STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!

Anime titles within this category used a nausea-inducing blurry animation techniques that pisses me off. It look like motion interpolation algorithm going SERIOUSLY BAD.

Review: Gosick (ゴシック)

Posted by ranpha on 28th July 2011
Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: . Leave a Comment


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

The ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition ends today with the longest anime series in list, titled Gosick. A detective anime title that takes place somewhere in Europe after World War One, is the hype that surrounds this anime really deserved. Will it be able to stop Highschool of the Dead OVA from winning the audition?

Well, the answer to the latter question is a ‘no’, for various reasons. Read on to know more about those reasons…

Story:-
The main male protagonist was sent to a certain fictional European country as an exchange student in a prestigious school. Avoided by his classmates because of his perfectly normal black hair and eyes, he inadvertently meets with a snobbish little girl with blonde hair whose pout-per-minute rate makes Cristiano Ronaldo looks good. Suddenly, out of nowhere, another blond-haired man appears and the main male protagonist was dragged into solving crimes, mostly homicides, that happened around the country.

This anime has the same general structure as Tantei Gakuen Q does, where the main protagonist solve mysteries (mostly homicides of course) while the prevailing plot slowly developed in the background before coming up to the fore later. One advantage this anime has over Tantei Gakuen Q is that the prevailing plot of the former actually finished while you have to read the manga to finish off the latter.

Storywise, this anime starts off with the wrong foot. The very first case in this anime is about the murder of a fortune teller, and when the inspector described the crime scene scenario, I correctly guessed the identity of the person who kills the fortune teller before the main female protagonist does. It is not that I am smarter than the main female protagonist is, but I managed to guess correctly because I recognize the scene right away as a variation of a certain murder case in Kindaichi Shounen no Jikembo manga (written by the same person who also does Tantei Gakuen Q). That particular case left me with a rather bad first impression for this anime.

But the main female protagonist recovers after that with some decent performances in cases that comes after the fortune teller case, aided in only small parts by the main male protagonist and also the inspector in equal measures. Suddenly, the good work built up after the first case crumbles again right at the end of the Gray Wolf village arc, where character developments for the two main protagonists were advanced in a method that shouldn’t be used.


Not only the bridge collapsed in this scene, but so are the suspension of disbelief.

See the image above? This anime has done what the other 10 titles in the ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition has failed to do, and that would be the destruction of suspension of disbelief. Infinite Stratos maybe is a bad anime title, but even it doesn’t do what this anime does as depicted in the screenshot above. How on earth a small girl, whose body mass and weight are lesser than the main male protagonist, support the weight of the main male protagonist? With only one hand to boot? This scene may be very important in character developments, but I think it should have been written differently. The inspector is there too, and so is the other escaped Gray Wolf guy. For example, one of the guys could have been the one who saved the main male protagonist, while the main female protagonist cried her heart out beside the savior. That hypothetical scene would have been more cheesier, but at least that would have been more believable.

After that scene, this anime doesn’t repeat any of those major mistakes again until the end. Of course, in episode 18, the poisoning case resembles another one of the cases in Kindaichi Shounen no Jikembo, but at least the perpetrator isn’t outed before the main female protagonist does the accusing herself. The main female protagonist really shined in the case of the beheaded queen, which is definitely the best case of the show, and is also where the prevailing plot has truly comes to the fore. Unlike the beginning of the series, the ending is superb, definitely the best ending within all the anime titles reviewed in this ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition. If Japan is smart, they will not do a second season. Suppress the urge to milk this anime for more money, and let this anime ends on a high.

Still, if you ask me, Tantei Gakuen Q arguably has better and more difficult homicide cases, and a better prevailing plot too. This have to do with the fact that the main antagonist in this anime is nowhere as cunning, crueler or menacing as his counterpart is in Tantei Gakuen Q. This anime doesn’t have one single ‘closed room’ case though, which is a very good thing considering the setting, although as usual, most of the cases are homicides.

The presentation in this anime is really good; the pacing is spot-on and the prevailing plot flows to the surface perfectly. Character developments is another thing this anime does very well. The two main protagonists are also the best characters in this anime, and they has transformed a lot throughout the course of the series. That inspector, the bumbling teacher and the other transfer student also has done fairly well in this regard.


The main female protagonist’s sidekick.

Character Design:-
Character design in this anime is decent but not spectacular. Understandably, there are no black hairs in this anime set up in Europe except for the main male protagonist.

Voice Acting:-
Being a dialogue-heavy anime title in nature, unfortunately the voice acting in this series is mixed bag at best. The main female protagonist voice actress has done a good job, but not so for the main male protagonist’s. Same can be applied for the rest of the side characters as well.

Music:-
The only good thing this anime has in this aspect is the first ED theme. The OST and the rest of the OP/ED themes are not really good.

Animation/Direction:-
Any hopes that this anime have of preventing Highschool of the Dead OVA from winning the audition evaporates once I seen the first few scenes that has the blurry animation technique applied. One point docked from the final evaluation, therefore it will not have any chance at all to get a perfect score.

