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: DiGi Charat (デ ジ キャラット) + Panyo Panyo (ぱにょぱにょ デ・ジ・キャラット)

Posted by ranpha on 26th March 2008
Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment


My favorite character in this series. My long-time character image in LowYat.Net forum.

Di Gi Charat is one of those anime I have always wanted to watch, but I have no willpower to get it. In a sheer coincidence, I managed to get it without having to spend time trawling around the tubes, and here is the review for it and also for the prequel Panyo Panyo.

Story:-
Three interplanetary aliens lands in Akihabara, Tokyo and was forced to work in one of the shops there, violating child labor rules. Even in slavery, the main character dreams of becoming a great idol and she works towards that end while working as a cashier at Akihabara. Meanwhile in the prequel, the same main character is still trapped at her home planet, doing whatever she wants.

The original Di Gi Charat is awesome (enough to get at least 9 points), but the prequel is not. The main character Dejiko is different in some certain (but important) ways in both titles. I watched the TV series first before the prequel, and I really miss the cynical but awesome Dejiko in Akihabara as I watched the prequel even more. The prequel may be longer, but cleary inferior. Maybe this is the result of over commercialisation?

Dejiko in Akihabara also has that freestyle storytelling mode you can see in Galaxy Angel or the latter half of Haruhi Suzumiya, and this allows this anime to appeal to a wider audience. This is better than the story-laden prequel that main fits as a morning-slot title aimed at younger audiences like elementary school students. The audience has to be that, or else how else you can explain the excessive singing in that prequel?

Character developments are more evident in the prequel than the Akihabara version, but that’s to be expected. The story in the prequel as a whole is average, but considering the probable target audience, it may also have to be expected.

Anyway, the Dejiko, Puchiko and Usada Utada Hikaru in Akihabara version are awesome, but less so in the prequel. Maybe I should consider looking for the remake of the TV series and see whether it is better or not.


Voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro, what did you do not like?

Character Design:-
It is very well done, although seems to be dumbed down in the prequel. As the main characters are aliens from outer space, I will excuse the lack of black hairs here.

Voice acting:-
A positive point for this series, at least for the Akihabara version. Voice acting in this series is awesome, especially for Dejiko, Puchiko and Utada Hikaru. These three really stands out. It was diluted somewhat in the prequel, but I still think they are very good.

Music:-
For Dejiko in Akihabara, only the Party Night insert in episode 15 is of any good, because the OP/ED themes and OST is almost non-existent. The OST in the prequel is decent, but not so the OP/ED themes.

Animation/Direction:-
Both have decent animation, especially the prequel. Fast-paced scenes do not seem to be affected by low frame-rates, but choreography is average. And so is the directing for both titles good but not the best.

Conclusion:-
If I only watched Dejiko in Akihabara, it would got at least 9, but coupled with the prequel, it loses 2 points, so 7 out of 10 it will be.


Unfortunately, she is being dumbed down in the prequel, so no screenshots from there.

Review: el cazador de la bruja (エル・カザド)

Posted by ranpha on 22nd March 2008
Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: . Leave a Comment


This anime has pretty good English here. Good to see Japan taking care of English seriously here.

After 3 beautiful reviews of titles in hi-definition, I return to the real world as I write this mini-review of El Cazador de la Bruja in SD (upscaled to higher resolution with ffdshow to give my LCD justice). It means that there are no albums for you. This is also a 2007 anime, so can Nodame Cantabile fends off a trigger-happy gunslinger girl with a witch sidekick?


Quoted for Truth

Story:-
A bounty hunter who occasionally posed as waitress in fast-food restaurants is given a job to protect a witch that has to do a journey to the south (thank god it wasn’t east or else there will be plenty of jokes there). Both of them have to dodge other bounty hunters, a mysterious organization, the CIA and also an insane superhuman maniac.

The story started very slowly and it takes 10 episodes (which took me 4 days to watch, that how awfully slow this story gets off the ground) for the story to get started. I watched the rest in the single day, mainly because it gets interesting from there. Looking back to those days, this anime did not really compare to its spiritual predecessor Madlax (watched before this blog started – and the reason why I look forward to this anime) which has much better pacing than this one.

This caused the flow of the story to suffer because it failed to attract the attention of the audience early, and I have actually considered dropping this series. But after the 10 largely pointless episodes the anime gets into gear storywise, and it moves along more smoothly towards the end. It wasn’t exactly a good story compared to Madlax (I have not watched Noir yet) but still watchable for an action series.

