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All posts for the year 2011

Review: Infinite Stratos (インフィニット・ストラトス)

Posted by ranpha on 30th May 2011
Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: . 11 comments

The insensitive main male protagonist.

As mentioned in the previous post, the audition for the first holder of this blog ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ starts today with the high-priority mecha anime titled Infinite Stratos. With the overdose of slice-of-life titles in Japan nowadays, a mecha anime title sure sounds like a breath of fresh air. Or is it really the case?


It would be good for the main male protagonist if he does this ‘thinking’ thing more often, for his own sake.

Story:-
In an alternative version of  our futuristic world, the usage of mobile suit system called Infinite Stratos (abbreviated as IS from now on) is prevalent for many purposes. Unfortunately for men across the planet, only women has the ability to use those shiny useful gadgets. Adding to their jealousy, apparently our main MALE protagonist can also pilot one of those things. Therefore because of that, he was enrolled in a special school specializing in training IS pilots. And of course, the school is full with girls…

With this anime's two main premises ripped off directly from Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure (which is an Evangelion rip off itself), the story in this anime is not only unoriginal, but pretty much predictable. The fact that whoever wrote the story seems to intentionally refused to flesh out the storyline more doesn’t help either, withholding some of the promising potential I’ve glimpsed a couple of times throughout the series. Too much emphasis was put upon the harem aspect of this anime, unlike other mecha anime titles with harems like Dual! itself and Kurogane no Linebarrels (the harem in this title is pretty much understated). While the pacing is OK, storyline development is terrible with this anime’s propensity to skimp on events (like the main protagonist first IS training), or skipping them entirely (read more about this on character development commentary below).


The comic relief of this anime.

Character development in this anime is weird and uneven. The best character in this anime, which is the main  male protagonist, has arguably the best natural character progression throughout the series. You cannot say the same thing about at least a couple of characters here though. For example, that girl from Britain – Cecilia ‘Comic Relief’ Alcott. After her IS duel with the main male protagonist in episode 2, then in the very next episode (episode 3 to be exact), she suddenly become lovey-dovey with him. And this happened without any supporting intermediate events whatsoever. I actually try to check whether I have screwed the episode numbering or something like that, thinking that the episode 3 is actually episode 4, but the result is in the negative. Then I also checked whether there will be things like episode 2.5 in Blu-ray or DVD releases, and it seems that there will be no such thing either.

What happened with Cecilia’s character development strategy is basically the same thing that happened with the social club president in Princess Lover!, except that Cecilia’s case is worse. But what happened with her pales in comparison with what you can see with that transfer student girl from Germany that hates the main male protagonist. I know anime girls can be unreasonable, but THAT UNREASONABLE?

Misty-eyed one-eye girl: Instructor, why are you so strong?
Melancholic Instructor: I have a younger brother…
Misty-eyed one-eye girl turned spastic: ROARRRR WARGGGHHHHH I HATE YOU YOUNGER BROTHER!!!!!
Me: facepalm

Here I initially thought she hates him because he caused his sister to lose the world tournament (or he rapes her or something like that), but it turned out the reason is so flimsy I don’t even know what to say about it. Her saving grace is that her entry into the main male protagonist harem is much saner than what you can see from Cecilia’s.


Deus ex machina moments like this one makes the predictable ending even worse.

The ending is full with clichés, and just as predictable like the rest of the preceding storyline is. The ending doesn’t seem to be written to accommodate a second season, and I have not heard news for one either. I will not be surprised if there is a sequel though, although the writer really need to cut down on the harem aspect and flesh out the storyline more.


At this point of the anime, I started to wonder how much further the writer will abuse the ‘transfer student’ literary device in his/her writing, after seeing this for the umpteenth time.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is excellent, especially for the female characters. Hair colors can be colorful, but there is a fair share of black hairs in this anime. A positive aspect for this anime.

Voice Acting:-
Meanwhile, voice acting in this anime is patchy in quality. The main male protagonist is average in this regard, while Cecilia has done very well. The latter is definitely the outstanding performer in this anime.


The frustrated main female protagonist a.k.a. childhood friend #1.

Music:-
The OST is good, but I will not say the same thing for the OP/ED themes.

Animation/Direction:-
Just like last year audition, the first title in this year audition also use the damaging blurry animation technique last seen in Katanagatari mostly in fast-paced scenes. A point docked from the final evaluation because of this. To prevent a consecutive reviews containing these kind of animation techniques (the previous audition first three titles has them), the next title I will watch is going to be the Highschool of the Dead OVA (its predecessor doesn’t have it).

Otherwise, the animation quality in this anime is good overall, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography in action scenes is just average though. The director really balls-up with the flow of the plot and also character developments.


Another member of the harem: childhood friend #2 and also transfer student #1.

Conclusion:-
5 out of 10. Not a good start for this audition. The next review, the one that would be the 200th post in this blog, is going to be for the single-episode Highschool of the Dead OVA.  I can only watch them it next week though, so the review will come a little bit later after that.


Transfer students #9001 & #9002. One of them even have the temerity to transfer in TWICE! A second season really need to cut down on this ‘transfer student’ crap.

