Eden of the East – 05

by psgels, posted in Eden of the East



This episode was a typical building-up episode, but it definitely added some extra intrigue to this series. Most of the episode was about Saki’s first interview, but we also get to see two more of the Selecao: Number One and a strange woman whose number we don’t get to see and who seems to be a bit too full of herself. That Number one really baffles me, though. There are lots of hints pointing at how he’s the supporter, he seems to have a lot of connections to the Selecao, and yet he didn’t just kill off pre-mindwipe Akira like he did with the other two.

Speaking of which, if you take a look at the OP, at one point you see connections being made between certain numbers of the Selecao: One is linked to all of them, while Nine (Akira) is linked to Four (Kondou), One is linked to Two and Ten once more, and Three is linked to Twelve. There are three numbers that disappear: Four, Five (as shown in the previous episodes) and Ten, who I guess would be that woman of this episode. What’s also interesting is that apart from them, it is suggested that nobody dies… or that might be saved for the movie.

In any case, it also gets revealed that Akira didn’t kill off the NEETs at all: he just dropped them in the middle of Dubai and had Juiz made it look like he killed them so that others wouldn’t start searching for them, allowing the NEETs to finally have to do something for themselves. And that was his way of trying to make the world better.

Saki was also great in this episode, with her first job interview and all. Her depressed look after seeing the interview failed felt really genuine to me.

Rating: * (Good)
Just building up, but still a very nice episode.

Pandora Hearts – 06

by psgels, posted in Pandora Hearts



Okay, so this episode explains what the heck happened in those first three episodes, although most of it consisted of things that we already were able to guess: ten years indeed have passed, and Raven indeed is Gilbert. The reason why Gilbert betrayed Oz turned out to be simple brainwashing: in this episode we meet the one who did it, inside Oz’s house that has aged ten years and all. That still leaves the question of why Sharon didn’t age one bit, though.

My problem with this episode was that it may have been a bit too cheesy in the end. Brainwashing is very hard to do well, simply because it’s so easy for the characters to break the spell of brainwashing through the power of love, and for a moment it really looked like this was going to be the case when Oz yet again had to face a brainwashed Gilbert.

I didn’t expect him to pull the trigger, though. Obviously something is going to happen that’s going to prevent Oz from dying instantly, but I’m intrigued as to what exactly it is. We’ve now seen that this is a show where people don’t necessarily die when they’re killed, but the matter is going to be whether they can explain it well. For example the latest subbed episodes of Gintama have had Gintoki penetrated by swords, bullets and god knows what, only for all of these wounds to completely disappear a day later. That’s obviously not how to do this. But in Pandora Hearts, if there indeed is some sort of link between the Abyss and dying, I’ll buy it.

Either that or the gun just missed; that’s also of course a possibility. But then again, this show doesn’t strike me as the type to use those kinds of anti-climaxes.

Rating: (Enjoyable)
Really evil antagonist, good to see a bit more of the past of Oz and Gilbert, though a bit too cheesy in the end.

Basquash! – 06

by psgels, posted in Basquash!



So at last we’ve gotten to the main part of the story: getting Dan to the moon so that he can find a way to fix Coco’s legs through some version of major league basketball (or Basquash). This episode shows the auditions, which include of course Dan, Sera and Iceman, but also one of Iceman’s old rivals, a tall black long-haired guy (apparently called Man-Z) and… our little princess (coached by Coco). Never knew that she had that much inner basketball talents.

But yeah, the reason why I like Basquash so far is that there’s always so many different stuff going on. The show doesn’t have a particularly big cast when compared to others, but it does feel like everyone is doing something. There are countless subplots going on in every episode, ranging from trivial to important. It’s great to see a character in which everyone is chasing after their own agenda and what they themselves feel important, rather than everyone walking after the lead character like a tame little lamb. Sure, Dan’s passion for basketball is the thing that keeps this series together, but everyone seems to react in a different way to this.

And that’s the thing with this show: behind the boobs, strange use of basketball and… businessmen who give pet names to boobs and blow soap bubbles, there’s quite a bit of substance behind it that you wouldn’t suspect on first sight. This series never forgets that it’s supposed to be a fun show (at least, up to this point), and yet there’s an air of seriousness that never feels out of place.

