Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu – 13

by AidanAK47, posted in Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

So we reach the finale of the first season of Rakugo and against all odds we have a second season to look forward to. The last episode of this season capped off the end of Yakumo’s tale and returns to our characters from the first episode. Through it now some time after Yakumo told them his story and Yotarou from the first episode has just become a shinichi. Konatsu asks Yotarou to do the same story her father did for her long ago and we have a moment were  we the audience know just how much meaning this story has for her yet Yotarou is completely clueless. Yotarou has very much become a new incarnation of Sokeroku and while his performance isn’t as good as Sokeroku’s, it is certainly reminiscent of it. How Konatsu has changed is something I find quite interesting. Her mother was very much stuck in the past and dependent on men to survive. Yet Konatsu has gotten pregnant and is determined to raise the child as a single mother. Konatsu is very strong a self sufficient which was likely birthed by her desire to support her father as a child and her standoffish relationship with Yakumo. On why she got pregnant, Yakumo insinuated that part of this was out of spite for him however Konastu makes it clear that she will not stand for her father’s line dying out. However I wonder why she is so adamant to not name the father. COuld it be this was the result of a drunken night with Yotarou perhaps? Maybe that’s why she was so surprised by his marriage proposal out of the blue. However that is quite unlikely.

Then this episode lets out the words that was being hinted front the start. Yotarou has decided to inherent Sukeroku name. The scene with Yakumo at the grave of Sokeroku venting his frustrations with a mirage of Sokeroku was excellent. Even after all these years his death still eats away at him. He feels that he failed him and that he couldn’t keep Rakugo alive as he wished. And in his ventings the mirage slips into the fog and Yotarou replaces it. We know what Sokeroku wished, a rakugo that never changes and a rakugo that changes with the times. Yakumo has kept one side alive and now I believe Yotarou is the key to being the second side Yakumo needs. Even Matsuda mentioned this fact to Sokeroku himself in the last episode. The crowds need both the styles of Yakumo and him, without one it felt as though something was missing. But Yakumo also mentions how he failed in raising Konatsu which I think he really shouldn’t blame himself for that. Konatsu and him had a standoffish relationship even before Sokerokus death so regardless to how he tried I doubt he could have raised her better. Well maybe he should have let her do Rakugo but admittedly in this time she wouldn’t have much hope in a profession such as that. So we end this season on a bit of a cliffhanger as now as Sokeroku has acted as a guiding light for Yakumo, he too must act to transform the rough Yotarou into the new Sokeroku all the while dealing with the issue of Konatsu’s baby and the mystery as to who is the father. The next season should prove to be quite interesting.

Final Fantasy Type 0 HD Video Game Review – 30/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Game Reviews

There was once a time when Square Enix was the king of RPG’s. You name a beloved classic RPG from the SNES era and chances are it’s a Square RPG. However in recent years the quality of their games has gone down immensely. One could blame the advent of voice acting which highlighted the clunkiness of their writing. Others could blame them placing too high a focus on storytelling as gameplay becomes more basic while cut scenes grow ever more flashy. I personally place blame on Square trying to move away from turn based systems and focus on an action RPG approach. But what is truly an amalgamation of everything that is wrong with current Square is right here, in this game. And boy is it bad. I knew walking into this game that I would not be experiencing a standard final fantasy title but even with that mindset I wasn’t truly prepared for what I got. At this point it’s safe to assume that I am a Final Fantasy fan. I have played FFs 1 to 13(omitting 11) and I always thirst for a new Square title. Though no matter how much I love the series, there is no possible way I can love what it’s become.

On to the story and boy, it sure is a story alright. So this is a world with four kingdoms based around the four gods from China. Dragon, Bird, Tiger Tortoise each with a crystal of water, earth, fire and air. No real reason to throw the four gods of China in there but well cool points I suppose. Long ago, the four nations lived together in Harmony. Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked. Well actually it was the tiger nation but this is pretty much sums it up. The tiger nation of Milites just decides to start conquering other nations. When they attack the bird kingdom things look dire when they jam the crystal and cut off the nation from its powerful magic. But along comes class zero, a group of twelve people created as a secret weapon that can fight without crystal power. So the nation must depend on class zero to reclaim their land and defeat Milities. Now let me make one thing absolutely clear. The writing of this story is completely, utterly, without question, horrible. I thought Valkyria has bad writing but it truly doesn’t even compare to the level of terrible of this. This is some of the most hackneyed amateur storytelling I have ever seen. Why is that? Well for starters the plot holes are abundant. The most glaring example has to do with the nature that when people die in this world then all memory of that person is wiped from everyone’s memories. An interesting concept I admit but it just opens the way of an abundance of logical failings. For example a big part of one of the characters arcs is that in the beginning his brother died because he delivered a message to class zero in the middle of a battle. Why was this message so important? Why did class zero ask for this person specifically to deliver it? Nope not important, what is important is that right in the middle of enemy territory one of their commanders decides that now is the perfect time to call this kid called Machina out and specifically let him know that class zero got his brother killed. He even outright says it “You could say they are the ones who killed your brother” This guy isn’t working for the bad guys and looks to be doing it just to spite the doctor who created them. When class zero is your main line of defense against a total destruction of a nation one would think self preservation would win out over personal vendetta. He straight up says this to another leader and she just says she doesn’t care as long as he keeps her out of it. This causes Machina to hate class zero and act antagonistic towards them. This is all undermined by the fact that he shouldn’t even remember his brother at all so he’s getting all angsty over someone he doesn’t even remember. it seems the details on this memory erasing is vague as a queen of the dragon nation dies later on and yet people still remember their was a queen and someone even tries to get revenge for her. This whole memory thing just doesn’t make sense in general. Speaking of the queen, class zero are accused of killing her and laughably nobody, not even their own advisors, think they didn’t do it. Made all the more ridiculous when because of the queen’s death Milites forms a convenient treaty that means they have control over the dragon nation crystal and the dragon armies support to help take over the bird nation. I mean does no one leading bird country have a brain? Well there is the one person that created class that looks to know whats up but she seems satisfied to just sit back and do nothing. What follows is a big battle that has bird country somehow come out on top and win the war but straight out of nowhere demons appear and start ending the world. Everyone blames class zero for this because…um…because. Class zero decides to save the world and defeat the endboss to start so new world order or something. I had long lost interest at this point.

