Tag: science-fiction

Waiting in the Summer (Ano Natsu de Matteru)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Basically a remake of Please Teacher without the squicky bits, reuniting the same creative team. For those who don’t know it : this is a romantic comedy set in a little Japanese town in the summer. A human-looking alien lands there in secret and tries to blend in.

Characters

Kaito, our bland male lead. He’s got a camera and has let his high school friends talk him into directing an actual movie. While he was filming random landscapes, he got caught into the crash/landing hand got heavily injured. (From the look of it, she mostly cured his injuries while he was unconscious.) His parents are dead, he lives alone with his older sister (who’s about to go abroad for the summer).

Ichika, the alien. She’s trying to pass herself as a transfering high school student, but it’s quite obvious from her lack of understanding of social cues (not to mention her bright red hair) that she’s not from around here. Also, she’s homeless, and somehow manipulates Kaito into housing her (in a well-executed and quite creepy scene).

Kanna, the tomboy tsundere who’s gonna have to step her game up if she doesn’t want the alien to push her into Kaito’s friend zone. (NOBODY is fooled by Kanna’s behaviour, and various people try and push her towards making an actual move.)

Tetsurou is Kaito’s token perverted best friend… although, as a nice departure from the norm, he’s actually handsome and quite the charmer.

Remon is basically Yukari Tamura reprising her role from Please Teacher with the number filed off : the sarcastic and perceptive sempai who’s quite older than she looks.

Production Values

Perfectly okay. So there’s where the budget saved from Kill Me Baby and Bakuman 2 went !

Overall Impression

My main objection to Please Teacher was from the squicky bits (where the alien became a teacher and they used a bizarre loophole to make the male lead legal), so I’m quite pleased to see a nearly-remake without those elements. As a result, this is a fun little romantic comedy that’s pleasant enough, while never coming off as “essential watching”.

Perfectly fine for what it is.

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

Bodacious Space Pirates (Moretsu Uchuu Kaizoku)

(26 episodes)

What’s it about ?

In the far future, after mankind spread into outer space, there was a big war between the central power and the most far-flung colonies. The separatists were so out-matched they had to commission space pirates to undermine their enemy. It’s now been about a hundred years since the war ended (and the show is pointedly not telling us how it ended, besides implying it was somewhat ludicrous), but some of those space pirates are still around somehow. Although given that their license is currently under review, this may be about to change…

Characters

Marika, the teenage daughter of the captain of the main pirate ship still around, although she didn’t know that. Daddy died a couple of days ago, and the law says the ship goes to his next of kin, so suddenly the crew is stalking her and innocently asking her whether she’d like to visit outer space. Marika’s nonplussed by the whole thing (“Wait, there are legal pirates ?”), but outer space does sound cool.

Ririka, Marika’s mother, used to be part of the crew, but the implication being that she settled down after having her daughter. (But given that we later get a short look at her working in a military uniform, she’s hardly the stay-at-home kind.) She enjoys seeing the old crew again, and doesn’t have any qualms about Marika leaving with them… provided that’s what she wants, of course.

Kane McDougall, the navigator, somehow managed to become the replacement teacher for Marika’s class. Half to keep an eye on her, and half to discretely scout new recruits for the crew. Refreshingly, he immediately tells the class he’s married, and later notes he’d never had guessed dealing with high school girls could be so tiring, so that’s at least one bullet dodged.

Chiaki, a conveniently new transfer student who immediately starts stalking Marika. She does save our protagonist from a kidnapping attempt by a fake law officer (as well as a roomful of MIBs who were suspiciously lounging in the maid café Marika works part time at), but there’s still no hint of who she’s working for. (She’s voiced by Kana Hanazawa in “Everyone I’m talking to is an idiot” mode, which is always pleasant to listen to.)

There’s a token normal friend of Marika running around, and she’s prominently featured in the ED, but she’s yet to do much.

Production Values

Quite nice indeed. There’s something slightly retro to the character designs, which works well with the general atmosphere. Despite what you’d expect from the title, the fanservice level is quite mild (well, aside from that thing Kane’s colleague was wearing in the café).

The OP & ED sound like someone liked the autotune effects a bit too much, but I don’t have a problem with that.

