Category: Anime Reviews

Perhaps it’s because I’ve watched too much anime, but I found this first of six Break Blade movies to be totally unremarkable. Sure, I guess that the soundtrack is good, (especially considering the huge budget that went into that one), and there are times at which the attention to details is quite good, but apart from that it was just so… generic.

Any potential for the future installments of this series of movies fully depends on how much the creators are going to use the build-up of this movie. Standalone though… I just wouldn’t recommend it. It’s basically just a big collection of cliches. It’s set in a fantasy world in which two big countries are at war. The lead character happens to be friends with the princess and king of one of the countries (so he can feel special and famous without the responsibilities of these jobs), while one of his other childhood friends has become a general of the other country. Oh, and he’s also the only one who can activate the “great awesome mecha of doom”. It’s all got this “been there, done that” feeling.

With so many cliches, you need something to make up for it. Break Blade so far… doesn’t. I understand that it could be holding back some trumps here and there, but it doesn’t make the best first impressions. The mecha battles are just average and unremarkable, while the money shots just come and go without leaving much of an impression. To me, this movie could have used a better direction, with a better build-up and better dynamics between the individual scenes.

The director, Tetsuro Amino has me worried, though. I mean, what is he doing, working on three projects at the same time? There are enough other talented directors out there, so he could have just decided to focus on either Hutch, Break Blade or Shiki. I’m really not looking forward to another Chiaki Kon or Akiyuki Shinbo here…

Suggestions:
– Visions of Escaflowne
– Tales of Vesperia
– Tales of the Abyss

Perrine was created in 1978. And really, it’s amazing to think that already at that time, when anime was just in its adolescence and only fifteen years old, it already had its share of masterpieces produced. When thinking of the early WMT-series, usually you think of Isao Takahata‘s Anne of Green Gables and 30000 Leagues in Search of Mother, but Perrine also really belongs amongst them.

Perrine Monogatari has a great story, but I do want to say that I probably have never seen another series that spends so much effort into building up for it. To put things into perspective: the original novel by Hector Malot only starts around episode 20. Before that, it’s all original material, portraying the lead character Perrine and her mother as they journey from Bosnia to Paris. and even when the story starts for real, it still takes its time in order to really make Perrine’s journey as realistic and believable as possible.

And it works, because this series is meticulously detailed. All of the events of the series, bot the uplifting and tragedic ones, really come across as realistic, both in the dialogue, the scenario and the way in which the characters are animated (which really is impressive for a 53-episoded TV-series of its time; there really are very few still frames here), even simple things as buying bread are given plenty of time to signify their importance.

Needless to say, the character-development here is amazing. Perrine slowly grows into an amazing character, but also the side-characters are all very realistic, with both their charms and flaws, and even the characters who only appear for one or two episodes are portrayed as actual people, rather than a bunch of stereotypes. There are no villains here whatsoever, and instead the drama around the series is all created around the flaws of each character, while it explores themes as hard work and honesty.

Now, there are times at which this series plays around with fate a little too much, and the language barrier also gets ignored throughout the first half of the series, but the only reason why this will catch your attention is because the rest of the series is just so incredibly realistic. This obviously is not a series for those looking for action, but for the people who are interested in slice of life and travelling series, it’s an excellent recommendation. It never tries to force any artificial drama when this isn’t necessary and it always remains wonderfully down to earth. It’s the series like this that showed that anime can be refined and mature, and not just silly entertainment for kids, opening up the door to more and more anime aimed at older audiences.

Suggestions:
– Porfy no Nagai Tabi
– Anne of Green Gables
– Touch

One shot OVAs of large mangas are often not really noteworthy. They’re usually just commecials for their mangas, but don’t stand on themselves as individual pieces of work. Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu is an exception, so I decided to just write a review about it in an attempt to explain why.

I’m not really happy with the shoujo romance genre of the past five years. You know, those series about a girl and her romantic adventures, usually in high school. I used to be a big fan of the genre, but now it has rather come at a standstill, with only a few series as Skip Beat and Perfect Girl Evolution delivering something new and interesting while we in the meantime are stuck with stuff like Kaichou wa Maid Sama, SA and Kimi ni Todoke that just have the same shallow romances over and over.

Because of that, it’s really a shame that Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu has only one episode, because this episode was definitely the best shoujo episode since Skip Beat. I’m not sure what this would have looked like in the form of an actual series, but this is exactly what shoujo should be, rather than the dragged on and inconsequential other shows of the genre.

This one is directed by the director of Casshern Sins, and you really can see his influence here. Considering the circumstances, he really made optimal use of only twenty minutes. It’s got the same pacing that made Casshern Sins so addictive, in which characters sometimes take a small pause before they talk. There are a ton of close-ups, skillfully combined with other shots that actually give quite a bit of life to the characters despite the limited budget. Along with the surprisingly good soundtrack, this got quite an emotional reaction out of me.

