anime review – reposted

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

 
This is a review of your typical romance anime, Suzuka. The person above is not Suzuka though.

Story:-
For reviewing romance anime title, I will usually try to compare one with one of my favourite romance anime titles of all time, DNA^2 ~Dokokade Nakushita Aitsu no Aitsu~. The storyline is simple, but ambiguous enough for me not to be able to PREDICT THE ENDING. That anime also has a kick-ass presentation, and the ending is superb. And I must mention the kick-ass OP/ED themes and voice actors/actresses.

There are 2 faults of most romance anime titles nowadays, and they are:-

1. Bloody predictable ending that can be seen even before halfway of a series lifetime. I usually do this by watching at least half of the series, and then predicts how the series will end.
2. Story presentation that contributes to the ending, which can be fault of either crappy plotline or crappy directing.

For me, even if the former is bad, the latter can still salvage the series but certainly will not get a full mark from this stingy reviewer. DNA^2 shows that an almost-perfect romance title can be produced, and certainly I hoped more romance anime titles can also do the same.

Returning to Suzuka, you don’t have to be a genius to know how the series will end. For God’s sake, just look at the title. Anyway, I still hold off my judgement until at least 13 episodes, but by then I am convinced that I am right. The hero and the heroine will have a happy ending and everything will be good and swell.

The story mainly revolves about how how the hero works hard to woo Suzuka, the heroine of the story. The hero also has to deal with a childhood friend who has a crush on him since their childhood. Basically a love-triangle story arc employs by many others romance anime titles out there, including DNA^2 itself.

The ending can be seen from miles away, and the presentation towards that shiny and clear ending is not that good either. In a love-triangle arc, the hero will certainly become couple with his childhood friend but they they will break up because of the heroine. And I know in advance that such thing will happen. How the break-up is generated reeks of unoriginality (childhood friend see hero buying present for her while accompanied by Suzuka – watched this kind of break-up plenty of times already). After that, there will be just more crying and slapping and running before the ending I anticipated materialized.

Actually I already lost interest around episodes 20 or something but I persevered by hoping that I am wrong in my prediction of the ending of the series. Maybe the hero died in an accident or something or maybe the hero will ends up with his childhood friend or maybe I can have a bad (read: tragic) ending, but it will not be the case.

Character design:-
Your typical modern character design for a romance anime title of this era. This is not a bad thing, because DNA^2 also has character design as its main weakness. You see DNA^2 and you will think Akira Toriyama is the one who designed the characters.

Voice acting:-
This series has pretty decent voice actors/actresses in here. Not as good as DNA^2 though, but at least nothing that will really ruin the series.

Music:-
Suffers like the majority of the anime titles here. If they don’t make it to my iPod, they are simply not good enough. DNA^2 themes both get into my iPod, with appropriate tunes that matched the anime perfectly. The OST is pretty decent though.

Animation/Direction:-
Quite obvious that the production company of this anime doesn’t like fast-paced scenes/characters, as some animation quality suffered. The direction is good, but the plotlines bogged it down.

Conclusion:-
Nothing really good to expect from a typical romance anime title, so 5 out of 10 this series will get. Very unfortunate because the standard of judgement is higher.

 
This is a short review of a short anime series titled Piano, that has some bizzare moments in it.

Story:-
A teenage middle schooler with a bizzare hairstyle is in a middle-age crisis when her piano recital tournament approached, as she has to deal with her bizarre lovestruck best friend (imagine Kagura in Azumanga Daioh falling in love), her families (not so bizarre), her bizarre piano teacher and her crush on a senior in the school track team. 10 episodes is more than enough to end the storyline.

The story is not that bad actually, and not really tedious unlike what I expected when I started to watch the series. This maybe because the main protagonist reminds me of Ayumu “Osaka” Kasuga in Azumanga Daioh, minus the humour. The way she makes the ‘blank look’ faces almost all the time when she is in her dilemma just like Osaka also helps quite a bit.

And that haircut…… will be etched into my mind FOREVER!

