Category: Other:

Kai Doh Maru is making me rather angry while writing this review. Not because it’s incredibly bad, but because it could have been incredibly good. It’s Production IG’s attempt at making a movie, and they went with another setting of Japan’s history. The interesting thing is that while most anime pick a period around the year 1800, with the samurai and shinsengumi and all, Kai Doh Maru goes further back: to the ninth century. Those who appreciated Sisters of Wellber know what to expect: really stylized art that fits perfectly, an excellent soundtrack (this one has been composed by Yoshihiro Ike, the same guy who did Ergo Proxy), and a nice amount of the screen-time is spent on fleshing out the characters, creating a great mood for this movie to work with. Only the humour is missing in this one. So why did it disappoint? Simply enough: it’s too short. If only it had gotten twenty, maybe ten more minutes, it could have been so much better, and it could have made a chance to be memorable. Unfortunately, Kai Doh Maru only has a length of 40 minutes, which may be enough to flesh out its characters, but not to flesh out their backgrounds. Right now, the movie was just way too confusing and failed to answer too many questions. What happened in Kai Doh Maru’s past? Why was he or she hunted, and why does she or he keep changing genders? These questions could have been perfectly answered if more time was given. Then there’s the issue of the ending: there is none. It just ends, and the bad guys still live. What happens next? We’ll never know. One thing I do know is that I really like Production IG’s style of storytelling; it’s just too bad that this movie screwed up. Nevertheless, despite my ranting, it’s quite an enjoyable movie though; you can give it a try if you’re a fan of their style like me. Just be sure for the rather large plotholes it leaves.]]>

Another oldie: this one’s from 1985. It seemed to have enjoyed quite a bit of popularity back in those days, and it still seems to be one of the more well-known movies from the eighties. I got curious as to why this movie turned out much more popular than the others, so I decided to watch this one. Unfortunately, the reason seems to be the fights and the bad-assness of the main character. The guy is your typical silent powerhouse, and he reminds me of an Alucard without personality. He’s been hardened through many battles, and he’s supposed to be dark and mysterious. So basically, don’t bother to try and check this one out. The plot maybe has a few interesting elements, especially in the beginning, but in the end it goes nowhere fast. The opponent is your typical evil king (or count in this case) who is evil and has to be defeated. He keeps talking about how he has to rule the country as an aristocrat but we never see him actually ‘rule’. All he does is sit in his chair, trying to look evil. And this of course wouldn’t be complete without the female love interest. She and her cute brother basically take turns of playing the damsel-in-distress. One particularly bad scene featured a Deus ex Machina, followed by another Deus ex Machina, followed by yet another one. All the characters are interesting when you first see them, but they get old very fast. The few lucky ones who have background often only have to do with one or two lines. While it’s not the worst movie out there, I’d definitely classify this one as below-average. If you’re looking for a way to burn half an hour, there are so many better choices for movies than this one. This is another one of these movies that just didn’t age well.]]>

After a Chinese Ghost Story, the logical next step is of course Wonderful Days; A Korean-made movie. This one comes with a dystopia, and quite an interesting one. The world has yet again been flooded, just like with Noah. One party managed to predict it, and retreated to a safe place. Now, years later, they’re still in control, and suppress everyone not of their kind, just like in a proper dystopia. First of all, the CG in this movie is awesome. I can understand why the Japanese animation-companies outsource to Korea so much, because these guys definitely know what they’re doing. Especially the background-landscapes are just plain gorgeous and a definite highlight for this movie. At the moment, I honestly can’t think of any other movie with better-looking background-art than this one. The traditional animation looks fine too, and blends in with the other graphics pretty nicely during most of the times. But yeah, the story and characters aren’t really that special. There is chemistry between the characters, but for most part this movie just follows a standard plot of beating the bad guys, and no attempts of originality are really made. It’s another one of those anime where the side-characters end up looking more interesting than the main ones, and especially as the story nears its climax you can start to recognize more and more elements that appear in 50% of the other movies. Still, that doesn’t mean that the ending is a complete failure. There is one reason you should be watching till the end of this one: the music. While it’s fairly unimpressive overall, the best two tracks have been saved for last, and they’re perfectly timed. Even though the ending sucks in terms of storytelling, it’s a gorgeous feast for the senses, which in the end, managed to make it worthwhile. The main characters are by no means bad. They’re just… too standard. This movie is a good recommendation if you need an hour and a half to burn. There are enough action-scenes to keep it from getting boring.]]>