While I haven’t read the manga, my guess is that the creators took some key scenes of the first few volumes, and compiled those together in twenty minutes. The downside of this is that we’re lost on a lot of background information that just couldn’t fit into this episode. Especially that cutting scene piqued my interest, because we’re not shown the context in which it happened, in favour of the more important scenes that did need to get enough time to really work. The result is definitely tightly packed, but in return, the creators gave meaning to every single line here: not one word is wasted here as the characters develop each other through their dialogues.

The only downside was that the creators didn’t really get a good voice actor for the lead male. His voice lacks subtlety here, and is too monotomous. But really, I can see a tv-series based on this thing being successful. There’s not much comedy, but a shoujo romance… I really see a lot of potential in that if the creators treat it the same as they did here.

Suggestions:
– Voices of a Distant Star
– Maria-Sama ga Miteru
– Baby Blue

You know these puzzle games? Well, someone actually found it a good idea to make a movie about one, impossible as it may seem. The creators of this movie really were put in front of the daunting task of coming up with some sort of epic story that involves solving puzzles, and while the result is far away from perfect, I’m still surprised at how interesting this movie became.

Let me start with the good: the back-story. The story behind the mystery that Professor Layton and his assistant have to solve is imaginative, and actually a pretty good mystery-story. In the beginning it throws in a ton of red herrings and hints at you, and as the movie progresses it shapes together quite a nice overall story. This pacing, along with its ideas are bound to hold your attention and the characters that the mystery focus on are good and well fleshed out.

The animation by PA works also was quite interesting. The character-designs are simple, but quite varied and aesthetically pleasing. The animation is consistently fluid as you could expect from a movie, and the soundtrack is equally excellent.

Right, now that that’s out of the way: the bad stuff. Well, first of all, the movie assumes that its watchers are fans of the games. This means that you’re not going to get any background information about the main characters. Who is professor Layton? Why does he, one of the apparently most brilliant “puzzle scholars” (actual quote from the movie!), have a ten-year-old kid as his assistant? Who is that charming but mysterious Scotland yard cop? Especially the intro of the movie is just weird, unnecessary, confusing, stupid and never explained. Expect none of this to be addressed throughout the movie, even if they’re jarring. It’s just there to focus on the story of the Eternal Diva.

Then, the plot. As imaginative as it may be, there are just large chunks of it that don’t make any sense whatsoever. Most notable is the plan of the bad guys, which is just ridiculously complicated no matter how you look at it. The reason that this movie has so many red herrings is because of how incredibly needlessly elaborate their actions are, considering the goals that they’re trying to accomplish. You’d need to have looked at the script of the movie in order to be able to understand what’s going on (yes, that’s also a criticism to a bit more spoilerific part of the movie).

Overall, the movie is too forced. It’s too focused on its storyline (which really is quite good) and forgets the fine details as avoiding deus ex machina, completely writing characters out when they’re not needed anymore, making sense, that kind of stuff. Still, I’d especially recommend the first half of this movie, because that really is build up for a mystery done well.

Suggestions:
– Laputa: Castle in the Sky
– Gedo Senki
– The xxxHolic Movie (just ignore that review. It’s crap)

it’s been a long while since I took so long in finishing a mere 13 episoded series, but this is not meant against this series: the episodes here just have this tendency to suck all energy out of you, but for once in a good way. While I wouldn’t consider this anywhere among Sato Junichi’s best series, I still enjoyed its calm atmosphere.

Aria’s genre, the slice of life moe series, is a genre that I usually don’t really enjoy. It’s definitely one of the better series of the genre, though. While a lot of time is spent on just showing the every day lives of its lead characters, it sets itself apart with two things:

First of all: its dialogue. Between the characters it feels natural, while the voice overs have this tendency to talk about pseudo-philosophical themes that have to do with the episode’s content. It actually works quite well in both making the episodes interesting and fleshing out its characters. The characters in this series aren’t exactly well developed, but they’re neither stereotypes or one-sided. They’ve all got this natural charm to them.

Second: it actually takes place in quite an interesting and original setting. Instead of yet another high school series in Japan, we’re brought into the future, where Mars has been colonized and a new Venezia has been founded. This series is excellent at portraying the city, as well as the jobs that the main characters have as gondoliers. The series explores the past as well as the present, and also managed to create an entirely new culture. It’s this part that managed to impress me the most about this series so far.

By far the most annoying part of this series was the portrayal of cats, especially the strange blob that is the pet of the lead character (named as President Aria). This cat is just way too over the top with its attempted cuteness, and a large potential turn-off for future audience. I know that this was the case me, when I first tried to check it out, back in 2005 when it first aired.

