My collection of short anime reviews

Review: Summer Wars (サマーウォーズ)

ranpha — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:33:24 +0000

The main male protagonist, refusing to become the main female protagonist's boyfriend.

When writing my previous post in this blog (the review of Black Jack 21), I discovered a teeny weeny relationship between the Black Jack series and the anime movie I will review today, the highly-rated (by others) anime movie titled Summer Wars. I have read somewhere in the internet that this movie has won many awards (alongside K-On! to be exact), and considering that I have it in my extremely long queue, I decided to take the movie for a spin. Not only I can scare the current ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title holder for a little, I can also confirm one of my suspicions that I have after watching the two season of Black Jack anime series.

And this is his avatar in the said MMORPG. The avatar that has gone bad!

Story:-
Our nerdy main male protagonist was offered a part-time job by the his high-school idol to…………………………………………………………………become her boyfriend during her grandmother’s birthday bash. Disgruntled at being forced to do unexpected things, his problems vastly multiplied when, literally, the world and its dog starts baying for his head for hacking and vandalizing the biggest casual MMORPG in the world. His cover blown away, he has to work hard against time to save the world from a renegade AI that wants to destroy it, hmmmm…… where did I heard about this before?

Yeah right, the .Hack//G.U. multiplatform series, which prelude anime was reviewed by me here and the video-game-trilogy-condensed-into-a-movie reviewed here. I have also played the Playstation 2 trilogy for at least 200 hours or something. This movie shared so many similarities with the game series when it come to the storyline, but then again there are major differences as well.

While the game series is pretty much shounen, this movie’s storyline has a heavy dose of slice-of-life elements infused into it. Unlike the game which focused almost exclusively on the in-game storyline, this movie divides its focus upon the online world and the world outside it pretty much evenly. That’s why while the renegade AIs of each respective series do wreak major destruction upon their real world, you can actually see it (the actual disasters) happens in this movie while the destructions in .Hack//G.U. trilogy are only implied in bulletin boards and private messages. The game trilogy also has better romance story arc than this movie too, which will be explained below.

For what its worth, this movie’s storyline is quite good. But what makes the movie stands up to its hype is its presentation. The flow of the story is excellent and the pacing is just perfect. For a movie to has this kind of perfect s truly a rarity. It is even better than the likes of The Sky Crawlers and the venerable Spirited Away. The awesome presentation more than covered the unavoidable lack of nuances seen in this movie’s story.

Character developments. the bane of all things movies without a sequel, is predictably patchy. Only two characters has done anything remotely well in the regard: the main male protagonist (also the best character in this movie) and the main female protagonist's grandmother. The huge cast of characters really didn’t help. And the main reason why this movie’s romance subplot is inferior compared to the .Hack//G.U. trilogy’s is because of the main female protagonist’s weird character development strategies. Someone care to explain to me how on earth she fall in love with the main male protagonist?

And this is him in deep trouble after being framed by the scheming main female protagonist.

Character Design:-
This movie’s seinen-like character designs are excellent overall. Lack of black hairs is forgiven; I’m convinced that those who doesn’t have black hair dyed theirs. A positive aspect for this movie.

Voice Acting:-
Unlike character design, voice acting in this anime is just average. And unfortunately for this anime, no one stands out from the rest in this aspect. The grandma comes close, but not close enough.

Music:-
The main reason why this movie is related to the Black Jack series is because they shared the same composer for the soundtrack of both titles. The composer hasn’t done the work of Osamu Tezuka any justice it deserves, and 3 years later, nothing changed for this anime either. Therefore, it is safe to say, the OST of this movie is just mediocre. I don’t know if he composed the ED theme either, but the theme is not very good either.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this movie is superb, with no decrease in quality in fast-paced scenes too. Beauty is everywhere, whether in online world or outside it, comparable to what Makoto Shinkai’s works. Choreography is also awesome, comparable to what you can see in the .Hack//G.U. OAV and not too far behind what you can see in Avatar – The Last AirBender. The director also has done a very good job presenting the movie to the audience with the aforementioned excellent presentation. A positive aspect for this movie.

Conclusion:-
9 out of 10. This movie lives up to its hype, but not good enough to dethrone Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei as the best anime of 2009. How on earth K-On! managed to get toe-to-toe with this movie anyway?

Quoted for Truth!

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-gL

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Black Jack 21 (ブラック・ジャック 21)

ranpha — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:25:48 +0000

The main protagonist makes his (presumably) final return to this blog.

The awesomeness of the slice-of-life anime Black Jack TV reviewed in this blog last month prompted me to watch its sequel right after the the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition was over. Black Jack 21 is a 2006 anime title, therefore it will have a chance to dethrone the slice-of-life anime Chocotto Sister, the reigning ‘Anime of the Year 2006’ title holder. This anime does have a very big shoe to fill though, therefore will the plot that this new season will have helps this anime scale the heady heights that its predecessor has reached before? Read on to find out.

And he went for the highest fee he has charged in the whole first season, right in the first episode in the second season.

Story:-
Our main title protagonist BJ (this abbreviation that is used in the second season unnerved me somewhat – for obvious reasons) was reunited with his estranged father under professional circumstances. And within a single episode, some vague questions that have always bugged me during the course of the first season were readily answered straight to the point. You know, questions like what the hell happened to BJ’s mother after the explosion in the first episode of the first season. After extorting some good amount of money out from his father for a routine plastic surgery (he does this too a couple of times in the first season – the plastic surgery I mean) he went home just to find himself in yet another explosion that destroyed his house and nearly killed him. With that explosion, this anime has truly switched genres from slice-of-life to shounen, as the main protagonist has to run away from a mysterious organization that wants him dead and buried, Amazing Race-style.

This explosion completes this anime’s switch from slice-of-life to shounen genre.

When I first learned that the second season will have a prevailing plot, I thought the story would be seinen (like Wolf and Spice or Kaiji etc.), based on what I have seen in the first season. Instead, whoever wrote the main plot for the second season has decided instead to wrote a kiddy storyline that targets the elementary schoolers, not unlike what you can see in Onmyou Taisenki and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. And this is where my first complaint comes in. Unlike what the writers in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has done, the writers for the second season doesn’t bother to remove any of the clichés associated with such kinds of storyline though. This makes this anime extremely predictable except for one occasion (which will be explained later) and gratingly very cheesy too.

Now armed with a prevailing plot, you cannot skip any of the episodes anymore and expect to still understand what is happening in this anime. Yet this anime still inherits one of the few weaknesses that the first season has, which is uneven story development. There are many occasions where the events and/or scenes seems to happen unnaturally, as if it being forced upon the viewers. This weakness was compounded by the fast pacing, despite this anime not being episodic anymore, and also undermined BJ’s strong point seen in the first season: the awesome surgeon skills he has. You know, mad skills like that out-of-the-world, so ridiculous it must be fictional, anesthetic-free open heart surgery he performed in one of the episodes. Is that even possible? The awaken patient doesn’t even groan!

This anesthetic-free self-surgery that he does upon himself pales in comparison to the anesthetic-free open heart surgery mentioned above.

Maybe if the director can slow the pacing a bit, he can extend this anime up to 21 episodes, which will fit the title theme perfectly instead of only 17 episodes. I think the uneven flow of the storyline and the fast pacing can be blamed by the need to cram at least one full manga arc inside only one episode maximum, instead of letting the arc flows into the next episode. And this will become worse as the anime nears its end, where you can see 2 manga arcs (presumably modified) being rolled into one anime episode. In those episodes, presentation of this anime really suffered a lot.

By the end of this anime, I definitely have thought that the prevailing plot that the second season has did not exist in the manga version. But I do not read the manga therefore I do not know for sure.

As expected, the very conservative 4-episode 2-phase ending arc is naturally predictable, cliché-laden and has a over-the-top plot (HOLY SHIT! NUKES!!). But one very good exception in the first phase of the ending arc is the hidden daughter-turned-assassin plot twist, which I really didn’t see coming. What makes this plot twist an excellent one is that the writers has already dropped hints about it in the previous episodes, but I didn’t even know what is going to hit me later. This is almost comparable to the shocking episode 44 in the first season when it comes to impact, and would have been just as good if the fast pacing and horrendous flow of the story doesn’t dilute the impact by the time the first phase ends.

Character developments is one aspect where the second season has done tremendously very well compared to the first season. The prevailing plot allows you to know more about BJ’s background, and the plot also allows his character to develop according to conventional shounen genre development strategies. His pseudo-loli assistant is more subdued compared to what she is in the first season, maybe because her character has already matured due to what happened to her in the first season. Therefore BJ is definitely the best character in this anime.

Will there be a third season? If there is one, the anime should just returned to its roots shown in the first season where all we can see is BJ’s extreme greediness combined with awesome people-cutting skills.

You won't see him doing these Indiana Jones stunts in the first season.

Character Design:-
My comments for the same section in the first season review still applies.

Voice Acting:-
My comments for the same section in the first season review still applies.

Music:-
The OST is still has the same average quality seen in the first season. The first ED theme uses the 3rd ED theme from the first season, and frankly speaking, this is the only theme that is any good. The OP theme and the 2nd ED theme wasn’t really good.

The main protagonist tried to portray his nemesis using an apt description that, ironically, also applies to himself.

Animation/Direction:-
Do you know the horrendous animation technique I have always disparaged in this blog before? Unlike the first season, this anime employed the same technique too, but unlike the other anime titles that does so, this anime uses the said technique correctly. Yes, you heard that right, this anime uses that blurry animation techniques extensively only in very slow motion scenes, which can be flashbacks, or during surgeries etc. That animation technique really doesn’t have a place in fast-paced scenes or even normal ones.

Apart from that, the animation quality in this anime is still average just like the first season. There are more fast-paced scenes in this action shounen title, and the quality is also passable. Choreography is just ordinary though. The directing has regressed if the presentation of this anime (fast pacing and rough storyline flow) is taken into account.

By the end of this anime, his fee has now risen to the equivalent of a GDP of a small country, therefore…

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. This anime failed to match the awesomeness of its predecessor, and Chocotto Sister survives the challenge on its throne. So what random anime title I will review next?

…all greedy people will meet their deserved end.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-go

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: B gata H kei (B型H系)

ranpha — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 03:45:55 +0000

The best character in this anime: the main female protagonist.

The waiting for the inaugural ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title winner ends today with my review of B gata H kei, the 10th title in the audition. Frankly speaking, it doesn’t really meet my lofty expectations that made me put this anime as the finale in the audition in the first place. Anyway, this anime is not that bad, but its eventual scoring means that the first winner of the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title will not have a perfect 10 out of 10 score. Working!! and Durarara!! are the two front-runners with similar 9 out of 10 scores, and one of them will take the title at the end of this post.

Which one of them? Read on!

Quoted For Truth!

Story:-
The beautiful main female protagonist, with the awesome name of ‘Yamada’, starts her high school life aiming to complete the epic mission of sleeping with 100 different guys. As we all know, all long and difficult journeys began with one simple step forward as she made the unassuming main male protagonist her first conquest, but oh boy did she has a lot of obstacles doing just that!

The main storyline isn’t exactly original, almost below average in quality and utterly predictable; the plot is a cross between a certain arc in the josei manga Girlfriend and a hentai OVA I have watched a long time ago which title I cannot recall at the moment. Nevertheless, despite the main female protagonist’s virtuous ambitions, this anime is just a romantic comedy at its very core, just like ANN’s tags told you. The two things that make up for this anime’s weak storyline are the character strength of the main female protagonist (this fact is important, and will be explained below) and to a lesser extent, the humor.

The main female protagonist is one of the better tsundere characters out there, at least she is not obnoxious enough to make me wanting to kill her unlike her counterparts in Hayate no Gotoku and Zero no Tsukaima series. Ironically, despite the main female protagonist’s noble endeavors, she comes across more as a funny character than a perverted one. Combined with fact that she is a tsundere that is also bloody single-minded at doing everything, these facts makes her a very powerful and interesting character that makes me wanting to see more and more of her as the series went on. I’ll repeat it again, the main female protagonist is a very powerful and interesting character (and beautiful too) that more than makes up for the blandness of the main storyline.

And this anime will need all the help it can get from her because she was paired with a very weak main male protagonist. This is a reverse of what happened in Hayate no Gotoku, where the relatively strong main title male protagonist (this anime’s main female protagonist is still better though) was paired with a weak and de-evolving tsundere main female protagonist. The similarity between the main male protagonist of this anime and the Hayate no Gotoku tsundere borders on the eerie, and made even starker with the fact that the former has 12 episodes to destroy himself while the latter can take it slow with 50 episodes or so. His indecisiveness grates me, but what kills him is that as the series goes on, his lack of modesty was eventually exposed. In fact, at the end of this anime, he is probably more perverted than the main female protagonist herself. Perverted, yet indecisive. Now that’s a suicidal combination, if you ask me.

The worst character in this anime: the main male protagonist.

This anime could do with a main male protagonist like Moroboshi ‘Darling’ Ataru, whose perverted tendencies is actually one of his big assets. He would also made short work out of the main female protagonist though, turning this anime from a TV series into an OVA or something. And that would be a bad thing.

The humor is another aspect of this anime that helps mitigate the weakness in the main storyline, but it doesn’t have the same standalone mechanism unlike the humors in other anime titles, such as Working!! or Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu. In this anime, the humor is bound to the hips of the main storyline (with little effects) and also of the main female protagonist’s instead of being allowed to stand out by itself without any context whatsoever. The quality of the humor in this anime is not that spectacular (inferior even to what you can see in the aforementioned Working!! and Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu) but the single biggest contribution it has done for this anime is to help define and shape the main female protagonist into a funny tsundere character, strengthening her character even more. This anime could have benefited more from a properly executed comedy gigs, as seen in the two titles mentioned above, but I settle for it being used for character reinforcements.

Returning to the story, this anime has an average start for the first half (which takes up one whole school year) because the story focused only on the two main protagonists most of the time. Things looks more promising in the second half of this anime as it seems that the writers has decided to inject additional characters into the storyline, mostly as the rivals for the main female protagonist. But in the end, whoever wrote the story decides that making the main female protagonist facing intense rivalries is not a good thing, and the anime reverts back to what you can see in the anime’s first half. This then lead up to the utterly boring and predictable ending, which may or may not lead to a second season (I think it will be the latter). The flow of the storyline in this anime is just average, and the pacing being haphazard, mainly because the anime straddles the calendar year very indiscriminately.

Character development in this anime is mixed bag, with the main female protagonist being the best character of them all, by a million miles. And as mentioned above, the main male protagonist is the worse of the bunch. The two rivals of the main female protagonist would have benefited greatly if only they can have more airtime and more stabs at the storyline. And for the others such as the main female protagonist’s best friend, they have done their job impeccably as the side characters that they are.

The main female protagonist in 'seek and destroy' mode.

Character Design:-
This anime’s character designs are good overall, especially for the main male protagonist (probably only his positive attribute). The design for the main female protagonist could have been better, because her best friend and a couple of her classmates looks more beautiful than her. This makes her status as the school idol looks questionable. Black hairs are rare for recurring characters, except for the main male protagonist (see what I mean?) while other colors are extremely popular, like auburn.

The main female protagonist was helped by the fact that one of her rivals has some mental retardation problems.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is patchy in general, but as expected, the main female protagonist has done really well in this department. But here I want to draw your attention to the main female protagonist’s maroon-haired rival, whose voice acting gig is on another level entirely. Her creepy laugh is on the same level as Moroboshi ‘Darling’ Ataru is, plus the voice actress is really skillful at depicting the multiple personalities that her character has. A positive aspect for this anime.

Meanwhile, her other rival for a place inside the main male protagonist's pants is more formidable. That's maybe why the writer doesn't give her more airtime, else she would have kicked the main female protagonist’s ass.

Music:-
The OST of this anime is good, but not so for the OP/ED themes.

Animation/Direction:-
Animation quality in this anime is decent even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography in this non-action anime is non-existent. The director failed mostly on controlling the haphazard pacing of this anime and also at keeping the flow of the storyline smooth. If you do not know better, you would have thought that this anime is an episodic title, where any given episode is independent from each other.

The main male protagonist's older sister is a sad panda after seeing her brother de-evolved through the course of the series.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Not as good as the two front-runners in the audition at the end.

With this, the two front-runners for the inaugural winner of this blog’s ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ are Durarara!! and Working!!, both scoring 9 out of 10 scores. Things would have been easier for me if one of the titles in the audition managed to score a perfect score, but alas, that wasn’t meant to happen. Without further ado, by the skin of its teeth, I chose Working!! as the first winner of the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title, mainly because its ending is just slightly better than Durarara!!’s.

At 9 out of 10, Working!! position is not very tenable though, but then again I have not seen any potential challengers for it yet. The 2010 anime titles that is currently in my queue are the second season of K-On!, Kaichou wa Maid-sama, Katanagatari and High School of the Dead. From those 4 titles, Katanagatari is probably the only one that can challenge Working!! for the title. I also has high hopes for Bakuman and The World God Only Knows in the future. In fact, the manga version of the latter is one of the two manga titles I followed religiously (the other one being Umi no Misaki – won’t be animated soon I think). If The World God Only Knows can follow the source material the way Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood does, it has a very good chance at winning the title.

Usually I don't collect DVD/Blu-ray version of any given anime I have watched, especially if I already have a HDTV version, but I will make an exception for this title.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-g7

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Durarara!! (デュラララ!!)

ranpha — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:00:00 +0000

The main male protagonist.

The penultimate review for the ongoing ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition will be made specifically for Durarara!! ahead of B gata H kei. I’m saving the latter for the finale of the audition because I have heard ‘good’ things about it. It is not to say that the former isn’t good; in fact it is and is able to go toe-to-toe with the current front-runner for the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ award, Working!!

