Jin Roh – The Wolf Brigade Review – 89/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Mamoru Oshii may have his problems, but I like how the guy has continued to produce adult-movies through the decades, away from all the teenagers that we see in 90% of all other anime. His movies are always very well-written; heck, the guy has an absolutely terrific sense of dialogue, rivalled by only a handful of people. It’s a shame that none of his movies so far came out perfectly flawless, though. He often gets too enthusiastic with his dialogue, which makes many of his works memorable, but missing that edge to truly become a great movie. Thankfully, after watching Jin Roh, I’m glad to say that this doesn’t count for all of his movies.

It’s here where Oshii throws away all his pretentiousness, and he deliberately keeps the pacing slow for the entire run, and for once he doesn’t mean to confuse his viewer with tons of dialogue. Instead, we get the character-study of a member of a special division of the police. Expect lots of realism here, this isn’t a story where a heroic warrior will save the world from terrorists. The plot is much deeper than that, despite what you might think. This movie was especially refreshing after watching A Tree of Palme. Nothing feels forced. Nothing feels out of place.

The real star of this movie is the main character, though. He’s so far away from your standard hero, and the depth of his character is immense, especially considering the limited length that this movie has to work with. This makes it a pity when the movie switches to the side-characters. They’re by no means bad, but they’re just not as interesting as the main one. This is just a minor flaw, though.

I’m really glad to see that Oshii did manage to produce one movie that doesn’t have any major problems, and the result is absolutely terrific. I can’t say this enough times, but a movie has a limited amount of time to work with. If it wants to be something memorable, it needs to know how to build up properly. Mamoru Oshii does know this, but he often gets ahead of himself. Thankfully, this isn’t the case for Jin Roh. Jin Roh is a definite recommendation if you’re looking for a slow and serious movie.

Gundam 00 – 15

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00


Well, Deus ex Machina aside, I really liked this episode. Of course, the worst thing that the creators can now do is carry this Deus ex Machina even further by making all of the Gundams escape without a scratch. That would really ruin everything this episode built up for. But for now, I’m content with Setsuna being the only one who escaped the fruitless battle of this episode.

I’m surprised that Veda didn’t do anything to stop them, though. He too must have seen that a battle of 4 versus 1000 was fruitless to begin with, and his whole plans seem ruined now, with three of the four Gundams being captured. I’m worried about that big black Gundam, though. I have the feeling that it will either make, or break this series.

One thing that I really liked about this episode was how long the fight took. Not in terms of airtime, but the actual duration of the battle (over fifteen hours). All that time, the pilots were waiting for the inevitable, or a chance to escape. The other Celestial Beings meanwhile had now way to communicate with the Gundams due to their particles, so they had no idea what was going on, for fifteen whole hours.

A Tree of Palme Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


A Tree of Palme is from the same director as Fantastic Children, so yes, I was eager to watch this movie. Don’t be fooled by the childish character-designs, because just like Fantastic Children, A Tree of Palme is a dark and twisted story. Unfortunately, I’m missing the same brilliance.

Don’t get me wrong, A Tree of Palme is a good movie. The first half is absolutely stunning and imaginative. Seeing the nervous wrecks of the two main characters was a delight, and both of them are fleshed out really well. Palme’s desires become gut-wrenching at one point. But yeah, I wish I could say the same about the second half…

In the end, this just turned into one of these movies which are just too short for their own stories, and this becomes all too apparent in the second half. The biggest problem is that the character-development feels really awkward. Okay, I know that Palme is a puppet and there were actually some reasons given for his strange behaviour, but even that was really pushing my suspense of disbelief, and I haven’t started talking about the other characters yet. One time, a character scared to death, and a moment later she’s happy and acts like nothing ever happened. The plot also has its issues, and huge holes start to appear as the movie goes on that are never cleared up. It feels like entire scenes have been lost on the cutting-room floor.

It’s a shame, A Tree of Palme definitely had the potential, as shown by the first half. But the creators really needed to put some of the subtlety of Arete Hime in this movie. It’s like I said in my Mahou Tsukai Tai-review: a movie has a very limited amount of time to tell its story, but if it knows how to build up properly, it’ll turn into something memorable. A Tree of Palme just didn’t have what it takes to really stand out from all the other movies. It’s a good watch, but not a great one.

