Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 21

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


Oh god… as it stands now, reviewing Kaiji when it’s finally over is going to be a incredibly difficult. At the moment, I have no idea whether to classify it as just good or excellent. All the commenters on the previous episode made me see this series in a new light, but on the other hand I still remain convinced that the beam-arc was just way too long and drawn-out. I hope that the final episodes will either back up how amazing this series is, or how flawed it is.

The current episode was just amazing, though. This is really what I’ve been hoping for: mind-games without cheating. Tonegawa was absolutely amazing this time, because for once he has to use his head. He’s now going through the same as Kaiji was, back in round one. The creators also switched the viewpoint for this episode: the entire episode was told from the perspective of Tonegawa. We never get to see any of the worries that play into Kaiji’s head.

There’s one thing I do know for sure about this series: I absolutely HATE the cliff-hangers. They work fine if you’re marathoning this thing, but when you watch it on a weekly basis like I’m currently doing, they leave me every episode with a bad taste in my mouth, just because I’m too eager to find out what’s happening next.

I’m really interested to find out where Tonegawa’s thinking-error lies. Obviously, Kaiji can’t die yet; there are still five episodes left. But this also means that the final arc is going to be a relatively small one. The next episode will probably be enough to conclude the E-Card arc and introduce the final one, leaving just four episodes for the real action. If I had to guess (and hope), then Kaiji will be taking on the big boss himself. At the moment, I see Kaiji crazy enough to challenge that guy for something around 20 billion yen. Bleeding ear or no bleeding ear.

Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber – 23

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


Seriously, was there ANY way for this episode not to turn out awesome? This episode finally shows how Tina tries to get revenge on the guy who killed her parents, and it’s nothing short of amazing! The graphics also shined more than ever as well. There was a bit of a problem when characters started whistling (that’s always been tricky to do), but apart from that, I just loved this episode.

It’s indeed like I thought: Rita’s brother did kill back then, but right now he’s still being haunted by those days, and is extremely sorry of what happened. Tina meanwhile has her obvious problems that she’s trying to kill both a prince and the brother of her best friend. What’s interesting is how at the end of the episode, she does shoot him, but her body simply refuses to aim well. It’s a bit of a pity that she was interrupted by Sherry with the message that Sangatras was about to attack, but then again I guess that the creators still need to use Rita’s brother for the upcoming war that will take place in the final three episodes of this series.

One thing that I do hope for in the final episodes is to get some much-needed background for the bad guys. This episode introduced quite a few new people, and not only that, but the king of Greedam also killed off the king of Sangatras. There are three episodes left, so the final episodes are promising to become totally awesome, but I do hope that the creators will be able to get in the development for these people, like they did so well for every other major character.

Suteki Tantei Labyrinth – 22

by psgels, posted in Suteki Tantei Labyrinth


Oh my god… you’ve got to be kidding me! This really was an awesome episode, even though this was for the wrong kind of reasons. For those who’d still like to remain in the dark about this series: a major spoiler is coming up ahead. This is really one of these plots that can be absolutely bad and still rock due to its great sense of storytelling.

I should have known! I should have known that the creators would be crazy enough to make Seijuu the FREAKING FATHER of Mayuki! I only began to suspect something when this episode showed the child-version of Seijuu. He looked suspiciously much like Mayuki back then. After then another scene was shown of about eight years later, where we see Seijuu and Mayuki’s mother in the same scene, it got me thinking that this series has been awfully silent about Mayuki’s father, and then I realized the kind of director that was behind this series, and he’s been notorious for these kinds of plot-twists.

Still, I really have to say that the build-up for this twists was excellent. The entire episode was just excellent and kept me interested, and I think that the creators too knew that they were dropping subtle hints, and as an addition, it was also really nice to see the added background for Seiran, Chien and Seiju from when they were young. The timing for the revelation was also perfect, just as the atmosphere was getting a tad too cheesy for its own good.

I can understand why the subs for this series have… rather stalled. Still, it would be interesting to see this series fully subbed one day, as it’ll definitely entertain its viewers. 🙂

Gunslinger Girl – Il Teatrino – 09

by psgels, posted in Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino


I’m not sure what it is – the animation-quality wasn’t really better than usual – but this was the most visually pleasing episode of Il Teatrino yet. Not only that, but it’s also quite possibly the best episode of the entire series so far. It really captured the essence of Gunslinger Girl, more than Madhouse could ever have done with the first season, just because they kept focusing on just the girls, whereas Artland so far has focused just as much on the adults around the girls.