This beautiful long-haired brunette here, who is immortal and ride a bad-ass motorcycle that is every environmentalists' wet dream, is our silent main female protagonist. Did I say she is beautiful? You can gawk at her beauty with the picture above.

Story:-
A country bumpkin who has a thing for big breasts, enrolls in a private high-school in Ikebukuro, Tokyo after being invited there by his old friend. Never being out from his rural village before, his wish for a life out of the ordinary was swiftly fulfilled as he encounters the upright, law-abiding and outstanding Ikebukuro icons; such as a Ghost Rider-like female grim reaper who is looking for her missing head, a Sadako-like sword-toting freak who slashed people randomly, a debt collector who hurled vending machines at other people, an informant who likes to stomp on mobile phones and more. Thinking about it, this anime is no different than Arakawa Under The Bridge after all.

This anime spends the first 8 or 9 episodes or so planting the multiple story arcs that will converge themselves later, and also do character introductions and developments. Prominent in this phase is the Kara no Kyoukai-style time-shuffling story presentation technique, usually applies in character-specific episodes like the ones for the aforementioned grim reaper and the debt collector. In fact, I think this anime uses that technique better than Kara no Kyoukai did. After the initial phase, the multiple story arcs mentioned above has merged into a single multi-faceted larger storyline that flows very smoothly with flawless pacing, all the way to the ending.

The story itself is very good and has one trait that is rarely seen in other titles in the same shounen genre: unpredictability. This anime has its fair share of plot twists that steered the story in a different direction compared to what I have originally predicted in the course of watching this anime. For example, at first, I thought that the story would paint itself a darker tone in the middle of the series during the Sadako slasher arc but eventually it doesn’t, taking up a more conservative turn instead. In hindsight, while the anime doesn’t go far enough out from the mainstream in that arc, the alternative turning point the anime has taken is not that bad either.

This anime also have some references to other anime/manga/novel titles. A very glaring example is the wolf-girl cut-out board early in the series. It was so blatant that even I, who are used to external references done by other anime titles, paused the episode at that point wondering whether this anime is trying to pull my leg or something. The only weak aspect of this anime’s storyline would be the ending, which amounts to nearly nothing at the end despite the frenetic activities in the flurry of events that makes up the final 3 or 4 episodes. So many things happened, yet nothing is over. The ending set up a potential second season very nicely though, although if ANN is to be believed, there is none in the pipelines.

Character developments in this anime are done very well all-around. The ones that really shine includes the main antagonist and the main protagonist’s best friend. Talking about character developments, the main female protagonist has a very weird and negative character developments strategy. She is a cool character up until the scene where she performed that skyscraper-descending bike stunt (the Ghost Rider movie also has a similar stunt) before kicking plenty of asses, halfway in the series. Right after that, she forgot that she has a head to find and highly likely, she forgot that she is a grim reaper too. Being separated from her head sure does serious damage on her personality.

Proof that the Japanese in this anime who doesn't have black hairs dyed theirs. This probably applies too for characters in other anime titles.

Character Design:-
The character design in this anime is just your average shounen genre stuff. Black hairs are quite common though, and those who doesn’t have one has definitely dyed their hairs. See above.

Voice Acting:-
This anime has done very well in this aspect overall. Outstanding characters notable for their voice actors/actresses great jobs includes the two best characters in this anime, the grim reaper and the slasher. Definitely a positive for this anime.

The main antagonist and also one of the two best characters in this anime.

Music:-
The OST of this anime is excellent, definitely the best one amongst all 9 anime titles reviewed in the audition so far, by a million miles. B gata H kei will have a lot of work to do to match this anime in this department. Too bad though that the four OP/ED themes cannot keep up with the OST excellence, with only 1st ED theme worth listening.

Animation/Direction:-
Animation quality in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. This anime did use that blurry animation technique mentioned negatively before in this blog, but only briefly and under the correct context (flashbacks), therefore I will let this one slide. Choreography in action scenes is decent overall. The director has done a very good job in this anime, as seen in my commentary about the presentation aspects in the story section above.

The main male protagonist's best friend, also one of the best characters in this anime.

Conclusion:-
9 out of 10, the same score as Working!! I would not proclaim this anime to be the new front-runner for the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title though, because the final anime in the audition, B gata H kei, may gazump both of them with a perfect score and run away with the title instead. The next entry will definitely see a new winner at the sidebar of this blog for 2010, joining (as of writing) Chocotto Sister (2006), Bokurano (2007), One Outs (2008) and Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (2009).

Just one of the creepy monsters that inhabits modern Tokyo, therefore YOU SHOULD NOT GO THERE!

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-fT

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Ookiku Furikabutte – Natsu no Taikahen (おおきく振りかぶって～夏の大会編～)

ranpha — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 05:26:00 +0000

Still paranoid main protagonist.

The end of the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition is nigh with the eighth review out today, for the 2nd season of Ookiku Furikabutte titled Ookiku Furikabutte Summer Tournament. If not for the customary sport-genre handicap I dished out for all sport genre anime titles I reviewed for quite some time now, this anime would have given the current front-runner of the audition a run for its money. The first season of this anime was favorably reviewed by me here last year. The second season did not actually matched its predecessor in general, but with a caveat, the whole series so far is still a very good watch and deserved a third season.

Quoted for truth!

Story:-
Fresh from their first victory in the prefectural tournament, the team trained for a bit (no training camp this season) then played the second game, which the team won. Then, then is more training before the third round match, of which the team also won. Lastly, there are more training done and then the far more important fourth match come, which will decide the winner for a quarterfinal place. Watch this anime to know the result of that game.

The second season started right off the bat from where the first season finished off, and you will be forgiven if you think you are watching the 27th episode of the first season instead of the first episode of a new season. There will be no recap or flashbacks from the first season to refresh the memory of the viewers. Watching the first season is definitely mandatory to understand what really happened in this newly minted second season.

As far as the story goes, nothing has changed from what you can see in the first season. It is still your typical clichéd sport-genre storyline where there are plenty of positives traits such as determination, never-say-die attitudes, hard work and things like that (and of course, the Koushien). Instead, what have changed in this sequel is the presentation. Taking a leaf from the playbook of the second season of Nodame Cantabile, the pacing in the second season has been vastly accelerated with very minor omission from the manga. This is very noticeable during the baseball team second game, which spanned only 3 episodes. This makes me unable to follow the action in that game sometimes, wherewithal of all of the fast-paced scenes and abnormal amount of dialogues. If the same pacing of the first season applies to that particular second game, it will definitely take two or three times longer to finish. The torrid pacing slowed somewhat in the fourth game, but the damage has been done.

Just like the storyline, character developments in this season continues where the first season left, and this aspect is actually where this anime has improved from the first season. With more games (3 of them, 2 with significance), the members of the team grows almost exponentially compared to their rates in the first season. Just like what I wrote in the first season’s review, this is what I hoped will happen in its subsequent sequel(s). The main protagonist grows rapidly during this season as expected, but so are some of his fellow club mates, like his nagging boyfriend.

The ending is even more awesome in the second season, and I hope a third one will come some time in the future. If the manga is any indication, it will not be anytime soon.

His relationship with his boyfriend can never get better.

Character Design:-
My comments for the same section in the first season’s review still applies.

Voice Acting:-
My comments for the same section in the first season’s review still applies.

Music:-
The OST is still hard to notice at all (hard to blame this anime for this though due to its nature), but the OP and ED themes are good.

Animation/Direction:-
For animation quality and choreography, my comment from the first season still applies. The director screwed up somewhat with the pacing, but apart from that his directing is up to par with what he has done in the first season.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Just a little bit off the track compared to the last season. Durarara and B gata H kei, which one will be next?

The team shouts this slogan every time the team something good.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-fI

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Working!! (ワーキング)

ranpha — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 05:22:29 +0000

This is the main MALE protagonist. I repeat: This is the main MALE protagonist.

The ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition reached its seventh entry today with my review of Working!!, which style is disturbingly similar to Minami-ke, an awful anime I reviewed here before. Comparison will be inevitable, but the former doesn’t waste its time in proving that it is much better than the latter by a million miles. In fact, this anime is currently the best title I reviewed in the audition as of today.

And his manager has some serious and fully legitimate concern about our main MALE protagonist.

Story:-
One snowy day in Hokkaido, our main protagonist is walking down to his home from school when suddenly he was ambushed from behind by a well-endowed 12-years old girl. The girl asked our hero to work part-time at a family restaurant where she moonlights her services, but he refused, thinking that she is just a jail-bait. But the main protagonist changed his mind after learning that the girl is actually a shorty (and well-endowed) 17-years old high-school student (read: LEGAL IN ALL JURISDICTIONS). He then reports in for his first day at work alongside her new busty colleague, expecting good ’things’, but the fact that the restaurant is no different than that place under the bridge will hit him on the face, LITERALLY!

Just like Minami-ke, this anime doesn’t have a plot. But unlike Minami-ke and just like Urusei Yatsura, this anime was sustained instead by the character strength of the main protagonist. The main protagonist is not as powerful or interesting as the legendary Moroboshi ‘Darling’ Ataru is, but he is not far behind. He is grossly offensive in mannerism and can be very inconsiderate, but is also very snarky and proficient in all kind of humor. I want to call him a lolicon, but then again the main female protagonist is a 17-years old high school student and his senior, so I will leave it at that.

Two samples from the cesspool that makes up the employment of the establishment.

Unlike Hirasawa Yui in K-On!, the main protagonist doesn’t have to work alone at propping this anime up, because he was assisted by most of his new colleagues in the said family restaurant, and to a lesser extent, his sisters at his house . Those characters are unique and quirky in their own respect and are trapped in their own circumstances. The interactions and relationships between the main protagonist and all these characters are what made this anime shines brightly. One-sided crushes, toilet humor and crass jokes, blackmail, gratuitous amount of violence, you got them all.

Character developments is also where this anime has done very well as a whole, with our main protagonist being the best character of the bunch. The only apparent weakness this anime has is the ending, where its chain of events are predictable, lacks in substance and, well, just weak. It is structured for a second season though, but a quick look at ANN website doesn’t indicate that there will be a new one. How on earth Minami-ke has 3 seasons while this blatantly superior series only has one?

A long-distance relationship like the one above is only possible in this restaurant located somewhere in Hokkaido, Japan.

Character Design:-
As mentioned above, this anime is very similar with Minami-ke in style. And just like Minami-ke, the character designer for this anime totally failed at drawing beautiful female characters. Mitigating that weakness is the fact that the main protagonist of this anime is male. And apparently people in Hokkaido, Japan doesn’t have black hairs. Maybe it is because of the cold.

Voice Acting:-
This anime performs strongly in this department, just like Minami-ke did. Outstanding characters includes the main male protagonist and the busty ~~12-years loli~~ 17-years old female high school student which I presume to be the main female protagonist. A positive aspect for this anime.

Music:-
The OST is good but not used too much in this anime. Meanwhile the two OP and ED themes in this anime are excellent. A positive aspect for this anime.

A delicious amount of violence is available in this anime, like the one that is about to happen above.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. While there are plenty of violence in this anime, choreography is basically non-existent, in a good way. The directing is flawless and conservative, with none of the innovative presentation techniques seen in the previous anime title reviewed here. A positive aspect for this anime.

Conclusion:-
9 out of 10, three times more points than Minami-ke can ever dream of. With that score, this anime has surpassed Hakuouki as the front-runner for the first ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title winner. Considering that the second season of Ookiku Furikabutte will be saddled by the sport-genre handicap, this anime’s only challengers for the title will be Durarara and B gata H kei. The next review will be for second installment of Ookiku Furikabutte, so that I can finish this audition with suspense until the end.

The main female protagonist, probably the sanest character in the establishment.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-fD

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Angel Beats! (エンジェルビーツ)

ranpha — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:15:16 +0000

The main protagonist of this anime.

The sixth 2010 anime I have chosen for the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition is Angel Beats! The previous anime in the audition has already set the benchmark at (somewhat low) 8 out of 10, therefore the question is, can this anime (and the final four unreviewed 2010 titles listed at the right sidebar) exceeded that score and then become the first ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title winner?

And this is the best character in this anime.

Story:-
The main male protagonist wakes up at a high school, and he finds out that he has lost all of his memories. Then a spunky female student appears and told him that he has died, and asked whether he wants to join her terrorist organization. Deciding that she is just crazy, the main protagonist walks away and encountered another female student who has white hair (read: EVIL). The main protagonist haven’t even done anything wrong but the white-haired female student suddenly stabbed him on the chest, killing him instantly. THE END.

This anime starts very slowly as you can listen to some singing, then some sob stories of the week and then some ‘disappearing’. But after a few episodes, the best character in this anime (which is not the main protagonist) takes center stage and this anime actually become more watchable. And funnier too, even if she isn’t in the scene. The anime continues with great pacing and decent story development all the way until episode 10, which focused on the said best character of this anime and resulted on her ‘disappearance’ too. At exactly that point, this anime dies with her too. And this is where my first complaint about this anime will come: the ending arc.

The ending arc is ruined by a usage of a plot device that was written in completely based on the flow of the character developments in this anime, instead of relying on the usual story developments that any other normal anime series do, such as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. All the plots from the previous ten episodes went up in air just like that, no links whatsoever with the ending arc. This anime can be reduced to 6 episodes and I bet you won’t miss anything major.

Then there is THAT ‘revelation’ in the final 5 minutes of the last episode. Instead of becoming a very good plot twist, the revelation managed to become utterly pointless instead, just like what you can see in the same scene in the penultimate episode of Allison & Lillia. This is a huge opportunity missed by whoever wrote the story of this anime. Think about it, if the white-haired evil female student makes that revelation in the first episode when she fatally stabbed the main protagonist, this anime would have turned out very differently. And highly likely, for the better too. This anime could have become a romance title too.

My second complaint about this anime relates to its atrocious character developments. There are so many characters in this anime whose background still remains a mystery even after the final episode finished playing. Safe to say, if any given character doesn’t have their own sob story of the week, that character simply has stagnant character developments. And this actually applies to two-thirds of the members of the terrorist organization. The best character in this anime has the best sob story of the week, and has episode 10 (best episode in this anime) dedicated solely for her alone. She is basically this anime’s own version of Ibuki Fuko.

The main protagonist attracts plenty of attention from the same gender…

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is just average. And there are no black hairs in this anime, but considering the Bleach-like universe setting, I will just probably overlook it.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is great overall. Special mention should be given to the best character of this anime, the main protagonist and that hypnotic guy who has a crush on him. A positive aspect for this anime.

Music:-
This anime has great OST but none of the OP/ED themes or the inserts are any good.

…and this is another member of his same-sex harem group.

Animation/Direction:-
After two headaches-free anime reviews in the form of Nodame Cantabile Finale and Hakuouki, the bad animation technique that plagues the first three anime titles in this audition, amongst others, made its return. To make it worse, just like Arakawa Under The Bridge, this anime also uses it in normal scenes in addition in fast-paced scenes. There, I’m slapping this tag on this anime and docked one point off this anime final evaluation.

Just like Mayoi Neko Overrun!, this anime also has some problems like jerky character animations in both normal and fast-paced scenes. And just like Mayoi Neko Overrun!, this anime has very good general animations. Some of the nature animations like falling snowflakes are really good, almost on par with Makoto Shinkai’s gigs. Choreography in all of the action scenes in this anime are just average. The director employed some unorthodox camera works especially during the terrorist organization’s mission, which is nice. That’s the only good thing he/she has done though.

The main protagonist spends a lot of time together with his captive harem members…

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Hakuouki managed to keep its front-runner status for the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title. Now it is increasingly likely that the first winner of the title will not be doing so with a perfect score. Now there are only four anime titles left in this audition: Ookiku Furikabutte S2, Durarara, Working and B gata H kei. Which one will come next? You will only get the answer in the next entry.

…but the competition for the main protagonist's attention do get a little bit heated sometimes.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-ft

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Hakuouki (薄桜鬼)

ranpha — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 19:13:22 +0000

The confused main female protagonist.

The audition to select the first winner of the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title reached the halfway point with my review of the first season of Hakuouki, an anime set up in the days of the Bakufu era, just like Blade of the Immortal etc. But unlike the latter, the former already have a second season lined up and ready to go later this year. Japan, why is that many decent but unfinished anime series out there doesn’t get an extension?

Story:-
A cross-dressing girl went to Kyoto to look for her missing father, but in double-quick time she has to run away from bad people. Suddenly, her pursuers were ambushed by some creepy uniformed monsters that craves for blood, and the pursuers were killed on the spot. The monsters then tried to sink their fangs upon the helpless main female protagonist but another ambush happened and the monsters were killed, also on the spot. The main female protagonist sighed in relief after being saved by some kindred spirits, only to realize that her saviors also wears the same uniform as the monsters’. She fainted in terror and the newly-anointed bad guys brought her back to their female-less headquarters so that they can do ‘this’ and ‘that’ to her…

Imagine that you combine Peacemaker Kurogane (a very similar anime to this one – I watched it before this blog started) and La Corda D’Oro ~primo passo~, and you will get this reverse-harem title. There are no Western classical music in this anime, but more importantly, the main female protagonist is not an emo unlike her counterpart in La Corda D’Oro. She is seriously incompetent though, but not an emo that I want to strangle to death. And there are no overt romance too, how on earth did that happened I have no idea.

