Review: Ga Rei -Zero- (喰霊-零-)

Posted by ranpha on 11th March 2011
Posted in: anime review. Tagged: . 2 comments


A scene that will not be out of place in Highschool of the Dead. There are no zombies here though.

Today’s review is going to be for a typical shounen anime titled Ga-Rei –Zero-, a 2008 title that has no hope whatsoever to dethrone the current ‘Anime of the Year 2008’ title holder One Outs. But what isn’t typical for this anime is that this anime is a prequel for the manga with almost the same name, Ga-Rei. Usually, a manga-based anime mostly followed the plots laid out in the manga, with various degrees of creative licenses being applied, kinda like what you can see in Giant Killing and The World God Only Knows. But here, this manga-based anime will tell you what happened before the events in the manga takes place.

The manga this anime is based upon is not a title in my reading list before watching this anime, therefore I also helped myself to read a few volumes of the manga after I finished watching this anime. This is because I want to know why a prequel anime was made instead of a typical manga-adapted anime series. That’s the reason why this review comes up later than it could have been. A few interesting things reveals themselves after watching the anime and reading the manga, read on to see what they are.

Story:-
The modern-day Japan is infested with ghosts, demons and things like that, therefore the government uses tax-payer money and created a covert exorcism squad under, of all ministries, the Ministry of Environment (the other exorcism squad under the Ministry of Defense made more sense). The two main protagonists are part of the setup, but one of them was lured to the dark side by the promise of limitless power. This prequel anime shows you how the conversion process unfolds, you know, like what you can see in the Star Wars prequel trilogy?

The story in this anime itself is quite decent. It begins with plenty of fast-paced action scenes before the main storyline started. The flow of the story is smooth but the pacing is slow for a shounen genre title. I have to mention that the plots are predictable though. This also applies to the ending, which is set up to be continued by reading the manga. The main male protagonist in the manga doesn’t appear at all, except in a single scene in the final episode. FWIW, despite the slow pacing and predictable plots, this anime by itself isn’t really a bad one to watch.

Then I went ahead and read the manga. For clarification, I read the manga all the way until the part where the main female protagonist of this anime that turned to the dark side (let’s call her ‘Miss Anakin’ for convenience sake) finally meets her end. Surprisingly, it doesn’t really take much reading to reach that part, and I will elaborate on this later. And this is where my beefs for this anime originates.

My first problem with this anime is that the writer of this prequel anime doesn’t keep enough consistency between the elements in the manga and events in the prequel anime version. When the manga made references to the events in this anime (with the flashbacks thingy of course), there are times I exclaimed to myself ‘Hey, that isn’t what the anime has actually shown to me!’. For example, when the manga/anime other main female protagonist explains who Miss Anakin is to our clueless main male protagonist, she describes Miss Anakin in very flattering terms (e.g. she likened Miss Anakin as her father’s equal when in the anime Miss Anakin wasn’t portrayed to be so). Plus, some flashbacks in the manga are depicted differently in prequel anime too, like the battle between Miss Anakin and the main female protagonist’s mentor father. Considering that the manga comes out first before the prequel, any discrepancies between these two will be squarely blamed on the anime.

My second problem with this anime would be the disproportionate amount of importance placed on Miss Anakin, and as a whole, in the storyline itself. This by itself is fine, IF YOU DON’T READ THE MANGA. The storyline in this anime focused more upon Miss Anakin than the other main protagonist, and this will highly likely make you think that she will become a prominent character in the manga. But after I read the manga, it dawns to me that her role in this series (prequel anime + manga) is actually less important than the prequel anime made her to be.

This may be caused by the combination of the facts that the manga itself isn’t really a great piece of storytelling (I’ll put my neck on the open and says that this manga isn’t even Naruto’s level), plus the Tengu resurrection arc, which seen the demise of Miss Anakin, is underwhelming at best (not on par for example with Bleach’s Soul Society arc). For me, she dies too early for my liking, before the potential of her character has been fully explored. Here, you have a 12-episode anime series that focused on her more than any other character, yet in about 3 manga tankoubons, she died. If the Star Wars comparison is used, it is like Darth Vader dying in ‘A New Hope’ instead of ‘Return of the Jedi’.

But then again, I have not read the manga past the Tengu resurrection arc, and I have no plan to in the near future. Who knows if the writer of this anime suddenly channels Akira Toriyama and plays the resurrection card further down the manga storyline. Despite me not liking what happening to Miss Anakin, I don’t want her to come back to life either.

