Category: Anime Reviews

Pani Poni Dash certainly is one of the better comedy-anime out there. Every single episode just had me cracked up, time and time again. Its huge cast of interesting and unique characters combined with the huge waves of parodies and references came together into a brilliant piece of awesomeness.

The situation’s like this: Rebecca Miyamoto, or Becky, is a child prodigy. At the age of ten, she already graduated from the MIT (supposedly the best university in the United States, correct me if I’m wrong). She then goes to work as a teacher on a high-school. Still, she remains a ten-year-old child, and the creators did an extremely good job in portraying her brattiness.

The class Becky has to teach also is full of interesting characters, ranging from the idiot to the sarcastic, evil person and the bookworm to the plain girl. These character bring the perfect combination between serious and whacky personages, which get turned into some really funny moments.

If the main characters are out of the picture, the side-characters have enough material to show. The incredibly huge cast of unique characters worked out really great. There’s bound to be a character fit for everyone.

This anime also is extremely well coordinated. Every second of screen time, multiple things are happening at once. Whenever a character’s talking, something whacky is happening in the background. The creators manage to stuff so many in just one episode. They try to give enough room for each of the side-characters, even if it is just one second in an episode.

I also seriously recommend listening to the OP. The show’s got three different ones of them, and all of them are extremely high-quality, though don’t expect the lyrics to make sense. The creators also spent a huge load of time on the art and character design, with Becky appearing in a different outfit each episode, complete with a different haircut. Most of the characters look too cute as well, though Becky is by far the cutest. Do beware, though. While this definitely isn’t a harem or fanservice show, the creators aren’t scared to show some fanservice-y shots of the different characters at times.

Overall, if you want to see a comedy-show, I seriously recommend this anime. It really is one of the better comedies out there. While it isn’t perfect and some moments may miss the mark, it certainly gives a good shot.

I decided to check out this anime, which aired in 2004, as it’s another one of Ghibli’s works. I have to say, it was pretty interesting and unique. Though, unfortunately, not memorable.

The movie is mostly a love story, between an ordinary young woman who makes hats as her profession and a strange, evil wizard. While this may sound cheesy, about ten minutes in the movie a twist happens you so wouldn’t expect. Starting from that point, the “woman” gets to live with the evil wizard, she gets to know him, she gets to know his dark secret and in the end, she attempts to save him.

This movie is a massive two hours long, and manages to fill this time perfectly. There are almost no chances to get bored, as there’s always something happening on the screen. Each of the characters also acts very naturally, nothing seems to feel rushed. The world in which the movie plays also looks amazing and full of imagination.

Still, despite its originality, the movie does remain cheesy in the end. The minor plot sequences are very imaginative, though the major plotline has a lot of bugs. A lot of things also don’t make any sense at all. The two main characters’ cases also don’t get explained at all. Especially the ending left me with a bad feeling.

The graphics also are an interesting issue. While they do look amazing, Spirited Away, which was produced three years earlier, looked much better for some reason. You would expect the opposite, as both movies come from the same studio. The music, while not memorable, remains very fitting and enjoyable.

Overall, I’ve always wanted to watch Howl’s Moving Castle, though I never knew what to expect. I’m pretty happy with the outcome, though it could have been done much better. If you want to see a good movie, I’d suggest to check out Nausicaa or Spirited Away first.

Nasu – Summer in Andalusia was a fine example to demonstrate the flaws of the .mp4-format. At random times, it likes to cause the screen to freeze because of the lag. In my case, it was right before the climax. I didn’t really like that.

In any case, this 40-minute movie is a sports-movie about pro-cycling. It’s not about the giants who battle against each other, no. It’s about a nobody who tries to win an etappe. This nobody (or Pepe) works for a group who hasn’t been doing too well. They haven’t won anything for the entire season, and now they face a breach of contract with their sponsor. Pepe is seen as the major problem in this, as he’s got a small temper, which doesn’t work too well with their main cyclist: Gilmore. This etappe basically is the last chance for the group in order to stay alive, and it’s up to Gilmore to win it. Pepe’s role is to help him do this.

Pepe also has some extra motivation to perform, as the finish lies in his home-town. During this movie, we get some nice background commentary from the people he grew up with. His brother, who also got married on the same day, his new sister-in-law, his uncle and a couple of other friends. Especially these friends were very interesting to watch. They never knew what’s going on inside Pepe’s group, so they were just celebrating his performances.