The story itself is quite decent, and portrayed the events of that era from the eyes of the main female protagonist. This anime is definitely more accurate historically (not fully though) than Peacemaker Kurogane. But to not cause this anime turning into a History Channel documentary, the writers decided to put some supernatural stuff in so that academically-challenged viewers will not drop this anime en masse. In the ending, the writers even made the main male protagonist drink something that his counterpart in the real world definitely hasn’t done. That ending sets up the second season nicely, but I will not be surprised if the writers ditched the history books aside and steer the second season into the realm of fiction.

Yet another time jump…

The presentation of this anime is very unique in the fact that it uses the time-jump literary device extensively. In fact, I dare say that this anime has more time-jumps in it than the previous 30 anime titles reviewed here combined. The time jumps varies in length, from weeks to months at a time, but all-in-all, this is why this anime main storyline stretches between 2 or 3 years timeframe. The numerous time jumps, the portrayal of the historical events of the era (complete with narration by the main female protagonist) and the lack of flashbacks are what lends the aura of a documentary upon this anime series.

The usage of the time jumps does has drastic consequences upon character developments in this anime. Omitting the main female protagonist, you can divide the Shinsengumi members into two groups; one consists of members who have drunk the ‘something’ essence I have mentioned above, and another group that consists of those who aren’t. The members of the latter group practically has stagnant character developments, from the start of the anime until the end. The member of the former group doesn’t fare better, but the virtue of having drunk the said ‘something’ mean that they are involved more in the supernatural sub-plot. No best characters in this anime.

For the main female protagonist, which I presume doesn’t exist in the real Shinsengumi of yore, she quickly forgot her mission of finding her father right after she laid her eyes upon the handsome Shinsengumi dudes, and as of the finale episode, her father is nowhere to be seen.

Ignoring seppuku threats, the main female protagonist and her minions doing things that they shouldn't do.

Character Design:-
Another reason why I claimed that this anime is similar to La Corda D’Oro ~primo passo~ is that their character design are similar. Plenty of handsome guys in here (the real Shinsengumi members would be rolling in their graves if they see their portrayal in this anime) and has the lowest amount of female characters that this anime can get away with. Not surprisingly really considering the demographic of the game this anime is based from. A positive aspect for this anime.

Voice Acting:-
This anime is actually losing out to La Corda D’Oro in this aspect. Voice acting in this anime are just average overall, but the main female protagonist is quite good at performing her dual role of being a weak and stupendous character, and also being ~~Sir David Attenborough~~ the narrator in this anime.

Music:-
The OST is decent but not more, while the OP/ED themes are forgettable.

Animation/Direction:-
This anime is placed under a rare situation in this aspect because while its fast-paced scenes are animated without any issues (but not the best), normal scenes are riddled with jerky and abrupt changes of movements (just like Powerpuff Girls Z). There are some lazy animation too like in the screenshot below. Choreography is just average, which is a pity because there are plenty of katana battles in here. The director has done his job very well, especially with managing those time-jumps and also some very good camera works.

Oh BTW, this anime doesn’t have the nauseating animation technique too, just like Nodame Cantabile Finale. Another good decision from the director. I hope the next 5 anime reviewed here will also be the same.

Lazy animation efforts here. Can you spot it?

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. We now have a clear front-runner for the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title. If this anime can survive the challenge from the participants of the second half of the audition, naturally this anime will be featured at the sidebar of this blog. I have a feeling that the first winner of ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ will not have a perfect score.

So what’s next? You have to wait…….

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-f9

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Nodame Cantabile Finale (のだめカンタービレフィナーレ)

ranpha — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:13:27 +0000

Classical music orchestra is Serious Business!

As mentioned in the last review, Nodame Cantabile Finale is the fourth 2010 anime title reviewed here for the ongoing ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition. This anime is chosen specifically because I’m tired of seeing an application of a certain animation technique. Does this 2010 title utilized it just like the what the three other previous audition participant had? Or maybe should I worry about something far more important? Like the storyline, for example?

The two main protagonists of this anime, also the best of them all.

Story:-
After all the events in the preceding two seasons of this series, the two main protagonists are still doing their things in Europe. The main male protagonist conducts more orchestras while the main title female protagonist plays more piano. 13 episodes and plenty of omitted manga materials later, this anime ends, for good.

As a recap, in the first season, about 9 or 10 manga volume worth of materials was spread in 24 episodes with very minor omissions. The first season is so good it held the ‘Anime of the Year 2007’ title for more than two years, beating many illustrious challengers such as Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Kaiji before being deposed recently by Bokurano.

For the second season, about 6 or 7 manga volume worth of materials were crammed into a pithy 12 episodes, with a little bit more omissions that in the first season. This has two effects; first the pacing of the second season is faster than in the first, way faster. Secondly, the fast pacing combined with the various omissions from the reference manga caused the storyline to be disjointed, therefore unable to develop and flow smoothly. The biggest problem that the second season has is not the quality of the storyline (the manga is excellent, one of the best I have ever read) but the method of adaptation and its presentation.

And for the third season reviewed here, few things has changed. The episode count is still limited at 12 (13 if the non-canon episode is also counted) and whatever manga material that is still left unaired are crammed into them. But this time, the director slowed down the pacing by removing huge amounts of very important plots. The most striking example is the story arc that sees the main title female protagonist meeting with the main male protagonist’s father, who is also a pianist just like her. This directorial maneuvering helps improve the pacing and the development of the remaining storyline, at the cost of quality.

This sir, is not acceptable.

Regardless of the fast pacing and somewhat incoherent plot flow that plagued the second season, its story is still good and awesome. That’s why the second season scored 8 out of 10, which is a respectable score around this part. Even the previous 3 participants of the currently running ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition doesn’t score that high. The sacrifice of storyline quality for a better presentation IMO is not worth it. For those who doesn’t read the manga and only watched the anime, the improvement in presentation should be worth it though because the remaining plot-lines that survived the wrath of the director were executed and storied very well. The solid yet awesome ending is a good example of it.

Character developments continues very well in this third season, but if the arc about the main male protagonist’s father is not completely omitted, could have been better. That missing arc would have helped advanced the main male protagonist even further. The saner pacing in this final season also helps the developments of other dwellers in Nodame’s apartment. The best characters remains the two main protagonist of course.

Barging into the shower while the main male protagonist is still inside is our heroine's specialty.

Character Design:-
My comments from the first season still applies. They are as excellent as ever and a positive aspect for this anime.

Voice Acting:-
My comments from the first and second season still applies too here. In other words, a positive point for this anime.

Music:-
The music in the third season has recovered from the minor blip that happened in the second season. The OP theme and OST are great as usual, and the ED theme is the best song theme that this series could ever have. A positive point for this anime.

Animation/Direction:-
While Mr. Director Chiaki Kon is definitely a destroyer of franchises, at least he is sane enough to not use that abhorrent blurry animation technique I have mentioned in the previous three consecutive reviews before this one. Animation in this anime is still as slick as ever, with virtually no fast-scenes and choreography that I can comment on whatsoever. That is probably why Mr. Director doesn’t use it in this anime.

Mr. Director really dropped the ball with his decision to omit major story arcs out from the final season of this series. He would have done better if he just stick to repeat what he has done in the second season, if following the footsteps of the director of the first season (not Chiaki Kon) is too hard for him. But then again, not using the animation technique that I hate is very good decision too.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Currently the best anime reviewed in the audition to date, despite the fact that both Arakawa Under The Bridge and Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu also scored the same amount of points. 6 anime titles left to review…

Attempts by the main male protagonist to do the same doesn't work though.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-eZ

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (バカとテストと召喚獣)

ranpha — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:08:59 +0000

The main protagonist and his SLR-toting sidekick. Both of them are perverted and are the best characters in this anime.

The third review in the audition to choose the first winner of the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title will be for Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, which on the surface is very similar to the previous anime reviewed here Mayoi Neko Overrun!, therefore comparisons between these two 2010 anime titles is inevitable.

A fair description of his classmates, and to a lesser extent, his schoolmates too.

Story:-
Due to unforeseen circumstances with a busty naïve maiden during the placement exam that took place at the start of the school year, our dumb-ass main protagonist was assigned into the 2nd year F(ail) class. There he meets again with the said maiden and predictably, he fell in love with her. But the class also consists of many dumbasses just like him, and they are of little help when it comes to the school’s unique event: Examination Summoning Battle or ESB (abbreviated this way from now on), which can be used to raise the class’ status.

This anime starts very strongly with its very unique and seemingly promising storyline, up until maybe 3 or 4 episodes. When the whole class was banned for 3 months from participating in the ESB event, this anime started to peter out slowly towards the ending. Then the two-phase ending arc starts at episode 11 and this anime accelerates full-throttle onwards and downwards into the chasm of mediocrity.

The ending of this anime is even worse than the crappy ending Mayoi Neko Overrun! has. It was even more retarded than the main protagonist himself. Despite the regression that happened after this anime’s strong start, the pacing of this anime is pretty much spotless before the ending. Then this anime do the reverse of what Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone has done: sharply increasing the pacing of the presentation dramatically by cramming more ESB events in the ending arc (more ESB events than the previous 10 episodes combined). Plus, the final ESB event is very stupidly retardedly and maddeningly predictable. You can see how it will end from a million miles away, and if you don’t, then the main protagonist is smarter than you.

Whoever wrote the ending is either running out of ideas or purposely tried to insult the viewers’ intelligence. I suspect it was the latter. I really do. Honest! And it doesn’t even provide a smooth transition towards the already-announced second season!

While the general storyline itself is just average (albeit a little bit better than the one in Mayoi Neko Overrun!), some of the subplots are great. This anime is a better harem and comedy than Mayoi Neko Overrun, but similarly crap in romance department. Some of the potential relationships in this anime are not pursued in more detail though, such as the relationship between the main protagonist and his Class A boyfriend (picture below). This anime needs more episodes, and I hope the second season will provide more of them so that the various subplots can be explored more.

The main protagonist's boyfriend!

The low episode count combined with larger characters cast than Mayoi Neko Overrun! ensures that character developments are less than optimal than it should be. This anime is a case where the rate of development is proportionate to the amount of airtime that a character got, with some exceptions. One of the best characters in this anime is the main protagonist, which is a given due to his airtime. But an exception should be given to another interesting character in this anime, which is the camera-toting pervert. He is simply awesome (like the silent handphone-toting character in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series) even with far less focus on his character.

This anime also made references to other anime/manga/TV shows/games ranging from Gundam to Dragon Quest. Of course, it wasn’t as much as the rapid-fire Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series though.

Yet another The Scream painting spoof in Japanese anime.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is excellent, especially for its non-female characters. It is not to say that female character designs are bad (they are better than the ones in Initial D or Hayate no Gotoku for instance) but the male character designs are on another level. One glaring exception is the main protagonist, but I will overlook this one because the others are awesome. That bishounen character who has a twin sister in Class A is definitely the best of them all, overly so. A positive aspect for this anime. Better than Mayoi Neko Overrun! and even Arakawa Under The Crazy Bridge.

And I’ll even ignore that severe lack of black hairs in this anime too. Bishies trap is awesome!

Above is our hot-blooded main protagonist favorite food that he likes to 'eat'.

Voice Acting:-
In general, voice acting in this anime is good but not great, better than Mayoi Neko Overrun! too. There are no outstanding voice acting gig(s) in this anime, and in this part, this anime is inferior to Mayoi Neko Overrun!

Music:-
A complete opposite compared to Mayoi Neko Overrun!, only the 2nd ED theme is not good. Everything else, from the OST all the way to the 1st OP/ED themes are good. A positive aspect for this anime.

Epilepsy Attack! Japan need to stop using this regressive animation technique sharpish! Did all 2010 titles uses this technique?

Animation/Direction:-
I’m slapping the STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW! tag and docked one point from this anime’s final score. Click on that category link and scroll down to previous reviews under this category to see why this category exists. This technique are only used in fast-paced scenes though, just like Mayoi Neko Overrun and unlike Arakawa Under The Bridge.

Meanwhile, animation quality in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes (ignoring the said technique above). Choreography in this anime is just average though. The directing, while not perfect, do experiment with some rarely-used presentation methods.

A storytelling technique more common in the Western world literature than in Japanese manga/anime.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. The next anime that will will be reviewed is the long-delayed final season of Nodame Cantabile. I particularly choose this one hoping that the aforementioned animation technique above is not present in it. The first two installments doesn’t have it, therefore I’m praying that the third one is also the same.

The unbreakable friendship between these two like-minded best characters in this anime is the cornerstone of the storyline.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-eQ

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Mayoi Neko Overrun! (迷い猫オーバーラン！)

ranpha — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:32:00 +0000

The indecisive main male protagonist, dragging down this anime with his indecision.

The audition to select the first winner of ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title continues with my review of Mayoi Neko Overrun!, an anime where cat-girls doesn’t exist. There are lots of real cats though, which are not relevant to the storyline in any way. The bar set by the first entry in the audition is not that high but can this second entry of the audition surpassed it?

Story:-
Our main protagonist is a high-schooler who runs a middling cake shop while his foster sister, the true owner of the shop, is nowhere to be found. The business is bad, thanks to the uselessness of the part-timers that worked under him in the cake shop. His love interest doesn’t help matters either, as she shouts abuse at him 95% of the time (in addition of being equally inept as the protagonist’s subordinates). In the verge of bankruptcy, his sister reappeared alongside a mysterious girl who says ~~‘Ni’~~ ‘nyaa’ (that the main protagonist’s sister got by typing ‘!loli’ in #chihiro@irc.rizon.net).

This anime is similar, at least in form, to Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun reviewed here a long time ago, but with a crappier story and no supernatural elements. This anime has three phases: first phase involves the main protagonist meeting the mysterious girl (the title protagonist) who has some emo issues that need to be solved. In the second phase, this anime pulled an Index where the title protagonist was relegated as a secondary character while the whole main regular cast are doing their things episodically (mostly lame things but the Saki rip-off in episode 8 is one of the best parts this anime has). In the final phase a.k.a. the ending, this anime pulled another Index where the title protagonist reappeared to take a major part in the finale. The problem is, the dual-purpose ending sucks donkey asses.

IMO, this anime is pointless. What is the reason this anime was written anyway? Is it to see a romantic relationship developing between the main male protagonist and his childhood friend? If so, at the end of this anime the arc ends up inconclusive (still-friends neutral relationship between them). Is it to focus on the title protagonist (like Naruto is, and what Index should have been)? If so, her lack of character development due to the second part of this anime ensures that this particular story arc doesn’t go anywhere, even with the ending that focused on her. Is it to showcase the harem relationship between the main male protagonist and the other three regular female characters? If so, the indecision of the main male protagonist in choosing which character he wants to sleep with ruins the arc. Is it all of the above? Well, three failures doesn’t make one success story isn’t it?

ANN has classified this anime as a harem romantic comedy. This anime failed in the first two keywords, but somewhat successful with the third one. The humor in this anime are good overall. Not up there with Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu standard, but still good. This anime also make some references to other anime/manga, notably the aforementioned Saki in episode 8, and has the first ever One Piece parody I have ever seen.

The lethargic second phase of this anime messed with the pacing of the storyline (if you can guess which one it is), and also affects the overall character developments in this anime. Only two characters survived the damaging second phase, and that would be the main male protagonist and the rich girl. The latter is the best character in this anime mainly because she is a prominent figure in the second and final phase of the anime, therefore she has the highest rate of development here. The main male protagonist also has some decent (but lesser than the rich girl’s) character development, while the title protagonist only has a minuscule amount of them due to the final phase. The less said about the main female protagonist who are stagnant from the start until the end of this anime, the better.

Unlike Arakawa Under The Bridge, no second season has been announced for this anime yet. And I think things should be kept that way.

The best character in this anime, working hard to keep this anime up.

Character Design:-
Character design in this anime is your bog standard shounen genre designs with big eyes. The female characters doesn’t have any black hairs that is supposed to be common in real-life Japan. The main protagonist has it though. He is probably the only real Japanese in this anime cast.

Voice Acting:-
Voice in this anime is just average overall, but strangely for me I am drawn to the performance of the voice actress for the main female protagonist. Shouting your lines 95% of the time sure work some wonders.

Music:-
This anime has a near total failure in this aspect. Only the parody OP theme in episode 7 is decent. Everything else, from the official OP/ED themes and the OST are forgettable.

Animation/Direction:-
This anime is yet another title that uses the blurry animation techniques I have already mentioned before, and with this blog entry, the third consecutive titles that has it. I’m making a new blog category for this awful phenomenon that seems to have become increasingly common nowadays in Japan’s anime industry. Does all 2010 anime titles (or maybe majority) uses this technique? Thinking back in time, the first half of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood doesn’t use this technique either, only the second half (all aired in 2010) having it in spades. Unlike Fullmetal Alchemist and Arakawa Under The Bridge though, this anime doesn’t use the technique in normal scenes, only in fast-paced ones. Still, one point will be deducted from the final evaluation as I have done with the past titles that has it, and will do so too in the future.

The usage of the blurry animation technique is not the only problem this anime faced. One of the very first things I noticed when I started watching this anime is that the character animations are very jerky in fast-paced scenes. And unlike the blurry animation techniques, the jerky character animation problems also happened sometimes in normal scenes too. This is weird because general animations for non-character objects (such as cars or the helicopters etc.) are excellent even in fast–paced scenes. Integration between 2D animations (that is not character animations) and CGI animations is excellent too, definitely the best implementation I have seen to date.

Choreography is nonexistent in this anime, and that’s understandable. The directing could have been better, but they has done a better job than their counterpart in Ninomiya-kun.

This anime has far better rain effects than the amateurish pitiful job in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Conclusion:-
5 out of 10. Worse than the first candidate Arakawa Under The Bridge. I wonder whether the first ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ will win the title with a 10 out of 10 score. As an added insurance, I will add another 2010 title into the audition lineup, titled Durarara. That makes it ten 2010 anime titles that will compete for the title, with two of them already being reviewed. So what’s next? I’ll keep that a mystery!

