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Review: Gakkou no Kaidan (Ghost at School – 学校の怪談)

Posted by ranpha on 28th May 2008
Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: , . 18 comments


They will make this face a lot in the course of this series.

Gakkou no Kaidan is a title that I have watched partially on Animax, and as I waited for Noir to finish being downloaded, I brought it out from my DVD collection and watched it until the end. So, let me get the review out of the way before I get started with Noir later.


The best character and the voice of reason in this anime.

Story:-
Two siblings returned to their mom’s hometown after her death, and in no time the eldest sibling found out that she has to do a lot of exorcising at their new ghost-infested school. Aided by their new friends and a talking cat, the siblings went ahead with their adventure of exorcising the ghost of the week, one ghost per episode.

While this anime did deal with paranormal activities, it was nowhere near as scary as you may expect for a horror series from Japan. Anyway, the story is pretty decent but it was buried under the pile of ghost-of-the-week episodes. This means that the story is moving at a pace that is a little bit too slow for my liking. For a series that has 20 episodes, it feels like the story’s length is akin to the ones that has 13 episodes or something.

Character development is also affected by the slow pacing above, which means that many of the major characters are virtually the same at the start and the end, with the exception of the main female protagonist and also the talking cat (which incidentally is the best character in this anime). The ending seems to be hurried, compressed within a single episode when IMO it could do better in a spread within several episodes.

On an unrelated note, the alternative subtitle by Exiled-Destiny is hilarious, especially when they changed the purple-haired girl into a born-again Christian who will try to evangelise the rest of the cast whenever she can.


Quoted for Truth.

Character Design:-
The character design is good, especially for the purple-haired (Christian evangelist) girl. Only one of the major characters has black hair, and that is not a good thing because Japanese elementary school kids do not normally dye their hair. The designs for the ghosts is also good, although not exactly original.


One of the ghosts is about to claim a victim. None of the Bible verses she usually use will be able to save her.

Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this anime is ordinary and average, with no one standing out from the rest.


One of the better-looking ghosts in the process of claiming another victim.

Music:-
A positive point of this anime, the OST and both OP/ED themes are very well done. Congratulations.


The last moments of an unfortunate taxi driver.

Animation/Direction:-
Unfortunately, fresh from scoring high in the music section, the same cannot be said about the animation. The animation is average at best, and can be atrocious at times. In fast-paced scenes, the animation can be ridiculously good or frustratingly bad, that’s how inconsistent it can be. The choreography is not of the highest order either, but the directing is surprisingly competent when it comes to the story presentation, usage of camera angles and more, but he/she is screwing up in other areas. Trying to use techniques/methods that are applicable in typical life-action Japanese horror movies in an anime is a double-edge sword after all.


In other titles like Meitantei Conan or Tantei Gakuen Q or even in real life, he would have been dead on the spot. In this anime, he gets away with a week in hospital.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Noir should come up next; it is already prepared on my hard-disk. Or maybe the first episode of the Evangelion remake. Whatever, just wait until my next review.


In Japan, ghosts that comes out from TV seems to be common. This interlaced ghost is also one of the better designed in this anime…


…while this one is one of the plainest. Voiced by Ayako ‘Nodame’ Kawasumi though.

Review: Blood+ (ブラッドプラス)

Posted by ranpha on 21st May 2008
Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: . Leave a Comment


Our gluttonous main (and the best) character, Otonashi Saya.

Reverting to reviewing a slightly older anime in the form of Blood+, Nodame Cantabile can take a break from facing challenges to its throne. BTW, I have heard there will be a second season for Nodame later this year, and if it follows the recipe of the first season, Anime of The Year 2008 should be an easy win for Nodame Cantabile 2nd Season. Now, let’s go back to the mini-review of Blood+.

Story:-
Our heroine Otonashi Saya, a typical high-school girl with a suspicious amnesia that prevents her from remembering anything before her last one year of living, is attacked by a strange monster when she returned to her school to retrieve her forgotten shoes. From then on, she finds out that she is the only one who can save the world from those immortal monsters, and she embarks on a journey around the world to do so.

The story is very good, and do not be tricked by the simple synopsis above. This anime started rather slowly, at least during the time at Okinawa but the pace picked up steam when our protagonist and her gang started touring Europe to look for more monsters to exterminate. It is during that time where this anime really shines and got me really hooked up with the excellent plot developments that keeps me wanting for more, and this continued up until the time-jump where the problems begins.

