So… I watched it. I originally dropped the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya after four episodes, back when it aired in the spring-season of 2006, simply because I had to drop a few series to prevent myself from watching too many series. The biggest reason why it took me so long to pick it up again is simply because the fanbase back then was incredibly annoying. Everyone seemed to talk about how awesome this series was, but the most praises I read were not about how well it was written, or the amount of creativity that was put into it, but about how moe the different female characters were. It really feels like every single squeal of Mikuru has been intensively discussed. I don’t know about others, but I’m not that keen on watching a series that’s based on a few moe-actions.

After finally watching this series, I must say that this series definitely is more than just moe, moe and moe. It’s been based on a series of light-novels, and it shows in the dialogue. Especially Kyon and Itsuki like to ramble on and with their respective sarcasm and philosophical analysis, and both are really well-written and keep you interested throughout the lesser interesting parts of this series, but I’ll get to that later.

Another flawless area of this series is of course the animation itself. It’s clear that Kyoani had a big budget for this series, and they used it pretty nicely to convey the subtle movements of the characters, the detailed backgrounds to portray the overall lives of the characters and the very impressive CG-scenes that pop up once in a while.

Well, now, regarding the lesser points of this series: there are basically two major flaws in this series. This anime basically consists of two parts. The first seven episodes (if I recall correctly, the original series aired in random order) are basically the story-arc, and show how Kyon gradually gets to know all the mysteries around Haruhi Suzumiya. This part is actually pretty good! The story continues to get pushed forward, and especially the second half of this story-arc delivers with a subtle, yet ominous atmosphere. The characters continuously develop and change, and it doesn’t have any chance to get boring. Heck, it wasn’t even focused on moe at all.

But yeah, the second arc is much less interesting. It’s basically a collection of random fillers that I guess were meant to flesh out the concept, but things rather failed here. It’s here where the character-development grinds to a halt and this series becomes mostly boring. This arc again consists out of seven episodes, and only during one of them I didn’t catch myself edging for ALT-F4, which ironically was the most down-to-earth episode of the bunch.

Which brings me to the second flaw of this series: Haruhi Suzumiya herself. Kyon, Itsuki and Yuki are actually pretty interesting characters, and I guess that Mikuru turned out much better than expected. Haruhi, however, got on my nerves every time she appeared. She also brought out the worst in other characters, because especially Mikuru can’t stop squealing when Haruhi is up to one of her plans again.

I’m not sure whether I’m the only one with this, but the moments I actually enjoyed most were the “quiet moments” of this series. Moments where nothing happened, and the characters were just killing time. I couldn’t care less about all of Haruhi’s adventures, and her need to meet up with strange things, and yet I liked seeing Kyon and Itsuki playing a random board-game; I liked how Yuki was alone in a room, while in the next room the local drama club was practicing. Heck, I even liked Kyon as he kept thinking about how hot Mikuru was. What I didn’t like was when Haruhi would jump into the club-room to announce her umpth idea.

Really, this turned out to be quite a good series, only with the “bad main character”-syndrome. When the second season arrives, I hope that the creators will continue to build upon what they’ve established now, and keep their focus as much away from Haruhi as possible.

This episode was a rather strange one for a Ghost Hound-episode. It’s probably one of the quietest ones of the entire series, which is very strange with just one episode to go, and it ended with plans to dress Tarou as a girl. I’m seriously wondering what the creators have in store for us for the final episode, especially now that Tarou is going to cross-dress on such a short-notice. As much as I’d love to see Tarou in a dress, will that episode be more than just “beat Noriko save Miyako”? Well, that’ll all depend on what the side-characters will be doing.

I wonder whether this series will answer all the questions it left behind, though. Two particular ones that I’m still waiting for are why Makoto’s father committed suicide, and how Hirata’s visions of Tarou’s dreams have affected him. I’d love to see a lot of this guy in the aftermath, because his development still feels rather incomplete.

There were also a lot of hormones in this episode. So in the end, while Tarou is into younger girls, Masayuki fancies grown-up women. Ah well, at least it’s different from the usual high-school girls. I don’t know who found it a good idea to not include any girl between the ages of 13 and 17 in this series, but this guy should be praised.

