This time: a baseball player. It’s interesting how every episode of Kuchuu Buranko deals with the media of some sort. This formulaic format limits creativity: unlike Aoi Bungaku the variety isn’t really this series’ strong point. Instead, what it needs to do is make the whole series greater than the sum of its parts. The best example of how this is done right is Jigoku Shoujo. At this point, it’s a bit too early whether Kuchuu Buranko will be the same but there’s an actual good chance that it will pull this off.

What I mean by that is the following: this episode was very similar to the previous one: a writerbaseball player is very popular, however he experiences psychological problems off of it. Parallels are drawn between him and a different writerbaseball player. Irabu meanwhile tries to take up writingplaying catch-ball and he eventually gets cured by realizing that he was wrong in his stereotypical assumptions.

Also, is it me or did that kid have a Bake Neko t-shirt?
Rating: * (Good)

Ah, so after the initial blast and fast pace, these few episodes take a step back in order to build up for the second half of this series. It’s a tried and true formula, and these episodes despire their quiet nature are still well written and make use of their time to develop and flesh out the characters a bit more. All that’s left now is to see whether the second half can deliver on the promises that are currently made. But yeah, with this series something really weird has to happen for it not to turn into something special.

It’s interesting how the mother/caretaker/whatever of the goth loli contractor twins paid a small visit to Misaki, of all people. She must expect a great deal from her to do such a thing, considering how she seems to be after Hei or Shion. This episode also showed the nature of the device that was used on Hei, two episodes ago: it’s a device to kill contractors. So yeah, I think we can pretty much call Hei’s sister dead now. Because Hei wasn’t a contractor, he was able to survive, but the star of BK-201 (a.k.a, his sister) is gone now. A very daring move; you don’t see much superpowered series in which the lead character loses his special powers seemingly forever.

I’m also glad to see that Suou’s Gun needs to be maintained, and her ammo isn’t limitless either. Very nice, because you really see too many anime which take their weapons for granted. In series in which characters fight once in a while this is excusable, but in action series where people fight in nearly every episode, it’s sometimes a miracle that their weapons don’t break, jam, shut down, et cetera. While this obviously doesn’t destroy a series’ credibility, it nevertheless is a very valuable addition if some attention is put on it.

The next episode is probably going to make an end to the quiet times in this series. We’re not still sure of the exact details, but something tells me that Misaki saw Hei’s plan coming, and prepared a dummy of some sort, which caused him to get locked up. The submarine shown at the end of the episode was probably meant to carry the real goods, and it’s indeed a good test for Suou whether she can carry this series as its co-main character.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

This episode takes a bit of a step back as it explains more about “Gretel”’s past. Her classmates were… stereotypical to say the least, but at least it’s good to see a bit more attention for her, and a bit of a more detailed report of what happened to Eva after the massacre of the third arc.

Maria was surprisingly tolerable in this episode, though. There’s one thing that I agree that the anime adaptation screwed up: the first few arcs showed her evil side way too much. The past two arcs actually gave her a bit of a character. The way she teased Battler with his fear of flight and how she was resurrected by Ange through magic (again, questioning how much magic there is in this world, and whether the world she came from is the same that Meta-Battler came from).

This episode also showed that even the starting events of each arc don’t necessarily have to be the same: we don’t know whether Rosa confessed about how she killed Beatrice in every single arc, because in this arc we see how Kinzou himself decides to attend the family meeting due to Krauss’ incompetence. This episode also raises the question: is Kinzou really alive? We’ve seen him a few times, but that says nothing: we’ve also seen Beatrice once in a while, and she too clearly wasn’t there. The only question is the point at which Natsuhi talked to him in the first arc: I’m still not sure whether that arc was completely free of magic, or whether it too had magical elements in it.

By the way, now that we’re nearing the end of this series’ airtime: has a second season already been announced? I know that the “no naku koro ni”-franchise should be popular enough to warrant a sequel that animates the answer arcs, but lately I’ve seen too many series that are in need of a sequel, yet never ended up getting one.
Rating: * (Good)

Right now, I’m going to be saying something that I never would have thought to claim a year and a half ago: Sunrise Mecha-series rock! Of course, I’m not talking about their cheesy Gundam or Code Geass series, but their lesser known works: I’ve seen quite a few of them by now, and time and time again they deliver an amazing series. Gasaraki is another one of Ryousuke Takahashi’s series. I was already a huge fan of him before I started watching, and this series made me an even bigger one. He yet again puts down an original series that takes both itself and its audience seriously.

Even though the series has a teen-age couple as its main characters, there’s much more to this series than just that. In fact, the most interesting part of this series is a huge political scheme to try and take over Japan, executed by the superiors of the male lead. The politics in this series are deep, imaginative and detailed, and a great watch for anyone who’s looking for a mature series with a lot of emphasis on dialogue. The teen-aged leads aren’t that bad themselves either. They’re nowhere near those annoying teen-aged brats that you usually see in the lead character’s seat, and they contribute really well to the mature nature of this series despite their age.

