anime review

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

Review: Little Battlers eXperience (ダンボール戦機)

Posted by ranpha on 8th November 2012

Posted in: anime review, sport genre standard. Tagged: Danboru Senki (series), Little Battlers eXperience (ダンボール戦機). Leave a Comment

The always serious, no-nonsense, business-only main male protagonist. No wonder it is hard to wing in any romance into this anime.

Danboru Senki, or Little Battlers eXperience as it was titled in Animax Asia is the second consecutive Level-5 title I’m going to review today, right after Mobile Suit Gundam AGE. As you may have guessed, I only choose to watch this anime because I previewed some episodes in Animax Asia like Cardfight!! Vanguard is, and not because its storyline are made by the same organization that does Gundam AGE (I only know this when watching this anime). Just like the Gundam, this anime is a 2011 title, but it has no chance at all to dethrone Tiger and Bunny from this blog’s ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ throne. Nevertheless, Little Battlers eXperience (abbreviated LBX from now on) is still a decent series to watch.

Personally, the greatest device you can find in this anime version of 2050 is not the LBX or the fortified cardboard, but the 12 Terabytes pendrive as shown above. It is funny though that that pen drive still use USB connector instead of something like Thunderbolt connector. Transferring files into/from that pendrive will surely takes hours!

Story:-
38 years in the future, kids in that era has abandoned their touch-only iPhones and Samsung Galaxies in favor of flip phones with keypads that is common 50 years previously. The reason for this is that such phones are the only effective control method for the LBX, a miniature robotic toy that is the rage at that time. Our main protagonist would really like to have one of those toys, but his mother, exercising her role as a responsible parent, disallow him from having one. But one day, he meets a mysterious person under a bridge who then gives him a free LBX, and suddenly he find himself having to save the world with it…

Let just say that this anime is an amalgam of both Cardfight!! Vanguard (the characters) and also Angelic Layer (the plot device) with a ‘save the world’ plot and plenty of tournaments. And you would not be wrong either if you think that this anime shares the same demographic with Gundam AGE, but definitely not with Angelic Layer. The story itself is decent but sadly very predictable. If the writer think I cannot see the pivot of the antagonist identity from a hundred miles away, he/she will be for a shock.

As I mentioned before above, the main protagonist has to save the world with his LBX with a couple of side-kicks (thankfully there are no romance at all here), therefore there will be plenty of LBX battles as his team participates in LBX tournaments in-between of sneaking into buildings and sewers. And here comes another of my complaint about this anime: very many of the LBX battles in this anime are very poorly written. I am not talking about battle’s choreography here, but I am referring on how the battles are conducted to reach the ending that the writer intended for any given LBX battles.

A good example for this is the last two battles in the Akihabara tournament. The first one, between the main protagonist and the grandson of the main antagonist, was completely marred by a mid-tier finishing function technique used by main protagonist that somehow managed to take out his opposing team. While the opposing team do have flawed tactics, the usage of the said mid-tier finishing function by the main protagonist to end the battle isn’t exactly appropriate in that situation. When he first started the opening sequence for that particular finishing function, I exclaimed to myself “That technique will not work”. But it turned out to be working, and therefore I . If he uses one of his higher tier function techniques, that one-hit attack would have been more believable.

The second battle, between the main protagonist and the Master King, is much better, with actual working tactics by the main protagonist’s team against a stronger opponent. No need for blatant deus ex machina moments at all unlike the battle that happens before that one. And unfortunately for this anime, battles like this one are the minority unlike the battles that happened before this one. This is a shame because unlike Cardfight!! Vanguard (and just like Angelic Layer), luck doesn’t have a disproportionate role in LBX battles, with skills, LBX specs, and tactics being more important aspects of the battles. This anime would have been much better if the good writing in Cardfight!! Vanguard duels can be incorporated into many of the LBX battles here.

Another minor nitpick I have about this anime's storyline is the antagonist lackeys' preference to send LBXes to deal with intruders to their facilities instead of doing it themselves. The old-fashioned way of sending burly men in black to deal with intruders, like in the rare scene above, always works and would have thwarted the main protagonist's dream of saving the world from devastation.