To be honest, I’ve never before ran into an anime, set in an all-boys high-school that didn’t have yaoi-undertones. Do the anime-creators seem to think that in absence of females, the males will start to go after each other? Anyway, luckily this OVA from 1994 shows us another viewpoint on this setting, when it provides quite an interesting combination between comedy, drama, and in the later episodes, romance. There’s one reason to watch this: the characters. Each of them, even with the side-characters, has at least one quirk that makes him or her special. Some of them have also got a really interesting and sadistic sense of humour, which works perfectly with the main character, who I way too uptight and serious about everything. The first couple of episodes, which deal with the characters having fun and trying to tease each other turned out really well because of this. They also spend a bit of time fleshing out their characters for the romance-subplot that gets introduced in the final two episodes, which because of this didn’t actually turn out as bad as I suspected. Romance is often tricky to do in anime, but Here is Greenwood showed a fine attempt at it, especially considering the time it has been given. Still, the OVA has continuity errors. It’s another one of these mangas that got animated, with the manga being larger than the time that was given to the animators. Ultimately, this OVA became a collection of the best stories of the manga. Apart from episode five and six, the stories of the different episodes just don’t connect to each other. One particular case even has one of the characters claiming that a plot-hole was explained in volume X of the manga. While you could say that you just need to read the manga for this, I like my anime to be complete. Also, you don’t have to count too much on the aesthetics. The soundtrack consists of typical tunes from the early nineties. The character-designs also look a tad too much like each other, and most feel like they’re all the same body with different eyes and hair-colors. This is especially noticeable when they start taking baths. One character also seems to switch randomly between long and short hair, without any explanation. Overall, even though the graphics are mediocre, the sounds aren’t anything special, the story isn’t something to rave about and this OVA would have been better if it were longer, the characters are a delight to watch. While this OVA can’t match the great anime out there, I definitely don’t regret watching it.]]>

The most popular premise for a movie by far is the one where a guy (or in Spirited Away’s case: girl) winds up in a fantasy world, and meets a beautiful girl (or in Spirited Away’s case: guy) who is special in some kind of way, and the two of them predictably fall in love. A Chinese Ghost Story shows the Chinese attempt at this trope, as it’s one of the few anime that has been fully produced in China. Interestingly enough, the creators did a pretty good at this one. Okay, they didn’t create a blockbuster, but it’s definitely better than Gonzo’s attempt at the trope: Brave Story. There are two reasons for this: the deep roots into Chinese Mythology, and the fact that it doesn’t take itself too seriously at times. It’s not a pure comedy, and the fantasy does take priority throughout the movie, but the inclusion of quirky characters and dialogue makes sure for a light-hearted feeling to the entire movie. You can especially see this in the fights. Due to their semi-serious nature, in combination with a movie-budget, they turned out to be really fun to watch, and a highlight for this movie. Something that doesn’t happen often. The roots into Chinese Mythology also made sure that the fantasy-world didn’t turn out to be to be the same like the others. The main character for this story works as a debt collector who just got dumped by his girlfriend. During one of his assignments, he runs into a ghost town. As I’ve seen mostly Japanese mythology in my anime lately, it was refreshing to see the differences in both. For starters, the ghosts can just be seen by normal people and even a bunch of stairs turns out to be a ghost. It’s also been a while since I saw people talk this lightly about reincarnation. The movie does have flaws, though. The most obvious one is concerning the graphics. This movie uses traditional drawings, combined with a huge amount of CG-backgrounds and animations, and the two just don’t blend well together, and end up looking fake. Another thing is that the animators just didn’t figure out how to synchronize the mouth movements with the voice-acting. It makes for a nice style, but sometimes it’s a bit too obvious. The rest of the animation for the traditional drawings looks excellent though, just like what you’d suspect from a movie. Another flaw comes with the writing. Through most of its part, it makes the movie fun to watch, but sometimes it’s just a bit too far-fetched. Especially the ending comes with a few twists that just don’t feel right. Be sure to expect a Deus ex Machina here and there as well. Overall, if you’re looking for something different, you might give this one a try. The Chinese definitely have a different style of dialogues than the Japanese have. It won’t win any awards, but it’s a fun movie.]]>