Overall Impression

Perfectly pleasant, and with enough sense of fun for me to keep watching. I quite like that the show is immediately addressing the concept of “family-friendly pirates”, and I’m intrigued at what reason there is for them to still exist.

I didn’t want to place hopes to high on this, but so far it’s fulfilling them.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2012 – Page 3.

Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing

What’s it about ?

In a steampunk world where everything of note happens on airships, the eeeevil Ades Federation invades the peaceful kingdom of Turan under the pretense of peace talks. Also, pirates !

This is a sequel to a 2003 series, although I’m pretty sure the two sides and the conflict between them (not to mention most of the cast) are new. Anyway, it’s decades later and the events of the first series hopefully aren’t required knowledge (because gods know I’ve forgotten most of the plot by now).

Characters

Fam, our protagonist. The kind of reckless moron who regularly sleepwalks out of a flying airship (fortunately, her sidekick had the presence of mind to tie her down beforehand). We get some blatant foreshadowing when it’s stated outright that someone as crude as her can’t possibly be a princess, heavens no ! Anyway, despite (or maybe because of) her recklessness, she’s somewhat in charge of the pirate gang’s field operations (and pretty good at it, too).

Giselle, her sidekick. She has no personality whatsoever besides shuddering everytime Fam does something stupid (which is most of the time).

Dio, a major character from the original series, is inexplicably tagging along with the pirates. He manages to outshine Fam in recklessness and outrageous stunts, and he’s got more charisma too.

Liliana and Milia […] Turan, the two princesses governing the kingdom for now. Liliana is level-headed and an awesome leader (hello again, Ms. Sawashiro !), while Milia’s just an annoying brat who bullies the help. Guess who’s probably gonna get more screentime ? Anyway, their airship gets surrounded by scores of eeeevil Ades ones, but they get rescued by the pirates against the odds (thanks to Fam employing tactics that make the Ades captains look like chumps for falling for it).

We also get a short glimpse at the people in charge of Ades, who at least look actually competent.

Production Values

Welcome to a world populated with CG airships and architecture ! And, well CG anything, really (did they really want to make that newspaper look like it’s printed on a plank on wood ?). It’s quite well animated indeed, although the style does nothing for me.

This series continues the tradition of Last Exile having terrible OP songs that sound like crap. In general, the soundtrack is quite dire, not because the score is especially bad (although some pieces are decidedly uninspired), but because the sound editing is horribly subpar : the music starts and stops at random places, sometimes drowns the dialogue out, or is just ill-fitted to the scenes it plays over.

What did I think of it ?

Disclaimer : I didn’t like the original series. This makes me overly sensitive to every little flaw in this… and they’re many. The production values, one of the major selling points here, just don’t impress me, because of the shoddiness of the finish. The characters are quite generic indeed. The setting has lost whatever depth it used to possess, leaving us with a black-and-white conflict with no ambiguity whatsoever. And I just don’t care.

If this was an entirely new show, I might have given it a couple more episodes to change my mind… but I just don’t trust it to improve, having been badly burned by the original series.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 14.

UN-GO

(11 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Mystery series set in the near future.

Characters

Shinjuuro Yuuki, “the Defeated Detective”. He’s very good at his job, but gets involved in cases so politically sensitive that they tend to get covered up by the authorities (hence his nickname, as his successes never get publicized to the wider public).

Inga, his intense pint-sized sidekick. Or is it Inga, the tall and sexy woman he claims to be his “boss” and who can hypnotize anyone in giving one (and only one) truthful answer ? Obviously there’s something bizarre at work here…

Rinroku Kaishou, elite consultant in Justice affairs (among other stuff). Apparently in the future justice will be privatized and corrupted so that this dude can order the whole system around. Sure, he’s a talented sleuth, solving the whole case despite not even being on the scene (he’s a recluse), but he’s also the one announcing the cover-up in the same breath.

Rie Kaishou, our point of view character so far, daughter of the former, sent to a political gala in his stead because he can’t be bothered. She fancies herself as a good sleuth too (and invokes his authority until he barges in through video-conference), but she gets carried away by the first red herring…

Izumi Koyama, a prosecutor. She’s mostly superfluous in the proceedings (which she obviously seems to resent quite a bit), and is often reduced to helping some exposition along.