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 03

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi


Oh my god, what a wonderful episode, considering that we’re only three episodes in, and we barely even scratched the surface of the real potential for this series. Seeing Porfy and his sister finally reunite with their father was such a heart-warming scene. The creators really know what they’re doing.

The key to this episode was really to make the viewer wait along with Porfy and Mina, for the bus that was supposed to be carrying him. Here the two of them were in a town they hardly knew, waiting for a bus that had quite a bit of delays. Of course you’d start to feel anxious whether or not the guy would come. I also loved how Mina suddenly disappeared when Porfy got distracted by yet another car, and it’s clear now that she really likes it when her brother pays attention to her. That moment showed how this can get out of hand, because Porfy himself really wants to protect his sister, despite how he can get distracted really easily.

I also like how the creators used the story of Orpheus in this episode. For those who don’t know: Orpheus’s wife died, and he couldn’t forget about her. Hades then promised that he could take her from the underworld, on the condition that he wouldn’t look behind. When he nearly reached the exit of the underworld, his curiosity and doubts about Hades’s intentions took the best of him, he looked behind and saw how his wife got sucked back into the underworld. Porfy just can’t understand that Orpheus didn’t get any reward at all for the long path that he already crossed without looking at his wife.

What I also noticed in this episode is how the World Masterpiece Theatre-series often uses dolls to symbolize the relationship between the rich and the poor. Little Princess Sara had Emily, in Les Miserables, Cosette also receives a doll that she’s been longing for from Jean and now in this episode, we get introduced to a new character who also just received a doll from her rich family in France. Just like with Les Miserables, this girl (whose name I didn’t pick up, unfortunately) uses the doll to create jealousy. It seems that she loves Zaimis, though she can’t stand how he keeps spending time with Porfy and his sister.

Shion no Ou – 13

by psgels, posted in Shion no Ou


Oh, how I love this series. Thankfully, it’s got no intention at all to stop with just one season, and this seems to be heading into a fully fledged 24-episode series. Obviously, I couldn’t be happier, because the first half of the series already was amazing, and the second half promises to be even better.

Like expected, you’ll never know how long a match in this series can take. The episode has only been going forward for one minute and it was already clear that all three of Saori, Ayumi and Shion lost their respective matches. And yet again Shion surprises me with her amazingly strong character. Satoru gets to win in the end, but instead of getting the satisfaction of seeing her sad and crying, she just smiles to the guy. To make matters worse, this turns out to be something that Satoru didn’t take into account, and we see the first hints of background for the guy! It seems that a girl he met during his times in high-school, called Kazumi, is a major reason for how he turned out like this.

I also liked how the guy messed up Shion’s shoelaces when he left. We never see him actually do it, but signs point everywhere that he was the one behind that little immature act. And you just have to love how Ayumi offered Shion to use his shoes, which turned out to be incredibly huge for a girl. ^^;

Anyway, it turns out that there still is a chance for Shion, Ayumi and Saori to make it to the finals, though they have to keep winning. Shion and Ayumi succeed, but Saori ends up against another old shougi-master, and she loses. Her role in this anime is far from over, though, when Satoru uses Hani-meijin’s cell-phone to make Saori find out about Ayumi. I’m not sure what he was hoping for, but this definitely is an interesting way to toy with his opponents.

Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter – 03

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


This was definitely the best episode of Shigofumi yet. It consists out of just one episode this time (at least, that’s what I suspect), and it tells the story about three guys who live ordinary lives at school. At least, until one of them commits suicide. The rest of the episode is quite an interesting insight to suicides, and to how people often try to search the deepest meanings behind them, while they can also be committed with simple reasons.

The guy in this episode simply wanted to fly. His father though, not knowing about any of this, convinces himself that someone violently murdered his son. He then hijacks the guy’s classroom in order to find out whether the guy’s friends know anything about it. Turns out that they too didn’t, but the guy’s father doesn’t believe it. Thankfully, Fumika comes and delivers the Shigofumi, so things are cleared up. I liked how well this episode was written, and the three major characters (the father and two best friends) were nicely developed for one episode.

