Blade of the Immortal – 12

by psgels, posted in Blade of the Immortal



Short Synopsis: While away from Manji, Rin runs into a certain someone.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
You know, this wasn’t exactly the episode you’d expect as a semi-final one of a series. Even though it involved the main villain, it was just a standalone episode. If the creators plan to wrap up the series in the next episode, it’d all have to happen in one episode. But then again, that’s also what I said of Amatsuki and I’m still waiting for that second friggin’ season announcement. The thing that’s interesting here is that the only times at which Bee-Train left their series unfinished, another studio jumped up at the chance to finish off what they started (namely .Hack//Roots and Tsubasa Chronicle). Who knows? The fact remains though, that this series needs to be continued so badly.

This episode’s purpose was to remind that not all action of this series lies in swords and other sharp weapons. The majority of the action in this episode went on in the characters’ minds: Rin was incredibly unfortunate to run into Kagehisa while Manji was assuming that she was taking a bath, and of course she tried to attack him by herself. Kagehisa easily overpowered her and she spend the rest of the episode, unable to do anything against the killer of her parents.

It’s a great move: to actually be able to talk to the one you hold a grudge against, and have this person explain his reasons, rather than blindly charging at each other without listening to what the other has to say. It also was different from when a character suddenly stops mid-fight in order to spontaneously blurt out his life story: Rin really wanted to do something against the guy, but she was paralyzed, while Kagehisa kept looking down on her, and never found her worthy enough to kill.

Shikabane Hime – 12

by psgels, posted in Shikabane Hime



Short Synopsis: “It” has happened. I’m not going to spoil here what exactly “it” is, but you can pretty much guess.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
After the previous episode, I already had some suspicion that this episode would be awesome, and indeed it did deliver wonderfully. This episode formed an amazing climax of the first season, and really brought out the best in the characters. Does Keisei’s end beat Kamina’s? In my opinion, it does, but that may also be because I’m a much bigger fan of Shikabane Hime than that I was of Gurren Lagann. ^^;

My suspicion is that the second season is going to be a lot more linear than the first one: after all, we now have an established main couple, we have six enemies that need to be taken care of. Still, on the other hand it is going to benefit from really fleshed out characters. If it manages to use this build-up well, then we can expect something amazing from that second season.

Anyway, about the episode: it really was action-packed from beginning to end. Keisei went down like a real man: he knew his end was coming, and yet he tried to protect Ouri and Makina till the end, while trying to get rid of the human bad guy (name?!) at the same time, and at the same time Ouri has matured enough to realize that in these sorts of situations, he needs to take responsibility and grab his chance to protect others (in this case preventing Makina from turning into an ordinary Shikabane), even though it involves him getting hurt in the process.

Shikabane Hime – 11

by psgels, posted in Shikabane Hime



Short Synopsis: Keisei’s background gets revealed while the seven enemies finally attack.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Holy crap! I knew it. I freakin’ knew it! The series had already been hinting at it with the Minai-arc, and the ED really confirmed it as we see Ouri standing next to Makina with Keisei’s staff. What I didn’t suspect was that it looks like that it’s going to be none other than Ouri himself who gets to have the honour of killing him. Yeah. That’s one sure way of getting the guy at the centre of the storyline, and it indeed looks like the first season was just one big build-up for the second season.

But before he’s going to kick the bucket, I’m glad to see that the creators have found enough time to tell a bit about his back-story. I originally assumed that he and Makina were good friends when she got murdered, while in fact they hardly even knew each other, and instead they got together when he was ordered to take up Makina as his Shikabane Hime. It also turns out that the human bad guy (what was his name again?) was sort-of as an upperclassman to him, rather than just a random colleague and the cafe owner also grew up with the two of them for a bit, before he got his own Shikabane Hime assigned (not sure if that was already mentioned before).

Jigoku Shoujo – 63

by psgels, posted in Jigoku Shoujo



Short Synopsis: A young teen kills people based on what he read in a novel.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
Haha! Best episode of the third season yet! It’s episodes like this one that remind me why I originally fell in love with this series. Sure, the normal episodes are entertaining, but the real gem of this series is the collection of stories in which the creators really start playing with the concept. This episode also wasn’t awesome in the overblown way that we’ve come to get used to from this series: everything was wonderfully written, and you could see why the people wanted to send others to hell.

I must say that it was quite creative of the creators to come up with a topic that has been such a recent news item kids who commit murders because they’re inspired by their favourite anime, novel or movie. It’s been a subject debated heavily, and I really liked the different sides to the problem that this episode showed: to the overblown image that the mass media provides, to the feelings of the original author, to see people influenced by his works in that way, to the victim’s relatives, who go and blame the original author. It all fits so well, and I loved how the three main characters of this series came to the conclusion of sending the involved people to hell. It was basically their way to make peace with the whole affair.

