Shion no Ou – 21

by psgels, posted in Shion no Ou


This episode was… beyond incredible. Oh my god… I can still hardly believe how this turned out to be by far the best episode of this series yet. And with Shion no Ou, this has to say something! Every single part about this episode was just outstanding, and this episode turned out better than I could have ever imagined. It’s episodes like this one that only appear once every half a year. These episodes really are the true masterpieces, and showcase the best of the best for anime.

Okay, so it was sortof to be expected that this was the episode where Shion would find out that Hani-meijin was the one who killed her parents, but the real strength of this episode was the fact that the series had built her character into a truly memorable one. In the end, what happened was that Hani-meijin and Shion played a game of Shougi, after the murder. Shion just was too young to immediately realize what happened to her parents, so she just went along with the game, in an attempt to protect them. Because of this, she tried everything, to prevent Hani-meijin from taking her king. Hani-meijin then took the king from her, and placed it on her father’s forehead, explaining why it was so drenched in blood, after which he left, leaving Shion to finally realize what that total bastard had done to her parents!!!

As it turns out, Hani-meijin left his mother’s necklace with Shion on purpose. He wanted her to have something to constantly remind her of her parent’s murder, so that she wouldn’t just forget it, and a necklace is the perfect thing for that. And you just have to love Shion when she finally realizes that. Instead of cowering in fear, she quickly pushes them aside, rips off the necklace and puts Ayumi’s necklace on instead. That was so AWESOME.

And really, the animators were on FIRE for this episode. It’s not like the episode was extremely smooth or anything, but there were so many different angles, so many different poses. I really love the sense of style that this series has. Most series try to use some extra budget for flashy CG, or extra smooth frame-rates. But this series is different, and instead it’s more interested in different poses and viewpoints. Heck, it has this even more than Hakaba Kitarou. This is really what anime should be: an art-form.

It’s such a shame that there’s just one episode left. This series is really too awesome to end, but on the other hand, it also needs a conclusion. The next episode should be perfect for that, because all that’s left is for Shion to bust up Hani-meijin, Hani-meijin to reveal his reasons and the reason why he ended up killing Kazumi as well.

Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter – 11

by psgels, posted in Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter


Ah, of course. Shigofumi wouldn’t be Shigofumi without a deliciously over-the-top finale. What else could you expect for a series with the subtlety of an African elephant? Thankfully, this was yet another terrific episode for this series. I must say that I really had my doubts when I found out that the guy behind Code Geass behind the series composition, but this really turned out to be the perfect series for this guy, especially when the series is directed by a very talented director. They really brought this series to life.

So, basically, in this episode Fumi wakes up. Because of this, Mika wants to kill herself to accept her punishment, so most of the episode shows attempts as the shy Fumi gets kept away from the reaches of Fumi. Obviously, this can’t last forever, and the two run into each other at one point. Fumi then goes through an entire personality-switch when she found out that Mika shot the father she loved so much, and shoots Mika.

Obviously, because of one of the big rules of anime (a character is only dead when confirmed dead, and this isn’t the kind of series to try and diverge from this cliché :P), but still, Fumi is turning into an actual villain! The best thing is that she doesn’t even realize how much everyone has worried about her. And what was her plan at the end of the episode? To actually kill her father for real? And the blonde woman… could she be Fumika’s mother?

That twist with the dog was also nicely found, and it shows that already back then Fumi was more than just the shy and scared girl that Mika came to know. That look on her face when she chased away that dog explains a lot. And interestingly enough, it was that look that caused Kaname to develop his crush on her.

True Tears – 11

by psgels, posted in True Tears


Okay, so as things look now, the next episode will feature the big climax of True Tears, while episode 13 will be some kind of aftermath. And really, after the last episode I may have said that Shinichiro and Hiromi are now officially a couple, but this episode yet again gave both of them an equal change. On one hand, Shinichiro and Hiromi ended up kissing each other this episode, but at the same time Shinichiro has found out how much Noe thinks about him.

