Category: Anime Reviews

Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge: Nabeshin’s latest work. Four bishounen get to live in a huge mansion, on the condition that they can make the owner’s niece (who is the worst gothic horror-freak possible) into a lady. It’s sense of humour is based on energy. Lots and lots of energy, and over-the-top dialogues. Obviously, the entire concept of bishounen is made ridiculous. Few series can claim to have as much energy as this one, and the result turned out hilarious, though it’s got a few problems. One thing this anime did right was its characters. There’s basically one bad character, but apart from him all characters are fleshed out and made more than just 2-dimensional ones. Polar opposites have always worked well together, and the four most good-looking guys, combined with a gothic-horror freak can hardly move further apart. This combination makes sure that the laughs keep coming, especially with this series’ sense of humour. Just when the humour starts to become stale, the characters start to develop and get fleshed out, making this hilarious till the end, with perhaps only the middle section a little weak. Heck, even the final episode delivers; something only few comedies can claim. The graphics and music are both something incredibly subjective, though. They’ll make you either love or hate this series. The fact remains that almost the entire soundtrack, especially around the climax, consists of fast-paced rock, to help this anime create its energy. If you’re more of a j-pop fan, or like silent music, this will be hard to swallow. The art is also something you’d easily find ugly, and even though the main characters are supposed to be extremely attractive, they don’t look that way and I suspect that Nabeshin went for the concept of ‘suspense of belief” with them. Personally, I didn’t mind the art, and I loved the soundtrack, but people can easily dislike them, so don’t expect any Lucky-Star-like art here. The only really bad thing about the art is that the main female lead, Sunako, is way too often portrayed as a chibi-figure, while her normal character-art looks (ironically) beautiful. For me, Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge was a huge success as a comedy, despite five or six weak episodes around the middle part. Some of these episodes liked to use a reset-button as well when characters made huge amounts of money, which I didn’t like either. I definitely recommend this series, though, because I loved the over-the-top-ness of this series, along with all the methods to make the bishounen-stereotype ridiculous.]]>

Okay, so I’m biased; I like Bee-Train, and their unique style. I’m not exactly sure how they did it, but they somehow caused me to really like this obviously flawed anime. I’ve seen lots of people give it bad reviews; it even turned into the “worst anime ever” for some. I’d like to say something positive about it, though. A lot of things ‘clicked’ for me in Avenger. Its got a really interesting setting: Post-colonizational Mars, where no child has been born for ten years. The children have now been replaced with child-like robots called “dolls” (and finally we see androids who don’t look exactly like human beings. The dolls really look like machines in this series, which is really refreshing compared to the countless robotic harem maids that seem to be rather popular). The soundtrack also is awesome. I seriously demand for the ALI-Project to do more of them for different anime, because their work in both Avenger as .Hack//Roots is really good. The OPs and EDs that they sometimes do for random shows might be good, they’re nothing when compared to the magic that they can do for the background music. The character-designs are also really appealing, but that’s to be expected from Bee-Train. I’ve never really been an animation-expert, but the three or four major fight scenes featured some great animation and coordination. The animation for the rest of the series was nothing special, though. Then the characters. Unlike other reviewers, I really liked them. Some of them may lack background or reasons, but they’re well fleshed out through the course of thirteen episodes. Their character-development is very small and subtle (apart from Layla, perhaps), but it is there, just enough for such a short series. These factors, the music, animation, setting and characters, combined with Bee-Train’s direction provide a great atmosphere, which is despite all flaws, fun to watch. Still, the flaws remain flaws, and this anime could have been so much better if Avenger took the time to answer all of its questions. This is another one of those series that suffers from the fact that its story was meant for 26 episodes, not thirteen of them. Because of this, things had to be sacrificed. In this case: the background information. How did people get on Mars? How can people breathe there? Where did Nei come from? These are just a small portion of the questions that this anime leaves behind. Even the ending continues to ask more questions. While it’s not as bad as in .Hack//Roots, the fact remains that this is a major thorn for this series. About the question whether you will like this, you should ask yourself the following: do you like the so-called “Bee-Train Pacing”? If the answer is no, then stay far away from this series, because if you don’t like the whole atmosphere, you’ll be sure to hate it, especially with the relatively slow turns of events. I’ve also seen many people complain how the entire series is too confusing, though I didn’t run into the same problem (probably because I’ve been watching raws I don’t completely understand for a relative long time ^^;). In any case, I had a lot of fun watching this.]]>

