Another series that I had no previous knowledge of was
To Aru Majutsu no Index. The story takes place a bit into the future in a pseudo city called
Academy City.
It is called so because it is pretty much an education metropolis,
with the majority of the buildings in it being devoted to some form of
education, from primary to college. Within the confines of the city
people can utilize technologically enhanced super natural powers. Toma
is a high school student whose biggest asset is his incredibly bad luck.
After trying to stop delinquents from harassing lone girl at a dinner
he runs across town fleeing them only to find out the girl has dealt
with him and is after him as well. The girl is a powerful electrical
esper, techno-power users, and she plans to teach Toma for interfering.
Toma is not necessarily an esper but his right hand has the ability to
negate such powers. The next morning he wakes up in his room, sore and
exhausted. During their fight, the girl’s esper abilities knocked out
power in most of the city. He has no air-conditioning and all the food
in his fridge is no longer for human consumption. To make matters worse
he breaks his charge card and the phone is out of service.
Contemplating his fate he seeks refuge from the summer heat on his
balcony only to find a strangely dressed girl, unconscious, dangling
from his railing. As he wonders what she is or where she came from, she
wakes up and demands food. Once she begins insulting him he begins to
feed her his spoiled left over’s, which she heartily devours. She
introduces herself as Index and that she is from a magical academy. She
ended up on his veranda while trying to flee her pursuers via the roof
tops. They are after the multitude of magical grimore that she has
possession of. Toma doesn’t believe any of it and when he stats that
she brings up religious arguments about the reality of magic versus the
reality of esper technology. She hints that she is a nun of some sorts
and that she must leave before he gets involved in her troubles.
Contemplating the situation, Toma runs off to school, where he runs into
the esper he fought the night before. Escaping her, he arrives at his
house to find Index lying in front of his door, unconscious and
bleeding. As he approaches her, her apparent attacked appears as well.
OK, I’m usually not that big of a fan of supernatural powered anime, shows like Shonen Oumyoji
don’t generally entertain me. This show though kept me entertained for
a number of reasons. One was its hilarity, I like characters like
Toma, who are shown to have incredibly horrid luck. The show also
reminds me of an RPG I used to play called Mage the Ascension. The show
also reminds me a bit of Maho Tsukai Tai, maybe not in its
characters, or in its plot. The reason it reminds me of that series is
the idea of average kids getting the ability to do something important
with supernatural aid and not really showing too much concern for the
weight on their shoulders. Now, I do fear that this show could turn
into a loose shonen adventure, with more and more powerful villains
showing up and causing all sorts of problems for Index and Toma. I do
see it going in this direction though; Index convinces the skeptical
Toma that magic does exist outside of technology and that he ha some
latent abilities…OK damn that’s pretty shonen… I can also see a
relationship developing between them as well… Anyways, so far the show
is pretty entertaining and promising, how it will pan out from there
will have to be discovered. I’m looking forward to watching more of
this series.
A few years ago I watched the live action version of
Casshern, which was a bizarre, interesting and confusing movie.
Afterwards I found out it was an anime as well. I wasn’t impressed
enough by the movie to want to watch any of the anime, as I’m not really
a fan of the old school Japanese super hero titles, like Astro Boy or Gatchaman. Now, after over 30 years since the original TV series aired a new anime done by Madhouse has come out, Casshern Sins
and picks up many years after the original story. My memory of the
back story is sketchy so I read up on the series because the back story
is needed to understand some of what is happening in the new anime.
Casshern takes place in a future world were
robots have gained sentience and have decided to eradicate humanity
because they see the world being better off with out them. The son of
the man who originally invented the robots, Casshern, has made him self a
cyborg in order to combat them and atone for his fathers sins. By the
time he begins to fight them the robots have destroyed the majority of
humanity and little hope exists for the world to return to the way it
was. There appears to be a slight alteration in Casshern Sins as
to the events. According to what I have found about the show Casshern
and 2 others worked for the leader of the robots, Braiking Boss. They
were sent to kill a woman named Luna. In the original anime Luna worked
with Casshern, and his dog, to fight the robots. In the live action
movie Luna was Casshern’s fiancée. Sins starts off with Casshern having
killed Luna, thus ending any hope for mankind. It is now the time of
decay as the world begins to crumble. All of the robots have attained
one single minded goal, to kill Casshern and eat him, allowing them to
end the decay and to live forever. Casshern must now try to survive
while finding his own identity in the increasingly hospitable landscape.
