Category: Anime Reviews

In a way, One outs is much like Death Note or Code Geass: it’s a show that isn’t exactly smart, but loves to make others think that it’s the smartest kid on the block. It comes from the creators of Akagi and Kaiji, meaning that we get lots of mind games surrounding a god-like character, this time focusing on baseball. If you’re expecing much of the same, though, you’ll find yourself surprised: unlike the above mentioned series, which are all dark and gritty, One Outs goes for a much lighter tone, with a much bigger focus on entertainment, rather than suspense.

Overall, One Outs is a very strange beast. It’s the type of series that has no depth whatsoever. While the different baseball strategies may seem impressive at first sight, it’s simply an extreme version of common baseball tactics, just made more exciting for non-baseball fans. The characters receive no development whatsoever, and the series basically is a string of baseball matches in which Tokuchi (the lead character) always wins.

Instead, the fun in this series comes from seeing tokuchi pwn everyone and his dog repeatedly. while they lack development, the characters in this series have prescence, and it’s always fun to see how badly the enemy teams will be beaten. The series knows that it has a very good combination of suspense and fun, and its got lots and lots of self-confidence. It doesn’t really care of being the deepest series out there, it just wants to have fun, and that’s what it accomplishes here.

By far my favourite part of the show was the faces of everyone after Tokuchi comes up with his umpth plan. When I first started watching, I was a bit afraid that the creators would just copy their own styles used in Akagi and Kaiji, but One Outs was surprisingly refreshing, while still remaining a series that’s typical of these guys.

Storytelling:	9/10
Characters:	7/10
Production-Values:	8/10
Setting:	8/10

Skip Beat has been an incredibly frustrating series for me; and not because it was incredibly bad: instead it’s been incredibly good. It’s a true breath of fresh air in the Shoujo genre, I became a fan of it instantly… and yet every single tiny flaw tends to stick out like a needle here. Ack.

While from the outside this series doesn’t look anything special: shoujo series about a girl who enters the idol business have been done before, but never in the way that this series has done. By a lack of a better description: this show has BALLS. The amount of guts it has continues to surprise, and to be honest, I can’t think of any other shoujo series that has a better sense of comedic timing than this series has. It’s amazing how careful and yet how witty this show is when delivering the jokes. It knows exactly how to deliver its jokes. The show is definitely on its best when two people with incredibly clashing personality are in bitch-fights against each other. It’s guaranteed hilarity!

And that’s the thing: if there’s any series that deserves to progress flawlessly, then it’s this one, but it’s such a bloody shame that the drama-bit of this series is shaky. While better than your average romantic comedy, the drama especially in the middle suffers from being WAY TOO RIDICULOUSLY CHEESY for its own good. The incredibly soppy drama unfortunately takes itself seriously, and doesn’t seem to realize that it’s incredibly formulaic.

The problem with this series is its trademark bitch-fights: while hilarious to watch, it becomes horribly dull when characters aren’t either trying to scratch each other’s eyes out or teasing the hell out of each other. The biggest offenders are the two middle arcs, about the chief’s daughter and the commercial filming. In such a hilarious series, these arcs break the flow terribly and are a pain to get through.

The romance also starts out incredibly shaky. Kyoko, the female lead, doesn’t just happen to run into one of the most respected actors in the business, she also grew up with the friggin guy when she was just a child. Especially the latter is jarring, since it wasn’t needed (or used, for that matter) at all in order to spark up the romance between him and the lead female.

THANKFULLY, though, this series does pick itself up as it goes along, resulting into a bunch of episodes of awesomeness in the final third, and it closes off with a strong arc. Unfortunately, it then proceeds to end the series with one helluva cliff-hanger. Kyoko herself is a really diverse character that has a huge amount of different sides to her character. Unfortunately, some of these sides feel forced. And that’s the bloody thing with this show: for every great point it seems to have one flaw or so to bring it down.

Nevertheless, I recommend this show for those looking for a great shoujo-series. Great shoujo-series like this one are very rare, especially since most shows of the genre feel like a simple rehash of an existing formula without much of an own identity. Skip Beat, while too soppy for its own good at time is a genuinely funny series, and we can only hope that a second season will be made some day.

Storytelling:	9/10
Characters:	9/10
Production-Values:	8/10
Setting:	8/10

The reason why there aren’t many reviews of pure slice-of-life series on this site isn’t because I dislike the genre, or anything. Instead, when I need to drop series to prevent myself from watching too much at once, these shows also seem to be the ones to go down first. This season I felt in a bit of an experimental mood, though, and I decided to stick with the third season of Minami-Ke, even though I never watched more than one or two episodes from the first two seasons. What I got was a pretty enjoyable series about the lives of a bunch of sisters, living together and their classmates.

