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Review: Saki (咲-Saki-)

Posted by ranpha on 7th October 2009

Posted in: anime review, sport genre standard. Tagged: Saki (咲-Saki-). 1 comment

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

The moment of truth has arrived, and today the inaugural ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title holder will be chosen. Two of the initial candidates has already been reviewed, and you can read what I have to say about them here and here. As mentioned in the K-On review, the sport anime Saki is the last candidate that I will review before the winner is chosen. Being an anime that revolves around mahjong, the sport genre standard handicap will be applied in the scoring. Can Saki stops Wolf and Spice 2 from running away with the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title? Read on to find out the result.

This explains why there are lots of Saki hentai doujins at TokyoTosho. I have always wondered why, but after watching this anime, now I knows. There is also a similar character in Shion no Ou, but she was not exploited unlike the character above.

Story:-
The title protagonist Saki Miyanaga, a first-year high schooler who is good at mahjong but hated the game (sounds familiar?) was forced by her friend from middle school to play a game in the mahjong school club. There, she meets the middle-school mahjong prodigy Nodoka Haramura and after a chain of events, the protagonist joins the club. As expected from a high-school sport anime, both of them vows to win the the prefecture tournament so that their club can qualify to the nationals (if you are not familiar with this kind of stories, you need to watch more Japan’s sports anime titles).

As mentioned above, the overall story in this anime is very typical for its genre, especially the ones that involves middle/high school students. We have the usual cliché-laden made-up reasons on why a given characters has to get to the nationals at all costs, then we also have the obligatory ‘training camp’ sessions (there are a couple of them here) and of course we have the tournaments where anime of this kind revels upon. Of course, a generic sports anime will not be complete without overexaggerations, and Saki delivers them in abundance. I thought Japan anime/manga industry has already left these kind of exaggerations behind to the last century, but they make their comebacks with a vengeance in this 2009 title.

Regular readers of this blog may compare this anime with the recently reviewed Shion no Ou, but actually IMHO this anime is more similar to Umisho. Why is that? This is because both of them are sports anime titles (although Umisho is not subject under the sport genre standard handicap because it was reviewed before I watch Capeta) and also both of them has lots of fan service. The huge amount of fan service in this anime far exceeds of Umisho’s; in fact you will be forgiven if you think that this anime is an adaptation of a dating simulation game (which seems to be common nowadays) instead of a sport manga.The fan service is not a bad thing though, and I really likes them. The quality of the stories in those two anime titles are comparable, but the yuri genre influence in this anime (yuri genre anime titles like Strawberry Panic are the ones that I actively avoid like a plague) drags this anime’s quality down. Of course, that’s simply a matter of preferences; you may like it, but I don’t.

Tantalizingly very short skirts like this one (very short even for non-hentai Japanese anime titles standard) are just one of the fan-service you can see in this anime.

Nevertheless, despite the average quality of the story in this anime, the presentation are excellent. One notable aspect of the presentation of this anime is the excellent usage of flashbacks. Let me warn you first, this anime has shitloads of flashbacks inside; combined, they can easily take up one-third of this anime’s airtime. They are used for many purposes, usually to advance the storyline but more often than not, to do character introductions and developments for characters that are not the students in the same school where the title protagonist is studying. Poor usage of this literary device has sunk many anime titles I have watched before, but here, even with the humongous amount of flashbacks, there are zero impact upon the anime’s story developments although the pacing may have been slowed down quite a bit during tournament episodes. The director really has done his/her job well.

Character developments in this anime are also done very well, with the title protagonist and her pink-haired big-breasted yuri-friend being the best of them all. Those flashbacks really helps at creating many likeable personified characters, either from the protagonist’s own club or the ones from rival schools. The ending is structured to accommodate a second season, which I think this anime should get. Umisho also has the same structured ending but there are no news of a new installment yet, so I hope Saki is not be left hanging just like that, because I want to know what will happen at the nationals.

One of the 'unique' character designs in this anime. Oh BTW, she is not blind, but there is a sharingan beneath those closed eyelids that she will use when in a pinch in a mahjong game.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime is good and, well, unique. This anime is a story about women mahjong, but the designs in this anime are done as if to distract the viewers from the the fact that this anime is a mahjong anime. The pink-haired girl with gigantic breasts and that girl who closed her right eyes are some of the examples I am talking about.Black hair are rare in this anime, most of them are for secondary characters only.

