Category: Anime Reviews

The past Autumn- and Winter-season came with an interesting trend: actually good visual novel adaptations. Not just one, but four series (Clanad, ef, this one and True Tears) came from nowhere and shattered the stereotypes I had about the genre. These four series showed that good writing can even turn such a boring–sounding premise as a high-school romance interesting. Kimikiss may not have been as refreshing as Clannad, it may not have had the well-written dialogue of ef, and it neither has characters with the depth of True Tears, but still it’s a worthy series to watch.

Kimikiss is one of these series that plays it safe. The first half is very slow, and basically just serves to flesh out the characters, and set up their personalities and hobbies. Then it starts developing its romances. There are basically three main couples to start with, all with their own problems. While they’re a bit clichéd at times, the character-development is definitely the highlight for this series.

This series doesn’t really have any obvious flaws. There are no errors in the storytelling, the main-characters and side-characters may not be ground-breaking, but they’re all well-fleshed out and developed. The graphics look okay, and so does the music. I do have one complaint with this series, though: it tends to lose itself in its love-triangles at times. Love-triangles are a nasty double-edged sword, and more often than not only distract from what’s really important in a series, where two characters could be advancing the plot but instead are too busy whining about who loves who. Only series as True Tears, that have basically been built around these love-triangles have made them work for me.

Kimikiss at times can’t seem to decide whether it wants to go for straight romance, or love-triangles. The result is that every time two characters are having a bit of time together, a third one pops up to try and take one of them away. In this series, it’s much more fun to just simply watch the couples develop.

I admire the guts of the director to basically split the main character of the game that this series was originally based upon, up in three different ones. The transition has really been seamless, and it shows that the director can do more than just copy and paste well. Kimikiss won’t rock your soul, but it’ll at least keep it a bit entertained.

Wha! Another series I had no idea ended so soon. The series of the past two seasons have followed an interesting trend of breaking away from the usual 26/24/13/12-episode-formats, with more series than ever with just 10 (Hatenkou Yuugi), 11 (Hakaba Kitarou) or 22 (Shion no Ou, Ghost Hound, this one) episodes, and I think that it’s a great trend, better than including a bunch of random fillers to fill time.

In any case, on with the review. Let me start by saying that before Clannad started, I hated Kyoani with passion. One of the reasons for that was simple bias, unfortunately. The first ten episodes that I saw of Kanon were nothing special, and the same goes for the four episodes of Haruhi Suzumiya that I saw. Especially Lucky Star bored the heck out of me, every time I watched an episode of it, and yet people were praising these guys as if they’re were some kind of living incarnation of God. At that time, I just saw Kyoani as a bunch of reasonably good animators who rely way and way too much moe and stereotypes, and couldn’t write an engaging script, even if their lives depended on it.

And then Clannad came, and somehow it succeeded in entirely changing this opinion. Amongst all the visual novel and hentai-game adaptations, Clannad most definitely stands out for me as the best. Even if you hate the genre, this series is still worth checking out, simply because it’s so delightfully different, and it breaks so many stereotypes.

For once, the male main character has an actual personality and his own story. He actually has weaknesses, and isn’t a huge stereotype. The male side-character that you usually see around him (supposedly, to show the difference between guys who get lots of girls and guys who have no chance at them), may be an idiot at times, but he’s actually not as annoying as you might think he’d be, and he often brightens up the situation.

Then there are the female characters in the series. Their characters aren’t as special as some of the other ones, but they do their jobs. What’s especially notable is that this is one series that realizes who its female main character is, and so it never delves into pointless love-triangles. Because of this, this series has much more slice-of-life elements than it has romance-elements.

In Clannad, the main character isn’t the one who magically solves all the problems of his female companions on his own. Sure, he plays an important role, but every time, it’s either a different side-character who ends up saving the girl in question, or the combination of all the side-characters together. The level of friendship that wouldn’t be out of place in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai is quite astounding and gives a nice perspective to this series.