The case of the week involves a businessman who allegedly embezzled money from reconstruction efforts (“as you know, our country was recently at war with terrorists…”), and gets killed halfway through the costume gala he set up to try and clear his name.

Production Values

It’s Studio BONES, of course it looks good. I note that they somehow managed to dress half the cast in period 19th-century garb, eh. The character designs have a bit more style than their usual offerings (especially Inga, in both forms).

What did I think of it ?

Well, this is certainly a fast episode : it burns through a complete mystery plot (including two full-blown red herrings) and some extensive setting exposition at breakneck speed. While you do need to pay attention (in particular, the “description of character” overlays are a bit too fast), it never loses sight of clarity. While it’s hard to try and deduce the solution before it’s given (especially are some crucial data is shown too late because of screentime constraints), it’s still a decent mystery in itself, with some nice pieces of foreshadowing.

I’m a sucker for the mystery genre : of course I’m going to keep watching this. But the quality is quite good, and I’m intrigued by the setting and Inga’s weirdness. It also seems to be fully aware there are only 11 episodes available, and is paced appropriately, which is a good sign.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 10.

Fantastic Children

(26 episodes, 2004-2005)

My previous exposure

Suggested in this thread.

What’s it about ?

Random young children all of the same age have pulled a disappearing act, suddenly turning albino and deciding to wear creepy dark cloaks. And it’s not the first time this happened, as similar disappearances happened every few decades for several centuries… and the children always look the same. Detective Cooks, officially in charge of investigating one of them (but really following up on his journalist grandfather’s investigations a century ago), follows their trace and discovers a mysterious government conspiracy that has figured out the kids are periodically reincarnating themselves, and is now trying to reproduce their death-defying technology. Said conspiracy is of course headed by yet another albino young man…

Meanwhile, the purported protagonist of the series, an athletic boy called Thoma, helps a young girl named Helga escape from her orphanage, and they loiter around on an island for a while. The link between this and the main plot is that the “fantastic children” are looking for Helga (actually another reincarnating-through-the-ages person), but they do such a crap job of it that it takes half the series for both threads to rejoin together.

And then we get the actual explanation for all this : all the reincarnating people are actually aliens, with the “fantastic children” being a team of scientists who sent the princess into Earth’s afterlife in a bid to save her after an assassination attempt, and are now trying to get her back to their princess. The albino dude masterminding the government conspiracy really works with the alien king’s evil brother. And so on.

What did I think of it ?

Oh, dear. How did this series manage to go so horribly wrong ?

Actually, no, I don’t think it went wrong. The problems are so deeply ingrained into the plot that it must have been planned that way from the start. Which boggles the mind, but it happens.

Let’s start with the positive : it’s a gorgeous series, with some spectacular work on the settings and very fluid animation. There are also nuggets of fascinating characterization for the “fantastic children”, struggling between the memories of their century-long mission and their latest upbringing as normal children. (Although having them fight actual monsters from the afterlife whenever their resolution falters is a bit too heavy-handed a metaphor.)

But whatever ambiguity the series had managed to build up in its first few episodes is destroyed by the reveal of the very simplistic backstory (to say nothing of the suspension-of-disbelief-killing decision to make Helga a bomb for the main bad guy to fight over). This is a very black-and-white series (in the sense that it has irredeemable bad guys, and good guys making obviously-wrong decisions that come back to bite their ass later). You’d think the taboo scientific field of exploring the afterlife would provide interesting conflict, but it quickly becomes an afterthought, a plot device for people to fight over (or whine that they should never have become involved in it).

The confused structure of the first half of the series exemplifies what’s wrong with it. Thoma, our supposed protagonist, gets into wacky hijinks with the orphanage escape that seem transplanted from a much more carefree story, and are frankly quite boring. The “fantastic children” do nothing besides running around ineffectively (and it quickly becomes obvious that they’ve been doing so for centuries). Detective Cooks’s thread is by far the more interesting, but it’s mostly a vehicle for exposition and just stops abruptly at the mid-series mark (his few token scenes after it just emphasize how irrelevant he’s become).

