Tag: sports & competition

Winter 2013 capsules

First, let’s get a couple of shorts out of the way…

My Little Sister talks like an Osakan Mom (Boku no Imouto wa “Oosaka Okan”) surprisingly isn’t incest-bait, unlike the immense majority of series with “Imouto” in the (long-winded) title. Instead, it’s terrible in a completely different way : it features horrible cheap Flash animation and revolves around a “wow, the Kansai dialect as spoken by this girl is weird and kinda nonsensical” joke that’s mostly impenetrable to Western ears and doesn’t sound that funny to start with. Apparently it’s adapted from a language guidebook, which really shows (with “helpful” translation recaps explaining the jokes slowly all the time).

Inferno Cop is a weird little short series coming from Studio Trigger, aka the people behind Gurren Lagann, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt and Redline. Alas, despite the pedigree this is objectively mindless garbage, with no budget whatsoever. Obviously this is part of the joke, but it’s not that funny. (Even P&Sw/G at its most poop-joke-obsessed lows had more depth and looked way better than this crap.)

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

Anime shorts are hard to review. In some lucky cases, they’re so terrible it’s easy to dismiss them immediately (see above ; although Inferno Cop‘s second episode had such gonzo charm that I’m starting to reconsider it). But in some case, there’s so little content it’s hard to judge how they’ll end up going.

Case in point : Encouragement of Climb (Yama no Susume). It’s about a high school girl who used to love mountain climbing but has been traumatized by a bad fall ; one of her elementary school friends tries to take her back to her old hobby… and won’t take no for an answer. It’s actually quite a promising start : it’s got some decent animation (including a slightly jarring CG-background shot at the beginning that isn’t half-bad), the plot progresses at a good clip, and it’s got more than one joke. Nothing earth-shattering, but good enough to be worth watching.

I’m more wary about Mangirl. It’s a comedy about young women setting up a new manga magazine. The problem is that it’s not really funny ; the basic joke is that they’re terrible at it, but the show features random bursts of offscreen competence so that they can be in business for more than one episode. And if you’re interested in the behind-the-scenes of manga publishing, this looks much more superficial than, say, Bakuman (which is, you know, still airing).

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

Ai Mai Mi is yet another series of shorts adapting some comedy 4-panel manga. It’s notionally about a high school manga club, but really the three title characters spend most of their time or acting out terrible jokes. At least Mangirl had a plot ; this is just unfunny, horrible-looking crap. Avoid.

 

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Nekomogatari (Black) somewhere, now that I’ve watched the whole of it (the four episodes aired just before the New Year, but took a bit to get translated).

For those who aren’t aware of it, this is a prequel to 2009’s Bakemonogatari, a very peculiar mix of harem romance, supernatural horror, self-indulgent dialogue and Akiyuki Shinbo being weird for the hell of it. That was a very good show indeed (if only for being a visual masterpiece), but it’s not for everybody. Nisemonogatari, its sequel last year, was basically more of the same, with even better technical quality but also even more self-indulgent.

The question with Nekomonogatari (Black), like any prequel, is whether there’s any point to watching it, considering how the events of “the Cat incident in Golden Week” have already amply been described in the main series in its “Tsubasa cat” arc. I’ve actually rewatched those four episodes to make sure, and yes indeed Nekomonogatari (Black) does cover a lot of (until now) relatively unexplored territory. It helps that this is a lean narrative (by -monogatari standards), making its point very efficiently at a pace that never feels idle. And the visuals are as striking as they’ve ever been.

This obviously whets my appetite for Kizumonogatari (the prequel people are actually looking for, describing “the Vampire incident on Spring Break” we’ve only very briefly flashbacked to until now), whenever that comes out ; and the “second season”, apparently slated for later this year.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 2.

Chihayafuru 2 was off to a good start, with the start of a new school year and the introduction of new club members feeling like a strong enough move forward to avoid repetition of what the first season did, and update the formula somewhat. (To say nothing of complicating the love dodecahedron a bit more.)

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 8.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Senyuu, a series of shorts parodying heroic-fantasy RPG games. Hilariously mean-spirited, and served by some impressive voice work from Yuuichi Nakamura. It’s got a shoe-string budget, but that doesn’t prevent it from being lots of fun.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 9.

