Macross Frontier – 16

by psgels, posted in Macross Frontier



Short Synopsis: Grace uses Ranka’s abilities as Sheryl gets more and more jealous.
Highlights: Best soundtracks of the series yet.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Ah, of course. The reason why Grace went after singers like Ranka and Sheryl was for their deculture-ability, in an attempt to get rid of the Vajra. Apparently, the deculture didn’t work with Sheryl, so she tried Ranka instead, and this episode proved to be a success, as Ranka’s song created a fairly easy victory in a battle against the Vajra.

I must say that the soundtrack for this series is as huge as its animation-budget. This episode introduced even more new songs and tunes, and strangely they felt like they were the best tracks of this show’s OST I’ve heard so far. Especially Ranka’s song with a new instrumental track added to it, it’s amazing what a few different instruments can do to the tone of a song. It finally gave a sort of sci-fi feel that I’ve been missing in this series. But then again, this is just the opinion of a guy who isn’t a fan of j-pop. ^^;

The love-triangles are also getting heated up more than ever. While I find it hard to imagine that Brera would be going after his sister, the guy does create an awful lot of jealousy for Alto, in the same way that Sheryl’s jealousy continues to grow. It’s good to see that they’re both starting to realize that they’d better get serious if they want to prevent from losing.

Genius Party – 01 – Genius Party Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Genius Party


Ah, why not? Who cares, I’m just going to write a different review for each part of Genius Party. I’m also reviewing the individual episodes of Kara no Kyoukai, so why not Genius Party? It’ll be an interesting experiment, to see whether these compilation movies are best reviewed as a whole of by their individual parts. Robot Carnival, The Animatrix, The Cockpit and Memories have always been difficult to review, simply because the quality of the different parts can be so incredibly different. When I watched Memories, I ended up not writing a review about it, simply because I didn’t know exactly what to say about the combination of Cannon Fodder and Magnetic Rose, and my review about the Animatrix probably doesn’t do justice to the amazing Second Renaissance.

Anyway, enough blabbering, onto the review. This one’s more for completion’s sake, as it’s more of an introduction than an actual short movie. The honour of kicking off Genius Party goes to Atsuko Fukushima, which couldn’t have been a better choice, as she also did the opening and ending for Robot Carnival. The first movie is called Genius Party for a reason, as it basically serves as an introduction to the rest of the shorts. It’s probably the shortest of all the movies, and instead for a straight and concrete storyline, it goes for the abstract approach.

Genius Party was meant to be surreal, a piece of art in a way. It’s up to the viewer to give his own interpretation of what happened, and you may want to end up watching this several times in order to properly catch what the heck went on there. It’s a thought-provoking piece, that an have many different interpretations.

Obviously, there’s only so much you can do in just five minutes and apart from a great style and a cryptic story, this first movie hardly anything more than that. Alone this won’t leave much of a lasting impression, but as an introduction, it serves its purpose.

Storytelling: 8/10
Characters: 6/10
Production-Values: 9/10
Setting: 7/10

Kara no Kyoukai – The Garden of Sinners – A Study in Murder (Part 1) Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Kara no Kyoukai


Apologies for the delay of this review of the second movie, I totally forgot about it until the third one suddenly popped up. The second chapter of the Garden of Sinners tells how everything started, and how Shiki and Mikiya first met with each other. It’s obviously a chapter that’s more about building up and establishing its characters than about its stories. Overall, I liked the first chapter more, but at least A Study in Murder Part 1 is a lot more solid.

The whole setting is a lot more down-to-earth, as the entire story is just about two rather strange high-school kids. The graphics look as good as ever, but that’s to be expected with a movie-budget, and the strange emphasises on different foods are still there. The best thing about this movie is the cast of characters. They’re well fleshed out throughout the hour of airtime and even though they won’t hit any heights, they remain enjoyable to watch, and add depth to their versions that we saw in the first movie.

