Baccano! – 15

by psgels, posted in Baccano!


Ah, like expected, things make a lot more sense now that the introduction-episode is over. This really was a Chane-episode; as she really gets a lot of development that built further on her encounter with Vino on top of the flying pussyfoot. Om top of that, Jacuzzi and Nice also get some really appreciated background. Now all that’s left to wonder is what the purpose was between Rachel and Czeslaw’s encounter…

Jacuzzi this time really shows that in Baccano! characters go much further than in regular anime, and it’s not just limited to Ladd Russo and Graham Spector. What other character would scar his face, just because a friend of his got scarred for life due to an accident? What other person would just turn himself in to collect money from a bounty to release another person from a ransom? I think that in his case, he’s able to do these extremely nice things because of his friends, who somehow manage to pull him out of any screwed-up situation he got himself involved in.

Chane is after Czeslaw the second person to undergo a drastic change, when both Jacuzzi and Rail Tracer treat her nicely, something that she only knew from Huey.

I think we’ve also got a first for a Baccano! episode: there was no Isaac nor Miria. They’ve been surprisingly distant from the DVD-only episodes so far, especially considering how they’re the two most central characters in this series. I do hope to see a bit more of their antics in the final DVD-only episode. It should be released on the 28th of May, and according to the title, we should see Carol again. Fair enough, that should provide a nice closure: to end where everything began.

Himitsu ~The Revelation~ – 03

by psgels, posted in Himitsu ~The Revelation~


I must say that Maki has a great personality as a leader. He’s scary, but not in the way that he loses his entire personality. This series has done really well to show that the guy’s got experience. I’m really glad that this season came with so many series with adult-characters. I mean, teenagers are nice and all, but seeing teenagers in every single series does go too far. The picture that these offer is just too one-sided.

In any case, this series really knows how to deliver its mystery well. The picture that the president shredded turned out to be the one of his daughter’s fiancée: Ross Macaulay, who turned out to be a terrorist. The president didn’t know any of this, until the guy delivered a note to the president, telling him to meet at the lighthouse. When the president got stabbed, he realized that his daughter was dating a wrong guy, and yet he tried to protect both her and her fiancée by shredding the picture of him that he carried right before he died, in order to lay as little connection as possible between him and Ross Macaulay.

Aoki realizes this, because he’s in the same situation with his sister. She too is dating the wrong guy, and yet he can’t get himself to separate the two, and he’s always watching from a distance. The great thing about this episode is how everything comes together, and yet it does force you to think about the case. And that’s EXACTLY why I like mystery so much.

Crystal Blaze – 03

by psgels, posted in Crystal Blaze


I’m still surprised at how solid this series has turned out. It keeps interesting things on the table, while not forgetting to provide background on its different characters. No character feels useless. This episode continues to create a good base for the second half of this series to work with. It’s the least eventful episode so far, but instead the characters get some extra attention. Even the bad guys get a surprisingly large amount of screen time. They’re still flat at this point, but there’s good potential for them to actually develop at the end.

My favourite character of this series so far surprisingly turned out to be Shu. He’s a strong character, he’s no idiot, and yet he doesn’t feel like an overpowered all-knowing action-hero. All the things he’s done up till now make sense. In this episode, he realizes he’s being observed by high-tech cameras at the scene where everything began. Due to the transvestite, he’s used to being observed, which sortof explains why he was able to notice them. Afterwards, he ends up being followed, and instead of going home and leading the enemy to Sara, he just fools around with as many women as possible.

Meanwhile, Manami and Ayaka are looking for an old classmate of Manami who now has turned into some kind of idol who happens to visit the town. They go past one of her other friends who became a guitarist who just made his debut. In the end, they find nothing about her. In the end, Akira finds her address because of how Ayaka wanted Manami to find her classmate. However, Manami refused the help of others earlier, saying how she wanted to find Yuuko (the classmate) on her own. She then gets angry at Ayaka, and then it turns out that Ayaka is indeed a person who gets hurt quite easily. Shu also rescued her from a bunch of punks once, which is probably why he took her in.

The doctor meanwhile gives Sara a strange potion that causes her arm to turn into glass at the end of the episode. Shows a lot of promise for the next episode! I’m also glad to see that Manami’s voice-actress is getting less and less annoying. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s something different and it does fit her naive and ambitious character quite well. She’s especially good in her quiet moments, when she isn’t screaming.

RD Sennou Chousashitsu – 03

by psgels, posted in RD Sennou Chousashitsu


I love the thing that this series is trying to prove: you can even have a great story if your main characters aren’t perfectly looking guys or girls. So many of them have lost their parents, so many of them have had a troubled childhood and they’ve had to endure the most horrible things in some cases, but nearly all of them have a perfect thyroid. Minamo may be annoying at times, but the only other female main character in anime that I can recall who doesn’t look perfect in every single way is Sunako from Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge. Heck, even among major side-characters you hardly see any non-perfect-looking girls or women. Gintama and Blue Drop are the only two that I can name out of the top of my head. In the same way, I can’t remember any other anime with a main character of above seventy years old apart from Millennium Actress.

