romance genre standard

Titles under this category is a romance anime, that will always be handicapped.

Review: Paradise Kiss (パラダイス・キス)

Posted by ranpha on 6th January 2010
Posted in: anime review, romance genre standard. Tagged: . 1 comment


The main female protagonist.

It takes me a bit more than a month to read Ookiku Furikabutte manga (actually very good) before deciding to watch Paradise Kiss first over Clannad After Story. Paradise Kiss is yet another of those anime that was screened on Animax Asia but I do not watch (even if my house has a subscription), and that’s the main reason why I went around and watched it. A 2005 title, it will not compete for any of those ‘Anime of the Year’ titles (not that it will win any) and also this anime will be judged with the rating-damaging romance genre standard. I have an announcement to make here, but you should read this review first before reading it at the end of this post.


Ass shoving: Just one of the shocking things that the 4 members of this knitting club does.

Story:-
The depressed main female protagonist was offered to become a model by a mysterious fashion house high school knitting club for an upcoming fashion show. That club contains members that engaged in some shocking behaviors that almost always put the main female protagonist off. Being a complete n00b when it comes to all things modeling, she has to learn from scratch while dealing with her high-school love life.

This anime has a decent storyline, although this may not be apparent for the first few episodes. It only get more interesting when the emo protagonist runs away from home not too long before the show. With very good pacing and story developments, this anime springs up another pleasant surprise by having an unpredictable ending. The execution is not flawless, but at least the ending is somewhat original. All in all, I think the overall story is not too suitable for a supposedly romance title, but that is not a negative point against the anime.

The main female protagonist reminds me a lot of the emo main female protagonist in La Corda d’Oro primo passo, except that the latter doesn’t have the hot temper the former has. Most of the time, this issue can sink any given anime title to oblivion (La Corda and Myself Yourself comes to mind), but in this case, the strong character of the main male protagonist and, to a lesser extent, the story too, saved this anime from suffering the same fate as the two aforementioned anime titles. The main male protagonist is surely the best character in this anime by a distance.


The main female protagonist's younger brother.

Character Design:-
The over-the-top character designs in this anime are awesome, with the exception of the main female protagonist. I can actually forgive the lack of black hairs in this anime’s Japan. Just like the over-the-top character designs, the fashion designs in this anime are also out-of-this-world, probably only can be seen inside real fashion schools drawn by hopeful fashion designers of the future. Definitely a positive point for this anime.


Her younger brother is an awesome character in this anime, so here is another screenshot of him.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting gigs in this anime are largely excellent, except for the main male protagonist who are too ordinary. The outstanding characters in this regard is the pink-haired girl, her eerily similar older sister and the she-guy patterner. Even the main female protagonist has done well here. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Music:-
The OST is non-existent, but the OP and ED themes are excellent. Another positive point for this anime.


The word 'big' refers to what? Make your own assumptions, or better, watch this quite good anime yourself. The answer will surprise you!

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. No choreography comment in this non-action anime. The directing is just competent enough but exactly inspiring.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Announcement: I will not watch Clannad After Story for my next review, because some higher priority titles just found themselves inside my anime queue.


Quoted for truth, in the context of this cruel world.

Review: Hoshi no Koe (ほしのこえ)

Posted by ranpha on 1st August 2008
Posted in: anime review, romance genre standard. Tagged: , . Leave a Comment


What the heck is ‘United Nation Spacy’?

The first entry for this month is the review Makoto Shinkai’s third work, Hoshi no Koe. At 30 minutes, it is considerably shorter than his first two movies reviewed here, plus it will also be judged with the usual higher standard I use for romance genre titles.


The usual beautiful sceneries in Makoto Shinkai’s movies is also present here.

Story:-
Two middle-school friends were separated when one of them (the female protagonist) was selected to fight aliens in outer space. They keep in touch via e-mail (or is that SMS?) but as the space fleet travel further towards Sirius, the time for the messages to go back and forth become longer and longer. The girl then gets to battle space monsters with awesome mobile suits while her male friend has to worry whether he will get the next message or not.

The story is excellent, better than The Place Promised in Our Early Days but inferior to 5 Centimetres Per Second. The presentation and pacing are done very well, but character development is minimal at best (it’s just 30 minutes). The part that really stands out the most is the ending, which is simply magnificent. This short movie’s ending is vastly superior to the endings of the first two Makoto Shinkai’s movies I have reviewed here before, or the huge majority of the anime I have reviewed here too.

