[Thoughts] Angel Beats!

A White Dwarf

Much like the galactical mega-stars that occupy the distant worlds far from us, Angel Beats! was seen as one of the brightest anime shows this season, with enough spiritual intrigue and mystery to pique everyone’s interest and bay the critics’ initial impressions. Then episode 6 came along and ruined everything. The series started out as a quest for identity, transformed into a rescue mission, and then ended as a mawkish, drippy, and cheesy yearning for ascension and belonging. But I will admit, I am a sucker for drippy melodrama, given that the context surrounding it is merited; Clannad does this well.

On the other hand, Angel Beats! tried to do the impossible—cram an emotionally meaningful, soul-searching, love story into 13 episodes and staple on action, comedy, and over 10 characters. Unless the story author is as talented as Ryohgo Narita (Baccano!, Durarara!!) and the animation director is Makoto Shinkai (Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimeters per Second), then there’s no way you’d be able to pull that off—not in 13 episodes, at least.

Gear Hop

But what exactly went wrong? The series was the bellwether of promise for the early summer anime; nothing else posed as a serious threat to the popularity of the show, save Durarara!!, Maid-sama!, K-On!!…OK, never mind. Here’s the point: when Angel Beats! premiered in April, everyone panned it as a crisp and refreshing change from everything else, but what we got was a maudlin semi-love-story, semi-quest-for-identity where neither of the two make it past the larval stage. For a series that’s been in production since 2007, it’s a real shame to see such a tenuous product.

Does that mean that Angel Beats! had the wrong idea about its plot? No, not necessarily. In fact, I really liked the direction the series was going in. I just wish that the animation studio opted for a second season so that they could flesh out all of the different modules of the plot. You can’t possibly expect to cram so many different avenues of the story into a short 13-episode mini-series. The authors asked for so much and the animators gave so little. There was no way this series could’ve explored all the different aspects of the characters and their struggles using so little airtime.

What made Clannad and Kanon so great was the ability for gradual character growth, not door-slamming character heel face turns, whiny, half-baked deliveries, or abrupt character derailments. Angel Beats! tried to accelerate the development of the cast by changing the circumstances around them drastically and often, hoping that the audience would simply accept that everyone in this world just lives in the fast-lane. Most of the fanbase is complacent with this series, but I wasn’t sold on the piece. I felt that the series could’ve been orders of magnitude better if the studio would just opt to do a 24 episode series instead of a 13 episode one.

One might argue that it doesn’t take 24 episodes to make a great story— or 13 as a matter of fact. The art of cinematography has to deal with the most limited amount of resources when it comes to storytelling. In, at most, three hours, a film has to portray the characters, depict the setting, advance the plot, and, optionally, make meaningful statements about the real world. That’s quite a bit of stuff to do in a mere three hours, whereas a mini-series has six and a half hours to do the same—approximately four and a half hours if you deduct the commercials, the OP, and the ED. But on the other hand, a show has to cope with the changing dynamics of executive meddling, occasionally recap previous events, progress the story in such a way that allows segmentation to occur between major plot events, and hook the audience at the end of each episode. That’s a lot to ask for.

It’s not reasonable to compare the two different mediums because they both deal with different challenges in order to meet the same goal: tell a good story—and make some money.

Unfortunately, Angel Beats! couldn’t completely convince me to suspend my disbelief. I really would’ve liked to see and feel the tenderness that was between Otonashi and Angel at the very end. I really would’ve liked to truly understand the neglect and pain that Naoi felt when he was forced to take on his brother’s identity. I really would’ve liked to truly understand Yui’s joy when Hinata proposed to her. None of these wishes were fulfilled. Never, not once, did I ever feel as emotionally connected with this series as I did with Clannad, Kanon, 5 Centimeter’s per Second, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Toradora, True Tears, Valkyria Chronicles, Voices of a Distant Star, or Evangelion.

This anime falls somewhere between Full Metal Panic! and Shakugan no Shana. Angel Beats! comes off half-finished and rushed, scrambling to find every excuse to compress as much plot advancement into every second of airtime. Despite its lack of story-flow, I feel that Angel Beats! was worth watching. It doesn’t compare to any of the great dramas in recent memory or any of the more mindless action shows that are still on television. But Angel Beats! does deliver a refreshing change of pace with its dark, slapstick humor, its Haruhi-like characters, and original concept.

[Concurrent] Durarara!! | FMA: Brotherhood

Durarara!!

I got fully caught up with both of these amazing TV shows a few days ago, and I am just blown away at the vision of the authors. They’re both incredibly talented story tellers—but the animation staff gets credit for presenting everything in such a dramatic way.

Durarara!! has skillfully set up the three main protagonists, Mikado, Anri, and Kida, to fight off against one another without either of them knowing that the other is their enemy—each one of them is, in secret, a leader of some large group in the city. They’re all actually very close friends at school and form a tightly knitted group. They all care for one another, but they haven’t told each other that they’re the leaders of the three strongest groups in the city.

First, Mikado is in charge of the Dollars gang. The Dollars gang is an online based and by-invitation-only gang that has garnered support from thousands of people in the city. In fact, I’m surprised that the entire city isn’t in the Dollars gang. They aren’t active in the sense that they’re going out and acquiring territory. They have no rules and no obligations. They’re more of like a Facebook fan-group, rather than a traditional gang.

After Anri is attacked by “the Slasher,” Mikado, driven to revenge out of his love for Anri, begins demanding information about the Slasher from members of the Dollars gang. He doesn’t actually know that the faces and names of his gang members, but he uses an online forum to communicate with them.

Then we have Kida who’s in charge of the “Yellow Scarves gang” —or the “Golden Bandannas gang” depending on your translation. Kida retired from the gang right before Mikado came to Ikebukuro. He also loves Anri, and rejoins the Yellow Scarves as their Shogun in a crusade against the Slasher. According to the rumors that are floating around the city, the Dollars are actually behind the Slasher incidents. Kida is now determined to find out who or what the Slasher is, with his first target being the Dollars.

And finally we have Anri who wants to wage a one-man war against Izaya, who is actually pulling the strings behind the scenes. Izaya is an informant who has been orchestrating all of the events that have lead up to this point. He is suspected of creating the rumors about the Dollars and setting events in motion that have lead to this calamity, all for the sake of going to Valhalla by using Celty’s head. To make matters worse, Anri is the Slasher! She has a sword, call “Saika,” which possesses its owners with a feeling of love. It manipulates its welder to slash other people, who in turn get possessed by the sword as well. Anri is able to control the people she slashes with her sword. Apparently, there have been thousands of Slasher incidents across the city, so she has thousands of obedient followers who can serve her. Not only that, if her followers slash someone, they also come under the influence of Anri. Anri’s gang is a viral infection that is arguably the most dangerous force in the city.

This eruption of drama might just be overkill. I can’t wait to see how this series ends, but it looks like the light novels are still in production, so I am hoping that a second season comes out.

FMA

FMA has orchestrated a huge plan to use an entire country as a sacrificial lamb towards some unknown goal. All I know is that there are 3 different groups waging war against “Father” and the previous government. Edward is leading a group of rebels underneath the city in order to get to Central’s headquarters. Colonel Mustang joined up with Edward and has sent a detachment to spread propaganda across the city. And then we have General Armstrong taking Central’s headquarters by force. But we’re about to see how things turn out when The Führer comes back from the dead and attempts to take the fortress by force—by himself!

And lastly, we have Father and Van Hohenheim facing off downstairs, beneath the whole mess that’s occurring upstairs.