On a different note: I’m beginning to get curious about the second half of this season. It’s subtle, but the overall mood and direction did change in the past two season: in the second half of the first season, Hajime and Tsugumi really became main characters, and the cases became more extreme. In the second half of the second season instead, the cases became less extreme, and instead that half focused on fleshing out the different important characters. I really wonder what the direction of the second half of the third season is going to be, with such an extreme first half. Are things going to be even more extreme? Will Tsugumi come back? Will Yuzuki actually get to DO SOMETHING?

Kurozuka – 11

by psgels, posted in Kurozuka



Short Synopsis: Kuro attempts to get rid of the final two villain-henchmen.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
This is going to be a short entry, since it was a minor episode anyway: it just meant to set the stage right for the finale of the show. Thankfully, most of the episode was spent on the fight with Kuon, and the “evil overlord” went down pretty quickly. His fight was fun and didn’t drag, thankfully. And yeah, like predicted: everyone dies apart from Kuro and Kuromitsu. What I also liked was that the kabuki-players at the beginning seem to have an actual role in the series. They’re like, the real evil overlords it seems, but what I especially loved was the way Kuon met his end. Such a befitting death for him. ^^;

My one disappointment was that this was THE time for the animation to get back up to those awesome levels of the first episode, but unfortunately it’s still of the same level. It’s a shame, I would have loved to see what the director can really do, without him having to resort to epic chips-bag-opening-scenes.

Tytania – 11

by psgels, posted in Tytania



Short Synopsis: Fan Hulic, Miranda and the others make preparations to safe Fan’s damsel in distress.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Oh, don’t mind me. I’m just trying to catch up on as much as possible of what I missed the past week when I was away. ^^;

In any case, I’ve tried to ignore it, but after this episode I just have to speak up about the animation of this series. It’s just abysmal at times, and yet this series doesn’t belong in the categories of series with crappy art. What impresses me about this series is that even though this series has a very limited budget (most likely the result of Artland taking up two series this season, overcasting themselves with the addition to Count and Fairy), and yet it doesn’t try to cut corners: there are hardly any cut corners. There’s movement nearly everywhere, even though this is a series about people talking. I can spot hardly any still frames, and at times the chins of the characters actually move when they talk (rather than simply their lips moving up and down). It’s a common trait of the recent Artland series: they really aren’t the best, they don’t have the largest amounts of money in their pockets, but at least you can see that despite their shortcomings, they try to make up for it. It works pretty well, though unfortunately it does mean that a lot of faces are really distorted.

In any case, I really liked this episode, even though it was mostly building up. Perhaps it was the prospect that Fan Hulic is actually going to DO something. He may be a lazy bastard, but at least the guy knows what he needs to do when he really wants something. I also suspect that the Euria-traitor is simply going to be political bait again, once he gets defeated by Fan Hulic (I also suspect that that’s why Idris left catching Fan Hulic up to Alsas: he wants to be 100% certain that Hulic is going to lose, otherwise he’ll just lead the same fate as Ariabart and Zalish). I do wonder what the poor bastard was thinking when he volunteered himself to go and catch Hulic, although I guess that he figured that it was a worse disaster for him when he lost, compared to Idris.

I’m also curious: what’s up with Alsas and his “Hyuuren”? He really never seems to change this, despite hearing numerous times that it went wrong. It’s funny, in a strange way, especially since everyone and his dog has to correct him all the time.

Eve no Jikan – Koji & Rina

by psgels, posted in Eve no Jikan



Short Synopsis: This episode is about the couple that we’ve seen in Eve’s Cafe.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Well, there go my fears of this show being too short in five episodes: the ending mentions the “second half of the first season”, hinting that a second season is going to appear some day. It’ll probably be around 2011 when it comes out at this pace, but it’s nevertheless a good thing to see that this concept has been given more airtime.

In any case, three episodes so far and each of them was increasingly better. Even though this episode was really different in terms of storytelling style, and Rikuo’s teenaged tendencies were rather annoying, it worked somehow. Rikuo is really turning into a Dori-kei, while his friend is getting even more interesting, looking at both worlds with a rather open mind.

The interesting part of this episode was of course that it’s dealing with not just Dori-keis, but instead about Androids who can fall in love with each other, proving that the concept of love is also familiar to them, and yet at the same time the two of them try to act as humans. What’s different in this series when compared to most other “smart android series”, is that usually these androids retaliate when they’ve gotten smart enough to go beyond their master’s choices (example: The Matrix). Here instead, they try to be like humans.