Anyway, enough blabbering. It indeed turns out that the diver from the previous episode was Haru, and in this episode attempts are made to find out what made him change back to his 30-year old self inside Metal. A few tests are run, to see whether he’s an able cyber-diver, but after numerous tests, he keeps on failing in his original body. In the end, it turns out that Minamo, combined with a dire situation is able to trigger this change. When Minamo checks up on the guy, for a minute she sees the face of his younger self. I’m not sure whether that was just her imagination, or the influence of Metal is more than just on-line. This episode already showed that divers are screwed if they dive too far into Metal and lose consciousness, because you actually need to get your cyber-body back. Much like the Matrix, actually.

On a totally different side-note: the fansub-scene has changed quite a bit compared to two years ago. Really, at this point, roughly two weeks after the start of the season, RD and Kaiba have finally also gotten subbed and the only unsubbed series left is out of all series Toshokan Sensou. I remember that two years ago, I had to wait four weeks until the majority of new series had gotten its subs. The fansubbers are slowly changing from quality-based to speed-based. I remember how back then, people used to talk bad about speedsubbers, but right now everybody seems to have accepted them.

D.N.Angel Review – 82/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Series that promise to be better in their second half are always tricky. You never know whether they can actually live up to their claims or not; it went well for series as El Cazador, Chevalier, NHK ni Youkoso and Full Moon wo Sagashite, but on the other hand, things went disastrously wrong for series as Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Utawarerumono, Mai Otome and Romeo x Juliet. Thankfully, D.N.Angel lies on the good side of this spectrum.

It starts out as a very strange series: a boy with a very bad haircut suddenly finds out that on his 14th birthday that he can change into a winged phantom-thief bishie called “Dark”. Not that promising, though thankfully this series turned out to have a similar story flow as El Cazador and Suteki Tantei Labyrinth: entertain your viewers with random cases (in this case random artworks that have to be stolen, or background on various main- and side-characters), and abandon these cases as soon as the second half hits, so that the characters can develop themselves.

Such a formula works surprisingly well, and indeed: once this series passes its halfway-mark the characters really start shining. Especially the teenagers turn into well-rounded characters that will make the journey through the first 13 episodes a rewarding one. Unfortunately, the other characters do feel a bit incomplete. Especially the major bad guys could have gotten more attention, there’s one particular side-character who feels out of place and doesn’t seem to serve any purpose whatsoever and Dark himself too feels like he could have been more if given more screen-time.

While I can’t say that D.N.Angel is a must-watch, I am at least glad that it managed to make use of its potential, and didn’t get itself caught in endless fillers. Even the random cases serve to flesh out and provide background for the different characters. If I recall correctly, then the creators completely rewrote the original manga for this anime, and I must say that they did a pretty decent job on it. Do note that the graphics can be a bit of a turn-off. Don’t get me wrong, they look great at times, but there are also quite a few lower-quality shots and the characters do take a bit of getting used to if you’re not a fan of bishies.

Soul Eater – 03

by psgels, posted in Soul Eater


So, this episode concludes the introduction of Soul Eater. We’ve no seen all the three couples, so it’s time for this series to start building up to its real potential, rather than the McGuffin involving the 100 souls to become a death scythe. My guess is that the next few episodes will show the different couples working together on one mission. Something tells me that the banter between these people will reach epic levels when they’re combined.

In any case, this episode is the proper introduction to Death the Kid (really interesting names some of these people have). He’s the son of shinigami himself, so of course you’d expect a perfect student here. When I first saw him, I thought that his weakness was that his weapons weren’t talented, or how he kept arguing with his weapons to the point where he stops caring about his targets, but it turned out to be something much funnier: the guy’s obsessed with symmetry. Now that’s really fitting of the “perfect” student.

If I had to mention a bad point about this series so far, then it’s the CG. Bones is talented in a lot of areas, but CG isn’t one of them, and they’re nowhere near Gonzo’s level at this point. Blassreiter, for example, has some really nice CG, but the shingami castle, the grinning moon and the laughing sun (among others; the different hallways also suffer from this) have lost their freshness by now, and with that the bland CG starts becoming a bit jarring.

Bus Gamer Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


It’s not often when an anime is made about a manga that went down after only one volume. Apparently, the original mangaka ran into trouble with the magazine that Bus Gamer was published in, and only one volume ended up published before it was cancelled. Still, the premise had potential, which is probably why three anime-episodes were made out of it. Obviously, the budget was short, so don’t expect an epic storyline, high-quality graphics, deep characters or an ending that wraps everything up.