The series is nearing its end with these last 7 episodes, which will coincide with the end of the manga. According to Anime News Network, the author is working closely with the animation staff to storyboard the ending of the anime so that it will be exactly the same as the ending of the manga, which is slated to end in June. I’m really glad that Studio Bones decided to follow the original story of FMA, because their first attempt at concluding the series just ended awfully, in my opinion. The series just went off into a different dimension—literally—and cobbled together some random conclusion that just didn’t make any fucking sense.

In any case, I’m excited to see where FMA: Brotherhood goes.

[Thoughts] Kara no Kyoukai

Idealism vs Cynicism

So, I just finished the whole movie series Kara no Kyoukai and I was a bit flummoxed over how I feel about it. One one hand, the movie series portrays Mikiya Kokuto, one of the main characters, as a wide-eyed idealist. On the other hand, the movie also portrays Shiki Ryougi, the other main character, as the “not-so idealistic” half of this battle-couple. I say that Shiki Ryougi is “not-so idealistic” because she follows many idealistic values throughout the anime, but crosses the line of cynicism several times. But, it’s clear that the author of the series is giving this anime an idealistic tilt to it. Luckily, he isn’t giving it to us for free, like some other shonen.

The earlier movies are actually somewhere in between the two extremes, but, as you get closer towards the end of the series, it turns into a more idealistic anime so that the audience can have their happy ending. The idealism of the main character, Mikiya Kokuto, comes off as gratingly impractical, petulant, and unrealistic, rather than winsome and knightly.

Regardless of its ideal tilt, I actually enjoyed the series. The action is downplayed in favor of suspense, character development, and plot-fleshing; although, the fifth movie will take a couple of reruns to understand. It does a great job portraying the complicated relationship between Mikiya and Shiki, without succumbing to temptation of strangling the couple with red string.

The animation is fluid and detailed; the artists paid particular to the way that the characters walk, of all things. The depictions of the settings are gritty, ominous, and moody. Unlike other anime, that use canned or manufactured settings, everything you see actually belongs.

Unfortunately, I don’t plan on reviewing this series at all. As much as I liked the movies, I feel like the authors took too much liberty in emphasizing the themes; there was a lot of unwanted projection. What they should’ve done is focus on the characters’ and their back-stories.

I would definitely recommend this series to anyone looking for a dark and gritty supernatural thriller. But be warned, there are a lot of non-nonsensical ideals and themes that are thrown at you that I feel are worn-out, pretentious, and wanton—they aren’t pithy aphorisms. If you can manage to look past the author’s attempt to bemuse you, then this series will come off as a refreshing addition to your collection.

[Concurrent] Angel Beats! | B Gata H Kei

Guns, Girls, and Angel

I just got around to watching the first episode of Angel Beats! and, I must say, this is one of the more impressive anime that have come out this season. Josh mentioned this show a couple of weeks ago when the preview episode was released. I hadn’t thought about watching it until he had me calculate the approximate speed that a person would have to propel their arm in order to deflect bullets. Needless to say, I was very interested in the nature of Angel Beats! after that. He also mentioned that several large voice actors would be participating in the project, but, as you know, there are some anime out there that serve as an example that an all-star cast is not enough to qualify a good tv-series.

Hioshi Kamiya (Bakemonogatari, Sayonara Sensei) plays as Otonashi, the main character and an ordinary high school student who has died in the real world and now resides in the afterlife stricken with amnesia. He awakens in the afterlife at the feet of a girl named Yuri, who vaguely resembles Haruhi Suzmiya from Melancholy. Otonashi is immediately informed that he is dead and is asked to help Yuri’s group of teenage warriors fight against “Angel,” a petite white-haired girl. Obviously, he doesn’t understand the situation and decides to go up to Angel and ask her what the hell is going on. Angel replies by saying that Otonashi is dead. In his disbelief, Otonashi asks Angel to prove that they are in the afterlife. She obliges him by stabbing him in the heart—proving that he cannot die if he is already dead; regardless, he could still feel the pain of being skewered. He faints. A few hours later, Otonashi wakes up in the clinic of a nearby high school and realizes that Yuri and Angel were both telling the truth.

After watching the first episode, I began to wonder how Otonashi actually arrived in the afterlife. I don’t mean to ask how he died in the real world, but how did he end up lying down in the middle of the sidewalk near a high school in Purgatory? I know that isn’t much of a question, but I also began to wonder why would the afterlife consist of continuous conflict between two entities that can’t die. It seemed moot and fruitless. So, I rewatched the series and took several screen shots. After analyzing them, I realized that the main characters aren’t in the afterlife, they’re in a computer program.

Exhibit A

This screen shot was taken after our protagonist fires a bullet at Angel, who then proceeds to deflect it with a 2 foot blade attached to her arm. If you look carefully at the “sparks” that come as a result of the deflection, you’ll see that several “1’s” and “0’s” replace the usual metal sparks—”binary sparks” perhaps. Interesting…

Furthermore, the main character talks to Yuri about the setting and she explains that even though there appears to be several normal people in this world, they are actually NPC’s (non-playable characters). How she can determine the difference between a real human and a NPC is still in question, but I assume it has something to do with amnesia.

Well, we’ll just have to see how the plot unfolds, but in the meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying the crisp production values of this tv-show. Seriously, you wouldn’t have been able to tell what those “binary sparks” were made out of until you actually paused the video and looked at them closely. The authors of this series have done a fantastic job with the character designs and their associated personalities. I feel that the main character is enjoyable, yet not totally unbelievable; moderately tough and level-headed, with a little dash of “real-world cowardliness,” but with less bitch and more kickass. The supporting actress, Yuri, is a spunky and feisty girl, with lots of attitude and badass to back it up.

Lastly, the voice-casting for this show is excellent. I was surprised to see that so many good voice actors were going to be joining this project:

Hanazawa, Kana: Nadeko | Bakemonogatari
Kamiya, Hiroshi: Araragi | Bakemonogatari, Tieria | Gundam 00, Nozomu | Sayonara Sensei
Kimura, Ryohei: Takizawa | Eden of the East
Mizushima, Takahiro: Rolo | Code Geass R2, Nagasumi | Seto no Hanayome

That’s just a few of the voice actors and some of their associated roles in other anime series. This is a monster of a show. I’m really excited to see this play out. The characters feel really natural and crisp in this anime, so you won’t be disappointed as far as that goes.

On a separate note, I wanted to try out the new slideshow feature on WordPress, so I took several photos and uploaded them to the gallery. If this turns out to be good, I’ll probably use it instead of posting each picture separately—saving myself lots of work.

I’ve decided to not use the slideshow widget because it usually just locks up the browser. I think this is because of the way that the server processes the PHP code—the server probably spits out javascript that deadlocks the browser until all the images in the slideshow are completely downloaded. Forcing the browser to wait on all of the images to download is much slower than just straight up coding image-links into the post, or using the gallery widget, because the browser has full control of how it treats those image-links and most browsers will download images in the background while the rest of the page loads and reacts properly. Thus, I’ll just use the gallery widget.

