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Review: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2009 (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 2009)

Posted by ranpha on 7th October 2012

Posted in: anime review, rewatched anime reviews. Tagged: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (series), The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2009 (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 2009). Leave a Comment

The main title female protagonist.

After sitting on this release for far longer than I did with the first installment (two years at the minimum I think), I finally gets around to watch it so that I can clear my huge backlog. As shown in the title, this supposedly second season of the Haruhi Suzumiya was aired in 2009, therefore it will try to unseat the current ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ holder, Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. But to do so, this second season of Haruhi Suzumiya series has to be considerably better than the first one. You will know whether this anime managed to do that below.

An apt description for her.

Story:-

My synopsis of the first season:-

Our protagonist Kyon, an ordinary high-school student who wished for a normal school life, faces the terror of his life as he was dragged into the life of the school queer Haruhi Suzumiya and become the co-founder of the SOS Brigade, a club that aims to investigate anything mysterious (to Suzumiya’s standard). The club then was joined by a bumbling time-traveller, a devious esper and a silent alien (muahahaha what is this) whose carry the same mission of observing Suzumiya for their own reasons.

This synopsis I used for my review of the first season still applies, mainly because this ‘second season’ actually consists of the first season’s materials, with some of them rewritten, and some new episodes tacked into it. As a recap, the first season, when watched in chronological sequence, is made up from two parts (first part: first 6 episodes, second part: the latter 8 episodes). The first half is where the main plot is, and the second half is the period where the first season started going into slice-of-life+comedy mode. All of the ‘second season’ materials are inserted in the second part. The apostrophe means that the inserted materials definitely cannot stand up on its own, which explained the unconventional format this 2009 version of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has adopted. This unconventional format also means that the airing sequence seen in the first season is truly unnecessary in the first place.

As for the materials of the second season, it has two arcs; the first one is the time-loop arc Endless Eight, and another arc shows the filming scenarios for the best episode in the first season. Then there is a single episode where the main protagonist time-traveled 3 years into the past so that he can met with the bratty main title female protagonist of that time. And damning for the second season of this series, that single episode about time-travel is the best episode that the second season has, followed by the filming scenes, and then Endless Eight. The Endless Eight arc has so many fundamental problems that really threatened to bring down this series as a whole, in addition of the technical difficulties this series has because of its unconventional format, so I will focus on the other two first.

The single episode where the main male protagonist time-traveled to the past is actually really good, mainly because it helps props up the first part of the first season (you know, the one where the plot is). In fact, plot-wise, this episode can be very important if a third season or more comes on later, and may improve the distinctly ordinary main story this series has for the time being. The filming arc gives more meat to the best episode of the first season, so I guess there should be nothing wrong too much in it. Plus, there is a certain scene in it that helps the time-travel episode at propping up the main story. There is a minor weakness in that filming arc that I will address later.

One of my complaints about the Endless Eight time-loop arc is the length; at 8 episodes, it is simply too long. This anime can definitely get away with this if each loop are considerably different, but no, that’s isn’t the case here. Of course I don’t expect this anime to copy the Higurashi series, where each of its 9 loops are unique, but the redundancy of events in this particular arc is simply overwhelmingly bad. The director tried to mitigate this by skipping some of the events like the yukata-buying scene in some of the episodes (it doesn’t mean that they didn’t happen, they just happen off-screen), but personally I think explicit event omissions would have been better. For example, this arc would have fared better if one of the episodes explicitly omits the goldfish spooning event. Or maybe having the whole cast doing the ‘part-time job’ event manning the registers instead of distributing balloons. In its current state, if you ever want to watch this anime in the future, only watch the first three episodes of this arc, skip the next four episodes and then watch the last one.