The creators are also surprisingly quick with the development for Fumiko. But then again, I’m comparing this show to the Jigoku Shoujo which took twenty episodes before any information about Ai was revealed. Fumiko indeed was a normal girl at one time, who was actually friends with one of the two guys from this episode. Apparently, she killed her father at one point, which resulted in her, becoming the deliverer of the Shigofumi. Obviously, pieces of the puzzle are still missing, but it’s quite a nice start.

True Tears – 03

by psgels, posted in True Tears


I must say that this episode was pretty amusing. Okay, we now know that the third girl likes Shinichiro as well, but that was of course to be expected. Noe’s antics proved to be quite interesting for this series to work with. We also learn that Noe has a brother (whom Shinichiro mistakes for her boyfriend), and she also forces the guy to give her a piggy-back ride by faking an injury. I especially liked how everyone reacted when the two entered the gymnastics-room in that way.

It seems that in terms of romance, Shinichiro and Hiromi both like each other, though Hiromi doesn’t want to admit it. At the end of this episode, we see Shinichiro overhear Hiromi say this, which leads to the cliff-hanger. I can see where Noe fits into the picture, but I’m not sure what Aiko can add to the scene. It would be interesting for her to go after Miyokichi in the later episodes, though. I really must praise the guy. Most “best friends” in similar series make me want to punch their eyes out, though Miyokichi has been really enjoyable up till now.

We also see a small flashback. It turns out that Hiromi has been living with Shinichiro’s family for quite a few years now, and it seems that she once got lost during a festival, and got helped by the younger Shinichiro. We indeed seem to be dealing with yet another childhood crush, though this one is so much better than the standard protagonist who meets a bunch of random girls in his past, and these girls end up still loving the guy even ten years afterwards.

Mahou Tsukai Tai OVA Review – 87/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Romantic comedies and I haven’t had the best relationship. Sure, there have been a few gems among them (for example Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge and Code-E), but there is just so much crap amongst the genre. For me, the gags are often lazy, the characters uninspired and they rely way too much on moe stereotypes. The few series that do put a bit of effort into their storytelling also have a large chance of not knowing how to balance the romance and the comedy properly (Magikano, anyone?)

The cream of the crop in the romantic-comedy-genre has to be Mahou Tsukai Tai for me. The television-series made the mistake in going on and on about the major villain, but none of these problems return in the OVA. This is really what a romantic comedy should be. There is no minute wasted, every single character is meaningful and the story manages to fully utilize the format of six episodes. Basically, if you liked the television-series, you just have to check out the OVA.

The strength of Mahou Tsukai Tai is that it takes a cast of characters who would have been incredibly cliché on their own, and turns them into something memorable. Unlike series as Kanon and basically 90% of all other series, the characters don’t feel randomly thrown together. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses, and they use their strengths to make up for the weaknesses of the others. The cast just fits perfectly. Unlike the television-series, this is also one OVA that keeps an excellent balance between comedy and drama. The final episode manages to close off the OVA very nicely due to the build-up of the first five ones.

I’ve seen a lot of movies and OVAs now that don’t know how to build up properly, but those who do understand this have turned into really memorable watches, and this is exactly what makes the difference between a memorable OVA and just a forgettable one. The time that movies and OVAs have to work with is considerably smaller than compared with television-series, but if it’s used well, then the results are awesome.

Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations – 02

by psgels, posted in Tsubasa Chronicle, Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations


Now this is more like it! This episode was much better than the first one. I still have a lot of problems with it, but at least the music has become much better. The amount of new plot-twists is also baffling. In one episode, the plot has been pushed forward as much as the original TV-series did in 52 episodes. Still, I don’t yet consider the Tsubasa Chronicle OVA to be better than the series.

That doesn’t mean that the series didn’t have its problems, though. What was Bee-Train thinking, putting such a dark story in the NHK-channel? I now also finally understand the reason why so many fillers were added. Bee-Train knew that there was no way to put some key-moments in this arc on the air, so they decided to just go with their own story and do what they were good at.

For me, the biggest problem with this episode is that it was really far-fetched. The battle underwater was already pushing my suspense of disbelief (how long can people hold in their breath anyway? And how can these guys flawlessly fight each other, just as easily as if they were on land), but that turned out to be just the tip of the ice-berg.

