Here’s a movie, animated by Madhouse, but voiced fully in Chinese, about the highlands of Tibet. With this it already gets a plus for its interesting setting. It’s also a coming of age movie about a young boy, which is a bit unfortunate, but this mvie has more than enough to make up for it.
It’s an excellent look on the culture of Tibetan sheep herders and in particular a doctor in those areas (the lead character’s father is a local doctor). On top of that, it also has a number of very interesting action scnees involving dogs. Those things set it apart quite a bit from the mould of coming of age movies. It’s a movie that is grounded in realism, yet also packs some nice climaxes, and in terms of pacing it’s pretty well paced: the quiet scenes build up well for the climaxes and they remain interesting for the entire movie.
There are two main problems with this movie. The first is the very unfortunate name that was chosen for the golden dog that the movie is all about: Doogie. I’m not sure whether this sounds any less cheesy in Chinese or not, but the mood of the climaxes did get broken a bit when the characters kept going “Doogie! Doogie! Doogie!” over and over. My second issue is that a lot of the characters could have been more interesting. The dogs are awesome, but the lead character does little to set himself apart from other young leads. The bad guys of the movie are also pretty bland. Some of the side characters, like the old medicine seller and the male lead’s father were interesting to watch, though, but unfortunately the dull characters outnumber the interesting ones.
Tibetan Dog is a very good movie, especially considering its settings, but the director, Masayuki Kojima did work on more interesting stuff. The characters in Piano no Mori were just better developed, Hanada Shounen Shi was the example of a young boy lead done right, A Spirit of the Sun had better suspense. Oh, and not to mention Master Keaton and Monster, of course.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 – Good build-up. Good use of dogs in the movie. |
| Characters: | 7/10 – Unfortunately a few too many bland characters at key positions. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – Well animated, but nothing special for movie standards. |
| Setting: | 9/10 – A movie about Tibet. Excellent, and it makes great use of it. |
To the people who sat through the first two movies of Towa no Quon feeling rather underwhelmed: this third movie will reward your patience. It’s a massive improvement. While during the first two movies I wasn’t really sure whether the creators knew what they were doing. The third one however, showed that it knew.
For starters, the extra focus on the characters’ backgrounds really helps. This episode is specifically meant to get various characters with bad pasts relate to each other, including the main character Quon. The cast of this series goes through a massive improvement here, and finally they step away from the rather generic bunch they used to be in the first two movies.
But that’s not all that happens here. In terms of storytelling this movie also did something interesting. It plays around much more with its screenplay. The first two movies were rather mediocre at building up, but this movie contains some really good suspense that actually doesn’t leave. The build-up actually comes together really well at the end of the movie.
The director really put in some thought here in how to make this episode work, considering the very limited budget he has to work with. This leads to a movie that downplays action in favor of suspense, and that really works here. The creators really found something that they’re good at.
There was pretty much only one reason why I was really looking forward to checking out Infinite Ryvius: because I had seen it being praised for having very realistic and true to life characters. Now that I finished watching it, I can wholeheartedly agree with that, but just that statement alone also does a complete injustice of just how good this show really is.
The cast in this show is true to life, but by god, that’s not everything. This show has pretty much one of the best uses of teenagers in a space opera I’ve seen. Perhaps only Bokura no surpasses it here, if you really stretch the definition of “space opera”. This show is about the crew of a space ship. The entire cast of Infinite Ryvius consists out of teenagers, but for once, it makes perfect sense in the context of the story, they actually make full use of the young age of everyone to create a storyline that would never have been possible with adults. The fact that everyone is just a kid is vital to just about everything in the story.
What’s also amazing is how perfectly paced this show is. I mean, above I said that the characters are really true to life. They are very easy to relate to, and their actions throughout the series are very realistic. And yet at the same time the creators somehow turned this into a roller-coaster of a series that hardly ever takes a break. I’m completely amazed at how well the creators manage to weave everything together into one series. The cast of this show is huge, every episode brings a ton of new developments for the characters, and yet it doesn’t feel rushed. The story is the complete definition of utter chaos, and yet it’s full of twists, and yet the creators succeeded in making it move naturally. Despite having a ton of characters who all change significantly multiple times, all at their own pace, it makes sure to make all of them relatable, very strongly acted and miles away from stereotypes.
The only thing I’d have to mention against this series’ favor is that there is techno-babble, but it’s not even badly used. This show has its own original setting, and with that comes a bit of terminology that will take a bit of time to remember all of the different aspects of it.
Seriously, this may not have strings of over the top action scenes, but this show was made in 1999. I haven’t seen any Sunrise series made after that that was able to top this series. Not even Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto. It’s an emotional roller-coaster that somehow managed to avoid stereotypes, one-dimensional characters, hamming it up or other kinds of insincere melodrama, and it manages to blend all sorts of emotions wonderfully together. Definitely a recommendation for science fiction fans.
