+ May Anime Rankings +
I still haven’t found a good name for this, as I’m still finding the right format for it. This time, I decided to throw everything just in one category, instead of splitting things up. Only the best ten have gotten some screenshots, as frankly, I got a bit tired of finding screenshots for 40 series each month.
#32: Shining Tears X Wind – I think this is what you’d call a guilty pleasure. I agree with everyone how badly this show is written, but because of my love for RPG-adaptations, I just can’t get myself to drop it.
#31: Kaze no Stigma – Back when it first aired, I remember writing a rather harsh review against it. That maybe wasn’t the best idea, as what followed were more than twenty people who liked the show commented to defend it, and somehow that post became my biggest source of Google hits for more than a month. Because of this, I decided to check it out, though what I found was that the three main characters were all just too annoying. Luckily, in episode six I finally found something that made me want to keep watching: seeing the red-haired girl grow. I really want her to beat up that idiotic male main character somewhere in this series.
#30: Heroic Age – It’s epic, but it doesn’t really do anything for me. I hoped for a complex plot in this one, but it seems that it’ll just feature a fight between Age and some random opponent. Let’s hope the second half comes with a bit more depth.
#29: Koutetsu Sangokushi – You know, the show could indeed use better scriptwriters, and some character designs just look a bit too ridiculous, but I do admit that the death in episode 6 was quite good.
#28: Tokyo Tribe 2 – This series keeps hopping over the line of credibility, but it’s a nice watch.
#27: Lucky Star – So far, I’ve had a few good laughs from Lucky Star, it’s definitely the best Kyoto-Animation series that I’ve seen so far. But it’s definitely not the best series of the season, in my opinion, and the Lucky Channel was a bad idea.
#26: The Skull Man – The protagonists are definitely annoying, but there’s some decent mystery in this series. It also helps that this is just going to have 12 episodes, so there won’t be room for fillers.
#25: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – Frankly, after Popolocrois I don’t really care about the now famous death of episode eight anymore. It was way too long and drawn out. And do NOT get me started on how the princess’s BOX just happened to be dropped right next to Simon when he was taking a stroll.
#24: Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula – Tj Han possibly worded this best: it’s the most racial and culturally ignorant show out there. The characters are good, but someone please fix those nationalistic aspects of this show. Plus, the show still makes no sense.
#23: Darker than Black – Surprisingly, this turned out good when it started focusing on the main story. But the gore may have been a bit too much.
#22: Reideen – So far, Reideen has had to battle a few nearly impossible enemies, and while I’m not too much of a fan of the Deus ex Machina from episodes 10, the characters are appealing.
#21: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS – Okay, the good guys have potential, the bad guy has great promise to become great, now live up to these expectations!
#20: Gintama – Hilarious as always, especially Katsura in episode 28.
#19: Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge – At this point, Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge is drawing near its end, and has to start wrapping up its stories and start the serious drama, in true anime fashion. Surprisingly, it made quite a good start, not forfeiting the humour that made the series great.
#18: Murder Princess – Despite the silliness, the serious parts in the second episode were really touching.
#17: Power Puff Girls Z – Episode 37 was quite possibly the best episode of this series yet. This series is ranked so low on this list because I want more, seeing as it was the only episode released this month.
#16: El Cazador – I’m fearing that El Cazador is about to hit a series of fillers, like it started in episode nine. I’m hoping that it’ll feature some character-development in any of the following episodes.
#15: Ooedo Rocket – So far, Ooedo Rocket has featured some good and some less interesting episodes. While some of the episodes were disappointing, the good ones were awesome. 🙂
#14: Kekkaishi – Finally, the third protagonist arrives, and I already like him.
#13: Romeo x Juliet – That kiss in episode 7 was actually a great one. This series turned out way better than I thought.
#12: Deltora Quest – Deltora Quest continued with its excellent storytelling, though the releases have been quite slow this month.
#11: Death Note – At the moment, Death Note has really become more consistent. When compared to the first half, there are nearly no bad points, but the good points don’t reach the heights of those in the first half. So far, though, I like it a lot.
#10: Les Miserables
The second arc was really different from the first one, it was much quieter. While I loved it, it just doesn’t match up to the awesomeness of the Thenardier-arc.
#9: Seirei no Moribito
The most complex and hardest anime to understand since Ergo Proxy. Still, I’m having a blast, trying to figure out what’s happening. I’m quite curious about what this series is going to do in its second half.