I am cutting down the story a bit but that’s what it boils down to and I feel like I just witnessed a teenagers first attempt at writing a story. It’s hard to truly pinpoint every example but the dialogue in this game never sounds natural and certainly is made all the more unnatural when read out by voice actors. No disrespect to them, they did all they could with this script. It keeps throwing out terminology without putting meaning to it. Expecting you to be interested enough to study up on lore just to explain why a Queen from another country can up and decide to call an end to a war between two other nations without question. l’Cies also make a return from FF13 and the game expects you to have played that to understand what they are all about. The game’s cinematic are littered with utterly useless voice over with black screens of text telling you exactly what you just saw. You see Bahamut unleash an attack on the enemy army, suddenly the screen goes black showing text which is read out by voiceover. “Bahamut attacked the enemy army” Yes, I know. I saw it and there is no reason to spell it out. I have heard if “Show, don’t tell” but this may be a case of Show and tell. Worst of all is the characterization. One or two characters get what could be considered an arc but in a cast of 14 playable characters they are all one dimensional caricatures. They are named after playing cards (except Rem and Machina because they ran out of cards) and there personalities are all defined by one single trait. With the leader being the blandest and most forgettable of all. The characterization of the villains is just as bad. You learn nothing about the main villain, just that he loves to talk in that old mastermind talk which assumes everything is going to plan. The other villain to get any screentime is a guy with an eye patch who you fight twice in the whole game. Theirs this cringe worthy moment of him talking to a subordinate whose gimmick is saying the word “fricking” a lot and it’s clear she’s meant to be saying the other F word. This character is introduced in this one scene and this one scene is her only real appearence. Her sole role is to humanize the captain before he has a heroic death scene but it’s just so forced. The death scene itself is equally stupid as it all happens because some random crazy soldier(He’s not even a mechanic) installed the base equivalent if a nuke to the captain’s mech on his own and…no one noticed. Isn’t there like whole teams of people checking this thing? I mean this bomb wasn’t some small device, it was like this big metal ball the size of a car door. And not one person noticed it being installed on the mech? Just ridiculous.

So the stories a bust but what about the gameplay? Well as stated before this does not play like a typical final fantasy game. There are no turn based battles while random encounters are still here on the world map. Instead what we have is a kind of inferior kingdom hearts system. Battles are fought in real time with four buttons assigned to certain actions. You have a standard attack, one for a special attack, one for offensive magic and one for recovery/buff magic. It’s interesting that they gave each character a different moveset and you are encouraged to use them all as in this game you have no way of reviving characters if they fall in battle. You only get characters back if you finish the mission or go to a town. But here’s my problem with it. There are nine melee focused characters and five projectile focused characters. Against flying enemies a melee focused character is useless as they fly out of your attack range. Now guess how many of the bosses are flying types? Here’s the answer, all of them. More or less all the bosses stay out of a melee attack range so if you lose all your characters who can attack from a distance then you might as well start the mission over. Any boss that isn’t a flying type is an unwinnable battle and there are a lot of those. A number of chapters end with you facing an impossible to defeat enemy where your only option is to lay down and die. It may be possible to defeat them in a second playthrough, provided you even wish to do a second playthrough. Though on a first playthrough when after getting beaten up by a gauntlet of enemies you are then greeted with a boss battle you cannot possibly win it’s a bit of a spit in the face for the player. What’s really a spit in the face of the player is the final boss battle which goes the opposite route and is impossible to lose. The entire last dungeon is ridiculously easy now that I think about it. The game has giant difficulty spikes in the missions beforehand but the finale has you fighting slow moving giants that are at half your level. Though on that matter I was relieved as I was long tired of the games cheap difficulty in previous missions.

