Simoun – 23 – Let the Finale Begin

by psgels, posted in Simoun


An intermezzo. It’ll probably the intermezzo before the big finale of Simoun. Let us hope it’ll be able to deliver the long-awaited bang.

The important characters this time were Aaeru, Neviriru, Paraietta, Yun, Onashia, The Temple One and a bit of Harukonfu. The Peace treaty has been signed. It’s not a trap. But there is a catch: the Chor Tempest will be disbanded. The Priests from the highlands will be taking over the Sibylla’s duties. This worked exceptionally well to put time pressure on our characters. Especially and surprisingly The Temple One shows this, as she isn’t happy with this decision at all. After all, if the Chor Tempest will be disbanded, it’ll almost be impossible to perform the Emerald Ri Maajon. She freaks out and begs Neviriru and Paraietta, who she happened to run into, to perform it.

Yun has meanwhile left the Arcus Prima, and headed towards the ruins. There, she has a very interesting discussion with Onashia. Onashia once was a member of the Chor Dextra. She could understand Yun, as she lost a lot of former friends herself. Onashia then shows her something very interesting: the result of what happens if you don’t choose your gender. If that’s the case, you’ll end up like her. Your eyes get a weird colour, and your body turns blue and starts shedding away strange sparks, which don’t really look healthy. This also explains how Onashia managed to get such a high position. As she never went to the spring, she remained a holy priest for her entire life. Of course that would give her status.

Aaeru is getting more and more confused. It seems that she really wants to see another world. It seems that she had another reason to become a Sibylla than just not being able to make up her mind. Her grandfather also influenced her, making her wanting to travel to another world. That’s why she joined the Chor Tempest. In any case, later in the episode, we see her getting a bit annoyed and confused with Neviriru. She thinks it’s because Neviriru’s been talking more and more, though I (and Furoe as well) think that she’s still jealous with the possibility of Amuria still existing.

Harukonfu still doesn’t know what he can do. He can’t protect his daughter, he lost his status, he’s nothing. Maybe we can expect some interesting things from him in the latest episodes. Paraietta and Neviriru also finally seem to have understood each other.

It seems that everything is set now for the finale. I’m wondering how it’ll go. It’s got some good ingredients, now all that’s left is how to use them.

Night Head Genesis – 06 – To live or to kill yourself. That’s the question.

by psgels, posted in Night Head Genesis


Okay, Night Head Genesis has its flaws. Naoya’s voice-acting can get annoying at times. The two of them also get entangled in situations for weak reasons. The overall purpose of this series also seems a bit lost, though maybe Shouko can change this.

Still, I love this show. It’s not afraid to deal with disturbing themes such as suicide, homicide and abuse, and it successfully portrays the feelings of all of the persons involved, whether these are Naoto and Naoya, or some side-characters, unimportant to the main story. Because this show deals with such themes, the pain and suffering from each of the characters are huge, only contributing to the awesomeness.

I also like the way that the different stories are integrated with each other. Before the conclusion of one arc is found, evidence for the next arc has already started. It gives this show a nice piece of unpredictability.

Same with this episode. Things didn’t go as I expected. Naoto and Naoya didn’t recognize the woman, so that’ll probably be a story for later. She seems to work for doctor Mikuriya now, so she’s bound to appear later in the anime. The house being gone seems to be a nasty side-effect of Naoto’s power, though full details haven’t been given yet.

The case for this episode revolves around three students, friends of each other who committed suicide. Every week, at the same time and same place for the past three weeks. Furthermore, the school they attended harboured some nasty people. We’ve got one extremely popular girl, who likes to steal boyfriends from others, only do dump them immediately afterwards. Then there’s the corrupt gym teacher and we have a school nurse who’s always calm on the outside, but hates people and likes to stab others on the inside. Somehow, these suicides are linked to these three people.

I’ve got no idea how things happened. After all, the last victim did kill herself. We saw her slitting her wrist. Not because someone forced her to, but because her entire life was boring, and she actually wished to die out of boredom. It’ll be interesting to see how this boredom is linked to the school nurse.

