Category: Anime Reviews

Cat Soup is most definitely one of the strangest movies I’ve seen in a long while. Heck, if you thought that Mind Game and Dead Leaves were absurd, just wait till you see this one. At least these two had some kind of sensible story. In Cat Soup, however, the thread that keeps everything together only appears when the movie is nearly finished. Really, this movie jumps from one strange setting to the other. It’s about a little cat and his big sister, who’s sick, and they travel for some kind of strange reason. They end up in places like a huge circus, during their journey, Father Time messes up, which makes the time stand still, and think of more of these kinds of adventures. I might warn you that some of these cases are very disturbing. More often than not do people get cut into pieces, boiled inside a huge steel pot, and more of these rather gross events. The thing I really liked about this anime is its huge amount of symbolism. A lot of cruel things happen, and I could be wrong in this, but they all seemed to try and bring some kind of message. I’m not yet sure what message, though. I’d say that it comes closest to people, and how they cling to their lives. Overall, if you’re into absurd movies, you should give Cat Soup a try. I didn’t give this one a rating, as there is NO friggin WAY to give a good indication of how good or how bad this movie is. It’s different for everyone, and even I’m still not sure what to think of it. When compared to other absurd movies like Mind Game and Dead Leaves, though, it has one major disadvantage: it doesn’t drag. The entire movie manages to stay interesting.]]>

Afro Samurai is the perfect example of why you should never let an American company handle an anime. I should have known when I started to watch this. They’ll start to see this as some kind of Hollywood Action-movie, instead of an engrossing tale about likable characters. This anime makes the same mistakes as your typical big-budgeted Hollywood action movie: it thinks that action and pretty graphics instantly make it good. Obviously, just that won’t get you far. Okay, as a defence, this anime does give our main character a bit of a history and background. It’s just too bad that not too soon, these start to delve into the absurd when the other villains of this show start to use this background, turning something that could have been interesting into a one-sided boring piece of garbage. Any attempts to draw sympathy out of the viewer fails, seeing that the creators seemed to thing that the more horrible your childhood was, the more you can sympathise with your character. Fleshed-out characters don’t even come to their minds for a second. The second episode could be considered the best of the show. Why? Because an actual human gets placed in the role of antagonist. Apart from that, all Afro Samurai has to face are androids, robots and people who manage to heal themselves without any proper reason. All of this, only to make sure that these opponents don’t just die after one hit from a sword, and keep fighting Afro-samurai, who seems to have a limitless amount of stamina. The creators really couldn’t find an interesting antagonist at all, and instead of that, they keep resurrecting old characters who have already died once, just because they ran out of creativity. The premise, if you can speak of that, revolves around two headbands. A number one and number two-headband. The one who possesses the number one can live as a god. The number two is the only one who can challenge the number one. Afro Samurai is the son of a former number one, who got killed. Because of this, he wants revenge. It’s a good premise, if the focus is put in the right place. Unfortunately, it’s an American company we’re dealing with here. The only two words of that premise that really return in the anime are “challenge” and “revenge”. We never see how the number-one lives. For as far as we know, he just keeps sitting on his lazy ass doing nothing. He also seems to be the only one who gets the god-like powers, strangely enough. Oh, and yes, Samuel L. Jackson does the voice of the main character in this OVA, but really, don’t expect too much of it. All he does is moan and groan a bit. If this guy really is one of the best actors America has to offer, then I’m glad I don’t live there. This definitely is a good example of a good premise, ruined by Hollywood-influence. I fell in love with anime not just because of the pretty graphics. The things that also drew me to it is the focus, the stories, characters and themes. All of these, I fail to see in Afro Samurai.]]>

There’s a certain pattern that some 13-episode series follow. It’s mostly apparent in Kemonozume. The first X episodes of the series rather goof off with random side-quests, funny fillers, etc. And then at one episode, a huge twist comes and the anime suddenly turns serious, starts working towards its major climax, and the overall atmosphere suddenly feels much tenser. Generally, I don’t like these, as they’re just way too forced and directed. Makai Senki Disgaea is one of the few series which actually did such a twist right up till now. And I’m glad to see that Niea Under 7 can be added to this small list. This series starts out as a comedy-series. We’ve got this poor cram school student (Mayuko) who has a very annoying alien living in her closet. The fact that the two of them are almost polar opposites makes sure that the two of them keep bickering against each other whenever they meet. This provides some pretty funny and hilarious situations. But that’s not the thing that made me interested in this anime. The best thing of this series really is Mayuko’s situation. Not only is she a cram school student, she also is incredibly poor, she can’t rely on her parents, she’s shy, and she has to work very hard. Her worries about her situation definitely made this show worth watching. The addition of comedy turned this into a very enjoyable watch. A huge focus is money-struggles. None of the characters appearing in this anime is a huge money-maker, and you can see that even at the places Mayuko works part-time at. This means that whenever a roof gets distroyed, it doesn’t magically fix itself in the next shot, like in most anime. No, here, this roof spends most of its time in the anime being broken, until it finally gets the chance to be fixed. The style of the character art also is one you won’t see in the anime appearing currently anymore. It’s a pity, since I like the style and it’s by no means low-budget. It’s definitely a sign that anime is changing. Still, there are a few bad points about NieA Under 7. It did a very good job in not taking any risks by not forcing too many conveniently-timed plot-twists, but because of this, it doesn’t take all the chances that are presented to it. It could have been more. Mayuko could have been better developed. We could have seen more of her struggles, though this anime decided to keep things simple.]]>

