh of his, but that guy was hilarious.

Apart from that, this was another slow paced episode. It’s really apparent that you don’t want to watch this series for the plot, because it really isn’t the major focus. It’s like trying to watch One Outs for its deep characters: it ain’t gonna be amazing, so stop hoping for it; and instead the shows are enjoyable for very different reasons. For 07-Ghost it’s the characters, who for me are both funny and compelling when the drama starts.

Basically, Teito polished up his skills a bit in this episode, and started learned how to control the Eye of Mikhail, and how to take care of ghouls. (with one of the practice targets being that ridiculously voiced dummy that Castor modelled after Frau; it still cracks me up thinking about it). This episode also introduced a new character, who turns out to be rather cocky. I’m interested to see what that guy can add to this series’ second half. In fact, I’m really curious to see what this series can do with its second half. I’m not hoping for the story to get back on track, but instead I’m waiting for the character-development, or something else that’s going to spice up the characters and make them even more enjoyable to watch than they are now.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
If only because of that hysterical doll.

Shangri-La – 11

by psgels, posted in Shangri-La



Those who made fun of this series, brushed it off as a trainwreck and dropped it after one or two episodes are probably going to be surprised when I say this, but oh my god: this episode was amazing. What an incredibly solid installment to a series that just keeps getting better and better. I even admit that this series had its chaotic moments and episodes that even made me question whether it was going something. But this episode made up for it all. It’s totally different from anything we’ve seen in this show thus far.

This is exactly why I stopped hyping myself up with season previews. You really saw a lot of people looking forward to this series, but as a result when its first episode aired and it didn’t turn out the best thing since sliced bread a lot of people simply ignored it. While in fact there are a lot of series with mediocre starts that simply need to take a while to get really awesome. That’s why when judging first episodes, I mostly try to look at the potential of a series as a whole, instead of whether its first episode was awesome or not.

I never thought that Karin would turn into such an interesting character, but her development in this episode was really well done. We’ve thus far only seen her as an annoying brat who can make lots of money, but this episode didn’t just show a different side of hers, it also developed her character and made it change significantly when her parents finally give her a message, and it turns out that they’re actually quite fond of her, but they’re only too often away from her. As a result, Karin shut herself in, to the point at which she didn’t even dare to go outside.

A big theme of this episode was bird cages: Karin’s house turns out to be shaped like one, symbolizing the cage in which she locked herself up. Mikuni at the same time is caught up in another bird cage, due to the fact that she can’t stand the sunlight. It’s really ironic: Karin has all the freedom in the world. She probably is the only character in this series who can really do what she wants, and yet she chooses to stay locked up in this closed space without any real-life contacts.

The white-haired boy introduced himself as Karin’s other side, and yet there turns out to be so much more behind it. What was up with the cat? Why did it turn into a leaf? Why did Atlas know about him when he is the same as Karin and what does he have to do with Kuniko, Mikuni and Kunihito? What was the point of having Kunihito inside a life boat for the entire episode?

Oh boy, we’re in for something really awesome if the creators can keep this up. 🙂

Rating: *** (Awesome)
Amazingly solid episode on Karin’s development.

Guin Saga – 11

by psgels, posted in Guin Saga



I’m still surprised at how little the amount of discussion around this series is. When I search for Guin on Anime Nano, the search results only show about one post every two weeks, aside from my own. I mean, for series as Shangri-La and 07-Ghost you at least have people saying how much they hate those shows, but even those sorts of posts don’t appear. This season really is full of these underdogs, I must say.

In any case, this episode closes off the Nosferas arc and introduces the next one, but I really enjoyed it, as it really pushed the story into a different direction. As it turns out, Guin is going to wait a while before he takes up the throne of Nosferas, because he first wants to find out about his own history. Does that mean that he’s also going to leave Linda and Remus?

Amnelis meanwhile is about to say goodbye to her career as an army commander, as her father is about to marry her off to another guy. To think that she’s only eighteen. That really explains why she screwed up so badly at the front line: a complete lack of experience. Her father probably let her have one chance at commanding an army, before sending her off as a wife.

In the meantime, we also get introduced to a new character: the black-haired guy. I’m still not exactly sure what’s up with him, as he seems to have some complex relationships with the Mongols, but the next couple of episodes will probably shed more light on that. Oh, and I really have to say that the backgrounds looked awesome in this episode. Even better than usual with this series.

Rating: * (Good)
Aftermath and introduction to the respective past and upcoming arc.