At its core, this is a series that combines action with politics. However, those who are merely looking for the former will probably be very bored by the latter. It’s because of this I guess that this series is very underrated: Ryousuke Takahashi’s series have always put a lot of emphasis on very complex dialogue to flesh out their setting, and with Gasaraki this goes more than ever. If you’re not interested in Japanese politics, you probably won’t find much enjoyment in this.

The animation in this series varies from standard, to absolutely beautiful. the frame-rate at times is so unbelievably smooth that it becomes hard to believe that this is a TV-series, made more than ten years ago by now. Especially the first episodes are incredibly well animated because of this, but even after that, the animation kicks ass at times. The music is also simple, but effective.

Overall, Gasaraki’s politics are incredibly fascinating and its action is gripping and down to earth. If I had to mention a flaw, then it’s that the characters lack a bit of spark and could have been more fleshed out and a few of the plot events could have been more explained, but the rest of this series really makes up for it. This is no series with good guys or bad guys, but instead it’s about people with different morals and ideals. I really enjoyed watching it, and the show closes off with a strong finale.

Every time I watch this show I get reminded of how utterly bland Kazehaya is/ He doesn’t feel like a character, and much more like a bunch of plot devices to get to Sawako’s development and the author’s view on morals and values. Fortunately, he only appeared in the first quarter of this episode.

Because apart from him, I have to admit that this episode was pretty good. There again was a lot of angst, but especially between Yano and Yoshida it felt very detailed and genuine. And I think that that’s the strength of this series: the detailed and imaginative dialogue. At times it’s really caught up in its own morals, but when it’s about the characters then it can actually get quite touching.

The end of this episode shows Sawako as she’s about to confront the person who looks to be the one who started the rumours. She looks pretty stereotypical right now, but that’s only logical considering she’s only had about half a minute of screen-time. Let’s see whether the next episode can flesh her out and make her something more than “that evil bitch who has a crush on Kazehaya and hates Sadako for being close to him”.
Rating: * (Good)

Okay, as requested: an entry about the recently released OVA of Full Metal Alchemist called the Blind Alchemist. It’s going to be a short entry because it’s a pretty straightforward episode, but it’s interesting to mention it nonetheless.

So basically Ed and Al meet an alchemist who is supposed to have successfully performed a human transmutation. It turns out that he also failed to perform one, lost his eyes, and ever since his family has been deceiving him by using a fake girl from some orphanage. It’s an interesting story without a conclusion, though it doesn’t really need one. The family will most likely happily live together until either the alchemist dies, or something else of that magnitude.

What’s interesting about this story is that it comes from the time in which Ed and Al still believed that human transmutation really brought back the dead. Ever since we learned that it didn’t, but the interesting thing here is that the transmuted person was actually kept alive. My guess is that there is some poor soul caught in that body, unable to do anything. It’s her who I feel sorry for the most.
Rating: * (Good)

The episodes in this series have really ranged from incredibly bad to incredibly good. This episode was another gem for this anime. A unique episode that really closes off Anne’s development.

Ah, screw Mr Hammond’s death. This guy was too one-dimensional to really have an impact. What counts is what happens after his demise, because Johanna’s problems were nothing compared to Mrs. Hammond. This time, not four but eight children had to be divided, and none of the family members was wealthy enough to support more than two children. And thus comes the cruel ritual in which they each pick a child they like and split up the family.

But the real star of this episode was Anne. Oh my god, the creators may have their issues with cheese, but their portrayal of Anne in this episode was magnificent. The way she was animated, standing at the sidelines while nobody cared about what was going to happen to her. This was the moment Anne was supposed to break, and oh my god, they portrayed that so well.

With this, everything makes sense. Those who followed my entries will often have noticed how often I criticized that Anne had no reason to throw away her past: she was living happily, she was very eager to study and had a lot of friends, and no matter what was thrown at her, she kept looking at the bright side of life.

It’s heart-wrenching to see that this, of all things, was too much for her. All this time, she was able to look on the bright side of life because she had a family. She had to work hard and often only had the people in her imagination to talk to, but I think that she drew satisfaction in that she was needed. Since she’s an orphan, she probably heard some terrible things about orphanages, and in her imagination this only got blown up into terrible proportions. It was only fueled by how Mr. Hammond saved her from being sent to one: before she became friends with him, I believe that that was what kept her supporting the always cold Mrs. Hammond. Sure, she’s probably going to find out that orphanages aren’t as bad as she imagined them to be, but nevertheless: this episode inflicted a nasty wound on her that caused her to block out most of her youth.

I really thought that we’d only get to see this story at episode 38 or something. There’s going to be a significant amount of episodes dedicated to that orphanage, apparently. Again, I can’t say whether or not they’re going to be good or not. With this series at this point, anything can happen. With this episode, we closed off the theme that this series was best at: dysfunctional families. Right now, Anne is going to meet children who are the same as her, yet can the writers handle them? The potential of them delving into their cheesy episodic stories is of course really big…
Rating: *** (Awesome)

What an amazing conclusion to the No Longer Human story. The past four episodes have really been storytelling at its finest. This episode yet again pushes the characters into an entirely different direction, and it’s really been character-development after character-development for the entire story.

