Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 26

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


And it’s finally over. I’ve decided not to write a review about this series, though. I’ve watched this series the wrong way, and it turned out to be a big disappointment, save for four or five episodes. I feel that I’m way too biased to give an objective view about this series. It already was difficult to give this series a fair rating during my monthly summaries. Kaiji is a series that you need to marathon, in order to pump yourself up with adrenaline. It’s not something you can watch casually. Having said that, if you haven’t seen this episode yet, you might want to close this window, as SPOILERS will follow.

Overall, this episode disappointed, especially considering the enormous build-up that preceded it. This arc was in no way as intense as the E-card arc, simply because the creators refused to show Kaiji’s reaction after his hands got cut off. And to think that the gore was actually one of the best parts of this series. The raw emotions when seeing Kaiji, cutting off his own ear, and my favourite moment of the entire series: seeing Tonegawa punish himself: even though this series mostly bored me, I have to admit that these moments were truly unrivalled. It was a real downer that the screen just blacked out and we saw Kaiji’s hand wrapped in bondages. If one wants to gamble online they can always see a guide for players here and know how to get better at gambling.

What also disappointed me is that we never really got to look in the mind of Hyoudou, but that’s only natural, since the manga went on for much longer. This episode also hinted at a second season (although with Madhouse, you never know; yes, I’m looking at you, Shigurui), though it that ever comes, I don’t think I’ll end up blogging it.

Having said that, I at least like that this episode wrapped up this entire arc well enough. The aftermath wrapped up all of the loose ends of the storyline, and it didn’t really leave a bad taste behind, apart from what I just mentioned. At least we got to know a bit more about Hyoudou when Kaiji figured out how he won. I like how Kaiji himself figured it out, instead of in regular anime, where the opponent just brainlessly tells his opponent all of his plans. The guy is smarter than he looks, and I like that.

Amatsuki – 03

by psgels, posted in Amatsuki


Very interesting. I originally thought that series as Macross Frontier, RD, Kurenai and Himitsu would have the most difficult dialogue to understand, but as it turns out Amatsuki is about to walk away with that title. No other series this season depends so much on its dialogue than Amatsuki, especially when characters start long monologues (especially the bald head of the temple is guilty of this) it becomes a real challenge to figure out what he’s talking about. Of course, Real Drive does take second place with its complex dialogue, and I do believe that it’s no coincidence at all that both shows are directed by the same person.

You wouldn’t say it from the outside, but this series focuses a lot on people’s history, and complex relationships. In this episode, we meet the older brother of a guy who was an assassin for Sakamoto Ryouma (a guy who planned to overthrow the Tokugawa dynasty), if I’m not mistaken. This older brother claims to have nothing to do with his brother, and yet the second half of the episode shows how he isn’t 100% trustworthy. It’s especially suspicious since he can see spirits as well.

What’s interesting as well, is how this series puts a lot of focus on the fact that Tokidoki went to school, before he came to this world. It’s surprising how many shows there are with the same theme of transferring someone to another (often less advanced) world, and hardly any of them try to use the protagonists’ knowledge about technology to improve their lives. It took me a while to understand it, but in the previous episode, Toki uses his chemical knowledge to get rid of one troublemaker, and in this episode the fact that he’s well-schooled catches this assassin’s brother’s interest.

This episode introduces another major character: the one with all the ear- and lip-piercings. What’s interesting is that he calls a certain “he” the enemy of the world. I’m not 100% sure whether or not this is Tokidoki, but it does look like it. I originally thought that he would be the bad guy, but now I’d call him more of an “antagonist”. In any case, he’s not on Tokidoki’s side, because he doesn’t appear in the OP.

I’m trying to find a good series to compare this to, but I can’t seem to think of anything. I can’t really seem to find any series that reminds me of this one, like how Kurenai reminds you of Red Garden, or SA looks like Ouran. And that’s really the great thing about this series: from the outside, it really looks like a mediocre series, it looks too brightly coloured, it’s been done before, and then it turns out surprisingly deep and complex.

Sword of the Stranger Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Sword of the Stranger is Bones’ first attempt at an original movie (as in not based on an already existing series). Masahiro Ando, who had no prior experience with directing an entire anime and instead seems to specialize in animation and character-designs, was given the director’s seat and the screenplay was done by the director of the third Patlabor Movie. That’s not really the best cast you’d expect from Bones’ repertoire, but still, Sword of the Stranger is a worthy movie.