.Hack//Roots – 21 – Trainwreck Continued

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots


Don’t you just love episode titles who spoil the climax?

Haseo continues on his rampage, slaying every player possible. He then runs into a player who survived an encounter with Tri-Edge as well, and gets defeated. He’s like a mad bull, charging at everything which even bears the slightest signs of movements.

But yeah, bulls haven’t exactly been known for their outstanding intelligence. Why doesn’t Haseo try to think a bit, and check out the lost grounds? You would suspect some clues who can turn up, instead of committing genocide in the normal fields. Still, I’m curious how Haseo will react now that he’s been defeated. I was hoping that Midori would be able to beat some sense into him, though the last scene suggests that he’ll be turning even more berserk than he already was.

Phyllo, meanwhile, was nowhere to be found during the episode. Tabby founded a guild, along with the purple-haired guy (forgot his name). I liked Pai. It’s indeed clear that her Pai-personality is one big act, as she keeps getting more and more annoyed by Saburou. Saburou herself has gotten more interest in Haseo, which can also be a good sign. I like the two of them, they’re two of the few good character who appeared after the mass character-homicide of episodes 13-15.

Midori also shows promise. I like the way she was introduced. She was introduced because she had an encounter with Tri-Edge, and not the other way around (having an encounter with Tri-Edge because she was introduced). Yata needs some action. All he does is sitting, staring at some blue screens full of techno-babble. We get absolutely no clue why he has to sit there all the time. What does he need. What are all these screens for in the first place?

And what is going on with Haseo in real life? Has he been sitting behind his computer, in emo-mode ever since Shino disappeared? One of the things I loved about .Hack//Sign is that at certain times, it showed small flashes of the real persons behind their computer. I loved the philosophical themes behind //Sing. But ah well, I guess I’m going to have to accept that //Roots will feature none of them at all.

Night Head Genesis – 05 – Awesome

by psgels, posted in Night Head Genesis


Awesomeness. Night Head Genesis proves that it’s capable of providing some highly disturbing, but at the same time very touching scenes. I’m loving this series more and more. Finally we have another show who’s trying to show the worst side of humans. That’s always good for a few juicy scenes, and Night Head Genesis is no exception for this.

Naoto (ugh… it was Naoto after all, not Naota) and Naoya have been heading back to the home in which they grew up. Now that they’ve arrived in their old neighbourhood, they have some flashbacks of the time in which they were young. They discuss two major cases, among a few smaller ones. It’s great to see their younger versions return. They work awesome.

Case 1: Naoto when he was just a baby. He’s playing with a tiny fire truck toy. It’s when his parents first discover his powers when somehow, the truck moves without any batteries being in it. He also gives his father a nosebleed when he tries to take away this truck. It’s interesting that he already had these powers at that age, and was using them to hurt others, unconsciously. Naoto also reveals that at that time, he thought that anyone was able to move things without their hands. Indeed, how do you make a baby like that clear that it’s not okay to hurt others like that?

Case 2: Naoto is six and Naoya has just been born. About a year later, we see the two of them playing with wooden blocks a bit, when an earthquake occurs. Naoto manages to protect Naoya from a falling vase. It’s the first time when Naoto realizes Naoya’s power, when their mother comes in, worried. She then picks up Naoya, who sends her thoughts to Naoto. “There’s nothing to worry about”.

Case 3: A former subordinate of the brothers’ father came to sell a large amount of land to them. He came with his wife and daughter. The daughter, who had heard the rumours about Naoto and Naoya, came to their room, and seemed to enjoy poking fun at them, and treating them like dirt with nobody else around. Naoya then got a bad feeling, and then he touched the former subordinate, getting in shock and revealing his evil plans. What follows is Naoto, protecting his family by hurting the culprits. Because of this, Naoto and Naoya’s power fully awakened. But their mother and father also began to look differently at them. It’s interesting. When you look at it one way, the two of them prevented them from being deceived, and losing a large amount of money. But at the same time, when Naoto keeps using his powers to hurt others in such an “unnatural” way, you could be scared at the same time. And that’s the case with their parents. For some reason, you’re less likely to forget fear than to forget pleasant events.