This series isn’t perfect; nearly every female character does fall in love with the main character at one point or another, for very weak reasons. Luckily, they quickly realize that the guy is already occupied. This series also tends to have a few plot-twists that are a tad too coincidental and convenient. Thankfully, it knows how to build up well enough, and everything comes together in the final episode like a charm. I must congratulate Kyoani for delivering a solid series, away from any stereotypes. But seriously, please make their next series take place at a place away from a high school.

Even though the season hasn’t officially ended yet, I’m pretty sure about my top-3 series of the Autumn-season. First place is obviously for Shion no Ou, Ghost Hound comes in second, and Mokke takes up the third spot. In a generally underwhelming season, these three series stood far above the others, and manage to deliver constant quality.

Mokke has had it quite tough in terms of popularity, though. Even before it aired, people were comparing it to the next Mushishi. Expectations it obviously couldn’t fulfil. True, at first sight Mokke and Mushishi seem alike. They’re both slice-of-life stories about supernatural spirits, but that’s where the similarities end. In Mushishi, the mushi had no personality whatsoever, while in Mokke, each spirit talks just like a human would. Mushishi featured a grown up and experienced adult as its main character, while Mokke worked with two young and naive sisters. And the most important difference: Mushishi was about its stories, while Mokke is about its characters.

And that’s where people are mostly turned off by. The stories for Mokke are quite simple and not very complicated. They just serve to support the characters. Each episode features some kind of spirit that comes into contact with either the two main characters, or somebody that they know. It may seems like the “monster of the week”, but thankfully the creators have enough inspiration to make every episode different.

And really, the characters shine. They’re all well-defined and subtly developed, and especially Mizuki and Shizuru bring this anime to life. Through the 24 episodes of this series, you’ll learn their hobbies, their fears, what makes them uneasy, and how they try to deal with the fact that one of them can see spirits, while the other gets easily possessed by them.

Do note that the character-designs don’t try to be as pretty as possible. Mizuki and Shizuru are in this way really portrayed as normal girls, but if you’re one of these persons who loses interest if you don’t see a sexy bishoujo drawn to please otaku for forty-five seconds, then you may stay away from this. I also acknowledge that at times, this series tends to be a bit too dramatic for its own good. And yet, this was always a series where I knew that I would end up in a relaxed state after watching, no matter what happened during an episode. Add that to the fact that I ended up crying for the characters more than once, the music is simple, yet effective, the final episode ended up being the best of the entire series, leaving no bad taste whatsoever and the OP and ED both feature excellent songs, and I see enough reasons to put this on my list of top-series of the season.

Back in August, I made a rather large list of all kinds of worthwhile movies and OVAs, as a way to systematically catch up them, just like I did before with 13-episode series. I became an anime-fan relatively late, so I missed out on a lot of good stuff and this was the prefect chance to get my hands on a number of true anime classics. And with Millennium Actress, I finally finished this list. I’ll try to come up with some kind of compilation-post with my highlights tomorrow or the day after that.

In any case, Millennium Actress by Satoshi Kon was the perfect movie to save for last. Not only is it an excellent movie, but it also pays homage to all kinds of historical movie-genres. While I can’t say that it’s been the definite best movie ever, it does have the most imaginative storyline that I’ve ever seen in one. It even leaves the various Ghibli-productions miles behind it!

You can also recognize elements of other productions of Satoshi Kon. Suddenly, the RPG-episode of Paranoia Agent makes perfect sense and I can understand a bit where Paprika went wrong with its constant repeats of the same shots: Satoshi there tried to relive one particular scene of this movie, but he went much too far in that. Also, like all of his movies, the main characters stand miles apart from the sort of cast you usually see in anime, and their average age is probably the highest of any anime I’ve seen.

