Star Crossed Anime

Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club – 18 – This Show Seriously Needs More Love

November 12, 2006 by psgels, posted in Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club

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Okay, you know a show is unpopular when even the friggin raws have trouble appearing! Seriously, I actually had to use Share in order to get the file for the fifth episode. (On a side-note: I still have the file, is people are interested, I could put it in a torrent and share it) It’s such a darn shame, as this is probably one of the best shows to air in the fall-season. This episode was no exception. It was awesome!

Last episode ended with Itoki suddenly appearing, and holding the Mahou Shoujo Club and Monta hostage in the school, in order to get them back to the magical world. Misao really started out awesome, as suddenly the witches who were nice to her started to attack her. What follows really is a perfect combination of drama and comedy. Especially Washuu was brilliant as ever. It’s really obvious that she sees herself as an adult who has to protect the children who were entrusted into her care. Still, in the end, she gets chased by a bunch of water dragons. ^^;

She’s forced to send Ryoki in to save Sasami and the others, who, as expected, does a very fine job of preventing Sasami (who’s been separated from the others, along with Monta, looking for Misao who has run off) to be taken away to the magical world. The funny thing is that Itoki has been following her movements from outside all this time, and Washuu, who has no idea what’s happening inside of the building, just can tell by Itoki’s reaction what Ryoki has been up to.

Sasami then finds a crying Misao while Monta gets swept away by another current, only to land to a dam, built by Tsukasa, Anri and Makoto (probably Tsukasa’s idea). They then have to find a way to get to Sasami and the others. The solution: a wind-propelled banana turned into a rubber boat with Anri’s power as navigation system. Washuu, meanwhile, manages to knock out Itoki for a second, but then she gets caught because of her carelessness. Sasami, meanwhile, manages to cheer up Misao a bit. Can it get any better than this? ^^

Then, the climax: Monta and the others find Sasami and Misao, while Itoki find their location again, and sends another of her water dragons after them. The girls’ powers have no effect in stopping them. It heads for Sasami and Misao, Monta tries to protect them and Sasami and Misao both release the same power as in the episode where Washuu almost left. Though it’s not as bad this time, as the light disappears after a while.

The next episode should prove to be very interesting. Remember the other Mahou Shoujo Club from the first couple of episodes from the second season? Well, they’ve been sent to retrieve Sasami and the others. They arrived at Misao’s room, just when she finished to recreate the ring that was broken, causing it to break again. Talk about symbolism. And when exactly will she be cutting her hair?

Kannadzuki no Miko Review – 67/100

November 12, 2006 by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

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Kannadzuki no Miko is a mecha-romance anime, with a heavy emphasis on the romance-part. It features a very passionate love relationship between two very good friends. Be sure to expect lots of yuri an shoujo-ai elements.

When Kannadzuki no Miko started, it made a very strong first impression on me. The first episode very cleverly starts with all of the clichés from a standard high-school drama, and ends the episode by offering lots of juicy twists and turns. This anime then tries to continue at the same level, though its element of surprise has subdued a bit. It tries to make up for this by being extremely dramatic, and by putting our main characters in a lot of heavily emotional situations.

And that’s where the major problem with this anime lies. There’s a line between dramatical and overdramatical, and this anime just keeps hopping over it. Some scenes are definitely worth the watch, while others just seem to try too hard. This makes 50% of this anime great to see, while it makes the other 50% laughable.

The characters are pretty interesting. They’re typical characters, developed in a non-typical way. We’ve got the shy girl who can’t do anything, the cool girl who’s incredibly rich and a fangirl-magnet, there’s also a very popular boy who’s the best at sports and has sworn to protect the person he loves, and of course the set of bad guys who come to assault our main characters isn’t missing. Still, at the end of the series, each of these characters has turned into someone unique

Kemonozume Review – 81/100

November 12, 2006 by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

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Kemonozume is an adult-themed love story with a little dose of action. It’s set in a world in which humans are plagued by creatures known as flesh eaters, human-like beings who can change into monsters and eat anything they see that moves. It follows one of the strongest hunters of these flesh eaters, who falls in love with one of them. The two of them elope, and leave their surroundings to deal with the consequences.