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-eC

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Arakawa Under The Bridge (荒川アンダーザブリッジ)

ranpha — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 07:05:01 +0000

The main male protagonist and the best character in this anime.

The audition to select the first holder of the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title begins with my review of the first season of Arakawa Under The Bridge. This review will also allows me to take the beta version of the Windows Live Writer Wave 4 beta for a spin. A second season of this anime has already been announced, therefore below you will know if I think this anime deserved one or not.

The main male protagonist's new neighbors…

Story:-
A heir to the most powerful corporation in the world found himself pant-less on a bridge after a prank went too far. Trying to retrieve his pants from high atop a steel beam, his bad luck strikes again and he fell into the river. As he fought a losing battle for his life, he was saved by a girl who happened to live nearby, under the said bridge. Therefore, to conform to his family’s motto of not ever be indebted to anyone, he agreed to her request for him to become her lover and they started to live together in sin, forever and ever, under the bridge.

I only watched this anime for 10 minutes but I can’t help but think that this anime is very similar to the Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series. The story maybe vastly different, ditto for cast of characters and settings etc. but these two has this eerie feeling of similarity. The story in this anime itself revolves around the main protagonist and his interactions with his new ‘diverse’ neighbors. Instead of a harem filled with willing high-school girls who will do anything for the main protagonist, he has to deal with some crazed people that made one hell of a habitat under the bridge.

…and this is his apt description of them.

This anime has nearly none of the parodies that is one of the hallmarks of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, but there are humor aplenty throughout this anime. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the high-potential romance element that could have made the story even better isn’t really pronounced or explored, therefore no slapping the romance genre handicap tag upon this anime. But just kinda like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, the pacing of this anime is quite fast too; about just a little bit slower than the slowest Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei installment – the third season. Despite the fast pacing, this doesn’t affect the development of the story one bit as it evolves and flows around the vibrant community under the bridge.

Unfortunately, this anime also inherits one aspect that Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is bad at, and that would be character developments. To be honest, the character development in this anime is not as glacial as they are in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei’s 2nd and 3rd season, but they are very minimal. Only the main protagonist has the biggest slice of the character developments (making him the best character in this series), and even that it doesn’t compare to what the suicidal teacher in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has in its first season. About two-thirds of the regular characters (example: the two kids with lead masks, the kappa guy and the main female protagonist) doesn’t have any character development at all. You won’t have any idea who they are at all and why on earth they lived under the bridge.

The ending is where you can actually see some plots in this anime and frankly speaking, it is just ordinary. It served up it purpose of setting up the second season well though. I will definitely watch the second season because there should be more hidden gems still left within the storyline and the characters to be exploited and mined. Surely the director will do that in the next season right? Or is he/she is just as crazy as those queers that lives under the bridge?

This green (and not eco-friendly) character is just one of the queers that lives under the bridge.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is good and a positive point for this anime, but IMO not as good as the one in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series. Lack of black hairs in this anime is forgiven; after all, except for the black-haired main protagonist, there are some strange people living under the bridge…

Ok I should stop ending my paragraphs that way.

The subtitle aptly describe the said queer perfectly.

Voice Acting:-
Another hallmark of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, but this anime easily matched it in this department. 3 characters come to mind; Stella (who shared the same voice actress with the best character in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei), the main male protagonist (the main protagonists of this anime and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei shared the same voice actor) and Piko. The latter is unique and the former is simply awesome. A positive point for this anime.

Music:-
The OST is quite decent but none of the OP/ED theme is any good.

And here our green but not eco-friendly hero is fooling around with two of his equally bat-shit crazy buddies.

Animation/Direction:-
Make this anime the fourth title that uses the blurry animation techniques I have mentioned in Monochrome Factor, Nabari no Ou and in last review of this blog, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Finally, Japan has figured out the way to use that technique outside battle scenes (THIS ANIME DOESN’T HAVE ANY – THIS IS NOT A SHOUNEN TITLE – NO WORLD IS GOING TO BE SAVED), and here I initially thought that Fullmetal Alchemist’s usage of that technique outside battles is an aberration. I fear for the future where this technique will finally be deployed in normal scenes. A point docked off the final evaluation because of this.

If the said technique is ignored, this anime actually has decent animation quality even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography in this slice-of-life with plenty of humor and creep is basically non-existent. The director, which is also the same one who directs all three seasons of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei titles (hmmm… I wonder what else is the same between these two series) also has done a good job in this anime, although of course I do think his works in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei are better.

The closest thing this anime has as a parody.

Conclusion:-
At 7 out of 10, I don’t really see this anime become the first ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title holder, unlike the third season of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei that has become a surprise package last year. If somehow this anime can hold on and win the title, I will do really fear for the future of Japanese animation industry.

A hilarious yet very creepy gay moments in this anime.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-ec

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (鋼の錬金術師)

ranpha — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 06:11:52 +0000

The main title protagonist.

As mentioned in the last post, my review today is for the recently concluded Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime (simulcast in Animax Asia just like Tears to Tiara – actually quite a lot of recent anime titles does nowadays). Also in the same post, I mentioned that this anime, and Winter Sonata, are the candidates that may be able to dethrone the current ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ holder Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Unfortunately, this anime failed to do it. Therefore, Winter Sonata is the only 2009 anime I have left in my queue that has the likeliest possibility and bestest potential to become the newest ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ in the future.

I do have more 2009 anime titles in my queue such as Bakemonogatari, the second season of Haruhi Suzumiya, Aoi Bungaku, Seitokai no Ichizon etc., but unless they spring a nice surprise to me the way Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei did back then, their chances is basically nil. Coming back to this review, while this anime failed to get the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ award, it doesn’t mean I have stumbled upon a new Macross 7. This is still a very good anime; read on to see what I think of it.

And this is the main protagonist sidekick a.k.a. little brother.

Story:-
In a fictional world where alchemy actually works, two siblings tried to misuse the said alchemy to try and revive their dead mother. Predictably, they failed but they get away with it lightly (only losing a couple of limbs and a full body, while in our world they would have been burned alive on the stake). To atone for their sins, they set on a journey to find the way of restoring their body parts to original again, while saving the world in the process.

A disclaimer: I have watched the first iteration of this series a few years ago before this blog was created, and I also have read the manga too. Unlike the first series, this new reboot stay more faithfully towards the manga version. Some early parts of the manga that was also reproduced in this first version of this anime (only the first half of that anime is canon) has been abridged or omitted altogether, but when the part of the manga that wasn’t animated in the first series comes in episode 16 or 17, deviations become far rarer.

OK, unlike many of the votes casted in the ANN page of this anime, personally I think the original storyline seen in this anime is only at the same level as the one you can see in Märchen Awakens Romance, and not more. This may be heresy, but I think the original anime, as a whole, also has better storyline than this original reproduction of the manga. This anime is purely an unadulterated conservative shounen title all the way to the ending just like Märchen Awakens Romance and unlike the edgier first Fullmetal Alchemist anime. But the fact that this anime rarely deviates from the manga saves this anime from the abyss of ordinariness.

With rare deviations from the manga (and basically none from episode 16 onwards), the pacing of this anime is picture-perfect. With rare deviations from the manga (and basically none from episode 16 onwards), the story development and the flow of the plot is simply flawless. In other word, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has the best ever presentation for an anime based from a manga. Apart from a recap episode, this anime doesn’t have fillers or useless episodes. Each episode will advance the story, and each episode with see character developments. This anime is on par with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is this aspect, and where this anime really shine.

With rare deviations from the manga (and basically none from episode 16 onwards), character developments in this anime is very good all around even with a huge roster cast. The big episode count really help too. The best character I liked the most is the homunculus Envy; the homunculus group is really the biggest beneficiary of having the anime sticking up with the manga while the two main protagonists benefits the least.

I wonder if Japan will do more reboots of past series that was already aired. Some titles like Hellsing and Claymore could do with a treatment like what this series has.

This is the main protagonist’s woman.

Character Design:-
This anime has good character designs overall. Lack of black hairs (and gazillions of blondes) are overlooked due to the setting of this anime. A positive point for this anime.

And this is the main protagonist’s pet puppy. And they are very similar indeed.

Voice Acting:-
Many of the voice actors/actresses that features in the first series doesn’t return in the reboot. Some characters are affected negatively because of it, such as Envy, but those cases are exceptions in otherwise solid voice acting gigs in this anime overall. I only singled out Envy because in his case, the voice acting regressed significantly. His voice actress in the first series is so much better than the one in this anime. A positive point for this anime.

This is the best character in the series, facepalming himself because his voice actress in the reboot series is vastly inferior compared to the one in the first series.

Music:-
The OST in this anime is just as good as the one in the first series, but you cannot say the same thing about the OP/ED themes. The first series has at least 4 good OP/ED themes but this anime only has the 2nd ED theme to show for it. 1 out of 10 themes, that’s a huge fail rate there.

Animation/Direction:-
This anime is another title that used the abhorrent blurry animation technique I have mentioned in Monochrome Factor and Nabari no Ou, And this anime seems to use it outside battle scenes too, especially in the latter part of this anime. Even Monochrome Factor and Nabari no Ou doesn’t do that. One point is docked off the final rating of this anime because of this. This is a pity because otherwise, the animation in this anime is very good overall, even in fast-paced scenes.

Choreography in battle scenes are mixed bag; the ones that doesn’t involve alchemy (read: all of the Fuhrer President King Bradley battles) are great while the vast majority of battles that involves alchemy (read: battles that includes the two main protagonists) are almost below average. In fact, the highlights of the ending arc are the two duels that King Bradley is involved in. Those fights are worth the price of admission alone.

The directing is flawless, but if following the manga storyline is the paramount goal of this anime, then you really have to try to screw-up the directing of this anime. This anime is a rare example of where the manga writer is actually the de-facto director of this anime.

And I don’t even mention the ridiculously fake-looking rain effects in this anime. Someone in Japan has to learn from Mister Makoto Shinkai before being allowed to animate again.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. The journey ends here, hahahaha! Therefore Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei will still retain the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title for the time being. Meanwhile, the selection for the first ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title holder will commence right after this. From the shortlist of eight 2010 titles, one will be chosen to be listed at the right sidebar of this blog. The 2010 titles are, in no particular reviewing order, Nodame Cantabile Finale (S3), Ookiku Furikabutte S2, Mayoi Neko Overrun, Hakuouki, Angel Beats, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, B gata H kei and Working. Which anime will come first, the answer will only be known in the next post.

And this is the main protagonist, in a pinch and is about to be beaten to a pulp.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-e1

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Black Jack TV (ブラック・ジャック)

ranpha — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:40:27 +0000

The bad-ass main title protagonist…

…and this is an apt description for him.

A few hours after Brazil was dumped out of World Cup by the Netherlands (definitely the best match to date), I finished watching yet another humongous 63-episode anime series, titled Black Jack TV. It includes 61 regular aired episodes and two extra unaired episodes. This anime was also aired in Animax some time back just like Tantei Gakuen Q, Gakkou no Kaidan and Urusei Yatsura but I didn’t watch it. This is a 2004 anime, therefore it will not compete for any of the ‘Anime of the Year’ titles. Read on for the most screenshot-laden review this blog ever have.

Just another victim of the main protagonist…

…and his price will eventually increase 10-fold as the series went on.

Story:-
This anime revolves around a part-time unlicensed veterinarian, full-time genius unlicensed surgeon who performed near-miraculous surgery feats while charging outrageous fees on his weeping patients. Aided by a pseudo-loli assistant, he prowl around Japan and around the world, extorting desperate people out of their life savings, one episode at a time. Then he buys more exotic islands. The end.

The main protagonist is sweet-talking an innocent vulnerable kid into paying gazillion yen as payment to save the kid’s father life. Notice the windowless van behind the main protagonist.

If the victim is a sweet young thing and she doesn’t have the money to pay for the surgery, he will ask for ‘something else’ as payment! No prizes for guessing what he will ask as payment in such situations.

This anime is an episodic series, therefore it doesn’t have a main prevailing plot (no saving the world from aliens invaders or no saving a female protagonist from bad guys). Each episode will feature the surgery (and rip-off) of the day, but more often than not, any given episode will usually revolves around the circumstances of the surgery. The surgeries itself are rarely shown, and usually takes only 10 seconds or so of the airtime of any given episode (exceptions are very rare). Some of the plots are reused a few times throughout the series too. Due to the episodic nature of this anime, you can actually skip many of the episodes in this series, and you won’t miss anything.

Some of the reused plots involves the main protagonist operating on traffic accident victims. In this episode, he is the one who mowed down the unsuspecting victim though. And even when the accident is completely his fault, he will still ask for outrageous fees for a surgery that shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

The main protagonist will also do animals. The fees are still exorbitant though. You should see how he makes the killer whale in the picture above to look for precious pearls and corals as payment for his treatment. In another episode, you can see how the main protagonist forced a bird to pay for surgery of the bird’s master. The bird dies in the end, from exhaustion. The main protagonist is evil, am I right?

Nevertheless, the episodic plots around those surgery-of-the-week are the main essence of this anime, and where this anime really shine. The stories behind each surgery are largely excellent, making this anime one of the best slice-of-life title I have ever watched. The episodic plots contains various kind of stories. Heart-warming stories, ones that tugs your heart, heroic efforts from the main protagonist, or more likely, other people; sacrifices for the sake of others, some funny stories plus a few advocacy messages too from the author (the legendary Osamu Tezuka). You can watch the kind of stories that you can read from the ‘Chicken Soup For The Soul’ book series in this anime. And not all episodes has a happy ending, which also helps this anime immensely. Very immensely.

When the main protagonist feels generous, he will only charge this price. The man above is one lucky SOB.

Some of his former victims are now very wary about being double-dipped by the main protagonist.

Being an episodic anime series, the pacing within the episodes is usually fast and sometimes this caused the plot development to suffer. But only a few times within the sixty-something-episode run does that happened in this series. Characters’ development are virtually non-existent, and flashbacks are used to depict the past of the two main recurring characters. It was these kind of episodes that you should not skip when watching this anime because they are the closest thing this anime has as a substitute for a prevailing plot.

This Black Jack episode is a cross between Hikaru no Go and Midori no Hibi.

This guy even have the nerve to charge a grey alien 2 million dollars for a surgery. Thank god the aliens doesn’t destroy the Earth for his greediness.

A very good example is episode 44, which deals with the past of the pseudo-loli assistant I have mentioned above. But if you ever plan to watch this anime too, make sure that you watch at least 20 episodes that precedes the 44th episode, preferably the first 10 episodes, then any random 10 from the next 33 episodes. Episode 44 contained a very powerful plot twist, in addition of one of the more controversial and outrageous surgery feats ever done by the main protagonist (which puts him in the same bracket as Victor Frankenstein). But it was the plot twist that really defines this episode. You know, in many of the preceding episodes before episode 44, the pseudo-loli assistant always make an outrageous claim when introducing herself to the new characters that she met. More often than not, her claim was dismissed as a lie by the characters that she met, and even I do think she is just overexaggerating. But only when I watched the 44th episode, I did realize that she is not lying after all and Osamu Tezuka has just managed to troll me. And this is why the pseudo-loli assistant is the best character in this series.

A talking tumor with powerful psychic abilities. Just a hazardous day in the office for the main protagonist.

The scene of a desperate victim who will pay anything to have their loved ones cured is the cue for our main protagonist to make his entrance.

A minor drawback that this anime has is the outrageous surgery feats that the main protagonist performed, even with suspension of belief in place. Apparently, the main protagonist can do limbs transplant (WTF!?), brain transplant from the head to torso (holy sh*t), open surgery in total darkness (okaaay…), open surgery on grey aliens ( ), open surgery on himself without anesthetic and more. The feat performed in the aforementioned episode 44 should also mentioned, but I don’t want to spoil that episode to you. Some overreactions can also be seen in this anime, where a cholera outbreak was treated as if the Black Death has just occurred again. The fansub group (or is just the broadcasters themselves?) has to made a disclaimer before an episode was played, saying that tuberculosis was usually treated with antibiotics, and not surgery as the main protagonist has done in the said episode. Seeing his skills in action, you will be forgiven if you think that the main protagonist has the ability to cure AIDS, and cancer too (he does this quite regularly).

The bad-ass main protagonist can even perform open surgery on himself without any anesthetic.

OMG! The Hell is freezing!

There are no visible ending of course, being episodic and all. But I heard that the sequel has a plot. Therefore I will have to watch it some time in the future.

The main protagonist favorite computer program: Winamp. It really whips the llama’s ass!

Character Design:-
One thing you will notice about the character designs in this anime is that they are very Westernized. If the dialogues are in English and the names are changed to Caucasian ones, no one will realize that Black Jack is an anime from Japan. However, this is not a bad thing for this anime.

Thank god there are no silly card jokes being used in this anime.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this dialogue-heavy anime is very good, with the two main protagonists being the best of them all. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

There’s only one time where our serial blackmailer become the one who are blackmailed!

Music:-
The sparse multi-genre OST is just average, but the 1st and 3rd OP as well as the 1st and 3rd Ed themes are good.

The sad past of our main protagonist: beating innocent classmates and become the big bully at his high school.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality s just average, but the little amount of fast-paced scenes in this anime doesn’t seem to be affected. Choreography is non-existent. While unspectacular, the directing is basically flawless and has no persistent weaknesses, except in the rare cases where the pacing affects the story development as mentioned above.

The manga which this anime is based upon is actually older than the CD-ROM technology itself. And Winamp for the matter.

