Tag: from RPG.net

Campione!

(12ish episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

Magical battles set in Italy, with just a hint of romantic comedy.

Characters

Godou, our generic Japanese male lead. He was sent in Italy to deliver a package by his grandfather (who turns out to be a vey powerful mage who really got around). He randomly crashes into…

Erica, who for some reason walks around in a ludicrous “period” red dress. (Even curiouser : for magical battles she switches into something more comfortable and decent.) She’s a witch (with battle maid in tow) who immediately takes an interest in the package, apparently a super-powerful artefact that can steal gods’ powers. Which is handy, considering how there are more than a few roaming around.

Verethragna, a super-powerful and super-arrogant kid who’s so powerful he’s going around challenging other gods because he’s curious what defeat feels like (so far, no luck).

… And that’s how, by the end of the episode, Godou acquires god-level power. (That’s not a spoiler, his inner monologue states it at the very beginning.)

Production Values

I watched the eyebleed-o-vision streaming pre-air version of the episode, so it’s a bit hard to judge, but the magical battles feel very generic and uninspired.

Overall Impression

The obvious comparison here is with Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, and that’s not exactly to this show’s advantage ; the characters feel very generic (Erica in particular alternates between stale charmless antics and exposition mouthpiece), the plot hangs on some very big coincidences and doesn’t flow too well (special points to the first magical battle just stopping off-screen for no obvious reason), and the worldbuilding feels quite by-the-numbers.

(Also, I can’t take Fuhimiko Tachiki’s narration seriously when he uses the same boisterous tone as for Katte ni Kaizou, which was a clear parody of this sort of thing.)

You never know, this might develop some charm later on, but it hardly looks promising so far. I’m not even sure I’ll bother with a second episode.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2012 – Page 4.

Kingdom

(38 episodes)

What’s it about ?

War epic set in medieval China.

The first episode is double-sized, which I didn’t initially notice until the second commercial break.

Characters

Xin, an 10-year-old war orphan who’s housed by the village’s mayor. They don’t treat him well, but then again he’s an annoying little jerk with anger issues. (I’m not sure that scene when he demolishes a wall out of frustration is intentionally funny.)

Piao, his BFF who’s in the same situation but gets better treatment because he’s, you know, not an jerk. The guy has some genuine charisma, so of course he can’t survive the first episode’s halfway point.

The plot here is that a random noble dude shows up one day to pick Piao to serve at the Court. Months later, Piao comes back heavily wounded to the village and dies without having had time to explain what the heck is happening. Xin obviously declares vengeance and starts following the map Piao gave him.

The baddies are headed by the King’s younger brother, a classist asshole who has a total innocent executed just to make a point. He’s making a power play, and somehow this led to Piao’s demise. (The first episode doesn’t explain how or why, although the ending cliffhanger gives a good hint.)

Production Values

This seems to be fully CG-animated, with copious amounts of cell-shading to give it a more traditional anime look. The big problem is that the body language very often lurches into uncanny valley territory, as the characters are animated to move in really unnatural ways.

It doesn’t help that the direction is mind-bogglingly incompetent. Remember when I reviewed 2001’s Run=Dim last year ? Well, this falls into the same trap : yes, CG graphics allow the camera to pan over or around the action without losing quality ; but this isn’t a good reason to show it off at every opportunity, especially when this effect actually often hinders the storytelling of the shot.

And then there’s the continuity issues. It’s most hilarious in the early duel scene between the two kids, where the grass grows from merely a texture laid on flat terrain to knee-deep over a few shots.

Overall Impression

Okay, let’s leave aside for a moment the terrible graphics and the laughably inept direction. There’s no helping that the story just isn’t very good by itself, with an annoying brainless protagonist, EEEEVIL villains who can’t even chew the scenery properly, and a general level of unpleasantness that’s just tiring to watch. (Did that guy really need to sword that kid through the balls ?)

Even for the trainwreck factor this isn’t worth 45 minutes of your time.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2012.

Moyashimon (“Yeast Monsters”)

(11 episodes, 2007)

My previous exposure

There’s a sequel airing this Summer, and since it’s on noitaminA it’d have gotten on my radar sooner rather than later anyway.