Released in 1985, this movie is already 22 years old. It tells the story of two Italian male kittens, who board a train on the galactic railroad. The train stops at various constellations, and various people step in and out, with all their own story. This is a movie about travelling, and all the things you experience in the process. I must say that A Night on the Galactic Railroad has been quite an interesting watch. Mainly because of two things: its mood and symbolism. This movie really gives a feeling of silence and loneliness, it’s really slow-paced, and the mood of both the expanding space of the universe, and the silence in a train-cabin work perfectly, and create a really eerie mood for this movie, even when people are interacting with each other. There’s also lots of symbolism; each station on the different constellations is full of imagination. They’re all really diverse, ranging from religious messages to references to the time of the dinosaurs. The movie does have its flaws, though. Near the end, the entire mood disappears a bit, when the focus comes to the two main characters. They’re these kinds of main characters who are great as side-characters, watching from the side-lines, but fail to deliver when put on the spotlights. The amount of religious messages also may have been a bit too much at one point. Be also aware that this movie doesn’t really pay attention to the whys of its world. Fantastic things happen, though we never know why most of them do. The graphics, well, they’re not that interesting. But what did you expect from such an old movie? Basically, the anime takes place in a world where cats live, instead of humans; they walk on two legs and wear clothes. Our two main characters are also the only ones who have been obscurely coloured, everyone else is just brown or grey. The music-department is interesting, though, as this movie has a rather unique soundtrack. Especially the main tune is worth listening to. Overall, this movie is definitely not for the impatient ones, as it moves really slow. It’s an above average movie, though it’s not a big disaster if you haven’t seen it. If you have the chance of watching it, though, you can indeed give it a whirl, as it definitely has a few worthwhile elements.]]>

Last year, in November, I made myself a little list of worthwhile-looking 13-episode series, as a means of systematically catching up to the ones that I hadn’t seen yet at that point. I’ve been gradually working down that list for the past year, as some of you might have already noticed. Some series turned out too bad to continue (Aquarian Age and Gun Frontier, for example, and Kokoro Library was just too boring), but there also were some true gems among these anime. And I’m glad to say that today, I finally managed to finish the list! There’s a reason why I chose Haibane Renmei to go last, as I’ve heard nothing but positive reviews and raves from it. And boy, does it deliver! Haibane Renmei truly is one of the best slice-of-life series I have ever seen! It first takes four episodes of building up, introducing its unique setting and its characters, and then it waltzes the viewer down with one of the most amazing storylines, perfectly fitted for 13 episodes. The thing is, that I’m having a lot of trouble finding anything bad to say about this series. Most series have obvious flaws, like dragging on too much, spending little time on their settings, making no sense, but Haibane seems to have done everything right. The only thing you should note is that you need to get through the first four episodes, which are nice to watch, but nowhere near as emotional as the rest of the series. The character-designs look realistic and down-to-earth, just like the rest of the series. You won’t see any blue-haired moe-bait Konatas here. One of the biggest things to note, though, is that the soundtrack is a masterpiece. It comes from Kou Outani, the same guy who did soundtracks for among others Ayakashi Ayashi, Popolocrois Monogatari 1998 and Deltora Quest, and this may be one of his best works yet. I see no reason why not to recommend Haibane Renmei. Not only does it keep delivering after it gets really started, I also didn’t cry as much at a final episode apart from Noein. This definitely is a memorable series, and it couldn’t have been a better way to close off my attempt to catch up with the 13-episode series.]]>

