If you’re looking for a short action-anime, then Karas is the way to go. Consisting out of six OVA-episodes, the purpose of this series is to deliver lots of action, stunning production-values and an engaging story. And I must say that it did pretty well. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it’s excellent for a quick watch.
The graphics and music are absolutely stunning. Both the computer-generated 3D-images and especially the traditional drawings are beautiful, rich and detailed. My only complaint is that at times, the two don’t blend in together. The music consists out of lots of violins and cellos, creating an epic atmosphere for this series to work with.
But yeah, the plot is just decent. Thankfully, it’s much more detailed than with a show like Afro Samurai, but it’s still not one of the selling points of this series. The setting is quite original, though the plot itself is just enough to keep the action going without feeling annoying. The final episode also is exactly what you’d imagine: an incredibly blown-up fight between the main protagonist and antagonist. While there are a few interesting twists and turns, the lack of time and the other priorities of this series prevent it from becoming really interesting. More time could have been used to flesh out the story a bit much, but instead the creators decided to show more action.
Luckily, the characters do a bit better. While they aren’t the best or truly original, the creators do manage to develop them and flesh them out. This prevents Karas to become “just another action-flick”. Obviously, the characters aren’t that deep, but they’re deep enough to make you care about them, and they’re the real reason why the action remains enjoyable through the three hours length of this OVA. The only exception to this is the major bad guy, he really was in need of more depth.
One thing that should be noted before watching this is that this isn’t such a good movie to show to your little brother or sister. There are quite a few bloody scenes. Obviously, if you like a quiet pacing, this isn’t an anime for you, but if you’re into action, are easily bored or just a fan of great graphics, then Karas is quite a good recommendation.]]>
Moyashimon Review – 85/100
There are more than enough anime-series with high-school antics. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about university-antics series. I could be mistaken, but 2007 only featured two of them: Nodame Cantabile, which aired earlier this year, and Moyashimon. Incidentally, both were noitaminA-series. Basically, Moyashimon takes place on an agricultural university. The selling-point is the strange ability of the main character, though: the ability to see bacteria, depicted as cute stuffed-toy-like creatures.
The great thing is that Moyashimon would have been an excellent series, even without the germs. It’s got enough material to remain fresh for eleven episodes, and some of the best jokes of the series don’t involve any germs at all. The major good point for this series is the script: the dialogue has been cleverly written to not only teach a few things about germs, but also showcase some hilarious situations in which the characters end up in. If it wasn’t for Suteki Tantei Labyrinth, I’d label Moyashimon as the most eccentric series of the year, but unlike with Labyrinth, I mean this in a good way.
As this series takes place in college, it also means that the characters are refreshingly different from the high-school-kids, and they’ve all gone out of their puberty. The result is that the series doesn’t seem to care about stereotypes beyond the main character, and all but him are immediately fresh and different from usual. I especially liked the antics of the two upperclassmen that Sawaki, the main character, befriends. There’s a bit too much useless fanservice here and there, but that’s just a very minor problem.
The major problem with this series is that it could have been more. Some scenes drag on a bit too much, and it really feels like the cartoony germs had much more potential than what they showed in the series. The final episodes are also not something to look forward to, as they suddenly introduce a dramatic element that gets nowhere, resolves nothing and has a rather bad conclusion. The scriptwriters of this series are really talented, and I wish they’d have more opportunities to show it.
Still, what they do manage to show here is excellent. Moyashimon is a short, well-scripted and imaginative comedy about campus-life at an agricultural college, with perhaps a few humps and bumps along the way. It’s a shame that there doesn’t seem to be a noitaminA-show scheduled for the Winter-Season, because this timeslot always offers refreshingly different and yet excellent series.]]>
Saiunkoku Monogatari – 69
So apparently Saiunkoku Monogatari went, just like myself, on a two-week hiatus, so I didn’t miss anything of this series. Today, the next episode arrived, and I must say that this series is getting better and better.
And seriously: Seiga is a bastard!!
First he guides Shuurei, dressed up as Juusanhime into a horse carriage to spend the night, only to pull a Sakujun on her. If it wasn’t for Ran, who happened to be passing by, things would have turned out even nastier. And then later we see him making shady deals with the ones who actually PLAN to assassinate Juusanhime! And really, he TOO tries to mess with Shuurei’s hair.
