Category: Other:

Anime, just like any other medium, does suffer from the fact that as time goes on, it gets harder and harder to be original. In the past decade, nearly all of the genres we know today were already invented, and during the past few years, it has become near-impossible to create any new genres it seems. If I’m not mistaken, the last time a new genre was created was with the horeca-series: short series in which the main characters run a restaurant/food-shop/bar/etc. After shows as Ristorante Paradiso, the genre is quietly picking up in recognition and popularity, but the anime who pioneered it, Bartender, is even more notable.

Likewise, today it’s very hard to be original anymore. Just try to think of something that absolutely has never been done before; only a select amount of series can truly do such a thing with confidence. Still, I really have to say that Bartender is THE most original anime series to have aired in the past five years. It’s really one of those series of which you can’t think that anything good can come out of it… and yet it’s great. From the outside, it’s simply a series in which characters drop by the bar of the lead character, drink a bit, talk about their problems and “see the light”. This series however doesn’t only make this work, it also throws in lots of unique stuff that really makes optimal use from the fact that this is a show about liquor.

So yeah, the generic formula for this series is that a customer comes into the bar called Eden Hall, hosted by the bartender who can serve the Glass of the Gods, and talks about his problems. In cases like this, it’s of course very tempting for a show to simply cheese up his story and shallowly deus ex machina all of the customer’s problems away simply after drinking a bit, yet somehow Bartender manages to avoid this pitfall. It doesn’t just view cocktails as just mixes of random drinks, but it looks at where these drinks came from: why were these drinks created? How did they get their names? Why do people drink them? Throughout each episode it provides all kinds of real-life anecdotes, both well-known and obscure, and relates these to the customer’s problems. By cleverly combining all of this, the customer comes to an understanding of his problems that actually doesn’t feel forced or obvious, and yet makes a lot of sense. And THAT’s the strength of Bartender: it intelligently looks at its customer’s problems and analyzes them; all in a way I have never seen done before.

You can really see that this is a series that’s written by someone who has a passion for liquor. I’m a liquor noob myself, but even I could tell that this series has an incredible amount of knowledge about all sorts of drinks, cocktails and also the detailed history behind them. It’s just like Osamu Tezuka, who as a Medicine graduate made optimal use of his knowledge when he wrote Black Jack, or take Shion no Ou, whose manga was written by a former professional shougi-player, who completely understood all of the principles of the game.

The third point at which Bartender shines with originality is the way it handles its narration, which again is something I have never seen done before in anime. Customers simply don’t disappear when their story is over, but they instead turn into narrators: they occasionally return to help out the main narrator to tell his story, and share their views of the new customers, while at the same time they never try to butt in with other people’s problems. Especially the final two episodes shine in this, and the entire series closes off with a really rounded final episode, in the way that Seraphim Call’s final episode was originally meant to end.

Amidst the originality though, there is one flaw that really sticks out like sore thumb. While I’m often not bothered by animation, the animation in Bartender really is abysmal at times. A lot of the shots look like they were drawn in a rushed way, and the only thing that seems to save this show’s aesthetics is the atmosphere of a bar that this show manages to create. The distorted faces really get in the way when we see a customer have a moment of self-discovery and during these moments, the cheese also tends to take over. This series screams maturity, but at the same time it also becomes hard to take it seriously with some of these hideously drawn faces. Thankfully though, the production-values do get saved by an excellent and relaxing soundtrack that still manages to pack a punch.

In any case, this is probably the end of my little review spree for now, since the next show I’m planning to watch is another one of those 52-episoded ones, but the series that I’ve reviewed during the past week all have something in common: excellent narrative and a true passion and understanding for the subjects they were dealing with. This is another reason why I still am such a big fan of anime, because the series that are made with passion really are the most enjoyable to watch, and Bartender, just like Hunter X Hunter’s first OVA, Victorian Romance Emma’s first season and even Futakoi Alternative really show this.

