The Law of Ueki – 42

by psgels, posted in Law of Ueki



Okay, some anime show a few scenes before the opening theme rolls in, in order to warm the viewer up a bit and make him or her curious. Ueki does this as well. Most of the times, it’s just a summary of the previous episode, which can be tedious when you want to avoid spoilers and click on a few wrong buttons. Anyway, this episode, instead they show some new scenes…

That was the best EVER! They made me so curious about the episode, before it even started! First we see that Mori has some kind of horrible condition she has to face (I knew it!). We still don’t get told what it is though. The Law of Ueki really is a master in these kinds of tricks: give a few hints but save the clue for a few episodes afterwards. Anyway, then the first match will be Rinko against a guy named Ban Dicoot. I should have suspected something at this point, but didn’t. The result was that the next scene almost threw me on the ground laughing, when the entire mystery about this guy shifted from one pole to the other. Not only that, but then they show one beautiful picture about what will happen in the episode, featuring Rinko being heavily beaten up. That made me so enthusiastic about the rest of the episode, and the OP hadn’t even started yet.

Anyway, about the episode, I’m officially a Rinko-Fan right now. Firstly, her fight was probably the best combination of comedy and seriousness ever. It so had me cracked up at moments, while mere seconds later I was clinging to the creen and wondering whether whe would make it or not. The fight really ended in an anticlimactic way, but that doesn’t say that I didn’t love Rinko at that point. This really shows that you really don’t want to get on her opposite side. >:)

This episode was very fast-paced, as we get to see the beginning of Sano’s fight as well, which will be continued in the next episode. This guy really is different from the last one and perfect for someone like Sano, as he likes to use his head in combat as well. Needless to say that I’m really looking forward to the next episode.

Overall, the assumption I made in the previous entries was right. You so can not expect things like these. The final goons of the show all prove to be very interesting, and they’ll probably give a very good introduction to the final episodes. These next episodes will also prove to be awesome, as Team Ueki already won one of the four matches. Therefore, it only needs to win one more (wait… that’s not true, because then the score would be even. I’m predicting that the two parties will both end up with two wins, and that there’ll be some kind of decisive match held, otherwise it’s just too easy to predict the outcomes of the next couple of matches…). Anyway, this does mean that a couple of good guys will have to lose their matches. I doubt that the creators will let this go without something very big. 🙂

Noein – 18

by psgels, posted in Noein



This time, we have a Kuina episode. We get to know him a bit better, and just like in the last episode with Kosagi, we get to see his breakdown. I guess it was meant for these two episodes to focus on the La’Cryma cast, before Noein is to introduces his final schemes. I’m wondering if the future version of Ai will get her part in the next episode. But then again, I’ve noticed that Noein only brings the number of consecutive episodes which closely relate to each other to the level of two. I’ve seen that in lots of cases, but never have I seen more. Especially not when it’s so obvious as here. I do believe, however, that she’ll play some part further in the show.

Anyway, this episode, even though it had a lot of similarities with the previous one, also featured a lot of difference. Especially now you could clearly notice them between the similarities. For example, Kosagi goes in because she’s angry at Karasu and wants revenge. Kuina only goes in out of fear and despair, as a last possible option, while Kosagi wanted to go no matter what. Kosagi remained in the current timespace afterwards. Kuina is back in La’Cryma. (It’s just a hunch, but the moment he’ll be in the spotlights again could be awesome, depending on the creator’s choices). Fans of the Noein-fight-scenes will also love this episode, as we get another piece of art in front of our nose. It wasn’t as good as the Fukurou vs Karasu-fight, but there were certainly plenty of influences to see.

There were a lot more other events happening during the episode than just the scenes about Kuina. We get some more overall info about La’Cryma, the researchers learn some more things the viewers already knew, Haruka sortof ‘awakens’ (she has a weird voice when she does, by the way. I can’t help but like it) and Noein takes another step in his plans. This step will probably have a great influence on the rest of the story. What kind of influence? Well, we have to wait for the next episode to find that out.