There are three points of gameplay. The first is breaks which are periods where you can run around a academy and talk to people or go outside to grind levels. These parts are wasted as you can’t actually interact with class zero but instead with side characters that mean little to the plot. Grinding is terrible in that it is necessary and a slow arduous process. You can only level 3 characters at a time and you have 14 to keep even. And they will need to be as if you lose your mains in a mission they are the ones who will have to finish it. Even when given a Growth egg which doubled exp this process was just as slow. The break segments between missions mainly serve as filler and I mostly found myself fast forwarding to the missions. Then there are the Real time Strategy missions which is not really an accurate term for them. There’s no strategy, you are told what to do and what you do is exactly the same every time. You kill enemies coming from a base so the soldiers from your base can take over the enemies base. The order you take over the bases is determined and there’s no skill in it. This aspect is woefully lacking and there are a grand total of three of them in the entire 20 hour game. It’s just a waste of time. The last point is the bulk of the gameplay which is you going through a series of rooms and killing enemies. This is the pattern. Enter a room, kill all enemies, enter the next room, kill me all enemies, rinse repeat till boss. The environments may change and the enemies may change but the experience remains a linear series of rooms filled with enemies with little change besides occasionally being asked to press A somewhere in the map and kill all enemies.

I am aware this is a HD release of a PSP game but visuals are very telling of that fact. I pity those who spent for the same price as a main PS3 title. I at least can say I got it off steam with a heavy discount. The CGI cutscenes may look very pretty but the gameplay visuals are bare bones. Almost PS2 level. Music is fairly unremarkable which is a deep disappointment for a FF title. So after all the negativity is there anything good I can say about it? Well the final level did have interesting challenges and small moments of great visuals. The ending I quite liked as it showed that maybe underneath all this was a genuine effort to make something great. And truthfully I like that they had the guts to take that route. Though despite efforts to make this a darker story I found its darkness more juvenile than mature. Dark storytelling takes a great writer, one who can weave tragedy and handle subtlety. This writer wasn’t even close to that. After all, you can’t attempt to write a story you want readers to take seriously when you have a bloody Moogle giving out objectives with a “Kupo!” In fact that does highlight an impression I get of Square Enix. Back in the NES era of gaming a little company was going out of business and they decided to make one last game before they were snuffed out. In order of it being their final project, they named the game “Final Fantasy” and that title sold so well that it saved them. Square is in trouble once again and they are expecting the title to save them once again. But they now seem to hold contempt for the classics they made but in a odd situation depend on their nostalgia. They once claimed they will never remake FF7 till they make a game that surpasses it and we’ll they couldn’t. Now they are remaking FF7 but the product bares little resemblance to its classic counterpart. They seem determined, nay obsessed to prove that new Square is better than old Square and in doing so have disregarded just what made them great in the first place. So many fantastic IPs like Chrono trigger, the world ends with you and Secret of mana(I highly doubt adventures of mana would have got an IOS remake if it wasn’t called Final Fantasy Adventure) are left aside while Square keeps trying to shove flashy graphics and barrels of lore down our throats. Square listen. Stop trying to be cool. You are not and it’s embarrassing. Stop trying to make movies. Make a game with a fun gameplay system and levels. Stop trying to make real time battle systems with only simplify down strategy to its bare necessities. Return back to a turn based system or go for the best of both worlds like Grandia 2 did. Want proof this is the right choice? Well look at Bravely default. In fact, give up on all future final fantasy titles, take Bravely default’s gameplay mechanics, pretty up the graphics to console level, get Nobuo Uematsu back or bring in Revo to do music and hire a damn good writer to write the story. There, a masterpiece.

Some Quick First Impressions: Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu, Hundred and Seisen Cerberus

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu

Short Synopsis: A boy is summoned to another world where he finds himself reliving the same day over and over again.

Wow. ANN is not pleased with this one. I normally don’t check out their first episode preview because well I have to watch all these shows anyway regardless of how bad they are. But I heard they blasted this one pretty hard. It’s on these kinds of shows that make me glad that I go out of my way to check the source material because I could very well be doing the same thing if I didn’t. Not to say this double length feature episode was bad but despite subverting cliches it also adhears to cliches as well. Our protagonist is well aware of the other world genre and is thinking that now he is in one that he will be getting some sort of special superpower. Technically he did but it’s far from desirable. It is true that addressing a cliche is not subverting a cliche if you still use said cliche. In this case the main thought he would encounter a cute girl. He did but said cute girl ignores him and runs off to leave him to get beaten up. But then another girl shows up and helps him. As I said, in some ways it subverts and in others it sticks to the standard. Can’t say I am fond of our heroine as she does seem a stereotype and remains so for as far as I have read into this story. However I do think this story is still worthwhile because you can claim it’s following the standard but if the standard involved seeing the protagonist dying horribly over and over again then I would think much better of the genre. Our self proclaimed hikikomori Subaru may be a guy with decent strength but he isn’t going to be gaining godly power like much of our usual other world protagonists. I like the guy as well because at least he’s a step above the standard. Sure his comments about this being an other world story at the beginning are annoying and quite frankly he should have noticed that his was in a time loop by the second run but the man has the drive to learn. I wasn’t too fond of the first episode and in that I think it was a wise decision for white fox to make this a double feature. So far they are doing a great job with adapting the source, in particular I like how they handled the beginning with intercutting scenes of his first death with his time before entering the world. I am not going to make any promises of this being great(For one I believe caricature characterisation is a big weakness in the source) but I think some critics will start changing their tune as the series continues. Besides, I hear the author is a Sadist and if that’s the case…(smirk)