Don’t expect too much from the story, though. It features an uberpowerful ex-samurai with a sad past who got tired of killing who meets up with a young boy with an equally sad past. The main villain is another uberpowerful guy who’s looking for a challenge that only this ex-samurai can give him. Yawn, yawn, nothing we haven’t seen before. The reasons why you want to watch this movie is because of the animation, the cultural reference, and most importantly the bond that develops between said ex-samurai and boy.

Most of the time in this movie is not actually spent on the fights, but on showing how these two, with totally different personalities come to understand each other amidst their arguing. The two of them are dynamic and a joy to watch throughout the movie. The plot basically only serves to get and keep the two of them together, and even though it’s nothing special, it knows how to not get in the way of the development of these two for a large part of the movie.

I think that the big problem with this movie is that it would have made a great family-movie if it wasn’t for the huge amounts of gore in it. Gore can be a tricky thing. It’s great to intensify your scenes (Shigurui, anyone?), but at the same time you do alienate those who can’t stand it. I can really imagine that kids would have loved the innocent moments of this series, if it weren’t for the umpth guy who got an arrow blown through his entire face, with all the graphic details of a movie-budget.

Still, if you don’t mind the gore, I can’t really think of a reason not to watch this movie. It’s the genuine moments that really were the most enjoyable, plus some pretty impressive sword-fights. Bones could have done a lot worse (just take a look at Gonzo’s first attempt at a movie). The music is also really solid. You wouldn’t guess that it comes from the same composer who did Eureka7 and Heroic Age, and yet it complements the movie perfectly.

Kaiba – 02

by psgels, posted in Kaiba


Make no mistake: the drawings of Kaiba may be very simple but it’s also the show with the most mature themes of the spring-season. It’s only been two episodes, and we’ve already been treated to nudity, sex, adultery, murder, privacy violations, you name it. At the same time, it has also turned into my favourite series this season, along with Himitsu. The thing I love most about the current spring-season is that it features a few series with the most amazing ideas. This is really what anime should be in my opinion: a medium to explore creative ideas. Not to magically give a cute girlfriend to a geeky guy. (Yes, I’m talking to YOU, To Love-ru!).

This episode showed indeed what the OP suggested: the main character changes bodies throughout the series. In this episode, he changes into the body of a giant plushie, while the woman from the previous episode uses his old body as a sex-object. The main character basically spends the rest of the episode, trying to not get caught as a stowaway on the ship (and he’s not the only one, it seems), and wait until the ship arrivees at its destination. We also get another hint about the female lead, as she seems to be some kind of criminal in that place. Is she the same girl as in the locket that Kaiba (the main character) carries? They sure look similar, apart from some colour-changes, perhaps.

This episode also shows him alongside a companion. Was that the same one-eyed bird we saw in the previous episode? It would make sense if the bird threw its memory-chip inside the ship, so that it could continue to follow Kaiba’s progress. I think it’s clear that Kaiba is a special case, since the body he was in when he woke up is quite a rare one.

Another thing I love about this series is how it explores the lives of different ordinary people. This is one of these series where even the smallest side-characters have themselves a personality. This episode was mainly about one of the stowaways and her boyfriend, as he turns out to have been playing around with many women (among which one huge-breasted one).

The guard also intrigues me. The guy is sadistic towards everyone, and not just the main characters, like in most other anime. I’m interested whether he’ll appear in the rest of this series, because I like the guy so far. He’s really been one of the more interesting evil characters.

Kurenai – 03

by psgels, posted in Kurenai


How awesome! With this episode, there’s no mistake: the voices in Kurenai are recorded before the animation, instead of afterwards. Otherwise some of the conversations this episode could never have turned out as they did here, with characters who spoke right through each other, without having to worry about matching the lips. Seriously, more anime should attempt this style, because it gives the voice-actors so much more freedom. I think that by far the best example of this is the fight between Claire and her father in Red Garden. It was an absolute masterpiece, and it would never have turned out so incredibly emotionally intense if the voices were just regularly recorded after the animators did their work.

In addition, this episode was also a lot of fun to watch. Murasaki pays a visit to Shinkurou’s school, and for once Shinkurou wasn’t attacked by every single male in the school who was jealous of how he was living with a cute girl. I love how this series has been shattering clichés one after the other. A while later, we see a bunch of punks bully an old lady, and even though I dislike it when a series uses a bunch of punks as a random plot-device, it was probably one of the first time where the main character refused to save their victim. Murasaki tries, but it really looks like Shinkurou hates fighting. As it turns out, he only does his jobs because of Kuhoin (I hope that that was her name), who saved him after his parents were killed off. Makes sense.