Here’s also a surprising discovery: Makoto can’t have out-of-body experiences anymore. Now that he mentioned himself, he’s indeed right. The last thing we saw of Makoto’s Ghost Hound-form is somewhere around ten episodes ago. You’d think he’d go more and more out of control, but for the past two episodes, he’s been calmer and laid-back than ever. After what happened to his mother, and meeting Tarou really saved this guy, and for the past few episodes, I think that he just needed some time for himself.

We also learn that Makoto’s father used to play guitar, just like Makoto did. As it turns out, he left his guitar in the possession of Tarou’s father, which makes for quite a nice scene.

About half of the shows this season have ended now, and I’m quite surprised at how some series significantly improved in quality for their final episodes (Mokke, Clannad, Spice and Wolf all had excellent final episodes. Ironically, all three of them are slow ones), others just closed off their series nicely without any bad feelings (Shion no Ou, Shigofumi, Hakaba Kitarou), others went out with a fizz (Kimikiss, Kekkaishi, Dragonaut, Wellber), and there is of course Suteki Tantei Labyrinth, where the final episode was at the same time one of the cheesiest ones.

Still, I haven’t really been able to find what I’m really looking for in an ending: originality, and series that try to be different. I’ve seen a lot of great final episodes this season, but no real outstanding endings. If there’s one series left this season that still can deliver such an ending, it’s this series. I’m not putting up my hopes too high, but in the next episode, it’s really time for the creators to make all the building-up of the previous 21 episodes come together.

For the past few days, I’ve been in the strange mood to compare animation-companies. Don’t ask me why, I’m not sure myself. In any case, Spice and Wolf (or Ookami to Koshinryou) has been produced by Imagin, whose only previous work basically consisted out of a bunch of notoriously bad fanservice-series (Hit wo Nerae, Cosprayers, Love Love?), so no, I can’t really say that I was anticipating this release. Turns out that you can teach an old dog new tricks. Or in this case: an old wolf.

Even though it may not look like it, Spice and Wolf is what you’d call a smart and down-to-earth series. The two main characters are surprisingly deep for only thirteen episodes. Their motivations are well-motivated, much more than what you’d see in usual anime, and they have a lot of different and complex sides. They both start to travel together, in a setting reminiscent of medieval Europe, though this isn’t a story about knights at all, it’s about merchants.

And this series really makes use of this, by showing us the ins and outs of the life of a merchant, while both Lawrence and Horo (the two main characters) provide critical commentary and analysis to the things that they run into. The dialogue is of a really high-quality, and it’s no wonder that the light novel that this series was based on won an award. This becomes especially apparent when the major female side-character gets introduced: I was really convinced that the show would turn into a cheesy love-triangle at one point, but it’s the opposite! Her appearance and use in the story is carefully explained, as well the relation that she has between Lawrence and Horo.

As for the bad points for this series - if you plan to watch this, you really have to be interested in merchants. Otherwise it’ll just bore the heck out of you. Aside from the side-character mentioned above, the other characters in this series also pale in comparison to the main cast. Sure, their motivations are explained well enough, but it feels like they could have been used and fleshed out much better than this series did.

The highlight of this series is definitely the final three episodes, where everything comes together like a charm. In one word, these episodes are fascinating, and close off the series without leaving a bad taste whatsoever, and still leaving space open for a possible continuation. The first arc may feel a bit lacking, but this is still another great series from the past winter-season.

Ah, shounen-fighting series. How many of them have fallen into the pit of mediocrity? Probably too many to count. Still, once in a while a series appears in the genre that actually delivers. The cream of the crop is for me the Law of Ueki, and even though Kekkaishi couldn’t come to that same level, it’s still a good example of a well-developed series in a genre that overall consists out of lazy manga-adaptations and toy-commercials.

For once our lead heroes (Yoshimori and Tokine) don’t have offensive powers. In fact, the entire concept of Kekkaishi is based around defence; all they can do is block, nothing more. The first twenty episodes are basically just reserved for random stories that let the viewer get familiarized with both the characters, and how they make use of their own powers in their own way. The creators manage to keep these episodes more than interesting through lots and lots of quirky characters, who’ll put a smile on your face.