At first I was leery of watching this anime, the movie
didn’t leave that good of a taste in my mouth and I have never been a
big fan of the classic Japanese superhero genre. After watching this
first episode though my opinion has changed. I probably will not watch
the original Casshern anime from the 70’s but might watch the OAV’s from
the 90’s and want to rewatch the live action movie. The story is very
dark and desolate, which counters the art style, which is an homage to
the classic styling’s of the 60’s and 70’s, which tended to be a bit
childish in content. The series is very moody and also depressing in
tone, the landscape is very muted and drab, on purpose. I was actually
taken a back for a second when they showed a shot of a sub character
playing in some water…the contract was amazing. The music is very moody
as well and the action sequences are both precise and confusing. I
think this was all done on purpose not due to a lack of quality. I have
been impressed with Madhouses’ work for a while now and I don’t see Casshern Sins
being in danger of anything other than script stagnation. If the
series turns out to be Casshern wandering from one episode to the next,
saving some people in each episode, like some cybernetic, post
apocalyptic, version of the A-Team. Only time will tell, but so far I’m
pretty impressed.
The next series was not as impressive but was definitely interesting.
Kuroshitsuji takes place in the Victorian age of
England
and centers around a young boy who has become the sole power behind a
multinational corporation known for making toys, Phantomhive. The boy,
Ciel, dabbled in the dark arts, as many aristocrats of that time did,
and summoned a demonic assistant in a moment of weakness. This demon is
his butler Sebastian, who heads the house hold staff and tends to his
young masters every need. The first episode introduces us to the staff
of the mansion and the young master. Ciel is cynical and angry at the
world. He demands everything from his staff and offers no apologies.
While young, he is quite intelligent, resourceful and not easily
manipulated. He knows that he must maintain his family empire and does
so shrewdly; especially given the disadvantages he faces from his age
and the lack of respect he would get from his business partners.
Sebastian is prim, proper, well mannered, composed and the model of
perfection. He does everything demanded of him and helps control the
rest of the staff. He is quick, calculating and resourceful. While he
does everything his young master demands of him you can tell that in the
back of his mind he is waiting for his chance to put him in his place,
he is of demon blood after all. It is unknown if anyone outside of Ciel
knows of Sebastian’s origins, and seems unlikely. Bard is the chef of
the house and seems pretty inept at his duties. He seems to be more of a
playboy than anything else, one of the cool guys who lacks a bit in the
brains department. Finian is the mansions gardener, he is young,
actually looks like a girl from some slice of life anime, and is also
some what inept at his duties. He too is also dim witted. Meirin is
the maid. She is like a bimbo version of Velma, glasses and all. She
is easily flustered and is very attracted towards Sebastian. The final
servant is the mysterious and elusive Tanaka, and older gentleman of few
words and few actions beyond sipping green tea.
The plot of the first episode beyond introductions is
one of the managers of an overseas factory has come to Ciel to look for
more funds. In reality he has sold off the factory behind his back and
is looking to skim a little more cash out of the naïve child he works
for. Ciel is not aware of his treachery but sense something is amiss
all the same. Sebastian discovers the truth and covertly teaches the
man to review who he is trying to steal from.
This is an interesting series. I’m not really a big fan
of Victorian period pieces, but this one might be worth my time. The
characters are all incredibly goofy, except Ciel, but there is also a
very sadistic and dark side to the story. Sebastian is not goofy but is
pretty funny all the same. I am interested in seeing where this will
go plot wise. I hope more supernatural elements are not brought in,
which would make this series just another shonen action shows. We don’t
need a bunch of European business man/occultists battling each other
with their summoned familiars. There are some secrets that I want to
find out, like why Sebastian was originally summoned and what happened
to Ciel's left eye. I also want to see if Ciel will ever lose his
control over Sebastian and what would happen afterwards. More than
likely Sebastian would teach him a lesson and return to his command out
of some bond he has developed with the pint sized curmudgeon. The
character design and setting remind me of a cross between D.Gray-man and Ouran High School Host Club.
The final series I watched in this round is the fantasy title
Tales of the Abyss.
This was another series that I had no previous knowledge of and didn’t
even know it was a fantasy title, let alone based off of a recent PS2
RPG. While watching it though is played out exactly like an RPG.
