Star Crossed Anime

I wouldn’t call myself a fan of Haruhi; I liked the TV-series, but I didn’t consider it to be THAT good. The main story was very good, but only few of the random stories didn’t bore me. Having said that though, Haruhi’s Disappearance is by far the best thing I’ve seen from the franchise.

For starters, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single anime movie that was longer than this one and I have to praise Kyoani for actually giving its story the time that it deserves. This way, it really was able to portray the characters as realistic as it did in the TV-series. The movie is slow, but very down to earth because of this and the plot flows as smooth as water. The story of the movie is also a great mystery story, starting off really slowly but delivering a ton of interesting turns during the second half.

The best part of the movie however was the cast of characters. This movie gives a ton of insight and new developments on Kyon and Yuki, and all of the other characters also receive a lot of new depth. The story does a lot of interesting things with them, and they’re used quite creatively. When everything finally comes together, it really feels like something special. The character whose development I liked the least was Haruhi, though. To delve into why would be a bit too much of a spoiler, but let’s just say that it’s a bit too theatrical.

Now, there are two things that this movie lacks, yet what I really liked in the TV-series, however. They’re mostly technical things, but I did miss them a lot here. The first is the acting: while still good, it’s not as solid as it was in the TV-series. Kyon is still witty, but at the same time his dialogue isn’t as sharp and lively as it once was, and characters tend to overact a bit during the dramatic parts.

Also, the animation is significantly different from how it was in the TV-series. On one hand, this went on a positive note, as the creators put a lot of money and attention on the inbetween frames. The animation is incredibly smooth, and there are plenty of parts in which the animation is as smooth as possible, and the animation is a lot freer and diverse than it was in the TV-series. The animation style here feels like a combination of Clannad and K-On, but at the same time I miss the restraint of the animation of the first half of the first season: the type that consistently neither moves too much or too little, that really gave the characters the sensation of being alive, which was one of the reasons why I really liked the first half of the first season.

Those are mere details through, the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya has enough to like, even for the people who didn’t really like Haruhi in the first place. This movie does a lot of things right in terms of storytelling and characters, and it definitely was a great watch.

Storytelling:	8/10 – Great story, not as solid as the TV-series, but still wonderfully paced and told.
Characters:	9/10 – Excellent character development.
Production-Values:	9/10 – Very smooth and detailed.
Setting:	8/10 – Nicely plays around with events that happened in the past and the entire concept of this series.

Suggestions:
– Tenchi Muyo In Love 2 – Tenchi Forever
– Kara no Kyoukai – The Garden of Sinners – Paradox Spiral
– Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo

After more than ten year since the original Trigun series ended, the Badlands Rumble movie was released. In the end, it turned out to be a glorified episode, taking place somewhere around the middle of the series, perhaps a tad later (it’s been too long since I watched the series to say exactly when it takes place). Vash, Nicholas Wolfwood, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson all are in the movie, but it doesn’t really add anything to their characters. Instead, it’s all about an original story about Vash’s encounter with another notorious criminal.

This really was a movie that was made for the fans. If you were to watch it without having seen the TV-series, you’d probably leave with a decent impression, but no idea why the series is praised by so many people. The fans of the movie however will probably enjoy the large amount of the movie that’s devoted to the simple Trigun-esque banter. I especially applaud the creators for coming up with tons of different designs for the hordes of different bounty hunters that pass the screen, the one quirkier than the other and this movie is at its best when it’s just having fun with them; both during the quiet moments and during the action scenes (helped by some wonderfully detailed animation, by the way). It has quite a number of funny moments, though at the same time it also doesn’t really get close to the best jokes of the TV-series.

The story of this movie is fairly simple, pretty much like the episodes of the first half of Trigun. It’s neither the best nor the worst of the stories that the series came with, and it brings some pretty nice twists. The best part was how the prologue takes place twenty years in the past, which which it’s able to do some neat things. Like the TV-series, there is also a huge contrast between the silly parts and the parts at which it takes itself completely serious, and like what happened with the TV-series, they also don’t blend in too well with each other.

