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: Genesis Climber Mospeada (機甲創世記モスピーダ)

Posted by ranpha on 6th July 2007

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: Genesis Climber Mospeada (機甲創世記モスピーダ). Leave a Comment

Your compulsory bishounen character.

A review of an old series, but still quite good to watch. Read this review of the not-quite-mecha series Genesis Climber Mospeada below.

Story:-
The future Earth has been taken over by aliens from who-knows-where and humans who are based on other planets such as Mars and Jupiter struggled to retake Earth back. An assault goes wrong saw Stig Bernard lost his fiancee to an alien attack and he found himself stranded on earth. Hunted by the aliens, he assembled a crack team of soldiers and civilians as he aims for the alien’s headquarters.

I watched this anime when I was still kids, and I still think that this anime is pretty good. It has a simple but solid story without any bull-sh*t plot-twists whatsoever. Watching this anime, I yearns for the old-days where shounen mecha anime has a more straightforward storylines unlike the crap like Gundam SEED, and has generic character developments (no outstanding characters). Although if you watch this anime, you have to really ignore the questions such as why the aliens are so bad at aiming while the sadistic good guys really have to insist on carrying handguns that won’t even scratch the aliens unless shot at that alien’s very tiny weak point.

Character Design:-
I guess for its time, the anime has pretty decent designs, and some characters is still quite good even today especially the soldier-cum-singer bishounen character above.

Voice acting:-
Uhmmm…. the voice acting here is mixed bag. Over-exaggeration are pretty common especially from certain characters. But this series is a classic so maybe forgivable?

Music:-
For 2 straight reviews, both OP and ED themes as well as the OST are great. Plenty of good usage of insert songs here. I wonder if I can see three good anime with perfect music section in a row.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation is just average actually (I wonder if this quality of animation are common at that time). The directing is quite decent, with vastly better action choreography than the one in Yamamoto Yohko.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. A return to the days where mecha anime is still decent. When will those Japanese learns not to create the next Evangelion or Gundam (those cannot be duplicated) and return to the roots of good mecha anime?

Your compulsory comedy outlet.

Review: Nodame Cantabile (のだめカンタービレ)

Posted by ranpha on 5th July 2007

Posted in: anime review - reposted, Former Anime of the Year 2007 title holder, perfect score. Tagged: Nodame Cantabile, Nodame Cantabile (のだめカンタービレ). 2 comments

An overwhelming candidate for my Anime of the Year award.

This is my review of one of the best anime series of 2007, Nodame Cantabile. And yeah, this series definitely is much better than the overhyped Haruhi Suzumiya anime I reviewed a couple of days earlier. Apart of Naruto Shippuden, this is only the other series which I actively watched as the episodes was released week-by-week instead of waiting until the end of the run. Not only that, I also obtained the drama version and watched it (although this version will not be covered here) and the manga.

Story:-
Shinichi Chiaki, a hugely talented classical musician who wished to become an orchestra conductor, found out that he hits the glass wall just because he is afraid of flying thus unable to go to Europe to further his education. Trapped in a local conservatory, Chiaki, a pianist at the top of his class, started to falter in his studies, loses his girlfriend and then sees a fellow student goes to Europe and become the student of his beloved conductor teacher. Down and out, he then meets Nodame….

This romantic comedy series revolves around Chiaki and Nodame whose platonic relationship helps each other to improve in their studies and love life. The beauty of this series is that you do not have to appreciate classical music to enjoy the story. The plotlines are excellent, even with some scenes from the manga being omitted. The story flows really well, and the ending is excellent, setting up the way for a second season very nicely. This series can easily be compared to the likes of GTO and hold its own. The comedies are top-notch, even surpassed the ones in Haruhi Suzumiya. And Nodame is much cooler than Suzumiya herself.

Character design:-
Being aimed at mature audiences, the character design is more realistic, with common occurrence of black hairs and smaller eyes. Thus exaggeration commonly found in titles aimed at younger audiences is nearly absent here. In general, there is nothing to complain about here.