There aren’t many OVAs that are based on TV-series that actually manage to contribute to their respective story. Most of the time, they’re just silly DVD-extras, or have side-stories that just aren’t as interesting as their TV-counterparts. But oh boy, when an OVA is made with a clear goal and purpose, it sure does become good. Take Rurouni Kenshin Tsuiokuhen and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni for example. The first OVA from Hunter X Hunter is also such a wonderful example of this.

Seriously, this is EVERYTHING a shounen series should be. Creative, intelligent, a plot that for once doesn’t try to prevent the destruction of the world, a huge emphasis on strategy, an awesome cast of villains, the main character doesn’t scream, yell or play the hero all the time, nothing drags on whatsoever, whenever the show threatens to catch up to the manga, it simply takes a hiatus rather than come up with a bunch of pointless fillers, it’s without a doubt one of the best shounen series ever. It’s an incredible shame that today so few anime take up the example that Hunter X Hunter provided.

So anyway, the OVA basically continues where the TV-series left, and it’s actually one big cat-and-mouse game between Kurapica and the Spiders. Because the TV-series already did all of the building up, it really can immediately dive into the action, and the result is a very tense and complex strategical battle, which for once has the biggest focus towards using one’s head; in fact, there’s actually hardly any fighting aside from a few key scenes here and there.

This OVA really opened my eyes on the use of intelligence in anime. Usually, if shows even bother to use their brains during a fight at all, there is one party who actively uses his head, while the other stupidly rushes in without much of a strategy. In this OVA, everyone thinks carefully about his/her actions. As a result, this show can get away with powers that would be entirely overkill in most other series: the ability to read minds, the ability to copy any technique you want, the power to create clones or simply pull out the heart from one’s chest. This OVA carefully examines the different advantages and disadvantages of all the different powers, and it doesn’t even try to make use of every single obscure loophole to create tension.

The cast of characters is also really good. Both main and side-characters, everyone is in this story for a reason; no matter how small, they contribute to the story. Out of the most important characters, especially Pakunoda leaves an impression. We hardly know anything about her, but the performance that she puts down is very convincing and gripping. The leader of the antagonists also is unlike any other of his counterparts: for once you have a leader of an evil organization who doesn’t spend his time sitting on a chair doing nothing: this guy isn’t afraid to get his own hands dirty, and yet at the same time you can clearly see why he’s the leader of the bunch. The protagonists Gon, Kurapica, Leorio and Killua also get their own share of development.

There is one point of criticism I have for this OVA: I feel that it’s already done a wonderful job in characterizing its villains, but this would have been even better if some of the history of these guys had been revealed. But then again, there have been hints that the next two OVAs are going to delve into that.

The Hunter X Hunter OVA is exactly why I love those short but very intelligent and well-crafted series, and why it’s also a shame that there are so few of them. This OVA is basically the best of the TV-series, stripped from all the long training arcs and any kind of other boring part, and showed us eight episodes of what this series is best at: characters and actually intelligent strategies. For me, the best shows of the shounen genre are the Law of Ueki for the humorous and fun side, and Hunter X Hunter for the serious side.

I have no idea how horrifically bad the original Futakoi was, and I really don’t want to find out. Still, having heard that its sequel, Futakoi Alternative was nothing like it, completely different and story-wise had nothing to do with it; that it was supposed to be a really random and experimental series, my interest got sparked. After watching it, I do have to say: Futakoi Alternative was indeed a fine attempt to add some originality into the harem genre. But it’s in NO WAY perfect.

The show tells about a 21-year-old guy whose father resembles Nabeshin and whose yakuza friend looks like that guy from Getbackers, who works as a private investigator and has two cute 15-year-old assistants/girlfriends (pedophilia, anyone?). But those two girls aren’t just two regular cute girls; no, they’re twins. In fact, this show is full of them: they’re all identical twins (on a side-note: have there EVER been twins in anime that aren’t identical?), they even dress the same, have the same hairstyle, hair-length and love interest. The only things at which they differ are their personality and one accessory that they have different. And that’s the case for every single one of them. Seriously, it feels like the designers simply went through a checklist to create all of them.

