Hakaba Kitarou – 11

by psgels, posted in Hakaba Kitarou


Like expected, this episode feels nothing like a standard final episode. There’s no aftermath, or anything that hints at a closure of the series (heck, Caroline and her father are completely gone now), and instead this episode brings us back to the essence of this series: Kitarou and Nezumi Otoko trying to make money, other people dying because of it, and Kitarou’s father cleaning up the mess a bit.

It wasn’t the best episode of the series, but most definitely not the worst. Nezumi Otoko makes some kind of youth-serum out of his whiskers, while Kitarou sells the manga-artist of last week and others some kind of special holidays to the underworld (of course, with one-way tickets). I’m still surprised at the ease at which this series is able to kill off its characters, with as little melodrama as possible. In the first case, an old mafia-boss gets rescued by the medicine, and grows younger again (with whiskers added). He then gets greedy and starts searching after Nezumi Otoko. When he tries to capture him (in a locked safe, of all things), Nezumi Otoko releases his usual gasses and takes back his whiskers, killing off the guy.

In the case of the manga-artist, he gets brought to the underworld, where he sees the remaining scenes that were in the OP. As he tries to get back, he realizes that another guy has taken his place, and he’s turned into a ghost. What I really liked about this episode is that things aren’t as they seemed. The guy or ghost who took over the mangaka’s place suddenly finds out what kind of a busy life his counterpart was leading, and he wasn’t used to the pressure at all. His wife then drags him and orders him to work until his death. Nice wife, isn’t it? Meanwhile, in the underworld, the real mangaka is quietly enjoying the local wonders, along with all a bunch of other people who were tricked by Kitarou. In the meantime, Kitarou as usua notes how hard it is to work and gain money in the human world.

So it’s finally over. This series really has served its purpose in making me appreciate Noitamina even more. That timeslot is really perfect for showcasing all kinds of short series with original ideas and premises. And the fact that it’s been the most popular late-night timeslot for years only makes this better. There’s going to be a good chance that I’ll be blogging the upcoming Library wars, that’ll be taking over this timeslot, but I’ll leave that final decision to when the series actually airs.

FREEDOM – 05

by psgels, posted in FREEDOM


Seriously, Freedom is everything a shounen anime should be. Anime often seem to forget that every single fourteen year-old boy is an idiot, no matter what. Sure, they make their main male leads do something stupid once in a while, but that almost never goes further than an underdeveloped quirk. Freedom, however, is different, and it actually manages to portray the main characters as the idiots they are, and that’s where it starts playing with it.

In this episode, Takeru and Biz as expected get to know the people of Ao’s village and their customs. In the meantime, a typhoon passes by and Takeru confesses how he loves Ao and just travelled to earth to meet her. Biz was also really cute when he tried to impress a local radio-host.

I’m wondering how this series is planning to end. Will Takeru, Biz and Ao go back to the moon, or did the creators have something more epic in mind? And what’s this “Freedom” people keep speaking of.
F

Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations – 03

by psgels, posted in Tsubasa Chronicle, Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations


Well, I think that with the way this has turned out, I think that there’s a good chance for more OVAs of Tsubasa Chronicle to appear. I’m not going to write a full fledged review about this series, because I feel that my own bias is just too big, especially with the second episode. In any case, this episode was pretty good, even though it was much quieter than the last one.

In the end, my big gripe with Tokyo Revelation is that a lot of the character-development really came from nowhere. In this episode, it was Sakura’s turn to change dramatically, though I feel that the creators would so have profited from another episode, to get all of the developments right. Right now, I can understand how Sakura feels that she’s been incredibly irresponsible, and that she wants to change, but this doesn’t automatically make you able to be a fearless killing-machine, like she demonstrated in this episode.

One character whose character-development did get handled perfectly was Kurogane, though, and Fye too made very interesting progressions in this episode. I was also glad to see that finally the huge plot-twists of the previous episode made sense, and how the different characters of Kamui and his brother tied in with the overall story. The background art was also as lovely as usual, so there are no complaints there either.

Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber – 25

by psgels, posted in Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber


Was that an awesome episode or not? It’s really great to see that the characters haven’t lost their sparks at all, and now that the story has set in, it’s really time for them to show how they’ve developed. Seriously, if you’re looking for a good fantasy-adventure, then Wellber no Monogatari is the way to go. It may start out mundane, but it just gets better and better.

And this episode is exactly the reason why I love strategies so much in anime. Strategies like these really allow the writers to play with their characters. Rita and her father end up together, going after the king of Wellber, Tina and Loden end up together, trying to sabotage the ship. Rita and her father quickly get captured, because their guards quickly die, and they find it too risky to keep fighting. In there, Rita gets separated from her father, but gets saved by Galahad, while her father tries to find out why the king of Greedam started acting so strange.

I must say that the reason was a pretty good one. It turns out that the king of Wellber and Greedam were twins, but Wellber’s king was found to be just a bit older, so he had to be the crown-prince. He always was treated better and more importantly, and didn’t even seem to realize how much this hurt the king of Greedam. Then, however, the king of Greedam was assigned to take care of Greedam, which turned out to be living hell at the time. It must have been extremely hard to get all things back together for the guy, and all this time, the king of Wellber, who never had to experience such hardships.

In the end, he turned out to be a spoiled brat. Not in the way that he acts arrogant to everyone, in fact, he is rather kind, but he’s almost too kind, and way too naive. He’s never really been through hell, to try and survive, which is why Loden would have made a good king.

And yes, I said “would” for a reason. The guy’s dead now, trying to protect Tina! It really seals her hatred towards him in an excellent way. And I must say that it has been developed really well. Right till the end, taking revenge was still on Tina’s mind, even though she knew that he was sorry about the things he did. Usually, anime is a tad too forgiving with revenges, and they’re quite often just forgotten (apart, obviously, from Jigoku Shoujo).

And to think that Galahad kicks the bucket in this episode as well! This really signifies that Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber is about the “sisters” of Wellber, or Rita and Tina. And really, Galahad died like a man, and he never showed a sign of weakness in front of Rita.

Seriously, this is exactly what a final battle should be. All attention should not be directed to just the main characters; every character should play an important role, and it really helps if the side-characters are well-developed as well, like this series has done magnificently. Now all that’s left off is to end this series off nicely. There’s enough material for a decent climax, but the ending itself is always a whole different story.

Suteki Tantei Labyrinth – 24

by psgels, posted in Suteki Tantei Labyrinth


And another series where its finale has begun. So far, it hasn’t been anything amazing yet, but I never expected this series to deliver an awesome climax. For now, it was entertaining and without flaws; it was built up well, so I’m happy. The fights were entertaining, and the themes on friendship may not have been as well-developed as in, say, Higurashi, but still there’s nothing wrong with it.

In this episode, Seijuu basically gets his hands on the path that leads to god. It turns out to be the music box that Mayuki’s mother gave him when he was one… which makes me wonder why he didn’t just get it in the first place, but I think that that can be explained because Mayuki unconsciously led him towards it. So anyway, the end of the episode shows Seijuu getting into God-mode, and if things go as I think they will (which is very likely), then the next episode will feature a very flashy fight as a climax of the series, where Mayuki defeats Seijuu.

The entire success of that episode will probably depend on how Seijuu will develop. There’s still one question left: why did he leave is wife to become God? I’ve seen this series long enough to know that it can very well give background and push its story forward at the same time, so there should be no worries about this series having a rushed ending, or questions that are left unanswered, that plague quite a few other series.

One thing I do hope is that Seiran, Sanae, Hitsumi and Byakko find something to do in the next episode. One very common pitfall is that final episodes very often neglect side-characters, and these guys often end up cleaning things up after the main character and his antagonist. My prediction is that Seiran/Sanae/Hitsumi will give Mayuki the final edge in defeating the big bad Seijuu because of their friendship, but Byakko could prove to have one final card up her sleeve.