Beyond that and the notion that it’s about cute microbes or something, I knew nothing of it.

What’s it about ?

Sawaki, our protagonist, is a new student attending an agriculture university. He can see microbes (bacteria, fungi, viruses, the whole lot of them), not as what they look like under a microscope, but as cute inch-tall little critters. He’s not too fond of this talent of his, and tends to keep it secret, but it turns out to be quite useful in the world of agriculture (both with the “good” fermenting microbes, and the “bad” toxic microbes).

But this is mostly a background thread, as the core of the series is a slice-of-life story involving the ensemble cast of Sawaki, his best friend Yuuki, Pr Itsuki (an ineffable microbe specialist who takes them under his wing), angry grad-student Hasegawa, never-do-well second-years Kawahama & Misato, and various over recurring characters.

What did I think of it ?

I didn’t expect this at at all. Sure, it’s very educative about how microbes are SERIOUS BUSINESS in agriculture, and the quirky “Sawaki-vision” does a lot to liven up all this exposition… but mostly it’s just a really good college slice-of-life series. Heck, the high point of the series is that hilarious two-parter with the survival challenge, and that had nothing to do with microbes.

This was well worth watching, and I can hardly wait for the second season.

via [LTTP/WIW] Various anime from the 00s and beyond – Page 13.

2011 Young Animator Training Project

Hey, remember the Young Animator Training Project ? Basically, it’s the Japanese government funding the training of a new animators over a set of 4 one-shot episodes ; the 2010 edition was apparently a good enough experiment for it to be renewed in 2011 ; the 4 new episodes aired in March and are now slowly trickling down through the usual channels.

The first one, Buta, was mostly forgettable. Anthropomorphized-pig samurai in a very generic story that’s perfectly decent but fails to bring anything fresh to the table. Perfectly skippable.

The second one, Wasurenagumo, on the other hand, is a completely different matter. It’s yet another take on the “cute eldritch abomination” meme that’s been going strong recently with the likes of Nyarko-san, but way better at striking the right balance between charming and –ing creepy. It’s a very effective tale, this, and especially well served by direction and animation that sells the big moments perfectly.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 21.

Spring 2012 capsules

Naruto SD – Rock Lee & His Ninja Friends was better than I expected. It’s thoroughly accessible, providing enough exposition about the setting (“teams of apprentice ninjas get various tasks to perform as part of their training”), the main character’ shtick (“Rock Lee is an apprentice ninja who can’t do any ninjutsu”) or whatever guest star happens to be passing (such as what Naruto can do). For someone like me who barely knows anything about the Naruto universe, this was very welcome.

Now, is this actually worth watching ? Let’s not get carried away. It’s mildly funny, but some of the running gags were getting tired even before the end of the second of the two skits in this episode. (Even Tenten herself is getting bored of always going “there’s no way anyone’s going to fall for Lee’s incredibly stupid plan… wait, it worked ?”) Also, the first skit relies heavily on poo jokes.

One episode was enough for me.

I was pleasantly surprised by Here Comes the Black Witch! (Kuromajo-san ga Toru!!). I’m not a big fan of anime in short formats, but this is a longer one (7 minutes), and properly paced for it. The premise is simple enough (middle-school occult fangirl invokes a demon by mistake, who’s going to teach her how to become a Witch whether she wants it or not), but it manages to get some good jokes out of it (our heroine MUST clean her room everyday… because leaving any hair or skin behind makes malicious voodoo body control possible).

This looks like a fun little gag show (and it’s not like this season promises many of these). I’m willing to give it at least a few more episodes to see whether it stays funny.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 5.

Some thoughts on more short series I won’t be making full reviews of :

Gakkatsu (“Homeroom”) is very bizarre indeed. The abrasive class rep organizes a debate about some inane topic (today : “what’s the name of that bump on your arm that’s equivalent to the ankle ?”), except she discards any argument she doesn’t like. It’s rapid-fire comedy building to an utterly stupid conclusion, but I’m not sure I actually find it funny. I’ll need a couple more episodes to decide.