Tokyo Tribe can be described as a fun brainless action-show. It features Kai, a member of one of the urban tribes of Tokyo, and it basically shows what happens when all these tribes are put under the same threat. “Suspense of belief? Screw that, we don’t need it!” – This is probably what the creators thought when they wrote the plot. It’s a well-constructed one, but some elements are just overly far-fetched, even more than most action-shows. To give some examples, it’s got an incredibly fat Yakuza-boss, who likes to rape innocent schoolboys, and kill them in the process and an android who likes to bite people’s eyes out. This implies that there’s a large amount of gore in the series, and indeed. The creators aren’t afraid to show blood, and some scenes are particularly raunchy. Still, the story itself was quite fun to watch. The middle section may have taken itself a bit too seriously, but it did make sure that the final few episodes avoided the pitfalls of becoming too dark for their own good, turning them into quite a fun ride. What I especially liked was how the series continued to introduce unique side-characters, who never felt boring at all. The only bad character, though, was Hashim, the standard stupid best buddy, with no connection whatsoever to the story. At the times when he took the spotlight, he rather ruined this series. The graphics look quite interesting. You’d expect this show to be dark and gritty, but instead of that, almost every scene is filled with bright-coloured neon-lights. The character-designs are also quite unique. The music comes with a bunch of hip-hop tunes. They’re quite nice, actually, but there have been better. I wouldn’t really recommend Tokyo Tribe 2, though. It’s got a few too many flaws, and it’s actually a miracle that Kai survived the entire series. There are enough series who’ve done better than this one, and only if you want to watch the unique style or the action then you could give it a chance.]]>

Gedo Senki, the first attempt of Hayao Miyazaki’s son, Goro Miyazaki at making a movie. From the things I read about it, it was supposed to have gotten rather bad reviews. But after having seen it, I have to say: it’s not that bad. It definitely beats Gonzo’s attempts of Brave Story and Giniro no Kami no Agito. One thing that becomes clear quite soon is the fact that Goro just doesn’t have the same amount of imagination. Because of this, Gedo Senki didn’t turn out into such an outrageous setting as Howl’s Moving Castle, or Spirited Away for example. Instead, he comes with a children’s adventure, and tries to make up for the lack of imagination with a huge degree of realism. The different characters really feel real, and are fleshed out in a relatively short amount of time. The thing I liked about this movie is that it doesn’t really try to be anything more than it is. Sure, it starts out with a king and a prince, with a dying country, but soon it boils down to just the adventure between Arren and Teru, the two adults that take care of them, and the antagonists Usagi and Kumo. I was surprised to find out that the fate of the world actually doesn’t play a big role, and that the focus really fell on the characters, unlike other movies of the fantasy-genre. Still, the fact remains that Goro has a lot to learn. The fact remains that the start that seemed to suggest lots of dragons and politics is rather misleading, and many questions that were asked in this introduction weren’t answered (either that, or I didn’t pick them up when I watched the raw). There are also, despite the realism, quite a few convenient coincidences. The real bad part, though, is the ending. I don’t know why, but it seemed that Goro found it a good idea to go with a Disney-ending, complete with one heck of a blatant Deus ex Machina. The fact that the biggest part of the anime doesn’t try to be anything big is a double-edged sword. The movie is focused now, and it takes its time, but on the other hand, it’s not a big spectacle. You won’t hear people talk about how awesome this movie was. Still, like most movies, Gedo Senki looks great in the graphical department. It’s interesting, as you wouldn’t suspect that it’s a 2006-anime, since there hardly is any CG, but the style fits perfectly.]]>