Character development is actually the biggest positive aspect this anime has. After all, the plots in this prequel are supposed to prepare the two main protagonists for the real story that would be told in the manga. In this regard, this anime has done really well here, and continuation from the ending by the manga are done largely seamlessly. Not only that the two main protagonists (these two characters are also the best in this anime, at least) benefits from this prequel good character development strategies, but so are some of the other side characters like that guy who used to be Miss Anakin fiancée.


What he says is correct in so many levels. These two girls should have learned their true place.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime is quite decent, although they are not exactly original. Black hairs are surprisingly common too, which can only be good considering the settings of this series. The anime’s character designs looks better too than the corresponding designs in the manga.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting gigs in this anime is just average in general. The only good voice acting gig in this anime is the blue butterflies kid, but he has too little airtime for him to ever make voice acting gigs in this anime sounds better.

Music:-
The OST and the ED theme are not worth talking about, only the OP theme is something worth listening to.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. This anime also has better integration of CGI and traditional animation, unlike the previous title reviewed here in this blog. Choreography in action scenes is very impressive too, even eclipsing what you can see in Katanagatari. The director has done very good job on this anime’s presentation aspects, but he/she should have ensured that this prequel anime is consistent with the manga.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. One Outs is still the best 2008 anime reviewed in this blog. If you have read the manga, you should avoid watching this anime though.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-mo

Review: Giant Killing (ジャイアントキリング)

Posted by ranpha on 28th February 2011
Posted in: anime review, sport genre standard, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: . 2 comments


The Mourinho-like main protagonist, also one of the best characters in this anime.

It has been quite some time since I reviewed a sport genre title in this blog (the last one is for Ookiku Furikabutte S2 in August last year), therefore today I will review one of them in the form of the deceptively-titled Giant Killing, an anime about soccer football management. And because this is a sport anime title, the sport genre handicap will also be applied here, as usual. This is a surprisingly solid 2010 title, therefore will we see a new successor to Katanagatari as the new ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ holder? You will know the answer after reading the whole review.


And this is him with the club’s mascot.

Story:-
After scaring Portsmouth FC shitless during the round of 32 of the FA Cup, our main protagonist returns to Japan and take the reins of the fictional J-League team East Tokyo United (ETU), a small team where he has a spell as a player in the past. He then used his somewhat unorthodox managerial abilities to push the underachieving football team up the ladder against the established teams of Japanese footballing world. 

Actually, when I first downloaded this anime, I literally thought that the title explained itself story-wise, where a bunch of adventurers are trying to kill giants to protect the local village/township/kingdom/continent/world, in a setting like the one in The Sacred Blacksmith. Instead, what we got here are ‘giant killings’ that can be epitomized in last night’s Birmingham’s win against Arsenal in the 2011 Carling Cup Final (I finished watching this anime mere hours before that game started) or to a lesser extent (and probably more relevant), when Wolverhampton Wanderers defeated Manchester United earlier in the 2010 –2011 league season. If there is an award for misleading titles, this anime is certainly a shoo-in candidate for it. But this is not a negative point aspect for this anime at all.



Some people in the club structure has their own misgivings about the brand-new manager…

The story itself is quite unique for its genre, mainly because the main character doesn’t play the game portrayed in this anime, instead he is only the coach/manager of the team. Maybe there are other sports manga/anime titles that is alike to this one, but this anime is the first ever title I watched that uses such a premise. Plus, while the main character himself is the schemer of the tactics and strategies and not the executor of those plans, you must have thought that he is a scheming genius in the mould of main protagonists of One Outs and Akagi. But that isn’t true either, which not only made this anime more believable and accessible, but also less predictable than most of its peers. In addition to that, this football anime doesn’t involve the usual middle/high school football team trying to qualify to the nationals, but this anime can still be qualified as a shounen, unlike One Outs is.

In short, this anime has a very solid plot. You can see the main protagonist handle the dysfunctional team members, the media, the board room and also the club’s Ultras too. There is also some influence from that 'Dream Team' drama series too here. Another plus point for this anime is there are no romance at all in the storyline. No distractions at all for the main protagonist as he worked his magic on the hapless relegation-threatened East Tokyo United.


