Himitsu ~The Revelation~ – 22

by psgels, posted in Himitsu ~The Revelation~




Short Synopsis: The members of Daiku have a day off when a rather urgent case pops up.
Highlights: Just about everything in this episode!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 9/10
What an awesome episode! Really, I can’t believe that in the end, this series is coming together wonderfully. Seriously, it feels like this series has only just started for real after the biologica-weapon arc. It really feels like the cast’s introduction finished there. The past two episodes have that hard to describe feeling, where you really feel the chemistry between the different characters. If that makes any sense. It’s that very vague point that the characters reach, when they just feel like normal people, instead of two-dimensional ones.

I must really say that the creators have a very interesting way of fleshing out their characters. It’s very strange, I first labelled it as bad characterization, but as it turns out, this series has shown us many sides of the Daiku team. This episode fleshed them out even more, by showing how the Daiku members are on their days off. You really see different sides of them, than when you compare them in their business suits.

And the new character who kept bugging to join Daiku was hilarious, especially after the way he got pwned by Maki like that. But then again, just about every scene in this episode stood out in some way. From the light-hearted moments, to the amusement-park bombing that turned out to be just a simple fireworks show. I’m probably just rambling here (which usually happens when I run into a series I really, really like), and this episode definitely isn’t the easiest to explain why it’s so awesome. I think that it’s one of these episodes that has the x-factor.

I’m really curious: are there still people apart from myself that are watching this series? It really feels like everyone seems to have given up on it, either after the first episode with its gay undertones, or after the subs stalled. It’s a real shame: out of all the episodes the creators could have chosen, they stopped right before the best episode of the entire series.

Also, it’s strange, but I’m starting to really like Madhouse’s sense of visuals, especially in this series, even though the graphics budget is incredibly small. It’s the way that the creators use their filters and lighting-effects, along with the down-to-earth character-designs (no girls with hair in rainbow-colours = win). A great example is the gorgeous shot with the fireworks.

Overall, there were often times where I lost faith in this series, but now that it’s finally coming together, I’m confident that after Kaiba, Himitsu is my favourite series of the past spring-season.

Macross Frontier – 22

by psgels, posted in Macross Frontier



Short Synopsis: A calm before the storm things are set up for the finale.
Highlights: Ozma and Catherine.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
Okay Westlo, you’ve proved your point. At the previous episode, I declare Sheryl standing no chance at Alto’s love, only for the two to sleep together in just one episode later (at least, that was very much implied). For now, I’ll refrain from making any predictions about this love-triangle until the show’s actually over. I’ve never been that good with love anyway.

In any case, this episode set things up for the finale of this series. Leon gets the Macross Fleet ready to chase after Ranka, if I understood things correctly, and Sheryl started singing again. It turns out that her disease can be cured, in the same way that Ranka’s currently suppressing her own disease. Ozma and Catherine also successfully managed to escape and allied themselves with the rest of SMS, who now know too that Catherine’s father was assassinated. And about that ending… did Ozma just force Alto to be abandoned by the rest of the Macross-fleet?

My problem is, though, that with three episodes left, I’m really not sure whether Macross Frontier can pull off a good finale. I mean, I’m not really curious to see Ranka’s past, and this series will have to end with the death of Leon, where both Ranka and Sheryl will be saved and Alto choosing one of them. I really don’t see any potential for the creators to spice up such a predictable ending. This also isn’t the most solid series, so a straightforward ending also doesn’t seem to have much success.

Bonen no Xamdou – 08

by psgels, posted in Bonen no Xamdou



Short Synopsis: Akiyuki finally gets the chance to meet Haru.
Highlights: So that’s who that mysterious guy in the OP was.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Excellent episode, among the best of the series so far. Although I spotted some strange coincidences in this series for the first time (like how did Akiyuki know exactly where Haru would be?), but these were small enough to be ignored. Especially since that scene of Akiyuki and Haru’s re-encounter resulted in some great character-development, now that it turns out that Furuichi became to hate Akiyuki for letting the white-haired girl blow up the bus, along with his classmates. It’s quite sad that he never allowed Akiyuki to properly talk to Haru in this way, but at least this way, Haru will have nobody to rely on. I predict some great growth from her.