Speaking about luck in Cardfight!! Vanguard, I would really wished Animax Asia to stop its misleading Cardfight!! Vanguard advertisement that claims that the game ‘isn’t about luck’. The way its gameplay are structured, luck can easily gazump any other factors in play in a Vanguard duel. The only way the Vanguard game can eliminate luck as the main factor that can determine the result would be to allow players to manually arrange the orders of the cards in the drawing deck before a duel started.

Character developments in this anime is completely different from what you can see in Cardfight!! Vanguard. In the latter, its main protagonist has never played the game before and have to learn his way to the top of the nationals with plenty of hard work, team play and heavy doses of luck. In this anime, the main protagonist is already a quite good LBX player and throughout the series, he only lost a major battle once. This fact means two consequences. This first one is the character development of the main protagonist is vastly inferior and nearly static when compared to his counterpart in Cardfight!! Vanguard. In fact, I think his two sidekicks has better character developments than him! Fortunately for him, this anime’s ‘substantial save the world’ plot means this anime can get away with being a story-driven series, covering the weakness in its main character.

The second one is his static character development highly likely contribute on the issue of poor writing in the LBX battle scenes I have mentioned above. The need to make him keep winning many battles against superior opponents caused the writer to write in some stupid scenes in them. After all, having a strong-from-the-start main protagonist is really hard for a storyline, with only Hellsing being the series that got it right.

The overall pacing in this anime is faster than Cardfight!! Vanguard’s, and that’s a good thing. Pacing is not only good inside LBX battles and tournaments, but also outside it in the general storyline. The flow of the storyline is good for at least the first half of the anime, but become slightly muddled after that. The ending is full with clichés and pretty much predictable as I mentioned above, but at least better than the one in Gundam AGE. And it turned out the ending is just an end to a very big arc, because there are already a second season underway, just like Cardfight!! Vanguard is. And I will definitely watch it when it finished.

Assasins of 2050 also use toys as the tool of the trade, and that's why he failed. What happened with the old-school way of using high-powered rifles?
Assassins of 2050 also use toys as the tool of the trade, and that's why he failed. What happened with the old-school way of using high-powered rifles?

Character Design:-
Actually, the character design in this anime has exactly the same template as Gundam AGE’s, and that’s not exactly suprising because of their Level-5 connections. Black hairs are also rare here, in this anime’s setting that takes place merely 38 years in the future (still not enough evolution for X-Rounder-like powers it seems). LBX designs are great too, with plenty of variations and probably better than mecha designs in Gundam AGE.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting quality in this anime is decent overall; somewhere in-between Cardfight!! Vanguard (worse) and Gundam AGE (better). There are no outstanding voice acting gigs in this anime, but there is one major character with consistently wooden voice acting performance…

Music:-
The OST for this anime is good, especially for LBX battles scenes, and that’s all there to it. This is because the four OP/ED themes this anime has are at best, forgettable.

An epic battle between humans and machine is about to begin here! The humans are going to be crushed into mincemeats…

Animation/Direction:-
When watching Gundam AGE back then, there is something odd I have noticed about a certain animation technique Sunrise may have used but I didn’t make a comment about it in its review because I’m not certain what have really happened. But after watching this anime, I can confidently say that both titles has a very well done CGI + 2D animation integration, the best ever I have ever seen. But what makes the CGI sequences in these two anime titles different than what I have seen before in other CGI-employing anime titles I have reviewed before is that the CGI (mostly for mecha/LBX animations) are almost undistinguished in look and feel when compared to traditional 2D animations around it. They look so similar, I believe that the future where an anime series can be completely produced using CGI only is not that far off.

Meanwhile, 2D animation quality in this anime is decent, up to par with what you can see in Gundam AGE. Character animation is lacking a bit though, but not as bad as in Cardfight!! Vanguard. Choreography in action scenes (LBX battles of course) is done well too, especially in scenes where the main protagonist managed to get himself out from stick situations. The directing is flawless, especially with camera works in LBX battles, storytelling and pacing management.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Not bad considering that the sport genre handicap has been applied to this anime. Maybe the next series I should watch is Inazuma Eleven?

