[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.

Baka to Test to Shoukanju

Introduction and Rating

Baka to Test to Shoukanju is a highschool semi-action rom-com centered on the events and actions of the students in class 2-F at Fumizuki Academy.

• Art: 9.25
• Animation: 9.5
• Music: 9.0
• Characters: 9.5
• Plot: 7.0
• Average: 8.8
• My Rating: 9.0

Comments: Himeji is scary when she’s angry… but I think her cooking is worse.

“If it wasn’t for my horse, I wouldn’t have spent that year in college.” -Lewis Black

Story

At Fumizuki Academy, rankings and standardized scores are everything. Students are divided into classes A to F according to the grades they receive on an initial standardized test—the best students being sent to class A and the worst to class F, as implied by the letters. The better the grade, the better the facilities and teachers. However, this school allows a peculiar opportunity for students to “trade up” by beating their fellow students in a battle of avatars. Who would be better to fight against the injustice of being labeled an idiot than the idiots themselves?!

Plot Summary

The only weakness this show has is that it suffers from unplanned second season syndrome. The original goal of the story was for the idiots of class F to show their worth by beating all of the other classes in ESB’s. ESB’s are battles in which the objective is for each class to take out the opposing class-representative’s avatar—which are summoned beasts. The winner of the ESB is allowed to do whatever they please with the loosing class’s assets. However, this plot point is quickly lost after the first two episodes and only reintroduced during the last few episodes. What happens in between is simply a series of comedic episodes introducing side plot elements related to the characters and their relationships with each other. Since a second season has already been planned, you can pretty much guess what happens. Assuming the second season is as good as the first and actually ties things up, and since the character side of the story was hilarious, I think I’ll let the sketchy ending slide in this instance—at least to the point where I won’t destroy the ratings completely.

Main Characters

1. Akahisa Yoshii – What fun is a rom-com without a love triangle focused on the main protagonist? In Baka to Test, Yoshii is that focal point and completely oblivious to the fact as well. He is also Fumizuki Academy’s #1 idiot. He even has a special punishment avatar because of this, which recoils on him and causes him the equivalent amount of pain that would be felt by him if he were in his avatar’s position. Nevertheless, his extreme stupidity makes him…useful
2. Mizuki Himegi – Another must in a love triangle is, of course, an innocent, busty pink hared genius, who is a complete ditz in home-economics. Himeji is completely infatuated with Yoshii but far too bashful to tell him directly. Furthermore, all of her indirect attempts to tell him fail miserably in a somewhat predictable, if not comedic, fashion—it’s the situational irony that makes it funny. Whether or not she will be able to confess is still to be seen
3. Minami Shimada – She’s flat. she’s dishonest. She’s a…pro-wrestler? Minami is the tsundere counterpart of the love triangle. She is also too embarrassed to admit her feelings to Yoshii directly, and often takes out her frustration on him when he is too dense to interpret her hints and subtle advances on him
4. Yuuji Sakamoto – Class representative, instigator of rebellion, and Yoshii’s best friend. Yuuji is actually quite smart, but feels that labeling people based on something as fickle as their grades is ridiculous. His plan is to improve his conditions—and subsequently the conditions of his friends in class F—by winning ESB’s through strategy
5. Shouka Kirishima – Childhood friend of Yuuji and the class representative of class A. Shouko has liked Yuuji since they were children, although her feelings are openly rejected by him. She frequently kidnaps him—conscious or not—in order to spend time with him and take him on dates. Despite this fact, Yuuji’s actions still seem to indicate that he may have feelings for her
6. Konta Tsuchiya – A voyeur armed with a camera. Konta uses his physical prowess, quick reflexes, and sharp eye to take snapshots of girls in their most embarrassing moments and at the most revealing angles possible. He especially likes to try to sneak a peek up Minami’s skirt when she has Yoshii locked in a finisher
7. Hideyoshi Kinoshita – It’s a boy. It’s a girl. It’s…no really, what is it? Hideyoshi is an effeminate male twin whom all the other male characters have an odd attraction to. His sister is in class A and occasionally makes an appearance to tell him not to embarrass her.

Remarks

Op/Ed

The opening for Baka to Test is great. The music is synthesized and upbeat and the animation synchs up with it perfectly. Even the credits appear and disappear with the music. Each of the main characters’ avatars appears on-screen quickly and then either run or bounce/fall off the screen. Each of the main characters gives a quick cameo on-beat to the song and then pose as if they are about to take a picture, while colorful boxes, matching their hair and eye color, spin in front of a blank and white background. White is the predominate color throughout the entire opening. Apparently the animators wanted to make 100% sure that all of the attention goes to whatever the focus of the screen is. Using the white background also allowed them to splash on various bright colors and graphics and make the whole intro bubbly and bright. What is meant by “Perfect Area Complete” I’m still not sure, but I have to admit, the opening is very catchy.

In complete contrast to the opening, the predominate color in the ending is black. Even the English words displayed in the background are mostly black on color print. The bubbly music from the opening is also replaced by a rebellious rock song. It may be a moot point to mention that the ending features only the boys, as if to play on the fact that males at high school age are rebellious. Altogether, the entire thing works. In fact, it’s one of the few endings that I’ve found myself listening to repetitively.

As a side note: the opening singer is a female, the ending singer is a male. Seriously, I think they were just trying to make the intro and ending as different as possible.

Art

The art in Baka to Test is very well done—to the point where it’s hard to find even a single line out of place. This may be due to the fact that most of the art is CG. This allows the animators a great amount of leeway. As opposed to a single standard, the art in Baka to Test often flips between the overly dramatic black and white shaded art, to a bubbly pink comic book look, to whatever else the current situation calls for. The animators especially liked to use conspicuous CG in order to focus attention on certain aspects of a character—especially the females—or of a scene. I wasn’t a big fan of this at the beginning, since I was originally of the belief that the best CG is seamless, but over time I’ve come to appreciate this innovative and unfamiliar style.

Music

Similar to the art, the music in Baka to Test is highly variable. From a mellow Hawaiian tone to a hectic or battle tone, the music is always appropriate to set the tone for the given situation. This is one of the few soundtracks I find myself wanting to download…speaking of which. That aside, the music isn’t the only thing you’ll find yourself hearing. Many of the scenes call for sound effects or a narrator, both of which really give the anime a unique feel.

Overview

Baka to Test is one of the most unique rom-coms that I have ever seen. The combinations of appropriate sound effects, music, and eye-catching CG, along with the solid art help to create a great and hilarious anime. It is one of the few where I have laughed so hard that I was forced to pause it in order not to miss anything. I would definitely recommend it to anyone in the mood for a good comedy.

P.S. I only found the two guys hugging in Angel Beats! awkward because it was the main character who was hugging the current big bad, and this happened immediately after the main character witnessed the aftermath of his friends’ massacre at the hands of that very person. Not that I disagree with Andrew’s point, but I don’t want anyone thinking I hate gay people or anything stupid like that. Anyway, I was seriously disappointed that Angel didn’t get to have at least one round with him before we were forced to listen to his pathetic sob story. Blah blah blah sad childhood…Seriously? And this excuses him for all the shit he pulled? Whatever…I’ll let it slide—mainly because the episode preceding this one was amazing—but they better not pull something like that again…

[Thoughts] Toradora!!

Wham Show!

OK, so when I first heard about Toradora, I wasn’t sure what to think about it. The name, itself, doesn’t really tell you much about the series. I don’t even know what “Toradora” means. But let me say this, I was very surprised, pleasantly surprised, that this anime turned out be one of the most addictive and refreshing shows I’ve had the pleasure of watching. I actually watched all 25 episodes in one week, while studying for my statistics midterm and CS 330 quiz—that’s actually my personal best. I can see why it caused so much internet backdraft. Now, I know that my previous statement doesn’t really make that much sense at first glance. I mean, how can a show be good if everyone is raging over it? Well, my friend once made the following statement:

When you see people arguing about a topic (flaming), it’s a sign that that topic actually matters. The worst thing anyone can do is forget about it.

It’s true; apathy is the worst response to any work of literature. That isn’t to say that the second season of Melancholy is fantastic because of Endless Eight, but it means that people actually care about the series—in one way or another.

Anyways, Toradora really turned out to be one of the most surprising anime about high school love, because of its relentless assault on the status quo. The series isn’t as drippy as the your normal high school drama. In fact, the whole anime just refuses to give the audience anything normal; all of the characters are seriously fucked up in very deep and fundamental ways:

• Taiga’s father is a heartless bastard who doesn’t even love her. He continuously comes and goes into her life and repeatedly breaks her heart. As you can imagine, this results in a very broken daughter.
• Ryuuji’s father ran away after Ryuuji’s mother became pregnant. Ryuuji is also really OCD about cleaning everything.
• Yuusaku has a shit-ton of issues that aren’t even understandable. For instance, he freaks out after learning that the girl he loves is moving to America, bleaches his hair, and yells out a confession of love during a speech in front of the school—which fails spectacularly. What the hell is this guy’s issue?
• Minori is a genki girl, which serves as a facade to hide her pain. She secretly loves Ryuuji, but doesn’t want to hurt Taiga, so she bottles it all up. As you can imagine, this fails spectacularly.
• Ami is a model and a transfer student who also falls in love with Ryuuji. At the beginning of the series, she acts like a bitch in sheep’s clothing because she’s desperate for everyone’s approval. She mellows out later, but starts acting violent towards Minori because Ami recognizes that Minori isn’t being honest with Ryuuji—or anyone for that matter. This all escalates to a fist fight in the snow. How fucked up is that?

I believe the whole point of making such a fucked up cast was to, ultimately, show just how jacked up you’d have to be to follow through on the whole “I want my beloved to be happy” trope. The authors really took that idea and just smashed it to pieces. The whole carousel of “I won’t confess because I don’t want to ruin my friend’s chances of being happy with him” really began spinning halfway through the series. By the end, it was going so fast that the whole internet was flying off their handlebars.

Even though many people found that aspect of the show absolutely grating, I actually really enjoyed it. The reason why is because in real life it’s hard to confess your love to someone—hell, it’s hard to even love anyone. And just how crazy do things get when you add friends into the mix? Honestly, we see this type of struggle in real life—it’s almost impossible to tell someone,

“I love you”

despite the fact that our society has reduced those three words to a hackneyed expression; it’s still one of the hardest ones to utter—even to family. I honestly can’t remember the last time I actually used that expression. This anime really shows just how difficult it is to pursue love and relationships. Nothing in real life is easy and nothing easy is worth having. Romance doesn’t just get handed to us on a silver plate. Life isn’t a fairy tale.

I highly recommend this series to anyone, even if you aren’t a big fan of high school soaps. I feel like this one deserves your attention. Now, I will say that it isn’t nearly as good as Clannad or Kanon as far as dramas go, but, to be honest, I don’t know if any anime will ever be as good as Clannad when it comes to high school love dramas.

[Topside | Concurrent] Maids | Lagoon

Lovely Maids

It appears that french maids never get old, and that point is especially demonstrated in Kaichou wa Maid-sama! Tough girl and student council president, Misaki Ayuzawa, is this show’s protagonist. She’s a hardworking student, driven to enforce laws and obedience within the school’s halls. Her fearsome demeanor is complemented by her hatred for men, which becomes vividly apparent at her school where 80% of the population is composed of young male students.

We get a glimpse into Ayuzawa’s past when she reveals that her father had left the family when she was young. Without a source of income, the family grew poor very quickly. Now, Ayuzawa has to work as a meido at a maid cafe and her mother works at a hospital. The audience is given a picture of just how poor Ayuzawa is when she returns home to a lifeless and nearly-dilapidated wooden house.

Ayuzawa’s life isn’t easy. She has to manage a part-time job, pay for school, pay for house repairs, and keep up with all the responsibilities of a student president—justifying the tsun-tsun within her. Luckily, we’re graced with a winsome and darling romantic match, Takumi Usui.

Takumi Usui isn’t your average male student. He’s the local bad-ass in town. He’s respected and feared by every male student in school; he merely needs to glance a request towards anyone in order to get them to comply with him. We’re told that he’s extremely popular with the girls, despite being a scarce commodity, but he’s shockingly “not interested” in any of them. But, since I’m a Georgia Tech alumni, I can sympathize with the man. Usui is also a black belt in some random martial art, has perfect grades, and an ice-cold, yet dark and mysterious aura about him. Simply put, he’s absolutely perfect.