So, basically Syaoran was already as a kid a very talented magician. In there, he created a clone and gave this clone his eye. The task of this clone was to collect the feathers that would come out of Sakura in about ten years. In order to prepare for that, the clone-Syaoran got his eye sealed and moved to the clow-country where he made friends with Sakura, and later fell in love with her. For some reason beyond me, the original Syaoran was sealed away by Fei Wong, but he could see everything that the clone-Syaoran did.

To make things even more complicated, Syaoran is supposed to be a descendant of Clow Reed. Sakura is also the daughter of some king of the Clow-country, which gives us many hints that she too is a descendant of Clow Reed. It’s strange to think that I spent more than 52 episodes watching some very strange kind of incest-relationship… Also, Fei Wong turned out to be yet another descendant of Clow Reed, hinting that he’s either Syaoran’s father or some kind of uncle.

In any case, while clone-Syaoran is fighting under water, Fye jumps in and just starts using his magic from out of nowhere, even though he vowed not to use magic without his tattoo. Clone Syaoran then BITES the guy’s eye out, which turn out to be the source of his power. Strangely enough, Syaoran gains Fye’s powers by eating Fye’s eye. Syaoran’s powers, by the way, also increased greatly with this. Apparently, the seal on his eye was broken at this point (don’t ask me how or why), and now he’s strong enough to even pwn Kurogane.

In the meantime, the real Syaoran was helped by Xing-Huo (who was punished by Fei Wong afterwards (read: killed)), goes to Yuuko and is teleported to the Clone Syaoran. The two fight, but Clone-Syaoran is now much stronger than the real one due to Fye’s magic.

The feather turned out to be in the middle of a cocoon, in the middle of the pool. Apparently, this was the thing that kept the clean water flowing. Somehow, Sakura’s soul ended up in that cocoon. When Sakura’s body got near the cocoon, it disappeared, and I guess it ended up in the cocoon as well. She then prevents the real Syaoran from killing the clone-one. Clone Syaoran then cuts up yet another cocoon and the feather comes out. He gives it to Sakura and then walks off on his own, leaving her. Kamui, who I guess was unconscious for this time, magically reappears and pulls a person out of this cocoon. Apparently, this person was the reason why he was so protective of the water, and he’s glad that this person is okay. Seriously, the next episode has some real explanation to do, because both subplots need a lot of explanation to make sense to me. The more I think about it, the more questions I have. You can say a lot of Bee-Train, but at least they managed to make sure that everything in the tv-series made sense. Was the manga also so incredibly confusing at this point?

Oh, and there’s one character that I’ve really disliked in the new OVA: Sakura. Oh, how deep did she fall. First, she sleeps for more than an entire episode, then she wakes up, goes “Syaoran! Syaoran!”, gets overwhelmed by the new Syaoran, and falls asleep again. I seriously liked the lovable heroine from the TV-series much better.

Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 15

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


So, in case you’ve been wondering: Ghost Hound and Saiunkoku Monogatari are both in a hiatus this week. Instead we have the new episode of the Tsubasa Chronicle-OVA and another episode of Kaiji. The current episode of Kaiji concludes the steel-beam-arc.

But really, I feel a bit cheated. The creators used a well-known plot-device in these kinds of situations: a huge amount of money is at stake, but some hidden twist somewhere in the middle makes the protagonist unable to cash in the money, whether he won or not doesn’t matter. It feels a bit cheap to use such a twist, just to keep the story going. I mean, the guys could just as well have tempted Kaiji to put his 20 million yet at stake for an even bigger amount, and knowing Kaiji I think that he would have obliged with the right words.

Still, that was about the only thing that I didn’t like about this episode. It’s indeed quite plausible to have some kind of loophole at the end, and Sahara was the perfect person to fall for it. He’s always eager and wants to show off to others. We also finally get to see a proper introduction of the guy who’s behind everything, and I must say that I like the guy.

The next game is going to be E-Card. We still don’t know the exact rules, but it involves ten cards with either a king, a citizen or a slave on it, and I think that the talk about kings and citizens by the big boss also has something to do with it. It looks quite simple, but I trust the creators to make something interesting out of it.