Let me get straight to the point for this review: Shining Tears X Wind, is utter crap, and I can’t believe the creators were really serious about it. It really gives a bad reputation, The first episode starts off decently enough, but after that, everything falls apart with some garbage-level script-writing. The characters are seriously horrible. Basically, we have a bunch of guys, accompanied by their personal harems, who get transported to another world, and save it. Why? No idea. The males are all fourteen ear-old brats and a bunch of Gary Stu’s, who are awesome for no possible reason, and the females have no roles whatsoever. Heck, if you’d replace them with potatoes, the only difference you would notice in the final product is a lack of fanservice (because yes, that’s all they’re good for: skimpy outfits and orgasms when their “soul blades” are drawn from their hearts). The plot isn’t much better off. It tries being dramatic with lots of shocking plot twists, but the entire concept of “proper development” seems lost on the writers, and the episodes also get cheesier and cheesier as the anime progresses. The graphics and music are the only two parts that actually come a bit close to decent. Still, it can be fun watching this when you’re with a couple of sarcastic friends. Especially episode 12 is the epitome of stupidity and cheesiness, which can become hilarious when you’re watching it with the right person. If you’re planning to watch this one alone, though: don’t. When I watched episode 12, I fell off my chair out of agony.]]>

From the makers of Touka Gettan, this is their previous work: Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito. Having watched this, I suddenly realize why Touka Gettan felt so weird, because these guys have quite an interesting sense of storytelling. This one is about a collection of stories. Basically, there’s a great library, with a huge amount of books. Each of these books represents a world, and the anime basically features a bunch of people who travel through these worlds, all because of some reason. The inividual stories aren’t anything special. They either give off a feeling of “been there, done that”, or just aren’t as well developed as the ones in, say, Jigoku Shoujo or Mushishi. What counts in Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito is the overall storyline, because that‘s a memorable one. It may not seem much at first, but even at this time, I continue wondering how deep it actually went. There are quite some motives and emotions that you don’t think off so fast, and I like how, somehow, everything comes together in the end. The ending itself is also quite an interesting one, that actually turned out good. I can’t believe I’m giving praises here to a hentai-game adaptation, but it’s actually a pretty nice series. This also is one of the few anime-series that actually has shoujo ai as one of its major themes. But, indeed, there is an abundance of useless fanservice at times. Some women also have some of the most impossible hairstyles ever seen in anime, and a few questions were left unanswered by the end (especially the ones regarding the fox). It isn’t extremely emotional or hilarious, and most of the episodes that focus on the side-stories are quite dull, but the plot-related scenes were worth the watch.]]>

Soultaker is a definite recommendation for any mystery-fan. If you ignore the cheesy title and OP that seems to suggest we’re dealing with a GAR-mecha show, then you’ll find the perfect example of a well-written mystery-series that’s perfectly fitted for thirteen episodes. The first thing you’ll notice when you start watching this series is the direction. It’s hard to describe, but we hardly ever see any normal shots of the characters, most shots we see of them are weird camera-angles with lots of lighting-effects, which seldom stay for more than three seconds. Because of this, almost the entire series gives off a feeling of fast pacing, where perhaps only one episode really takes its time. Despite this, though, Soultaker never feels rushed, and the creators knew exactly what they were doing. It’s hard to talk about the plot of this series. Heck, the very first scene already is a major spoiler. Let’s just say that it’s about a mutant with a messed-up family. Through the course of thirteen episodes, it gradually answers more questions, asked in previous scenes, where the new revelations all increase in terms of impact, ending in a nice though predictable climax. Mystery-series should definitely take an example out of this one. To accompany the mystery, this series comes with a cast of intriguing characters; all with their own motivation and intentions, and most of them get a decent amount of time to get fleshed out. Even the seemingly annoying brat turns out watchable in the end. I do feel, though, that they could have had more development. This series is really well written, and the creators knew how to use their time, but the series never really reaches the height that requires it to become an awesome series. There’s also the matter that all mystery-series need time to build up, so the show needs some time to really get going. Nevertheless, I’m glad I watched this. It’s an excellent mystery-series that delivers, without hitting the heights. But don’t worry, you’ll be in for lots of surprises. ;)]]>

