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All posts for the year 2011

Review: Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou (いちばんうしろの大魔王)

Posted by ranpha on 17th August 2011
Posted in: anime review. Tagged: . Leave a Comment


The main title male protagonist, aptly called The Demon King.

Today’s review will be a short one for a 2010 anime titled Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou. It has a main protagonist (pictured above) that could have become the best character in the series, but haven’t managed to. Because of that, this anime failed to reach its utmost potential, therefore keeping the current ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ incumbent Katanagatari unchallenged for now. Read on to see why this is happening.


Just one of the deeds that the Demon King has done.

Story:-
In a modern world where technology co-exists with magic (and ninjas), our main title male protagonist transferred into a prestigious magical school to start a new life as a high-school student. His dreams to become a High Priest was shattered in the first day at school when he was told that he is destined to become a Demon King instead, who will destroy the world in the future. Because of that, he has to spend his days at school building up his evil organization and develop his powers so that he can do exactly what he is destined to do.

The single main weakness of this anime is; at 12 episodes, it is too short. That’s it, this anime is too short for its own good. The whole anime runs like this:-

  1. Main protagonist arrived at school and was told that he is the Demon King.
  2. Starting to build up the harem with a blue-haired girl, a red-haired girl and a green-haired girl.
  3. Find a ‘treasure’, and powered up a little while simultaneously building up the harem a little bit more with a loli blonde and a dark-haired girl. Probably with another green-haired girl too.
  4. Beach episode (which is not even a quarter as good as the flag-bearer HighSchool of the Dead OVA is) with almost all of the harem members.
  5. ENDING ARC!

The main problem in this anime is that the story is very thin, not unlike Infinite Stratos. Well, this anime isn’t as bad as the latter though. The ending arc comes out too soon for my liking, mainly because his character developments is too shallow in time for the start of the ending arc. There should be more plots being put into the space between the beach episode and the final arc, not only to give more meats onto the main storyline but also advance the character development for the main protagonist in a more subtle and believable way.

For God’s sake, in this anime, he become a fully-fledged Demon King and started to destroy the world less than 6 months after he entered the high school. Even the crappiest of shounen titles doesn’t do this kind of thing for the last 20 years or so. At least maybe the main protagonist should become Demon King after a year or two, after having some semblance of control upon his massive latent powers. The fact that the dragon has to unlock that power in the final 5 minutes of the final episodes shows how much badly handled the main protagonist’s character development is.

Speaking about the ending, it is actually quite decent and actually is the best part of this anime. While predictable, it is not laden with clichés. The fact that the ending arc is quite long (4 episodes or so) also helps it greatly. Now if only the preceding episodes has more substance in them, things would have been much better. I don’t see a second season coming out for this series the way it was written though. Considering that I watched the uncensored version, there will be plenty of frontal nudity here, some sexual innuendos and humor too.

The pacing of this anime is quite fast for the reasons mentioned above. The lack of substance in the plot doesn’t help the flow of the storyline either, with the transition to the ending arc from the preceding episodes being a good example of this deficiency. As for character developments, the way this series is written means that character developments in this series is not really good. The main male protagonist doesn’t manage to realize his devilish potential, but certain characters like the blue and red-haired girls has done surprisingly well.


The Demon King with his rape face on, laughing hysterically before commencing more raping sessions.

Character Design:-
This anime employed your standard shounen design templates (big eyes, hair colors that isn’t black, impossible body proportions et. al.) although the bulky build that the main title male protagonist has makes me somewhat nervous (did he always have it?). Considering all the nudity, this probably isn’t a bad thing. A positive aspect for this anime.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is excellent, with the main title male protagonist, the blue-haired girl and the green-haired girls (not a typo) being the best characters in this regard. Make no mistake, most of the other characters has done well too in this regard. Basically, there are no ‘just average’ jobs being done here in this regard. I have not seen (or heard) such an overall great gigs like this one for quite some time. A positive aspect for this anime.

Music:-
Unfortunately,the only good thing this anime has in the music department is the OP theme. The OST and the ED theme are pretty much forgettable.

Animation/Direction:-
The overall animation quality in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. Integration between CGI and tradition 2D animation is seamless. Choreography for action scenes is just average though. The director should have done something about the very thin substance in the plot that affects the pacing and story developments, but apart from that, the director has done well.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. A series with an unrealized potential. The next anime I will review here is the long-awaited racing movie Redline, therefore the next review should come sooner than later.


The Demon King also has a time-travel device that he uses a lot to avoid taking responsibility for the women that he has deflowered.

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

Review: Reideen (らいでぃーん)

Posted by ranpha on 5th August 2011
Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: . Leave a Comment


The main male protagonist doesn’t have to operate his mecha to defend Earth from zombies.

After wading through 11 2011 anime titles that can be summarily described as ‘decent at best’, today I will review a 2007 anime series titled Reideen. This is probably the best mecha anime I have watched for quite some time, definitely better than Kurogane no Linebarrels and Giniro no Olynssis. Arguably, this anime is even better than the Evangelion Rebuild second movie too. But this anime won’t be able to dethrone the current holder of the ‘Anime of the Year 2007’ title, Bokurano, which is a part-time mecha anime too.