What you can expect from this series, however, is a well-developed cast of down-to-earth characters, interesting fights and three episodes that become increasingly more interesting as they go along. It’s especially the down-to-earth-part that makes this series worth watching, as it provides an interesting look at the concepts that were explored by Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji. Kaiji was basically about the scum of society, and made it very apparent that these guys were at the end of their line, piled up in debts and used the sick games as a last resort to get some money.

Bus Gamer is different: it just features three guys who just need some money, are willing to risk their lives to get it and are well aware of all the involved risks. There’s no attempt at all made to make any of them look pitiful, and instead it focuses more on the relationship between these three guys who are so different, and how they grow to get used to each other. The different teams also have no overmoralized respect to the other teams (“thou shalt not kill”, “thou shalt save thy enemy when he’s in trouble”) that is overplayed in so many other anime.

This is really one of these series that you want to watch on a rainy day when you’re bored. It’s nothing special by far, but it’s one of these series that is perfect for entertainment. Bus Gamer could have gone much worse: there’s zero filler, the characters are actually developed a bit (which is the reason why the best episode by far was the final one, rather than the opposite), it’s got a small police-subplot, explaining why the police isn’t doing anything about a bunch of punks, killing off each other.

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 16

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi


Words can’t describe the awesomeness of this episode. Before I started to watch this episode, I had NO idea that this series would turn out the way it did here. I’m sure now with this episode: Porfy no Nagai Tabi will be one of the best series of 2008, joining Shion no Ou on this list. Before I delve more into the awesomeness of this episode, first a summary:

Porfy is frantically searching for Mina. Mina, meanwhile, reached a flower stand, with flowers that resemble her own tree. With the bit of money she has left, she buys one of them and walks away again. Zaimis is meanwhile extremely worried, and he blames himself for Porfy’s disappearance. He notifies his mother, Helena and Barnes and Barnes hurries to his car to check the surrounding area while Zaimis and Helena search more around the coast.

Helena really needs to calm down Zaimis. Porfy may have meant well with that final message of his (“we’ll stay friends forever”), but like always, that wasn’t the most tactful move. After all, how would you react if someone would say to remain friends forever, only to disappear afterwards? In any case, Porfy too reaches the flower stand, but Mina’s already away. The seller points Porfy in the direction she went, but Mina has already gotten herself into the car of a local woman, mistaking and offering her a ride to a totally different part of the city. She drops her flower, and THAT’S THE LAST THING PORFY SEES OF HER!!!

Mina gets dropped off near a cafe, where a band of travelling entertainers is working: a woman, and two men. The woman dances, while the two men try to win money by playing card-games (not sure whether or not they’re the cheating-kind). The woman then notices Mina, but Mina walks off again, and she gets called back to her job.

Mina then ends up on a boat (if I recall correctly, the movie she watched took place on a boat). She then mistakes a random woman for her mother, but loses sight of her. It then turns out that Isabella (the above-mentioned woman) and her companions will be boarding the boat as well. It seems to be a boat to ITALY. Mina continues to get scared by the crowd, until she sees the woman who looks like her mother again. She then follows her into the boat, only to find out that she was mistaken.

The boat the takes off, with MINA ON BOARD!

Isabella meanwhile, can also use tarot-cards (Gypsy?), though Mina is still on her mind. Her two companions meanwhile continue with their card-trick. It’s an interesting method they use: they just start playing together, and very soon others will get interested and want to play along as well. Porfy, meanwhile, arrives at the harbour, but of course nobody remembers such a tiny little girl. Apollo meanwhile is very angry at him.

Mina has meanwhile hidden in a corner on the boat, watching a couple. They inspire her to recite a part of the movie, and Isabella manages to overhear her. She then tries to talk to Mina, how she liked the movie as well. The two then introduce themselves to each other. She tells Mina that her partner is called Carlos, and the other guy is Carlos’s father and that they’re playing card games. Isabella then asks Mina her age, and when she finds out that it’s 12, she says that it’s the same age as her daughter, who died from an illness. She then tells mina to return to her mother, and then leaves again when Carlos calls her, though she does return for a bit to give Mina an apple.

Mina spends the night on the ship, trying to sleep against random crates and eventually ends up under some stairs. Isabella’s still worried, but Mina has hidden herself well, so she can’t find her. The next day, Mina wakes up and is amazed at the sunrise. She then starts singing her favourite song, while Isabella her companions are watching. Carlos’ father notes how Lily (Isabella’s daughter) was good at singing as well.

Then the boat arrives in Italy, and Isabella wonders where Mina’s parents are. Mina then finally tells her how her parents have died during the earthquake. Isabella then offers Mina to come along with them. The four of them leave the boat together, while Porfy’s still wondering where Mina went and the episode ends.

