Psycho Pass: Episodes 1 - 5

 

Psycho Pass is an awesome anime, especially for people who really like the theme of futuristic, high-tech gear. This series is somewhat like a usual North American police drama show on television. But this shit is waaay better.

 

... First thing I'd like to say about this series is that, personally, the OP is enough to give one an eargasm and get them hooked on the anime.

 

 The intro of the song especially is so appealing in-sync with the visuals that it just gives the series an edge, which makes a really good first impression.

When I found this series, the title is what first caught my attention. From there, it was just like a flash of light.
The OP was great.
I loved the idea and the concept of the entire series.
The characters had interesting personalities.
All of the themes seemed intriguing and freakin' awesome.
And, lastly, the first ED was an eargasm too.

It's good to make sure that an anime has a great OP and ED, or at least or the other, because that's what leaves you with a lasting impression after the first episode.
If you end up with a whatthefuckdidijustwatch reaction after a certain anime, I suggest you stop and watch something more suited to your tastes.

Oh, and the background music usually fits quite nicely with many of the scenes in this anime.

There's tons of bloody death scenes, so for all you gore fans, this could be just for you.

The introduction is a bit sudden and very in-your-face, but once you grasp the concept, it is fanatically faaaantastic.

Setting and concept is fucking AMAZING.

I love the design of the setting, it's really interesting both visually and in concept. The layout of what I've seen so far in eps 1-5 is pretty great.

I love the overuse of holograms in this anime.
It's an overuse, but not in a particularly bad way.
Yeah, it's repeptitive and everything, but it's used in really warped ways.
I won't mention, because that's too good of an idea to reveal here.

The idea of a city where personality issues and psychological problems are absent is really great.
Then the concept of those Dominators is just fabulous. I'm tempted to just visit a con, just to search for an awesome gun replica.

Like, HELLO? WHO THE HELL DOESN'T WANT A GUN THAT IS LIKE A MINI TRANSFORMER?!
Honestly, you want one.

 I know I want one.

I have no money though. (sheds a singular tear)

 

These things are practically the epitome of sayings like:

 

search and destroy

or

hunt to kill.

 

The results of being shot by one of these things ends with a big pile of guts, flesh and a pond of blood.

 

What's cool about the process though is that, the ammo doesn't explode or anything, as one would expect from a sci-fi gun in the future.

Instead,

YOU FREAKIN' IMPLODE.

AN IMPLOSION, MAN.

THIS AUTHOR IS PURE GENIUS.

 

But, seriously, admit it, that is pretty damned smart.

 

Characters are also really great.

 

There isn't much development so far, but I suppose it comes later in the series. And, also, I'd heard that there was a second season. If so, then there's definitely development in that 2nd one.

 

There isn't exactly a pinpointed main main character of the series, who is a hero archetype, but there is one who is involved in most of the crime-solving stuffs.

 

Her name is Akane Tsunemori. She's introduced in episode 1 as a newbie to the Sibyl system's* "enforcement" crew, which is pretty much the police around there.

(The Sibyl System is the government's system of maintaining everyone's psychological capacity, which is known as "Psycho Pass." If one reaches beyond their capacity, they are labelled as possible murderers and hence are killed)

 

During the first episode, near the end, the only emotion I felt towards her was annoyance. But afterwards, somewhere in episode 3, I started empathizing towards her idealogies and, well, I think she's a fairly okay character.

 

She looks really... young though, which made the first impression really trippy.

 

 This is one of the hottest characters I have ever scene.

Honestly, there is an entire scene in around episode 3 or 4 where he walks around shirtless for fanservice.

 

He is the badass out of all the characters so far and really takes his job seriously.

 

 

Kougami Shinya is like whythemotherfreakinhellareyousogoodlookingandyoureoncriminaloffensewhatthehellmanwhyyyyyy

was basically my reaction.

 

I can't really say much about him, because I don't want to spoil it too badly and, plus, there hasn't been much development other than the fact that he's one of those exceptionally mysterious characters.

 

Those two are the main-er-ish ones and the others are secondary to the development I guess.

 

Other than the feud between this guy

and this guy,

there aren't any other developed relations.

