Category: Anime Reviews

The previous seasons all sort-of picked a bunch of characters, who surrounded the two lead characters of Yumi and Sachiko, and developed them. This season however, is different. It leaves most of the characters for what they are, and instead just picks one: Touko. While she might not have the most airtime, the entire fourth season is so written to explore her character to the fullest. Considering that she already had quite a bit of depth thanks to the second and third season, it’s perhaps not much of a surprise that this fourth season of Maria-Sama ga Miteru is my favourite one yet.

You could see Maria-Sama ga Miteru as a slice-of-life series, and indeed there are a ton of scenes in which we see the regular lives of the characters. However, I prefer to see it much more as a character-study: it’s always thinking to show off new sides of characters. It’s always thinking of ways to evolve them or give them more depth. You can see this not just in the main ones, but also the side characters. And really: we’re four seasons in at this point. When you add everything, the total amount of character-development in this season reaches higher than ever.

But the real star of this season is Touko. Basically, the creators try to pull something similar as to the climax of the second season, but it’s much more well balanced, and the conclusion is much more satisfying. The interplay between Touko and Yumi is explored really well. It’s emotional, and yet it doesn’t try to be too melodramatic (especially not when compared to the standards of most other anime).

Unfortunately, the animation isn’t up to par with what we’re used to from this season. Granted, it did have to follow up the great standards of an OVA, but I guess that at the time of this series’ production, Studio Deen’s best artists were working on… Jigoku Shoujo, Higurashi Rei and 07-Ghost, I guess. Faces in the background are often distorted and ugly and lack a quality check. There’s enough movement, though, so at least the creators didn’t try go take the cheap way out. This show certainly can’t complain about its inbetweeners.

But yeah. This is pretty much what you get when you give series the opportunity to fully shine by not suddenly cutting them off after 26 episodes: they really get to show their full potential. With nearly 50 episodes at its disposal, its character-development really set itself apart from most other high-school series out there. Here’s to hoping that many more series get this chance.

Storytelling:	9/10 – Well balanced slice of life and drama. Makes really well use of its setting as an elite high school.
Characters:	10/10 – Continues building up to the huge amount of character-development that this series already had.
Production-Values:	8/10 – Great inbetweeners, key-frames often lack quality checks.
Setting:	8/10 – There are already tons and tons of high school series. This is one of the few that actually makes this setting stand apart from the others.

One of the many things I love about writing this blog is being able to promote those unknown gems that most people haven’t heard of. Whether it’s because of a lack of subs, bad advertisement, a kiddish look or something else that caused only few people to give it a chance. Let me now sing praises over the series that I consider to be the best comedy-series out of all the series that I watched during the past four seasons: Marie and Gali.

From the outside, this looks like a cheesy kids’ show. And you know what? It is. However, it very quickly set itself apart as a one of a kind kids’ show. Episodes are only five minutes long, but every single episode delivers. Every single episode is hilarious. There are absolutely no weak moments. There are no jokes that fall flat. Heck, there are hardly any jokes that even get recycled! Every second of this show just sparkles with creativity.

Basically, this is a series that has been designed to make science fun for kids. And you know what? It more than succeeded. License this series, put a bunch of kids in front of it and they’ll love it. Throughout the series, great names as Galileo Galilei, Marie Curie, Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, Archimedes, Charles Darwin and a bunch more explain the principles of physics. It parodies them, but it also celebrates the great achievements that these people made in their times. It never takes itself seriously; instead, every moment was dedicated to make the different topics it discusses fun.

But what really set this show above all other comedies for me was its seemingly endless pit of creativity. The examples that the creators use in order to illustrate their points are beyond imaginative. It always has something unexpected in store, and every episode has something original. The entire script just sparkles with tons of nice ideas that the creators stuffed into the scenario. Because of this, I just kept looking forward to this series week after week.

Granted, the characters themselves are nowhere near realistic. They all act incredibly over the top, and often act a bit too much to their character-traits. However, I couldn’t help but love to seeing Marika (the lead character) gradually getting caught up in the frantic pacing of the rest of the characters. This show is incredibly hyperactive, but I truly consider this to be amongst my top 10 of favourite comedy anime that I’ve ever seen.