Let me first say: holy jumping clamfish on a stick! I knew that the creators were clever at building-up, but I never imagined that they were THIS clever. I remember making so many predictions after the previous episode, and they all turned out not to come true, simply because I didn’t consider the option that Porfy wouldn’t be able to find Mina back! Only now I see what the scene in episode three, where Porfy and Mina lost sight of each other, really meant to say: Mina was just joking to Porfy back then, and she easily found her way back to Porfy. This gave both Porfy as the viewer the illusion that she’d return to Porfy no matter what. Instead, her image of Porfy now is something completely different of what I expected.

It’s indeed true that Porfy turned much more protective of Mina after the earthquake, so you’d think that Mina would be the same: two siblings who lost everything apart from each other. Instead, Mina has been so affected by the shock of losing her parents, that I believe that she can’t make sure who of her loved ones is still alive and who isn’t. I remember noting how she never went against Porfy when he was with her, but it felt like she unconsciously thought he wasn’t going to return to her when he left her.

And then there’s Porfy: will he or will he not return to the refugee camp, after being unable to find his sister? What will Zaimis, Barnes and Helena say if he does? And to think that this is a 52-episode series. It might take till October or November before Porfy and Mina see each other again!!

Nijuu Mensou no Musume – 02

by psgels, posted in Nijuu Mensou no Musume


Out of all the series that aired this spring-season, Nijuu Mensou no Musume was the series that I had the most doubts of whether it was worth blogging or not, even more than Toshokan Sensou. The first episode was really bad for my suspense of disbelief, and yet it seemed to scream “potential”, unlike the mentioned-above Toshokan Sensou. Thankfully, the second episode was a lot better, so I’ve decided to blog this. I’ve always seemed to end up with 12 series each season as well. It’s a nice number that manages to cover enough different series without being overwhelming for myself.

This episode wasn’t perfect by far. Yet again, I spotted some scenes that didn’t make too much sense:
– Why didn’t the police leave one of their men behind to guard the treasure, in case of a decoy? Were they that stupid? They seemed to have more than enough men for it.
– The creators need to watch a bit more discovery-channel: shooting the tires of a car does NOT make it magically stop. It just makes the ride bumpier and the car needs to go to the repair shop afterwards, but it can just drive further without any problems.
– This is the same question I asked after the first episode: why has nobody who’s against Nijuu Mensou ever gotten the idea of using some kind of flying-device as well? I admit that it’s a pretty neat way to escape ground-forces, but if that zeppelin were to be assaulted by a (say) aeroplane, it’d be screwed. Of course, this is just my guess. Seeing the wit of this episode, I can imagine how Nijuu Menshou has found some tricks against this. It’d be interesting to see that in action, though.

That’s one of the reasons why I decided to blog this: the faults may be faults, but it’s interesting to point them out, much more than in usual series. What’s attracted me the most in this series is the character-development, though. Not only in Chico’s case, but this episode also showed a much more interesting side of Nijuu Mensou. His crew also gained a lot of depth, and came across much more believable. What I’m hoping for now is for this series to actually show the background of this Nijuu Mensou: how did he become so awesome in thievery? Especially since you can nearly hang a sign on his neck, saying: “Hello, I’m about to get killed off”.

.Hack//GU Trilogy Review – 77/100

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots, Anime Reviews


Just a small note before I start: this review contains spoilers for the end of .Hack//Roots. You need to have seen that series anyway in order to understand Trilogy. In any case, .Hack//Roots has been my second-least favourite Bee-Train production (the least favourite being .Hack//Dusk, but that’s a totally different story), and that was a real pity because of all the great ideas it had. The Trilogy-movie at least eliminates one of the problems I had with this series: it provides closure! It answers questions! The movie still has its problems, but it’s a must-watch for everyone who managed to sit through the original series.

Nearly all of the bad points of this series can be traced back to just one simple decision: the decision to not include the final scene of the original series. The scene where Haseo stopped angsting and actually learned his lesson. In Trilogy, Haseo actually continues angsting, even after being defeated by Tri-Edge. The result is an obnoxious amount of forehead-shot and more scream-fests than you can shake a stick at. The character-development that does get included was by no means as memorable as in the original series (about the only thing that went right in .Hack//Roots).

In addition, the music has been down-graded as well. In addition, though, the graphics turned to 3D, which is of course perfect for a setting of an on-line game. The good parts of this series, however, are the times when characters aren’t screaming. There’s a clear line between angst and emo that Trilogy continues to hop back and forwards to, and the moments you want to watch out for is when the characters are on the angst-side of the spectrum.

Trilogy is by no means a great movie, but it is a good one nonetheless, worth of your ninety minutes of attention. Oh, and be sure to watch the parody-modes that come included. They’re hilarious!