In spite of only needing to watch and review a single title for the Secret Santa Project, the chance of discovering excellence a second time after Noein convinced me to squeeze a second series in. I chose Noein because it’s staff later did one of my favorite anime, Birdy the Mighty Decode, but I lacked such a clear indicator for the second choice. On one hand I had an anime called Figure 17 – which I’ve never heard of – and on the other was an anime called Simoun – which I remember hearing some positive buzz for. I decided that picking Simoun wasn’t in the spirit of the Secret Santa Project and went with the older and unknown Figure 17 as my second pick.

I popped the first episode in and I thought …

… Wikipedia must be wrong; this is a much older series then a mere 10 years old.

A few months ago I wouldn’t let this bother me and would continue watching but recently I’ve been trying to delve deeper into understanding the influence of the staff on an anime and I couldn’t wait for the end of episode 1. So, I stopped the episode and started reading up on staff and the production.

I won’t bore those reading with everything I found but there were a few things that I found genuinely interesting.

The director of Figure 17, Naohito Takahashi, had previously directed Berserk and been relatively busy in the 90’s but after Figure 17 the only thing he’s directed was Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Poirot and Marple in 2004. I don’t know if the director ended up getting kicked higher up into producing or eventually decided to retire or what. Whichever it is, I find it a shame that’s not more recent anime series that he directed. And it reminded me that I should finally get around to watching Berserk before the new movies come out.

Then there was the case of one of the little animation studios that had the in-between animation farmed out to it. It’s name probably meant nothing to even the more hardcore anime fan back in 2001 though in a mere five years after Figure 17 even the most noobish anime fan knew the name of Kyoto Animation with the release of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. With just in-between animation there’s probably no indelible mark that fingerprints their work in Figure 17 but I wonder: did KyoAni do a good job? did this job help convince producers that they could be trusted with animating a series themselves? was there any lasting influence on the animators of KyoAni after working on this project? Maybe if I had the Japanese language competency I’d go all old-fashioned and write them a letter asking this.

A look of  the voice actors and actresses revealed the now very famous Rie Kugimiya voiced a minor character in Figure 17. At the time of Figure 17 she was just starting out as a voice actress and was still 4 years away from the role that would define and immortalize her (as much as anyone can be immortalized in the ever-changing world of anime fandom). The role was, of course, Shana the red-haired hunter. Nowadays she often gets typecasted voicing a Shana-clone character so I was interested to see what type of character she was voicing before Shana. In hindsight, the answer was an obvious one; she plays a loud, short-tempered, abrasive, fourth grade girl or more simply a proto-Shana role (a Shana role from before she was Shana). Once again I got to wondering if this role influenced her later career.

With my intellectual curiosity sated, I popped Figure 17 back in and started watching.

Story

Figure 17 can be broken down into three distinct storylines. The first centers on the main character Tsubasa and her coming-of-age. She starts the series as a shy, introverted girl that hasn’t handled the recent move to the northern island of Japan, Hokkaido, from Tokyo very well. Her life takes a turn when she witnesses a meteor fall near her house and goes to investigate. She walks right into the second storyline, though she doesn’t know this at first. She encounters a humanoid alien, DD, who has to collect several dangerous alien monsters that escaped his crashed star-ship. His job is made much harder because something about the Earth mutates these monsters into creatures much more deadly then he’s prepared to face. Luckily for him and humanity, our main character shows up to help.

I know what your thinking, what can a fourth grader do to help.

One of the cooler pieces of alien tech our friendly alien DD has is sentient armor suits that encase the wearer in a near indestructible shell, when needed, and stored in a handy liquid state, when not needed. Upon initialization these suits scan the wearer’s brain and creates a digital copy of that person consciousness which the suit then uses in conjunction with it’s superior reflexes and senses to augment the wearer’s combat abilities.

Tsubasa stumbles upon a spare armor suit and activates it by accident. Her being human somehow alters the sentient armor suit and the resulting Figure (which is what the person plus the armor suit is called) is much stronger then DD’s Figure (try not to chuckle too much) and she’s able to stop the alien. How altered Tsubasa’s suit is after coming into contact with a human becomes apparent when they go to separate and the suit takes on the appearance Tsubasa instead of returning into a liquid ball. This creates a problem for DD. He’s not supposed to interact with the locals yet he needs the help of  Tsubasa’s Figure and somewhere to put the suit which is now an almost exact copy of Tsubasa without raising suspicions. He decides to use his ability to erase and add memories in people to make Tsubasa’s family think he’s a friend of the family that’s staying with them and that the suit is Hikaru, twin sister of Tsubasa.

The addition of a more outgoing “twin” to Tsubasa’s life gives her the opportunity to slowly blossom into a more self-assured person that her classmates like.

The third storyline is Hokkaido itself. As opposed to so much anime that takes place in big cities, Figure 17 is set in an area of Japan so sparsely populated that it makes even Shiki and Higurashi look like they were set in urban areas. Throughout the show we see the change that the slow cycle of seasons impart on the characters, surroundings, and the story. And we get to see all four seasons because the aliens monsters present a much more insidious challenge then just the quick roundup that DD initially thought.

Thoughts and impressions

Thank you Secret Santa!

How did you know I love intelligent SF series that don’t skimp on characters and story or that that I was depressed over Steins;Gate ending with no anime this Fall season that could really replace it? Both Noein and Figure 17 were perfect picks.

There is, however, one caveat to my praise of Figure 17 that I feel I should mention. The overall 90’s look to the anime was not that difficult to get into and did not slow my enjoyment of the series but I found the character designs of the kids to be downright ugly from certain angles. The worse was the side angle which made the kids look like bullfrogs getting ready to ribbitt. Kids are almost universally cute, it’s an effective survival strategy on their part and one that should be replicated when coming up character designs unless there’s an artistic reason in not doing so. Someone should have said, “You’re doing it wrong,” and had the character designs redone.

Eventually, the shock was no longer that shocking but it took many episodes to get to that point. I want to mention this because in spite of this Figure 17 is still a very excellent anime; don’t get scared away do to this minor issue.

Past that I have nothing but praise for the show.

I most liked how the creators where able to make Figure 17 work as an alien invasion story and a coming-of-age story and a travelogue of Hokkaido and as an introspective thinking story both independently and weaved together.

To make the alien invasion compelling Figure 17 used alien monsters that could adapt and quickly evolve based on information it gathered about the Earth and how their brethren were killed. This escalated each encounter. The heroes never knew if the new weapons and strategies that they came up since the last fight would be able to defeat the latest and more deadlier monster. There were no shortcuts to victory.

To make the coming-of-age story interesting Figure 17 treated the kids as actual characters and not just as a group of cliches and tropes meant to cover all the bases in anime fandom. The result was a refreshing change of pace that helped me actually care about the characters.