That Sir, is how you wrote an ending. Note to Japan anime writers, WATCH THIS SHORT MOVIE FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!

Well, there are not many things I can say about this short movie anyway, except for good things only.


You were chased by a hungry horde of space monsters. What will you choose? A. Retreating like hell to the safety of your mothership that is about to enter hyperspace. B. Looking around frantically for your mobile phone so that you can send a message to your boyfriend.
From the screenshot above, you would have guessed what she has chosen. Women, just like man, minus the reason and accountability.

Character Design:-
Makoto Shinkai’s influence can be easily seen here, thus the character design is of the realistic type. As usual, brown is the new black, but then again the setting of this anime is somewhere in the future. A positive point for this anime.

Mecha/monster designs in this anime are very well done too.

Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this anime is pretty good, but not on the same level as the previous 2 movies reviewed here though. There are no outstanding characters too (as if you can choose between only 2 of them).


The mecha design is surprisingly very well done.

Music:-
The OST is good, but the ED theme is something else. The ED really complement the awesome ending perfectly. Definitely a positive point of this anime.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is excellent, just like you expect from Makoto Shinkai’s brainchild. There are no problems with fast-paced scenes either, and the choreography for the mecha battles is decent and intense. Speaking of that, I think Makoto Shinkai watched too much of The Legend of Galactic Heroes when doing some of the armada battles. The directing, as you may suspect, is the best from all three of his movies reviewed here to date. You will have no complaints for sure.

Conclusion:-
9 out of 10. With the higher standard I use for romance genre titles, this is as good as 10 out of 10 already. The next review will be special, and you should tune in to see what is in store next.


Even if this is not high-definition, the rain effect is still good to watch.

Review: Chobits (ちょびっツ)

Posted by ranpha on 29th July 2008
Posted in: anime review, romance genre standard. Tagged: , . 2 comments


Our overimaginative main protagonist.

My first review after the move to this wordpress blog is for Chobits, another Clamp’s anime. Well, it takes me 2 full days to copy all the posts in my old Windows Live Spaces blog to the new home. All posts tagged anime review – reposted are the ones that comes from the old site, while those that are tagged anime review only are originals written for this site. Now let’s move on with the review, which will be judged with a higher standard than normal because this title comes from romance genre.

Story:-
Our main protagonist moved from the countryside to the city so that he can study for his university entrance exam. One night, he found a humanoid persocon (everyone in the anime seems to have one) being thrown away at the trash bin. He then brought the persocon home and he has to teach his new persocon a lot of things (except unfortunately, the things that matters).

One thing I noticed about this anime is that it copied what D.Gray-man has done and tried its best not to show any plots for the first half of the series. You will instead have to contend with episodes like the one where the whole cast went to the beach for summer vacation and others like that. At best, the first half of the anime can be said to aid character developments, but for 12 episodes? It is at the second half of this series that a plot emerges, and it wasn’t exactly a masterpiece in my opinion. Somehow, I think Angelic Layer is doing better when it comes to the quality of the storyline. The story is very predictable, and the same can also be said about the ending that can be seen from miles away.

Meanwhile, for all its worth, the story did flow smoothly, aided by excellent presentation. All the subplots loose ends are tied up well too. Character developments are done well but it only become apparent during the second half of the anime, building on what have happened on the first half. Sumomo is definitely my favorite character here, aided by a change of role that also happens in the second half of the anime. Do you notice by now that all events that matters only happens during the second half? This is why Chobits is inferior compared to the more straightforward Angelic Layer.

This anime can lose 6 to 8 episodes and you probably won’t notice.


Sumomo, the best character in this anime.

Character Design:-
Done by CLAMP, of course it is going to be good. Definitely a positive point of this anime, despite the lack of black hairs in this modern Japan.

Voice Acting:-
Unlike the character design, the voice acting in this anime is just average at best. No one stands out from the rest either.

Music:-
For this section, this anime has good OP and 2nd ED themes. The OST and the other 2 ED themes, not so much.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. I have no comments about choreography because the action scenes here are basically non-existent. The director could have done something about the black hole in the first half of this anime, but I give him/her credit for the story presentation.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Well, not exactly that good isn’t it? Now let me get working more on the blog before I get another review in.


Never heard about this Red Hot Linux distro.

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