Yurumates 3Dei has no 3D whatsoever, it’s just that there were two OVAs before this series ; fortunately, this looks like a fresh start. Unfortunately, this takes most of its three minutes to establish the premise (a condo house in the suburbs of Tokyo where former high school students go to prepare another go at college entrance exams ; there’sno privacy whatsoever and the place looks a bit run-down) and the characters don’t get much depth. I was vaguely interested in the subject matter, but it doesn’t look like it’ll be going anywhere interesting (and even Acchi Kocchi looks more satisfying as far as 4-panel gag manga adaptations go).

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 6.

Sequel watch !

As it turns out, I won’t be making a full review of Saki: Achiga-hen – Episode of Side-A. It’s more of the same from the original : cute girls with little personality playing mahjong as though it was calvinball. It makes a stab at building drama around the formation of an underdog club, but it falls flat due to the dullness of the writing. And that’s when it doesn’t just go for utter stupidity (actual dialogue : “wait, you’ve been cleaning this unused club room alone for two years on the vague hope we’d come back ?”). Also, given Saki‘s sluggish pace, I really doubt these people can get to the national level within 12 episodes.

Fate / Zero is back after three months’ break, and jumps straight back to where it left. Frankly, there’s no point in starting watching it now, you’ll want the 13 episodes of setup to have a hope in figuring out what’s going on.

Phi Brain S2 didn’t even take a week’s break, but it does go out of its way to reintroduce the supporting cast, the premise and the first season’s relevant events so that it can be a good jumping on point. Since the evil POG organization has been comprehensively dismantled by now, we’re getting a new set of villains to challenge the cast with more stupidly dangerous puzzles. Since they’re already more personality and charisma (hello, Hiroshi Kamiya and Tomokazu Sugita !) than the POG, I’m not complaining. This looks as fun as ever, so I’m in for the ride.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 7.

Okay, I’ll be using my “no reviews of sequels” escape clause and skip writing a full review of Eureka Seven Ao. Not because I was lost or anything (I didn’t see the original, but that’s no obstacle to understanding the gist of the plot here), but because the first episode bored me to sleep. Neither the flat characters, nor the rather generic events happening to them gave me any reason to care. Sure, it looks good, but I just found it very dull, and thus can’t summon any energy to cover it in any more detail.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 10.

AKB0048

What’s it about ?

In the future, entertainment has been banned. An underground concert by guerilla idol group (sic) AKB0048 encourages a group of kids to apply to become new members.

This is, of course, a glorified advertisement for real-life idol group AKB48.

Characters

Nagisa, head of the kids’ group. She’s a big fan of AKB0048, but Daddy has recently been promoted in the Anti-Entertainment Agency and doesn’t want his daughter anywhere near this, for fear of scandal.

Yuuko, the bratty one, has a boyfriend. Who doesn’t approve either.

Orine is an orphan who works at the generic factory instead of going to school.

There’s a 4th girl shown in the beginning who seems to have completely disappeared in the “4 years later” segment. Presumably there’s a story there.

AKB0048 themselves are “the 5th generation”, “in homage to the originals”, and don’t a single personality to share between the 10 or so of them.

Production Values

Pretty good. There’s a lot of CG elements, especially in the choreography sequences (Precure-ED style), and it doesn’t look half bad.

Obviously, the whole soundtrack comes from AKB48. It’s not very good, generic J-pop.

Overall Impression

At face value, this is reasonably competent. The plot is ludicrous, but this is decently-written enough for the stakes to be clear and the main characters to be somewhat fleshed out. And that “guerilla idol group” sequence at the beginning is quite fun to watch.

On the other hand… this unashamedly promotes generic soulless mass-produced entertainment, with a degree of white-washing that I’m really not comfortable with (three seconds of research into AKB48 made the “boyfriend” issue even less tasteful). This requires completely buying into the idol marketing machine to be any fun to watch… and sorry, no dice.

And really, it’s not like the plot is likely to go anywhere interesting, or the characters to develop a personality beyond their archetypes. I’ll pass.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 17.