Other than that, overall animation in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography for action scenes is just ordinary though. The director really has done a good job for the presentation aspect of the anime though, although it is very hard to overlook that certain cliffhanger (literally) scene.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. With this, Highschool of the Dead OVA becomes the first winner of this blog ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ title. Look at the sidebar on how the titles in the audition are ranked from top to bottom.

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

Review: Kore wa Zombie desu ka? (これはゾンビですか？)

Posted by ranpha on 15th July 2011
Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: . 2 comments


The main male protagonist, also the best character in this anime, wielding a personalized melee weapon that is popular in that zombie apocalypse multiplayer game Left 4 Dead 2.

In the last post, I’ve implied that Gosick is going to be the penultimate entry in the currently running ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition, but I’ve changed my mind and watched Kore wa Zombie desu ka? instead. I’ve heard good things about Gosick, especially from my family members, so let’s wait until the final entry of the audition to see whether the hype it has is really justified.


An apt title-defying description for the main male protagonist. Zombies? What zombies?

Story:-
The main title male protagonist was murdered by a serial killer when he tried to play hero to save a potential victim, and was reanimated into a zombie by a necromancer so that he can have his revenge. While searching for the serial killer, he inadvertently stole the magical powers from a monster-hunting magical girl. With his newfound abilities, he has to fight monsters too while biding his time for his revenge.

The storyline in this anime is surprisingly solid, especially for the first 6 episodes. The plot then peters out somewhat after that (the regression isn’t as bad as Fractale though), but the next 5 episodes will still make for a decent watch. The best parts of this anime comes when the main title MALE protagonist become a mahou shoujo. Despite the title of this anime, the zombie part of him is less important than his mahou shoujo part. In fact, his magical powers is his best trump card in battles, not the superhuman strength and immortality that zombification offered him. He doesn’t really accomplished anything with his zombie abilities alone, he usually has to transform to combine his zombie abilities with magic to achieve his goals. Note that his weakness to sunlight suddenly goes away after he switched modes.


His mahou shoujo mode is much more powerful than his zombie abilities.

Oh by the way, he has his own full transformation routine too, which even  Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica doesn’t have. This title may have more similarities to the mahou shoujo genre than the latter. This series has 13 episodes (I watch the unaired episode too), but the final 2 episodes are just fillers and you should probably skip them. This really applies for episode 12 which is just awful.

This anime truly ends at episode 11, and I feel that it is just average after the anime peaks at episode 6. The ending is structured to accommodate a second season, with some thing has been left unresolved. The presentation in this anime is excellent, if you ignore the final two episodes. The pacing is spot on throughout the first 11 episodes, and the flow of the story is seamless within the same time frame too. The final two episodes really tarnished the otherwise good overall package this anime would have had if the two final episodes doesn’t exist.

Unfortunately, unlike the presentation, the character developments in this anime is only mixed bag at best. The main title male protagonist is the best character in this anime in this regard, and actually I do think that he has more potential left unexplored. He only use one (grossly misleading) magical technique throughout the series after all. To a lesser extent, the same can also be said for the girl whose power the main title male protagonist has stolen. If this anime will ever have its own romantic moments, she and the main title protagonist has the highest chances of being paired up. The main female protagonist’s character development is static throughout the series (and to think her airtime is quite large too), while the two vampire ninjas performed only a little teeny bit better than she is.


One of the things he does in battles while in mahou shoujo mode.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is typical for the genre, and black hairs are rare in this Tokyo-based title. It is just me who think that the main title male protagonist’s hair become lighter and lighter as each episode goes by?

Voice Acting:-
My main beef with the voice acting in this anime is the different voice actresses used for nearly each episode for the main female protagonist. She may be mute the way main protagonist of Shion no Ou does, but the difference voices used in those delusional fantasies of the main  title male protagonist are too inconsistent for my liking.

Otherwise, in general, voice acting in this anime is decent, but there are no outstanding gig(s) by any of the voice actors. At least no one does a sub-par job here though.

Music:-
The OP theme is decent and the OST is good but the ED theme is forgettable.

Animation/Direction:-
Japan reverts to its newly-found bad ways and used the blurry animation techniques in this anime, although surprisingly, only in slow-paced scenes like just like what is done in Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!! (long titles like this is another thing Japan needs to cut down in usage – it makes writing reviews harder). It is non-existent in fast-paced scene, unlike the ones seen in Yumekui Merry or Infinite Stratos for example. Still, this anime cannot avoid having one point docked from its final evaluation.

Character animations in this anime is not up to par when compared to some other titles in the audition, like Fractale or The World God Only Knows S2, but general animation is solid, even in fast-paced scenes. Integration between 2D and CGI is seamless. Choreography in action scenes is just average. The directing is flawless, with no problems in presentation.


Being a magical girl is truly a very hazardous job to be in.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. The next entry in this blog will be the conclusion for the ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition. Gosick will have a great chance to do so if only it avoids using the blurry animation technique, else Highschool of the Dead OVA will become the inaugural winner of the title.

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

Review: The World God Only Knows II (神のみぞ知るセカイⅡ)

Posted by ranpha on 7th July 2011
Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: , . 7 comments


The main male protagonist, still the best character in this anime.