While I could go all anal and be like “zomg, it’s nothing but fillers so it sux0rz”, but even though there’s hardly any continuity, and all of the different stories are just random strings of five minutes packed together, it’s in this case perfectly enjoyable to watch the antics of all of the different characters in this series. While it’s not as gut-achingly funny as other comedies, I found that Minami-Ke Okaeri was often able to put a smile on my face.

This is a typical show that never really hits any highs or lows, and instead is just enjoyable to watch and perfect if you’re feeling lazy and have half an hours or so to burn. The Minami-sisters are quite likable, and they’re funny while not trying to be. This review is short because there’s not much else to say about it, but I’m definitely going to check out the first season, which is rumoured to be even better.

Storytelling:	8/10
Characters:	8/10
Production-Values:	8/10
Setting:	8/10

When it started, Ride Back was a strange beast. With its concept of uniting strange motorbikes with arms with military totalitarianism, I was on one hand charmed by the characters, on the other hand it just kept testing my suspense of disbelief with overly coincidental plot twists that were only introduced for the sake of the story. Nevertheless, now that I’ve finished this series, I don’t feel like whining anymore. Ride Back rocks, despite some of the sacrifices it had to make.

In the end, Ride Back is a character-study of the female lead: Rin Ogata. It’s about many small things: criticism against military entering politics, simple motorbike racing, and terrorism; it’s about how a seemingly innocent action can have disastrous consequences and trying to find one’s true potential. and the beauty of Ride Back is that somehow, it all makes these widely diverse themes into a whole in only 12 episodes. The show very subtly evolves from light college adventures to a dark story about terrorism, but the whole thread of Rin’s development keeps it on one track and it prevents the series from dragging on, and while it may seem like a bit questionable as it goes on, the series comes together wonderfully in the end.

I also really must praise Madhouse’s visuals yet again. They went with another different art style this time, and especially the character-designs look really good and down to earth. There’s a slight issue that the CG doesn’t mesh in with the rest of the visuals, but even that could have been done much, much worse. And the series’ soundtrack also is a very powerful one.

So overall, I ended up liking this series much more than I thought. It’s got a questionable start, and does tend to pull some random coincidences simply for the sake of its story, but Rin’s development is rock-solid, which is especially rare for such a small 12-episode series. It’s no instant classic, but it’s yet again a worthy addition to Madhouse’s excellent repertoire.

Storytelling:	8/10
Characters:	9/10
Production-Values:	9/10
Setting:	8/10

The thing I like about the Tales of-games adaptations is that they’re all done by different animation companies with different ideas. This way, the shows remain fresh, and are prevented from getting milked out, since all of them have their own styles now. Tales of the Abyss, while it suffers from some of the major pitfalls of RPG-adaptations, also manages to avoid quite a few of them, and is worth the watch if you’re into fantasy series.

The biggest pitfall it failed to avoid is of course the very questionable power management: teenagers have enough magical powers to save the world compared to adults with much more experience, little girls can control monsters as if it’s nothing, and trained royal guards die as easy as flies. It’s something that’s very hard to avoid in this genre, but it’s still pretty grating.

Thankfully though, the show has enough to make up for this. It really stands out in its character-development, which is pretty much a trademark of the Tales of-games by now. A lot of emphasis is put on internal trust: a lot of the main characters in this series are pretty flawed, and because they all have their own mistakes and secrets, a memorable bond grows between them. Especially the lead character, Luke is notable for this, as even though he may look like it, he’s far away from your typical male lead in such fantasy series. To explain why would be too much of a spoiler, though.

The storyline is also very well done, and impressive for an RPG adaptation. For once the king of an empire can be something different from either a fascistic pig or an incompetent flower-child. The show has plenty of villains, but all of them have at least decent motivations for their actions. The storyline is pretty complex, and no episode is really wasted, and I especially liked how th emagic system in this show has turned into a sort of science. Especially how it affects the world that the characters live in is very detailed and full of imagination.

Near the end of the series, the show does get a bit rushed, though: it wants a bit too much in too little time, and especially the ending of the series just feels too lazy, but apart from that we have ourselves a very good series here. While it never really hit any heights, it’s been a solid and enjoyable series.

Storytelling:	8/10
Characters:	9/10
Production-Values:	8/10
Setting:	8/10