Hakaba Kitarou – 02

by psgels, posted in Hakaba Kitarou


And with Hakaba Kitarou, my schedule for the winter-season is complete. Seriously, this season has proven to be awesome.
Monday: Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino, Gundam 00
Tuesday: Suteki Tantei Labyrinth
Wednesday: Wellber no Monogatari
Thursday: none
Friday: Hakaba Kitarou, Ghost Hound
Saturday: Saiunkoku Monogatari, Shion no Ou, True Tears
Sunday: Shigofumi, Porfy no Nagai Tabi
And depending on when the subs will come out: Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji

In any case, I just knew that I was going to blog Hakaba Kitarou, the first moment I saw it. For those who haven’t read my first impression:
– Hakaba Kitarou is by no means a kid’s show.
– Hakaba Kitarou’s atmosphere nothing like its predecessor, Gegege no Kitarou.
– Hakaba Kitarou is part of the Noitamina-series, which previously featured series as Mononoke, Moyashimon and Honey and Clover and is known to be one of the most viewed late-night time-slots in Japan.
– Hakaba Kitarou is a fully fledged horror-series.

If you like horror-series, then I seriously recommend you to check out this series. It’s going to take a lot of effort to make this series lose the bad reputation that Gegege no Kitarou gave it.

This episode introduces Nezumi-otoko, or mouse-man. He works for a vampire called Dracula, though this Dracula is a bit different from what you usually see. He likes to eat any kind of human, an doesn’t just limit himself young women. He also ends up eating Kitarou’s father at one point. ^^; In any case, he and Nezumi-otoko end up along with Mizuki’s employer, in Kitarou’s house, while Kitarou has been possessed by a strange demon who likes to eat human flesh as well. This demon ends up fighting with Dracula, killing off both of them and leaving Nezumi-otoko without a master, which probably explains why he keeps hanging around Kitarou.

Mizuki’s employer seems to be something like the mayor, who has come to find out where the guy went due to some bad publicity he’s been getting because of it. He’s the one who ends up saving Kitarou, and drives off a cliff afterwards after seeing yet another scary-looking demon at the side of the road.

We then turn to the netherworld, and we see Mizuki return. It turns out that because he volunteered to go to the netherworld, he doesn’t have to go to the place of the dead, and instead he is doomed to see the dead head into the deeper parts of hell, where they’ll dwell forever (much like Jigoku Shoujo). He immediately blames Kitarou for it, but the fact remains that he died in an accident. Still, I doubt that it was just a coincidence that the guy died, with Kitarou inside his car. 😛

And if that didn’t convince you to check out this series, perhaps this will. Seriously, I had lost my faith in good OPs after the Autumn-season, but the Winter-season has so many new shows with excellent OPs.

Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber – 16

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


Whoa, talk about an awesome episode! Like expected, Tina arrives at the hometown of the first of the three Shinigami Bees, but what happens afterwards is totally unexpected. Instead of meeting the guy himself, Tina meets the guy’s blind mother and his son, who’ve had no idea of all the people that were killed by the guy.

Oh, poor Tina. Here she is, determined to kill the guy who killed her parents, and now she has to face this. It’s easy to kill someone you don’t know anything about, but what about it when you learn that the guy has a whole life? Oh, and Tina has also finally switched to real bullets, which will kill when they hit. It indeed seems that she’s never killed a person before.

I really love how deep this episode went into Tina’s mind. To make things even better, it turns out that the guy had been dead all along. He wasn’t the guy who killed Tina’s parents in the end, but the great thing is that Tina doesn’t know this either. For the same matter, it could have been the same guy. This is exactly why I fell in love with this series!

Suteki Tantei Labyrinth – 15

by psgels, posted in Suteki Tantei Labyrinth


Someone, shoot me. I’m actually beginning to like this series. I’m not sure what it is with the cheese of this anime, with both the male and female fanservice and its rather eccentric script-writers, but I really liked this episode and its twists.

