Star Crossed Anime

The biggest disappointment for me for this season is an easy one: Sacred Seven. For starters, consider that my two favourite Sunrise series of the past decade are Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto and Zone of the Enders. This series had the director of the former and the main writer of the latter. Together they could have made another epic science fiction series that could even have dwarfed Tiger & Bunny when done well. Instead, they come with a dull school mecha show.

And don’t get me wrong, school mecha series aren’t necessarily bad: Star Driver was excellent. But when you do one, make sure that it stands out. The creators of Sacred Seven had trouble with that.

The big problem with this show is that the plot it has come up with is completely boring, unimaginative and doesn’t know what it wants to be. It spends the majority of its time building upon two stories: Ruri(the token female)’s quest for revenge on her family and Knight and Faye,two random people with superpowers who are fleeing from bad guys. Both just fail to hit any high note whatsoever, made even worse through bland acting and long strings where nothing just happens.

What’s more is that the story seems just poorly managed. This show jumps the shark quite a few times throughout the series, like it wanted to do stuff but actually forgot about it and hastily tries to include it anyway. Halfway through the series an incredibly forced romance pops up, and the final two episodes throw away any suspense of disbelief and build-up and just go with an over the top cheese ball of an ending. Then there is also the bizarre case of the OP of this series. The OP actually was one of the best parts of this series: well animated, great choreography and a kickass soundtrack. And the halfway through the series the creators turn the OP into a dull ED with just random stills in front of it and switch over to a generic pop OP that just feels like all of the others.

What also doesn’t really help is the bland cast of characters. Out of everyone in this series, the only one who doesn’t feel bland is the main character, Arama. He’s this awkward tall guy who is nice to watch. The rest of the cast completely lacks imagination, is a cliche fest and just badly acted all together. Its villains aren’t exactly pathetic, but they’re just way too stereotypically evil.

And the worst part? The creators don’t even seem to realize most of these flaws for most of the series. For the first 10 episodes, they really try to play their series straight, instead of just making this a fun action series. The drama is completely unsubstantial, and yet it fills the majority of this series. Only in the final two episodes they decide to just screw it and head into the “so bad it’s good”-territory. This isn’t wasted potential. This is wasted talent.

Storytelling:	6/10 – Suffers from being incredibly boring and not knowing what it wants to be.
Characters:	6/10 – Bland and forgettable aside from perhaps the main character, but even he isn’t exactly good or well used.
Production-Values:	8/10 – At least there are a few (emphasis on few) good action scenes.
Setting:	6/10 – The same generic and overused high school action premise you see everywhere.

Suggestions:
– Soukou no Strain
– Star Driver
– Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin

One of the things that I really learned after I started working full time, is how precious time can be. Because of this, I can understand what a daunting task it must be to check out Hajime no Ippo; the total franchise has a bit more than 100 episodes; that’s not something you just watch in a lazy afternoon. However, that’s the beauty of the second season, New Challenger: it’s a sequel, but perfectly allows newcomers to the franchise to pick it up, and it contains some of the most kickass fights imaginable. For those who do have the time and want the full experience, there is the first season.

The length of 76 episodes has both its advantages and disadvantages, but let me first rave about the technical part: Madhouse did the seemingly impossible by having consistently awesome animation during the entire run. The animation is often smooth, punches are animated with a huge weight behind them, a meticulous amount of research went into how boxers move, ranging from the simple jabs to the flash knock-out punches. Do not get mislead by the simple art style, because this allows the creators a great amount of freedom while animating.

Now, the New Challenger series didn’t really have a main character. The first season however does have a clear one: Ippo. The entire series shows about thirteen matches of his, and even the matches in which he doesn’t appear are either 1) cut short or 2) meant to show how awesome Ippo is. Because of this, this series is very, very shounen: wanting to become the best, lots and lots of training arcs and the underdog are very common themes that just keep returning in this series. However, the fact remains that this is no high school series: right from the start this is about professional boxing.

I don’t just say that because I personally tend to like sports series about professionals more than high school sports clubs (for me, this matters more than whether or not the characters are teenagers or adults), but because this also allows this series to really look into the other aspects of professional boxing other than training and fighting. There are some really good arcs throughout the series that look at the personal life and troubles, injuries, and how boxers sustain themselves to get enough money.