The time-jump plot device really takes out the wind from the sail of this anime. While the quality of the story itself did not deteriorate, the time-jump messed-up the excellent pacing the anime has up until then and also confuses the character development a little. You know, up until the end, the anime did not explain what happened at the ship when it sinks while our protagonist and antagonist (presumably) fight, and also what the protagonist is doing during the gap in the time-jump. But the messed up pacing has more negative effect on the anime, because the anime failed to capture it back until the very end.

Character development is also done very well, and the main protagonist is simply the best character in the series. How her character was expanded is an integral essence in the series, and is equally important as the storyline itself. With more airtime, preferably the same airtime as the protagonist, the main antagonist could have been better than the one portrayed in the series.

The ending is decent, and it is really surprising that the director need only about 3 episodes or so to do so. At first I’m afraid that the ending will be rushed as the magical episode 50 approached, but in the end it turned out good. The only complaint I can have about the ending is that it is too typical and do not have enough essence that gives the preceding story justice.


Brand advertising seems to be prevalent in the early parts in the series. Not as blatant as the ones in Darker Than Black though.

Character Design:-
The character design in this anime is just average but quite realistic. The non-Japanese protagonist has black hair, which puts me in a bind whether I should give a praise or not, but the Caucasians characters here are blonde, so maybe hair color here is more politically correct than the majority of other Japanese anime reviewed here.

Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this anime is good, but there is no one that stands out from the rest of the huge cast.


This is supposed to be a surveillance report, not a romance novel.

Music:-
The OST is great, and for the myriads of themes this anime has; the 1st and 3rd OP themes and the 3rd ED theme are very well done, especially the Angela Aki gig.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation for this anime is excellent, even in the fast-paced scenes. Unfortunately, choreography of those action and fighting scenes are just plain average though, especially the latter. The directing is generally good, but I think this series would have benefited greatly if a better director is in charge of this anime.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. Well, it is time to read some manga then. The internet at home is down so can’t really finish downloading Noir, which is the anime I want to watch next. Maybe I have to dig into my unwatched collection first to fill the gap as I wait until my connection is restored.


I want that mobile phone, which can open doors with ease.

Review: Rental Magica (レンタルマギカ)

Posted by ranpha on 18th May 2008
Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: . Leave a Comment


Magic schools in this anime is no different than concentration camps. Oh and BTW, I’m lazy to take more screenshots, so you have to settle with this one.

Rental Magica should have been included in the wave of 2007 anime reviews that ends earlier this month, but I didn’t do it. Anyway, I managed to watch it anyway thus here is the review for it. This is a 2007 anime, thus it will compete with Nodame Cantabile for the Anime of The Year 2007 award.

Story:-
Our protagonist Itsuki Iba was forced to become the president of a magician rental company because of his father’s disappearance. He then has to deal with customers demands and fending off rival companies as he struggled to control his bumbling and diverse employees.

In essence, this anime is quite similar structurally with Zero no Tsukaima, but maybe a little bit better. This anime started slowly, with its chronologically confusing character’s introductions episodes before dipping into the admittedly average storyline. The story developed nicely, albeit in a pace slower than I would have liked, and the lack of substance in the story after the characters introduction episodes is really apparent.

The ending seems to be tacked in without a seamless integration with the preceding storyline, considering that the main antagonist for the ending only make his appearance in the last 3 episodes or so. I wonder whether the ending is set up that way so that a second season can be accommodated, but personally I think an ending that is more jointed to the storyline would have been better for the purpose of a second season. If my sister is stupid enough to download the second season, I may watch it.

Character developments are done very well despite the slow pacing for much of the middle portions of the anime, but there is no one that really stands out from the rest. With this anime being just another Zero no Tsukaima harem version, there should be nothing you can expect in this aspect.

Character Design:-
Your bog-standard shounen story character design applies here, which means that the character design is just average. The main male protagonist has black hair though, and that will always be good for Japan.

Voice acting:-
Just like the character design, the voice acting in this anime is also just about average, and no one stands out in either. Mamoru Miyano who voiced the antagonist in the ending arc has a better outing here compared to his gig in Gundam 00, but still not as good as the ones in el cazador de la bruja and Dragonaut – the resonance. It probably has to do with the low airtime which limits his development.

Music:-
This anime completely fails in this aspect. Enough said.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is generally good, on par with other 2007 anime titles. The quality of the animation also do not suffer in most of the fast-paced scenes, but some battles that has extremely fast-paced animations like the one in episode 19 or 20 suffered from jerky framerates. The choreography is ordinary at best, and the same can also be said of the directing.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. The same as Zero no Tsukaima, and Nodame Cantabile’s throne is just a pipe dream.

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