To make the location relevant and engaging Figure 17 remembered to include the small things and also to effectively use it’s unorthodox format. For example, the harsh winters of Hokkaido force the people to build their houses differently then those living down south like around Tokyo and these differences, like sloped roofing so the snow slides off, get shown throughout the series. I’ve yet to mention that each episode of Figure 17 runs for a full hour (with commercials or about 45 minutes without) and was originally released once a month. This gave Figure 17 the time to feature the surrounding and do the character building and include at least one alien fight each episode. If this had been split down into 30 minute episodes the creators would have faced the decision to either try to include a fight into each episode at the cost of everything but the alien invasion scenes or to bounce between “action” episodes and “character-building” episodes and somehow keep the show feeling coherent and paced well.

To make the introspective, thinking angle not boring Figure 17 let the characters and story dictate when the viewers were meant to think about the topics presented. It didn’t try to brow beat us into contemplating the ethics of DD in forcing the family of our main character Tsubasa into believing she has a twin sister or the rights that the sentient battle suit deserves after effectively becoming a person with a lifetime of memories or any of the other questions raised because the creators know if it’s done naturally the viewers will do without a second thought. Fans of Dr. Who might have thought that the story behind the sentient battle suits was reminiscent of the recent two-part story dealing with “The Flesh” and you’d be right. However, it was handled much better here.

I could ramble on but it would probably be a case of diminishing returns at this point so I’ll close by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed Figure 17 and would definitely recommend it.

Figure 17

Final Series Score: 11.5/12 Near Perfect
Rewatchablity: 3.5/5 – Medium
Ending: 4.5/5 – Sublime
Animation: 2.5/5 – Average

This was part of Reverse Thieves’ 2011 Secret Santa Project. Go here for links to other reviews by other anime bloggers.

Filed under: anime, meta/office keeping, series review

I know what you’re thinking at this point – “He’s still alive? It’s a Christmas miracle!” Actually, probably not and those same readers probably don’t want some long meta explanation as to why I’ve been absent when you’re just here for an anime review. Don’t worry, I feel your pain; my excuse is related . I like to write about anime that excites me in one way or the other and it was difficult to find that spark this season when compared to the two anime series that I watched for the Secret Santa Project.

I can’t tell you how many times I thought, “Gee, I really should write something for my anime blog … Noein was an awesome show … but I have to wait till Christmas eve to post about it … well, ahm … Noein was an awesome show …” repeat to ad nauseam. Of course, what I should have done was taken the time to write my review of Noein during November or any day of December before today but the side of me that demands perfection told me I had plenty of time to figure out how best to convey the sheer epic epicness of Noein. I’m not that surprised that it’s Christmas eve and I’m just starting now without figuring the perfect pitch .

This is the best I’ve come up with.

Noein is ambitious, grand science fiction; wrapped in an emotionally satisfying story of love, redemption, and friendship; executed perfectly and featuring some of the best animated and choreographed action scenes ever.

Story

The multiverse exists and it’s a jungle out there. The continued safety of one parallel universe from on onslaught of giant monster mecha intent upon destroying that universe was on finding and returning with an item of great power. At the start of Noein this universe discovered the item in a potential parallel universe. Potential because until observed by an observer it doesn’t truly exist (quantum physics is a weird and funny science – or at least how SF uses quantum physics). A crack team of soldiers are sent to retrieve the item but are shaken when this universe appears to be a mirror of their own universe from 15 years in the past.

Can these soldiers resist the temptation of going rogue and living in the beautiful world of their childhood before the mecha showed up? How will knowledge of a possible future change the characters in the potential – and now real – parallel universe? Can the plans by another parallel universe known as Shangri-La (the ones the made the large mecha) for the destruction of all other universes be stopped? How much of the story can I tease without dropping spoilers tags over everything?

Thoughts and impressions

Noein hit me like a ton-of-bricks; it’s all-time top 10 level goodness that I probably wasn’t ever going to watch because it’s a few years old.

I’d like to say everyone should watch Noein but realistically there are people that Noein isn’t meant for. So I came up with a short three step questionaire for those reading to see if they should watch Noein or not.

Question 1 – Did you watch and like Steins;Gate? If the answer is yes then drop whatever your’re doing and start watching Noein. If you answered that you haven’t seen Steins;Gate continue reading. If you answered that you watched and hated Steins;Gate then Noein probably isn’t for you. And that’s okay if you think that.

Question 2 – What was your reaction to Kyubey’s explanation about entropy and the heat death of the universe for his actions from Puella Magi Madoka Magica? If it was positive, drop what you’re doing and start watching Noein (and Steins;Gate if you haven’t already). If you thought it was confusing but that didn’t infringe on your ability to enjoy PM3 then watching Noein for it’s characters is worth a shot. If you thought it was confusing or stupid and it caused you to dislike PM3 or stop watching PM3 then Noein probably isn’t for you. And once again that’s okay if you think that.

Question 3 – Do you watch anime just for the fan service? If the answer is yes then Noein isn’t for you and though it’s difficult to say, that’s okay as well. If you answered no then Noein should at least be considered as well as Steins;Gate and PM3.

That’s about all I have to say given the time constraints and my desire not to spoil the show for potential viewers and because my other Secret Santa post in nearly 2000 words long itself. I’ll close with a video detailing the work by one of the key animators that worked on Noein. Yes, I read what Scamp wrote over at The Cart Driver but I wanted in include something that displays what I mean by Noein having some of the best animated and choreographed actions scenes ever.  The key animator in this video goes by the name Ryo-timo or Ryo-chimo and after Noein he worked on Birdy the Mighty Decode and most recently got to direct and largely animate the Yozakura Quartet 3 episode OVA series. The first animation studio that gives him a pile of money and solid source material to work with will make a killing.

Noein

Final Series Score: 12/12 Perfect
Rewatchablity: 4/5 – Medium to High
Ending: 4.5/5 – Sublime
Animation: 4/5 – Excellent

This was part of Reverse Thieves’ 2011 Secret Santa Project. Go here for links to other reviews by other anime bloggers.

Filed under: anime, meta/office keeping, series review

With Gonzo’s gamble for resurrection centered on returning to one of their best series, Last Exile, with a new series called Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam coming out this Fall, a rewatch of the first Last Exile seemed in order except I was very leery of doing so. Old favorites from when I was first becoming an anime fan haven’t faired that well recently. Paranoia Agent was still as awesome as I remember it (thanks to being done by Satoshi Kon) but I outright hated Witch Hunter Robin and found Kenshin a chore to get through. I didn’t want to lose another one and Gonzo’s later “quality” anime wasn’t reassuring me.

Popping the first episode in, I found myself cringing at the dub and then snickering at it. Did I really once think this was a good dub? Keanu Reeves has more life in his performances then what this dub displayed. A switch to subs was quickly implemented but I worried that this was just the first step to Last Exile’s demise. I watched a few episodes looking for the spiral down to begin but it didn’t and then I watched a few more episodes and then a few more. Last Exile was holding its ground; it wasn’t as good as I remember it but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it could be.