The most popular phones in 2050 looks suspiciously like phones that are popular in 2000s. Nokia may stage a comeback by then.

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

Review: Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (機動戦士ガンダムAGE <エイジ>)

Posted by ranpha on 26th October 2012

Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: Gundam (series), Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (機動戦士ガンダムAGE ). 3 comments

The first arc's main protagonist.

After cancelling my plan to watch Steins;Gate as I waited for the Blu-ray version, my attention then switched to a high-priority anime title that just ended its run when I watched Endless Eight. Mobile Suit Gundam AGE is the second Gundam series reviewed here after Mobile Suit Gundam 00. There is a very important change made in this latest non-Universal Century (U.C.) Gundam installment, that set it apart from Gundam 00 and other non-U.C. titles like Gundam SEED and Gundam Wing, both I have watched before starting this blog. This change, which I can call very drastic, revolutionary even, caused this Gundam title to be vastly different in unexpected ways compared to its predecessors in the past. Want to know what the change is? You should continue reading then.

These lines right in the first episode clearly shows what this anime's target demographic is.

Story:-
A few years before the start of this series, our main male protagonist’s family were killed in an attack of their space colony by an unidentified space invaders. To fulfill his mother’s dying wish, he started to build a mobile suit under the mentoring of his foster father, and as the construction finished, those unidentified aliens conveniently shows up and try to destroy the colony he is living on. Seeing that, he then gets into the cockpit, straps on the seat-belt, fired up the mobile suit and went all-out gun blazing kicking alien’s ass. Oh a question: did mobile suit pilots in Gundam Wing, SEED and 00 wear seat belts?

The change I have mentioned above that makes this Gundam series to be different than its non-U.C. predecessors is the switch of target demographic. It only takes me two or three episodes to realize that whoever writes the storyline for this anime is targeting a more mainstream, and different, young viewership compared to Gundam 00 and co. If the likes of Gundam 00/SEED/Wing shared their audiences with U.C. Gundam titles, Gundam AGE instead shares its intended target demographic with, surprise, surprise, Cardfight!! Vanguard.

With the demographic switch, the storyline 4-arc anime series has a less-nuanced approach to the battle between good and evil, starker differences between black and white and more reliance on characters’ deaths as a plot device, which is the staple of many titles that targets the same demographic as this anime is. This is probably why this Gundam series is less talked-about compared to other non-U.C. titles out there in cyberspace. Is this a good thing? In theory, the answer is yes, after all, watching titles like Cardfight!! Vanguard is one of my guilty pleasures. But practically, problems with presentations and plot executions prevents this anime from reaching its absolute potential.

And lines like this later in the series reinforced that switch.

This 49-episode series is divided into 4 arcs, with the first three having a different main protagonist. The first arc is just your typical mecha action hero stuff common in titles subbed by TV-Nihon fansub group. You won’t see this kind of storyline in previous Gundam titles, whether U.C. or non-U.C. ones. Romantic subplots in this arc is good though, vastly better than the one in Gundam 00, and actually is very instrumental in shaping this arc main protagonist’s character in subsequent arcs. The second arc, featuring the son of the first arc’s main protagonist fathered with his second-choice childhood friend, is even better because he (the second arc’s main protagonist) is basically Shinn Asuka done right, with believable path to redemption to boot. The fact that he doesn’t have the X-Rounder powers helps his characterization greatly. Romance subplots in this arc isn’t really as good or has as much impact as the one in the previous arc though.

The third arc, featuring the son of the second arc’s main protagonist fathered with his first-choice high-school friend, is the worst arc in the whole series. The reason for this is that this arc repeats exactly the same mistakes done in the second season of Gundam 00; cliché-laden dialogues and predictable plot. Plus, the fact that this arc’s main protagonist is the weakest link in the family doesn’t help either. This arc has almost zero romantic subplots, which is probably a good thing. The fourth arc, featuring all three main protagonists of the past arcs, is better and is an improvement from the third arc, but not as good as the first and second arcs. I have a major complaint about the final arc, which will be explained later below.