The first thing that strikes the eye when watching this anime is the art. It definitely sets itself apart from all other anime due to the extremely messy art, both character as background. Getting used to this art may take a while, but it fits the mood of this anime perfectly. Especially in combination with the weird themes which come across the screen, you can really say that this anime has a unique style.

Kemonozume start with two introduction-episodes. In my opinion, the first episode starts off well, though episode two was the worst episode of this series. It’s a bit too formulaic and standard. But afterwards, Kemonozume really sets off with a set of very interesting, but in theme very different episodes. One episode can be a very funny comedy-episode while the next you see a naked guy, tied up on a chair with a paper bag over his head, or a normal slice-of-life episode featuring an old couple or an episode dedicated to the history of our characters’ parents. Then, at around episode 9, the climax starts forming with a couple of very dramatic scenes. And with dramatic, I really mean dramatic, a bit too dramatic perhaps. The ending itself was pretty decent. Very strange, but pretty decent.

Also, like I said, this is a show with adult-themes. Bodies get cut in half, arms get ripped off, lots of naked men, women and sex scenes pass the screen, so I’d keep this away from your little brother or sister. Overall, Kemonozume was a very nice watch. It kept a good balance between drama and comedy, but I felt that the great climax in the final episodes tried a bit too hard, therefore losing its effect.

Otogi Juushi Akazukin – 20 – Princess Akazukin

November 12, 2006 by psgels, posted in Otogi Juushi Akazukin

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And with this, we start the second half of Otogi Juushi Akazukin. And how better to start it than with an upgrade on our main heroine: Princess Mode. Seriously, she looks sickeningly cute in it. Even more than she already was. This was quite a funny episode, despite its seriousness. This mainly was due to our three musketeers, who couldn’t decide which one of them would be getting this upgrade (I loved how Ibara tried to say something in between the bickering Akazukin and Shirayuki) and therefore had to be calmed with a huge bucket of water and Harmeru, who turned out quite interesting in this episode, even though he had such a minor role.

This was mainly due to the small details. Am I the only one, or was he a bit too eager to save Ringo at the beginning of the episode? I think someone’s falling in love. ^^; Later in the episode, we also see him get annoyed at Kyupi, who decided to use his headgear as some kind of strange chair. I just hope that Akazukin’s transformation sequence will be shortened in the future episodes. It was just a bit too long.

The next episode will be comparable to this one, as another very strong enemy will appear, and Akazukin will probably end up testing the limits of Princess Mode. Which makes you wonder: does that mean that she’s a real princess? Also, what use will Gretel be in the future episodes? And Randagio? With Akazukin now that strong, they’d have to come up with some pretty creative strategies to be of any use in battle. Or will they have a special role in the future episodes?

Night Head Genesis – 15 – Very Interesting

November 11, 2006 by psgels, posted in Night Head Genesis

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Whoa… I can’t help but feel sad for Shouko. Her powers have become so huge that her spirit left her body, forcing her to spend the rest of her life in the state she’s in now. At first, I thought it was quite convenient for her to have such a power, but this is just sad. Very sad.

Anyway, this episode concludes the Mikuriya arc. It was a very good episode, in my opinion. A lot of life-changing themes which can’t be solved that easily passed the screen. I’ve always been a fan of series which introduce these kinds of questions. Mikuriya survived the episode, though I don’t think we’ll see him again, as he’s planning to leave the country. The fact that humans can be able to exceed the 30% of brain capacity appears to have some serious consequences, as Shoko proved.

The other parts of this episode, in which Naoto, Naoya and Mikuriya had to escape the mysterious threesome also were well worth the watch. The creators did a good job in making expecially the beginning very creepy. There also was quite an amount of time put aside in order to show this. Most times, when fights are dragged, it doesn’t mean anything good, though this episode provided a very nice exception, as it gave Mikuriya the opportunity to hold a rather interesting speech. Also, did the threesome really die? Or do they still have a few tricks up their sleeve? And what happened to Naoya at the cliff-hanger?

