Review: Welcome to the NHK (NHKにようこそ！)

Posted by ranpha on 30th September 2009
Posted in: anime review, perfect score. Tagged: . Leave a Comment


The main male protagonist.

Today’s post is for my review of an excellent 2006 anime, titled Welcome to the NHK (has nothing related to that TV station). This anime has a  great chance to topple Chocotto Sister off the throne of being the best 2006 anime I have watched, so read on to find out whether this anime has really done so or not.


The absolute sum of the relationship between the three main characters in this anime.

Story:-
Our main male protagonist is a hikikomori, one who are paranoid, perverted and has a very fertile imagination. He then meets the main female protagonist, who offered him a way out from his hikikomori ways via counseling. Meanwhile, his junior from the high school is prodding him to make a dating simulation game together and he also meets with a couple of other characters from his high school years.

Just like Urusei Yatsura, this anime is powered by the immense character strength of the main male protagonist. He is not as good as Moroboshi Ataru is, but he is not far behind. His complex relationships with the main female protagonist and also his junior is one of the major essence of this anime. Plus, his overworked imagination is a plot device that helps him immensely at advancing the storyline (more of the story later) and also helps in character developments. Speaking about character developments, this anime has done very well in this aspect, especially for the three major characters shown in the screenshot below. And of course, the main male protagonist is the best character of them all, but his sidekick, which is his junior from high school, is not that bad either.


The three idiots that falls prey to a dubious MLM scheme.

Unlike Urusei Yatsura, this anime actually has a good story behind it. The story starts slow for the first one-third of the anime, but the pace picks up after that. Storyline development is perfect, with seamless transitions between the major story arcs. There are some references to video games/anime/idols here and there, but not as many as the ones in Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. There are also plenty of humor in this anime, but personally I do not think that they are any good, therefore depriving this anime a potential positive point. The story  essentially belongs to the slice-of-life genre, with some romance of course. I personally likes the arc that contains the chain of events that precedes the final departure of the main male protagonist’s junior back to his hometown to take over the family farm, because that arc is simply magnificent. The junior has to make many important decisions that will affect his future, and he took every success and failure in his stride. That arc, I contend, is just as good as the first arc in Clannad. At that point, I have already decided that this anime will take over from Chocotto Sister and become the best 2006 anime I have watched, but alas, the fatal flaw of  this anime suddenly surfaced.

The fatal flaw I mentioned is the ending story arc, which is too predictable and cliché-laden. Coming off after such an excellent arc that is mentioned above, the ending suddenly seems very mediocre. And this applies even when I think that the plot in the last arc is simply the natural extension of the story behind the relationship between the two main protagonists. I don’t really mind the suicide plot device actually, but using the main male protagonist’s senior from the literature club as a catalyst of the arc seems out of place. In hindsight, while the ending is not the worst I have ever seen, coming off right after the best arc in the anime is really an unfortunate event.



The main male protagonist and his high school junior sidekick, in happy and sad times. IMHO, their relationship is more significant than the one between the main male protagonist and the main female protagonist.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is good, with plenty of black hairs around. The ones who doesn’t have it obviously has dyed their hair (or just being old or something). I have a feeling that they (the designs) are realistic, but it isn’t at the same time. Definitely a positive point for this anime.


I would!

Voice acting:-
Voice acting in this anime are done very well, and that is what should happen in this dialogue-heavy anime. The three major characters have done very well, with the junior sidekick and the main female protagonist standing out from the rest (of the admittedly small cast). Also a positive point of this anime.

Music:-
The OST in this anime is good and has plenty of decent insert songs. But only the 2nd OP theme is good.


A parody of a quite famous MMORPG…

…which takes place at the region where I live in! IIRC, there are no medieval castles anywhere near my house, as portrayed in the game though.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography in this anime is almost non-existent. The directing is flawless, with the exception of the execution of the ending arc.


A powerful plot twist that happened in that MMORPG arc, the one that even I have failed to anticipate. Have to be seen to be believed.