Storytelling:	9/10 – Every single episode delivers. Consistently hilarious and over the top and always pulls something unexpected.
Characters:	8/10 – Wonderful characters, although a bit too one sided, perhaps.
Production-Values:	8/10 – Everything looks like a visual feast, courtesy of Toei.
Setting:	10/10 – Makes science even more awesome than it already was. Sparkles with creativity.

Mamoru Oshii… what exactly did you have in mind when you thought up the premise for this movie? What was the point? What did you want to prove? For God’s sake: why?!

I was actually looking forward to an anime documentary of Miyamoto Musashi’s life. Especially with the staff behind it. I’m a big fan of historical stories, and also of anime that put a heavy emphasis on dialogue, which is amongst Oshii’s trademarks. But this was just… too much. This movie is just… unbelievable. It’s seventy minutes of incoherent rambling that never seems to stop. As an anime, it fails. As a documentary… it fails as well. And as an experimental work… well it is unique, but this just didn’t work.

Ultimately, this movie has become “Musashi’s best fights animated, while some badly animated narrator gives a lecture about warfare”. And when I say badly, I mean that the animation for this guy is utterly terrible. There are so many things wrong with him, and he should never have been animated. The 3D CG he is animated in looks horrible, and the overall animation of this guy screams cheapness. He also has this strange female assistant who keeps making unfunny slapstick joke after unfunny slapstick joke in the background. These two distract way too much of what’s really important in this movie: Musashi himself.

Speaking of distracting… the dialogue also gets distracted by a ton of unrelated things. An example is one of the narrator’s seemingly endless monologues about warfare in Medieval Europe and Asia’s mainland. The topics he discusses are varied, but the dialogue itself is also so boring that I stopped caring about it it halfway through the movie, as it failed to give any characterization to Musashi himself, who really does nothing but fight as he’s shown on the screen.

Aside from the ugly CG, there also are a ton of live-action shots, and pretty much the only images where some effort has been put in is the shots of Musashi. Which basically amounts to 10% of the total airtime. And yes, this is coming from Production IG, Mamoru Oshii and the director of Otogizoshi. The music is pretty much the same: it’s catchy and nicely composed whenever Musashi is in the image. When he’s not, however, the music starts playing random classical tunes that have nothing to do with what’s being discussed, and were probably just chosen because they lack any licensing issues.

It’s also a joke how this show was advertised: “After years of movie hagiographies and mythification, the great Mamoru Oshii has seen to promoting this funny and profuse documentary that combines the most diverse animation techniques with historical rigor and rokyoku sung narrative.”. Mamoru Oshii originally thought of the premise; it’s no wonder he would promote his own creations. It talks down on all of the Musashi films and adaptations. It’s not funny. The animation is in no way diverse: it just has three styles: ugly CG, live-action backgrounds and traditional animation. Studio 4C could out-animate this movie to the moon and back in terms of diversity. And the “Rokyoku sung narrative” has been done by a ton of other series already, defeating the purpose of this experimental movie.

I hesitate in using the word ‘pretentious’, because I often see it misused by people for ‘a show with a ton of complex dialogue’. But I actually believe that this movie comes pretty damn close to it. It treats itself like it’s the best adaptation of Musashi out there, while the dialogue looks more like endless rambling rather than contributing to the characterization or actual storytelling.

Storytelling:	5/10 – The only things we get to actually SEE of Musashi are his most famous fights animated.
Characters:	6/10 – Musashi never speaks. Instead, the narrator does everything for him, and this guy is ANNOYING.
Production-Values:	4/10 – Pointless use of famous classical music, really ugly CG. Only Musashi looks good but it’s nothing compared to Production IG’s usual standards.
Setting:	8/10 – But I guess it’s a nice enough show about medieval warfare in general.

Those who know this blog probably know that I’m not the biggest fan of Gundam, neither UC or the New Generation. However, there are exceptions. This one included.