In fact, he and his sidekick here has to fend off attacks from alien invaders instead.

Story:-
In one sunny day, the main male protagonist received a depressing news about the death of his archeologist father that has gone missing for 10 years. He and his family then has to go to the excavation site where his father’s remains was found for corpse verification. At the site, he inadvertently fell down the rabbit hole, and obtained a strange gold bracelet. Then the aliens attacks the excavation site…

While this anime is technically a mecha anime, actually I think it is more comparable to the likes of classic Ultraman series than to Gundam or Evangelion. This may have to do with the largely slow-mo battle scenes that you can see in Ultraman and similar series from Japan in the 80s. This can be off-putting for some people but I do really like them for nostalgia reasons. Some scenes that involves certain Reideen configurations, and also most of the scenes in the final battle has normal fast-paced choreography though.

The story by itself is your common ‘aliens attacks Earth, so defend it with a conveniently-found robot’ plot with the ‘piloted by a reluctant main protagonist’ addition tacked on top of it. While it takes quite some time before the prevailing plot appears, one of the best this anime has done is the usage of at least two episodes to deal with any given monster that invades Earth Japan. Just like what you can see in Black Jack OVA, the usage of 2 episodes per monster allows a more detailed back story to be foretold, plus this format also enable tremendous character development to happen for our main male protagonist.


A very valid question if you ask me.

Romance are kept to the minimum in this anime, which is a plus considering the undeniable fact that going to a date is far less important than saving the world from devastation. Another good aspect that this anime has is that the main male protagonist is more bearable than the one in Kurogane no Linebarrels, plus he is not someone beholden to things like justice or something like that. What I didn’t like about this anime is that it takes very long for the prevailing plot to surface, even longer than Gosick. You will not know who the aliens are and why they attacks Earth until way into the second half of the anime.

The pacing in this anime is variable, in a bad way. This anime is way too slow than it should be for the first half of the series, mainly because of the two-episode storytelling technique. The pacing increased slightly in the second half of the anime before the anime suddenly goes full throttle than it should be during the ending arc. The difference in pacing speed between the ending arc and almost all the episodes before it are staggering. This variable pacing consequently affects the flow of the prevailing plot too, causing it to come out to the open too late and too raw and then finished in a hurry. That’s too bad because the ending arc is excellent, apart from some cheesy moment in the second half of the final episode. I’ll say the ending is just as good as the one in Gosick too, and with some conveniently loose end that is left unresolved, there should be a gateway for a second season.

As mentioned above, the two-episode per monster format helps the character development for the main male protagonist tremendously. In fact, I will even overlook the various deus ex machina moments this anime has, chalking it up as part of the main male protagonist’s character development strategies. Now the problem about this anime’s general character developments is that only the main male protagonist benefits from those arrangements. The childhood friend has minimal character development and the main female protagonist has it even worse, putting her almost on the same level as a side character just like the main male protagonist’s classmates and families. Only the main male protagonist’s colleague at the amp shop that has psychic powers has anything that resembles significant character developments, and even hers pales in magnitude when compared to the main male protagonist.


The antagonists do have some clever ideas about how to defeat Reideen, but the execution needs a lot of polish.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is not far detached than what you can see in Bokurano; at least it wasn’t based on the standard shounen templates unlike Kurogane no Linebarrels is. Black hairs are common, which is another good thing for a anime that takes place in modern Japan. The main male protagonist looks older than his indicated age though. Mecha designs is excellent too, especially for the silver mecha. A positive aspect for this anime.

Voice Acting:-
Unfortunately, I think voice acting in this anime is just average overall. This includes the main male protagonist, which is probably the only chink on his armor. The childhood friend’s voice acting gig is quite unique though,you have to listen to it to understand what I am talking about. She definitely has the best voice acting gig in this anime, although not by a big margin compared to other characters.

Music:-
The OST of this anime is quite decent and old-fashioned, and actually is another reason why I compared this anime more to Ultraman than Gundam. The ED theme is good too, but not so for the OP theme, which seems to be out of place.


Label the folder ‘guro loli hentai’ and the bad guys won’t be able to find Reideen’s data! Security through obscurity!

Animation/Direction:-
This anime employs the blurry animation technique in fast-paced CGI scenes, therefore one point will be docked from its final evaluation.

Apart from that, animation quality in this anime is decent, even in fast-paced scenes. Integration between CGI and traditional animation is very poor; transitions between full CGI scenes and traditional 2D animation can be very jarring. Choreography in battle scene early in the anime is just average (being slow-mo and stuff) but the one in the final battle is quite decent. The director could have done something about the prevailing plot coming up too late in the series and also the pacing, but apart of that there is nothing else to complain about.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Would have been 8 if not for the blurry animation technique.


How does it feels spending the last few seconds of your life staring at the missile that will incinerate you?

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

Review: Gosick (ゴシック)

Posted by ranpha on 28th July 2011
Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: . Leave a Comment


The main female protagonist and one of the best characters in this anime.

The ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition ends today with the longest anime series in list, titled Gosick. A detective anime title that takes place somewhere in Europe after World War One, is the hype that surrounds this anime really deserved. Will it be able to stop Highschool of the Dead OVA from winning the audition?

Well, the answer to the latter question is a ‘no’, for various reasons. Read on to know more about those reasons…

Story:-
The main male protagonist was sent to a certain fictional European country as an exchange student in a prestigious school. Avoided by his classmates because of his perfectly normal black hair and eyes, he inadvertently meets with a snobbish little girl with blonde hair whose pout-per-minute rate makes Cristiano Ronaldo looks good. Suddenly, out of nowhere, another blond-haired man appears and the main male protagonist was dragged into solving crimes, mostly homicides, that happened around the country.

This anime has the same general structure as Tantei Gakuen Q does, where the main protagonist solve mysteries (mostly homicides of course) while the prevailing plot slowly developed in the background before coming up to the fore later. One advantage this anime has over Tantei Gakuen Q is that the prevailing plot of the former actually finished while you have to read the manga to finish off the latter.

Storywise, this anime starts off with the wrong foot. The very first case in this anime is about the murder of a fortune teller, and when the inspector described the crime scene scenario, I correctly guessed the identity of the person who kills the fortune teller before the main female protagonist does. It is not that I am smarter than the main female protagonist is, but I managed to guess correctly because I recognize the scene right away as a variation of a certain murder case in Kindaichi Shounen no Jikembo manga (written by the same person who also does Tantei Gakuen Q). That particular case left me with a rather bad first impression for this anime.

But the main female protagonist recovers after that with some decent performances in cases that comes after the fortune teller case, aided in only small parts by the main male protagonist and also the inspector in equal measures. Suddenly, the good work built up after the first case crumbles again right at the end of the Gray Wolf village arc, where character developments for the two main protagonists were advanced in a method that shouldn’t be used.


Not only the bridge collapsed in this scene, but so are the suspension of disbelief.

See the image above? This anime has done what the other 10 titles in the ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition has failed to do, and that would be the destruction of suspension of disbelief. Infinite Stratos maybe is a bad anime title, but even it doesn’t do what this anime does as depicted in the screenshot above. How on earth a small girl, whose body mass and weight are lesser than the main male protagonist, support the weight of the main male protagonist? With only one hand to boot? This scene may be very important in character developments, but I think it should have been written differently. The inspector is there too, and so is the other escaped Gray Wolf guy. For example, one of the guys could have been the one who saved the main male protagonist, while the main female protagonist cried her heart out beside the savior. That hypothetical scene would have been more cheesier, but at least that would have been more believable.

After that scene, this anime doesn’t repeat any of those major mistakes again until the end. Of course, in episode 18, the poisoning case resembles another one of the cases in Kindaichi Shounen no Jikembo, but at least the perpetrator isn’t outed before the main female protagonist does the accusing herself. The main female protagonist really shined in the case of the beheaded queen, which is definitely the best case of the show, and is also where the prevailing plot has truly comes to the fore. Unlike the beginning of the series, the ending is superb, definitely the best ending within all the anime titles reviewed in this ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition. If Japan is smart, they will not do a second season. Suppress the urge to milk this anime for more money, and let this anime ends on a high.

Still, if you ask me, Tantei Gakuen Q arguably has better and more difficult homicide cases, and a better prevailing plot too. This have to do with the fact that the main antagonist in this anime is nowhere as cunning, crueler or menacing as his counterpart is in Tantei Gakuen Q. This anime doesn’t have one single ‘closed room’ case though, which is a very good thing considering the setting, although as usual, most of the cases are homicides.

The presentation in this anime is really good; the pacing is spot-on and the prevailing plot flows to the surface perfectly. Character developments is another thing this anime does very well. The two main protagonists are also the best characters in this anime, and they has transformed a lot throughout the course of the series. That inspector, the bumbling teacher and the other transfer student also has done fairly well in this regard.


The main female protagonist’s sidekick.

Character Design:-
Character design in this anime is decent but not spectacular. Understandably, there are no black hairs in this anime set up in Europe except for the main male protagonist.

Voice Acting:-
Being a dialogue-heavy anime title in nature, unfortunately the voice acting in this series is mixed bag at best. The main female protagonist voice actress has done a good job, but not so for the main male protagonist’s. Same can be applied for the rest of the side characters as well.

Music:-
The only good thing this anime has in this aspect is the first ED theme. The OST and the rest of the OP/ED themes are not really good.

Animation/Direction:-
Any hopes that this anime have of preventing Highschool of the Dead OVA from winning the audition evaporates once I seen the first few scenes that has the blurry animation technique applied. One point docked from the final evaluation, therefore it will not have any chance at all to get a perfect score.

Other than that, overall animation in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography for action scenes is just ordinary though. The director really has done a good job for the presentation aspect of the anime though, although it is very hard to overlook that certain cliffhanger (literally) scene.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. With this, Highschool of the Dead OVA becomes the first winner of this blog ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ title. Look at the sidebar on how the titles in the audition are ranked from top to bottom.

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

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