Potential: 90%

 

Hundred

Short Synopsis: A clearly mentally unstable girl challenges a boy to a fight…just..screw it. I don’t care anymore

Can I please have the brain cells that died while watching this episode back? I mean good god just how utterly insipid is this. I am insulted, purely insulted at the outright lack of effort. Truly just how stupid do you think I am, show? Do you honestly believe that I think that girl crossdressing as a boy is a genuine boy? A boy who wears ribbons, has a ponytail and enacts a level of physical contact that would have any normal guy reeling back and asking just what the hell is wrong with you? Oh sure us guys give each other lap pillows all the time. And oh no it just gets worse. A student council president that can expel students? Just…what?! Why? How? Isn’t that just asking to be abused? Not a clingy incest imouto! For the love of god leave some cliches to go die! Also every big boobed girls first appearance is first her chest and then it pans up to show their face. Sort of like the show is saying “Hey look at these breasts! Aren’t they massive!…Oh yeah she has a face too.” So I could go into detail about what this show isn’t worth your time…but really why should I bother. Look if this show isn’t going to put a modicum of effort into presenting a story then truly why should I even try to critic it. Instead I think I will just ask questions. What’s up with main protagonists and fire flashbacks? Is there some kind of pyromaniac who transcends dimensions just to set fire to any place in a flashback? Why was there a minutes worth of some pretty impressive animation for what amounts to our protagonist talking with two other students? Do people not confuse the Monster Savage with the actual term for a Savage? Isn’t there better alternatives to fighting them than using crystals? Biological warfare for example? Isn’t it really inconvenient to have a school on a boat? I mean yeah, Savages are about but I think that Kids that get sea sickness would be screwed at this school. Why is that council president idiot trying to expel two students for being late to a opening ceremony while giving some silly tripe about teamwork when later a clip of her fighting shows she doesn’t work in a team at all?! Just…just…GAH! Hell with it! What’s the point of complaining? It’s crap, it’s lazy, stupid and probably going to get a second season. This just goes to show that for every good Light Novel, there will be a hundred “Hundred”’s.

Potential: 0%

 

Seisen Cerberus

Short Synopsis: A boy seeks out artifacts that were used to seal a dangerous dragon in ancient past.  

After Hundred, I was far removed of patience so perhaps this might not be a fair assessment. But regardless of how I feel currently I think my opinion on this would be the same. I feel pretty indifferent to it. The writing certainly isn’t notable. “He’s holding that sword with one hand. He must be a real master of the blade” Or maybe he’s just strong? Doesn’t really speak for his skills as a swordsman. The artstyle is not all that appealing and I can’t say the music made an impact. What I am seeing here is checking the boxes for a typical show of this mediocre caliber. However what really kills it is the feeling of the dialogue. Every word that comes out of a person’s mouth feels staged, like they pulled it out a recommended selection of lines that would be appropriate for the scene. It’s all just so artificial and this show should be convincing me to feel something for it’s story. It could be fun for some but I think the majority will find no reason to continue.

Potential: 20%

Some Quick First Impressions: Boku no Hero Academia, Endride and Kuma Miko

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Boku no Hero Academia

Short Synopsis: A boy with no superpowers wishes to be become a hero.

For the most part I need to reiterate what I said in my said in my season preview about this show. There is nothing particular wrong with it as it does make at least a pretty decent Shounen. If I had to fault it for anything I would say it’s uninspired. There are a lot of aspects which reflect other shounen series and it feels to me like it’s following a formula. But what bugs me the most is that it goes for the less interesting story when it had a potentially greater story in it’s beginning. Midoriya is powerless and despite his desire to be a hero he has no realistic means of achieving it. What comes to pass in the next episode is that he is given a means to obtain a quirk(Aka power) but to me that undermines the lesson of the start. It would have been a far more powerful and interesting story if Midoriya had to make use of his intelligence and cunning to make a name for himself as a hero without a quirk. Which would make him an inspiration for all the quirkless. But instead we have him reinforce the class division and make it that he can only succeed by obtaining a quirk. Still if you can push aside that thought then this can be a decent shounen to watch as we do have some impressive animation on display and a decent hook. (Try not to compare it to One Punch Man. It only comes off worse for it.) It will be a fun little show to watch in between series.

