Maria, who asked me to blog about this series and it was a nice opportunity to wrap up the quick first impressions before the start of the Summer-season, since I needed one more series for that.
ICE
This is probably the first anime of the past few years to actually look like it’s made in the nineties, based on the characters at least. If you’d look just at them, you wouldn’t suspect that we’ve got ourselves a 2007-OVA here. This anime really gives the unique experience of mixing old character-designs with new CG, but unfortunately the fact also remains that the characters just look ugly. The animators also really screw things up with the random nonsensical Engrish that passes the screen, so the visuals shouldn’t be a reason for you to check out this anime. The characters themselves could have been more interesting. Still, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy this episode. The story and voice-acting really made up for the flaws. Especially the story, this OVA carries the concept of a world where all men have died out way beyond its basics, and it provides a nice number of plot twists and imaginative concepts you don’t quite easily think of. I also loved how the characters who died or got injured where remembered and taken care of. The voice-acting is unique, most characters have some kind of unique voice, which really works well if you get used to it.
EDIT: I wrote this blurb about a week ago, and now that I think back at it, my opinion of this show has become even better, and I’ve kind-of forgotten all the bad parts. This definitely is an OVA that needs a bit of time to sink in, which always is a good thing.
Dash Kappei
Dash Kappei is quite an old anime, it’s about a small boy named Kappei with extreme sports skills. In this episode, we see him get recruited for the local basketball team at school. Unfortunately, I’m not really enthusiastic about this show. It’s got nothing to do with the age, but rather the main character. In fact, I found myself liking every scene in which he wasn’t featured, and hating every scene in which we did see him. The dog was brilliant, and the team captain was adorable, but Kappei was horrible. He likes looking at the panties of girls and dedicates himself to the girls with white ones. He’s arrogant and he’s skilled in basketball with no signs of training whatsoever. He’s arrogant, his goofy facial-expression looks horrible, he never takes things seriously at all and his chemistry with the other characters is awful. I know that this is supposed to be a comedy, but with a character like Kappei it’ll just be impossible for me to enjoy this series. If you like panty-jokes and don’t mind old graphics you may give it a chance, otherwise: avoid it.
Tetsuko no Tabi
Tetsuko no Tabi definitely had the most peculiar premise of the spring-season: we follow a mangaka who records her travels along with a train otaku and her assigner (Ishikawa), and the entire anime is completely non-fiction. So, after having seen the first episode, how does it turn out? Well, awesome! The entire anime just sparkles with energy, perhaps even more than with Manabi Straight. It’s a perfect example of a feel-good anime, and the chemistry between the three main characters is excellent. Basically, they travel down one trainway, and make a stop at every train-station. The mangaka, who expected something entirely different when she first took on the job (aka, lots of delicious food), just keeps getting freaked out by the otaku’s antics, and Ishikawa’s fascination at them. Lucky Star had better watch out, as it’s not the only series focusing on modern Japanese culture and otaku anymore, and as things are looking right now, Tetsuko no Tabi will beat it in every department apart from parodies. Unless you need battles or cute girls with obscene hair-colours in your anime, you should definitely check this one out.]]>
Some quick first impressions: ICE, Dash! Kappei and Tetsuko no Tabi
Seen Dash Kappei ages ago. It’s a great comedy, exactly because of Kappei and Seichiro. So if you don’t like them you sure as hell shouldn’t come close to the show – it doesn’t have much else going for it.
PS. Kappei sure gets to own at a lot of sports over time (well, 60 eps of just basketball would be boring… duh).
You REALLY think Manabi anime is full of energy ? I thought it tried way too hard, but failed, even in the first episode. If you compare Tetsuko no Tabi with THAT…
True, the drama of Manabi Straight was a bit forced at times, but I generally ended up enjoying it. It’s indeed a matter of taste here, but I enjoyed Manabi Straight’s energetic characters. And believe me, I’ve seen energetic characters gone horribly wrong (due to their energy being their only character-trait)
OK, I’m sold on Tetsuko no Tabi – thanks for being the coalmine canary on that one. And in your screengrab,the mangaka looks a bit like Nodame-chan 😀
Could you comment a little bit on Tetsuko no Tabi’s animation quality? I am already sold on the whole setup but from watching a few trailers and screenshots, I am absolutely terrified about the animation quality. And is the show ‘chuckle’ funny or ‘LMAO’ funny? Thanks!
Well, the thing is mostly “chuckle”-funny, but there is hardly a moment where it didn’t raise a smile on my face. The animation quality is nothing special, there are no obvious errors, and the creators did well in making the characters animate a bit. The CG for the trains also looked decent enough.
Tetsuko no Tabi is already out? My my .. how outdated I am .. and the to-see list gets bigger and bigger T_T … how many episodes is this show set?
It’s twelve episodes long, though it hasn’t appeared on Tokyo Toshokan yet, after a day has passed. Something tells me that this show isn’t going to be popular with the raw-providers. -_-
Tetsuko seems interesting, let’see if we can view it. Even ICE, although I fear it may only be a trap for yuri fans.
