My collection of short anime reviews

Review: La Corda D’Oro ~primo passo~ (金色のコルダ～primo passo～)

Posted by ranpha on 9th December 2007

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: La Corda D’Oro ~primo passo~ (金色のコルダ～primo passo～). 3 comments

Why is that the NEG has to butt into other people problems all the time? She never repents, and this is done at the end of the series.

This is a review of an anime that my sister claims to be better than the dead cert Anime of The Year 2007, Nodame Cantabile. Here I will take La Corda D’Oro ~primo passo~ for a spin to see whether her b*llsh*t can be taken seriously or not. This is a 2005 anime, so no competition for the award.

Apparently, depressed people in Japan go to karaoke to relieve tensions. Improvements from doing the harakiri I guess.

Story:-
A red-haired naïve emo girl [NEG] who knows jack sh*t about classical music suddenly founds out that she has to participate in a music competition. A fairy that comes out of nowhere gives the NEG a magic violin to cover for her lack of musical skills. The NEG then has to compete will plenty of very skillful participants who has years of experience behind them, and still managed to kick some ass and takes some notes, especially in SEED berserker mode.

NEG is the kind of characters I really dislike in any anime, and we have one here, a protagonist even. That’s a bad sign imouto-chan. The story is average, but at least better than Umisho and come with a decent ending. The story mainly consists of the shenanigans of the NEG, who becomes emo for about 20 episodes or so over many issues; majority of them trivial.

Honestly speaking, the existence of a NEG is the biggest drawback of this series. I still can tolerate emo characters like that what-his-name in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, but this one takes the cake. Nodame may be retarded, but at least she is not an emo wreck that I want to strangle.

One of the characters that has dodgy voice acting. The are many ways to portray bishounen + effeminate characters. His is not the way to do it.

Character Design:-
Oh well, not that different really from those 90-s dating simulation games from Japan I used to play. Black hair is out, RGB and CMYK colours are in. So are big eyes, impossible bodies, and effeminate character and so on. Bad thing? Of course not. But not something to be proud about and Nodame Cantabile is better in this aspect.

Voice acting:-
A positive aspect of this series. If the NEG really makes me wants to kill her, it is because of her voice actress doing a good job. Some of the characters has dodgy voices, but the anime has done well here. Nowhere near the quality Nodame Cantabile has though.

Simply the best character in the series, for daring to tell the NEG that she is an annoying b*tch.

Music:-
Only the OP theme is good. The OST and the ED theme are not that good. And unlike Nodame Cantabile, the classical music used are not as well-presented, although it may be more realistic.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation is average, nothing really can be said. No fast-pace scenes like Nodame Cantabile, so no harm done. But the directing is surprisingly good, keeping the story flowing naturally. Probably the only thing that makes me watch the anime to the end.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. In the end, my sister is insane for suggesting that this anime is better. Nodame Cantabile is superior in every department, La Corda D’Oro ~primo passo~ will be taken to the cleaners if this is a boxing match, just like Ricky Hatton.

Can you kill yourself now?

Review: Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho (ケンコー全裸系水泳部ウミショー)

Posted by ranpha on 7th December 2007

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho (ケンコー全裸系水泳部ウミショー). Leave a Comment

Definitely not an Anime of The Year 2007 winner!

For todays’ review, I returned to another 2007 anime, Umisho. Now it is already December, can any anime break the stranglehold that Nodame Cantabile has on the provisional Anime of The Year 2007 award? Umisho certainly did not, read on to see why.

Boob staring are common in this series. I can really relate to this hehehehehe.

Story:-
Okiura Kaname is the manager of a high-school swimming team, even if he does not know how to swim himself. He watched over the team as a couple of new students joined and the team becomes successful in tournaments.

The anime is supposed to be a sports anime, but more often than not it turns out to more like a harem romantic comedy anime. There is plenty of appropriately applied fan-service here, but unfortunately the story stinks badly. The only things that kept the anime going are the aforementioned fan-service and also the character’s strength of some of the characters here, especially for the main male protagonist.

There are signs of the producer trying to do some character developments but it is simply not enough. I think this series can do with a longer run, like 26 episodes or so. I wonder whether a second season will come or maybe this anime is just a teaser for the viewers to buy the manga version (as if I can).