Now that I’m getting so close to the end of my to-watch-list, and really to the series that I’ve been looking forward to the most, this really does give a different kind of expectation compared to usual. This goes in particular for Princess Tutu: aside from one particular series, it has been the series that you have recommended to me the most often (that other series is Monster, by the way). With such a critically acclaimed series, I went into this series with a completely different mindset than others and it generally leads you to expect things in a different way from usual.
What I mean by this is the following: after completely finishing this series, I’d have to say that Princess Tutu isn’t the best shoujo series I’ve seen. Normally for an average show, this really wouldn’t mean much, because you can say this for 99.9% of all of the series out there, but this statement does gain a different meaning for something with the caliber of Princess Tutu. That doesn’t however mean that this show isn’t awesome and if you even remotely like shoujo and haven’t seen this one yet, you’re doing yourself a great disservice.
First of all, Princess Tutu is about ballet. That alone gives this show an air of elegance unlike any other, and the creators make full use of this with some excellent choreography. This show doesn’t have fancy graphics, but it still looks gorgeous due to the time that went into portraying all of the different dances that are incredibly prevalent throughout the entire series. A good dancer is able to entice an audience, just by performing, and the creators of this series did just that.
What really caught my attention about this series however, was how well this show develops its characters. In particular the most important characters change tremendously throughout the storyline, and this change ends up being a very important theme throughout the entire series. These characters are round and dynamic, they change naturally, yet you can’t see them coming. Even the side-characters evolve subtly throughout the series. Everyone is well acted, and the cast is immensely fun to watch, both during the light hearted moments and the serious ones.
This series is also able to tell a great story, with a beginning and an actual ending, where it makes great use of its build-up. Where it left things to be desired for me was at some points while building up, where it tended to get a bit too formulaic. This series also depends a lot on brainwashing and using love as a plot device. It actually gets away with it quite decently, but there are times when in particular the side characters suffer losing their free will too much, so that they can’t really show what kind of character they actually are. Brainwashing in general is very tricky to do right and Princess Tutu remains one of the better examples to do it because it’s a major theme of the entire series, but it does lead to a lack of freedom that holds the show back at times.
Still, with the current state that shoujo anime is in today, it’s great to look back at how grand it was in the past. This show combines innocence with dark and deep characters really well and with the ballet, it turns turns into a wonderful emotional ride. Oh, and the soundtrack cannot go unmentioned here. The use of classical music in this show is just a perfect match.
Persona has the potential to become great as it goes on. Its premise can get really good in terms of character development if handled well. At the moment it’s still a bit too stuck in its own formula to really take off, though. There is little time given to flesh out the characters, which is why the parts where they show their inner secrets lack the impact they could have had.
#14 (new) – Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – (7,75/10)
This series’ biggest asset is its creativity. It’s set in an original world and the cast of characters is HUGE and very colourful. The overall plot feels a bit random and silly, but it’s definitely building up to something. The character designs themselves are abysmal, there are some definitely annoying characters and a lot of time is spent on just goofing off, but there’s some definite potential here.
#13 (new) – Phi Brain – (7,75/10)
This is a rather silly show about puzzles. In particular the antagonists make really weird decisions and have really strange motivations, but it’s worth it to see what kind of puzzles the creators come with, and the overall cast is eccentric, yet fun to watch. There is a very real chance for this show to become TOO eccentric, though. The key will be good variety in the puzzles from this point on.
#12 (17) – Shinryaku!? Ika-Musume – (8/10)
Overall Squid Girl’s second season has been a little step down compared to the frist season, but for comedy sequels’ standards it isn’t much of a step. The animation has gotten slightly worse, and some stories are too forced, but there still are a bunch of really hilarious stories. It needs to keep this up, because getting worse from this point isn’t an option.
#11 (9) – Bakuman – (8/10)
I do have to say that Bakuman is currently the best Shounen Jump series out there. Unlike Gintama and Sket Dance it isn’t throwing a bunch of random stories around in the hope that it’ll get lucky and strike gold, while unlike Nurarihyon no Mago it isn’t breaking up the flow with constant training arcs. The second season does have fixed some of its pacing issues, but on the other hand it’s not yet Hunter X Hunter material, and things have been rather monotonous.
#10 (new) – Tamayura ~ Hitotose – (8/10)
The two big slice of life series are both very, very different, but they’ve got one similarity: they depend on characters with annoying sides, and they somehow make it work. For me, Tamayura does it the best of the two at this point. It’s really well animated, and it actually uses photos really well to flesh out its cast. The drama around it isn’t random, but tells a lot about the characters. Some parts like the whistling and the shota fangirls can get annoying, though.
