Review: Jinki:Extend (ジンキ・エクステンド)

Posted by ranpha on 30th May 2006
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This anime, in my opinion is one of the most confusing anime series I have seen, Jinki:Extend. Actually, after about halfway through the series, I started to think to just dump this one, but then again I watched to the end just to have the bragging right to write about how confusing (and bad) this anime is.

Story:-
From ANN encyclopedia entry:-

Aoba is a young girl who loves to build models of robots. She lived alone with her grandmother until her grandmother passes away. Shortly after she is kidnapped and brought to a secret base where she discovers a huge robot. The piloted robots fight against Ancient-Jinki in The Grand Savanna, but the true meaning behind the fights is hidden. Aoba works hard at the base so one day she can pilot one of the robots and discover these secrets.

For the first couple of episodes or something, the entry above holds true. Then as Aoba started to train so that she can become a robot pilot (at Grand Savanna in South America), the series started to shift focus towards another potential Jinki (the robots are called Jinki here) pilot named Akao who was based in Japan and have the same powers as Aoba has. Only that Akao is just a jackass. Then some incomprehensible plot line reveals itself out and Akao and Aoba has to slug it out at the end of the series……

OK, my biggest pet-peeve about this anime is that they start with about 2 or 3 full episodes filled with FLASHBACKS!! And you didn’t even know you are watching flashback episodes, until near the end.

I started to become suspicious of the anime when the series started to focus on Akao, complete with the same set of supporting characters that supports Aoba at South America such as Ryouhei, Rui and Minami. At first, I thought the arc involving Akao is a flashback story arc that happened before Aoba comes to South America, because Ryouhei, Rui and Minami also helps Akao to train and become Jinki pilot just like they did with Aoba at South America. And the fadeaway special effects used mainly for flashback scenes in saner anime titles are used to depict the start and the end of Akao’s arc within any episodes. I think there is only one very short scene/dialogue that implies that Akao arc happened after Aoba arc. It is just around episode 9 or so that I realized that the first few episodes of this series are flashback episodes, and at that time I know this anime will score low in my rating.

People at Japan who makes this anime; you don’t just start your anime with first few episodes dedicated almost exclusively for a non-current story arc. Parallel story arcs, like the one in the excellent Kiba, are beautifully executed, even with timeline discrepancies. That’s what you should strive to emulate.

I think the absence of Shiba in Aoba’s arc that really kills the anime and make it confusing.

No wonder ADV doesn’t license the anime, while they does for the manga.

Character design:-
Generally no complaints here. Nothing really to shout about. About mecha design, it will not sell many toy merchandise, enough said.

Voice acting:-
Maybe the best aspect that this anime has to offer. Akao and Aoba voice actresses are good, although not exactly Fumiko Orikasa best performance.

Music:-
Below average for all OP, ED and OSTs.

Direction/Animation:-
As I did not read the manga (and did not plan to), I wonder if the director is just following the manga storyline or if he does it himself. Anyway, the strategy to start the anime with flashbacks backfired badly for me. Animation is decent though.

Conclusion:-
4 out of 10. No additional comments.

Review: Galaxy Angel (ギャラクシーエンジェル)

Posted by ranpha on 27th May 2006
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The review for all 4 seasons of Galaxy Angel is overdue, but here it is.

Story:-
From the excellent description at a Galaxy Angel boxtorrent entry:-

Milfeulle, Forte, Mint, Ranpha, and Vanilla are the beautiful female pilots of the elite Angel Brigade. The pride of the Transvaal Empire military, the crème de la crème, they are entrusted with the important task of seeking out an ancient relic known as ‘Lost Technology’.

Unfortunately, no one knows what this ‘Lost Technology’ is. Until this mystery is solved, the girls have to be contented with performing menial tasks of the highest order- anything from searching for a lost kitty, defusing a suicidal missile, nabbing child kidnappers, taming a 30-feet tall hamster and generally getting stuck in all sorts of hilarious situations.

There’s nothing the Angel Brigade can’t handle – or so we hope.

This description can be used to sum up all 4 seasons of Galaxy Angel. If you want to find a plot story in here, then you will be disappointed. Go play the game or something (which I have not done either). Each episodes has 2 stories, which most of the time are not related to each other. But if you want to laugh at crazy jokes, puns, one-liners etc. while they are doing those ‘menial tasks’, this one is for you.

If I were to rank the seasons in term of entertainment, season 3 is the best followed by season 2, season 4 and season 1 respectively. Thus, anyone who tried to rate Galaxy Angel solely based on the season 1 will miss out greatly. As you can start watching Galaxy Angel at any point of the whole series without missing anything, I will suggest you to try watching episodes from later seasons to grasp what Galaxy Angel is all about.

