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.

Phantom – 11

by psgels, posted in Phantom



Ugh, recap.

So yeah, most of this episode was just clips from previous episodes. Thankfully this is one of my favourite shows, so I didn’t mind to rewatch all of the great stuff that happened so far, but still. There was some new material that played three months after the previous episode. Apparently, Reiji was hit, though not in his fatal areas and he managed to recover, and now he seems to have gone back to Inferno. Scythe meanwhile has fled the organization, but he doesn’t seem to have fully given up on destroying them. Oh, and McCunnen seems to have lost a younger brother a few years ago.

So yeah, that’s pretty much it. I’m very much looking forward to the next episode now, and how Drei is going to fit in everything.
Rating: (Enjoyable)
Yeah, recap.

Pandora Hearts – 11

by psgels, posted in Pandora Hearts



Ah, finally it’s time for Raven to reveal how he ended up with the Nightray family. This episode mainly talks about his past, and again it was quite an enjoyable episode. But something is bothering me. Some of the comments on last week’s entry talked about how this chapter was supposed to be one of the best of the series, but I don’t really see why; there have been much more impressive episodes so far. This one felt more like a solid build-up. And besides, even if this was supposed to be the best part of the series, then what does that mean for the rest of the story?

Still, I was pretty surprised to learn that Vincent is Gilbert’s younger brother, that was pretty random. Another surprise is that he also seems to have made contact with a being called “Raven”, probably in an attempt to get Oz back. Which apparently failed since Oz found a way to get back on his own. It also turns out that Vincent isn’t like Break in that he doesn’t age. Instead, ten years ago he was just a child as well, which begs the question of who was with Alice when she was younger. My guess now would be Oscar.

This episode also marks the return of Oscar, which at least also answers the question of where he went, although I am still curious as to what happened to Oz’s father. It’s going to be interesting if the two of them ever got to meet each other again. I’m interested to see how this guy changed over the past ten years.
Rating: * (Good)
Not among this series’ highlights but a solid episode on Gilbert’s past nonetheless.

Basquash! – 11

by psgels, posted in Basquash!



Well, you can really see that the animation director has changed, because the animation really is abysmal. Seriously, this episode was full of horribly distorted faces and rushed drawings. I think there were only two or three shots where you could see that time was spent on making them look good. The animation was very shoddy (just take a look at Dan and his basketball: physics don’t work that way!). Only the CG didn’t suffer from his influence.

As for the change of directors, you can also notice that, but at least this guy isn’t as much of a disaster as the new animation director. This guy thankfully is competent at what he does: he knows how to build up and flesh out characters, and the characters act natural enough. But something is definitely missing: the chaos and the randomness that made the first bunch of episodes so enjoyable.

In the first couple of episodes, there really was so much going on at the same time: every character had his or her own agenda. This episode… just concentrated on the little princess and Dan walking around town and Sera visiting the grave of her mother. The rest of the characters only had one or two scenes in which they really didn’t do anything and were… sleeping through the major part of this episode I guess. Oh, we did have Iceman who paid a visit to his rival again, but that also pretty much was a pointless visit.

All in all though, it’s a bloody shame that the staff was fired in the middle of the production. Satelight already is understaffed this season with no less than three series they’re working on at the same time. Guin Saga already showed that they lack the man-power to animate everything correctly, and this really isn’t the best time for them to create a production goof-up. The worst thing is that they’ve had this before with Kiss Dum, and even though this doesn’t look to be as big of a disaster as Kiss Dum turned into, it does show that the producers haven’t really been learning from their mistakes of keeping all of the staff-related business going smoothly.

It’s going to be really difficult for this series to surpass itself now. It’s now all going to matter whether the creators can develop the characters right, and plan out the basketball matches correctly.
Rating: (Enjoyable)
Really bad animation, though an enjoyable build-up nonetheless.

Eden of the East – 10

by psgels, posted in Eden of the East



Okay, so I was wrong in last week’s impression: this episode of Eden of the East was definitely an excellent one and a step above the previous episodes about Pantsu. This episode explained a lot, and I have to admit that these revelations were well worth it. Mr Outside was nowhere near the evil overlord I thought him to be, Mononobe didn’t turn out to have the motives of simply destroying the world. It turns out that this show really likes to use red herrings.

