Telepathy Shoujo Ran – 05

by psgels, posted in Telepathy Shoujo Ran



Short Synopsis: There was indeed someone behind the phenomena in the village, but who?
Highlights: Huge pacing, and yet nothing was rushed.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Whoa! Since when was this series this good? It’s still got the same problems as before: some plot-twists are a bit too coincidental and Ran has a few too elements of a Mary Sue, but damn, this episode had me pumped. It was like a roller-coaster ride from start to finish. In one episode, this series manages to reveal all the mysteries behind the village, and develop both the main characters, side characters and villains a bit.

I also really liked the amount of thought that was put into the “emahikusa”-flowers: they bloom whenever someone laughs, and they seem to be something left behind by a curse of the 13th century. The only strange thing was that the ultimate villain was the same teacher again, who had been messing with the villagers’ memories through mind-control, though at the same time, this episode turned her into more than just a bad guy, and showed a human side to her.

What’s also interesting in this episode was the different ways at which Midori and Rui look at death. Midori is very much straight to the point, and Rui seems to hate that part of her. They’re like two polar opposites, hold together by Ran.

I must say, that Telepathy Shoujo has successfully gone where Allison to Lillia failed. It’s obvious that a lot had to be cut out of the original storyline: the past two episodes contained 270 pages of the original novel. And strangely enough, the creators knew exactly what needed to stay and what needed to be cut out, and left to the viewer’s imagination. I can imagine how the whole story in the 13th century also was described in detail, but I’m perfectly fine of just having to guess what happened back then, and the creators captured the essence of this story: Midori kept acting so indifferent to death, but at the same time she would have died if it wasn’t for Ran’s powers and strong emotions when witnessing her death.

At the same time, there are seven volumes of the original children’s novels that still need to be animated through 21 episodes, meaning three episodes for each arc, which should be a perfect number with this pacing. It’ll allow the creators to take their time, and yet continue with this same addictive pacing.

Birdy the Mighty Decode – 03

by psgels, posted in Birdy the Mighty Decode



Short Synopsis: The death-count of this series keeps rising as Giga launches an attack at Birdy.
Highlights: A few overused plot-devices here and there, but the plot has turned out to be very fast-paced so far.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
It seems that Giga was indeed just an introduction-villain for this series. Now that he’s gone, this series seems to be starting for real. I must say that I didn’t expect the creators to kill off Tuto so early, considering how he was one of the major characters of the first three episodes. I admire the guts of the creators, making this a Anyone Can Die-show, á la Souko no Strain.

And of course, I should have seen those hints at romance between Nakasugi and Senkawa. It’s a typical plot-device, especially since Senkawa isn’t interested in his child-hood friend. I do hope that she’ll become more than just a damsel in distress… I’m interested whether the creators can make these schoolgirls develop a bit by the end of the series, considering the huge cast that they seem to be planning to work with. It’s been subtle, but the first three episodes have continued to slip in introductions to a huge cast of characters: we have the rival who stands on a rooftop, that idol, those press-figures, Giga’s friend, the teacher, the scary old woman, and judging by the preview, the next episode is going to introduce even more of these guys.

In any case, the most important thing that this series needs to do is to properly develop the understanding between Birdy and Senkawa. The two have been and will be going through a lot, and this series will get boring fast if they just stay the same. The creators made a good start, though. This episode too had the two of them arguing a lot. First, Senkawa was still being upset about all the things that happened to him, but very soon when Birdy got into a fight with Tuto, Birdy suddenly became the complaining one.

Kaiba – 11

by psgels, posted in Kaiba



Short Synopsis: Popo continues his plans to overthrow the heavens.
Highlights: This is what you get if you build up properly…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 9,5/10
Holy crap! This episode was utterly utterly incredible. The best episode of Kaiba yet, and with an already incredible series, that HAS TO SAY SOMETHING. I’m still baffled at all the plot-twists that bombarded the screen for the past twenty minutes. Obviously MAJOR spoilers follow. DO NOT read this entry if you haven’t watched this episode yet.

Oh my god, I’m still pretty speechless about this episode. The entire first half of the episode develops Popo further into insanity: the strange purple mist first caused Cheki to lose most of her memories, and he then lost his mother’s memory-chip. He already thinks that he defeated Warp, so he didn’t even bother to confirm whether or not Kaiba was really dead. He first claims to love Sate, but then betrays her by showing his affections for Cheki, and with the prospect of soon ruling the entire universe, his personality keeps moving out of control.

This guy was an excellent example of a great villain. He clearly is the villain in this series, but at the same time his desires kept spiralling out of control.

