Star Crossed Anime

Ah, Lucky Star. You’ve been one of the most popular series of the past Spring-season, along with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Throughout 24 episodes, you’ve shown us the antics of a bunch of random schoolgirls and an in-series TV-show called Lucky Channel. The potential is there, but there has to be a problem with a series when only the first and the last episode turn out satisfying. And the first episode was helped by the surprise and freshness, and the last episode probably also got helped by the relief that the boredom would finally be over. The start is indeed good, though. It features a classic scene in which characters keep talking about food for 10 minutes and manage to make it funny. I was about to declare this series the first success of Kyoto Animation. But then a rather jarring problem rises: as the series progressing, I kept feeling more and more that I’ve seen the scenes used before. Seriously, Lucky Star just keeps reusing its dialogues and scenes, turning it more repetitive with every episode. One major plus of the series is its realistic dialogue, it’s just how real girls would be talking, but if they keep talking in the same way about the same things, the result can only become boring. Thankfully, after the second half a new wave of previously unmentioned characters gets introduced to add some variety to the show, but even they can’t save this series and soon they themselves turn dull quite soon. It’s also beyond me why it took one of the main characters (Kagami) sixteen episodes to mention that she’s got two sisters. The characters would have been perfectly fine if there was any character-development, but there just isn’t any. You can just as well watch the episodes in any random order, since the characters never develop anyway. They’re just the same at the end as they were at the beginning. A notable exception is the Lucky Channel, though. For the first three quarters of the series, it’s even more boring than the regular characters, but then the characters start to change with actually satisfying results. I’d just wish that KyoAni would have bothered to end their story, but the way it ends just leaves a bad taste your mouth. And I haven’t even talked about the most jarring flaw of Lucky Star of all: the countless Haruhi-references. Seriously, you’d be lucky to run into an episode that doesn’t have any of them. One of the main characters (Konata) is a female Otaku, so you can expect lots of merchandizing, but nearly all of these merchandizes are about other KyoAni-shows. Only once in a while you’ll spot a reference to an anime that they didn’t make, and if you’re lucky it won’t be milked out like a dead cow (I’m talking to you, Legendary Girl A). I’ve got nothing against references to other shows. Heck, Ooedo Rocket is currently doing an excellent job with its Full-Metal-Alchemist references, but in Lucky Star it reaches the point of shameless propaganda. In terms of production-values, you don’t have to expect much as well. The soundtrack consists out of a few decent tunes that become stale after a few times listening, and the character-designs are more meant to attract the moe-loving crowd than to be realistic (would you believe these girls are seventeen and eighteen?!). They’re decently animated, though, but I’m in no way inclined to declare Kyoani as the “animation gods” after watching it. Overall, the reason you want to watch this are the cultural references. They’re the only thing not messed up in this anime, and are quite realistic and interesting to watch. But seriously, Azumanga Daioh does the same job, and while it wasn’t perfect either, it did remember to develop its characters. If you want to watch an otaku, then Tetsuko no Tabi is a better choice, and if you want high-school antics, Shinbo’s shows of Pani Poni Dash and Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei are way more satisfying.]]>