Overall though, you can see that Aria the Animation is only the beginning for its story: the side-characters actually received much more development and background than the lead characters, while instead a ton of time is spent on building up its setting and fleshing out its characters. Things really have to move in a weird way if its sequels aren’t going to surpass it.

Suggestions:
– Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
– Anne of Green Gables
– Kino no Tabi

96 episodes. I know that it’s a huge task to watch this series, especially when it’s filled with slice of life. But heck, who cares? This series deserves every inch of its status as a classic. Heck, it’s by far the best romance I’ve ever seen.

I mean, the big danger with these incredibly long series is that they spend too much time dragging on, or repeating themselves. That’s not the point of Maison Ikkoku, though. It’s here to really deliver the every day lives of its lead characters, and we follow them through EIGHT YEARS of their lives. We start at the point at which the lead character (Godai) tries to get into college, and we get to see the progression of him and the ones around him through his college years, up to the point of him, trying to find employment. There is a HUGE amount of character-development in this series, and you know what? It’s handled even better than Touch.

Along with the every day lives, this is a series that continues to tug against the characters and their relationships with real and identifiable problems. At times it may go a bit overboard with the misunderstandings, but it always finds very down to earth methods to solve them. This series also masterfully uses the cultural norms and standards of Japan in the 1980s in its drama, like the desire for women to be ‘pure’, the focus on marriage, or the tight job market. There’s always something going on in this series and when it drags out, it really drags out to get the best out of the characters, rather than stalling for time.

Some of the characters of this series are hard to get into: they’re the types of unlikable bastards who leech off others and enjoy the misery of the easy victims. Flawed as they are though, these people also have the charms that grow with you as the series continues. They’re all portrayed real people, rather than the usual stereotypes who only can live off their gimmick. Throughout the entire series, they’re annoying, but for once they’re annoying in a lovable way.

But what really blew my mind about this series was how well it was technically executed. I mean, this series has the best animation of any Studio Deen series I’ve seen so far, and that for a series with nearly a hundred episodes! Animation is smooth and detailed, characters move as life-like as possible and there are less still frames than in most 24 episoded series nowadays. The way that the series portray all of the different feelings and emotions, from anger to love to hangover, is done very realistically. And it keeps this standard up throughout its entire run, with only a few noticeable hiccups.

Rumiko Takahashi… yeah. She really is a genius when she wants to. This series even blows series from Mitsuru Adachi out of the water with its depth and execution. I wouldn’t call it perfect, though. There are times when it uses coincidences too much in order to get two characters at the right place at the right time, and its characters can be quite dense at times. But even there: it’s a pretty realistic portrayal of denseness. It’s not like we have characters like Hanamaru Youchien here: characters here have trouble getting romantic hints, but they’re in no way stupid enough not to notice the obvious signs thrown in front of them. In fact, everyone in the series has his or her moments of stupidity and intelligence. Either way though, if you want the best romance anime out there, then I really believe that this is the series you should check out.

Suggestions:
– Touch
– Saiunkoku Monogatari
– Victorian Romance Emma

Ever since 2009, we’ve seen a huge influx of series with really short episodes. Setting aside the obviously awesome Gag Manga Biyori and Marie&Gali, most of them were just mindless fluff. Kuruneko however, turned out to be a surprisingly good one. It’s a very relaxing slice of life series about a woman who lives together with her cats, and it’s got quite a bit to laugh at as well.

This is another one of those shows for cat lovers, but it’s also very different from Chi’s Sweet Home, for those who were expecting similarities. It’s true that both series are about the adorable antics of a bunch of cats, but Kuruneko is much more calm and relaxed. The jokes are delivered with wit, rather than energy. Another big selling point is just the downright adorable way in which the woman voice overs all of her cats’ dialogues. Throughout the series you really come to know her as a genuine animal lover who really enjoys the company of all the different cats around her, despite the troubles they tend to cause.

What also helps here is that this series evolves over time. We start out with just one cat who lives together with the lead. Over time, we get to see new additions to her family as they grow up from cute kittens to fully grown felines. While it is a comedy, this is one of those series that’s also very enjoyable to watch when it’s not funny, due to the subtle charms of the characters, combined with how all episodes are just two minutes long.

This was a series that I could always count on to relax me. Akitaro Daichi definitely pulled it off. However, this is Akitaro Daichi we’re talking about. He’s capable of directing so many awesome series, and it’s been years since he really came with an ambitious series. I’d love to see him push himself to his limits again, like what he did with Now and Then, Here and There or the second Jubei-chan series. This is a very safe and easy to create series, especially for someone as talented as him. It’s nice that Kuruneko is going to have a second season and all, but damn: show something more about yourself, dammit!

Suggestions:
– Chi’s Sweet Home (the first, stay away from the second season).
– Niea Under 7
– Tetsuko no Tabi (if you can find it, that is)