Review: Mayoi Neko Overrun! (迷い猫オーバーラン！)

Posted by ranpha on 22nd July 2010
Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: . Leave a Comment


The indecisive main male protagonist, dragging down this anime with his indecision.

The audition to select the first winner of ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title continues with my review of Mayoi Neko Overrun!, an anime where cat-girls doesn’t exist. There are lots of real cats though, which are not relevant to the storyline in any way. The bar set by the first entry in the audition is not that high but can this second entry of the audition surpassed it?

Story:-
Our main protagonist is a high-schooler who runs a middling cake shop while his foster sister, the true owner of the shop, is nowhere to be found. The business is bad, thanks to the uselessness of the part-timers that worked under him in the cake shop. His love interest doesn’t help matters either, as she shouts abuse at him 95% of the time (in addition of being equally inept as the protagonist’s subordinates). In the verge of bankruptcy, his sister reappeared alongside a mysterious girl who says ‘Ni’ ‘nyaa’ (that the main protagonist’s sister got by typing ‘!loli’ in #chihiro@irc.rizon.net).

!loli

This anime is similar, at least in form, to Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun reviewed here a long time ago, but with a crappier story and no supernatural elements. This anime has three phases: first phase involves the main protagonist meeting the mysterious girl (the title protagonist) who has some emo issues that need to be solved. In the second phase, this anime pulled an Index where the title protagonist was relegated as a secondary character while the whole main regular cast are doing their things episodically (mostly lame things but the Saki rip-off in episode 8 is one of the best parts this anime has). In the final phase a.k.a. the ending, this anime pulled another Index where the title protagonist reappeared to take a major part in the finale. The problem is, the dual-purpose ending sucks donkey asses.

IMO, this anime is pointless. What is the reason this anime was written anyway? Is it to see a romantic relationship developing between the main male protagonist and his childhood friend? If so, at the end of this anime the arc ends up inconclusive (still-friends neutral relationship between them). Is it to focus on the title protagonist (like Naruto is, and what Index should have been)? If so, her lack of character development due to the second part of this anime ensures that this particular story arc doesn’t go anywhere, even with the ending that focused on her. Is it to showcase the harem relationship between the main male protagonist and the other three regular female characters? If so, the indecision of the main male protagonist in choosing which character he wants to sleep with ruins the arc. Is it all of the above? Well, three failures doesn’t make one success story isn’t it?

ANN has classified this anime as a harem romantic comedy. This anime failed in the first two keywords, but somewhat successful with the third one. The humor in this anime are good overall. Not up there with Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu standard, but still good. This anime also make some references to other anime/manga, notably the aforementioned Saki in episode 8, and has the first ever One Piece parody I have ever seen.

The lethargic second phase of this anime messed with the pacing of the storyline (if you can guess which one it is), and also affects the overall character developments in this anime. Only two characters survived the damaging second phase, and that would be the main male protagonist and the rich girl. The latter is the best character in this anime mainly because she is a prominent figure in the second and final phase of the anime, therefore she has the highest rate of development here. The main male protagonist also has some decent (but lesser than the rich girl’s) character development, while the title protagonist only has a minuscule amount of them due to the final phase. The less said about the main female protagonist who are stagnant from the start until the end of this anime, the better.

Unlike Arakawa Under The Bridge, no second season has been announced for this anime yet. And I think things should be kept that way.


The best character in this anime, working hard to keep this anime up.

Character Design:-
Character design in this anime is your bog standard shounen genre designs with big eyes. The female characters doesn’t have any black hairs that is supposed to be common in real-life Japan. The main protagonist has it though. He is probably the only real Japanese in this anime cast.

Voice Acting:-
Voice in this anime is just average overall, but strangely for me I am drawn to the performance of the voice actress for the main female protagonist. Shouting your lines 95% of the time sure work some wonders.

Music:-
This anime has a near total failure in this aspect. Only the parody OP theme in episode 7 is decent. Everything else, from the official OP/ED themes and the OST are forgettable.