True Tears really is a series about sorting out your own feelings, and making hard decisions that will end up in others getting hurt. One thing that I do hope for is that the creators aren’t going for a “true happy ending”, like how the one who Shinichiro doesn’t end up choosing will leave, while being happy because Shinichiro is happy. This is just so overused, as a cheap plot-twist to just wrap up small love-triangles without much trouble. I like how True Tears did this with Aiko, and Clannad with just about every female character. They all realized that they won’t stand a chance. The girls from Clannad then just continued as usual, though that doesn’t mean that they’re happy about it, and Aiko went and tried to make up with Miyokichi again. Although subtle, these reasons are so much better than having just one guy around a bunch of girl, and none of these girls seem to realize that they’re not the only ones in love with said guy.

I think that in these themes, True Tears is one step above Kimikiss, even though these two use rather similar concepts. It really feels like Kimikiss is trying too hard with its love triangles, and it really misses the subtlety of True Tears in my opinion. Take this episode for example. We get a lot of different close-ups, but you’ll never know exactly how these characters are feeling. With Kimikiss, guessing how each character feels is much easier, making that show much more predictable.

Some quick first impressions: Mnemosyne – Musume-tachi, Mai Otome S.ifr and Bus Gamer

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Mnemosyne Musume-Tachi

Mnemosyne’s strategy is basically to attempt to capture its audience with lots of gore and nudity. Like I said before, I haven’t bought the formula yet. The characters do have potential, but it seems to me that they’re trying a bit too hard to be sympathetic, so early on. Especially the case for the first episode was a bit too extreme, and to me it seemed that it was more keen on to shock its viewer than to come up with a cohesive story. Who knows, this is one series that can go both ways: it can get lost in its endless fanservice, or it can turn out to be quite an interesting character-study. One thing that I do want to say is that the OP is pretty amazing. Especially the track that the creators found for it.

Mai Otome S.ifr.

Well, at least this one looks to actually contribute to the Mai Otome-universe, rather than the abomination of Mai Otome Zwei. Still, the new characters are just as annoying as all the other series. Thankfully, the main character is less annoying than Arika was, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t get on my nerves every time she appears. Overall, I doubt that something good can come out of this OVA, but at least it seems to be trying. It’s going to have to try really hard to fit in all the development for the huge load of new characters, though. Hardly anything was explained in this episode (heck, we still don’t know why Sifr was kidnapped in the first place), and it’s going to take a lot of time for just three episodes to explain everything.

Bus Gamer

Well, this didn’t turn out as interesting as I hoped. Bus (as in BUSiness, not an actual bus) Gamer obviously didn’t receive that big of a budget to work with. The crows that appear once in a while look really bad, and one particular character has his hair conveniently over his eyes so that the animators wouldn’t have to draw them. The OP sung by a boy band and the bishounen character-designs quickly show that this is a series, aimed to cater the fangirls. The bad guys don’t help much either, because they’re just a bunch of paper bags that need to be defeated by the good guys. But that’s where the three-episode format for this series comes into play. This isn’t your top-quality series, but the episode was fun to watch. The creators managed to keep this episode interesting, despite the faulty ingredients. The music is also very decent, and as it look like, this series won’t have any time to get boring. This really is one of these series that’s for those rainy days when you’re bored and need half an hour to burn.

Ghost Hound – 19

by psgels, posted in Ghost Hound


What an awesome episode!! Seriously, now that the finale is nearing, this series is more and more coming together. If you thought that the first half of this series was already impressive, you haven’t seen anything yet. This episode was all about the characters and their development, and especially about Makoto.

So basically, this series has taken four children with a trauma or similar mental disorder, but all of them from very different causes and cases. Masayuki has managed to recover. Tarou has been struggling with his feelings, but basically turned out fine. Miyako, however, ends up possessed and Makoto nearly killed off the rest of his entire family indirectly. A big key is the people around them. I think the reason why Masayuki managed to recover was because of the trust he placed in both Makoto and Tarou, and how he ended up saving Michio from his bullies. That’s why he was the only one who didn’t turn into a Ghost Hound. Tarou got better because he could talk to someone who resembled his sister.

Unfortunately, he took this too far, and called Miyako the reincarnation of his sister. This caused the spirits that have been possessing Miyako to grab their chance and posses her for real. Makoto, in the meantime, only had Tarou and Masayuki, and Tarou basically abandoned him when he ran away from his mother. After that, he didn’t have anybody to trust, which is why his mental state turned out so horrible. It’s an interesting message, which basically a mental illness can be cured through careful nurture, but it can very easily escalate into something much worse.

