anime review – reposted

All reviews written when the blog is still at Windows Live Spaces. Usually shorter and inferior in quality. Not used anymore.

Review: Kodomo no Jikan (こどものじかん) + OVA

Posted by ranpha on 21st June 2008

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: Kodomo no Jikan (series), Kodomo no Jikan (こどものじかん) + OVA. Leave a Comment

There’s something wrong with people not removing hair ornaments when swimming in a pool.

My plan is to watch either the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai or the Lodoss War series, but then I found out I have to go outstation next week, thus not being able to watch either of them in a single sitting. With only 12 episodes, the heavily censored Kodomo no Jikan (a 2007 anime) will instead feature as my newest blog entry and maybe, just maybe, I will watch either of those two anime after I returned.

Story:-
Aoki Daisuke, a newly minted elementary school teacher-in-training, was assigned to a problematic class with a trio of girls at the center of everything. One of them is hell-bent at sending our protagonist to jail for sexual assault on minors, and the other two has their own issue for our protagonist to deal with.

This anime is not only watered down compared to the manga (which I read before watching the anime) but also infested with one of the most excessive censorship I have ever seen in an anime. I can accept it if they only censor questionable scenes like the way they do it in Chocotto Sister (pretty common anyway in Japanese anime aired on TV), but the overt and very frequent bleeping of dialogues is really something else. Not only had the bleeping muddled the plot, affecting the storyline in a negative way, but also it takes the shine off the performances of some of the main characters. This takes at least 2 points off the final scoring. Watching the uncensored DVD version is a must, and with a few of those DVD episodes I watched, the difference between the censored and the uncensored is almost like night and day.

The story by itself is pretty good, despite being just a watered-down version if the manga is taken into account. In the second half of the series, the director tried merging independent story arcs into one package (usually spanned within an episode) with admittedly mixed results. The story developed very well with excellent pacing (this is actually the main strength of the monthly manga) but the original ending which deviates majorly from the manga storyline, is just average. How the director will reconcile the ending with the expected second season (hoping that they cut down on the bleeping) is open for scrutiny.

Characters development is decent with the main protagonist standing out from the rest, and if not for the consistent bleeping, Kuro Kagami would have joined him too. This is why I hope that the second season, the excessive censorship will be cut down so that the second season will be more palatable to watch.

edit: Just watched the OVA, which does not differ than a typical regular TV season episode. So no alteration to the scoreline.

One of the scenes that does not make it to the TV screen.

Character Design:-
The character design for this anime is excellent, definitely the positive point of this series. The main protagonist and Kuro Kagami both have black hair, which is a good thing. The amount of hairs is unnatural though, but I think I can overlook that.

Voice Acting:-
Unlike the character design, the voice acting in this anime is just average overall. Still, Kuro Kagami stands out from the rest, just like the prince from Mars in Dragonaut – the resonance.

Another one of the ‘censored’ scenes.

Music:-
This anime has good OP/ED themes, but the OST is almost non-existant.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is good, and do not suffer in fast-paced scenes, if any exists. There is no comment about the choreography, which did not apply for this series. The directing is decent, with improvisation to the original manga storyline taking the cake.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Would have been easily scored 10 if the censorship can be reduced and not too many deviations from original storyline exist. Nodame Cantabile is still the no.1 anime in 2007. Record of Lodoss War/Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai; one of them will feature in the next review.

Sae Shirai is one of the better characters in the manga. I hope her characters will get more attention in the second season because I feel she can become one of the best characters in this series.

Review: Hatenkou Yuugi (破天荒遊戯)

Posted by ranpha on 13th June 2008

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: Hatenkou Yuugi (破天荒遊戯). Leave a Comment

The moment I see her eyes, I know I have to make a screenshot so that I can put it up with this review.

More manga reading prevents me from watching the short 10-episode Hatenkou Yugi straight away. I did get around watching this series yesterday, and immediately I regret doing so in the end. This is a 2008 anime, thus it will challenge the 7-out-of-10 H2O footprints in the sand for the provosional Anime of the Year 2008 title but suffice to say early in this review, that this anime has failed to do so.

Story:-
Our main female protagonist with EXTREMELY BIG EYES was told by her father to haul her ass on an endless journey. She was then accompanied by 2 handsome hunks (one of which appears out of nowhere just like that) as they move on from town to town doing their thing.

This anime is basically the 2008 version of Myself, Yourself, that’s how awful the story is. While it does seems that this series is just a precursor to a bigger story (in a second season?), I have to say that this precursor stinks badly. The story, for what it worth, actually flows and develops nicely but other things such as ridiculous attempts at humor degrade this anime further. I wonder why this anime has only 10 episodes (not a normal episode count). Maybe the director sees sense and decided to castrate this anime early from its normal 12/13 (or god forbid, 24/26) episodes run?