Sex, Freaks, and Amateurs

Another tv-show that Josh recommended to me was B Gata H Kei, and, god-damn, what a let-down. This show is about a sexy high school freshman girl—read: 14 year-old bitch—who wants to have sex with 100 different boys. The only problem is, she’s never had sex before and she’s never been in a relationship, so she doesn’t know how to approach her goals for sexual conquest. *GASP!* Hot bitch doesn’t know how to get laid! Hilarity ensues…no wait. Embarrassment and idiotic behavior ensues. Ugh! I’ll admit that I don’t have the stomach for “embarrassment and awkward-situation humor,” but this series just takes it to the next level. I mean, we’re seeing social situations that would never be tolerated in real life and no human being would ever find themselves attempting anything portrayed in this anime. It’s just grating and demeaning. There’s no humor in it. I find myself constantly face-palming because the characters repeatedly make fools of themselves.

I’ve decided to suspend this anime if it doesn’t improve by episode 3, which I highly doubt it will immediately. The premise was dodgy to begin with, and I only decided to watch it because Josh said it was funny—which it isn’t!

Don’t expect anything from this tv-series. It’s a complete flop.

Other News

In any case, more data sheets and, hopefully, more reviews are coming down the pipeline, so stick around!

[Edit 4/6/2010: Kiss x Sis has been also been suspended due to the overwhelmingly negative reviews of it. Instead, I’ve decided to slot in Kaichou wa Maid-sama! More on this in a later post]

Until next time…

-Ja-ne!

[Review] Canaan

Introduction

Canaan is probably one of the most taut and under-fueled series I’ve seen. I’m just really glad that I waited until it finished at the end of fall 2009 before I actually picked it up. I first heard about it very early in October, which was after it completed in September, but I never actually pursued the series. I read great things about it, but decided to put it on the wait list.

Earlier this year (2010), I read that it was voted one of the best anime of 2009, and I figured that was enough to rocket it to the top of my “to-watch” list. I gobbled the series in three days, after being successfully hooked by the crisp and fluid animation style, the superpower nature of the title character, and the refreshingly believable cuteness of the main character, Maria.

The plot started out disjoint and fuzzy, harkening back to Gundam 00’s introduction style. Once I saw the first episode of Canaan, I assumed that this season was going to be just one of many, and would undoubtedly end on a cliffhanger. After finishing the series, I now wish that it did end on a cliffhanger, because the ending is some sort of mix between a non-ending, a gecko ending, and a wall-banger.

Characters

Maria Osawa: A jovial, genki girl, who’s borderline neurotic. Breaking in wide-eyed and smiley, Maria’s fascination with the world drives her to become a photographer and “show the world through her eyes.” Her reasons for being a freelance photographer might be weak, but in all of the anime I’ve seen, her cute moe-moe character is one of the more realistic imitations of a human personality. Lucky us, she stars as the series’ protagonist, despite the title being “Canaan.”

Canaan: Gravity-defying action girl. None other than a nasty government experiment let out of its cage, Canaan has a sinister origin and has become nothing more than a mercenary doing the dirty work of a clandestine organization that’s a part of the Japanese Government. During her jobs for the Japanese Government, Canaan has the tendency to ignore the rules of physics in order to preserve the rules of cool. As a staple of her profession, she specializes in Gun-kata and Gun-fu with the help of her super-senses to detect enemies through walls. Apparently, the name given to her superpower, by the author, is called Synesthesia, which actually refers to a totally different neurological condition.

Minoru Minorikawa: A hot-blooded reporter from Japan, with absolutely no direction, no real scoop, and acting as Maria’s babysitter on this quick little vacation to China, for what appears as coverage over an undisclosed—to the audience—Chinese celebration. His ten minutes in the spotlight culminate into a brief display of badassery/stupidity, masked as empathetic courage, as he slowly walks to a shell-shocked Hakko and gives her a cooldown hug.

Alphard Alshua: The big bad of the series, albeit a bit debatable whether or not she actually fulfilled the role or if she’s just a crazy, backstabbing bitch. Her character and her motives are never truly revealed, but from what I can surmise, she was just in it for the money and the popcorn-show.

Liang Qi: A depraved and abject bitch who likes to swing large swords while wearing lingerie. Liang starts off as Alphard’s subordinate, but is soon relieved of her responsibilities after demonstrating very poor mental and emotional health; neurotic scenes of wangst and lesbian obsession soon follow. I found that Liang’s exasperated cries of love were mawkish and disturbing, not dishy.

Yun-yun: A Chekhov’s Gunman that serves as some sort of human Swiss-army knife when it comes to careers. Initially, she was employed as an assassin for Alphard, albeit too nice of a person to be one. In all fairness, she had no choice but to work for Alphard, because she is a Borner (not boner) and depends on a specialized set of drugs, that are conveniently only in Alphard’s hands, in order to keep herself alive. Oh, and she’s Chinese.

“High Tension” Taxi Driver: Badass taxi-cab driver, who drives like shit and has a catch phrase. He only appears a handful of times, but his sparse appearance was no hinderance to his incredible popularity among fans. He usually appears out of no where, offering a ride to wherever the characters need to be, and gets there really fast, all to the theme of bubbly Japanese pop music. Who doesn’t like that?

Plot

Hot-blooded, hotshot reporter Minoru Minorikawa and genki amateur photographer Maria Osawa fly into Shanghai in order to cover an anti-terrorist summit, which various world-leaders are planning to attend. As Maria moseys around Shanghai, during an undisclosed Chinese festival, she comes across a dead mook and begins to wonder what’s going on. Before she can complete her thought, several other mooks, predictably, attempt to tie up loose ends by stabbing her. Enter badass gunslinger girl, Canaan, who swoops in just in time to lead Maria to safety. The mooks and Canaan exchange gunfire; throughout this, Canaan displays, in dramatic flair, her ability to sense where the enemy is through her Synesthesia and her ability to defy the laws of physics. Oh, and the crowd? Apparently, the Chinese firecrackers are drowning out the sounds of gunshots, and their common sense as well, so they don’t notice a thing, even though bullets are ripping apart the buildings around them.

After a brief interlude of side-quests, we meet Yun-yun, a drug-dependent Borner—not boner—who works for the big-bad, Alphard Alshua.

A borner is a person who was used as a biological test subject by the United States military, specifically using the “Ua Virus.” The US wanted to create super-soldiers using the Ua Virus, but sometime between now and then, abandoned the project.

The series chronicles approximately 1 to 2 weeks of Maria’s trip to Shanghai, in which various incidents occur, ranging from near-fatal train-rides to investigating a cos-play bar. What’s really disappointing is that this series had so much potential to be more than just comic-strip anime. It’s composed of several disjoint events—albeit, they flow well—that all allude to a darker and sinister meaning behind everyone’s actions. Unfortunately, the build up amounts to a fizzled ending, where the status quo is restored and nothing changes; everything that transpired didn’t significantly tell, alter, or progress the over-arcing storyline. All the audience learned was that Maria and Canaan are very close friends, almost lesbians, and that there’s some ominous government conspiracy that will unfold between Japan, China, and America—not much to work with.

Final Thoughts | Conclusion

Despite my objections to the plot’s lack of mileage, I have to give it to the animators at P.A. Works for making one hell of a good action anime. The series definitely delivers on the goods. There’s plenty of fanservice, cat fights, and dakka, although we all know there’s never enough dakka. I’m convinced that the reason for the series’ abrupt and inconclusive bittersweet ending was because the studio was piloting Canaan. They probably didn’t want to invest a lot of thought into pushing Canaan beyond 1 season, so they just threw whatever they had out there. When the series became more popular, P.A. Works probably decided to put some sort of sequel hook at the end of the series to string the audience along.

With all that aside, I felt that the series was very smooth, enjoyable, and fairly sensible. The plot wasn’t some mind-screw plot twist, despite the government conspiracy take. The character designs were humanly cute, but not too realistic for fiction. And the production values were top-notch, as Josh will attest to sometime next year when he finally gets his review out. If you need a quick and smooth fix for a more than decent action anime, take a look into Canaan.