Anyway, the whole “I’ve seen energetic characters gone horribly wrong (due to their energy being their only character-trait)” is positively provoking; could you show example characters ? (some names I fear you would mention but I adore, so let’s see :D)
An affectionate, although not always agreeing, lurker (and with a terrible English °_°)
Hmm, it’s indeed difficult to name a few examples, but Arika from Mai Otome is a good example. She started out incredibly energetic, and for the rest of the anime she remained an annoying character (in my opinion, at least), Kateikyo Hitman Reborn and Sumomomo Momomo also come to my mind, but I’ve dropped these shows early on.
Still, now that I think back, I realize that most energetic characters do work. When I wrote that down, I was thinking of some moe-stereotypes, but I just can’t seem to remember a good example of them. ^^;
For ICE we indeed need to see the second episode to determine if it’s really good. The first episode was pretty eerie, but you remind me of Fuyu no Semi, which seemed to have degraded into pure yaoi for its second episode.
Fine. Same impression about Arika, although I’ve seen only the first three-four episodes from Otome. I prefer her above Nina, however (seems that I always but bad energetic characters over bad emo characters :°D)
And I feared you would put Azumanga Daioh’s Tomochan in the category; she fits the ‘tomboy without really much character development’, indeed, but I I adore that anime anyways.
Joining your complaints for low subbing of Oh! Edo and Hitohira (luckily, the latters’ being subbed quite quickly nowadays): alas, that’s sad.
omg you acutally posted about it 🙂 Neve thought you would. Well I LOVE this show and I agree with your points about the first episode but ummm it’s like the tip of the iceberg of this show. it just gets better and better.
I agree on your tiny review of ICE. It seems like an interesting piece but it needs a little more to really pull you through. I watched the first ep. and really couldn’t grasp certan things that well. But I think after a number of viewings and second thoughts one may be able to see things and piece things together. And I felt that a 2nd episode might reveal some light. But if the next 2 episode fails on that part then the creators will have failed somewhere. But again that’s the deal you get when you do an “original” straight to video feature. It isn’t always easy to create a project that comes in delivers and goes out with a bang. I feel that the more complex it gets in the production the more problems it will have. But if you approach it on a simple matter and find stuff about it that you did enjoy then that means that the creators did do something right in grabbing you. My advice never go in expecting to much. And yes the character designs are a little awkward. Mostly Yuki ICE-T. WTF??? Does that mean she’s related to the rapper? But I also found that whole animation style deal a little awkward. But again, you did think about something when you watched again. And you just triggered in me something I just realized now. If you visit the site there is a phrase “1985——>2012 YESTERDAY, TODAY and NO FUTURE” If you think about it in terms of style, since the beginning was supposed to take place in 1985 that’s why the style was from the late 80’s 90’s. Whereas the time that Yuki and Hitomi’s time is from 2012. In a way it makes sense. I never caught this before until now. So you would view the animations styles in a realistic manner like how we go from century to century. Only we don’t go from 80’s style animation to 2000 style. Pretty clever on their part. I hope that the rest of the series will prove well. Also, I want to take a look at ‘Tetsuko no tabi’. It looks interesting and I wanted to find something new to watch. Right now I’m just catching up on some older stuff from last year and some new stuff. Seems there was quite a bit of stuff between 2004-2006, 2007 doesn’t really have much that I’m interested in. Please review more.
wow you should post about Dash! Kappei more episode 7 is hilarious.
does anyone know where to watch ICE or the OVA episodes english subbed cuz i can’t find them anywhere..????
ICE could not possibly be any more correct from reality. Do YOU see why the woman in the beginning shot herself? Do YOU know why this can happen?
You should understand the question first before laying out abuse towards my statement.
Why DID the woman in the beginning shoot herself? Why DID this happen?
Now understand, it can mean many things and not only one. In truth, I believe it is cause by the intense NEED for sex, for spreading their legs, WANT of straddling on top of a man, and that is, lack of whoring (sex).
Now my readers, do you see why this is? The director clearly states it in his animation. It devotes many moment of displaying such desperate acts on humanity by earth’s women. So, let me ask you, what do YOU believe the author wanted to convey to its audience? Is this not the complete truth? Have ICE not become a plausible paradigm of our society? THINK! OBSERVE! REASON!
The mind of our society is but “one.”
Pleasure = life.
sex = life.
void of pleasure is death.
void of sex is death.
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there is in a language, called mhong, that translates ICE to ee-C-i. It literally means, “I fuck you.”
now, go ask those mongers out there. I shit you not. It is the truth. belive what you will. explore and understand, don’t take one reasoning as truth. Learn to listen, listen from distinct opinions. lesson: do not become biased. do not let oneself stagnate from old age. let one’s own mind wander the countless eons and microns of information.
“Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” –bruce lee