It’s also good to finally see some of the faces behind those pesky cops who keep ruining everything as soon as they come walking in with their own mechas (walking police cars… you just have to think of it). I also like how this show manages to portray the street culture here. Man-Z for example: he never got himself a proper introduction, but he was just one of the other guys who passed the audition and simply started chatting with Sera and the other winners. Very natural.

Rating: * (Good)
Introduces a bunch of new characters, a new arc and quite a bit of potential while still remaining fun. But why he bubbles?

Phantom – 06

by psgels, posted in Phantom



Six episodes in, and Phantom still is one of my favourites of the current series. Even for a Bee-Train series, this show is magnificent. The characterization is so subtle, and yet it works so well. It’s something Koichi Masahino has always been good at, but with because his source-material this time was already very good, this promises to be among his better work.

And I must say, that despite the increasing fanservice, Ein’s character-designs are what I consider the best of the season. I’m probably one of the few who believes “simplicity = better”, but Ein really looks gorgeous, even though her character-designs are kept simple on purpose (and with this I don’t mean simplicity in the way of Cross Game, but rather not going through huge lengths to make characters look unique. Something that a lot of harem shows need to understand).

This episode was much more about the assassin-part of this series. While the mafia-boss of the previous episode may have lost his wife and son, he still has a couple of powerful allies, and they get taken care of in this episode. Mostly by Phantom, but I also liked how Inferno has a strong support cast to back them up and help them. You can really see that everything was planned carefully ahead to bring the risk to a minimum.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
Very strong episode as usual with the lead characters getting only better and better

Some thoughts on the “Anime is Dying” doom scenarios

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

Okay, so most of you probably know that I don’t write a lot of editorials because I suck at them, but I still want to say a few words about this subject. After Howling-Kun mentioned the DVD-sales of certain shows in the shoutbox, I started looking at some of the other data in this topic. Now, this is not going to be a rant on how most of my favourite shows aren’t getting any DVD-sales. Everyone’s of course entitled to what he wants to buy (although it does get harder and harder to associate myself with this fandom when shows like Training with Hinako top the charts…).

Instead, those rankings reminded me of all the fuzz that’s going on, and how many people seem to be claiming that “anime is dying”. With this many times that the same doom-scenarios popped up, I almost started believing this myself, until I saw the actual facts in the following graph of DVD-sales in the topic mentioned above.

Well, I may not be an economist or anything near it, but here is my interpretation of the graph. First of all, I don’t get any of those arguments about how anime is supposed to be dying. Sure, sales have gone down compared to 2005, but that’s just a very selective analysis: compare it to ten years ago, and you can see a huge increase in sales. The decline in sales of the past years is about the equivalent of a kick in the groin: sure, you’re going to be walking funny for the next couple of hours, but “dying” is a big overstatement.

The thing is, that the year with the biggest sales was 2005. Interestingly enough, the response in 2006 to this was a huge increase in the amount of different anime titles that was released, as everyone seemed to be profiting from this boom in the sales of the industry. Unfortunately though: just like in the stock market, when sales suddenly go up, this isn’t going to continue forever. Right now, the anime industry is trying to find a new balance amidst the significantly increased interest in anime for the past ten years, and until it has found this the market is going to wobble around like a drunk student on his way home.

And as for the relatively low sales figures of 2008: did you seriously expect anything different with the current economic crisis? The recession has also hit Japan very hard, so it’s of course to be expected that last year’s sales would decrease. What I actually haven’t seen yet is people who are looking at the future. Sure, reports like this are nice and all, but they seem to assume that this recession is going to take forever.

With a bit of luck, the economic crisis is going to be mostly over in 2011 which is going to allow the industries to recover. So what’s going to happen with anime when that point arrives? When that point arrives, people are going to have more and more money to spend on anime, so there actually is a chance for a very solid recovery in the not-so-distant future. Who knows?

And really, as long as producers are able to churn out well-produced series of which they know are never going to sell well, I’m not buying those “anime is dying”-arguments anymore. As long as there are Genji Monogataris, Himitsus, Porfys and Kaibas, it shows that the animation companies aren’t at the real edge of destruction.