#8: Claymore
The Teresa-arc was definitely one step above the Raki-arc, and while it was quite amazing, it also reminded me that this is a shounen-series. Luckily, Claymore is rumoured to go down quite a different path when compared to your usual shounen-series. Episode nine already showed hints of this.
#7: Saiunkoku Monogatari
The second season has been excellent so far. Shuurei just continues to grow more and more, but Eigetsu was the one to make the most impact on me.
#6: Toward the Terra
Even though I liked Jomie better, Keith has proved to be quite an interesting protagonist, along with Sam, Swena and Shiroe. The art style still rocks.
#5: Hitohira
Why did I ever think of dropping this series!? It’s awesome, and episodes eight and nine have been amazing!
#4: Dennou Coil
One of the most imaginative series I’ve seen in quite a while. Great art, excellent animation, what more could you want?
#3: Kaze no Shoujo Emily
The focus has mostly been on Emily, but she makes such an adorable character. It’s a huge shame that nearly everyone is ignoring this, as it’s one of the best of the season.
#2: Wellber no Monogatari
Yes, call me crazy, but I greatly enjoyed the past few episodes of Wellber no Monogatari have been increasingly awesome, and I’m warming up to the characters more and more with every episode. Rita, Tina and Galahad are surprisingly likable, the OP is still my favourite for this season, and it’s another perfect example of an underdog who deserves more attention.
#1: Bokura no
Even though it has been toned down, according to the manga-readers, it didn’t prevent me from enjoying this excellent series. Not only are the characters extremely likable, it also makes sure of enough twists and turns to keep the story fresh.
+ Random Notes +
– When C1 released the first episode of Perrine, it seemed like a good idea to start checking out more series of the World Masterpiece Theatre, since Les Miserables has turned out really good so far. So far, the first episode has potential, though the graphics took a bit of time to get used to, as they’re as old-school as they can get. It’ll be interesting to see how this one turns out.
– Another older series I went to check out was one recommended to me by Wyrdwad: Ashita no Nadja. If you’re a shoujo-fan, I definitely recommend you to check it out, as I’ve seen the first 16 episodes, and there were some beautiful episodes among them, not to mention that nearly every character has some sort of charming side. I’ve only got one complaint, it’s fascinating to see how Nadja and the others travel through Europe, but no matter where she goes, she always runs into someone or something important to the plot. It’s a good thing that the results of these encounters are great to watch, though. ^^;
– Does anyone know what happened to the fansubs of Strange Dawn by NiTe? I’m actually craving for some more of that series, I can’t understand why people would neglect such an excellent gem for so long.
– I’m already looking forward to the summer-season, as some sequels to some already awesome anime have been planned (Mononoke and Higurashi). My preview should be up in a couple of days.
+ Top 5 Episodes +
#5: Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 08 – A perfect example of a touching episode, when it starts focusing on Emily’s dead mother.
#4: Power Puff Girls Z – 37 – Okay, I mentioned this before, but I absolutely loved this episode and its parodies. Here’s to hoping more of these kinds of episodes will follow.
#3: Wellber no Monogatari – 08 – The definite proof that this show knows what it’s doing. If you still dislike this show after this episode, then it’s definitely not your cup of tea.
#2: Ooedo Rocket – 05 – Glad to see that the subs are out, and I can already see some people posting about how good it is. Just wait till they see episode five. ^_^
#1: Popolocrois 2003 – 23 – The beginning of one of the rumoured best endings in an anime ever. This episode showed that there is an actual possibility for this to be true.]]>
Category: Other:
1000 Posts!!
About
here. Regarding the content on my blog, most posts will be episodic, with either a summary, commentary or a combination of these two, depending on my mood. Occasionally, though, I do tend to write special features. These are the most important ones: Some quick first impressions: At every season, I try to watch the first episode of as many series as possible, before deciding which are good and which aren’t. Most of these episodes don’t really provide enough material for one post, but when I combine three series, and provide a small blurb about my opinion, it works out quite well. Monthly Summaries: I watch more than just she shows I blog, and that’s one of the reasons I write up a summary at the end of every month about all the shows I managed to see, ranking them from worst to best. It’s also meant to list the new anime that have been announced in the past month and the individual episodes I enjoyed the most. Anime Reviews: Inspired by Anime Academy. Before I started this blog, I was already an avid reader of the reviews provided at that site, and some of the writers have amazing writing skills. I just tended to disagree with their opinions way more often than not, so I decided to write my own. Most of the site here is filled with spoilers, but for the Reviews and the Monthly Summaries, I try to stay away from any major revelations. Some quick second impressions: Basically a spoof of the quick first impressions. When I want to really say something about a show I’m not blogging, I use this category. Up till now, these turned out to be eiter underrated or overrated series.]]>
Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo Review – 87/100
The fansubbers labelled this as “the best movie of 2006”, and I’ve seen other sources claim this as well. Whether this is true, I can’t say for certain yet, because some of the big names as Tekkon Kinkreet, Gedo Senki and Eien no Hou have yet to appear. But one thing’s for sure: these movies are going to have to be reeally good in order to be able to top this one.
Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, I think we’ve all read about its premise by now, but for those who haven’t: a high-school girl suddenly gets the power to leap through time. With this, she starts using it to alter the space-time continuum to her own advantage. When I read the premise for the first time, I thought that she’d go and alter major time events and really alter history, but she just sticks to making her own life better. Basically, it’s a high-school romance, but that description doesn’t really do it justice, as some pretty horrible things happen along the line.
I really praise this anime for that last part, by the way. It’s obvious that things won’t go as Mokoto (our main character) expects them. And it’s predictable for bad things to happen, but this movie developed its characters so well that the predictability didn’t matter, and that each major event felt like a huge shock. From my own experience, I’ve seen movies fail more often than series did, but this movie is just a must-watch.
The backgrounds that we get to see are what you expect from a movie: crisp, detailed and beautiful, although one or two scenes may be trying a bit too much (like a fridge which may have been a bit too stuffed for a random family). As we’ve got ourselves a romance here, there aren’t a lot of flashy action-scenes, but still the overall animation was really life-like and natural. The music was simple, consisting out of mainly piano-tunes. But it fits the movie perfectly. It was especially stunning during the heavy scenes.
Seriously, only if you really need some action in your anime, you may want to skip out of this. Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo has been a great watch for me, and I can imagine others liking it just as much as I did, and probably even better. I’m glad that this movie reminded me that a well-done anime movie can be as satisfying as a tv-series.]]>
April Summary
+ Quick ranking of the Spring-season so far +
Okay, so one month after the spring-season started, how are the different shows doing so far? Well, fairly well if I say so myself. There are some really great series in the bunch, and there’s a lot of potential. But will it be able to turn out better than last year’s spring-season? Anyway, here’s a list with a small blurb of my opinion about them. Some of them were dropped after episode 1, while I managed to see more episodes from others.
#38: Overdrive – Deserves to get the title of “worst show of the season” because it was the only anime to have aired and nearly put me to sleep out of boredom.
#37: Saint Beast – Also came close to achieving this.
#36: Hayate the Combat Butler – Just isn’t funny, not to mention that it has too many non-sensical events and annoying characters.
#35: Keitai Shoujo – Two words: just pointless.
#34: Kaze no Stigma – Seriously needs some better scriptwriters.
#33: Kaibutsu Ojou – Boy gets to live in house full of bishoujo, where did I hear this before?
#32: Sola – Is just boring.
#31: Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo – On second thought, this series is bad. Period.
#30: Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica – Mediocrity, anyone?
#29: Nagasarete Airantou – Okay, it does have humour, but also one of the most annoying main characters ever.
#28: Idol Master Xenoglossia – I seriously forgot what this anime was about.
#27: Koutetsushin Jeeg – Someone, please tone down the testosterone-level of the scriptwriters.
#26: Blue Dragon – Could become good later on, but I don’t feel like finding out.
#25: Seto no Hanayome – Has its funny moments here and there, but there are definitely better comedies out there.
#24: Koutetsu Sangokushi – I know that I praised this one, but the second and third episode showed some horrible animation and scriptwriting.
#23: Gegege no Kitarou – On second thought, the cases just aren’t interesting enough.
#22: Kamichama Karin – Definitely not the best mahou shoujo out there. Filled with Deus ex Machina.
#21: Lovely Complex – I’ll perhaps watch this at a later time, when my Japanese level is high enough to pick up the hilarity of Kansai-ben.
#20: Ookiku Furikabutte – Perhaps I’ll watch this later when I have more time.
#19: Touka Gettan – Very confusing, will finish once summer holidays start due to busy schedule.
#18: Hitohira – I’ll also finish this one later, when the subs have picked up a bit.
#17: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – The third and fourth episodes weren’t as good as the first two. It also needs a bit of realism, don’t you just love how in this world, bullets never seem to run out?