Potential: 60%

 

Endride

Short Synopsis: A boy who loves crystals is dragged to an alternate world.

Well that certainly was something so bland it could be classified as a cheap 90s OVA that was made in the present. There is something about this that just has an aura of cheapness in it’s conception. The protagonist is run of the mill besides his fixation on crystals, the artwork is utterly generic and the setting screams that it is a cheap knockoff of other done to death settings. Even the animation is utterly lackluster as the fight scenes in this episode were determined to show anything other than the fight itself. Watch in awe during a fight as you see a boy with a strained look on his face while weapons clang in the background. The weapons as well just look bad with the main villains weapon resembling a safety pin with a spear stuck to one end. I would be exaggerating if I called this terrible but in truth it is something worse. This is forgettable. This is the kind of anime that is lost to the ages to never be remembered. It isn’t good enough to be recalled nor bad enough to be hated. It’s just…bland.

Potential: 0%

 

Kuma Miko

Short Synopsis: A girl wishes to go to school in the city but is stopped by her guardian who happens to be a talking bear.

This is pretty fun. It’s an enjoyable comedy with some good jokes and decent comedic timing. The chemistry between Natsu the bear and the miko is smooth and makes the nature of the screwball comedy work well. The artwork is bright and pops out while the character designs are easy on the eyes. Natsu’s transitions from bearlike to nonthreatening is nicely done. I liked the reference to Jaws in the beginning and the folktale that happened to sound like a bizarre hentai doujin. Though I must repeat that this likely isn’t going to impress you if you are looking for a laugh out loud comedy. I smiled but I find the show decently enjoyable at best. This isn’t something I see being top of the season.

Potential: 60%

Some Quick First Impressions: Ace Attorney(Gyakuten Saiban), JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – Diamond is Unbreakable and Mayoiga

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Ace Attorney(Gyakuten Saiban)

Short Synopsis: Our protagonist is a lawyer that says “Objection!!”

Its as I feared. For you see in video game adaptions you have to rip out a core part of the experience and pray that another aspect has enough strength to hold it’s own. In this case it clearly cannot do that as all tension was ripped from the situation. This is admittedly the tutorial case for the game and watching the anime it’s clear that an anime only watcher could notice that. The dialogue that clearly made reference to game mechanics and the visual text boxes that are clearly there for the fans of the games. In the games the tension of the case was there because it was you who was looking over the court record and finding inconsistencies in the witnesses statement. When you cut out that aspect it just feels like Phoenix(Calling him Naruhodo just feels weird to me) is pulling the answers out of nowhere with little effort. This could be remedied in future episodes as we follow him investigating the case but it won’t fix the problems in presentation. This entire episode just felt off. The beginnings pacing was too fast, the music felt inappropriate and terrible, art is passable at best and something wasn’t right about the animation. To me this feels like it wasn’t a top priority project for A-1 pictures and something about it just makes it seem lazy. But perhaps the fault simply is that Ace Attorney can’t transition to anime because it’s game format was an important part of it’s charm.

Potential: 30%

 

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – Diamond is Unbreakable

Short Synopsis: Once again a new Jojo must face a Bizarre enemy

The first thing you will notice is the art style which is very evocative of the Bronze age of comic books. It takes some getting used to but it is a rather interesting style despite the strange use of colour. It seems I will be able to enjoy this series without watching the rest of stardust crusaders as we seem to be on a brand new storyline. My only question being just why is Jotaru’s cap fused with his skull? Did something happen or is that just a weird design choice? Either way this is looking to be a return to form for Jojo as our new protagonist has a much more interesting power and personality. His way of snapping when someone makes fun of his hair is quite amusing and the weird method he has of fighting opens up a whole new layer of possibilities with future encounters. The presentation is very old school and has a certain charm to it. If you seen Jojo you know what to expect here and I can say it’s still delivers on that. Whether it can keep up the steam depends on how this Arc turns out.

Potential: 70%

 

Mayoiga

Short Synopsis: A group of crazies are on a bus trip to a secret village to start their lives over.

While it hasn’t been confirmed, it looks to be certain this is a horror anime. For this episode has ominous vibes throughout and I like that. There is a lot of potential here in the eerie atmosphere and a huge cast full of mentally unstable characters each with their own problems. Of course because it’s such a huge cast there are a number of stereotypes present. A rapper, a chuunibyou, a delinquent, smart glasses guy…the anime spends five minutes just having each one introduce themselves. There are a few interesting one such as a girl with obsessive compulsive disorder and a girl wearing a hoodie who looks to know more about this than the others. I would complain that this is far too huge a cast for a twelve episode series but there are heavy hints that a lot of these people will be killed off. I am fairly interested in what is to come but I am also worried as horror such as this requires a subtle hand. Subtlety is not Okadas strong point. I like the foreshadowing this episode had but a lot of up was in your face. Such as two songs that happened to have grim lyrics and some pretty big signs that these people are already dead and this is some kind of purgatory. Okada is going to need to restrain herself and not up the melodrama to cartoonishly exaggerated degrees for this horror to be good. Still I wouldn’t mind a nice anime slasher flick myself either. There’s a lot to like here but I need to see just what Okada is going to do with this setup and characters. I hope she pulls through on this because anime horror is sorely needed by the medium.