Ryuuki, meanwhile also seems to have paid a visit to the mansion of the Ran-family. Probably to get acquaintanced with Juusanhime, but I think that he also secretly hoped to see Shuurei somewhere, which happens near the end of the episode. Juusanhime also mentions her loved one to him for the first time, and I liked how both of them realize that they’re in the same boat: that they’ll never be able to live happily with their loved one.
Speaking of Juusanhime’s loved one: I think I know who he is: the prisoner who refused to go out of his cell in the previous episode. While I still don’t know the details, it does make sense how such a criminal like him can never really be fit to marry someone of such a high status as Juusanhime.]]>
Shugo Chara – 12
Yup, just like expected. Even though it’s a bit early, the first Christmas-episode has arrived. Interestingly enough, it went very different from what I expected, though. The focus is way more on Utau and Ikuto than on Christmas itself, as the two of them get quite a bit of development. Both of them are still quite angsty, but they’re getting less and less annoying, and this episode worked out quite well.
The only bad part about this episode was the revelation that Utau turns out to be an idol. Of course, in such a series it was unavoidable to not have some kind of idol somewhere, where so many members of the cast are popular, cool and good-looking. I’m also not sure why being an idol can help her and her manager to find Embryo. Could Utau perhaps be the link to Embryo?
In any case, in the later parts of the episode, Ikuto distances himself from both Amu and Utau, when he collects a huge amount of X-eggs in front of the former and refuses to come to an appointment with the latter. One thing I do want to see is a good explanation of why he’s so incredibly angsty. What the heck has happened to the guy? Bad childhood? There really has to be some kind of episode in the future that shows how he and Utau grew up together.]]>
Ghost Hound – 10
You have to love the cliff-hangers of this series. For the past episodes, they’ve always brought some kind of new twist. This episode gives a bit of a humorous side to the twists, which works out quite well, if I say so myself, even if it’s a bit mean. ^^;
This episode was mostly building up as usual again. After the previous episode, Tarou gets a new sort of therapy recommended by the councillor: Thought Field Therapy. I’m not yet sure what that means, but we’ll probably find out in the next episode, because Tarou really needs this after being exposed to the figure of the guy who kidnapped him and all. It now also seems that the councillor took the things that happened to him rather seriously, and is still frightened of the strange time-leap he made, two episodes ago.
Also, one of the questions that was raised in the OP has been answered: remember the Fox-like creature? That’s actually Makoto in Ghost Hound-mode. After seeing Tarou, he tried to move into the same form, and succeeded. In the meantime, the bully-side-story still isn’t over, when the bullies have now decided to make Masayuki into their victim. Luckily, Makoto prevented any real casualties in this episode, but things have to go wrong at one point.
Meanwhile, Masayuki finds out about Tarou’s crush on Miyako. Cute moment, by the way. Miyako seems to be really wary of her father, by the way. He just takes out one beer and she notices and gets annoyed. Could this have to do with her schizophrenic side, that was mentioned a few episodes ago?
Overall, I’m liking the quiet moments of this series more and more. It’s interesting enough for me to just see the different characters interacting, and that’s one of the signs of a good anime for me. Let’s see what this series will have in store for us once it enters its second half. Ghost Hound is an excellent recommendation for this season.]]>
Ghost Hound – 09
Those who are watching Ghost Hound for the plot can rejoice, because a lot of stuff happens in this episode. Everything starts with a bunch of teenagers, who are at night exploring the abandoned building-site where Tarou’s kidnapper died. It then seems that the ghost of this guy has come back to haunt them. Basically the same happens as when Makoto ran into it, but this time it also possesses one of the kids.
Rumours like these obviously travel fast, so Makoto, Tarou and Masayuki hear about this quite quickly. They decide to take a look in ghost-form, and there some very interesting things happen: Tarou freaks out (he does come into contact with his kidnapper, after all), and transforms from ghost-monkey to Ghost…. Hound-like being (now I also understand where the title for this series comes from). Masayuki gets to be the one to shoot the black figure down, when he basically turns out to be able to use the moves from his video-games. Quite cool, if you ask me.