When I first saw her, I think that X on her head is just a sloppy reason of a ribbon….

Character Design:-
Probably one of the better aspect of this series, because it was done very well, especially the female characters. Yeah, the well-endowed female characters. No black hair though, and is it just me, or is that brown has become the new black?

….but it turns out to be a f*ck*ng adhesive tape! There goes a point from the scoring!

Voice acting:-
For this one, I think it is just a hit-and-miss. The male protagonist has decent (and not great) voice but the green-haired girl has a voice that will make me kill another person. These apply to most of the characters here.

Plenty of pants coming down from the captain of the swimming team.

Music:-
Sorry, but there is nothing I can say about the music in this anime. This will surely drags the scoring down.

Now where did I have seen this before?

Animation/Direction:-
Following the trend of other 2007 anime, the animation here is very well done, even in fast-paced scenes. Congratulations, a good positive aspect. It is just that the directing cannot keep up with the animation quality.

Initial D. Mimicked but not emulated. Truly a legendary anime!

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. If there is a second season, I hope it can be better. Cos’ I will be downloading them. Despite of the low scoring.

This honest character is probably the most interesting character in this series. He has not enough air time though.

Review: Excel Saga (へっぽこ実験アニメーションエクセル・サーガ)

Posted by ranpha on 1st December 2007

Posted in: anime review - reposted. Tagged: Excel Saga (へっぽこ実験アニメーションエクセル・サーガ). Leave a Comment

Our main protagonist, Excel.

Straying away from any new anime, I returned back to the last century to watch another often-talked about comedy anime, Excel Saga. This anime holds the distinction of having the most screenshots I’ve taken to date.

Excel’s junior Hyatt, died for the umpteenth time.

Story:-
Excel is a member of ACROSS, a secret organization that aims to take over the world. The local chapter of ACROSS is led by the mysterious Lord Ilpalazzo which our protagonist has a crush on, and Excel was assisted by the ever-dying Hyatt and their emergency food supply Menchi as they strived to take over the city…

Basically, almost all the episodes revolves around Excel and co. attempts to take over the city, with each episodes has their own ‘themes’, so to speak. Like Lucky Star, this anime parodies plenty of other anime/TV shows/movies etc. especially in the context of the ‘theme’ used in the given particular episode, only not as blatant as Lucky Star did and also less frequent.

The story by itself (yes there is one here) is flimsy at best, and thus naturally needs more support from the character strength of the protagonists. While Hyatt and Menchi perform admirably well, there is a major issue I have with Excel, and I will explain it in the Voice Acting section.

The anime’s storyline can be divided into 3 parts, divided by the 2 recaps episodes (so common in the last century) in episode 13 and 20. The first part started slowly (and the issue I have with Excel I will explain below really bugs me) but the 2^nd part improves considerably, maybe simply the best part of the series. But the last part is disappointing, especially the ending. It is so corny and the amnesia plot device is simply crap.

Menchi a.k.a. the emergency food supply, and simply the coolest character in the series!

Character Design:-
Considering the genre and the era, the character designs in this series are outstanding, especially for the main characters. They really fit the story perfectly, especially for the Hyatt-Excel-Menchi trio. Definitely a plus point of the anime and it has been quite some time I have seen something as good as this one. And this is an anime from the last century!

One of the parodies in the series. Excel is imitating her own seiyuu previous work.

Voice acting:-
My biggest complaint about this series is that, just like Yakumo in School Rumble, Kotono Mitsuishi did not fit the role of Excel. She simply does not have the ability to properly convey the essence of the hyperactive Excel to the audience, just like Mamiko Noto with Yakumo. At least with Yakumo, she is a minor character in School Rumble and thus her screen time is limited. While in this series, we have to see plenty of Excel, in all episodes and in most of the air time. And for this alone, I dock 2 points off the score for the final evaluation.

This is really sad because voices for Hyatt and even Menchi are very well done. Yes, even for Menchi. The rest of the cast are also doing great, at least none is worse than Excel.

The excellent ED theme.

Music:-
Unfortunately, the only thing that is good in this section is the ED theme. You know who sings it!

TONITE, DINNR IZ U!

Animation/Direction:-
The animation here is just average but good enough in the fast scenes. The directing is excellent though, although some of the director’s decision making process is questionable.

Why ACROSS will never succeed in their plans to take over the world.