Score | Charts

Changes

Scoring

I’ve changed the way I rate anime, yet again. I felt that my previous rating scheme put too much emphasis on themes, and didn’t actually look at what the series was trying to be. So instead, I’ve fixed that by reducing the amount of rating categories for the overall rating, and added several tilt values for each category.

So, what’s that mean? Well, that means that I’ll still be looking at the plot, setting, characters, and themes, but I’ve given every single category a tilt, which will increase that category’s score by a small amount. This “tilt score” will be based upon the series’ Attribute Score, which is something I’ve been doing for awhile now, but haven’t really found a good use for. Now, since the Attribute Score affects the Rating Score, I’ve decided to change several categories in the Attribute Chart. Most of the categories should be familiar to you, unless you haven’t been to Blockbuster in a few decades.

So, how does the Attribute Score affect the Rating Score? Well, depending on the genre and the nature of the anime, I’ll be giving more “weight” to the “raw tilt score” of each Rating Chart category. I know that didn’t quite make sense, but let me just give you an example.

Say the anime series I reviewed was an action anime. Well, to rate it against its themes and symbols would be a bit unrelated and the series’ score would suffer for it, even though the anime was clearly just trying to be an action anime. So, in order to compensate for its lack of plot and/or themes, I will be giving more weight to its tilt on the plot and the themes.

If that doesn’t make sense, you can just conclude that I do a bunch of black magic and spit out a score, which is what every other reviewer does, anyways.

The Production Score Chart

I added a new chart call “The Production Score.” This is basically a chart that documents the rating of the series’ art, music, sound effects, and voice acting. Simple as that. It doesn’t affect any other ratings and it’s meant to give you an idea of how “well” the anime was done physically.

Attribute Chart

Production Score

Rating Chart

Ratings

Attributes	Score	Weight	Tilt
Plot	5	65%	0.54
Setting	6.5	65%	0.54
Characters	5	25%	0.26
Themes	1	10%	0.34

Ratings Summary

Rating Raw Score: 21.8
Weighted Score: 6.2375
Tilt Weight: 5% (Total Inflation: 105%)
Tilt: 1.14

Total: 7.3775

Rating: 73.78

Gallery

Basic Overview – Fall ’09 anime + Aria and Bleach

Fall ’09 Anime + Extras – A Quick Overview

Alright – Get ready, because this is one hell of a post! Sorry if there are some errors in grammar/whatever – I’ll update it when I get some time…

Well well well.. finals are finally over and THANK GOD! Seriously, if I spent one more minute cooped up in my room with books and papers all around me I would have probably quite literally gone insane. Though some may argue I already am…

Setting that aside! Sorry for getting so far behind on reviews, but I should be able to get up to date pretty fast (I’ve got nothing else to do…). Anyway, as you may or may not remember, I put up a list of anime I was watching this season, and since they are ending soon, I thought I’d start out by giving my basic impression of the anime I’ve been watching – just like a sentence or two, nothing special – to get back into the swing of things.

Asura Cryin’ 2 – If you haven’t seen the first season, read my previous review of it before deciding to watch it/not watch it. Well, I need to catch up on this season (which I will readily do tomorrow). I will go ahead that I was somewhat disappointed in the direction the anime took at the beginning by making the main character, Tomo, fall into the oh so common pattern of indecisiveness and petty idealistic weakness before finally wakening up and accepting reality, but that said, as of the last episode I saw, things had finally started to turn around. I may or may not end up recommending this based on its ending/the chance of its continuation.

Nyan Koi! – This is one of the best anime of this season bar none. It’s about a highschool boy named Junpei who comes under the curse of a sacred cat statue after knocking it over on his way home from school. What does the curse do? Well, allow him to talk to cats of course. Unless he helps out 100 cats within a certain amount of time, he himself will be turned into a cat – a fact that he is quickly informed of by no other than his own pet. But there’s a catch: he is not allowed to tell anyone about the curse lest they be cursed as well and his own curse be accelerated. Furthermore, Junpei is allergic to cats. What follows is a hilarious romantic comedy about Junpei’s daily life as he tries to free himself from his curse while dealing with a harem of highschool girls and deal with constant nagging requests from a plethora of needy cats.

Sacred Blacksmith – This anime is about… well… I still don’t exactly know what it’s about. The plot follows a female knight named Cecily Cambell of the prestigious Cambell household who come into possession of the demon sword Aria. Some of you may ask, “well why give a sword a name?”; well, first off, because all special items in anime MUST have names, and secondly, this demon sword is special in that it can take the form of a human girl. However, there are several people who wish to have Aria and would do anything to take her, not the least of which is a caped villain who seems to have a vague connection to an overlordy “dark god” sealed inside a mountain just outside of the city. Joined by Luke Ainsworth and his cute little elf girl counterpart Lisa, Cecily strives to keep Aria out of their hands at all costs. Unfortunately, the animators decided to give this anime a plot as of just a couple episodes ago and due to finals, I’m behind, so this is the best description I can give at the moment. I’ll end up recommending it based on how it turns out from here on (ie. based on whether or not the plot is worth anything) but I will say that Lisa is the most moe little elf girl I’ve seen in a very long time.

Sparky – or rather To Aru Kagaku no Railgun – If you haven’t seen To Aru Majutsu no Index this anime is not going to make ANY sense, so go watch it first (yes… I’m recommending it – if nothing else, see it so that you can watch this one). Just to give you a very rough idea, the plot revolves around students in a city learning how to use special powers. There are several different types of powers, the strength or level of which depends on how much the person has trained them and ranges from level 1 to level 5. Railgun is about Misaka Mikoto – also known as “Tokiwadai’s Railgun” – who happens to be a level 5, her kohai (think opposite of sempai) and roommate Kuroko Shirai, a level 4 teleporter and part of the disciplinary commity “Judgment”, and her friends Kazari Uiharu, a level 1 with an unknown power – also a part of Judgment, and Ruiko Saten, a level 0 (no not satan ~ haha! your name/nickname/bitch-name didn’t get capitalized in my post loser). At some point, someone figured out how to “cheat” and raise ability levels by using a mysterious method nicknamed the “level upper” and has been spreading the catalyst around. Lower levels are tempted to use this in order to take their abilities to the next level – if you’ll forgive the expression – and after gaining powers often commit crimes. Judgment is constantly badgered by happenings related to this level upper, and puts forth efforts to find the catalyst and the person responsible for it. At the forefront of this investigation are the four girls (Saten and Misaka, of course, unofficially). Now, I make the plot out to be very serious, but honestly, none of this develops until the latter half of the anime. The first half revolves around the relationship between the four girls and establishing their bonds – often resulting from hilarious and heart-warming situations. If you saw and liked the previous season of To Aru, I would highly recommend this to you. Overall it is probably one of the best anime this season.

11 eyes – This anime is just… odd… It is about several highschool students with special powers nicknamed “fragments” that are constantly pulled into the “Red Night”, another dimension that appears at random filled with demons and dark forces out to kill them for some (still) unexplained reason. Over time, the fragments find each other through circumstance or what-have-you, and form an alliance, pitting themselves against the “Black Knights” – guardians of the Red Night and its imprisoned princess sealed within a red crystal – with one objective: to survive. Who is this princess? Why are the fragments being targeted? And what is the cause of this Red Night? Honestly, your guess is as good as mine. No really… it’s been like 10 episodes and the only thing that’s been revealed is that the main couple have connections to past lives in which the guy was killed. Whatever… the art is solid and the anime is… interesting… but I don’t think I can give it a recommendation… at least not until it starts making some dam sense.

