Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Schwarzesmarken – 02

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Schwarzesmarken

Two episodes in and I certainly can feel that Schwarzesmarken is missing something to truly make it work. The setting has no problems and what’s presented is interesting but for some reason this isn’t as engaging as it should be. One could blame the art which had some spotty parts during this episode or the pacing which is rather haphazard. Though what’s likely the issue is the lack of likable characters. Theodor has the problem of constantly looking and acting like someone spat in his soup. Tragic past or not, it’s a little hard to sympathise when most of the time he’s clicking his tongue in irritation. Katia is hopelessly optimistic and has the situational awareness of a bear cub in a snake pit. Call me sadistic if you will but there’s a certain satisfaction to be had in seeing Katia get a good beating after spouting that drivel about humanity working together for the greater good. The ideal is admirable but unrealistic, even Alan Moore’s Watchmen made the assumption that if provided with a common enemy Humanity would band together. One of the particular things I like about this series is that it tosses that idea to the dogs. For while it is undeniably stupid, if mankind was faced with an undefeatable enemy ready to burn the world to the ground, you can bet that people behind the scenes would be working to lay claim over the ashes.

So our two main characters are polar opposites, one being a nihilistic blowhard with anger management issues and the other a tone clashing overall happy girl with little idea of the state of her surroundings. They create some interesting dilemmas but lack likeable traits. The rest of the cast is unfortunately too underdeveloped but captain Irisdina holds potential. Though I doubt she truly shot her brother in cold blood to clear her name. The most likely outcome was that her brother gave his life willingly to help clear hers. A pity as I would like it if her loyal and proper demeanor was the result of her trying to redeem herself after committing such a Heinous act. Besides the BETA  for an antagonist we also have the Stasi, a branch of the military playing the role of thought police. Normally I am against such a one dimensional villain but the Stasi do a damn good job of being completely hateable. Beatrix and Axmann look to use the war with BETA as a means of setting up a 1984 level of Totalitarian control and they certainly are making things difficult.

From promising reinforcements only to sit in the hanger drinking tea while the people they left died on the battlefield to sending two units on a suicide mission just to kill off someone they see as a potential spy. The Stasi are basically the greatest threat to our main characters, mainly because unlike BETA they hold a position that allows them to kill our characters any time they wish and make sure they can’t do anything about it. Still I don’t find them quite as hateable as I probably should, maybe because the Stasi aren’t making any excuses to what they are doing. They know full well what they are doing and anyone who gets in the way must be removed. So strangely I don’t dislike them, though part of that might be because I find Beatrix to be quite attractive. She does seem like a woman who would give you a damn good time or kill you in the process. I am hoping that we get some likeable characters on the field as that would improve this show immensely. After all it would be a shame to waste such a magnificent setting as this. One so detailed that two east Germans on YouTube have made it a point to list the details and historical relevance. Sadly though it’s taken down due to a copyright strike at the moment. If it gets reuploaded and you are interested try looking for “How German is it? – Schwarzesmarken”

Boku dake ga Inai Machi – 02

by AidanAK47, posted in Boku dake ga Inai Machi, Currently Watching:

While this adaption isn’t quite staying true to the source, it’s still managing to present a compelling tale. In that regard I am glad as I would like to see this tale be given the treatment it deserves. Presentation remains great and I rather like how events in the past are show in a widescreen format with black bars on the top and bottom. It gives a feeling like Satoru is likely experiencing, that we are seeing these events but we aren’t quite there. We are like the opening shows, a person in a cinema, a observer. Though considering that Satoru has control over his previous self it might be more accurate to consider him a person with a game controller. But there are points when he and his younger self sync together as shown by certain lines which his older and younger voice actors say simultaneously. This episode mainly dealt with Satoru getting closer to a troubled girl with a abusive mother as she seems to be the next victim to be targeted by the serial killer who will eventually kill his mother. Things are moving slow for now but I like the small details such as Satoru attempting to recall the details of the past. What’s more is that one of Satoru’s clever friends seems to know something’s up and looks to be trying to off offhandedly help Satoru in his goal. The big question to consider is that someone in this flashback is the killer Satoru is searching for so who can it be. Our killer in the future has red eyes, glasses and is male so if someone in the past is responsible it would likely be an adult.