As mentioned above, the series does not have a visible storyline apart from finding Lost Technologies, and mostly those missions are swept aside as we watched the funny antics of the Angel-tai instead. The stories were written primarily to make the audience laugh, and mostly of the time, it works successfully. This is a series that has high value of replayability, a series where it never get boring to watch again and again. None of the anime reviewed before this has such values.

Character design:-
Galaxy Angel character designs, especially for Angel-tai members, are excellent. Well, it is your typical large-eyes, pretty face, non-black hair colours and impossibly voluptuous body shapes with big breasts. One also has bunny ears as accessories. This is one of those anime titles that rely of their character designs as their strong points like Shuffle or Air, but Galaxy Angel reached an entirely new level of awesomeness reserved to the likes of GetBackers.

Voice acting:-
Again, especially for Angel-tai members, the voice acting is exceptionally  great. Each seiyuu really play their role very well. The 2 outstanding voice actress here, which actually outshines the other 3 are Ryoko Shintani (Milfeulle Sakuraba) and Miyuki Sawashiro (Mint Blamanche). Not to say the other 3 are not good but these 2 are simply awesome and pleasing to watch as they stroll around in different situations.

Music:-
All the OP/ED themes are on my iPod. That’s how great the OP/ED themes are. Almost all of them are catchy and I sometimes whistles their tunes. Although the OST is pretty much average though.

Direction/Animation:-
The animation is fluid, with some great CGI videos for their emblem ships thrown in. Although I do think the integration for animated and CGI is not done very well. But such moments are few and far between.

Conclusion:-
An almost perfect series, if not the weak first season (compared to the other 3). Also not for plot-loving watchers, as there is none of value here. For me, definitely 10 out of 10. Currently it is no.4 in my top 5 anime list.

Review: Gantz (ガンツ)

Posted by ranpha on 23rd May 2006
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A new day, a new review! For horny anime-otaku everywhere, here is my take for Gantz, a violent anime with lots of dismembered body parts and also gratuitous nudity. And sex scenes, real and imaginary.

This one definitely not for everyone. And don’t even think of finding juicy screenshots here, a MSN Space for all ages.


Story:-
Our porn-loving horny hero Kei Kurono and his childhood friend Masaru Kato died after being run over by an express train. Instead of going to Hell as all porn lovers do, Kurono and Kato has to settle instead at gawking at a black ball called GANTZ in a typical Japan flat, joining few other people who are already there. As Kuruno does that, a nude woman named Kei Kishimoto (not related) suddenly appears on his lap. And Kurono started to have what every normal man will do…….

After a few near-rape scene where Kishimoto gets to demonstrate her ‘assets’, the black ball commanded everyone in the room to find and destroy onion-eating aliens. From there on, Kurono and co. embarks on missions to destroy aliens, with plenty of body parts and some sexual action.

Unlike E’s Otherwise, this one only started to become interesting at the start of the second alien hunting mission. In the anime (I read the manga too), there are 4 missions and only the 2nd and 3rd ones are truly enjoyable. It deviates of course from the still-running manga, but it still can stand on its own. It also almost has no episodes that can be called fillers.

There are plenty of interesting characters in the anime, from the hero himself up to the horny dog and Sadako from The Ring, but my favoruite is definitely Kurono. He is just a selfish high school ichinensei, but is awesome in SEED^H^H^H^H berserk mode while fighting the aliens, almost like acting under the direction of John Woo. If you like action, you will like him. And he is good too at pleasing older women.

The story overall is not that great, but characters like Kurono and also some well-placed (not always) nudity and sex scenes somewhat compensates for that. You will wonder whether Kurono and <insert any given bouncy woman’s name> will survive a mission and get to make up at his room later. Somehow, I wonder whether I am sick or what. I highly suggest that you read the manga though, it is much better.

Character design:-
Well, nothing really to shout about. Although the size of the breasts of some of the women are DISTURBING! You are not supposed to complain about that right? The faces fits with the scenery of a modern Tokyo, with no big eyes that can be seen from the moon. Generally realistic with the exceptions of breasts sizes.

Sadako is probably the only one with normal breasts. Sadako FTW.

Voice acting:-
Why Kurono is my favorite character? Not only he is a lusty horny bastard, he is also great on bed, powerful in battles and has great voice acting where it matters most (for example, when screwing a woman)! The production studio can do more though at distinguishing between speaking voices and monologues. There are times where I thought Kurono is speaking when in actuality he is lost in thought. Unfortunately other characters voice acting is not as good as him, maybe because of limited speaking time? Especially the dog and Sadako.

Animation & Direction:-
There are not enough sex scenes. But then again this should be a shounen anime, not hentai. The animation is fluid and action-scene directing is superb.

Music:-
Arghhhh…. one of the low points of this anime. OP, ED and OST are all crap. Or maybe I just don’t notice them as I wonder whether Kurono will just rape^H^H^H^H managed to have consensual sex with Kishimoto.

Conclusion:-
With sex scenes, who needs fan service? 7 out of 10.

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