I’ve got a few announcements to make with this post, but they’ll follow after I’ve sung some praises of the charming OVA of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou and its continuation: Quiet Country Cafe that got aired five years later. And really, it can’t get more slice-of-life than this. Throughout the four episodes, we get to see an excellent balance between ordinary activities of our main character Alpha and two or three events that majorly alter her life. Not only that, but the OVAs also shine in originality. The setting is the Japanese countryside, somewhere in the future, with Alpha being a robot. It’s an age where robots have been able to perfectly emulate the emotions and weaknesses of humans, and where the entire country of Japan has fallen apart into small provinces. A lot of previous urban areas seem to have been flooded, and something happened to Mount Fuji to blow off a major part of its height. It’s a shame that we don’t get any extra information on it, because I would have loved to see more. But yeah, the real star of this OVA is Alpha herself. This series differs from usual slice-of-life series by showing her alone most of the time, doing things like getting up, cooking, just sitting randomly. This works great along with the side-characters, who sometimes pop up, and yet find enough time to develop. I especially liked the old guy, who defies the clichés of the perverted geezers and turns into a nice, down-to-earth owner of a small gas station. Regarding the bad points, well, this is another manga adaptation. While you usually don’t notice anything of it, the fact does remain that a few side-characters are underdeveloped. There is one particular naked girl who shows up in one scene, does nothing, and then leaves without leaving a single trace. I still don’t understand why the creators let her in that scene anyway; it’s just good for some cheap fanservice. I also would have loved to se a few more of Alpha’s money problems, to add to the level of realism (that already is quite high, actually). Overall, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is an excellent recommendation for slice-of-life fans who are looking for something quick to watch. It may not be perfect, but it manages to stay heart-warming throughout the entire four episodes of both OVAs. Okay, so now the announcements. First of all, those who look in the side-menu will notice that this is my 150th review for this site. Next up are going to be the Ghibli-movies, though it may take a month before I’m going to start with them. We’ve reached the end of another season, and I’m about to finish more series than ever. For this and the next week, I’ll probably be too busy to write reviews for them to check out any movies, and once that wave is done, the new season will be starting, which is going to keep me busy as well. It’s definitely going to be fun, but I don’t think I’ll be able to handle movie-reviews at the same time. ^^;]]>

Blue Submarine No.6 is Gonzo’s first ever anime-production, according to AniDB at least. It was made in the time when they weren’t notorious at all, and I must say, I’m impressed. I expected a standard action-flick without substance, but the story and setting actually turned out quite interesting. There indeed is lots of action, but when combined with a jazzy soundtrack, it gives this OVA a unique and enjoyable style. This could have been a classic if handled by a talented writer. And yes, I used the word “could” on purpose. Blue Submarine is good, but it doesn’t quite cut it to become really memorable. It’s got no major flaws, just a lot of minor ones. The minor side-characters and generics, for example, all have individual character-designs and look quite stylish, but most of them lack personality. Most of the major side-characters do have their own personality and they’re definitely interesting to watch, but half of them lack development. This story would actually have been perfect for a 13-episoded series. That one would have had enough time to give everyone of them a background. And regarding the main characters, they’re actually pretty interesting and manage to step away from the stereotypes as a cool guy and cute girl. Still, I wish I could say the same about the main love interest for the male main character: she’s just an obvious plot-device. The dialogue could also have been written a bit more realistic as well. I know I’m being very nitpicky here, but the flaws do add up. I would have liked to see this story executed without them, though. It would have been an awesome watch, because the OVA already has a lot of good points. This has probably been the only time where submarines have been the centre of action-scenes, but the creators show that these machines can also be really cool when in their element. One scene that was especially memorable was when the “bad guys” were attacking a city of civilians, and all of the random people who ran into our main character kept encouraging them for various reasons. Overall, I’ve seen people describe Gonzo as a combination of Good Gonzo and Bad Gonzo, and I can actually agree with that. Gonzo has been behind gems as Bokura no and Red Garden, and yet it also produced crap like Giniro no Kami no Agito and Final Fantasy Unlimited. Still, Blue Submarine No.6 is Good Gonzo, even though they had much to learn at that time.]]>