If there was something that I truly have a problem with, it would be the soundtrack. It doesn’t take long to notice that our music composer here is Yuki Kajura and my issues with her remain. If you haven’t read anything I wrote about her before then let me give you the cliffs notes. I believe Yuki is a very talented music composer that unfortunately chains herself by sticking to one style and one style alone. When putting her on a anime soundtrack the question becomes whether the anime can adapt to Yuki’s style as opposed to Yuki adapting to the style best for the anime. That’s just not a good way to go about making soundtracks. There are people who claim all of Yuki’s music sounds the same and there is some small weight to that claim. I wouldn’t blame anyone for getting huge reminders of Fate/Zero’s soundtrack with the final minutes of the episode. In fact I even suspect that Yuki has lifted melody lines from that soundtrack for this, and this wouldn’t be the first time she’s done that. At the moment I feel she’s doing an adequate job but if she starts shoving dramatic choirs into this then I don’t think the glove will fit. Regardless I hope they continue to make this work as well as it’s going and hopefully don’t run into pacing issues.

Gangsta. – 58/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Currently Watching:, Gangsta, Reviews by AidanAK47

Gangsta is an anime with a lot of things going for it. A mature cast, gritty themes, a interesting setting and a trio of main characters who can carry the show. However due to a number of factors it never quite reached its potential. The main trio of characters are unconventional and quite interesting with them being a Prostitute, deaf man and a gigolo. The best moments of the show often come from the quiet times between the characters as their relationship and history make for some pretty engaging conversations. Gangsta really shines in the episodes where characters are reminiscing about the past or just talking to each other but these moments are often pushed to the side as the new super powered psycho shows up for our heroes to fight. Through the main trio are fairly decently fleshed out, the rest of the cast are not quite as developed and viewers can’t really gain an attachment to them due to brevity of their screen time. Which is a major problem as the last few episodes deal with too many side characters to bring a decent conclusion to the story.

One of the biggest issues of the show is the inclusion of superpowered humans known as Twilight’s whom turn the fights of this series into over the top Shounen bouts that contrast the overall more grounded aspects of the rest of the show. It’s an alien element which hijacks the show away from it’s more interesting aspects to focus on ridiculous fight scenes which throw all laws of gravity out the window. The plot was lacking a main goal and instead acted as a setup of characters and setting that lead to no payoff because the series ends unceremoniously at the beginning of a story arc. With little chance of a sequel at this time(Especially now that Mangalobe has gone out of business), this makes the series feel unfinished and nothing more than a poor advertisement to read the manga. Art and animation fluctuate between visually stylish to bad as fights are later hindered with still shots and facial features in certain shots, mostly regarding Alex, are positioned incorrectly.

Ultimately Gangsta is a show that attempted to present style over substance but failed due to lacking animation, a unfocused plot and over the top fight scenes. It’s a show I can’t really recommend due to its unfinished nature and good points being too few in number. As the last TV anime Mangalobe made it’s not too bad a way to go out but there is a sense that this story could have been presented better if picked up by those with a more stable company. In the end Mangalobe went out adapting the hard sell and paid for it. That’s commendable but in the end if you reach for high ambitions without taking into account your limits all that’s gained is a bad product. If Mangalobe is ever revived, I recommend you take this lesson to heart and work within your limits to present the best product you can. A polished, focused anime beats a unfinished ambitious idea every time.

Gangsta. – 12

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Gangsta

Normally one expects a final episode to be well…final. Right from the start you could tell Gangsta wasn’t going to make an effort to form some kind of ending with it wasting far too much time on things that don’t really matter at this point. By episode’s end I was actually questioning whether this truly was the last episode as nothing at all signified an end. That is because Gangsta didn’t end at all, it simply stopped. Imagine watching a movie and at the halfway point you accidently pressed the stop button on the remote. That’s the basic feeling of the last episode of Gangsta, the only difference here is that you can’t ever go back and watch the rest of the movie. And what a way to end, Connies still being held hostage, Alex is sitting depressed waiting for the boys to come back, Nicholas is falling to the ground while his last lines potentially imply he’s committing suicide, the evil twilights are still going around indiscriminately killing and Worick is busy dying on the grass of Marcos Mansion. Happy times all around. Well there also something about the guy with white hair seeing his sister but let’s be frank, do we care?

