Bonen no Xamdou Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Bonen no Xamdou


Bones’ latest series is one full of ambition. Aired on the PS3-network, Bonen no Xamdou tells the epic story of a war between two warring countries, centred around a bunch of different main characters and some of the most amazing production values. While not everything went well for this series, and it’s got quite some big flaws here and there, it gets so many points for trying.

What makes this series so awesome is how it prefers natural progression of story-lines above forced climaxes, especially in the first three quarters of the series. Instead of focusing on battle after battle, the creators let everything flow very smoothly, with especially care to flesh out the world that this series takes place in. Akiyuki, the lead character, while he’s a typical teenager at the beginning of the series soon grows into someone as far from your average lead character as you can get. While the story focuses on him, he hardly ever stands in the centre of attention, and instead various of the side characters get to play the hero-part.

This allows for a unique storyline with a fantastic attention to detail that’s the closest to the levels of Seirei no Moribito that I’ve seen so far. The characters also live in a very imaginative world that’s very interesting to explore, with lots of new concepts and ideas. Things like Hirukos, Humanforms and Xam’ds are nice takes on the usual superpowers and super-weapons that you usually see.

The problem, however, is that even though this series is an incredibly solid one, it’s also a series that bit off a bit more than it could chew. The 26 episodes are way too short in order to fully develop everything that’s in this show, and the results of this start showing up in the final quarter of this series. It features the one big climax after the other, but when you look at the big picture it just feels lacking and incomplete because the different settings and characters couldn’t be fully developed. As a result, characters pull random powers and plot twists out of nowhere and big deaths that would make lots of emotional impact with the right amount of development and foreshadowing simply feel like they could have been done better.

In terms of production values, however, this series is really as good as it can possibly get, especially for such a relatively long series. Because the series originally wasn’t aired on local TV, it didn’t have to spend a lot of money on the broadcasting rights, and all of this excess money was put into the series’ animation, with some absolutely gorgeous results. The animation is consistently through 26 episodes of top-notch HD quality, characters are very expressive and every single one of the many action scenes are simply godly animated.

So overall, there’s plenty of great stuff left in this series, but at the same time I’m also a bit bitter: if it had simply gotten more episodes, this really could have been a contender for the best series of the year, possibly the decade. It would have been truly outstanding in every aspect, while right now it’s simply a well written but incomplete series that has a rushed finale.

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

Bonen no Xamdou – 26

by psgels, posted in Bonen no Xamdou



Short Synopsis: Bonen no Xamdou’s finale.
Episode Rating: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
Well, there we have it. This unique series is finished at last, even though the finish comes way too soon. Still, this episode did a good job of providing closure to the different characters, so while not a great ending, it wasn’t a bad or rushed either.

But let me first focus on the one big disappointment of this episode: Akiyuki. What the heck was up with him? His character had so much potential in this series, and yet his death felt so… insignificant. It’s the main character everyone should be caring about, and yet when he died, I was more interested in Yango. But that would have been excused if not for the incredibly blatant deus ex machina that the creators pulled at the episode. I really expected better from this series…

Okay, now the good stuff. The characters I really liked in this episode was the Zanbani crew minus Benikawa and Yango. Not haru, or any of the other main characters, only they were the ones who received good closure in this series. I think that that’s the result of the very strong first half of this series, and all of the attention it focused on fleshing out their characters, and with that I suddenly realize how little we came to know about the rest of the cast.

I’m not really sure what kind of rating I’m going to give this show at this point. At one side, this show had some really good points and parts, but on the other hand it would have been so much better if it were longer. I’m not sure who found it a good idea to only give this series a scope of 26 episodes, because that sole decision caused this series to simply become a great series, instead of the incredible, genre-breaking one that it could have been. I remember how Eureka 7 also had some pacing issues, but at least that one had enough time to fully flesh out its characters for its amazing finale, while in comparison I’m going to remember Bonen no Xamdou’s final quarter, despite its godly animation, as the weakest part of this series.

Shikabane Hime – 19

by psgels, posted in Shikabane Hime



Short Synopsis: Ouri vs. Keisei & Keisei & Keisei & Keisei & etc.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
I’m really glad that my fears that the extra shounen roots would ruin the second season proved to be unnecessary, because the creators have found more than enough inspiration to keep this series interesting and exciting, so in the end the only big problem of the second season is simply the lack of subtlety in the fanservice.