Ristorante Paradiso – 04

by psgels, posted in Ristorante Paradiso



Well, like its predecessor Michiko e Hatchin, Ristorante Paradiso sure has been put into a very strange time-slot: it’s gotten two hiatuses already and its first episode aired as a set of two. I really wonder what’s going on at the time-slot when this show isn’t broadcast, and where people get the time to broadcast two episodes at once?

But really, this series continues to be good stuff. Shows in which the lead characters run a restaurant always have their own kind of unique charms. Antique Bakery also had this unique chemistry between its characters, and there is an understanding that is much, much different when compared to your average high school show, even with shows as Natsu no Arashi, which actually has teenagers involved.

This episode was a bit confusing as it suddenly introduced flashbacks from out of nowhere, but it was a great chance to see how the restaurant first was formed, how Luciano and the others were recruited, and it’s interesting to see how there once were three staff-members who have since quit. The youngest one I guess felt out of place, but for the others I don’t think their reasons were mentioned in this episode.

When this show started, I also believed that Nicoletta’s mother forcefully made everyone wear glasses, but in the end it was actually something that just evolved on its own. When Olga first got to see the restaurant, she simply became so happy that she could cry, and that kept the tradition of keeping on glasses going. At first, we’re really lead to believe how she’s the selfish mother from hell, but she’s gradually turning into someone who may have made a mistake in her life, but yet has plenty of good and genuine sides.

I also liked that bit with the little girl who had to wait endlessly for the owner to show up. That’s really typical for them, having to wait for hours really is going to bore any child.

Rating: * (Good)
Nice flashback to when everything began, although it was at times hard to point out what happened when

07-Ghost – 05

by psgels, posted in 07-Ghost


This episode seriously was one big question mark. Seriously, what the hell is going on!?

Things start fair enough: as Teito wanders around the church, he slowly regains his memory, and he turns out to be the prince of some country. A bit cliché, but that does of course explain why Ayanami’s bosses are so intent on getting the bugger back. It has potential.

But then, suddenly from out of nowhere, Mikage shows up. MIKAGE. Wasn’t the guy supposed to have his family killed off at the previous episode? Wasn’t he so determined to not betray Teito? What the heck is he doing free, and what’s more, how the heck did he find Teito? What’s more, we also see that Ayanami has finally found Teito’s location and because he can’t enter the church he’s resorted to stealth tactics, and yet based on his reactions, he was the one who sent the Ghoul in this episode, not Mikage (even Frau comments on how the Ghouls are targeting Teito), and yet at the same time Mikage knows that he’s not going to stay with Teito for much longer, so he definitely got to leave on a special condition, but what are his true intentions?

Agh! There are really so many questions that popped up in this episode and I’m really frustrated that none of them really was answered and yet I’m very curious to what the next episode has to offer, since it’s definitely going to shake things up a lot. And yeah, this episode really showed that the characters are gay (or at least bi), but in the end: who cares? There hardly has been any cheese so far, which is the biggest thing I’m concerned about.

Rating: * (Good)
Very intriguing episode that really makes you want to watch the next one; animation was rather buggy, though.

Macross Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Those who followed my blog about a year ago probably know that I wasn’t exactly… ‘pleased’ with the way Macross Frontier turned out. Even taking the upcoming movie into account, it never really seemed to know where it wanted to go and while it definitely had some good points, it also just kept getting stuck at an endless love triangle with a bunch of unimpressive lead characters and villains.

Still, it did inspire me to go after the early Macross-series, in order to find out why the franchise got its fan-base in the first place. And I must say, I’m glad that I did. While not perfect, the original Macross does a lot of things right at which Macross Frontier screwed up. As probably one of the first series to combine serious love with mecha action and doing a really good job while at it, I can see why this series had such a big influence on the later anime to come.