This episode fast-forwards a number of years. So the lead character? He got married to the girl with the red umbrella. His friend? He has grown up a lot. He’s no longer the punk who drags the lead character into the wrong business, but instead has decided to join the army, leaving his wild years behind.

At first sight, the lead character seems saved right now. He has stopped drinking and fooling around with women thanks to his new wife. The seemingly limitless amount of trust she has for him really helped him get himself together. Or so it seems. I’m not sure whether she got raped or whether she was fooling around with someone behind his back, but nevertheless, their balance gets broken abruptly when he finds out.

But even before that, it becomes clear that even though he may have left his old habits behind, he still hasn’t fully healed. Especially when he finds out that his father died, he doesn’t care in the bit, and it becomes painfully clear that he’s still living inside a fantasy world, refusing to simply grow up because his profession as an artist and storyteller doesn’t require him to do so. Eventually however, he breaks down and takes an overdose of some sort of strange type of pills. Again, he survives. But barely.

The part that impressed me the most comes next. Despite how the guy has broken down, and proven that he’s a huge failure as a human, the two women he lived with still don’t mind. What they see is a guy who definitely has problems, but despite that is an incredibly nice guy. Even though they probably know nothing about him, yet want to be with him again, that was so heart-warming.

Okay, so No Longer Human was amazing. What’s next? The rest of the series is going to be filled with three more stories of two episodes, and two of only one. Their short length is either a blessing or a curse, but let’s see what they can do with their limited airtime. I really like the set-up of random stories though: you’ll never be able what to expect, but the writers are totally free in what they can do with it, or in this case which stories they can adapt. This is another reason why this series is superior to Kuchuu Buranko: those random stories all were written by the same guy, based on the same formula. With Aoi Bungaku however, this series is promising to become incredibly varied.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Whoa, an entire episode dedicated to the background of the Ishbal Massacre. It shows how Roy, Hawkeye and Hughes met and how their experiences in the war changed them into trying to find a way out of this endless violence. Usually in when a massacre in anime takes place, you get a bit of depth on the ones who ordered it, but not often do you see an in-depth look to the ones who actually carry out those orders.

There are two major questions that have arisen from this episode: First of all: what was up with that tattoo covering Hawkeye’s back? In this episode, we learn how she’s the daughter of the alchemist who taught Roy Mustang his tricks, but there seems to be much more to her than just that. I’m not even sure whether Roy knows about that tattoo, but my guess is that it has something to do with her father.

Second of all: we meet Kimbley. This guy was one of the worst characters of the first season: the creators set him up as a competent and ruthless criminal… only to abandon this halfway through and turn him into an incompetent imbecile afterwards. My guess is that even though the creators came up with a very nice alternative story for this setting, they never really knew what to do with him, or they realized too late that that bomb guy also needed a part.

In any case, in this episode we learn where the Philosopher’s stone that was made from the Ishbalians went to: Kimbley. I’m surprised at how little of these people were actually needed, and really wonder why an entire city needed to be wiped out, just for ten guys who could also be simply taken from the prisoners on death row. The big question also is: why Kimbly? Why entrust something as important as that stone to someone like him? And where the hell is he right now? My guess is that since there already were seven humonculi at that point, Father was experimenting with new ways to use the Philosopher’s stones, but there still remain a lot of question marks in the Ishbal chapter.

And yeah, Scar also now has a new target for revenge. I’m not sure whether he’s really going to be an ally of Ed now, however. It’s all going to depend on whether or not he can forgive the guy for killing Winry’s parents…
Rating: ** (Excellent)

What an amazing episode. It’s installments like this that really show why Cross Game is such an excellent slice of life series, it was constantly playing with the set-up of the arrival of Wakaba II (who turns out to be named Akane).

The entire episode was one big tease. To start with, you know how Kou said “Wakaba”? That sequence got repeated about three or four times? Well, it turns out that it was also imprinted on the bag she was carrying. A bit long to get to that punchline, but well worth it. For the rest of the episode, I was really looking forward to the next time she’d show up again, but the creators had other plans, and instead showed some very good slice of life scenes instead, preparing for the upcoming festival and the anniversary of Wakaba’s death (if I understood correctly).

Only in the final quarter of the episode, she appeared again, and the results were amazing. Everyone who ran into her had the same reaction: “what’s a ghost doing here!?” The look on everyone’s face… it was just priceless.

Oh, and as an extra bonus, my favourite minor side-character got some attention again: Momiji. Especially now that she has reached the same age as Wakaba did when she died, she’s hopefully also going to start playing a larger part in this series.

And that’s what I think is the biggest difference between Cross Game and Touch: Touch was far better with its baseball matches, while Cross Game’s baseball is the least interesting part of the series. However, Cross Game is far superior when it comes to slice of life, in which Touch was a bit too long-winded. With the exception of two notable episodes, of course. those who watched Touch will understand which ones I mean.
Rating: *** (Awesome)