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Review: Wolf’s Rain (ウルフズ・レイン) TV + OVA

Posted by ranpha on 17th August 2006

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: Wolf’s Rain (ウルフズ・レイン). Leave a Comment

Jyu Oh Sei made me lost my trust in Japanese anime for quite some time, but after watching few episodes of Princess Princess D (it is decent, but nowhere near the anime version), I decided that I should try watching more titles in this entertainment medium again. So, I play it safe and tried to watch this anime titled Wolf’s Rain that was recommended in many anime discussion forums out there in the Interweb as a masterpiece. Now let’s see whether those self-styled hacks are right or not…..

Story:-
This anime is pretty similiar to Fantastic Children, without the snail-paced introduction. This is all about wolves who can take shape like humans in an adventure to find a flower that looks like a human woman so that they can go to paradise. And of course there are plenty of people (real humans BTW) who want to stop those wolves from ~~taking over the world~~ finding paradise.

Basically, the story is mundane, just like it is in Fantastic Children. And it has about 3-4 consecutive filler episodes about halfway of the series that I have skipped without remorse, and I know I do not miss anything storywise at all. I wonder what makes many people saying that this series is a masterpiece. It is nowhere near as good as Princess² or Galaxy Angel. Better than Jyu Oh Sei though. Almost everything is better than Jyu Oh Sei.

Character Design:-
Unlike the storyline, character design in this series is anything but mundane. Three characters spring to mind, which is Kiba, Cher and Blue, in which designs are simply awesome. Blue in human mode for instance, waltzs into my very very exclusive list of my top 5 most beautiful and attractive female anime characters in anime history. Other characters such as Cheza, Harmona/Jagara and Darcia The Third are also great. Probably the only good point in this series.

Voice acting:-
Unfortunately, this anime has average voice acting for vast majority of the characters. Maybe only Cheza has somewhat decent voice acting here.

Music:-
The OST is pretty good, but the OP/ED themes are not worth mentioning here. Somewhat like Jyu Oh Sei right?

Animation/Direction:-
While the animation is great, some f**k-up in the directing really stands out like a sore thumb. Like the scene in Jagara’s castle where a wall suddenly appears out of nowhere to split Kiba and Tsume without warning. Thank god for the rewind button. Pretty bad, considering the fact that most of the other time, the directing is decent.

Conclusion:-
Definitely not a masterpice IMO unlike those at the anime discussion boards in the Interweb claims. 6 out of 10.

Review: Jyu Oh Sei (獣王星)

Posted by ranpha on 11th July 2006

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: Jyu Oh Sei (獣王星). Leave a Comment

Actually I have finished off watching Jyu Oh Sei before Princess Princess, but only now I want to put this one up mainly because this anime is so bad. So bad, I will not put any screenshots so that there will be no incentive for you to download and watch this anime.

Story:-
The twin brothers which scientist parents died mysteriously were exiled down onto a forsaken planet that acts up as a high-security prison, presumably for murder of their own parents. One of the twins die immediately after an argument, and the one that left (named Thor) went ahead and become the main protagonist, conquering one of the Rings on the planet and then become the Jyu Oh, or King of the planet.

Don’t be fooled by the synopsis above (which was infinitely better than the one at ANN). The storyline played out better first, especially when Thor is still a snot-nosed child. But when he becomes the adult, the storyline sinks much faster than Titanic. Or any other anime reviewed in this blog to date. There are too many unanswered questions and the ending stinks just like Evangelion.

The main problem that greatly reduced the quality of this anime is the number of the episodes. 11 30-minute episodes simply does not do justice for a story with plenty of potential like this anime has. The construction of the ending is crap and rushed and hits you at the face out from nowhere. In fact, at the end of the last episode, I still expect that a new episode will come out next week with Mao bearing Thor’s child in place of Tiz (joking). Only after reading various news at the Internet did I found out episode 11 is LAST EPISODE. And that explains the huge number of deaths from amongst the main characters in that episode. Frankly, the series can do with an extra episode to tie up the loose end in the storyline.

Character Design:-
Oh well, you can’t really complain about the decent character design for the characters in this anime.

Voice acting:-
The switch from child Thor to adult Thor are not smooth in terms of voice acting. Just 3 years in gap and his voice changed a lot, as if the voices does not belong to the same person. Great job though for differentiating between the voices of Thor and his twin Rai. Same seiyuu but two characters. Other characters’ voice acting are decent too.

Music:-
The OST is excellent, but sadly, the OP/ED themes are not. Quite a rare anime to have an appraisal like this.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation is excellent with little (if at all) dropped framerate and luscious Coors. And the director does not manage to f**k-up the directing either, despite the unfulfilled story’s potential.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. That’s the best I can give considering the storyline here.

Review: Princess Princess (プリンセス・プリンセス)

Posted by ranpha on 7th July 2006

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: Princess Princess (プリンセス・プリンセス). Leave a Comment

Princess Princess is definitely one of the better anime titles released this year. The final episode just come out yesterday, so here’s my take for this anime.

Story:-
A shounen-ai anime bordering on yaoi (should be expected because aarinfantasy subbed this one), this one is definitely not for everyone. A beautiful boy transferred into an elite boys-only high school, and suddenly finds out that he has to participate in the school’s Princess system. The system demands that the participants (there are 3 of them, see picture above) dressed in various female costumes and make-ups, to satisfy the pent-up urges of the school’s students.

Basically, the anime depicts the routine life that the princesses has to endure in their job, and also their own internal problems like family and love problems. That how thin the storyline is. So you must wonder why I really enjoyed this title? This is because this anime is one of the few that has a unique charm that compensates the obvious deficiencies in the storyline, just like DNA^2 did. Most of the episodes has quite cheesy and predictable plots, of which I would have normally blasted away in reviews, but in this anime those cheesy and predictable plots are presented in such a pleasing way I can’t even give negatives comment to them.

This anime and Kiba the TV Animation are probably my best candidates the for the best anime released in 2006, even better than the anime I anticipates the most this year, which is the second season of Ah! My Goddess. Well, there are 6 months left in this year, and there are still Galaxy Angel II coming up, but this anime is definitely better IMO compared to Jyu Oh Sei (review coming soon), second season of Tsubasa Chronicles, The Third etc.

Character Design:-
Your typical shounen-ai anime titles dictates for overtly beautiful protagonists with big eyes and hair colours that can be anything but black. Compound that with generic character designs for almost everybody else and you got the unbalanced character design you will found to be common in this kind of genre. The focus is mainly on the princesses anyway as the thin storyline flaunt them a lot.

Voice acting:-
They are not outstanding, and they are not bad either. Nothing really to say, but just to say that the voice acting does not drag this anime down.

Music:-
The only negative point of this anime. OP/ED themes and the OST and simply not good enough, they are not even average.

Animation/Direction:-
These two criteria combines very well as a big part to make this anime likable despite thin storyline. The director managed to present the storyline very well, covering the cheesiness on them. The animation is great too, although with some tendencies of trying to be overly cute.

Conclusion:-
9 out of 10, quite a generous but fair rating for this one.