Then when the story comes, this series has the advantage that it can work with characters that are already pretty well fleshed out, and the creators make perfect use for that. Keep a lookout for when Gen appears, because he’s without a doubt the best character of the series. Throughout its run of 52 episodes, Kekkaishi isn’t afraid to do things that usual series of the genre try to avoid.

There are a few problems with this series, though. Fighting-series should NEVER play with hidden powers, and yet every single one seems to have them. Although Kekkaishi uses them in enough moderation, they do pop up at the worst possible moments. This is the cause that the final three episodes will feel rather meh, which is a shame because the episodes that lead up to them are excellent.

It also feels that a part of this series does feel needlessly drawn out, though. I believe that this would have been the perfect series for 39 episodes (my personal favourite series-length). Apparently, this series was dropped by its sponsor and had to be drawn out to a 52-episode format so that it could be sold overseas, though this is why I’m of the opinion that series should just use the amount of episodes that fits for their story, and not make the story fit its amount of episodes.

On a semi-unrelated side-note, I think that this is a good place to voice some complaints about Sunrise that I’ve been having. I personally consider four animation-studios as “the big four” for television-series: Nippon Animation, Production IG, Madhouse and Studio Deen with as runners up Gonzo and Bones. I don’t think of Sunrise at all when I think of my favourite series, and yet they have been behind some interesting series as Freedom, Mai Hime, Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto and Gintama.

I think that I finally know the reason: it’s a bit harder to see, but they’re just like Kyoani and Makoto Shinkai. They may be great in their own way, but they’re too afraid to try out new things. Makoto Shinkai has his male main characters, Kyoani has its high-school settings, and for Sunrise, everything has to be epic and everything has to be a commercial success. Concepts that work get needlessly drawn out, which is probably why Kekkaishi went on for too long.

At the moment, I’m still hoping that Gintama won’t run out of jokes, now that it’s already passed its ninety-episode mark. Sunrise has produced a lot of noteworthy anime, but they’re just not like Gonzo, who can churn out a Master of Epic once in a while from out of nowhere. Come on, why not try a slice-of-life series next time?

There are basically two kinds of Gonzo. The first is Good Gonzo, which searches the borders of anime with new and engaging concepts, and which delivered us series as Bokura no, Master of Epic, Red Garden, Gankutsuou, NHK ni Youkoso and Last Exile. Then there is Bad Gonzo, which consists out of a bunch of lazy writers that are stuck in mediocrity and brought us series as Rosario to Vampire, Gravion, Romeo x Juliet, Glass no Kantai and Giniro no Kami no Agito. Dragonaut, unfortunately, without a doubt is a product of Bad Gonzo.

It’s a shame, because on a second look, the story has a definite epic potential, about Pluto undergoing some kind of metamorphosis and sending dragon-like creatures to earth for some strange unknown purposes. It has the making of a great mystery-series. Unfortunately, any attempt to develop this story is held back by an abysmal cast of characters.

There are just one or two characters that aren’t badly written. Everyone else spends the entire series angsting about nothing, and this series has really weird character-development. One moment characters hate each other from the depths of hell, and the next they’re passionately hugging each other like they’ve been friends for ages. Motivations for each character are badly explained, and they’re lucky if they can have a background. Especially the main couple will get on everyone’s nerves with their endless whining of “Jin?” “Toa?” “Jin!” “TOAAAAAAAA!!!!” Oh, and let’s not forget to mention one particularly bad character: Kazuki. This guy is a true joke and entirely ruins every scene that he appears in.

And of course this series has been dubbed “Boobonaut” for a reason. The character-designs try to be different, and they’re done by the same guy who did them for Witchblade, but something tells me that his hormones were really bugging him when he sat down to draw the different characters. Nearly half the female cast has a ridiculously over-endowed bosom that defies all senses of logic.

The past half year really hasn’t been good for Gonzo, with this… thing and Rosario to Vampire. Thankfully, their next line-up of Druaga no Tou, S.A and Blassreiter look more promising, and let’s hope that the people from Bad Gonzo are taking a very long holiday for the upcoming season. For Dragonaut, I really see no reason to recommend it. Even if you want cheese, Suteki Tantei Labyrinth is a much better choice, because at least that one is well-written.