This episode eliminates one of the seven stars, and what I especially liked was that the creators managed to squeeze in a bit of background about her before she died. Her death also had quite a bit of impact due to some particularly nice voice acting. Next episode should prove to be even more fun, because finally “boob”-sama is going to play a big role. It’s very nice: the past few episodes have so emphasized that shikabane aren’t humans, and because of that Ouri had no problems with killing all of the fake Keiseis. But here we have the case where a living being has been possessed by the balloon guy (who looked really scary this episode, by the way). Now that’s going even further. On top of that, it’s revealed that Akira and Mabuhiro are planning to kill the head priest, so there’s plenty of fun stuff left for this series.

The only thing that’s a shame about this second season apart from the fanservice is that the animation has also become much worse. It’s still good enough, but nowhere near as dynamic as the animation of the first season. That second episode got me hungry, but apart from the visual effects most of the eye candy isn’t as impressive anymore. Still, in order to make up for it, the creators decided to focus much more on the music. It’s strange, most of the tracks were also there in the first season, but somehow they sound even better right now.

Casshern Sins – 18

by psgels, posted in Casshern Sins



Short Synopsis: Lyuze finds a bit of time to reflect on herself.
Episode Rating: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
It’s episodes like this that really set Casshern Sins apart from all other anime out there. It just takes one single character, and easily manages to fill the 20 minutes of an episode with it while other series even have trouble to fill up five minutes. While CxL may have found this episode disappointing (which I don’t get, by the way; the entire episode was about Lyuze, what more could you want?!), I really loved this episode. This really is one of the reasons I originally fell in love with this series.

Throughout the episode, you really have trouble to figure out what’s real and what’s not. In fact, I even dare to assume that this entire episode simply happened within Lyuze’s head: otherwise we would have seen Ringo somewhere. The enemy robots, her crumbling sister who appeared over and over again, the strange guy who came from out of nowhere to hit on her, I think that all of them symbolized the doubts that are inside of her. We hardly saw anything of her personal troubles for the past few episodes, but I think that throughout the series, she more and more hid her own personal worries inside of her, instead of unleashing them on Casshern, like she did when she first met Casshern.

And I do have to say that Lyuze was nearly as cute as Ringo when she was young. In this episode, this younger version of her really helped her complete her character-development and accept Casshern, which has been built up for the past ten episodes or so. Before, she believed that she only lived for her revenge on Casshern (hey, the ruin was going to kill her anyway, so she might as well use her last life to take revenge), but she finally sees that the death of her sister did have one positive side-effect: it made her meet Casshern.

Now then, to relate this back to the previous episode: if it indeed is true that love is the recipe for immortality, then I think that Lyuze just attained it. It’s interesting how love in this series is some sort of contagious disease: Luna started it, then Casshen got “infected”, and now it’s his turn to introduce love to Lyuze.

Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai – 04

by psgels, posted in Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai



Short Synopsis: Now that Munto has the power to win the war, he decides to not use make use of it.
Episode Rating: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
Well, that’s eighty minutes already. The end of this episode sounded like a nice climax for the end of the first OVA, is that about right? There was at least no shortage of really pretty OVA-styled animation, so I don’t think that we’ve hit the anime original material yet.

But seriously, what were the creators thinking of putting such a huge story as this in only two hours? This episode introduces dozens of more countries involved in the war. For such a story to work, you really need at least 24 episodes to get the development of every party right. This is also why I’m hoping for this series to not end after only 13 episodes: there is NO WAY that the creators are going to fit everything, even in only 13 episodes.

Still, the next episode should prove a much-needed change of pace. These first four episodes were definitely action-packed, but there had to be some time for the fighting to end, and a chance for the creators to explore the different cultures and countries presented here. The demon king-guy is about to die, (he apparently was really powerful because he didn’t have a long lifespan anyway), and with both him and Munto out (since he’s probably going to spend some episodes with Yumemi), the pacing of this series should slow down a bit as well.

Nasu – Suitcase no Wataridori Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


I’ve got quite a big backlog of movies built up, so I hope that I can clear that one in the next couple of days. First up is the follow-up movie of Nasu – Summer in Adalusia: Suitcase no Wataridori. They’re both movies about professional cycling (like, the real thing, not a bunch of teenagers racing against each other), and follow the lead Character Pepe as he tries to win some races. Suitcase no Wataridori shows a race of his and his team mates in Japan. If you liked Summer in Andalusia, then you should check this one out as well, because it’s superior in nearly every single way.