So as it turns out, Mr Outside was a rich businessman called Ato Saizo (har har har), who himself had a part in reconstructing Japan after the second World War. He then however started to wonder whether the society he helped to create was the right one, and so whimsically created Juiz and enslaved 12 people apparently against their will in his quest to improve Japan. Mononobe and another Selecao we meet in this episode simply want to escape this plan, and the only way to do so seems to be to win the game. Apparently it involves sending a whole bunch of missiles to Japan. The only one I didn’t like was Number 10. He really was an emo kid who hates the world and therefore decides to blow it up. I’m glad that he’s going to die soon.

Juiz turns out to be an AI, probably modelled after Ato Saizo’s secretary. Ato may be dead right now, but the real Juiz seems to be working behind the scenes, and she probably is the one who maintains the AI Juiz. In the meantime, it also turns out that number 12 is either the supporter, or another Selecao who doesn’t agree with Mononobe, and something tells me that he’s going to be the main villain of this series once the movie starts.

There’s one part I didn’t quite get though: what was up with the boat-load of NEETs that suddenly returned on the ship? Wasn’t one of those NEET shown as he managed to become active in the society again? Why is the rest of them still naked and captured? Didn’t they get the chance to pick up their lives or something?

Rating: ** (Excellent)
Finally some answers, and satisfying answers they are.

Ristorante Paradiso – 09

by psgels, posted in Ristorante Paradiso



Yup, today it’s time for the Theo-episode. And like always, there’s another surprise in this episode: the reappearance of that mysterious main chef that the restaurant started out with. She indeed was the one who guided Theo through his rookie-years when he first came to work at the restaurant, though they didn’t get along all the time.

And yet it’s very interesting how the creators only show the moments at which they had the biggest fights with each other: we’re simply left to guess what happened in between, and how the two got along with each other on a daily basis. And how they gradually grew to like each other. ^^;

After just completing Bartender, I’ve come to see this series in quite a bit of a different light. Since the horeca-genre is really new when compared to all of the other genres, there still is lots of opportunity to be different within the genre, and so far it’s good to see that all of them decided to focus on something different. When compared to Bartender, you can really see that the creators of Ristorante Paradiso lack the knowledge about food: they did a bit of reading on correct Italian dishes, but it’s clear that they don’t have a deep understanding of how Italian food works. In the meantime, it has other points at which it can be praised: a really calm and relaxing atmosphere, very nice visuals and an excellent characterization.

This episode also indeed showed what last week’s next episode preview had been showing: it’s time for the chefs to create the new menu, and Nicoletta gets to help. Obviously, her dishes are all good, but not good enough to be on the menu, and especially Theo is harsh. But as always, that again was a bit of a misleading part, because it’s not like Theo hates her food at all. Instead, he just had a bit of trouble giving her some good comments, since he himself had to endure the same abuse when he began. Something’s also telling me that he found Nicoletta’s work better than what he managed to produce when he just started out.

Speaking of which, that next-episode-preview of this episode weirded me out a bit. I mean, Luciano getting hit on by some middle-aged lady? It’s obviously not as it looks (I know how sneaky this series can be with that), but still, what do the creators have in mind as a finale for this series?

Rating: * (Good)
Theo’s back-story was very nice as usual.

Bartender Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Anime, just like any other medium, does suffer from the fact that as time goes on, it gets harder and harder to be original. In the past decade, nearly all of the genres we know today were already invented, and during the past few years, it has become near-impossible to create any new genres it seems. If I’m not mistaken, the last time a new genre was created was with the horeca-series: short series in which the main characters run a restaurant/food-shop/bar/etc. After shows as Ristorante Paradiso, the genre is quietly picking up in recognition and popularity, but the anime who pioneered it, Bartender, is even more notable.