I actually started watching anime quite late. At the moment, it’s a bit more than three years ago since I started with my first fansubbed series, .Hack//Sign, when compared to most people. That’s why I’ve got a huge list of anime that I still need to catch up to. Anyway, another series I tried around that time, perhaps a bit later, was Now and Then, Here and There. It looked all-right, and I saw some good reviews of it. I didn’t even last half an episode. The way this anime seemed to start was like a bad shounen-title. We’ve got a brat for a main character, who happens to practice Kendo. He’s got a rival who is always better than him, and of course a girl he has a crush on. All signs pointed to the fact that the guy would grow, beat his rival and get the girl, and that lady luck would smile at him all the way. Boy, was I wrong. If I had only watched till the second episode, I would have realized that this anime is something very special. For starters, we never see the rival and crush again after the first episode, and already with the second episode, things are done to that boy you just couldn’t imagine. A lot of taboos in anime are scarily brought to the surface, and the first half has to contain some of the saddest hours of anime. I’m SO glad that I decided to give this anime a second chance, as it really is something unique. It’s one of these anime that isn’t afraid to pull its protagonists through hell, and it actually succeeds in making this avoid the pits of cheesiness by developing a cast of excellent characters. The graphics may not seem to suggest it, but this is one of the darkest shounen-titles I’ve seen. And especially one of the most realistic ones. The music also comes with a perfect score to accompany this. Still, all good things must come to an end. The problem with this series is that the second half of the series just doesn’t live up to the first half. Oh, it’s by no means bad, it’s got about half a dozen of awesome moments, but the entire thing is nowhere near as intense and unique as the first half, and at a number of points, it gets a formulaic and a bit unrealistic. Still, you just have to see this series for its first half. It’s been a long time since I last awarded a rating of 90/100 and above, and this series deserves it. Like Eureka7, it’s a great example of how wrong first impressions can be.]]>

It’s hard to find a good way to start this review. I think the best way is to compare this series to a very badly manufactured jigsaw-puzzle. Some pieces are too big, others are too small, pairs of pieces don’t attach to each other when they’re supposed to, and vice versa. There are pieces missing everywhere, and now it’s up to you to make some sense out of it! This, in essence, is basically Boogiepop’s best and worst point. What we’ve got here is basically a case-based series, in which we some really deep case-studies of some seemingly random people, throughout the twelve episodes of its airtime. The catch is, however, that beneath the surface of this series, there’s an incredibly complex plot going on, that pops up once in a while. Boogiepop Phantom may be a case-based series on first looks, at heart, it’s a fully fledged mystery-series. The mystery in this series is slightly different from other mystery-series. While most series of the genre choose the easy and straightforward way of “Hey, I’m a mystery-series with an unknown plot; through the course of my episodes, I’m slowly going to reveal my secrets so that you’ll understand everything in the end”, Boogiepop goes “Hey, I’m a mystery-series with an unknown plot; through the course of my episodes, I’m going to keep dropping references that you’ll only understand in four episodes, so that you’ll need to rewatch me at least once in order to understand the vital parts of my plot”. And that’s the beauty of this series. It’s basically chockfull of references to other episodes, it keeps hopping from one time to another one, and the amount of red herrings it throws at you could satisfy an average fish-factory for at least a week. If you want to understand this series, you’ll have to work for it, as it’s not going to present itself on an open platter so easily. As mystery is my favourite genre, I just couldn’t help but love this. In fact, I’ve only seen one series that carried its mystery even further, and that is Ergo Proxy. It’s series like this one that really show the beauty of the mystery-genre. Unfortunately, I think that this series went a little too overboard with this. After rewatching the important parts of the series, I think I now finally have an understanding of what’s going on, but there are still plot-holes that seemed to have come from nowhere. I remember seeing at least two characters who came from nowhere, did something important, and then vanished again. Kirima also lacked a reason for her actions (at least, I think she does, it may be a plot-hole I missed). Still, this series also shines in its cases. Rarely have I seen a series that went so deep into the minds of its characters with a relatively low amount of time spent on them, and the results are great. A few cases really stand out as memorable. If I had to describe my feelings of Boogiepop Phantom with one word, it’d have to be “fascinating”.]]>