In any case, I think that this explains pretty well why I like endings that try to do something different. I’ve seen so many anime end now, that I’m getting better in predicting how they’ll end, especially the ones with generic formulas. Series like The Third and Night Head Genesis are great examples of series that really tried to be different in their endings. Series like Bokura no and Kemonozume both really succeeded in their endings that had a completely different mood, and Ooedo Rocket greatly subverted the overdone ending-trope. I’m hoping that the end of this season will add one more series to this very small list, but that one most definitely won’t be Suteki Tantei Labyrinth. 😛

Gunslinger Girl – Il Teatrino – 11

by psgels, posted in Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino


Before I start with the episode review, I’d like to share something that Solaris wrote up, about Gunslinger Girl’s connections to the real situations in Italy.

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You all like Gunslinger girl story don’t you? Let’s take a closer look on the social picture the show feature to us.
The story is setted up in Italy some years in the future and it depict a country on the verge of a civil war. National government is weak and corruption spreads in public affairs. Army are divided and corrupted as well.
There are independist movements in the country, expecially plaved in the Northern Regions. The south is quite lost an the real government there is Mafia now. The national government has quite no power at all there. Sicily is now an independent state itself.
But in the surface everything is ok, and the government doesn’t show any effort in taking any remedy to the situation.
So being the central governmente unable, people is tired and sides up mostly with those who are ruining the country that is independists movement most of all.
The only way to keep back some order and fight back crime is to act over legal and in the dark. And so The Social Wellfare Agency was created and our story begins.
Well, you can never imagine how close to the reality this situation is. Of course there is no civil war in Italy, but all the problems Italy really has, are depicted and emphatized in the fiction.
Italy is nowadays divided in three macro regions that are economically very different. Northern Territories are the richest ones. There are industries that produce services and goods. North is the economical engine of the country.
The center regions are under the influence of Rome, where the governemnt is. So much of the job there is managing the public affairs. Central regions are wealthly and there is turism, industry as well.
Southern countries are a little problem. They’re back economically, and are more rural countries. People usually leaves ang go northside for working.
But the tax income isn’t decided on a regional base. Ecomomical politics is one for all regions. There’s a constant flow of money from the northern countries to the south to develop a part of the italy that wouldn’t grow for some reason. Northern people looks at the south like a burden thus denying that many people from the south are actually working in the north and contributed that way to Italian richness.
Why does South didn’t reach Northern regions developement degree? There are many reason, but mostly two are important. The first is that back a long time ago, after the war it was chosen to spend money for industries in the north mainly, and the other is mafia in the south.

Mafia isn’t just something that reminds you of gangster stories. It’s something ancient, an old relic of what it was South Italy long before Italian Unification (XIX century). When there still was the King of Naples, there were noble families that took care of local government. They were the hands that administrated and protected the people before the king. Here, “mafia” means something like pride, honour, or even social responsibility: an attitude, not an organization. Where the government changed and the state cared less or nothing for the population, there Mafia flourished.
But Mafia in the 20th century dwelled with mostly illegal activities and crimes. They are no longer the protectors of people but became oppressors themselves. Still he old fashoned idea of strong and righteous didn’t vanish even before the crimes. Nowadays Mafia has gain so much power that has no longer need of illecit activities like prostitution or drugs to go on. These low level crimes are now matter of new criminal groups like Albanians. They use illecit activities to force and hold power over the normal socioechonomical substrate of entire cities and regions. They now take money from extorsions and public contracts and invest it. Mafia controls the money nowadays and controls peple with the means of money. Entire cities and quarters are under their rule and also it’s infiltrating in that government, at a local level that once it used to fight with.
So South Italy remained frozen undeveloped, in the hands of these people that rather strangled it. And all the money the central government gave for the South did never reach the population. It disappeared before in nothing. Think that there’s still people living in barracks aftrer the Irpinian Earthquake wich happened 30 yars ago. Read here how much money was given to aid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy_Earthquake_of_1980.
Of course Central Government is the first blame from the population for the lack of social wellfare. No work, no money. Many are forced to immigrate to north to gain a job, or are better employed in mafia itself. So still Mafia, taking care of the people is well accepted. That is quite ironical.
Som emore info’s about Mafia are here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia

On the other side Northern Region’s population have the burden to train the whole country and are disenchanted. They see their money wasted in the southern black hole and in the burocratic and unefficient public administration. So they grew some resentment for the whole country.
Moreover they grew a lot of conceit. The think they’re the only working in Italy and that the government is oppressing them. Nothing more false than this, but it’s 1/3 of the population in the north believes it to some extent. These people is ironically the same who end to skip on taxes, and be proud of dishonesty. they think something like, the government steals me, i steal everybody else. They are also racist against everybody is not from the North taly.
So from the early 80’s several new movement ware born. All of them exploited resentment against the central governmet and made their flag of discrimination against southern Italians. Open racism against illegal immigrants were also exploited. All these movements were joined in The Lega Nord party. Expecially with the large scandals for the corruption in 1992, the Tangentopoli affair, people had the direct confirm that what Lega said was true. The Lega literly gained the larger success from that moment on.
Lega Nord is openly secessionist and claims for Padania independency. Padania isn’t a real region of Italy, it’s something around the big plains of the Po river, at the centre of the northern Italy. Of course to make alies in the parliament Lega had to make a step back o their claims. Now they only clain for a federal reform of Italy, expecially economically speaking. Nowadays the Lega Nord is the mayor ally of Forza Italia, Berlusconi’s party. I won’t speak of him now, as it seems he and his party isn’t mentioned in Gunslinger Girl.
Of course you notice how much the Movement of the five Republics resembles Lega Nord itself.
Here you can find more info about Lega Nord: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lega_Nord

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After reading this, I’m even more surprised at what an interesting setting was chosen for this series. This is exactly what I mean when series need to look beyond Japanese high-schools for their settings at times.

In any case, this episode sets up for the finale of the Pinocchio arc. At least, I think it does, because Triela doesn’t get sent to the place where Pinocchio is about to do his mission, along with Franco and Franca. Instead, he’s up against Henrietta and Beatrice, while Triela, Angelica and Rico are sent to Milano for another mission.

Oh, and Pinocchio also gets some more background, and I’m surprised at how involved Christiano is with his missions. It turns out that even though he doesn’t do the dirty jobs himself, he does help cleaning things up for the people who work under him. Stereotypical bad guys really need to follow this guy’s example, instead of sitting on their chairs, trying to look evil. In any case, during one of these cleanups, Christiano discovered the young Pinocchio, and took him in. There, one of his subordinates (who is now dead), trained Pinocchio to be the assassin he is now.

One rather technical bit that I’d like to note is that this series is the first I’ve seen that avoids what I’d like to call the “piano-syndrome”. Usually in anime, when someone starts playing a musical instrument, the creators just cue a regular background tune. At the really bad cases, I have no idea whether a character is actually playing, or the background music is actually playing, but this series handled this quite nicely by running a small filter though the sound, that makes it sound much more real and in the background, rather than from a recording-studio. Kudos!

All that’s left now is to hope that some kind of third season will close off this series. It took quite some time for the second season to arrive, but I think that that was mostly because Madhouse had no intention to make a second season (if they had, they would have done so much earlier), so if I had to guess, then things will go easier for the third season, especially with the original mangaka behind things.

Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 23

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


Okay, this’ll be a short entry, since all this episode did was building up anyway. Kaiji, while still under the influence of the adrenaline from his match with Tonegawa, is screwed in the head enough to abandon the 20 million he won, just for a shot to challenge the chairman. Even though the chairman claims that it doesn’t really hurt him whether or not he loses, Kaiji is still determined to gamble. This begs the question: how is Kaiji planning to take revenge on the chairman? The most obvious strategy would of course be for the guy to put all of his money on the line. If it’s one thing that rich people are terrified of, it’s getting poor. But this guy is a professional. He just isn’t crazy enough to just do it for the life of one measly ant.

Apart from that, the pacing was as slow as usual, which isn’t the most exciting thing when this series isn’t in one of its climaxes, so I’ll withhold my judgement until the next episode.

Mokke Review – 89/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Even though the season hasn’t officially ended yet, I’m pretty sure about my top-3 series of the Autumn-season. First place is obviously for Shion no Ou, Ghost Hound comes in second, and Mokke takes up the third spot. In a generally underwhelming season, these three series stood far above the others, and manage to deliver constant quality.