I think some people may have noticed by now, but for the past few months, I’ve been watching some 13-episode series I’ve always been wanting to see, but never got around to. I went to AniDB and made a list of all the interesting-looking series (right now, the list has 17 anime, this one not included). I watch them based on how interesting the concept sounds, with the least interesting to go first. If Figure 17 is any indication of the overall quality of the rest of the list, then I’m really looking forward to them, since this anime is awesome! You see, the problem I have with slice-of-life series isn’t their slow pacing. It’s the fact that nothing happens. I want to sympathize with the characters, but for that, they need to be put in danger. I don’t really care about characters who spend their time eating cakes at a summer-festival, or something. Same with romances. I want to see the different characters face challenges, put their lives on the line, that’ll make me care about them, if done well. This anime seems to have heard my calling, as it flawlessly combines slice-of-life with action scenes. You’ve seen those 26-anime who got crammed into 13 episodes? (Good Witch of the West, Narutaru, etc). Well, this anime shows that you can also can do it the opposite way when it increases its episode length with factor 2. Because of this, Figure 17 turned into the most un-rushed series I’ve seen in a while. Like I said, this show could also have been done in half of its time, but because it took its time so much, it has some great opportunities for fleshing out its characters, and it gladly takes them. Through the course of the series, we get to know Tsubasa and Hikaru, our main characters, through and through. The fight scenes really put them in danger, and because of that, I found myself always rooting for the two of them to win. I’m also glad to say that this show has added itself to the very small list of shows that made me cry and weep. Yes, it’s that good. The problem, of course might be that this show could drag on horribly, but surprisingly, I almost never felt bored while watching this. Perhaps only episodes 3 till 5 felt a bit tedious to get through, but these episodes did make sure for some amazing scenes, later in the series. I also must praise the battles in Figure 17, which were one of the reasons it turned so good. Even though the antagonists are a bunch of monsters, they can actually think for themselves. They’ve got some amazingly tricky battle tactics, and they don’t only get stronger each episode, they also get smarter each episode. This turns the battles more and more strategy- and skill-based, than power-based. Still, I do admit that some battles weren’t as good as others. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with such a solid piece of work. I thoroughly enjoyed it, not to mention that it actually has a great ending. Still, this isn’t an anime you’d want to marathon. I think it’d be very hard to concentrate after four episodes of the slice-of-life events. But, if you watch this one in a while (like I did), it’ll be an amazing watch. Definitely recommended. You also have to love the soundtrack that comes with it.]]>

Ah, finally Studio 4C releases something again. This time, it’s a collection of four music videos, Global Astroliner, Glass Eye, Kung-Fu Love and Joe and Marilyn, all combined in one package of Amazing Nuts! After watching this, I really have to say that the people behind this were simply brilliant. If these were actually anime, they would have been awesome. It’s such a huge pity, seeing as Studio 4C is an amazing studio, though they spent most of their time on music videos, instead of a compelling anime series. Global Astroliner has a real urban feeling. It features pointy and shady-looking character designs, and portrays the relationships between corrupt officials and people from the street. It’s the only video which doesn’t feature a love-interest of some sort. I’m quite fond of the art-style here, think Tokyo Tribe meets Gorillaz with a high amount of imagination. All characters look quite unique this way. I wish more anime would follow this example. ^^; Then comes Glass Eye, with a totally different focus. We see a girl who’s probably suffering from an overdose of some kind of drug, in the middle of a street. While Global Astroliner was more stylish and funky, this is more sad and touching. This girl then meets a boy, all surrounded by some great CG and animation. The characters themselves also look to be completely made out of CG, but not as crappy as the usual 3D series you see. This actually looks very good. Glass Eye really had a dreamy mood, when you combine the great CG, character designs and background art with each other. Then Kung-Fu Love comes, and this is the first time we have a bit of a descriptive title. It once again is entirely different from the previous one when it features a kung-fu girl, taking on various opponents, and eventually running into a boy she loves. Qute standard, though the thing I really loved in this one was the art and animation. This anime has a greatly colourful style. Perhaps the closest to Studio 4C’s original art style. Each of the characters look beautiful, especially the main character looks gorgeous. The only real disadvantage is the music in this one. While none of the songs really fit my taste, Global Astroliner and Glass eye managed to capture my interest with some very interesting songs, though Kung-Fu Love comes with a cheesy pop-song. Could have been much better. Joe and Marylin was the worst of the four, though. This time, we have a ballad between two loved ones, one of them being a singer. And well, that’s basically what happens. It features some strange 3D-animation, which unfortunately doesn’t really work. Also, the attention to detail we saw in the previous three movies is also a bit lacking, apart from a beautiful cloudy background, perhaps. The music also didn’t really do anything to improve this, it tries to create a romantic feeling, though Glass Eye was far better in this. Overall, if you’re bored, and looking for some eye-candy, this is definitely one to recommend. Though the fact remains that we’re just talking about a bunch of music videos here. They would have rocked if they were genuine anime-series, though right now, they’re all a bit lacking in the story and character development department. Still, this does prove that Studio 4C haven’t lost their touch. I’m therefore looking forward a lot to their upcoming releases of Tekkon Kinkreet and Genius Party. And with a bit of hope, they’ll start on another tv-series in the future. I’m really hoping for that to happen, as their talent is just too big to waste.]]>