This was a qualified win as far as I was concerned.

The animation still looked pretty good, not bad for an anime that’s eight years old. About half of the CG actually worked with the animation, a far higher percentage that I’m used to seeing from anime of that vintage. (It’s still common to find anime that the CG elements stick out.) The characters were developed competently for the roles they had to play. The plot remained interesting, even when knowing the big reveals at the end. The storytelling was adequate. If I was writing a series review it would start like this:

Last Exile

Final Series Score: 8/12 B+
Rewatchablity: 2/5 – Below Average
Ending: 2.5/5 – Average
Animation: 3/5 – Average to Medium
Pros: Interesting world building, good production values – the animation still looks good and the music is still memorable, competent plotting and storytelling that doesn’t over-reach or under-reach
Cons: Ending could have been improved, the middle part of the series bogs down a bit, the side characters are more interesting than the main characters, could have explained the world and why the characters needed to do what they did more

As a side note, one thing that didn’t surprise me about rewatching Last Exile was that my favorite character has changed. This has happened with other older series when I rewatch them. The biggest example of this was in Kenshin; originally, Kenshin was my favorite by a wide margin but when I rewatched the series last year I found Megumi (the female doctor) to be my clear favorite. For this Last Exile rewatch, I found myself shifting from Alex Row as my favorite to Dio. This change helps the new series because I’m now extremely happy to see that Dio’s coming back for the new series.

So, my fond memories of Last Exile were battered but at the end they were still standing. Knowing how the plot unfolds takes some of the enjoyment out of the series but I most definitely recommend watching Last Exile to anyone that hasn’t seen it before. I’m not sure how important watching this series is to the enjoyment of the new series but there’s still time to finish Last Exile and there’s no reason to miss it.

I’ll leave you with a bit of trivia I thought very interesting. As a novice follower of the vocal actors in Japan, I know that sadly many seiyuu don’t have long careers because agencies want to push their newest stars. Therefore, I wasn’t expecting to recognize the Japanese cast to Last Exile because the anime was eight years old but imagine my surprise when I saw three names that even this novice knows: Chiwa Saitou, Eri Kitamura, and Kana Hanazawa. If the names don’t ring a bell – Chiwa Saitou is probably best known today for voicing Homura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari, Eri Kitamura for voicing Yui from Angel Beats and Sayaka from PM3 and Kanade Suzutsuki from Mayo Chiki!, and Kana Hanazawa for Kobato Hanato from Kobato and Kuroneko from Ore no Imouto and Tsukimi from Jellyfish Princess and a ton of other anime. The piece of trivia comes from looking at their histories as seiyuu. Last Exile was the very first anime Eri Kitamura and Kana Hanazawa worked on and nearly the first for Chiwa Saitou. Interesting, no? Well I thought so, I wonder where these three would be if it wasn’t for Last Exile.

Filed under: anime, anime rants/views, series review

At the end of every anime season, when the new stuff hasn’t started and the old stuff has ended, there’s a short window of time where a person is often willing to try an older, unwatched anime that he/she wouldn’t otherwise try. Maybe it’s boredom or just the relief from the pressure of keeping up with the latest anime that causes this phenomenon.

Whatever the reason, I found myself drawn to finally watching a series that I’ve had in my possession for over three years – all the while gathering dust and broken promises of intended attention – Fantastic Children. The result of this decision was a mixture of elation that I discovered one of the great SF (science fiction) anime series of the last decade, peaceful contentment from watching an excellent series end well, and anger for letting Fantastic Children sit for so long unwatched.

Before I get to why Fantastic Children should be watched, I want to verbally kick myself a bit.

Even though I should have known better, I let the old-time, simplistic animation style convince me that Fantastic Children was ‘obviously’ lacking in the quality department. I’d forgotten that Kaiba, Cross Game, and Kemono no Soja Erin (to name a few) collectively proved that it was impossible to draw conclusions about an anime from it’s animation style.

My other failing was that, in the couple earlier attempts that I made to watch Fantastic Children, I made a snap decision about the show’s plot potential and decided that it didn’t offer a compelling reason to continue watching. This was the wrong decision as I found out this time because the beginning episodes which I thought were boring were, in reality, the building blocks to a compelling, truly epic SF/love story. To compute how far I undershot my guess about the plot/story of Fantastic Children in terms for someone who hasn’t seen Fantastic Children would understand, it would be like dropping Gurren Lagann after a couple of episodes after deciding nothing interesting, thrilling or epic was going to happen.

Okay, that’s enough self-flagellation .

I can just hear dozens of eyes at this point thinking, “I’m interested,  so tell me, what is Fantastic Children about?”

And I’d reply, Fantastic Children is an epic SF/love story set in the year 2012 and follows a group of white-haired, blue-eyed “children” that have appeared at various times for over 500 years in Europe and now in southeast Asia as they search for someone very important to them. They are named “Befort’s Children” after a town in Belgium where they made their first appearance, their otherworldly maturity and odd appearance has led some to call them devils and vampires. Their paths will cross with Thoma, a young man attempting to spirit two escaped orphans away from an abusive orphanage, and with a secret governmental agency (run by Dumas, who also happens to be white-haired and blue-eyed) that seeks to harness a completely new form of energy.

Saying anything more and I’d spoil too much.

I can now hear the eyes now thinking, “Seriously, what is up with the animation style and just how old is this series?”

And I’d chuckle, saying one shouldn’t judge an anime by how it’s styled (hoping these readers will have forgotten what I wrote a couple of paragraphs above) but to answer the question – Fantastic Children came out in the late 2004 which makes it a contemporary of the first Full Metal Alchemist series. It’s an original creation of the director, Takashi Nakamura, and is animated by Nippon Animation, best known for their longtime work animating series under the World Masterpiece Theater banner (Heidi, A Dog of Flanders, Anne of Green Gables,  etc.) and for employing Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata before they founded Studio Ghibli. (Which probably helps explain the animation style.)

The animation quality itself is pretty good with lots of fluid animation from the beginning of the series to the end and, surprisingly, there is the use of CG. (Never been a huge fan of CG myself but it didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the series which says something.) Truthfully, though, once you get sucked into the story of Fantastic Children, you’ll forget any misgivings about the animation style and will probably even like how the animation doesn’t intrude upon the story.

“I’m almost convinced,” says the eyes out there in the ether, “give me a couple more good reasons why I should watch Fantastic Children.”