What follows is a set of unique opportunities which drive Pepe to the finish. Overall, I had to say that the tension which was created worked pretty well. Still, there’s one major disadvantage with this movie. Everything just feels too much directed. Most of the story elements worked pretty natural, though at the times in which the creators got stuck, they used Deus ex Machina in order to keep Pepe in the right tracks. The climax also could never happen in real life. Still, despite these flaws, I have to admit that I had a good time watching this. A sports fan will probably like it.

Nitaboh is a historical movie. It plays in Japan, from 1865 till about 1875. Japan is gradually getting more and more american influences. The movie follows the rise of Nitaboh (hence the movie’s name). Nitaboh became blind when he was eight years old, due to an epidemic. Ever since, he’s been enjoying things that make sounds. When he, three years later, gets into contact with a shamisen (a three-stringed japanese guitar. Mostly played by blind people. Think Samurai Champloo 20 and 21), he decides to be a great shamisen-player. Because of his hard work, he manages this in the end.

This movie is ninety minutes long. After watching it, I had a good feeling about it. Some great and inspirational scenes are featured. Some of the tunes are surprisingly good. Both the shamisen-tunes as the regular background tunes. Seeing Nitaboh train hard, even when suffering works really inspirational. His friends also add up to this fact. The characters are really likeable. Still, there’s one big issue with this movie: it’s slow. Very slow. This makes most of the scenes in this movies very boring. But the few good scenes become great due to this effect.

The art looked a bit messy at times, though through the major part of the movie, it looked very crisp. Especially the very few action scenes it featured came out great. Still, when people played shamisen, their movements still didn’t look right. It’s something no anime has yet to accomplish: showing expert musicians playing their instruments. They always smuggle, making everything look unnatural. Nitaboh gives a good attempt, but the movements of the musicians’ hands is too fast and too unnatural.

Overall, this movie is good, but it didn’t feel like it was worth the time it took. If you’re really bored you could check this out, but most of the anime is just a bit too slow. But that’s the case with most historical anime.

Gin-Iro no Kami no Agito almost made me lose faith in original anime movies. I decided to check out Spirited Away, just in case (yeah, I know. Late). And thank goodness it showed that you can have incredibly bad movies, and incredibly good movies. Spirited Away definately belongs in the latter category.

What we have here is a beautiful piece of art, in which a young girl, along with her parents, ends up carelessly in another world. In this world, humans are extremely rare. Every citizen is some kind of animal and the humans that do arrive get turned into animals by the ruler of the world. The girl(Chihiro)’s parents get turned to pigs this way and she barely manages to escape this fate herself because of a boy she runs into (Haku). To be able to survive in that world, the only chance the girl has is to work for the ruler, in a very popular bathing resort.

The element which turns this movie into an astonishing one is definately the character development. The fact remains that Chihiro remains a little girl. She’s extremely scared, and this anime portrays this magnificently. Then, as the anime progresses, you’ll see that she’s an amazing person. She has to do the most terrible jobs. She is a clutz, but she puts hard work into it. Because of that, she managed to grow tremendously. The real highlight of the show lies in the middle of the movie, in which Chihiro showed that she isn’t afraid to do the most terrible jobs.

After these scenes, the movie decides to develop Chihiro’s and Haku’s relationship. While not as totally incredible as the previous scenes, the second half of the movie remains enjoyable. It’s so brilliantly written. The ending, even though rather cheesy, manages to be portrayed in a really enjoyable way.

The art also is top notch, but what really excels is the animation. At countless of times, this movie’s animation can even make Gin-Iro no Kami no Agito drool. The scenes really looked stunning at these moments. This effect only gets strenghtened by an amazing soundtrack included.

Overall, if you have yet to see this movie: Watch it! The first half is absolutely stunning, while the anime concludes with a very nice second half. It’s definately a must see.

What we have here is Gonzo’s attempt at making a movie. Bad idea. The only good part was that it featured some fancy graphics, but even that couldn’t save it from the horrible storyline it features. The characters are all extremely dull, not to mention that the voice-actors never put any feelings in their work. Add that to the fact that the main characters are a bunch of twelve-year-old brats, and you have a recipe for a yawnfest.

The best part of this movie was the opening tune. It really makes you excited about the movie. Especially if you combine it with the pretty graphics. At that time, I still had a good feeling about this movie. It starts out okay, our main character is just living his life on a post-apocalyptic world, in which water is scarce and the forest turned hostile. It really reminded me of Nausicaa, though Nausicaa succeeded where Gin-Iro no Kami no Agito fails.

You see, what follows is one of the most horrible storylines ever. It starts out innocent when our main character runs into a girl who’s been sleeping for ages. The girl then gets to play for a damsel in distress, our main character gets superpowers for no reason at all in order to save her and the entire planet. All of this ends in an extremely cheesy and extremely convenient ending.