Chihara Minori has really done an excellent job voicing an insane character that scares people like the rich blonde girl above.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is excellent in general, if you exclude the two main protagonists (these two are stupidly average). The taco lover (Rie Kugimiya), the rich blonde girl (Chihara Minori) and the girl who can become invisible (Momoko Saito) are three outstanding characters in this aspect. Chihara Minori really impressed me with her gig here, I never thought she can voice a pompous yet hyperactive character like that. At first, I thought the rich blonde girl was voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro (the rich blonde girl character is similar to the rich purple-haired girl in Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun voiced by her) but it turns out that I am wrong. Chihara Minori’s gig here is better than what she has done in Haruhi Suzumiya. Maybe, just like Mamoru Miyano, she has found her niche? Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Some good monologues from another character with excellent voice acting.

Music:-
A positive point for this anime; the OST is good, and so are the OP/ED themes except the 2nd ED.

Even when just used as metaphors, these kinds of overexaggerations are simply over the top and eventually wears me down.

Animation/Direction:-
The quality of the animation is good, even in fast-paced scenes. Unlike the more mundane Shion no Ou, there are choreography in this mahjong anime, and they are quite good. Where else can you see magical girls appearing just after a character put a tile down on the table (I am looking at you the rich blonde girl). And of course, fires or lightning that emanates from the tiles as the characters swings their hand to put them on the table (almost everyone else). The directing is excellent, especially for the flashback management feats I have mentioned above.

When high-school female students plays mahjong in Japan, lightning comes out from their eyes to scare the wit out of their opponents.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. With this, I hereby declared that Wolf and Spice 2 is the first holder of ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title.

Also in Japan, high school female students who plays mahjong also wears jerseys, like football players.

Review: K-On! (けいおん！)

Posted by ranpha on 4th October 2009

Posted in: anime review. Tagged: K-On! (series), K-On! (けいおん！). Leave a Comment

The saving grace of this anime, the procrastinating main protagonist.

Just like I have mentioned in the last blog entry, the second 2009 anime that will be reviewed as the part of the audition to choose the inaugural holder of ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title is the much hyped K-On! How much over-hyped? You can see that anime’s character’s pictures being used as avatars or signatures in forums, plenty of 4chan /a/ and /w/ threads, and when I played Left 4 Dead in Japan’s dedicated servers, many players has the main characters’ pictures being used as spray logos. Let’s see if this anime has what it takes to be listed at this blog’s right side-bar alongside (as of now) Chocotto Sister, Nodame Cantabile and Wolf and Spice.

I tell you Mio-chan, ‘negligence’ is the least of your concerns when it comes to the main protagonist.

Story:-
Fresh into high school, our main protagonist Hirasawa Yui was lured into joining the school’s Light Music Club with cookies and teas. After nailing herself a Gibson Les Paul guitar, the rest of the club members works hard at integrating the procrastinating protagonist into the club in time for their school festival performance.

The main reason why this anime will not be listed at the sidebar as the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ is the story, which is too ordinary and poor in substance. Despite those reasons, this anime actually starts quite well up until the club’s first school festival performance, but after that, the quality drops immensely until the end of the series. Watching the latter half of the anime is like watching a car plunging down off a steep ravine in slow motion. The slow descent to destruction was then stopped by the merciless ending, that is full of clichés, predictable and mediocre. Still, while watching the anime deteriorates, I have to admire at how well the anime self-destructs; with decent story developments (or de-developments I must say), plot transitions and great pacing.

Nevertheless, there is one positive point that this anime has, and that would be the main protagonist herself. She is definitely the most important and interesting character here, and her character strength helps makes this anime watchable. If not for her, it is not inconceivable for me to drop this anime altogether. I basically continued watching this anime just to see what hilarious things she will be doing next (most of the humors that are actually good will involve her). The part where she has to retake the math test is hilarious, it reminds me of that excellent Spongebob Squarepants episode. The anime’s bad second half takes some of the gloss off her though. Oh BTW, none of the other club members has even half the personality of the main protagonist's, which will explain the generally weak character developments that this anime has.

And of course, she has that expensive Gibson Les Paul guitar, which I also have (takes me a couple of years of saving to afford one). She has great taste!