Night Head Genesis started to become disappointing with the Kariya-arc. Okay, it was nice to see, but a bit too dramatic without much emotions, and it didn’t go anywhere. The Sonezaki-arc made a nice attempt to recover from this, and now the Mikuriya-arc has continued this. I’m glad to see that Night Head Genesis is finally getting good again.

Ghost Hunt – 02 – Glad to see this subbed

November 11, 2006 by psgels, posted in Ghost Hunt

Aah, finally the second episode of Ghost Hunt has been subbed. It’s one of the non-sequel Autumn Season shows I was actually looking forward to, and so far, it hasn’t disappointed. I’ve also heard some great things from the people who watched the Chinese subs, so this might prove to be a very interesting anime.

The thing that immediately sets this anime apart from all other anime is the OP. It’s definitely a unique one, and I really like it. This anime also makes very well use of conflicts. Basically, we have this haunted deserted old school building, and eight parties actually were involved:
– Our main character: Mai. A normal schoolgirl who got involved in this.
– Our main supporting character: Shibuya Kazuya, or Naru-chan. Like his nickname suggest, he’s an incredible narcissist. He looks at ghosts in a technological way. This episode also shows that he doesn’t really care about himself: he just sleeps in a van from time to time and when his hand starts bleeding, he refuses help.
– Kuroda: she sortof involved herself in this. She tells everyone that she can sense spirits, and she likes to act as a drama queen. I’m not sure whether to believe this, but she actually was the only one who hasn’t blundered during this episode.
– Hara: a medium. She’s been asked to investigate. According to her, there isn’t any spirit around. Still, during this episode, she ends up in the hospital.
– Matsuzaki: a priest, also asked to investigate. She’s quite cocky.
– John: an exorcist, with a strange accent. He’s actually the only person who doesn’t cause conflicts. Though the fact that he tries to calm the arguing others does mean that he ends up enlarging them.
– The unnamed monk. Sorry, forgot his name. He’s quite confident in his own abilities, which does make him quite cocky at times, though not as bad as Matsuzaki.

This was actually a very enjoyable episode. First, Matsuzaki gives her exorcism a try. Because of this, the principal ends up in the hospital, being hit by a bunch of windows, suddenly breaking in front of his face. Next up is Hara, who ends up in the hospital as well after she fell through a one-story-high wall. Next up is John and the roof collapses right above him. Mai luckily manages to save him. Naru-chan is up next. He figures everything is because of the fact that the building is built on a swampy floor, making the it on the verge of collapsing. Well, this theory gets smashed, almost literally when a whole bunch of windows explode and someone starts banging extremely hard on the wall. The monk is up next, but that doesn’t work as well, the lights go out and Mai is hit by a falling bookshelf, and gets knocked out. Cliff-hanger.

The best part of the episode was probably Mai, who starts to yell at the monk and Matsuzaki after they try to convince themselves that the ghost is gone through the use of lousy excuses. It may seem cheesy at first, but it worked exceptionally well. That’s the thing about this anime: at first sight, it may seem cliché and cheesy, but it definitely is everything but that. I was indeed right to be looking forward to this series. Now, let’s hope it doesn’t disappoint.

Death Note – 06 – “Let’s Show Them That Justice Always Wins”

November 11, 2006 by psgels, posted in Death Note

This episode consisted out of two parts: L, meeting up with the police officers, and coming up with a strategy to find Kira and Light, meeting up with Maki, Ray’s ex-girlfriend. I especially loved the last part. You have to have some real guts in order to try and attempt what Light did. He heard her talk, found out that she was the person closest to finding out Kira’s secret, just walked in on her and started talking to her like nothing ever happened. This makes us suspect that Light has followed some kind of acting classes in the past, as any normal person probably wouldn’t have managed to pull of such a reckless stunt.

