Category: Kaleidoscope

Well, since this was the best BRS episode so far I might as well dedicate this week’s kaleidoscope entry to Black Rock Shooter and share some of my thoughts on it. This really is a show that symbolically links stories together. It’s not just the battle world, but there also is the picture book about the bird that keeps returning, and this episode also showed a brief scene of a class that was about literary analysis (or “the protagonist in this book died because… etc”). That could have been very good, really.

My big issue with this series is: why? What does everything boil down to in the end? Unfortunately, the answer to that seems to be forced teenaged emo. The entire plot basically revolves around this mentally deranged character. I can live with that, but the reasons that pushed her in the situation she’s in now… I failed to buy them. The blond girl is one thing, but that teacher in particular is just a walking plot device.

Emo of course doesn’t have to be bad. I’m personally a big fan of Narutaru (or in any case the anime of Narutaru, having not read the manga), which also was a very dark show about teenagers and the issues they can have. The big difference between the two lies in the build-up: Narutaru first created relatable characters and showed scenes in which… they weren’t actually emo. Yomi however, is poorly fleshed out to me: all she has been doing in this series is be mentally depressed. In fact, every character in this series is very one-sided. They’re more plot devices than actual characters and their issues are all just so simple when you boil down to it.

The only interesting character really is the main character, because she is the one who links everything together, in a much more extreme way than usual. She connects all of the different stories together, she is the only one who knows all of the other important characters well. Everything in this series revolves around her, and even the things that don’t at the beginning, end up doing so because of how her symbolic character in the other world ends up fighting everyone.

In this episode things got interesting, as all of these different stories started to intertwine. I admit, I did not expect Yomi’s part to be resolved this early. At the very least the show still seems to be building up to something, so let’s hope that at least that part of its buildup will be good. I adit that I liked the action and the soundtrack in this episode.

I can understand what Mari Okada is doing: the OVA was so dull, something had to happen to it to make it actually worth watching as a full fledged TV-series, and if the build-up was better then this episode actually would have worked really well, however I do think that she took the wrong approach. This type of characterization definitely isn’t her best, and I also believe that the characters in the action world should have… actual personalities and characters. I don’t care if it offends the fanbase of Black Rock Shooter. The creators are already raping the fanbase of Noitamina, so why stop there?
Rating: (Enjoyable)

So, with Black Rock Shooter still in build-up mode, Ano Natsu coming with that horrid beach episode and Smile Precure still in introduction mode, I do have to return again to Inu X Boku. And don’t get me wrong: I have major issues with this series, but despite that, it’s consistently able to put a smile on my face.

This sixth episode was special: it was the first episode that didn’t introduce any new characters (aside from random classmates perhaps), and instead focused on Karuta (the skeleton). And with that, it did a surprisingly good job. At the very least, Karuta just was completely adorable in this episode. And on top of that, I also feel that the rest of the cast emerged from the better.

Still, my big issue with this show still stands: this is a David Production series, and it lacks ambition. Ristorante Paradiso was a unique look at the Iyashi-kei genre with a ton of really old characters who were all very well depicted, Armed Librarians was an awesome roller-coaster ride with awesome storytelling, Level E was one of the best comedies of the recent years, and Ben-To pushed the boundaries of the fanservice comedy genre. And here we have Inu X Boku… where we follow a bunch of half-youkai. This charm of the characters is nice, but this just isn’t up to their usual standards. Of course, it’s far from their worst (I mean, Dogs was an awful OVA), but still: I’d hate them to turn into another Manglobe.

Also, main character: the next time try to confirm that the monster you killed is actually dead… before turning your back to it.
Rating: * (Good)

Okay, my entries on Inu X Boku have now been turned into a Winter 2012 Kaleidoscope. That means that I’m pretty much going to blog either this, Inu X Boku, Black Rock Shooter, and Smile Precure, depending on what interests me the most. This week’s episode of Ano Natsu raised the bar a lot for the bunch, though.

The reason I’m not just going to blog this fully is because of the annoying romance cliches. I can fully understand it if this series decided to take it slow for its first half and let the cast play out. It dropped enough hints that it knows what it’s doing. However, I’ve gotten really annoyed with the romantic misunderstandings, not to mention how the male lead was very annoying to watch.

This time though, things just worked.There were some lesser parts. I’ve gotten a bit tired of school film projects in anime that just have to mirror the plot exactly. That’s all way too obvious, and I’m still not sure why nobody finds it strange that Ichika has this weird pet mascot thing that keeps following her around. At the moment, this feels like Birdy the Mighty Light, without the action, variety or intrigue. Yes, Senkawa was actually more annoying than Kaitou at the beginning, but he had 26 episodes and he used that to develop really well. This show doesn’t have that luxury.

And so there came this episode, where it finally really moves away from theusual cliches. In particular the second half of this episode was great, when Kaitou started filming Ichika for natural scenes of her. It’s there where he set himself apart from his cliche. Tetsurou made it even better afterwards, when this show seemed to go down the road of being yet another “just confess already!”-series, to actually telling Kaitou about the love triangle he’s in. That was great.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hmm, so I had hoped that that new character would bring in a bit of a dynamic. Instead he’s just another side character who happens to know some of the other side characters. Not the thing that you’d expect for progressing the storyline of this. I think it’s fairly safe to say now that Inu X Boku will be the worst TV-series from David Production for me.