#16: Darker than Black – I honestly can’t see why this series is praised so much. Sure, it has potential, but the first three episodes only featured lots of blood and gore and a guy who keeps hitting on girls in order to protect them.
#15: Heroic Age – The premise is good, but that’s the problem. The premise is the only thing worthwhile about this series so far.
#14: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Strikers – The first few episode were predictably not that good. I want to see that antagonist arrive!
#13: Lucky Star – Finally an actually watchable show from KyoAni, nice one.
#12: Murder Princess – A nice little show.
#11: Romeo x Juliet – Someone tell me how people can survive a jump in the water from a huge tower without any scratch, and how three specially trained palace guards can’t even defeat a sixteen-year old girl? The romance-elements are good, though.
#10: Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula – Okay, so the girl is the only one who can translate for the Gigantic, and she picked the boy. That’s good enough for now. What’s not good enough is how a little girl can be the head of the technical department.
#9: Wellber no Monogatari – Sure, it has a lot of bad points, but it’s fun, and the serious scenes definitely have potential.
#8: Engage Planet Kiss Dum – Quite good, I never expected this series to turn out the way it did.
#7: Claymore – So far, a solid start, but I want to see Terese
#6: El Cazador – The individual cases are pretty interesting, there’s lots of symbolism, lots of mystery, the plot doesn’t move awfully slow and Ellis is just too cute at times. What more could you want?
#5: Seirei no Moribito – Incredibly solid and detailed, episode 3 was a treat. Now let’s hope that the awesomeness won’t just limit itself to the climaxes.
#4: Ooedo Rocket – Hilarious and a good story? Definitely the biggest surprise for this season.
#3: Kaze no Shoujo Emily – A heart-warming story about so many conflicting interests. But yeah, it’ll never become popular.
#2: Bokura no – The huge cast of unique and different characters makes this anime so worthwhile.
#1: Towards the Terra – When talking about the overall best up till now, then for me it has to be Toward the Terra. With probably the best soundtrack of the season, great-looking character-designs and animation, a great setting and concept and very interesting characters, I really enjoyed this one.
+ Top 10 Anime +
One thing I do have to say is that April was a tad disappointing. Sure, there were good series, but when compared to other months, there were less awesome and memorable series. I don’t blame the newly arrived series, as it’s only natural for them not to live up to their full potential after only one month, but it’s more the older series. The fall-season just was worse than usual, and while Bakumatsu, Ayakashi and Red Garden were very interesting to see, they just didn’t live up to material like Simoun or Noein of previous seasons. Now that it’s ended, this really becomes clear. My favourite month so far in my time of blogging remains July 2006, with so many awesome series hitting their peaks. I’m hoping that the current summer will be able to trump this month.
#10: Seirei no Moribito
Like mentioned above, this definitely is the most solid and detailed anime to air in the spring-season. The fight-scene in episode 3 also was a real treat.
#9: Ooedo Rocket
Definitely the funniest anime to air in the spring-season. I love the mystery, different characters and the style of it all.
#8: Kaze no Shoujo Emily
Characters that complement each other perfectly. The introduction is finished, now I’m hoping for the anime to get really started.
#7: Jigoku Shoujo
Jigoku Shoujo currently holds the record of most posts dedicated to one series, the series to be blogged by me for the longest time (ignoring the sporadic ones like Ayatsuri Sakon and Popolocrois) and one of the first series I started blogging in the first place. Heck, after Mahou Shoujotai, it was one of the more important reasons for me to start blogging. That said, I’m sad to see this one finally go.
#6: Death Note
Death Note has been a strange little fellow over the past month. While it definitely had its annoying moments, other moments were just awesome, in a strange sort of way.
#5: Bokura no
Definitely the best promise of the shows in the spring-season. The characters have already shown to be really interesting. And that with so many of them.
#4: Towards the Terra
Like I mentioned above, when looking at the total package, Toward the Terra is my favourite series of the spring-season.
#3: Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi
You know, in the final arc, Atl sortof sucked and was sortof unnatural, but everything else rocked! We can only wonder what this series would have done with its final 26 episodes.
#2: Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette
Especially episode 13 and 14 were really heart-warming. It’s interesting to see that the Thenardiers are gone now, though.
#1: Chevalier
Chevalier has become even better in this month. The past number of episodes has been a real treat, and I just love the final antagonist. I’m so glad that this anime turned out amazingly well.
