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Review: Onmyou Taisenki (陰陽大戦記)

Posted by ranpha on 13th May 2008

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: Onmyou Taisenki (陰陽大戦記). Leave a Comment

Man, that blushing nearly makes me puke.

The lull from my wave of 2007 (and one 2008) anime reviews is over, partly because I’m back from outstation, and today’s review is a TV-Nihon special Onmyou Taisenki which I admit is better than I thought. Read on for more.

One of those crazy attack names you will see a lot in this anime.

Story:-
A random and insignificant kid finds out that he has the ability to control ‘shikigami’ as he is running away from another person who can also do the same. Luckily, he managed to defeat his pursuer, and he have to save the world from destruction (hmmm where did I heard this before) while taking his school’s boat club to the national championship.

The story is typical of the genre, just like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is, but without the latter’s extra polish. Anyway, it is pretty decent and actually the anime’ story started very well for the first two-third of the 52-episode run. Unfortunately, and typical of the titles of this genre, this anime started its slow descent towards mediocrity as the series marched on (but hey, the story lasted longer than usual). As you can guess, the ending is filled with clichés in the form of speeches that makes me cringe. Sometimes I just hoped that the antagonists will just take some lessons from the Peter’s Evil Overlord List, defeat the heroes and destroy the world. More often than not, in this kind of anime, more usually than not it will be the antagonist’s fault that their destructive plans failed and not because of the competence of the protagonists.

More positives for this anime are the steady flow of the (not exactly spectacular) storyline, aided by great pacing employed by the director. He/she surely know how to make me opens the next episodes as quickly as I can so that I can find out what will happen after the cliffhanger in the last episode. Another feature that I liked about this anime is the battle system that involves plenty of elaborate attacking techniques (and the sometime crazy names that comes with them) invoked by hand gestures, which I think is much superior to the ones you see in YuGi Oh or Pocket Monsters. Plus, fan-service in the form of the shikigami summoning procedures has been shortened dramatically as the show goes on.

Character development is also done well, at least for the main characters, but with no one standing out from the rest. There are some that is left behind though, like the main protagonist club mates. As a result, some potential story arcs like the potential romance story between the main protagonist and his childhood friend are left unexplored. Which is a shame in this 52-episode series.

Numbed by the constant monster attacks, our side characters only watched nonchalantly at the latest monster invasion.

Character Design:-
Character design in this anime is pretty good considering the genre and the potential target audience. Brown is the new black in this series, and I should overlook this too for the same reason.

Voice acting:-
A positive point of this anime, voice acting in this series is excellent. The voice actress for the main protagonist’s shikigami can replace Naruto’s voice actress if she got sick or something; that how similar they can be. That Naruto-esque shikigami is our outstanding character in this aspect.

And one of them even takes her own sweet time calling all of them to her.

Music:-
Good OST, but for the themes, only the 2^nd OP and the last ED themes are of any good.

Animation/Direction:-
Another positive point of this anime, the animation in this anime is excellent, and more importantly, it did not suffer in the huge amount of fast-paced scenes this anime has. Many of the techniques/hand gestures here also have good arts and special effects applied in their animations. Choreography is also top-notch, and one of the reasons why I like this anime so much. The directing is excellent, for the many reasons mentioned in the story section.

Conclusion:-
9 out of 10. Very well done, but no Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

Medieval Japan already has LED screen and electronic devices back then 1200 years ago.

Review: Myself, Yourself (マイセルフ；ユアセルフ)

Posted by ranpha on 4th May 2008

Posted in: anime review - reposted, romance genre standard. Tagged: Myself, Yourself (マイセルフ；ユアセルフ). 2 comments

The best character in this series, the ten-year old Mochida Hinako and the main male protagonist.