Few anime combine both shounen- as shoujo-roots in their premises. I’m not sure why there are so few of them, because Zombie Loan shows that this can become pretty successful, as it combines the good points of both styles. The personalities of the characters are those typical in shoujo-anime. A female is surrounded by two bickering guys, there’s one guy who has a lot of similarities with Ensei from Saiunkoku Monogatari (they also share the same voice-actor, and you can recognize Shuurei in the main female character as well), and the dialogue is written in a very shoujo-esque way. And yet, the entire premise of the show revolves around busting zombies and there are a few Yuri and shoujo-ai scenes once in a while. The shoujo-roots become even more welcome when they provide good and well-defined reasons for out characters to be involved in the story. Unlike shounen-series, none of the characters are plot-devices to become the best X in the world. The two main guys are just zombies that try to pay off their debts by killing other zombies (the anime explains this better), and the main female, while she does have hidden powers, they’re not some strange hidden powers to kill off zombies in an instant at the last possible moment. She’s just got a talent to spot zombies, something the two main characters can’t do for themselves, so the three of them come together. In addition to this, Zombie Loan manages to deliver some powerful character-studies throughout its episodes. Shito, Michiru and Chika’s characters have all their unique and well-written problems that make you think for once. On top of that, it knows exactly when to be funny and when to be serious, resulting in some hilarious banter between the different characters. I wish I could keep raving about this series, but unfortunately it’s got its flaws. It’s too damn short!! The length is only 11 episodes, and a dvd-only episode will be released in a few months (I may edit this review after seeing that one), and that’s all there is to this series. This series could have been so much more, and it would have easily had enough material for 26 episodes. Right now, Chika, Shito and Michiru may have had enough background, but there are so many threads left open and worst of all: nearly none of the side-characters gets any decent form of screen-time, while they’ve all got really interesting personalities and so much potential. I would have loved some in-depth look at their own cases. Isn’t there really going to be some kind of second season? Then there’s a second flaw, which is more on the technical side. Zombie Loan has awesome-looking art, but the animation has issues on so many levels. The entire series looks so stylish, but the pictures we see are often still frames or unnatural-looking movements. Even somebody like me who knows almost nothing of animation can see that a lot of corners were cut in this department. You could say that if I want to see the rest of the story, I should just go and read the manga. But when I watch an anime, I want to watch an anime; not promotion-material for a manga. Here’s hoping that a second season will be arriving someday.]]>

Ah, the second Patlabor Movie. After seeing the first one, I just had to watch the second one at some point. There’s a lot that stayed the same, it still features a realistic setting and plot, aimed at adults, creative uses for mechas and down-to-earth characters. There are also some major differences, though: the storyline features way and way more political influences, there is less time for quirky characters (although they do get three or four scenes), the main character has switched to Captain Goto and the female lead became Shinobu and most importantly: the storyline has become significantly more complex. This just isn’t a movie you can watch when bored or sleepy; you just have to keep paying attention if you want to follow what’s going on. You see, the plan of the villain is to throw an entire country off-balance, and you need a lot of development to pull that one off right. Somehow, Patlabor II manages to do this, but it has to thunder through all of the developments to get all of them within the two-hour limit of the movie. I’d almost think that another half an hour of screen-time would have been useful to give each single development a bit more time, and make the entire movie a bit easier to understand. Still, despite this, Patlabor II remains the anime movie with the most complex story I’ve seen up till now, and it actually pulls this off quite nicely. If you manage to pay attention, it’ll reward you with a great story and a thought-provoking villain, even though he does lack the charm of the villain of the first movie, and I’m still not sure why Shinobu was acquainted with the guy. Goto also proves to be quite an interesting main character with his intelligent, down-to-earth, stoic and yet caring attitude. And yes, the second movie also suffers from the same flaw as the first one. The characters are there, they’re fun to watch, but they lack most sorts of background and fleshing out. For that, you’re going to have to watch the OVAs or the series first, but especially the series with its fifty episodes isn’t something you just watch in an afternoon, and it takes commitment. I’m not sure whether I’m going to try them out, it depends on how easy they are to find. Still, if you like politics and a realistic setting for mechas, Patlabor is a very good recommendation. It’s a pity that most movies nowadays don’t have such an ambitious plot as this one, but perhaps the upcoming Votoms-OVA will fix this. Overall, I liked this movie better than the first instalment, despite the slightly-too-fast storytelling.]]>