Conclusion:-
10 out of 10 for this excellent slice-of-life anime. This anime, the second Osamu Tezuka work that I have watched, is better than the first one I have watched before, titled Metropolis, in AXN a few years back. The next anime that I will review is the long-awaited Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which alongside Winter Sonata, are probably the only anime titles out there that can dethrone Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei off its current title.

This is the main protagonist’s pet. Would not be alien in Looney Tunes or Hanna & Barbera shows. Hahahaha!

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-dH

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Ergo Proxy (エルゴプラクシー)

ranpha — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:07:34 +0000

The main male protagonist, who is about to be eaten.

While hundreds of million of people around the world watched Spain slipped on a slick Swiss cheese, I’m watching a 2006 anime titled Ergo Proxy instead. Therefore after a long absence, Chocotto Sister will finally have its first challenger for the ‘Anime of the Year 2006’ title.

Well, he somehow escapes his horrible predicament, but still ends up in jail with the loli android a.k.a. one of the best characters in this anime.

Story:-
In a post-apocalyptic world where humanity now lives in domes like the ones in Koukaku no Regios, the main female protagonist is investigating an outbreak of a mysterious virus that caused the android servants to revolt against their masters. In the course of the investigation, she meets the main male protagonist who is also involved in the investigation. After a long hard day at work, she was then attacked by a mysterious monster in the bathroom (emphasis added), which is also connected with the virus outbreak. Hunting for viruses and perverted powerful monsters, will she ever be able to solve the mystery?

The story in this anime is really good, and anyone who doesn’t hate science-fiction should take this title for a spin. This anime is a dialogue-heavy title (although not as much as Bounen no Xamdou) but there are plenty of action and comedy too in this anime. Excellent pacing and flawless story development will keep you glued to your seat, with some exceptions between episode 18 and the start of the ending arc at episode 21. The ending arc started with some offline scene progression (kinda like what have been done in the ending arc of Asura Cryin’ – but with less negative effects), but otherwise the ending is great and is open for a second season if the producer decides to do one.

Character development in this anime is largely good, although a couple of characters with relatively lots of airtime doesn’t really benefit from it. There are two great characters in this anime; the first is the main male protagonist’s loli companion android and the second is that android’s ‘father’, who is the head of the Security Bureau. The two main protagonists are not bad but they are not as appealing as the loli android is, nor they are as interesting and unpredictable as the loli android’s father is.

He doesn’t seem to be thrilled to be in the same place as her though.

Character Design:-
The main female protagonist really stands out in this aspect for her controversial usage of mascara in this anime. It is so futuristic, several characters in this anime actually tried to mimic it. Well, the polarizing mascara usage is good for her, because she looks so ordinary without it. In general, character design in this anime is quite good, with the main female protagonist being the best. A positive point for this anime.

Nevertheless, the interaction between these two characters is one of the highlights of this anime.

Voice Acting:-
In this dialogue-heavy anime, a good voice acting performance is more essential than ever. And this is where the main male protagonist failed miserably. Just like in Excel Saga, the voice actress for the timid and indecisive main male protagonist simply cannot fit the profile of the character she voiced. But when the main male protagonist switched characters with the head of Security Bureau in that fake memory episode, the voice actress suddenly performed very well as the main male protagonist, in his new position, is kicking ass and taking names.

This is a pity because if you exclude the main male protagonist, voice acting in this anime is very good all around. As usual, the loli android, the main female protagonist, the genius doctor and of course, the real Security Bureau head stands out from the rest.

The loli companion android, one of the best characters in this anime…

Music:-
The OST is not very good, and so are the ED theme from Radiohead. The OP theme is the only positive this anime has in this section.

…and this is her ‘father’ who heads the Security Bureau, also one of the best characters in this anime.

Animation/Direction:-
Animation in this anime is great, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography is quite decent too, but not spectacular. The director has done a near-flawless presentation of this anime, with some neat first-person camera techniques too thrown in the mix. A plus point for this anime.

Mocking the main female protagonist is also one of the loli android’s favorite pastime.

Conclusion:-
9 out of 10. Chocotto Sister is still the reigning ‘Anime of the Year 2006’ title holder, but this anime is still a recommended watch. So, what’s next?

His answer to this TV quiz question is very predictable but still very hilarious.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-ds

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Kara no Kyoukai – The Garden of Sinners (空の境界)

ranpha — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:17:21 +0000

Just like Pizza Hut sponsorship of Darker than Black and Code Geass, this anime is brought to you by Häagen-Dazs®.

If not for the World Cup, my review for the psychological thriller anime series Kara no Kyoukai – The Garden of Sinners would have come earlier. Even more so if the power supply of this very machine I typed this review on doesn’t blew up. ANN says that this anime consists of seven movies, therefore the anime movies tag. Because the first movie was released in 2007, this whole series (even if it ends in 2009) will compete with another psychological thriller anime titled Bokurano, which just happened to be the current ‘Anime of the Year 2007’ title holder as of time of writing.

The clinically insane main female protagonist.

Story:-
A timid but idealistic high-schooler befriended a kimono-wearing, knife-toting girl who have a Naruto-esque bloodline power. Many events happened between them in the years that followed, with most of them involving gruesome murders and some magic too.

The story in this anime is just so-so for a seinen, but its presentation is what this series is all about. The best positive point of this anime is the timeline management, incorporating storytelling techniques such as flashbacks and flashforwards to present a surprisingly coherent storyline. This will be apparent prominently in the first long movie in episode 5. The ending could have been magnificent, but for some gutless decisions made by whoever wrote the story for this anime.

Character development is excellent, which is another good point this anime has, for the two main protagonists. Well, with 2 dedicated episodes for doing just that, this is pretty much inevitable. There are no outstanding character in this anime though. And I do really want to repeat the fact that whoever wrote the story really miss the opportunity to construct a magnificent ending from the otherwise strong final arc this anime has. Man, did the writer realize that this anime is seinen? Gosh, the ending this anime have are common in shounen titles. I don’t expect to see shounen-like endings in mature seinen titles.

This murder scene that is about to happen is one of the most hilarious murders ever happened in anime history.

Character Design:-
Character design in this anime is good, with plenty of realistic black hairs. Veered towards the style of shounen but still a positive point for this anime.

Voice Acting:-
Unfortunately, voice acting in this anime is just plain average, without any good gigs from any of the voice actors/actresses.

Music:-
The OST is sparse but good. None of the ED themes are of any good though.

The director sometimes made errors like having the main female protagonist leaving a scene (in this case, school) while leaving her properties (bags and jacket) behind. This kind of error are repeated several times

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality is excellent all-around, with plenty of photorealistic background used in this anime. Choreography in this anime is also great, especially the fight scenes that involves the main female protagonist. The director has done a great job with the presentation as mentioned above, and also with camera works plus photography. A positive point for this anime.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. This anime failed to take out Bokurano off its throne. I will watch one or two more anime titles before the inevitable Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood review comes up. Or maybe not, FIFA World Cup notwithstanding.

Meanwhile, fed up with the main female protagonist murderous tendencies, the main male protagonist chooses to make out with another old friend of his instead.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-dp

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版：破)

ranpha — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:56:19 +0000

This early scene in the movie is just the beginning of more deviation from the TV series by this movie.

As mentioned in my previous review, today’s post will contain my review of the second installment of the Evangelion movie titled Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. This movie is the second of four movies (if the ANN is to be believed) and my review of the first movie can be read here. This is a 2009 anime, but Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei will keep its throne for the time being.

The story in this anime has been heavily altered, and so are his role.

Story:-
An excerpt from my review of the first movie:-

A teenage kid was forced to become a child soldier pilot for a robot by his own father to fight some monsters called ‘Angels’. Things become difficult when it becomes clear that the boy has some ‘problems’ and his colleague-pilots don’t seem to be sane either. Can a trio of problematic robot pilots save the world from devastation?

While there are only 2 pilots in the first movie, there is another 2 added in the second, instead of one like what the TV version of this series portrayed. This early change in pilot numbers is just the beginning of many other changes, additions and omissions that this movie undergo through compared to what you can see in the TV version.

As I also predicted in the review of the first movie, the sequel indeed has deviated further away from the TV version, even more than I first thought. Unlike the two-gear pacing speed that the first movie has (early part of the movie has very fast pacing, the latter part is far slower), this movie’s pacing is more stable, but it is still fast. Let’s just say that the general pacing of this movie is in-between the first movie pacing in its first half and the pacing of the first movie’s second half. In general, if you want to make comparisons, the pacing of this movie is by far is the fastest compared to all the movie titles I reviewed before this movie, listed here.

Another obvious fact that you can observe in this anime is that the movie omits plenty of contents/stories/plots that is available in the TV series in their comparable time-frame, even more so than the first movie. This may not affect you if you haven’t watched the TV series, but if you do, some of the omissions may have a negative effect. For me, the complete omission of the arc where Shinji and Asuka fought the two-core Angel with synchronized movements is a bad decision made by whoever wrote the adaptation into this movie. That actual battle itself is not so important, but the training before the battle provides great value for character developments of both Shinji and Asuka (and their relationship too I suppose). The writers probably tried to compensate for this by modifying the original infected Eva Unit 3 arc plot by putting Asuka in it (Eva Unit 3) instead of Toji (as it is in the TV series), but it failed. IMO, if the aforementioned missing arc was included in the movie unaltered, before the altered infected Eva Unit 3 arc happened, the latter arc would have generated more impact that it currently does in the movie.

The fast pacing and many omissions (I think there are at least another two Angel arcs in the TV series removed from the movie, amongst other things), allows this movie to rapidly reached at least episode 22 or 23 of the TV series time-line. For comparison, the first movie spanned only the first 6 episodes of the TV series, but the second movie spanned the next 15 episodes or so. The next two movies is definitely going to be original stories not seen in the TV series. And I would also want to add that none of the reconstructed arcs in this second movie has surpassed their originals in the TV series, unlike the reconstructed 3rd Angel battle in the first movie that I think is better than the one in TV version.

Just like the first movie, there are some changes too happening in the movie, like the Asuka’s name change (why this happened, I don’t know), her lack of infatuation for Kaji, her obvious attention toward Shinji, her changed roles like the one in the aforementioned infected Eva Unit 03 arc and many more. Additions that was made in the second movie includes the extra additional pilot (also from Europe just like Asuka is), some original plots like the visit to the artificial aquarium and Shinji’s father visit to the moon and more. These changes and additions doesn’t have as much negative impact compared to the omissions mentioned a couple of paragraph above.

The good ending finished on a cliffhanger, kinda like Code Geass’ first season. Therefore, wait for the review of the third movie somewhere in 2013 or something.

Unfortunately for the main protagonist, so are his sexual preferences…

Character Design:-
My comment from the review of the first movie still applies.

Voice Acting:-
My comment from the review of the first movie still applies.

Music:-
The OST has regressed in quality, and the ending theme is just another variation of the ending theme of the first movie (that I didn’t like).

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality matches the excellent quality seen in the first movie. Choreography is one of the few things that the second movie has improved from the first, with better fighting scenes in the reconstructed Angel arc and good battles in original ones. The director has stabilized the pacing compared to the first movie, but I don’t think he made a good choice of what TV arc he has omitted compared to what he includes (and made).

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Slightly inferior to the first movie. With this movie, the whole TV series has been rebooted, and the next two movies should have original contents. I think Gainax should have made 5 movies, with 3 for the retelling of the TV series, and 2 for whatever original contents they want to have. Too many TV series contents has been omitted for my liking, even more than the first movie.

This area has just been devastated by a nuclear bomb, but our bad-ass main protagonist simply strolled out there as if nothing has happened. Those radiations must be nothing for him.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-dj

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Märchen Awakens Romance (メルヘヴン)

ranpha — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:10:22 +0000

The main male protagonist…

Märchen Awakens Romance is just the third anime series I reviewed here that contained 100 or more episodes, and that’s why it took me a little bit more than a month to watch the whole goddamn thing. This review would have come much earlier though if I don’t waste a week or so playing The Last Remnants, and probably even earlier if the War Game arc doesn’t suck. This is an anime released 5 years ago in 2005, therefore none of the ‘Anime of the Year’ title holders will be challenged for today.

…and this is his talking weapon who is also the best character in this anime.

Story:-
The fantasy world of MAR Heaven descends into chaos with the return of the mysterious and evil organization called Chess Piece, after 6 years of hiatus. Not knowing what to do themselves, one of the side characters summoned the unsuspecting main male protagonist from the present-day Japan so that he can help get rid of the aforementioned evil group that is hell-bent to destroy the world.

A hero must have a sidekick too…

The typical shounen-genre storyline is not that bad, but oh boy this anime is way too predictable, even when compared to its peers in the same genre. It doesn’t really help either that the storyline contained some plotholes, plus there are some unexplained issues that still remains after the last episode finished playing. The writer could have spiced up the story if he/she wasn’t too conservative in his/her writing, which makes the story conforms too much with the norms of a shounen-genre storywriting. This anime could have benefited from more usage of some common storytelling techniques such as plot twists etc.

…and some much-needed comic-relief also has to be there, or else the team will be dull. Surprisingly, she is also the main protagonist love-interest.

The presentation of this anime is mixed bag at best, and this mainly have to do with the humongous War Game arc that takes at least two-thirds of this anime’s (very long) airtime. Prior to the start of the War Game tournament, the anime has one of the best pacing and story development I have seen in an anime for quite some time, where the story simply develops nicely without any distraction whatsoever. The pacing is excellent too during that period. Then come the War Game arc, where the great start this anime has started to unravel.

The Dragonball-esque War Game tournament. The tournaments in DragonBall are much better though.

The first casualty of the War Game arc is that the story development slowed down heavily right when the tournament started. But this is still acceptable because real character developments also start happening at the same period. The pacing is still good up until the fifth round of the said tournament where filler episodes started appearing between the fifth and sixth round and also between the sixth and seventh round (the last one). These filler episodes, nearly 20 episodes of them all combined, are the primary main reason the War Game arc sinks at the end. As usual, these filler episodes are completely useless; they doesn’t advance the main storyline, actually harm characters’ developments as the main protagonist and his team prepare for the final battle, and completely destroy the great pacing that the anime has at that point. These episodes doesn’t exist at all between the earlier rounds, making them far more palatable even when very nature of the War Game itself is plagued by a couple of problems.

Quoted For Truth, uttered by the best character in this anime.

The first problem is that the War Game tournament has a very strange rule in place, where if the captain of a team loses in a match, the said team will automatically loses the round, and subsequently the tournament, even if the losing captain’s team is leading in the match count for the said round. The writer apparently doesn’t realize that by applying this kind of rule, this anime viewers will be able to easily predict the result of the tournament (hint: Team Ginta never lose a single round). Couple that with the fact that the writer only allows the main protagonist’s team to not use the captain only once (the rule allows unlimited non-usage of team captain in any given round), the only thing that viewers can anticipate is how the main protagonist’s team will won, not if they will won or not.

Proof that the writer has run out of ideas when choreographing the latter battles in the War Game tournament.

The second problem is there are a lot of fighting/battles in this arc, which, by the end of the tournament, the writer has simply runs out of ideas on how to choreograph them, especially in the latter rounds. The battles in earlier round in this tournament are excellent, helped by the fact that this anime actually has very good action choreography. But the quality of the battles in latter rounds deteriorates rapidly, and the writer has to resort to improper usage of plot devices (very obvious after the first visit to Caldea) and even a couple of deux ex machina moments. Couple that with the fact that the main protagonist’s team always win in the tournament, and we have a flawed (very big) story arc in the first place.

One of the most annoying emo character in anime history, even worse that the main protagonist of La Corda D’Oro ~primo passo~. She died at the end of this anime and WASN’T REVIVED. For that, I give this anime one extra point for the final evaluation of this anime.

Character development are done well in general, except during the portion in the War Game tournament mentioned above. The filler episodes harmed character developments in this anime during that time by obscuring any visible power-ups that the characters in the main protagonist’s team may have, especially between the penultimate sixth round and the last seventh round. It is obvious that the team has improved during the gap between sixth and seventh round, but the multiple side-stories (which is not even remotely connected to the main storyline) doesn’t indicate that any improvement has happened. There is another interesting fact that you can see from the main protagonist’s development; he should have been able to use 8 forms of his talking weapon, but at the end of the series, he only use 7 of them (running out of ideas huh). And BTW, the talking weapon of his is definitely the best character in the anime, comparable to his counterpart in Bokurano.

And here she is, being told of her proper place by the macho men in this anime.

The ending is actually very decent, a much-needed respite from the woeful War Game arc. Still very predictable though, at that point, I have abandoned any hope of the ending springing any surprises on me. Even that, there are some unanswered questions this anime left hanging, such as the true origins of Nanashi, and the relationship between the main protagonist’s mom and Queen Diana.

All those abuse took a heavy toll on her, psychologically.

Character Design:-
This shounen-genre anime has your common shounen-genre character design, with small occurrence of black hairs. Even the main protagonist, the native of present-day Japan, is a shiny blonde character. No one stands out here. Guardian designs are mixed bag, some of them are good (especially hand-drawn ones) but many others are bad (usually CGI models).

Another annoying character in this anime. She doesn’t die though, which is a pity. If she died, this anime would have gotten 10 out of 10 score no matter how bad this anime is in other sections.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is just so-so in general, below average even. Still, there are some outstanding characters in this anime for this aspect. The talking weapon (a.k.a. the best character in this anime), the main antagonist (who used to wield him) and the annoying fairy are the three of them.

Another technique ripped straight from DragonBall and used by the main protagonist in the final battle.