So here’s the picture: you got hard-working, student president, broken-bird, sexy, moe, tsundere meido Misaki Ayuzawa developing sexual tension with blonde-haired, blue green eyed, rich, super popular, hyper-sexy, even-the-guys-want-him bad-boy, badass Takumi Usui. Who doesn’t like that?

Even though the premise sounds exactly like a teenage, high school soap, I think this show will deliver on the goods! Diamond-in-the-rough girl meets prince charming. If you’re into this kinda thing, you’re gonna like where this show is going. I guarantee it!

“The A-Team” Meets “The Transporter”

I only have one suggestion for those who have considered watching Black Lagoon: do it on a (free) weekend. I’m serious. I just started watching the series last night and stayed up until 5AM watching it through to episode 12. Black Lagoon is the story of a group of carriers who, occasionally, “brush up against the law” to fulfill their duties. The story’s plot is broken down into unrelated arcs, but isn’t modular enough to watch out of order. The cast calculus for this tv-show is incredibly polished, with the central focus between idealistic “good guy” Rock contrasted with broken-bird, heroic sociopath Revy. Refereeing the two is shut-up-when-he’s-talking, big-man Dutch who’s oozing with kickass all the place. Oh yeah, and there’s that techie dude with the blonde hair—but no one cares about him.

I’m pretty sure I’m going to be finishing up this anime this weekend, if not tomorrow night. I know that psychological studies have shown that people who can delay gratifying themselves are more successful in the future, but ya know what? This tv-show is so pervasively violent and vulgar that I can’t help but submerge myself in this guilty pleasure.

Coming Down The Pipeline

So if you checked out the anime lineup page, you’ll see that several things have changed. For on, K-On!! (S2) has been added, but that was a given. Shaft’s newest production, Arakawa Under the Bridge, has been received warmly by many anime critics, so I will go ahead and sub that one in for Working!!, since that didn’t get quite the same welcome. Giant Killing and Senkō no Night Raid have also been added because their ratings have been relatively high in comparison to some other anime—*cough*H Gata *cough* Kiss x Sis *cough*.

I haven’t started Pani Poni Dash!, Winter Sonata, Xam’d, or Shikabane despite their long membership to the “currently watching” list. I’ll be sure to at least start those this weekend.

Jez, look at that. My plate has grown from 1 or 2 anime shows to 16 different anime shows. Man, that’s quite a bit. Speaking of which, someone around here—I won’t name names—said there weren’t any anime shows coming out this season. But with all these new additions, I have to wonder just how broad their interests really are…hehe.

In any case, I’ll be sure to keep cranking out data sheets about previous anime shows I’ve watched. I will also have to post my impressions about these new shows.

Until next time…

-Ja-ne!

The long overdue review

5cm/s

Let me just start off by saying, this is one of the most amazing anime I’ve ever seen and I completely support everything said in Andrew’s review.  He gave a spot on, decently detailed, yet not overly detailed, plot/character synopsis, so this time I’m going to skip those steps.

Introduction and Rating

5cm/s is a strict romance anime focused around the relationship between a boy named Thono and a girl named Akari.  As the story progresses, Akari falls to the background and the plot completely focuses on Thono.  It’s a fairly slow — to its credit in this case — anime that is centered on a subject that everyone can relate to:  love.

Art:  9.5
Animation:  10
Music:  8.5
Characters:  9
Plot:  10
Average:  9.4
My Rating:  9.5

Comments:  Thono should’ve sucked it up and gone out with the surfer girl, even if that would have completely changed the message of the story…

Just so you know, this has probably the best use of inconspicuous CG and has some of the best background art out of all anime I’ve seen (and I know what I’m talking about here, I’ve seen over 100…).  This is the way it’s supposed to be done and I really hope that in the future we can all look forward to more anime following 5cm/s lead in these fields.

Remarks

Art

Well, this is what I was hired for… I seriously don’t get paid enough for this shit… wait… I’M NOT GETTING PAID AT ALL!  Enough jokes, let’s get down to brass tax.

I would like to say that the art is the best I’ve ever seen, but I still have a bone or two to pick — even if I had to pull out a shovel and do a bit of digging to find them.  Let me start by reiterating, there is a proliferation of inconspicuous CG that makes the movie look amazing, not to mention the backgrounds are some of the best I’ve ever seen.  Still, I just can’t bring myself to fall in love with the character designs.  (*Coughs up blood* – I hate that saying.)  Don’t misunderstand, I’m pulling at strings here, which I honestly don’t normally have to do;  if you don’t believe me, go take a look at the art score up top.  Still, with all the amazing CG and scenery I was expecting something more from the characters.  They’re a little bit on the plain side, although they seem to improve little by little as the story goes by.  I guess when you’re focusing so much on CG, scenery, and the plot aspects of the story, you have to yield somewhere.

Excuses aside, in my opinion the only anime that could even compare with 5cm/s overall is Bounen no Xam’d, and even then this one comes out on top.  Keep your eyes peeled for scenery like you’ve never scene before! (Forgive me… I couldn’t resist.)  Especially during scenes when Thono is thinking about Akari long after they first part, the artists took the opportunity to throw in some of the most fantastic — if not impossible — scenes you could ever imagine together.  After all, who needs an atmosphere when the view’s much better without it?!

**Just as a heads up, also keep your eyes out for birds because they queue up scenery porn.  See “Airplane of Love” trope.

Music

Well… what can I say.  There actually isn’t much music in this anime at all.  It’s part of the reason I subtracted half a point from the original 9 I scored it as.  I think there are only about six instances in the entire series where songs are actually played, most of which are piano solos but a couple of which are accompanied by other instruments.  Most of the songs are used mainly to “fill the void” when characters are speaking in prolonged monologues, such as in the first episode when the two are reading their letters, or to set up climactic scenes to the show.  Still, the songs do help to keep things moving and to enhance the overall experience of watching the movie.  The final song played is the only song with lyrics and does a very solid job of expressing the pent up feelings of the main character that many may find they can relate to.  I especially liked Thono’s and Akari’s theme song played twice during the first episode of the short series and again at the end.  In fact, that one song kept me listening all the way through the credits.