Tsubasa Chronicle Torikago no Kuni no Himegimi Review – 87/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



What we have here, is the Tsubasa Chronicle movie. Like I said before: the characters seem to have gotten a total restyling for this. Syaoran is more confident and less hestitant. Kurogane’s become more energetic. Fye lost a bit of his sarcasm. Sakura’s more outspoken and less shy. Mokona has become less energetic and more calmly, which is totally different from his black counterpart. But the thing that’s really different from the series is the character art. It takes a bit to get used to, but once you do, it looks awesome.

The main reason you should watch this is because of the incredible graphics. Both traditional art as the CG look absolutely astonishing and the choreography is some of the best ever. Especially the flooding scene was beautiful to watch. The battles themselves shine like none other.

The story is also a masterpiece. As the movie took just half an hour, in comparison with xxxHolic, which took more than whole an hour, the scenes followed each other in a fast pace. Nevertheless, the movie didn’t really feel rushed. The setting is just perfect for a show like Tsubasa Chronicle. After all, what’s better for a story which revolves around wings and feathers to play in a bird-country? In this bird country, everything has been locked up in a gigantic bird cage. The bad guy wants to use this cage to make him uberpowerful. It may seem dull, but it were the actions surrounding this story which saved it.

For example, the character development between Syaoran and Sakura was just great (but then again, they were put together in a perfect situation *wink wink*). The royal guards performed a nice twist in the beginning, and it was just awesome that the wound from Fye’s boot was still clearly visible in the aftermath, while nobody seemed to notice.

Okay so what if the bad guy is bad because he’s bad? I had a very enjoyable time watching this. This movie never leaves a boring moment. You’re either gaping at the awesome graphics, or you’re trying not to miss any of the plot elements thrown in. Oh, and if you plan to watch both this movie and xxxHolic, then I recommend to watch xxxHolic before seeing Tsubasa Chronicle. This way, you’ll enjoy the easter egg the creators put in even more.

Ergo Proxy – 02

by psgels, posted in Ergo Proxy



The people with small amounts of patience will probably find Ergo Proxy hard to endure, as it really takes its time to explain the situation, with no possible forms of rushing. On short terms, it may cause a bit of boredom, but on long terms, it makes for some great storytelling.

After seeing this second episode, it seems like there are three, maybe four main characters. First of all Lil, which is obvious, since most of the episode turned around her. Second, we have this guy who’s found Lil, and appears to be stalking her or something like that, anyway, a mysterious guy in an unusual body. Third, we have the automail of the rich lady. I have no idea whether Iggy will make a main-appearance in the show, or that he’ll be forced to spend the rest of his life as a side-role. For bad guys, we have Lil’s grandfather (either that, or he’s being manipulated), the long-haired guy, and apparently the entire police-force and investigation service. I’m still waiting to see which side the two Proxys belong to, but I’ll put them along the bad guys for the time being.

This episode, there was exactly one action scene. The way the creators brought it, was incredibly original. Partially because it’s been one of the rare fights that didn’t include a prelude. We just see a guy escaping from Proxy, totally unexpected or unintroduced. I loved it. (At least, not that I think back, there was a one-second prelude… but at that time you so don’t see it coming). It was also nice to see an actual bad guy space out like that. These kinds of things rarely happen in anime. At least, they rarely happen without characters having some strange fetish-like fantasies.

Lil herself was also very interesing this episode. She was a good actor. At least, half of the time. At other times, you could just really see that she was acting. She’s also totally different from last episode. There, she was just confident in herself. Now, it seems like a bit of despair and stress have been added. Add this to the pressure from the government, and you have a recipe for succes. The government kinda reminded me of a mild version of the book 1984 by George Orwell. Everything is being controlled, people are captured like in a prison and the freedom of speech has become an urban myth.

The Law of Ueki – 41

by psgels, posted in Law of Ueki



As expected, we have another intermezzo here before the next matches begin. The main theme of this episode is called “father”. We don’t really see much character development from Ueki’s side this time, but his family gets a healthy dose of it.

