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Review: Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun (ご愁傷さま二ノ宮くん)

Posted by ranpha on 25th April 2008

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun (ご愁傷さま二ノ宮くん). Leave a Comment

This anime did has some problems with the characters animations, that’s for sure.

Today, Nodame Cantabile will be challenged by Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun, the third anime in this current wave of end-of-month anime reviews. Significantly shorter than the first two at 12 episodes, will this harem anime that I suspect is an adaptation of yet another dating simulation game (I’m lazy to check) be victorious, or will it join Hayate no Gotoku and Mobile Suit Gundam 00 together at that mountain of victims that Noda Megumi had slain? Read on to find out!

Story:-
Ninomiya Shungo, a normal high-school student that knows a little-bit of martial arts has to play doctor because he has been tasked to cure Tsukimura Mayu, a beautiful and well-endowed naïve girl of her fear of men or androphobia. This series consists of him struggling to control himself from doing ‘this’ or ‘that’ on her while fending off the advances of a couple of other girls from his high-school.

Frankly speaking, the essence of the story is surprisingly good, but it was ruined by bad presentation. The director (I will put my criticism of the director here instead of the relevant section below) just about managed to mangle the story which were haphazardly presented. Disjointed plots, rough switches between scenes and inability to stitch the chunks of the story into one coherent piece are just some of the weaknesses that this anime’s presentation has. This weakness is amplified at the ending, which under any other random director would have been good, but instead the last episode failed to invoke the feelings that were supposed to be there as the storyline wanted it.

What a waste of a good and decent story, if you ask me.

One of the good things about this anime is the fan-service, being gratuitous and not overly-excessive at the same time. Characters development is done very well too despite the episode low count, probably what the only good thing the director has done. There are no outstanding or powerful characters here, which is understandable considering the content of the episodes this anime has.

Character Design:-
Coming straight out of a typical dating simulation game or even a hentai movie. All the stereotypes you can think off exist here; big eyes, humongous breasts, impossible body shapes, hair colours that is not black etc. and all the male characters looks like the unassuming types that you can only see from those games/movies. But make no mistake, unlike other titles that does this kind of designs that are reviewed here, this anime actually does this very well if the context of this anime is taken into account. Definitely a positive point of this anime.

Voice acting:-
The voice acting here is pretty decent, with that blue-haired girl with split personality being the best. Well, nothing more to be said here.

Music:-
This anime has good OST but none of the OP/ED themes makes the cut.

Animation/Direction:-
It is hard to judge the quality of the animation in this anime. If I were to ignore every other factor applicable here, the animation is not exactly fluid and stuttered in some certain scenes, especially in the latter episodes in this series. But I think that this problem is caused by the fansub [m.3.3.w] encoder who did not do their job properly. Choreography of the action scenes is mixed; some of them are good while others is simply meh. My view of the directing has already been expressed above, but I should say that the directing is not as bad as the one in Armitage III.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. The woeful directing cost this anime at least 2 points. I am still deciding whether to watch Kaiji or Clannad next, but anyway you will know which one will come next when the review comes up. Ah, and one last thing I want you to know, at the end of this wave I will finish it with Myself, Yourself. Really need to get that out of my way as soon as possible for the peace of my mind.

Parody of some certain famous anime/manga titles here.

Review: Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (機動戦士ガンダム00 <ダブルオー>)

Posted by ranpha on 23rd April 2008

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: Gundam (series), Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (機動戦士ガンダム00 ). Leave a Comment

BBC should consider suing for this blatant rip-off of their website design.

The second anime in this current wave of mini-reviews is Gundam 00, just as I wrote in the last (and disastrous) review of Hayate no Gotoku. And yeah, this anime is so much better it wasn’t even funny. Now let’s see if Nodame Cantabile‘s throne will be threatened here.

Story:-
In a future where oil that costs $100 per barrel is just a bad dream, a bunch of “meisters” try to strong-arm the rest of the world into ceasing all wars and conflicts. Being true to their roots, humanity did not just stand-still and started to retaliate against god-like Gundam mobile suits whose shadows started to spread all over the world.