Gaguri at Ha Neul Seom called it  “a dazzling concoction of adventure, mystery, sci-fi, romance and drama.” The Nihon Review said, “If even one anime per year had a plot as good as this one [Fantastic Children] I would consider myself a blessed individual.” Psgels at Star Crossed Anime Blog says, “Fantastic Children always kept you guessing at what was going to happen next,” while naming it the Best Story of the 2000-2009 decade and ranking it at #13 on his personal top 20. And finally, the hauntingly beautiful ending song to Fantastic Children was sung by Origa, who you might know from her work with Ghost in the Shell: SAC.

In closing, don’t make the same mistake I made in nearly passing over this hidden gem; watch Fantastic Children, you’ll be happy that you did.

-

Filed under: anime, general anime interst, series review

Steven called this week the lull week and that so fits; the old season has just about totally ebbed away and the new season is still rushing towards shore. I never look forward to this week in the season but I can’t deny that it presents a good opportunity for a little change of pace. So with this abundance of time I have, I wanted to share what anime-related things I’ve been doing this week instead of trying to watch 17 different anime.

I finally had the time to marathon an anime series and I had a couple in mind. The first was the first season of K-On!.  I’ve mentioned in the past about how I fell into the very small group of people who neither rabidly loved or rabidly hated the first season of K-On!. I wanted to see if I still felt like that or did my feelings change after watching the second season and falling completely head-over-heels for it. If I was a betting man, I’d’ve guessed that I would like it more; much like how the start of Lucky Star was so much more enjoyable the second time around because I could draw from the empathy and love of the characters that developed later in the series.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I still liked the first season of K-On! about the same as I did the first time. I originally found it very difficult to really get into the show because it felt like it couldn’t decide which type of show it was. The pacing was too fast for K-On! to be a relaxing, slice-of-healing anime but a lack of focus on really trying to make it as a rock band made it near impossible to take it seriously. This inability to decide what type of show it was still intruded on the enjoyment of the series during the rewatch, even with all the love the second season added to the franchise. The pacing also muted the best part of the series – the characters and their friendship. For example, I remember not really liking Mugi in the first season and being shocked how much I got to like her in the second season. Rewatching the first season I realized the sole purpose of having first-season-Mugi in the show was to have a walking ATM machine that could advance the story along rapidly with the use of her magic money and connections. It was only in the second season that Mugi becomes  real,  she’s a sheltered girl looking for friendship and to stuff as much fun into her high school life as possible. She quickly becomes one of the best characters of the show int the second season.

If I was scoring the first season, which I’m about to do, I’d give K-On! season 1 a Final Series Score of 8/12 B+ with Rewatchablity: 1/5 – Low, Ending: 2.5/5 – Average, Animation: 4/5 – Excellent.

With that mildly disappointing experience under my belt, I went to the next show on my rewatch list – Sora no Otoshimono. I wanted to see how well it would hold up the second time and to make sure I remembered the important parts for the second season that is about ready to start. Last time, I gave Sora no Otoshimono an 11.5/12 (Near Perfect) for expertly cultivating an absurdist, over-the-top feel that repeatedly surprised, delighted and entertained. For the rewatch, it no longer had the element of surprise so it was going to have to work harder to earn the same level of success and I anticipated that it just couldn’t meet the much higher expectations. So, no surprise, when Sora no Otoshimono didn’t live up to being a 11.5/12. I still really enjoyed it though; the comedy was killer, I liked the characters even more, I could still appreciate how intelligently put together it was, I still got sucked into the plot and Icarus’s crowning moment of awesome was still just as awesome. Upon finishing, I still felt like the show really needed a sequel and this time I only need to wait about a week to see it.

Since I’m in the scoring mood, Sora no Otoshimono Season 1’s amended Final Series Score is 11/12 A+ with Rewatchablity: 4/5 – Medium to High, Ending: 4.5/5 – Sublime, Animation: 4/5 – Excellent.

The final anime that I marathoned was completely by accident. I wanted to check one little thing out in Asobi ni Iku Yo! but I found myself popping the next episode in as soon as the previous one finished. This one was definitely better the second time through much like Lucky Star was. If I had to summarize the difference in viewing experiences I’d say Asobi ni Iku Yo! was just easier to enjoy the second time. I liked the characters from the moment they were first introduced and the early plot twists made much more sense this time around. I was also able to better catch and enjoy the references to science fiction that infused the series this time as well as see how the fluffy exterior hid a rather well thought-out story of first contact between two cultures. I’ll forgo the grading Asobi ni Iku Yo! here since I plan on rating it in my seasonal anime top pick award posts that I’m already starting to work on. I hope AIC Plus+ decides on doing a sequel since I think there’s plenty of interesting ways the story for this can go but it’s, probably, really up to DVD/Blu-Ray sales as to if we see Asobi ni Iku Yo! Season 2 or not.

The other thing I did this week was spend time excited over the new anime announced.

I know there’s always been anime movies but doesn’t it feel like lately they’ve become even more popular? Don’t get me wrong, word of a Sengoku Basara movie and a K-On! movie leaves me feeling very excited, especially if the K-On! one will feature all new material like the Sengoku Basara one will have. The two seasons of Sengoku Basara have been fun but they could have been really fun if they had been paced better and more fighting was involved. Which is why I think a movie might just be the perfect form for Sengoku Basara – they won’t have the time to draw the talking and angsting out.

I’m really curious about the K-On! movie. The second series ended absolutely perfectly but since this is a slice-of-life series there’s no reason the story needs to end with them graduating high school. I’d like to see what happens to Yui, Mugi, Mio, and Ritsu when they go to college and I want to see what happens to Azu-nyan, Ui and the light music club. Can one fashion a good, super laid-back, slice-of-life movie or will the movie be more plot focused – maybe on the college version of Afternoon Tea Time making it big or Azu-nyan’s efforts to save the light music club. I hope more details are forthcoming soon!

The third newly announced anime project that got me excited is Berserk. I’m not a fan of Berserk, per say, but I’m curious about the franchise after learning my one sister (the D&D playing one) loves the manga and the original series. When I first heard of a new “animation project” for Berserk, I started thinking about who I’d want to work on the project from my limited understanding of the source material. The name I kept going back to was Madhouse. They have the animation quality and the experience with darker series like Mouryou no Hako, Rainbow, Death Note, Paranoia Agent, Blue Literature, Kurozuka and they have many of the best anime production people in the business working for them. It appears, after a couple of days, that Studio 4˚C will be doing the animation and my guess was completely wrong  . This is a very interesting choice; on one hand I’ve been very impressed with all the works of Studio 4˚C  that I’ve seen but on the other hand they don’t seem very prolific and I wonder if they have the expertise to plan out and execute a long running series (which I’m hoping the announcement is for). I guess we’ll just have to wait a few more days for more information.

That’s how I spent this lull week, what did you do?

Filed under: anime, anime news, general anime interst, series review

I knew going into a rewatch of Rurouni Kenshin it was a bad idea – a very bad idea. It was my gateway anime to becoming an anime fan and one that I hold in very high esteem. I didn’t know how it would hold up this time around but I had a feeling it wouldn’t be pretty, even if I planned on stopping at the end of the Kyoto Arc and pretend the rest of the series didn’t exist.