In my previous post, I’ve mentioned that I will add Gosick to replace either Fractale or Moshidora in the ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition, with the decision of ‘which one to be replaced’ to be made by the time this post was made. Well, Moshidora is out and not only Gosick comes in, but also the second season of The World God Only Knows series that will be reviewed today. The review for the first season is located here, which you should read before continuing with this post. My motivation for choosing this anime for the 8th review in the ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition is actually the same as why I watched Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!! (that particular animation technique), therefore read on to see whether this second season has it or not.


And the sweet-talking motherf*ck*r ensnared yet another victim in this brand new season.

Story:-
Continuing from the first season where the main male protagonist has to charm his way into the hearts of 4 girls to extract demon souls out of them, he now has to do the same with another 3 girls. Plus, he also has to deal with a brand new demon character that is plagued with crisis of confidence.

Apparently the info I mentioned in the review of the first season that there will be 5 girls in the second season is wrong. There are only 4 girls in this season inclusive of the new female demon. This is definitely a good thing for the second season because it exclude the girl with the worst conquering arc in the manga in the time of writing. There is a bad news though, a third season of this series probably not come, which means that the best conquering arc in the manga will not be animated either.

And just like what I have mentioned in my review of the first season, I’ve said that the arcs in this second season will be inferior to the first one. This indeed has turned out to be correct, with the best arc in this season (Chihiro’s arc) is nowhere as good as the first season’s best arc (Shiori’s arc). Well, that’s to be expected if the manga is any indication, but what I found weird is that the extensive improvisation seen in the first season are not duplicated in this season. This means that none of the arcs animated in the second season will be able to improve the way Kanon’s arc does in the first season (the manga arc is just average, the anime version is better) has managed to.


This scene isn’t in the manga.

It doesn’t mean that there are no changes between the arcs in the anime and their corresponding arcs in the manga version, it is just they are very minimal, maybe some changes to some dialogues and minor scene changes or deletions. The first arc in the second season is a testament for this phenomenon, where the differences between the two version are minimal. Unlike in the first season, the conquered characters in the second season doesn’t use their mini-chapters omake, which for me is another part where the second season has regressed from the first one. But what hasn’t changed between the two seasons is the spot-on pacing and also the smooth plot developments within the arc itself. Actually I feared that the pacing may be quickened because of minimal improvisations and lack of omake adaptations, but this isn’t the case fortunately.

Just like in the first season, the second season also made references to other games and anime or manga et. al. as seen in the screenshot below. Plus, the anime also animated some (but not all) of the manga filler chapters that is seen straddling the 4 manga main arcs in the second season. The final episode was capped with a teaser consisting of characters that will never be animated, but then again the ending was structured to accommodate a new season. I heard that there will an OVA, but that’s it. No third season planned.

Character development has improved compared to the first season, even if the prevailing plot hasn’t appeared yet. The main male protagonist (still the best character in this series) has more meaningful character development than he was in the first season, especially in that student teacher arc. The main female protagonist also has more of then compared to the first season, especially during the Haqua arc. The lack of a third season means that all character developments will stop prematurely then, which is a pity because the gains made by the main male protagonist in this season would have been useful in a certain arc down on the road.


A Nintama Rantarou parody. This is a very good comedy ninja title.

Character Design:-
My comment from the same section of the first season review still applies.

Voice Acting:-
The main male protagonist voice actor is more consistent now than he was in the first season, while the main female protagonist has no improvement at all. As for the girls, only the voice actresses for the karate girl and the student teacher are good (the latter is the outstanding performer in this season), while the voice actresses for the other two girls are falling behind them. A regression from the first 4 girls whose performances are uniformly good.

Music:-
The multi-genre OST in this series is one of the defining aspects of the whole series, and it is still as good as ever without any regression at all. Unfortunately, you cannot say the same thing about ALL the OP/ED themes and also the insert songs. At least a couple of songs from the first season is actually good, while none of them is in this second season.


The first season doesn’t have this shit! Why Japan?

Animation/Direction:-
Just like Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!, the main reason why I watched this anime (my original plan is to watch it a few months in the future at least) is to prevent a sixth consecutive title being categorized under the blurry animation technique tag. After all, the first season doesn’t use it either, just like the first season of Highschool of the Dead. Unfortunately, as shown in the screenshot above, the second season for this series DOES USE IT. As usual, one point will be docked off the final evaluation of this anime.

Sixth consecutive anime titles and running. When will this madness stop?

Ignoring the regression above, animation quality in this second season is still good, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography now exists in the second season, but they are just average. The director is guilty of not repeating the great quality-inducing improvisation methods he used in first season, but still managed to keep the presentation aspects okay.


It is just unfortunate for the fans of this series (me included) that we will not see further collaboration of this two characters being animated in the future.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Inferior storyline when compared to what you can see in the first season, and the usage of the blurry animation technique means that the second installment of The World God Only Knows series is going to be inferior to its predecessor.


And it is also unfortunate for me personally, to not being able to see the best conquering arc in the manga version of this series, being animated in the future.

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

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