Case 4: Naoya touched a little girl, who always was carrying a doll with her, and got into shock. He had to be hospitalized for this. When Naoto tried to explain what happened to the doctor, he was just ridiculed. In the end, it seemed that the little girl was heavily being abused by her father. Naoto found the latter hurting the former’s body with a sharp sabre. She was covered in blood and wounds when Naoto found her, took her away and showed the public that her father was a molester. When Naoya heard this, he turned back to normal. When Naoto and Naoya think back about this, they notice that Naoto saw the doll, which the girl used to carry, with red eyes, while Naoya’s vision showed a doll with blue eyes.

Then, the grown up Naoto and Naoya arrive at the place their former house stood. Well, it’s gone. It’s turned into a field of grass. To make things better, when they ask a local, it seems that there’s never been a house on that patch in the first place. A silhouette of Shouko then appeared for a second. The episode ends with the girl from case 5, who runs into them. I’m so curious about how she ended up after her father was imprisoned.

Still, what does this mean? Why has their former house been erased. And more importantly, what happened to their parents? And what the heck is Shouko up to?

Another thing I love about Night head Genesis was the 15-year time-leap. The two brothers have changed so much in that time. The former short-tempered Naoto now has seemed to have learned to control his temper.

Mushishi – 25 – What to choose: Light or Darkness?

by psgels, posted in Mushishi


I’ve been looking forward to another episode of Mushishi. It seems that it doesn’t know how to deliver a bad episode. Each of the stories presented works so incredibly well, dealing with a different problem every single time.

This time, we have a little girl, who’s blind. She encounters a mushi, Ganpuku. This mushi gives her sight. At first she’s incredibly happy, but then the mushi starts showing her things that she shouldn’t be able to see. She’d be able to see right through walls, she could see things which happened miles away from her, nothing was a secret for her anymore. But it didn’t end there. Ganpuku then gave her the ability of foresight. The girl grew up, and many people came to her, in order to get their futures told. Obviously, the girl didn’t have any friends at all. When her father died, she moved away from her village and started living as a shamisen-player (which C1 seems to have turned into a lute).

Of course, while it may seem like joy and goodness in the beginning, if you have to live with this for more than fifteen years, you begin to see the disadvantages. Every good thing has a bad thing, and every bad thing comes along with a good thing, and this is no different. The girl may have had the ability of foresight, she had this 24/7. She had no way to turn this off, and she lived her entire life, seeing things in the future. In the end, she became dizzy and unhappy because of it. Around the end of the episode, it seems that Ganpuku has completely taken over her eyes. They then detach from her body, and turn into their real form.

It’s indeed a dilemma for the woman. She has to choose to either see the future continuously or see nothing at all. It’s a choice between two extremes, with not middle way at all. In the end, the woman didn’t care for herself anymore, and was content with living with Ganpuku. But she didn’t want anyone else to suffer the same fate she did. Therefore, she asks Ginko to bury her eyes, somewhere in the forest.

Otogi Juushi Akazukin – 10 – An Ibara Episode

by psgels, posted in Otogi Juushi Akazukin



Lots of talking this episode, which made the overall story rather hard to understand. It’s an Ibara-episode. Souta and the others end spending the night in a village, in which a special flower grows. It’s called the Sennen Tsubomi. They meet up with a girl, who’s responsible for tending this flower. Still, something strange seems to be the deal with it. It doesn’t seem to bloom, and Souta gets a strange feeling out of it.

Shirayuki tries to bless the flower by pouring some holy water on it, though Ibara (who’s been goofing off for the entire episode) falls asleep on top of her, kindof destroying Shirayuki’s motivation to keep trying. Still, later she’s seen looking at the flower in a suspicious way.

I think the village is living in poverty. If I had to guess, Sennen Tsubomi is the only flower in the village. Perhaps it’s the first flower appearing for quite a long while. The girl, responsible for tending it also gives a lot of food to Souta and the others, as a form of hospitality, while the village itself has barely to eat. I think the villagers are seeing it as a symbol of fertility.