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

Review: Maria†Holic (まりあ†ほりっく)

Posted by ranpha on 25th May 2011
Posted in: anime review. Tagged: , . 1 comment


The main title ‘female’ protagonist with ‘her’ secret already uncovered right in the first episode.

After watching a few more episodes of Gintama (I have a big reservation about the third season – read about it in its review some time in the future), I stopped again and then started to watch yet another Blu-ray rip in the form of Maria Holic. A second season of this is currently running, and I don’t feel like waiting for it to finish in time for a combined review the way I do it with Kuroshitsuji. Maria Holic is a 2009 anime, but the current holder of the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has nothing to worry about. And the latter has quite a little bit of connection with the former, which would be explained later below.


An apt description of the main title protagonist.

Story:-
Our main protagonist transfers to an all-girls school so that she can relive the memories of her parents’ romantic encounter in the past. Being a closet perverted men-hating yuri-fag that she is, she quickly was attracted to the blonde-haired aristocratic main title protagonist whose grandmother used to be the chairwomen of the said school. But in double-quick time, she inadvertently learned the shocking dirty perverted secret harbored by the seemingly innocent main title protagonist. Fate then decided that the two perverted main characters are to share the same dorm room too, just in time for the new school year to start.

This anime is basically a character-driven title, with the two main protagonists being the core of this anime. The main storyline mainly consists of the character developments of the main protagonist as she started a new life in the school, alongside her new (in)famous roommate. The main protagonist  is quite similar to the main protagonist of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei in their tendencies to use plenty of monologues. As for the main title protagonist, ‘she’ reminded me greatly of the main protagonist of Seikon no Qwaser, with the supernatural powers being replaced with pure malice and the perverseness for breast sucking replaced by cross-dressing tendencies. The mannerisms are too similar for me to ignore.

References and parodies exists intermittently in this title, but the one series that are referenced multiple times is Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Not only the main protagonist of this anime acted similarly with Nozomu Itoshiki, but some aspects of  Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei’s presentation were also copied verbatim. The good thing is this anime doesn’t copy the terrifying pacing that plagued the first two seasons of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Storyline developments isn’t problematic either, although the way the plot goes can be bonkers sometimes. The comedy in this anime is decent too, but not up there with the likes of Guu. Another thing I like about this anime is how it doesn’t somehow manage to turn into a harem title, which would have been a bane of this kind of anime series.

This anime has a couple of weaknesses. The first one is the main title protagonist has too little airtime. Her case here is not as bad as Index is, but it is not too far behind. Because the main title protagonist is also one of the best characters in this anime, this anime isn’t able to reach its greatest potential with the amount of airtime ‘she’ received that is pretty typical for secondary characters. In fact, a couple of the secondary characters in this anime may even have more exposure than ‘her’.


The constant dilemma our main protagonist has to face.

The second weakness of this anime is how, sometimes, the direction of the plot tends to go bonkers, testing the limits of suspension of disbelief. The perverted monologues of the main protagonist often leads up to awkward situations, but the problem is those awkward situations usually were disconnected from previous scenes. Some episodes are simply bad in quality, like the penultimate episode. Incidentally, the best two moments in this anime are when the main title protagonist’s ‘brother’ makes ‘his’ appearance (the family is sure full with perverts). The ending is not exactly an ending, it looks like a regular episode, with a little bit of cliffhanger at the very end. But knowing Japan, the second season will surely fudge upon it with more silly plot misdirections.

Character development is uneven. The main protagonist has a lot of them, but the main title protagonist character building is very minimal. The latter in particular has minimal differences in character structures/essence between the first and the last episode. Still, both of them are definitely the best characters in this anime, with the main protagonist edging ahead of the main title protagonist. These two characters is a good tsukkomi pairing, and the former is so disgustingly perverted, she makes Darling and Raou looks like Virgin Mary. It may have to do with the fact that Darling and Raou are open with their perverseness while she is simply a closet yuri lover (but with her true nature being open to the audience on the other side of the 4th wall). But this is why I like her the most; that unbridled perverseness that sometimes scared even the main title protagonist. I hope that the main title protagonist has more airtime and character developments in the second season though.



The two main protagonists of this anime surely shared my view about this kind of hairstyle.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime is good, especially the design for the main protagonist that perfectly fits her secret-pervert profile. Black hairs are rare, but do exist. And that hairstyle above…


This anime is quite simple actually, storywise.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting gigs in this anime is uneven overall. The voice acting for the main title protagonist is excellent, but the other main protagonist is just ordinary. And that isn’t a good thing considering the amount of airtime she has. She and some other characters like the school council president (with chocolates cones hair) has a lot of room for improvement (and they will really need it).

Music:-
The OST is decent, but you cannot say the same thing for the OP and ED themes.


This anime sure like its steampunk-inspired black rains.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in the Blu-ray rip version I watched is excellent, overall. Understandably, fast-paced scenes and choreography are basically non-existent in this anime. The directing is decent too, or at least it wasn’t flawed (assuming of course, that he didn’t write all of those bonkers plots).