The creators do need to pay attention to not let Akiyuki’s and Furuichi’s rivalry become overly cheesy, though. I’ve often seen such an attempt at drama fail, where childhood friends come to hate each other (Dragonaut, anyone?). Sure, I can understand how two close people can grow apart from each other, but for the rival to become one of the top officials of the evil empire (or something similar), it gets a bit hard to believe. One example where the childhood rivalry did work was Area 88, where the rival basically ruined the lead character’s life out of jealousy.

In any case, I loved this episode not just because of that, but everything that went on around it, from the crew of the Zanbani who was worried about Akiyuki and Nakiami, to the father and daughter that Akiyuki met in the previous episode to those strange people from the northern lands, who helped the southern government. I personally love a series with a huge amount of characters, where each of these characters has his or her own agenda and issues, and Bonen no Xamdou is also doing really well in that area.

Also, is it me, or did the background art in this series look better than ever in this episode? I’m also glad to see that the guy with the camera from the OP finally appeared. It’s obvious that it’s been a long time since he shaved, but I’m surprised that he was Raigyo, the Xam’d that Nakiami saved before Akiyuki.

RD Sennou Chousashitsu – 22

by psgels, posted in RD Sennou Chousashitsu



Short Synopsis: Kushima didn’t only go brain-down, but his entire cyber-brains went missing. This episode shows attempts to recover it.
Highlights: Lots of metal-eye-candy.
Overall Enjoyment Value:8,5/10
This episode was much better than the previous one. Not only because I actually was able to follow what was going on, but also because the focus returned back to the characters. The thing is that RD really is a series about its characters. Most of the episodes had absolutely no plot whatsoever, so any attempts to introduce an overall plot would fall a bit short.

So, basically Kushima was attacked and his brain was removed off-screen, because he posed a threat to Jennie’s plans, whatever those may have been. Souta manages to find this out with the help of the secretary general, who she still turns out to have feelings for. It was pretty brave of Souta to show up in front of her, along with Holon.

In any case, now that this show is about to end, I do have to say that this series has disappointed a bit: it wasn’t the masterpiece you’d expect from such a stellar director. Overall, it’s still a good series, but I expected better (damn those expectations again). Now that the main storyline has started, and this series is done with most of its building up, I realize that this has been a very unbalanced series.

I don’t have a problem with the episodic cases (in fact, I love them), but you have to know how to use them. RD spent way too much of its early episodes on Minamo, which left too little time for the other characters. As the result, Minamo has turned into a downright excellent character. Holon, Souta and Haru also were fleshed out enough throughout the series, and they too are great characters.

Kushima, but especially the secretary general and Jennie needed a lot more screen-time than they actually got. I absolutely feel no connection to Jennie, even though he’s supposed to be the upcoming bad guy. The scuba brothers also are really underused characters. I think that if the creators scrapped the haunted school-building episode, the book episode and perhaps the blind girl episode, and used these episodes to flesh out Jennie and the scuba-brothers a bit more, this series would have greatly improved. The result right now is that two absolutely useless characters are fleshed out more than most of the important ones. As funny as Minamo’s classmates are, they’re really not that important to this series.

In any case, the thing that stood out in this episode was the metal itself. Because the concept of the metal is so original, the artists in this series really could do with it whatever they pleased, which resulted into some very nice eye-candy. Souta, screwing up at the end of the episode and basically erasing Holon’s entire memory also had a lot of impact. Such a tragic love-affair.

Mission-E – 09

by psgels, posted in Mission-E



Short Synopsis: A calm-before-the-storm episode, mostly aimed at Maori.
Highlights: Maori’s development.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Aah! It’s been too long since I’ve watched Code-E. To think that Maori actually made a small appearance there. It was hardly a moment that stood out: a dog ran into Chinami and she freaked out, but now that this series has mentioned it, I do vaguely remember how Chinami once zapped a strange building behind fences. It’s nice to see that the creators managed to put such a cross-reference in this series. It makes the series feel more complete.