There was lots of character-development in this episode, as Mayuki tries to return to the house in which he was born, and Byakko goes off on her own. There’s still no sign whatsoever of Mayuki’s father, but it seems that Seiran grew up as a servant to a wealthy family, and he was quite close to Mayuki’s mother. The latter died when Mayuki was barely a year old, and the head of the family (who knew about the Hyugake Gentoushu) entrusted Mayuki to Seiran to take care of. Ever since, Seiran has been taking care of Mayuki (too cute, by the way), though we’ve now reached the point where Mayuki is old enough to think on his own and enters the wondrous world of “puberty”.

I’m also glad that Byakko finally became something more than just “that woman who screws up Mayuki’s investigations”. She always striked me as the impatient type, and this doesn’t work quite well with her master. I’m glad to see that she’s finally showing a mind of her own.

But seriously, scriptwriters:
Do NOT make her end up becoming one of the good guys.

Really, I see these guys crazy enough to attempt such a twist. Still, I’m surprised at how small the part of Mayuki’s classmates has become. They hardly appear at any important moment. That’s something you wouldn’t suspect after watching the first few episodes.

And on an side-note: am I the only one who wondered about the point of those five very suspicious looking characters, who sat in the backseat of the bus? When I saw it for the first time, I was certain that it was one of Seiju’s tricks again, but after that they never showed up again. I mean, the ENTIRE bus was empty, except for these guys! It’s getting funnier the more I think about it.

Speaking of funny… the ending cracked me up majorly. ^^;

Gunslinger Girl – Il Teatrino – 02

by psgels, posted in Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino


Interesting, an episode without nearly anything about the main cast. They only appear at the final minute or so. Instead, the antagonists get fleshed out. We see the two bomb-technicians (what where they again? My memory about the first season is too fuzzy) from first season back, and they team up with a newly introduced character named Pinocchio, who if I understood correctly, works directly under one of the five great families as an assassin.

What surprises me is the huge amount of hate-reactions this series has been getting, but I think that the huge expectations that everyone had about this series are partially to blame. The first season was of a really high quality, like expected from a studio like Madhouse. The second season just doesn’t have the same budget, and instead has had to sacrifice a lot in the graphical department. Artland just doesn’t have the experience nor the budget to make this the visual feast of the first season, and I can indeed imagine that if you had great expectations about this series, especially after waiting so incredibly long, the thing will disappoint. It’s for the same reason why I’m nearly certain that a lot of people will be disappointed by Haruhi II, even though I know hardly anything about the series.

In any case, there’s one thing that for me definitely improved in terms of the first season: the soundtrack. It fits the series much better, and it’s much more memorable than the soundtrack of the first season. There’s also nothing wrong with the storytelling. The first episode did a good job of refreshing my memory with a random fight-scene, and now the second episode starts building up for real, and it’s good to see so much attention to the villains this time.

So, long story short: the first and second season are, just like Solaris said, completely different series, and for now I have no reason to look down upon the second season yet. It knows how to build up and for now, that’s the most important for me.

Gundam 00 – 14

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00


Thankfully, the new OP and ED are much better now. They’re still a bit standard, but the first OP and ED just didn’t fit this series, not to mention that the ED finally has some quality animation that this series has been surprisingly lacking, considering the timeslot it’s on and all. I’m glad enough that they fit the epic feeling of this series. I still remember how the first ED gave me a headache when I watched it for the first time.

In any case, this episode is an intermezzo, introducing the next and biggest challenge for the Gundams yet, when they basically have to take on all kinds of elite-pilots from both the AEU and the Union, teamed up together. We also get a bit more information about how humans are able to live in outer-space for so long: by use of nano-machines. I must praise this series for this, because I think that it’s the first anime that I’ve seen that considers the strains on the human body if it lives in outer-space for too long. I now also know why we sometimes see the crew back on earth: to remain mentally healthy (hah!).

And Setsuna yet again surprises us with his sense of duty when he yet again goes off on his own. This time, he goes to visit Marina Ismael (whose guards are surprisingly lazy) while she’s sleeping for no particular reason. Still, I finally see where the creators are going with him. I think that it’s safe to say that he’s the youngest member of the Celestial Beings, and I don’t think that when he became a Gundam Meister, he was so young that his sense of duty wasn’t really that of an adult, and I also doubt that he had any choice in that matter. Someone like Lockon just had one horrible experience in his past, but Setsuna never got the chance to grow up normally.

