Red Garden – Dead Girls

by psgels, posted in Red Garden



Short Synopsis: About 200 years after Red Garden, we return to the girls of Red Garden, who still turn out to be alive.
Highlights: It’s about bloody time!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
So, finally the final OVA has gotten subbed, more than a year after the original airdate. Indeed, it’s about bloody time. To clarify: I’m not going to write a review about this series, simply because my memory is just too fuzzy about the majority of the series, and I can’t recall exactly what I liked so much about the original series. Let’s just leave it at that Red Garden was my second-favourite in the season it aired in, after Asatte no Houkou.

In any case, it was pretty much clear from the start that Dead Girls would be a disaster, but I do have a lot of positive things to say about it. First of all, I really admire the GUTS of the creators: go for a conclusion that’s completely different from the TV-series. Seriously, more series should attempt that. As it turns out, the lead characters indeed revived, though without any memories. After that, they’ve been living for 200 years, working as bounty-hunters and travelling the world. What I really liked about these two episodes was the chemistry between them, especially in the quiet moments. The characters underwent massive changes, and the way the creators explored these changes were really enjoyable.

But really, what the heck happened to the production-values of this series? This is supposed to be an OVA: the creators got extra time to get the graphics right, and yet the animation was just plain and the CG was downright horrible. What have the creators been doing in that half a year? Then there’s also the fact that Dead Girls answers no questions at all that Red Garden left hanging, and introduced a huge amount of new ones: why have all the side-characters reincarnated at the same time? Why did Lise turn into an android? Where did the giant robots come from? Why is the Red Garden still in its same state, 200 years later? What the heck was up with that climax?

Really, I feel that Gonzo would have done better if it went with the route of Clannad, xxxHolic and Nodame Cantabile: just go for a short second season. Dead Girls actually had a lot of potential, but there’s no way that you’re going to fit that in just two episodes. These two episodes did well in fleshing the characters out, but the thing is just too damn short. I also liked the girls’ theme song. It sounded pretty silly at the beginning, but once you start thinking about it, it does fit.

Some quick first Impressions: Kurozuka, Bihada Ichizoku and Stitch!

by psgels, posted in Kurozuka, Some Quick First Impressions

Kurozuka

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a mysterious woman who lives in the forest, while fleeing for people who are out to kill him.
Highlights: A LOT to like, a LOT to dislike
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I must say that I watched this right after being pumped up with adrenaline from Mouryou no Hako, so this series may have had a bit of an unfair advantage. Still, with that bit of adrenaline, I really loved this episode: the production-values are just awesome, the OP is the best of the season, the mysterious post-apocalyptic-samurai-setting sounded very interesting, and the horror-styled storytelling was excellent, and it keeps you on your toes. Still, there were a few things that might hurt this series in the future, so despite these excellent bits, I’m not going to label this series as among the best of the season yet. The thing that needed the most work was the cast of characters. They’re not fleshed out well enough, and the development was a bit too soon. The kiss came from nowhere, and especially the way that the lead character just “forgave” the woman that she brutally killed his partner. There’s also the superhuman powers that are a bit on the weak side, especially the way that the main character seemed to be virtually fine after being stabbed multiple times, among which in the stomach. What this series needs to do is the following: flesh out the characters; show different sides of them; show what they’re doing when they’re not on a mission. This premise is too good to be ruined by a faulty cast!

Bihada Ichizoku

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the prettiest girl in the world.
Highlights: Mary Sue! Mary Sue! Mary Sue!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 1,5/10
Ooh… the pain. The horrible, horrible pain! Who the hell writes this rubbish? I was pretty sure that Rosario to Vampire would take up the title of “worst first episode of the season”, and I’m so NOT pleased to see this series beat it. Really, it feels like this episode was directed by someone without any experience at all, someone who’d probably never even seen a proper anime or movie. That and a schedule that was way too tight are probably the only thing that could possibly explain the crap that’s supposed to be storytelling. Those glowy-eyes were probably the worst about this episode. For God’s sake, did nobody ever point out to the creators that that absolutely doesn’t work?