Animation/Direction:-
This anime is yet another title that uses the blurry animation techniques I have already mentioned before, and with this blog entry, the third consecutive titles that has it. I’m making a new blog category for this awful phenomenon that seems to have become increasingly common nowadays in Japan’s anime industry. Does all 2010 anime titles (or maybe majority) uses this technique? Thinking back in time, the first half of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood doesn’t use this technique either, only the second half (all aired in 2010) having it in spades. Unlike Fullmetal Alchemist and Arakawa Under The Bridge though, this anime doesn’t use the technique in normal scenes, only in fast-paced ones. Still, one point will be deducted from the final evaluation as I have done with the past titles that has it, and will do so too in the future.

The usage of the blurry animation technique is not the only problem this anime faced. One of the very first things I noticed when I started watching this anime is that the character animations are very jerky in fast-paced scenes. And unlike the blurry animation techniques, the jerky character animation problems also happened sometimes in normal scenes too. This is weird because general animations for non-character objects (such as cars or the helicopters etc.) are excellent even in fast–paced scenes. Integration between 2D animations (that is not character animations) and CGI animations is excellent too, definitely the best implementation I have seen to date.

Choreography is nonexistent in this anime, and that’s understandable. The directing could have been better, but they has done a better job than their counterpart in Ninomiya-kun.


This anime has far better rain effects than the amateurish pitiful job in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Conclusion:-
5 out of 10. Worse than the first candidate Arakawa Under The Bridge. I wonder whether the first ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ will win the title with a 10 out of 10 score. As an added insurance, I will add another 2010 title into the audition lineup, titled Durarara. That makes it ten 2010 anime titles that will compete for the title, with two of them already being reviewed. So what’s next? I’ll keep that a mystery!

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Review: Arakawa Under The Bridge (荒川アンダー ザ ブリッジ)

Posted by ranpha on 18th July 2010
Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: , . Leave a Comment


The main male protagonist and the best character in this anime.

The audition to select the first holder of the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title begins with my review of the first season of Arakawa Under The Bridge. This review will also allows me to take the beta version of the Windows Live Writer Wave 4 beta for a spin. A second season of this anime has already been announced, therefore below you will know if I think this anime deserved one or not.


The main male protagonist's new neighbors…

Story:-
A heir to the most powerful corporation in the world found himself pant-less on a bridge after a prank went too far. Trying to retrieve his pants from high atop a steel beam, his bad luck strikes again and he fell into the river. As he fought a losing battle for his life, he was saved by a girl who happened to live nearby, under the said bridge. Therefore, to conform to his family’s motto of not ever be indebted to anyone, he agreed to her request for him to become her lover and they started to live together in sin, forever and ever, under the bridge.

I only watched this anime for 10 minutes but I can’t help but think that this anime is very similar to the Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series. The story maybe vastly different, ditto for cast of characters and settings etc. but these two has this eerie feeling of similarity. The story in this anime itself revolves around the main protagonist and his interactions with his new ‘diverse’ neighbors. Instead of a harem filled with willing high-school girls who will do anything for the main protagonist, he has to deal with some crazed people that made one hell of a habitat under the bridge.


…and this is his apt description of them.

This anime has nearly none of the parodies that is one of the hallmarks of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, but there are humor aplenty throughout this anime. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the high-potential romance element that could have made the story even better isn’t really pronounced or explored, therefore no slapping the romance genre handicap tag upon this anime. But just kinda like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, the pacing of this anime is quite fast too; about just a little bit slower than the slowest Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei installment – the third season. Despite the fast pacing, this doesn’t affect the development of the story one bit as it evolves and flows around the vibrant community under the bridge.

Unfortunately, this anime also inherits one aspect that Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is bad at, and that would be character developments. To be honest, the character development in this anime is not as glacial as they are in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei’s 2nd and 3rd season, but they are very minimal. Only the main protagonist has the biggest slice of the character developments (making him the best character in this series), and even that it doesn’t compare to what the suicidal teacher in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has in its first season. About two-thirds of the regular characters (example: the two kids with lead masks, the kappa guy and the main female protagonist) doesn’t have any character development at all. You won’t have any idea who they are at all and why on earth they lived under the bridge.