But the biggest problem posed by the Endless Eight arc against the anime’s overall quality is the inconsistent characterization of the main male protagonist in that particular arc, compared to what you can see in the first season’s contents and also in the rest of the second season’s materials. The Endless Eight arc is sandwiched by the Kindaichi-like island homicide arc (material from first season) and the aforementioned filming arc. While the characterization of the main male protagonist in the homicide arc and also the filming arc is consistent and constant, his character in the whole eight episodes of Endless Eight is different, especially in the last scene in every episode of that arc. The main male protagonist in this arc is simply less decisive and less forceful than the main male protagonist in the homicide arc for example. I think if the main male protagonist in this arc is the same as the one in the homicide arc, Yuki Nagato will only have to get through 10 loops instead of ~15000 loops.

The main male protagonist, who is also the best character of this series.

Due to the unconventional format this anime has, character developments is severely restricted in the context of the first season. Therefore almost all characters in the second season are the same as they are in the first one. The main title female protagonist is a very good example of this; she is completely the same person in both first and the second season’s plots. The main male protagonist (who is also the best character in the whole series) would have been the same, except for his inconsistent characterization in Endless Eight. Therefore here I want to point out the only positive aspect of Endless Eight, and that would be the much-needed character development for Yuki Nagato, the only character that has one written in the second season’s materials. And her character development are done without causing her character to be out of line with what has already been shown in the first season materials that comes after Endless Eight. She is pretty much static in the first season show, but not so in this 2009 show mainly because of this.

Because I watched this anime in chronological sequence, like I do 5 years ago with the first season, there are no problems with the flow of the storyline. I wonder why the first season do that idiotic airing sequence in the first place; it only destroy the flow the way I have seen in Rental Magica, a show where I have the misfortune of watching it using the jumbled airing sequence. The pacing in the first 6 episodes are fast, but when the main story ended and the anime switched into comedy+slice-of-life mode, the pacing recedes. The ending in the 2009 and 2006 shows are exactly the same, you know, the open-ended one. This series has a movie, which I will not watch anytime soon.

Scenes in the comedy+slice-of-life parts of this anime like the one above are usually better than the ones in the first 6 episodes of the series.

Character Design:-
My comment from the same section in the 2006 version review still applies.

Voice Acting:-
My comment from the same section in the 2006 version review still applies.

Music:-
The OST is still the same average gig one you can hear in the first season. The first season material retains its crappy OP theme and the more than decent ED theme. As for the OP/ED themes in the second season materials, the OP theme in good but not so for the ED theme.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this anime is good, but I can’t help but noticed that the animation for second season materials are better than the ones for first season. The CGI problems (more have to do with integration) has gone away though. Overall choreography for action scenes in the story part of this anime is unchanged in quality. The director’s decision to do away with the jumbled airing sequence is welcomed, and I hope they will never come back.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. One less point than what the first season has achieved, mainly because of Endless Eight. Oh BTW, I have chosen to wait for the Blu-ray version of Steins;Gate instead of watching the TV version just like I will do with Mirai Nikki. This is because I have heard that the Blu-ray version will have extra materials in it that you will not see in the TV version. I have still not decided on what to watch next though.

The Blu-ray upscales of the first season materials is truly atrocious. Between this anime, AIR and Lucky Star BD releases, Kyoto Animation makes JC Staff looks good.

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

Review: Chaos;HEAd (カオス;ヘッド)

Posted by ranpha on 7th September 2012

Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: Chaos;HEAd (カオス;ヘッド). Leave a Comment

The unassuming main male protagonist, right before his life turned to hell.

The main reason why I chose to watch Chaos;HEAd for today’s review is mainly because I want to watch its spiritual successor Steins;Gate in the near future. Just like Michiko to Hatchin, this is a 2008 title, therefore it will not wrest this blog’s ‘Anime of the Year 2008’ title away from One Outs. In fact, Michiko to Hatchin is better than this anime, for reasons that you will find out. And that’s a shame, because this anime has so much unfulfilled potential.

