Nijuu Mensou no Musume – 14

by psgels, posted in Nijuu Mensou no Musume



Short Synopsis: This episode follows Chiko and Ken, as they try to get the doomed zeppelin down safely.
Highlights: An excellent aftermath to an amazing arc.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
The previous episode was an absolute chaos, so it was only natural that the aftermath would be more straight-forward, and yet this was a very solid and entertaining episode, which really served to get the cast closer together, especially Ken and Chiko managed to settle their differences as they tried to get out of that bomb-filled zeppelin. An interesting twist was that all of the guests turned out to be alive, and the wine was just rigged with some strange stuff that quickly made them unconscious. The blood that they seemed to cough… just turned out to be wine.

One thing that my limited Japanese didn’t fully understand is what went on between Chiko’s aunt and Tome. The end result was Tome, blackmailing the aunt, but I’m not exactly sure how she did it. Did she feed her the same poison that was fed to Chiko, so that if she were to go to the doctor, her plans to poison Chiko would be revealed?

Overall, I’m really impressed by this arc, but the question remains: what is going to happen in the final eight episodes. Hashihime mentions something about the final parts of the series diverging from the manga, and turning into “detective girls”, and the ED seems to confirm this.

The detective-girls do have potential, and it’ll be interesting to see what kinds of mysteries the creators can come up with, but I’ve got one major issue with it: Haruka. The OP and ED continue to portray her as a major character, while her actual role in this series has been incredibly small. The only time that she did stand in the spotlights turned into a disaster, when she knocked a big strong man unconscious with a bunch of toys. If this series really is going to turn into a detective girls-thingy, then I fear that Haruka’s brattiness has the potential to ruin everything. She’s about the only member of the cast that feels stupid, and I really hope that the creators will manage to develop her sufficiently.

Rozen Maiden Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


This review is about the first season of Rozen Maiden. I first came into contact with this franchise through a bit of a strange way: I never watched the first season, but when the second season (Rozen Maiden Traumend) aired, I decided to give it a whirl and watch it. If I recall correctly, I lasted five episode before dropping it, because it just didn’t seem to go anywhere, and the annoying characters weren’t helping much either. To give a small indication of the annoyingness of one of the characters… I think that this video says it all…

In any case, Solaris managed to talk me into giving the series a second chance, and I’m really glad that I did, because the first season made an entirely different impression on me. What I saw of the second season goofed off way too much, but the first season is actually a very focused character-study of a bunch of dolls that came to life, and the humans that they made contact with.

Right from the start, this series knows exactly how to use its limited time of 12 episodes. The story continues to develop, and there’s always something interesting going on. The different subplots flow very smoothly into each other and never feel rushed, and the series ends with good conclusion.

The results of this excellent storytelling can be seen in the characters. Characters that got incredibly on my nerves in Traumend turn into likable and adorable characters, right from the start. The Alice-games, which play a central role in this series, which cause the different dolls to fight each other are interpreted differently by each of the characters. Some become obsessed over perfection, others want to break out of that tradition, others want to win, no matter what and others don’t care about these games at all, and just want to play like a little kid. In the same way, each of the dolls has a different understanding of what the word “doll” means to them. My biggest surprise was that Hina-Ichigo turned out to be more than just an annoying little brat, and how she had a very clear purpose in this series.

Peach-Pit’s adaptations have often been plagued by strange production-decisions (Zombie Loan was good, but way too short, Shugo Chara had the potential, but turned out way too bloody long), but this first season of Rozen Maiden is pretty much without any major flaws. The graphics also look pleasing, and although I fully agree that the ALI project should stop making all these OPs and EDs that sound way too much like each other, I do admit that their work on Rozen Maiden’s OP is their best one. The rest of the soundtrack is also pretty much awesome, which all results in a really worthwhile series. Now, I hope that the second season is going to turn out better than what I remember of it.

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

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.