Saiunkoku Monogatari – 22 – Let the fun begin :)

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari

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The past few episodes have really been meant to introduce the Sa-Province-arc. Not many interesting things have happened, but instead of that, we got some major fleshing out of characters. It seems that things will really be starting off next episode, when Shuurei has to travel to the main capital of the Sa Province either on her own, or with Eigetsu or Kourin accompanying her. Then, she’ll finally have the chance to display her strength again. 🙂

I loved how Sho Taishi keeps dropping hints to the people around him about the location of the ring of the Sa-clan. That smirk on his face really made it apparent that he’s really enjoying this. This episode, we also hear about two new characters: Sa Taiho’s daughter and granddaughter. The former has house arrest, while the latter is hiding somewhere. Shuurei imagining Seiran with a beard also was very funny, just as Ensei who got suspected of kidnapping Eigetsu. ^^

Kourin also played a major part in this episode, as she finally manages to confess the things she’s done, and finds out that Shuurei knew that she did it all along. I’m wondering how the relationship between the two of them will evolve. Right now, Kourin is desperate to make Shuurei forgive her, while Shuurei tries her best not to make Kourin worry too much.

Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club – 21 – Accepting Criticism

by psgels, posted in Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club

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Ah, I finally managed to get my hands on the eighth episode. If I had to guess, then I’d say that this show had some kind of break from its usual schedule last week, which is why even on share no files appeared. In any case, this episode had a very clear focus: getting Misao back from the witches. Misao, on her turn, has been ordered to dispose of Sasami, as she’s posing some kind of thread. She’s getting help from the older witches, who have come to see her as their master, apparently. Meanwhile, Sasami’s father found out that she headed to the magical world, and went after her, along with Ryoumi.

The episode was pretty interesting. Especially Misao is getting interesting. She’s really struggling with herself now, as at certain points of the episode, she really began to look desperate. At the end of the episode, she also overhears some older witches talk about her in a negative way, and we already know that Misao is extremely to those kinds of things. 🙂

The fight between the two Mahou Shoujo clubs also was very interesting to see. In the beginning, Sasami and the others obviously don’t stand a chance, as the other Mahou Shoujo club has much more experience, and furthermore, they’ve got similar powers, so both Anri, Tsukasa and Makoto get easily wiped out by their own kind of power. But once Sasami starts using her powers the tables are turned. I also loved how Anri managed to escape from everyone. It’s indeed a real tongue-twister to say “Basugasubakuhatsu” three times after each other as fast as possible (yeah… I tried ^^).

Asatte no Houkou – 09 – Tetsu, again

by psgels, posted in Asatte no Houkou

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No Shoko-episode this time, surprisingly. Most of the episode actually follows Tetsu, when he hears that Karada has disappeared, and starts to search for her. His part in the episode was fairly light. He runs into Kotomi, the two of them start to pass out folders with Karada’s picture on it till the sun goes down. As Tetsu doesn’t have anywhere to sleep, Kotomi mentions a hotel which a few of her acquaintances are running, and suggests Tetsu to spend the night over there. And guess what? It appears to be the same hotel Karada found herself a job in. The next episode is promising to be very interesting. Remember that Tetsu still doesn’t know what happened to her. ^^

But the great moments of the episode were the ones in which Tetsu wasn’t involved. In contrast, Shoko’s and Hiro’s worries are everything BUT light, which made the scenes in which they appeared very emotional. At one point, Karada also gives Shoko a phone call, in order to make her stop worrying about them, and at the end of the episode, the two of them have a rather heavy conversation. It seems that Shoko also realized that Karada knew that Tetsu wasn’t her real brother. It’s interesting. Hiro seems to have convinced himself of the fact that he is the big brother. He’s always convinced himself that Karada never knew about her true parents. Shoko makes him see that in a rather emotional moment.

The past few episodes have also been focusing a lot on Karada. What about Shoko? She’s really been on the sidelines for the past few episodes. Does she also get into problems in the final episodes? Something does tell me that she still has a role to play in this wonderful anime. 🙂

Soukou no Strain – 06 – Flashbacks and Parties

by psgels, posted in Soukou no Strain

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This was a very fun episode. The major part just consists out of the characters having fun with each other, after which Sara seems to finally understand the meaning of teamwork after a small mission where it seems that some Tumors have remained after Ralph Werec’s attack. Still, not all events made as much sense as I hoped them to be.