The thing that struck me the most about this series is how interesting the villains actually are. At first, when I learned that this show would be about a mysterious alien race called the Zentradi attacking Earth, I was fearing lots of “Humans rock!”-themes, combined with an ending at which the aliens suddenly turn good like how Macross Frontier pulled it, but it was actually much more clever than that. A large part of this series is actually focused on analyzing why these Zentradi fight, how their society is created and how Earth’s society impacts them (which provided some of the most entertaining scenes of the series). It also shows what would happen if a race would be suddenly forced to a totally different life style, and how hard it is to adapt to these new life conditions.

The three lead character are also much more capable of carrying this show. There again is a love triangle, but it’s pretty well built up and this series uses its episode length of 36 very nicely in order to let everything gradually play out and the show evolve. This really gives the love triangle between them the chance to sufficiently develop and close off with a pretty satisfying conclusion, although near the finale the romance can get a bit cheesy at times. I also really appreciated that it didn’t try to stuff all of the meat of the series in the final four episodes or so, though going into detail why would perhaps be a bit too much of a spoiler.

Unfortunately, at other points the show does have some pacing issues. Some episodes really give events the time to flow naturally, but a few episodes really move way too fast, with the most notable being ‘the wedding’. It just comes way too bloody fast and before you know it the involved characters have completely shifted their personalities. The ending also felt like it could have used half an episode extra.

And obviously, the production values aren’t as good when compared to Macross Frontier, but that’s not going to surprise anything. Compared to the other shows of its time though, the animation looks very capable. Most of the time it’s very rough around the edges and the hand-painted cell animation definitely feels jerky, but the whole look matured just as well as for example Matsumoto Leiji’s character-designs did. The music however, is beyond rescue. Lin Minmay(one of the lead characters, an idol)’s songs mostly consist out of very cheesy J-pop from the seventies, and even though the rest of the soundtrack serves its purpose, every time she started singing the sound got more and more on my nerves.

Overall, if people are wondering which Macross TV-series to check out first, it basically boils down to this: with Macross Frontier you get a shallow story with a godly budget, and with the original Macross you get a series with dated production-values through a fascinating setting. Just take your pick. Personally I definitely prefer the original.

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

Konnichiwa Anne – 05

by psgels, posted in Konnichiwa Anne



While at first sight yet another cheesy episode about a cheesy love story surrounding Elisa, it soon turned into a very insightful episode that really showed some different sides of the characters. It forced especially Elisa to really think about the situation she’s in. Thus far, she’s been a bit too similar of a Mary Sue, but this episode removed just about every aspect of that nasty brat in her and turned her into a really flawed character, and a typical teenager.

The episode starts as we see how Bert has finally landed himself a job helping out at a local farm. Anne has been counting the days since it happened (10) and is really happy to see that he stopped drinking and hitting his wife. Elisa meanwhile has been invited to a local party given by the Emerson family, and her classmates fangirl over Roger, and how Elisa is so poor and all. Roger however, looks to be really serious with her, and actually ends up proposing to her for marriage.

It turns out that Roger has to go to London for a job the next year, and he wants to have Elisa next to him, which is why he’s proposing to her so early. At the party, Roger hopes to hear Elisa’s final answer. When she arrives at home, she tells all about it to Anne, who obviously gets all happy about her, though Elisa still is really embarrassed.

It soon becomes clear that Elisa too is in love with Roger, and Anne really encourages her to go along with Roger to London… and that’s the point where Anne gets sad when she realizes that that means that she’ll be separating from Elisa, though Elisa quickly tells her that she can go with the two of them: Roger is a nice guy, so she thinks that he’ll definitely understand the situation and take Anne along… yeah.

That night, the two of them are still fantasizing about how good they’re going to have it in London. Elise never really liked being in her household, and she grew up as someone who just did the right things because it means that she was doing the right things. It turns out that Elisa once had a best friend (Katie Morris), but got separated from her somehow (couldn’t exactly pick up why), and that’s why she’s so burnt on not being separated from Anne.

Things however don’t go as planned when Elisa tells the news to her parents. Surprisingly, Isabella has no problems with letting her daughter go, but she’s not willing to let Anne leave in the hands of two inexperienced teenagers, not to mention that it’s going to really increase her workload. Especially when her new baby comes, nobody is going to be able to take care of her if Anne’s gone. She outright refuses this to Elisa.