The ending is where you can actually see some plots in this anime and frankly speaking, it is just ordinary. It served up it purpose of setting up the second season well though. I will definitely watch the second season because there should be more hidden gems still left within the storyline and the characters to be exploited and mined. Surely the director will do that in the next season right? Or is he/she is just as crazy as those queers that lives under the bridge?


This green (and not eco-friendly) character is just one of the queers that lives under the bridge.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is good and a positive point for this anime, but IMO not as good as the one in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series. Lack of black hairs in this anime is forgiven; after all, except for the black-haired main protagonist, there are some strange people living under the bridge…

Ok I should stop ending my paragraphs that way.


The subtitle aptly describe the said queer perfectly.

Voice Acting:-
Another hallmark of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, but this anime easily matched it in this department. 3 characters come to mind; Stella (who shared the same voice actress with the best character in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei), the main male protagonist (the main protagonists of this anime and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei shared the same voice actor) and Piko. The latter is unique and the former is simply awesome. A positive point for this anime.

Music:-
The OST is quite decent but none of the OP/ED theme is any good.


And here our green but not eco-friendly hero is fooling around with two of his equally bat-shit crazy buddies.

Animation/Direction:-
Make this anime the fourth title that uses the blurry animation techniques I have mentioned in Monochrome Factor, Nabari no Ou and in last review of this blog, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Finally, Japan has figured out the way to use that technique outside battle scenes (THIS ANIME DOESN’T HAVE ANY – THIS IS NOT A SHOUNEN TITLE – NO WORLD IS GOING TO BE SAVED), and here I initially thought that Fullmetal Alchemist’s usage of that technique outside battles is an aberration. I fear for the future where this technique will finally be deployed in normal scenes. A point docked off the final evaluation because of this.

If the said technique is ignored, this anime actually has decent animation quality even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography in this slice-of-life with plenty of humor and creep is basically non-existent. The director, which is also the same one who directs all three seasons of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei titles (hmmm… I wonder what else is the same between these two series) also has done a good job in this anime, although of course I do think his works in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei are better.


The closest thing this anime has as a parody.

Conclusion:-
At 7 out of 10, I don’t really see this anime become the first ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title holder, unlike the third season of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei that has become a surprise package last year. If somehow this anime can hold on and win the title, I will do really fear for the future of Japanese animation industry.


A hilarious yet very creepy gay moments in this anime.

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Review: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (鋼の錬金術師)

Posted by ranpha on 14th July 2010
Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: . 3 comments


The main title protagonist.

As mentioned in the last post, my review today is for the recently concluded Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime (simulcast in Animax Asia just like Tears to Tiara – actually quite a lot of recent anime titles does nowadays). Also in the same post, I mentioned that this anime, and Winter Sonata, are the candidates that may be able to dethrone the current ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ holder Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Unfortunately, this anime failed to do it. Therefore, Winter Sonata is the only 2009 anime I have left in my queue that has the likeliest possibility and bestest potential to become the newest ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ in the future.

I do have more 2009 anime titles in my queue such as Bakemonogatari, the second season of Haruhi Suzumiya, Aoi Bungaku, Seitokai no Ichizon etc., but unless they spring a nice surprise to me the way Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei did back then, their chances is basically nil. Coming back to this review, while this anime failed to get the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ award, it doesn’t mean I have stumbled upon a new Macross 7. This is still a very good anime; read on to see what I think of it.


And this is the main protagonist sidekick a.k.a. little brother.

Story:-
In a fictional world where alchemy actually works, two siblings tried to misuse the said alchemy to try and revive their dead mother. Predictably, they failed but they get away with it lightly (only losing a couple of limbs and a full body, while in our world they would have been burned alive on the stake). To atone for their sins, they set on a journey to find the way of restoring their body parts to original again, while saving the world in the process.

A disclaimer: I have watched the first iteration of this series a few years ago before this blog was created, and I also have read the manga too. Unlike the first series, this new reboot stay more faithfully towards the manga version. Some early parts of the manga that was also reproduced in this first version of this anime (only the first half of that anime is canon) has been abridged or omitted altogether, but when the part of the manga that wasn’t animated in the first series comes in episode 16 or 17, deviations become far rarer.