 

Another thing I'm pleased about this anime was the art. There aren't many gory crime anime that have a mixture of both aesthetic and horror art. The effects are also used nicely; not too much, not too little. Animation is fairly smooth, but smooth enough.

 

One thing that I would say is kind of a downer about such a great anime would be the momentum of the plot development.

As we've recently said, there is hardly any developments at all.

But this isn't much of an issue, because regardless of the plot's pacing, the action-packed detective work is guaranteed to keep you hooked.

  



K-Project: Anime Overview

 

During the break, I managed to squeeze in some time for a short anime called K-Project, which is 13 episodes long.

 

The one thing that really captured my eye in this one was the great animation. The storyline looked so damn interesting that I couldn't put it off after I started. Character design is great and I like the concept. Overall, it's a great anime that I would suggest to anyone who has a thing for mysterious psychological thrillers with supernaturals interwoven with the plot.

 

Honestly, the first episode totally masks the actual plotline of the story, which is great for a mystery. Another thing, this anime is one of those mysteries that are made out of pure crap. The storyline is NOT very predictable and turns out quite differently than one would be led to believe.

 

Now to begin...

 

Firstly...

HOLY CRAP THE AMOUNT OF PASSIVE BROMANCE IN THIS ANIME IS BEYOND ALL LEVELS OF COMPREHENSION.

 

... Anyway, to start, we'll look at plot and setting.

 

The entire anime takes place in a high-tech Shizume City, which functions regularly like any other modern city. Other than the fact that there are a bunch of "clans" (functions sort of like gangs) who fight every other second over little nit-picky emotional things.

 

There are 8 clans in total, I believe, but during the anime, only 4 of them are present.

Some of these clans are not clans at all, and are only made of a singular person. Those people are referred to as "kings."

 

The four clans that play their part in the plot accordingly are:

 

1. HOT-HEADED RED CLAN

2. COOL-HEADED BLUE CLAN

3. ALL-POWERFUL SILVER KING

4. CORRUPTED COLOURLESS KING

 

Each of these groups portray their unique sets of personalities and, well, is pretty fucking awesome. I mean, the colourless king is pretty screwed up in the head, but you gotta admit, he's pretty awesome.

 

The plot goes something like this (with trying to avoid spoilers):

 

ablondeguywhowasbestfriendswiththeredclangotkilledthentheredclangotreallyhotheadedandpissedoffthentheytotallyragedbecausetheyfoundavideoonacameratapethathadthefaceoftheguywhokilledhimanddecidedtodedicatetherestoftheirlivestofindingthispersonwhokilledhim.

blueclanwhoisalwayspissedwithredclangetspissednonethelessandstartstellingthemtobackoffbecauseeveryonethinksthatthekilleristhecolourlesskingwhotheythinkisevilandhencemustbekilled

butredclanistoopissedofftolistentoblueclanandeachofthembattleitup

meanwhileanekogirlwhoisprettymuchonlyinthestorylinetofuckuptheatmosphereandprovidetheviewerwithextremefanserviceofwhichifoundextremelyawkwardisobsessingoverthemaincharacterandabrokenricebowl

Themaincharacteriscompletelyoblivioustoeverythingthathasbeenhappeninguntilhepassesoutfromshockofafoxthinggoingintohiseyeandstartsglowinglikealightbulboutofsheerfabulousness

afterwardsheramblesingermaninaveryyoungmanlyvoice

thenhegoestofuckshitupbyusinghislevetationpowersandneko'sabilitytoscrewupwithpeople'sperceptions

heeatstheevilcolourlesskingandthenproceedstogetkilledbytheredclankingonpurposeandafterwardsthesameiswiththeredclanking

andtheneveryoneislikeholyshitiknewthisguyhewas...waitwhowasheagain?

 

... If you honestly read all of that, I am thoroughly impressed with your level of patience.

 

So, some of the main characters...

 

First up is Isana "Shiro" Yashiro, who is a paradoxal character, because Isana Yashiro is not Isana Yashiro at all.

 

I don't want to bring about any major spoilers but, during the plot development, he discovers that the life he lives is a lie. From there, shit get real.