Voice acting:-
If you think The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is excellent in this aspect, Nodame Cantabile is at least 5 times better. Tomokazu Seki is excellent as Chiaki, but Ayako Kawasumi is simply phenomenal. Her portrayal of Nodame is beyond awesome, even better than Megumi Hayashibara in Yamamoto Yohko. Watching this anime just to hear her voice as Nodame is worth it. Definitely her best gig I ever heard. Having 2 great voice actors at the top of their form playing the 2 central characters in this anime make a good story more appealing. Even if the others sucks (and they are not) these 2 alone can carry this series forward by themselves.

Music:-
The OP and ED themes and also the OST are great. Now do you see at this point why this anime is my choice as the best in 2007? Plus, the classical music played throughout the series are good bonuses too even if you do not like it.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation is good, especially the scenes where they shows hands playing musical instruments (I think those are computer-generated). The directing is also good, except for the part where I have to hear Piano Concerto No.2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff at episode 11 for half of the episode.

Conclusion:-
10 out of 10. Nothing less. Now can the likes of Claymore, Seirei no Moribito, Lucky Star and others wrest the title of Best Anime of 2007 from Nodame Cantabile?

Drama version of the series.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-14

Review: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱)

Posted by ranpha on 3rd July 2007

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (series), The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱). Leave a Comment

Is the hype about this anime really worth it or not? Read on for the mini-review.

After sitting on this series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya for quite some time, I watched it in a single stretch and here is my take of one of the most hyped series in 2006. Is this anime really that good, even better than my pick for the best anime in 2006, Kiba The TV Animation? Or will it bombed out just like the overrated Wolf Rain? Everything will be revealed in my review below.

Story:-
Our protagonist Kyon, an ordinary high-school student who wished for a normal school life, faces the terror of his life as he was dragged into the life of the school queer Haruhi Suzumiya and become the co-founder of the SOS Brigade, a club that aims to investigate anything mysterious (to Suzumiya’s standard). The club then was joined by a bumbling time-traveller, a devious esper and a silent alien (muahahaha what is this) whose carry the same mission of observing Suzumiya for their own reasons.

The story itself is not exactly spectacular and somewhat thin, but the series makes up for it with funny scenes filled with the antics of Suzumiya as she is restrained by the powerless Kyon. As I watched the anime using the correct sequence instead of the TV airing sequence, the story ended up about half-way of the title run, and switching to Galaxy Angel-style storytelling mode in the latter part of the show. IMO, the best parts of this series comes when the show ditches the story and went freestyle. Although unlike Galaxy Angel, you can’t just pick an episode and start watching because you will miss some important parts of the series.

In other words, the series is only great for its non-story parts. This is shown by the fact that the best episode in this series is where Asahina Mikuru was filmed in a mahou-shoujo episode for the school festival. That episode is so good, on par with the Jigoku Shoujo episode I have mentioned earlier. And it does not feature Suzumiya in it.

From left to right: the president and the mascot of SOS Brigade

Character design:-
There are times when I feel that the overall character design of this series is more similar to ones seen in H-games and hentai animations than traditional ones such Jigoku Shoujo, Naruto or Tantei Gakuen Q. Of course it is not as blatant as Hani Hani Operation Sanctuary. Anyway, the design is not bad nor spectacular, and no, Suzumiya’s design is not earth-shattering like a lot of people wants you to believe.

Voice acting:-
This is where this series really shines. While Kyon’s voice acting is just about average, the voices of Suzumiya, Asahina and Yuki Nagato are excellent, especially for Asahina. Kyon’s case is regrettable because he is the best character in the series, plot-wise for me. The voice actor simply failed to convince in the numerous monologue parts that Kyon uses extensively in the show.

You have to see this animated to truly realized how comedic this scene is.

Music:-
Only the ED theme is good while the OP is average and the OST is almost non-existent.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation is fluid even in fast-paced scenes, and the magical battles has spectacular special effects on it. Some 3D CGI fails though. As about the directing, there is nothing bad to say about, and I looks quite hard for bad points too.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. While not as bad as Wolf’s Rain, this anime did not really warrant that hype I have heard about this anime last year. Kiba the TV Animation is still my choice for Best Anime in 2006. And this series did not really attained the height of my favourite comedy anime of all time, Azumanga Daioh. The same can be said of Haruhi Suzumiya when compared to Ayumu Kasuga.

Best quote from Kyon in the whole series.