You’d wonder what happened to the Gambits who survived the attack. Such a minor cleanup mission would have been a perfect mission for them, no need to call out the highly important Reasoners for such a small job, isn’t it? I’m also wondering a bit where on earth the pigeons came from. Though the most annoying one is during the fight scene. During its climax, we see Sara’s hair wave along with the wind… What wind? There’s no air in outer space, or there must be some kind of very, very strange cooling system inside a strain.

Okay, enough about the bad things. The episode was a really good one, in my opinion. It really was meant in order to flesh out the different protagonists a bit, and I have to say, that this succeeded. This episode contained some of the funniest moments in the entire series, for example when Lotti got angry at Sara for once AGAIN ignoring her strategies, or when Melchisidec started to chase Jessie.

Carris also is slowly turning better. Okay, he’s still the annoying standard main love interest, but he’s actually slowly getting a personality. Also, when he asked Sara from who she learned to dance that well, I felt that for the first time, he actually did something good for this anime, as it clearly reminded Sara back to her times with Cedric. I also really liked Lavinia this time, when she was ambushed by the Tumors. Great scenes. 🙂

Brave Story Review – 68/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

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This movie aired about half a year ago. The promo-art looked interesting, so I was looking forward to seeing this. When I started playing this, I suddenly found out Gonzo was involved…. ouch.

Still, if you’re expecting the same crap that is Gin-Iro no Kami no Agito, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. This movie didn’t contain the flaws which plagued Gonzo’s previous attempt at a movie so much, and actually turned out into an enjoyable watch. This movie definitely was focused at a young audience, as it’s about a young boy who winds up in an adventure inside a fantasy world, in order to save his parents. The crappy teenage romance has luckily been left out.

Still, that doesn’t mean that this is something I’d recommend. It’s a decent movie, the story is nice, but it’s really nothing special. This movie really knows its audience, and therefore its cases and stories have been kept simple, and not too deep. There’s one clear theme: sacrificing others, and the major focus of this anime is aimed at this. The plot also contains a few rather clichéd elements (for example, a couple of characters end up joining our main characters journey for no good reason at all, and in order to save his parents, our main character has to collect the infamously overused five crystals. The last, of course, being the crystal of darkness).

Still, there’s one thing I can be really positive about: the graphics. As this is a movie, it’s gotten a big budget for the graphical department, and the results are clearly visible. The animation looks very good, the character design turned out very interesting, the CG looks gorgeous, and the background art really was beautiful. The only thing is that the fights could have been better, as they were rather standard.

I’d say that this is definitely not the best movie around, but if you’re bored and need a couple of hours to burn, you could want to try this one out.

Tsubasa Chronicle – 52 – The End

by psgels, posted in Tsubasa Chronicle

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And with this, the second season of Tsubasa Chronicle has ended. All that’s left now is to look forward to April, in which its third and final season will air. Fei Wong also had some interesting reasons for being involved in this arc. Because of Dhaos’ huge powers, they were able to locate Sakura and Syaoran again. If they could take this power, they’d be able to control Syaoran’s journey again. Chaos himself ended up being indeed a cluster of feathers, who developed a mind of their own. He indeed possessed a huge amount of feathers, meaning that the ones he fed Sakura were specifically created for that purpose.

There were a few strange things about this episode. Some things I didn’t expect. First of all, when Dhaos disappeared and turned back into the feathers, they actually scattered, instead of returning to Sakura. Only one feather found its way back to her, which also explains where Dhaos got his inspirations for the fake memories he created.

I also actually expected Fei Wong’s plan to succeed in the end. After all, then he’d get back in the picture again. I’m suspecting that he’s going to succeed somewhere in the third season. In any case, once he does, the fillers will be entirely over.

[EDIT]Okay, there isn’t going to be a third season, unfortunately. If a third season was planned somehow, then it would already have been announced.

Night Head Genesis – 18 – Awesome Episode :)

by psgels, posted in Night Head Genesis

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Haha! That was an awesome episode. I can’t believe how good Night Head Genesis turned out. It had a few bumps in the middle, but right now, the episodes have been getting better and better. This definitely was one of the best episodes of Night Head Genesis yet.

The episode has a fast pacing. So many things happened at once, but the great thing is that this episode develops so many different side-characters of this anime. Especially the ones who were introduced in the previous episode. The episode already starts out great with the video-tape. Futami Yoshiki’s case did seem a bit boring when I saw him at the end of the previous episode, but now he starting to tell about himself and his own history, he suddenly turns very interesting. It seems that he has two kinds of powers: to see things at places, miles away from him and to enter the internet itself, sort of like Serial Experiments Lain. He then got caught up in these powers, though Natsuko, the girl from the previous episode, changed this, and turned into his only support. Great scene. 🙂

Then, Asano-kun comes, and the episode takes a strange twist when he invites them to the Ark-company. Another new character is introduced there, Okuhara Akiko’s assistant. He seems to have the power to cancel all other psychic powers, making him very reliable. He seems to chain the Upheaval to total destruction. Here, Naoya once again displays how much he’s grown when he actually tries to prove the guy wrong. This is something he wouldn’t be able to do at the beginning of this anime.