**Something new?

I realize I don’t normally do this, but I think that in this one instance I’m going to allow myself to write quick blip about the main theme of the show.

Themes

Theme of Love

Moving right along… Love is a major theme in 5cm/s, and, quite honestly, if you wanted to find almost all of the sub-themes in this anime, they could be traced back to this one subject.  The first time I watched the series, I was shocked because I realized that the author might know what real love is — I say “real” love to differentiate from the slang form of love like:  “OH I LOVE MY KEYS.”  It took me a second viewing to completely comprehend how the author expresses it throughout the short series.

To start out I decided I should give my definition of “love” as a basis for this review:

Love is the resolution to put another’s well-being, needs, and desires above one’s own well-being, feelings, and desires. It is often associated with and/or confused with emotional responses although they are not the same.  Still, they are interrelated — emotions often play an intricate role in causing the decision defined as love to be made — however, emotions do not define love.

If you want to continue reading on about this subject, I’ll have a full article to compliment this sometime hopefully in the near future, but as it really isn’t something vital to the plot past the point to which I’ve explained it, I decided I’d separate that section from the rest of this post.

Section on Thono’s/Akari’s Relationship

Of course, the first relationship that Thono and Akari are in is the one that they have with each other.  They start off as friends and due to their health conditions end up spending a great amount of time together.  Of course, the feelings they have for each other grow and quickly lead to love; in this case real love.

Expressions of their love (SPOILERS AHEAD – nothing big but I suggest you read this part once you’ve actually seen the movie):

1. When Thono and Akari are children, their classmates made fun of them for spending so much time together.  Even so, neither is willing to give up on their friendship.
2. After being on a train in the frigid cold for hours, the train stops and the passengers are told that they are going to be delayed due to the blizzard yet again.  In that moment, Thono drops his head and prays:  “Akari… please tell me… you’ve already… returned home.”
3. Akari is still there when he arrives despite the fact that she has no assurance that he will, in fact, actually show up.
4. Akari withholds her letter to spare Thono’s feelings.  In the same way, Thono never tells Akari about his own lost letter.
5. Thono and Akari never forget about each other and continue to wish for each other’s happiness and well-being. (This may be more along the lines of compassion, but compassion requires love, so we’ll go with it.)

Overview

If you want more information about 5cm/s, please feel free to browse Andrew’s review.  It is, as I’ve said before, one of the most amazing anime I have ever seen, and I highly recommend it.

**Last minute suggestions:

• Watch for birds!
• Enjoy yourself and take your time!  The show is fairly slow at parts, so take the opportunity to get a drink or whatever whenever an episode ends.
• Have a box of tissues nearby – just in case.

[Topside | Thoughts] Hayate no Gotoku S1 Finished

Separating Seasons

So, I just finished watching the entire first season of Hayate no Gotoku, which is actually made up of 4 different seasons. I’ve begun to watch the second season of Hayate no Gotoku, but I didn’t realize that the second season ret conned the first season out; the second season begins one month after Hayate becomes a butler and the first season animates approximately one year of Hayate’s adventures, so it uses some parts of the first season. In light of this new information, I’ve decided to review the two seasons separately, as if they were two different works—and that’s how it should be because both works were done by different animation studios. What’s weird, yet favorable, is that the second studio to animate Hayate no Gotoku, J.C. Staff, decided to keep most of the original voice actors, but decided to reinterpret several plot elements and add in new characters—staying in-line with the original work; a similar situation has brewed with Studio Bones’ Fullmetal Alchemist franchise. I feel like this is becoming a trend among several different manga and light novel works; interpret an incomplete series, beef up the fan-base, and then re-interpret the series with something more faithful when it finally has enough material for you to work with to satisfy all those fans who would claim that the first interpretation sucked. Well, I don’t really mind at all, but that came as somewhat of a surprise to me.

Thoughts On Hayate no Gotoku

I read that the second season of Hayate no Gotoku had a larger animation budget than the first, but after watching two episodes of the second season, I don’t really see that much of a difference between the two series, other than the different styles of animation between SynergySP (S1) and J.C. Staff (S2). SynergySP tends to have stronger hues and brighter, more cartoonish colors with bolder borders on objects and characters, while J.C. Staff tends to lighten the character designs with more shades and less lines; either way, I think both seasons look fantastic. Of course, J.C. Staff loves to beef up the tsundere in all of their bitches female leads, but what else is new? They even got Rie Kugimiya voicing Nagi Sanzenin.

I felt that the first season was endearing, funny, and light-hearted. One thing that the first season did was leave very little room for the audience to get emotionally involved by not developing any type of misunderstanding between the characters during times of peril, which may or may not be favorable. I felt that the animators could’ve allowed the plot to develop a little bit more, before extinguishing the drama of the situation. Although, the direction that some of those situations were going would’ve upset me more than entertain me if the animators decided to let the situation develop for too long; better to be safe than sorry, I suppose.

Regardless, the series was a comedic roller-coaster that has several memorable moments—many of which involve cat girls/guys. I’ll be doing a review of this series as soon as I get all my other reviews finish…sigh.

Until next time.

-Ja-ne!

[Topside] In the Wake

Queen’s Blade Falls Short

After watching two episodes of Queen’s Blade, I couldn’t help but feel like the series continuously perpetuates its own hype through a series of illogical events. It’s a shame that the series turned out to be nothing more than cheap, unsatisfying hentai ecchi. The series takes itself way too seriously—albeit, not that seriously—for it to have such large, gaping holes in logic and plot. I’m all up for an ecchi series, especially one with all-star voice actors, but this one just falls flat on its face. The productions values are top-notch and the voice acting is incredible, but, at the end of the day, a pig with lipstick is still a pig. So, I’ve decided to drop the series from my list and suspend it indefinitely—at least until I’m in a more forgiving mood.

Hayate no Gotoku Breaks the Ice…and the Fourth Wall

Now, the series that has completely taken me surprise is Hayate no Gotoku. I was a bit shocked to see that Shana Rie Kugimiya was the voice of Nagi Sanzenin—the main-supporting character; fully loaded with Tsundere and Shana’s voice, albeit with a little bit more endearment and a little less bitch. Regardless, I’m liking the fact that this comedy series knows that its an anime and routinely breaks the fourth wall; it really eases the stress of the harem nature of this series—and it’s not for my sake, rather it’s for the sake of all those shippers out there.