I was really surprised when I found out that this was the third-worst rated anime on Anime News Network. Heck, even Tekken had a better rating. I can’t believe how many people gave this a measly 1/10 score, just because it’s a bit different from your usual anime, and failed to look at the merits of this series. For me, Alexander Senki is a piece of art. It’s loosely based on the life of Alexander the Great, we see him take over the title of king of Macedonia from his father, and we follow his world conquest, and the people around him. The background art is incredibly surrealistic, and it turns this anime in a visual treat. Everything in this anime is just extremely stylistic, which fits the mood of Macedonia before Christ perfectly, and not to mention that we’ve got quite a few famous people from those ages making cameo-appearances. The music makes the atmosphere even better, when it combines epic music with synthesisers. Still, I can imagine why people wouldn’t like it. Not only is the character-art very unconventional, it also tries to meld in with the unique style of this anime. It works, but lots of male and female skin is shown in the process. People basically walk around without any pants, nude women often parade the screen, and there’s also plenty of male nudity. It’s easy to think that this will lapse in some kind of yaoi-fest. But let me assure you, there isn’t any hint of Yaoi in this anime, and you also can’t really call this shounen-ai. Still, there are a few technical flaws in this series, which prevent it to be part of the top-notch anime. The most notable one is that this show brings the Deus ex Machina back to their original meaning, when it seems that at times, the Gods themselves like to interfere. While it is nice when compared to the Deus ex Machina from other anime, they do remain Deus ex Machina, and certain parts, especially the supernatural ones could have had more explanation. Some important side-characters also could have been a bit more fleshed out as well. The fact remains, though, that this is a really thought-provoking anime, with lots of symbolism and references to the ancient Greeks. It constantly makes the viewer think a bit. The ending may have been a bit too enthusiastic in this, by the way, and I’m still not sure whether that’s in a good way or a bad way. It’s clear that the creators intended to end the series with a huge question-mark, and lots of questions that shouldn’t have been answered are left for us to ponder, but there were also enough questions that should have been answered, and the fact remains that this series would have benefited so much from one more episode. Overall, if you like unique anime, favour thought-provoking series, are interested in the ancient Greeks and don’t mind the male nudity, this can be an interesting watch for you. The series has its flaws, but the third-worst anime ever?! It seriously deserves better than that.]]>

So… because the summer holidays started I have a bit more time to watch anime, so there’ll be an increase in the amount of reviews. First one up is Mahou Tsukai Tai, a charming slice-of-life show, about a school’s magic club. At first sight, the cast looks like a terrible amalgamation of stereotypes. There are five members in this magic club, and among them are a ditzy idol, the pretty-boy who gets adored by al the girls at school and is terrific at sports, and a geek who can’t help to think perverted thoughts. Still, upon further watching, it becomes clear that these stereotypes are just small parts of these characters, and they all form a very likable cast. To give a few examples, remember the pretty-boy? Well, he’s gay, and he’s put his eye on the geek, hence the reason of his unlikely membership of such an obscure club as the magic club. The geek, on his part, is the one who founded the club, and throughout the series, we actually see him stand up for the things he believes in, unlike his counterparts in, say harems, who never get to do anything. And I haven’t even started talking about the main character: Sae. She’s a really cute character, who always has trouble expressing what she wants to say. And the combination of all these different characters makes the anime feel incredibly genuine, which also plays a big role for the story, in the end. The anime basically consists out of two parts. In the first, the magic club tries out random spells, all going different from expected, so that they can give the different characters some development. The second part is about the main storyline, in which a mysterious character appears and starts wreaking havoc. In my opinion, the first part was the better one. The main storyline is nice and all, but what really shines in this anime are its characters, and they show their best while dealing with the random spells that they let lose on the world (think of spells involving a giant walking cherry-blossom, or a spell that teleports you to the place that’s on your mind). The fact also remains that this mysterious character takes quite a few episodes to get interesting. Mahou Tsukai Tai did air about a decade ago, so don’t expect much on the graphics-department. The animation looks decent and it’s never awkward and the art style does well enough to tell the story but it’s nothing special. At times, there may be a bit too many fanservice-jokes, but it’s nothing serious. Apart from a very catchy OP and ED, the music also does a fine job of not getting noticed. Overall, if you’re a slice-of-life fan, you could check this one out, as it’s got some memorable characters. It was definitely fun watching especially the beginning part, and the ending left me with a good feeling, it’s just too bad that some of the middle episodes were a tad dull.]]>