Futakoi Alternative can really be classified as one of those series that are just… weird. It basically consists out of two subplots: one is a quiet character-study between the lead character and the twins; the second one… is about the quest to destroy an evil mutant squid who breathes fire. Yeah it’s like combining Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann with True Tears in one show. Especially that first episode is very misleading: it’s extremely fast paced. full of explosions and awesome animation, only for the pacing the next seven or so episodes to slow down completely and the show taking itself much more seriously.

But there’s one thing that this series does really well: the narration. Basically, the narrator is the lead character himself, but his lines are inspired and quite a significant amount of time is spent on the history of the different characters: to show how they were a couple of years before the start of the story. That really helped to prevent these people from turning into a bunch of paper bags and they’re quite enjoyable to watch.

In the end though, this is a series that you don’t want to be taking seriously. Not just because of the evil squids and all, but also because of the huge amount of plot-holes. Especially in the second half, this show likes to take huge leaps through its logic and some of the most urging questions are never answered: why did the twins choose the lead character, of all people, to go to (no really; they’re just there… no explanation whatsoever)? Why did nobody object to such a ridiculous arranged marriage? Why did that awesome cop get so little screen-time!?

It’s really strange: this show really had a surprisingly solid middle part; I was really taking this show seriously when the evil Nazi squids suddenly popped up from out of nowhere and turned out to be the source of all evil (no, seriously). It’s definitely different and original which is something that the harem genre really needs, but I feel that even without the weirdness, it would have been an even better series.

There are a lot of things wrong with this series. For example, if the creators weren’t obliged to insert cameos from the original series that really have absolutely NOTHING to do with the story at all, they could have used this extra time to fill in the plot-holes left. We’ve really got ourselves an enjoyable show here, but because we never know why the three lead characters got together in the first place, it lacks foundations a bit.

Ah, maids. Anime creators often use them to make moe characters even moer; usually with rather… embarrassing results to say the least. And take the well-known subplot, in which our hero has found his true love, but his stubborn parents refuse to allow this marriage because they’re stubborn and want to have an arranged marriage. These are two subplots which reappear in many, many different anime, but never quite like Victorian Romance Emma.

It’s very easy to just ignore this show because it looks boring, but it really turns into a pretty accurate portrayal of what life was for the English upper classes in the Victorian age. There is so much realism in this series and it knows it. This series shows noblemen as regular people, who hardly come into contact with the lower classes, and have to be continuously politically correct in front of their peers.

That’s nice and all, but what really makes this show is the cast of lead characters, and how wonderfully subtle their relationship plays out. This series definitely is a very slow one, and so people without patience are probably not going to enjoy it, but because it’s so slow it’s really able to make the romance between the two lead characters play out very naturally. This series makes excellent use of its 13 episodes and every episode, it pushes the story forward a little bit, until it finishes off with a very good conclusion.

There also seems to be a sequel, but I don’t think that that would have been necessary: on its own, Victorian Romance Emma is already a wonderful series about the bridge between noblemen and your average maids; any more would only ruin it. It’s one of those series which leaves a lot of the dialogue unsaid and the beauty is really watching everything slowly play out. For once, the fathers mentioned above are nothing like the stereotypical evil parents that refuse to let son marry for the sake of just a bit of drama, but Jones actually gives some very plausible reasons as to why he can’t let his son go off and marry a maid. It wouldn’t just be hard on him, but also on Emma herself, because as a noblewoman, she’d constantly be looked down upon by all the other nobles.

There’s just one character that really should have been left out. Thankfully he’s a side-character who doesn’t have much screentime, but whenever he does appear on the screen, he completely distracts from the main point of the episode and most of all is just a very obnoxious brat. I’m talking of course about Collin: the little boy who seems to have lost his balls somewhere (seriously, he has the voice of a girl!) and does nothing other than continuously whining and crying. There seems to be no point for him to be even in the show, so I really wonder why the creators even brought in such an annoying little brat.