The best thing about this episode was without a doubt Murasaki’s innocence, though. Both the comical and serious parts. I really laughed when Murasaki mistook a biology-puppet (how did you call these things again) for an actually live human, and yet her inability to understand why Shinkurou didn’t stop the punks really hit a spot, even without the amazing voice-acting. I can really understand why this series has become one of the most popular series of this season. It’s solid, it knows its characters, it’s fun and it’s got without a doubt the best voice-acting of all new shows that aired this season.

Macross Frontier – 03

by psgels, posted in Macross Frontier


The quietest episode of Macross Frontier up till now, but for once everything felt right in it. There was a silly fanservice-joke in the beginning, which made me fear for the rest of the episode, but that one joke turned out to be used well in the rest of the episode, both for Sheryl’s character-development, as lightening the mood for a short moment, because only minutes later we switch to Ranka, seeing her “brother” wounded in one of the mecha.

So far, the only thing that this series has really suffered from is the classic “shoujo-syndrome”: no matter how big the world is: the major characters will always run into each other. This one got taken to the extreme in Code Geass, and I was starting to fear about this series, but thankfully this episode didn’t feature any of these coincidences, and it seems that the characters just used this in order to introduce the storyline.

The thing I like a lot about this series is Ranka’s fears, surprisingly enough. Even though she’s your usual traumatized girl, and in no way lives up to her counterparts of Shion (Shion no Ou) and Mina (Porfy no Nagai Tabi), but I loved that little scene where her hands just refused to let go of Alto, even though she tried to get them loose at all costs. At the end of this episode, she also showed that she’s not the whiny girl who won’t do anything but cower in fear (okay, auditioning with a song won’t exactly save the universe or something, but it’s glad to see her actually do something so early in the series).

xxxHolic – 27

by psgels, posted in xxxHolic


Before I start with the regular entry: I’ve decided to not blog Toshokan Sensou this season. I just couldn’t find anything to praise it for that other series this season didn’t do better, and the female main character already got annoying after the second episode. I don’t know, but it feels a bit too mainstream for Noitamina.

In any case, back to the latest episode of xxxHolic, and what an excellent episode it was! The second season of xxxHolic is really much darker than the first one, but it makes full use of the fact that the first season fully fleshed out the different characters. The Vestal Sprite was kind-of a strange character in the first season, who never really got anywhere, and yet her character developed so much during this episode.

Watanuki also really shined in this episode. His show-off against the spider queen had me on the edge of my seat. One thing that I do hope gets explained in the next episodes is what it means to lose half of your eye. Does your vision get blurry? Can you only see one part of it? What are the disadvantages of giving away half of your right eye that made Yuuko take so much time in suggesting that option?

Allison to Lillia – 03

by psgels, posted in Allison to Lillia


Such an eventful episode for this series. I must say that I’m pleasantly surprised by it. The screenplay in this series could have been better, but to make up for it, the creators have managed to tell a great story up till now. The question is now: how are the creators planning to fill in the rest of this series, now that the introduction-arc is over?

In this episode, Allison and Will head to the nearest military base of the enemy, in which the old man has apparently been taken to. We also get introduced to Treize, who’ll probably play the large part in the second half of this series. It turns out that he and Allison were acquaintances when they were young as well, probably when they were trainees for the military.

This episode also really showed that this will be an adventure anime, when Allison and Will try to break out the old man. This old man also turns out to be a war-veteran, and he encountered the treasure during one of his missions. Allison cleverly chose a rookie to guide her around the base, and she seems to have understood pretty well that the one thing that you need to be when under cover is to be self-assured, and make it seems like you know what you’re talking about.

The thing I like best about this series is the characterization, though. Allison gives a very interesting dimension to “the strong female”. She’s young and naive, but when she’s in her element, she really shines. Then something goes wrong, and Will takes up the role of “strong person”. In addition, even the small side-characters feel more than cardboard boxes.

Himitsu ~The Revelation~ – 02

by psgels, posted in Himitsu ~The Revelation~


I’m amazed. I’ve now seen most of the second episodes of the major series that aired this season, apart from Kaiba, Toshokan Sensou, Nijuu Mensou no Musume and Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, and without a doubt Himitsu has been the best series of the season so far, and Kaiba is going to have to be really good in order to top it, but even RD, Kurenai, xxxHolic and Amatsuki didn’t match up to the awesomeness that have been the first two episodes of Himitsu.