Tales of the Abyss takes place on a fictional
world filled with a number of countries that have had varying relations
with each other over the ages. A spiritual organization, the Order of
Lorelei, was created 2 millennium before the start of the series that
protected and translated the timeline of the planet. They control and
protect the source of all of the world’s history and future, knowing the
beginning and the end. According to one of their prophecies a red
haired prince will be born to a king that will help bring peace and
prosperity to the world. That prince is named Luke and shortly after
his birth a country neighboring his starts a war. During the war he is
kidnapped only to be returned at the end of the war. All of his
memories disappeared from before his return. In fear of his life being
in danger his parents keep him locked up in the castle grounds until he
is an adult. Luke grows strong and confident but hates his sheltered
existence and only wants to see the world. One day his father summons
him to bid farewell to his weapon master, Van, who is a member of the
Order, has to return to help lead the search for one of the sages.
During their final lesson together a mysterious woman invades the
castle, putting everyone to sleep with a magical song with the intent to
fight Van. Luke jumps in front of her to parry an attack on his master
and when they make contact a supernatural force between them resonates
and they both rocket out of the castle grounds, only to find them selves
in a distant land. Now the girl, Tear, who never meant any real
threat, must bring the young and inexperienced prince back to his home.
OK, so I have never been a fan of fantasy anime and this
one plays out exactly like an RPG…even with some of the dialogue. But
for whatever reason it reminds me a little bit of Escaflowne and El Hazard
so I’m willing to give it a chance. The animation is smooth, fluid and
modern. The premise of the world is interesting with characters
controlling different elemental abilities that came from the planet its
self. These abilities are stored in crystals that are orbiting the
world and apparently on the world as well in some form or another, again
I was reminded of Mage the Ascension and the shards reminded me of the
avatar shards, but forget that if you have no knowledge of the game.
One thing I’m pretty confident of is that Luke is not the original Luke
that was kidnapped, hence the memory lose. I’m pretty sure there are
more twists then that in store. I think for now though, I’ll sit back
and watch the series until it gives me a reason to stop watching it. As
long as it doesn’t start to resemble Slayers or Record of Lodoss War it might be ok, or I might get sick of the RPG aspects.
Taking place about 4 years after the end of Gundam 00 we have
Gundam 00 Season 2, one of the titles I was highly anticipating for this
season. The series picks up with the fallout from the destruction of
the Celestial Beings. We find Setsuna F. Seiei alive, piloting Exia and
all alone, on a mission to rescue prisoners in a prison colony.
Unbeknownst to him is one of the prisoners is the Japanese kid he lived
next to. He uses the cover of a conflict between the installation forces
and a separate space borne military force to break into the
installation. As the assaulters unleash unmanned killing drones into the
installation, leaving everyone except for Setsuna’s old neighbor alive.
Setsuna saves him from the drones and rescues him from the
installation, only to reveal the fact that he was a Celestial Being. The
kid’s European girlfriend lost her hand during an attack by the German
Celestial Being siblings while her family was killed. It just so happens
that the same girl is part of the force attacking the installation. She
flips out when Exia starts to fight its way to freedom. The new Gundams
are too much for the outdated equipment and Setsuna soon finds himself
in peril when, he is saved at the last minute by Tierde, piloting a
revamped Virtue. The true Celestial Beings are still operating and come
to Setsuna’s rescue, there by strengthening their forces. Now they must
rebuild their team and try to regain their goal of a world without war.
OK, so it’s season 2 and if you never watched the first season this
isn’t going to mater to you. It’s Gundam, so there are a set of things
that need to be covered, the mechs holding secret powers that come out
at the bets time, moody male leads, lots of international political
subterfuge and plenty of melodrama to fulfill the most hard core Emo
kids. The animation is the same as the last season and we are being
introduced to a whole new cast of shadowy world figures as well as
catching up with people from the last season. If you liked Gundam 00 you
are already watching this show. If you have not seen the first season
and wish to watch this one then hop to it. For the most part people know
if they like Gundam or not, but 00 is not a bad series to test the
waters with.
Chaos Head is a series that I know absolutely nothing about, and after
watching the first episode I have only slightly grasped what its about.
The first episode starts out like a male/female version of the end of
the X movie. Then leads into the real world/present time where we meet
our protagonist, a delusional otaku named Takumi, who resides in a
corrugated metal shack on a building top in Shibuya. Takumi is a typical
slacker, hikikomori otaku. He only prefers interaction with people if
it’s digital or fictional all together. A number of times in the first
episode he chants the otaku mantra of 2d girls are better then 3d ones.