Still, Victorian Romance Emma is a must-watch for everyone who is into historical series. It’s a mature romance series with very likable characters that knows exactly how to use its time, and how to subtly develop its characters. Even though in the beginning it may seem a bit boring, it all becomes worthwhile in the end.

It’s probably no surprise that romantic comedies are among my least favourite genres in anime. The reason for that is that 90% of the bunch just looks way too damn much like each other, is too afraid to go beyond the usual genre tropes, and/or just plain lazy. Nevertheless, I definitely enjoy that remaining ten percent that manages to avoid these pitfalls. Full Metal Panic belongs to those 10%, and is another example of a Good Gonzo series.

Full Metal Panic is a story that combines this romantic comedy with futuristic military combat (mechas included), and it tells the story of a teen-aged army sergeant (Sousuke) who grew up as a child soldier that ends up protecting a not-so-regular high school girl (Chidori). These two really are the reason why you would want to watch this series: even though the series is seven years old by now, they’re still fresh and dynamic, and the relationship between the two of them really grows on you. Sousuke’s socially inept antics will delight any fan of deadpan humour, while Chidori herself quickly sets herself apart from all other overused tsunderes with her wit. The two shine in the comedic part with some fresh jokes, but they definitely impress the most when they get serious.

Overall, this series has made a good use of its airtime; it consists out of four arcs, which all serve their own purpose: the first arc serves as introduction, the second fleshes out, the third one provides background and in the fourth one everything comes together in a great climax. This series knows how to build up and finish off with an impact, though my one complaint is that the comedy and drama don’t try to mix at all: an episode is either focused at completely at comedy or completely at drama; there’s hardly any in between.

Full Metal Panic is a series that shines in the way it takes a bunch of cliches, and makes them actually believable. Mechas and romantic comedies have been done to death before, but in this series, it’s actually made plausible: the situations that the characters are thrusted in make quite a bit of sense. The military side of the story is fleshed out really well and the battles are pretty realistic for anime’s standards. And take the seemingly oddball character of Tessa: she’s a young girl who commands an entire crew of a hyper-modern submarine. Throughout the course of the season, you can and will be wondering why the heck she is at such a position. And yeah, while there is of course no way that this would ever happen, her actions at the end of the series will have you convinced that she at least deserved her position.

Unfortunately, there were cliches that even this series didn’t escape (I’m looking at you, walking-into-bathroom-naked) and the building up during the drama parts does take a bit of patience when everything is being set up because during these parts there isn’t a lot that is going to make you keep watching, but the climaxes will definitely deliver in the end. My biggest complaint is that the main villain lacks any sort of background whatsoever: he’s definitely one of he smarter vilains out there, but he could have become so much better if we actually KNEW WO HE WAS. There are a few annoying side-characters (I’m looking at you, Chidori’s classmates), but overall Full Metal Panic can boast a well developed main cast, and I’m interested to see what Kyoani could have added to their development when they took over the franchise.

I’ve been looking forward to watch the Major series for a while now, and with this I finally managed to check out the first season. The baseball series form a truly underrated genre in anime, with most people getting turned off because they don’t know anything about the games. Well, let me tell you that I’m in no way a sports fan, and yet I’ve enjoyed myself quite a few wonderful baseball series, and I was hoping to add Major to that list. Well, that’s definitely taught me not to get my hopes up too high before starting a series.

The premise seems solid enough: this season shows a young boy of nine years old named Goro as he challenges the little league with his team, and the succeeding series will show him as he slowly grows up into adulthood. It would have been a fine series if it wasn’t for the damned cheese that this show overflows with. I know that passion and manliness can spice up an anime, but this show is really taking that way too far.