Mokke has had it quite tough in terms of popularity, though. Even before it aired, people were comparing it to the next Mushishi. Expectations it obviously couldn’t fulfil. True, at first sight Mokke and Mushishi seem alike. They’re both slice-of-life stories about supernatural spirits, but that’s where the similarities end. In Mushishi, the mushi had no personality whatsoever, while in Mokke, each spirit talks just like a human would. Mushishi featured a grown up and experienced adult as its main character, while Mokke worked with two young and naive sisters. And the most important difference: Mushishi was about its stories, while Mokke is about its characters.

And that’s where people are mostly turned off by. The stories for Mokke are quite simple and not very complicated. They just serve to support the characters. Each episode features some kind of spirit that comes into contact with either the two main characters, or somebody that they know. It may seems like the “monster of the week”, but thankfully the creators have enough inspiration to make every episode different.

And really, the characters shine. They’re all well-defined and subtly developed, and especially Mizuki and Shizuru bring this anime to life. Through the 24 episodes of this series, you’ll learn their hobbies, their fears, what makes them uneasy, and how they try to deal with the fact that one of them can see spirits, while the other gets easily possessed by them.

Do note that the character-designs don’t try to be as pretty as possible. Mizuki and Shizuru are in this way really portrayed as normal girls, but if you’re one of these persons who loses interest if you don’t see a sexy bishoujo drawn to please otaku for forty-five seconds, then you may stay away from this. I also acknowledge that at times, this series tends to be a bit too dramatic for its own good. And yet, this was always a series where I knew that I would end up in a relaxed state after watching, no matter what happened during an episode. Add that to the fact that I ended up crying for the characters more than once, the music is simple, yet effective, the final episode ended up being the best of the entire series, leaving no bad taste whatsoever and the OP and ED both feature excellent songs, and I see enough reasons to put this on my list of top-series of the season.

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 11

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi


This episode for once didn’t introduce anything new. Instead, it built upon past themes of this series: the gasoline-tank, Zaimis’s brother, Porfy’s tendency to ignore promises and of course ice cream (with the episode titled “Porfy and Ice cream” and all). Seriously, this series makes everything look so easy, and it makes me wonder why so many series fail to put down a cast of likable characters.

The episode starts with Porfy and Mina, feeding Apollo a piece of bread that Aneke made, with Mina feeling a bit ticklish when Apollo eats out of her hand. Aneke meanwhile looks at a notepad that probably contains the family’s financial records, and mentions to Christopher how well things are going, and it seems that they’ve made quite a bit of money now. Christopher notes that he now doesn’t have to go to “that place”, which I assume was the place he worked before he started Patagos Grand Station.

Porfy comes downstairs and wonders what “that place” is as well, though Christopher avoids the question and heads back to handle one of the customers. Mina also hands this customer a piece of cheesecake as a means of extra service. Then, none other than Barnes passes by the station, and hands Porfy the pictures that were taken at the last episode. Apparently, it’s the summer holidays, so Tom and John have returned to America and Barnes is enjoying his day off. Porfy, though, is having a lot of fun helping his father and learning.

Barnes also hands Porfy a photograph for Zaimis, and Christopher allows Porfy to go to Zaimis and take the rest of the day off. Porfy then goes to pick up Mina, and Aneke has also prepared a package that she wishes to give Zaimis. Porfy fantasizes a bit at all the ice-cream that Tom and John are probably getting, as he leaves with his sister. Aneke then takes a letter from her pocket, tells herself to start working on a certain something.

Zaimis is quite thrilled to see the photo, and Aneke’s package turns out to be full of baby clothes, for Zaimis’ upcoming brother or sister. Zaimis is surprised at how small a child can be, and Porfy tries to act smart by pretending to hold a baby in his arms. Obviously, nobody believes that he knows what he’s talking about. Zaimis yet again can’t wait till the baby gets born. Mina asks him whether he’d prefer a boy or a girl, though he replies that both are good. He can go play with a younger brother, and yet a younger sister is very cute. I’ve noticed that this series tends to answer a lot of questions like these in the way of “both options are nice”. Perhaps this’ll get used in the future.