The episode starts off with the aftermath of the previous “battle”. Basically, Anon stole Robert’s body to get into heaven unnoticed, as the hellions were forbidden to enter it, which totally makes sense. Afterwards, we learn that Mori still doesn’t know the condition in order to use her power. This can prove to be great for some of the future scenes. If I had to guess, I’d bet my money on either sitting on the ground, being hurt, or speaking slowly. But then again, knowing the nature of the show, the real thing’s got to be something else.

Then we switch to the heavenly audience, and for the first time in what seems about twenty-five episodes, Ueki’s heavenly father comes into the picture again. He looked really ragged down, but that’s logical, as the plan he sacrificed everything he had for failed. But still (I have no idea if my memories are correct, by the way), when he met up with Kobasen, he was happy that Ueki still made it through. Why did he get so depressed afterwards?

Then we get a sudden twist, as Ueki’s suddenly at his earthly home, sitting in his underwear, eating dinner. We learn later that Ueki&co were able to go back home for one night, which they immediately make use of. It’s also been the first time in twenty-five episodes since we saw his earthly father and sister again. Earthly father is weird, earthly sister is cute. Anyway, like any anime-main hero with superpowers, Ueki never told his mom and dad about what was happening. Apparently, the creators thought this as well, so they decided to take “hard” measures to set this straight. The result is quite hilarious. Anyway, afterwards, we get to see the fatherly side of the earthly father, and the group sets off to heaven again.

Back in heaven, the group stumbles upon the heavenly father, who, of course gets invited to stay over in Ueki-style. He first hates Ueki, but after spending one night within his vicinity… well, let’s just say that no one can survive that without being converted. We also get another interesting fact to hear. At least, Ueki does. Everyone else has to wait a couple of episodes before it is revealed.

The next round reminds me of the second Roberto-Jyuu round. Everyone gets randomly assigned one opponent, after which one-on-one-matches will occur. And what kind of trump card will their opponents hold? Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable episode, worthy of an intermezzo. I don’t know why, but the both the heavenly as the earthly father really ‘look’ like fatherly types to me. Especially seeing the heavenly father getting ‘converted’ was just great to see.

The Law of Ueki – 40

by psgels, posted in Law of Ueki




…

…

Okay, this was officially the best episode EVER! Mori shines like no other, she gets to fight again, and FINALLY discovers her power. There has never been an episode in which I laughed more and harder than in this one. Partially because of Mori’s very *ahem* “peculiar” power, including the way she hopelessly tried to guess what it was, and the way she finally found it out belongs to the Most-Hilarious-Moments-In-Anime-List. Kami-sama was just awesome again, just as the way the creators thought up to make the other team members not to interfere with Mori’s fight. The cliffhanger in the previous episode was just horribly misleading, but that only adds up to the awesomeness of this episode. Rihou was also just hilarious. It’s a very good thing that even the most serious guy like him can get surprised like that.

I just love the way that these kinds of fights, who begin serious, end up so creative. Each and everyone of the fivesome goes down in the most enjoyable way ever. Thanks to the incredible creativity of the authors.

The second half of the episode went back to the main plot (after all, we’re finally down to the last quarter of the series. Something had to happen). We apparently learn that Anon wants to fight Ueki at his strongest, so he decides to let them skip the weak enemies. Or it could just have been a way for the creators to keep the caption team out of the picture. Anyway, the next couple of episodes will feature the fight against the mysterious masked guys. It wasn’t really surprising when I found out for whom they worked… Anyway, that will be the last team Ueki has to face, after which the main plot will probably kick in. But still. These masked persons, they look so serious. I watched Ueki for too long to not doubt this…

Jigoku Shoujo – 12

by psgels, posted in Jigoku Shoujo




I had already been spoiled about the way this episode would have ended, so I didn’t really expect much out of it. Still, this series delivered. There were a lot of philosophical issues in this episode, it furthermore had a great story, the characters were awesome and the way this episode ended was just beautiful. With other words: totally different from what I expected.