Ah, Wellber no Monogatari. The show that scared away almost all its viewers in the first episode due to the talking tank. Still, this is another gem from Production IG, although it’s way rougher than series as Seirei no Moribito and Chevalier.

The biggest problem with this series is definitely that the first couple of episodes reek of useless filler, and at first sight, they give away nothing of the incredible increase in quality that would happen afterwards. In the end, though, this is one series that knows what its doing, and the first four episodes were just meant to flesh out the story and most especially: the characters.

And what amazing characters they are. Nearly every main and important side-character gets background and development early on as they push the storyline forwards. They’re really the driving force behind this series, and especially once it hits its second half they really start to shine. This is one series that isn’t afraid to kill off a major character, and the creators know exactly what it takes to give the characters depth

The writers may be very talented, but they’re unfortunately also a bit sloppy. Most of the climaxes border on heart-wrenching, but there are a few that border a bit on cheesy. A few plot twists also are just included to keep the story going. Take for example a princess who is on the run and has to travel undercover, and yet she travels along with a huge unique tank. The aftermath of this series is also way too rushed and just wants to do a few things too many.

Still, Wellber no Monogatari is a very enjoyable series that seriously doesn’t deserve the negligence that it’s currently getting. It’ll keep you entertained with its dynamic characters and storyline, and not to mention that it’s got some pretty impressive production-values. Both the music, but especially the visuals are very pleasing to the senses, so if you can excuse a storytelling error once in a while, then you could give this one a chance.

Ah, that’s what I like to see: an excellent climax. The fight against Greedam is well wrapped up, with all the deaths that happened in the previous episode. Obviously, spoilers will follow after this paragraph. Let me just say before I start that the climax was awesome, though I’m afraid that the ending itself left things to be desired.

But first, Loden’s final moments were awesome. He basically sacrificed his own life to save Tina. After all, he was prepared to die anyway, to make up for the things he did all those years ago. What better way to go than to sacrifice yourself for the one whose life you ruined? The king of Wellber and the king of Greedam also settled their fight in a pretty interesting way, with Rita coming as a surprise saviour who actually makes sense. I was also shocked to find out that Tina nearly drowned on her way out of the ship, though thankfully she turned out to be just unconscious.

Well then, at this point, I was really happy with how things worked out. If the series ended like this, I would have been perfectly fine with it. Unfortunately, the aftermath left a lot to be desired. It’s jumbled mess of ideas that just came way too late in way too little time. Okay, I can understand that Tina would leave Rita. But apparently, the creators wanted to get the two of them back together a little too badly. It’s a shame that such a great series had to end un such a low note.

Suteki Tantei Labyrinth is one of these series where there’s one thing you absolutely mustn’t do: take it seriously. Once in a while, a series appears that doesn’t really care about making sense. Still, even though Suteki Tantei Labyrinth may not have the most exciting plot, it does deliver quality entertainment.

I think the best way to understand this is to look at the two most prominent staff-members for this series: Hiroshi Watanabe for the direction, and Natsuko Takahashi for the series composition. Natsuko Takahashi is basically a very experienced and talented scriptwriter, who worked on many different series like Jigoku Shoujo, Moyashimon, Full Metal Alchemist, Gankutsuou, Popolocrois, and those are just the best among her repertoire. She made sure that each character in this series has a motivation, and is well-fleshed out. There are no loose ends left behind, and the screenplay itself is quite impressive.

Then there’s Hiroshi Watanabe, who is in my opinion the strangest director out there. He directed epics as the Law of Ueki, Orphen and was the one who proposed the concept for Jigoku Shoujo, and yet he is also the mastermind behind flops as the final parts of Star Ocean Ex, and the abominable Shining Tears X Wind. This guy really has a strange idea of what is good, and that strangeness is exactly what makes this series so enjoyable.

Enjoyable, but far-fetched. The first half of the series basically consists out of random mysteries that our main character has to solve. They range from enjoyable to absolutely ridiculous. One particular villain goes through the trouble of spiking the body of his victim on the tip of a huge radio-mast, and the extreme focuses on tea become rather jarring after a while. Thankfully, the second half removes any traces of murder-mysteries, and instead it starts developing the characters and turns into a really entertaining family-drama, full of cheesy plot-twists that just have to entertain.