The huge benefit of the length is that this series has plenty of time to flesh everyone out, and it makes full use of it. Ippo perhaps isn’t the most interesting character, but this series just continues to develop and change him. Every single side character is given ample time to tell his story. Nearly every opponent that Ippo fights is given a good and non-cheesy backstory and characterization. The most amazing thing is… that there isn’t really a villain here. Al of the opponents that Ippo fights are just professional boxer themselves. At first sight there does seem to be a stereotypical rival, but even that guy steps out of this rival role as the show goes on.

As for the big downside of the length… well, this is a show with 76 episodes that consist out of nothing but boxing. In the end, I still have to say that Hajime no Ippo’s best matches are in the New Challenger series: that just had four fights, and it did everything it could to make those four stand alone and make them as epic as possible. With Hajime no Ippo, the fights fall into a formula. This series especially loves the pattern of pummeling someone to near-KO, only to have him make a miracle come-back, and it unfortunately pulls this twist a little too often, to the point where you can just predict when it’ll happen. The matches in this series are definitely exciting, but they miss the raw power that I experienced in the New Challenger series.

The new Challenger series was compact and perfect. The first season meanwhile was a lot harder to sit through because of its length and monotonous pacing, even though it never really drags on. If you’ve got the time though, by all means watch it, because it remains an incredibly solid sports series.

Storytelling:	8/10 – This one is really dangling between an 8 and a 9. This series is really well paced, but in the end it does get a bit formulaic with its length and big focus over just Ippo.
Characters:	9/10 – Every single character is interesting to various degrees. No villain whatsoever.
Production-Values:	9/10 – Amazing production values for its length. Smooth and fluid animation and well detailed boxing sequences.
Setting:	8/10 – A bit shounen, yes, but still a very good portrayal of the boxing world.

Suggestions:
– Hajime no Ippo – New Challenger
– Giant Killing
– Hikaru no Go

There was a time when Noitamina basically knew (and popularized) two genres: adult slice of life and experimental horror/adventure. Now, it did branch out to many other genres over the years, but it still retains true to the roots that originally made it big: slice of life series that don’t focus on the usual teenagers, but instead follow college students and adults in their daily lives. All these series have in common that their execution is ridiculously solid, and Usagi Drop is no exception to that rule.

This series chronicles the life of single parents, showing the challenges they face, but also the wonderful things they get back for it. The way this series has handled its themes are quite clever: at the center we have the main character Daikichi who ends up having to take care of his 9-year-old niece Rin. throughout the series, he runs into all kinds of people who are in similar situations, and because of that this series can show many different sides of the same coin.

Another major strength of this series is that it’s pretty much the most realistic series of the entire year so far. It doesn’t try unrealistically force its drama, and the things that Rin and Daikchi do throughout the series all feel wonderfully down to earth. Most of the show is really seeing the two of them live out their daily lives, and this is very well described and written.

The major flaw of this show probably is its lack of ambition. I know that this is a slice of life series and all, but even considering that this series does surprisingly little with the cards handed to it and the series feels incomplete. It introduces a romance, only to randomly abandon that later and also spends time on Rin’s mother without actually much interesting. It also only looks at children of nine years old; the older and younger ones get completely ignored. It would have been really nice to actually see this series evolve, but it chooses to just show one compact part of the lives of the main characters.
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And that, it does undeniably well. I personally like my slice of life series with a bit more spice, but its themes alone make it more than worth watching with excellent acting and characterization that’ll make the cast endearing from start to finish.

Storytelling:	8/10 – Could have been a bit more ambitious and better balanced, but is still wonderfully down to earth slice of life to watch.
Characters:	8/10 – Excellent acting, great characterization, and they’re interesting to watch.
Production-Values:	8/10 – Very solid. Obviously it’s easy for a show with absolutely no action, but the lack of still frames and overall polish still is great to watch.
Setting:	9/10 – The realism is just wonderful. The backstory is very well detailed and the themes of parenthood are well explored: showing the challenges, without only focusing on the worst-case scenarios but instead on things happen to pretty much everyone with kids.

Suggestions:
– Hataraki Man
– Windy Tales
– Showa Monogatari