In any case, because of this he’s the most sceptic Celestial Being about the mission. Something tells me that all he cares about is Exia, not the ultimate mission of the Celestial Beings. This episode mentioned it as well: he’s beginning to see himself as some kind of God, instead of a killing-machine. Because of that, he’s starting to wonder why people fight in this world. And something tells me that Saji and Louise (whose mother finally left in this episode) will play a key-part in this.

Sure, the characters are definitely not the most likable out there, and I don’t deny that some of them are pretty stupid, but their development has been going into a very interesting direction.

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 02

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi


Just like expected. For second episode of this season, I’ve found something to nitpick about, but not Porfy. This series has been building-up perfectly for the past two episodes. I like series that don’t play all of their cards on the table, right from the start, which is probably also why I like Ghost Hound and other mystery-series.

In this episode, we learn more about Porfy’s mother. It seems that she grew up in a rich household in some kind of city, her mother died when she was young and she doesn’t know what happened to her father, though when she married Porfy’s father, the two just didn’t have enough money so she moved back to the countryside. The only thing that she took with her was a fancy-looking watch. A letter from Porfy’s father also arrives in this episode, and he get back in about a week. Probably for Mina’s birthday, which is about to happen. He also sends two books along: one about cars for Porfy and one about the Greek gods for Mina. He probably guessed what they wanted from what they wrote in their letters to him. ^^;

Zaimis also gets fleshed out a bit more in this episode, as it seems that he often hangs out with the two siblings. It’s quite funny when the two of them have completely different interests, and he has to pay attention to both of them at the same time. It’s obvious right from the start that he likes Mina’s interests more than Porfy’s. The second half of the episode is about an owl that settles into Porfy and Mina’s bedroom. They name him Apollo, after one of the Greek gods from Mina’s book.

The thing I like most about this series is how genuine the relationship between Porfy and Mina feels so far. You can really see that they’re brother and sister, and not moeblob and geek, like you see in way too many series. Mina likes to follow Porfy around as well, even though she’s often angry with him, and Porfy in his turn is often distracted, but he does show signs that he watches out over his sister.

So far, there has been no earthquake. Judging by other world-masterpiece-series, I’d guess that it’ll happen around episode 12 or 13, though the end of the episode was a classic foreshadowing-scene, with a clear sky making way for a bunch of thick thunderclouds. Seriously, this needs to be watched. I’m still not sure why people find the length of 52 episodes too much of a commitment, and yet you never hear the same complaint about series like Gundam 00, Code Geass and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.

Shigofumi ~ Stories of the Last Letter – 02

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


The second episode was slightly less impressive than the first one, but still this remains a good series to blog. My main problem is that the influences of Code Geass’ writer were noticeable, and this episode just lacked the subtlety of Jigoku Shoujo. Still, the only real flaw of this episode was the ending, how the random policeman shot without any reason whatsoever. The guy was clearly underdeveloped, and the script was a bit too hasty at that point to get to the juicy stuff.

Still, the episode did a pretty good job of portraying the psychopath-side of Ayase, and how she basically kills everyone who stands in her way. Of course this can only go on for so long until the police catches up, especially when there isn’t really a solid plan of action. My favourite character of the series is Fumika, though. She turned into an interesting combination of Enma ai and Momo (Shinigami no Ballad), though she can’t help it but involve herself a bit more than the former two did. Still, what was up with her fancy moves when she put her gun back in her bag? Seems to suggest that even though she’s quiet, she likes to show off.

In any case, I’m glad that there finally is another arc-based series that deals with random stories for each arc. I’m a big fan of the well-done series of this concept, and all that Shinigami no Ballad has to do now is to provide enough interesting concepts and watch out that the plot doesn’t go too fast.

And really, the ALI-project needs to evolve a bit. Their style may be nice, but really, all the OPs and EDs they’ve done really begin to look more and more like each other. It’s a shame, their work on .Hack//Roots was awesome, but you can’t see any of this brilliance in their latest works.

Shion no Ou – 12

by psgels, posted in Shion no Ou


This is very rare for a sports-anime: three huge matches, happening all at the same time, and all of them turned out to be awesome. I’m so glad that this series is back again.

