Category: Other:

When the Earth is under attack from sort of menace, whether these are aliens, robots or giant mutated freaks, the trick is to make them feel like a threat. Really give off the feeling of “we’re screwed”. Blue Gender is really good at this.

In Blue Gender, the earth is overrun by freakish bug-like monsters. As the series went on, and showed how these creatures (called Blue) operate, it had convinced me surprisingly quickly: yes, these things are able to nearly completely wipe out the human race. They are completely brutal in their hunts, they have evolved to the point where they occupy every part of civilized areas, and whenever you try to kill them, they only evolve and get more nasty. Dying in this show is something really easy: just one careless moment can be the result of a brutal and unforgiving death and just when you think you’re safe, another threat just pops up from the corner. Blue Gender is a large part survival horror, and it really knows how to do that correctly.

As the show goes went into its second half, it really started to impress me, though. Beyond the survival horror, it is also really focused on the character development of its lead couple. This character-development is really excellent: at the end of the series, both of them have changed completely, but believably. The changes that their characters undergo gradually twist the series in a completely different mood and focus. The romance also actually gets developed believably and gets somewhere for once!

That’s pretty much the gist of what you need to know for this series: if you like survival horror and character development, then this is a must-watch. It’s rather simple, but this show hardly has any weak moment and does what it does really well. On top of that, it actually gives quite a bit of depth to its setting through a bit of political intrigue here and there. There are just three things that you need to be aware of here:

1). This show has a very low budget. It’s well directed, but the cleanup animation is lacking throughout most of the frames, and there are a lot of still frames around.
2). It’s a show with a lot of angst. And really, once you see the series you’ll see that there are enough reasons why this series has characters purposefully acting like idiots at times in order to show the mental state they’re in, it can be annoying. Clashes of ideals are also a big theme here.
3). Be prepared to go WTF at the ending. Just… be prepared…

Suggestions:
– Shiki
– Gasaraki
– Armored Trooper Votoms
(I’m not putting High School of the Dead here, because it is inferior to Blue Gender in every way apart from the graphics; call it Diet Blue Gender if you will).

The Break Blade Movies are slowly getting better. The emphasis still is on slowly, though. After this third installment, I’ve still seen too little to really recommend it, but it’s not like the other movies will be doomed to this as well, but at the same time it also introduced a few plot points that I really wonder whether they will work in the rest of the story.

The third movie is the first that actually uses the build-up that the previous movies created, and especially Cleo makes good use of it, with a large portion of this movie devoted to her. This movie overall was quite good in getting the viewer accustomed to most of the side-characters. At the same time though, it still didn’t really solve the problem of its male lead: he still is one of the least likable of the series. This movie just didn’t have as much of him as the previous two, and it was particularly interesting when he wasn’t involved.

The action scenes also were pretty good in this movie, but they weren’t as well animated: there were a few strangely placed still frames, and they did not look as polished as they were in the previous two movies, but the choreography made up for that.

In the end though, I’m still missing something at this point. It fails to stand out in what it’s trying to do and the result is a series of movies that do have some interesting portrayal of warfare in mechas, but too little to make it really worth watching for three hours so far.

Suggestions:
– Gasaraki
– Yomigaeru Sora – Rescue Wings
– Mobile Polkice Patlabor

I currently have reviewed almost 700 series (this is my 692th review, to be exact), and yet I haven’t quite seen anything like The Big O here. The way in which it somehow manages to combine film noir with giant robots fighting each other is really commendable. On top of that, the soundtrack is completely unique as well, it has a unique main character for an anime, and even the entire premise that this series is based on is just… unlike anything I’ve seen. Sunrise, I applaud you for creating such an interesting series!

First things first, though, because this series does like to toy with your suspense of disbelief a lot. You see, the protagonist, Roger Smith has the profession of “Negotiator”: he mediates between fair deals in order to solve conflicts. And seriously, you’d be surprised at how this show time and time again makes these negotiation jobs boil down to giant robot fights. Some villains have some of the most bizarre reasons to suddenly grab a giant robot in order to attempt to accomplish their goals.

I also hope that you like series that don’t bother to answer all of the questions they ask, because this show loves to pretend that it doesn’t make any sense. Instead, it leaves things up to the viewer to interpret, and fill in the blanks. And that’s the beauty of this series: none of the characters really has any idea what’s going on. What we see here is 26 episodes of characters struggling against the unknown, everyone doing this with a different interpretation. This show doesn’t just have an original setting, it also manages to make it very deep by consistently looking at it through different eyes and trying to analyze it.