And this yet again shows that older characters can be just as fun to watch as the teenage ones. All members of the main cast are absolutely lovable, both the males and the females. I just couldn’t help but root for them throughout the entire movie. What also absolutely shines is the story. This is much more than just a simple love story, and Satoshi Kon goes way beyond the usual clichés and formulas. Unfortunately, the movie is not perfect. One thing I really missed in the second half was the hilarious sense of humour of the first half. It’s of course inevitable to become more serious as the movie progresses, but Tokyo Godfathers demonstrated that the jokes in the second half can really work in the movie’s advantage if they’re delivered well.

Looking back, it’s a shame that Satoshi’s record got spoiled with Paprika. That movie just feels outright mediocre when compared to all his stellar works, and it’s much, much worse than all of his other directing-jobs. Seriously, Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress and Paranoia Agent all are excellent recommendations. All four are unique, all four have an excellent and realistic modern art-style, and all of them have an absolutely stellar soundtrack, with the background music from Millennium Actress probably being the best of them all.

Tsuiokuhen, or Trust and Betrayal, is the prequel (although it was produced later) to the series Rurouni Kenshin. Don’t worry; you don’t need to have seen the series to enjoy this four-episode OVA. I haven’t seen it myself, nor am I planning to (my to-watch-list is already large enough without the addition of a ninety-episode series), but I was perfectly able to follow what was going on without feeling left out, unlike the two Patlabor-movies. The original series may be too large of a commitment, but this four-episode OVA is a must-watch.

Seriously, I’ve never seen anyone who didn’t like this after watching it. The story itself may have been done before, but the storytelling and characters more than make up for it. This is one anime that perfectly knows how to use its time with a great balance of building up and intense scenes. Sure, there are some very nice fights, but the two main characters really steal the show. The side-characters are also well-defined, and have their own clear roles to play and at the end, the storylines are all very neatly wrapped up.

Still, in terms of sword-fighting this series delivers as well. There may be fewer fights than you would expect, but right now I can’t remember having seen any other anime with more detail in its choreography than what I’ve seen in this OVA, even considering the epics of Shigurui and Seirei no Moribito. In addition to that, the background music is also stellar. The only thing I can name that gets close to a bad point is the fact that the main character may have been a bit too young to be such a masterful and unbeatable swordsman.

Still, after watching it, I totally understand why Tsuiokuhen is so popular and well-loved. If you’re into period-anime, this just has to sit on your watch-list, and this is another top-notch OVA. The people from Studio Deen have proven once again that even though they screw up at times, they can churn out a classic just as easily.

Perfect Blue: take a random episode of Paranoia Agent, remove all traces of humour whatsoever and extend the result into a ninety-minute movie. I originally thought that this series would be more like Tokyo Godfathers, but instead we get a story about paranoia, schizophrenia and hallucinations. And While I liked Tokyo Godfathers better, Perfect Blue is a very capable movie as well.

Satoshi Kon knows how to build up his story, and this is even apparent in his first major movie. It starts with a simple case where an ex-idol is being stalked by an obsessed fan, and the series turns more and more into a psychological horror-series afterwards. Like expected, the biggest purpose of this movie is to dive into the mind of its main character, and it succeeds pretty well at this. Mima is a terrific character, and even though she may freak out, she’s far away from an emo teenager in the middle of puberty.

This movie does have its problems, though. It feels like a few of the side-characters weren’t used to their full potential. While I can understand why Satoshi Kon decided not to show much of the background of the major bad guys, it would have been interesting to see more of the reasons behind their actions, and their backgrounds. The ending also felt a tad too abrupt, and an extra minute would have done wonders on it. A little more involvement with the police would also have been desired. Quite a few people get killed, but you hardly ever see the cops.

Overall, I agree with the general opinion for this movie: Perfect Blue is great, but it’s not Satoshi Kon’s best work. Still, if it’s paranoia you want, then you should definitely give it a chance. With a terrific soundtrack and a gritty, realistic setting, away from the usual idol-stereotypes you see in anime, this movie won’t leave you disappointed.

So, after this, there’s just one movie and one OVA left that I want to check out. I think it’s pretty obvious which ones I saved for last, but I’m not going to say which they are just yet. 😉