Music:-
The OST in this anime is excellent, verily so. But from the many OP/ED themes this anime has, only the 2nd OP theme and 2nd ED theme is any good.

His left-hand was supposed to be chained in this scene, but a screw-up by the director ensured that this doesn’t happen.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is good, but can be jerky in fast-paced scenes. Integration between 2D animation and CGI videos are not seamless most of the time. The choreography is good as mentioned in the story section. The director has not done his/her job properly, with all those frayed ends and plotholes, and the filler episodes etc.

Epiphany – yet another literary technique that the writer misuse a lot.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. I’m somewhat proud that I can actually finish watching this anime, lesser mortals out there will definitely drop this anime somewhere during the War Game arc. Coming next: the new Evangelion movie!

Plot device – Also misused a lot in this anime.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-dd

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: ONE OUTS – Nobody wins, but I! (ワンナウツ)

ranpha — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:12:17 +0000

The main protagonist, and also the best character in this anime.

The end of an era beckons, as the long-reigning ‘Anime of the Year 2008’ title holder Wolf and Spice has finally been deposed from its throne. After nearly two years, the wolf girl has finally been swatted away out from the baseball stadium by a part-time baseball anime, full-time psychological thriller titled One Outs. Read on to see how this anime tramples over the sport genre handicap like it is nothing as the anime obtained the elusive 10 out of 10 rating.

And this is why he is so awesome.

Story:-
A legendary clean-up batter from a weak minor league baseball team is training himself in the off-season to prepare for the new season. There he meets with the main protagonist in a modified 1-vs-1 baseball game called ‘One Outs’. The batter miraculously wins the game and subsequently took the main protagonist into his baseball team, aiming for the championship (not Koshien thank god).

This is the main antagonist behind the curtains that always wanted our protagonist to fail.

No matter how you look at this anime, comparisons with the likes of Akagi and Kaiji will be inevitable. Just like Akagi, the main story is basically non-existent, but the baseball games are awesome. The games in Cross Game or Ookiku Furikabutte is nowhere as brutal as the games in here. The main protagonist doesn’t have a 160km/h fastball like the protagonist in Cross Game, but the former is so dangerous with his ability to read people minds, getting his teammates or foes to do what he wants, engaging in mind games and psychological warfare. He is even better than Akagi in that he made his own luck instead of having it handed to him.

But more often than not, or actually all the time, he will have his ass handed to him by the main protagonist.

The presentation of the baseball games are done very well; there are no games that takes too many episodes, but still allows for the awesomeness of the main protagonist to be shown. The presentation is excellent and the pacing of the games are impeccable. The arc transitions, whilst not perfect, are also better than the ones in Akagi (one of the blips in that anime IMHO). The ending is probably too tight, which has the double effect of making the ending too rushed, but also open-ended. Uhmmm… can we have a second season of this anime Japan?

And this is his face as he sees his debts increased.

Character development is the only part of this anime that is markedly inferior when compared to Akagi and Kaiji. In Akagi and Kaiji, their main protagonists started each series as n00bs who will then VERY QUICKLY learns their way in their respective high-pressure environments. Here in this anime the main protagonist is actually very good from the start, and all he has to do is to plot the downfall of his foes on the opposing team (and the high-ups in his own team). The far simpler character development strategies of our main protagonist here mean that he at the end of this anime is the same character that starts at the first episode. He wasn’t really helped by his opponents who are too weak, so far.

His teammates are in awe as they watched the main protagonist trolling another opponent.

Character Design:-
While this anime is seinen just like Akagi and Kaiji, the character designs in this anime are definitely well within shounen genre territory. There are quite a lot of black hairs here too (and so are brown), even if the main protagonist is blonde (probably dyed). A positive point for this anime.

And the baseball team manager of course would want to use the best pitcher in Japan as much as he can.

Voice Acting:-
Unsurprisingly, the same voice actor for Akagi and Kaiji also voiced the main protagonist of this anime, which will automatically makes him the best voiced character in this anime. He has far more dialogues in this anime compared to Akagi too. As a whole. voice acting in this anime is flawless. A positive point for this anime.

WARNING: If he smirks, someone is going to get shafted in the ass.

Music:-
Only the OST in this anime is good, but not for any of the OP/ED themes. Definitely inferior overall to Akagi and Kaiji.

Another screenshot of him, complete with an apt description of him.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography in this anime is just average though. I have nothing to complaint about the director here.

Another picture of him, after pulling yet another miracle.

Conclusion:-
As mentioned above, 10 out of 10 despite the sport genre handicap. And of course this anime will replace Wolf and Spice as the best anime in 2008. If I were to compare this anime with Akagi and Kaiji, this anime is better than the latter but not the former. This is mainly because the mahjong games in Akagi are more intense and exhilarating plus it has better character development strategies.

More pictures of him looking down on his opponents, and you!

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-cp

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Cross Game (クロスゲーム)

ranpha — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:35:13 +0000

Is this guy the main male protagonist of this anime?

I’ve chosen Cross Game as the next anime to be reviewed in this blog over the final season of Nodame Cantabile, mainly because I want to wait until its 12th episode was aired and released. A 2009 anime, naturally this anime will compete with ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title holder Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. But this anime’s quest for glory will be hindered by the fact that I will apply both the sport and romance genre handicaps to this anime rating.

Or maybe the main male protagonist is this character instead (Hint: Look at their faces)? Watch this anime to find out.

Story:-
Our main male protagonist loses his love interest in an accident, therefore he wants to fulfil her dream of seeing him pitching at the jam-packed Koushien Stadium. Helped by his love interest’s younger sister who is a pitcher herself, he builds up his skills and abilities to become an ace baseball pitcher who eventually carries his team to the nationals.

Just like the twin handicaps indicates, this anime is basically a romance and sport anime enrolled into one package, splashed with plenty of slice-of-life additives. The romance part of this anime is excellent, in fact, this anime is one of the better romance anime I have watched. My only complaint about the flawless romantic part of this anime is the essence is too conservative; you actually know what will happen next if you have read or watched the author’s past works. This is actually the first anime of his that I watched, but I have read the manga versions of Touch and H2 before. That’s why while I have the anime version of Touch in my collection, I never watches it.

This anime is also a decent slice-of-life anime, but the sport part of this anime is definitely not up to par when compared to its romance part. This mainly have to do with the fact that less than one-third of this 50-episode anime are devoted to the games the baseball club play. There are more episodes where the team is shown in training, but more often than not these episodes are also used to advance the romance part of this anime rather than helping its sporting aspect.

This is very evident in the training camp arc in the first half of this anime, which are used completely differently than the similar training camp arc in the baseball anime Ookiku Furikabutte I’ve reviewed before. In Ookiku Furikabutte, the training camp is used primarily to power-up the newly formed baseball team members, where you can see the team members training their heart out to become better at this baseball thingy. In this anime, the training camp arc is used to advance the relationship between the main male protagonist and main female protagonist. Situations like this is why I think Ookiku Furikabutte (there is a second season OUT NOW, yay) is a better baseball anime than this title.

This girl here is the mother of all flashbacks seen in this anime.

The presentation of this anime is excellent; while the pacing of the story is a bit on a slow side (unavoidable I think in this 50-episode series), the storyline does develop nicely with the possible exception in the last 10 episodes where I think the plot is moving too convolutedly. Another notable aspect of this anime is the frequent use of flashbacks. But even if this anime doesn’t have as many flashbacks, proportionately, as Saki has, the execution is arguably not as smooth as the one Saki have done. That recap episode at the middle of this series probably soured my view of this for this anime.

Character developments in this anime are excellent all around. The two main protagonists in this anime are definitely the best, and are assisted by plenty of equally good side characters. Even the introduction of a certain character midway into the series are done seamlessly and flawlessly (learn from this anime Umineko). The ending, while sadly predictable, more than make up for it with excellent storytelling that culminates towards a happy ending for everyone.

The violent main female protagonist…

Character Design:-
Characters’ design in this anime is decent, and that pretty much it. Plenty of black hairs, and that’s a very good thing in real-life Japan. A positive point for this anime.

…is about to punch yet another random innocent law-abiding civilian. Don’t blame her, you have to see the first screenshot above to see why she is so jumpy.

Voice Acting:-
Meanwhile, the voice acting in this anime, as a whole, is just average. There are no outstanding performers in this anime for this aspect.

The main male protagonist’s love interest is very well known for her pushiness when it comes to birthday gifts.

Music:-
The OST is quite decent. All ED themes meets my standard, with the exception for the 3rd ED theme. The OP theme is also forgettable. Somehow still a positive point for this anime.

Much of the baseball anime/manga from Japan has baseball team that aims for this common ground. Will we ever see a title that aims a little bit higher, such as, the World Series?

Animation/Direction:-
The animation is great, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography for the baseball scenes are also done well, without any exaggerations. The directing is tight and good, with minor exceptions.

Just a few of the side characters that helps the main male protagonist qualifies for the Koushien and also getting his woman.

Conclusion:-
Despite the twin handicaps, this anime still scored a respectable 7 out of 10. Would have been higher if the sporting aspect of this anime matches the quality of the romance part. Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei still retains its throne for the time being.

This anime also has the sing-while-you-are-drawing feature prevalent in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series too, and IMO this anime has it better.

Short code: http://wp.me/prgSo-cm

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Toaru Majutsu no Index (とある魔術の禁書目録)

ranpha — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:27:19 +0000

The main male protagonist.

As promised in this blog’s last entry, today’s review is for a 2008 anime titled Toaru Majutsu no Index, therefore it will compete with Wolf and Spice for the ‘Anime of the Year 2008’ title. This series side-story A Certain Scientific Railgun that I originally planned to watch after this title has to be shelved temporarily, because 2 high-priority titles had just been finished. I will tell you what they are at the end of this review.

Story:-
Our luckless main protagonist wakes up in one very hot and humid morning just to find an amnesiac Catholic nun being ‘dried up’ outside his veranda. He sneered at her claims that she is a magician with shitloads of magical grimoires carved into her brain. But he instantly found out that her other claim that she is on the run from other magicians is true, and from there on he has to defend her from being kidnapped by mysterious bad people.

This anime is very comparable to the recently-reviewed Kaze no Stigma, which has the similar multi-arc plots format. But while the story in the former is better than the latter, the latter has a better main protagonist. This anime’s title main female protagonist is better than her counterpart in Kaze no Stigma, and that’s a good improvement.Unlike in Kaze no Stigma, this anime doesn’t crap out after the first arc, which is another good improvement. But even that, the quality of the story arcs are uneven; some of them are decent, others excels at being bad. The arc-switching process is seamless, without being peppered with filler episodes as it was done in Kaze no Stigma.

One interesting tidbit I have noticed in this anime is how the title main female protagonist disappeared right after the first arc (arguably the best one in this series – alongside with the arc about the Accelerator and MISAKA 20001) and only reappeared in the final arc. In-between these two arcs, her role in this anime is restricted to biting the main protagonist on his hospital bed or being buried alive at the beach etc. For a title protagonist, the lack of airtime she has stunted her character development relative with the main male protagonist and a couple of other characters.And this is a damning fact for her considering that the main male protagonist has a static character development path (just like his counterpart in Kaze no Stigma), despite of what had happened to him at the end of the first arc.

The last arc of the anime, while a little bit retarded, did fully indicate that a second season will come. If an anime like this series’ side-story A Certain Scientific Railgun exists, a second season is definitely in the cards, unlike Kaze no Stigma…

Some snarky lines from our main male protagonist.

Character Design:-
Aesthetically not that different really from what you see in Kaze no Stigma, except that the main male protagonist has black hair. Which is a good thing because everyone else (ha ha ha) hair colors are very colorful to say the least. Big eyes, unrealistic body shapes and unnatural boob sizes (either they are flat-chested or overly buxomed – almost nothing in-between) are common here.

Voice Acting:-
Just like Kaze no Stigma, voice acting in this series is just average, but the main title female protagonist is outstanding. A pity though that she barely featured in nearly two-third of this anime.

Not really sure why I took this screenshot though, so I will leave it alone.

Music:-
Only the OST of this anime is good. The OP and ED themes are pretty much forgettable.

Animation/Direction:-
Animation quality in this anime is great (maybe it’s the Blu-ray rip that helps this anime here), with no problems even in fast-paced scenes. Action scenes choreography doesn’t match the animation quality though, even the average Kaze no Stigma is better in this aspect. The directing in this anime is decent, with no problems with the presentation.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Wolf and Spice is still the reigning ‘Anime of the Year 2008’ holder by a distance. A Certain Scientific Railgun will be put on hold because the final season of Nodame Cantabile is now over, and so are the long-awaited Cross Game anime. Can the former recovers from the screw-ups done in the second season? Can the latter overcome the twin handicaps of romance and sports genres? You have to wait…

The main male protagonist with one of his other women.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Minami-ke (みなみけ) S1

ranpha — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:28:28 +0000

The main characters of this anime.

So, between Minami-ke and Toaru Majutsu no Index, I picked the former. And oh boy, I do regret my choice. Actually I see that this title is a joint project between Anime Empire (that subs Capeta) and Saizen fansub groups, therefore I think this is a sport anime, and I downloaded it. Only when I started watching it I found out how wrong I am. This slice-of-life anime is a 2007 anime, therefore it will fight a vain battle against Bokurano, the current holder of the ‘Anime of the Year 2007’ title.

Story:-
See the screenshot below for an apt explanation:-

The first sentence sums up the anime. The second line is a warning that you should take seriously.

Imagine the recently-reviewed slice-of-life anime K-On, stripped out of its (not so good) story and Hirasawa Yui, and we have an anime that is on the same level as Hayate no Gotoku and Myself Yourself, amongst others. This anime has lame storyline and its characters’ roster are boring. Character developments is basically non-existent, with the 3 main characters being the same from the first episode until the last one. I even thought that the cross-dressing elementary schooler is better than them.

The only thing that this anime doesn’t manage to screw-up is the comedy. Some of them are genuinely good, but plenty of them are ordinary. Well, this anime is maybe at the same level as K-On in this aspect. The ending is basically non-existent, just like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series were. In the course of writing this review, I found out at ANN that there are 3 seasons of this anime, therefore that must be the reason why the ending is structured that way. The fact that this anime has 3 seasons is very disturbing though.

The lack of a coherent storyline in anime like this one is forgivable, but at least there should be at least one interesting/powerful character(s) in this anime. K-On would have been even crappier if it doesn’t have Hirasawa Yui propping up the series. Oh BTW, I won’t watch the subsequent seasons of this anime, unless you want to pay me for doing so.

The comedy is the only silver lining that this anime has.

Character Design:-
The character designer of this anime suffers from the same affliction that plagued the likes of Naruto, Hayate no Gotoku and Initial D, and that would be the inability of the designer to draw beautiful female characters. The three titles I have mentioned gets away with this because the main characters for each series is male, but this anime doesn’t have that luxury, for obvious reasons. The other Minami family, which is almost all guys, has far better character designs. Oh BTW, black hairs are rare in this slice-of-life anime that takes place in present-day Japan.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime in this anime is very good, especially for the second and third Minami sisters. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Music:-
Another positive point for this anime, the music aspect of this anime is flawless; the OST is decent and there is also two good OP and ED themes.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. No comment about the choreography because this anime doesn’t have any action scenes. The director probably cannot do anything about the lack of storyline and characters in this anime though, so I will give him/her a pass.

Conclusion:-
3 out of 10. Toaru Majutsu no Index or A Certain Scientific Railgun will be the one reviewed next.

The craziness of a certain delusional character in this anime helps brightened this anime up.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Umineko no Naku Koro ni (うみねこのなく頃に)

ranpha — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 06:54:57 +0000

The spirited main male protagonist and one of the best characters in this series.

This review of Umineko no Naku Koro ni marks the beginning of an avalanche of, well, more anime reviews that will come in quick succession. It has been quite some time since I last done this,and this should be a good thing for this blog that needs more new contents. Umineko no Naku Koro ni is a 2009 title, therefore it will compete with Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei for the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title. Read on to see whether this anime managed to do so or not.

And this is the uncultured main female antagonist, also one of the best characters in this series.

Story:-
The head of the wealthy Ushiromiya clan finds out that he has only 3 months to live, therefore he arranged for a family meeting to select a new successor to be held at his private mansion located on a private island, far-far away from civilization. All of his sons and daughters attended the family gathering, and so are nearly all of his grandsons and granddaughters. In the first night, a typhoon comes, cutting all communication lines to the mainland. Then, the brutal murders started…

Written by the same people who wrote the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni series (referenced sometimes in this anime), the story is eerily similar to any of the homicide cases in Kindaichi Shonen no Jikembo that happened in similar settings (quite a few of them). I compared this anime to the Kindaichi series rather than the likes of Meitantei Conan because the main male protagonist is also similar to the protagonist in Kindaichi series. Just like the latter, the former will have to face a formidable foe a.k.a. the main female antagonist who is a high-ranking witch. The main male protagonist here doesn’t have even a quarter of Hajime Kindaichi’s abilities though, or else he would have made short work out of the witch. The witch is also not the brightest criminal ever unlike the cunning and cruel magician in the Kindaichi series, or else she would have reached Golden Land in less than 13 episodes.

The battle of wits between these two is what this anime is all about.

Just like the Higurashi series, the anime (based from a visual novel just like Higurashi is) is divided into several arcs. This anime has 4 of them, and as of now, the game is now in its 6th arc. So it is almost certain that there will be a second season at least. The first arc introduced the story, the island setting and almost all the characters that matters (more of this later). The second half of the last episode of this arc is very important, because there is one easily missed important fact about the nature of the witch that will be revealed to you.