Rurouni Kenshin

Final Series Score: 5/12 C+
Rewatchablity: 0.5/5 – Very Low
Ending: 2.5/5 – Average
Animation: 2/5 – Sub-par
Pros: The main character, Kenshin, is a very likable hero and the supporting cast is diverse and interesting; the setting and time period is very interesting for anyone slightly interested in Japanese history; the main villain in the Kyoto Arc is a great bad guy; memorable music
Cons: In every meaningful aspect newer anime has far surpassed Kenshin, leaving it feeling very generic and tired

Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal

Final Movie Score: 9/12 A-
Rewatchablity: 1/5 – Low
Ending: 2.5/5 – Average
Animation: 3/5 – Good
Pros: The story of Kenshin the Man-Slayer is gripping, well-done, and full of great character development; more mature and better executed then Kenshin; animation impresses even when considering it’s age
Cons: Fights are better then Kenshin but still don’t impress as much as they should; he vows not to kill again after a tragic turn-of-events but only after his side has won which makes him seem not fully sincere about his resolve and muddles the ending

Story

The Kenshin series takes place a decade after the start of the Meiji era in Japan. It’s a time of cultural flux as Westernization shatters the foundations and traditions that have held the country together for hundreds of years. We meet Kenshin, a wandering traveler, who protects the weak and tries to see that the ideals of the revolution that created the new government are carried out. He decides to settle down for a while and live quietly but his past keeps interfering.

The series touches upon this past of Kenshin but Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal is set when Kenshin was a Man-Slayer and the most feared and famous of assassins during the revolution. We see how he becomes a Man-Slayer and why he eventually sours towards the job.

Thoughts and impressions

As I feared, neither the movie or the series was able to hold up against comparison to newer anime and to my memories. The movie does a better job but it wasn’t immune.

For the series I found that I still really liked the characters (though Kaoru is not the “strong” female character that I remember thinking she was) and was wishing for an improved story and plot for these characters. Which pushes Kenshin into the same category as Lupin the Third – great characters stuck in a show that’s not good for them. I thought the cross-dresser was a lot less abnormal this time around (thanks anime).

I still liked the time period that Kenshin takes place in, it was enough to get me through the more recent anime Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan. (I think I may be the only person that actually finished Hakuoki.) I also thought Hakuouki provided an interesting counterpoint to Kenshin since it told the story from the side of the Shinsengumi.

The part that I thought that kept the best was the music; I am glad that at least one thing didn’t change because of this rewatch. I still got excited when the “hey a fight is about to start” music played. I was still touched when the “dramatic moment for character development” music played. I could still sing along pretty well for most of the opening and closing songs. (I was such a silly noob back then to take the time to memorize them in Japanese. )

The one truly surprising reaction I had watching Kenshin was that I ended up watching the majority of the series in Japanese with English subtitles. What happened was I got curious what the original seiyuu sounded like and watched the fourth or fifth episode in Japanese, just to see. I liked it; it sounded noticeably “better”. So, I started watching it in Japanese, waiting to get tired of it and wanting to go back to English but that never happened.  I wouldn’t think that this was possible since I watched it dubbed in English on Cartoon Network and again dubbed from the DVDs when I bought them, all those years ago, and I remember liking the dub.

I happened to look at who did the dub and smiled when I saw that Bang Zoom! did it. Seems appropriate in light of this post.

It’s much easier to praise the movie; it might just be the best work that Studio Deen has ever done. There’s not much I feel that needs said with the movie. It functions as the origin story of Kenshin and is one of the better done ones out there. There’s happiness, sorrow, betrayal, love and hate woven throughout the whole movie. I thought the most glaring deficiency is how the ending plays out; it’s not bad, per say, just easily improvable in my book. However, I think it remains a work that anyone that fancies themselves an anime fan should watch at least once.

Essential Information

• 62 episodes, movie
• genre: shounen, action, historical
• animation studio: series – Studio Gallop, movie – Studio Deen
• director: Kazuhiro Furuhashi

Filed under: anime, series review

I can still remember watching the trailer for Spirited Away and being completely blown away. It was my first time I heard of Studio Ghibli and the director Hayao Miyazaki and I desperately wanted to see Spirited Away in the theater. I got my chance a couple months later in a small theater that had seen much better days; I and my one sister had the theater to ourselves as Miyazaki dazzled us.

That little decrepit theater held on long enough that when Howl’s Moving Castle came out I was able to go see it there. This time I brought my whole family along since they’d all fallen for Miyazaki’s movies as well. It didn’t quite wow me as much as Spirited Away but it was still a very good movie. I can still remember how thrilled I was when I realized that my most favorite voice actor, Crispin Freeman, had a little role amidst all those well-known Hollywood actors.

I missed watching Ponyo in the theaters for a variety of reasons but I still wanted to see it when it came out on DVD. I finally got the chance a month ago and here’s my review.

Final Grade: 5/12 – C+
Rewatchablity: 1/5 – Low; The only reason to ever rewatch this is to look at the pretty animation
Ending: 1.5/5 – Disappointing; Come on Studio Ghibli try a little
Animation: 5/5 – Epic; Studio Ghibli continues to show their godlike mastery of animation
Pros: Studio Ghibli continues to show that CG isn’t needed to make a visually stunning animated film; Ponyo is a fabulous character and the screen comes alive when she’s onscreen; great dub
Cons: A very weak story that felt like it was thrown together from different parts of previous Studio Ghibli movies; outside of Ponyo, the characters where poorly fleshed out; world felt too flat and unrealistic which prevented even a small amount immersion of the viewer into the movie; the ending is so poorly done it deserves another mention for it’s horribleness

Story

The young Ponyo chafes under the overprotected eye of her father and decides to flee to the surface world after she meets a young boy and discovers the power of ham. The father doesn’t like this one bit and tries to keep them apart and is about as successful as you’d probably imagine he’d be considering the movie is called Ponyo.

Thoughts and impressions

I know there’s at least one person out there, at this point, wanting to know why I’m being overcritical on Ponyo. Believe me, I can sympathize with you; this is, after all, a Miyazaki movie and even if it’s not the next Spirited Away (what is) and it still is a pretty movie that has a cute, lovable character (Ponyo) and the movie is really aimed for children and not adult guys. The problem, I realized, is that Miyazaki is completely capable of creating a movie that has an interesting story, that’s told well, set in a realistic feeling world, with memorable characters, that feels original, and is as entertaining for adults is it for child. And by not being truthful about movies like Ponyo I lessen my praise for his works like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, or My Neighbor Totoro because by coddling Ponyo, I’m saying that I don’t expect the same level of greatness from his films as other films.