So in this episode, this all comes together. In the end, even though her partner seems to have died, Makoto’s mother doesn’t die. Instead, she loses part of her memory, and returns to her 17-year old version. To make things even better, she now seems to mistake Makoto for his father when he was seventeen!!! Imagine the shock this must be to Makoto, to see the woman he loathed so much talk to him, energetically like nothing ever happened!!

And that’s just the first part of this episode. In the second half, Tarou finds out that Miyako has a very strange smirk on her face after visiting her father, Makoto finds out that Mei used to have a crush on Makoto’s mother’s partner (explaining why she ended up so worried during the last episode), Tarou ends up trailing Miyako, Masayuki finds Makoto and then leaves, Makoto returns to the hospital, only to find Makoto and finally gets put at ease a bit. When he wakes up in his mother’s hospital-room the next day, he finds out that she regained her memory. I ask you, can a Ghost Hound-episode get any more awesome? Well, it’s up to the final three episodes!

Hakaba Kitarou – 10

by psgels, posted in Hakaba Kitarou


Quite an interesting set-up for the finale. Mostly because I have no idea what’s going to happen. This episode was basically another story on its own, yet it did leave various threads open (for example what happened to Kitarou his father, a newly introduced girl named Caroline and her father?). On one hand these threads will most likely be resolved in the next episode, but on the other hand that these threads alone are by far not enough to fill one episode, so the creators still must have some trump cards left.

In any case, this episode was definitely a Hakaba Kitarou-style build-up episode, simply because like the other two, it wasn’t as exciting as the other episodes. It basically tells the tale of a powerful Youkai who has settled into the house of a manga-artist so that he and his henchmen can take the first steps to conquer the world or something similar. He also has a daughter, whom Kitarou has fallen in love with. The entire thing eventually gets solved when Kitarou’s father gets eaten by this Youkai, and Kitarou’s father in his turn wrecks the brains of the guy like he did with many before. It was really too straightforward to be a regular Kitarou-episode.

The great thing about this episode was that I had no idea what it was building up to. One great point about this series is its unpredictability. You will have no idea what’s going to happen next, apart from Kitarou surviving and the “bad guys” losing. Everything in between, you’ll be completely in the dark. Because of this, I’m really glad that Noitamina has continued its tradition of staying away from the very overused high-school girls, and focused on creative series instead. Not to say that all series with high-school girls are bad (there are quite a few very good series that feature high-school girls), but I’d much rather see series experiment and try out new things than to stay with the “tried and true”-formula.

Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber – 24

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


So, this basically was the “oh god we’re under attack and we will be screwed unless we do something RIGHT now”-episode. At the moment, I’m worrying about nearly every series that I’m watching whether or not it’ll be able to pull off a good ending or not, and Wellber no Monogatari has been the first series to remove these doubts. This episode was really good, and I’m pumped to see the finale!

Oh, and by the way: those who were put off by “the tank” will rejoice with this episode: Voljurac dies! Or he gets blown to unrepairable pieces, in any case. This again shows that this series isn’t afraid to kill off its characters, which really makes me wonder whether Loden will survive this series or not. Voljurac’s death wasn’t really extraordinarily sad, but it did serve as the perfect wake-up call for the other characters.

It’s an interesting royal family, by the way. Instead of hiding and retreating, they aim to infiltrate Greedam’s big battleship. Rita’s father does this to find out what the heck happened to the king of Greedom (hinting that we’ll indeed be seeing enough of the guy’s background in the final two episodes of this series), and Rita and Loden are both doing it to protect their kingdom.

I remember how the first season ended rather interestingly. It may not have been the most believable (two people taking down an entire castle), but it was fun nonetheless. That same kind of fun I detected in this episode, so I’ve got my hopes high for this ending.

Sutaki Tantei Labyrinth – 23

by psgels, posted in Suteki Tantei Labyrinth


Well, this was not the most exciting episode, but that’s because it was just an intermezzo: an aftermath of the previous episode and an introduction to the finale of this series. I’m really curious as to how the director plans to end this series. Based on his previous works that I’ve seen, it can go really anywhere. Orphen’s end was actually quite good, and the same goes for The Law of Ueki (even though the pre-ending episodes were rather disappointing there). In the meantime, Star Ocean Ex’s finale was one horrible trainwreck and the way Shining Tears X Wind ended was just plain bad.