Darn, the premise sounded really interesting, but this show clearly had a completely different (and much more boring) story to tell. Too bad.

via [LTTP/WIW] Various anime from the 00s and beyond – Page 6.

Now and Then, Here and There (Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku)

(13 episodes, 1999)

My previous exposure

This is the first review I’m doing because it’s been recommended in this thread. Beyond that, I don’t know much about the series, aside that (1) it’s grim, and (2) the main villain has been compared to Fractale‘s.

What’s it about ?

Shu, our protagonist, was just an ordinary middle-schooler until he met bizarre blue-haired girl Lala Ru. Before they can have a proper conversation, though, they’re transported into another world and captured by soldiers from Hellywood, the main baddies of the series.

To say that Hellywood is a hellhole is an understatement. This desert fortress is ruled by Hamdo, a raving madman, and ultra-professional yes-woman Abelia. They replenish their army by raiding the villages around them and enrolling the boys by force. (They also take the women and girls for, er, a more long-term approach.) They seek Lala Ru because she holds the power of creating water out of nowhere, which is obviously a hot commodity on this dying desert world.

Other major characters include Sarah, an American girl Abelia mistook for Lala Ru and captured before noticing her mistake ; and Nabuca, the kid leader of the brigade Shu is thrown into after interrogation.

Production Values

I had to double-check the date of production, as the artstyle and character design are something I associate much more with the early 90s or earlier than 1999 (it certainly doesn’t look like any other late-90s show I’ve ever watched). But then, that’s probably the point : it lures us into a false sense of security by looking like “safe” children’s entertainment before wheeling out the torture, mass-slaughter and rape. It takes some getting used to, but the animation is perfectly okay.

The soundtrack comes courtesy of my favourite composer, Taku Iwasaki (you should have told me !). While it’s way too early for him to be randomly inserting rap lyrics everywhere, he’s still very recognizable thanks to his reliance on big sweeping violins numbers and those weird water-y percussions that should be familiar to any watcher of Witch Hunter Robin or Read or Die. It’s sometimes a bit clumsy, but his brillance at establishing mood was already clearly in effect.

What did I think of it ?

Well, this is certainly a grim series. My DVDs include an interview with the director where he states he was inspired by documentaries about African child soldiers, and it certain shows. All of the ways Hellywood perpetuates itself and the cycle of violence are distressingly realistic, and the series doesn’t shy away from explaining the specifics, up to and including institutionalized rape (although it stops just short of depicting it graphically). No character escapes unscathed…

… With the exception of Shu, whose boundless optimism and energy staggers disbelief. (Climbing up ventilation shafts just after being tortured and shot twice ? Uh ?) I can’t complain too much, though ; without him around to protest about how horrible this world is, and actually trying to make things better, the series would fall into an inescapable pit of despair. (Lala Ru’s pretty much resigned herself after thousands of years of being fought over, and Sarah, while perfectly capable of saving herself on her own, was well on her way to join the circle of violence if Shu hadn’t stepped in.) His presence, however implausible his resilience, is the catalyst for change.

And this is where we hit the series’ weakness : while it’s very good at depicting this hellish world and characterizing how nearly everyone is part of the problem, it doesn’t offer much depth beyond that. The whole narrative is subservient to its “war is hell” message, and however good a rendition it is, it doesn’t manage to really rise above it. The issue may be with the characters, who remain mostly one-dimensional throughout.

This is certainly a show worth watching ; but its shortcomings prevent it from really winning a place among my favourites.

via [LTTP/WIW] Various anime from the 00s and beyond – Page 5.

Bokurano

(26 episodes, 2007)

My previous exposure
None, besides the notion that it’s supposed to be a very depressing story. Well, they weren’t kidding…

What’s it about ?

15 children attending a summer camp get invited by a shady scientist dude to “play a game” that involves using a giant robot to fight similar-looking invaders. Except it’s not really a game at all, and the dude disappears right after the demo fight.

There’s a helpful little flying mascot called “Dung Beetle” who gives the kids some tips, if by “helpful” you mean “relentlessly abusing them verbally”, and by “tips”, “misdirection and outright lies”. Progressively, the ground rules become clearer : one kid at random (or is it ?) is selected for the next battle. If they lose, the Earth is destroyed. If they win, the kid dies because their mech used up their life energy. There are 15 enemies to fight in total, which makes it clear that the whole thing is a complete screwjob. (Oh, and that’s without counting several of the later plot twists that make it even more horrific.)