We find his illusionary version of his favorite anime heroine waking him
up to go to school. He has taken his distaste for human interaction to
the extreme in the fact that he has calculated and plotted out the
minimum days he needs to attend school. In school he shuns contact with
everyone and convinces himself that everyone around him finds him
disgusting, which only helps him stick to his convictions about 2d over
3d. Through out the day he hears references to a series of bizarre and
grizzly events that have taken place in Shibuya recently dubbed New Gen
or New Generation. In the events people are killed or die in very grisly
and message-laden ways. While online he also runs across a mysterious
person who wants him to look at pictures related to New Gen. In a moment
of hysteria he causes one of the images to open up and it shows the
grisly image of a man crucified to a wall with dozens of daggers.
The next day he seeks refuge at an Internet café, in order to
discreetly play his MMORPG. On his way home he stumbles upon the exact
scene he saw in the image he opened up the previous night. This time he
is witnessing the event happen as a number of cross shaped daggers are
scattered around the ground as a blood soaked school girl has apparently
just nailed the guy to the wall. She turns around and calls out to him,
by his name, causing him to flee in terror. When he arrives home he
finds that he still has one of the daggers in his hand and throws it
into a corner. He breaks down some more and his imaginary idol convinces
him it was an illusion. The day after that he is jittery and feels he
is being followed and watched, only to find out it is somewhat true. A
beautiful and timid schoolmate named Yua is actually following him, at
least into school, but his over active imagination tells him otherwise.
On his way home from school he runs into her again, dreams up something
horrid and runs from her only to hurt him self in an alley. She comes to
offer him assistance and takes him back to his house, all the while he
is trying to convince himself that she is tricking him and this will end
badly for him. In an awkward exchange he finds out she is somewhat of
an otaku too. The events lead to a bit of embarrassment, some
hallucinating and Taku filling himself, rationally or otherwise, with
dread and fear. Yua leaves him be for the evening only for him to go to
school the next day and find the girl who was crucifying the man to a
wall sitting next to him in class.
So with the first episode
this series didn’t know what to be. On one hand it was a typical high
school harem leading anime and an expose on hardcore otaku. On the other
hand it’s trying to be like a cross between Lain and Higurashi no Naku
Koro Ni. In the least the show is interesting and I’m generally
intrigued and entertained by crazy mystery pseudo-horror titles like
this. The art is mid range, typical of something based off of an eroge.
After doing so research this is based off of a game series that actually
began earlier this year and appears to be along the same lines as
Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. I didn’t want to read too much into the game
it’s self, for fear of ruining anything I will find out in the anime. So
for now I will continue to watch this series and see where it leads.
Ga Rei Zero is a poorly drawn, poorly written, stereotypical shonen
supernatural series. This series fits in right along with Guyver, Blue
Seed or Bubblegum Crisis. For those of you who don’t know what any of
these series are, don’t worry they all suck pretty bad. I didn’t even
watch the entire episode all the way through but skipped around a bit.
In the first episode we find a group of supernatural/undead creatures
attacking a freeway. The military is called in to handle them, but are
ineffective and only when 2 mysterious people show up on a crotch
rocket, do the creatures begin to get hurt. The man and woman are
members of a crack assault squad designed specifically to take on these
supernatural beings with the use of rune laden magical weapons. The man
dual wields pistols loaded with rune-covered bullets and the woman’s
bike has runes on it. They kick the creatures collective assess in a
flashy end battle that would make John Woo blush. By the end of the
episode though they run into humans who are in cahoots with the
creatures and end up meeting their demise, apparently.
I
skimmed even quicker through episode two and found that dealt with
entirely different characters, maybe episode 1 was a prequel or actually
the final episode and we were now going to see all the back story.
Either way I’m not going to find out.
As stated earlier the animation is pretty shoddy, the story paper thin,
and very unoriginal. The believability flew out the door the very
instant the chick began using the motorcycle in Kung fu type attacks on
the creatures. Before that even happened I was questioning what kind of
physics engine this anime ran on, since the guy was easily capable of
standing up on the back of the cycle, firing both pistols as it
maneuvered at high speeds. I just don’t have any patience or fondness
for this kind of pathetic crap that is designed for one thing and one
thing only; to push stupid action sequences with a vehicle of a thin and
over played plot of a band of virtuous freedom fighters going against a
secret world dominating conspiracy. It’s like a Michael Bay movie.