This series is basically what you’d get if a series is at some parts incredibly good, while at others incredibly bad. The storytelling is quite impressive, and it definitely succeeds in keeping the rather… flawed story interesting throughout the run of 25 episodes. The characters are also enjoyable to watch, especially in the second half, and some of the drama can be surprisingly good. Still, you’ll get the most enjoyment out of this series if you like a good dose of cheese once in a while.

Whaa! I could have sworn that this series had 26 episodes! To think that this was the final episodes, this series sure features a lot of series that end sooner than I expect.

And the cheese! The overwhelming cheese. This episode may not have been my idea of top-notch writing, but it sure as hell was entertaining! I remember predicting that this episode would be over-the-top, and I was right in a way. This episode was over-the-top, but not with action and manliness, but with melodrama. Seijuu ends up dead, along with Byakko, because he tried to see the future but couldn’t due to Mayuki’s mother’s influences. Mayuki tries to stop him by the request of his mother, but in the end fails.

And teh TEA IS BACK!!! After Seijuu is dead and all, Mayuki falls asleep due to exhaustion, and doesn’t wake up for days. Guess what saves him? His favourite blend of tealeaves. Things get even better when every female ends up in tears when they find out that Mayuki has woken up, and when they see him again it’s like a fest of smiles and “glad to see you back again”.

But the creators really saved the best for last. Don’t ask me how or why, but a reincarnation of Mayuki’s mother shows up at the last moment. That scene will get an “OMG” or “WTF”-reaction off almost everyone. The plot-twist is ridiculous, but I absolutely loved it. It’s good to have such a cheesy series once in a while.

Now, to get a bit more serious, it’s a shame that Seijuu didn’t really develop in the end. Sure, he was fleshed out, his motivations were shown, but he never really changed. One thing that the creators could have done better is make one of his plans fail badly; it would have been much more interesting to actually see him challenged, rather than simply defeated in the end. I like how Byakko ended up, though. She has been a character that was developed, she has questioned her master many times, and yet at the end she decided to stay with him, and I’m still not sure whether this was because she was brainwashed, or just really changed. I doubt that Seiju really in his final moments was in the mood to take everyone with him, and something really tells me that she committed suicide out of her own will.

Even though it hasn’t officially ended yet, I’m pretty sure about my top-3 series for the winter-season: Wellber no Monogatari, Porfy no Nagai Tabi and Gunslinger Girl, though I’m not sure about the order yet. Everything is very close in terms of quality for this season, and Shigofumi, True Tears and Hakaba Kitarou have also been quite amazing as well. Who said that the winter-season sucked anyway?

In any case, this episode rocked in so many ways. There are two major fights, one of which gets continued in the final episode (oh, and there will be 2 DVD-only episodes after that). The camera still got shaken a bit, but the speed-lines were completely gone. In any case, the great thing about that fight was that I ACTUALLY SAW HENRIETTA AS A VILLAIN. I know that Pinocchio is with the bad side and all, and yet I couldn’t care less about Henrietta, and just hoped for Pinocchio, Franco and Franca to survive.
And this is exactly why there are so few good antagonists in anime. Very few series give these guys equal time in terms of not only development, but also fleshing out and screen-time. Pinocchio has received just as much, if not more development than all of the girls, which is a very rare occurrence. After that fight, the development only continues when Christiano is about to get captured and Pinocchio refuses to let him be. The talk that Christiano has afterwards, in which he tells his assistant how Pinocchio has told him that he loved him was such a simple but extremely effective scene.

Also, Pinocchio also failed to kill Henrietta, and that suddenly brought up the same feelings in him that Triela is currently experiencing. I never thought that the two would be so similar. Also note that Triela is still carrying Pinocchio’s necklace. I don’t think that “hate” really is the word to describe the feelings that she has for the guy, at the end of the episode when they finally stand against each other again. She more sees him as a strange kind of rival.

In any case, I’ve long since stopped caring about the bad animation. The choreography of the fights in this episode was more than enough to make up for it.