 

But, away from plot and back to character, Yashiro is a kind-hearted friendly high school boy, the protagonistm, who seems to be close to everyone. Once again, the idea of a paradox comes back because, right from the first episode, his relationships with everyone is questioned as "Everyone seems to like him, but he doesn't really hang out with anyone in particular."

 

Okay, so I wont go any further with his chcracter development, but I'll just say that a fanservice cat girl, Neko, is completely obsessed with him, which obviously makes up for some very awkward scenes.......

 

Oh and, glowing scene to the right. Don't bother clicking it unless you wanna be spoiled.

 

Moving on to Yatogami Kuroh

 

Kuroh Yatogami is known as the infamous "black dog" or kuro inu.

 

He's pretty much what he looks like:

a cool-headed, long-haired bishie who wields a katana.

 

He also possesses a type of invisible force through his hands that makes him able to attack from far distances. Confusing, but you'll get it when you watch the anime.

 

He was out to hunt the colourless king and was going to kill Yashiro on site, but, out of sheer jokes, Yashiro escapes. Eventually, Kuroh learns that Shiro isn't the evil force he was ordered to kill and teams up with him.

 

He constantly declares that his former king, whom he served was Ichigen-sama. Kuroh is overly obsessed with his deceased master, who sent him out on this quest.

He carries around this voice-recorder thingy, which has messages of Ichigen on it.

 

Kuroh fangirls over this machine, and upon showing it to Shiro and Neko for the first time, i was like; .... this is not kuroh. what the hell have you done with him. (Kuroh's reaction to the right)

 

 

I'm too lazy to explain Neko for many reasons, one of which is because I've already explained some of her personality above.

 

She has two forms, one is an actual cat and the other is a gijinka, a human adaptation of an animal.

 

I'll just present a couple pictures.

 

Cat form

Human form

 

 

And those are the three main characters.

 

Another thing about this anime is the relationships.

 

Friendship.

Betrayal.

Bromance.

Hatred.

Trust.

 

It's got all the good stuff, so I suggest you go and watch it right at this instant.

 

As for a rant on the relationships themselves, I'll have to save for a different post some other time.

I've already made this too long.

 

 

DON'T DIE OF SUICIDAL BOREDOM, RANDOM VIEWER!!

 

So yeah, that's K-Project for you in a cinch.

... A rather long cinch.

 

 

 

Gosick

Gosick is one of my favourite mystery animes.

It takes place in 1924 in a small (and unreal) European Sauville.

The two protagonists in the story are Victorique (pronounced as Victorica), a "golden fairy" detective, and Kujo, the third son of a Japanese Imperial soldier.

The mysteries in this anime are kind of dull, since you can see the answer quite obviously but...
Ah, well. The characters are very funny so... It's all good.

Victorique de Blois is my favourite character.

She is so cute, especially when she's angry or bored.

 Her sarcastic laugh in episode 1 was fabulous.

But that hair colour change at the end of the series was just... I didn't like it.
I grabbed my monitor and shook it, going: HER HAIR, HER BEAUTIFUL GOLDEN HAIR... WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER HAIR, PRODUCER?!?!?!?!?!?! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
*facedesk*

So, in closing...

"Is Gosick any good?"

"No, but Victorique is so adoooooooooorable."

"... Good enough for me."

:D

Durarara!!

Durarara is a slice-of-life anime with supernatural, action and mystery aspects.

It's ironic that this anime is good because the series seems to be about Celty's missing head.....

Many of my friends would say this is a horrible anime but, I would say differently.

Durarara's characters have great personalities, all of them with different backgrounds and secrets of their own. They lighten the dark and mysterious setting of the city, Ikebukuro, and add lots of humour into the suspenseful plot.

As events unravel in Ikebukuro, story development is surprisingly good. The pace is excellent; not too fast and not too slow. Characters get mixed up in events and some couple characters, gangs and locations are introduced along the way.

My favourite character is:

Heiwajima Shizuo

He would be the character who lightens Ikebukuro's setting the most in my opinion.

He has a funny personality and his feuds with Izaya are priceless.

Shizuo's inhuman ability to lift vending machines and such 500 pound objects just does it all for me.

