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All posts for the year 2007

Review: Ai Yori Aoshi (藍より青し) + Enishi (藍より青し ～縁～)

Posted by ranpha on 21st December 2007
Posted in: anime review - reposted, romance genre standard. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment


The main female character Aoi Sakuraba.

For today, I will make a mini-review of another anime I have always wanted to watch, Ai Yori Aoshi (all 2 seasons of them). Romance anime series are usually reviewed by me with a higher standard compared to other genres, so let’s see if this anime can extract points from me at the end.

Story:-
Kaoru Hanabishi is a piss-poor university student who stumbled upon a beautiful damsel-in-distress at the local train station. He eventually finds out that she is his long-lost fiancée and after a set of events, he finds himself living in a mansion filled to the brim with all kind of beauties commonly seen in a typical harem anime. He has to keep his engagement secret while keeping out the other women who are interested only in getting into his pants.

Frankly speaking, the story is so thin there is nothing I can really write about here. And I prefer not wanting to comment about the second season’s story which is almost entirely composed with filler episodes with little character developments. The only shining star in the series is the damsel-in-distress Aoi Sakuraba, whose character strength barely able to carry the series forward.

Speaking about character strength, I want to question why the male protagonist’s character is not developed as well as Aoi Sakuraba is. This also applies to that manager character too, but throughout the 2 seasons of the anime, character development for Kaoru Hanabishi can be described as minimal at best. This robs the massive potential this anime may have. This anime as a whole also has pacing problems. Between some characters, time seems to flow differently. For example, how is that Tina Foster managed to graduate before Kaoru Hanabishi did, despite her taking a year off her studies?


If Kaoru Hanabishi has half of the character development she has, the anime would have more substance.

Character Design:-
A positive aspect of the anime if you can ignore the hair colours. They are pretty decent, especially for female characters. Aoi Sakuraba really stands out in this anime, and other females are not bad too. Still, brown is the new black huh.

Voice acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is decent in general, with the voice of Tina Foster being outstanding. Aoi Sakuraba, who has the same voice actress with Noda Megumi, did not perform as well as she is in Nodame Cantabile. Overall, they are still good though, should be no problem there.

Music:-
The OST is great, but only the OP in second season and the ED in episode 15 of first season are good.


Chasing another woman is not character development, mind you.

Animation/Direction:-
Despite watching DVD rips, some of the fast-paced scenes exhibits obvious low frame rates. And I think this happened in some normal scenes too. No action scenes that I can comment on though. The directing is good, my complaint will be only about the time sync problem I mentioned above.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Non-existent story, almost zero character development for the main character (Kaoru at the start of the anime is basically the same as the one at the end of second season, except older), disappointing themes are the factors that caused the anime to lose points. The next anime that will be reviewed is Nagasarete Airantou, a hopeful 2007 anime that may have a chance to dethrone Nodame Cantabile. Maybe.


A pic that simply has to be here.

Review: Neon Genesis Evangelion (新世紀エヴァンゲリオン)

Posted by ranpha on 18th December 2007
Posted in: anime review - reposted, perfect score, rewatched anime reviews. Tagged: , . 1 comment


Huzzah for English in Japanese animation! It is not perfect, but a considerable improvement.

I watched this one way before this blog is started from original R1 DVDs, a long time ago. As I rummaged through my DVD collection, I managed to find this one and out of nostalgia, I rewatched it again. A series that is considered legendary by many fans, this Neon Genesis Evangelion anime is just as good as they have said.


The poster boy for everything emo in Japanese animation.

Story:-
A teenage kid was forced to become a child soldier pilot for a robot by his own father to fight some monsters called ‘Angels’. Things become difficult when it becomes clear that the boy has some ‘problems’ and his colleague-pilots don’t seem to be sane either. Can a trio of problematic robot pilots save the world from devastation?

Those people who say that this anime is legendary are not kidding; this anime has a very good story. The series is really enjoyable and I can’t stop watching the anime whenever I have the time, just like Rozen Maiden did. The story flows freely and has decent character development that allows multiple characters to be strong or interesting enough to also support such a good story.