Speaking of familiar voice actors, the person they have voicing the narrator, The Voice of the Heavens, is the same guy who did Emperor Charles in Code Geass, Norio Wakamoto. His sarcastic, snarky remarks are some of the most hilarious moments in the entire series. It’s great to see the characters poke fun at their own show.

Regardless, the series is over 70+ episodes long, so it’ll take me some time to burn through all of the episodes.

In the Mean Time

Other reviews are going to be put out, mainly the joint review between me and Josh on Valkyria Chronicles. Nyan Koi is rumored to have a second season, so I’m going to delay putting that on the review stack. And I’m working on my other anime shows that I plan on reviewing; I’m thinking of putting out, yet, another review template that would allow me to review anime even faster by skipping over most of the plot and character descriptions and give me the liberty to justify how I felt about the series—along with all the ratings and charts. We’ll see how this turns out; school is over so I don’t have to worry about finals or work for the next month and a half.

New Series Creeps Up: Monster

I just found a new anime, Monster (or if you prefer the other wiki), that scored incredibly high ratings and praise from the anime community while browsing around TV Tropes. I can’t believe that this one slipped underneath my radar. I plan on pushing this series all the way ahead of the queue into my watch list. You can expect news and feedback from this series sometime soon.

Well, that’s all the news I have. Until next time!

-Ja-ne!

[Thoughts] Thoughts No Railgun | Nyan Koi | FMA Brotherhood

No Railgun, No Action

The whole reason why I started watching the To Aru Majutsu no Index series was because of the No Railgun’s OP. There was absolutely no other reason to push this series to the top of the queue other than the rueful bubbly hit song, Only My Railgun by fripside. Nonetheless, I actually enjoyed the No Index series – to an extent. So, what has come out of this literary sprint through one of JC Staff’s series to another? Mostly satisfaction. Watching No Index wasn’t entirely necessary to watch No Railgun, but it definitely helps understand who the characters are.

So OK. Yeah, No Index. No shit. What about No Railgun, Andrew? OK. No Railgun is mostly satisfying. And here’s why: Firstly, I feel that the series is extremely slow-paced, given the pace of the previous series (No Index). But it’s understandable because the main premise of No Railgun is, more or less, about the everyday life of Mikoto Misaka (Bi-bi, Sparky, Railgun, whatever) and her friends. Secondly, this spinoff series is not entirely canonical. The writers have shuffled up how Toma and Mikoto actually meet, and most of the events that occur in the spinoff don’t impact the main series. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing – on the contrary, it’s nice to see a different side of Academy City and a level 5 esper blowing the shit out of stuff – oh wait…let me talk about that! OK, the only reason I wanted to watch No Railgun was to see Mikoto, Academy City’s third most powerful esper, blow shit up! But no! I don’t see Miss Sparky shooting lightning bolts at anyone. What the hell is that all about? Now, I know that this series is meant to be lighter and softer than No Index, but come on! The writers have hyped up the series to be about the story’s most favored, and most powerful, protagonist in the entire franchise, and yet they have failed to deliver the juice. THE JUICE! Where the hell are the fireworks?!

But, I’ll give the series the benefit of the doubt; I read that this series is based off a manga series that’s actually a spinoff of the original light novel series. Apparently, in the manga some serious shit goes down – so I’m holding off until the end of the year before judging the series.

Notwithstanding, the series gets a passing grade.

Nyan Koi Meow

Oh man, I think I have a favorite among the series that I’m currently watching. Nyan Koi is the surprise of the season – no, the year! The silly premise and the blobs of moe make for an incredible amount of satisfying humor. I love the main character, Junpei, isn’t completely out of his mind like many other protagonists I know. The harem humor is outstanding! I honestly can’t get enough of the slapstick and situational comedy. Also, the (anime) girls are hot, naturally. I think I’m a sucker for this entire series, because everything it has just makes me feel warm and giddy inside. Cats, cute girls, tsundere’s with huge boobs, twins, and tons of moe – I mean, how can you resist? This series is just the objectification of the word “cute.”

I can only imagine this series getting better and better as it continues. It’s animated by the same studio that did Seto No Hanayome, so I expect big things from this series. I know they won’t let me down.

FMA Brotherhood Explodes

Alright, so FMA: Brotherhood has turned out to be the biggest surprise of the year for me. After watching the first season, whose review is actually coming soon, I was so disappointed in the entire franchise that I had lost all hope in the second adaptation. So, when the story of Brotherhood diverged entirely from the first series, I was delighted to hear that this adaption would be following the manga more closely than it’s lighter, older brother. This second series is definitely darker and edgier, which puts a smile on my face because the first series was so wacky that I had to stop midway through some of the episodes and murder thousands of people in Prototype in order to darken my mood and stave off insanity.

I’m excited about where Bones Studio will take this! Don’t let me down, BONES!

[Review] 5 Centimeters per Second

Introduction

True to its name, this movie doesn’t move along much faster than 5 centimeters per second, but it’s not a bad thing – there’s a good reason for the pace of the series. Like his earlier works, Makoto Shinkai has created a heart-touching story between two star-crossed lovers that hits home so hard that even King Arthur couldn’t seize the sword that will surely pierce your heart; every frame of the movie is filled with incredible amounts of detail (scenery porn), every scene carries some sort of meaning or theme, and the ending is esoteric.

5 Centimeters per Second is one of the greatest works of all time, even when compared against great Hollywood films, such as Casablanca and Gone with the Wind; the series absolutely outdoes every single anime movie and anime series that I’ve seen thus far – and probably ever.

Characters

As usual, I will just list out the characters and give a quick blurb about them.