Natsu no Arashi – 11

by psgels, posted in Natsu no Arashi



I’m really glad that I ended up picking this show back up, because boy, was this episode awesome! For this episode, I feared a bit for Kanako and Yayoi’s lack of airtime, but this episode worked out really well. This episode was full of nice and clever touches. When I watched Tsukuyomi Moonphase about half a year ago, I really was tired Shinbo’s style, and the subsequent Shaft-series of a tale of Melodies and Maria Holic only made this worse for me. But I really have to say, that with Natsu no Arashi, I’m back to being a Shinbo-fan. Of course, I still believe that the third season of Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei is going to suck unless proven otherwise, but I’m also pretty much looking forward to Bakemonogatari.

Anyway, in this episode we really got the chance to get to know some of the characters better. Since Hajime never got to meet the original Arashi, he of course had to use the chance to check up on her. It’s also a nice touch to see before whatever horrible happened to the foursome, they really were trying to live their normal lives as much as possible: Arashi and Kaaja were still trying to cheer up the mood by singing together, and Kanako was simply in the middle of a fight with Yayoi at the time Hajime and her Yayoi’s ghost version popped up.

It really was cute to see that Kanako, who was built up as such an evil-looking character in the past two episodes, was suddenly portrayed as a shy young school girl who regretted having fought with her best friend. I loved how she got all embarrassed when Hajime called out her name at the performance, in order to get her to come in.

What I also loved about this episode is that the creators put some real thought in what the ghost Kanako must have been doing in the meantime. It’s just too easy to make her stand in one place without having her do anything, but even though we never actually saw her through most of this episode, by the time we saw her again we knew exactly that she had been frantically searching for a way to get Yayoi back, and eventually just jumped on Hideo to get a contract with him. Hideo’s reaction to this was of course priceless.

This episode also nicely used a paradox in order to explain why Arashi chose Hajime of all people: because she saw Hajime when she was still alive, he must have seemed like the perfect guy to become friends with when she returned as a ghost. Speaking of paradoxes: why were there pictures of Hajime hanging in the old mansion of Yayoi?

Okay, so now there are two episodes left, and I really wonder what the creators have planned for that ending. In any case, we can expect to see the event that brought everyone back as ghosts. The past few episodes have shown that this story is planned out really well, but endings and finales are always something different, and even the best shows can trip over these unfinished endings. I’m curious to see whether this show can pull it off.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Clever, subtle and yet packs one hell of a punch as it closes off the Yayoi and Kanako arc.

Konnichiwa Anne – 11

by psgels, posted in Konnichiwa Anne



Oh, how I love the World Masterpiece Theatre. They never have a clear distinction between good and evil; just people who live their lives. Johanna… you can’t call her on the good side, but neither can she be labelled as a villain. This episode again was much lighter compared to before the move to Marysville, but again it was a really heart-warming one.

The episode starts as Anne drops by on Eggman again, and she brings him the book by Robert Browing that she got a few episodes back. Apparently, a bit of time has passed since the previous episode, because Anne already knows how to read a few more words words, and Robert shows her where they are in the book. They talk a bit about the book, and what the feelings of the author Robert Browning could have been. Eggman then says how he likes winter, as it covers the things he doesn’t want to see with snow.

Anne then notices a bunch of paintings that Eggman made. They are all unfinished, but that was Eggman’s intentions: when something is finished, it’s done, and over, and he doesn’t like that. Anne then notices a picture of presumably Eggman’s daughter, and he quickly turns it away and changes the subject to his own name: Robert Johnson.

Obviously, Anne returns very late and she gets scolded by Johanna for being so. Because Anne ruined the brush, she has to clean the potatoes by hand,, which is rather nasty with the cold water. The next day Johanna takes Anne out to town so that she can watch the carriage while she goes shopping. While she waits, Anne notices a shop full of new brushes, though she quickly gives up on these hopes because they cost money.

Her attention then falls on a man and a woman who are bickering with each other. The woman turns out to be a new teacher and quite the feminist, while the man doesn’t want to believe that women can be studying. The woman meanwhile passionately tries to convince him how women can contribute to society, and she starts quoting her favourite author: Robert Browning. Obviously, Anne also joins in at that point, but she quickly gets taken away by an angry Johanna. The teacher however tries to call her back, though by calling her red-haired she gets a very angry look from Anne.

The teacher however says that her hair looks really good. And then she asks whether she heard that line at school, but Anne answers that Eggman told her it, and how he’s been teaching her all kinds of words. As Johanna is standing right next to her, she finally realizes why Anne has been staying so long with this Eggman. The teacher then realizes that Anne isn’t going to school, and offers her to join the class that she’s about to teach. Johanna however then quickly pulls her out of it, saying that Anne is needed to do the housework. Who is going to do all her chores if Anne’s going to school every day? Johanna then quickly takes Anne away. Especially since she ruined that brush, there is no way that Anne is going to school.