#9 (new) – Hunter X Hunter – (8,25/10)
Here is the thing with this new season: it’s much faster than the first season. That has advantages and disadvantages. The story flows more, it’s easier to get into and as the result a lot of very interesting stuff has already happened in just four episodes. Now, the thing remains that this show skips a lot of time to flesh out the characters because of this. Out of all adaptations that feel rushed this season, this one actually does its best to hide it so far, but the real test for this show will be the point where the characters will actually show themselves off. Will these be as great as well? Right now, the only parts that really are worse than the first season are the music, and some of the voice acting.
#8 (new) – Mirai Nikki – (8,25/10)
Mirai Nikki is over the top suspense, and it realizes that. The characters are fun and well acted together, there’s a good whiff of romance without overdoing it, and the first three episodes have been very entertaining with a pretty good atmosphere.
#7 (new) – Fate/Zero – (8,25/10)
Fate/Zero stands out as the most solid series of the season. I refuse to watch Fate/Stay Night but this was completely different and much more interesting (and heck, we’re talking about actual adults this time). My big complaint about it is that it’s a bit boring with its exposition. There are long scenes of characters just standing in one place and do nothing but talking, and characters stop in the middle of fights to explain their moves. That breaks flow.
#6 (new) – Ben-To – (8,25/10)
What makes Ben-To so addictive is its direction. It has definite harem elements, but tis delivery is fresh and interesting. The jokes all work great, the timing of this show is perfect, and even when it’s not funny, the characters are interesting and well acted, rather than most other moe shows that have just boring characters. On top of that the fights are a lot of fun to watch, and the premise of fighting over half-priced lunches just kicks ass.
#5 (new) – Last Exile – Ginkyou no Fam – (8,5/10)
If you’re planning to watch this series, I have one message for you: watch up to the second episode. Both episodes are completely different in tone. The first episode is rather childish, where the second is very serious. It actually manages to blend the two together very well and most importantly it knows when to ditch its silliness. What really impressed me is how much the creators put into the setting. This show is full of creativity and the world it’s played in actually feels alive.
#4 (new) – Chihayafuru – (8,5/10)
This show has the best characters of the new season. They’re really well animated, very dynamic (showing both their young and old versions in full details really helps!), plus the karuta matches were really made exciting. The big challenge for this show is making the karuta matches this way. It’s a very simple game, so keeping up this pace will be a challenge.
#3 (new) – Un-Go – (8,5/10)
I really like the storytelling in this series. This show knows that it’s Noitamina and tries to stuff as much into its episodes as possible. The result is that it’s really fast paced, but not in a bad way. Episodes do require a second watch-through in order to get everything, but for me that’s not a bad thing at all. My only gripe is that the cast of characters is rather flat.
#2 (4) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)
This month was all about character development. Naturally this was a great chance for the cast to shine, in a very weird arc that completely ditched the warfare in favor of esthetics. This is Bee-Train though, so I’m really looking forward to what they have planned for the ending.
#1 (1) – Mawaru Penguin Drum – (9,25/10)
Penguin Drum has definitely changed this month. I think that it’s for the better. It’s both become hilarious and the character development is really kicking in. It keeps finding new ways of showing symbolism and toying with its storyline. And yet, amidst the chaos, nothing is just thrown in at random. It would be awesome if the final third will be able to live up to the potential that has been built up so far.]]> 
Um… yeah. This movie…. I think I’ve just been trolled.
The first Macross Frontier Movie stayed very close to the TV-series, only in a much more streamlined version. It cut all of the unnecessary stuff that dragged out, and instead focused on the core of the series, which worked really well and I ended up really liking it (and this is coming from someone who was really annoyed by parts of the TV-series). The second movie is… different…
One of my problems with Macross Frontier was that some subplots took forever to get anywhere, and a lot of them were resorted rather half-heartedly, if at all. This movie isn’t like that. This movie wants to be exciting. This movie wants plot twists, and it delivers them no matter what.
It’s difficult to do this review without spoilers, but let’s just say that this movie wants to deliver plot twists a little too badly. Especially the second half shows this. The result is a story that has lots of twists and turns… that just don’t make any sense whatsoever. You are going to have to turn off your common sense if you want to be able to enjoy this. I did not, and was raging throughout half of them. This was in no way good storytelling! The creators just pulled whatever twist looked the coolest out of their ass, and completely disregarded narrative logic. And I’m not the strictest when it comes to not making sense, but what the creators pulled here was just deus ex machina after deus ex machina that only add to the style of this series, not the substance. Oh, and Shoji Kawamori shows his environmentalist side again. You know, the kind where the environmentalist messages are just shoved down your throat without any sense of subtlety.
*Ahem* when you do turn off logic, you’ll be rewarded by an utterly gorgeous movie. In particular the musical segments shine as ever. This is one part at which Macross Frontier has never disappointed, and this is o exception. The use of colours and camera angles shows how much budget and animation talent went into this. Both for the 2d animation as the CG as the backgrounds.
It IS a fun movie. Just don’t go into it expecting good drama, because the drama here is of soap opera quality.