I won’t bother with a full review for Straight Title Robot Anime (Chokkyuu Hyoudai Robot Anime). Notionally it’s supposed to be the first anime series fully animated with Vocaloid-type software, but that just makes it look cheap and generic. As for the story, it’s basically three “girl” androids failing to grasp the concept of humour for 12 minutes. I don’t just mean it’s tedious and unfunny (although it certainly is) : that’s really the plot. (They’re trying to recreate human humour long after humanity has vanished.)

I wouldn’t recommand watching this crap to anyone.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 11.

Fall 2012 capsules

I have no clue what all the fuss about Hayate the Combat Butler! Can’t Take My Eyes Off You “not being a sequel” was about, because it’s totally the same series continuing. No reboot, just more adventures in about the same setup. I don’t know where this falls chronologically, but it’s not like Hayate ever cared much about continuity before. Anyway, it’s still a perfectly okay gag series, without the self-indulgence of the recent movie (which nearly made me lose all interest in the franchise).

I’m not sure what to make of the Lytchee Light Club shorts. It’s about a sadistic high school secret society, the joke being that they kinda suck at being sadistic. Okay so far, but can it carry 26ish episodes, however short they are ?

I’m also torn on the Wooser’s Hand-to-Mouth Life shorts. On the one hand, it’s barely mildly funny. On the other hand, I always have time for Mamoru Miyano as a “cute” animal making pompous monologues.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2012 – Page 2.

Some quick other notes :

The second season of Bakuman had a great opening episode, which was immediately mitigated by the second one jumping back to the tepid and sexist romance the series occasionally features. Well, you’ll be glad to see that the third season skips right past to the sexist bits. Hopefully it’ll go away quickly, as it always does, but that’s not an auspicious start.

I refuse to give a full review for the Teekyuu shorts. It has terrible-looking Flash animation (that seems to go out of its way to make my eyes bleed), and none of the “jokes” work. Avoid with prejudice.

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

I’m not going to bother with a full writeup for Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de. In theory, it’s a fantasy fighting show where the characters are based on classic console franchises (with the main factions being the kingdoms of Sega & Nintendo). In practice, the gimmick stops at some characters’ names, and I couldn’t discern any jokes related to the premise. Or any jokes period : it’s a straight fantasy fighting show that takes itself dreadfully seriously and ends up being utterly boring. It’s obvious the producers have welded the high-concept onto a completely unrelated show just to give it a selling point. If you’ve been planning to check it out for the novelty value, don’t bother.

(Also, the schedule seems to be “one episode every few months”, so you’ll probably have completely forgotten about it by the time episode #2 airs.)

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

Girls und Panzer

What’s it about ?

Cute girls driving tanks. This is a fetish for someone, presumably.

Characters

Miho, our protagonist. For some reason she came to study in this high-school despite having no interest whatsoever in driving tanks, which is all the more ludicrous once you reach the final “twist” of where the school is located. She’s going to be roped into it anyway, if the opening flash-forward battle is any indication.

She quickly makes a couple of generic friends. There’s also an appearance by the student council who go out of their way to make sure that Miho is going to join the tank-driving courses, or else.

There are dozens of girls cameo-ing in the action prologue/fast-forward, none of them showing any trace of personality.

Production Values

There’s something that doesn’t work with the CG backgrounds in the opening action sequence ; it looks way more terrible than when the camera doesn’t move. I think it’s those ground textures that just don’t lend themselves well for animation.

Aside from this problem, this looks decently executed, and the fanservice is actually pretty mild.

What did I think of it ?

Bo-ring. Those girls are very dull and do nothing of any interest during the episode. The opening action sequence gives no indication of why the battle is happening or what the scales are, and thus no reason to care about its outcome (that we don’t even get to see, of course).

I nearly fell asleep while watching this. No way I’m giving it a second episode.

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

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.

The Basketball Which Kuroko Plays (Kuroko no Basuke)

What’s it about ?

Classic shounen sports series.

Characters

Taiga Kagami, an abrasive man-mountain who’s just entering this brand-new high school the series is set in. Of course he joins the basketball club : he’s very good and he knows it. He’s not playing for fun, but because he thinks the tournament’s level is way too low and he must contribute to raising it (his recent stay in the US might explain his attitude somewhat).