Kampfer – Hot girls fighting hot girls. A guy who turns into a hot girl and fights with said hot girls… a harem of girls desperate to get the single guy’s attention (though he is too dense to realize it)… and a vaguely evil villain – who happens to be a hot girl. Yeah, that’s a pretty good summary of this anime. The actual plot revolves around aforementioned “guy who turns into a hot girl”, Senou Natsuru, and the road to perdition – females. Okay, I’m just messing with you. In this world, there are people chosen to become warriors named “Kampfers” who are given psychic powers from the bracelets they wear. Kampfers are split into teams by color of their bracelet and told to battle each other to the death until only one team remains. However, there are those who do not wish to battle each other without reason, namely Senou and the friends he makes in and outside of his team. Brought together by the desire to end the senseless violence, Senou and his friends strive to find out who is the mastermind behind the Kampfers and stop them at all costs. As for my outlook on the anime… well… if you like anime girls of all shapes and “sizes” (if you catch my drift), this anime is for you, but if you’re looking for a plot… well… let me explain. Have you ever gotten into an anime and then, somewhere along the lines the animators realize “OH, THAT’S WHAT WE FORGOT!” referring to the plot – that would be this. Even so, I think the real purpose of the anime is self explanatory…

Kobato – “I’ll heal your broken heart…” – This is an anime about Kobato, a girl who has left heaven to make her dreams come true, and her fire-breathing guardian dog-doll, Loryuugi…san. In order for Kobato to fulfill her wishes, she must first completely fill a bottle with “candies”, tiny gems created by healing a person’s broken heart. Unfortunately, Kobato is somewhat clumsy and often inept, but through the purity of her own heart, she is able to help others in ways no one else can. I really like this series and will go ahead and recommend it to anyone who is interested. It’s definitely one of the best and most heartwarming anime of the season.

Shin Koihime Musou – If you’re familiar with the first season of Koihime Musou, I don’t think I need to explain anything. The second season picks up shortly after where the first season left off and is back to the same hijinks and obligatory (if not excessive) fan service. Okay, there’s no such thing as excessive fanservice… let me correct myself. This time, the team is escorting a pink haired girl named Ryuubi on her quest to regain her lost sword – ironically the same sword as the main villain from the previous season. Along the way, they come across the tail of an evil magical tome from a passing doctor who has set out to seal it. Keeping this in mind, the group continues on their journey meeting up with old friends and a plethora of new girls along the way (apparently I like using the word “plethora” a lot). If you liked the previous season of Koihime, I can definitely recommend this to you, but otherwise, please read Andrew’s description before you decide.

Sora no Otoshimono – Flying underwear anyone? – I would liken this anime to Koihime Musou in regards to the “plot”; it’s there, but no one really cares… It’s basically about the boy, Tomoki Sakarai, and his encounter with Ikaros, a “pet-class angeloid” – human-like androids complete with the power to grant any wish and a pair of retractable wings. Unfortunately, the programmers (whomever they happen to be…) seem to have forgotten something – something very basic: common sense. Having his peaceful daily life shattered by his new nonsensical magical pet, Tomo tries to adjust to his new lifestyle while his close group of friends attempt to figure out what this new entity is and where it came from. Okay… that said, I have to give this anime some credit – it’s funny; borderline hilarious at times and it may, in fact, have a plot. Still, I hesitate to recommend it because I’m not sure how the ending is going to work out. I’ll be sure to put up a review of it sometime after its completion.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu – If you’ve seen the first season, consider this an extension of it. If you haven’t let me review: this anime is about Nogizaka Haruka – a high school idol and secret anime fanatic – and the boy that finds out about her secret, Yuto Ayase. Through cute and often funny twists and turns covered in the first season, the two develop bonds together that are neigh unbreakable. In the second season, we continue to follow Haruka’s and Yuto’s developing relationship (or, perhaps, better stated “developed” relationship). Unfortunately, I’ve only seen about five episodes of it (I’m way behind) which is through no great fault of the anime itself, but until I catch up, I can’t say much more about it than I already have. I’ll update this portion of the post at some point in the near future (hopefully).

Bleach – Yay side-arcs? Seriously, these guys just need to get a life and quit screwing around with side stories… is what I’d like to say… From what I understand, the makers of the anime are stumped because they keep having to wait on the manga to be released. If you’ve never seen Bleach, let me give you a vague idea of the plot. There are evil spirits, the Hollow, who live in the dimension “Hueco Mundo” (basically hell) which sometimes break out and enter the real world or “the world of the living” to feed on wandering dead souls or living humans. Soul reapers, spirits of the dead trained in their second life to fight and use limited magical abilities, live in the “Soul Society” (I’d like to say “heaven” but more like a second stage of the world of the living) and are sent to stop Hollow from running amuck. The story revolves around a highschool student named Ichigo Kurosaki (really… they couldn’t have thought of a better name than “strawberry” for their main character?) and his (initially) involuntary involvement with the sould reapers. I don’t want to get any deeper into the plot thatn that because it gets really convoluted. Whatever the case, up until the Rukia arc was finished, it was arguably one of the best anime around, but since then, the animators have been forced to throw in so many side arcs it’s ridiculous. I would recommend this on the basis that, when the plot picks up, it’s amazing, but would warn anyone intending to watch it… BE READY FOR SIDE ARCS!

Fairy Tail – Yes yes… they spelled “Tale” wrong – I’ll go ahead and say that I’m partial to this particular breed of anime (I like idealism – sue me…). This anime takes place in a world of magic and wizards. Powerful wizards group together to form guilds – most of which are good, but some of which are bad or “dark” guilds which often cause trouble. The focus of the story is the guild “Fairy Tale” and the exploits of its “most powerful team”: Erza – an “ex-quip” mage (my personal favorite – seriously, the less clothes she wears the more badass she gets [that’s not exactly how the ability works but WHATEVER, I like it…]), Lucy – a summoner, Gray – an ice mage, and Natsu – a fire mage, and their little blue cat friend Happy. There is no real centralized plot – this anime is more like a series chronologically ordered short arcs that build on each other. If you’ve seen the anime “Rave Master” let me just summarize: it has the same author, and follows the same idealistic point of view. Just subtract out the centralized plot and trade it in for a more comedic and better animated (for obvious reasons) piece of work, and you have Fairy Tail. I would definitely recommend this anime to anyone who has seen Rave Master and liked it. As for everyone else, check it out and see if you like it. I’ll have a full review for it up at some point after the series is complete.

Aria the Animation – Sometime in the future, after man began to cultivate/colonize Mars, the planet was flooded with water earning it the new name “Aqua”. Gondolas became a popular form of guided tours to learn about the planet and the great city of Neo-Venezia (“New Venice”). The undines who guide them are taught to be skillful, graceful, knowledgeable, and above all courteous to their compatriots and their counterpart undines despite the fact that they hail from several different companies, perhaps the smallest of which is “Aria Company”. Here, an undine in training named Akari, strives to become the best undine she can be under the guidance of her instructor Alicia, one of the three legendary “Water Fairies” – named so for their grace and skill hailed to be the greatest of any undine. Together with her friends Aika from “Himeya Company” and Alice from “Orange Planet”, Akari learns that there is much more to being an undine than just skill or knowledge, and that the water covered planet may be a much more mystical place than it appears. Well… that’s the best description I can give it. There are so many things I would like to say about this anime but I think I can go ahead and say this: it’s certainly one of the best anime around in my opinion. The art is great and the girls are as sweet as can be (this is where the southerner in me takes over – darn it I’m tired). What I’m TRYING to say is, I highly recommend this anime. I know it’s an older one, but don’t let that keep you from watching it, and be sure to keep your eyes open to the scenery and your ears open to the music, you won’t want to miss it!