Suitcase no Wataridori is a really balanced movie, it’s got a bit of everything: there’s excitement, action, romance, comedy, tragedy, a character-study, all packaged together quite neatly in a one-hour movie without any of the parts featured too little or too much. The Cat ex Machina that was rather annoying in the first movie is also gone as well, and the events flow much more naturally this time, and this overall makes this a very fun movie to watch, making you care about the different characters. Even the romance doesn’t feel out of place and is really nicely done.

The graphics have also received a major boost. The CG is much less apparent and blends much more with the 2D graphics. And the Ghibli-esque animation really works! It adds great expressivity to the different characters, it definitely was a visual feast and a movie budget well used.

So yeah, that’s pretty much why I’ve given this movie such a high rating: it pretty much did everything it was supposed to do, without feeling rushed or anything. Most movies suffer from a rushed or oversimplified plot, but everything was really balanced for Suitcase no Wataridori. Overall, the two movies complement each other pretty well. While Suitcase no Wataridori is superior in technical terms, Summer of Andalusia does provide some valuable background on Pepe, and together they form a pretty nice recommendation for if you like quick sports anime, or want to watch some cycling but don’t have the patience to sit through five plus hours of a real-world cycling tournament.

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

Hetalia: Axis Powers – 02

by psgels, posted in Hetalia: Axis Powers



Short Synopsis: Italy allies itself with Germany…
Episode Rating: 7,5/10 (Excellent)
I really hope that this doesn’t turn out into one really big mistake, but for now: why not? I’m going to blog this series. I’ve been looking for something light to blog since Bonen no Xamdou is about to finish, and this one can nicely fill up its slot. And besides, I’m feeling rather politically incorrect right now and the alternatives aren’t looking that pretty either. I’ve been considering to blog Kemono no Souja Erin, but episode four confirmed something that I’ve been suspecting all along: it’s simply a WMT-wannabe. It wants to create a dramatic climax in every single episode, and instead of letting events flow naturally, it throws in some random angry dragon or sickness for every single episode. I’d much rather wait for the real thing that airs in April.

Apart from Master of Epic, Hetalia is going to be the only pure comedy I’ve blogged, but it could be a lot of fun as long as it remains to be funny. Anyway, about this episode, it pretty much played on the uselessness of Italy in the first world war (which they indeed lost miserably ^^;). Seeing as Italy forms part of the series’ logo, “Hetalia” sounds awfully similar to “Italia” (Italy in katakana) and the voice actor of Italy sings the ED (which is horrible, by the way, the only bad part of this series so far), we’re going to see Italy’s incompetence back very often.

The third main character of this series seems to be Japan, which is a bit strange, since in World War I, Germany and Italy had an alliance with Austria-Hungary, while Japan sided with the Western European countries…

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 18

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou



Short Synopsis: Natsume gets visited by yet another sickeningly cute youkai who requests his name back.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
So, this was supposed to be another anime original episode, eh? I love how the fillers in this series actually make the story even better. This wasn’t simply yet another story inserted to fill time, this episode was introduced with a very specific purpose.

The thing with the Natsume Yuujinchou Manga is that it may have excellent stories, but they’ve got one major weakness: there’s not much overlap between them. The overall characters apart from Nyanko and Natsume appear very rarely. While this worked with Mushishi, Natsume Yuujinchou’s characters are of the type that make you hungry for more, and that’s exactly what this episode did. Finally we see Natsume hanging out with his friends from school. Finally we see Kaname again, finally we see how Natsume’s bond with him and his other friends has grown, and FINALLY we get some more background on Reiko. It really was about time for her character to get more fleshed out, and this episode did a wonderful job at it.

As it turns out, Reiko was incredibly different, and yet incredibly similar to Natsume. She too loved helping random Youkai, though her methods were more aimed at the psychology of the youkai: she’d do strange things of taking away their names, in order for them to achieve happiness in the long term. That’s probably also why she left her Yuujinchou to Natsume, though I’m not sure whether she planned it that way, or simply she wanted him to finish what she started.