Overall, it was a very interesting conversation, full of thought-provoking elements and references. But what followed really was awesome as we first see Naoto really get serious with his powers. 🙂 The three antagonists from the Mikuriya-arc play a strange role in this, serving only to be killed off by him. Boy, he looked scary when he did that. Great fight, and it actually gave a lot of answers. Later, the scenes only turn even more awesome when Shoko appears. She’s getting more lost in her powers, and now she even won’t be able to return to the temporary dimensions she creates. I don’t know what it is, but she’s turning more awesome every time she appears on the screen.

The episode closes with another very interesting confirmation. The reason why Ark exterminated the persons they did is because of Okuhara Akiko’s predictions. She saw that they could form a thread, so she ordered their extermination. Surprisingly, Hirose Reiko also possessed psychic powers. That’s probably why she reacted so strongly when touched by Naoya. Great to see how pieces of the puzzle are slowly being solved. 🙂

Seriously, if the rest of the anime turns out as good as this episode, we’re really in for some awesome finale. One detail I also loved was the balloon. We see it several times in the episode, one time when it’s been stuck on a pole, and during later scenes, we actually see it float upwards in the background. Love the symbolism.

Red Garden – 07 – What is Cruel?

by psgels, posted in Red Garden

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The major character in this episode? Surprisingly, it’s Hervé. This episode was really meant to introduce his case a bit, and some interesting things are revealed about Lise. Still, it’s not yet clear why he killed the other four girls.

It seems that he and his family are different from normal humans. The episode starts with a flashback, in which his mother dies, and turns into one of the monsters we’ve been seeing. I think the creators were better off showing some of his experiences with his mother first, before they killed her. It would probably have made this scene more emotional that it is now.

In any case, he’s got a good reason to act as Lula’s antagonist. I’m not sure with how many they are, but his kind has the tendency to transform into monsters as soon as they die. Right now, his little sister and his cousin are about to suffer the same fate. It seems that his grandfather is in charge of the research, attempting to cure them, though Hervé is getting more impatient by the minute. He also starts singing, at one point. I really have to pity these voice actors. They’re really doing something they aren’t used to, but the effects are great.

Two other major characters in this episode were Claire and Kate. Claire seems to be the next one to break down, seeing as Rachel cooled down a bit. Right now, she’s starting to shout to random people as well, which made her lose her job. Kate, meanwhile, moves into the opposite direction. She’s actually getting active with her Grace-responsibilities again. It’s indeed a good way to distract yourself, but I do feel that this won’t last forever, and that she’ll have her time to break down as well.

Red Garden – 06 – Keep Winning

by psgels, posted in Red Garden

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The previous episodes haven’t really been focusing on one character in specific, but this really was a Rachel-episode. At one point, she was even at the verge of committing suicide. I think that she’s the only one acting like this because she believes that she doesn’t have anyone to rely on. Rose has to be strong for her siblings, while Kate can feel, in a certain way safe, when she’s with Paula and Claire has found methods of distracting herself from these kinds of tensions, not to mention that the three have found support in each other.

Rachel actually has the most friends of all of the girls, but she doesn’t seem to realize this. Because she’s been living with such a rebellious attitude, she never really understood the support that friends can give at troublesome moments. Lula gets to be the one to bring her out of her suicidal tendencies with an interesting revelation: she can be able to get her old body back, as long as she keeps winning. When everything is over, she’ll be able to return to her previous life.

Still, the other characters also got their share of screen time. The most important probably were them, discovering their old bodies, and an interesting find by Kate. For some reason, when the girls are building up power when they feel stressed, they start to get an extremely dry throat. Eating a lemon actually helps to cure that. I’m suspecting that Kate will force Rachel to eat one of these in the next episode, as it’s really obvious that she’s extremely bothered by her dry throat. The blond guy, apparently named Hervé, will probably also benefit from these lemons. It seems that he’s got two little sisters who suffer from a similar problem. It’s probably one of the reasons he’s doing the things he does, though I feel that we have yet to reach the bottom of his problems.

I also like the meaning behind the ED a lot. We first have an episode full of tragedy and sadness, and afterwards all characters just go to a rock concert, and have fun like nothing ever happened. Nice contrast.