We have this girl, who’s staying away from school, only contacting a friend she met online, recieving a lot of support from her. Her teacher (friendly and ambitious) meanwhile tries to get her back to school, which doesn’t really go too well up to the point of that girl calling hell-hotline in order to dispose of him. Then we see some interesting facts revealed, leading to the girl and the teacher starting to like each other and suddenly the teacher begins to get suicidal tendencies. The ending made me just hate that old hag of a grandmother, but it did make me love Ai and Tsugumi even more.

Also, the Jigoku-threesome stays out of the picture in this episode. Interesting…

Bleach – 71

by psgels, posted in Bleach



How the heck do those snakes keep standing? Okay, the ability to change every material into snakes is believable, although it isn’t really something you’d jump up for, but for these snakes to stand, almost straight, while they only touch the surface with 1/10th of their body? I’m going to urge the creators to spend some more research into physics…

Anyway, this episode had a bit too much plot and a bit too little dialogue. Even though the first Bleach filler was awesome, the second is just meh. The new characters aren’t very interesting. We have a big bad guy, uberpowerful, who wants even more power. He has the common number of two-dimensional subordinates (or slaves, whatever you may call it), and one among them doesn’t like what he’s doing so retaliates. *yawn* The only potentially interesting stuff is that we may be getting some more background information about Ishida.

What I do like about Bleach is that they managed to include certain tics with a few of characters, like Ishida adjusting his glasses over and over. It has a very nice effect, but then again, that’s what most tics do. They add for a little bit more realism, and you can recognize the characters more by this behavior. I wonder why there aren’t a lot of characters in general anime with certain tics.

This episode wasn’t a total waste of time either. There were a few moments which totally made my day: Kon trying to brighten up the mood, the conflict between the two captains, Rukia’s drawing and the little girl’s weapon.

Noein – 17

by psgels, posted in Noein



A Kosagi episode. At least, something that looks like it. It’s hard to define Noein in terms of episodes, as everything moves just right through each other. But still every scene in this episode, except the wedding and the journalists, had something to do with her.

We see some interesting facts revealed. Apparently, Kosagi has somebody who loves her. We also get to see what happened to the future version of Ai after Haruka’s little visit to La’Cryma. I wonder what her part in the story will be, as she seemed pretty content with everything.

It also appears that the creators decided not to go into the histories of Atori and Tobi, other than saying that they come from a horrible world. I find this a bit disappointing, because I’d love to see how the two of them grew up.

Anyway, I loved the way each and every story just moved right through, over, under and between each other. So many things are displayed during one episode of Noein, it almost scares me. The ending of this episode was also very pleasing, as we get to see Kosagi from a total different side now. It also offers lots of possibilities for the La’Cryma side of the story, as there are just two important characters who still remain there.

So, no Noein this time. I bet he’s plotting something, with those strange sea-horses of his… And when do we have the phone-part explained?

Mushishi – 16

by psgels, posted in Mushishi



I am a total sucker with stories featuring people forgetting precious memories with a reason. Needless to say that I absolutely LOVED this episode of Mushishi.

The episode already starts out awesome when we get told about a potential Mushi-victim, who we later learn, just appears to be an ordinary loud-snoring and clumsy woman. Then, the real main character of this story introduces himself and the real goodness begins. At the first half, there were numerous of times when I found myself pleasantly enjoyed by all of the trivial subtle things that the lady seemed to forget, and the boy’s reactions to this.

I also loved the way that there was no real way to cure this, except for living your life to the fullest and making lots of memories. The reaction the woman had after this kinda reminded me of Ueki. Anyway, then we skip one year, and we learn what happened Ginko’s visit. It was just too sad, but it couldn’t have been a better ending for this episode.

There’s also a thing that I’m wondering about, concerning the OP. It describes a man, travelling and searching for his loved one. Would it possibly have something to do with the anime? Okay, it’s clear that Ginko’s not searching at the time of the anime, but what about his past? Did he ever love someone? (If that were true, that would make for an awesome episode, by the way).