Likewise, today it’s very hard to be original anymore. Just try to think of something that absolutely has never been done before; only a select amount of series can truly do such a thing with confidence. Still, I really have to say that Bartender is THE most original anime series to have aired in the past five years. It’s really one of those series of which you can’t think that anything good can come out of it… and yet it’s great. From the outside, it’s simply a series in which characters drop by the bar of the lead character, drink a bit, talk about their problems and “see the light”. This series however doesn’t only make this work, it also throws in lots of unique stuff that really makes optimal use from the fact that this is a show about liquor.

So yeah, the generic formula for this series is that a customer comes into the bar called Eden Hall, hosted by the bartender who can serve the Glass of the Gods, and talks about his problems. In cases like this, it’s of course very tempting for a show to simply cheese up his story and shallowly deus ex machina all of the customer’s problems away simply after drinking a bit, yet somehow Bartender manages to avoid this pitfall. It doesn’t just view cocktails as just mixes of random drinks, but it looks at where these drinks came from: why were these drinks created? How did they get their names? Why do people drink them? Throughout each episode it provides all kinds of real-life anecdotes, both well-known and obscure, and relates these to the customer’s problems. By cleverly combining all of this, the customer comes to an understanding of his problems that actually doesn’t feel forced or obvious, and yet makes a lot of sense. And THAT’s the strength of Bartender: it intelligently looks at its customer’s problems and analyzes them; all in a way I have never seen done before.

You can really see that this is a series that’s written by someone who has a passion for liquor. I’m a liquor noob myself, but even I could tell that this series has an incredible amount of knowledge about all sorts of drinks, cocktails and also the detailed history behind them. It’s just like Osamu Tezuka, who as a Medicine graduate made optimal use of his knowledge when he wrote Black Jack, or take Shion no Ou, whose manga was written by a former professional shougi-player, who completely understood all of the principles of the game.

The third point at which Bartender shines with originality is the way it handles its narration, which again is something I have never seen done before in anime. Customers simply don’t disappear when their story is over, but they instead turn into narrators: they occasionally return to help out the main narrator to tell his story, and share their views of the new customers, while at the same time they never try to butt in with other people’s problems. Especially the final two episodes shine in this, and the entire series closes off with a really rounded final episode, in the way that Seraphim Call’s final episode was originally meant to end.

Amidst the originality though, there is one flaw that really sticks out like sore thumb. While I’m often not bothered by animation, the animation in Bartender really is abysmal at times. A lot of the shots look like they were drawn in a rushed way, and the only thing that seems to save this show’s aesthetics is the atmosphere of a bar that this show manages to create. The distorted faces really get in the way when we see a customer have a moment of self-discovery and during these moments, the cheese also tends to take over. This series screams maturity, but at the same time it also becomes hard to take it seriously with some of these hideously drawn faces. Thankfully though, the production-values do get saved by an excellent and relaxing soundtrack that still manages to pack a punch.

In any case, this is probably the end of my little review spree for now, since the next show I’m planning to watch is another one of those 52-episoded ones, but the series that I’ve reviewed during the past week all have something in common: excellent narrative and a true passion and understanding for the subjects they were dealing with. This is another reason why I still am such a big fan of anime, because the series that are made with passion really are the most enjoyable to watch, and Bartender, just like Hunter X Hunter’s first OVA, Victorian Romance Emma’s first season and even Futakoi Alternative really show this.

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

Hunter X Hunter OVA Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



There aren’t many OVAs that are based on TV-series that actually manage to contribute to their respective story. Most of the time, they’re just silly DVD-extras, or have side-stories that just aren’t as interesting as their TV-counterparts. But oh boy, when an OVA is made with a clear goal and purpose, it sure does become good. Take Rurouni Kenshin Tsuiokuhen and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni for example. The first OVA from Hunter X Hunter is also such a wonderful example of this.

Seriously, this is EVERYTHING a shounen series should be. Creative, intelligent, a plot that for once doesn’t try to prevent the destruction of the world, a huge emphasis on strategy, an awesome cast of villains, the main character doesn’t scream, yell or play the hero all the time, nothing drags on whatsoever, whenever the show threatens to catch up to the manga, it simply takes a hiatus rather than come up with a bunch of pointless fillers, it’s without a doubt one of the best shounen series ever. It’s an incredible shame that today so few anime take up the example that Hunter X Hunter provided.