Potential: 80%

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu – 12

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

Well Sukeroku was just five days away from retirement, not afraid of anything anymore, gonna tell Miyokichi he loves her after the battle, followed by a around the world trip on a boat called the live forever, put on a red shirt and kiss Yoko Littner goodbye. Yes, the Grim Reaper was clearly sharpening his scythe this episode as Sokeroku expressed how this was the turning point for him in his life. Thoroughly expressed by him telling a sentimental story about a man who cleans up his act after his wife tells him a white lie regarding a wallet found on the beach. This story truly exemplifies Sokeroku to the core as this too was a turnround for him. A chance for him to make his daughter happy and win back his wife. This story was like a promise to Konatsu that he planned to make things better from now on. All sorely ruined by Miyokichi.

I find that this episode has thrown a wrench into my previous assumptions about this little love triangle. Miyokichi is obviously still in love with Yakumo but against my previous impressions Yakumo somewhat accepts her. I say somewhat as I am not certain as to his exact intentions. I think that seeing her current state awoke guilt in Yakumo and he felt that if he accepted her feelings then perhaps he might be able to bring her back together with Sokeroku and Konatsu. Sadly Miyokichi looks to have lived up to her curse promised before and attempts to drag Yakumo into a lovers suicide. So stopped by Sokeroku who bursts in promising to give up Rakugo and focus on her and Konatsu. Considering Sokeroku just returned to what he truly loved this felt like a betrayal to me and I would like to think his words were simply to keep her from the edge of the balcony. I think he knew that Miyokichi truly didn’t want to die as he noticed her shaking when he caught her in his arms. What also surprised me was that this actually looked like it worked as Miyokichi started to get shook up by his words. I still believe their relationship came about out of necessity but it is possible that in the years spent together some love could bloom. After all, Sokeroku actually knew her first name when Yakumo did not and is that a sign that maybe they held a special connection that Yakumo didn’t have with her? Perhaps if Sukeroku put work into finding a job and supporting them things wouldn’t come to this. Fate however, is a cruel mistress and if you tempt her then she will ruin you gladly. That or maybe one shouldn’t install tiny balconies made of cheap flimsy wood because it breaks to drop Miyokichi to her doom. Sadly Sokeroku managed to catch her but with Yakumo being the only one holding him up it just ended up being a lovers suicide just as Miyokichi intended. Just with the wrong lover.

So did Sokeroku truly mean what he said to Miyokichi? Could he shape up and get a job? Truthfully I think not. Sokeruka was a man made for Rakugo and even if he tried his hardest I fear he will fall into old habits in time. To take Rakugo from him is like taking his heart and without it he is but a lazy neet. But I certainly seen he had no intention of returning with Yakumo to inheret his masters title. He knew better than Yakumo that nobody would allow him to have the name. We finally know how he died and the reason Konatsu caused him of killing her father. I would say that Miyokichi is the main culprit in this mess as she was the one to cause this whole situation. From this it looks like we will be returning to the future and with this story we finally know just what Yakumo intends with Yotarou. He wants him to take up Sukeroku’s mantle and provide the Rakugo he cannot. To be the guide to help Rakugo survive to the modern age.

Schwarzesmarken – 65/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Reviews by AidanAK47, Schwarzesmarken

Schwarzesmarken is a strange title in that it has a setting with fantastic potential yet the story is dampened by a rushed pacing and Missing characterisation. Despite this there are signs of a greater story under the hood and at times that story can shine despite haphazard adaption. The Stasi make for a great villain in how they impose a level of Orwellian control over East Germany which makes characters hold suspicions about another being a Stasi spy. All the while an Alien threat pushes East Germany into a corner as it deals with enemies both inside and outside. On top of the divided west Germany standing on the sidelines to see who schemes his way to leadership. All the while other countries dip their fingers in attempts to use Germany for its own ends. It’s all a tangled web of power struggles for a country facing total destruction which makes for some great situations which this show can become most engaging.

The strongest element of this show is its setting which is surprisingly authentic to real Germany of that time. A good amount of research went into various elements of this show. From the type of cars used to trains and even stories read to children. The internal politics of the situation are engaging and it does have a strong set of episodes around its middle regarding a character called Lise. Watching the power struggle between the governing parties helps remedy the insufficient level of character development present in the series. Characters can have drastic changes and it often feels as though a chunk of their character arc had been tossed aside to fit a one cour series. Characters who barely shared two sentences can switch from indifferent to each other to being close trusting allies. Frankly it’s jarring and makes you feel as though you accidentally missed an episode. The thing that makes this disappointing is that it’s not as if the characters are boring, if anything they do seem quite interesting. But no time is devoted to letting the viewer get to know them. So when a character dies or faces tribulations you just feel indifferent to their plight because you don’t know enough about them to truly care. The art of the show is fairly basic but the Mecha battles are fairly impressive feats of CGI animation. Music is also good but lost in the level of noise in the Mecha battles.