Kurozuka on the other hand is an interesting, beautifully drawn sleeper
hit. After waiting a while after watching the raw I was very pleased to
see that a sub group picked up this show. After watching only the
first episode I am still a little sketchy on the details. It takes
place, if my history serves me correctly, during the timer when the
first Tokugawa shogun was beginning to take control of Japan. A young
prince is fleeing his land in fear of being killed. He and his skilled
servant are running from a supernaturally powered enemy, who has
followed them into a remote mountain range. In the woods of the mountain
they seek refuge at a home. The only person who lives there is an aloof
and distant, beautiful woman. When the young prince falls ill she
gladly takes the men in and begins caring for the sick man, warning them
that they must never look into her bedroom.
After a few days
the servant leaves the house to get medicine only to never return.
Soon, however, the prince comes to and finds himself alone in this
remote location with this woman. He quickly grows fond for her and lives
a blissful and removed existence with her. Soon, though, he grows
impatient and on a stormy night he sneaks to her room and peers inside
to find her licking blood off of a man hanging from her ceiling. She
discovers him at once and begins to ask him why he broke his promise.
Before anything else can happen the people who have been chasing him
attack them outside of the house down. In the fight both are gravely
wounded, the woman ends the fight and brings the dying prince to a tree
in the forest were she offers to grant him everlasting life.
Vampires are usually not a favorite genre of mine, I find them mostly
boring and annoying, like Black Blood Brothers or Vampire Hunter D. This
series on the other hand appears to hold some promise.
The
first episode was entertaining and gruesome. I’m not sure were the story
will go and if it ends up with them wandering the world in eternal
life, going from one mini plot to the next, I will probably get bored.
It could also become a vampire revenge story as he kills all the people
that are out to kill him and his history unfolds to the viewer. Either
way it could suck or be good. So far I have some semi high hopes for it.
I am always on the look out for interesting historical series. There
have been a handful lately or varying quality. This one also stands out
for me because it reminds me of Ninja Scroll, the movie not the crap TV
series. With this, though, only time will tell.
Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter is another of the series I have been
highly anticipating. The story picks up a bit after the end of the first
series and we find Nodame and Chiaki arriving in Paris as exchange
students. If you have not seen the original series you might be a little
out of the loop with this one, but you might not have to pick up the
original to enjoy this series. So far they are introducing a new cast of
characters along with our lead roles. Then again the original series
was so entertaining that it doesn’t make sense not to watch it anyways.
What else can I say, the animation is the same, it’s all pretty much
the same, we are just seeing more of the story that was already done in
the manga and in the live action drama, which is also entertaining, why
won’t someone sub more of that?? So if you liked any of the above
variations of Nodame, watch this one too or if you like funny, silly
slice of live romantic comedies, heavy on the comedy, then watch any and
all you can.
I recently also watched a DVD special from the original series that had a
really funny side story about the characters road trip to the summer
musical training camp they went to, find it if you can, it’s well worth
it.
Disney and I have a long-standing hatred. I think their works are piles of garbage and most of it is ripped off, sometimes out right pirated (Kimba the White Lion). Disney probably doesn’t like me because I don’t give them money, well much anyways. I do have children and they do like Disney, which I’m ok with. There is, however, one Disney title I really enjoy, the Lilo and Stitch franchise. When
I found out that a purely Japanese production of said franchise was
going to be airing in the fall in Japan it made me a bit happy. I could have my kids watch a kick ass Disney title that continued to expose them to Japanese. This we have Stitch. In
this adventure the genetically created destruction machine is stranded
on one of the islands in south end of Japan, presumably the Ryukyu
Islands. His ravaging
hunger brings his presence to the attention of everyone in the small
town and soon a spunky young girl, Lilo’s replacement; named Yuna is hot
on the mysterious, ravenous blue monster. When
she catches up with him they spar like a kung fu movie and both end up
in the water, Yuna ends up having to save Stitch, who can’t swim, and
they end up calling a truce. Yuna chides him about being bad, which he flat out denies. Soon Yuna’s grandmother finds them. Typical of old wizened Japanese people, she is unmoved by the fact that a bizarre creature is talking with her. They
soon pass a large sacred boulder and when Stitch asks about it they
explain that it is a magical rock that can grant wishes to those who are
god and virtuous. Stitch perks up to the ability to grant wishes and sets on his way to get home by being good.