Stitch!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a mischievous alien.
Highlights: Obviously aimed at children, but strangely charming.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Let me make use of this chance by saying that I absolutely HATE Disney’s western TV-series, based on their famous franchises. They’re nearly always just cheap rip-offs of their original franchises, that use just the names and characters to get people to watch them, they’ve got a mediocre and often stupid plot and there’s no room for character-development because then they’d fall out of the line with their original character. So no, I wasn’t looking forward to this one at all, especially after having seen its western counterpart. Though I have to admit: the set-up that the eastern creators chose for does allow for character-development. This episode very much established the bond between Yuuna (yes: Yuuna; not Lilo) and Stitch, and this bond between them has all the potential to grow. There’s an interesting sense of innocence between the two, and they feel like children. Unfortunately, this series downright sucks when it attempts action-scenes. They’re way too energetic and unrealistic to be taken seriously, and the bad guys are just way too stereotypical.

Some quick first impressions: ef – a tale of melodies, One Outs and Mouryou no Hako

by psgels, posted in Mouryou no Hako, Some Quick First Impressions

ef – a tale of melodies

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are the side-characters from ef.
Highlights: Perhaps the foreshadowing was a bit too shallow, but gorgeous visuals and solid storytelling.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
I liked ef, but I agree with the big criticism against it: its “I love you-now let’s have sex”-mentality. It’s a bit unrealistic, considering how well-written the rest of the series was. This episode too had such a moment, where a girl drew herself in the nude, in the middle of an empty classroom. I mean, perhaps she could do that because ef’s world is totally empty apart from its important characters, but it does take away a bit of the believability. Nevertheless, this episode was very solid, and a good contender for the best teenaged romance this season, along with Clannad. It’s very good to see that the creators spent a lot of time on their dialogue and visuals, and it’s good to see another Shaft-series without Shinbo behind the director’s seat. No offence, but I’m beginning to get a bit tired of his style.

One Outs

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters lives on the bad side of humanity.
Highlights: Whoa, intense.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I haven’t looked at the staff list for this show or anything, but something really tells me that the staff of Akagi and Kaiji is behind this one, or at least it’s a bunch of people who are trying to go for the same style: the character-designs are kept ugly for a reason, a lot of emphasis is put on gambling, (this is not, I repeat NOT a regular baseball-series), there are mind games a plenty, there are a few guys who stand miles above the others in terms of skills, and the pacing is sloooooooooooooooow. This series could go down the same path as Kaiji, so there’s no way I’m going to blog this, but nevertheless this episode was very intense. And: it’s a story about adults. Always good in this season of teenagers.
Edit: well, what do you know, I was right. The entire staff of Akagi and Kaiji seems to be behind this. Prepare for lots of adrenaline and dragged on dialogues!

Mouryou no Hako

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters gets befriended with a mysterious girl.
Highlights: Shoujo ai and Horror. What could possibly get better than that?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,75/10
Omg! Omg! What an awesome first episode! After Jigoku Shoujo, this ranks as the best of the past season, and I’m really glad to see some more good horror back this season. This episode was in itself a standalone story, and it really showed that the people behind this series know what it takes to come with a good short story: the characters are fleshed out first, there’s a bit of very tense drama here and there, and the end ends with hitting character-development. There also were a number of artistic moments here and there, for example when the girls danced around in the field of flowers, but I found that it contributed really well to the overall atmosphere. Obviously, this is not a series for everyone: if you need overly cute girls, fanservice or comedy in your anime, you’ll be disappointed here. But personally, I LOVE this series so far!

Eve no Jikan – Sammi

by psgels, posted in Eve no Jikan



Short Synopsis: Rikuo suspects Sammi of lying to him and wants to get to the bottom of it.
Highlights: Rikuo is turning into a pretty interesting character.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Okay, since I’m pretty much of the beta-sciences, I still have a bit of trouble trying to grasp the notion of real intelligence, as defined in this series. I mean, I fully believe that in the future, as long as the science advances, computers can be built with human consciousness and emotions. I however don’t think that this can just “appear” out of the blue, or as an accident. Why would someone design a cleaning-robot with human consciousness? Ergo Proxy solved this in a pretty interesting way, where it combined science fiction with fantasy by introducing a virus from higher-up that introduces self-consciousness for robots.