There is currently a demo for the visual novel of this story on Steam Greenlight. If it is well received there’s a chance of the Schwarzesmarken visual novels being brought over to the west. If that happens in the future I would recommend those Visual Novels over this anime in a heartbeat. It is pretty much guaranteed that the story is done better in the VN than in this anime and I find myself disappointed that I experience this story in its current form. For Muv Luv fans this anime should be good fanservice and it does act as a cliff notes for those not interested in the visual novel alternative. Otherwise I wouldn’t recommend this as while it does have potential, its hampered by a need to rush its way through its story in order to cover its entirely. Which has resulted in an anime which feels detached and lacking.

Schwarzesmarken – 12

by AidanAK47, posted in Schwarzesmarken

So Schwarzesmarken ends and the cheesy speeches not withstanding it not a bad ending. The Stasi are dismantled, West and East Germany have joined forces and things are looking up. However it turned out we have some causalities. The first being that white haired girl pilot whose name I can never remember and Irisdina. Not much fanfare was give for miss white hair but Irisdina got the full works. She has the satisfaction of taking out Axemann and died overlooking the birth of a new Germany. All of which is touching…if it wasn’t undermined by how she died. I give credit to her for beating the hell out of Axemann while handcuffed but she truly was screwed over when her teammate arrived with a gun and threw it to her. Instead of that teammate you know…shooting Axemann herself. It’s really hard to feel for a death that could have so easily been prevented and no matter how I try to rationalize it I can’t see any reason why she would have thought throwing the gun was better than shooting it. You can’t say she wasn’t acostumed to firearms because firearms training is a requirement for pilots. Those previous seconds shouting and throwing could have so been used to save her life and I am pretty annoyed that girl doesent hold any guilt over this.

Beatrixs goal is revealed to be a desire for Germany to sacrifice all personal identity in order to become a well oiled machine for the sole purpose of destroying BETA. Thus saving the world at the cost of East Germany’s individuality. Meanwhile Katia puts forwards that East and West Germany should put aside their differences and fight BETA together and with both their powers combined they would truly prevail. Beatrix dismisses this as idealistic nonsense and here’s the thing. I agree. Katia’s plan is really not a solution but more of a optimistic approach. That said I don’t find Beatrixs plan much of a solution either. At most her plan would end up with the same result as Katia’s which is not winning the war but rather prolonging the impending defeat. Simply put, these two people have truly no idea just how doomed Humanity is. For you see the BETA have Humanity on its last legs at this time and they haven’t even brought out the big guns yet. It would take some massive world leaping timey wimey stuff to score what could be considered a victory against them. So when hearing all this talk about hope and such I can’t help but pity these fools. I read the visual novel, I know what you face and you don’t stand a hope in hell. So all that’s left is the final battle and I find my thoughts on this series to be mixed.

Boku dake ga Inai Machi – 85/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Boku dake ga Inai Machi, Reviews by AidanAK47

In the large reservoir of anime it is surprising just how few titles focus on the concept of time travel. There are of course titles which feature time travel but few that make it the core focus. So here we have Boku Machi or ERASED, a tale about a mangaka time traveling to his childhood to prevent the deaths of children at the hands of a series killer. This series has some great presentation and direction though it does make it somewhat predictable in how it highlights what’s to come. Predictable does not mean boring though and this tale has a lot of heart. There are a number of great scenes that can play with your emotions and each episode does leave a feeling of dread for a tragedy to come. Though those episode cliffhangers do build up expectations which the ending fails to deliver.The female cast is ridiculously strong with Satorus mother being one of the best parenting figures one could have. Especially seeing as her initial impressions make her seem like a deadbeat parent. What is a shame is that one girl(Airi) in the cast is neglected despite having a great personality.

This is very much a slow paced show and a large amount of the shows runtime is devoted to one of the victims of the killer(Kayo) and Satoru’s efforts to free her from an abusive household. The tale is a moving one but it does push the main plot to the sidelines for quite a while. The mystery while not particularly deep provides the right level of intrigue to keep a viewer on their toes and a motive to keep a close eye on proceedings. There is a good bit of misdirection to keep you thinking and there are nice small touches throughout like the synchronisation of Satorus dialogue and monologue as well as the letterboxing of the past to give the feeling of being an outside observer. Some admittedly is a bit too forward in its execution but there is a lot of minor details that makes the story more interesting.

It does have its weaknesses as a show. Yuki Kajura provided a ill suited and uninspired soundtrack, the pacing can be too fast at times, the “villains” are exaggeratedly evil and to those looking for a smart mystery you will be disappointed. However I believe it’s positives do outway its negatives. Ultimately what decides your enjoyment of this show is your level attachment to the characters. The focus is clearly character driven and if you find yourself not caring for them, I am afraid the plot will not hold anything to compensate. But if you find yourself getting drawn into these character then I believe your experience with this show will be a positive one but remember to walk into it with the right expectations.