Especially with a series like this one. If he’s crazy enough to include “the star-wars plot-twist”, then who knows what he’ll have in store for the final three episodes? The only thing that I can say with any hint of certainty is that it’ll be over-the-top, but it would be a bit anticlimactic for Mayuki to just bust up his father and then end with it.

Thankfully, there are still three episodes left, so it’s perfectly possible to get a satisfying ending down, but if you want to put down a good ending, you really have to try, and there have been enough cases where the ending made or broke a series for me. After all, it’s the ending that decides whether or not a series will leave a bad taste behind. Ah well, at least the director made sure to answer all of the questions he asked, so that’s already one point in the right direction. Now all that’s left is to finish it!

On a side-note: I’m curious: am I really the only one who still watches this series, or is there some soul out there who follows this one as well?

Gundam 00 – 22

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00


Now here is an awesome episode! It’s episodes like this one where everything comes together. Not in an extreme way like in Code Geass, but through a logical flow of events, that actually makes sense. At least, for the biggest part. There were a few plot-twists that just were too perfectly timed together. Thankfully though, this series has always managed to keep these kinds of twists right within the boundaries, and not the biggest focus of the episode anyway.

Because this episode was really about the death of two of the trinities! Mihael and Johan, both gone, with only Nena surviving. It’s a pity that the most annoying of the three had to survive, but something tells me that that girl is about to get a lot of character-development. Just one thing: don’t make her and Setsuna become lovers! This just isn’t the series that needs teenage romance!

Saji also received less screen-time than ever (about two seconds), so overall, I’m quite happy about what went on. It was also surprising that Aolia Shenberg put himself in a sleep, to awaken when the world has changed. Well, he’s dead now, and revealed his final trump: full utilization of the GN-drives, and probably the last push that the Gundams will get. From here, they won’t get any new powers, and they’re just going to have to survive with the slight lead that they have.

As it turns out, the Trinities were never part of Aolia Shenberg. They were just developed at a later stage, and improved here and there. What’s interesting is that the developers never suspected the hidden powers in the real Gundams. It also turns out that the betrayer worked on the Trinity-camp, and he was probably the one who gave the Trinities their assignments. This is also why the GN-drives in the hands of the AEU, HRF and the Union also won’t get these extended powers.

What this series now needs to do is progress in a logical way. Coincidental slips like this one are fine once in a while, but it mustn’t get out of control, like what happened in Code Geass. I still believe that the first season will end with the Celestial Beings disbanded, and especially now that Aolia Shenberg is dead it looks more and more likely to happen.

Gunslinger Girl – Il Teatrino – 10

by psgels, posted in Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino


Ah, of course. Triela and Hirsher were the only ones who still weren’t fleshed out enough, and this episode takes care of that. Now all that’s left is for the three final episodes to conclude the story, now that the cast is fully developed. It’s interesting how Triela gets to be the final character that gets her background, even though the entire Pinocchio-arc is centred on her. Usually anime would give characters like her some extra development, when compared to the others, but the creators for Gunslinger Girl made sure that each of the characters received an equal amount of development and background. I’m not sure about others, but I always like it when a series does this. It just shows that the show doesn’t just revolve around its main characters. Call it a personal preference.

In any case, it turns out that Hirsher is a false name. His real name is Heartman, and he apparently worked at a detective agency, and this episode among others tells the story of how he met Triela, and ended up along with her as a Fratello. It turns out that Triela was a victim of human trade, and who knows what kinds of experiments were performed on her. Hirsher and a female colleague of his tried to rescue her, and they just barely were able to save her life.

At the same time, the episode shows how Triela meets the daughter of one of the people that Triela saved one day. it seems that he needs Triela and Hirsher’s help once more. In any case, this daughter (Mimi) and Triela form an interesting couple. They both like to collect teddy-bears, and yet Mimi is a normal girl, who has a boyfriend and likes to play soccer. She really succeeds into lifting Triela’s mood a bit, because she’s still feeling down from Pinocchio.

I also like how the captain of the regular soldiers was able to teach Triela a bit about what went wrong in her fight against Pinocchio, and how she isn’t as invincible as she believed she was.

In any case, the creators have done a wonderful job so far. Let’s hope they won’t screw up for the ending.