It also helps that it’s wonderfully told. The entire series has this great mysterious atmosphere, and the stories it presents work really well with the lead couple, Roger Smith and Dorothy. The two of them also play off each other extremely well and are both very well written. Roger Smith is a great lead character because he constantly thinks and never takes anything for granted, while Dorothy’s deadpan portrayal of an android is consistently haunting. The dialogue is also really well written, and the scriptwriters time and time again manage to accurately portray all of the different characters end up in this series.

The Big O is mostly episodic, but it’s the kind where everything comes together at the end. When I watched some of the episodes, they seemed pretty pointless at first, but now that I just finished the final episodes, I’m surprised at how each of the episodes had its purpose, either by adding to one of the characters, giving the setting more depth, or the storyline itself.

My one complaint is that the action scenes, while wonderfully combined with the dialogue, do feel a bit formulaic after a while. This also has to do with the fact that the battles are often held held for… strange reasons. As the show goes on, the stakes that are put on the battles actually increase, though, which takes the monotony away again.

This show also has its share of mindscrew moments. If you’re looking for a confusing series to watch, then this definitely is a recommendation, because when you look beyond the unanswered questions you can see that this show has a story that the creators put a lot of thought and effort into.

Suggestions:
– Argento Soma
– Bokura no
– Gasaraki

I think it’s no surprise that my favourite director of all time is Kazuki Akane. If you look at my Top 10 favourite anime, this guy directed three of those spots, and even his flawed series of Geneshaft was fascinating science fiction. Now, I’m not going to compare Heat Guy J to his other series, though. The entire review would then pretty much look like “Yeah, the [insert element here] is very good, but not as good as Escaflowne, Noein and Birdy” over and over again, because as a standalone series, Heat Guy J has a lot to like.

Starting off, the action in this series is really good and also surprisingly varied. The animators here ended up experimenting with a ton of different styles for animating their action scenes, you have clean brawl-fests, there are fights with messy yet very expressive animation, there are gunfights, car chases, sword battles. This wide array of different styles makes every action scene here worth watching. If anything, just watch the first episode for some superbly directed and animated action. The soundtrack too is very excellent and varied as well. The character designs will probably take a while to (this and Escaflowne have the same character designs ;)), but once you do they too look great, diverse and imaginative.

The show is pretty episodic, and the ratio of random to plot related episodes is about 30 to 70, and even episodes that might seem random at first turn out to have some significance as the story goes on. Heat Guy J’s story is very much dependant on its cast of characters, which really is excellent. The acting is perhaps a bit stiff at times, but the entire cast grows into something lovable by the end of the series. All of the major side characters either get some significant development or an interesting back-story, and I especially loved how the final fight with the major villain at the end ties everything together, wrapping this series up very nicely without leaving any bad aftertaste whatsoever.

The series takes place in another one of those post-apocalyptic futures, but what’s interesting is that while most shows of this kind tend to have a very bleak and depressing outlook, Heat Guy J balances this out with also a lot of positive energy. On one hand, it delves into corruption and crime, but on the other it’s having fun and celebrating humanity’s collective ability to survive a harsh environment and making the best of what they have. This balance they create is great and definitely gives this show an interesting setting to work with.

So yeah, to get back to the first paragraph: this show has a lot of good stuff in it, though I also admit that it did not reach the heights of Birdy, Noein and Escaflowne. Most of the difference lies in the details, though: the latter ones were much better fleshed out and the only real flaw of Heat Guy J is its stiff acting at times, Still, it’s hard not to love the titular J and his constant one liners about what a real man should be, or any of the other characters for that matter.

Suggestions:
– Noein
– DT Eightron
– Turn A Gundam

It’s amazing to think that even in the early days of Bones, they already managed to gather a ridiculous amount of talent. I mean, they immediately showed how good they are with animating down to earth fight scenes with Angelic Layer, they got to do the Escaflowne movie, which had some fantastic animation, and not to mention Cowboy Bebop’s movie (of which I’ve heard many good movies). Then they came with RahXephon and really cemented themselves as a unique production company.

First and foremost, RahXephon is an example of the heights that anime can attain when they make full use of of their creative liberties. For something that aired nine years ago, it just has absolutely fantastic ideas within its graphics. The mecha design is exquisite, and unlike any other series I’ve seen. The use of CG is brilliant, especially for its time. The cleanup animation may leave a lot to be desired, but this show more than makes up for it with its gorgeous artwork and animation. The scenes in this series are also really well directed: this show is full of ideas, from the small details to large plot twist.