Character development is also not that good if you ask me (and no outstanding characters). For starters, where the hell Baroqueheat comes from, and how did he join the main protagonist and Alzeid? This anime just repeats the mistakes done by the second season of Comic Party anime. The anime did try to give more perspective on each of the three main characters, but within only 10 episodes, there’s not much that can be done. The ambiguous ending strongly hints of a second season, which I definitely will not watch.

Character Design:-
The big eyes that the main female protagonist has really creeps me out. I have spent years watching Japanese anime, inclusive a fair amount of hentai too but the size of her eyes really takes me aback. Anime like DiGi Charat do have big eyes too but they at least do not really shock me to the extent her eyes did. Is this the kind of eyes Something Awful reviewers say that can be seen by orbiting satellites? (warning: this SomethingAwful link may scar you for life).

Anyway, the character design in this anime is actually excellent, if you omit those big eyes of hers. Would have been a positive aspect of this anime if not for that pair of eyes she has.

Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this anime is just average, nothing else I can say about this.

Music:-
OST and OP/ ED themes, none of them actually interest me.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation of this anime is quite good, even in fast-paced scenes. The choreography is just average though, with a considerable amount of action happening off-screen. The directing is good though, although with this story that this anime has he/she can only do limited things with it.

Conclusion:-
4 out of 10. H2O can keep the award for a little bit longer. Will read some more manga, before going around to finally watch Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai (hoping for more neckstabs) or Records of Lodoss War, depending on my mood.

One of the very few humor attempts that actually succeeds.

Review: Noir (ノワール)

Posted by ranpha on 1st June 2008

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: Noir (ノワール). Leave a Comment

This commercial break sequence really shows this anime’s age. The story is great though.

A week on ISP problems prevents me from watching Noir earlier, but eventually I did finish it today. With this, I have watched the whole ‘girls-with-gun’ trilogy, although not in the correct order and Madlax being watched before this blog started. Comparison to Madlax and el cazador de la bruja will be inevitable.

Story:-
A professional assassin named Mireille Bouquet received a request from a client that wants to open the ‘door of the past’ with her. Puzzled, she went to Japan to see the client and there, she finds out that the client holds the key to her past when her parents were murdered. To find more information about that, she has no choice but to tag along with the new-found client…

Between the titles in the trilogy, Noir definitely has the best story of them all, followed by Madlax and then el cazador de la bruja respectively. For starters, while in the latter two titles, the main gun-toting female protagonists are paired with partners that are basically useless in battle, here the main protagonist is accompanied by another gun-toting partner that is even more skilled than her. Which means the partner did not need saving from the baddies. I also like the fact that the protagonists did not spare their enemies and will kill them without mercy, which is more realistic if you ask me. For example in a certain episode that takes place in Taiwan, Kirika kills more people in one episode than Nadie (of el cazador) did in her entire series.

The story did not start very well though, because it started too fast for my liking for about 2 or 3 episodes. Only then the pacing settled down considerably and the plot started to develop very nicely. This continued until the ending, which is also done well, although it will do better to be less ambiguous. Character development was also done well, but I do not think there’s anyone who stands out from the rest, although I really like the premise of a dual gunwomen. Generally this anime did not have any weaknesses here.

A dog is taking a nap in the shade. Not really sure why I am taking this screenshot though.

Character Design:-
As a whole, the character design in this anime is decent but not exactly spectacular. About the usual hair color comment, it seems to be realistic, especially if I consider the setting of this anime and the fact that the main protagonist is a Caucasian with the partner is Oriental (probably). Between the titles in the trilogy, the order is reversed, with el cazador de la bruja having the best overall character design, followed by Madlax and then this anime. Although I should also mention that Madlax has the best design from all three main protagonists that featured in the trilogy.

Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this anime is good, but there is no one outstanding here. Between the titles in the trilogy, the order is still the same as the one in character design section.

Music:-
This anime has excellent OST, but forgettable OP/ED themes. Thus, between the titles in the trilogy, Madlax takes the crown followed by el cazador de la bruja and then this anime.

Our sidekick which is stronger than the main protagonist is looking at her dinner. Maybe it is the secret of her strength?

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this 2001 anime is decent, and did not suffer from fast-paced scenes. Loses out to el cazador and Madlax respectively though. Meanwhile, choreography is very well done, and only loses to Madlax (which main title character is awesome with skills that eclipsed Mirelle, Kirika and Nadie), while el cazador takes up the third place.

For directing, it do not have the unnecessary frills that el cazador has, which is a good thing, and also scored in terms of realism (the shoot to kill thing I mentioned before, and did not have the supernatural elements that both Madlax and el cazador has) and lack of silly camera angles (I’m looking at you el cazador). The severe lack of blood in this anime where lives is cheap is bugging me a lot though.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. The director for the trilogy is doing Blade of the Immortal this summer, and I for sure will watch that series (I read the manga too). Please do not butcher this epic title please, kthxbye. The next anime will be Hatenkou Yugi, a 2008 anime because I think I should give the H2O footprints in the sand a challenge.

More blood would have made this anime more realistic.