Conclusion:-
10 out of 10, but Chocotto Sister will still hold on to the ‘Anime of the Year 2006’ title for the time being. The next three anime titles that I will watch are the ones aired this year; after all, 2009 is drawing to a close.


Tissues, a prop that our main male protagonist used a lot in this anime.

Review: Shounen Onmyouji (少年陰陽師)

Posted by ranpha on 24th September 2009
Posted in: anime review. Tagged: . Leave a Comment


The main male protagonist with his talking pet that will fetch the keys if he was jailed in a dungeon somewhere.

Shounen Onmyouji is yet another random anime I’ve picked from my still-huge backlog, and this one happened to be a 2006 title. Chocotto Sister will be quaking in its boots because its position is the most untenable amongst the three ‘Anime of the Year’ title holders listed at the right sidebar of this anime review blog. But actually, Chocotto Sister doesn’t have to worry about this new challenger because this anime is not really that good anyway.

Story:-
Our main male protagonist is the grandson of a famous onmyouji in ancient Japan, but he doesn’t inherit any of his grandfather’s talents or power. But because this anime falls into the action genre, he actually has those latent talents and extraordinary powers after all; they are just locked away by his worry-wart  grandfather. All those talents and powers then were unlocked during a certain incident, and the anime went on as the protagonist revels in his new-found power; eliminating the evil forces that is about to harm the capital city alongside his furry sidekick and mandatorily getting his woman too (it has to be a noble princess too, you know, the one that is in distress while the hero swoops in to save the day). Now, where did I heard this storyline again?

The only sin this anime has story-wise is that the story is completely SO NOT ORIGINAL, therefore it was predictable most of the time. To be fair, the story itself did not suck and is mildly entertaining. This is not a comedy though, unlike what ANN’s synopsis in the link above would want you to believe. Another weakness of this anime is that some potentially good story arcs are not explored further; a good example would be the relationship between the protagonist and his woman, especially after she moves into his house. Now that would be a chance for some toilet humor (can validate ANN tags too) but the quickness of the director of relegating her into some tertiary character role with limited airtime is really astounding. The only thing that deviates from the genre this anime is in is the ending, which is quite good and not your normal happy ending where everything went well (nobody dies though).

When the story did not deliver, the presentation actually does. This anime has perfect pacing and the story develops very well bar some forgettable plot transition problems (happened usually between episodes). Character development in this anime is average with the exception of our protagonist (the best character by default because he has all the spotlights). Some characters are woefully underused, and a few others are introduced too late into the anime. For example, the protagonist’s grandpa has 12 summons (shikigami) but the number of them that are active throughout the series is low. Your have to look at the pathetic attempts by the director to introduce those who are not active yet in the last episode to see what I mean.

Character Design:-
The character design in this anime is similar to what you can see in Nabari no Ou, which means that this anime is filled with plenty of pretty characters. The protagonist here is not a jailbait though. Interestingly, while this anime is set up in ancient Japan, the lack of black hairs is very noticeable, with brown being the new black. What an irony, considering that Nabari no Ou has plenty of black hairs and the setting is in modern Japan. The protagonist in this anime has black hair though, plus some of the very unimportant characters. Monster design are also done well, especially for that horse-less carriage.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is simply average overall. Not bad or good, just average. There are no voice actors/actresses in here that has great voice acting gigs.

Music:-
If voice acting in this anime is just average, the music in this anime is a total failure. Non-existent OST and forgettable OP/ED themes, that’s all this anime has musically.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography in action scenes is not bad either, but not very spectacular. The directing in this anime is a weak point though, with numerous shortcomings listed already in the story section.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Chocotto Sister still reigns as the best anime in 2006.


He has a cool ride too, like the one Enma Ai use.

Review: Shion no Ou (しおんの王)

Posted by ranpha on 20th September 2009
Posted in: anime review, sport genre standard. Tagged: . 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.

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