1. Takaki Tōno: The main protagonist of the story. The movie follows Takaki’s emotional downfall, and his subsequent recovery at the very end. Albeit, the second episode focuses on another girl who’s in love with Takaki, but for the most part it can be argued that Takaki is the main protagonist. He’s a kind, soft-spoken male who continues to wait for his first love, Akari. Although, I’m not entirely sure why he’s so hung up on Akari, because if he truly wanted to be with her, wouldn’t he try to pursue her once he got out of college? He was so deeply heartbroken that he couldn’t bare to work anymore. Hell, if you truly love someone that much, you might as well stalk them out on Facebook and profess your undying love for them. But I don’t want to downplay or satire the work of the author by using this character as a vehicle for that, because I know what it’s like to be there. I know what it’s like to be in love and not have the person you love be with you – it’s worse when you know that person moved on without you. That’s the perpetual state that Takaki is in – a constant “I’m left behind” state that cripples his life for 14 years. Several opportunities pass him by and he even gives up the possibility to be happy with one of two girls who had fallen hopelessly in love with him just for the prospect of being with Akari. Poor guy…
2. Akari Shinohara: Akari is Takaki’s love interest, who just so happens to love him back. Unfortunately, she has to move far away from Takaki and the two begin to drift apart. Not much screen time is used on Akari, but we do know that she’s a considerate, reasonable girl who is just trying to get through life. We learn in the third episode that she’s in an arranged marriage and is depressed over the fact, but she hides it very well from her parents and the audience for that matter. She occasionally thinks about Takaki, but is mostly focused on making her arranged marriage work, by showing affection for her husband. Naturally, we see that she doesn’t have the same issues as Takaki – a superpower women tend to hoard from the male race.

Plot | [Full Spoilers]

5 Centimeters per Second follows the relationship between the main character, Takaki Tōno, and his far-away love, Akari Shinohara. The movie is broken up into three different segments – episodes – and each one shows Takaki at a different stage in his life. This first episode focuses on Takaki when he’s between the age of 10 and 13 – the movie doesn’t specifically tell the audience – and he meets a girl named Akari. The second episode jumps 5 years into the future when Takaki is a senior in high school. The third episode concludes the story 9 years afterwards, ending the movie when Takaki is approximately 27 years old.

Episode 1: Cherry Blossom

This film starts off soft and innocent with our winsome protagonist, Takaki Tōno, discussing the speed at which Cherry Blossom peddles drift to the ground with his friend, Akari Shinohara. The episode is split between two different time-lines that interleave:

• A view of what’s happening in the audience’s perception of the present
• And a time-line consisting of flashbacks that paint past events; mostly consisting of how Takaki and Akari met and grew closer to one another

In the present, Takaki and Akari have already been separated because of Akari’s parent’s careers. But the two lovebirds still keep in touch with one another via snail-mail; this was in the early 1990’s, before cellphones and free long-distance VOIP. The distance between the two isn’t great enough to stop them from communicating with one another. Alas, Takaki learns that he will have to move away within a short amount of time; farther away from Akari. The two plan to meet one last time before breaking the event horizon of fate. Takaki plans to meet Akari at the train station closest to her home.

Takaki’s train route to Akari’s town is extremely long, twisted, and requires a lot of transfers between the trunklines. Albeit, our romantic hero carefully prepares a timetable based upon the train schedule to follow in order to arrive at a reasonable time.

On the day of the their meeting, Takaki prepares a letter for Akari confessing his true feelings for her and sets out on his, what will soon become a torturous, journey. While on the train, we flashback to how Takai and Akari meet.

Both of our cute little love doves meet in elementary school. Takaki and Akari suffer from seasonal allergies and spend their recess inside. Naturally, they begin talking to one another and grow closer together; “they speak to each other using their given names without any form of honorifics, which is very unusual in Japan, even among people who are romantically involved. This fact is lost in the movie’s translation to English and other languages, which reduces the implied closeness of their relationship.”

After graduating from elementary school Akari moves away, much to Takaki’s dismay. Despite the strong bond between the two, they begin drifting further and further apart. Soon, Takaki learns that his family will be moving far away – too far for Akari and Takaki to even have a remote chance of visiting one another. In their last grasp for one another, the two plan to meet up with before the move

Back in the present, a freak snowstorm has blindsided Takaki’s plans to meet up with Akari. The trains are slowing down. Delays are stacking up. Connections are lost. Takaki frequently turns his left wristwatch. And in a dear moment, Takaki drops his letter to Akari and suddenly loses heart – a little bit. But love perseveres! Notwithstanding, Takaki slowly pushes through the weather’s relentless onslaught. What a soldier. After two long hours of setbacks, our hero finally meets up with his princess.

A defeated Takaki slowly walks into the station and finds Akari patiently waiting for him. With her head down and hands folded, she slowly raises her head and breathes in a sigh of disbelief. Takaki slowly approaches Akari and she grabs his hand and begins to cry tears of happiness. Takaki, equally as taken, embraces her. The two of them share a small dinner together before being shuffled out of the room into the blizzard. The couple find a lonely shack to stay for the night and share their first kiss. A moment later, Takaki realizes that the two are destined to be Star Crossed Lovers.

The next morning, Akari waves Takaki off at the train-station. As the train departs, Takaki gazes out the window and regrets losing the letter he meant to give to Akari; Akari looks into her bag and sees the letter she was supposed to give to Takaki…

Episode 2: Cosmonaut

Fast-forward 5 years to when Takaki is in his senior year of high school. We’re introduced to another girl, Kanae Sumida, who’s been in love with Takaki since he joined their middle school (See here for the Japanese education system). Kanae is a amateur surfer and completely unsure of her future. She has no idea where or what she wants to do; all she wants is Takaki to love her.

The episode shows Kanae’s attempts to tell Takaki that she loves him, but failing to do so due to her own insecurities. Takaki and Kanae constantly spend time together, but Takaki only sees Kanae as just a friend and doesn’t seem to notice that Kanae has feelings for him. He also seems to be staring off into the distance and constantly emailing someone from his cell phone. After a several years of unrequited love, Kanae finally concludes that Takaki is probably thinking of something else or someone else; someone that can give him something more than she could.

At the end of the episode, we see Takaki sending emails to himself…

Episode 3: 5 Centimeters per Second

9 years later, Takaki is at an undisclosed software company coding sql scripts (has absolutely no relevance; I just recognized the code he was typing). He drags his feet to home and work everyday, feeling nothing but gloom. He says,

“Through the act of living itself, sadness piles up here and there”

Takaki smokes, drinks sodas, doesn’t even attempt to clean his room – he’s given up all hope on Akari and himself. He’s so heartbroken that he can barely hang on. Under the immense emotional stress of his long-gone love, he quits his job.