The second arc is where the battle between the two main protagonists started, and this arc concentrates mainly on character developments for many of Ushiromiya family members. In the 3rd arc, the witch concocts an elaborate offensive move with the help of her magical powers which caught the main protagonist unaware until far too late, but he was rescued by a new character that comes out from nowhere.

This is where my first complaint about this anime come, which is the introduction of an important character (the character is the main male protagonist little sister) far too late into the series, without any hints or warning whatsoever. Some of you may argue that the new character is similar to Hanyuu a.k.a. Oyashiro-sama in the Higurashi series, but in her case there are plenty of hints about her existence even from that series’ first arc. In this anime, the first two arcs doesn’t even have a hint about her, and there is only one off-hand mention of her by the main male protagonist in the third arc.

A familiar remark I have read in a certain Japanese manga…

My second complaint is, because of her dramatic entry into the storyline, a significant chunk of the 4th arc were spent on the character introduction and development of one single character (read: 2 consecutive flashback/flashforward episodes, plus many more of them after that in the 8-episode 4th arc). This took the focus away from the main male protagonist, and to a lesser extent, the main female antagonist. With these two characters out of the spotlight, the steam is taken out of this arc. The inconclusive yet dramatic showdown between these two main characters in the second half of the last episode doesn’t manage to salvage the 4th arc from the mire it found itself in. Well, the ending is set up nicely for a second season, that’s for sure.

Character developments in this series is uneven, and happened depends on what arc is playing. There are plenty of them in the 2nd arc, while, due to the nature of the plot, none of them happened in the 3rd arc. The 4th arc concentrates on the newly minted character and to a lesser extent, another two of the Ushiromiya family members. The best characters in the series is definitely the two main characters, and there is plenty of room for their (and others too) developments in the next season, which in my estimation, should happen in 2012 at the earliest (assuming of course, if there are 8 arcs in the whole game).

A great insight of the Japanese legal system.

Character Design:-
Just like in the Higurashi series, character designs in this anime will be home in any dating simulation from the Land of Rising Sun. Big boobs and big eyes? Hell yeah! Black hair? Hell no. How about blonde hairs? Plenty of them here. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

The child beater of the Ushiromiya family…

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this is good overall. The two main protagonist are outstanding, and so are Eva and Maria Ushiromiya. Also a positive point for this anime.

…doing what she does best.

Music:-
The OST is decent but not so for the OP/ED themes.

Her reason for doing so is understandable though.

Animation/Direction:-
The quality of the animation in this anime is flawless, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography is average though. The directing is definitely better than the one seen in my previously reviewed anime Asura Cryin’, but not that good either.

Just one of the discourses between the two main protagonists.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. Due to the nature of the story, there is still plenty of room for improvement. Not good enough to dislodge Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei from the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ throne though. The next anime reviewed here will be either Minami-ke or Toaru Majutsu no Index. Which one will come next, that will have to wait until the next entry.

Witty lines like this one is one of the reason why the main male protagonist is one of the best characters in this series.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Asura Cryin’ S1 and S2 (アスラクライン & アスラクライン2)

ranpha — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:42:07 +0000

The main protagonist.

Since my last review was published about a month ago, many changes has been done on this blog. Two most notable changes are the theme switch and the change of URL to a shorter one. All your bookmarks etc will still work because of the magic of mod_rewrite. To commemorate this occasion, what else is better than a brand new spanking review of the two seasons of Asura Cryin’ (spelled like it is in ANN). Both were aired last year, therefore our newly-anointed ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ winner Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei will have its first challenge!

Story:-
Our main male protagonist was haunted by a ghost of a pesky girl that harassed him every second of his life. Then his life make a turn for the worse when his brother sends him a mysterious steel suitcase that is wanted by many shady organizations. He was then attacked by a demon who also wanted the said suitcase, and after barely escaping alive, his rented house was then raided by those shady organizations. Hounded by a ghost, chased by a demon who will stop at nothing to get the suitcase and also by the organizations with the same aim; our hero finally snapped, called out the dark mecha from inside the suitcase and started to have his revenge!

Strictly speaking, the story in this series is typical of its shounen genre. Not the pinnacle of storywriting, but not too bad either. In the first season this series has done well when it comes to the progression of the story and pacing, although character developments are not done properly. Then the ending of the first season comes, setting up a link for the second season quite nicely. The second season then comes, and this series promptly started to fall apart.

The first thing I do when I finished watching this series is to check whether the director has changed for the second season. The answer is no, therefore I checked the director’s CV to see whether he has directed any other anime titles reviewed here in the past. One entry comes up; Inukami, in which I commented that he has done a very good job. He also directed Sekirei which is in my queue, of which I have only planned to watch after the second season was aired and the DVD comes out. This doesn’t explain one of the biggest directorial cock-ups since Armitage III though.

Right after the second season started, the director seems to feel that suspense is a bad thing and started to show all his cards a.k.a. telling the startled audience (that would be me at least) the key elements of the storyline. This alone make the series very predictable, allowing me to see how the ending will be 10 episodes from the end (more to come about this later). As the director does this in the first few episodes of the second season, this started to affect the pacing of the anime too, where the pacing can become suddenly fast in key scenes. With this, parts of the anime that is important storywise can be missed if you did not concentrate enough when watching the early parts of the second season.

In the second season, I also feels that the presentation of the storyline has become worse in the second season. It is kinda like what I have said in my review of Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun. This is evident mostly on the plot twists that happened more frequently on second season than in the first. A good example is the scene where the main male protagonist’s brother finally appeared and spilled the beans (related to what I have said above); such a very important event doesn’t have any air of urgency when I watched it happening. Even with the fact that that scene heralds the time when the series enters a new phase, it feels that the said scene is no more important than, let say, the episode where the character roster went to a hot spring bath.

Another complaint of mine has to do with some serious scene transition problems throughout the series. This weakness also happened in the first season, but the worst case of this problem happened during the ending of this anime:-

Near the end of the penultimate episode….

Antagonist: I want the ! (said artifact is secure with the protagonist’s team) I want to create A NEW WORLD!
Protagonist: I will not give it to you bla bla bla…. (as the protagonist spits out some self-righteous clichéd drivel)
Me: (cut down another point from the final evaluation).
Antagonist: So we see things differently…. (start ordering his mecha to attack)
Protagonist: WARGHHHHHH (his mecha joins the fray)

Ending credits rolls

Me: (Open up last episode in MPC-HC)

Final episode starts with a big explosion from the clash between two big bad-ass mechas. From the aftermath, comes out the antagonist, with in his hand!

Protagonist: Eh? (surprised seeing the taken away just like that).
Me: EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?
Antagonist: You’re unlucky! (imagine him saying that the way that enchanter in Torchlight does)
Me: (opening Mozilla Firefox to book a ticket to Japan so that I CAN GO POSTAL ON THE DIRECTOR’S ASS).

Attention Japan! Doing an important scene progression OFF-SCREEN is a big no-no! This make an already predictable cliché-laden ending worse. This series is really beyond help at this point.

As I say above, character development in the first season are not done properly, but at first I thought that this will be addressed in the second season. Guess what? It did not happen. Character development in this anime are done half-heartedly at best. For the characters that has plenty of airtime like the main protagonist, their development are done well but those who doesn’t get the airtime, the reverse happened. Example is the 2nd student council president, whose background are completely opaque until it was too late in the series. Her relationship with her sickly friend are not exposed until the ending, unlike the 1st student council president (best character in this series) who have far more detailed character development (has dedicated episodes for him too).

The dialogue that confirms his status as the main protagonist in an anime.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime is good. There are quite a number of black-haired characters in this anime too, such as the main protagonist. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is decent enough, but there is no one standing out from the rest.

Music:-
The OST is good, but from all the OP/ED themes, only the 2nd ED theme from the second season is worth mentioning here.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this series is excellent all around, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography in action scenes are ordinary though; you won’t see any good battles in here. I have said plenty of things about the directing above, but hey, from the director’s CV, do you realize that Inukami, Sekirei and this series’ stories are basically the same in essence? Hint: The keyword is ‘contract’. Is this director a one-trick pony? Then again Inukami is a very good shounen anime.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Awful directing is responsible for 2 penalty points. Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei passed its first test as the reigning ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ holder.

Our evil antagonist!

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (懺・さよなら絶望先生)

ranpha — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 07:22:28 +0000

Our main protagonist, now biting puppy ears.

Today when I want to write the review for this anime, only then I realized that my previous review for Needless is missing because of the server migration that happened nearly two weeks ago. Therefore it may seem that there are two reviews for today but actually there is only one of them. And that one would be for the third season of the Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series, which follows the first and second season already reviewed in this blog before. Titled Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, this 2009 anime will then compete with Wolf and Spice S2 for the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title. Compared to the first two seasons, this newest installment in this series will throw a nice surprise to you.

Still the best character in this anime, even if her airtime was cut even further.

Story:-
In the third season, our main male protagonist has completely stopped being suicidal (he is afraid to die even), therefore his (mostly) female students doesn’t have to restrain him from finding the hangman noose anymore. Nowadays all he does is complaining and despairing over many things, and his (mostly) female students followed suit. I somewhat miss the more flexible main protagonist that you can see in the first season.

What you can see in the second season was carried into the third season (each episodes are divided into several chunks), but with some notable changes in presentation. In the third season, there are more long story arcs that are shown to the viewers in non-consecutive chunks (usually in different episodes). This approach was pioneered in the second season but are used far more extensively in this season. But what defines the third season over its two predecessors is that there are more good plots over bad ones. If the first season has 50:50 good:bad plots ratio and with second season may have a 40:60 ratio, the third season has vastly improved with 80:20 ratio. The third season is definitely the best installment in this series so far.

Epson/HP/Canon/Lexmark etc. business practices thoroughfully explained and mocked in this anime.

As a consequence of that, the outstanding humor in this series (which helped the first two seasons achieves 8 out of 10 scores) has also been improved. I actually think that would be impossible to do, considering my experience of watching the first two seasons in the past. But the humor in the third season does improve over the already excellent humor in season one and two, and that’s a good thing. Parodies and references to other manga/anime/games/TV shows/political events are still there, with diverse references to AKB48 all the way to Rozen Maiden (with a not-so-veiled reference to a particular politician). This anime will surely become a hit in North Korea…

Taking a swipe at North Korea is this anime favorite pastime.

Another presentation changes that are done in the third season is the pacing of this anime. The director probably have heard my complaints about the terrifying pace this series has and toned it down in this season. It is still fast compared to other anime titles, but between the three seasons, the one here is the slowest. Therefore I do not use the MPC-HC rewind combo button as often as I do in the first two seasons. This anime can still be inaccessible to live TV watchers though, therefore time-shifting is a must.

One of the best humor scenes in the entire series.

Character developments was stalled in the second season, and little has happened in the third season that indicates that anything has changed. The only things I have seen is that the main protagonist now fears death (so far apart from the suicidal him in the first season) and the so-called class monitor has permanently become a murderous person. Our mobilephone-toting non-talking best character is still there, her airtime being cut even further. There are no actual ending I have seen in the last episode, just like it does in the second season. Will there be a fully deserved 4th season? Well, we have to just wait and see then.

I hope a new season will come, not necessarily in that timeslot.

Character Design:-
My comment in the first season and second season review still applies. The best design belongs to the main male protagonist. Generally, this series are strong in this section.

One of the many parodies in this anime.

Voice Acting:-
Another traditional stronghold for this series, my comment from first and second season still applies.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Music:-
The OST is still great as it is in the second season, but only the OP theme is good. Cannot say the same thing for the 2 ED themes.

This show can be ‘informative’ too!

Animation/Direction:-
For animation quality and choreography, my comment from the review of second season still applies. The director has changed some of the presentation aspects in this anime for the better, and staying closer with the original manga probably contributes to the better stories and humor in the third season too.

Conclusion:-
Say hi to our newest ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ with its 10 out of 10 score. Simply better than Wolf and Spice S2. I never thought a despairing good-looking teacher with a huge harem he doesn’t take advantage of can take the throne from a beer-chugging wolf-girl. I do expect the third season to do well, but not THIS well.

Quoted For Truth.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-bT

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Needless (ニードレス)

ranpha — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 04:41:36 +0000

Our main male protagonist a.k.a. the best character in this anime, Hatake Kakashi Adam Blade.

The anime that replaced Clannad After Story in my queue list is Needless, yet another arbitrary anime I have downloaded. The 2nd review this year is for a 2009 anime, which will then challenge Wolf and Spice S2 for the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title. This anime is unique in few aspects, but embarrassingly predictable in others. Read on to see what I mean.

And this is his sidekick, perfect as a comedy outlet.

Story:-
It has been few decades since Japan was walloped (again) by nuclear bombs in a fictional World War 3, and the country has pretty much returned to normal. But it is hard to ignore a huge black spot right smack in the middle of Tokyo, which is a remnant of one of those nuclear bombs. Strange people lives there and quite a few of them has inhuman powers. Those people are called Needless, and our main protagonist is one of them. Then a mysterious but powerful pharmaceutical company (why oh why it has to be a pharmaceutical company Japan?) decides to extend their operation right in the middle of the Black Spot, and their equally mysterious leader decides to do a ‘Needless Hunting’ (self-explanatory isn’t it). This eventually infuriates our protagonist, therefore a huge battle between two strong people is inevitable.

This anime reminds me a lot of another excellent 10 out of 10 shounen anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (abbreviated TTGL from this point) in more ways than one. But unlike TTGL which storyline is aimed towards younger audiences (elementary schoolers), the story in this anime is better mainly because it caters to the teen demographic (at least that’s what I like to think). Still, this anime barely has the great polish that TTGL has. What makes this anime unique/strange/interesting (choose whatever you prefer) is that the story is extremely short. Yes, the story in this anime is very short. The anime starts very well, with fast pacing and nice story development until the ending arc starts at EPISODE 8!

Did you follow me yet?

This anime has 24 episodes, but with the way the story was presented, you would have thought that you are watching a 12-episode series. The storyline that precedes the event when the main male protagonist and his entourage raided the enemy’s headquarters to save the main female protagonist (kidnapped of course, what else do you think has happened) is quite good of course before one of the longest final arc in an anime series started. In any other shounen anime titles, an event like above will only happened two or three or four or even five episodes (rare) before the end, but here it happens a whooping 16 episodes before final episode. As a comparison, the most recent shounen anime reviewed here which is Kaze no Stigma only has its final arc to start 4 or 5 episodes before the ending (and I did say that anime spends a lot of time for its ending too).

These trio peddles plenty of lame and stale jokes but are good when it comes to fan-service.

So what can you expect in that extremely long ending arc? There are 4 episodes of poorly timed flashback episodes, 2 of them are back-to-back near the end of the series. Diving straight to a final battle between the protagonist and the antagonist does have its drawbacks, with the director having to use the flashbacks as a plot device to present some unexplained loose ends in the whole story. Generally I have no complaints about the contents of those flashbacks, but the same thing cannot be said for their timing, which happened right at important moments. There is also plenty of fighting, which makes up the bulk of the ending arc. Interestingly, the main protagonist spends about only 2 episodes (and I think I am generous there) fighting the final boss while his fight against the Pretty Girls Squad can easily triple that for the whole series. The priorities in this anime is somewhat perverted.

Two things that this anime has but TTGL lacks are fan-service and plenty of humor, but their qualities are mixed bag at best. The aforementioned Pretty Girls Squad are good at the former but bad at the latter. Funny scenes by the main male protagonist largely succeeded, but the repetitive ones done by the main female protagonist quickly become stale after 2 episodes or so. IMHO, fan-service in Saki are better than the ones in here. Character developments in this is probably the only thing not being affected negatively by the long ending arc. With all those fighting and flashback episodes, it is hard not to see any character developments here, especially for the main male protagonist. He is definitely the best character in this anime.

The hero’s pack right before they raided the enemy’s headquarters for the final battle, 16 episodes before the anime ends.

Character Design:-
The character design of the main male protagonist is one of the main reasons why I compared this anime with TTGL. His look and mannerism is not far removed from Kamina. Unlike TTGL though, the overall character designs in this anime are a bit more mature unlike the former’s kiddy anime style. Black hairs are almost non-existent, while other colors are popular. White/silver is actually quite common, with the main male protagonist, his robotic flasher lolita companion, the main antagonist and one of his subordinates having that color, amongst others. Blue hairs are even more common, plenty of blue shades in this anime. The radiations from all those nukes must have done irreparable damage to Japanese DNA. Some mecha design are quite decent too. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

The law of Anime dictates that an event that has minuscule probability of happening, will definitely happen in an anime showing. If the said anime is a shounen, the odds are doubled.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is excellent, with plenty of honorable mentions for the white-haired main male protagonist, that green-haired greenhorn who saved him from death in the first episode, the blue-haired main female protagonist, that blue-haired girl with magnetic powers and (yet another) the blue-haired girl who leads the Pretty Girls Squad trio. Also a positive point for this anime.

Music:-
Just like TTGL, this anime’s OST is great but the same cannot be said for any of the OP/ED themes.

One of the humorous scenes that actually works.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is great, but the ones in TTGL is simply more exciting and more variable. Fast-paced scenes are not affected in any way, except when the director will it to be (this is not a negative point). Choreography in this anime is better than the ones in TTGL though, with many good fighting techniques (and characters in this anime likes to do an Onmyou Taisenki and shout the name of their techniques when attacking). The awesome directing in TTGL cannot be matched by this anime; that 4 poorly timed flashback episodes count against the director here.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. The story is thin, but this anime is still a decent shounen title. The next anime I will watch is a sequel of an anime already reviewed in this blog before, and I have actually already started watching it. And no, it isn’t Clannad After Story.

