Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 08

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



Aha! And now we’ve really gotten to the good part! At the second half of this episode, the storyline finally completely diverges from that of the original series, and this is really the point I’ve been waiting for. And I must say, that something really strange has to happen in order to cause me to like the original series better. Even though at the same point, the original series had the advantage that it had already better fleshed out characters due to the bigger episode count, I still consider this episode to be better in every single way than its counterpart in the original series.

This episode really shows that this series was made for those who watched the original series. The point at which the story-lines diverge came at a point at which the fighting in the original series completely stopped, and instead Lust appears from out of nowhere and kills the armor that Ed had been fighting. And I must say that Envy also made a pretty large impression on me. In the original series, I never really knew what to think of him: he was there, he probably was the strongest of the Humonculi… and yet he never was involved in anything that important. For me, it just felt like he was a character for which the creators had no inspiration what to do with, yet had to include somewhere due to manga obligations.

This episode also saw the introduction of the Bomb Alchemist Kimblee, who in the original series felt rather annoying to me so I hope that this time he’s going to be better. In fact, the more I write about this series, the more I wonder why the heck I rated it so highly in the first place. The more I watch this series, the more flaws that seem to stand out (but then again, it did have a few parts it was great at).

But in any case, the thing I loved in this episode was the way it wasn’t afraid to quickly switch between tension and comedy to break up the mood. Especially Barry was hilarious, but even during the big climax, we quickly saw Ed’s arm failing and Envy joking around. These tactics are obviously very bad if a series doesn’t have a sense of humour, but in this case it really works well. There were many points later in this episode in which I had no idea whether to laugh or sympathize.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
We’ve finally arrived at the point where the series diverges from the original, and it’s starting off really well.

Cross Game – 08

by psgels, posted in Cross Game



The more I watch of this show, the more I’m convinced: Cross Game is bloody brilliant. It’s really hard to put to words why, but I know of very few shows hat have such a dynamic sense of storytelling as this series has. Every single scene, even the most seemingly unimportant one, feels creative and fresh. Even though no major plot twist has happened at all since Wakaba’s death in episode one, there’s just such an awesome dynamic chemistry between the members of the cast. Not just the important characters, but even the simple side-characters feel like they have their own life. If it goes on like this, then it really feels like this series is going to raise the bar for high school dramas here.

This series is so full of these simple ideas that at the same time show how well the creators understand their characters. For example at the beginning of this episode, Akaishi sees Momiji for the first time, who is currently at the same age of Wakaba when she first died. And it really strikes how similar the two of them are now that the creators mention it. And it’s like Akaishi said: it’s still hard to believe that Wakaba was such a small girl when she died.

This episode also showed some epic spying skills by Kou and Akaishi. It’s so weird and stupid when you look at them, knowing that they’ve hidden themselves, and yet you really wouldn’t suspect it if you simply were training. The match in the upcoming should prove to be very interesting, because it’s going to feature to teams with a number of talented players (and one disaster of a pitcher) that don’t come together as a team. It’s probably going to come down to Kou’s pitching versus Azuma’s batting, but I’m really curious what the creators can make of it when they’ve already done such a fine job with the building up. I remember how you were hardly ever able to predict how a match in Touch would end, so who knows that Cross Game also has these sorts of nice surprises up its sleeve. ^^;

Rating: ** (Excellent)
Still carefully fleshing out its characters, but it’s subtlety and wit still continue to shine.

Phantom – 08

by psgels, posted in Phantom



Phantom already was one of my favourites this series… and with this episode it became even better. Seriously, what an amazing episode. This is EXACTLY why I’m such a big Bee-Train fan.

This really is the episode where the plot takes a complete shirt, and how well it works! We first start out with McCunnen showing Zwei the passport of his pre-mindwipe self, allowing him to remember some vague parts about who he was. He even goes as far as making a phone call to his former family! The reason why she’s doing this is also revealed: Mad Professor betrays Inferno! He has enough confidence in Ein in order to defy such a powerful organization.

Since Ein was a bit of a puppet to the guy, McCunnen tried to make Zwei make his own decisions, in the hope that he’d return to her on his own will. And yet she didn’t take into account how close Ein and Zwei have grown for the past number of episodes, and so Zwei instead decides to run away. So much potential for character-development!

But oh god, the scene that really hit me was the one in which Zwei (or Reiji, as his real name turns out to be) stood next to a badly shot Ein and was forced to take out the bullet that launched itself inside her hip, with only primitive tools and no anaesthetic whatsoever. That really was fantastically executed and SO full of emotions.

