Tag: pachinko game adaptation

Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman

What’s it about ?

Robin Hood in the end of the Edo period.

Characters

Roman, our protagonist. By day, he’s a lazy bum barely making a living as a helping hand around town. By night, he’s a Robin Hood figure, robbing the guilty rich and distributing it to everyone else, through crazy schemes, “high-tech” devices, and raw nerve.

Koharu, his little sister. By day, she’s the one actually paying the rent with as a bizarrely-specialized craftswoman ; by night, she helps him out on his adventures.

They also seem to have a dog, who helps them out on their cons. It’s that kind of show.

Production Values

Character designs come courtesy of Monkey Punch, aka the Lupin III guy. It really shows. This looks quite good, but decidedly old-fashioned.

Overall Impression

Yawn. This doesn’t seem to be a bad show by any objective criteria, but there’s something about it that just made me tune out. I can barely remember anything about it, and I really don’t care to try watching it again. It’s not really my kind of thing, anyway : way to old-fashioned to hook me.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 4.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel: Kyun Kyun Tokimeki Paradise!!

What’s it about ?

Magical girls fighting colorful villains.

Characters

Haruka, aka Red Angel. The redhaired tomboy of the pair. Brash, terrible in class, more interested in sports and dudes, you know the type. Voiced by Yukari Tamura, of course.

Aoi, aka Blue Angel. The bluehaired girly girl of the pair. Soft-spoken, honor student, less good in a fight (but still kicking ass with her bow and arrows), you know the type. Voiced by Mamiko Noto, of course.

Their boss is actually their school’s principal, who’s helped by a ninja butler who likes to randomly show up from trapdoors whenever he needs to contact the pair.

The villain this episode tries to steal a necklace that is of course one of the seven McGuffins of the setting ; she’s the kind of bwahahah-evil villains that thinks that transforming the pair into catgirls is an effective tactic. And it’d have worked, too, if it hadn’t been for…

Misty Night, the mysterious masked man that’s very close to getting a lawsuit from Sailor Moon‘s Tuxedo Mask (he even throws roses the same way !), and is totally not the hot student council president Haruka has a crush on.

The OP teases that a third Angel is upcoming, but we don’t see her yet.

Production Values

Decent action sequences, I guess. The OP is –ing annoying in its squeakiness.

Overall Impression

…zzzzzzz…

Excuse me, I nearly fell asleep from the blandness of this show. I don’t think it’s possible to create more generic a magical girl show than this. Presumably it’s a pastiche of the genre, but there’s nothing interesting or funny in the way it’s done. I though at first it was a retro revival of some beloved old franchise, but aside from a pilot OVA a few years ago it seems to be completely new. As such, it’s quite baffling : it’s not a kids’ show (it airs at otaku’o’clock), and it’s not interesting enough to appeal to anyone else. Unless they keep on piling the fetishes during the fight scenes (the catgirl thing was still quite tame), which isn’t my thing but there’s a sizeable audience for that.

Anyway, avoid this.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2011 – Page 3.

Battle Girls – Time Paradox (Sengoku Otome: Momoiro Paradox)

(13ish episodes)

What’s it about ?

An ordinary high school girl is transported to a female version of feudal Japan.

Characters

Hideyoshi, our protagonist. Late for school, not very bright and utterly superficial. She goes to pray at a local shrine not to mess up with her exams, stumbles on a magic ritual, and that’s how she ends up in feudal Japan. Of course, her first reaction is to mistake everyone for cosplayers and complain about the poor cellphone reception.

Nobunaga Oda, at this stage a local feudal lord in a quest to gather the pieces of a mystical set of armor and conquer Japan. I have no clue why she tolerates Hideyoshi’s antics or has any reason to think she’ll be useful, besides plot convenience. (I mean, Hideyoshi’s Japan History textbook will probably come handy, but it’s introduced too late for that to work as an explanation for Oda’s tolerance.)

Mutsuhide, Oda’s aide, who for some reason looks exactly like one of Hideyoshi’s classmates (are they going for the “it was all a dream” ending ?). Utterly irritated by Hideyoshi, but suffers through it because Oda said so. I can sympathize.

The OP & ED show half a dozen more girls that shall presumably be introduced in later episodes.

Production Values

Well, it could be worse : sure, the outfits (especially Oda’s) are ridiculously stripperific, but we don’t get too many panty shots and the like. Still, to make clear what kind of series we’re watching, the ED shows all the girls naked, with thin strips of fabric overlaid at random to hide the naughty bits.

Overall Impression

It seems like nearly every season there’s one of these (See also : Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls, Koihime†Musou…). It’s not outright terrible, but it’s very generic indeed and offers nothing of note to make it worth watching.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2011 – Page 4.

Rio – Rainbow Gate !

What’s it about ?

Follows the adventures of the star dealer of a high-class Casino, which seems to involve high stakes duels against nasty customers. “Adapted” from a series of pachinko gambling machines.

Characters

Rio, the *BOOBIES* title character. From what little personality *PANTIES* she displays, she’s a bit dim, and easygoing enough to let *BOUNCE* her pervy manager trick her into dodgy *KNOCKERS* costumes and situations. She has the superpower of *UPSKIRT SHOT* magically calming down a crowd around her, as well as *RANDOM WEDDING DRESS* making the odds favour whichever casino customers *CLOTHING DAMAGE* she wishes (to the point that clients crowd around her to benefit from her mojo).

Mint, the young granddaughter of a VIP client visiting the casino ; as the naive newcomer viewpoint character, she wanders around the setting while everyone else delivers exposition. After a while Rio is specially assigned to escort her around. Slightly brattish, but at tolerable levels.

Orlin Dunhill, our asshole villain of the week. After various unsuccessful assault attempts with his goons, he eventually challenges Rio to a poker duel… for reasons that, in a storytelling masterstroke, aren’t properly explained until its end (he’s after Mint’s teddy bear). He’s your usual charisma-deficient lech, and a moron to boot.

Rosa Canyon, a Hollywood actress and regular patron of the casino. Cue the “obaa-san” jokes. For some reason, she’s the one dealing the duel, instead of the dozens of random dealers running around.

There are various other side characters, such as a couple of bunny waitresses that have so little personality they even complete each other’s lines. Their main purpose is exposition and duel commentary.

Production values

This actually looks quite decent, with some nice animation for action scenes, and above all a wonderfully psychedelic sequence during the duel. But don’t even try watching it if you’re allergic to fanservice.

There’s no OP. The ED is an annoyingly peppy JPop number that has even more fanservice than the actual show.

Overall Impression

This… is actually a bit better than I imagined (but then I had very low expectations). The fanservice is less obnoxious than I expected, and mainly concentrated on Rio herself (it steers mercifully free of Mint). The plot is obviously just an excuse, but it’s all in good fun. There’s even a couple of good jokes.

Is it any good ? Well, no. But if you turn your brain off, it’s a semi-decent fanservice series that steers clear of harem clichés (at least so far). I could see myself trying out another episode or two.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 4.