It’s far from perfect, but the solid execution, characters and avoidance of a number of annoying Gundam tropes made me enjoy this series a lot more than most of the other ones of this franchise. The 08th MS Team tells about a small squadron of five people, stationed somewhere in a jungle, near the frontlines. It shines in how it portrays these characters, and the tension that erupts from having to work so closely together so often. I personally really enjoyed the chemistry between these five, and it also helps that the lead character himself belongs in my top three of Gundam Leads: while bratty at first sight, this guy is mature, intelligent and has a sense of leadership that’s very rare amongst main characters of his kind. Sure, he does have some of the flaws that’s become a bit too typical of Gundam (ignoring orders, anyone?), but he had this refreshing sense of charisma that felt like a breath of fresh air amonst all teenaged mecha pilots.

More Gundam Tropes were avoided this way. I was pleasantly surprised at how the creators didn’t go through ridiculous lengths to give the lead character the strongest mecha possible: the lead character trashes quite a few of his mechas along the way, and as a consequence he ends up piloting less impressive-looking ones. Battles are also much more a matter of tactics, rather than random shouting and endless battles in which everyone ends up retreating. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this series, especially the middle part.

There also was a lot for me to dislike, though. Most notably, the bad guy. This guy was pretty pathethic throughout the series as he tried to carry out his plans, and the creators tried to explain some utterly non-sensical things just on his insanity like it was some sort of magic plot device. I guess that the intention of the creators was to show some sort of moral, in the way of “even though no side wishes for war, it’s always ruined by some moron who doesn’t think straight”, but for that to work I would have really liked some more depth on these morons.

Speaking of ‘war is bad’, it’s prevalent in this series too, but I feel like these themes are a bit too underdeveloped as well. It doesn’t really mesh well with this series’s other themes, resulting in how battle-hardened soldiers suddenly start rambling on cheesy ideals that feel more like the writers’ opinions than that of the characters themselves. I’m overall a bit iffy on the character-development: it’s very prevalent, but in a few cases (for me the most notable were the main villain, Eledore and Michel) it felt like the characters just changed character, rather than evolved.

It’s also got a really weird final episode, especially for its time. You can pretty much see it as the prelude to those exclusive DVD-only episodes, that tackle a topic that hardly has anything to do with the main storyline. Overall, the idea was very nice, and was definitely an interesting way to close off such a series, hampered only by one particular very obnoxious and stupid character.
Yes Michel, that means you.

Storytelling:	8/10 – Great atmosphere and the look at war through the eyes of a common soldier. Only becomes too epic for its own good in its final quarter, rather than its final half.
Characters:	8/10 – Excellent chemistry, character-development all over the place. Emo villain.
Production-Values:	8/10 – For Gundam’s standards not the best, but well detailed animation and decent enough music.
Setting:	8/10 – Showed a different side to the UC universe than most other Gundams.

My one big fear for the second season of Emma is that it would be too ambitious. You know, when a formula works in one series, the creators try to do the same, only bigger in the sequel, ruining the subtlety that made the original so wonderful. And indeed: Victorian Romance Emma’s second season is a lot more emotional than the first. But it still works wonderfully. What a great romance series!

And granted, while this season isn’t as subtle as the first, it packs a punch with powerful character-development. It’s all about making difficult and life-changing decision that all have their consequences, inside the uptight English noble culture of a few centuries ago. Emma herself still is a wonderful character, with an excellent combination of strengths and weaknesses. William, the male lead also grows tremendously throughout this season.

The animation quality is also surprisingly good for a slice of life series. The poses are creative and consistently detailed with a great sense of aesthetics. The soundtrack is also even better than the first, with a lot of simple but powerful piano tunes, and other kinds of classical instruments.

In order to tell its story however, this series does pull a few coincidences that might not fall well. The way that the story is continued is a bit questionable, and the climax as well, while closing off the characters wonderfully, does include a few strange accidents, that curiously all happen at the same time.

Nevertheless if you ignore that, then this is a series that’s very well built up. Like the first season, it’s a series in which not a lot happens, but that allows the creators to really explore whatever does happen in great depths. I’ve never really understood the appeal of the maid fetish, or why so many series need to have one for God’s sake, but this is a worthy exception: mature, engaging and heart-warming. A recommendation for everyone who likes history and romance.

Storytelling:	9/10 – A few coincidences don’t stop it from being very well built up and giving everything ample time to develop.
Characters:	9/10 – Wonderful characters with great development.
Production-Values:	8/10 – Very solid.
Setting:	9/10 – Excellent depiction of Victorian England’s upper classes.