Really, this series just continues to amaze me. You’d think that this would be a simple assassin series in which the characters kill a bunch of people as ordered by their organization, and then WHAM: it comes with this episode. With this, it has really set itself apart from Noir, which was much more episodic, and had completely different themes from what Phantom has developed into.

Rating: **** (Fantastic)
Utterly amazing, this episode completely exceeded my expectations.

Basquash! – 08

by psgels, posted in Basquash!



A bit of a strange episode, which takes us outside of Rollingtown as Dan and the others are looking for an opponent that isn’t scared of Iceman’s ‘destroy’-attacks. The plot takes a step back in this episode in order to focus a bit on the development of the characters and introduce the final bunch of main characters: those three idols we’ve been seeing in the OP. At this point it’s still unknown what kind of purpose they actually have in this series, but that should get a bit clearer after the next episode.

But yeah, if anyone here has a bipolar disorder, it has to be Iceman. This episode explores his past, and as it turns out: he kept getting kicked out of his former teams because he kept abusing his team mates with what was just his version of a passionate pass. Just like with Dan and coco, because he never said anything about it everyone kept thinking he was trying to destroy everyone (and really, who wouldn’t?) It definitely is a very strange sort of background. Still, I’m definitely curious about Sera’s back-story right now. Judging from the OP, it looks a lot more serious.

And that little princess of ours… she keeps moving further and further away from the regular image you’d have of an important princess like her. She’s athletic, doesn’t whine when she’s all alone in the middle of the desert, and she probably is the least spoiled princess I’ve seen in an anime. Though I do wonder what that strange voice was that she heard. This doesn’t really seem like a mystery-series, and yet the creators went that way with a mysterious voice that only one character can hear.

Rating: * (Good)
Not the best of the show, but the development on Iceman was appreciated.

Pandora Hearts – 08

by psgels, posted in Pandora Hearts



Ah, now that most of the major questions that were asked in the first episodes have been answered, it’s time to start developing the characters, with the biggest issue being Oz’s parents. His situation was already pretty weird when he was still living a normal life, this episode reveals that he can’t even remember his father’s name, and on top of that we still have no idea what happened to them through the past ten years. There’s this on-going question of what exactly eh turned into when he was sent into that abyss and now that his clock started ticking he’s not going to last for a long while anymore.

On top of that, the creators continue to develop the bond between Oz, Raven and Alice. I noticed that whenever Raven leaves Oz, he leaves behind his hat. Not only does this hat look pretty good on Oz, but it also symbolizes how the two are going to stay together from now on, especially since Raven was separated for ten years from him. Raven may really be a bit too keen on protecting Oz because of this: he knew that Oz’s parent’s story is a bit of a taboo with him, though Alice on the other hand doesn’t seem to mind, since she only knows the strong side of Oz.

On a side-note though, one of the biggest reasons why I’ve seen people drop this show is because of the animation, which is something I don’t quite get. Sure, this series definitely doesn’t have the best animation this season, but what makes the animation bad enough to drop an otherwise excellent series? Especially since there’s much worse animation out there this season (Tayutama, anyone?)

Rating: * (Good)
Nice build-up; plus: Break was hilarious.

Eden of the East – 07

by psgels, posted in Eden of the East



Whoa, WTF…

Here I thought I had this series figured out, and then it comes with this episode. Looking back, there were indeed a lot of signs foreshadowing that the Selecao system had something supernatural about it, but for someone to be sprouting wings and defy the laws of gravity… I didn’t see that coming. Especially so soon, even though the dog with wings was pretty much an obvious hint for this. This episode seriously added tons of intrigue to the series, and really: I am SO looking forward to that upcoming movie.

That Mr Outisde… I really don’t know what this guy was thinking. It’s of course one thing to pick out individuals that didn’t turn out to be fit for the task of saving the world, but making a mass murderer a Selecao? What the hell was he smoking?! As it turns out, she cuts off the Johnnies of the hopeless men in society because she has some deep-seeded grudge against males for some sort of reason.

And really, the Saki Running scene really has to be the best animated scene of the season so far. Her movement is really life-like, and for once no corners are cut in a running-scene at all. And I must say that the creators have really succeeded making Saki a part of the storyline, and making her important for Akira even though she has nothing to do with the Selecao. The kidnapped guy didn’t even turn out to be Oosugi, it was just one misunderstanding. Though that does beg the question how the guy got Oosugi’s bag and where the real Oosugi ended up. My guess is that his bag got stolen and he had no way to get back home.