What detracts from this Gundam’s unique storyline (when compared to other Gundam titles) is presentation. In the very first episode, I can already see haphazard scene transitions right from the start, which in turn also affect the flow of the story negatively. But this problem seems to be reduced in subsequent arcs, or maybe I just have gotten used to it? Another problem that this Gundam has that its non-U.C. predecessors doesn’t have is numerous forced drama scenes. For example, someone has to explain why that Riria kid goes to the surface of Fardain in her first attempt when the two Fardain factions started to shoot at each other.

As I mentioned before, this Gundam has pivoted its storyline to target a different demographic, the one that is the same as Cardfight!! Vanguard. If there is any issue you can have with this switch, that would the the writer’s failures to remove common clichés that is common in the genre out from the storyline. The most prominent of those clichés seen in this anime would be the abundance of moments of serendipity and convenience. An example of this can be seen in episode 9, when the 1st arc main protagonist meets the alien’s mobile suit far away from his Diva mothership, he can conveniently summon his Gundam to fight it as if the Diva is located right next to him. If this is Gundam SEED or 00, the main protagonist would have to fight the alien’s mobile suit using the Shadolls mobile suit that can be found at the workshop he is in.

This mobile suit transfer scene depicted above is the worst breaker of suspension of disbelief in the history of the anime industry.

Still talking about the example I mentioned above, that event has a scene that destroys suspension of disbelief, something I last seen in Gosick. The moment the main protagonist’s team mate says “You have 15 seconds to perform the mobile suit transfer” (or something to that effect), I instantly scream “That sir, is fucking bullshit”. There is no way a normal human being, that only wear normal clothes instead of a pilot or a spacesuit, can even survive one second in deep space vacuum. This is totally bad writing by whoever wrote this story. As I mentioned the last paragraph, this anime employs plenty of the ‘moments of convenience’ plot device; I can easily think of a couple of methods using the ‘moments of convenience’ thingy that will allow the main protagonist to switch mobile suits while still keeping suspension of disbelief intact.

Amongst all non-U.C. Gundam titles I have watched, Gundam AGE has the fastest pacing of them all. With only 49 episodes yet having 4 substantial arcs within it, this is pretty much inevitable. If this Gundam wants to have the similar excellent pacing seen in Gundam 00 for example, this anime will need at least 30 extra episodes at the minimum, and personally I think should have been done. The fast pacing this anime has is also definitely one of the factors that contribute to the haphazard flow of the storyline I mentioned before.

Character developments in this anime is mixed bag at best. The obvious best character in this anime is the main protagonist of the second arc, BUT only in that arc. Him in the third and fourth arc is just so-so. The first arc’s main protagonist is quite decent in his own arc, but become much better (and senile?) in the final arc, overshadowing both of his descendants in the process. The less said about his grandchild, the better. My biggest problem about characterization in this anime is how some secondary characters that appears in the second and third arc simply melted away into nothingness (read: written out of the storyline) without any explanation whatsoever.

Speaking about the ending, I have two main problems with it. The first beef I have with the ending would be the fact that it was crammed into merely two episodes or something, causing the pacing to go through the roof. My second problem with the ending is how it was written. If you expect epic mobile suit duels befitting for a finale scene, you will be disappointed. The two main antagonists in the anime loses their finale battles mainly because they are distracted, not because their opponents are superior to them. Definitely a letdown considering the build-up to the finale.

The third arc's main protagonist.

Character Design:-
If you can’t discern the demographic change just by looking at the storyline, the drastic change of character designs in Gundam AGE should slap you into reality. Again, the character designs in this anime is similar to ones in anime titles that are subbed by TV-Nihon fansub group. And the character designs in this anime is pretty much typical of anime titles that aims for that target demographic. Black hairs are rare, but then again this anime is set up in a futuristic age where humans live in space colonies, therefore I expect the humans of that time has evolved to ditch the black hairs and acquires dark green dreadlocks instead (plus X-Rounder powers as a bonus).