Just as I hoped, this episode shed a bit more light about how this could have happened in the first place. The TV-commercials and programs emphasized the evilness of Dori-kei. It’s being made ridiculous everywhere, as if someone high-ranked is desperately trying to give the robotic consciousness a bad name. I think it’s those mysterious people that appear at the end of the episode. I think that these robots originally were designed to really be like humans, and to act as companions, and just when these models were fully designed and produced, and acted just like humans, it turned out that this consciousness had a very nasty side-effect. This is why people who get too attached to robots are made ridiculous, to stop whatever nasty side-effect there is from getting out. I also think that Eve no Jikan is pretty much linked to this, in an attempt to resist these actions.

In the meantime, this episode did a pretty good job at fleshing out its characters. Rikuo turns out to be a closet Dori-kei, while his best friend Masaki seems to be turning into one of this series’ antagonists. It’s also quite fun to see the random people that decide to visit Eve no Jikan. It’s different in every episode, an din this way, it would have been pretty easy to make this series a 13-episode TV-series, simply by showing random visiters to the cafe, and it would also have allowed the setting to get a bit more airtime. Really, something tells me that the ending of this series is about to get rushed.

Chi’s Sweet Home Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



“A small kitten moves in to a random family”. That doesn’t seem like the most original or exciting premise, now does it? Still, we’re looking here at the best comedy to have started airing in the past half year. You can count on MadHouse to make such a questionable premise work.

Basically, this series is spread over 104 episodes of 3 minutes, each of which explores the daily life of Chi and the family that adopts her. Especially Chi, but also the rest of the cast develop through the course of the series into downright adorable characters. The creators really succeeded into portraying the characters, just like regular people with their own problems, like making deadlines for work, properly raising kids and of course taking care of your cat, while it remains light-hearted through the entire process.

But the thing that really sells this series is Chi’s antics. I’m allergic to cats myself, but after watching this series, I can fully understand why people would take one in their home. It’s just so much fun to see the little Chi play around in the world, where everything is big and new and a whole new experience. Especially seeing her clashing with the family’s life-style results into a bunch of awesome episodes.

What’s the most peculiar about this series, though, is that it’s directed by the guy you’d least likely assume to be able to pull off such a cute series: Mitsuyuki Masuhara, the episode director of manly series as Death Note and Gungrave and the assistant director of Shigurui and Tokyo Tribe. I’m not sure what really made him decide to go for such a different series, but he really pulled it off here and he developed the characters into an excellent cast. The episodes are varied, some of them build up for each other, and you’ll never really know when one of them will just be entertaining or downright awesome. If you’re looking for a feel-good series that you can laugh with, then Chi’s Sweet Home is a very nice recommendation.

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

Some quick first impressions: Macademi Wasshoi, Skip Beat and Vampire Knight Guilty

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Macademi Wasshoi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets loved by two cute girls.
Highlights: As if this season hadn’t already enough annoying and overly cute girls…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6/10
Really, I was sure that Kemeko Deluxe would have won the title for most unrealistic series of the season, but this series sure proved me wrong on that one. There are a LOT of annoying things about this series: overly cute girls fall for him for shallow or no reasons, the OP and ED are… terrible to say the least, the lead character does nothing to move away from the stereotypes, and of course, School in this series doesn’t mean studying, but instead destroying things. Still, I have to give this series some slack. Sure, it’s badly written, but at the same time, the creators also made an effort to be original. Macademy Wasshoi doesn’t exactly feel like your standard harem, simply because of the huge amounts of ideas (good and bad) that the creators tried to stuff into this episode. That does have potential.

Skip Beat

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the girlfriend of a famous idol.
Highlights: Excellent script-writers
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
So, from the few things I’ve heard about this series, it was the most anticipated shoujo-series of this Autumn-Season. After Vampire Knight, though, I obviously didn’t believe in that hype, since that series pretty much destroyed my faith in shoujo-series. However, I now see that Skip Beat had all the reasons to be anticipated. In terms of writing, this had the best first episode of the season. It’s only been the first episode of the series, and the lead character already has multiple facets of her past explained, she has developed significantly, she is fleshed out, I’m pretty amazed at the stuff that the creators managed to put in just one episode. No scene feels wasted, and this episode definitely left an impression on me. What I also love about this series is the character-designs: at first sight, you wouldn’t suspect that they’re from 2008, and they’ve got this old look. Very nice effect.