This series just tries way too hard to create as much drama as possible. Just as an example, they really try to make Goro’s past as sad as possible. Whenever things are looking a bit too happy, you can bet your hat that very soon something unexpected will happen that will put everyone in despair. The characters are always eager to angst, and especially the way in which Goro just keeps yelling and whining at everyone really doesn’t help anything.

This would have been excused if it wasn’t for the other flaws of this series: the characters. There’s definitely development among them, but it’s handled so badly at times that it gets really hard to take this show seriously. The worst example of this is the bullies: one episode we see a bunch of bullies turn one of their classmates’ life into hell, the next episode we see Goro yelling at them and suddenly they’re begging for forgiveness, professing their love for baseball from out of nowhere and completely change character.

And this formula really appears pretty often, by the way. Whenever a side-character is feeling down of has his issues, then within an episode we see Goro yelling at them and giving a speech about the power of friendship and they’re completely healed again. In the second half of the show, a bit of pointless romance also pops up that never gets anywhere, and especially since we’re dealing with nine year-old kids here, I really wonder why the creators bothered with it anyway.

Then there’s the baseball. Granted, it’s not the worst part of the show and the creators are able to create some interesting situations and fun games… but the fact remains that the matches are just too forced. This isn’t the first time in which a baseball series has an incredibly good pitcher as a lead character, but even when taking that into considation, Major is really stretching it with Goro. He needs a team full of incompetent idiots in order to prevent him from God-moding himself through every single game with ease. Within six months, he transforms a team that started out with a bunch of random kids with no talent for baseball to the best team of their age in Japan. All through the power of friendship.

It’s therefore no wonder that the baseball matches become utterly predictable, in a bad way. Characters become incredibly good or bad, depending on the writers’ wishes. Even though all the opposing teams use interesting strategies, the only tactics in Goro’s team are ad-libbed. But the worst thing is that every single game is set up exactly so that Goro is the one to save the day, by scoring a point at the very last possible moment.

Usually I can excuse a flaw here and there in a series, but Major just has way too many of them, not to mention that Goro himself is completely unlikable. He really is your typical shounen lead character with a dark past and a simple mind, and really doesn’t do anything to diverge from it. Most of the opposing teams would have been more interesting if they didn’t simply turn into stereotypes. There are some interesting characters, like Joe Gibson and Shigeno, but the two of them hardly ever appear.

And as for some positive comments: the baseball matches are definitely exciting. when you watch them for the pure entertainment value and don’t mind how it ends, then they’re going to keep you busy, because there is lots and lots of passion in this series. The graphics look simple, but the animation and music also do their job and don’t stand in the way of anything. But the thing is that there are many baseball shows that are so just much better than this one. Try Adachi’s works, or if you want more excitement there is also Princess Nine, while for the tactics you can go to One Outs and I’ve also heard that Ookiku Furikabutte is awesome. I’m just not going to bother with Major anymore.

I really didn’t know what to make of this series when I first started watching it. Maria-Sama ga Miteru has been going on for three seasons and one OVA right now, and this review is going to be of the first of the bunch. It tells the story of a very strict Christian school and especially the elite students: the student council and the ones around them. The focus isn’t so much on the management-tasks of the council, but much more about them being the role models that they are, and their relationship with their so-called “Soeur”: an underclassman that they pick out to be their “sister”.

My initial impressions on this series weren’t exactly good. The beginning episodes were just too… boring, and there wasn’t really anything that made me want to watch the next episode. The drama mostly revolved around things that were hugely overstated: the characters really made a fuzz about even the smallest things that their co-stars did wrong. I can understand how gossip is supposed to be an important part of the show’s themes, but it really didn’t interest me at all.

Yumi (the lead character) didn’t help either, as out of all the characters she was the most annoying one, which is something you really don’t want to happen to one of the central characters in a series. She’s naive, just keeps whining about all sorts of things, she lacks background (that may be saved for the future seasons, though) and all in all, her story just isn’t as interesting as the other ones of this show.