The final review in this wave of supposedly 2007 anime reviews (I really need to check the date for all anime that I will review next time) is the promised Myself, Yourself. Similar to kimikiss pure rouge but inferior, this anime will be judged with the higher standard all romance anime title is subjected to in this blog. This anime will not win the Anime of The Year 2007 title for sure. Getting this anime out of the way is my main priority here so that I can look at the future within more positive outlook.

The main male protagonist realized that the best character in this series is infinitely better than the moody and emo main female protagonist, thus he jumped on her to do his evil deed.

Story:-
Five childhood friends were reunited after 5 years when one of them returned from another city. Each of them has to deal with their own separate romantic stories, which will eventually merge themselves into the whole main story.

This recycled synopsis of mine lifted straight from the kimikiss pure rouge review is indicative of how similar their story can be, and also how two similar stories can has the difference that can be likened to between heavens and earth also exist.

Now let me answer the question why I dodged reviewing this anime for months. The reason for that is this anime has 5 things going against it; first being how crap the story is, second being how predictable the story is in addition of being crap, third being how the story being laden with clichés in addition of being crap and predictable, fourth being how corny the storyline is in addition of being crap, predictable and cliché-laden and the fifth one will be how this anime has one of the most annoying characters (that emo wrist-slitting main female protagonist) I have ever seen since la corda d’oro primo passo.

The third and fifth reasons are the initial main causes why I paused watching this anime right after one episode, and the others surfaced during watching the rest during the past 2 days. The first four reasons explain how nauseating this anime’s story is, a far cry compared to what I have seen in kimikiss pure rouge. But still, this anime is better than the substance-less Hayate no Gotoku anytime.

Character developments are unevenly done. Some characters received more of it than others (example: main male protagonist), and there are a few who are left behind with their characters prematurely aborted (example: the megane girl with big breasts). Blame it on the large numbers of cast in a series with low episode count. Contrary to what you may think, the annoying main female protagonist is decent despite being… well, annoying. The best character in this series is the love-struck elementary school kid which actually is a bad thing for this series. Consider this, if this anime’s filler episodes (there are a couple of them here – which she has a prominent role in) is vastly better than the main story, how does that reflect on the quality on this anime as a whole?

The ending is also one of the lamest I have seen in quite some time (more often than not, a time-jump plot device will ruin everything). It made worse when coupled with the second reason outlined above. Still, this anime has an ending that you can identify. Can you say that about Hayate no Gotoku?

The moment after the main protagonist satisfied his lust, pondering how to hide his crime.

Character Design:-
Actually a positive point of this anime, the character design in this anime was done very well. The two main characters actually have black hair, which can only be good, exemplary even. Hoping more anime will follow the examples Myself, Yourself has set.

Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this anime is good, but no outstanding character(s) can be found here.

Music:-
The OP theme is good, but not the OST or the ED theme.

She doesn’t seem to be fazed by that horrendous incident, taking everything in her stride.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this 2007 anime is typical of others that have been reviewed before, and better than the previous anime reviewed which is H2O Footprints In The Sand. It is good enough in fast scenes, but no comment about choreography in this type of anime that did not need it. The directing is good, at least in technical aspects like camera and scene control but not the aspects of the storyline.

Note to self: If a release is labeled BakaWolf or m.3.3.w., I might as well get the regular non-upscaled version and do the upscaling myself. Still, this is slightly better than H2O Footprints In The Sand though.

A cat is waiting for…

Conclusion:-
4 out of 10. One of the worst anime reviewed here yet, down there with Hani Hani: Operation Sanctuary (but still lightly better than Hayate no Gotoku). I’m glad that I’m able to get this out of the way. I do not know what to watch next and when, so just wait breathlessly for the next one. From all the anime I watched in this wave of 2007 anime reviews, Kaiji is definitely the best and Hayate no Gotoku really disappoints me. Hayate no Gotoku is one year wasted in high hopes of watching a good shounen anime.

…his dinner to be served.

Review: H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~

Posted by ranpha on 2nd May 2008

Posted in: anime review - reposted, Former Anime of the Year 2008 title holder. Tagged: H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~. Leave a Comment

Even in 2008, Engrish still rules.