Ok, so it’s still Disney, it’s drawn like the other Stitch titles and has all the same basic ideals. The Japanese voices are pretty decent for the regular characters. Aside from that it is trying to replicate the formula from the Lilo and Stitch TV show. The spunky girl Yuna is somewhat of a lone wolf. Her father is away for work and she lives with her grandmother. She
also runs a karate dojo, where she teaches the weaker, geeky kids how
to stand up for them selves against the gang of bullies. The
bullies are a bit annoying, especially the girl of the group, complete
with blond hair, weird glasses and the personality of a nail. The show will have goofy fun but lessons to be had, usually light hearted ones. If you enjoy the other titles in this franchise you will probably enjoy this one. My kids have already watched episode 1 3 times.
There seems to be no short supply of harem anime this season but Kemeko Deluxe, would probably be one of the weirdest of them. I think the best way to sum up this annoying series is by relating it to a harem version of Potemayo crossed with an obasan version of Nuku Nuku all written by a gaggle of untalented teenage otaku. Here's
the quick premise, a weird, squat cherub like hyper robot, Kemeko,
comes into atypical high school student Sanpeita’s life, saying that she
is his fiancé. During school Kemeko has to fight off robotic attackers from the evil Mishima Corporation. After the battle Kemeko’s pilot, MM shows her self to reinforce that she is Sanpeita’s fiancée. So now all of a sudden a tall and beautiful girl is throwing herself at the atypical student. When
she announces that she is moving in with him the other girls that are
after him go crazy and the fight is on to get his affection. Oh
yeah, MM with the assistance of Kemeko are protecting Sanpeita from the
evil Mishima Corporation that is trying to get something from him.
So this is really annoying, but there are some pretty funny parts as well. Kemeko
is squat and goofy, like Potemayo, and there are a number of odd slap
stick comedy routines that reminded me of the oddity of Potemayo, but those brief glimpses of entertainment are lorded over by the rest of the show. It
actually doesn’t seem to be able to make up its mind about what kind of
series it wants to be; mecha fighter, odd ball comedy, slice of life
comedy or fan-service laden harem swill. The art is so-so, with Kemeko’s design being quite glaring. It’s like the evil kabuki doll version of Asuka if she were a short and fat old woman who works as a Mama-san in Kabuki-cho. All of the female characters fall into eroge categories. There is a fan base for this kind of show, it’s the same type that enjoys Negima and Kateyoshi Hitman Reborn, I don’t fit that category and will not b watching this show anymore then I’ve had to, to write this.
I am always on the look out for new and exciting space anime that have
nothing to do with mecha, or at least little to do with them. Last year a great series aired that was just that, Heroic Age. This fall season brings us a new space anime that is devoid of mechs and full of battleship combat and political maneuvering. Unfortunately, the show, Tytania, is lacking in pretty much everything else. This
epic space military series is based in a universe where the
aristocratic authorities, resembling those of the renaissance era, wage
battles for control with both their armadas and in person. I
couldn’t get myself to watch enough of it to find out the plots and
twists and who’s trying to backstab who and why but it’s a pretty
familiar dramatic political intrigue series.
My biggest problem with the show, aside for my distaste in the styles of the age of discovery, is the artwork it’s self. I am being picky this season with the quality of what I’m watching. There are plenty of moments were it seems the production staff cut down the number of frames per second to save on cost. This is especially noticeable when the characters are walking. The characters themselves are also lacking in the design area. They
don’t really move too much and you mostly see them from two angles,
straight on or profile…is that all the artists can draw? It’s a pretty shoddy production all around and very amateur. The space battles are pretty good on the other hand, the ship designs are unique and it reminded me of stuff you would see on Babylon 5. The most disturbing thing with the animation is how the ships come out of warp. At first it reminded me of warping in Heroic Age, with a swirling and sparkly portal that the ship exits from. The
comparison ends and the uncomfortable feeling begins when the last bit
of the ship pulls out of the vortex and snags a bit, flops around then
finally breaks free. Honestly
the first thing that popped into my head was that the universe was
taking a crap and had to pinch of that last bit…it’s not a pleasant
image to associate with a ship coming out of warp, but is pretty funny
in a juvenile manner.