Only the mecha designs did not really change, although the Gundam designs in this anime resembles more of its counterparts in U.C. Gundam titles than in the past non-U.C. Gundam titles. To maximize the SKU that Bandai can sell, each Gundam version has the ability to ‘evolve’ into different shapes with different accessories and different power-ups. This actually helps the storyline a lot, not to mention the benefits for character developments and Bandai’s coffers.

The best thing that happened in the second arc, and possibly the whole series too.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is good in general, and better than the last one seen in Gundam 00. But even that, I do not think there is any outstanding voice acting gigs in this anime.

Music:-
If you are expecting any JAM Project OP/ED themes in this anime, then you will be for a disappointment. Between all 8 OP/ED themes in this anime, only the 2nd and 3rd ED themes are good. The OST itself are excellent, especially the one that plays in important events in the first arc.

Animation/Direction:-
This anime used the motion blurring animation technique in many of its action scenes, therefore a point will be docked from its final evaluation. Other than that issue, regretfully I have to report that the animation quality in this Gundam title has regressed when compared to what seen in Gundam 00. Choreography for action scenes are better though, except for important battles in the finale. The director hasn’t made any blunders character-wise too, unlike his counterpart in Gundam 00.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. I think Sunrise’s decision to pivot this anime’s storyline to target a more mainstream demographic is a good one, but the execution could do with more improvements. Sunrise should keep this demographic change for the next non–U.C. Gundam title (while keeping U.C. Gundam titles for Gundam’s more traditional fans) and then ask the Tiger & Bunny’s director and writer to make it happen. The prospect of a Gundam title that is as awesome as Tiger and Bunny is truly salivating.

This Westernized method of presentation has never been seen in a Gundam title before. Unfortunately, its usage is restricted to the first half of the series only.

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

Review: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2009 (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 2009)

Posted by ranpha on 7th October 2012

Posted in: anime review, rewatched anime reviews. Tagged: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (series), The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2009 (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 2009). Leave a Comment

The main title female protagonist.

After sitting on this release for far longer than I did with the first installment (two years at the minimum I think), I finally gets around to watch it so that I can clear my huge backlog. As shown in the title, this supposedly second season of the Haruhi Suzumiya was aired in 2009, therefore it will try to unseat the current ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ holder, Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. But to do so, this second season of Haruhi Suzumiya series has to be considerably better than the first one. You will know whether this anime managed to do that below.

An apt description for her.

Story:-

My synopsis of the first season:-

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.

This synopsis I used for my review of the first season still applies, mainly because this ‘second season’ actually consists of the first season’s materials, with some of them rewritten, and some new episodes tacked into it. As a recap, the first season, when watched in chronological sequence, is made up from two parts (first part: first 6 episodes, second part: the latter 8 episodes). The first half is where the main plot is, and the second half is the period where the first season started going into slice-of-life+comedy mode. All of the ‘second season’ materials are inserted in the second part. The apostrophe means that the inserted materials definitely cannot stand up on its own, which explained the unconventional format this 2009 version of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has adopted. This unconventional format also means that the airing sequence seen in the first season is truly unnecessary in the first place.

As for the materials of the second season, it has two arcs; the first one is the time-loop arc Endless Eight, and another arc shows the filming scenarios for the best episode in the first season. Then there is a single episode where the main protagonist time-traveled 3 years into the past so that he can met with the bratty main title female protagonist of that time. And damning for the second season of this series, that single episode about time-travel is the best episode that the second season has, followed by the filming scenes, and then Endless Eight. The Endless Eight arc has so many fundamental problems that really threatened to bring down this series as a whole, in addition of the technical difficulties this series has because of its unconventional format, so I will focus on the other two first.

The single episode where the main male protagonist time-traveled to the past is actually really good, mainly because it helps props up the first part of the first season (you know, the one where the plot is). In fact, plot-wise, this episode can be very important if a third season or more comes on later, and may improve the distinctly ordinary main story this series has for the time being. The filming arc gives more meat to the best episode of the first season, so I guess there should be nothing wrong too much in it. Plus, there is a certain scene in it that helps the time-travel episode at propping up the main story. There is a minor weakness in that filming arc that I will address later.