The story is a bit hard to believe, though. It’s impossible to accurately describe this without going into spoilers, but let’s just say that this movie tells about a series of gruesome murders, and the motives of the eventual killer will feel rather strange, and especially the way that Mikiya reacts to this gives Elfen Lied-flashbacks. The message of this episode was a rather weird one: “it’s okay to murder, you won’t get put in jail for it, everyone will love you anyway.” Now that’s going to stop the children from stabbing their parents.

Nevertheless, the movie served its purpose: the characters are fleshed out now and they have a background, which makes them more than just a bunch of cardboard boxes. Now all that’s left to see is how the rest of the movies will use this.

Storytelling: 7/10
Characters: 8/10
Production-Values: 9/10
Setting: 7/10

RD Sennou Chousashitsu – 16

by psgels, posted in RD Sennou Chousashitsu



Short Synopsis: It’s back to action and fanservice as this episode focuses at Souta.
Highlights: But what great action it is.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
The next episode previews are getting less and less helpful… they still give an indication of what’s to expect in the next episode, but they’re getting more and more cryptic with every episode. Still, that’s what I like about them. The reason why I don’t often look at these previews is that you’ll never know when they’re too spoilery for their own good. The worst offender that I ran into was Naruto, which once revealed the plot of an entire spoilerific episode in its preview. Still, RD knows exactly what it should give away, to keep its viewer wondering and not reveal any obvious spoilers. The preview for this episode, for example, considered of Souta and Holon fighting. And it was indeed an episode about Souta and Holon, but at the same time it also symbolized the romantic tension between the two, which was the main point about this episode. At the same time, the preview for the next episode features the entire same scene, with just Souta realizing why he keeps losing to Holon in training fights. It should be in the same vein as the current one, but we can only guess what it’ll really be about.

In any case, the current episode rocked. Souta, the guy who sleeps with the boss of his boss is actually secretly in love with Holon. This episode addresses the fact of falling in love with an android a bit differently than Chobits, though. This episode didn’t necessarily end with a happy ending, but rather with all the characters (except Minamo, perhaps) understanding what’s going on. There’s no cheesy confession scene, but instead a much more subtle approach was chosen.

There was one particular scene that caught my attention in this episode: it was where the evil android in this episode had just beaten Holon “unconscious” and threw her body away. That was the only time so far where Holon looked (and sounded) like an object, rather than a human being.

Himitsu ~The Revelation~ – 16

by psgels, posted in Himitsu ~The Revelation~



Short Synopsis: A blind director gets murdered by a strange figure with a kabuki-mask on.
Highlights: Finally! Some quality characterizations!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Blegh. Here I am, criticizing this series for failing at characterization, and then it comes and puts down a cast of great characters for this episode to work with. This episode was much, much better than the previous one, simply because of its endearing and well-defined characters. I may not have understood everything of it, and yet I loved this episode, and it finally reminded me why I originally fell in love with this series.

This episode was probably the best in terms of random chatter between the members of the MRI-team. The guy with glasses should speak more often, because his chemistry between the rest of the members is really interesting. But then again, this was really an episode where he could get into his element, with the victim being a movie director, and this episode revealed that he’s a fan of movies.

This episode also had an interesting parallel with a certain episode of Real Drive: the one with the blind artist. Both episodes show the imagination of someone who has lost his or her sight. Himitsu shows literally what it is that he sees. It’s mostly darkness, but I can imagine how he would sometimes get visions like that.

Ultraviolet: Code 044 – 04

by psgels, posted in Ultraviolet: Code 044



Short Synopsis: An intermezzo, without much action, but much character-development and introductions.
Highlights: The new characters should prove interesting for the rest of this series.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Okay, so even though this was a quiet episode, it still delivered, as it made perfect use of the extra time for the characters to reflect upon themselves, and it also made 044 see how stupid she was acting considering her love. There’s no guarantee that when Luka wakes up, he’ll be in love with 044 too, and he’ll probably just return to his comrades.