It’s difficult to express an opinion on this episode as the end makes the large majority of it pointless but I will say if this wasn’t the final episode then it would have been one of the stronger ones. The standouts would be the grannies fury with Marco over Connie getting kidnapped and Woricks battle against a twilight. It was interesting seeing Worick try to take the twilight down by making use of his knowledge gained from being Nicholas friend. Throwing off his sense of smell to catch him unaware was quite a smart move. It just would have been better if he actually succeeded. Humans in this series are far too under powered when compared to the Twilights so it would be nice to show that the super powered demigods were still susceptible to plain human ingenuity. Though how Worick managed to hang upside down from a two story window is beyond me. It was a rare moment of compassion for Nicolous to listen to the Grannies request and take off to find Connie. It’s such a pity we will never actually see him accomplish that, adding an old granny in the rain with no hope to the list of unintentionally tragic outcomes.

Gangsta. – 11

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Gangsta

Gangsta has a serious problem on its hands. So far the past 11 episodes have been building up something and it’s clear that this buildup will not be utilised in the remaining episode. We got a setting, characters(though aside from the main trio a number of them need development) and an antagonist but we don’t have a plot. The last two episodes look to be setting one up but by now in the series it’s far too late and will not have a satisfactory conclusion. A second season seems highly unlikely what with there not being enough material for one. If Gangsta is to end here then the result of this anime would be a alright but an overall unsatisfactory experience, ultimately a anime that would feel half finished. After all it’s the second last episode and the series is still introducing new characters. I already stated that I don’t appreciate the action sequences and while the character moments can be great, it’s only the main Trio that truly carry the show. When looking at it from this perspective the previous episodes are like fueling up a car that’s going to get thrown into a car compactor. No matter how much fuel that car has it won’t matter if it isn’t going anywhere.

So that’s why Doug was suddenly so much more psychologically stable, so we can feel sorry for him when he dies. Nice try but no dice. Much like many of the other side characters, Doug didn’t really have enough screen time to form an emotional attachment to. We also learn why we were informed about Marco and Connie’s relationship, so Connie can play damsel and get kidnapped by Marcos old acquaintances. I find the kidnaping to be a weak development as for the love of god girl, you run a gun shop in one of the most dangerous places in the world. Might be good to be a little suspicious of the strange lady acting creepy in front of your shop. The anime could have at least shown her cocking a gun as she was getting the cigarettes to show she had her guard up. As for our evil Twilight gang, I find they are just trying a little too hard to be cartoonishly evil. Miss Lollipop chainsaw is a primary offender with the suggestive lollipop licking and a manner of speaking that truly couldn’t be any more condescending. In other important news, Miss Balalaika is a Lesbian with her lover being the red haired glasses girl. Sexual diversity is always a welcome addition to have especially when it isn’t there primarily for fan service or cheap jokes. It does explain why the redhead was particularly vicious when someone threatens Miss Balalaika. So as the events of Ergastulum come to a close I find myself with less reason to care about its conclusion

Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There! – 12

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There

 

It’s a good thing a second season of Gate was announced as it ending on this episode would be a poor round up to the series indeed. The biggest hanging thread is the Dark elf and her dilemma of returning to the village to tell them that help is not coming or resorting to dirty tactics in order to get Itami to lend a hand. One thing that has trouble translating well is the language barrier between the Japanese and the other worlders. The first half of the episode mainly deals with her difficulty to get the Army to listen to her without knowing Japanese but the series has a confusing way of presenting it. They show both parties speaking clear Japanese and never really clarify which they are talking in. Leading to a scene where we have a Dark Elf looking to be speaking clear Japanese yet the army doesn’t understand her. There should be a clear difference between the two tongues or at least a transition to show which is being spoken. Of course eventually she found out that the Japanese military can’t exactly march in an attack force into the country and kill a dragon. One particular thing I liked was the army soliders estimate of just how much firepower it would take to kill a dragon, even with heavy firepower a medieval Dragon isn’t something that goes down easy.

Other than that we have the princess finding out about Itami’s achievements, Lelei experimenting with applying scientific principles to magic and the princesses soldiers eating desserts and talking about translating BL doujinshi. The last one had me rolling my eyes as it had the girls praising how Japan could make even desserts an art form. This may be ignorance speaking but I was always under the impression that France was the place to go for fine cuisine. Further cemented that the pastry the girls were eating was indeed French and I was really waiting for that butler to point out that the girls praises would be better directed at France and not Japan. Japan didn’t invent Mille Feuille Glace and no matter how well it’s prepared by a Japanese chef that fact isn’t change. You don’t see us praising America for the Super Nintendo, now do you? Come on mister author, at least give some other countries a little bit of credit.