Basically, this episode was all about the rookies versus the veterans: Shion versus Satoru, Saori versus Hani-meijin and Ayumi versus Shion’s foster-father. The episode ended with all the rookies getting pwned. The episode ended in a cliff-hanger, but with this series you never know how much longer a fight will take. Series like Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji should really take an example from Shion no Ou, because the pacing for this series is truly addictive.

I think that Ayumi has lost for real in this episode. I’m not sure whether the match was over at the end of the episode, but there wasn’t much hope left for him anyway. His mind seemed off for some reason. Ah well, at least Shion’s foster-father offered to take him up as a student, so he can learn more. That’s quite cute. 🙂

Oh, and how I love Shion. It was obvious that Satoru would start teasing her, right from the beginning, and Shion here had no intention to let his mind-games get to her. When Satoru leaves the shougi-room for a minute to suppose to give Shion some extra thinking-time, she does the same against him right when he comes back. Still, it’s clear now that the guy didn’t just stop playing shougi after his mother died, but instead continued to play, unbeknownst to his brother, suggesting that the two of them grew apart after that incident (one flashback this episode showed that they were quite close when their mother was still alive). And indeed, he easily surprises Shion by playing innocent, and then striking with a winning move. Still, I feel that the cliff-hanger was used for a reason…

Saori, meanwhile, has her long-desired match against Hani-Meijin. A match she’s doomed to lose, though I suspect that the way it ends will give her great insights for the future. In any case, the next episode promises to be an excellent one.

True Tears – 02

by psgels, posted in True Tears


And the time has come for me to choose which shows to blog. In case you’re wondering: no, I’m not going to blog Hatenkou Yuugi. Basically, the only thing that stands out for that series are the characters and the complicated dialogue, and I didn’t like how the second episode placed Rahzel and her companions “above the system”. It’s an interesting series, but I’m going to wait for the subs to come.

As for True Tears, it’s looking quite solid so far, and it’s definitely something different from the series I usually watch. There are a few stereotypes here and there, but so far the writers have made something interesting out of the first two episodes, not to mention that the series is being directed by the guy from Simoun. I often dislike high-school romances for their shallow characters or just boring plot, but the creators are showing signs that they’re building up with the slow pacing of the past few episodes. The show also only has 13 episodes, so it’ll be nice and short. It’s a good replacement for Shugo Chara with its fifty-one scheduled episodes.

This episode mostly developed the three main characters a bit. If I understood things correctly, Shinichiro lives together with Hiromi, after her parents died or something. Shinichiro likes Hiromi, but they hardly talk to each other. In the previous episode, he ran into Noe and started hanging out with her, and it seems that Noe has come to like Shinichiro, though Shinichiro has problems getting used to Noe’s strange character. Hiromi, meanwhile, also isn’t ignorant about Shinichiro either, and in this episode she tries to find out why the guy spends so much time with Noe. Really, it sounds like a bad soap-opera when I write it down like that, though the episode was quite decent. This isn’t the first time where I liked a series with a flawed storyline.

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 71

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari


Whoa, after the confusing previous episode, the current one totally makes up for it with probably some of the best scenes ever since the end of the Eigetsu-arc. We finally see Juusanhime and Shun together, and we finally learn a bit more about them. Shun’s original name was Shiba Jin, and he lived together with Juusanhime at one point, where she fell in love with him, even though the age-difference between the two was quite large. Then, at one point something happened that caused Jin to change his name, become a prisoner/delinquent/bandit/something and foresake the Ran-clan.

The woman who was with him was indeed Shusui, and only now we see how serious her headaches of the previous episodes were. I didn’t quite catch how he did it, but the fact remains that Shusui lost herself and tried to kill Juusanhime in this episode, if it wasn’t for Ensei, she’d be dead by now. And to think that Shuuei was right there as well, finding out that the woman he longed for tried to kill his own sister.

In the second half of the episode, Shuurei gets basically taken off the case of Juusanhime, because well, she rather failed to protect her. We also see Shuuei, who now really says farewell to Ryuuki. If I had to guess, then there were more things that happened in the past with him, and I guess that he just can’t keep on living like he did for the past two years. I assume that the future episodes will show us more about the guy’s past.

There were a few things I didn’t understand, though. Like, why was the prison with Tantan attacked? And what was the purpose of the match between Ran and Ryuuki?