But the craziest thing about this episode was definitely the domino-effect-killing scene. I repeat: MAJOR SPOILERS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH:

Inside the main control room of Popo’s ship, Sate kills Popo. Then the body-collector kills Sate, who turns out to be a cyborg. The three older Kaibas then gloat over their victories. Fake Warp (who turns out to be alive) then kills the body-collector and the three older Warps. As an added bonus, we also learn that the memory-guy and Sate were sisters, and they grew up watching Neiro, Popo and Cheki play together.

There were a few things I didn’t understand, though. What was up with the fans, wiping out the purple fog? Who activated them? Why did fake Warp erase the collection of all the memories, which basically meant the entire history of the world?

In any case, it’s amazing to see how much Masaaki Yuasa has learned from his mistakes. I remember how the pre-ending episodes of Kemonozume were a big mistake because the huge contrast between the light and extremely serious final episodes was way too big. For Kaiba, he made sure to build up as much as he can, he kept throwing in flashbacks, foreshadowing and different hints that all came together in this episode. This episode was dramatic, sure. But it WAS SO WORTH THE WAIT. It’s a definite candidate of the best episode of the year for me, along with episode 21 of Shion no Ou. I’m really curious as to how he plans to end this series. Kemonozume’s final episode was absolutely nothing like its other episodes, but on the other hand, Kaiba is absolutely nothing like Kemonozome, so I’m very interested, and at the same time very sad that the goodness will only last one more episode.

Itazura na Kiss – 01 – 15 – or: what the heck happened here?

by psgels, posted in Special Articles


I just finished watching episode fifteen of this series, and I’ve got too many thoughts about this series and I don’t feel like waiting for this series to end to share them. It’s just too much of a shame to see that a series that I once loved for its witty humour degraded so much in only two months. The first seven episodes of Itazura na Kiss, where Irie and Kotoko were both into high-school. My favourite moment was that kiss in episode 7. Strangely enough, as soon as the two hit university and started to develop, the problems began piling up and this series went South.

It’s a shame, since this series did manage to avoid the standard pitfall for such a series: it’s nice to see the characters develop, and Irie and Kotoko realize what they want to do later. The two of them becoming a couple of a doctor and a nurse may be a bit conservative (that wedding also came way too fast), but then again, this may feel awkward because I’ve watched too much anime, which seems to hate modern conservatism like this.

The smaller problem in this series are of course annoying, like the horrible Engrish (I can understand how Irie’s English is bad, but people who are supposedly English yet again speak with a horrible accent. I really wonder, in these days of outsourcing, why nobody got the idea to hire a bunch of English voice-actors to fill in for the English parts…). The inconsistent animation at times is also rather grating, especially in that new ED. It feels like a bunch of entirely different people made it.

But the biggest problem is that the writers suddenly seem to have given up… it’s strange, but their wit that made me fall in love with the first few episodes is entirely gone now. One thing I liked about these first few episodes is the fast transition from funny to dramatic, when either Kotoko or Irie’s pranks went a bit too far, for example. That’s what made that drama work. Ever since university, the creators seemed to have increased the drama in this series, but the problem is that… they just can’t write decent drama.

For the past eight episodes, the creators just kept throwing love-rivals and random illnesses at our couple, as an attempt to test their relationship. I mean, come on, think of something bloody different! Have a bit of faith in your characters. They’re funny as they are, without these contrived plot-twist. The creators keep hanging at the boring parts and skip the potentially interesting parts. I mean, that sex-scene really came from nowhere. There was no build-up, absolutely nothing, even though it was supposed to be a moment to bring Kotoko and Irie closer together…

I think that indeed the big mistake of the creators, was that during the development of the characters, they never developed their characters, or built up for that matter. There’s hardly any foreshadowing, storylines aren’t wrapped up properly, there is such a thing as getting over your love… why hasn’t that black-haired tennis-woman whose name I forgot found herself a new guy? This series hardly feels connected at all, and it feels like the writers are struggling to find something interesting for their main characters to do.

I’m really trying to like these romantic comedies, but they really make it harder and harder by continuing to disappoint me. I really hope that this series finds its groove back in its final third, because I genuinely liked this series when it first started. It feels like nearly every one of these love comedies I watch gets dull as it goes on and loses inspiration. I believe that the only pure love comedies that I genuinely liked so far are the ones who added something extra, so that they weren’t just about the adventures of a brand new couple. Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge had lots of gothic horror references and bishounen-parodies; Moyashimon had its references to bacteria and in Umisho we got to see the chronicles of a local swimming-club. They may feel like plot-devices, but at least they provide the creators with enough inspiration to keep their series interesting until the end.

Bonen no Xamdou – 01

by psgels, posted in Bonen no Xamdou



Short Synopsis: Our lead character unknowingly gets involved in a large war between two countries.
Highlights: Very solid storytelling and animation.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Ah, why not, I’m going to blog this. This episode was just too good to ignore. I don’t have a PS3, so I have no idea how the new episodes will come out, but I’m going to be covering the new episodes as soon as I find a non-out-of-synch version of them. I’m going to drop blogging Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~ Natsu no Sora (though obviously I have no intention to stop watching that one).