My feelings on Gate at this halfway point would be that it’s a pretty solid show that’s missing something to make it great. I cannot discern what that something may be however, as looking over the series there not really a way of doing it differently. I liked watching Gate but something prevents me from being as invested in it as I am with Gakkou. I guess the primary offender could possibly be the slow pace of the story which seems like a slow buildup to something that couldn’t possibly be resolved in this season or the next. I felt the same about the manga, its a slow burn of a show. There’s also the issue of the weak comedy which winds down to making jokes about Itami being a Otaku or just dull slapstick. Can the characters be better? Is there a better way to frame this story to make it more impressive? I am honestly not sure but perhaps the second season might have some remedies for that.

Gangsta. – 10

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Gangsta

So our girl Erica turns out to be the twin of Delio and I wouldn’t be surprised if you can’t remember who Delio is. He’s the white haired guy who’s a weak twilight that works as a bodyguard for Monroe. It’s revealed that she was abducted when she was a kid and this is the first time anyone has seen her since then. Now this may be just that I a not quite that invested in this show but this revelation only elicited a response of “Is that so?” Personally I feel that if she was the daughter of the police officer this reveal would have far more impact and potential story significance. Delio hasn’t had enough stage presence or development for this to be all that important. So Erica is Delio’s long lost sister? What of it? I am far more interested in her connection to Worick and Nicholas than Delio’s blood relation. It really is odd when I care more about minor characters Marco and Connie being a relationship than a matter regarding one of the villains. Speaking of which, it would have added much more tension to the fight scene previous episode if we knew about that when he was facing off against the twilight kid.

Art quality remains a concern as Alex’s face had a number of awkward distracting proportions this episode. With Alex’s brother on the evil twilight squad it’s really only a matter of time before the two encounter each other. One particularly notable thing in this episode was Worick momentarily mistaking Alex for someone. That someone is likely the same girl Nicholas was visiting in the brothel on episode 3. What this says to me is that Alex isn’t the first girl to hang out with the handymen. I couldn’t help but notice how psychologically stable Doug is now compared to previously. When he was attacking the handymen he seemed downright psychotic yet now that he’s no longer an enemy he’s a whole lot more calm. It’s especially evident which you have our new miss lollipop chainsaw coming along and chopping people up just like Doug did not to long ago. I hope this doesn’t start a trend within the show of characters being more psychotic when in the role of the villain but going though quick personality changes when they have been defeated because that’s yet another shounen trope.

Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There! – 11

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There

If it’s one thing this episode has taught us it’s that you should never cockblock a Goth-loita demi-gods plans for the night. Anime truly is the greatest teacher one could have, even more so than a yellow squid creature that moves at mach speed but not quite on the level of a gangster leader with a tendency of destroying Cresta cars. But all things considered, I highly doubt Rory even needs a plan to seduce Itami. Just grab him, throw him into a bedroom, lock the door and he’s yours. He wasn’t completely unwilling the last time you tussled so all you need to do is give him a push. Still Rory’s purposeful sabotage of the dark elf’s request for the green men to help her is unknowingly cruel on her part. That, and quite frankly I want to see the JSDF take on that fire dragon she wants them to kill. This dark elf however is quite naive for her age, as anyone with common sense would know that it’s a bad idea to show that you have something immensely valuable on you. If that piece of adamantite isn’t stolen from her in the next few episodes then I consider this shows representation of humanity to be completely unrealistic.

In other parts of the world we have Pina in a bath planning out negotiations for increasing the number of nobles in favor of a peace treaty. Admittedly I scoff at the idea of the military not using threats or a monopoly of goods to gain an advantage in negotiations and only play it non violently. That may be another of the authors nationalistic tendencies coming through. We also have Tuka and her delusion of her father being still alive. I find it funny the way that anime seasons can randomly land on similar topics sometimes as Tuka isn’t the only delusional girl this season. It’s pretty clear with the reemergence of the fire dragon threat that Tuka is going to be involved somehow. Itami has a point with helping Taku, one cannot just half heartedly do the job. It has to be something to commit to no matter what but with how this show is going it likely Itami who will take that position. He’s already got Rory and Lelei charmed, Tuka looks to be next on the list.