Later in the episode, Randagio pours some strange liquid on the flower. A rather funny scene occurs, in which Randagio ordereds the flower to find Erde’s key, after which Akazukin, Shirayuki, Ibara, Souta and Ringo appear to protect the flower. It’s a nice play with coincidence. ^^ In any case, Sennen Tsubomi gets a dark aura and transforms into a monster. It seems that Sennen Tsubomi appeared because of Cendrillion. Because of her grasp on the country, darkness has started to appear. I think it’s first form is in flowers like these. Randagio recognized this, and helped the flower evolve a bit. Afterwards, Ibara stopped the flower, and it sprouted in tons of other, white, blooming flowers. According to Ibara, these don’t seem to have any evil power.

It’s interesting that the evil starts to appear in the form of flowers like these. I’m wondering what the next stage will be: more flowers or animals.

Some random facts:
– Sweet Phones are called phones for a reason: they acually ARE phones. Shirayuki and Akazukin use them to communicate with each other in an attempt to wake up Ibara.
– Cendrillion seems to have another minion.
– The little girl seems to be speaking about a strange flashback, in which monsters attacked the village, surrounded by flames.

Random cute moments:
– Ibara, casting her spell half-asleep, in gibberish.
– Randagio, getting caught in the act by the girl. And correcting her when she calls him a cat.
– Afterwards, when Akazukin and the others appear, Ringo does hold Souta’s arm.
^^

Overall, it was a very nice episode, though I think this is one of those episodes at which I really need to see the subbed version. I bet that I’ll love it even more when I do. ^^;

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 17 – After a month absence, Shuurei returns. And more awesome than ever. :)

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari



I’m SO glad that Saiunkoku Monogatari’s back again. And to top things, it returns with one of the best episodes so far. I really loved it!

Remember when Shuurei was on the verge of being captured by Kochou and her henchmen? The story returns from this point. Kochou orders Shuurei to come inside, as there’s someone who wishes for it. She can’t refuse, as it’s a person whose rank is way higher than Shuurei, Eigetsu and Seiran’s combined. Kochou reminds Seiran of the fact that he can’t do anything with his current status, and that he can’t even protect his loved ones. She gives the subtle hint that if he was an officer with authority like Shuuei, he could have done something. Seiran gets this hint, and leaves.

We then see a scene in which the bad guy for this arc has a small conversation with one of his henchmen. He seems to be the one who ordered Kochou to take in Shuurei, and he indeed seems to have set his mind to kicking Shuurei out of the palace. He also seems to have a grudge against Eigetsu. I’m not sure about the reason yet, but I think Yougetsu made a fool out of him once. He also surprises himself over the fact that Reishin would volunteer to act as Shuurei’s sponsor. It seems that he also wants Reishin to leave.

Next, a discussion between Shouka and his younger brother, Kurou. It begins strange, when Shouka reveals that Kurou was the one who gave Eigetsu food and a place to stay after he ended up sending all of his money back to his village. I always thought that Eigetsu was staying in Shuurei’s house, though now it seems that Kurou has been taking care of him. Kurou also seemed to have asked Eigetsu about Shuurei. Apart from this research, he also seems to have been the one to prevent Shuurei from facing a huge amount of harassment, though it’s not yet clear what. He also tells Shouka that he hates him, and he seems to have been the one to throw Shouka out of a certain home. Shouka, however, remains indifferent about this. Not only that, but he also plans to have Shuurei become Kouyuu’s wife. A messenger then arrives, telling him about Reishin who’s been locked up and Shuurei and Eigetsu are stuck in Kogarou. There’ll also be an inquiry about the two of them the next morning. Kurou figures that the two of them are being held to prevent them from being able to attend, so it would seem that they were afraid to come and have fled, making them guilty. Kurou then gets serious, and plans to make use of his power as a member of the Kou-clan. He doesn’t like it when his clan-members are put in difficult situations.