That makes it strange: why would there be people opposing this? This episode featured some subtle hints that there’s some serious business going on behind the scene, but I still fail to see the problem that they want to prevent. The beginning of this episode also convinced me that they try to use propaganda to prevent as many people as possible to become Dori-kei, with the whole movie about loving a robot and the robot falling apart.

Tytania – 10

by psgels, posted in Tytania



Short Synopsis: Euria runs into problems due to inner conflicts.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
At this point, I’m about to take back all the bad things I’ve said about this series. Tytania has really been getting better and better with every episode. Everything finally makes sense: the characters in this series are meant to be very flawed: they’re meant to stay far away from Mary Sues and Gary Stus, the only downfall of these flawed characters is that they take a while to warm up to, rather than the perfect characters who often appeal immediately.

And really, every character has some sort of major weakness in this series: Idris is a lying bastard, Zalish loses his temper too easily, Alsas is incompetent and a mother’s boy, Jouslan lacks ambition, Ariabart lets everyone walk over him, Ajman never does anything for himself, Fan Hulic hasn’t done anything after his victory and suffers from lovesickness, Lydia is an annoying brat. Really, name any character, and there’s some sort of obvious flaw, only Miranda seems to be an exception to this rule. As stereotypes, these guys suck, but they become interesting once you get to know them, and they become fleshed out beyond the mere stereotypes.

I’m also impressed: the creators found a valid reason to keep Lydia in the story that actually makes so much sense: she never chases after Fan Hulic in the end, she just becomes bait for him after one of her comrades sold her out. Meanwhile, Hulic’s love is more like an obsession than a genuine crush: he can’t stop thinking about her, but whether it’s actually love… I don’t know yet. This episode also showed very much that Fan Hulic isn’t the only one who can outsmart Tytania, when Miranda outruns Zalish. It’s just that Tytania hasn’t given many people the chance to stand in a position similar to him, and his victory also received quite an amount of publicity, making Tytania’s defeat even worse.

Telepathy Shoujo Ran – 25

by psgels, posted in Telepathy Shoujo Ran



Short Synopsis: All over town, people are turning into animals.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
Ah, of course. Finally we understand what was up with the dog and the lighter in the very first episode: it foreshadowed the very final arc. Hehe, nice touch.

In any case, in the final arc of the series, the themes suddenly become environmental. As it turns out the whole arc was about a fox deity who is fed up with humankind ruining the world. It really fits as a children’s series, since children of Ran’s age are often interested in protecting the environment (albeit a bit too moralistic). This arc really doesn’t try to be anything deep: the whole backstory really is as simple as a deity who has gotten angry at humans for screwing up earth so much, period. The interesting things, as usual, were the things that happened around it.

Right now, I’m really curious whether the creators are going to be able to end this series correctly, especially because the inclusion of the evil teacher felt really forced here. I mean, what the heck was her point of appearing, rather than just confirming what the fox said? How did she know about the animals-thing in the first place? (Telepathy, okay, but that doesn’t explain why she found it a good idea to enter the lion’s den…)

Right now, it’s pretty obvious that everything is going to have a happy end: the animals are going to be turned back into humans, the fox deity will see the errors of her ways and the teacher will also become one of the good guys; it’s even more predictable than your average ending. What the next episode needs to do is provide lots of banter. Avoid the straightforward, and make the episode fun to watch despite the predictability. I know that this series can do it, but it all depends whether or not the creators will write themselves into a corner, trying to achieve the “perfect ending”.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – 36

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00



Short Synopsis: Celestial Being’s home base gets discovered.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Ah, I must say that this episode ranks among the best episodes of the second season so far. After the build-up it’s finally time for some serious developments, and I really wonder what the celestial beings are going to do now, now that they’ve lost their home base. All that’s left is to make the innovators move away from the evil overlords that they currently are, and I’ll be entirely happy.

And more references to the original Gundam this episode: multiple parts. While it’s not as extreme as splitting an entire mecha in three, the docking scene really reminded me of the “transformation sequences” of the original Gundam. I also liked how the rivalry between Sumeragi and Mannequin is starting to look more and more interesting.

Regarding Anew, it seems that there’s a more complex story behind her than simply being a traitor. When Revive sent his mind crush through the Ptolemy, her reaction wasn’t like someone who had successfully deceived everyone and felt that she accomplished her mission. It felt more like “crap, they found out!”, suggesting that she betrayed the Innovators instead. In the meantime, Nena demonstrates once again that something’s seriously wrong with her, as she plans to kill off Wan Liu Ming because she can’t touch Ali Al Sarshes.

And I must say that it was quite a strange way for the creators to make Saji and Louise find out about each other. Just let the whole transcendental plane that everyone was in become a central part of the story, and not as a cheap Deus ex Machina to bring these two people together. It’s good that Saji finally gained his sense of duty, and let’s hope that he’s not going back into emo-mode in the next episode.