Tetsuya Kuroko, another first year with no presence whatsoever. (It’s a running gag that people never notice he’s there.) He comes from a middle school which had a basketball team called “the Generation of Miracles” who crushed everyone else on the circuit. Kuroko wasn’t part of the top 5 regulars, though ; actually, he’s mostly crap at basketball, utterly incapable of dribbling or shooting right. But there’s ONE thing he’s insanely good at : passing the ball in a way that completely blindsides the opposing team. (Obviously, his natural propension at being invisible also helps.)

Riko Aida, the only female character in sight. Well, at least she’s not the manager (if you’re not aware, it’s a traditional position for token females in anime school-set sports series who doesn’t manage anything but is basically a glorified gofer), but the hard-ass coach who’s going to press the first-year noobs into shape.

And then there’s the other members of the club, but they don’t really leave much of an impression yet.

Production Values

Not very high, but the storytelling is sound. The soundtrack might be trying a bit too hard to make everything dramatic and suspenseful, but it mostly works.

Overall Impression

Hey, this is better than I expected. Sport series obey to a strict formula and there’s nothing here that really strays from it, but there’s enough playfulness around the usual tropes to make it feel fresh. Kuroko’s deadpan attitude is a lot of fun, and him and Kagami make for a fun odd couple.

I wasn’t really expecting to keep following this, but the first episode intrigued me.

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

The Knight in the Area (Area no Kishi)

What’s it about ?

High-school soccer melodrama.

Characters

Kakeru, our protagonist. He used to be quite a good soccer player until he injured his left leg (the flashbacks are quick and vague), although since he’s running around without trouble most of the damage must be in his head. He’s switched to being the “manager” of his high-school soccer club (in the Japanese sense that he has no authority whatsoever and is a glorified go-fer). While he’s enthusiastic about it, he’s obviously in denial.

Suguru, his older brother, and the captain/star player of the club ; there’s a pre-credits scene of him marking for Japan against Brazil in the under-15 Cup, just to hammer the point. To say that Kakeru has an inferiority complex over him is an understatement. Suguru is getting annoyed at Kakeru’s denial and passive-aggressiveness, and frankly I’m with him. He pulls strings to get Kakeru back onto the team, which hopefully is going to get him out of his funk.

Nana (“Seven”), Kakeru’s tomboyish childhood friend. Her family had moved to the US for the last few years, but now she’s back. She claims to be making a move for the manager position, but I hope she gets to be on the team somehow, because she’s got spunk and she’s shown to have been quite good at it back in the day.

There’s a mysterious person (disguised as a grey, of all things) who surprises Kakeru as he was playing soccer alone in a park at night, and plays around with him for a bit. Kakeru thinks this may be either Suguru or one of the few other named players we’ve seen so far, but I’m not fooled for a second : this is obviously Nana.

We see a few of the other members of the soccer clubs, but because Kakeru seems to prefer associating with the underdogs, that means they’re the perpetual loser and the mandatory horny dude. Sigh.

Production Values

Quite low. It overuses still frames, and the animation’s nothing to write home about. I don’t really like the way how Suguru looks so much older than Kakeru despite them being stated to only be one year apart. Also, the score is laying the melodrama a bit thick.

Overall Impression

This is quite better than I expected at first. Kakeru is very annoying indeed, but I was pleasantly surprised that the series seems to agree that his attitude needs to change. I quite like the other characters (well, aside from the horndog), and I’m intrigued by the hints that Suguru may not survive the next couple of episodes.

I’m somewhat optimistic about this one, although I’m not sure how long I’ll keep with it (especially as I’m not sure for how long it’s going to run).

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

Chihayafuru

(25 episodes)

What’s it about ?

High-school romance, with a side helping of card games.

Characters

Chihaya, our tomboy-ish protagonist. Used to be on the track team, and her former teammates would love to keep her around. But now that she’s in high school, she wants to indulge in her passion, and set a club up for the “karuta” card game (which, from what I understand, involves a referee reciting poems in a random order, and the players rushing to pick the matching cards up). Nobody seems to be interested so far. Her older sister is a model.