Back when they were taken in by Kochou, Eigetsu secretly gave Seiran the stamp he got from Ryuuki in the previous episode. During this episode, the purpose of this stamp gets explained. If you give a letter that stamp, it will always arrive with top priority. Seiran used this to notify Ryuuki that Shuurei’s been captured. He discusses this with Shuuei, and they both don’t like it. When Ryuuki also finds out that Reishin has been captured and Kurou, who apparently is the proxy head of the Kou clan also has been sighted, he really begins to see that things aren’t going into the right direction. The reason for that, we see later. Ryuuki gets an idea when Kouyuu notifies him with the letter for the petition. He plans to go to Shuurei, though Kouyuu commands him to come back soon with a very evil voice. ^^

Then we see Seiran, who’s paying a visit to Raien, who seems to be a high-ranked official. Seiran asks for the position, rank and authority to wear a sword to protect what’s important to him. Kochou’s plan seemed to have worked.

Shuurei, meanwhile, is getting a bit depressed inside Kogarou, because Kochou betrayed her. Eigetsu then tells her the reason why he wanted to become a government official. It seems that it’s for the money. Eigetsu’s village had one doctor. At times, this doctor wouldn’t be able to handle all of the patients who came to him. If he had money, he would have. The doctor always had a sad look on his eyes when this happened. Eigetsu doesn’t want him to get that look. Some thugs then come to pick up Eigetsu, in order to play around with him a bit. I love the thugs in Saiunkoku Monogatari. They seem to fit perfect, but are clueless at the same time. This becomes clear when they try to feed Eigetsu some alcohol. Eigetsu gets taken away, along with the alcohol. In any case, they also mention something important. The reason why Eigetsu went berserk was because he refused to marry the daughter of the bad guy.

Next up, a discussion between Kourin and Ensei. Ensei seemed to have grown his beard again (he indeed really hates shaving). It seems that the two of them will be arriving early, and Kourin displays the strength of her character. This scene really made me respect her. It seems that Kourin wanted to meet the one she tried to kill, in order to apologize, and repent for her sins. She’s actually willing to take responsibility for the things she’s done.

Back to Shuurei, one of the thugs decided to have a bit of fun with her (being in a brothel, and all). Then, it seems that the thugs managed to feed Eigetsu some alcohol after all, and Yougetsu appears. That takes care of the annoying thugs.

Kochou then arrives at the place. The thugs then command her to summon the guards, though Kochou turns back on them, using her own guards to knock out the rest of the thugs. In a highly intimidating way. Afterwards, Yougetsu tries to hit on Shuurei, but faints before it gets serious. The remaining thug then scolds Kochou, claiming that she betrayed them, after all of the affection his master showed. Kochou then claims to never have been on his side in the first place, and that the guy should really begin to know his place. She also yells at him for doing things to her precious Shuurei. Shuurei then realizes that Kochou just acted, and that she never betrayed her in the first place. What follows is a touching scene in which Shuurei’s extremely glad that Kochou didn’t turn her back on her. It seems that Kochou told her to stay away from Kogarou was to protect Shuurei. After all, if she was seen in a brothel, she’d be in trouble. Kochou also tells her that she acted the way she did because of a request from Shuuei. It seems that the guy really knew what was going on.

Back to Kurou, Kage (the messenger) and Shouka. Kurou has taken drastic measures when he sends out a message to every member of the Kou-clan living in the capital. Kurou’s really getting angry for having his big brother locked up.

Back to Kogarou, Ryuuki explains Shuurei about the ring of the head of the Sa clan. Originally, Sa Taiho had this, though ever since his death, the ring has been missing. The bad guy is trying to take advantage of it. How exactly isn’t known. It seems that if you have the ring, you automatically have status, or something, but that isn’t really explained. He also tells her about t
he inquiry. Ryuuki thinks it’s a good idea to let Shuurei and Eigetsu stay at Kogarou for the night, so that they can head for the palace next morning. There’ll probably be resistance, though he won’t assign any major guards, as he wants Shuurei to come on her own strength. Seiran gets to be the only one to protect her. Ryuuki then grabs a number of papers, which somehow will become a large piece of evidence of that corruption. I think he means Shuurei’s report on her treatment for the last couple of episodes.