This flashback scene reminds me of a similar scene from a certain very famous J-RPG.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Paradise Kiss (パラダイス・キス)

ranpha — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:09:30 +0000

The main female protagonist.

It takes me a bit more than a month to read Ookiku Furikabutte manga (actually very good) before deciding to watch Paradise Kiss first over Clannad After Story. Paradise Kiss is yet another of those anime that was screened on Animax Asia but I do not watch (even if my house has a subscription), and that’s the main reason why I went around and watched it. A 2005 title, it will not compete for any of those ‘Anime of the Year’ titles (not that it will win any) and also this anime will be judged with the rating-damaging romance genre standard. I have an announcement to make here, but you should read this review first before reading it at the end of this post.

Ass shoving: Just one of the shocking things that the 4 members of this knitting club does.

Story:-
The depressed main female protagonist was offered to become a model by a mysterious fashion house high school knitting club for an upcoming fashion show. That club contains members that engaged in some shocking behaviors that almost always put the main female protagonist off. Being a complete n00b when it comes to all things modeling, she has to learn from scratch while dealing with her high-school love life.

This anime has a decent storyline, although this may not be apparent for the first few episodes. It only get more interesting when the emo protagonist runs away from home not too long before the show. With very good pacing and story developments, this anime springs up another pleasant surprise by having an unpredictable ending. The execution is not flawless, but at least the ending is somewhat original. All in all, I think the overall story is not too suitable for a supposedly romance title, but that is not a negative point against the anime.

The main female protagonist reminds me a lot of the emo main female protagonist in La Corda d’Oro primo passo, except that the latter doesn’t have the hot temper the former has. Most of the time, this issue can sink any given anime title to oblivion (La Corda and Myself Yourself comes to mind), but in this case, the strong character of the main male protagonist and, to a lesser extent, the story too, saved this anime from suffering the same fate as the two aforementioned anime titles. The main male protagonist is surely the best character in this anime by a distance.

The main female protagonist’s younger brother.

Character Design:-
The over-the-top character designs in this anime are awesome, with the exception of the main female protagonist. I can actually forgive the lack of black hairs in this anime’s Japan. Just like the over-the-top character designs, the fashion designs in this anime are also out-of-this-world, probably only can be seen inside real fashion schools drawn by hopeful fashion designers of the future. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Her younger brother is an awesome character in this anime, so here is another screenshot of him.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting gigs in this anime are largely excellent, except for the main male protagonist who are too ordinary. The outstanding characters in this regard is the pink-haired girl, her eerily similar older sister and the she-guy patterner. Even the main female protagonist has done well here. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Music:-
The OST is non-existent, but the OP and ED themes are excellent. Another positive point for this anime.

The word ‘big’ refers to what? Make your own assumptions, or better, watch this quite good anime yourself. The answer will surprise you!

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. No choreography comment in this non-action anime. The directing is just competent enough but exactly inspiring.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Announcement: I will not watch Clannad After Story for my next review, because some higher priority titles just found themselves inside my anime queue.

Quoted for truth, in the context of this cruel world.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Ookiku Furikabutte (おおきく振りかぶって)

ranpha — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:57:11 +0000

The paranoid main protagonist.

In the midst of heavy work-load that is customary near the end of the year, I can still slip in a new short review of yet another sport anime, titled Ookiku Furikabutte. A 2007 anime, it will challenge Bokurano that was crowned as ‘Anime of the Year 2007’ holder just recently. Not helping its cause is the sport genre handicap that was applied by virtue of being a baseball-related anime title taken place in a typical high school setting. Thus, read on to see the failure of this anime in its quest to defeat Bokurano and becomes the new successor.

The busty head coach doesn’t waste any time to force the players to endure a customary training camp in their quest for Koushien.

Story:-
Our wimpy main protagonist Ren-Ren that cries a lot (even more so than the protagonist in Over Drive) but is actually very talented in baseball pitching (far more talents than Over Drive’s protagonist) reluctantly joined the newly formed understaffed baseball club at his new high school. Unlike his middle-schooler teammates, his new teammates quickly recognized his talents in baseball. Still, our main protagonist is haunted by his bad experiences during middle school days and that constantly makes him become emo and paranoid plenty of times, sometimes in the middle of an important match. Therefore his boyfriend need to ‘comfort’ (let your imagination runs wild here) the protagonist so that he can focus doing what he does best on the mound. If Saki features plenty of main female characters while relegating male characters as insignificant side characters, this anime is the other way around.

With some rare exceptions, stories in sport genre titles tends to be just average and filled with all the usual clichés associated with the genre, and this anime is not excluded. But just like almost all titles in this genre, the anime becomes far more interesting once the action started. This anime doesn’t waste its time to go straight into its (genre-requiring) training camp and the staple friendly match at the end of it. With the Koushien (hahahahahaha – very original indeed) being the club’s aim, the scenes where hard work, steely determination and unbreakable team spirits are abound in this anime, especially during the matches. The story has excellent flow and nice pacing, plus the director followed the example set by Over Drive and dedicates a full episode for the well-executed good ending, which has a lead-up to a second season.

There will be a second season right? This anime really deserved one! Still plenty of unfinished business in this anime!

Character development potential in this anime is huge, and the best positive that this anime has. Even after 26 episodes, I think the director only has tapped a tiny bit of potential that this anime has in this regard. There are plenty of notable characters in this anime that still need to be developed further. I do not think that will be doable even if this anime has 50 episodes, such is the detail put into that extremely long (and good) first round match of the summer prefectural tournament. I may have to visit lurk@irc.irchighway.net, the manga where this anime is based on is already in the 12th volume. It goes without saying that while the main protagonist is the character that has developed the most in this anime (definitely the best character in this anime), I can still feel that he can still evolve much further physically, mentally and of course with his talent too. The same can also be said for his teammates, especially the protagonist’s boyfriend (the protagonist’s cousin doesn’t stand any chance at all romantically).

And I will say it again. This anime really needs a second season. Really! And so are Bamboo Blade, Saki, Umisho etc.

An apt desription of the main protagonist by his boyfriend.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime is common for a generic shounen title, although the faces that main protagonist made is mildly interesting. Black hairs are rare, replaced by the more common brown hairs with different shades for each character. The design are decent but not spectacular.

Voice Acting:-
In general, voice acting in this anime is decent, although I can’t pinpoint any characters that is outstanding in this aspect. Uhmm… I have nothing else really to say here.

The prelude of the ‘bonding process’ between the main protagonist and his boyfriend, tha will lead to scenes that are NFSW that happened off-screen.

Music:-
The two OP themes and the 2^nd ED theme are quite good really. Meanwhile, the OST is basically unnoticeable and the 1^st ED theme is not really good unlike the others.

Despite their ‘intimate’ relationships, it takes the main protagonist quite some time to know the first name of his boyfriend.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this anime is very good, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography in action scenes in this sport anime are realistic and not overexaggerated unlike a certain sport anime that should remain unnamed. The director has done a decent job with this anime especially with character developments and story handling. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

A dedicated flashback episode in a sport anime? Surely not!

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. Still a decent sport anime despite the failure of challenging Bokurano for the ‘Anime of the Year 2007’ title. This anime is good enough for me to go read the manga version before I start watching either the long awaited Clannad After Story or the long-stored Paradise Kiss. See you later, probably next week if I can help it.

Some nice advice from the boyfriend that will really help keeping their ‘intimate’ moments smoother.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Kaze no Stigma (風のスティグマ)

ranpha — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:08:41 +0000

The lecherous main male protagonist, on top of one of his sexual conquests.

This review of Kaze no Stigma will be the last for quite some time, as the usual end-of-year activities eats up my free time. Kaze no Stigma is a shounen 2007 anime, which will then compete with the newly crowned ‘Anime of the Year 2007’ winner Bokurano. After this anime, I planned to watch either Ookiku Furikabutte, Paradise Kiss or Clannad After Story. The order is not determined yet, you simply has to wait until their time comes.

The main male protagonist, yet with another woman in his arms, making fun of the luckless and miserable main female protagonist (the one at the left).

Story:-
Our main male protagonist loses a duel against the main female protagonist for a family heirloom called the Enraiha, causing his father to disown him. He then went overseas, and somewhat managed to obtain an ultimate power during his journey. He then returns to Japan after 4 years in wilderness and easily exacts revenge upon his father that he hated. After that, the anime went downhill and you can safely drop this anime from your watch list.

Sheesh, this anime started so well (and raised my hopes of seeing a decent shounen title) but the story craps itself out after only four or five episodes . A minor savior of this anime is the mildly interesting main protagonist who are standing head and shoulders above the others. The main female protagonist is ordinary, the side characters are uninspiring and the antagonists are the usual genre-standard low dogmatic characters. But in the end, the main male protagonist was tarnished by one of the most obvious anime endings I have seen for quite some time, it was even worse than the one in Shangri-La when it comes to predictability. BTW, the ending is structured to have a second season that probably will not come.

The story arcs after the first one are bland and sometimes ridiculous, sandwiching the occasional filler episodes that served their purposes of not advancing the story or doing character developments. But regardless of what I think about the story itself, the fillers and the lame ending, I can’t deny that this anime does have good presentation; this anime has a decent plot flow and development path plus with excellent pacing that was only marred by the filler episodes. The same can be said about the lame ending too, which has plenty of airtime to develop that ridiculous plot-twist non-event. Thinking about that, the thorough preparation for the ending only makes the flaws of the ending stands out even more.

Character developments is yet another negative aspect of this anime. Despite being the most interesting character in this anime, the main protagonist has an almost static character development strategy. This means that the main protagonist in the first episode is almost the same as the one in the final episode. The storywriter depends too much on past events (shown to you courtesy of admittedly very-well presented flashbacks) to expose the essence of his character. As for the main female protagonist, the way (or the lack of any) she falls in love with the main male protagonist is just as bizarre like what happened with the social club president character in Princess Lover! Therefore I think there are no outstanding character(s) in this anime.

One of the cheesy lines he used to pick up one-night-stand victims.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime are just your usual standardized designs you can see in any given average shounen title (big eyes, impossible body shapes and stuff like that). Black hairs are rare, in some very unimportant characters. If they exist at all.

Voice Acting:-
Here, the voice acting is only average, with the main male protagonist being the best in this anime. The other voice actors/actresses are just filling their roles with no visible efforts to make their characters comes to life.

Music:-
Only the second ED theme (the one with daylight animation montages) in this anime is decent. The OST, the other two ED themes and the OP theme did not meet my standard.

When in battle, the main male protagonist has no qualms whatsoever at breaking any Geneva Convention rules he can; in this case he is using a pixie (instead of human) shield to cover his ass.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. The choreography in action scenes is just average though. The directing in this anime is great despite the average story, mostly because of the presentation (I only realized that he is also the director of the best ever anime I have watched in the course of writing this review). Definitely a positive point of this anime.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Bokurano makes short work out of this distinctly average anime. Clannad After Story, Paradise Kiss or Ookiku Furikabutte; which one of them will come next? Find out about that in the not-so-near future.

This anime may be a couple of years older than Koukaku no Regios, but spoken English in this anime is still better by a distance.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Review: Akagi (闘牌伝説アカギ闇に舞い降りた天才)

ranpha — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:21:57 +0000

The title protagonist.

From the creator of the excellent Kaiji series, come another proper thriller anime titled Akagi (he actually wrote this one first before Kaiji). Unlike Kaiji which is basically a darker and deadly version of Wipeout Australia, Akagi is a mahjong anime (kind of like Saki). Therefore, this anime will be subjected to the sport genre handicap. This is a 2005 anime, thus none of the ‘Anime of the Year’ title holders will be challenged this time around.

Story:-
During the era of reconstruction right after Japan’s loss in World War 2, a desperate man is betting his life in a mahjong parlor in a rainy night with the local yakuza. On the verge of defeat, suddenly a drenched middle-schooler barged into the mahjong parlor. Sensing something special about the white-haired student (I told you white-haired people are evil!), the desperate man asked him to play mahjong in his stead, and everything started from there on.

The story in this anime is almost non-existent, but the mahjong games in this anime are intense, complex, very deep and mesmerizing. And that’s about it with this anime. The games are more realistic with the players getting more normal hands unlike in Saki where its players gets rare hands far more often. The protagonist especially is really skilled at getting hands that cannot be anticipated by his opponents or getting them to do what he wants, and he usually achieve that using mind games, deceptions (this guy cheats quite often), phenomenal calculating abilities, psychological warfare, abnormal strategies and sheer luck. Add them up to his charismatic, cool and calm persona, the protagonist is a very good template for a manga/anime character specialized in mind games. If only Lelouch Lamperouge has his ability, the Code Geass series would have easily gotten a perfect score. And he is just as good as Kaiji or Kaiser Reinhard or Yang Wenli, probably even better than them.

The flow of the plots during the games are excellent, which more than adequately covered for the lousy story transitions when not in-game. The presentation of the games is top-notch, with gazillion of monologues from the players, the spectators and very helpful commentary from the narrator that explains the strategies used in the games and their ramifications. Because of the narration, this anime is more accessible to mahjong n00bs than Saki (the fansub group also helps explaining the scoring system used in this anime, which differs than the ones used at my localities). Character developments is basically scarce, applies only to the main protagonist, and mostly done before the first time jump. Most of the main protagonist’s developments happened in the games played before the first time jump, with more off-screen developments during the two time jumps this anime before we get the (assumed) final fully developed character for the final game. BTW, the title main protagonist is definitely the best character here (as if you have any other options).

Unlike Saki, there are no metaphorical exaggerations in this anime, and of course far less flashbacks (they are nicely done). Some of them appears during the final game though, see the screenshot below. The ending is neat and tight, with some loose ends purposely left in ambiguity. Although I hoped that a second season will arrive, I do not think one will come.

This metaphor may be ugly, but it was relevant within the context of the scene where it was used.

Character Design:-
My comment from the same section in my Kaiji review applies, after all, the same person is responsible for this anime too. It is also interesting to note that there are virtually no female characters anywhere in this anime, even on the background. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Most of the dialogues comes from spectators, gobsmacked by the crazy turns the main protagonist is taking.

Voice Acting:-
My comment from the same section in my Kaiji review still applies. The main protagonists in both anime are voiced by the same person, with the same level of performance. The only difference between these two anime in this aspect is that the main character in this anime speak (or being in monologues) far less than his counterparts in Kaiji. In fact, the narrator and some of the recurring characters that acts as the spectators may have far more lines (after all, they like to doubt the crazy strategies the main character deployed in the games he plays). Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Your typical antagonist that is common in any shounen titles.

Music:-
Unlike Kaiji, the OP theme and the hard-hitting two ED themes are excellent. The jazzy OST are sparse, but they are good too. Definitely a positive point of this anime.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this anime is quite good, even in the little fast-paced scenes this anime has (I will put the blame on camera panning problems upon the shoulder of the encoder). Choreography in this anime is decent in the few fighting scenes this anime has. The directing is good for the things explained in the story section.

And the antagonist will not be complete without evil laughs and creepy hairs.

Conclusion:-
Despite the sport genre handicap, this anime will get a 10 out of 10. Although if I were to compare this anime to Capeta (which incidentally is also a 2005 anime), this anime will come short. Capeta is, after all, is one of the best anime I have ever watched and has far better story than this anime. This anime is good enough to depose Uchuu no Stellvia from my Top 5 Anime of All Time list though, taking the spot number 4 currently occupied by Galaxy Angel series. Galaxy Angel is now number 5 in the same list.

The antagonist would have easily vanquished the protagonist if he have read that website! He should listen to his underlings’ advice more.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

My collection of short anime reviews

Review: Summer Wars (サマーウォーズ)

Review: Black Jack 21 (ブラック・ジャック 21)

Review: B gata H kei (B型H系)

Review: Durarara!! (デュラララ!!)

Review: Ookiku Furikabutte – Natsu no Taikahen (おおきく振りかぶって ～夏の大会編～)

Review: Working!! (ワーキング)

Review: Angel Beats! (エンジェルビーツ)

Review: Hakuouki (薄桜鬼)

Review: Nodame Cantabile Finale (のだめカンタービレ フィナーレ)

Review: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (バカとテストと召喚獣)

Review: Mayoi Neko Overrun! (迷い猫オーバーラン！)

Review: Arakawa Under The Bridge (荒川アンダー ザ ブリッジ)

Review: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (鋼の錬金術師)

Review: Black Jack TV (ブラック・ジャック)

Review: Ergo Proxy (エルゴプラクシー)

Review: Kara no Kyoukai – The Garden of Sinners (空の境界)

Review: Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版：破)

Review: Märchen Awakens Romance (メルヘヴン)

Review: ONE OUTS – Nobody wins, but I! (ワンナウツ)

Review: Cross Game (クロスゲーム)

Review: Toaru Majutsu no Index (とある魔術の禁書目録)

Review: Minami-ke (みなみけ) S1

Review: Umineko no Naku Koro ni (うみねこのなく頃に)

Review: Asura Cryin’ S1 and S2 (アスラクライン & アスラクライン2)

Review: Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (懺・さよなら絶望先生)

Review: Needless (ニードレス)

Review: Paradise Kiss (パラダイス・キス)

Review: Ookiku Furikabutte (おおきく振りかぶって)

Review: Kaze no Stigma (風のスティグマ)

Review: Akagi (闘牌伝説アカギ 闇に舞い降りた天才)

Review: Ookiku Furikabutte – Natsu no Taikahen (おおきく振りかぶって～夏の大会編～)

Review: Nodame Cantabile Finale (のだめカンタービレフィナーレ)

Review: Arakawa Under The Bridge (荒川アンダーザブリッジ)

Review: Akagi (闘牌伝説アカギ闇に舞い降りた天才)