Black Lagoon is a perfect example of a series which starts out magnificent, but gets rather ruined later on by such small elements. It’s a real shame. It’s an action series, featuring a salaryman who ends up delivering a package for his company, somewhere in the Asian side of the Pacific Ocean, gets attacked by modern-day pirates, abandoned by the company he works for and in the end, joining the same pirates that attacked and kidnapped him.

The pirates appear to have a sortof delivering company. The first thirteen episodes showcase some random jobs who have to be accomplished, with some of these jobs attracting quite some dangerous people. I really have to say that these episodes were amazing to see. I loved how they sketched a realistic picture of the hell Rock (the new name of our main character) ended up in. This first season also managed to create some of the scariest antagonists ever. Especially keep an eye out for the maid with glasses. I also really liked the cast of main characters. Rock, Revy, Dutch and Benny formed an excellent combination when they were with the four of them, with each one of them having their own unique personality.

Then the second season came. It started out quite nicely, with a great tragedy about two siblings who give the term “killer loli” a whole new meaning. But that’s also where this series starts getting off-track. While the first season featured random jobs, the second season places our main characters into situations, just because Revy is looking for a fight. What the second season also does is place Dutch and Benny into the role of mere “side-characters”, even though they were a large reason why the first season turned out so good.

To make matters even worse, the second arc of the second season also contained way too much useless action and way too little substance. Sure, the fights were nice, the aftermaths for the side-characters were interesting, but during the fights, I kept wondering what their meaning was. The third and final arc could have saved this, and indeed, it had an interesting story, but I was too much bothered by the horrible use of Engrish in the beginning. The creators tried to find a way to show a good conversation between characters who only speak English and the characters who only speak Japanese, but that didn’t work at all, seeing that we’ve seen the English characters speak Japanese for ages.

It’s such a pity. This could have become one of the major series of 2006, but because of these small elements, it just didn’t make it. Still, I definitely recommend Black Lagoon, if it only was because of its first season.

And here we have the other of the two anime, being produced in fully cell-shaded CG. While FREEDOM consists out of a few episodes, Catblue Dynamyte is a standalone movie of about 40 episodes. Another interesting thing to note is that this one is entirely in English, with Japanese subtitles. It reminded me again of one of the reasons why I hate dubs: the American accent just doesn’t work. Still, when compared to other English dubs, this wasn’t really bad to listen to. The only annoying part was that Blue’s voice actress didn’t match her character too well.

When I first found out about this anime, I suspected that this anime would be all eye-candy with zero substance. And indeed, we have lots of eye-candy. When compared to FREEDOM, the characters move a lot smoother, especially during the fight scenes. Blue’s character indeed is very cute, seeing as she once was a cat. Everything looked quite well. The only thing is that the costumes of the goons looked rather hilarious when I first saw them.

About the substance… well, let’s say that it turned out better than I expected. The concept of a cat, turning into a person by drinking its master’s blood and being able to see and talk to ghosts is interesting, Bill was interesting with his doubts of Blue and her “talking to ghosts”, this was resolved quite nicely and Robbert and his idea to take care of things were nice to see. He also was good for a narrator, with a serious tone with your occasional sarcastic remark. I also liked the way that this anime omits some things that are taken to be obvious.

Still, the fact does remain that this anime follows the Hollywood action-movie format, which means that it goes from one action scene to another with your occasional focus on characters. While the action scenes are nice to see, they don’t really add much other value to the whole picture. While this OVA was interesting to watch, it’s definitely nothing amazing. It’s got an interesting art style, if you like experimental art styles in anime, it might be worth checking this one out, though if you’re more into your casual art style, stay far awaaay from this.