Oh, and he's a bartender.

Well, good luck, Celty, on finding your head, which seems to be impossible because Izaya seems to enjoy hiding it from you...

Tsuritama / Phi Brain

When I first read a genre tag on this anime, it read: FISHING.

 And I shook my head.

But, surprisingly, it's not bad.

Tsuritama is a story about a boy, Sanada Yuki, who can never fit in to meet new people because of his reaction when people stare at him. His odd reaction is basically... He feels like the room is filling up with water and that he's drowning.

So, transfer after transfer, he finally ends up in a town, Shonan, Enoshima, where fishing is popular.

Somewhere along the way, he is met by a self-proclaimed alien named Haru and is dragged into "fishing to save the world."

I haven't yet completed the anime but, so far, my favourite character is:

Haru

He's so cute with his fishbowl.

I will update further when I complete the series.

--

My goodness... This anime...

I'm 20 episodes into this series, and I still dont get it.

I understand the concept but... What the hell man.

I'm gonna keep going on this one though. The story developments twist the story like freaking hell and it's just that awesome.

The general theme for this series is puzzles.

But these guys are dead-serious when they tell you to solve a puzzle.

So basically, Phi Brain features a boy, Daimon Kaito, who receives the title of Einstein and receives an armband which allows your brain to reach full potential. He is in section Phi, a sector of the POG (Puzzle of God) which nutures Phi Brain children to solve the Puzzle of God. The prize for solving the Puzzle is a book that enables the Solver ultimate power, enough to rule the world.

This isn't the best anime ever, but, like I said, the plot twists are great and if you have that otaku stamina, you just might live through the stupid concept.

What I hate about the anime is that the subject of Puzzle of God book is very distant. Sometimes, you'd wonder: So... What was this anime about again...? Majority of the series is about how Kaito wants to "free puzzles" and he hardly thinks of the book, which makes the point of the anime seem very distant.

So far, my favourite character is Ana Gram, who is in fact a boy.

His title is Da Vinci.

He can paint real damn good.

Dantalian no Shoka

Dantalian no Shoka (or the Mystic Archives of Dantalian) is an anime where the theme of books is actually quite action-packed. If you were wondering, no, this is NOT a slice of life anime, despite the common theme of simply books.

This anime features two main-main-main characters: Huey and Dalian. (Huey is just a nickname that Dalian made for him. His real name is "Hugh Anthony Disward")

The genre of this anime is action, adventure and supernatural/magic.

I absolutely love the 19th century-flavoured setting. The clothes, buildings and even the characters themselves are just amazing. The atmosphere is of course a 19th century era but, because of these Phantom Books bring magic into the storyline, it creates a centerline in the time period: half in the 19th century and the other in a more current era.

My favourite character is of course the sweetly adorable Dalian:

She truly is a cute, gothic bookworm.

In terms of her taste in sweets, I can relate very easily.

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE SWEETS~~

No. 6

It's Canada Day!!

Now, this is definitely one of my favourite animes.

I love the art style, the characters, the story, the setting and the genre.

The setting is a high-tech futuristic city. However, the outskirts of the city are an endless stretch of empty desert with absolutely no trace of humane living standards.

The genre was a mix of futuristic and action. It could also be classified as a slice of life.

The characters are strong, determined and well-rounded. Shion has a nice attitude towards life, even if it can get kind of annoying at times.

Safu is definitely intelligent, but in a very... strange way.

E.g. In one episode, she says, "I am simply acting by reproductive instinct."

OF COURSE THAT'S NORMAL, PFFT WHAT AM I TALKING ABOUT?

*smiles*

And so, Nezumi takes his place as my favourite character.

His smiles are equally charming as his scowls.

Oh and he was very adorable when he was younger too.

Wanna see?

--

Edit:

Those Canada Day fireworks were okay. Fireworks just don't impress me, I guess. I did, however, enjoy that finale and when they played Eye of the Tiger. :]

If I stood any closer to watch the fireworks, I bet that it would've sounded like I was in the middle of a war...

Anyhow...

Why was it that I was more focused on the amount of smoke the fireworks were producing rather than the fireworks themselves?

I have no clue.