During this episode, something also happens which the OP has been hinting at for a while: characters changing hair colours. Those against Kira get blue hair, while Kira himself, and his possible future allies get red hair. Symbolic, of course. Not in real life. Now the question for the next episode remains: how will Light kill Maki? Will he just act as careful as possible and make her end up in a car accident, or will he use her in order to confuse L even more?

Speaking of the devil, he’s indeed quite different from any normal person. He’s been living without any human contact for a long time, which may have been good to protect himself from those after him, though this did make him oblivious to any cultural traditions or habits. The fact that he’s always been living in the dark also made his eyes rather strange. In any case, while Light’s currently focusing his energy on Maki, L has come up with a strategy: trace everyone who was investigated by the FBI-officers. This number of people was quite small, which makes Light even more suspicious. It’s interesting that the bus-jacking incident must be kept secret at all costs for L.

It’s also interesting how one of L’s reasonings is wrong. During Light’s experiments with his power, L figures that Kira only used a few criminals in order to test out his new powers, though I actually think that he used all of them, though in most cases, the Death Note didn’t work because Light wrote some obscure cases in order to really test the limits of the Death Note. It’s never shown, but Light seems smart enough to actually conduct a thorough investigation, and not just an investigation based on the six cases we saw in episode four.

Still, I’m going to be anal again. Even Light notices it: what caused the coincidental meeting of Maki with Light? There’d better be a good reason for this, for obvious reasons.

Asatte no Houkou – 06 – Tetsu

November 11, 2006 by psgels, posted in Asatte no Houkou

This was such a warm episode. I couldn’t help but love it. It’s strange, as usually, I’m not really into slice-of-life series. But when they actually turn out good, they really turn out GOOOD. And Asatte no Houkou proves that once more in this episode. Like expected, it deals with Karada and Tetsu meeting each other again. Surprisingly, Karada actually does not reveal her identity. Instead, she follows Tetsu around a bit, the two get a bit familiar, and Tetsu shows her a place the two of them used to often visit. (I loved the flashback, in which small Karada refused to accept help, it just shows how much she’s changed after the incident).

There’s one thing that I finally noticed during this episode: this anime likes to play with shadows. There aren’t many anime which actually show the shadows of trees, or other objects, on the characters. In fact, I can’t remember any anime who attempted the same. They either use fancy light effects or don’t bother giving their characters shadows at all. The way Asatte no Houkou deals with these shadows really makes the environment part of the anime. I like it. 🙂

I wonder when Tetsu will find out what happened to Karada. During their little date, there were enough of subtle resemblances between the small Karada and the grown-up Karada, though at the moment, he believes they’re related, and Karada finished the episode with writing him a letter, explaining that she was currently at her mother’s for a while. Still, this doesn’t solve the problem. At one day, he will find out.

Asatte no Houkou is a wonderful anime, in my opinion. The fact that it’s featured around such a small concept allows it to fully explore it. Still, that does give it the same problem as .Hack//Sign: it’s a slow series. There’s nothing wrong with slow series. In fact, the slow pacing really is what makes these series awesome. But the fact remains that it might be too slow for some people. If you’re looking for a series in which lots of things happens at the same time, stay away from Asatte no Houkou. Far away.

Jigoku Shoujo – 29 – A Pair of Swings, Some Kunai and a Credit Card

November 9, 2006 by psgels, posted in Jigoku Shoujo

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I like the new focus of Jigoku Shoujo. Now that Tsugumi and Hajime have buggered off, it’s time for the three dolls to get a bit of depth. Each episode, one of them feels attracted to the case, and starts to investigate. Last episode, we had Ichimoku Ren, this episode, we have Hone Onna. The next episode will probably focus on Wanyuudo. I’m wondering if Enma Ai will also have such an episode.