Please spare a thought for our main protagonist who are being monitored around the clock by a pink-haired serial murderer just because he happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Story:-
The tranquil life of our reclusive main male protagonist, living his hikkikomori dream in a shipping container at Shibuya’s rooftop, shatters when he inadvertently become a witness to one of the serial murders cases that is happening in his district. Because of that incident, crazy delusional sword-toting beautiful ladies suddenly appears out of nowhere and starts chasing after him! A certain pink-haired one in particular, seems obsessed at ‘erasing’ him off the surface of the planet, therefore he has to live in constant fear, anxiety and paranoia, around the clock without any place to hide.

Surprisingly for its genre type, this anime is a character-driven title, with the main male protagonist at the center of all things. By far the best character in this anime, the single best aspect of this anime is watching his delusions become stronger as time passes. I think he is like that because he watched too many anime. One thing I like about him is that he is surprisingly perceptive, a rare trait for a main male protagonist in a harem title. The main male protagonist is the single bright spark this anime has, because the rest of the character roster and the anime’s elements are nowhere as interesting as him.

Personally, I think she was introduced into the anime just to make up the numbers, do you agree?

Somewhat related to what I said above, character developments for characters in this anime is pretty much non-existent, apart from the main male protagonist of course. The only girl of the harem that is just a tiny little bit interesting is the bespectacled one that has streaks of yandere tendencies. Unfortunately for this anime, she has little airtime after the first few episodes. The aforementioned pink-haired girl, whilst important to the storyline, did not have the same impact as the yandere girl. Personally, I think even the main male protagonist’s little sister is a little bit better than her. Ditto for the short-haired girl too, but the other two characters, especially the one that has speech impediment problems (see the screenshot above), seems to be there just to make up the numbers (the magic number is 7).

This is the problem inherent in an anime title with low episode count, yet having big amount characters with the writer trying to put some kind of story behind each of them. I found out that this anime is a visual novel adaptation. If I were the writer, I will make the magic number as 5, then cut off a couple of characters entirely from this anime and concentrate with the rest. This anime is a very good candidate for a adaptation with improvised storyline, unlike many other titles out there that has one.

Speaking about the storyline itself, this anime really missed a golden opportunity to become a masterpiece. This anime starts strongly, and after 4 episodes or so, I started to think that I am watching another Another (pun definitely not intended); an indication of how good the mystery elements this anime has. But around episode 7 or so, it seems that the author started to channel the main male protagonist himself, throws out the mystery elements from the storyline and replaced it with some conspiracy-themed plots instead. The quality of the storyline collapsed dramatically after that point, culminating in one of the worst endings I have ever seen since Princess Lover. Watching the cliché-laden final two episodes is truly torturous; in fact, I think Princess Lover’s ending is a little bit better than what you can see in this anime. I think if the anime starts right way with the conspiracy stuff (like having the true nature of the antagonist revealed earlier), this anime would not have done this badly story-wise.

The pacing of the storyline is spot-on at first, but increased slightly in the last 4 episodes or so. It is obvious that being overloaded with too many characters isn’t good for this anime’s storyline. For what it’s worth, the flow of the storyline is good though, even in the bad parts. There are several scene transition problems though, an example would be the ‘encounter’ at the start of episode 4 that is not bridged properly with a related scene in episode 3.

Life is hard for our main protagonist because he has to deal with insane asylum escapees like the character above.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime is average, and definitely unoriginal. Only the character design of the main male protagonist is decent, with its’ realism that matched his hikkikomori status. Black hair is rare in this anime that takes place in modern Tokyo, with only one of the girls (one of the worst ones) having one.

Voice Acting:-
Just like the character design, voice acting in this anime is pretty much normal in quality. There are no bad gigs here in particular, but there are no great ones either. For all of the main male protagonist’s greatness character-wise, his voice acting does not really stand out from the rest.

Music:-
The OST of this anime is good, but the same cannot be said for the OP/ED themes.

