January 22, 2008

Suteki Tantei Labyrinth - 16

Filed under: Finished Series:/Suteki Tantei Labyrinth


Well, that was a disaster…

I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. In fact, this episode was hilarious, but it also remains a total trainwreck. Suteki Tantei Labyrinth has a really weird sense of humour, and anyone who even dares to disagree should see the opening of this episode. I’m not sure who in their right mind thought of it, but the people responsible should be locked up.

The animation… was pretty terrible as well. There’s no sign of the huge budget of episode fourteen. Usually, this wouldn’t be such a problem, but this time, the animators didn’t even bother to check for inconsistencies. A part of this episode is about a special statue. Legends say that if you put an item dear to you, and have your loved one pick it up, it’ll bring you together, or something similar. The statue has been rigged so, that if it rains, it’s got one hand open and one closed, and when the sun shines, they change into the opposite. It’s a bit crazy, but I can live with it.

Here’s the thing, though: pay close attention to both hands. At one point, Yaya puts in the bear, strapped to her phone on one hand, hoping to score with Mayuki and all. She then leaves, and it starts raining. It’s here where the animators forgot to keep track of which hand was supposed to be open. ^^; All the faces, throughout the entire episode also look horribly distorted.

Thankfully, this episode did introduce two new major characters: Seiran’s brother and his female assistant, who seems to have a crush on Seiran. I really like the way in which this was revealed: the guy acts like a total idiot for the entire episode, and only after that we learn that he’s more than just a random bad guy who came in to confuse Mayuki.

Really, I remember how, at the beginning of this series, I really wanted to like Mayuki’s four classmates. Little did I know that once the introduction was over, every episode that featured them turned into a total disaster. Okay, I laughed, but you do not want to watch these episodes with a straight face. :P

Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - 03

Filed under: Finished Series:/Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino


Let me place up this warning: if you’re watching Gunslinger Girl because of the action, then drop this series now. Seriously, if you thought the fight in the first episode was bad, you haven’t seen anything yet. Artland just doesn’t have the budget to animate nice fights, and in this episode, this shows.

In terms of storytelling, though, this episode rocked, and I really enjoyed it. Triela and Hirsher are assigned to the Pinocchio-case, and they quickly find his home. Before they were able to collect any information, the girl whom we saw with Pinocchio in the previous episode finds out about the things he’s been hiding from her, and she gets taken in by Franco and Franca, who manage to convince Pinocchio to not kill the girl. At that point, Hirsher decides to go and arrest them, even though there isn’t any kind of backup. So indeed, the mission fails, and Pinocchio, Franco and Franca escape, and both Triela and Hirsher end up with some wounds.

The aftermath was quite an interesting one, and it seems that Triela now knows who she’s up against, which has a lot of potential for the future episodes. I also liked the techniques that Franco and Franca used to get away. Sure, the fight was badly animated, but at least some thought was put behind it, compared to some other series which have characters just throwing fireballs at each other without any tactic whatsoever.