Boku dake ga Inai Machi – 12

by AidanAK47, posted in Boku dake ga Inai Machi

As I said before, an ending can change your entire perception of a series and in Boku machi’s case the ending is …decent. I can’t say I have any problems with it and I could consider it good. In all honestly it was hard to imagine a case where we could get an ending better than this considering the circumstances of how the last episode ended. A bombastic showdown between Satoru and Yashiro would be uncharacteristic of the show so far and Satoru’s current state stops them from having any real confrontation. So what it all boils down to is Satoru giving him a mental probing and egging him on to push him off a ledge. All to incriminate him so they can arrest him. Presentation wise, I like it. But when looking at it from a closer perspective I admit that Satoru’s plan looked to require a lot of assumptions. For one, how did he know Yashiro would push him off the roof? How did Yashiro manage to poison one of the medicines used in that girl’s surgery? How did they prevent that from happening? How did Satoru’s friends manage to inflate a cushion without drawing suspicion and where did they get one? There was also issues with the large amount of padding in this episode as it flashed back to scenes that happened not all that long ago.Lastly, no matter how it’s presented, having friendship be shown as the reason Satoru beats Yashiro is cringe worthy. Friends and connections are great and everything but when you outright state that your victory is owed to a little help from your friends then it always sounds lame. The biggest issue of all was the feeling of padding through this episode. The pacing has always been fast but for this episode things slowed down to a crawl as we go back to how Satoru got his memories back, have several sappy unnecessary speeches and reiterate what has already happened in the series. When looking over the episode you can see that not a lot actually happened in it and if this was the case I would have preferred to forgo the speeches and flashbacks for more scenes of the epilogue. One thing in particular that I felt needed much more fleshing out was Airi. It was an odd decision for Airi to be given such limited screentime if in the end she was to emerge the “Victor”. To someone watching the series, Satoru’s reaction to Airi looks to be a major overreaction so putting some extra time in the end for the two to bond under the bridge would have made a better conclusion than ending on an emotional reunion between our main and a character with very little screentime.

As per usual, I tend to check episode reviews on a show before writing these in order to gain an idea on the consensus of what was presented. The end of this show looks to have caused a division in the fanbase. Some express disappointment while others feel satisfied. I went out of my way to watch a youtube video from someone(Who I shall not name) who actively disliked the show. It was interesting to say the least as there were aspects of his argument I argeed with but didn’t see quite as detrimental to the series as he believed. What I found most fascinating was when this person made a comparison between this series and Steins Gate as he looked to deem that flawless while many of his problems he had with this series reflected my problems with Steins Gate. Such as a beginning which made it hard to invest myself in the story or some rather arbitrary rules for time travel.(One of the particularly amusing things I find about Steins Gate is that it’s explanation for Time travel isn’t time travel. It is in fact sliding as Okabe is traveling between alternate realities. Not traveling through time.) Through when thinking about this I noticed that the two shows do hold similarities. Now, I am aware that if you break down a show to it’s base components you can find similarities between virtually anything but still. Both shows hold a lie in its premise. Steins gate being that it alludes to be about a ragtag group taking on a elusive corporation with aid of a makeshift time machine. What it is actually about is a more traditional tale of someone trying to right a wrong after abusing time travel. Boku Machi in turn alludes to a tale about a mature man returning to his childhood to have a cat and mouse game with a serial killer. What it is actually about is more a character drama and thriller with Satoru attempting to right the wrongs in his past. In this regard I believe I see how there are those who were disappointed in how this all ended. Cliffhanger endings of each episode keep building up expectations the show wouldn’t deliver so I think what will determine your enjoyment of this series will depend on which aspects you focus on. I could go further but if I was to be perfectly honest I would state Boku Machi is the stronger of the two; simply because it took less time to get to it’s point. Say what you will but I am sure much of the praise for Steins Gate is for it’s second half and not it’s rather story light first half.

Certainly through all my moaning and complaining you might believe that I am discontent with this series now that it has finished; with that you would be incorrect. I may be acting overly critical but I am still quite pleased with how the series turned out. This may be because I lost interest with the manga over time and found the series kept that interest better than reading the story on paper. If I had a problem with the series it would be with Yuki Kajura because she really did not try with this soundtrack. It didn’t match the series in the slightest. Honestly Yuki; you can do better than this. I also consider this ending to be better to the manga equivalent which was disappointingly anti-climatic. You may consider this ending anti-climatic as well but in the manga we had over ten chapters building up a showdown between Satoru and Yashiro that ultimately gets resolved in a second. I found it rather dull and would swear that the manga was axed at just how quickly it all resolved. In that regard I think the anime did it better. Was there a better way to end this series? Maybe, but I pick the ending that didn’t set up the finale to be more than what it was.