The story is pretty decent, and a masterpiece even when compared to Hayate no Gotoku. I do still think that Gundam SEED (not Destiny) is better though, mainly because the first two-third of the story involve many lop-sided battles (even if the battles are mostly won by the protagonists). The flow of the story is fluid, with no unnecessary flashbacks and minimal fillers. Unlike SEED and SEED Destiny, it also cuts down those clichés-laden dialogues/issues too, which is a good thing. Although I would have not watched this anime if I know that there will be a second season (I prefer to collect them all first), the ending is very well done with just enough teasers for a second season (of which I will definitely watch).

For the second season, I hope that the producers will never, ever repeat the numerous mistakes in SEED Destiny. The ending of the first season provides ample opportunities for another decent story in second season (which probably what Gundam SEED does not have) and I am hopeful that it will be seized. And please cut down those lop-sided battles, it just drags the anime down.

Characters development is where this anime shines. It is very clear that they were done under the assumption that there will be a second season coming up. They makes me look forward to what will certain characters will do in the second season after what happened in the first one; Saji Crossroad and Marina Ismail being the two most interesting characters that comes to mind. No dead characters coming back to life please under obscure circumstances (this one is one of the biggest factors why SEED Destiny is a failure).

Make him the main protagonist in the second season and tell him to destroy the Celestial Being, and we will be on to something….

Character Design:-
One of the things I do not like about the SEED series is that some of the characters look very alike (my sister complains about this too), but fortunately this one do not have that problem. Character design in this anime is good, but no one stands out from the rest. Considering the setting of this anime, the little amount of black hair apart from the Kurds’ main protagonist will be forgiven.

Mecha design does not really improve from the SEED series if you ask me. No incentive for you and me to go out and buy the toys.

Voice acting:-
Unfortunately, the voice acting in this anime is just average. Mamoru Miyano who voiced the main protagonist did not repeat his stellar performances in el cazador de la bruja and Dragonaut – The Resonance. I personally thinks he is more suitable at voicing the evil and insane antagonists instead of a moody (and slightly emo) Gundam meister pilot that acts first before thinking. His performance is simply uninspiring in this anime and failed to give the needed life into the character he is voicing for.

Music:-
Only the 2^nd ED theme is of any good here. The OST and the rest of the themes are not exactly noticeable or appealing to my ears.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation is top notch, even in fast-paced scenes. Some of the scenery seems to come out from Makoto Shinkai playbook, which makes it doubly impressive. Choreography of action scenes does not really shine, mainly because of all those lop-sided battles this anime has. The directing is superb at marshalling the storyline, character development, scene transitions etc. into one very good package. These factors really are a positive point for the scoring of this anime.

Conclusion:-
9 out of 10. A great improvement from Hayate no Gotoku, although not good enough to take the Best Anime of 2007 title away from Nodame Cantabile. Note to Japan: Do not screw up the 2^nd season please, kthxbai! The third anime in the pipeline in this wave of mini-reviews will be Gosyusho-sama, Ninomiya-kun.

A beautiful shot in 720p that is simply awesome.

Review: Hayate no Gotoku (ハヤテのごとく！)

Posted by ranpha on 21st April 2008

Posted in: anime review - reposted, The Scream Painting spoof in anime. Tagged: Hayate no Gotoku (ハヤテのごとく！). 4 comments

The main male protagonist, Ayakashi Hayate alongside the best character in the series, the talking white tiger Tama-chan.

After an extended hiatus, I’ve been lining up a few 2007 anime that should be able to give a stiff test to the current best 2007 anime Nodame Cantabile. ‘Should’ is probably not a good word because Hayate no Gotoku, the first title in this series of 2007 anime review really disappoints. Read on to see why.

Which explains one of the biggest problems with this anime. This scene incidentally happened in a Meitantei Conan parody episode, which is painful to watch. Unfortunately, there are many episodes like this in the series.

Story:-
Ayakashi Hayate, a poor boy that was abused by his irresponsible parents since he was born, is ‘gifted’ with a 150 million yen debt for Christmas. Desperate, he resorts to kidnap a pompous rich brat Sanzenin Nagi who ran away from home. Nevertheless, the kidnapping failed, and our hero has to become Nagi’s butler instead to repay the debt.

