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All posts for the year 2007


Some of the crazy scenes in this anime.

Finished being fansubbed about a week ago, so here is the review of Sumomomo Momomo: The Strongest Bride on Earth. Man, I always forgot the extra -mo in Sumomomo.

Story:-
Inuzuka Koishi, the son of a legendary martial art practitioner, finds himself being engaged with the lusty daughter of his father’s best friend whose aim is to bear his children no matter what. A top student in his school, he proudly declared that he wants to become a prosecutor while hiding the fact that he is a coward and do not know any martial arts despite his lineage. With his engagement, he becomes the target of numerous assassins who wants to stop the marriage, and have to rely on his fiancee to get his ass covered.

From a promising start, this story quickly turned into some kind of harem-romantic-comedy anime, and just as quickly, the story went down the drain. Up to one-third of the storyline covered pointless episodes that revolves around the characters’ life but do not contribute to the main story or characters’ development. The story that matters probably can be crammed from 22 episodes to the standard 13 without any noticeable difference. The pacing of the story suffered because of this as I endured watching the middle sections of the show.  The ending is decent and kinda open-ended, but there are no signs of a new season.

The only reason why I finished watching the series at all is because the series is actually very funny in numerous parts of the show. The efforts of Momoko to have Koishi impregnates her are hilarious. Not to mention her various fantasies about Koishi making love to her etc. She is one of the biggest reasons why this show is watchable in the first place, saving the show from the boring plots and predictable ending.


The reluctant SM-loving side character.

Character Design:-
The overall character design is good, I think, although there are no one that really stands out from the rest like Enma Ai. With the exception for Momoko, the rest are stereotypical designs that are suitable to the role they play.

Voice acting:-
Voice acting here is average overall, and Hirano Aya did not show the performance she did in Haruhi Suzumiya.

Music:-
The first OP theme is good, the OST and the rest of the themes are not. No 3-straight great music here unfortunately.

Animation/Direction:-
Probably the best point in the series. The animation is fluid and seamless, inclusive of the CGI scenes. Fighting choreography is actually pretty good too, with pretty CGI special effects. Plot directions though are not exactly great.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. The very slow pace of the story in the middle of the show ruins it. And the story is not exactly spectacular anyway.


‘Rape me please’ say Momoko to her fiancee.

Your compulsory bishounen character.

A review of an old series, but still quite good to watch. Read this review of the not-quite-mecha series Genesis Climber Mospeada below.

Story:-
The future Earth has been taken over by aliens from who-knows-where and humans who are based on other planets such as Mars and Jupiter struggled to retake Earth back. An assault goes wrong saw Stig Bernard lost his fiancee to an alien attack and he found himself stranded on earth. Hunted by the aliens, he assembled a crack team of soldiers and civilians as he aims for the alien’s headquarters.

I watched this anime when I was still kids, and I still think that this anime is pretty good. It has a simple but solid story without any bull-sh*t plot-twists whatsoever. Watching this anime, I yearns for the old-days where shounen mecha anime has a more straightforward storylines unlike the crap like Gundam SEED, and has generic character developments (no outstanding characters). Although if you watch this anime, you have to really ignore the questions such as why the aliens are so bad at aiming while the sadistic good guys really have to insist on carrying handguns that won’t even scratch the aliens unless shot at that alien’s very tiny weak point.

Character Design:-
I guess for its time, the anime has pretty decent designs, and some characters is still quite good even today especially the soldier-cum-singer bishounen character above.

Voice acting:-
Uhmmm…. the voice acting here is mixed bag. Over-exaggeration are pretty common especially from certain characters. But this series is a classic so maybe forgivable?

Music:-
For 2 straight reviews, both OP and ED themes as well as the OST are great. Plenty of good usage of insert songs here. I wonder if I can see three good anime with perfect music section in a row.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation is just average actually (I wonder if this quality of animation are common at that time). The directing is quite decent, with vastly better action choreography than the one in Yamamoto Yohko.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10.
A return to the days where mecha anime is still decent. When will those Japanese learns not to create the next Evangelion or Gundam (those cannot be duplicated) and return to the roots of good mecha anime?


Your compulsory comedy outlet.

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An overwhelming candidate for my Anime of the Year award.

This is my review of one of the best anime series of 2007, Nodame Cantabile. And yeah, this series definitely is much better than the overhyped Haruhi Suzumiya anime I reviewed a couple of days earlier. Apart of Naruto Shippuden, this is only the other series which I actively watched as the episodes was released week-by-week instead of waiting until the end of the run. Not only that, I also obtained the drama version and watched it (although this version will not be covered here) and the manga.

Story:-
Shinichi Chiaki, a hugely talented classical musician who wished to become an orchestra conductor, found out that he hits the glass wall just because he is afraid of flying thus unable to go to Europe to further his education. Trapped in a local conservatory, Chiaki, a pianist at the top of his class, started to falter in his studies, loses his girlfriend and then sees a fellow student goes to Europe and become the student of his beloved conductor teacher. Down and out, he then meets Nodame….

This romantic comedy series revolves around Chiaki and Nodame whose platonic relationship helps each other to improve in their studies and love life. The beauty of this series is that you do not have to appreciate classical music to enjoy the story. The plotlines are excellent, even with some scenes from the manga being omitted. The story flows really well, and the ending is excellent, setting up the way for a second season very nicely. This series can easily be compared to the likes of GTO and hold its own. The comedies are top-notch, even surpassed the ones in Haruhi Suzumiya. And Nodame is much cooler than Suzumiya herself.

Character design:-
Being aimed at mature audiences, the character design is more realistic, with common occurrence of black hairs and smaller eyes. Thus exaggeration commonly found in titles aimed at younger audiences is nearly absent here. In general, there is nothing to complain about here.

Voice acting:-
If you think The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is excellent in this aspect, Nodame Cantabile is at least 5 times better. Tomokazu Seki is excellent as Chiaki, but Ayako Kawasumi is simply phenomenal. Her portrayal of Nodame is beyond awesome, even better than Megumi Hayashibara in Yamamoto Yohko. Watching this anime just to hear her voice as Nodame is worth it. Definitely her best gig I ever heard. Having 2 great voice actors at the top of their form playing the 2 central characters in this anime make a good story more appealing. Even if the others sucks (and they are not) these 2 alone can carry this series forward by themselves.

Music:-
The OP and ED themes and also the OST are great. Now do you see at this point why this anime is my choice as the best in 2007? Plus, the classical music played throughout the series are good bonuses too even if you do not like it.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation is good, especially the scenes where they shows hands playing musical instruments (I think those are computer-generated). The directing is also good, except for the part where I have to hear Piano Concerto No.2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff at episode 11 for half of the episode.

Conclusion:-
10 out of 10.
Nothing less. Now can the likes of Claymore, Seirei no Moribito, Lucky Star and others wrest the title of Best Anime of 2007 from Nodame Cantabile?

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Drama version of the series.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-14