We see that he has an ex-girlfriend that is still in love with him. She texts him and calls him constantly – worrying for Takaki’s well-being. After all these years, Takaki still can’t let go of Akari.

On a sunny, breezy afternoon Takaki is walking along a familiar path through the blowing cherry blossoms and walks over a set of train tracks. The crossing gates are flashing and lowering their arms. And Takaki passes a familiar women, dressed in white and pink. Takaki thinks to himself,

“I had a strong feeling that if I turned my head, she would too…”

The two stop just outside of the crossing guards and begin to slowly turn around. In a mirror image of the past, right before the two see one another, a train flies between them – and the women disappears. Takaki’s eyes soften, and he gently smiles to himself. And just like everyone else, he turns back to the way he was headed…and moves on.

Themes

The reason this anime is so incredible is because the director emphasizes many themes – as with his previous works. I feel that talking about them in essay format would be difficult and a bit too forceful. Instead, I’ll go ahead and list out a few themes that were emphasized in this series:

• “I Will Wait For You” Theme (Subverted): When Akari and Takaki depart one another, the two begin to drift farther away from one another. Even though the two said they would wait for one another no matter what, it’s obvious to those jaded by the same promise that unrealistic love-goals are impossible. Although Takaki does stay true to his word, it wasn’t because he wanted to; it’s because he couldn’t. He was too emotionally attached to Akari and he was physically unable to break away from her. At the end of the movie, you can see part of Akari’s letter to Takaki ended with the line, “But I’m sure you’ll be fine,” which indicates that perhaps she was prepared to make their visit their last encounter. Yet, she never had the heart to give it to him. It’s possible that even though she knew she had to let go, she just couldn’t bring herself to break Takaki’s heart.
• Moving On, Moving Along: The movie is named 5 Centimeters per Second for several reasons, two of which are
  1. That’s the speed at which cherry blossom peddles drift to the ground
  2. Despite what you might be going through, moving along is important

  Now, those things might sound a little unrelated, but listen to what I have to say. Cherry blossom peddles start out close to one another. They grow out of the same flower bulb. They are brother and sister. They are together. But as time goes on, those cherry blossoms break off and begin to drift farther and farther away from one another. And soon, they are forever taken by the gusts of fall – never to see one another again. This movie is about the very same thing happening between people. Takaki and Akari were extremely close to one another when they were children. But as time went on, they began to drift farther apart – destined to be separated for eternity.

  The other thing I wanted to say is that everything moves slow. Time, life, love. They all move slowly. But they do move. Life continues to happen. People continue on. We all continue walking – marching on. The howls of our past might roar in our ears, but it can’t stop us from taking another step forward. Whether it takes seconds, minutes, years, or decades, everyone needs to continue moving forward. And like our hero, we’ll all find an answer to whatever has been keeping us locked in the past, even if it takes 14 years to do so. Just my little inspirational speech that I don’t get to put into my reviews. hehe. (^_-).

• Start Close, End Far: As I’ve said above, the movie is named 5 Centimeters per Second because it’s about falling down, really slowly. It’s about moving along really slowly. Have you ever had a childhood friend you knew many years ago, but, for whatever reason, couldn’t keep up with? Have you ever fallen in love with someone, broken up with them, and then look back years later and wonder about them? How you could be so close and now so far? That’s what this movie is about

Final Thoughts | Conclusion

5 Centimeters per Second was one of the most beautiful – both visually, emotionally, and intellectually – anime movies I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. I came across this series when I saw a background for it on deviantart. I then forwarded the anime series to Josh, who, surprisingly, had never heard of it either. So we both checked out the ratings for the series and were delightfully surprised to see it get perfect scores across the board among several different websites. I immediately downloaded it and watched it – and used up a box of tissues in the end. After that, I recommended it to my friend Josh and Bryan who shared an equal amount of praise and tears for the series. One thing seems to be agreeable about this series: it’s a masterpiece. It ranks among the highest in my collection of anime. It’s one of the most meaningful and inspirational anime I’ve seen. The visuals, the art, and the characters tug at your heartstrings and send you back into your own memories of when you first fell in love. Even if you haven’t, you’ll still find yourself crying at the reality of truth in the movie.

Score | Charts

Rating: 9.98 = ~99.8%

Rating Chart

Attribute Chart

[Review] Shakugan no Shana S1 + S2

Told Ya So

Ha! I actually finished this review in a decent about of time – just a couple of days. Man, makes me wonder how much more I could accomplish if I had the same resolve. Oh well! This knocks out a review that’s been in my to-do pile since Spring 2009. Anyways, here’s the review:

[Review] Shakugan no Shana S1 + S2

Charts

Attribute Chart

Rating Chart

Introduction

Josh introduced Shakugan no Shana to me, and he claimed that the series was one of the more impressive anime series he’s seen. He was adamant about his claims for Shakugan no Shana and I have a deep respect for his taste in anime, so I decided to watch the series. Now, I won’t say that I was disappointed, but I can’t say that I was really impressed with JC Staff’s work – especially after reading the light novels. For the most part, I felt that the animators were aiming to close the series and give it a definite end so that it would fit nicely into 25 episodes. Unfortunately, the light novels are still being produced and the prospect of closing off an entire storyline hasn’t really assuaged any of the fans. To be brutally honest, Shakugan no Shana was no more rewarding than an action movie with hackneyed plot devices and a big bitch as the main star.

Plot

The premise of the series is the existence of two parallel worlds that have regular humans on one side (Earth) and demon-like “Crimson Denizens” (Denizens) on the other (The Crimson Realm). All of the Denizens require “power-of-existence” to survive if they enter Earth and there are only a few ways to obtain it. The two most common ways are:

1. Devour the souls of humans on Earth
2. Find a human host to reside in and use their life as substance. In exchange, the host inherits powers associated with the Crimson Denizen; of course, the host pledges their freedom to the Crimson Denizen.

As you can tell, a conflict erupts between Denizens who want to enter Earth but refuse to reside in a host and those who believe that devouring human souls will upset the balance between the two worlds. Since residing inside of a host traps the Denizen inside of an entity that doesn’t necessarily have to bend to the Denizen’s will, the only reason why a Denizen would choose to reside in a host is to hunt other Denizens who are devouring souls on Earth; they are called “Flame Hazes.”