If I had to use a single word to describe what’s wrong with the movie, I’d have to say “lazy”. Lazy doesn’t cover everything but it does catch most of the problems. There’s the apparent recycling of material from previous Studio Ghibli movies – the final test of the main character and the surreal flooded landscape coming from Spirited Away to name two examples. Ponyo’s dad is an example of the lazy characterization. Is he a mad scientist that’s gone crazy and someone who we should hate or is he a crusading eco-warrior that we should like or is just an overprotective father;  I don’t know and I don’t think Miyazaki knew either. And if he’s so worried about the environment why’d he have a bazillion kids, doesn’t he know they’ll consume precious resources?

Even more grievous is the lazy storytelling. Very little effort was expended in explaining and justifying why the events in the show happened and for what reason. For example, if the reason for the horrible flooding was because of some sort of imbalance when Ponyo decided to spend time on land then why wasn’t Ponyo’s father existence under the sea cause a similar imbalance the other way? The best example of lazy storytelling, however, was how the movie ended. Miyazaki introduced the idea of a test to see if Ponyo could stay on the land without causing an imbalance in nature but when we get to the actual test we find out that all the boy needs to pass the test is a declaration that he intends to watch over Ponyo. Seriously?!? A test is supposed to actually test something. If schools followed this principal then, for example, to get an A on a math test all the student would have to say is they intend to get an A and they’d receive an A. Who cares if the student actually knows the material or not.

And it’s truly a shame that Ponyo wasn’t a better movie because it completely wastes another gorgeous animation effort from Studio Ghibli. I love well done CG animation as much as the next person but there’s something almost magical about traditional, hand-drawn animation. The other thing really wasted was Ponyo herself. Even with my less-then-positive view of the movie, I can find no fault in her. With her sunny personality, laudable determination, and instant love of ham, she definitely does her absolute best to make the movie work. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years time that she has become one of the most well-liked characters of the Studio Ghibli movies.

Turning this movie over in my head, the one thought that keeps coming back to me is that I wonder if Studio Ghibli passed on fixing the problems of this movie because it was a Miyazaki movie and they didn’t want to correct him. I’d hate to think this was what happened but I can’t think of a better explanation  that explains the obvious deficiencies. In the end, even with all it’s problems, it’s still a cute movie and worth a single watch from fans of Studio Ghibli and fans of high quality animation. Hopefully, this was a single hiccup and Miyazaki will return with a good movie.

Filed under: anime, series review

Along with this realization, I think I solved a question I’ve been pondering for years now – namely how can one best differentiate between a kid and an adult. The answer is that a kid thinks time does not go fast enough and an adult thinks time goes too fast. I fall into the latter category; I’m appalled that I haven’t posted anything in slightly over 2 months but it certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been 2 months. Where does the time go???

For those that are interested in why it’s been so long since I last wrote something, I’ll get to later down the page. First, let’s do some anime blogging and we might as well start with my thoughts on the new shows that made up the Winter 2010 season.

Sora No Woto

Status – Finished
Final Score –  8/12 B+
In Short – A-1 deserves praise for attempting a show of the caliber but it really needed to be a 24 episode series. It wasn’t, though, and as a result the pacing is too hurky-jerky, the story-telling is too compressed, and the characters are too flat for the viewer to really enjoy Sora no Woto as much as it should have been. Which is a shame because the world that A-1 created was a really interesting one that truly begged to be investigated more.

-

Chuu Bra!!

Status – Dropped after 4 episodes
Interim Score –  2/12 F
In Short – I knew I shouldn’t have bothered with this show but there was so few shows this season I figured what was the harm in watching a couple of episodes. Mistake, I could live with a merely poorly constructed fan-service show but I was not ready for this show. It was a poorly constructed fan-service show with a quasi-realistic portrayal of young teenage girls as they grapple with self-image issues. Each episode left me feeling unclean and wondering who exactly thought animating this show was a good idea. Thankfully, I could legitimately drop Chuu Bra after 4 episodes when it became apparent that the show, even without accounting for the creep factor, was a lousy show.

-

Katanagatari

Status – Waiting for the next episode
Interim Score –  8/12 B+
In Short – The first 3 episodes of Katanagatari aired this season and while it started off very shaky – each subsequent episode has shown a marked improvement over the previous. I think the key to liking this show is to not create the wrong expectations. This is a NisiOisiN story so even though it’s about sword fighters and medieval Japan – the emphasis is on the characters and their conversations and not on the blood/ gore/ action scenes that one might assume a show like this would focus on.

-

Seikon no Qwaser

Status – 12 episodes watched and still reluctantly watching
Interim Score –  3/12 D
In Short – For a show that tries to push the envelope in terms of fan-service, you’d think the animators could come up with something that wasn’t so boring. Scenes that should shock or titillate more-often-then-not leave me yawning, wishing that I could bean some sense into the manga/anime creators that think T&A is all that’s needed to carry a show. Sometimes I think they forget that the internet exists. The sole saving grace to Seikon no Qwaser is that one character is being voiced by Aya Hirano (aka Haruhi) and she’s absolutely awesome – truly one of her best efforts to date. It’s not enough to make this show a worthwhile watch to the vast majority of anime watchers but it is something.

-

Omamori Himari

Status – Dropped after 7 episodes
Interim Score –  5/12 C+
In Short – I continue to be weak against anime shows that feature the supernatural/Japanese religious elements so when a show like Omamori Himari comes along with it’s generic blandness and it happens to have a supernatural element to it – I end up watching it longer then it deserves and having a higher opinion of it then it deserves. It wasn’t a horrible show and I’d probably have finished watching it except that I decided one day that I was sick of the all the not-really-horrible but not-really-good shows I was watching and dropped it along with a few others.

-

Ladies versus Butlers!

Status – Finished
Final Score –  4/12 C
In Short – And yet somehow I finished this show,  though in my defense this show did have some potential and I found the opening song catchy. If they had skipped the harem of girls with one-dimensional personalities and focused on the triangle of the main guy and the two girls – drill hair and childhood friend it might even had been a good show but this is Xebec were talking about so that was just wishful thinking. This was probably the least painful fan-service show to watch of the season so if you absolutely needed your fix this was your bet.

-

Durarara!!

Status – 13 episodes watched and impatient for more
Interim Score –  10.5/12 Strong A
In Short – One of the best new shows of the season. For those that wanted Durarara to be Baccano 2, this first half of the show was probably a big disappointment. The very minimal body count and focus on character/story development was just two ways Durarara felt unBaccano-like. I’ll admit that this desire clouded my feelings for a while but I eventually got over it when I realized that Durarara was going to be 24 episodes long and it had the time to develop it’s characters in ways that Baccano didn’t and because the animators started to reveal parts of the larger plot of Durarara and it became interesting in it’s own way. I totally psyched for the second half.