This being on the more deconstructive side of storytelling, the authorities do take notice of the events and move in to take matters in hand, with various degrees of helpfulness and usefulness.

What did I think of it ?

Finally this thread reaches a series I genuinely enjoyed watching throughout, with barely a few nitpicks here and there. (Although, technically, it’s the first one I finished watching – I saw it during my pause in the middle of Michiko e Hatchin.)

I like a lot of the visuals here, too. Particularly, the recurrent chair motif is very inspired indeed : it’s otherwordly, it offers quick insights into each kid’s character, and mostly it’s just darn creepy. The mecha fights are a lot of fun to watch too, as great care was put into showing the effect of the physics-defying mecha’s battles on the cityscapes they took place in. The scale and the absurdity of the conflict are sold very well, even before the stakes keep being raised.

The overarching plot may actually be the weakest part of the series. It’s well-paced and there are a lot of fun twists along the way, but the “political conspiracy” thread completely peters out after a point… to say nothing of the huge plot holes along the way. (To be blunt : despite the children being supervised by the military, they’re under ridiculously little oversight, especially after their handlers start going rogue.) But it doesn’t really matter, given than it’s a structural framework for what the series really is about : a set of character pieces about how kids from completely different backgrounds react to this blatantly absurd set up where they have to sacrifice themselves to save the world.

And on that level, it works perfectly. Oh, sure, it soon becomes obvious that when the focus fall on a particular kid, they’re doomed to die by the end of the episode : points to the writers for playing with it a bit, but mostly for making it the core of the show : it doesn’t matter when a kid is set to die, but how they cope with the advance knowledge of it. Do they go mad with the revelation ? Get overcome by denial ? Become plagued with apathy ? Try to do the “right” thing ? Make as much of their remaining time as possible ? Try and take advantage of their position ? Try to find a way to avoid their fate ? The whole gamut of possible reactions gets examined. It might strain disbelief a bit that nearly all the kids are crippled by personal and/or psychological issues, but then there are a few that seem mostly normal… and their own episodes are mostly opportunities to get the main plot moving.

This isn’t a happy series, and the ending is a pyrrhic victory as best (although cheers for what happens to Dung Beetle – that asshole deserved it), but I still got out of it with hope for mankind… And that’s key to why the series works so well.

via [LTTP/WIW] Various anime from the 00s and beyond – Page 3.

Appleseed XIII

(13 episodes, distributed on streaming and as OVAs)

What’s it about ?

The adventures of a SWAT squad in the future, fighting terrorists and conspiracies.

Characters

Deunan, our protagonist. Trained to survived in the wilderness by her father since her early childhood, she’s the gung-ho rookie of the squad. I’ll give this to Maaya Sakamoto : she’s got enough charisma to pull off her character whining non-stop for the full duration of the episode and still not have her be too annoying. Although she comes very close here.

Briareos, her BFF since forever (or maybe more ?). After a bad accident, he had to be turned into a cyborg to survive. He’s still following her devotedly to protect her (especially from her own reckless behavior).

Dia, an innocent bystander who turns out to be a special cyborg or something, and will presumably be important to the plot later on.

The plot of the week involves a bunch of terrorists (“the Argonauts”) storming the Russian Poseidon embassy to retrieve one of their agents. (Did I mention there’s a heavy Greek Mythology theme permeating everything ?)

Production Values

This is a full CGI series, with some degree of cell-shading when people are involved. To be frank, it looks terrible. The character designs for people don’t quite work, and most importantly the body language looks awfully off. It’s not a problem when everyone on screen is in power suits, but the humans move like creepy ragdolls, pushing them deep into the uncanny valley. It looks like cheap videogame cutscenes (you know, the ones that aren’t pre-rendered), which is all kinds of disappointing.

The backgrounds and the scenes without humans look much more impressive, but that’s only a fraction of the overall screentime.