…but only this bald center-back, also one of the best characters in this anime, dares to publicly air his justified grievances about the new manager.

For presentation, the pacing of the story of this anime is slow, mainly because of the nature of the story. The flow of the story is flawless though, with absolutely no transitions problems unlike the previous anime reviewed here before this one. Also unlike many sports manga/anime out there, there are no over-the-top over-exaggerated techniques either, which also makes this anime more realistic. Spoken foreign languages are common in this anime, and this anime performed much better in this regard when compared to the ‘poster boy of bad spoken Engrish’ in the form of Koukaku no Regios. But the way Portuguese Brazilian was spoken in this anime has some Korean-dialect twang in it, which is quite funny.


Foreign languages in this anime are spoken with reasonable quality.

Excellent character developments is almost always one of the best traits that a sport anime title has, and this anime is not an exception. But actually, the main protagonist has static character development strategies, which means he is the same person from the first episode to the end. Despite of that, he is definitely one of this anime’s best characters, mainly because of his methods of coaxing the players in his football club to do things he wants without telling them his intentions in full. Some players benefits greatly because of this, causing them to have excellent character developments, such the no.7 midfielder and the bald center-back. These two characters are also the best characters in this anime.


Holy crap, is he channeling the current Kenny Dalglish’s Liverpool side?

Still, you can plainly see that this anime is still unfinished in that aspect, therefore THIS ANIME NEEDS A SECOND SEASON. There are still huge amount of room for characters developments in this anime (especially for the no.11), and so are for the storyline. The football season in the anime is barely halfway anyway, and the club is still in the running in the cup competition. The ending is written to accommodate one anyway.


If Sir Red Nose is the one who managed this East Tokyo United, and he sees his players dawdling on the field of play just like above, these two players will be substituted pronto, in advance of some hair-dryer treatments.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is decent and most of the time, fits the characters that are portrayed. This really applies to the three best characters in this anime (the main protagonist, the no.7 midfielder and also the bald center-back). Black hairs are quite common in this modern Japan though. A positive aspect for this anime.


Somebody has to clue me in on how to spell his romanized name correctly. Is it Natsuki, or Natuki? Somehow, I gravitate to the latter…

Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this anime is decent, and not more. Only the bald center-back voice actor has something you can call a reasonable good gig. Nevertheless, there are no major weaknesses though, and as mentioned before, the foreign languages are spoken without those bastardization heard in Koukaku no Regios.


And that guy with a questionable name also perform some act of gayness ON THE PITCH!

Music:-
The OST is average, but the OP and ED themes (only one of each throughout the series) are excellent. The OP theme in particular is very catchy. A positive aspect of this anime.


The blurry animation technique in action, resulting in one point deduction from this anime’s final score. Really unhelpful considering that the sport genre handicap has also been applied to this anime.

Animation/Direction:-
Unfortunately for this anime, in some action scenes especially in matches, the abhorrent blurry animation technique are used in this title. Therefore, in addition of the sport genre handicap, one point will also be docked from this anime final evaluation.

Apart from that, the animation quality is decent enough, but it doesn’t integrate well with super smooth CGI animation quality, causing some awkward scenes where the mismatch of frame rates is easily apparent. Choreography is decent for a sport anime, thanks to the lack of over-exaggerated techniques. The directing is superb, being able to work well even in the slow pace of this anime.


The frame rate mismatch is really apparent in scenes like the one above. The ball is computer-generated, while the player is animated traditionally.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. If only this anime doesn’t  use the aforementioned blurry animation technique, the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ would have had a new winner. I haven’t decided what title I will watch next, you will have to wait and see in the next review (hopefully will come in the near future).


I’m pleasantly surprised to see that handbags swinging exists in J-League too, although I am concerned that J-League referees is too lenient for giving only a yellow for a straight red card offence in the Premier League.

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Review: Hakuouki Hekketsu-roku (薄桜鬼 碧血録)

Posted by ranpha on 17th February 2011
Posted in: anime review. Tagged: , . Leave a Comment


The main female protagonist who owned a harem full with swords-toting pretty boys.

This review of the 10-episode Hakuouki Hekketsu-roku, the sequel of Hakuouki reviewed here before, is so late mainly because of Chinese New Year and a little bit procrastinating on my side. As a recap, the first season has done fairly well before during the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition, and definitely the best reverse-harem title reviewed in this blog to date. So did the second season, which will also compete for the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title just like its predecessor did, continues building on the solid foundations that has already been laid? read on to find out.