Taichi, her childhood friend. He obviously still holds a candle for her (why else would he join the same high school despite having access to better ?), but the poor guy gets pitifully friendzoned when they finally meet again.

Arata, an outcast transfer student they both met in elementary school, who obviously impressed Chihaya enough to communicate her his love for karuta. Chihaya’s the only child in the class who befriends him ; all the others (including Taichi) bully him because he’s poor, speaks in a dialect, and keeps to himself.

To be clear, none of them went to the same middle schools ; and neither Taichi nor Chihaya have had any contact with Arata for at least a year (but it’s obvious Chihaya still cares for him).

Production Values

Quite good. I loved how Chihaya preempted any fanservice potential when she pins a poster to the board, by wearing her tracksuit pants under her skirt.

Some of the dramatic effects for the flashback karuta game are a bit overblown (Arata throwing the cards into the wall forcefully enough for them to stick ? I know the walls are crap because his family is poor, but still…), although we’re nowhere near Saki territory.

What did I think of it ?

I quite liked this. Chihaya is a fun protagonist, with way more personality than most romance female leads (you can tell this is josei and not shoujo). The card game itself seems to have very little potential (unless there are other rules I missed), but it’s mostly just an excuse to have the characters meet and interact. If this balance of focus is kept, this could be perfectly entertaining.

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

Phi Brain – Puzzle of God

(25 episodes)

What’s it about ?

X-TREME puzzles !

Characters

Kaito “Einstein” Daimon, our spiky-haired protagonist. He’s a genius puzzle solver (to the point of seeing his high-school’s puzzle club as beneath him). He stumbles on a hidden giant puzzle/death trap combo just behind the school (how the heck did nobody notice this thing before ? Yeah, it’s underground, but still…), and he’s quite offended by the death traps sullying the purity of the puzzles.

Nonoha, his childhood friend/sidekick/whatever. She’s not very good at puzzle-solving, but her observation/memory skills do come handy. She’s mostly there so that Kaito has someone to show off how brilliant he is to.

“Genius Okudera”, a famous adult puzzle-solver who’s this series’ “Mr. Satan” figure. You know, the gloryhound who’s way less competent than he claims.

Souji Jikukawa, president of the puzzle club and member of the student council. He thoroughly tries to recruit Kaito, ultimately giving him (in flashback) a mini-computer with advanced puzzle games.

Minotaur, a dude in a ridiculous disguise who starts soliciting Kaito through the mini-computer and is eventually revealed to be in charge of the puzzle-deathtrap-thingie behind the school. He really should invest in a better voice scrambler, because it’s blindingly obvious he’s Jikukawa (Akira Ishida’s voice is clearly recognizable).

Production Values

Pretty good ; the directing has enough energy to make the puzzles look cool. I also quite like the soundtrack, which helps sell the high-octane puzzle action. And the OP & ED take full advantage of the visual possibilities of the “sliding puzzles” motif.

What did I think of it ?

Well, that was fun. It’s obviously a very stupid show, but it accomplishes what it needed to : making puzzles look cool. That’s half the battle, and as decent a hook as any. It also has enough bits of cleverness (such as the solution to the maze, which is ridiculously outside-the-box but somehow works) not be boring.

I think I’ve found my Sunday night popcorn action show. Unpretentious, but quite enjoyable.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 2.

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!

What’s it about ?

Darned if I know. The story focuses on a school where quarrels between classes are solved through massive martial art battles – this episode’s campaign between classes S and F involves more than 500 combatants on each side. But somehow, despite this episode being an extended fight scene, it looks like we’re heading for a harem setup. Sigh.

Characters

The cast is absolutely massive : discounting the red shirts, there’s at least 10 apparently important characters on each side. Very few of them get any depth, obviously.

Yamato, our de-facto protagonist, is the tactical coordinator for class F. He’s quite good at it (with assistance from the geek squad), but completely crap in an actual fight. He’s been harbouring for years a love for…

Momoyo, whom supplementary material assure me is NOT his sister, despite him addressing her as such throughout. But they’ve been childhood friends for so long that she simply cannot see him that way. She’s a superb martial artist, one of the “Great Four” (whatever that means), and decided to side with class S just because. Frankly, they do need her.