Flame Hazes fight Denizens who consume human souls, but in order to “soften the shock” due to the loss of human souls, Flame Hazes place a “Torches” in place of the missing souls. As the name implies, a Torch is only a placeholder for someone’s existence and will eventually “burn out.” When a Torch burns out, the person’s very existence burns out; no one will even remember they ever existed.

The series starts out with an ordinary high school freshman, Saki Yuji, stepping into the middle of feeding-frenzy when our bitch-heroine, Shana, flies in with her long, flaming red hair and big-ass sword; sweeping left and right against the life-draining bastards.

After the ordeal, Yuji learns that he’s a Torch and gets emo after being told that he’s not human and follows Shana around town, asking a barrage of questions. Shana reveals to Yuji that he is a vessel for an ancient artifact, but doesn’t know what the artifact is; tangible to a treasure chest. Shana decides to keep tabs on him just in case any Denizens want to steal what’s inside Yuji – and since she’s a Flame Haze, her daytime schedule is pretty lean, so she decides to become a student at Yuji’s school and bitch out all the teachers.

The rest of the story is fairly modular and only chronicles Yuji and Shana’s experiences together, both romantic (*HAHAHA*) and perilous. The reason why you see the rest of the plot summarized into one sentence is because it can be! Honestly, there’s nothing more you need to know about the plot or the characters because they stay reasonably flat and you’ll become rather blasé after seeing the first ten episodes or so. Hell, I nearly lost it after watching the first seven. Yuji and Shana nearly ruined the whole thing for me. LOL! In fact, let’s talk about that.

Characters

Luckily, the animators at JC Staff decided to throw in a couple of flashbacks that show some of the other, more interesting (*COUGH* Margery Daw *COUGH*) characters to mix up plot. Albeit, the temporary distortion in the flow of time doesn’t save it from being a miserable mess of half-assed emotions and plethora’s of:

“URUSAI! URUSAI! URUSAIIIII!”

Goddamn, that’s another thing, actually. Shana constantly bitches and says things like the aforementioned quote – yes, quite literally like that. It’s obnoxious. After reading the light novels, at least the ones they released in English, I felt that her character was way over-exaggerated. The animators at JC Staff stretched her character to the point where Shana is no longer Shana.

You know what? I’m just going to just list out the characters as I usually do:

• Shana: Yeah, like I said, she’s a complete bitch. She grew up in a completely different world where she does nothing but train her combat abilities, and it’s understandable that she’s feeling some things for the first time. Nevertheless, her reaction to some of these moments during the anime is completely nonsensical – this is especially true for her feelings towards Yuji. For instance, while Shana is training Yuji to fight against Denizens, Yuji begins to sulk because of the skill difference between Shana and him. Instead of realizing that Yuji is embarrassed that he isn’t on the level of Shana’s fighting skills, she goes and bitches him out. Another time, she begrudgingly refused Yuji’s help when Margery Daw defeated her – as if to say, “It’s your fault I lost.” It may seem small, but it’s instances like these that make the series’ heroine really un-relatable.
• Yuji: So, this guy is a little bitch. It seems that Shana and Yuji were just made for one another. I swear, this guy either, complains or complains louder. He’s a complete airhead when it comes to recognizing social cues, but it’s not all his fault. He has been tucked behind Shana in this little war with demons, so I can’t really blame him for being scared shitless. Still, I wish he would actually act normal – in fact, I wish all male protagonists in anime would act normal, but I suppose that’s a little too much to ask. In any case, have you ever seen a movie where shit goes down and someone is running around screaming? Yeah, that’s Yuji for the first half of season 1. In the second season, he’s a much calmer person with some fighting ability, but he’s pretty much the same guy throughout this series. I also feel that the animators didn’t thoroughly flush out the way Yuji develops. Throughout the series, it appears that Yuji suddenly comes up with strategies against these Denizens. Yuji has only known about Denizens and the Crimson Realm for a couple of months. How is it that Yuji can outsmart Flame Hazes who have fought against these Denizens all their life?

Themes

You know, I’ve thought long and hard – actually, I only thought for 5 seconds – about this topic and I’ve come to the conclusion that Shakugan no Shana has no themes. None. The author actually says that his intention for writing this book was to include a lot of “slashing, burning, and exploding.” Essentially, he wanted to write an action movie in the book – and he did a damn fine job in the light novels. The way the series handled the romantic triangle between Shana and Kazumi nearly ruined the series. Luckily, love doesn’t play as a theme in this series, so I’ll forgo discussing the topic.

Even after reviewing the work as a whole and concentrating on the little insignificant details, I can’t fathom any themes that the author, rather the anime studio, wants to convey to the audience. Some might argue that “understanding others” and “putting yourself in one another’s shoes” might be a theme of the series. I can see where others might pick that up, as Shana and Yuji emotionally wound each other frequently because of their misunderstanding of one another. Yet, I find myself dragging my heels in acknowledging this. I think it’s because of the fact that JC Staff threatens the audience’s willing suspension of disbelief by presenting the personalities of Shana and Yuji as drastic and polarized. Shana is way too tsundere and Yuji is way too…what’s the Japanese archetype term for “pussy?”

Anyways, my final thoughts

Final Thoughts | Conclusion

OK, I know that I’ve been really hard on this series. To the credit of JC Staff and with all due respect to Yashichiro Takahashi, the series was actually enjoyable. Yes, it was enjoyable to watch and ponder. In fact, I enjoyed the series so much that I went out and bought the English light novels because I was so interested in the story. I’ve taken ideas from this story and incorporated them into the novel I’m writing. With all the character flaws and lack of plot devices aside, this series is a lot better than several other anime series out there.

To my surprise, if you look at the polls you’ll see that Shana is incredibly popular. I think it’s the long hair. Could be that a lot of the fanboys like small chicks with big swords and long hair. To be honest, if Shana and Kazumi traded places, I would hate Shana – that is to say, that if Shana looked ordinary, I would hate her. However, I will admit that I have some affection for Shana, especially when she falls asleep with Yuji in bed.

Score

Rating: 4.24 = ~42.4%