In other news, the councillor has started contacting his colleague after what happened last episode, while sounding quite nervously. Masayuki meanwhile finally stands up to the bullies who torment his classmates, only to get beaten himself. Masayuki’s father also suddenly sees ghost-leeches dangerously close near his daughter, who just keeps playing simple video-games. Tarou, meanwhile, gets strange blushes when he’s near Miyako. *hint hint*]]>
Gundam 00 – 11
Quite a straightforward episode, which is all about Allelujah, trying to take care of his past by destroying the research-faculty where he grew up. Sure, Hallelujah is still there, but I think that now, he’ll be a little less worried about his own kind. I’m suspecting that Setsuna and Lockon will also get episodes like this one in the future. And regarding Tieria, we still hardly know anything about him. This episode does show that he considers himself to be something different from a human being. His yellow eyes are also just like the Third Eye of The Third in The Third: they can log on to any computer.
It also seems that Allelujah and Hallelujah were two different persons at one time, though Hallelujah went on a killing rampage one time. When Allelujah (who apparently was close friends with Hallelujah) was forced to shoot him, Hallelujah’s consciousness was probably transferred through quantum-brainwaves to Allelujah, creating this strange schizophrenic being.
One thing I liked about the past few episodes is how Setsuna took a step back to allow Allelujah and Tieria to develop a bit. It’s a shame that I know that he’ll probably take up the role of main character again somewhere in the future, though. I really hope he’ll get better soon. And seriously, why are Louise and Saji even in this series? All I can think of is that they’re going to be important somewhere in the future, but I think that giving them a scene for every episode is a bit too much at this point.]]>
Gundam 00 – 10
I must say, I’m impressed. This episode concludes the attack by the Human Reform League, and the battle between the regular mobile suits and the Gundams was really well orchestrated. I like how everything makes sense, and especially Tieria was excellent, when he too goes against Veda’s plan in a desperate attempt to avoid getting captured by the enemy.
Unfortunately, Alleluja ends up going berserk, but there actually seems to be a good explanation behind it as well. I now understand why episode five was so necessary, when the lieutenant suddenly went crazy. Both she and Allelujah are genetically modified humans, and especially Allelujah seems to be one of the prototypes for this technology. Of course there have been people who messed around with his mind, which apparently created his alter-ego Hallelujah, who is some kind of murderous psychopath.
Now the big question remains: what’s going to happen in the second half of this series? Gundam 00 has done really well to not fall into the footsteps of Code Geass, and I really appreciate this, but it isn’t there yet. For now, it has been building up really well, and it’s done all the necessary things for an introduction: the Gundams are introduced, they’re given a bit of time to carry out their mission according to plan, and they’ve now faced their first major setback. I could say that the challenges for the Celestial Beings will continue to become harder and harder, but there’s no way that the creators will be able to keep up with that, since this series is going to consist out of 50 episodes and all. My prediction is that around the middle of the series, the Celestial Beings will break up.]]>
Shugo Chara – 11
Yup, just like expected: a winter-resort-episode. I’ll eat my hat if next episode doesn’t turn out to be the Christmas-episode.
Still, this was definitely the best episode of Shugo Chara yet. It was hilarious, had lots of Chara-Changes, the characters had a lot of fun with each other and yet it provided a lot of development on the relationship between Hotori and Amu. There were no Batsu-Charas and neither of Ikuto, Utau or any of the other bad-guys showed up. This really was an episode for the characters, and it worked perfectly.
I’m glad that I can finally be completely positive again about this series. The previous episodes were nice, but they had enough dull moments; they all could have been more. Finally, this episode delivers, and as an extra bonus it seems that the animation-quality has gone way up.
And the irony: Hotori is in love not with Amu, but with Amu’s Ran-transformation. That scene seriously rocked. :)]]>
Shugo Chara – 10
So, this was basically a Su-episode: she gets lost thanks to Ikuto’s Shugo Chara causing trouble, and she spends the episode, trying to find her way back, along with the dog of Amu’s admirer, who seemed to have been lost as well. Overall, it wasn’t such a bad episode, and I like the development that Su has gotten now. The fact that the creators are already mentioning a Christmas-tree in episode ten seems to suggest that we’re in for one heck of a Christmas-special for this show.
Also, for the first time I liked Utau and Ikuto: for the first time, Utau actually came in action, instead of looking at Ikuto like she usually does. It now also becomes clear that she’s searching for Embryo for Ikuto. It does make sense. I’ve aways wondered why Ikuto had a Shugo Chara, while he’s much older than all the other characters of the series. It’s probably also got something to do with this.
This episode also finally shows us Amu’s Su-transformation, one which uses honey to change batsu-charas back. I still find everything going a bit too easy for Amu. I mean, all she has to do is transform and unleash her powers to save the day.
Shugo]]>