It’s also interesting that Number 11 is really planning to defy the system. What seemed like an absolute truth at first may turn out to be rather vague; either that or she really believes Akira to be the supporter and that made her confident enough to just ditch her cell phone. But really: she knows Number one. If she does, then why didn’t she know that he was the supporter? I mean, if she calls him on a regular basis, she must have expected something, no?

I also wonder, the number 20000 just keeps returning, doesn’t it? With your given budget, you can kill 20000 people, Akira chose 20000 NEETs to send to Dubai, Number 11 has cut off 20000 Johnnies by now. I wonder if it’s another sort of foreshadowing, or whether it’s simply a nice coincidence that the creators wanted to insert.

Rating: *** (Awesome)
Some of the best animation this season, and really an episode where things start coming together.

Ristorante Paradiso – 06

by psgels, posted in Ristorante Paradiso



I really love how mature this series’ outlook on relationships is. Because the characters are nearly all so relatively old in this series, it can really show a different side of romance, other than the “falling in love” part that has been explored to death by now by all of the teenagers. Someone finding his love may be interesting if well executed, but maintaining this relationship also definitely has its charms.

While at first sight this episode promised to be an episode about Vito, the main focus instead was on a newly introduced married couple, between which a few problems lied: the husband kept fooling around with younger women and this got on the wife’s nerves. Vito merely served as an example, of how for every relationship different negotiations have to be made.

While Vito’s wife didn’t mind at all to see Vito surrounded by younger women, because she knew that his heard lied with her. The woman in this episode was different though, and didn’t like it at all. The two of them developed really nicely throughout this episode, until the end, in which they finally sat down to talk about their differences. Overall, this entire series has been really refreshing in terms of relationships: some of them really are doomed to fail, but in this time the couple talked in time with each other before they ended up growing apart.

I also loved how subtly the creators managed to show a bit of what Olga does for her job, and with this, I can understand a bit why she ended up falling in love with her job, up to the point where she left home and overworked herself. In Olga’s case, it was her job that she found more important than her husband at the time. And somehow this changed when she met Lorenzo.

Now that this series has passed its halfway mark, I do have to say that Noitamina finally has gotten competition in terms of awesome time-slots with the Noise time-slot. It’s really good to see more time-slots like this that value originality and freshness over the same old formula done over again, and series that consider a different target audience than most other series.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
A Vito episode, with a mature outlook on relationships. Nice.

Tsubasa Shunraiki – 02

by psgels, posted in Tsubasa Chronicle, Tsubasa Shunraiki



Okay, so I don’t know why I’m still blogging this show, even though I’m SO not the target audience. I really am a terrible manga reader: as an example, I’ve tried for a year now to get through the Bokura no, and even though it’s one very big heap of awesomeness, I’m still stuck around chapter 30. I’m not sure why it is, but I completely lack the dicipline for that.

In any case, this episode sure showed why the Tsubasa Manga has been rumoured to be so ridiculously complicated: the sakura we’ve seen thus far wasn’t the real Sakura, but simply a clone. A second Sakura (another clone) for some strange reason turns out to be inside the Japan country, but before she can do anything she gets kidnapped by the guy from the Piffle and Jade world.

At the moment, I really don’t take the Tsubasa series seriously anymore, mostly because I just have seen way too little of the real Syaoran to make up for all of the angst he seems to be going through. And on top of that, this only seems to be the beginning of the string of far-fetched plot twists that’s about to come. Though I do have to give this show credit where it’s due: this episode really looked awesome in terms of visuals, but most importantly, I really appreciate the GUTS of this show to kill off one of its main characters. Even though Sakura was instantly replaced by yet another clone, the two of them remain different characters. These experimental bits are things that I can appreciate in a way, but PLEASE: in the next OVA, make Sakura actually DO something. I had a bit of hope in the third episode of Tokyo Revelations, but it’s starting to get really dull to see her still in the role of damsel in distress. Especially with how ridiculously powerful fake Syaoran has become, I really hope that she’s going to something different other than sitting around waiting to be rescued or god-moding herself out of trouble.

My biggest fear right now is that xxxHolic is going to take over these ridiculously complicated plot twists from Tsubasa Chronicle, and this episode… well… came with a really weird revelation: Watanuki gave away his memory in return from the information of Fei Wong’s location. Oh god, I knew that it was strange that we’ve never heard of Watanuki’s parents, but to think that he was that involved with the story still baffles me a bit. I know that the xxxHolic anime stripped away all of the Tsubasa references (which was a good thing, IMO), but did he in the manga ever wonder why he couldn’t remember his parents’ names, or tell how he spent his childhood? And really, another thing I’m wondering: how the heck does a child like that know how to think so far ahead, predicting that years into the future there would be a point in which his alter ego would need to know the location of some evil overlord? Couldn’t he have done so at any point in time? Especially considering how the real Syaoran only managed to break free because of a whimsical action of one of Fei Wong’s servants, there would have been a pretty big chance for the guy to just waste away his memories that way. And another thing… wasn’t Syaoran locked inside of Fei Wong’s dimension? If he was conscious the entire time, then why didn’t he also know where he was?