-

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

Status – Dropped after 7 episodes
Interim Score –  6/12 B-
In Short – Another casualty along with Omamori Himari; I thought it started strong but it began to bog down in the middle and I wasn’t in the mood that day to put up with a show that could obviously being doing much better. Since then I’ve kinda felt bad about dropping it but I’ve yet to feel the urge to pick up where I left off so I guess it’s just best to let sleeping dogs lie.

-

Dance In The Vampire Bund

Status – 9 episodes watched and a desire to finish
Interim Score –  6/12 B-
In Short – I really had high hopes for this and I thought the first episode was brilliant but my disappointment grew as I kept waiting for the show to settle down and start telling a story.  since I like the Shaft/Shinbou combo I didn’t want to give up on it so after the sixth episode I decided to put it aside till I had all the episodes and had the ability to watch them together. Some shows, I’ve realized, work better when marathoned and just the other day I watched episodes 7-9 together and I liked it more than I was expecting. I hope this bodes well for the rest of the series.

-

Ookami Kakushi

Status – Dropped after 7 episodes
Interim Score –  6/12 B-
In Short – Another not-really-bad but not-really-good show that I decided to drop. In it’s favor was the fact that a competent animation studio was animating this and not Studio Deen who had done the previous Ryuukishi07 shows (Higurashi, Umineko no Naku Koro ni). This positive is negated by the larger problem of the source material recycling so much of the show’s content from those previous Ryuukishi07 shows. Also, I’ve gotten tired of how all these shows are placed 25+ years ago – I’m starting to think Ryuukishi either lacks the will to figure out how to do a mystery/horror series where the characters have access to cell phones, GPS devices, and the internet or lacks the intelligence to write a new story that doesn’t rip off his/her/its one other story idea.

-

Hanamaru Youchien

Status – Finished and Wishing for Season 2
Final Score –  12/12 Perfect
In Short – Saved the best for last. I can still remember how utterly stupefied I was when it was announced that Gainax’s next series was going to be Hanamaru Youchien. This series had J.C. Staff written all over it, why was Gainax doing this? I checked the manga out and was decidedly underwhelmed after reading the first 10 chapters. With absolutely no confidence that Hanamaru Youchien was going to be good, imagine my surprise when Gainax cranked this out of the stadium. Who knew the studio known for it’s hot-blooded action series could do such a warm, relaxing, cute, funny series. I think Gainax just became my preferred studio to do the anime for Yotsuba if/when the creator ever allows one to get made. Gainax also deserves tons of praise for having a different ending song/animation for each episode; I loved all the different songs and subjects. (Now if only KyoAni could do the same thing with K-On.)

—

I really should add one final show – Hidemari Sketch x ☆☆☆ (aka season 3) – since it aired this season as well but I’ve just seen the first couple of episodes and so I don’t have a firm opinion on it yet. After purging all the bad – mediocre shows of this season, I needed something to fill the space and decided it was time to catch myself up on this series and started with the first series. I plan on making a post about all the series I’ve been watching instead of the current crop of shows so look for my thoughts on this Shaft/Shinbou series soon.

And maybe I’ll even get around to doing my top shows of 2009 already and talking about the new spring 2010 shows as well. Now onto where I was for 2 months.

If it was just up to me, I’d probably just pretend nothing happened and keep blogging but I’m pretty sure there are at least a few people who were wondering what happened to me and so I’ll give a condensed version of the various reasons and we can go from there.

A normal February is a pretty depressing month already but this one was a bit harder to get through than most. The weather was truly atrocious; it wasn’t so much the almost unending amount of snow we got (about 45 inches) but the complete lack of sunlight we had. I checked online and for the entire month of February we had 7 hours of clear skies. It didn’t break down how much of those 7 hours occurred during daylight or at night but even in all 7 hours happened during daylight hours and I happened to be awake – it still essentially meant I went a month without seeing the sun.

Also weighing on my mind was that this February was the one year anniversary of my grandma passing. I’ll get myself wound up in anger if I think about it too much so I’ll just say that I consider my 3 aunts the reason why my grandma isn’t living today. Also, it’s very important for everyone to decide how much or how little medical care they want and get it in writing because you can’t rely on your family to have your best interests at heart – you could get admitted to the hospital for a serious but not life threatening reason and in the course of treatment your family could decide to remove your feeding tube and let you starve to death over the course of 3 weeks.

Factor in a really weak anime season and I just didn’t feel like talking about anime or do much of anything. March rolled around and almost like a switch the weather turned gorgeous. Temperatures shot up into the 60’s and 70’s and it was wall-to-wall sunny. I spent as much time as I could outside and the sight of the first flowers of the season  – crocuses – went a long way to improve my mood. I started to feel the urge to write again but I kept getting blocked.

I volunteered to be the Dungeon Master in a 6 part campaign for my sister, brother-in-law, and friends in Dungeons & Dragons. We were going to use a printed campaign but we were not satisfied with the quality of writing so I further volunteered to write one myself and it takes an amazingly large amount of time to create a halfway decent adventure. I also picked up a temporary job working for the census and it’s been leaving me really tuckered out when I get home at night. And of course to blog about anime I first need to watch anime. And I’ve also been slowly working on my top anime of 2009 posts because I’d like all the parts to be done or almost done when I start posting them. And once it got to be a long time between posts I felt reluctant to explain why it’s been a long time because I started a blog talk about anime and a little SF, not to be a personal blog.

As a result, even though I’ve been meaning to start writing again it’s been almost a month before I had the chance to sit down and write something I could publish. I guess at this point I should just listen to the wise words from Manabi Straight and say, “Forward, Go!!” and get back to blogging.

Filed under: anime, anime rants/views, meta/office keeping, series review

The idea for this post came from the result of several shows from the season either over performing or under performing after my first impression post and my desire to ensure the readers of The Null Set knew of my updated (and more accurate) opinion of those shows.

Listed below are the fall shows that I wrote about, sorted by grade and I’m going to start at the top and work down, giving some final/almost final impressions and say how well my first impression of the show held up.

Natsu no Arashi! Season 2

First Impression Score – 10.5/12 after 3 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 7/12 B
In Short – Every now and again the show lived up to the first season but those moments where few and far between

The first season of Arashi was a wonderful blend of comedy and drama that kept me enthralled and I was very excited about this season and after 3 episodes of this season, I was sure that this season would be another winner. It didn’t turn out that way; pretty much the entire rest of the season was fluffy comedy without the seriousness that helped make the first season so good. Now I don’t have anything against the fluffy comedy but what helped set this show apart from other shows was the time-travel aspect of the show and for this season, it was like this part was no longer important.

It really felt like Shaft was treading water with this season – not willing to finish the plot but desperate to fill the episode count up. This was a very disappointing turn for a show that I had felt was one of the overlooked gems of the year. I assume Shaft will be doing a third season and I will watch it because I like the characters but it’ll be far down on my list of priorities when it does air.