Tactics Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Well, I guess it’s time for me to check out another one of Hiroshi Watanabe’s works. Tactics can easily be viewed along with Suteki Tantei Labyrinth and Matantei Loki Ragnarok as his “supernatural detectives”-trilogy, featuring Shinto, Post-Apocalypse and Norse Mythology respectively. Out of the three, Tactics has the least original premise (after all, how many series about Shinto are there already out there?), it’s still a pretty decent series.

This series is actually pretty un-typical of Hiroshi Watanabe: his series usually are a very strange combination between really good and really bad, but Tactics instead is a pretty solid series. Whereas Suteki Tantei Labyrinth’s cases were really crazy at times, the cases that the lead character of this series needs to solve are well built up, logical, genuine and not really stupid at all.

The cast of main characters also is pretty interesting for a shoujo series. For once the lead character isn’t a teenager, but instead a folklorist, who has been properly schooled in the occult and happens to be able to see youkai. It makes sense that the guy would then try to make his money with exorcism. The rest of the lead cast complements him really well: no two characters feel the same, and they make up for quite a varied and enjoyable cast.

So, why the relatively low rating? Well, it’s pretty much a case of wasted potential. What we have here is a series without any major flaws, but which also lacks any major highlights. While Suteki Tantei Labyrinth was memorable for me because you’d never know what kind of stupid plot twists it would pull, Tactics for the most part isn’t memorable at all. The different episodic stories do the job of not getting you bored, but they don’t make any impact either. I really feel that the creators could have gotten so much more out of the lead characters than what they showed in this series.

The bad guys this series are also pretty pathetic. They hardly receive any development, their reasons for being evil are even shallower than your average bad guys, and they suffer from the “I’m about to kill you but I won’t because I want to see you grow stronger”-syndrome. Characters as Rosalie also appear way too late in the series to make any real impact.

Still, while this series isn’t your typical Hiroshi Watanabe-Trainwreck, it does have one very typical element of his series: a surprise ending. Like usual the episodes leading up to the finale are a bit too stuffed with angst, you’re about to give up on the series, and then it suddenly closes off with a really good (or surprising) ending. The ending of Tactics made up for a lot of the balance issues that I had with this series. It was really good and the only big highlight of this series for me.

So overall, this series is wasted potential, but it’s good to see that Hiroshi Watanabe is also good at writing solid story-lines, without the usual stupidity that you can find in most of his other works. Out of his supernatural detectives trilogy, I’d still prefer Suteki Tantei Labyrinth, but if you’re stuck with this series on a rainy day, then you’re not going to get bored.

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

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – 42

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00



Short Synopsis: Setsuna and Saji rush in to stop Memento Mori II (oh, and this post has semi-spoilers for the endings of Gundam Wing and Zeta Gundam, for those who haven’t seen them yet)
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
Oh boy, this episode pretty much ranks among the best that Gundam 00 has shown so far. Even if the final parts become horrible (see below), this was a worthy mid-climax. Not only did the orbital elevator indeed fall, the results of it were what made it awesome. It’s already established that pretty much most of the parties apart from the Innovators and the A-Laws top executives aren’t pure evil, so in the end it was great to see everyone preventing the huge amount of rubble that fell from destroying an entire city. It was well built up, with some great results.

It’s a shame that 00 Raiser yet again pulled a power from out of thin air (the incredibly long light saber; this really has to stop somewhere, right?), but ah well. It’s also a shame that Sergei and Hercule died so sudden, but their deaths were memorable. It’s also good to see that Saji for once didn’t whine.

This is also the first time this series has truly impressed me with its eye candy. For the most part, I don’t really care about the graphics of this series, since they’re nowhere near as interesting many different sorts of anime, but I do have to say that those long-distance shots of the orbital elevator in this episode looked really sweet.

Having said that, though, having watched Zeta Gundam recently has made me a bit wary of its confusion. Especially since this series uses lots of references to past Gundam series. The last thing I’d want in this series is a killing frenzy which sends half the cast into emo-mode for the final bunch of episodes. I’d much rather have the final part of this series refer to the finale of Gundam wing, with the huge-ass battleship. Gundam Wing may have done a lot of things wrong, but the finale was pretty good, and at least none of the characters became emo in its final parts. At this point, we’ve seen foreshadowing for both possibilities: on one hand the damage that the elevator caused in this episode is only a fraction of what would happen if a full-sized huge battleship would crash down on earth, while on the other hand Sergei’s death has set Marie in a huge rage for revenge, and remember that Saji and Louise have yet to settle their differences.