I can only hope that the second episode of xxxHolic will be about xxxHolic, rather than it becoming a back-up manga for Tsubasa. I loved xxxHolic because of its unique take on modern folklore and the interesting topics it addressed, not for some kid who is going to help save the world from the evil Fei Wong.

Rating: (Enjoyable)
Lots of far-fetched plot twists with lots of pretty graphics. I have a lot to whine about this series, but somehow it remains compelling.

07-Ghost – 07

by psgels, posted in 07-Ghost



O yeah, this show is building up so much right now. While it indeed is true that the past few episodes have simply featured Ayanami sending a bunch of Ghouls at Teito, there was no way that the creators could have omitted them, because there would have been no way to flesh out the characters and the setting that way. It’s indeed been one of the least eventful shows this season so far, but you can really see that it’s nowhere near the meat of the series so far.

And besides, it’s not like the ‘fillers’ are bad either. There indeed is the formula of Ayanami sending badly disguised Ghoul at Teito, but there’s lots of stuff going on besides it. The ghouls sent always have something that Teito and Mikage can relate to in some way and to be honest, the battles do kick ass at times, and they’re meant to be predictable: we now know that Teito has hidden powers and Frau is going to easily take care of any Ghoul out there, and Ayanami knows that like no other. It’s really being established that the past fights weren’t pure luck, but based on Frau’s skills none of those Ghouls had a chance whatsoever, so Ayanami is really going to have to come with something more hard-hitting than that.

My one complaint about this episode was that random group of punks that appeared from out of nowhere, tried to look cool and got blasted to bits. I mean, I understand that this show is also trying to establish how l33t Ayanami’s Goons are, but the creators could have spent a bit more time fleshing these guys out, even though they’re probably never going to appear again.

Rating: * (Good)
Call it a ‘filler’, but at least it was a fun filler that served its purpose.

Shangri-La – 07

by psgels, posted in Shangri-La



Ah, screw what the popular opinion on this series is. This show rocks.

With this episode, I was reminded what makes Gonzo’s best series so good and unique. It’s indeed true that they like to take risks, but what I’ve found in their top series is that they’re really good at variety: every episode or two episodes, the mood, themes and nature of the show completely shift while still forming a whole in the end.

With this episode, I realized that Shangri-La is the same: four episodes ago, we were in Akihabara with lots of otaku references, then we went on to hacking, techno-babble and the world carbon trade, and now in this episode the focus becomes the youth prison that Kuniko was locked into. It’s really this sense of unpredictability that’s really made me like Good Gonzo.

One of the big question-marks in that first episode was why Kuniko ended up in prison in the first place. This episode actually finds a pretty plausible reason to return Kuniko there (because people are starting to realize that she’s special, and what better place to test this out than in prison, where they have full control over her and she can still show what she can do). This episode really established Kuniko as special; not just because she has some mysterious powers that can influence carbon trade, but also because of her personality. This episode really established that she is a born leader: where most people would be scared in the situations she’s thrown in, she instead looks at opportunities, and bringing people together. While her character at first seems a bit cheesy, it’s starting to come together now.

I believe that the whole point of her character would be the strong leader that breaks through Atlas, and for that you really need careful build-up, otherwise you’re just going to end up with a hopeless flower-child. As long as she’s going to be well developed, this shouldn’t form any problem though, and the past few episodes have done a pretty nice job at fleshing out her character, and showing her in different situations.

I also liked the portrayal of prisons in Shangri-la, it showed that the creators really thought about it: with Atlas sending everyone and his dog to prison, there are of course a lot of girls who normally shouldn’t be there and only committed small crimes among the ones who really are causing problems. That’s probably why Kuniko became so popular during her first visit there: she could relate to most of them and therefore easily became friends. This time, a bunch of new girls was introduced to the prison who were rather dominant and violent, and when you promise them a place in Atlas then yeah, they’re going to do their best to make Kuniko’s life miserable.

Oh, and on a side-note: I’m really not sure what the heck the animators were smoking in those first few episodes. Yet again, the animation in this episode looked really good, and nothing like the inconsistent mess of episodes 2-4.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
I usually dislike geniuses because they’re often badly portrayed and used as cheap plot devices. Somehow, Kuniko avoids this completely.