In the meantime, she also removes the chip that Daxus II used in order to track her down. He’s just like 044 in a way: he too is obsessed over another human being, to the extent where she’s more important than his job, and he’ll use all of his influence to get her back. In the same way, 044 will use al of her powers in order to protect Luka, even though she hardly knows anything about the guy.

The new people introduced included some sort of cross between a gang-boss and a fashion-victim, who was after the reward put on 044’s head. This episode also introduces Luka’s comrades, who come and retrieve him at the end of the episode. It’s interesting how they seem to be connected to Mathilda somehow. Then there are some acquaintances of Garcia, who haven’t done much yet.

I must say that Madhouse is pretty much turning into my favourite production-company this year. They may have had certain flops with Allison and Lillia and Kamen no Maid Guy, but the majority of their series that aired this year all had interesting premises, looked fresh and had deep storytelling. The problems I’ve once had with the studio was when they kept disappointing me over and over with Kaiji, the second season of Black Lagoon, the finale of Akazukin, Claymore and Shigurui and the large amount of hiatuses and recaps from Dennou Coil and Saiunkoku Monogatari, but ever since the spring-season, these guys have been better than ever.

Mission-E – 03

by psgels, posted in Mission-E



Short Synopsis: The target of this week: a girl with her pet bat.
Highlights: Enemies get stronger and smarter as the series goes on.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
I’m not sure who on Anime News Network found it a good idea to lump all of the staff of Mission-E all together as directors, but that information is obviously wrong. It takes some credibility away from the site, doesn’t it? In any case, it’s very interesting to see a series with so many high-profile people working on it (the original creator of Scrapped Princess and the directors of Simoun, True Tears, Niea, Shion no Ou and Full Moon wo Sagashite are all working on this thing), that doesn’t aim to be the best in any field, and instead just wants to put down a fun series.

In any case, this episode was clearly one of building up, especially meant to develop the bad guys a bit. They were faceless goons up till now, but this episode added a bit of personality to them, which is always nice. The main guy in charge of capturing the people with Type-E also seems to have a personal history with Chinami, as we see through a flashback in the beginning of the episode, where he got some sort of scar on his back from amongst the rubble. My guess is that this happened when that resort exploded, back at the end of Code-E.

Maori is also getting more used to her job, and isn’t afraid to talk to random people anymore. She’s still pretty much the outcast of her class, though, but that’s obvious, because she still hasn’t stopped distancing herself from everyone. The type-e case was rather mundane (I mean, a bat with type-E isn’t what you’d call exciting), but it did serve the purpose of showing that animals also can get type-E.

Persona – Trinity Soul Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Watching Persona – Trinity Soul is like walking through a desert, complete with mirages and all, only to end up at an oasis. It’s a supernatural mystery-series, based on the persona-games, and its favourite habit was teasing the heck out of its viewers.

And I’m not kidding when I say that. Despite the fact that this series is full of mecha-like personas, the pacing is sloooooooow. It takes ages for something to actually happen, and when something interesting does happen, a cliff-hanger follows and the next episode acts like nothing happens and starts building up again.

Even after the first half ends, there’s still no sign of a speed-up in the plot, and the pacing even becomes even slower than it already was, as it reveals more and more of the mysteries that lie behind this series. And I must say that the overall plot is definitely interesting; you can see that a lot of imagination went into it. If only the pacing wasn’t so god damn slow.

Another flaw that pops up after the second half is the obligatory background for the main characters. A major problem with them is that these play around with coincidences a bit too much. Seriously, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a character that grew up normally, and didn’t lose his/her parents in some sort of gruesome way.

In other words, as the series went on, my interest in it became pretty low, and I had almost given up hope on it, and then those final five episodes arrived. And it’s exactly here where the quality of this series increases dramatically: the pacing finally kicks in, and everything that the entire series had been building up for finally comes together and delivers a very enjoyable finale that changed my entire opinion of this series.