Unfortunately, the ending really stinks. What’s with the DragonBall-esque dead people being resurrected in quick successions? The ending is really ordinary, and the last episode is lame. This anime is really screwing up badly here. Madlax fare vastly better in this aspect.


Mobile phones in this anime has this extraordinary ability of being connected even out of nowhere.

Character Design:-
Very well done, a positive point for this anime (which really needs as much as it can get). There are plenty of beautiful characters in here, and each fit their roles perfectly.

Voice acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is good overall, with L.A. (yeah, this is the real character name, and no, it did not stand for Los Angeles) being outstanding.


I think I have seen this place before. Hmm… where is that?

Music:-
Another positive point of this anime, the OST is excellent and so are the OP theme but not for the ED theme. I would have like a couple of good insert songs like the ones in Madlax though. That would have been awesome.


If you work for a shadowy organization and need to operate in secrecy, it is best that you did not wear your organization signature uniform while on it. And definitely no masks while driving, it just make you prone to more suspicion.

Animation/Direction:-
This anime has great animation quality, even in fast-paced scenes (there is a lot of them here). Choreography is decent if somewhat ordinary (the awesome moves of the Madlax heroine would have been appreciated). The directing is good too, although it can do away with the inopportune usage of upside-down camera shots.


This upside-down shots was used too many times for my liking and in scenes that did not need it. Like the one above.

Conclusion:-
7 out 10. Nodame Cantabile successfully fends off the unlikely all-girls duo. And thanks’ god Myself, Yourself is still in limbo and does not need to be watched, yet.


It’s all in the day’s work.

Review: Initial D Live Action Hong Kong Movie

Posted by ranpha on 17th March 2008
Posted in: anime review - reposted, miscellaneous. Tagged: , . Leave a Comment


Will we get to see him in the future?

Today’s mini-review is a change from previous usual ones because this is a review of the live-action version of Initial D, featuring Jay Chou and also one of the last movies that feature Edison Chen. This is another hi-def movie, and the album for this can be found here.


Hi-def marvels allows you to see more details than ever before. Even skin pores can be easily visible.

Story:-
What applies in my previous Initial D review also applies here, although it covers only the parts up to second season. Two whole seasons condensed into one and a half-hour movie, resulting in removal of some elements of the original storyline that can be mind-numbing. For example, Keisuke did not exist, Itsuki is a fat-ass drop-out, the gas station has a hot attendant and more.

Despite the alterations, the movie is still awesome. Jay Chou managed to carry the shy Takumi character very well, and I think there are times where he is overdoing it to the extent where I think Takumi has some mental disease or something. That isn’t a bad thing, just so you know. Edison Chen has little airtime, even the revamped and luckier Itsuki has more of it. And that’s the bad thing here.

Character development is obvious only for Jay Chou and his dad, with everyone else can almost be described as decorations. The ending is a mixture of the first and second season endings, with Jay Chou victorious at the end. Only that, he loses his (super hot) girlfriend unlike the manga/anime version. Whoops, is that a spoiler?


Natsumi is HOT, a far cry than that sorry excuse for a woman in the manga/anime version.

Character Design:-
This does not apply here because this is live-action movie. But Natsumi is HOT, unlike the anime/manga version. So are Edison Chen and to the lesser extent, Jay Chou.


Unlike Steamboy, dark scenes (there’s a lot of them) in this movie is actually watchable.

Voice acting:-
Also did not apply here. But the acting in general is decent I think, especially Edison Chen. The only problem you have is to believe that people in Akina speaks Cantonese instead of Japanese.


Imported from the anime version:- Censorship of plate numbers.

Music:-
No m.o.v.e. tracks here, so in this aspect the anime is superior than this movie. It has a couple of good Jay Chou songs though, if Cantopop is your thing.


But in key scenes like this, the plate number is visible. I wonder why the movie company even bother doing it in the first place.

Animation/Direction:-
This isn’t an animation, but being a hi-def movie, the details are spectacular. The directing is not that good unfortunately. Overuse of that stuttering camera shots ruins the presentation of this movie, but camera angles in some of the racing scenes are excellent.


A shot of that famous ‘gutter’ overtaking manoeuvre.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. If you are a fan and can stomach the missing/altered details, you should give this a spin. Hint: Get the hi-def version, you will like it immensely.


That cheesy scene that has been parodied by Izumi Konata is also here.

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