Hehehe, I said that H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~ will be challenging Nodame Cantabile for the Anime of The Year 2007 title, just to find out mid-way of watching it that this anime is a 2008 anime instead. This is the first 2008 anime I watched to date, so we got a provisional winner of Anime of The Year 2008 instead of a challenger of Nodame Cantabile (incidentally also the first 2007 anime I watched and hold on to the award all the way to the end of the year and past it too). At first I want to slap my romance handicap on this anime (that I suspect is also based on dating simulations, but I’m lazy to check), but this anime has a heavy dose of slice-of-life genre in it so I will let it pass.

Story:-
A blind middle-school kid moves to a God-forsaken village in the search of the cure to his blindness, and he instead got to play with a bunch of beautiful girls (and one cross-dressing guy too). A few events that I sometimes can’t fathom happened, and we arrived at a happy ending IINM, and that’s about it.

Watching the first episode of this anime, I got a feeling that this anime is what we got if we cross AIR and Higurashi no Naru Koro ni, without those violent murders or bird transformations of course. After watching up to the episode where they go to the beach, I am convinced that this anime is really a cross of both titles. Unfortunately, this anime’s storyline is not as good as either of them, and the story can only be categorized as decent but not great.

One of the reasons for that is that this anime takes a weakness from Higurashi and incorporate it into this anime, and that weakness is incoherent plot. There are things in this anime that is hard to understand or make no sense outright. You know, like Hinata that can swim suddenly can’t after she reverts to Hotaro?

Another weakness of this anime is the ambiguous ending this anime has. I do not think it was done to indicate a second season, but just like the first weakness, some events at the end of this anime is incoherent in my view. Did the female protagonist die? If yes, then who is that woman at the end of the last episode? If she doesn’t, then what with the expressions on the faces of the rest of the characters? So many questions that I have to make assumptions of.

Other weaknesses include the slow pacing at the middle of the series. Meanwhile character developments are done well, helped by the character-specific presentation per episode. There are no strong characters like the female protagonist in AIR though.

Earlier in the series, she can swim. Later in the scene above, she can’t. What gives?

Character Design:-
Just like Clannad, no difference really from what you can see from H-games. As usual, all stereotypes are in, but at least the main female protagonist has black hair.

Voice Acting:-
A positive point of this anime, generally this anime has great voice acting, although with some exceptions. The main male protagonist notable excels in his role as an indecisive spineless bastard which neck I want to break.

Music:-
The OST is great, but the OP/ED themes are not.

She loses her wallet, she looks inside her hand-bag and she did not found it. She desperately shook down all the contents of her handbag to find it to no avail. I can hear the sound of the content of the handbag coming down the earth but I cannot see it. What gives?

Animation/Direction:-
With most of the 2007 anime titles I have reviewed to date has excellent animation, this 2008 anime, the first one I reviewed, has mediocre animation quality at best. ‘Mediocre’ is probably not a correct word, ‘lazy’ is probably more like it. See the screenshot for more details. And when I am at it, the fansub group (BakaWolf and m.3.3.w.) that subbed this anime really screwed up the upscaling process while encoding. This is not the first time they have done it, and I probably may just get the normal version instead of the upscaled ones if I were to watch their releases again.

The choreography is nothing to write about because there are almost no action scenes here. The directing is good and does his/her job, and that’s about it.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. I don’t think this anime can do a Nodame Cantabile and hold on to this provisional Anime of The Year 2008 title until the end of the year. There are bunches of 2008 anime that I am collecting (and reviewed if permitted) that I think is better than this one. Myself, Yourself will conclude this 2007 (and one 2008) wave of reviews in few days.

To BakaWolf-m.3.3.w. group, fire your encoder. And the QC team too while you’re at it. No ffdshow filter tinkering can save the quality of the encode here.