+ Random Notes +
– Power Puff Girls Z 36 probably was the best episode of the series yet when it comes with its own interpretation of the octi-episode. I also loved the art-style.
– Gintama had probably one of the best recaps ever at episode 25.
– I wonder if The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters will ever be noticed enough to get subbed, and I’m also eagerly awaiting Toki wa Kakeru Shoujo’s subtitled version. I don’t know what it is, but I have more trouble than usual when following raw movies, so I decided to wait for the subbers to do their magic.
– Less than two weeks left for Dennou Coil, and less than two months left for Tales of Symphonia and Tetsuko no Tabi. Yay!
– Share seems to have problems downloading Futago Hime. I don’t know why, but with every single file, it just stops downloading when about half of the episode has been downloaded. I’m not liking this, rawr!
– I think someone needs to tell the raw-providers that Kekkaishi started again. There hasn’t been any new release on Tokyo Toshokan, even though it’s been two weeks since episode 19 aired.
+ Newly Announced Anime +
Goshusho-sama Ninomiya-kun
Summary: “Next up is Goshuusho-sama Ninomiya-kun, which translates vaguely to “My Condolences, Ninomiya-kun.” Mamoru Ninomiya is the victim of his family, which includes two parents and four older sisters, all of whom are vagrants wandering around the globe – leaving poor Mamoru living all alone in a very large house. And what do you do with an empty house? Fill it – with a pair of sisters who find themselves in Mamoru’s debt. Wait a sec, why the condolences?” – (taken from animeonline)
Thoughts:Oh golly, what have we here? Talk about bad premises. It starts out great, though. Parents and their daughters who are wandering around the globe. Unfortunately, instead of focusing on these interesting characters, this anime decides to focus on the loser-son who stays home and gets to live with two beautiful girls. Seriously, when will these generic concepts stop?
Moetan
Summary: “Moetan is a series of English language study aid published by SansaiBooks in Japan. Targeted at otaku, it attempted to teach English words using examples drawn from computer games and anime.” – (taken from Wikipedia)
Thoughts:Just when I thought that an anime-title couldn’t get any more obvious, this one comes around. It’ll be just an excuse to show some cute girls without substance to the otaku.
Rental Magica
Summary: “In the story, Isuki is a high school student who inherits a magicians’ employment agency from his missing father.” – (taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts:I admit, it does have potential. If the cases that have to be solved with the rental service are serious and imaginative enough, this could turn out interesting. But why do I feel that this is going to turn into one of those usual moe-series?
Sketchbook ~full colors~
Summary: “Based on a 4-panel manga. Like its 4-koma-into-anime predecessors Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star, Sketchbook appears to follow a group of female high school students. However, this time the central character is the shy Sora Kajiwara, who is unsure of what club to join…until she gets dragged into the wacky art club, of course.”
Thoughts:If I had to guess, then this anime will combine Hidamari Sketch, Hitohira and Lucky Star. The shy girl could be interesting, but school-based anime have never really been my thing.
Druaga no Tou
Summary: “Players take control of Prince Gilgamesh on his quest to rescue his love, Ki, from the vicious Druaga.” – (taken from IGN)
Thoughts:Very interesting, Druaga no Tou, or the tower of Druaga is actually an old game-classic. Gonzo has decided to turn this into an anime, and I really wonder what they’re going to do with this concept, simply because of the lack of story in the original game. Really, how can you turn a game in which you have to travel through mazes in a strange tower to save your girlfriend into a fully fledged anime? Something tells me Gonzo’s going to pull another Romeo x Juliet on this one.
Ride Back
Summary: “After the United Nations dismantling and a large earthquake disaster happening in Tokyo, etc, the counter government motion by japanese students students again becomes active in 2020. One girl entered in the Musashino liberal arts university which is one of the bases base for the student movement. Her name is Ogata Rin. The “Rin” which has the talent of the dance which becomes type rare encounters with the human type bicycle robot ride back entrance first day. That, the opportunity which reforms the world is with, everyone’s one person there was no reason which is known….” – (taken from babelfish and edited a bit, though some sentences were impossible to transform to correct English)
Thoughts:Ride Back is another manga-adaptation from the Ikki-magazine. Quite frankly, I really enjoyed the various adaptations from that magazine, Narutaru was great, Bokura no is promising to become amazing and Tetsuko no Tabi, which is coming in June, is also looking to be quite interesting. Because of that, I’m quite looking forward to this one, though the concept seems a bit generic, featuring a girl piloting a small mecha in a dystopian Japan, 13 years into the future. Ah well, I’ve got hope for this one, we’ll see where this one goes.