OK, unlike many of the votes casted in the ANN page of this anime, personally I think the original storyline seen in this anime is only at the same level as the one you can see in Märchen Awakens Romance, and not more. This may be heresy, but I think the original anime, as a whole, also has better storyline than this original reproduction of the manga. This anime is purely an unadulterated conservative shounen title all the way to the ending just like Märchen Awakens Romance and unlike the edgier first Fullmetal Alchemist anime. But the fact that this anime rarely deviates from the manga saves this anime from the abyss of ordinariness.

With rare deviations from the manga (and basically none from episode 16 onwards), the pacing of this anime is picture-perfect. With rare deviations from the manga (and basically none from episode 16 onwards), the story development and the flow of the plot is simply flawless. In other word, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has the best ever presentation for an anime based from a manga. Apart from a recap episode, this anime doesn’t have fillers or useless episodes. Each episode will advance the story, and each episode with see character developments. This anime is on par with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is this aspect, and where this anime really shine.

With rare deviations from the manga (and basically none from episode 16 onwards), character developments in this anime is very good all around even with a huge roster cast. The big episode count really help too. The best character I liked the most is the homunculus Envy; the homunculus group is really the biggest beneficiary of having the anime sticking up with the manga while the two main protagonists benefits the least.

I wonder if Japan will do more reboots of past series that was already aired. Some titles like Hellsing and Claymore could do with a treatment like what this series has.


This is the main protagonist's woman.

Character Design:-
This anime has good character designs overall. Lack of black hairs (and gazillions of blondes) are overlooked due to the setting of this anime. A positive point for this anime.


And this is the main protagonist's pet puppy. And they are very similar indeed.

Voice Acting:-
Many of the voice actors/actresses that features in the first series doesn’t return in the reboot. Some characters are affected negatively because of it, such as Envy, but those cases are exceptions in otherwise solid voice acting gigs in this anime overall. I only singled out Envy because in his case, the voice acting regressed significantly. His voice actress in the first series is so much better than the one in this anime. A positive point for this anime.


This is the best character in the series, facepalming himself because his voice actress in the reboot series is vastly inferior compared to the one in the first series.

Music:-
The OST in this anime is just as good as the one in the first series, but you cannot say the same thing about the OP/ED themes. The first series has at least 4 good OP/ED themes but this anime only has the 2nd ED theme to show for it. 1 out of 10 themes, that’s a huge fail rate there.

Animation/Direction:-
This anime is another title that used the abhorrent blurry animation technique I have mentioned in Monochrome Factor and Nabari no Ou, And this anime seems to use it outside battle scenes too, especially in the latter part of this anime. Even Monochrome Factor and Nabari no Ou doesn’t do that. One point is docked off the final rating of this anime because of this. This is a pity because otherwise, the animation in this anime is very good overall, even in fast-paced scenes.

Choreography in battle scenes are mixed bag; the ones that doesn’t involve alchemy (read: all of the Fuhrer President King Bradley battles) are great while the vast majority of battles that involves alchemy (read: battles that includes the two main protagonists) are almost below average. In fact, the highlights of the ending arc are the two duels that King Bradley is involved in. Those fights are worth the price of admission alone.

The directing is flawless, but if following the manga storyline is the paramount goal of this anime, then you really have to try to screw-up the directing of this anime. This anime is a rare example of where the manga writer is actually the de-facto director of this anime.


And I don’t even mention the ridiculously fake-looking rain effects in this anime. Someone in Japan has to learn from Mister Makoto Shinkai before being allowed to animate again.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. The journey ends here, hahahaha! Therefore Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei will still retain the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title for the time being. Meanwhile, the selection for the first ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title holder will commence right after this. From the shortlist of eight 2010 titles, one will be chosen to be listed at the right sidebar of this blog. The 2010 titles are, in no particular reviewing order, Nodame Cantabile Finale (S3), Ookiku Furikabutte S2, Mayoi Neko Overrun, Hakuouki, Angel Beats, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, B gata H kei and Working. Which anime will come first, the answer will only be known in the next post.


And this is the main protagonist, in a pinch and is about to be beaten to a pulp.

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