Overall though, this movie doesn’t aim to be anything big or fancy, it just has two goals: entertainment and nostalgia. It’s good simple fun without much real flaws (save for one very cheesy twist around Vash that the creators pull near the end), but it also doesn’t have the caliber to be remembered as a great movie. It’s pretty much what you get when you watch a really long episode of the first half of Trigun: standalone they were decent, though the best thing about the series was the big picture they paint.

Storytelling:	8/10 – Simple, but solid and well directed.
Characters:	8/10 – The characters play off each other neatly. It doesn’t have the depth of the TV-series, though.
Production-Values:	9/10 – Great designs, fluent, lively and expressive animation.
Setting:	7/10 – Doesn’t really add anything to the Trigun franchise.

Suggestions:
– Escaflowne – A Girl in Gaea
– Wild Arms
– Patlabor – The First Movie

Hell yeah! This is going to be review number 666, and what better series to spend it on than another controversial Bee-Train title?And I mean, after watching Madlax, I just have to say that these guys continue to amaze me.

Madlax is the second instalment in the “Girls with Guns” trilogy, after Noir and before El Cazador. Girls with Guns is a very misleading title, though. It’s true that all series focus on girls that have guns and all, but in essence, Noir is the only one of the three that should be watched as an action series. The focuses of the other two are completely different, and therefore they don’t spend a lot of their time on creating interesting action scenes. With El Cazador, the main focus was its characters. With Madlax, the main focus is the plot. Despite the many similarities in the premises, this leads to three completely different series: if you dislike the simple battles of Madlax, there is Noir’s action and atmosphere. If you find the characters of Noir not fleshed out enough, there is El Cazador. If you were annoyed with how nothing in El Cazador seemed connected, there is Madlax.

And really, all three series are truly excellent at what they focus at. Madlax has a truly excellent plot that is wonderfully told. The plot never takes a break or drags: every episode is meant to flesh it out, and contains just the right balance between build up and new developments that just make the story of this series more and more interesting with every iteration. The story itself is very creative, and I loved the many different twists that would give either a character or a subplot a whole new dimension. For every conventional element of the plot, there’s also an unconventional one.

In terms of the characterization, out of all the lead characters of the Girls With Guns Trilogy, Margaret has the least interesting characterization. She has however the most interesting background, so it all evens out this way. Madlax meanwhile is a very compelling main character, who really keeps the series interesting, along with just about every other side character. This show also seems to have the talent to make any minor side-character who just only has one or two lines more than just a paper bag, and actually like someone with a clear purpose in the story.

The graphics of this series are by far its weakest point. There’s nothing wrong with the inbetween animation (which really can get quite good at times), but there is hardly any animation cleanup, leading to tons and tons of distorted faces. In the same way, the gunfights in this series are simply tools to tell the story. The music on the other hand, is absolutely fantastic. It manages to save the simple action scenes time and time again, and does an absolutely wonderful job at supporting the storytelling.

Now, there is something that you should know before you check out this series: in order to build up, it uses repetition and one liners. This is a series full of morals, and in a lot of scenes, characters often tend to repeat things that have just been said. This isn’t to the point where it gets in the way of the story: it’s all properly balanced so that you don’t have endless scenes of characters saying the same things over and over again, but there nevertheless is a lot of it in this series. If you already know that you don’t like the series that pull these things, then Madlax will be a bit harder to enjoy. It would also have helped if the voice acting was a bit better for these build up techniques to really work.

I’ve often been criticized with why I keep complaining at other repetitive franchises like Shaft and Gundam, and yet keep praising Bee-Train. And yes, I agree that there are a lot of similarities between Shaft and Bee-Train: both are pretty much built around one director with his particular style, and both produce series with a lot of similarities. Bee-Train often has ridiculously skilled marksmen, mystery plots, strong female characters and similar settings (in Madlax, people continuously travel back and forth between two countries, just like they did with El Cazador; half of the show takes place in France, just like it did in Noir), while Shaft, while having many different premises and characters often repeats the same jokes, gimmicks and scenarios and has a lot of pointless sequels. (Both have more than enough exceptions, of course)

For me, the essential difference is that Bee-Train keeps recycling is premises, while Shaft keeps recycling its scenarios. Based on the right execution, you can make any cliche good, and that’s what Bee-Train keep doing: all of their series have this distinct style, but yet when you look at the details they’re nearly all interesting in their own way (their good series in any case). With Shaft on the contrary, it gets a lot harder to care about their premises when they keep repeating the same joke or joke formats that I’ve gotten tired of ages ago. Repetition can be a bad thing, but it’s not as black and white that it’s impossible to make something great out of it.