The next week, Elisa’s dress arrives and she gets ready to go to the party. Anne still doesn’t know that she can’t go to London, and Elisa is still in lots of doubts over the marriage. Roger in the meantime has his own problems with his parents, because his father doesn’t have much faith in one of Bert’s children. Roger however has made his decision, and has to promise to his father to make the job he’s assigned to do in London succeed no matter what.

When Elisa arrives at the party, a lot of people whisper behind her back, not expecting such a poor girl to show up in a full dress. She dances with Roger for a while, and a while later when they’re alone, Roger asks for Elisa’s answer. Elisa says yes, though then she tells him about how she wanted to take Anne with her, but her mother wouldn’t let her. Roger suddenly gets very surprised when he finds this out, and when Elisa asks him whether he’ll take her with them, he declines: he likes Anne, but she isn’t Elisa’s child. It’s not going to be easy to live in London, so taking a child with them is not going to work. Elisa gets upset and runs away.

When Elisa gets back home, she knocks on Bert’s door (god, I nearly forgot that that guy was supposed to be a father) and wants to talk about what happened. Anne happens to see this, and overhears how Elise tells him that Anne can’t go with them, and the episode ends with Bert, saying the wisest thing that he’s ever said in this series: that she should go to London and leave Anne behind.

So yeah, this series doesn’t have the epic storyline of Les Miserables, the refreshing storytelling of Porfy, the realism of Anne of Green Gables or the atmosphere of Kaze no Shoujo Emily, when compared to these masterpieces it doesn’t have anything that really stands out, but it does have one thing: a great cast of characters. I really wanted to push Elisa in the face when she begged Roger to take Anne with her. Don’t get me wrong: I really like Anne myself, but that unrealistic thinking of her really got me: here she is, she has the chance for a great future, despite being poor she has the chance for a great future and a very nice husband… only to ruin it because she can’t leave her five-year-old friend.

And the thing is that with this type of series, I actually have no idea whether it’s the type of series that likes to keep its lead characters together, or whether it’s going to allow Elisa to move away. It’s definitely going to be interesting to see Elisa gone now, because that’s basically going to remove Anne’s only friend, and that means that she’s only going to retreat into that fantasy world of her even more, and the series is probably going to take a turn for the dark.

Rating: ** (Excellent)

Shangri-La – 05

by psgels, posted in Shangri-La



Whoa.

I must say, I totally didn’t see this coming. This was without a doubt the best episode of Shangri-La yet. The thing with Gonzo is that they’ve got so much flaws, that I at times forget that these guys make damn good anime. No other animation studio has surprised me more times than they did. Blassreiter looked like a simple action-show, but what terrific action it became. Gad Guard from the outside looked like yet another boy meets robot show, and yet it developed into a very likable series. The same goes for the likes as Solty Rei, Welcome to the NHK, Seto no Hanayome, they’re all shows that turned out to be excellent even though you wouldn’t suspect it at first glance.

After the previous episodes’ disaster in the animation department, I was seriously surprised to see the animation quality this much improved. The inconsistencies are totally gone. Characters aren’t conveniently placed in the background to save money on drawing close-ups, and especially the virtual reality animation rocked beyond belief. Now, if only the rest of this series can keep this same quality.

But also in the storyline department this show got some new dimensions. Like above, the virtual reality turns out to play a much more important role than suspected, as even some of the guys at Akihabara make use of the same technology that our little genius uses to manipulate companies. At the same time, the military has also been working on an invisibility device, and Kuniko makes use of one of the naive guys of the military and finally gets a bit of an idea of what’s going on inside Atlas. I personally loved that scene between them, because you could really tell that the two of them were living in totally different worlds and tried to justify their own actions.

Oh, and I had to laugh at the subtle otaku-jokes. Usually in anime these sorts of jokes are dumbed down a bit too much, but I loved how Kuniko’s grandmother used to be a popular idol when she was young. I definitely understand why she’s trying to hide that. ^^;

In any case, overall this episode made this series even more intriguing than it already was. I really had some doubts whether this series would turn out okay or not in the end, but this episode surely removed a lot of them.

Rating: ** (Excellent)