Vampire Knight Guilty

Short Synopsis: Our lead character tries to find out what happened at the end of the previous season.
Highlights: Much of the same: angst and bishies.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10
Speaking of the devil, I don’t think I’m going to continue Vampire Knight’s second season. Thirteen episodes were fine and all, but I don’t feel like sitting through the same yet again, especially after Skip Beat just surpassed it in every single aspect in just one episode and Nodame Cantabile’s second season is also about to start. One look at Zero reminded me of why I had so many problems with watching this in the first place. If, for some strange reason, the second season does turn out to be awesome I might marathon it later, but for now I just don’t feel like wasting my time on more angst and bishies. Although I do have to admit: that new ED rocks!

Blade of the Immortal – 07

by psgels, posted in Blade of the Immortal



Short Synopsis: Shizuma asks the help of a familiar character to get rid of Manji.
Highlights: Rin.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Ah, I’m really beginning to see where Bee-Train plans to go with the first 13 episodes of this series (who knows how long it will be in the end?). Its general rule of thumb is “don’t introduce any complex or complicated plot-twists or character-development unless the characters are developed”. And indeed, this series so far has been mostly action-scenes, and fleshing out Rin and Manji. At the same time, we also already get a bit of a taste of the major characters of the later arcs. I don’t know exactly how much of the manga Bee-Train changed, but this does explain why the plot has felt relatively simple so far.

And albeit slowly, the plot is definitely moving. Shizuma doesn’t turn out to be a major character at all, because in this episode he dies. Same as the old grandmother who delivered Manji and Shizuma their worms. That by the way was about as untypical as a major death in anime as you can get. There was no blown-up drama. Shizuma just stepped outside of his cottage, and when he stepped back in, he already killed her with his poison. I was surprised to find out about her grandchild, by the way. At the end of the episode, it still lives, so I’m curious whether it’s going to appear again.

In any case, I keep getting more impressed by Rin, who’s turning into much more than just a damsel in distress. Even though she’s nowhere as strong as the other guys in this series, she does what she can in order to help Manji. And even when she does get captured, these raw emotions of fear are very nicely portrayed. And at the end, she’s able to set herself past these traumatic experiences. You can really see her mature.

Some quick first impressions: Kyou no Go Ni, Ga-Rei Zero and Inazuma 11

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Kyou no Go Ni

Short Synopsis: Our lead character does pretty much the same as in the OVA…
Highlights: …and actually does a better job at it.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
There really are too many teenage-antics series this season, but the best ones so far for me came from Hyakko and this series. It surprised me a lot, because the original OVA bored me so much that I dropped it after only two episodes. It’s probably because the main cast is significantly younger than in nearly all other shows this season, and still have a sense of innocence, combined that someone hired some sort of uber-director who managed to get the best out of them. The first half consisted exactly out of two stories that also appeared in the OVA, and yet they were hilarious here, while boring at the OVA. I think it’s because the creators are willing to take more risks, and also add their own style a bit, without copying blindly from the manga. It’s got a nice sense of pacing, and although it’s still there, the emphasis on fanservice is definitely less. Overall, a pleasant surprise.

Ga-Rei Zero

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights against invading zombies
Highlights: Nice ending!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Wow! That was actually much better than I expected when I first learned that this would be an action-series. This episode would have been fine as an excellent standalone story, and to think that it’s still continuing afterwards. The episode starts with some solid action, with an unremarkable plot (where the experienced adults get mercilessly slaughtered and the young ones somehow manage to survive – that’s a plot-hole they need to take care off in the rest of this series) and an excellent soundtrack. Just when the action was over, and I thought that the rest of the episode would just consist out of an epilogue, it pulls a friggin’ Shigofumi, and actually exceeds Shigofumi’s first episode in this. Now if this series manages to avoid going the Kiss Dum-route, we’re in for a very solid action-series!