Miyori no Mori
Summary: “The series follows Miyori, a girl who daydreams of escaping her tough everyday life. When Miyori enters the woods, she experiences many mysterious phenomena, including the discovery that the woods are also home to spirits and ghosts.” – (taken from Anime News Network
Thoughts:Yes! Yes! Another mystery-series got announced. With mystery being one of my favourite genres, I’ll definitely be anticipating this series.
+ Top 5 Episodes +
Deltora Quest – 07
Now that I think back on it, I keep getting more and more convinced how good that fight against Thaegan was. Short but sweet definitely is fitted for it. This episode definitely was one to remember if you combine it with the backgrounds of the different characters, abducted by the witch.
Seirei no Moribito – 03
Probably one of the most detailed fight-scenes ever. I’ve yet to see anyone to actually dislike this episode, and with good reason.
Jigoku Shoujo – 52
The end of the series I’ve been blogging for the longest period of time, and what an ending it is.
Saiunkoku Monogatari – 39
This has to be one of the most nostalgic episodes I’ve ever seen. This episode was basically enough to release the inner-fanboy within me.
Chevalier – 19
I won’t spoil what happened in here, but it was BEAUTIFUL.]]>
Le Chevalier d'Eon Review – 91/100
Le Chevalier d’Eon tells the brilliant story of the years before the French Revolution, during the reign of Louis XV in a setting with fantasy-elements. It follows d’Eon de Beaumont, a chevalier in service of the king (hence the title), who suddenly discovers the death of his famous sister, whom he admired.
If you’re interested in politics, realism, cross-dressers, historical anime, battle tactics or compassionate characters, then look no further as Chevalier brings a compelling combination of these elements. The storyline is incredibly detailed. Characters act because of complex reasons, and in most of the cases these reasons are explained as well. Through the course of the anime, the countries of France, England and Russia show a bit of their political system they used during the timeline in which the series takes place. And some of the characters get fleshed out incredibly well.
The second half of this series is a pure delight because of this. Starting from episode 15, there isn’t even one bad episode, and each one delivers, with four or five absolutely amazing episodes. Unfortunately, though, the first half is just too slow at times, and it spends perhaps a bit too long on building up. There are a few climaxes, but they weren’t really that special when compared to the second half, and I can imagine that they cost this anime quite an amount of viewers because of it.
The music is good, but forgettable. The graphics however, shine. Not literally, but characters are drawn incredibly detailed, and they’re greatly animated. Battle-scenes also are greatly choreographed as well. But the thing that really made this anime was its cast of characters. I probably won’t be able to forget the charming Durand soon, or the naive Robin, or the knightly Teillagory. Each of them was so worth to watch. It’s a shame you don’t hear so much about this anime, as it’s really the highlight of last year’s summer-season.]]>
Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi Review – 88/100
Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi was supposed to take over from Blood+ on the Saturday 18:00 timeslot, the number-one prime-time spot for anime, which also housed series as Full Metal Alchemist and Gundam Seed Destiny. For this, it had to live up to some great expectations, and it came with a story about Youma-hunters, during the Tenpou era of Japan.
If I had to say so myself, then Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi definitely lived up to these expectations, but it’s so not suitable for the prime-time spot. Timeslots like these are meant for popular shows with lots of fanboy-pleasing action, not an intelligent show like this one. Because of this, the series’ original length of 52 episodes was cut in half, leaving only 26 episodes for this anime to work with. This, in fact, is the only really bad point of this series.
Like I suggested above, this series’ great strength is its storytelling. It consists out of small arcs, ranging from usually two or three episodes, which all centre on themes, deeply rooted in the history of Japan and its religions. I’ve almost never encountered an anime which did so much research for its stories. As a result, the individual tales just sparkle with creativity and originality, while they still hold a large amount of realism. To give a small indication, brothels have often appeared in historical anime (to name a few, Samurai Champloo, Peace Maker Kurogane, and quite some more), but never was this concept so fleshed out as in the three episodes Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi dedicated to the subject.
Because these stories have such a good base, the characters also can be really fleshed out. Every important character has at least one arc in which he or she stands in the spotlight, and even though the character-development is incomplete, because of the reduced anime-length, the development that we do see is truly fascinating. To add that, nearly each arc has one major climax, and perhaps with exception of the first arc, each of these climaxes turns out to be really captivating, and full of tension.
