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Post by Yamazaki on Oct 16, 2008 17:21:33 GMT -5
Since we already have a Game Review topic, why not do anime too? I'll try to do stuff that: 1) I've watched a significant amount of and 2) have not been seen by just about everyone here. This primarily means newer anime that has recently finished in Japan.
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Code Geas: R2 (and to a degree, the first season too)
the company that brought us Gundam (both the good stuff and the horribly crappy stuff), brings us a new mecha anime, but with less space and more rollerblading. Character design by Clamp (Tsubasa Chronicle, xxxholic, Card Captor Sakura, etc), so the characters are pretty damn twiggy.
Premise: Alternate universe where the US (now Britania) was something different and started taking over the world using new (rollerblading) mecha called 'knightmare frames'. The main character gains a special power called 'geas' which basicly allows him to command people to do his bidding. With this, he begins his path of revenge vs Britania and hoping to change to world for the better.
What do we actually get? We get a bunch of unintentional gay vibes, a character who wants to be Light/Kira of Death Note, rollerblading Gundam action (with a lack of copy-paste animation for once), overglorfied toy promotion, Pizza Hut promotion (thus the joke 'Pizza Hut supports the rebelion'), an attempt at a political drama with great fail, and a horde of plot holes doubled with bad writing.
The characters are somewhat likeable, although sometimes you wonder what's going on in their heads, if anything at all. Many of them do give a slight gay vibe if taken out of context too much. The animation stays solid throughout the series. The music is subpar. The plot starts out not too bad but then takes a plummet down plot hole lane half way through the first season, goes back up for the end of that season, stays good for a little while long in the second and then craps out until the very last 2 episodes and redeems itself just a little.
All in all, Code Geas is a train wreck. So horrible, you can't help but watch it. Chapel once described it as such: "sure it's a train wreck, but it's a nuclear-powered train that's falling into a sea of acid." I enjoyed it for what it was, but I did my best not to take it seriously.
Overall score: 5/10, but higher when you realize it's going to be crap anyways and just watch it for fun.
Next time, I think I shall rant about Macross Frontier, which was worlds better.
-Max, anime geek
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Post by Yamazaki on Feb 1, 2009 13:19:04 GMT -5
Today, I rant about a OVA series I've been watching by the name of Kara no Kyoukai - the Garden of Sinners. A high quality production to be sure that has just recently reached 5 episodes (although each ep is an hour long except for 5, which was 2 hours long). The original novels were created by the same guy who wrote the story for the visual (hentai) novels Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night. Many of the characters within Kara no Kyoukai are the prototypes for the later visual novels, be it in personality or just character design.
Story: Kara no Kyoukai falls under the supernatural horror department. There's a decent amount of blood and gore, but I'd hardly consider it scary. More of a mind fuck type. The series primarily follows the exploits of Ryougi Shiki, a girl possessing the ability to perceive death conceptualized as lines. If this ability sounds familiar, then you may remember one of my rants about Tsukihime, as Tohno Shiki had the very same ability. Unlike her Tsukihime adaptation, Ryougi Shiki is a natural born killer - she takes pleasure in killing others and is very skilled. However, her own policy of killing only those who are willing to kill keeps her from mass murder. Tangent aside, the stories follow Shiki's cases, and eventually you'll find out that they are all connected.
The stories of Kara no Kyoukai are very... broken up. The episodes are by no means in chronological order. However, the story tends to make a little more sense in this odd mix up. They leave a number of issues hanging, some of which you have to figure out for yourself, while others will actually be resolved much later.
There is a lot of talking. A lot of talking. Much of which is psycho-analysis and philosophical conversations. Regardless, it's usually quite interesting (and maybe a bit confusing). The rare few times they touch magic in the discussions, it tends to be very confusing.
Characters: Each character has plenty of depth, Shiki especially. They do a great job explaining the kind of person she is, the very reasons she kills, and just how messed up in the head she is. Having split personalities and then losing one of them will mess you up a lot, I'd say.
The other characters are developed enough that they aren't shallow. Even the characters that only show up for that one episode have a decent amount of depth to them.
