sport genre standard

Titles under this category is a sport anime, that will always be handicapped. Only happened with all sport anime titles reviewed after Capeta.

Review: Over Drive (オーバードライヴ)

Posted by ranpha on 9th October 2009

Posted in: anime review, sport genre standard. Tagged: Over Drive (オーバードライヴ). Leave a Comment

The main male protagonist.

Today’s post is my review for yet another sport anime, titled Over Drive. Actually when I downloaded this anime, I expects a mecha anime or something like that. This is a 2007 anime, which will then compete with Nodame Cantabile for the ‘Anime of the Year 2007’ title. With the sport genre handicap, can this anime do what countless other 2007 titles has failed to do and dislodge Nodame Cantabile off its perch?

The main male protagonist with his woman.

Story:-
A dorky yet overdramatic high-schooler enrolls into his school’s cycling club despite not knowing how to ride a bicycle, and in the end, he becomes a Tour de France winner. This anime shows what happened in-between, and that’s about it.

This anime starts slowly before the pace picks up when the tournament arc of this anime started. In fact, this anime only gets going at that part. The story itself is dull before the tournament but the quality becomes better as the plot developed far more quickly during the tournament compared to the first 10 episodes that precedes the tournament arc. Just like Saki, this anime uses flashbacks to manage the flow of the story and also do character development, but usage of this plot device is not as flawless as the ones in Saki. For example, flashbacks in episode 13 and 20 disrupts the pacing and the story’s flow, but the ones in episode 14 and 19 (I believe) are done very well. The absence of the exaggerations found in Saki also helps this anime immensely.

Character development is definitely the major positive point of this anime. Some factors conveniently shore up character developments in this anime, like the fact that bicycle road race is one of the most physically demanding sport in the world, plus the fact that at the start of the anime the main male protagonist is a weakling that cannot even do PE classes well. With this situation in place at the start of the anime, the viewers will be able to see the rapid transformation from a completely untalented normal high-schooler to a promising bicycle road racer in Japan, using the commonly seen ‘protagonist become better in his/her sport by sheer hard work, unbreakable spirit and unwillingness to give up’ plot; common in this genre. This alone is an incentive for any fans of Japan’s sport-genre anime to put this title in their watch-list. In this regard, this anime is not too far behind Capeta.

The ending of this anime is not only written very well, but was also presented flawlessly. Having one whole episode to tie up every loose ends is a masterstroke by the director. Unfortunately, there is no second season for this anime though.

The main male protagonist dropping his pants in front of his woman.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is decent enough, especially designs for female characters. In this anime’s version of Japan, brown-haired people vastly outnumbers those with black hairs.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is generally good, with outstanding gigs from the main male protagonist himself and his blonde club’s captain.

Music:-
All OP/ED themes in this anime are good especially the 2nd ED theme. The same thing can also be said for the OST. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

When the main male protagonist's woman is not around, his classmates will also do well as replacements.

Animation/Direction:-
While the animation quality for normal scenes is passable, the ones for fast-paced scenes (like the ones in the race) are almost always mediocre, and sometimes can be downright terrible. Some racing scenes are done in CGI and they are much better. Integration between 2D and CGI scenes are not exactly seamless though. Choreography in action scenes in this anime, especially in the tournament arc are great. The directing is good, especially when doing the presentation of the ending and there is also some nifty camera tricks in some rainy racing scenes.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Nodame Cantabile successfully defended its title for the umpteenth time.

There are plenty of grimacing faces in this anime.

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

Review: Saki (咲-Saki-)

Posted by ranpha on 7th October 2009

Posted in: anime review, sport genre standard. Tagged: Saki (咲-Saki-). 1 comment

The title protagonist and one of the best characters in this anime.

The moment of truth has arrived, and today the inaugural ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title holder will be chosen. Two of the initial candidates has already been reviewed, and you can read what I have to say about them here and here. As mentioned in the K-On review, the sport anime Saki is the last candidate that I will review before the winner is chosen. Being an anime that revolves around mahjong, the sport genre standard handicap will be applied in the scoring. Can Saki stops Wolf and Spice 2 from running away with the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title? Read on to find out the result.

This explains why there are lots of Saki hentai doujins at TokyoTosho. I have always wondered why, but after watching this anime, now I knows. There is also a similar character in Shion no Ou, but she was not exploited unlike the character above.