This episode truly showed the difference between the girls’ innocence, and their ruthless brutality. One moment, they’re walking around happily in their new dresses and the other they’re blasting a rain of bullets on a car that’s driven by a bunch of terrorists. What really hit me was that one of these terrorists was an old acquaintance of Jose. In fact, they still kept contact, not knowing about each other’s professions.

I’m also really surprised at how balanced this episode was. So many characters got a bit of development. We have Jose and Jean, who turn out to have a sister. This sister was especially close to Jose, and ended up as a professional harp-player. The reason why she was so close with Jose was because Jean is far more impersonal than I could have imagined. I think that that’s why Jose chose to treat Henrietta so differently, because he had to be nice to his sister who didn’t get any attention from Jean. Jean really scared me when he didn’t even flinch when Rico brutally beat some terrorists.

Speaking of Rico: I can really understand now why her character was forced to change back to her cheery self, when compared to her stoic personality in the Madhouse version. Seeing the usual cheery Rico just mercilessly beat down one of these terrorists makes much more impact from when she was more serious. I’m also glad that Artland chose for a bigger role for Beatrice. According to totoum, she only got one line in the manga, and I’m glad to see that her role for the anime-version has become so much bigger. It shows that the creators aren’t just willing to adapt the anime, but also to improve it. And if the creators can do that, without making it seem like random filler, then that’s the sign of a good adaptation.

Apart from that, there were also a few scenes about Triela, Claes, Marco and Angelica. It also turns out that Marco used to know someone who liked opera (Patricia?).

Seriously, I’m so glad that I gave this series a chance, and looked beyond the bad fight-animation. The plot is just terrific, and this is definitely (apart from Porfy no Nagai Tabi, of course, but there is no series that can beat that behemoth in terms or realism) the best-written series of the shows that premiered in the winter-season.

Gundam 00 – 21

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00


Really, this series is getting more interesting with every episode now. With only just one test-battle, the new units have managed to damage one Gundam, which means that the defeat of the Gundams will be just a matter of time. If I had to guess, then the creators are indeed planning to make episode 25 some kind of huge turning-point, and it really seems like the second half of this series will be totally different from the first one.

Especially Sumeragi and Alejandro got a lot of attention in this episode (finally I can understand why Sumeragi has been selected as the tactical advisor), and Alejandro is proving to be a very interesting antagonist. The Gundam Meisters too were quite interesting in this episode, as we get to see what would happen if the Gundams were to abandon them. For Setsuna and Tieria, this is the biggest shock. Setsuna gets reminded of his time as a child-soldier, while Tieria just was too afraid to do anything, even when the back-up system returned.

Speaking of Setsuna, this guy is actually becoming one of my favourite characters of this series. I’m not sure what it is; his ideals are very simple and naive, and yet I like what the guy is trying to do. His ideals are clearly on the good side of the spectrum, but yet they’re not as one-sided as in for example the lead guy in Princess Mononoke.

But seriously… would it really be too much to ask for someone to just SHOOT Saji? Okay, I could have seen it coming that he would spend this entire episode mourning about his sister, but the fact remains that he’s been by far the most annoying character in this series.

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 09

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi


I must say that, ignoring obvious series that take place in America like Red Garden, that this has been one of the least-stereotyped portrayals of Americans I’ve ever seen in an anime. Finally, these people are portrayed like ordinary people, instead of the cocky blonde arrogant types that you can basically find in every other country as well. I admit that the baseball-episode in for example Samurai Champloo was funny, but the fact remains that the Americans were portrayed at complete idiots and brainless bad guys (but then again, that show also had a homosexual Dutch ambassador).

The episode starts with Porfy waking up after what happened at the end of episode eight. It turns out that Barnes was in te car that hit him, but because he saw him in time, Barnes managed to slow the car enough to not cause any wounds to Porfy. Barnes then reveals the nails that Porfy carried him (and it seems that Mina too filled him in about Porfy’s plan), and because of that Porfy finally has to confess his plans. Of course, Christopher scolds him for it, but Barnes mentions how Porfy did feel sorry about what he did, and picked the nails he dropped back up.

Chrispoher is glad that Porfy realized that he was wrong, but warns him not to do it ever again. Barnes then asks Christopher to look at his car a bit, as his engine has been having trouble lately. The next morning, Christopher fixes his car, and Aneke gives him a bit of food for the trouble. Barnes then comments on what a nice family he and Aneke have, while watching Porfy and Mina fool around, and then he notices Mina’s tree.