In any case, I’m glad to see that the creators clearly knew what they were doing with this series, because Maori finally starts to develop. The past few episodes have really pushed her character in a different direction, and she finally has the ability to let go of her doubts. At the same time, Adol’s doubts only increase. I’m glad to see that the foundation is also suffering from inner struggles, by the way. Even Adol’s boss has trouble with his superiors, which is a nice little touch.

As it turns out, Mission-E is only going to have 12 episodes, which means that there are three episodes left. It’s here where this series needs to prove itself. I think that the reason why the ending of Code-E felt so weird (apart from the questions it left behind) was that it went into a completely different direction from what it had been building up for. After watching Mission-E, it makes perfect sense, but I wonder whether the creators are going to pull the same for Mission-E. I think the best way to end this would be straight-forward action, though.

Overall, I must say that Code-E and Mission-E both have their great points and weaknesses. Code-E’s climaxes were much better than in Mission-E, but at the same time, Mission-E has much more solid characters and it doesn’t get held back by annoying romance. Overall, I admire the guts of the creators to go with something entirely different for Mission-E. It’s often tried, and I really like it when a series does attempt this, but it does have a nasty tendency to fail (with the most notable case Nanoha StrikerS), but it worked out pretty well here.

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 09

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou



Short Synopsis: Natsume meets a famous TV-star, who grew up in the same town as he did.
Highlights: Natsume learns that not everyone deals with the problem of seeing spirits in the same way.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
A quiet little episode, which mostly focuses at Natsume as he finally meets someone who can see spirits as well. The TV-star (Natori) turns out that forgetting about youkai when you grow up isn’t the only option. He’s become a lot more confident when compared to Natsume, and I guess that Natsume wasn’t the first person he met who could also see youkai.

If I understood correctly, he came back to finish a job to get rid of a youkai he met twelve years ago. There’s an interesting bond between the two. At first sight, it seems that he’s forgotten that meeting, but it turns out that he does remember her, but his attempts to get rid of her rather failed, and he was forced to forcefully exorcise her. He did care about youkai somewhat, he just didn’t show it at first. And as a result, when the youkai is freed, she keeps following Natori.

I’ve been noticing about this series: a lot of the youkai and ayakashi that appear in it and look like humans have masks. Episodes often end with this mask partially or fully shattered. In this episode too: we don’t even get to see the youkai’s face in this episode. An interesting use of symbolism, if you ask me.

Which Autumn Series do you want me to blog?

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

Next up in the category of “ah, why not?”, I figured that it might be interesting to revive a little contest I held a year ago. Before the start of the spring and autumn-season of 2007, I ran a small poll where readers could nominate an upcoming series. The one with the most votes would be blogged, no matter what, which resulted in me blogging first Claymore and then Gundam 00.

I decided to not do the same for the past spring-season because I needed a small break from it, but it’s a fun thing to do about once a year. Especially since this time I’ll have no idea which show I’ll be forced to blog until I watch its first episode.

Anyway, here are some concrete rules:
– To make a valid vote, drop a comment leaving your selection. You can select up to two series from the upcoming Autumn season.
– The anime with the most amount of votes in the end will be blogged for at least 12 or 13 episodes (in the unlikely event that the series in question becomes way too much of a chore to cover).
– Here‘s a list with the shows that are scheduled to air. (At least, that’s what I assume. Notify me if it isn’t complete).
– No direct sequels; that’s just boring and predictable.
– Apart from that, I accept any series with an airdate between September 25th and November 11th (yes, those were the first dates that came to my mind)
– Please refrain from spoiling synopsises or staff lists. I’m still trying to enter the Autumn Season with as little information as possible about the upcoming shows, and I’d like to keep it that way.
– The poll will end at September 30, 23:59 GMT. All votes that arrive after that will be ignored.