Animation/Direction:-
This anime uses the blurry animation technique last seen in Daily Lives of High School Boys, therefore one point will be deducted from this anime’s final evaluation. Other than that, the animation quality in this anime is actually good, better than the ones in the aforementioned Daily Lives of High School Boys and also Michiko to Hatchin. Choreography of action scenes is mostly average though, unlike Michiko to Hatchin. The directing is not the best; the problems in presentation I mentioned earlier are some of the mistakes he has made.

Conclusion:-
4 out of 10. Same score as Princess Lover is. I’ll decide when to watch Steins;Gate by the time my next review is posted. I already have the HDTV rip in my queue, and if I decide to watch that version, Steins;Gate will be the title I will watch after my next review comes up. If I want to wait for the Blu-ray version just like I decided to do with Mirai Nikki, then the wait would be indefinite. One thing for sure is, I hope Steins;Gate to be considerably much better than this anime.

What he said is completely on the mark, but what he forgets is that he is in an anime series, not in real-life.

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

Review: Michiko to Hatchin (ミチコとハッチン)

Posted by ranpha on 27th August 2012

Posted in: anime review. Tagged: Michiko to Hatchin (ミチコとハッチン). Leave a Comment

The Michiko of this anime, and one of the best characters of this anime too.

A little bit more than a month ago in the last post, the first Anime of the Year 2012 of this blog has finally been chosen if the form of Another. But when compared to its counterparts from the preceding years, that anime would be hard pressed to compete with the likes of One Outs (2008) and Zan Sayonata Zetsubou Sensei (2009). Talking about the former, today’s post is a review of an anime title that will futilely try to dethrone One Outs, titled Michiko to Hatchin. But even if this anime failed to outshine one of the best title I have ever reviewed in this blog, this anime is still a decent watching experience, especially if you stayed with it until the end.

The Hatchin of this anime, also one of the best characters in this anime.

Story:-
Set up in a fictional Central American environment, the first main title female protagonist, Michiko, escaped from a maximum security prison where she is supposed to serve a number of years in. After committing a string of robberies after the escape, she then kidnapped her daughter, the second main title female protagonist, Hatchin, from her ‘happy and serene’ adopted household. Then, over the course of several months, the duo travels across the country to find Hatchin’s father while avoiding the police and also the drug dealers et al., Natural Born Killers style.

The anime starts very slowly, especially for the first half of the series. In that period, the anime eschew actions scenes, has a very thin plot and has hefty amounts of slice-of-life elements as the two characters aimlessly traveled around trying to find their man. The lack of meaningful plots problem is mitigated by the interactions between the two title protagonists though, whose relationship is filled with drama and comedy. Story-wise, this anime slowly improves once it enter the month of May, and the last third of this anime is so radically different (and better) if compared to the early parts of the series.

Still, I do have some complaint about the storyline of this anime. The first one definitely has to do with the fact that many of the sub-plots in this anime has ambiguous endings, especially the ones that happened in the first half of the series. Some examples includes the favelas arc and also the Venice-like watery town arc. This problem happens mostly on arc that happens on the first half of the anime though, and not the better final third of the storyline.

My second complaint about this anime is the poor characterization of the first main title protagonist, Michiko. That character has three mode: 1. The badass mode. 2. The stupor naïve mode and 3. The plain ‘I want to be stupid and do stupid things’ dumb-ass mode. In the first half of this anime, she defaulted into the latter two modes most of the time, which is so out of character for a escaped convicted murderer that she is. One of the very few great moments in the first half of the anime happens when she acts her proper murderous convict character and starts kicking ass, such as when she kidnaps the second main title protagonist and also in the early parts of the favela arc I mentioned above. In fact, I think the favela arc will turn out differently if she stays the course throughout the arc. And maybe the arc will have a much clearer conclusion than what the anime currently presents (what happened to that fat-ass brat anyway?).

When the trains derailed in this big-ass accident, so is the suspension of disbelief when I found out all of its human passengers survived. In the real-world, the reverse will surely happened.