Hideo is the leader of class S, and as such the main target. He’s an arrogant moron, and you won’t be surprised when he’s defeated because of terrible tactical choices made through overconfidence. (There’s a limit to how much his underlings can cover for).

Class F’s top fighters include a set of four elite female champions who all seem to pine for Yamato ; as well as Hideo’s sister, for some reason. Their “leader” is a completely inept girl who needs permanent care.

Class S also has a set of sub-commanders who do all the work… and an entire squad of girls dressed as maids, for some reason.

There are two weird women (one of them covered in bandages) hovering on the sides of the fight and apparently looking for Momoyo. They’re our only clue of a wider plot being around.

Production Values

Mostly okay. I’ve never been been fond of the “still shot after a martial art move” cost-cutting device, but it’s not used too much as to be grating.

This is surprisingly low on fanservice, despite most females wearing bloomers and some clothing damage being implied half-way through. Indeed, the only character who spends most of the episode half-naked is Hideo.

What did I think of it ?

What. The. Heck ?

I’m really not sure what to make of this. The school battles are decently executed, but don’t feel like they can sustain a whole series (cf. also BakaTest). The sheer number of named characters makes it hard to care about most of them. The romance stuff makes me roll my eyes. And I have no clue what the deal with the two women is.

I’m tentatively giving it one more episode to see whether a coherent direction emerges, but this seems like a mess.

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

Shion’s King (Shion no Ou)

(22 episodes, 2007-2008)

My previous exposure

None, besides having heard of the basic premise.

What’s it about ?

Eight years ago, the parents of Shion got brutally murdered in front of her eyes, leaving the poor little girl traumatized and mute. One of the only clues is a “King” shougi piece (apparently the murderer somehow decided to then play a game with the six-year-old). Now, Shion (who was adopted by her loving uncle, himself a pro shougi player) is a middle-schooler on the verge of entering the pro shougi circuit. She’d obviously rather forget all about her traumatic past, but the high-stakes tournament organized by the current champion’s brother is about to dredge all kinds of bad stuff back up to the surface…

Also quite important to the plot is Ayumi, a high-school dropout who crossdresses because he thinks it easier to make money fast on the female shougi circuit (since his mother is tremendously ill and the hospital bills need getting paid). Not at all important to the plot (despite being featured prominently in the OP) is Saori, another up-and-coming young female shougi player.

What did I think of it ?

First things first : the OP sequence is absolutely ridiculous, with every single cast member desperately trying to look badass or menacing. It’s completely different in tone from the actual show, which is way more sedate and less gritty (count all the sequences where Shion has hilariously exaggerated reactions !). I really wonder what the producers were thinking… although I did find it perversely entertaining enough not to fast-forward through it, so mission accomplished, I guess.

Also very misleading is that scene in the first episode where Saori looks like she’s actually a ruthless mafia daughter and orders minions to investigate her opponents’ backgrounds… but everything after that shows that she’s actually just a mostly nice girl (and her minions must be shit, because Ayumi hasn’t really thought his deception through). I wonder whether earlier drafts of the plot had Saori actually mattering to the plot…

Now, on any other series I wouldn’t be able to get past such bullshit plotting, but this one manages to strike a perfect balance between standard “tournament show” sequences and the convoluted mystery hovering on the edges of the plot. Separately, they wouldn’t be of much interest : the shougi matches are drowning in exposition, and the mystery is pretty crap (there aren’t many suspects, and the murderer’s motive only makes sense if you’re insane). But the prominence of the shougi competition allows the mystery to stay in the background so that its flaws aren’t too noticeable, while the mystery gives a lot of edge and suspense to the shougi matches.

There’s even some quite clever plotting, especially around the “sponsor” dude who has a vested interest in making the match-ups as dramatic as possible to generate maximum publicity. (And since he’s a complete neophyte to shougi, he’s helpful as someone to be exposited to.) I’ve grown quite fond of him ; Hiroshi Kamiya is very good at striking the right note between slight sliminess and just pure cluelessness. (Nice touch of having him voice the advert announcements !)

Overall, this is a fun, if heavily flawed, little series.

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