Here are the current scores:
Tytania – 23
Michiko to Hatchin – 20
Skip Beat – 14
Tales of the Abyss – 11
Chaos Head – 10
Hakushaku to Yosei – 9
Shikabane Hime – 8
Kuroshitsuji – 7
Toradora – 6
Kurozuka – 6
Casshern – 6
Yozakura Quartet – 5
Today in Class 5-2 – 3
Ga-Rei-Zero – 3
Mouryou no Hako – 2
Macademi Wasshoi – 1
Bihada Ichizoku – 1

August Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

August has definitely been an interesting and at the same time strange month. I keep seeing everywhere that the past Summer Season has disappointed, but I just can’t agree with those statements. Sure, there’s no absolute masterpiece airing now that Kaiba ended, but there are actually lots and lots of smaller series that are well-written and have proven to be very enjoyable. The result of that is a very bizarre top-10 series for me this month, and I don’t think I’ve ever had to compile a stranger one than the one you see here. This season is full of series that, at first sight don’t seem to stand any chance for success, and yet turn out to be strangely memorable…

#28 (22) – Chocolate Underground – (3,25/10) – Okay, this has to go down as one of the worst endings ever. It’s not even the case where it’s so bad it’s good, this is just plain bad. You’ll understand once you see the bloody climax of this thing.
#27 (new) – Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel – (7/10) – An OVA that wasn’t bad, but it was so inoffensive that makes me wonder what the creators originally wanted to do with it.
#26 (23) – Code Geass – Lelouch of the Rebellion – (7,25/10) – Oh god. Episode 20 felt like the writers gave up completely. It’s a shame, it looked like the characters were finally (after nearly fifty episodes) getting some interesting development, only for that pathetic excuse of an episode to turn up. Anya’s twist came from bloody nowhere, and it felt like the creators suddenly remembered “oh, wait, she’s still there”. I also love how this guy pokes fun at the obvious holes in that episode.
#25 (22) – Slayers Revolution – (7,5/10) – Well, at least the plot became a bit more interesting, but after nine episodes I’m still not sold on Slayers yet. I also wonder, since so many people say that this series is exactly like the other seasons of Slayers: what exactly was it that the creators wanted to prove by making yet another one of them? If it’s going to be exactly the same, couldn’t they just have shown a rerun of the original Slayers instead?
#24 (24) – Itazura na Kiss – (7,5/10) – The best thing about Itazura na Kiss is really the character-development. Never in a shoujo series have we progressed so far into the lead characters’ life, and it’s really interesting to see how Kotoko and Irie have grown. On the other hand, the dramatic climaxes need a lot of work. They’re way too cheesy for their own good and move way too fast, which leaves you with a feeling of “wait, that’s it?!” A real shame.
#23 (25) – Sekirei – (7,75/10) – Well, what do you know? The plot is actually getting interesting. Never saw that one coming. Seriously though, I like Sekirei a whole lot more than I thought I would. Having said that, the fanservice still is there and annoying, and some of the characters (especially that water-Sekirei and Kuu) are really annoying, and don’t seem to have any real purpose in this series other than fanservice. It doesn’t help that their attempts at being funny just aren’t.
#22 (21) – Soul Eater – (8/10) – Ah, finally Soul Eater gets a bit better now that that main storyline has popped up. This just isn’t a series for episodic stories, because the past few months have shown me that it just can’t seem to be able to come up with interesting stories that only fill one or two episodes. The continuous storylines do pose another problem, though: battles get dragged on for too long. Thankfully, Krona’s climax wasn’t hurt under this, and at least I loved episode 21.
#21 (new) – Detroit Metal City – (8/10) – This series has been really over the top, but it’s worked so far. Now let’s hope that it won’t lose inspiration as it goes on.
#20 (18) – Strike Witches – (8/10) – It disturbs me to think that each of these girls only has one single pair of panties…I knew the setting was weird, but not this weird. But the thing that’s even stranger is this: when you do manage to pull this series out of the gutter, and away from its beloved fanservice, it’s actually pretty good! It’s got a really charming cast of characters. At least, when they’re not comparing boob-sizes of course.
#19 (16) – Chi’s Sweet Home – (8,25/10) – I never thought that I’d call Chi’s Sweet Home the biggest source of laughs from the past spring-season, but here you have it. Some episodes are okay, but others are absolutely priceless.
#18 (14) – Wagaya no Oinarisama – (8,25/10) – Byakki’s arc turned out to be a really solid one for this series. This has been a clever and enjoyable anime so far, even though it may not look like it at first sight.
#17 (13) – Mission-E – (8,25/10) – Still straightforward fun and characters from Mission-E. Maori has proven to be a very interesting character, even though she lacks the development that the other characters did have in Code-E.
#16 (19) – Birdy the Mighty Decode – (8,5/10) – Talk about improvement! The first parts of Birdy the Mighty goofed off a bit too much, but the progressions in the past few episodes have been really impressive so far. Okay, so it’s still nowhere near the quality of Noein and Escaflowne, but it’s a pleasant surprise nonetheless.
#15 (9) – Macross Frontier – (8,5/10) – The second half of this series has proven to be very solid entertainment. It’s nowhere near the best of the season, but it’s very enjoyable nonetheless.
#14 (6) – Telepathy Shoujo Ran – (8,5/10) – In this month, Telepathy Shoujo Ran has been mostly light-hearted, which worked out pretty well, with as highlight the ever-hilarious banter between Ran and Midori.
#13 (23) – Zombie Loan – (8,5/10) – It’s a real shame that this series has to end here while Vampire Knight gets a continuation in October, even though Zombie Loan outclasses VK in just about every aspect and the DVD-specials left with an EVEN BIGGER cliff-hanger than the original season did. Still, the characters were better than ever: I laughed a lot during these two episodes, and the serious parts also really worked.
#12 (2) – RD Sennou Chousashitsu – (8,5/10) – I’m not sure why, but RD disappointed a bit this month. It’s an outstanding series when it’s just building-up and having its characters interact, but I’ve yet to see a good climax out of it. Who knows, perhaps the creators have been saving it for the series’ finale?
#11 (10) – Gintama – (8,5/10) – The fansubbers were on steam this month. I originally didn’t have much hope for the maid-head arc, but I have to say that its climax was really well written, and the definite highlight for the series this month. Other than that, Katsura’s attempts at getting a drivers’ license were also awesome and the eyebrow episode was also hilarious.