When Barnes is about to leave, Christopher again forces Porfy to apologize, and then Barnes drives away. Aneke then tells Porfy and Mina to go and do their morning tasks (take care of the goats). As Mina talks to the goats about how stupid Porfy has been, Christopher arrives and tells Mina to go and help her mother. Christopher then tells Porfy that if he’s really determined to help him with the stations, he should abandon his tasks with the goats, or something similar (that’s one line that I wasn’t able to translate, unfortunately). Porfy refuses, and because of this he accepts that the progress of the repair station will be slow.

That afternoon, after class, Porfy yawns because of the obvious lack of sleep. Zaimis comments on how he shouldn’t have done it. Porfy notes that he did change his mind, though Mina and Zaimis both retort that he was a little slow in realizing what he was about to do. Mina also reminds him how he still owes her money from the nails.

Later, we see how Porfy helps Christopher with another job, after which the mailman arrives with a letter from Barnes who invites him to the local American camp to help out with a few car-related things. Of course, Porfy and Mina are allowed to come to, and Christopher starts teasing on whether he should take them or not.

Barnes may live in a relatively small house, but it seems like an entire mansion in Porfy’s and Mina’s eyes. He also enjoys luxuries that they can only dream of, like bikes and most importantly: a refrigerator full of ice-cream. ^^; Christopher then looks at a picture of Barnes’ family as Porfy and Mina enjoy said ice-cream. He then leaves with Barnes, in order to do his job, so of course Porfy and Mina can’t resist the chance to eat even more ice-cream. ^^;

They then walk around the camp a bit, and it turns out that some soldiers have taken their families along with them. Porfy and Mina run into two children, playing catch. Their names are John and Tom, and they’re quite friendly to Porfy as they teach him how to play catch as well. In the meantime, Mina laughs at how lame Porfy looked at his early attempts. Their mother then arrives, and offers John, Tom, Porfy and Mina a some cake. Later, the mother shows Mina a few pictures, like a wedding-one, and Tom and John when they were younger. She also mentions how they’ve been travelling across the world, due to the fact that they’re the family of a soldier.

Tom comments at how it indeed can get kind-of lonely at times, but he loves seeing all kinds of different places. (Yet again foreshadowing ;)) John meanwhile plays a few records for Porfy, and Mina notes how it’s similar to the movie that they saw at the last episode. Tom and Nohn’s mother notes how she saw that movie too, and found it very interesting. She seems to be proud that it was made in America. Mina wonders why the film was made in America if the setting was Paris, and John and Tom’s mother replies that it’s simply the magic of films, and how any country can make a movie about any other country (could this be a subtle jab from the director’s side? In any case, I fully agree with it, and I really support anime that take place in a different country from Japan)

Then, a baby starts crying (named Mary). Of course, Mina and Porfy are incredibly interested in this little child. I originally thought that Mina would now be obsessed with babies, but I guess that she decided to wait till Zaimis gets his little brother and sister. Something tells me that she’ll be spending a lot of time with him or her, depending on whether the earthquake happens before, or after he/she is born, of course.

In the meantime, Christopher is finished with his job, and he comes to pick up Porfy and Mina, who are of course incredibly disappointed that they have to go so soon (seriously, that scene felt SO nostalgic!). It then turns out that they picked up a little habit from Tom and John, of putting up your thumb in a triumphant way. I guess that we’ll be seeing that one back later.

When Porfy and Mina are back, Porfy still laments on the fact that they haven’t got a fridge, though Aneke replies that they don’t need such a thing. He also tells to Christopher that he’s really surprised at how large the world is. He already had this feeling when he met Alecia, but it feels like America is even further away. Christopher then promises to take him to a foreign country some day.

That last line was so important, because I feel that that’s exactly going to be the reason why Porfy will decide to go and travel, instead of settling down at one place. Of course, it does feel a bit random for a boy to just travel around like that after losing his parents, but now that we know that people like Alecia, Tom and John made such a huge impression on him, it suddenly makes much more sense.

Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter – 09

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


Well… that wasn’t one of the most exciting episodes…

This could be just me, but whenever the major crew of an anime heads off to another resort or hotel, it just feels horribly bland and uninspired. Especially since EVERY SINGLE ONE of these episodes has to have some kind of hot-spring sequence. It’s not necessarily the fanservice that gets me, but the fact that every single episode looks like each other. It feels just like the creators were in a “well, we need one more episode to fill but we’ve run out of ideas so let’s just send the cast off to a resort so that they can enter hot springs”-mood. Such an episode SO doesn’t belong in this series, especially after I praised it for feeling so refreshing!