Oh, and about 5cm/s – I’m still working on that review, but it’s taken me a lot of effort to express some of the basic concepts (such as love) I think are important to understand in order to respect the work completely. Any way around it, I hope you all look foreward to it and enjoy reading it. Until then!

[Topside] Valkyria Chronicles Finished | Bringing Up Others

Ancient Egyptian Laser Beams

Ah, so I just finished Valkyria Chronicles; what a refreshing break from other series that feature genre blindness. What really struck me was the author’s decision to make the “bad guys” lovable, human, and rational. They weren’t your typical hate-fueled, power-lusting evil bastards hellbent on taking over the world—well, until you meet the guy at the end. For the most part, the antagonists are portrayed as regular people—sorta—who struggle to fight for what they believe in and for the people they love—like, ya know, regular people! I even came to like and admire several of the antagonists. Unlike many other anime series, this one takes the time to develop, portray, and grow the characters of this series, both hero and villain alike. Albeit, the series does continue to play Welken as a person who’s oblivious to love, which is unfortunate because it frustrates the hell out of the audience, when more genre savvy characters have explicitly clued him in on it.*Sigh* Ma-ei. It’s not that big of an issue because another thing that the series does well is prevent shipping lanes from forming in spite of the love triangle between Alicia, Welken, and Faldio; I’m not sure how the series managed to desensitize the audience from leaning towards Welken or Faldio—perhaps it was the fact that the OP spoils the whole thing for you in addition to Faldio acting rather chivalrous until he shoots Alicia in the back. I’ll get more into that later on this month.

Believe it or not, those two are generals

In any case, Valkyria’s ability to dive deep into the characters of the series is one of its strongest points. Valkyria genuinely focuses on the characters, making them the bigger picture in such a large world; it really does feel like the world is passing by, even though the characters are at the center of the story—and the world for that matter. You can expect a review of this series from Josh and me sometime this month—hopefully. He and I just finished the series and we’ve decided to do a joint review.

What the hell is that?

Josh and I plan on designing an outline for our review and then giving our thoughts on each section (i.e. plot, characters, setting, etc…). Each of us will be responding and to one another in a pseudo-debate style manner, where one of us will make a point and the other will refute, agree, or rebuff it. We’ll see how this goes, but I am really excited about this. Josh and I were suppose to do a joint review of 5 Centimeters per Second, but I wrote a full review for it earlier this year and Josh is just finishing up his review of it, so it wouldn’t make much sense to revisit the series if both of us already have our own separate say in the matter.

Other Anime To Watch

The good news is that Valkyria Chronicles was such a engrossing, yet lighthearted series that I’m able to recover from it rather quickly. Other series tend to suck the audience in and create giant broken bases that spawn endless walls of flame-wars, angry trash-talk, and hours of sleep lost to pondering; Valkyria spares us the pain of caring too much.

I’ve decided to start watching two new series: Hayate no Gotoku and Queen’s Blade—the latter is not faring well with me. After seeing this scene:

Yeah, the most common superpower

I don’t know if I can handle what comes later in the series. Albeit, my curiosity has been piqued by the premise of the work, so I’ll definitely be watching with my door closed.

I haven’t had a chance to watch Hayate, but I heard the series was sublime; noted for its lack of a fourth wall. I’ll be sure to give you guys an update on that as well.

Until next time!

-Ja-ne!

[Review] Ga-Rei: Zero

Ga-Rei: Zero Review

Introduction

Ga-Rei: Zero is actually the prequel to the ever popular manga, Ga-Rei. As far as the audience knows, from the marketing department no-less, the story is about a band of super-powered heroes who use crazy weapons, such as motorcycles and briefcases, to defeat invisible demons. Of course, the show completely subverts this and kills off all the characters at the end of the first episode. The next episode continues on and introduces a new set of characters and then subsequently tells the tale of how they got there. Of course, if you’ve read the manga, then you would be prepared for the direction this series takes.

Characters

Natasuki Kasuga: The first female lead, prior to her murder at the end of the first episode. She acts as the Lancer in the first anti-demon group you’re introduced to. Believe it or not, she uses a motorcycle as her weapon against demons; there are inscribed runes on her tires and she maneuvers her bike in a way allows her to bludgeon demons with her tires; something that is beyond the impossible. Unfortunately, Kasuga will probably be your favorite girl in the series even if she only lasts for 20 minutes on-screen.

Toru Kanze: The first male lead, first lead actually, prior to his murder at the end of the first episode. He briefly fulfills his role as hero in the first anti-demon group you’re introduced to. Unlike many of his coworkers, he’s a gunslinger; opting to use dual pistols akimbo. It’s too bad that he gets brutally ripped apart at the end of the first episode, because he’s pretty badass.

Kagura Tsuchimiya: The real protagonist of the series, albeit not introduced as one. She’s one of the central characters in the manga, so, naturally, she takes up a lot of the screen time. The majority of the plot is based around her relationship to Yomi, her figurative older sister.
Kagura is a very weak person – in my opinion. I know that in the manga, she’s supposed to be a genki, yet competent person. Alas, she’s next to worthless in the anime, especially following her heroic BSOD. Now, this is forgivable because she’s just a young high school girl who’s training to become a demon slayer. I suppose that a little bit of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is understandable. Regardless, she’s a bit of a handful for the un-expecting audience.

Yomi Isayama: Arguably the only reason for this depressing excuse for a prequel. This entire series is about Yomi’s fall to evil, which doesn’t really tie that strongly into the manga; there’s a story arc about Yomi, but that’s about it. So really, this prequel is merely an excuse to explain Kagura’s and Yomi’s back-story – the rest is just a tear-fest.
Aside from the psycho the animators offered at the beginning of the series, she used to be a kind and loving girl. In fact, the animators successfully induced mood whiplash by first presenting a complete monster and then showing us that she is actually a very loving, and lovable, girl. The moment right before her fall will undoubtedly produce tears.

Plot | [Full Spoilers]

Ga-Rei: Zero starts off in Tokyo sometime in the present, or near present, as invisible demons begin attacking the city. Apparently, this isn’t the first time this has happened. The Japanese Government has established two different departments, in secret, to battle these demons: The Ministry of Defense’s Paranormal Disaster Countermeasure Headquarters and The Ministry of the Environment’s Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Division. Both of these departments are aware of each other’s presence, but are vehemently opposed to one another.

Sidetrack

OK. Stop! Tokyo is (and always has been) attacked by huge, invisible demons that create physical destruction and mayhem that not only destroy the infrastructure of city, but also kill people, lots of people, and the government’s only defense departments are having a piss-fight over jurisdiction? Give me a fucking break.