Story:-
The title protagonist Saki Miyanaga, a first-year high schooler who is good at mahjong but hated the game (sounds familiar?) was forced by her friend from middle school to play a game in the mahjong school club. There, she meets the middle-school mahjong prodigy Nodoka Haramura and after a chain of events, the protagonist joins the club. As expected from a high-school sport anime, both of them vows to win the the prefecture tournament so that their club can qualify to the nationals (if you are not familiar with this kind of stories, you need to watch more Japan’s sports anime titles).

As mentioned above, the overall story in this anime is very typical for its genre, especially the ones that involves middle/high school students. We have the usual cliché-laden made-up reasons on why a given characters has to get to the nationals at all costs, then we also have the obligatory ‘training camp’ sessions (there are a couple of them here) and of course we have the tournaments where anime of this kind revels upon. Of course, a generic sports anime will not be complete without overexaggerations, and Saki delivers them in abundance. I thought Japan anime/manga industry has already left these kind of exaggerations behind to the last century, but they make their comebacks with a vengeance in this 2009 title.

Regular readers of this blog may compare this anime with the recently reviewed Shion no Ou, but actually IMHO this anime is more similar to Umisho. Why is that? This is because both of them are sports anime titles (although Umisho is not subject under the sport genre standard handicap because it was reviewed before I watch Capeta) and also both of them has lots of fan service. The huge amount of fan service in this anime far exceeds of Umisho’s; in fact you will be forgiven if you think that this anime is an adaptation of a dating simulation game (which seems to be common nowadays) instead of a sport manga.The fan service is not a bad thing though, and I really likes them. The quality of the stories in those two anime titles are comparable, but the yuri genre influence in this anime (yuri genre anime titles like Strawberry Panic are the ones that I actively avoid like a plague) drags this anime’s quality down. Of course, that’s simply a matter of preferences; you may like it, but I don’t.

Tantalizingly very short skirts like this one (very short even for non-hentai Japanese anime titles standard) are just one of the fan-service you can see in this anime.

Nevertheless, despite the average quality of the story in this anime, the presentation are excellent. One notable aspect of the presentation of this anime is the excellent usage of flashbacks. Let me warn you first, this anime has shitloads of flashbacks inside; combined, they can easily take up one-third of this anime’s airtime. They are used for many purposes, usually to advance the storyline but more often than not, to do character introductions and developments for characters that are not the students in the same school where the title protagonist is studying. Poor usage of this literary device has sunk many anime titles I have watched before, but here, even with the humongous amount of flashbacks, there are zero impact upon the anime’s story developments although the pacing may have been slowed down quite a bit during tournament episodes. The director really has done his/her job well.

Character developments in this anime are also done very well, with the title protagonist and her pink-haired big-breasted yuri-friend being the best of them all. Those flashbacks really helps at creating many likeable personified characters, either from the protagonist’s own club or the ones from rival schools. The ending is structured to accommodate a second season, which I think this anime should get. Umisho also has the same structured ending but there are no news of a new installment yet, so I hope Saki is not be left hanging just like that, because I want to know what will happen at the nationals.

One of the 'unique' character designs in this anime. Oh BTW, she is not blind, but there is a sharingan beneath those closed eyelids that she will use when in a pinch in a mahjong game.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime is good and, well, unique. This anime is a story about women mahjong, but the designs in this anime are done as if to distract the viewers from the the fact that this anime is a mahjong anime. The pink-haired girl with gigantic breasts and that girl who closed her right eyes are some of the examples I am talking about.Black hair are rare in this anime, most of them are for secondary characters only.

Chihara Minori has really done an excellent job voicing an insane character that scares people like the rich blonde girl above.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is excellent in general, if you exclude the two main protagonists (these two are stupidly average). The taco lover (Rie Kugimiya), the rich blonde girl (Chihara Minori) and the girl who can become invisible (Momoko Saito) are three outstanding characters in this aspect. Chihara Minori really impressed me with her gig here, I never thought she can voice a pompous yet hyperactive character like that. At first, I thought the rich blonde girl was voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro (the rich blonde girl character is similar to the rich purple-haired girl in Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun voiced by her) but it turns out that I am wrong. Chihara Minori’s gig here is better than what she has done in Haruhi Suzumiya. Maybe, just like Mamoru Miyano, she has found her niche? Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Some good monologues from another character with excellent voice acting.