In any case, the first thing that this series reminded me of is “Eureka7 meets Overman King Gainer”. It’s quite an interesting combination between the dark mood of the former and the bright and light mood of the latter. This was a typical example of a first episode, meant to kick off the series with a fast-paced start. Lots of things happen at the same time, and it’ll probably take a few more episodes until things start making sense.

Of course, a young male who suddenly becomes the most powerful warrior through sheer luck (at least that’s what it pretty much looks like) is a very overused plot-device, but what interests me the most in this series is the world it created. I’m a big fan of series that create their own cultures and customs, and one of the great things of anime in general in my opinion is all the different cultures and settings that they explore.

Macross Frontier – 15

by psgels, posted in Macross Frontier



Short Synopsis: This episode closes off the first half and introduces the second half of Macross Frontier. Oh, and in order to fill up time, it stuffs in a bunch of recaps.
Highlights: Thankfully tries to be more than a recap.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
Like expected, the previous episode marked the end of the first half of Macross Frontier. So indeed, what better place would there be for a recap than at this point? Still, I’m surprised at how much new content did make it into this series. We get introduced to two strange voices inside a strange ship (which my limited Japanese couldn’t understand, unfortunately), Grace returns in a new body, and she and Brera recruit Ranka for their next job.

Alto meets an old Zentradi, who likes mode trains and apparently is connected to him, and at the same time the love-triangle also progresses a bit. Te recap-parts were also much less boring than expected, since the creators stuffed the best-animated scenes all together, making it a visual feast and the best tracks of the series were also played. This is indeed what a recap should be: more than just repeating what happened before in the series.

Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~ – 03

by psgels, posted in Special Articles



Short Synopsis: The students are taught magic through various practical assignments at real clients.
Highlights: Sora may have been a bit too emotionally attached to her assignment.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
I’m pretty annoyed by Bonen no Xamdou, for its attempt to mess up my whole blogging schedule this season. Just when the final show this season aired and I decided which shows to blog, this one pops up. I don’t have a Playstation, and I’m not willing to buy one, so I haven’t seen its first episode yet. It’s not certain that I’m going to blog it, but there’s a pretty good chance that if it does pop up somehow, I’ll end up covering it. Especially since there are going to be 26 episodes.

One really annoying trend of 2008 is that, when compared to previous years, there are hardly any shows that go on for longer than 13 episodes. Only a select few went with a series length of 22 or 26 episodes, which is a real shame, in my opinion. In any case, if I do end up blogging Bonen no Xamdou, Natsu no Sora is probably going to be dropped. It’s obviously not a bad series, and I actually really like it, but everyone already seems to cover this series, and I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to say something interesting about each episode, considering the nature of this series. Either that, or Birdy the Mighty’s third episode has to be realy bad, but I doubt that one.

To go back on topic, this episode shows how the school in Natsu no Sora isn’t as Harry Potterish as I originally thought, and Sora is actually going to carry out many jobs as a magician in order to learn and develop her skills. It showed how in this world magicians are quite rare and not always admired. Sora’s also gets accompanied by some sort of manager or something. I’m not quite sure yet how this system works, but my limited Japanese may have been the cause of that. Do these people continue to accompany their magicians, or is it just for the first few months? Are these people magicians themselves? Does the school really have enough manpower to assign one manager to one magician?

Just as with episode 2, this episode again was very solid, with a bunch of forced plot-twists popping up from out of nowhere. Thankfully it wasn’t as blatant as that truck, but Sora suddenly decides to run off with the photo albums that she was supposed to get outside of a locked safe and bring them outdoors. This may have triggered the client to show a more personal side of herself, but I’d prefer it if was less forced, especially considering the nature of this series.

I’m also interested in whether the rest of this series will shed some more light into the world this anime is set in. I mean, in this episode we saw how easily Sora cracked that safe. What if there was a magician who suddenly thought that it’d be a nice idea to start robbing houses. If he’s talented enough, he’d probably get away with it, based on what I’ve seen in this series.

EDIT: aaand just after I make this post a sub of Bonen no Xamdou turns up. Does anyone know whether the .mp4-file is in HD or not?

Ultraviolet: Code 044 – 03

by psgels, posted in Ultraviolet: Code 044



Short Synopsis: 044 betrays her organization.
Highlights: Fixes the movie’s mistakes.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I tried watching the movie Ultraviolet, to get an understanding of why everyone seemed to hate it. Well, I lasted 30 minutes until the pain made me stop watching. That was exactly what I feared that this anime-series would turn out to be, and let me say that the Ultraviolet anime fixes a lot of the mistakes of the movie.