Hyouka – You can’t escape

(21 episodes)

What’s it about ?

A high school detective club.

Characters

Houtarou, our protagonist. He’s usually a partisan of minimum effort, but here he strong-armed by his sister (an alumni of this same high school) into reopening the “Classics Club”, which had no members left. He’s actually quite a clever guy once you get to know him (if you’re not rebuked by his unwillingness to do anything unnecessary).

Satoshi, his best friend for years. He’s very obviously the exposition guy, and relishes in it (calling himself with pride “a database of useless knowledge” at one point). He’s not above starting rumors on his own, either.

Chitanda, a girl they found in the clubroom, and who’s very interested in it. (And so, Houtarou immediately dumps the presidency onto her.) She’s fascinated by mundane mysteries, school urban legends and the like. She’s a bit gullible, to say the least.

Whatever the club is actually about (it apparently has something of a reputation), they never get around to going into any Classic Litterature in this episode ; instead they obsess over several of the most low-key and low-stakes mysteries I’ve ever witnessed. Although it’s mostly an excuse to showcase each character’s personality.

Production Values

You can tell this is a Kyoto Animation production : the animation is wonderfully fluid, and there’s a marvellous attention to detail in the body language and the backgrounds ; every single walk-on extra feel like they have a personality and a story of their own. (Witness in the opening scene that dude desperately trying to do some homework in the deserted classroom and getting progressively more annoyed at Houtaru and Satoshi talking so loudly behind him !)

This isn’t the most visually creative show of the season (aside from that fun little “mystery of the door” sequence and the random fantasy scenes “demonstrating” Houtarou and Chitanda’s chemistry), but it certainly has the best production values by far. (Yes, better than Fate/Zero.)

I’m not a fan of the soundtrack yet, but I could see it grow on me.

Overall Impression

In any other hands, this would have been a forgettable low-key mystery show. But the impressive care put into every single detail pays off at the end, when Houtarou gets to display some impressive sleuthing skills in a way that takes advantage of those details and is perfectly in line with his stated philosophy. And the solution to the “phantom club” mystery is a strong enough piece of writing to make me trust this is going somewhere. (I’m not spoiling it, because I loved getting surprised by it.) Also, I’m now sold on Houtarou (Yuuichi Nakamura is impeccable as always).

I’m definitely going to follow this one.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 15.

Gankutsuou – The Count of Monte Cristo

(24 episodes, 2004-2005)

My previous exposure

I first heard of this one through the president of my college anime club, who was a big fan of the artstyle. I think he even showed us the first episode. I never got around to actually watching the full thing it for ages, though, as I waited until I thought I’d be “ready”.

I’ve obviously heard of the basic plot through cultural osmosis, but I’ve never actually read the original doorstopper of a novel (or watched any of the numerous movie/TV adaptations). So I was mostly fresh on the actual plot twists the series had in reserve for me.

What’s it about ?

It’s the future, but conveniently society is basically the same as early-19th-century France (well, kinda, I’ll come back to it further down). Albert de Morcerf is the young naive heir of an up-and-coming politician, engaged to the daughter of a rich banker, and promised to a bright future… until he meets the eccentric Count of Monte-Cristo on the Moon. Little does he know that his newfound friend is actually out for a (very convoluted) revenge against the three men who wrong him 20 years ago… including Albert’s father.

Let’s be honest, the SF setting is just a parlour game, as one will try and guess how each element is transposed from the original context. But it’s also an excuse for the visuals to go marvellously insane. A duel will become a battle between giant armoured mecha… because why not, after all ? The show revels in its artificiality, using psychedelic images to make its story even more grandiose and baroque, as best exemplified by the use of unmoving elaborate textures to depict people’s clothes and hair. It will either burn your eyes or make you fawn over how pretty it is.

What did I think of it ?

I loved it, as you probably can tell by now. Not only is it gorgeous, but it never sacrifices the clarity of its storytelling. This is a very well-structured adaptation, with my only little qualm being that the Count’s plots take ages to actually go anywhere. But when they finally come to fruition, it makes all the build-up worth it.