Now, I know that this has happened before, particularly in very recent history (click the link to make more sense of the following point), when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) refused to cooperate with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). But both agencies had a very good reason for not releasing information pertaining to their respective cases:

FBI: The FBI’s only job is to prosecute crimes that have been committed (i.e. gather evidence and build a case). If the FBI were ever to give their information to any other agency, it could, and most likely would, spawn a leak in their case and would jeopardize their case—most cases require the testimony of a witness, who will only speak under very strict circumstances, such as witness protection.
CIA: The CIA’s only job is to gather foreign intelligence (as in intelligence pertaining to the whereabouts of threats that are aimed at the United States, but do no originate from the United States) and take necessary actions to protect the United States from foreign attack, whether terrorist and/or state related. The CIA has an even tighter rope to walk, because if they allow other agencies to have information that they obtained through secret means, it could jeopardize their ability to defend the United States from foreign attack. Also, the CIA has operatives working in hostile territory and information pertaining to a given event might allow foreign attackers to trace it back to the CIA and their operatives, thereby losing the initiative of the operation. Simply put, if the CIA shares information and that information gets into the hands of the wrong person, it could seriously fuck up the CIA and make them look retarded. Bad!

Here’s the thing though (Rebuttal): Before the events on 9/11, the FBI and CIA were not willing to cooperate with one another because of the aforementioned reasons. But they were more than willing to share information right after the airplanes smashed into the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. But this idea is not reflected in Ga-Rei: Zero, where demons are wrecking havoc all over Japan, not just Tokyo, and the two Ministries are still not willing to cooperate. That’s just bullshit.

Back to the Point

Getting back to the point, we see our purported heroes kick demon ass, after the redshirts get killed of course, only to be obliterated by Yomi (now, the antagonist). Well that sucked.

Topside, Kagura is kicking demon ass until she encounters Yomi, who’s just finished ripping The Ministry of Defense’s Paranormal Disaster Countermeasure Headquarters intro shreds, literally. The two face off as sisters, which hinders Kagura’s will to fight Yomi. Unfortunately, the audience doesn’t have the emotional attachment to Yomi to make this event significant; actually, it’s rather obnoxious and revolting that Kagura won’t fight Yomi. Yomi is clearly a cruel monster, so what do the animators do? They tell you how they got there.

The Quick and Dirty Flashback

The episode switches to the past and the story follows Kagura’s training as a demon slayer alongside of Yomi, her figurative big sister. Yomi is kind, light-hearted, and loving. She’s sweet and mello; the perfect big sister. Through a particularly violent family feud, Yomi’s father is murdered and she finds out who killed him. Yomi then kills the murderer and then gets attacked by the real demon threat behind the murder. She gets severely injured and sinks into a state of deep-seeded weakness. After much emotional bonding, Kagura asks Yomi if she killed the person who murdered Yomi’s father, who is Kagura’s uncle. Yomi doesn’t answer her straight and Kagura, slightly heartbroken, walks outside for some “fresh-air.” All alone and regretful, Yomi silently cries and repeatedly says, “I’m sorry.” In her darkest hour, Yomi is confronted by the demon behind her father’s death and he “possesses” her—in a sense—and Yomi becomes the horrible monster that was portrayed in the first episode.

Back Up to Speed

After several battles, Kagura finally wills enough courage to kill her sister.

We look around and see dead characters—dead main characters. Broken characters. Hollow victories. No real overarching theme. And a bittersweet ending—if not a downer ending.

Themes

Now, my initial discussion with Josh yielded the conclusion that this series has no themes—no serious themes that is. The slogan of the series comes up every episode, right beneath the title:

“Will you kill someone you love, because of love?”

OK, now that’s an interesting, yet ludicrous question to ask someone. As Josh related:

“Will you stab your own heart with a knife, thereby killing yourself, to save yourself?”

I know that the animators really wanted to emphasize the relationships between the main character and Yomi, but this slogan just comes off as sadistic and cheesy. Although, to the credit of the animators, Yomi does become well liked by the audience by the time she gets possessed by the main demon villain. It’s a really unfulfilling and unproductive anime to watch—theme-wise.

Final Thoughts | Conclusions

Ga-Rei: Zero isn’t an awful series. I know I didn’t give it very many complements, but I just can’t bring myself to say that it’s an awful piece of work. It isn’t terrible—in fact I was so hooked on the series that I finished it in 3 days. It’s a very entertaining series, but it falls short of being rewatchable. It masquerades as a deeper work when it’s just as shallow as any other summer action flick. The idea that killing family members and emotionally traumatizing high-school girls just doesn’t seem highly valued on anyone’s “Themes” list.

Ga-Rei: Zero is entertainment, nothing more. Whether or not you actually find yourself enjoying the carnage and bittersweet ending will depend on your own taste for dark snuffy-like films. Personally, I feel that there are much better ways to explore the depths of human dispair and sacrifice—even using demons as a vehicle for such goals—but Ga-Rei: Zero just didn’t present the material right. What’s more is that the manga is, supposedly, light-hearted, very light-hearted. I have no idea why the animation studio would try to give the fan-base mood whiplash by presenting a darker and edgier prequel.

In any case, I would carefully recommend this series, but I would only advise that you watch it once.

Score | Charts

New Rating Scheme

After discussing some of Josh’s rating criteria, I’ve decided to change the way I review my anime. I tend to put a lot of emphasis on the themes and motifs an anime can draw, whether or not they’re actually there. I’ve realized that this gives a lopsided view on what makes a “good” anime vs what makes a “bad” anime. There’s so much more to an anime series than the images it portrays and the questions it asks; in fact, there’s a lot of work that goes into the production of the anime. You also have to consider how the audience feels about the series. Simply put, anime is no different than any other media that’s produced for profit; it’s ultimately meant to tell a story and bring someone’s ideas to light. My previous reviews have neglected this fact and might have harshly criticized other anime series without taking into account the context of the work; the purpose of its creation. As such, I’ve decided to add a “Tilt” value, that won’t be shown on the graph, but will be explicitly told in the review calculation. The Tilt rating will be my own personal rating that will “curve” the final rating. The exact value is determined by my opinion of the work, how I perceived its purpose, and how well it fulfilled that purpose. The Tilt value is weighted, but the total weight of the grade exceeds 100%. This means that this curve is a flat increase in score and presents a significant bias that gives the reader a better idea of how “good” the anime series is. Now, in order to offset this, I’ve decided to allow negative values for anime that I do not approve of, but I’ll warn you beforehand. Furthermore, I plan on breaking down all the review calculations for you in this section.

*Deep Sigh* Whew, with that, here are the ratings.

Ratings

Attributes	Values	Weight
Impression	7	5%
Hype	8	5%
Plot	7	30%
Setting	6
POV	5
Characters	5	30%
Themes	2	35%
Symbols	2
Images	2

Rating Summery

Rating Raw Score: 44
Weighted Score: 4.375 (43.75%)
Tilt (Raw): 7
Tilt Weight: 25% (Total Inflation: 125%)
Tilt Weighted Score: 1.75

Total: 6.13

Rating: 61.30%

Charts

Rating Chart:

Attribute Chart:

[Topside | Thoughts] Melancholy S2 Finished | Neon Genesis Contemplate

Endless

OK, so back in May, I was excited to see that Kyoto Animation was animating another season of The Melancholy of Haruhi. Their plan was to re-air the episodes of the first season and interleave episodes from season 2 that were chronologically in between episodes from the first season. Well, no big deal – the fans can hang with that. Hell, the only reason why Kyoto is even on the map is because of the first season, so a quick refresher isn’t so bad.

And then there was Endless Eight…Dear God, could the animators have created a more brilliant way to split up their fans and incite some of the largest flame-wars ever? Now, I know that the writers of this series like to make a lot of meta-physical jokes, but to actually distort the views of several real-life fans to the point of just doing themselves a disservice is just not funny. Basically, the studio dumped dog-shit on itself to see if anyone would think it was a brilliant act that deserved a good laugh. The answer is, NO! There is absolutely nothing funny about animating the same episode 8 times. It seriously upset me. I suspended the series for months because of that stunt.