So, basically this episode was meant to give Chiaki a bit of development, but I feel that it would have been better if it didn’t spend half of its time on pointless chatter. We’ve enough other series for that! It turns out that she too was a normal human, fifty years ago. She was in love with a guy who was about a decade older than she was, and just as the two were about to propose, they got in a car-crash and Chiaki died. Now, fifty years later the guy also finally passed on, and used the Shigofumi to talk to Chiaki one final time. It turns out that she’s always been on his mind.

Shion no Ou – 19

by psgels, posted in Shion no Ou


Heh, and I thought that Satoru would be out of the picture now that he lost. Heh, it’s far from that. Basically in this episode, he confirms the suspicions that were raised in the previous episode, and it’s now pretty clear who the murderer is. Really, only now that this information is revealed, I realize how much sense it makes.

Why did I never question why Shion and Satoru had the same kind of necklace? I just assumed that it was chance, but that was FAR FROM THE CASE. In fact, these two necklaces belonged to Satoru and Hani’s mother! Each of them took one of the necklaces, and I think that this is the first thing that raised Satoru’s suspicions. It must’ve been quite a shock when he first saw it. I also now realize why he was toying with Shion so much: he was trying to figure out how she got the necklace, and because of that, she reminded him of Kasumi. Still, why was Hani-Meijin stupid enough to leave his necklace at such a place?

Also, Shion’s style of playing shougi turns out to be the same style as that of Hani-meijin, according to Satoru. Of course that’s the case! From what I gathered, Shion and Hani spent quite a bit of time together between the time of the murder and the arrival of the police. We already know that he was the reason why she continued to play shougi, so he might as well have given her a few pointers on how to improve her game. The interesting thing is that ever since, Shion did try to change from her usual tactics. I wonder whether the creators will use that in the final episodes.

And thank god Ayumi didn’t turn into a helpless pawn of Hani-meijin. He really shines when he does something for Shion and yet again there are so many possibilities at how the creators can use him against Hani-meijin for the final episodes. Three episodes is just enough to give Hani-meijin some more development (now that we finally know that he did it, it’s time to delve into the reasons as to why he did it). Satoru has already proved to be an extremely versatile character, and it would be a shame to see this series end without Hani-meijin getting the same treatment.

True Tears – 09

by psgels, posted in True Tears


Seriously, this series keeps moving forward like a seismograph that’s about to detect a big earthquake: Hiromi – Noe – Hiromi – Noe – Hiromi – Noe – et cetera. One moment, you’d think that Shinichiro goes for Noe, but then another plot-twists makes his interests waver to Hiromi again. In this episode, this plot-twist is Hiromi and Noe’s brother eloping and crashing their motorbike on a slippery road afterwards.

Nobody was hurt, but the bike’s gone now, which is quite a big hit for Noe’s brother. In any case, their little adventure did make both Noe and Shinichiro incredibly worried. Because of this, Shinichiro and Hiromi forget how they avoided each other in the past, and become much closer. Noe of course doesn’t like this, but she decides to let Shinichiro go to be with Hiromi. The episode ends, however, with Noe being incredibly love-sick.

What’s also interesting is how the story that Shinichiro and Hiromi are siblings isn’t true at all. Shinichiro’s mother just made that up. I do wonder why she hated Hiromi, though. Was this because she never got asked permission for Hiromi to come and live with her, or something? The degree of realism overall was quite good in this episode, from Hiromi and Noe’s brother who drove slowly because of the frost so they didn’t end up getting hurt to the rumours that escalated on school the day afterwards and Shinichiro getting into fights because of it.

It really seems like the creators want to keep the way they want to end this series a surprise for as long as possible. At this episode, it seemed that Hiromi would be “the one” for him, but the fact does remain that Noe’s still incredibly lovesick and there are four episodes left.

Baccano! – 14

by psgels, posted in Baccano!


Thank you pgal, for pointing out that the first of three Baccano! DVD-only episodes has arrived. The length has been increased to half an hour, and this episode basically spends its time fleshing out some of the characters of the series, and introducing one new guy. I’m not sure what the point was behind some scenes, though. At one point, we see Isaac and Miria laying down some kind of domino-course in front of a baffled Firo. It was also a bit hard when the new guy used a wrench to deflect a bullet.
In any case, this episode featured a lot of good stuff. The new guy (I couldn’t pick up his name, unfortunately) met Ladd in the past and he’s about to go after Jacuzzi. Huey also gets a bit more development, and we see some time he spent with Chane (who was too cute when she was young, by the way). Apart from that and Rachel sees Chezlaw (who seems to hang out with Ennis now) again.

I obviously missed a lot of dialogue because I watched this raw, but I think that even with some kind of translation it’ll be rather impossible to figure out where the creators plan to be going. The only way to find out is to wait for episode 15 and 16.