What follows is Seiran leaving to check up on Shouka and Kochou bringing Eigetsu to bed. It seems that they knew that the two of them needed a bit of time along. In this time, Shuurei thanks Ryuuki for not going soft on her. The fact remained that when she worked as the queen, she was never told about anything. She was being protected, though now she isn’t. She likes it that Ryuuki treats her as a normal official. Ryuuki then gets notified of a very angry Kouyuu, who alerts him of the fact that half of all work outside of the castle has come to a halt (Kurou’s work).

Back in the palace, Ryuuki surprises himself over all the petitions that arrived. This just shows the power of the Kou clan. The capital is in a state of major confusion. Senior Secretary Kou has been occupying one of the distant residences all by himself (remind me again… who was that?) and has put himself under self-imposed house-arrest. Shuuei then figures that should be going back to normal in a day, if nobody does something about it. The power of the Kou clan is much larger than what Kuro demonstrated and they’re able to do much worse. So, basically, Kurou is telling them to resolve everything within a day. Then, another interesting fact gets revealed. Ryuuki wonders what the bad guy was thinking by going against Reishin. Shuuei then mentions that Reishin hasn’t revealed the public that he’s the actual head of the Kou-clan. And indeed, when we later see a scene with the bad guy, he’s astonished about Reishin’s power. He never imagined it would be this big. Oh, and they also get a note from Ensei, with the message that he’s likely to arrive the next day, in the evening. Ryuuki then orders them to arrive that noon instead. Probably because he wants them to attend Shuurei’s inquiry.

Back to Shuurei and Kochou, Eigetsu seems to have woken up, and the two of them spend the rest of the night working on their report, to get them done before the inquiry begins.

The next day, we see what Kijin was planning with the papers from the previous episode. I have no idea what kinds of papers they were, but they were valuable to Shuurei’s and Kouyuu’s reports, and he slipped in into their work.

Next episode promises to be a big one. I’m glad Saiunkoku Monogatari returned. ^_^

Comedy Review – 89/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Seriously. I’ve seen Comedy for ten times now already, and I’m still drooling. This ten-minute short by Studio 4C really is a piece of beautiful art. Not just the drawings and background, but the story and the characters themselves as well.

Just for the record, it may be named Comedy, but the short itself is everything but a comedy. It’s a story, set in Ireland in the middle ages. The English are about to invade a village, and one of the villagers, a five year old girl, searches for a black swordsman in order to defend the village. The movie is just ten minutes long, so you’d wonder how such a story would fit in such a short amount of time. Well, the creators knew exactly how to use the time given to them, and they somehow managed to do this.

To fully understand Comedy, you should actually watch it at least twice (you’ll understand when you do ;)). The little girl and the black swordsman are surprisingly likable. In only ten minutes, Comedy shows that the two of them have very versatile, strong and interesting personalities. Something most anime can’t even do in an entire season. The little girl, coming up with such an idea and having the bravery to actually execute it (remember, she’s five and the English are about to invade) was extremely cute to see. The black swordsman also was given a friendly side in his obsession with books. The combination of these two characters works surprisingly well.

The character art in this short is unique. Characters have extremely white faces, with black clothing. Their faces are drawn rather messy, though the style this gives off only contributes to the overall quality of the movie. The animation shows that a lot of effort has been put into it. You can especially see this in the action scene. It’s a short one, though it’s extremely creative coordinated. Throughout the entire movie, an operatic voice takes care of the background music. It greatly contributes to the scene, but it also doesn’t drive the attention away from the really important parts.

Still, the fact remains that this short film is short. There is a little bit of background info given about the swordsman, though it isn’t enough. I’d love to know more about him and the little girl. I’d love to see more of this. But unfortunately, that’s impossible. Overall, while there isn’t really any tension or angst in this short, it keeps fascinating me. I just have to see it over and over again.