Let me get the anime’s weaknesses out of the way first, because they are numerous. The first one is the story, and oh boy, does it suck badly. In fact, this anime’s storyline is one of the worst I have seen in a year or so. In general, this anime is similar actually to the likes of Inukami or Zero no Tsukaima (has the same voice actress too for the main female protagonist) but I have never guessed that Hayate no Gotoku will be inferior to both! Yes, even to 6 out of 10 Zero no Tsukaima! You should be able to guess by now where the scoring of this title will go.

I only watched about 10 episodes or so before I realized that this anime is going down the way Nagasarete Airantou did. At least Nagasarete Airantou still has plots at both ends of the story. Here in Hayate no Gotoku, there are almost none because the anime mainly consists of the main characters going through the motions throughout the year from the start to the end. If not for some good points of the anime (which will be explained later below), plus with my vain hope that this anime will get better later in the series because I have waited more than a year for this, I would have just dropped this title completely.

There is no need to explain any plot development, because there are virtually none in the whole 52 episodes. About the ending, if the characters do not make a big deal about how episode 52 is the last episode, no one will notice the difference between episode 52 and the majority of the preceding episodes. After all, episode 52 is just another episode where absolutely nothing has happened. And yeah, if episode 52 is the ending, than it is safe to say that the ending of this anime sucks too. If this anime has a second season like what the credits suggested, it is safe to say that I will not watch it. I feel cheated after waiting for a year for this anime to finish being subbed just to find out that it sucks donkey balls.

A parody of Initial D‘s gutter driving technique.

This anime, like Lucky Star or Cromartie Koukou or Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, also make lots of references to a lot of other anime/manga/TV shows/personalities etc. From the usual Gundam or The Scream references, there is also a reference to US vice president Dick Cheney (the case where he shoots an old man on the face). To date, this anime has the most extensive scope of references I have ever seen, and this is actually one of the positive points of this anime. Unfortunately, when it comes to implementations, there are many occasions where the presentation is simply lame, such as the elaborate Detective Conan/Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann parody episodes and the numerous censored anime/manga names (in dialogues) and scenes. I also take issues with this anime that makes fun of genre clichés when the series itself repeat the same mistakes later.

Yet another The Scream parody in a Japanese anime.

Moving on with the positives, this anime has an all-around above average character strength. There are many interesting characters here, with the talking white tiger taking the cake. Characters developments, in the strictest sense, are done very well, although in the case of the female main protagonist, it was regressive. Talking about that, at the start of this anime, the two main protagonists are excellent and much better than the stereotypical ones in Zero no Tsukaima. Unfortunately, while the male protagonist keeps his cool until the end, the female protagonist de-evolves and slowly become someone that is even worse than Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière (I’m looking forward to Zero no Tsukaima 3^rd season). Other positives that are worth mentioned here are the jokes, which by majority are well-executed. Some episodes are watchable purely because of that. Apart from that, I have no recollection of other positives that can be put in this section.

Evangelion parodies are common recurrence in this anime, and the only one I’m aware of that does it regularly.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime are excellent. Notably outstanding are the main male protagonist, the other butlers at the school and some other male characters. The creator seems to have the Initial D/Naruto symptoms of not being able to create beautiful female characters though, with the school superintendent being the closest thing of being decent. That and with the fact that black hairs are rare in this real-life Japan are the reasons why this section is not a positive point of this anime.

Our reluctant hero is going to be shafted by the main female protagonist.

Voice acting:-
Overall, voice acting in this anime is pretty good, but with no one being outstanding.

Our male protagonist here sometimes do cross-dressing when not attending to the whimsical pompous female protagonist…

Music:-
The OST and the 2^nd ED theme is decent, but not the rest of the themes.

…and our hero will always take his time doing ‘this’ and ‘that’ to ‘her’.

Animation/Direction:-
A positive point of this anime, the animation is fluid even in fast-paced scenes. The choreography of action scenes (which this anime has a lot) can be patchy, with some questionable scenes that comes along with many remarkable ones. The directing is average though, but if that was the story that comes from the manga, he/she can probably do nothing about it.

The playful interaction between our hero and the main male protagonist.

Conclusion:-
4 out of 10. One of the greatest disappointments in my life, waiting for a year for this. Coming next: Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Hopefully will not suck donkey balls compared to this one.

Tama-chan, if only he gets more air-time, the scoring could go higher.