Now, as for the story itself though, you’re definitely going to like a bit of a mind-screw once in a while if you want to be able to enjoy this series. In particular, this is in no way a series that tries to explain everything that’s going on through it’s airtime: it leaves a lot unmentioned, and it especially refrains from mentioning exactly why everything is happening in this series. Instead, it just leaves this up to the viewers to make their own interpretations. I personally really like these kinds of series, but if you don’t then prepare to go “wtf” quite a few times throughout the series’ airtime because even for my standards this show ended up leaving a bunch of crucial unanswered questions behind.

Now, one thing that annoyed me a bit is that the cast of characters in this series is a bit of a mixed bag. It can be very good, and the acting is mostly rock solid, and the backgrounds of the characters are overall pretty interesting, but at the same time this show also spends quite a bit of its time on teenaged angst, unfortunately to the point where it takes up too much of the storyline and just goes on for too long. Characters refuse to talk to each other for strange reasons, and various romantic relationships take ages to get from A to B due to superficial padding.

Overall though, while this isn’t a show to watch for its cast, it still has a lot to like here, and I’m impressed what the people from Bones pulled off here. And to be honest, I had a really difficult time deciding whether to give it a rating of 85 or of 87,5, because even nine years after it aired it still is unique. Unfortunately, I do have to admit that it had some parts that were annoying. Nevertheless, it did have got the kind of mindset that I really like, where it put more focus on being interesting than on being flawless.

Suggestions:
– Neon Genesis Evangelion
– Argento Soma
– Darker than Black

Here is one for the category “series with very misleading titles”. This one has two titles: Gakuen Senki Muryou and Shingu – Secret of the Stellar Wars. And yeah, I guess that they make sense when you’ve seen the entire series, but with such titles I expected an epic show about galactic warfare and strategic battles and the role of a random school in them. I was expecting a fully blown action adventure here. Madhouse had different plans, though.

First of all, Gakuen Senki Muryou isn’t about war at all. Sure, there is a war going on and all and there are a few battles here and there, but it’s actually focused much more on diplomacy than actual warfare. Throughout the entire series we get to see all kinds of diplomats, trying to get all kinds of alien relationships to flow smoothly, and trying to take care of the oddball aliens that try to invade the earth. It’s actually quite an interesting concept that the creators got here, unlike any other show I’ve seen here.

Second of all, I did not expect this series to have as much slice of life as it did. It’s even a bigger focus of this show than the diplomacy: this series really shines in the way that it depicts its characters when nothing is going on and they’re just living their daily lives, and it really took its time to portray all of its characters as ordinary humans who have enough things to do on their own when they’re not saving the world. It’s all wonderfully down to earth: often you just randomly see people having dinner, attending classes or trying to get an interesting school project off the ground.

It all meshes surprisingly well with each other and often times the line between slice of life and diplomacy gets pretty blurry, with some wonderful results. It also really helps that this show is really good at fleshing out its characters: the dialogue is often quite witty, the lead characters, especially Nayuta, receive quite a bit of depth throughout the series, and even the smallest side characters here feel like actual people that have their own lives. This show also likes to sometimes focus on random discussions from people that just happened to be in the neighbourhood, and this show actually succeeded really well in making its setting come alive.

This show also subverts a ton of stereotypes: one thing that I especially loved about the first half of this series is that nobody really turns out like what he appears to be at first sight. The show comes with a ton of surprises because of that, which made it very fun to watch, even during the slow pacing of the plot and the childish (but hardly ever annoying!) characters.

Now, first and foremost this is a series about middle schoolers, but it’s also one of those shows whose target audience is pretty vague: there is also quite a bit of attention to the large cast of adults that roam this series, there are no high schoolers whatsoever and the elementary school kids that pass by are also wonderfully characterized (I especially loved Hajime’s sister). On the other hand, all of the scientific theories, diplomatic discussions and the entire backstory will probably fly over the heads of most kids (because really, there is a ton of depth behind the world that this show attempted to create).

It’s pretty much a series for many different ages, especially if you like middle school adventures and the combination of slice of life with something else (in this case science fiction and diplomacy). Just don’t watch this for the action alone: the battles are few and far inbetween, and it’s about the only part of this show that isn’t creatively portrayed. Shingu is a very obscure series, but it really doesn’t deserve that: it’s got more than enough to like.

It’s definitely not the most exciting series: it always favours its laid-back style and pacing, even at the darker parts in the series, but at the same time I can hardly see anything that this show does wrong. Yeah, perhaps it has one tsundere and perhaps the ending could have been less rushed, but that’s just nitpicking here.

Suggestions:
– Level E
– Maria-Sama ga Miteru-franchise
– Tytania