Music:-
A positive point for this anime; the OST is good, and so are the OP/ED themes except the 2nd ED.

Even when just used as metaphors, these kinds of overexaggerations are simply over the top and eventually wears me down.

Animation/Direction:-
The quality of the animation is good, even in fast-paced scenes. Unlike the more mundane Shion no Ou, there are choreography in this mahjong anime, and they are quite good. Where else can you see magical girls appearing just after a character put a tile down on the table (I am looking at you the rich blonde girl). And of course, fires or lightning that emanates from the tiles as the characters swings their hand to put them on the table (almost everyone else). The directing is excellent, especially for the flashback management feats I have mentioned above.

When high-school female students plays mahjong in Japan, lightning comes out from their eyes to scare the wit out of their opponents.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. With this, I hereby declared that Wolf and Spice 2 is the first holder of ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title.

Also in Japan, high school female students who plays mahjong also wears jerseys, like football players.

Review: Shion no Ou (しおんの王)

Posted by ranpha on 20th September 2009

Posted in: anime review, sport genre standard. Tagged: Shion no Ou (しおんの王). Leave a Comment

The silent main protagonist.

My mission to reduce the glut of anime titles I haven’t watched continues, with a 2007 anime titled Shion no Ou. I watched this one purely because the title is similar to the previous anime I watched before this one. Being an anime aired in 2007 in Japan, it will compete with Nodame Cantabile for ‘Anime of the Year 2007’ title but because this anime is a sport anime, it will be at a disadvantage because the sport genre handicap will be applied here.

Story:-
Our main female silent protagonist is an elementary school student who aspires to become professional shougi player. She, who lost her parents in a murder case, entered a long-running open shougi tournament (it lasts for three-fourths of the series) with lucrative prize money on offer as she is about to find out who is the culprit in the murder of her parents.

The story in this anime is quite good actually, even if you don’t really know what shougi is all about. Storytelling techniques usually associated with the sport genres makes their appearances, where the protagonist becomes better in each match she played and eventually surpassing everyone at the end. Her power-ups seems to come mostly during her games only, using literary devices such as flashbacks etc. which is quite unbalanced compared to titles such as Eyeshield 21 (the hero there can ‘upgrade’ during off-game events).

Accompanying the main story is a significant subplot that involves the mystery of her parents’ murder case. The subplot is very well-written, even I cannot predict the outcome until after all cards has been shown by the writer. Then, the main story and the murder subplot are combined perfectly to give the viewers a great package. Furthermore, as a bonus, there is virtually no romance at all in this series, ensuring that there will be no unnecessary distractions from the core of the anime.

Pacing and the flow of the story are quite good, except for some moments right after the second half of the anime has started (episode 15 and 16 has fluidity problems). Character development is not a strong point of the anime, where the only outstanding character here is the protagonist and, to a lesser extent, her cross-dressing blue-haired friend. The ending is good too, with the climax being the showdown between the protagonist and the murderer of her parents. < ----- SPOILER ALERT!

Character Design:-
Just like the character development, character design in this anime is simply average. The protagonist has overly big eyes like the one mentioned in Hatenkou Yuugi, but far less creepy. Too few people has black hair in the modern Japan setting.

Voice Acting:-
Too bad that the protagonist is a card-carrying mute, so most of the dialogues (or almost all of them) are done by supporting characters. Generally, just like the character design, voice acting in this anime is average at best. Notable voice acting jobs involves the aforementioned blue-haired guy/girl (cancel where appropriate) and also his/her mentor that sounded like a bad-ass creepy antagonist.

Music:-
A major positive aspect for this anime. The OST and the OP/ED themes in this anime are excellent.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is good when the series started, but I can’t help but notice that during the last third of the series, the quality has markedly dropped. Not only that, the drawing also suffers during the same time frame, which contributes to the lukewarm character design comments above. Considering shougi is not a sport that involves action, there will be no choreography comment here.

The director has done very well doing his/her job, as explained in my comments in the story section above.

Conclusion:-
9 out of 10. An excellent score despite the sport genre handicap. One more point and a replacement for Nodame Cantabile as ‘Anime of the Year 2007’ would have been born.

The prelude to a hot steaming moment between the cunning master and the naive student of his.