Overall Impression

Ouch. I don’t know anything about the Appleseed franchise, but this is a decidedly underwhelming offering. The artstyle is a complete failure, and Deunan is obnoxious beyond belief. I think there may a decent story beyond those roadblocks… and then I realize I’ve seen this kind of story done much better with Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex. Which had the advantage of not making my eyes bleed.

I’ll give it another episode to check whether the heroine gets less annoying and I can enjoy it for the plot, but I’m not optimistic.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2011 – Page 11.

[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control

(11 episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

A loser boy’s adventures into the world of EXTREME trading-card gaming, with fight scenes in a fancy holographic parallel world and an ethereal guide to advise him.

Characters

Yoga, our college protagonist with realistic (if messy) hair. He works two part-time jobs to make ends meet, although that doesn’t amount to much given the current economic crisis. At least he’s sensible about his expenses.

Hanabi, Yoga’s not-girlfriend who still supports him quite a bit. (But when he works up the courage to ask her out for dinner, she points towards her boyfriend, who’s waiting for her. Harsh.)

Masakaki, the supremely irritating dude who makes Yoga an Offer He Can’t Refuse and. Just. Won’t. Go. Away. The offer involves unlimited funding, with the provision it has to be spent in the Financial District… which does not look like a real place but some rather like sort of parallel digital world. Yoga eventually relents.

We spend most of the first half of the episode with the former owner of Yoga’s membership into the Financial District… and considering how he ends up jumping in front of a train, we can see the Deal does not always end well.

We also see various people in the Financial District, including a quirky cab driver, a couple of elf-like girls, and the badass dude who creams out Mr (Rail-)Roadkill in a duel.

Production Values

Impressive. The Financial District has obvious CG everywhere, but it works, as it makes it all the more otherworldly. I also like the snazzy effect when subtitles and the like are incrusted on screen.

Also, there’s some very cool Taku Iwasaki music.

Overall Impression

Umm. On the one hand, it’s certainly got some very good production values, and I like the grim description of our protagonist’s life. It’s a very atmospheric series indeed.

On the other hand… Well, the centerpiece of this episode has two characters in a glorified Yu-Gi-Oh-style duel, summoning virtual critters and launching spells to hack at each other’s life points bank accounts.

I’m not sold yet, really.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2011 – Page 10.

Steins;Gate

(24 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Current day setting, but with a lot more weirdness. Our protagonist witnesses a murder that doesn’t seem to have actually happened, attends a lecture that was canceled, and somehow sent text messages into the past. Also, a satellite crashed into the place he was (he doesn’t seem worse for the wear). Despite already having a few screws loose, he’s more than weirded out by the whole thing.

Characters

Okarin, aka Rintarou Okabe, aka Kyouma Hououin. Our paranoid protagonist. Self-proclaimed mad scientist, although this might just be the crazy talking (his actual inventions are far from impressive). He heads a college research club that dabbles into weird science, such as time travel theory. He constantly babbles about a conspiracy orchestrated by something called the Agency, but there’s no real sign of it actually existing.

Mayuri, his sickeningly sweet childhood friend. She seems to have no science background whatsoever (she’s stated to be into sewing cosplay outfits), and probably sticks around because she likes Okarin. The obvious twist would be that she’s an Agency plant.

Taru, SUPA-HACKA ! and reclusive geek, the third and last member of Okarin’s research club. A welcomed source of snark to counter Okarin’s mad ramblings.

Kurisu Makise, a gloomy girl Okarin meets at a time-travel-related lecture, and wants him to explain what he meant (he has no clue what she’s talking about). He finds her bloody corpse a bit later… but she shows up perfectly fine at the end of the episode.

Production Values

A bit hard to judge, considering I’ve watched a crappy streamed version. Still, it’s quite good at setting up a creepy claustrophobic atmosphere with some weird camera angles, and Okarin’s body language is impressive.

Overall Impression

Wow, this is very intriguing indeed. The storytelling borders on the incoherent, especially with a protagonist who isn’t entirely sane, but it still manages to hang together somewhat and set up an intriguing mystery. A lot of the series’s charm comes from Mamoru Miyano’s impressive performance as the lead character, managing to perfectly convey Okarin’s delusions while still making him an engaging character.

Now, it’s perfectly possible this series could eventually disappear into its own arse when it’s time to explain what’s actually happening. But so far, I’m in.

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