Even in the graphical and musical department this series delivers. The background music makes sure that the climaxes work even better, while the character-designs are really lifelike. I remember commenting about how these characters looked so standard when I first saw them, but the fact remains that every single character looks unique in this anime, instead of being a clone of character A with different hair and eye-colour (something which seems to plague other anime). Add in a couple of great special effects, and you’ve got yourself a visual treat.
Because of the reduced length, I can’t rate this 90% or higher, because I feel that this anime would have been even better if the remaining 26 episodes were added (and not to mention the rushed ending), but I definitely recommend giving Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi a try. It’s probably one of the few anime with a guy in his fourties as a main character, and this works perfectly. Just be aware that the dialogue can be quite intensive, so this isn’t an anime that you can just watch leisurely]]>
Paprika Review – 74/100
Satoshi Kon comes with another movie, called Paprika. This is the same person who directed Paranoia Agent, so I undoubtedly looked forward to it a lot. So, after having seen it, how did it turn out? Well, disappointing. It’s not bad or anything, but I expected something more.
Paprika comes with another psychological theme: dreams. About 50% in this movie happens in dreams, and they show what happens when humans start messing with them. Overall, it was quite interesting, but I’m surprised to say that the pacing was rather slow, compared to Paranoia Agent, which continuously kept the flow of events high. Paprika definitely is different, as it seems to more focus on its characters than paranoia itself. When you look at it this way, it turned out pretty good, with interesting choreography at times, and all accompanied by very unusual characters that you probably won’t see in any other anime.
Still, there are two rather bad points about this movie. It’s repetitive, and it doesn’t use its amazing soundtrack enough. Seriously, if you loved Paranoia Agent’s soundtrack, you’ll love the theme song. It’s a great song, but the rest of the anime is filled with rather mediocre background sounds or just plain silence. I kept longing to hear the opening track again, which unfortunately only happened when the ending credits rolled. Regarding the first point, it’s quite a few times that we see scenes that we’ve already seen before. I guess these scenes were meant to illustrate the changes in the anime, but when a strange parade passes the screen for the fifth time, its novelty has worn out.
Overall, if you’ve got some time to burn, you can check this out, as it’s quite a good watch, but there definitely are better movies out there.]]>
Top 10 Anime
10: Fantastic Children
Fantastic children probably has one of the best plot twists ever, but that’s not the only great part of this anime. Its narrative style, great characters and deep plot made this an anime I won’t forget anytime soon.
9: Shion no Ou
At first, I didn’t have that much hope for a series that was about a game I knew nothing of (Shougi), but Shion no Ou came and totally proved me wrong. With an amazing cast of characters and a terrific plot to back them up, Shion no Ou quickly dominated all the other shows in the season it aired in for me with its quality
8: Revolutionary Girl Utena
Ah, Utena. You’re probably one of the strangest, most eccentric anime out there, but also one of the best. Its first half never failed to entertain me, while especially the final episodes starting from episode 30 were insanely good. For the first and probably only time, recycled scenes actually helped to improve an anime, giving it a ritualistic feeling, which turned out perfectly.
7: The Third: Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo
I consider The Third as one of the best action-series, due to its incredibly versatile character of Honoka. She really is one of my favourite characters so far, and this show never failed to entertain me. It’s also one of the few shows with an actually great ending, which is a very rare thing in anime.
6: Bokura no
It may have turned down a lot of fans from the manga, but nonetheless I personally adored Bokura no. When it started, it got to work with one of the most promising premises I’ve seen, and it has definitely lived up to these expectations. The huge cast of characters has proven to be amazing as they move through the tragedy-filled story, without ever degrading into a pointless emo-fest.
5: .Hack//Sign
.Hack//Sign has a considerable sentimental value for me, as it was the first anime I managed to see from fansubs, and I still consider it as one of the best anime ever. Okay, it’s slow, but because it was so slow, it made sure to take its time to develop its characters, only to feature a brilliant second half, full of thought-provoking character-development. It really utilized some of the best aspects of MMORPGs.
4: Simoun
Ah, Simoun. This series has been an awesome character-study, featuring some of the saddest but also grandest scenes I’ve seen. Everything seemed to fit. It’s a true gem that doesn’t deserve its negligence.