This anime sure does its rains better than the likes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Legend of Legendary Heroes. The rains in this Blu-ray rip are almost comparable to what you can see in Makoto Shinkai works.


This shoujo-style character depictions are commonly used in this anime. If you ask me, they are not necessary at all.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. A bigger involvement by the main title protagonist should, in theory, improve this anime’s quality.

Oh BTW, I will start the audition for the inaugural ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ winner in the next entry. The tentative list of titles in the audition can be seen at the right-side of this blog. As for Gintama, well, it may have to wait for quite a bit, although I will watch a few episodes at a time.

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

Review: Eden of the East TV, Eden of the East: King of Eden & Eden of the East: Paradise Lost

Posted by ranpha on 7th May 2011
Posted in: anime movies, anime review. Tagged: , , . 4 comments


The main protagonist of this anime, in one of his self-inflicted pinch.

In my last blog entry, I mentioned that I want to watch the 4 whole seasons (201 episodes) of the Gintama series. But because of a certain reason that I will make known during the review of the said series, I stopped watching it continuously and will instead watch other anime titles while still watching Gintama intermittently until it ends. Currently I have watched about 110 episodes of what I have, so it will be quite some time before I actually go to review the series.

Therefore here it is, my review of the long-awaited (at least for me) Eden of the East series. What I have watched is the Eden of the East TV series that has 11 episodes, and also the two follow-up movies titled The King of Eden and Paradise Lost. I won’t watch the third movie because I have learned that it is just a big full-length recap movie (why on earth Japan wants to do this I don’t know). The TV series started airing in 2009, therefore it will also challenge Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei for the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title.


I am watching the Blu-ray version of the anime. Surely there is no need to censor anything right?

Story:-
A Japanese female university student is visiting Washington D.C. for her graduation ceremony, and she finally fulfill her longtime dream of seeing the White House with her own eyes. She then tried to hurl a coin into the North Lawn’s fountain but failed, and is about to get arrested for her troubles. But just before the authorities shipped her to Guantanamo Bay, our nudist hero appeared and saved her bacon. From there on, she become deeply involved in a deadly reality game of which her savior is a participant, as Japan started to be rained with Tomahawk missiles.

This anime is basically a cross between the manga Mirai Nikki and the Bourne trilogy movies (referenced in this anime – movie references are abound here), but not as thrilling like the former and not as intense like the latter (I only watched the first 2 Bourne movies though). Still FWIW, the storyline is quite good for a shounen title. The pacing in TV series is quite slow though for the kind of the storyline it has (a similar anime series titled Speed Grapher has better pacing than this one) but when the movies comes in, the pacing picks up considerably.

This is why I’m glad that I waited for the movies to come out first before watching the series. The TV series by itself are written to set up the stage where most of the actions will be played in the movies. If I were to watch only the TV version, the scoring for this anime would have been lower. If you plan to watch this series, you should do so by having all the TV episodes and the two movies too; the experience would have been more complete that way. Despite the discrepancies of pacing between the TV episodes and the movies, the flow of the story develops nicely and smoothly, and was capped with a decent ending that doesn’t really permit an extension.

Character developments were mostly done during the TV series phase, and as expected, the forgetful main male protagonist is the best character in this series. The main female protagonist only become more useful in the movie phase. The only blot in this series is how some of the Seleção members only has peripheral roles in the series; it made me feel that the anime’s settings are not exploited to its fullest potential.


This scene is epic yet hilarious if you ask me.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime is more realistically seinen than shounen, and is good in general. The designs of the main male and female protagonists in this anime reminds me a lot of the designs of the main protagonists of The Sky Crawlers and Spirited Away, respectively. Black hairs are common in this modern Japan, which can only be a good thing. A positive aspect for this anime.

But for god’s sake, that was some futuristic handphones that the Seleção members have, even if you ignore the concierge access and the 10 billion yen credited into it. Not even the white iPhone 4 can be compared to it. The phones really shows that the flip form-factor phones can be awesome, and how touch-screens isn’t always desirable.


Quoted For Truth. I have 2 myself.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is flawless, yet largely uninteresting overall. Nearly all the voice actors has done their job well, but no one stands out from the rest.

Music:-
The OST is sparse but is excellent. But none of the OP/ED themes in the movies or the TV series  are any good though, even for the Oasis track.


This scene is one of the places where 2D and CGI doesn’t really mesh well.

Animation/Direction:-
The quality of the animation in this anime is great, even in fast-paced scenes. There are surprisingly very little choreography in this anime though, unlike in the Bourne movies or in Speed Grapher. Sometimes the integration between traditional animation and CGI videos are not done seamlessly though, but you can see some stunning scenes in this anime especially in the movies. The directing is competent to say the least, at least I don’t see any problems except for the writing that doesn’t take advantage of the situation.


But this anime sure have some stunning scenes in it, comparable to what you can see in Makoto Shinkai’s works.

Conclusion:-
9 out of 10. Not good enough to dethrone Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, but it is still a recommended watch for anyone who like some thrillers in their lives.

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

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