Star Crossed Anime

Some quick first impressions: Baldr Force EXE, Winter Garden and Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime

December 31, 2006 by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Yeah, I know Futago Hime isn’t exactly a 2006 anime, but I wanted to wrap up the quick first impressions before the end of the year and the start of the winter-season, and I needed one more show. Besides, I just had to say something about it. ^^;

Baldr Force Exe
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Watching the OP didn’t really make me enthusiastic about this show. It looked like this anime was going to stand in the footsteps of Ar Tonelico and Demon Bane, with a cute girl who somehow keeps clinging to some loser-like guy. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by this. Okay, it does feature a bunch of harem-stereotypes, who are all probably going to surround our main character, but the main character actually has an interesting personality. His best friend has just been killed, so he joins the organization responsible for this, hoping to find the killer. When he sees one of his former friends who did the same, though just seems to think that all of this is a game, we see some interesting scenes. Still, the concept is a bit vague. People get plugged into some kind of virtual world, and when you die in this world, you’ll die for real as well. But wouldn’t the designers of this would try to find some security-system in order to solve this problem? Like, block the amount of brainwaves when it becomes too high? Also, I’m not too happy with the cliff-hanger of this episode, seeing as the main characters suddenly runs into a sleeping beautiful girl, who wakes up and calls him onii-chan. That is not a good sign.

Winter Garden
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Ow… I’ve been fearing this for a bit. Winter Garden indeed turned out into a slice-of-life romance. Not exactly my preferred genre. Of course, when certain elements are added, even slice of life shows can become interesting, though this show doesn’t even bother. It’s relying way too much on random collisions between our main character and her love interest. Pachiko (that was her name, right?) didn’t help much either. Even though she has a quirky personality, this show was just way too boring for me. Still, if you’re fan of Digi-Charat and like slice-of-life series, you might want to check this one out.

Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime
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It’s strange how tastes change. I remember that I watched the first episode of this, back in the mid-2005, and it was really boring to me. However, after watching it right now, 1,5 years later, I totally loved it. This is another proof of how great Mahou Shoujo can be, and at the same time, how unloved. I actually had to use Youtube in order to track down the first episode, seeing as most of the torrents have stopped working. In any case, I really liked the quirky character and the seemingly inexhaustible amounts of energy of the two main characters, and not to mention that the characters were extremely CUTE! That only leaves the problem that this anime consists out of two series, with both 52 episodes. God knows how long it’ll take to catch up with that. there may be a chance I’ll blog every 13 episodes, if the remaining episodes turn out to be really good. Still, from the sample that Moetron posted on his site and which got me interested in this show again, things indeed look like they’ll be of the same quality for the rest of the episodes.

Catblue Dynamite Review – 70/100

December 30, 2006 by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

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And here we have the other of the two anime, being produced in fully cell-shaded CG. While FREEDOM consists out of a few episodes, Catblue Dynamyte is a standalone movie of about 40 episodes. Another interesting thing to note is that this one is entirely in English, with Japanese subtitles. It reminded me again of one of the reasons why I hate dubs: the American accent just doesn’t work. Still, when compared to other English dubs, this wasn’t really bad to listen to. The only annoying part was that Blue’s voice actress didn’t match her character too well.

When I first found out about this anime, I suspected that this anime would be all eye-candy with zero substance. And indeed, we have lots of eye-candy. When compared to FREEDOM, the characters move a lot smoother, especially during the fight scenes. Blue’s character indeed is very cute, seeing as she once was a cat. Everything looked quite well. The only thing is that the costumes of the goons looked rather hilarious when I first saw them.

About the substance… well, let’s say that it turned out better than I expected. The concept of a cat, turning into a person by drinking its master’s blood and being able to see and talk to ghosts is interesting, Bill was interesting with his doubts of Blue and her “talking to ghosts”, this was resolved quite nicely and Robbert and his idea to take care of things were nice to see. He also was good for a narrator, with a serious tone with your occasional sarcastic remark. I also liked the way that this anime omits some things that are taken to be obvious.