The Animatrix Review – 74/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, The Animatrix



The Animatrix is a collection of nine short films, all around ten minutes in length. Kid’s Story, Matriculated, World Record, Detective’s Story, Final Flight of the Osiris, Program, Beyond, The Second Renaissance Part I and The Second Renaissance Part II. Each of these films gives an attempt to cover one part of The Matrix, a movie trilogy made a couple of years ago. The remarkable thing about this anime is the fact that both eastern as western producers and directors worked on it. If you haven’t seen the matrix yet, the story basically revolves around the future, in which machines have taken over the world. The sunlight has been blocked and the machines noticed that human bio-energy was an extremely useful source of energy. The machines then put humans in containers, while their minds are permanently captured in The Matrix, or a huge virtual world. There’s no way to tell that this world isn’t real. The Matrix stimulates each of the senses. Every human locked up just believes that that he’s living his daily life in a world similar to ours.

The Matrix itself was really though-provoking, and it’s unsurprising that most of the nine-shorts are so as well. They bring up interesting questions. Also, when you look at the graphical department, The Animatrix excels. Each of the different shorts offers a different art, background and animation style. And each of these styles, ranging from CGI to extremely messy and from black and white graphics to extremely smooth ones, works out great. A lot of budget went into the art and animation, and this clearly is visible, with some great effects.

About the different shorts. The thing is that there are some very good ones, but also some very bad ones. The best of the bunch is arguably The Second Renaissance. It features an extremely interesting, though very shocking explanation about how The Matrix originated. Beyond and World Record also are definitely worth the watch. Beyond features a huge amount of style and symbolism, with an interesting story as well. World Record is extremely intense, with a very interesting main character whose body and soul get the shock of their lives.

Then we’ve also got some slightly interesting shorts. Both Program and Kid’s Story provide some interesting issues with really make you think. They also have some interesting art styles (Program goes back to the old ninja-movies, but with fluid animation while Kid’s Story features extremely messy character art with beautiful background art). While they are interesting, and a good watch, they weren’t really as good as the three mentioned above.

And then we have the rather bad ones. Detective’s story leaves things rather unexplained and moves a bit too fast. While its film noir style was interesting, the negative parts bothered me a bit too much. Matriculated dragged on. Its art was psychedelic, though it took way too long. And the semi-3D art wasn’t really appealing for the eyes as well. The worst of the shorts was Final Flight of the Osiris. While it did provide realistic 3D-characters, it just consisted of people fighting and guns shooting without a purpose. Its failed attempts at drama by providing love interest also totally backfired.

Overall, The Animatrix has its ups and downs. Still, I’m really recommending it if you’ve seen the original movie. Because oft he different styles used, there’ll definitely be a movie which appeals to you.

The Animatrix – The Second Renaissance Part II

by psgels, posted in The Animatrix



Okay. That was amazing.

The Second Renaissance Part II has definitely been the best of the nine shorts of The Animatrix. I think this is because of its highly disturbing material. In the previous part, we saw the humans abusing the machines, now we see the machines, taking everything away from the humans, killing most of them off and placing the rest into cocoon-like containers, in order to get their energy. But I never could have imagined that it was this gruesome and intimidating…

We continue where we left off. The robots began to wage war on humans, taking over human territories. Then, the humans came with their most desperate plan yet: sealing off the sky. They used a huge amount of planes, disposing huge amounts of a strange gas into the atmosphere, closing off the earth from all sunlight, the machines’ main source of power. Afterwards, the humans planned to wage one huge war against the weakened machine.

Still, they weren’t weakened enough. What follows is a number of horribly disturbing scenes, in which the machines gradually kill off human soldiers in some rather disturbing ways. Humans didn’t stand a chance. Hospitals became overly crowded. The machines seemed to have studied the humans bodies. After they had won the war, they started experimenting with the surviving humans in order to use the power from the human body. The final cities of the humans were destroyed, and each human was converted into The Matrix.

This short indeed was as awesome as it’s rumoured to be. It’s really been a while since I saw such huge shocking images in anime. Heck, even in regular movies and television. And just when I thought that Beyond was chockfull of symbols. As this is a documentary, the screen is so full of all kinds of references, symbols, analogies, et cetera. Awesomeness.