That evening though, school still is on Anne’s mind, and she imagines how wonderful it must be. Bert meanwhile quietly says that Johanna perhaps could let Anne go to school, but Johanna says that since they’re a poor family, but you can see that she’s not entirely sure about her decision. The next day Anne again heads off to Eggman, and she talks about how perhaps when she gets her aunt a new brush, she’ll get to study at school. Eggman then proposes that Anne should give Johanna a brush as a present, though Anne says that she needs money for that. Eggman however offers to let her work for the money needed to buy the brush.

the next couple of days Anne works hard until she receives enough money. She hasn’t told Johanna about it, though Johanna overhears her talking to Rokimba once (still unsure of how to spell that name…). When she has enough money, Eggman offers to drive her to the shop that sells brushes. So Anne goes to the shop and buys the brush, and she’s very proud of it since it’s the first thing she bought with money that she earned herself. The teacher from before then shows up, and Anne (obviously elated) tells her about how she earned her first bits of money. Eggman then shows an entirely different side of himself, and suddenly gets very reserved and leaves pretty quickly, enforcing the rumours about how he is a bit of a strange guy.

When Anne gets back, Johanna yells at her for being back so late, but Anne then shows her the brush. Johanna however says that she isn’t going to let Anne go to school… in the winter. In the winter, there is just too much that Anne needs to help out with, though when spring comes, Johanna offered to let Anne go to school. The episode closes off as a very happy Anne runs outside and starts uttering some random lines again.

This episode really shows the start of what’s going to become Anne’s quest for knowledge, and this episode also showed that even though women were starting to take up studying, there were still enough people who didn’t see the use in that and just laughed off the idea of a female teacher, though it’s interesting how at the Green Gables farm, there hardly was any mention of it, but that’s probably because that takes place among some richer families, rather than the poorer environments in which Anne grew up in her first ten years.

One thing I didn’t like that much in this episode was the lack of subtlety in which Eggman’s character is handled. He’s really doing wonders for Anne, but it really is a bit too obvious that he lost his daughter to some reason and is a social outcast. The teacher of Kaze no Shoujo Emily was much better.

Rating: * (Good)
Heart-warming episode about Anne’s wishes to go to school

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 11

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



Well, so this episode shows the Rush Valley arc. It was mostly the same as in the original series, but there were some notable differences:
1) The comedy was better and funnier as usual
2) Winry stays in Rush Valley to learn more (Yay!)
3) A completely random birth scene.

I mean seriously, what was up with that birth scene? I’m not sure whether or not this was in the manga, but it felt like the creators were like “hmm, this boring, we need some more drama – How about a birth scene? Okay!” If it was in the manga, then this is one thing that the original series did better: if you’re going to show a birth scene, it’s indeed much more meaningful to show the birth of Hughes’ daughter, rather than the birth of the daughter of some urelated side-characters.

Anyway, this episode really showed that the creators have slowed down the pacing significantly. Most of this episode didn’t have that much to do with the plot, though thankfully it lacked the stupidity that made the fillers of the original series so obnoxious. This episode again had lots of comedy, and it was pretty much like the rest of the series: it usually is really funny and there were some hilarious moments, but Ed yells too much. His voice actor simply isn’t funny when he starts yelling. The scene I liked the most though was that scene from Paninya’s childhood. There was a strange kind of irony in the way how lightly the creators treated such a young child who lost her legs, being picked up by Dominic who would end up saving her life, and yet it felt somewhat natural.

The next episode should show the real introduction of Izumi, and I suspect that at that point the show is going to be different from the original series again, since I’m assuming that Wrath is going to be completely different from the original series.

Oh, and on a side-note: I’m glad that this show decided to recreate its own soundtrack, because it really sounds much better and less generic than the soundtrack of the original series (not that that was bad, of course, but it didn’t really stand out either).

Rating: * (Good)
Not the most eventful yet a very entertaining episode.

Cross Game – 11

by psgels, posted in Cross Game



Well, and so ends the first match of this series. Looking back, I do have to say that I like this series better when it’s just slice of life and building up, but that in no way means that this was a disappointing episode; the slice of life from this show is just simply that good. What makes the matches of a typical Adachi-series is that for nine out of ten matches, it doesn’t matter whether the team wins or loses: life goes on. Whereas for most shows, there usually is some sort of fate of the world that depends on the lead characters or so.

Kou lost in quite an amusing way. He finally managed to get a strike-out from Azuma, and it seems that that was pretty much his motivation to keep pitching so well. So, obviously he becomes way too relaxed after that out and completely screws up with the batter after Azuma. And the two of the teams were on equal scores at that point.

But this episode really was about the third graders, who prety much only had this chance left to play some good baseball, and since there is no way that those guys can become professionals, it mught be one of the last times that they get to play in a real baseball match. And I must say that they closed it off pretty nicely.

Rating: * (Good)
It doesn’t stand out, but a nice conclusion to the match nonetheless.