One of my complaints about the Endless Eight time-loop arc is the length; at 8 episodes, it is simply too long. This anime can definitely get away with this if each loop are considerably different, but no, that’s isn’t the case here. Of course I don’t expect this anime to copy the Higurashi series, where each of its 9 loops are unique, but the redundancy of events in this particular arc is simply overwhelmingly bad. The director tried to mitigate this by skipping some of the events like the yukata-buying scene in some of the episodes (it doesn’t mean that they didn’t happen, they just happen off-screen), but personally I think explicit event omissions would have been better. For example, this arc would have fared better if one of the episodes explicitly omits the goldfish spooning event. Or maybe having the whole cast doing the ‘part-time job’ event manning the registers instead of distributing balloons. In its current state, if you ever want to watch this anime in the future, only watch the first three episodes of this arc, skip the next four episodes and then watch the last one.

But the biggest problem posed by the Endless Eight arc against the anime’s overall quality is the inconsistent characterization of the main male protagonist in that particular arc, compared to what you can see in the first season’s contents and also in the rest of the second season’s materials. The Endless Eight arc is sandwiched by the Kindaichi-like island homicide arc (material from first season) and the aforementioned filming arc. While the characterization of the main male protagonist in the homicide arc and also the filming arc is consistent and constant, his character in the whole eight episodes of Endless Eight is different, especially in the last scene in every episode of that arc. The main male protagonist in this arc is simply less decisive and less forceful than the main male protagonist in the homicide arc for example. I think if the main male protagonist in this arc is the same as the one in the homicide arc, Yuki Nagato will only have to get through 10 loops instead of ~15000 loops.

The main male protagonist, who is also the best character of this series.

Due to the unconventional format this anime has, character developments is severely restricted in the context of the first season. Therefore almost all characters in the second season are the same as they are in the first one. The main title female protagonist is a very good example of this; she is completely the same person in both first and the second season’s plots. The main male protagonist (who is also the best character in the whole series) would have been the same, except for his inconsistent characterization in Endless Eight. Therefore here I want to point out the only positive aspect of Endless Eight, and that would be the much-needed character development for Yuki Nagato, the only character that has one written in the second season’s materials. And her character development are done without causing her character to be out of line with what has already been shown in the first season materials that comes after Endless Eight. She is pretty much static in the first season show, but not so in this 2009 show mainly because of this.

Because I watched this anime in chronological sequence, like I do 5 years ago with the first season, there are no problems with the flow of the storyline. I wonder why the first season do that idiotic airing sequence in the first place; it only destroy the flow the way I have seen in Rental Magica, a show where I have the misfortune of watching it using the jumbled airing sequence. The pacing in the first 6 episodes are fast, but when the main story ended and the anime switched into comedy+slice-of-life mode, the pacing recedes. The ending in the 2009 and 2006 shows are exactly the same, you know, the open-ended one. This series has a movie, which I will not watch anytime soon.

Scenes in the comedy+slice-of-life parts of this anime like the one above are usually better than the ones in the first 6 episodes of the series.

Character Design:-
My comment from the same section in the 2006 version review still applies.

Voice Acting:-
My comment from the same section in the 2006 version review still applies.

Music:-
The OST is still the same average gig one you can hear in the first season. The first season material retains its crappy OP theme and the more than decent ED theme. As for the OP/ED themes in the second season materials, the OP theme in good but not so for the ED theme.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this anime is good, but I can’t help but noticed that the animation for second season materials are better than the ones for first season. The CGI problems (more have to do with integration) has gone away though. Overall choreography for action scenes in the story part of this anime is unchanged in quality. The director’s decision to do away with the jumbled airing sequence is welcomed, and I hope they will never come back.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. One less point than what the first season has achieved, mainly because of Endless Eight. Oh BTW, I have chosen to wait for the Blu-ray version of Steins;Gate instead of watching the TV version just like I will do with Mirai Nikki. This is because I have heard that the Blu-ray version will have extra materials in it that you will not see in the TV version. I have still not decided on what to watch next though.

The Blu-ray upscales of the first season materials is truly atrocious. Between this anime, AIR and Lucky Star BD releases, Kyoto Animation makes JC Staff looks good.