The movie was a horrible mish-mash of random fights and cheesy dialogues. The little story that was there was a combination of the original setting of the comic books and a plot that made no sense, where 044 rescued a child that could have been the doom of her entire kind… just so that she could be saved… or something like that. It’s at that point where I just gave up and stopped watching the movie.

The biggest mistake in the movie was the fights, though. Enemies dress in the most ridiculous outfits, you never know who they are, they’re just… there and supposedly security-staff and they die within 5 seconds. Instead of trying to protect their lives, they go for overly cheesy poses (one particularly bad scene featured them as they surrounded 044, stood around her in a perfect circle and… all shot at her. Combined with 044’s amazing talent to evade bullets (in the movie, at least), what where they thinking?

And here comes Osamu Dezaki, and he managed to successfully put some focus away from the action, and focused much more on the personal aspect of the characters. There’s still action, but the goons that 044 has to defeat are given an identity: you know what they’re doing there. 044 also doesn’t have the ability to dodge bullets anymore, and not all people that stand in front of her have to be slaughtered. This episode shows that she just gives that treatment to the goons from her organization.

Both the movie and the anime feature 044 as she betrays her organization. In the anime, she does so because she suddenly fell in love, and saved one of her supposed enemies, and she’d do more for him that for her organization, which I suspect she never liked anyway. In the movie, I guess she falls in love too… with a 10 year old boy who never says anything and who turns out to be the son of some of the major enemies. I guess, that’s the only explanation I can think off to make her actions there seem at least a bit plausible.

But boy, this surely turned out to be the dark horse of the summer-season. Three episodes and still no subs? I guess that this can be blamed to the bad reputation of the original movie. I can really say that I like this series now, though. My biggest fears, of this turning into Devil May Cry II with a bunch of boring fights were avoided completely. So far, there hasn’t been any trace of filler at all, and with the current storyline, I’d be surprised if the creators would manage to stuff one in.

Himitsu ~The Revelation~ – 15

by psgels, posted in Himitsu ~The Revelation~



Short Synopsis: The criminal of this episode takes an innocent woman and her baby hostage to demand an investigation by the MRI-department.
Highlights: Rather formulaic conclusion.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10
Hmm, this was one of the (if not the) weakest episodes of Himitsu. I can understand the point it was trying to make: the people from MRI are very privileged, at how they’re able to look into the minds of the dead, so outsiders would go very far in order to know thins that otherwise would remain a secret forever. The guy who was taking the hostages has had to live his entire life with the thought that his mother committed suicide, but this didn’t feel right. When the person he suspected to be the biggest suspect for coming up with this lie died, he forced with his little hijacking the MRI to take action.

And indeed, his mother was murdered by this guy. They find out the truth, then return to the place of the hostage (at the last possible second… I hate it when they use that plot-device) and tell him what happened, after which the criminal breaks down in tears, just because of the words of Amachi. It was rather forced, to say the least.

I guess that this is indeed the big disadvantage of this series: it’s excellent at storytelling, but it rather falls when it tries to get too close to characterizations. We just knew too little about the kidnapper to really care about the guy.

RD Sennou Chousashitsu – 15

by psgels, posted in RD Sennou Chousashitsu



Short Synopsis: This episode is about food (no, really).
Highlights: Surprisingly dark, and at the same time Minamo’s antics were hilarious.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
This episode returns to the essence of RD Sennou Chousashitsu: Minamo and how the Metal affects people’s consciousness. Now I also understand why the previous of the previous episode was nothing but food, because this time Haru was set out to rescue a number of food lovers who were lost in their own desires.

I must say that this series has such a fascinating understanding of human nature. These people basically were on the metal, 24/7, enjoying all kinds of delicious foods. Because their consciousnesses were uploaded to the metal, all the virtual food felt surprisingly real, but at the same time this was ruining their real bodies. They would become so used to the uber-delicious food that no food in real life would taste good anymore, and this episode, they became crazy over the taste of just ordinary water, simply because they hadn’t tasted it in so long.

This episode also showed cases where Souta had to take care of cases where people tried to stimulate their own senses so much that they simply died, which also nearly happened with the gentlemen (or at least, that’s what their avatars were at the time) in this episode. It’s a pretty freaky idea. Overall, the messages of this series have been light and optimistic, about a future where the limit to express your creativity knows no bounds, and at the same time it makes it seem so easy to lose yourself in this virtual world.

And Minamo was so adorable in this episode, with her fear of bell peppers (or at least, that’s what I think she meant). These characters can literally talk about food and still remain utterly enjoyable. Especially considering the entire first half of this episode was nothing other than Minamo, sulking over her fear of bell peppers, and the only thing that distracted me was a rather bad video file that kept glitching.