So, in retrospect,
this series is pretty unappealing to me, I’m super critical of its
animation because it doesn’t have that good of a story, from what I
could tell, to really bring me in and forget the bad art. While the actual space stuff is good and the ships are interesting it still doesn’t outweigh the rest of the series downfalls. The immovable characters talking endlessly about their plots. The
standard dry political intrigue plots and glossed over policies and
atrocities attributed to nations and empires that are barely seen
outside of their rulers. You may only enjoy this series if you are a fan of the melodramatic and dry military maneuvering series’.
Kurogane no Linebarrels is the newest in a long and recent line of uninspiring mecha anime. It’s
always about the lone boy who comes from an unassuming background and
is mystically chosen to save humanity with the biggest and best mech
available. This is pretty much the case with this series, which takes place a little bit in the future of Earth. Since
I was quickly turned off by this show while skimming through the first
episode, I figured I would post the description form the English version
of the series’ website.
Fourteen-year-old
Kouichi Hayase’s life has always been a mediocre one, if not dismal.
However, those days of being bullied by classmates and escaping to a
fantasy of being a hero are put to an end when a certain “accident”
bestows on him a girl and a gigantic humanoid robot called “LINEBARREL”.
The extraordinary power that Kouichi obtains puts him and everything
around him on a sudden rollercoaster ride of battles, intrigues and
friendship! During the course of his adventure, the boy starts to learn
what life has to offer; he meets new friends, bids farewell to the old
ones, but most of all he now has considerable responsibilities and is
forced to confront the world around him.
Ok, so there you have it, he activates Linebarrels by grabbing the
girls, large, left breast and then proceeds to go kick ass. I’m sure everyone can tell my dripping annoyance with this show already, so I’ll get right to it. The animation looks like crap, they skimp, another one, on some of the in-between animation. It’s not as bad of a chop job as Tytania but it’s still pretty bad. The mechs, while somewhat unique, look pretty dumb and they cut corners with them as well. This
all in all, seems like a rushed and budget tight attempt to animate
something that will just add to the ever large collection of poor and
mediocre anime that fill the bad timeslots and end up on in the used DVD
bin quickly. I’d say pass on it unless you enjoy living your anime viewing live like its Groundhogs Day for
I’m usually not too entertained by bi-shonen romance comedies aimed at
the female audience, in fact probably one of the only titles that fits
this category that I enjoyed was Ouran High School Host Club. It I still to be determined is Skip Beat will follow the same fate, but it’s got some promise after the first episode. The
story follows young Kyoko working 2 part time jobs, every single day,
to support her self, only to attain for the dream of being an ugly
duckling turned beautiful princess. She left Kyoto after middle school to move to Tokyo with her childhood friend Sho. Sho had a dream of becoming a popular musician and needed Kyoko’s support in attaining his goals. Kyoko works herself to death while Sho’s career begins to take off. Sho’s repayment to her, though, is coldness and distance. Kyoko
gets into his record studio one day after work to spend time with him
and over hears him talking with someone about how Kyoko is just a tool
for him and that now that he can support himself he is going to throw
her to the sidelines. In a fit of rage Kyoto attacks him and vows vengeance as she is being dragged off by security. He tempts her by becoming a musician herself and fighting him with popularity. She
takes on his offer and completely changes her appearance, ready to meet
the world stage in order to exact revenge upon her lost love.
This is typical shojo romantic comedy. The characters are all thin and tall with pointed faces and luxurious locks. The female lead is self sufficient, street smart but slightly gullible. No
mater what she has the undivided attention of the most beautiful and
sought after men around her, all there for her to choose from as she
sees fit. It’s essentially the jaded Japanese girls wet dream. One thing that I like about this series so far is its comedy. I’m a sucker for goofy anime slapstick and SD routines. If the comedy can keep up this series could be quite enjoyable. However, I feel that the first episode might have been a switch and bait. She
was cute, endearing and bumbling but at the end of the episode when she
blows 300 dollars on a cut and color, in an attempt to make her
beautiful and fabulous, the tone seemed to change. I
know that the plot of this series is going to be her rising to musical
glory all the while competing with Sho and his rival Ren, while Ren
falls for the beautiful girl and Sho begins to realize what he missed,
even if he doesn’t admit it to him self. Then again, that’s just judging the book by its cover and I won’t really know until I watch more of the episodes.
I don’t think there are any other titles that I really need to go over
for the Fall Preview, so thanks for checking out the snapshots and wait
for more complete reviews.
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