anime review

All reviews written since I moved the blog to the wordpress platform. Default category.

Review: Working!! (ワーキング)

Posted by ranpha on 9th August 2010

Posted in: anime review, Former Anime of the Year 2010 title holder. Tagged: Working!! (ワーキング). 5 comments

This is the main MALE protagonist. I repeat: This is the main MALE protagonist.

The ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition reached its seventh entry today with my review of Working!!, which style is disturbingly similar to Minami-ke, an awful anime I reviewed here before. Comparison will be inevitable, but the former doesn’t waste its time in proving that it is much better than the latter by a million miles. In fact, this anime is currently the best title I reviewed in the audition as of today.

And his manager has some serious and fully legitimate concern about our main MALE protagonist.

Story:-
One snowy day in Hokkaido, our main protagonist is walking down to his home from school when suddenly he was ambushed from behind by a well-endowed 12-year old girl. The girl asked our hero to work part-time at a family restaurant where she moonlights her services, but he refused, thinking that she is just a jail-bait. But the main protagonist changed his mind after learning that the girl is actually a shorty (and well-endowed) 17-year old high-school student (read: LEGAL IN ALL JURISDICTIONS). He then reports in for his first day at work alongside her new busty colleague, expecting good ’things’, but the fact that the restaurant is no different than that place under the bridge will hit him on the face, LITERALLY!

Just like Minami-ke, this anime doesn’t have a plot. But unlike Minami-ke and just like Urusei Yatsura, this anime was sustained instead by the character strength of the main protagonist. The main protagonist is not as powerful or interesting as the legendary Moroboshi ‘Darling’ Ataru is, but he is not far behind. He is grossly offensive in mannerism and can be very inconsiderate, but is also very snarky and proficient in all kind of humor. I want to call him a lolicon, but then again the main female protagonist is a 17-year old high school student and his senior, so I will leave it at that.

Two samples from the cesspool that makes up the employment of the establishment.

Unlike Hirasawa Yui in K-On!, the main protagonist doesn’t have to work alone at propping this anime up, because he was assisted by most of his new colleagues in the said family restaurant, and to a lesser extent, his sisters at his house . Those characters are unique and quirky in their own respect and are trapped in their own circumstances. The interactions and relationships between the main protagonist and all these characters are what made this anime shines brightly. One-sided crushes, toilet humor and crass jokes, blackmail, gratuitous amount of violence, you got them all.

Character developments is also where this anime has done very well as a whole, with our main protagonist being the best character of the bunch. The only apparent weakness this anime has is the ending, where its chain of events are predictable, lacks in substance and, well, just weak. It is structured for a second season though, but a quick look at ANN website doesn’t indicate that there will be a new one. How on earth Minami-ke has 3 seasons while this blatantly superior series only has one?

A long-distance relationship like the one above is only possible in this restaurant located somewhere in Hokkaido, Japan.

Character Design:-
As mentioned above, this anime is very similar with Minami-ke in style. And just like Minami-ke, the character designer for this anime totally failed at drawing beautiful female characters. Mitigating that weakness is the fact that the main protagonist of this anime is male. And apparently people in Hokkaido, Japan doesn’t have black hairs. Maybe it is because of the cold.

Voice Acting:-
This anime performs strongly in this department, just like Minami-ke did. Outstanding characters includes the main male protagonist and the busty ~~12-years loli~~ 17-years old female high school student which I presume to be the main female protagonist. A positive aspect for this anime.

Music:-
The OST is good but not used too much in this anime. Meanwhile the two OP and ED themes in this anime are excellent. A positive aspect for this anime.

A delicious amount of violence is available in this anime, like the one that is about to happen above.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. While there are plenty of violence in this anime, choreography is basically non-existent, in a good way. The directing is flawless and conservative, with none of the innovative presentation techniques seen in the previous anime title reviewed here. A positive aspect for this anime.

Conclusion:-
9 out of 10, three times more points than Minami-ke can ever dream of. With that score, this anime has surpassed Hakuouki as the front-runner for the first ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title winner. Considering that the second season of Ookiku Furikabutte will be saddled by the sport-genre handicap, this anime’s only challengers for the title will be Durarara and B gata H kei. The next review will be for second installment of Ookiku Furikabutte, so that I can finish this audition with suspense until the end.

The main female protagonist, probably the sanest character in the establishment.

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

Review: Angel Beats! (エンジェルビーツ)

Posted by ranpha on 6th August 2010

Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: Angel Beats! (エンジェルビーツ). 3 comments

The main protagonist of this anime.

The sixth 2010 anime I have chosen for the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition is Angel Beats! The previous anime in the audition has already set the benchmark at (somewhat low) 8 out of 10, therefore the question is, can this anime (and the final four unreviewed 2010 titles listed at the right sidebar) exceeded that score and then become the first ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title winner?

And this is the best character in this anime.

Story:-
The main male protagonist wakes up at a high school, and he finds out that he has lost all of his memories. Then a spunky female student appears and told him that he has died, and asked whether he wants to join her terrorist organization. Deciding that she is just crazy, the main protagonist walks away and encountered another female student who has white hair (read: EVIL). The main protagonist haven’t even done anything wrong but the white-haired female student suddenly stabbed him on the chest, killing him instantly. THE END.

This anime starts very slowly as you can listen to some singing, then some sob stories of the week and then some ‘disappearing’. But after a few episodes, the best character in this anime (which is not the main protagonist) takes center stage and this anime actually become more watchable. And funnier too, even if she isn’t in the scene. The anime continues with great pacing and decent story development all the way until episode 10, which focused on the said best character of this anime and resulted on her ‘disappearance’ too. At exactly that point, this anime dies with her too. And this is where my first complaint about this anime will come: the ending arc.

The ending arc is ruined by a usage of a plot device that was written in completely based on the flow of the character developments in this anime, instead of relying on the usual story developments that any other normal anime series do, such as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. All the plots from the previous ten episodes went up in air just like that, no links whatsoever with the ending arc. This anime can be reduced to 6 episodes and I bet you won’t miss anything major.

Then there is THAT ‘revelation’ in the final 5 minutes of the last episode. Instead of becoming a very good plot twist, the revelation managed to become utterly pointless instead, just like what you can see in the same scene in the penultimate episode of Allison & Lillia. This is a huge opportunity missed by whoever wrote the story of this anime. Think about it, if the white-haired evil female student makes that revelation in the first episode when she fatally stabbed the main protagonist, this anime would have turned out very differently. And highly likely, for the better too. This anime could have become a romance title too.

My second complaint about this anime relates to its atrocious character developments. There are so many characters in this anime whose background still remains a mystery even after the final episode finished playing. Safe to say, if any given character doesn’t have their own sob story of the week, that character simply has stagnant character developments. And this actually applies to two-thirds of the members of the terrorist organization. The best character in this anime has the best sob story of the week, and has episode 10 (best episode in this anime) dedicated solely for her alone. She is basically this anime’s own version of Ibuki Fuko.

The main protagonist attracts plenty of attention from the same gender…

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is just average. And there are no black hairs in this anime, but considering the Bleach-like universe setting, I will just probably overlook it.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is great overall. Special mention should be given to the best character of this anime, the main protagonist and that hypnotic guy who has a crush on him. A positive aspect for this anime.

Music:-
This anime has great OST but none of the OP/ED themes or the inserts are any good.

…and this is another member of his same-sex harem group.

Animation/Direction:-
After two headaches-free anime reviews in the form of Nodame Cantabile Finale and Hakuouki, the bad animation technique that plagues the first three anime titles in this audition, amongst others, made its return. To make it worse, just like Arakawa Under The Bridge, this anime also uses it in normal scenes in addition in fast-paced scenes. There, I’m slapping this tag on this anime and docked one point off this anime final evaluation.

Just like Mayoi Neko Overrun!, this anime also has some problems like jerky character animations in both normal and fast-paced scenes. And just like Mayoi Neko Overrun!, this anime has very good general animations. Some of the nature animations like falling snowflakes are really good, almost on par with Makoto Shinkai’s gigs. Choreography in all of the action scenes in this anime are just average. The director employed some unorthodox camera works especially during the terrorist organization’s mission, which is nice. That’s the only good thing he/she has done though.

The main protagonist spends a lot of time together with his captive harem members…

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Hakuouki managed to keep its front-runner status for the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title. Now it is increasingly likely that the first winner of the title will not be doing so with a perfect score. Now there are only four anime titles left in this audition: Ookiku Furikabutte S2, Durarara, Working and B gata H kei. Which one will come next? You will only get the answer in the next entry.

…but the competition for the main protagonist's attention do get a little bit heated sometimes.

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

Review: Hakuouki (薄桜鬼)

Posted by ranpha on 2nd August 2010

Posted in: anime review. Tagged: Hakuouki (series), Hakuouki (薄桜鬼). Leave a Comment

The confused main female protagonist.

The audition to select the first winner of the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title reached the halfway point with my review of the first season of Hakuouki, an anime set up in the days of the Bakufu era, just like Blade of the Immortal etc. But unlike the latter, the former already have a second season lined up and ready to go later this year. Japan, why is that many decent but unfinished anime series out there doesn’t get an extension?

Story:-
A cross-dressing girl went to Kyoto to look for her missing father, but in double-quick time she has to run away from bad people. Suddenly, her pursuers were ambushed by some creepy uniformed monsters that craves for blood, and the pursuers were killed on the spot. The monsters then tried to sink their fangs upon the helpless main female protagonist but another ambush happened and the monsters were killed, also on the spot. The main female protagonist sighed in relief after being saved by some kindred spirits, only to realize that her saviors also wears the same uniform as the monsters’. She fainted in terror and the newly-anointed bad guys brought her back to their female-less headquarters so that they can do ‘this’ and ‘that’ to her…

Imagine that you combine Peacemaker Kurogane (a very similar anime to this one – I watched it before this blog started) and La Corda D’Oro ~primo passo~, and you will get this reverse-harem title. There are no Western classical music in this anime, but more importantly, the main female protagonist is not an emo unlike her counterpart in La Corda D’Oro. She is seriously incompetent though, but not an emo that I want to strangle to death. And there are no overt romance too, how on earth did that happened I have no idea.

The story itself is quite decent, and portrayed the events of that era from the eyes of the main female protagonist. This anime is definitely more accurate historically (not fully though) than Peacemaker Kurogane. But to not cause this anime turning into a History Channel documentary, the writers decided to put some supernatural stuff in so that academically-challenged viewers will not drop this anime en masse. In the ending, the writers even made the main male protagonist drink something that his counterpart in the real world definitely hasn’t done. That ending sets up the second season nicely, but I will not be surprised if the writers ditched the history books aside and steer the second season into the realm of fiction.

Yet another time jump…

The presentation of this anime is very unique in the fact that it uses the time-jump literary device extensively. In fact, I dare say that this anime has more time-jumps in it than the previous 30 anime titles reviewed here combined. The time jumps varies in length, from weeks to months at a time, but all-in-all, this is why this anime main storyline stretches between 2 or 3 years timeframe. The numerous time jumps, the portrayal of the historical events of the era (complete with narration by the main female protagonist) and the lack of flashbacks are what lends the aura of a documentary upon this anime series.

The usage of the time jumps does has drastic consequences upon character developments in this anime. Omitting the main female protagonist, you can divide the Shinsengumi members into two groups; one consists of members who have drunk the ‘something’ essence I have mentioned above, and another group that consists of those who aren’t. The members of the latter group practically has stagnant character developments, from the start of the anime until the end. The member of the former group doesn’t fare better, but the virtue of having drunk the said ‘something’ mean that they are involved more in the supernatural sub-plot. No best characters in this anime.

For the main female protagonist, which I presume doesn’t exist in the real Shinsengumi of yore, she quickly forgot her mission of finding her father right after she laid her eyes upon the handsome Shinsengumi dudes, and as of the finale episode, her father is nowhere to be seen.

Ignoring seppuku threats, the main female protagonist and her minions doing things that they shouldn't do.

Character Design:-
Another reason why I claimed that this anime is similar to La Corda D’Oro ~primo passo~ is that their character design are similar. Plenty of handsome guys in here (the real Shinsengumi members would be rolling in their graves if they see their portrayal in this anime) and has the lowest amount of female characters that this anime can get away with. Not surprisingly really considering the demographic of the game this anime is based from. A positive aspect for this anime.

Voice Acting:-
This anime is actually losing out to La Corda D’Oro in this aspect. Voice acting in this anime are just average overall, but the main female protagonist is quite good at performing her dual role of being a weak and stupendous character, and also being ~~Sir David Attenborough~~ the narrator in this anime.

Music:-
The OST is decent but not more, while the OP/ED themes are forgettable.

Animation/Direction:-
This anime is placed under a rare situation in this aspect because while its fast-paced scenes are animated without any issues (but not the best), normal scenes are riddled with jerky and abrupt changes of movements (just like Powerpuff Girls Z). There are some lazy animation too like in the screenshot below. Choreography is just average, which is a pity because there are plenty of katana battles in here. The director has done his job very well, especially with managing those time-jumps and also some very good camera works.

Oh BTW, this anime doesn’t have the nauseating animation technique too, just like Nodame Cantabile Finale. Another good decision from the director. I hope the next 5 anime reviewed here will also be the same.

Lazy animation efforts here. Can you spot it?

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. We now have a clear front-runner for the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title. If this anime can survive the challenge from the participants of the second half of the audition, naturally this anime will be featured at the sidebar of this blog. I have a feeling that the first winner of ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ will not have a perfect score.

So what’s next? You have to wait…….

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-f9