Still, the fact does remain that this anime follows the Hollywood action-movie format, which means that it goes from one action scene to another with your occasional focus on characters. While the action scenes are nice to see, they don’t really add much other value to the whole picture. While this OVA was interesting to watch, it’s definitely nothing amazing. It’s got an interesting art style, if you like experimental art styles in anime, it might be worth checking this one out, though if you’re more into your casual art style, stay far awaaay from this.

Night Head Genesis – 22

December 30, 2006 by psgels, posted in Night Head Genesis

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Okay, so what if Naoto awakened again without a good reason? This episode was damn awesome! This is one of the reasons I love shows with lots of mystery. There are just so many things you don’t know, and if they’re revealed in a good way, the results can become awesome. When a show combines good mystery with good character development like Night Head Genesis does, the results become even more awesome!

One of the reasons this episode was so good was because it deeply delved into the minds of its characters. Both Naoto, Naoya, Mikumo and Sakie. Naoto truly had become pitiful in the past few episodes. His power just was one source of destruction, and he was more and more running after Naoya than the opposite. This continued, until Mikumo made him crazy and he died. Then, for a while it seemed that Naoya would indeed take care of Mikumo, and we indeed see him actually go crazy when Naoya doesn’t do what he thinks he’ll do, and he goes berserk. But even then, he executes his plan and takes Sakie away, who just saw her sister with a knife through her stomach, causing the entire neighbourhood in a radius of 25km to delve into chaos.

But then, Naoto actually wakes up and takes care of the guy like it’s nothing. It may have been a one-sided battle, though these kinds of battles can also be great if they’re timed well, just like this one. Okuhara played a role in this as well, when she suddenly realized that Naoto indeed has become a wild element and goes crazy.

Also, the driver with an actual personality was greatly appreciated. You hardly see any goons who don’t look like each other. Most just are bunch of clones with different haircuts, while all they do is follow orders. They’re perfect employees, though not really interesting and realistic. Though making this guy actually comment on the things that have happened, the creators put him aside from all of these other goons.

So, in the end, Mikumo is killed. And before he dies, he has his moment of weakness where he tells about his past. A bit directed, but greatly appreciated. I love it when we see the histories of the different good and bad guys. It gives them so much more perspective.

Then, the final part of the episode features Okuhara, contacting Naoto and Naoya, who are about to wake Sakie. She finally reveals why she did the things she did, and if I had to say so myself, it’s a better reason than you usually see. At least she wants to improve the world, instead of your usual power-hungry guy on crack. Then we se the scene in which a person raises his/her finger into the air again, and some rather unexplained events begin. Okuhara mentions a Great Consciousness, and Naoto and Naoya also have stopped being wild elements in her prophecies. We then switch back to reality, and see a scene which does suggest that Okuhara has died. If I had to guess what happened, then she finally saw a true prophecy about the two brothers, which possibly has to do something with the sparkling ball up in the air. This prophecy had made such an impact to her, that she didn’t mind taking it to the grave. So what exactly did she see?

Also, there’s one more thing I’ve been wondering.

What the heck happened to Shoko?!

Death Note – 12

December 30, 2006 by psgels, posted in Death Note

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When I first saw Misa, I doubted whether she could be a large challenge to Light, though after watching this episode, I have to say that it’ll definitely be interesting to see how Light will deal with such a huge idiot. She actually mentioned the existence of the eyes and shinigami on a tape which got sent to the police. L also reacted quite strangely when he heard about the shinigami, this does suggest that there’s some kind of connection between him and the death gods, which suggests that there will be a point in which his childhood will be shown. 🙂

I also keep wondering the meanings of Ryuk’s maniacal laughter. Like shown before, he laughed when Naomi gave a false name. Was there also a reason why he laughed when L asked Kira to play Kira, or did he just laugh because of the irony? He’s smarter than he looks, after all, he did trick the king of the shinigami-world to give him a second Death Note. In any case, it’s good for light that he was at the scene when L watched the tape, otherwise, L would have pulled his own conclusions. This episode showed that L does listen to Light’s words.

Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club – 24

December 30, 2006 by psgels, posted in Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club

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Ah, so they went back to episode thirteen, where the five girls had to conjure up a flower, though this time, it’s a bit more extreme, when it’s Kanbu who has to be calmed. Unfortunately, my lack of japanese didn’t manage to pick up what role Kanbu actually plays, unfortunately, and why he’s so imprtant to the story. Still, the things I did understand were a nice watch as usual.

The major episode basically focuses on giving some life back to Kanbu. Sasami, Misao and the others hold hands like before, which causes them to be able to communicate with each other through thoughts. Like before, they ahve to make their minds one in order to properly functionate, though this time Misao disrupts things a bit, or rather Anri, Tsukasa and Makoto’s annoyance with her. It’s a nice discussion. Especially Tsukasa surprised me, seeing as she showed a more serious side than she ever has.

At the end of the episode, we also learn who’s going to be the final enemy in this anime. The head priestess seems to have unsealed the other Aamitabu. I’m still not sure why she did that *kicks lack of Japanese*. In any case, Amitabu’s look, at the end of the episode when Sasami brings him some food was priceless. ^_^

Still, I’m afraid to say it, though this anime seems to have lost its spark a bit. The height definitely was from eps 5 till 17. At those episodes, the characters were the most touching and funny. Though now, it’s trying to make a good finish.

Welcome to 9Rules and Yay, 700 posts!

December 30, 2006 by psgels, posted in Special Articles

Whoa, I just got some stable internet again, and the first thing I see is my shoutbox, in which Impz congratulated me for being accepted in the 9Rules-community. It’s something I didn’t really expect, seeing as when the first rounds of submissions featured such high-quality sites, I rather gave up hope of ever being accepted. Guess I was wrong. ^_^

And on top of that, this also seems to be my 700th post. Great, only 300 more till I hit the milestone of 1k posts.This also seems a good moment for a few statistics, seeing as I hit a rather large amount of other milestone in the past few weeks.

Total amount of comments: 1012 (Yay, more than 1k ^^;)
The top three commenters are the same as the previous time when I made this list (back when I made my 300th post), just a different order. Anga has made the most comments (54), then comes Cos (52) and Hopeless is still third (28, does anyone know what happened to him?).
Total amount of visitors: 104039 as I write this. Finally I managed to hit the 100k milestone, though I’m getting a bit worried seeing it took me 13 months, while others got their first 100k visitors in only three months ^^;
The largest amount pageviews in one day: 1554, back in April 30th, just before Blogsuki kicked me out.
Amount of series finished blogging: 16
Series with most posts: Jigoku Shoujo (30)
The largest amount of posts made on one day: still 12, during both my christmas updates 2005 and 2006
The longest episode-post I made was that for Higurashi 19, a massive 3973 words. I don’t think I’ll be topping that one soon. ^^;

Red Garden – 11 – Nice :)

December 29, 2006 by psgels, posted in Red Garden

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If you’ve been wondering where the heck I’ve been for the past few days… well, it’s like this. We’ve recently moved from one house to another, and upon arrival, I found out that our wireless didn’t work. My parents have bought a house in the centre of Amsterdam, and anyone who’s been there knows the typical 5/6-story houses that cover it. Nice houses, though the huge amount of floors isn’t good for setting up a wireless. Even as we speak, my connection’s still buggy as hell.

Anyway, back to the episode, and boy, that really was a great one. Probably one of the best of Red Garden yet. This is where the building up of the previous episodes really comes together, and how it does! Both Kate, Claire, Rose, Rachel, Herve, Paula, Luke, Kate’s Sister and her newly found boyfriend, Emilio receive a healthy dose of character development and attention this time. Some of these cases were just awesome to see. 🙂

Rose’s case was the least significant. Basically, she and her friend spend the episode scouting for different addresses and finding false leads. Though something’s telling me that she’ll find something interesting in the next number of episodes. Still, these travels are definitely making her a bit stronger than she already is. 🙂

Claire, meanwhile, finally gives in to her pride and heads back to the hamburger store she originally worked in. A really touching conversation follows, where the owner convinces Claire to come back working at his place. That really was one of the best parts of this episode.