With this episode, I’ve gotten a really clear picture of this series. It’s really a “feel good show”, and it actually cheers me up quite a bit when watching it. I can really see it work out… if it had 26 episodes to work with. That will allow this cast to properly grow. Unfortunately this is not the case and instead we only have 12 episodes. With that in mind, this episode wasted too much time and introduced too many characters, who were all one-sided, adding even more to the big problem of one-sidedness of this series. It was funny, but with this rate this show is never going to get the right development out of them.

The coming week I’m going to be shuffling around a bunch of series in my blogging schedule. I’ll give this show one more episode to redeem itself, but at the moment it’s the only show that I’m blogging that I’m dissatisfied with. I first want to wait until Smile Precure airs and Black Rock Shooter delivers its second episode for that.
Rating: * (Good)

This was the kind of drama that borders on cheese, yet stays away from it. It’s a bit forced at times, but the acting and direction actually managed to save it.

Unlike last week, this episode gets back on track again with the themes that made this show catch my attention: the loneliness of the lead character. This episode delved more into her upbringing, and showed how she turned into the character she is today: she’s got no problem with fancy dress parties or holding speeches in front of a lot of important people (in fact, that was so trivial that it was just skipped over), and the big focus of this was her desire of real emotions, rather than the fake ones. I like that.

On the downside it did get a bit too dramatic at times. Those two guys talking behind her back were a bit too much for example, but I guess that people love to bitch about the rich and famous (although this is rare to see in anime, where the rich are for some reason always celebrated and revered). It’s more that the acting still is rather one-sided, like how just one suspicious romantic mishap immediately causes her to blow a fit and dump the poor butler, and things like that need to change if this show wants to go anywhere. With a little hope that new guy will bring change in that.
Rating: * (Good)

Okay, with this I’m going to put Hunter X Hunter on hold for a while. At least until Hyouge Mono ends, and if Black Rock Shooter and/or Smile Precure turn out to be interesting, it’ll be for even longer. Some of the comments from my last entry gave me a lot of insight of what I want with this series, especially Machi’s. I can not blog this show like what I do with my usual series. Looking back though, what I enjoyed the most while blogging that series was comparing how the two different adaptations chose to portray the manga, in order to gain more insight in what they both tried to do. However, with that I have a really big dilemma. I cannot really talk about those things in front of people who never watched the original series. I know from blogging manga adaptations that overly nitpicky reviews like that are only annoying to those not familiar with one of the things you try to compare it to. It worked with Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood because the recap only took about 15 episodes. This though will look like it’ll take trice as long before we’ll get to the original content. And for that, there really isn’t much I can say about it if I’m supposed to ignore the fact that I already watched this story before.

As for the replacement, the dilemma was whether it should be Inu Boku or Ano Natsu. They’re actually pretty similar. They’re both the usual wish fullfillment: Ano Natsu is about getting to live together with a cute and big breasted girl. Inu Boku is about having a butler. Both are well directed. Both have good characterization despite these cliches. Both have things that just have to be supernatural in some way, though they’re mostly about slice of life and mundane conversations. Ano Natsu is shounen that can be enjoyed by all genders, while Inu Boku is shoujo, but can also be enjoyed by both genders.

The big advantage of Ano Natsu is that it’s anime original. With staff like that, it will develop somehow. What made me go for Inu X Boku, despite it being an adaptation of a manga that still hasn’t finished, is… um… actually pretty simple: I like the cast better. In the end, Ano Natsu just has too many annoying characters, and comparing the wimpy lead to Inu Boku’s cocky tsundere… I have to give it to Inu Boku. I can’t believe I just said that I like a tsundere.

It’s obviously not the tsundere part that makes me like her better, because in general this is a stereotype that still needs to die. Instead, it’s her acting and the way she’s portrayed. On one hand she’s witty and eloquent, but her weaknesses and especially her feelings of loneliness were well portrayed. On top of that is a colourful side-cast, where especially the main side cast is quite likable, and I’m interested. I also like how in essence, everyone in this show is a youkai. Nobody really is special here, ignoring the butler thing obviously. There are some issues: some of the minor side characters do have some acting issues. The blond woman in particular needs to learn that a character is more than just one quirk that you need to repeat over and over.

Now, this episode wasn’t as good as the first episode. The direction and pacing was less inspired, and in particular there was not as much emotion stuffed into it in comparison: most of the time just had the main character snark her way through its airtime. Yet, the show knows how to build up. The finale in particular was quite heart-warming. The episode also had some nice moments, though I really would have liked to see a bit less monotone tone for the first half of the episode. Out of all the new series I’m blogging, this one did end up the least interesting after episode two, but I have hope. Especially now that it’s clear that there’s a good end point for this series so that it won’t need a bad ending.
Rating: * (Good)