It is interesting how little this adaptation cares about the Count’s past life as Edmond Dantès. He barely gets ten minutes of flashbacks very late on, as the strict minimum necessary to explain why he became the implacable vengeance machine known as the Count of Monte-Cristo. (Not the how, though, the series doesn’t care about that at all.) The Count himself is an antagonist throughout, with only token displays of hesitation while he tramples over the lives of innocents to get at his targets.

The focus here is clearly on Albert, which is a bit tiring at times given how much he’s a naive spoiled brat who takes a lot of time to distrust the dude who looks like a vampire. (Or heck, even be aware of how much many of the adults around him are scumbags.) But then, this is not a series for subtlety, and the core goal here is to display how the Count’s revenge wreaks havoc on innocents’ livelihood. Albert, as innocence personified, is the perfect incarnation of collateral damage. The storytelling choice of making the Count’s motives distant (and unrevealed until nearly the very end of the show) only adds to the monstrosity of his actions. Yes, those three assholes probably deserved punishment (not only for what they did to him, but also for their various other misdeeds later on), but the Count’s sweeping retaliatory action was always bound to provoke more future strife in an endless cycle of vengeance.

Perfectly illustrating the pointlessness of the Count’s actions, and looking great while doing so, this is a show well worth watching.

via [LTTP/WIW] Various anime from the 00s and beyond – Page 11.

One Stormy Night – Secret Friends (Arashi no Yoru ni: Himitsu no Tomodachi)

(52 episodes)

What’s it about ?

The unlikely friendship of a goat and a wolf. Adaptation of a bestselling children’s book.

Characters

Mei, a somewhat naive young goat. She’s not entirely clueless, though. (Also, this is proof that Rie Kugimiya can sound charming when the role requests it.) One stormy night, she stumbles into a dark shelter, where she meets…

Gabu, a young wolf. Since it was dark, they got to talk for enough time for him to get fond of his newfound friend. Even when he learns she’s food. He carries most of the episode, with the conflict between his heart and his stomach.

Production Values

This is entirely CG-animated… and it doesn’t look half-bad. Nice scenery porn, decent cartooning for the characters’ body language…

Overall Impression

One the one hand, it’s a perfectly decent start that introduces the premise well and makes the archetypal characters grow on you. This would fit quite well as the 20 first minutes of a decent kids’ movie. (And presumably the 2005 movie was along the same lines.) But… 52 episodes of this ? I was already starting to get a bit tired of Gabu’s inner conflict by the end of the first episodes, so I dread how repetitive it’ll get by the third month of it.

Yeah, I think I’m going to skip this one.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 12.

Ginga e Kickoff!!

What’s it about ?

Sport series for kids about soccer.

Characters

Shou, our elementary school protagonist. The team he used to be in was quite decent, but it’s just disbanded due to conflict with the coach (who quit) and half the team wanting to focus on exams anyway. So now he must find new players to restart the team from scratch. The problem : he can only bring his own enthusiasm to the table, as he’s mostly crap at the sport. (There’s a lengthy scene of him being outclassed by a dog.)

Erika, transfer student from Osaka. (Except Shou doesn’t know it yet, which makes him trying to recruit her all the more puzzling.) She seems to have some actual talent, unlike him. And she’s on board with training with someone else than her dog… up until she learns the team has been disbanded, of course. She has a massive hero worship for…

Misaki, an adult professional player who just happens to be passing, just in time to give some encouragement for her fan.

Presumably there’ll be more than two players on this team (although the OP/ED certainly don’t show 11 members), but that’s for future episodes.

Oh, and there’s some drunk on a bench who’s bound to be the new coach.

Production Values

Just about average.

Overall Impression

This ain’t half bad : the characters have chemistry, the scenes of them training at soccer are fun, and the premise is so ridiculous you can’t help but wonder how they’re gonna get out of this predicament.

The problem is that it’s going to take forever and a day to gather the team, especially with the second episode going out of its way to do something with a completely different team. And I’m not interested enough to follow this for the long haul, especially in so busy a season.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 12.