Rachel, meanwhile, has a bit of troubles with her relationship with Luke, and this episode really delved into this. Deeply. For a while, it seems that the two made up with each other, though the annoying little butterflies put an end to that. In the end, Luke ends up doing what he accused Rachel of: making out with another girl. One of Rachel’s friends.

Paula also showed a very interesting side of herself. I kept wondering about her reason to support Kate so much, though this episode actually showed that she thinks very highly of Kate. Perhaps she’s even in love with her. This can be very interesting, especially since she can’t just ignore the rest of Grace forever.

Still, Kate actually was thinking of resigning from Grace herself, and probably with good reason. I originally thought that she was going to have struggles in the future, trying to keep up with the other Grace-members. Now it seems that Paula will keep dragging her, and pressuring her further, or something similar.

Also, why are the Animus Hervé’s enemies? After all, he created them himself, in a way. Why are they so dangerous? Does it have something to do with the strange power they’ve been given? (Remember Rachel leaping over the fence in episode 2?) Could that be the reason they he those zombified guys after them? In any case, he finally found a connection between him and one of the Animus (Kate): her sister’s boyfriend, Emilio. It seems that he’s also one of Hervé’s kind.

The Third Review – 95/100

December 25, 2006 by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, The Third

Very rarely, you run into series you just can’t stop fanboying about. Mahou Shoujotai had this effect with me, and now comes The Third. I absolutely loved this series, though the exact reasons still are a bit unclear to me. The Third takes place on an alternate planet, with rather advanced technologies. Our main character, Honoka lives in a rather large desert city. Together with her AI-controlled sand-tank Bogie, she takes on any job that’s requested to her, no matter how dangerous.

Probably one of the things that made The Third so great was the amazing cast of characters. Especially Honoka is an incredibly versatile girl, and during the series, there’s a huge amount of time spent on fleshing her character out, showing all of her different sides (and believe me, she has quite a few). Add the fact that her character by itself already works out great, and you’ve got a great premise. Though not only Honoka has been greatly developed. Almost all of the major side-characters receive a healthy dose of fleshing out, turning them into great characters who otherwise would have been doomed to sail the winds of mediocrity.

The fights were also very interesting to see. Honoka is an excellent swordswoman and this anime shows it. Even though she’s fighting against an army of mechas, she still manages to win, purely based on her skills, which actually make sense. Yes, a lot of time has been put into the battles, in order to make them actually believable. No longer is it just a matter of swinging swords, these action scenes have thoughts put behind them. The narrator also jumps in at times to provide a nice explanation about the thoughts behind each move and for one of the first times ever, the difference between amateuristic fighting and professional combat actually becomes clear.

The graphics in The Third also look great, apart from two slips, perhaps. The character designs are extremely appealing, a lot of details went into them, and the animation looks terrific. Still, it seems that during two episodes, some evil animation company got hold of the rights for the animation-production, and the result was a horrible mess. I heard it turned off a lot of people, though it didn’t really bother me. Honoka’s amazing character saved it.

Overall, I absolutely loved this series, though I’ve yet to find anyone who really shared my views. This might be a biased review, though I just can’t help but love The Third. All I can say is, check this series out. It’s awesome. 🙂

(P.S, hehe, it’s been a long while since I made this many posts in one day. Still, that was exactly what I had in my mind for my christmas update. I did it last year too, when a backlog caused by yet another exam week caused six episodes of Mahou Shoujotai to pile up. In any case, this concludes my Christmas Update, even though it’s still about an hour before it officially starts at our place. Merry Christmas, Everyone. Have a great time. :))

The Third – 24 – The End, Unfortunately

December 24, 2006 by psgels, posted in The Third

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Wow. That actually was a GREAT ending. Not really in terms of heavy emotions and lots of tension á lá Noein, Utena or Elfen Lied, but because of originality and freshness. The thing I dislike about most endings is the fact that they all look like each other. We either have one big bad guy who’s out to destroy the [fill in thing about which the main character cares] and he has to be stopped. Random things happen, and a party wins and a party loses. In most cases, the good side. If there isn’t a good side or bad side, then it’s still the same formula: some win, some lose, with your occasional tie.