The third complaint I have for this anime is some of the episodes in this anime are simply awful, for example, like episode 12. Again, this phenomenon happens only in the first half of the anime. In those crappy episodes, not even the camaraderie between the two main protagonists can save the given episode. Some action scenes in this anime can be mind-boggling too, it caused the destruction of suspension of disbelief, like what you can see in a certain scene in Gosick. Just see the image above for an example.

And my final nit-pick for this anime is the employment of parallel storytelling techniques in consecutive episodes, that destroy the flow of the storyline in the process. For example, in one episode, we can see Michiko in bad-ass mode dodging snipers in city trains as she searched around for Hatchin’s father, then right after that episode that ends in a cliffhanger, the next episode shows Hatchin monkeying around at a circus. Then only in the next episode, I’m able to see what happens to Michiko at the end of her action-packed adventure. I think it is better that both Michiko adventures and Hatchin’s misadventures being simultaneously told in the same episodes so that their progress can be watched at the same time.

This anime would've fared better story-wise if she has more airtime.

Meanwhile, character development is another of this anime’s strong points, with both of the main title protagonists being the most outstanding characters of this anime. Michiko do outshine Hatchin by a little bit though. Some of the side characters are also good, like the policewoman with that huge afro (this anime would do better if she has more airtime), Satoshi Batista and his subordinate named Shinsuke, amongst others.

The pacing in this anime is variable; it is slow in the first half of the anime when the plot doesn’t reveal itself openly yet but it speeds up as the anime enters the month of May (in every episode, the date and place where any given story arc started will be shown). Predictably, the flow of the story is much better in the second half of the anime than in the first one. More often than not, this anime also use ill-timed flashbacks too, which, to a certain extent, pose problems with an arc’s pacing and flow. The ending was spoiled somewhat in the first minute of the final episode, but all in all, the ending is very good (but surely not in the main protagonists’ point-of-view).

The statute-hugging man should've asked the question to himself.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is excellent in general, except for Hatchin, which is just about normal. Black hairs are quite common too in this anime that takes place somewhere in the Americas. Unfortunately, another serious drawback that I will explain further below marred this aspect that was supposed to be a positive for this title.

Voice acting:-
This anime also has done very well in this aspect in general, except for Hatchin, again. While Michiko and others like that policewoman and Satoshi Batista are outstanding (their voice actors are excellent), Hatchin’s voice actress delivers some wooden performances too many times, especially in the second half of this anime.

Music:-
This anime doesn’t really use its OST very much, but at least it is still good. The out-of-place ending theme is excellent, although I personally think it was used in a wrong series. The ED theme would be at home in titles like Ouran Koukou High School for example. The 3 insert songs are not that bad either, and the only blemish in this aspect for this anime is the OP theme.

This anime's animation quality really regressed a lot as the series went on. I feel bad for Shinsuke for having his character very badly drawn in this scene. I don't think manglobe is even trying at this point anymore.

Animation/Direction:-
If this anime improves story-wise as the series goes on, the reverse is true for this anime’s animation quality. For starters, the animation quality is just average in the first place even at the start of this anime, but as I watched more episodes, the quality slowly become worse. This phenomenon applies mostly on character animations (frame rate problems just like Daily Lives of High School Boys), but what makes this problem even more pronounced is that character drawings also suffered very badly as times went on. An example can be seen in the screenshot above. This ruins the otherwise excellent character designs this anime has.

Choreography in action scenes is great, especially the ones that happens in the second half of this anime. Not only that, this anime really excels at using innovative camera angles, kind of like what you can see in action-based TV series from United States. I’ll say this anime exceeds Fractale in this aspect. The directing is mixed bag as you can expect, with problems seen in storytelling methods and characterization while excelling in the aforementioned camera works and choreography.

Quoted for Truth I.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Nowhere near as good as One Outs is. Then again, One Outs is so stupendously good, I don’t think there are any 2008 titles out there that is a s good as it.

Quoted for Truth II.