This episode focused at the love of a teenage girl who went out of control. She’s been living right next to a guy ever since she was born. Over the years, she fell in love with him, but she was too afraid of change. Because of this fear, she just accepted that he suddenly got a girlfriend, and she actually supported him. She even gave him enough cash to fly away with her to Hawai. Her own reason for this is incredibly biased: if she confessed to the boy she loved, the two would get closer and closer together, which would eventually lead to the two of them breaking up again, and she hates to move further away from him. But, because she’s probably been watching too many soap-operas, she forgets the most important thing: if the relationship with his new girlfriend does work out right, the two of them will be moving in together at one point, and they’ll be starting a life on their own. Away from the girl.

Still, things go way differently when the girlfriend appears to be a two-timer, breaks up with the guy, and the main character makes the guy fall out of a window, two or three stories down, which kills him. Afterwards, it gets even clearer how immature this girl actually is: she wastes her afterlife for a moment of pleasure when the hears the ex-girlfriend talk bad about her ex-boyfriend (reference to Gintama 07), moves in to another apartment, and meets up with another guy who looks just like the previous one. With a bit of luck, the exact same cycle will be starting all over again. It just shows how fragile the feelings of girls like her are.

I think I’ve already said this before, but in my opinion, the power of Jigoku Shoujo comes from its formula, and its ability to deviate from this formula. Each episode, there are a few things which you know will happen. Each episode has a basic set of ingredients. But apart from these ingredients, you can see a lot of different elements, some big, mostly small. The fact that the episodes in the second season so far all ended with some kind of twist only makes this better. I really can’t get enough of these stories. ^_^

Soukou no Strain – 03 – A rather ignored show

November 9, 2006 by psgels, posted in Soukou no Strain

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Okay, so This series has been out for a week, even the subs have appeared after only two days, and I’m still the only one who blogged about it? Okay, sure, it isn’t the best series out there, it has its flaws, but it’s not bad, or anything. Ah well, time to give this show a bit more attention.

This series tries to bring an epic tale in only thirteen episodes. If the creators will actually manage to pull this off, the future episodes might get very interesting. Like I said in the quick first impressions: the first episode tried to make us feel sympathy for a one-dimensional character by making her brother kill off her three best friends. Only afterwards, she gets interesting. It may have ruined that moment, though it set a nice base for the future episodes.

I’m not sure whether I agree with Shinsen-Subs’ decision to spell the main character’s name as “Sara”. To me, it sounded more like “Seira”. In any case, I like her. Ever since the incident with her brother, she estranged herself from society. It’s like she’s become afraid to make any friends, in fear of losing them again. Well, that plan failed, as she starts talking to a doll, Lotti got interested in her, and the two technicians (whose names I unfortunately forgot, they were quite difficult ones) started to get familiar with her when she kept visiting Emily, who just happened to sit right next to one of their projects: a huge strain.

Well then, there were quite some things that I liked during this episode. The fast pacing, for example. I know, fast pacing isn’t good for series with a big plot and only 13 episodes, but it definitely does add its good points, as Good Witch of the West showed us. At least this anime doesn’t make the mistake of excluding important explanations. Lotti and her companion were also very good during the fighting scene. Lotti seems to have some kind of grudge against Ralph Werec herself, which does make her an interesting character, who’ll probably end up alongside Seira in the future. Her companion will probably get caught as an innocent bystander, due to the fact that she always follows Lotti around. This episode also showed that she isn’t entirely helpless. Isabella’s death also showed lots of potential, as it’ll be interesting to see how everyone reacts when she’s gone.

Still, there were a number of bad things as well. I still don’t get the use of the MIMICs. They’re supposed to be bound to one person, they were made when that person was born, and can’t ever be replaced. You would think that the person this MIMIC is bound to is the only one who can fly it, but episode 1 showed Seira, who just borrowed the Strain of one person, without any problems at all. How did she manage to make it work? Same with Emily, though that might gave an explanation: Emily is a second MIMIC of Seira.

Still, that doesn’t explain what Emily was doing inside the mecha-pilot-academy. And why did Seira choose this academy, of all possible academies to choose. And why did the two technicians start working on their Strain in the exact room Emily was in. And why they didn’t remove her. I’m somehow fearing that some of these questions will never get an answer. Another thing I didn’t like was the useless fanservice which appeared once in a while.