The storytelling in this series is absolutely amazing. We first get a bit of background on the main character. He’s clearly a rookie (he still lives with his sister and parents), and he still needs to get used to the idea that he’s invading the privacy of the people he investigates. We then switch to the investigation of the murder of the president of America. The only clue (we don’t even get to see the face of the murderer) is a strange picture he shreds, just as he’s about to die. What is this picture, and why didn’t he want anybody to see it?

The irony is of course obvious: it’s the only clue that the investigation-department has, and they’re basically trying to find something that the president wanted to keep secret at all costs, even after his death. The rest of the episode explores this guy’s life as the investigation department tries to find the moment in his life where he got the picture. I think this post by Iwa ni Hana sums up why I love this series so much:

“That, ladies and gentlemen, is the typical pattern that Shimizu-sensei’s stories will follow. The first half typically presents the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and in the second half the action accelerates faster than you can react, and finally the story is brought to a climax and ends like a bang on a forceful note.”

It really makes me wonder why it’s taken this long for one of the artist’s mangas to get an adaptation. Especially considering how she (he?)’s been writing for decades now. You can also really hear that the music has been done by the same guy who worked on the music of Death Note. I’ve said it before, but it’s great to see so much great soundtracks this season.

Before this season started, I expected that my favourite animation-studio of this season would end up being Production IG, but now that I’ve seen every new show, I realize how wrong I was: this really is THE season for Madhouse. They made a great move to transfer all of their bad staff to Kamen no Maid Guy, because their other series really shine so far (okay, perhaps Chi’s Sweet Home shines a bit less than the others, but even that one turned out better than I expected). Before the season started, I was a bit angry at Madhouse because they kept screwing up their adaptations. Claymore’s ending got screwed up, Shigurui missed its entire final chapters in the anime, Dennou Coil’s ending was rather rushed, Saiunkoku Monogatari ran into budget problems for its final episodes, Kaiji disappointed, and let’s not start with Nougami Neuro and Devil May Cry.

But with this season, they really have the potential to redeem themselves. It first started when Mokke suddenly delivered an awesome ending. With Himitsu and Chi’s Sweet home being concepts where you can’t screw up the ending, and the director of Mokke working on Allison to Lillia, the only real fear for a screwed up ending remains in Kaiba.

Crystal Blaze – 02

by psgels, posted in Crystal Blaze


I’m really surprised with this series. At first look, it sounds more like a rather childish series with adult themes, but if you take a closer look, you’ll realize that this series is much more than that. I’m really surprised at how genuine this series has turned out, and I especially love the subtle chemistry between the characters. To be honest, I had my doubts about this series when I first saw the character-designs on the website, but this yet another example where you shouldn’t judge a series by its character-designs.

As a mystery-fan, I’m really glad at the large selection of mystery-series that 2008 has offered so far. I’ve said before that 2007 was rather disappointing in terms of mystery (the only series with really good mystery in my opinion were Dennou Coil and Bokura no, but these two turned out great because of other reasons than their mystery, especially compared to 2006, with Ergo Proxy, the first season of Higurashi and Night Head Genesis). That’s why I’ve got high hopes for Himitsu, Crystal Blaze and Kaiba, and Persona is getting better and better as well.

This episode of Crystal Blaze showed me how well it’s developing its mystery at the moment. This episode was an aftermath, and we hardly get any new information apart from a second glass girl, but this episode was mostly meant for the characters to catch up to all the questions that were raised in the previous episode, like how dangerous the enemies of this series are, and what kind of a strange woman Sara is, due to a constantly high body temperature of 42 degrees.

One thing I also like about this series is how the characters have a plausible reason to be involved in this story. We basically have a private investigation service that gets its jobs from a transvestite, and one of these jobs turns out to be a dangerous one. At the investigation-service, there’s one ambitious but naive intern, so obviously when she realizes that there’s an exciting job, she doesn’t want to abandon it and causes a huge scene (although I feel that nobody of the foursome is really willing to abandon Sara). It’s much better than all of those series that focus on teenagers who just happen to be on the wrong place at the wrong time by coincidence of have certain hidden powers that are just meant to get them involved in the series.

On a side-note: I feel pity for that voice-actor doing the dog’s voice, but he must be having the time of his life. 😛