-

Kobato

First Impression Score – 9.8/12 after 3 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 10/12 A
In Short – Kobato’s slowly deepening story is just icing on an already delicious cake

This is one show that has started off strong and has kept on performing at the same high level. Kobato is still the charming, genki girl that warms our heart as she tries to help the people around her and that’s plenty to make this a must watch show. I can’t wait to see the second half of Kobato.

-

Sasameki Koto

First Impression Score – 9.6/12 after 6 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 11/12 A+
In Short – A character-driven and character-focused show that knew when to be serious and when to be funny

I waited awhile to write my first impression post for Sasameki Koto because I wanted to sure that the show was as good as I thought it was so my final impression of the show matched up with my first impression very closely. One of the reasons I really liked this show was how character driven and centered it was. The result was that the characters and their problems felt real and I wanted to see what happened to them. It would have rated even higher but the very non-ending ending was a bit of a letdown – easily remedied if AIC does a second season.

-

Sora No Otoshimono

First Impression Score – 8.4/12 after 5 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 11.5/12 Near Perfect
In Short – Epic!

Remember in The Matrix how at the end when Neo had his powers fully awakened and he was operating on such a higher level than the agents that killing them was easier than squishing a bug. That was the level that Sora no Otoshimono was operating on by the final episodes. I feel sorry for all the fan service shows coming out in the coming seasons because I highly doubt any of them will hold a candle Sora no Otoshimono and I’ll have a hard time justifying the time spent on watching these inferior shows when I could rewatch Sora no Otoshimono. I also feel sorry for any other type of show that comes out that doesn’t display the creativity and energy that this mere fan service show was able to display. I’m really hoping 2010 brings another season of Tomoki and crew.

-

Kimi ni Todoke

First Impression Score – 7/12 after 6 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 3/12 D, dropped after 11 episodes
In Short – What could have been a great show was tripped up by the lack of a compelling story and reason to watch

I had hoped that something would come along that would shake up the show’s formula and make me want to watch this but that wasn’t the case. Instead the effort needed to watch the next episode became exponentially greater as the series continued and after 11 episodes it became too much and I dropped it for good. One of the big problems, I think, was that Kazehaya – the boy who likes Sadako and is the boy who Sadako likes – had about as much testosterone flowing in his veins as Mikuru from the Melancholy of Haruhi has. Another big problem was the complete lack of a realistic reason why the two of them hadn’t started dating by the end of episode 2.

-

Nyan Koi

First Impression Score – 7/12 after 7 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 9/12 A-
In Short – Good characters but a somewhat weak story – the cat curse needed to be a more important component to the show

Nyan Koi slowly wormed it’s way into my heart; it wasn’t perfect but it was good enough. Yuu Kobayashi was one of this year’s best seiyuu and her character here – Nagi – was easily my favorite of the show and much like Hosaka from Minami-ke was able to put a smile on my face by just getting onscreen. A second season was confirmed at the end of the final episode and I’ll be sure to tune in when it airs.

-

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

First Impression Score – 7/12 after 4 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 11.5/12 Near Perfect
In Short – Vastly superior to it’s parent show Index, Railgun finishes a year that has repeatedly show J.C. Staff at the top of it’s game

After 4 episodes of Railgun I wrote my first impression post and mentioned that the show had the potential to become a decent show. It turns out I was underestimating J.C. Staff by a large margin and Railgun turned into one of the best new shows of the season. One way to prove the prowess in the storytelling is to point out how both my sister and I felt that we should have completely hated Kuroko (the girl with an overly affectionate attachment to Railgun) but somehow neither of us did. I have high hopes for the second half of this series and I’m dying to see Uiharu’s power.

-

Tatakau Shisho

First Impression Score – 6/12 after 6 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 8/12 B+
In Short – Storytelling continues to be very disjointed which makes it hard to really get into but it also continues to be interesting and different

If the story arcs flowed together better and if the show had a better feeling of the overall story going somewhere, I think I’d be raving about it; instead, I’ve just been mildly positive about it. Watching Tatakau Shisho, or Armed Librarians, has been worth the time and I remain interested to see what happens as we move into the new season.

-

Seitokai no Ichizon

First Impression Score – 6/12 after 6 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 7/12 B
In Short – At best Studio Deen can make a mildly entertaining show and Seitokai no Ichizon is Studio Deen at it’s best

From the time of my first impression post to the end Seitokai no Ichizon got a little better but it never really hit the zone like an A level show would. Slightly entertaining but very forgettable.

-

The Sacred Blacksmith

First Impression Score – 5/12 after 6 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 4/12 C, dropped after 9 episodes
In Short – The completely generic show was completely generic and a waste of time (which makes it perfect for the domestic anime market, never mind Manglobe’s vastly superior Michiko to Hatchin remains unlicensed)

As long as it was relatively painless I was going to try to keep watching The Sacred Blacksmith but when my preferred sub group dropped it, I figured that I would take it as a sign to drop it for good since it didn’t show any improvement. And I’ve had absolutely no urge to pick it back up. If Manglobe wanted to do an anime on the cheap to try to make money there’s still plenty of good material that could have been adapted; they didn’t need to settle for the mediocre.

-

Miracle Train

First Impression Score – 4/12 after 6 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 5/12 C+
In Short – Never a great show, Miracle Train improved in the second half and at times was a pretty decent show

Another title that I said I’d drop but I kept watching and actually finished. There was one episode, I think it was the eleventh, that was genuinely good and I remember thinking if only the rest of the series could have been this good. This is in no way an endorsement to watch Miracle Train but I did want to say that it did get a little better later on.

-

Kampfer

First Impression Score – 2.8/12 after 5 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 1/12 Epic Fail
In Short – Garbage

I finished this just so that I could have at least one really low series review. Watching Kampfer was about as much fun as getting a root canal without any Novocaine.

-

Trapeze

First Impression Score – 2/12 after 5 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 6/12 B-
In Short – After finding some actual nice characters to feature and showing that there was some connection between the different people, Trapeze didn’t turn out as bad as I first thought it would

The second half resurgence to Trapeze was something I wanted to mention since I gave it such a low first impression score. I had thought that 5 episodes was enough to be sure that Trapeze lacked redeeming qualities but, of course, the next episode didn’t suck as much. Which lead to my continued watching of this show and I was shocked when, by the end, I was actually getting into the show. I credit how it was revealed that many of the patients where actually connected in some way and having more sympathetic patients to my increased liking of the show (and the Christmas episode didn’t hurt either). I’m actually on the cusp of recommending this to other people, especially if they’re looking for something a bit different. At the very least, I’d suggest giving this a shot if a person is looking for something different and won’t mind watching half the series before it starts to come together.

-

Well that’s a general look at the fall season, expect my award picks shortly and my overall 2009 picks in a couple of weeks (I’m going to try to finish up a couple series from 2009 first).

Posted in anime, general anime interst, series review