#10 (3) – Nijuu Mensou no Musume – (8,5/10)

The past arc wasn’t as memorable as the doll-arc, but there’s still hope for this series in its final four episodes. Let’s hope that the creators can bring this series to a worthwhile conclusion.

#9 (20) – Antique Bakery – (8,5/10)

Seriously, why am I enjoying this series so much? It’s indeed cheesy at times, but it’s like everything seems to be fitting, from the Norio Wakamoto-voiced businessman with a love for sweets to the fatherly guy with sunglasses; from the interesting style of shading to the habit of the voice-actor to not want to make every syllable sound perfectly in their microphone. Who cares if some of the characters in this series are gay?

#8 (11) – Blassreiter – (8,5/10)

Blassreiter… has become quite the interesting series, with probably the best animated action of the season, along with Macross Frontier. The CG really allows for some awesome camera-angles and movement. I’m also getting used to the extreme drama in this series, and I do have to say that it works pretty well with the overall overblown tone of this series.

#7 (12) – Ultraviolet: Code 044 – (8,5/10)

Ah, so what if this series is just simple and straightforward action. This series knows what it is, and it does this really well, resulting in a series with hardly any weaknesses. The highlight of this month was Zakusa’s passionate personality.

#6 (17) – Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~ Natsu no Sora – (8,5/10)

This has been a really calm series this month. It got rid of the crashing truck-like plot twists, and the result is a very down-to-earth series that prefers subtle drama over the overblown one, and I really like the results. The graphics still look as good as ever.

#5 (15) – Porfy no Nagai Tabi – (8,75/10)

I have no idea what happened to that 34th episode, but ignoring that little issue, then it’s been an excellent month for Porfy after the lacklustre Sicily-arc. Especially the things that happened in Rome reminded me of why I love this series.