Animation had a bit of a hiccup here as Rory crying was shown with two frames of jittery animation that was just odd. The CGI animation though I must admit has gotten better. There’s potential for this style of adding drawn lines to CGI models. The Harrier jets at the end of the episode had points where you could have been fooled into thinking they were actual 2D animation. The dragon still looked off putting when flying, but when breathing fire and roaring it worked well. Ultimately it comes down to how much movement frames the models are allowed, as it can make or break the illusion. But any attempt to blend 3D more naturally into 2D is certainly applauded. Next episode looks like our dark elf isn’t going to get exactly what she was expecting.

Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There! – 10

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There

Naturally Rory’s seduction is cut short before this series can get a M rating. The interrupter being a well timed phone message. For future reference for those who might not be quite as familiar with this, in anime when a character is about to get laid, it will be interrupted 95% of the time. Its 100% if he’s the one getting seduced. Rory does proceed to slaughter the approaching special forces teams in a prime moment of pure chaos. The action scene was probably one of the best in the series so far though it does highlight the toning down of gore with the anime adaption. The Manga could be especially brutal with its depictions. But I consider it a plus that the gore and sexual themes were toned down as they were mainly there for shock value. With that I believe it’s time to address the elephant in the room. For those who don’t know, the author of Gate is apparently a right wing nationalist.

I say apparently as I have avoided the novel to not tarnish my view of the series. The Manga and Anime seem to tone this down a bit but you can’t see parts of it still remain in the story. The complete can do no wrong idealistic view of the military and Japanese government and the general nature of portraying other world nation leaders with the moral complexity of Captain Planet villains. The novel is apparently so sickeningly nationalistic that it turns a lot of people off but from my viewing of the anime the only real thing that’s changed for me is that instead of “America, Hell Yeah!”, its ” Japan, Hell Yeah!” Considering that neither of these countries is the actual best country in the world, Ireland, this means very little to me…put down your pitchforks. I am clearly joking. I mean have you seen our government? It’s pure trash, they keep stealing more of my paycheck and tell me it’s to fix the economy they screwed up in the first place. And it’s so hard to find good anime around here…sorry. Got sidetracked. What I mean really is that I have long come to accept that wherever a film or anime is made then that place is the center of the universe.

Itami and his ex-wife have some great chemistry together which is a shame seeing as she is remaining in Japan. The two work well together on screen and you can tell there’s a real history between them. Yet they must return to the other world and his Ex-wife future appearance looks far off indeed. The CGI crowd at the end of the episode was surely fooling no one. If you are going to to animate a crowd of people using CGI then at least give them more movement frames otherwise you end up with crowd of animatronic robots.As for the gifts the girls brought back, I wonder just what a mage will do with a laptop as her disposal.

Gangsta. – 09

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Gangsta

Action episodes really are the most troublesome to review. It’s hard to formulate an opinion on something which essentially speaks for itself. Basically this episode was one big brawl between a number of different twilights. Animation remains a hit and miss situation as they do make use of still frames and close ups to lessen the amount of animation needed. For the battle it does the job and only becomes distracting when you pay special heed to it. However that was some nice use of motion blur to cover up inbetween frames with some of the movements. How this girl managed to end up in a high position of power is rather beyond me as logically someone else would take the reigns till she was of age or more likely someone would try to usurp the position from her. A large majority of respect for her seems to come from who her father was. Her mother being a Prostitute seems to give her a soft spot for Alex and the two might end up developing a close relationship due to Alex being similar to her mother.

Nicolas and Worick seem to know the female twilight but it wasn’t made clear on just who it was. Based on how they mentioned Chad the detective I would make a wild guess on her being his daughter. The ranking system has been thrown out of wack as its now revealed that Nicholas isn’t actually a A1 tag but is more along the lines of a B and somehow stole or got the rank through his overuse of drugs. So having a ranking system seems pretty arbitrary when people can fake or jump up it with external means. The Shounen elements of the show continue to bug me, even more so now that we have an introduction of a enemy organization of colourful superhuman characters. How they will factor into the plot is something I can’t really predict as I don’t know how they plan to set up fights with the handymen. One in interesting thing is that Alex’s brother is in this enemy group which ignites the possibility of him being a twilight. If that’s the case then Alex may have some twilight blood in her. Not that I want her doing cartwheels in the air while firing a bazooka but it could lead to interesting story developments and her becoming more proficient in combat. After all as this episode showed, she can handle a gun decently enough.