So anyway, the OVA basically continues where the TV-series left, and it’s actually one big cat-and-mouse game between Kurapica and the Spiders. Because the TV-series already did all of the building up, it really can immediately dive into the action, and the result is a very tense and complex strategical battle, which for once has the biggest focus towards using one’s head; in fact, there’s actually hardly any fighting aside from a few key scenes here and there.

This OVA really opened my eyes on the use of intelligence in anime. Usually, if shows even bother to use their brains during a fight at all, there is one party who actively uses his head, while the other stupidly rushes in without much of a strategy. In this OVA, everyone thinks carefully about his/her actions. As a result, this show can get away with powers that would be entirely overkill in most other series: the ability to read minds, the ability to copy any technique you want, the power to create clones or simply pull out the heart from one’s chest. This OVA carefully examines the different advantages and disadvantages of all the different powers, and it doesn’t even try to make use of every single obscure loophole to create tension.

The cast of characters is also really good. Both main and side-characters, everyone is in this story for a reason; no matter how small, they contribute to the story. Out of the most important characters, especially Pakunoda leaves an impression. We hardly know anything about her, but the performance that she puts down is very convincing and gripping. The leader of the antagonists also is unlike any other of his counterparts: for once you have a leader of an evil organization who doesn’t spend his time sitting on a chair doing nothing: this guy isn’t afraid to get his own hands dirty, and yet at the same time you can clearly see why he’s the leader of the bunch. The protagonists Gon, Kurapica, Leorio and Killua also get their own share of development.

There is one point of criticism I have for this OVA: I feel that it’s already done a wonderful job in characterizing its villains, but this would have been even better if some of the history of these guys had been revealed. But then again, there have been hints that the next two OVAs are going to delve into that.

The Hunter X Hunter OVA is exactly why I love those short but very intelligent and well-crafted series, and why it’s also a shame that there are so few of them. This OVA is basically the best of the TV-series, stripped from all the long training arcs and any kind of other boring part, and showed us eight episodes of what this series is best at: characters and actually intelligent strategies. For me, the best shows of the shounen genre are the Law of Ueki for the humorous and fun side, and Hunter X Hunter for the serious side.

Storytelling: 9/10
Characters: 9/10
Production-Values: 8/10
Setting: 10/10

07-Ghost – 10

by psgels, posted in 07-Ghost



With all the dislike going on for this series, I’m starting to wonder why I’m still enjoying this series so much. Seriously, at times it feels like I’m the only one who isn’t a rabid fangirl who’s still into this series. While I agree that the pacing has been slooooooow, but is it really a universal truth that fast = good and slow = bad? It’s not like every episode looks the same or anything. Or am I missing something here?

In any case, this episode yet again didn’t convince me that this show is dull when Teito from out of nowhere got possessed by the Star of Mikhael, and I mean really out of nowhere: Frau and Castor were talking in front of an unconscious Teito, the episode really had this air of building up after the previous episode, and then suddenly without any prior warning all sorts of crazy stuff starts showing up. That really took me by surprise.

The rest of this episode though is really an aftermath, including the obligatory “angsting and being shown the light” subplot. I know that they’re really necessary to each plot, and characters would be a bunch of unemotional paper bags without them, but they remain boring. Still, they’re worth it for the character-development. And in this episode Frau and Castor did a pretty good job of keeping the viewer busy while Teito was busy with sorting out his own feelings. It was pretty simple this time, but I’m still curious what this series can do once it hits its second half and the character-development really starts kicking in.

One thing that I don’t like in this series is something that plagues just about 90% of every anime: Teito’s fate can either save or destroy the world. That’s pretty much the most generic and overused subplot you can think of, and yet NEARLY EVERY SHOW uses it. But yeah, I’ve long ago given up on complaining every single series that attempts this, so complaining about it every single time it gets used obviously isn’t magically going to solve it.

Rating: * (Good)
Standard aftermath with quite a nice surprise in the middle