Overall, I’m not going to recommend this series, but if you’ve started it, then you might as well finish it because of the excellent finale. I think that this series suffered from two major problems: it’s too long and it could have fleshed out its characters a bit more. If this series was just one season long, it would be a total roller-coaster ride, and even if there were only 22 episodes, this series would already have been much more enjoyable due to the lack of quiet parts. The characters can be blamed for these lacklustre quiet parts as well. I don’t mind a slow pacing at all, but if that’s the case, then the creators do need to keep the viewer interested during these quiet parts. I just didn’t feel like I could care about these characters. Persona is a good anime, but it could have been so much better if it weren’t for these small annoying flaws.

Storytelling: 7/10
Characters: 7/10
Production-Values: 8/10
Setting: 9/10

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 03

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou



Short Synopsis: Ayakashi can be… quite obnoxious at times.
Highlights: The extra depth given to Natsume’s desire to find someone like him.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Okay, so for those who were wondering: there’s no Blade of the Immortal this week. The second episode of it airs next week, after which it’ll go into yet another hiatus. Ah well, I’m glad that these hiatuses are around the beginning of the series, and not the end.

In any case, without Blade of the Immortal, there’s no doubt that Natsume Yuujin-chou is my favourite series this season. It knows how to tell an excellent story and the cast of characters is also absolutely lovable. From the outside, it just looks like “Ayakashi of the week” (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but such a formula can get stale very easily), but every episode so far has added so much more than that. Since giving the name back to an Ayakashi is nothing special and just takes a few minutes, the creators can really start to colour outside of the lines.

This episode added quite some funny comedy to the mix. A couple of gods come and bug Natsume in order to get rid of some nasty Ayakashi that were bugging their shrine, and even though he refuses, they keep harassing and annoying him. What caught my attention the most, though, was the focus of Natsume, trying to find someone like him. And this is where this series sets itself apart from Mokke and xxxHolic: Watanuki had Yuuko, and Shizuru had her grandfather, but Natsume is all alone in his ability to see and sense spirits. At one time, he thought he had found a woman who could also see them, but she too turned out to be an Ayakashi. The only support he’s had so far is from other Ayakashi.

This episode changes this, by introducing two characters who finally understand him a bit. One monk who is looking for his daughter if I understood correctly, and one high-school student who can also see spirits, just like him.

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 29

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi



Short Synopsis: Recap
Highlights: Strangely enough, this was EXACTLY what this series needed…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Okay, so I’m obviously not going to summarize this recap-episode in detail. What I do want to talk about is everything else that happened here. I rated this episode high for a very good reason, because this episode may very well put itself on the short list of great recap episodes. The thing is that Porfy no Nagai Tabi has obviously turned a bit stale for the past two arcs. Porfy didn’t really grow, how he ran into the right people felt a bit awkward, and the drama nor the slice-of-life matched up to what we saw in the earlier parts of the series. The creators have shown that they can write great travel arcs (the abandoned city-arc was just amazing), but for the past months, Porfy lost a bit of its spark.

And that’s why it’s so great to look back at the amazing earlier parts of the series, when all of the characters still were alive/not missing. Porfy also had a very good reason to be nostalgic: at the airport of Rome, he ran into none other than Barnes, who had picked up rumours about a Greek boy that was lost in Italy. He then delivers him a letter from Zaimis, so this indeed was the perfect place to put such a recap. And of course, that little teaser at the end of the episode, that showed that MINA IS STILL IN ROME was just icing on the cake.

This really reminds me of the third arc of Les Miserables (about the first similarity that I spotted between the two series after their introduction-arcs): I remember clearly that very annoying episode where everyone in Paris kept nearly running into each other. And at the same time, it was such a great way of building up, for when the characters finally met with each other. Overall, this episode formed a pretty nice conclusion to the first half of Porfy no Nagai Tabi, and although we may have a few more boring travel arcs in store, the fact does remain that it’s still building up for the moments in this series that really matter: the reunion with Mina and Alecia. Porfy no Nagai Tabi doesn’t have the grand story of Les Miserables, but at the same time it’s much more personal, and I love how the two series are so different from each other, despite being both World Masterpiece Theatres.