Character design:-
In this section, I will again want to comment about the haircut of the main protagonist. It was so bizarre that in fact it is somewhat hard for me to focus on the anime without taking a hard look at her hair. That kind of hair definitely does not belong outside fantasy anime series such as Ah! My Goddess. For real life anime titles with no magic, no alternate dimensions or no devil to stop from taking over the world, that kind of hairstyle is indeed bizarre.

Apart from that the general character design of all characters are decent. Some still has big eyes though, like the protagonist.

Voice acting:-
Not exactly outstanding. With limited episodes, only the protagonist and her best friend has most of the dialogues, and they are not bad. And not really good either.

Music:-
Ermmmm…. let just say that they suck overall. Only the piano recitals are good.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation is decent, and nothing to complain about. Meanwhile, the direction can be very good at times, or it just suck big time. At the first episode for example, the main protagonist and her father takes a taxi from the train station because it is raining. As they arrived, both of them runs toward the door of their house WITHOUT CLOSING THE TAXI DOOR BEHIND. Let just say that I was totally shocked when I first see this f**k-up in directing, and started to take notes about this because I want to complain strongly in this section. But later in the series, when the main protagonist tells her best friend that she will go ahead and participates in the recital, the director managed to portray the reaction of her best friend in such a great manner that it really impressed me greatly. This anime has quite some of this highs and lows of directing scattered all over the series.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Still a decent score don’t you think?

 
It was just 3 days ago that I last wrote my last review. Now, a review of a 45-episode anime is here in such a short time. Why is that you wonder? Well go on and read this review of The Twelve Kingdoms.

Story:-
The storyline of this anime is brilliant, yet frustrating. A red-head high school girl was spirited away to a square-shaped continent that has 12 countries in it by some weird long-haired man. Then she was hunted down by mysterious creatures who wants her dead. Eventually she finds out that she is the new ruler of one of the countries, and went on to depose the fake ruler of her country and become one herself.

The synopsis above doesn’t really do the series justice, as it just covers the first arc of the anime (shame on you ANN). But what’s will bewilder me will come next in the second arc about the Kirin of another country, which if NHK doesn’t make a second season fast, will be anointed as the most wasteful anime story arc in history. In fact, you can watch episode 15-22 and will not miss anything!

The third arc makes more sense, but the fourth one, which forms the last 5 episodes of the series is just the same as the second arc. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever, unless NHK makes a second season that can bring the closure to that silly arc of course. In other words, while the series is 45 episodes long, it ends actually at episode 39. And if you discount the episodes that make up the second arc, it will be even less than that.

The first and third story arcs are brilliant, but the second and the last story arc are frustrating. This anime has the words “SECOND SEASON” written all over it, and it really needs one because, for example,  the second story arc ends with plenty of questions unanswered. And it has all the hallmarks of a great story, but in its current state it just sucks.

I finished watching this one in 3 days because it was very good. In fact I have a marathon session yesterday where I watched nearly 30 episodes in one go. That’s how good this anime can be.

I found an online petition of the fans of this anime here. Everyone should sign it. This anime really needs a new season. Definitely better than Naruto which spend about a year in filler mode. I want to know what happens to that Kirin from Tai Country who are stuck in Japan. And I want to know more about the other countries. In fact, the main protagonist only travels to 3 of them, and some of the others are shrouded in mystery.

Character design:-
Well, from the 2 screenshots provided, not really outstanding. Here we don’t have the normal big eyes and big breasts, which is a good thing. I like the monsters character designs though, especially the Shirei monsters and also Rakushuun.

Voice acting:-
Another strong point of the anime, voice acting for most of the main characters are great. You really can’t complain about this one, as there are many talented voice actors/actresses bringing the maze of characters here to live.

Music:-
Not as good as the voice acting and the story though. The OP and ED themes are not impressive. Meanwhile the OST is almost non-existent, as most of the story flows without being accompanied by music. Or I don’t heard it, which I doubt because I have a pair of good speakers and they are tuned up. Well, with such a good story, it can get away without any music.

Animation/Direction:-
It was the reverse of the case with Pretear. The directing is great but the animation in plenty of parts in the anime is somewhat lacking. And I watched a DVD rip here.

Conclusion:-
From all the texts I typed above, I decided to give this anime 8 out of 10.  A perfect score is not out of reach *wink*wink*nudge*nudge* NHK.