3: Visions of Escaflowne
Up till episode twelve, I just thought this as a normal series. But then with the arrival of episode thirteen, Visions of Escaflowne stole my heart, with one of the most intense scenes I had ever seen. To make things even better, starting from that point, the quality of this anime never even once declined, making Escaflowne a truly memorable story.
2: Noein
At the end of the first episode, I knew that this series was going to be something special, but I never knew that it would turn out this awesome. Noein has been an amazing ride, featuring some of the best character-developments ever.
1: Mahou Shoujotai
I don’t think it comes as a surprise to see this one at the #1. Everyone has probably one series which stands miles above the others. If you haven’t yet seen such a series: keep searching, as it’s out there somewhere. For me, Mahou Shoujotai captivated me like no other, heck, it’s one of the reasons I started blogging in the first place. It’s got one of the best stories and settings I’ve ever seen, the themes are awesome, and it seems like every single episode featured a new plot twist. Add some thought-provoking themes, excellent storytelling, and I’m hooked.
I’ll continue updating this list as I finish anime who are good enough to take up a spot. Obviously, anime which I haven’t seen completely are left out of it, as you’ll never know when they might turn bad or disappointing.
Now that that’s said, I’d love to everyone else’s favourite series. Don’t be afraid to drop a comment. 🙂
(Last Updated on 3-5-2008)]]>
Some quick first impressions: Kaze no Stigma, Ookiku Furikabutte and Kaibutsu Oujo
Kaze no Stigma
Short Synopsis: Kazuma has been kicked out of the fire-clan because he sucked at throwing fireballs at people. Now, three years later, he’s back with wind-powers to prove the meanies from the fire-clan wrong.
Good: Interesting, this anime already starts off by killing its major characters
Bad: Someone please teach the writer the basics of human nature.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 4/10
Ever since I saw the plain and ordinary character-art, I sortof feared that this anime would never become good, and this episode indeed proved my fears. The bad points also don’t limit themselves to the bad character-designs, either. Most notably is the hugely unbelievable behavior of the characters. The girl’s comrades have just been killed by the main male lead, and what does the girl do? She acts as if he just insulted her. She never even looks back at her former friends who just died, and instead she shows the behaviour of a standard tsundere. Sorry, but with a start like that, I don’t feel like checking out more of this series… Oh, and grown-up guys throwing fireballs at each other definitely isn’t cool. Heck, the entire episode made it look like there was not thought whatsoever put behind the concept.
Ookiku Furikabutte
Short Synopsis: A not-so-typical loser gets assigned as the pitcher of a local baseball team.
Good: Surprisingly down-to-earth.
Bad: The main character does remain a looser, and I’m fearing for the girl we kept seeing flashes of.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Like Kaze no Stigma, I never had big expectations of this, especially after the horribly boring Overdrive. But what do you know, this sports anime actually turned out interesting. First of all, we finally have a loser who doesn’t suddenly get introduced to Baseball, so that he can become the best baseball player ever. This episode also hinted at tactics, rather than raw power like most sports anime tend to dabble into (or so I’ve heard). We’ve also got quite an interesting cast, like the orange-squishing trainer, the very shy main character (probably one of the shyest characters I’ve seen thus far), and the other new guy. Even the girl who watched from the side-lines was quite funny, though I fear her becoming a main character.
Kaibutsu Oujo
Short Synopsis: A typical loser gets to live together with a bunch of supernatural beings, who quite conveniently all end up being cute girls.
Good: Thankfully, the ALI project didn’t turn this into a complete failure after all.
Bad: So…many….stereotypes…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 3/10
I couldn’t help but compare this series to Murder Princess, both feature a blonde princess who likes to kill others. I do have to say, though, that Murder Princess is infinitely better than the rubbish that this series tried to present. First of all, ignoring the clichés for a moment, the main character’s sister has invited her brother to come live with her. Why the heck doesn’t se get worried when he doesn’t show up? Why doesn’t she call the guy’s cell-phone to ask what happened to him. Sure, okay, she’s just a completely stupid and irresponsible girl, okay. I can forgive that. What I can’t forgive, though, is the hospital-people who don’t even notify the guy’s family-members after he died, for goodness’ sake! Now, if you add the clichés to that (big-breasted sister in maid-clothes, cold princess, small uberpowerful girl who keeps beating up the main character, a typical loser male who has been pasted right from another random harem-anime, the metal bar who chose just the right timing to fall down on the princess, and of course the fact that this princess just can’t let the guy die and I can ramble on forever like this) the result becomes nothing other than garbage.]]>