Another possible ending is some kind of conflict between our two main characters, forcing them to fall in love with each other, with all the cheese accompanying it. Fairly predictable if you’ve seen the entire series. The third possible ending is for most slice-of-life series. Life goes on. The anime was fun, and now that it has ended, the characters will continue living their life with the experiences they had during the anime. Oh, and there are of course the shows which never end and the shows who don’t have an ending at all, and just end abruptly without any closure. It’s all too easy to put them into categories.

But not with The Third! Instead of having a final climax where a major enemy has to be defeated, the final episode actually gives a great insight about how the world of The Third has originated. The observer, the thing inside the Metal Valley actually isn’t evil at all. The final fight could be considered Honoka, whacking up Filla Marique’s army with one single blow. When the observer comes into contact with Honoka, he, just like everyone else, gets hit by her words. He was about to give up hope, though Honoka managed to save him.

I also loved how this episode brought closure to the entire series. Because the climax was so unusual, the actual conclusion also turned out greatly when the desert fairy reappeared, ready for her journey to another planet. And not to mention the Iks confession. It’s actually one of the more interesting confession, seeing as I only realized it was a confession when Joganki noted Filla Marique on it. ^_^

The pacing also was great. Because of this, even though the characters were feeling heavy emotions, this anime didn’t drag these moments like other endings do, and it managed to keep the content fresh. It’s a bit strange for an arc-based series for the shortest arc to be the ending, but it actually worked out perfectly. While it wasn’t enough to beat endings like that of Noein and Utena, The Third definitely belongs in the category of better endings.

Still, I’m sad that the third is gone now. This series has been a great ride, it’s probably my most favourite series of the Spring 2006 season. I’m not sure why, though. For some reason, I just love this anime.

“The Stars, to chase after their dream freely, they venture out this night.
With the blue nightsky and the comfortable breeze to accompany them, under the people’s guidance and blessing.”

And finally, thanks to Kaminari-kun, for subbing this fantastic series. 🙂

Asatte no Houkou Review – 93/100

December 24, 2006 by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Asatte no Houkou

Wait, an actual slice-of-life series that I actually enjoyed? Yes, it is possible. While I normally find pure slice-of-life series rather boring, sometimes one appears which adds something extra. In the case of Asatte no Houkou, the result turned out amazing. This is one of those rare anime which creates a very strong mood and atmosphere, and stays in this atmosphere for its total number of 12 episodes.

First of all, the concept is brilliant. Everyone who’s seen either anime or American cartoons probably has run into one of them: filer episodes in which two characters switch bodies, grow older, grow younger, etc. Still, all of these episodes focus around comedy. So, what happens when a series actually comes and takes a serious look at it? Well, that’s what you get with Asatte no Houkou. It focuses two characters, living normal lives, and shows how their lives are affected when something supernatural happens to them. Karada is a child, who longs to be an adult. Shoko is an adult who longs to be a child. Their wishes get fulfilled, and they learn that their wishes may not have been too smart.

For this anime, some wonderful characters were created. Shoko and Karada react entirely different to the things that happen to them, and that’s the beauty of it. Each of the episodes are so incredibly touching, you can’t help but feeling along with the characters, and if you’re a bit of a fast crier, this anime will probably leave you crying at multiple times.

It’s actually very hard to pinpoint some kind of bad point to this series. It has been so incredibly well developed, that it doesn’t seem to have any obvious flaws. If I had to name one thing, then it would be that at times, this anime likes to let characters run into each other through a deus ex machina, though unlike shows as Wolf’s Rain, this doesn’t really hurt the series. I’d say that if you’re looking for a sad, realistic story, you’ll definitely want to try Asatte no Houkou out. 🙂