Animation and Special Effects: Wonderfully done. This is movie quality animation. We're talking topping Kyoto Animation and Gainax's best scenes, and it's a constant good animation. The action scenes, the few there are, are awesome (if not short). There is an exception of a single fight in episode 5 in the middle, and even then it wasn't too bad.
They use a small amount of CG work for some backgrounds and a few special effects. While it is noticeable, it doesn't contrast very much, making it work pretty well.
Art Style and Character Design: It's a very clean looking style with a good amount of details without overdoing it. Every character looks unique. They did a great job making Shiki have her subtle beauty (as opposed to looking completely hot), just as the novels wanted her to have. The only change from the original character design from the novels was Aozaki Touko, but it was for the better.
Music and Voice acting: One of my favorite anime-based artists did the OST for this series: Kajiura Yuki (she's known for other series, including .hack//sign, Mai-HiME, and Tsubasa Chronicles). As expected, it's a great OST. It fits the mood of the story well, being dark and moody at the right times, while picking up for the action. Now if only I could find the official OST somewhere...
The voice acting is fitting. Every voice goes with its character, so they picked out the right people for the series. Haven't heard any annoying voices yet. I believe I've heard a few well known voice actors here and there, but I don't know any names.
Overall: 9/10. A great story with well developed characters, even if episode 5 confused the fuck out of me this morning...
-Max, admin and complete geek today lol
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Post by Yamazaki on Mar 27, 2009 9:45:04 GMT -5
With the finish of the recent season, it's time for me to review some of what I've watched over the past few months. Today, I'll do Toradora, a romance comedy that's gotten my obsessiveness almost to the point of my previous Haruhi obsession that Chrissy continues to mock even to this day.
Toradora is a story of two people: Takasu Ryuuji and Aisaka Taiga. Most of the story focuses on Ryuuji's part of the story, who suffers from bad looking eyes that he's often mistaken for a gangster or the like (despite he's a rather nice guy with a OCD for cleanliness). Taiga is known as the Palmtop Tiger, as she's incredibly small but insanely vicious . These two discover (thanks to Taiga's clumsiness) that they like each other's best friends, so they team up in hopes of getting together with their respective crushes. Hilarity ensues.
Art and Animation: Because I read some of the manga first, I did not like the character designs right off the bat, but it grew on me pretty quickly. The art style is relatively minimalistic, but reflects a lot of emotion when it's called upon. I don't remember any particular drops in animation quality, but most of the series didn't need high quality animation to begin with.
Characters: Unlike most anime of this genre, this has a really small cast of 5 main characters (Ryuuji, Taiga, Yuusaku, Minori, and Ami) and a few side ones. This allows the anime to focus on these 5 and not worry about the rest. There's a good amount of character development, especially for Taiga and Ami (the later starts off as a self-centered bitch who later softens up greatly). Each character becomes quite likable and even somewhat believable (if not exaggerated a good deal).
Music and Sound: The OP and ED themes are pretty nice. It's rare for me to like most ED songs, since they're usually slow and boring, but in this case, Salty Vanilla and Orange are both catchy songs ('specially Orange). The BGM throughout the series isn't anything special and never stand out ever. As for the voice actors, we have a few famous ones that even I recognize (I usually don't pay much attention to voice actors). Taiga is voiced by Rie Kugimiya (famous for Shana from Shakugan no Shana) while Minori is voiced by Horie Yui (who was Ayu in Kanon).
Story: While the humor of the story is about the standard for the genre, it's the story and its characters that truly makes this anime so great. While it's not particularly deep, it's very emotional towards the end. Ami's raging against her stalker, Taiga screaming the class president, Minori's look as she stares at the stars while talking to Ryuuji. It's scenes like these that makes you wonder if you're watching a romance comedy or something else. It made the hopeless romantic within me giddier than a school girl on a regular basis, especially at the end. While I could go further indepth with this, it would be full of spoilers, so I'll leave it at this.
Overall: I loved this series greatly. While the ending was a bit rushed (as expected from JC Staff), it worked out quite well. I give Toradora a 9 out of 10.
-Max, lurking admin
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