The graphics indeed are great, though you can see that the creators didn’t put any thoughts in the laws of nature. For example, the moon has been blown to pieces in the past. If that would be the case, it would send every piece of debris in a random direction. In this case, however, the pieces just conveniently stay together without any explanation at all. It’s also interesting to see that when girl jumps in the water, her clothes get wet, though whenever a guy does this, his clothes seem to be drying instantly. Yay for consistency.

Overall, if you want fancy graphics, you might try this one out. If you don’t, then stay far away from this movie. Far, far away.

Jyuu Oh Sei really is a series with its ups and downs. Overall, it remains an enjoyable series. I’m glad I watched it. Though it remains flawed. The story is about a young boy, who lives in a sci-fi-like world along with his twin brother. His parents then are killed and he, along with his brother, gets sent towards a planet full of outlaws. Not only that, but the climate is extremely harsh, and full of human-eating plants. He now has to survive, to be able to get out of this planet, and find out who sent him to Chimera and more importantly: who killed his parents.

The plot progression develops in quite an interesting way. The show starts out great, but as it progresses, you keep seeing more and more flaws in the world system that the creators built. Then, as the series progresses even more, the anime changes focus from story to characters. At first, this seems dull. And it is indeed, but then the events start to slightly improve until that arc ends with a very enjoyable climax. The last two episodes then handle the conclusion, and solve all of the questions that were formed during the first episodes of the season. All of this gets closed by a very satisfying ending. Some people hated it, though I really like endings like these. Especially the combination of characters who remained alive was great and original.

Still, the governmential system in Jyuu Oh Sei is so full of questions. It doesn’t make any sense at all. This is supposed to be a world, in which people have to struggle to survive. How come people are living in such huge communities? How are they able to live and gather food? Nothing is explained on that. Then the series also decides to skip four entire years at that point. In order to show the main character, growing up from 11 to 15 years old. First of all, the way he acts is way too old for a fifteen years old. You can only see this by the fact that he keeps making impulsive decisions. Second of all: when we switch back to him, nothing really happened. It’s like he’s been sitting in a chair for the last four years. That doesn’t make any sense at all. Around the later episodes, we also have a character who keeps killing people for some kind of reason. This reason never really is explained.

The fact is, that Jyuu Oh Sei is short. In one case, it’s good, as the storytelling was quite well done. The creators really planned the episodes in, without trying to create rushed scenes, and they succeeded. Though they had to make a sacrifice for this, namely the unanswered plotholes mentioned in the above paragraph.

The music and graphics are nothing really special, though the battle choreography looked quite interesting. Especially during the early episodes you really could see that the creators spent some time into this.

Overall, it’s a short series with only eleven episodes, and I don’t regret watching it, despite the bad moments. Jyuu Oh Sei is nothing special, though if you need something to watch, and don’t have any idea what you want to, I’d certainly recomment to at least check this anime out.

Soul Link is a very strange anime. Not in terms of story, but in terms of production. Some parts are extremely solid, while other parts are just totally horrible. It’s a science-fiction and fanservice series. The story is about a space-ship, which serves as a school for people who want to be in the military. This ship gets overtaken by terrorists. Most of the people aboard the ship manage to escape, though our main characters remain. They now have to survive, and find their way out.

Let’s start with the good part: the story. The story is extremely solid. This anime spans twelve episodes, and knows exactly how to use them. Each episode, the plot progresses a bit further, with no boring parts, no rushed feelings until it hits with a satisfying climax. Though the best part about this anime are the characters. While they’re in no way memorable, almost each one of them fits. It’s also extremely interesting that, while this may be a fanservice-show. It’s not like everyone’s falling in love with the main character. This is one of the few fanservice-show, in which we have a good number of couples, who remain faithful to each other. The anime’s also not afraid to kill off a couple of characters, which only adds to the drama. The plot twists are very nicely done and a lot of things make some sense.

Now the bad part. The anime may have a solid story and characters. That’s the only good thing about this show. For some reason, the creators wanted to focus on useless fanservice. The art looks just horrible and inconsistent. The animation is just garbage and some of the voice actors SO do NOT fit the characters they play. The music sucks, just as the sound effects. If you like fancy graphics, then stay far away from this anime, as you won’t be able to survive it.

Overall, I recommend Soul Link for its story. It’s a very decent anime, if you manage to ignore the horrible art. The first episodes start out a bit slow, but while looking back, they were nessecary to introduce all of the characters. You also might run into a couple of clichéd characters in the first few episodes, though don´t worry. They´ll soon move away from these clichés.

Final Rating: 65/100