Next, Zaimis looks up a suitable block of wood, and asks Porfy to teach him how to carve a wooden doll for his future brother or sister. Mina promises to make a drawing of what the doll should be, and Porfy promises to teach him how to actually do it the next day. There is, however, something that will come between Porfy and his promise again: this time it’s a guy in a business suit who they run into, who has a business to do with Patagos Grand Station. It was quite funny that he first thought that the station would be very big with a name like that.

In any case, this guy has come to offer Christopher a selection of gas pumps, so that he can now too serve gasoline to his customers, to the delight of Porfy. Porfy picks out a design he likes. Christopher notes that things will become busier right now, and Porfy won’t have the time to go anywhere for the summer holidays. Porfy is obviously okay with that, and he already asks when the pump can be delivered, with the motto “the sooner, the better”.

Before the pump comes, a few things need to be done, though. A hole for the tank needs to be dug, and Porfy, Christopher and two local villagers spend most of the next afternoon, digging this hole, with Porfy being as stubborn as ever, while being teased by the adults. In the meantime, he did forget all about his promise to Zaimis, and when Mina reminds him, he just tells her to leave and doesn’t realize that Zaimis is waiting for him. In the meantime, Mina managed to finish the drawing of the doll, though Zaimis is clearly unhappy that Porfy broke yet another promise. Yet he decides not to go and call Porfy, because he reckons how busy the guy must be, working so hard for his father.

Just as Zaimis is about to leave, a guy named Bill (spelling) comes to deliver a block of ice, revealing Aneke’s plans to make the children some ice cream. As it turns out, she learned how to do it from John’s mother. While Porfy helps laying cement in the hole, (with the two villagers noting how they’d better get free service when their car breaks down, and how things wouldn’t have gotten done so fast if it wasn’t for Porfy), Zaimis and Mina go and make the ice cream. It’s here when Porfy finally realizes that he did forget an important promise, and rushes home.

He’s obviously thrilled about the ice cream, but Mina then reminds him to apologize to Zaimis, and he does, with a rather sad-looking face. Zaimis forgives him, on the condition that he’ll teach him properly next time. Mina meanwhile is glad that the two made up. Next up, the ice-cream is done, and Porfy, Mina and Zaimis all enjoy the ice cream. Mina then shows Porfy the drawing of the doll, which would be fine for either a boy or a girl. Porfy then yet again mentions how he hopes that the child gets born soon (that’s really the most often-spoken line in this series), and Zaimis again says how he hopes to have a brother-sister relationship like Porfy and Mina are having.

The next day, the cement has nearly dried and the pit for the tank is finished. Christopher then puts his hand on the cement, and suggests to Porfy, Mina and Aneke to do the same. The result is a square tank with four handprints on it and the episode ends.

I am so curious as to what this series will turn into once Porfy starts travelling. Will he just run into a bunch of people, each with their own stories? Will there be recurring characters? Will the focus still be on Porfy, or more on the people that he meets? Will he actually grow up? And how much older will he get? I currently refuse to look at any episode titles or episode previews, because I want the arrival of the earthquake to be a total surprise, but still… I can’t wait!

Gundam 00 – 23

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00


A Gundam 00-episode without any Saji?! Is it really possible! This episode proves that it is. Incidentally, it’s also one of the best episodes of this series yet, as this series finally sets itself apart from Gundam Wing, where the main cast just refused to die no matter what.

Right now, the thing that this series now needs to worry about is not to dive into some kind of vicious emo-circle because of the death of Lockon. It’s good that everyone’s moved, but that should be a sign for character-development. It shouldn’t be the green light for an emo-fest that’s about to happen.

I’m also getting a bit worried about the side-characters, though. The side characters have been dangerously neglected for the past few episodes. We’ve now seen plenty of the main characters. They’ve developed and all, but I can’t really say that about most of the people that the Celestial Beings are up against. Even Ali Al Sarshes never really changed. Of course, the rest of the first season probably won’t change that, because it needs to build up for the big twists at episode 25 (I still believe that the Celestial Beings will split up around that time), but it would be nice if the second season for Gundam 00 would actually pay some more attention to the side-characters.