My only complaint will be the unorthodox ending, which consists of 2 episodes of counselling sessions for the main protagonist instead of a big huge battle against the big boss. The anime ended up with the main character becoming a little bit less emo, and that’s it. It could use some more oomph, that’s for sure.

And lastly I should note that none of the emo characters is as annoying like the main lead in La Corda anime. That’s a very good thing.


Very innovative design for an enemy combatant.

Character Design:-
Being another anime from the last century, the character design is surprisingly very well done. Like Kiba The TV Animation, the hero is sloppily designed but it meets the storyline perfectly (he has black hair too). The other 2 pilots also stand out especially the blue-haired one. All of the other main characters are not bad either.

Mecha designs are excellent too but for some questionable design for some of the Angels. Anyway, it is definitely a plus point of the series.


The scene of a homicide case.

Voice acting:-
Unlike the character design, voice acting here can only be described as generally good. This is to say, there are no screw-ups but no one outstanding either.


Another perfectly good green hill destroyed in the fight between good and evil.

Music:-
The OST is average, the OP if forgettable but Fly Me to the Moon is a very good song.


One of the downsides of being an emo kid.

Animation/Direction:-
For its time, the animation is decent, and choreography and fast-paced scenes is not affected. The directing is superb, a far cry from Armitage III, and probably what makes the series good in the first place.


I have learned from this anime that penguins does not match well with spicy food.

Conclusion:-
I hereby award 10 out of 10 for this anime. Unlike Wolf’s Rain of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, this anime really fulfils my expectations. But if this anime were to compete with Nodame Cantabile for Anime Of The Year 2007, it will fail.


A robot stalking another. Only happens in the crazy world of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Review: Armitage III (アミテージ・ザ・サー) + Dual Matrix (アミテージ・ザ・サード DUAL-MATRIX)

Posted by ranpha on 16th December 2007
Posted in: anime movies, anime review - reposted. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment


Just like Planetes and Legend of Galactic Heroes, English died in the making of this anime.

After a review of a 2006 anime, I return back to the last century to watch an anime that has been stored in my portable HDD for months. Armitage III OVA plus the Dual Matrix movie takes only a day to watch, and here is the mini-review.

Story:-
Set up in the future like Planetes did, a detective from Earth who has just been transferred to Mars is paired with a spunky Martian female detective as they investigate a series of killings involving robots that is classified as ‘The Third’ (no relationship with the previous anime I reviewed of course).

Actually the story is very well done. I can even call it very good. VERY GOOD! (emphasis mine). But the OVA is ruined by one of the worst directing I have ever seen in an anime series. I watched plenty of anime throughout my life and seen various bad directing but this one really takes the cake.

This is supposed to be written in the Animation/Direction section but I want to put it here because the directing really ruins a potentially good story this anime has. The directing failed at many things such as scene continuation, illogical character animations (not frame rates problem), flows of dialogue and the storyline, messed up pacing and many more. I have to pause the anime many times because those patently obvious directing flaws really make me angry.

The Dual Matrix movie has different directors (and made 7 years after the OVA) thus those flaws that present in the OVA largely disappeared. Sadly, the story in the movie is not as good as the one in the OVA.

Character Design:-
The quality of the character design here is mixed; the Martian female detective is beautifully designed while other characters are just average. This anime is a classic example where one character is way too different from other characters in terms of character design, and more often than not, could be a bad thing.

 
Why is that the English language will always suffer in sci-fi space anime? Is this the sign to come? That if humans managed to acquire interplanetary travel capabilities, people will stop speaking English and speaks Japanese instead?

Voice acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is average, at least for the OVA. I suspect some of the blame can be laid at the door of the director because it improved somewhat in the movie.

Music:-
Probably the only positive aspect of the anime. The OST is good but none of the themes are. The insert song at the start of the OVA is actually what makes me wanting to watch the anime in the first place.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation is just average in the OVA and improves considerably in the movie. Fast-paced scenes are not affected though. The choreography for action scenes is good, but some decision on character animations ruined it at some parts of the OVA.

About the directing, read above for a piece of my mind.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Would have got at least 9 if the movie directors also directed the OVA.

 
At first I thought it was ‘This is Ged’ but very surprisingly, Japan managed to spell ‘God’ correctly.

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