Storytelling:	10/10 – A number of coincidences are used here and there, but aside from that it has a terrific use of build-up, an excellent plot that just keeps moving, many intriguing plot twists and wonderful use of music to support the storytelling.
Characters:	8/10 – For Bee-Train’s standards they may not have the best characterization and the voice acting is a bit off at times, but they’re still wonderfully colourful and interesting to watch.
Production-Values:	8/10 – Bad cleanup animation, good inbetween animation, awesome soundtrack.
Setting:	9/10 – Moral-heavy, but a very interesting back story that’s well portrayed as well.

Suggestions:
– .Hack//Sign
– Noir
– El Cazador de la Bruja

Out of all the series this season, MM had by far the most bizarre design decisions. It’s not just one thing about this series that’s weird; it’s got an entire washing-list of points that make me wonder what the hell these creators were thinking when they made this, both in good and bad ways. Allow me to elaborate.

Contrary to everything I expected, this series actually starts out pretty good. The main character is bothered by extreme masochism, but instead of glorifying this like most other moe shows that are based on a fetish, it makes it very clear that the lead character hates his condition and wants to be cured of it, and the people around him have similar problems The first four episodes are actually an interesting look at people with these severe disorders that were created by traumatic events in their pasts. It’s a bit overdramatic at times, but works surprisingly well here.

And then… the show becomes completely different. I mean it, they jump a gigantic shark at episode five, and continue on as a show consisting of nothing more than random fillers based on bizarre situations. These episodes are bad in many ways, including the “so bad that it gets good again”. The only possible explanation I can think of this is that Zexcs executives realized too late in what kind of direction the creators were originally planning to go and forced a complete change in the middle of the production here, in order to make this series more sell-able.

By far the weirdest result of these changes is how ridiculously out of character some of the people start acting here, the two lead females being the biggest example. One is a typical tsundere who at completely random times completely loses her “tsun”-part for no other reason than plot convenience. The other is a shy and humble girl who at random points becomes sincerely energetic and shameless. Both make no sense whatsoever considering the way in which their characters were built up.

Bad Xebec has been overshadowing Good Xebec way too much for the past few years. For every Pandora Hearts and The Third they make, they also come with tons of series that are nothing but harem antics. They’re much, much worse than what Gonzo once was. However, I also have to admit here that for a generic Moe shows, MM was actually one of the few that I enjoyed.

The fillers are stupid, filled with fanservice and filled with moe cliches, however they’re not really generic. They’re so ridiculously over the top that they become fun in this “mindless entertainment” way. There are some repeated jokes here and there, but all of the episodes are based on some neat idea that at least keeps the series fresh. The hypnosis episode in particular made me fall of my chair laughing. The other fillers, while nowhere as funny, still managed to keep my attention.

A big help for this series is that for a generic harem, it does have a very good male lead. Half of the time, his masochism is indeed used as a strange gimmick, but his dynamics do manage to carry the entire series. At heart, MM is a series about perverts, but it keeps a healthy balance between showing their positives and negatives, never overly glorifying them like you see in most other otaku shows. Just don’t expect anything to resolve itself, though.

Storytelling:	7/10 – It’s just bad at times, but never really boring, bringing enough creativity to the table to last 12 episodes.
Characters:	8/10 – Quite engaging at some times, ridiculously moe and out of character at others.
Production-Values:	8/10 – Nothing special, but quite solid.
Setting:	7/10 – Never, ever let the creators attempt to treat deep traumas or masochism. Seriously, don’t. And don’t even think about trying any of the “masochism cures”-in this series seriously!

Suggestions:
– Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou
– Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho