anime review

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

Review: Shangri-La (シャングリ・ラ)

Posted by ranpha on 27th October 2009

Posted in: anime review. Tagged: Shangri-La (シャングリ・ラ). Leave a Comment

The main protagonist in this anime, and just like the anime itself, she not in a very good shape.

The 11th review in this month is another 2009 anime titled Shangri-La I mentioned not so long ago. This anime is much better than the previously reviewed 2009 anime Princess Lover!, but not good enough to depose the wolf-girl part 2 off her throne. BTW, I actually have noticed that there is an anime version of the Korean drama Winter Sonata for this year’s fall season. If that anime is just as good as the drama version, the wolf-girl will have a lot to worry about. But then again, Japan’s tendencies to butcher the original work that an anime is based upon is quite disturbingly common too.

Also one of the main protagonist in this anime, she is the best character in this series.

Story:-
In the future where a cap-and-trade system is actually implemented in a world-wide effort to stem global warming (those people in that era apparently doesn’t learn the failure of that system in European Union implemented by the Kyoto Protocol), the people of Kyoto Tokyo has to live in a huge tower called Atlas which was built as a replacement for the destroyed capital. Many of them are still living on the surface though but the forest is slowly taking over the remaining habitable cities on the surface. Meanwhile, the pink-haired protagonist is a de-facto leader of a rebel group that is opposed to the government’s policies and their job is primarily to blow things up anywhere they can, while the blonde-haired protagonist is a George Soros-wannabe who is hell-bent on making plenty of money of the carbon trading system even if it means the world’s economy will be wrecked. Better not say anything bad about the white-haired protagonist or else she will turn me into a pile of dead meat ahahahahaha!

This anime has a somewhat complex but still decent storyline, where you will be able to see several independent characters involved in their own story arcs that will then form the essence of this anime. The story was backed with great pacing and somewhat fluid plot development too, but this anime has glaring problems with scene transitions. This problem is even more apparent than the one exhibited in another Gonzo (that produced this title) anime titled Blassreiter. It become worse as the anime nears the end (see the transition between episode 21 and 22 to understand what I am saying) and this also affect the ending.

The ending is just like the one in Tears to Tiara; lame, ridiculously predictable (even more so in this anime) and unoriginal. As a coup de grâce to the ending, the pink-haired protagonist also spouts the same cliché-laden lines like the one that Tears to Tiara protagonist also used! Well, not the exact same wording, but the gist in both set of dialogues is depressingly very similar. I really fear for the future on Japan’s animation industry if the stakeholders cannot even ensure that each anime has their own unique bad endings. Well, at least this anime doesn’t have an ending scene that compares to Tears to Tiara’s lame rip-off of Lord of the Rings coronation scene.

Character development in this anime is way better than Tears to Tiara’s. The three pink/blonde/white-haired main protagonists in this anime are prominent in this aspect, with the blonde-hair carbon speculator and her virtual less-competent buddy being the best characters in this anime. This anime really has bad luck being reviewed after I have watched Tears to Tiara, or else it is highly unlikely I will savage the ending this much.

The face of the best character in this anime when her investments gone haywire.

Character Design:-
If there is anything Tears to Tiara excels compared to this anime, that would be character designs. Only the white-haired protagonist’s character design can be compared favorably to the ones in Tears to Tiara. But then again, character designs in this anime has seinen undertones within them unlike Tears to Tiara fantasy-like shounen designs.

Her constant creepy screaming in this anime is probably one of the best voice acting gigs in this anime.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is patchy, but better than Tears to Tiara’s. The pink-haired main protagonist is average, the white-haired protagonist fared a little better but the blonde-haired protagonist is better than them by a long distance. A honorable mention should be given to Hiruko-sama too, especially for her horrifying but addicting creepy screams. A positive point for this anime.

Music:-
The OST in this anime is good, but only the insert they used as ending theme for episode 20 is of any good.

Despite low airtime, this virtual character is actually a very interesting persona.

Animation/Direction:-
The quality of the animation in this anime is excellent, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography in action scenes are great too, with some outrageous and unbelievable action stunts. The directing is badly affected by the scene transition problems mentioned above, and of course, the ending too.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. That’s it for this anime, nowhere near of being able to challenge Wolf and Spice 2 for the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title.

Contrary to what he implies, this anime is not really that good at the end.

Review: Princess Lover! (プリンセスラバー！)

Posted by ranpha on 23rd October 2009

Posted in: anime review. Tagged: Princess Lover! (プリンセスラバー！). 1 comment

The main protagonist may have a harem filled with beautiful girls, but deep inside his heart he actually swings the other way.

My review of Princess Lover! today would be my 10th review for this month alone, and I should be able to squeeze another couple of titles before this month is over. Princess Lover! is the newest 2009 anime I have watched, therefore it will have its chance to scare Wolf and Spice 2 off the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ throne before the wolf-girl trashes its ass and dumped the carcass on the loser heap that also contained the remains of Koukaku no Regios, Tears to Tiara, K-On and Saki.

The backgrounds are nice, but would have been better if they are animated.

Story:-
Our main protagonist loses his parents in an ‘accident’, therefore he has to live with his rich grandfather. His grandfather then made him his successor, and then ships the protagonist into an elite school for the rich and famous. At that school, he then amassed some beautiful girls for his harem, before the story nose-dived in the second half of the anime.

Just like K-On, the story in this anime is crap. Just like K-On, this anime actually started well before tanking in the second half. In fact, the deterioration of the storyline quality in this anime is even worse than K-On; the last three episodes of this anime is painful to watch because the ending is so awful. Of course, just like K-On, this anime has good story development and pacing despite the crap storyline. Actually I want to slap the romance genre tag on this anime but I am truly a very kind man to not do that. You will see why when you reach the conclusion of this review. There are numerous fan service in this anime, but they are too one-dimensional unlike the ones you can see in Saki.

Unlike K-On, this anime doesn’t have a great character like Hirasawa Yui. With this fact, you may have realized that this anime will score less than K-On has. Unlike K-On, this anime has far worse character development strategies. This really applies to that social club president and also the main protagonist personal maid. I was surprised when the former declared that she has fallen in love with the main protagonist, because I haven’t seen any events that can be described as the turning point for her character to change from hate to love. Which one is it? Is it the scene where the two has dinner and the main protagonist allows her to sell merchandise in his department store? Is it the scene before that dinner where they were interviewed? Is it the hot spring vacation? Or maybe all the above? IMO, even if all three events I have mentioned combined to become the catalyst for her character development, I don’t think they (those events) has enough impact that will justify the character change. For example, those three events combined doesn’t even have half the impact that the scene where the main protagonist saves the princess from the gangsters has.

As for the personal maid, it seems that she has already fallen in love with him by the time the hot spring vacation episode was aired. The number of any discernable turning point events (or positive flags as they called it in dating simulation games – which where this anime is adapted from) that will explain that development is zero. It is possible that the maid likes him from the start due to her position. But if that was true, it is safe to say that her character development is virtually stagnating (just like the main protagonist of Tears to Tiara).

Quoted For Truth.

Character Design:-
Just as you expect from an adaptation of a dating simulation, the characters in this anime basically has hairs that is anything but black (except the main protagonist and the maid), big boobs, long legs and impossible body shapes. This is not a bad thing actually.

Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this anime is average and not very impressive, just like K-On. But unlike K-On, there are no outstanding characters in this anime that has good voice acting performance.

Music:-
This anime has good OST and ED theme, but not so for the OP theme.

The director tends to use camera angles that depicts people in horizontal position, for reasons inexplicable to me.

Animation and Direction:-
The animation quality in this anime is largely great, even in fast-paced scenes. In some scenes, the animation is not as fluid as it can be though. I’ve noticed that this anime tends to use very high quality backgrounds, kind of like what Makoto Shinkai does in his movies. It would have been nice though if the animation studio also animate those backgrounds, because seeing the main protagonist walking with his woman in a forest where the tree’s leafs are static (as if there are no winds) is very creepy. This anime also has some CGI animations, which are fluid and actually integrates seamlessly with the 2D animation. The directing is just average in general, for all the reasons outlined in the story section, plus usage of some inconvenient camera angles as shown in the screenshot above.

Conclusion:-
4 out of 10. The worst anime I have watched for quite some time. Still better than Macross 7 though.

A parody of an Apple computer, using carrot picture. The one in Doujin Work uses banana picture instead.

Review: Doujin Work (ドージンワーク)

Posted by ranpha on 21st October 2009

Posted in: anime review. Tagged: Doujin Work (ドージンワーク). 2 comments

The main protagonist (left) in her first Comiket ever, selling rape hentai doujinshi for her friend (right).

In this post, Nodame Cantabile will have a new challenger in the form of a short anime titled Doujin Work. Doujin Work turns out to be a very good comedy anime, but is it good enough to unseat the ‘Anime of the Year 2007’ incumbent? Read on to see the outcome.

The quirky characters that helped the main protagonist in her quest to make money in the dark world of doujinshi writing.

Story:-
Our main protagonist was lured into drawing hentai doujinshi for money. But to actually makes money, she has to be good, and unfortunately she is not. Therefore she has to work hard at improving her skills at drawing nude characters (which were never shown in this anime) in order to achieve her dreams, with plenty of help from like-minded friends of hers.

Let’s get straight to the point; the quality of the story in this anime is definitely not its strong point. In fact I think a similar anime reviewed here before, titled Comic Party has a better storyline (at least for its first season). But what Comic Party lacks and which this anime has in abundance is good quality humor. This anime could do with more humorous one-liners, but there are many good slapstick comedy stunts here, plus the main protagonist has great tendencies to get involved in many awkward but funny situations due to the School Rumble-esque misunderstandings. For what its worth, the thin story did flow very well with flawless scene transitions and good pacing (has some reference to real-life dating simulations games too), but you have to really ignore the amount of Comiket events the cast went to though.

Character developments in this anime is quite good considering the length of this series. The main protagonist, her overbearing childhood friend, her friend that wrote rape doujinshi titles and also her rival that wrote extreme yaoi doujinshi titles are all great and interesting characters in this anime. The director has really done a very good job here considering that this anime is just basically a 6-episode series (12 episodes that are 12 minutes in length to be exact). The ending is average and predictable, and that would be the only overt weakness of this series.

The main protagonist and her yaoi-loving rival.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is decent overall, with the rape doujinshi writer being the best of them all. She also has black hair, and that’s a bonus.

Voice Acting:-
This is where this anime really shines, because voice acting in this anime is great. All the recurring characters has great voice acting gigs; I cannot even choose who is the best amongst them. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Music:-
This anime has also done great in this regard. The OP theme is very good and the ED theme is not far behind, while the OST is quite decent too. Another positive point for this anime.

Despite the fact that she sheepishly wrote hentai doujinshi, the director has not shown any of her works to the audience.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography did not apply in this comedy anime. The director has done a very commendable job despite the thin storyline this anime has.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. Nodame Cantabile still retains the ‘Anime of the Year 2007’ title, but Doujin Work is a recommended watch if you want a good laugh and do not have too much time on your hands.

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Quoted For Truth!