One of the things she does with her Gibson Les Paul…

Character Design:-
This anime has decent character designs in it. The way some of the body parts are drawn, especially the legs and to the lesser extent, the faces, are quite weird though. There are decent numbers of black-haired people here, although those who are brunettes is still the majority.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is average, with the main protagonist and the club’s president (that plays drums) being the best of the bunch.

Music:-
For an anime that is supposed to have music as its main theme, this anime doesn’t do too well here. It has a good OP theme, and the same also applies to the insert song the club performed in their first school festival. For the OST, the ED theme and also the other insert songs, not so much.

…and one of the things she does to her Gibson Les Paul!

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is very well done, even in fast-paced scenes (very little of them here). Choreography is basically non-existent here. The directing is good enough to get by I suppose.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. The hype is not even remotely justified. Basically, Wolf and Spice 2 now virtually has both hands upon the Anime of the Year 2009 title. The next 2009 in the audition, Saki has to pull a Capeta to prevent that from happening, and that will be hard because Saki will be saddled with the sport-genre handicap.

She is the character with the most substance here in this anime.

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

Review: Wolf and Spice 2 (狼と香辛料Ⅱ)

Posted by ranpha on 2nd October 2009

Posted in: anime review, Former Anime of the Year 2009 title holder, perfect score. Tagged: Wolf & Spice (series), Wolf and Spice 2 (狼と香辛料Ⅱ). Leave a Comment

The main male protagonist is at the bottom left (his back turned to you), while the main female protagonist is at the bottom right. Only one screenshot are taken when watching this anime, so please forgive me about the lack of pictures in this blog entry.

Just like what I have mentioned in my last review, the next three anime titles that will be reviewed here are 2009 titles. After watching (and reviewing) all three titles, I will then pick one of them to become the first anime that will assume the mantle of being the holder of ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title, and get listed on the side-bar at the right. The three titles that will become the provisional candidates for the title is the second season of the Wolf and Spice series, the much overhyped K-On and the mahjong anime Saki. I’ll get started with the sequel of the current Anime of the Year 2008 Wolf and Spice, and lets see whether this anime has a better luck than the sequel of Nodame Cantabile, which is not as good as the first one.

Story:-
The two main protagonists continues their journey north, after the events that unfolded at the end of the first season. There are two more story arcs that happened in two different cities, as the main male protagonist helps the main female protagonist returns to her homeland (did not arrive yet).

The continuation are done seamlessly, with necessary flashbacks from the scenes happening in the first season being shown sparingly. The two story arcs in this second season are similar to what you may seen in the first season. The first arc is solid, it is almost like a mind game instead of your usual merchant trading stories that you can see in the first season. Plus, the first arc also helps advance the main storyline quite a bit. The second arc meanwhile, is a little bit meh, and this will have its own repercussion later on. The plots in each arc flows smoothly with good pacing with the exception of the second story arc, and it will be explained below.

The part where the second season really regressed is the ending. Just like the first season’s ending, the one in the second season opens up the possibility of a third season. The problem is, compared to the first season’s ending (which is excellent), the ending in the second season is poorly formed and presented to the audience. This was partly influenced by the poor plots in the second story arc, but more importantly, the last 2 episodes in the anime seems to be rushed. I think this happened because the anime is running out of airtime, and an extra episode may have helped the plots in the second arc develops much more naturally, just like it is in the first arc and the ones in the first season.

The lackluster ending was offset by the improved character developments in the second season. If there is one thing the two story arcs this second season has, that would be the excellent character developments that has surpassed the efforts done in the first season. The director builds on the excellent foundation already laid out in the first season and improved it much further in the second season, especially in the first arc.

Note to Japan: Can we have a 24-episode run in the third season? 12 episodes per season doesn’t give this anime justice. I want more alcohol-guzzling wolf-girl! :mrgreen:

Character Design:-
My comment from the first season still applies.

Voice Acting:-
My comment from the first season still applies. The voice acting from the two protagonists are excellent in this dialogue-heavy anime.

Music:-
The OP/ED themes in this second season are nowhere as good as the ones in the first season, but the OST has improved markedly.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation and choreography in the second season is the same as in the first season. The directing has improved, and there are no more DVD-only episode it seems.

Conclusion:-
10 out of 10, although its position is less tenable than the first installment of this series. Nevertheless, this score should put Wolf and Spice 2 in the pole position for the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title. K-On, which will be next in line, and also Saki will have their work cut out for them if they covets that particular title.

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