#4 (8) – Bonen no Xamdou – (8,75/10)

Well, Bonen no Xamdou has already shown that it’s downright excellent at building up. Its characters continue to grow, and I really like the pacing of things so far. Now this series just needs to correctly use everything it’s been building up for.

#3 (4) – Himitsu ~ The Revelation – (9/10)

My initial enthusiasm for this series is gone, but now that it’s nearly ending, I do have to say that even though it disappointed me a bit in the middle, this has been a very good and unpredictable series, and apart from Kaiba one of my top favourites, even though it was very unorthodox.

#2 (7) – Blade of the Immortal – (9/10)

Along with Natsume Yuujin-Chou, this is my favourite series of the summer-season, simply because it’s so much fun to watch the different action-scenes unfold (and yes, this is coming from Bee-Train). It’s just a shame that this only airs once every two weeks, but I’ve been craving for another great horror-show.

#1 (5) – Natsume Yuujin-Chou – (9/10)

Episode nine was simply amazing, and the rest of the episodes this month were also really heart-warming. Without a doubt one of the best series of the season to air this summer.

Telepathy Shoujo Ran – 10

by psgels, posted in Telepathy Shoujo Ran



Short Synopsis: No supernatural case this time; instead it’s time for the local fireworks-festival.
Highlights: Telepathy Shoujo Ran + Slice of Life = a very enjoyable episode
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I’m interested in how long this string of anime-original episodes is going to continue. I originally thought that each arc was going to take up three episodes, but two episodes seem more likely. With six volumes left to animate, that means that there are still four of these anime-original episodes left to fill up. (Either they’re anime-original, or just the collected slice-of-life bits from the various novels that didn’t have to do anything with their stories).

I do wonder whether the creators will get the character-development right in the second half. It really looks like the creators of the anime have been picking their stories in random order (the ghost inn was from the seventh novel, it seems), so I wonder whether the cast will evolve properly. That the creators know how to flesh out their characters is yet again demonstrated by this episode, when Midori gets one of her nightmares of the past, in which she got abused by her parents.

Which makes me wonder: we’ve never seen Midori’s parents yet, have we? They sound like a bunch of workaholics who never have time for their daughter. Even Midori’s voice-mail was solely meant for Midori, and not her parents. Could it be that they’re currently living in two different houses? In any case, it does seem that they liked their daughter enough to put her on violin and piano-lessons.

Birdy the Mighty Decode – 09

by psgels, posted in Birdy the Mighty Decode



Short Synopsis: Just about every important character in this series gets attracted to what happened at the end of the previous episode
Highlights: Finally another great fight-scene!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Okay, so this series still needs miles to go before it can call itself equal to the likes of Noein or Escaflowne, but nevertheless, the past few episodes have really impressed me. The past three episodes have shown an incredible contrast to the first six episodes, which goofed off beyond belief. This episode also answers what the heck happened to the budget of this series: it’s clearly been saved for the major fight scenes like the one here.

Just about every side-character apart from Senkawa’s random classmates got fleshed out some more and gained some extra depth in this episode. Keisuke Muroto turns out to be quite a nice guy, despite his rather forcing ambitions. The guy reminds me of the male policeman from Noein. Natsumi is just as curious as Senkawa was, back in episode one.

Sayaka still doesn’t seem to know anything about her “other side”, and neither does it seem that Birdy and Senkawa recognize her from the last episode. But then again, you don’t easily suspect your classmate from being a psychotic killer. Syamalan turns out to be quite a famous person, with even larger ambitions. What exactly did he find so special in the wrecks that Sayaka left? He does seem to know about her, since he knows Capella. I couldn’t pick it up exactly, but at the end of the episode, did Capella promise him to hand over Nakasugi’s other self if he cooperated? This Ryunka they keep talking about, is that Sayaka’s other self?

In the meantime, the goth-girl turns out to be an android, and the guy with the moustache whose name I don’t know also finally does something.

The guys in moon-suits who wielded fire weapons also really worked. I originally thought that this series would keep Senkawa’s classmates apart from perhaps Sayaka away from the action, but as it turns out, it has other plans. Again, much like Noein, they all play their own part, aside from providing some obligatory classmates for the lead character.