Inazuma 11

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a 10-year-old brat why plays soccer (yup, it’s that kind of series)
Highlights: Lack of originality, clichés, blah blah.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 4/10
So… yeah. Alongside Battle Spirits, this is another one of those shounen-sports series that are meant to only appeal at boys of the age of 10 and below. This single episode was decent enough to watch, but there’s no attempt at originality at all: we have the spunky male lead, the rival who doesn’t want to play but is actually kind hearted and a transfer student, the lead character’s best girl friend, a bunch of incompetent side-characters, the evil punks, the father who is gone and is a major soccer-player, et cetera et cetera. That bit of character-development at the end was also way too soon. I mean, why bother make a new series if you can just air something of ten years ago. I mean, there’s no way that these kids are going to notice and it’s a lot cheaper to produce this way.

Some quick first impressions: To Aru Majutsu no Index, Kemeko Deluxe and Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Some Quick First Impressions

To Aru Majutsu no Index

Short Synopsis: Our lead character finds a cute girl on his balcony.
Highlights: Generic, but solid.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Okay, I have to admit: for a series that’s about cute female teenaged mages, it’s above average. The characters were still pretty annoying, but the script is solid and it can actually make this series work. The series also has a great soundtrack, and the graphics are decent enough. For this series tow ork, the lead female does need to get much more down-to-earth, though, and she’s going to have to stop trying to be overly cute. The same goes with that ten-year-old teacher, she also felt really out of place.

Kemeko Deluxe!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to marry a cute girl.
Highlights: This season’s comedies are… weird!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Joining Sunred in the category “so bad it’s good” is Kemeko Deluxe. It’s another parody, this time of the Harem-genre, and yet again it had a hilarious though disastrous first episode. It’s a bit disturbing, but these two shows have been funnier than anything else this season has offered so far. It may just be me and my very strange sense of humour, but some of the parodies in this episode really worked. Still, the premise where the lead character gets married to a cute girl who has to live inside a hideously ugly robot and the huge fanservice only can remain funny for a limited period of time, and I wonder whether it’s going to be Kemeko or Sunred that’s going to run out of jokes first.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season

Short Synopsis: Our lead character turns out to be alive.
Highlights: Action-packed and character-centric start of the new season.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,25/10
How Awesome! Finally a series that centres around adults. Sure, they’re relatively young adults, but it’s definitely better than nothing with this season. Seriously, too many series are about bloody teenagers this season. This is only the second or third season that doesn’t. Have some variation! In any case, the worst thing about this episode is that every single main character that supposedly died at the end of the first season turns out to be still alive. It’s a bit of a disappointment, but nonetheless this does allow for some great character-development later on. This episode already started very nicely by finally trying to get Saji out of his angst by letting him meet Setsuna right off the bat. The action-scenes were also very nice, and the new soundtrack is also as good as the previous one. Overall, one of the best first episodes of the season. What this series now needs to do is keep track of its own characters, and make every single one of them count. Really, Sunrise has some good potential to redeem themselves this season after their countless train-wrecks, with the solid series of Tales of the Abyss, Gundam 00’s second season and of course Gintama, so let’s hope that they grab this chance.

Telepathy Shoujo Ran – 15

by psgels, posted in Telepathy Shoujo Ran



Short Synopsis: Rui gets mysteriously transported back to a feudal version of Japan.
Highlights: Nice set-up.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Well, so far so good. It’s episode 15 and there’s still no sign of this series getting old. The current arc is also significantly different from anything we’ve seen so far on this series, so this series is definitely heading into the right direction for me. If I recall correctly, the current arc was supposed to be one of the earlier stories in the original novels, but it makes sense to move it more to the back. The characters are now fully fleshed out, and this really is an arc that is meant to develop the characters: Rui for having to solve everything on his own, and Ran for having to worry about Rui, and so getting closer to him.

What striked me was how slow this episode felt, when compared to the previous arcs. It seems to suggest that this will finally be another arc that consists out of three episodes. It’s a nice effect, and it allowed this series to show what it can do with a slow pacing. The exposition was interesting, and this type of story would indeed fit a bit of a slower pacing. After all, otherwise Rui would get reunited with Ran a bit too soon.

It’s a shame that the blood didn’t go through the censors, though. TMS Entertainment showed with Kaze no Shoujo Emily that they’re not afraid of death, but apparently blood is a bit too much. Ah well, at least Yoshihiro Ike got a bit more the chance to show off his magic with some new tracks, and they sound very nice.