She finally fulfill the reason why she comes to Kyoto in the first place.

Story:-
After the main female protagonist and her pretty boys entourage retreated from Kyoto, the Tokugawa Shogunate started to disintegrate while the era of the Meiji Restoration started to dawn in Japan. In the turmoil caused by the warring factions, she finally finds her missing father (and as an added bonus, her brother too) in tragic short-lived reunions. As history chiseled away the Shinsengumi group episode-by-episode, they has to fight monsters and demons too in addition of the imperial forces.

One thing that has definitely improved in the second season is the storyline. The fictional parts of this anime is more overt now than it is in the first season, and the only possible weakness in the plot is the appearance of the main female protagonist’s brother being too early for my liking. Actually, after learning that the second season only has 10 episodes, I feared that this anime will go the way of Hatenkou Yuugi (an extremely bad reverse harem title) but fortunately it didn’t. While it is all fine and dandy when it comes to storyline, the second season suffers a serious regression when it comes to presentation.


Considering the circumstances detailed in the first season, this character died too early for my liking.

In the first season, the anime’s pacing is quite decent if not a little bit fast because of the numerous time jumps, plus the flow of the story progression is basically flawless. But in the sequel, you cannot say the same thing for the presentation aspect of this title. The pacing in this sequel is faster than in the first, and because of it the improved storyline seems to be presented in a hurry. Events comes and goes faster than it is in the first season. This sets up a cascading chain reaction where the fast pacing also caused the flow of the storyline to be negatively affected.

A good example of this is the disconnects between the events of the main female protagonist brother’s death (in the first two episodes), the arrest and execution of the Shinsengumi leader (happened in the next two episodes) and also the death of the main female protagonist’s father (the next 3 episodes after it). Scene transition problems is really apparent in those cases, it is as if you are watching an episodic anime title. But this weakness is mitigated by the fact that the problem only happens in the fictional parts of the anime, not the historical parts of the storyline. The time jumps in this second season are still numerous as ever, but didn’t affect the anime negatively.

 
I’m pretty damn sure that the real Shinsengumi guys in our world doesn’t have to fight these guys.

Speaking about that, in my review of the first season, I did mention that I predict that the second season storyline will deviate from official history books. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen, and changes are restricted mostly on how some members of the Shinsengumi died. And those changes are most dictated by the emergence and resurgence of the fictional parts of this anime (consisted of parts like the main female protagonist and the Rasetsu monsters). The ending is good but ambiguous, but if you consider the way this anime treated its historical sources, it is not that hard to extrapolate what has really happened to the main male protagonist at the end. A few things left unfinished though, like what happened to the remaining two Shinsengumi members.


He is also not part of the canon history books.

Character developments in this anime has been improved compared to what happened in the first season, a great feat considering the lower numbers of episodes this anime has. Regardless whether a character is a Rasetsu or not, each and every one of them has decent airtime as the Shinsengumi numbers eventually wears down. Exceptions are the two characters I mentioned before which fate and whereabouts are unknown after the ending credits rolls in.

After watching all two season of this anime, IMO this is one of the better reverse harem titles out there; better than the likes of Ouran Koukou High School, La Corda D’Oro ~primo passo~ or Hatenkou Yuugi. If you have a thing for pretty boys and a penchant for documentaries, this is definitely a title for you.


The time jumps are still there in all its glory.

Character Design:-
My comment from the first season of this anime still applies.

Voice Acting:-
My comment from the first season of this anime still applies.

Music:-
Another part in this anime where improvements can actually be seen. The OST is still decent as it is in the first season, but in this season the OP/ED themes are actually good. The ED theme in particular is great.

Animation/Direction:-
For the animation and choreography parts, my comment from the first season of this anime still applies. But for the directing, the scene transition problems is a blip for the director.


Rain effects in this anime is better than the fake ones seen in Legend of Legendary Heroes and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. Same score as the first season, and therefore Katanagatari will still retain the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title for the time being. To know the next title I will watch, see the sidebar of this blog’s Facebook page. It is highly likely another 2010 anime title that should remain nameless until I started watching it.


Unfortunately for the audience, the anime doesn’t show what happened after this scene. Oh well, you have to settle for the Princess Lover OVA instead.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-kE

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