And why is it that Kyoto Animation refuses to animate any more of the story than it already has; furthermore, why animate one small segment of the series with 8 episodes? That’s just ridiculous. Grrr…OK, I’m done fuming, onto the real business.

Finished

Aside from the aforementioned headache-fuel, I came to appreciate the series’ meta-humor and cross-referencing material (the most obvious being the ending flashback). The most impressive parts of the season came in when fictional elements within the movie that the cast was filming actually affected reality; what can we expect from Haruhi Suzumiya? Even though these elements were to be expected, it’s still a bit jarring to see a cat speak out of no where. Kinda like:

“It’s gonna happen. I know it. Wait, will it happen? I don’t know…”

Regardless, I felt that the animators did a great job of finishing the series strong. I don’t plan on doing a review of this season, because I feel that wouldn’t really progress the discussion of the series as a whole anyways. Besides, I’m really stuck on Ga-rei: Zero at the moment.

Unfortunately, not much can be said about the series other than the fact that it delivers exactly what you would expect. The one thing that did throw me off was that episodes usually ended with an incomplete conversation, which would be immediately picked up in the next episode. For instance,

The end of Episode 13:

“Yuki, do you know where we can get some cats?”

The beginning of Episode 14:

“Yes”

Instances like this made me wonder if the audience, during its time of airing, ever got the bigger picture? It would be fairly difficult to remember the very last thing the characters actually said, not what they were talking about. I could understand the audience remembering what they were talking about before the show ended, but having to remember what the last words were is just a bit much; albeit, it’s brilliant if you downloaded all the episodes!

As the light novels continue to be published, I have no doubt in my mind that the studio will continue to animate the series – but what’s so curious is that the studio refuses to get its act together when it comes to this series. It’s like all the DC Comics based movies; it’s impossible to make a movie based on a DC Comics story because they simply refuse to negotiate. Regardless, I’m sure more seasons are bound to come out of this.

But so far, we’ll have to be content with what we have so far: one season out of order and another that’s filled with repetitive canned plot.

Contemplating Neon

OK, after reading about all of the incredible high octane nightmare fuel that is Neon Genesis, I am trying to decide whether or not to just speed through this series or outright outlaw it. From what I’ve heard, this series is just as nightmarish as Elfen Lied, which isn’t a good thing for me. I’ve already spoiled myself by reading several plot briefs and associated tropes. Neon Genesis definitely sounds like a series to be reckoned with. I feel like watching the series is just asking for trouble. I already know that after watching the series, I’ll end up contemplating several useless topics, ultimately producing nothing in the end; an unproductive use of my time. Now, the author was a severely depressed nihilist at the time of Neon Genesis’ creation, so it’s no wonder that he’d include material that would spin the audience in such as way as to make their time unproductive and futile – coinciding with the belief that all systems eventually come to an end; nihilism.

OK, so what’s this got to do with anything? Like, so what? Well, I’ve had the pleasure of going through several enjoyable anime and the idea of subjecting myself to mental anguish just doesn’t appeal to me at the moment. But that’s all I really have to say about Neon Genesis at the moment. I will continue to keep it on suspension, but I know that I’ll eventually get around to watching it. The movie is suppose to be a lighter and softer version of the original series – anything is lighter and softer than Neon Genesis Evangelion – so I might hold out until all four movies come out and watch them; that will be years later, mind you.

In any case, that’s all I got. I’ll be moving onto Valkyria Chronicles very soon and I’ve begun watching/reading Naruto (Shippuuden). I’ve become all caught up on the manga and I’m continuing to make headway through the anime series. It’s not looking good in either, but what did I expect from a silly action flick?

[Thoughts] Ga-Rei: Zero Finished | Fast Track

Ga-Rei: Zero is Depressing at Best

Sigh, so I just sped through the entire series of Ga-Rei in less than 2 days and, let me tell you, it’s one of the most depressing and nihilistic anime I’ve ever seen. This is one of the few anime that I’ve seen that compels the audience to continue watching and, at the same time, hate themselves for doing it. The characters are interesting enough, with the exception of our weak protagonist, the story is compelling, the action scenes are grotesque, and the series has plenty of moments that, both, warm your heart and raise your heart-rate. Unfortunately, the series is extremely morbid, dark, and shaggy. The themes portrayed in the series sneers the idea of relationships, feelings, and logic. In combination with emotionally weak protagonists, who are in the business of killing demons, the anime just flat out frustrates you to no end. The series continuously makes up hackneyed and filibuster excuses to prologue the inevitable. Also, no one really cares to see the main character lose their will to fight – honestly, who gives a shit about emo girls who bitch about killing zombies? Now, I know that the circumstances that the main character finds herself in is incredibly stressful; she has to kill demons, harbor a demon inside her body that will cut her lift short (at the end), kill her sister (the closest person she ever had), and do all of this while she’s still in high school (so between the age of 14 – 18). Yeah, that would suck balls to have to deal with that. Hell, I get stressed out over not getting my coffee made correctly – this girl is complaining about having to kill supernatural beings that threaten the Earth’s population; not to mention that this line of business tends to kill everyone and everything she ever held dear in the world, including her mother, her father, her sister, and her uncle; one of whom became a demon. So yeah, understandable but this is not the real world; we’re in anime-land now. If the real world had demons that required killing, then you’d expect some serious bad-asses to be in the business doing the dirty work; not some wimpy cry-girl who can’t handle the pressure. Albeit, the series features some major bad-asses with big guns.

*Scoff* I could go on and on about this. In fact, there’s so much I want to say about it that I can’t find the words to type; plus it’s 3:00 AM, so that might have something to do with it. In any case, it’s actually very unusual to find myself at the end of a series after just 2 days, given the reservations I have. Why’s that? Well, that’s because the series was good; but draining. It was entertaining, fun, and redeeming in some ways. But I feel that there were glaring flaws that reeked of campy story-writing. I just feel that the writers wanted to pull every reason in the book to take school girls with big swords and viciously murder their friends, families, and coworkers. Despite the coolness of killing demons and big swords, I just can’t find myself feeling good about this series when it’s all said and done – I feel tired, emotionally drained, and unsatisfied in so many ways.

Fast Tracking | Review

Just like how I fast-tracked the viewing of this series, I plan on pushing the review up. I will probably have it finished in a couple of days. There’s so much I want to discuss about this anime, but I know that I’ll forget it all if I don’t spend the time to vomit all the details up now. Oh, and I know that I spent an unfair amount of time and energy on this series over other the anime that I have listed. This series was that engrossing; that’s not saying it was good. But does that mean I’m bias against downer anime? HELL, YES! I honestly feel that a downer anime series better have a damn good point to make if they’re going to make me feel like shit for the next two weeks. Like, I’ll be thinking to myself,

“Now, what the fuck was that all about?

Unfortunately, this series has absolutely nothing to offer the audience. No themes. No message. Just dead family members.

God dammit! I can’t tell if I hate this series or love it. And that may or may not be the sign of a good anime, but, just like a scale, if you put two really heavy weights on both ends at the same time, the fucking scale will break! Loading up an anime with dark and nihilistic themes doesn’t mean a good anime. Angst only goes so far. ARGH!

*Sigh* OK. That’s it for my rant. I’m exhausted. Seeya in a couple of days!

-Ja-ne!