But oh my god, the side-characters really were amazing, especially within only 13 episodes. While nothing much interesting happens in the first half of this show, the cast really comes alive in the second half. I especially loved Sei’s story, with one magnificent episode dedicated to her past standing out as the absolute highlight for me, but all members of the side-cast are rich and colourful, they have a deep story behind them and are very subtly developed.

And the side-characters really are the ones who are solely able to carry this series. The character-designs are well done, but the animation has quite a few bugs here and there, and you also don’t want to watch this series for the storytelling or setting: they do their job of being solid and staying in the background, don’t have any flaws, but also don’t stand out either.

So yeah despite Yumi I just can’t look negatively at this series. Good things come to those who wait, and that definitely applies to this series. There’s lots of character-development, but it all has a sense of subtlety, which is pretty rare in anime, and even Yumi isn’t the worst of characters once you get to know her a bit. And while she may be featured often in this series, there still is plenty of time in which the rest of the cast has the chance to get fleshed out. I’m interested what the other seasons can add to this series, because there’s plenty of potential left after only thirteen episodes.

Those who followed my blog about a year ago probably know that I wasn’t exactly… ‘pleased’ with the way Macross Frontier turned out. Even taking the upcoming movie into account, it never really seemed to know where it wanted to go and while it definitely had some good points, it also just kept getting stuck at an endless love triangle with a bunch of unimpressive lead characters and villains.

Still, it did inspire me to go after the early Macross-series, in order to find out why the franchise got its fan-base in the first place. And I must say, I’m glad that I did. While not perfect, the original Macross does a lot of things right at which Macross Frontier screwed up. As probably one of the first series to combine serious love with mecha action and doing a really good job while at it, I can see why this series had such a big influence on the later anime to come.

The thing that struck me the most about this series is how interesting the villains actually are. At first, when I learned that this show would be about a mysterious alien race called the Zentradi attacking Earth, I was fearing lots of “Humans rock!”-themes, combined with an ending at which the aliens suddenly turn good like how Macross Frontier pulled it, but it was actually much more clever than that. A large part of this series is actually focused on analyzing why these Zentradi fight, how their society is created and how Earth’s society impacts them (which provided some of the most entertaining scenes of the series). It also shows what would happen if a race would be suddenly forced to a totally different life style, and how hard it is to adapt to these new life conditions.

The three lead character are also much more capable of carrying this show. There again is a love triangle, but it’s pretty well built up and this series uses its episode length of 36 very nicely in order to let everything gradually play out and the show evolve. This really gives the love triangle between them the chance to sufficiently develop and close off with a pretty satisfying conclusion, although near the finale the romance can get a bit cheesy at times. I also really appreciated that it didn’t try to stuff all of the meat of the series in the final four episodes or so, though going into detail why would perhaps be a bit too much of a spoiler.

Unfortunately, at other points the show does have some pacing issues. Some episodes really give events the time to flow naturally, but a few episodes really move way too fast, with the most notable being ‘the wedding’. It just comes way too bloody fast and before you know it the involved characters have completely shifted their personalities. The ending also felt like it could have used half an episode extra.

And obviously, the production values aren’t as good when compared to Macross Frontier, but that’s not going to surprise anything. Compared to the other shows of its time though, the animation looks very capable. Most of the time it’s very rough around the edges and the hand-painted cell animation definitely feels jerky, but the whole look matured just as well as for example Matsumoto Leiji’s character-designs did. The music however, is beyond rescue. Lin Minmay(one of the lead characters, an idol)’s songs mostly consist out of very cheesy J-pop from the seventies, and even though the rest of the soundtrack serves its purpose, every time she started singing the sound got more and more on my nerves.

Overall, if people are wondering which Macross TV-series to check out first, it basically boils down to this: with Macross Frontier you get a shallow story with a godly budget, and with the original Macross you get a series with dated production-values through a fascinating setting. Just take your pick. Personally I definitely prefer the original.