The Thread of Anime Reviews
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Index updated. 
Speaking of which, I think I'll ask the mods if I can be given the thread's third post for future use, as the second is filling up fast. 
Speaking of which, I think I'll ask the mods if I can be given the thread's third post for future use, as the second is filling up fast. Space Fantasia 2001 Nights:
PLOT: Another short OVA; this one was a single episode, but split into three parts, each just under 20 minutes.
The first part begins in the near future, 2058, and humanity is taking its first step towards colonizing space. Earth is still nice and inhabitable and everything, they're only doing it because they can. Scientists have picked out a planet that looks as though it may be able to sustain life, but as it is thousands of light years away, and human technology isn't on the level of most space travel sci-fi series, they plan to have their spaceship hitch a lift from a passing comet (which also provides them with fuel and resources to mine along the way – not a bad idea!). But no grown human could survive the journey at the speed which the comet is travelling. Instead, the plan is to send human sperm and egg cells, and have the ship's computer turn them into babies once they reach their destination. Again, it makes sense... but why are all the sperm and egg cells coming from this one couple, the Robinsons?
You'd have thought they'd want a nice varied gene pool for their distant space colony, but instead they take the Adam and Eve option. 
Anyway, part one focuses on the children born from this project hundreds of years later, raised on the ship, knowing that it will eventually run out of fuel and that they'll be forced to land on a world that may or may not be able to sustain them. There is no time for character development, though we do get a rushed but touching look at their lives on the ship – births and birthdays, as well as deaths and disease.
Part two is set 50 years later, when humans have developed hyperspace travel and jumping to planets such as that in part one is much quicker and easier. The focus is on a man called Adam Robinson – yep, that name is familiar, he's the Earth-born son of the couple who donated their cells to the project in part one. He is leading a mission to terraform a barren rock of a planet in order to make it inhabitable... but terraforming is still a new science and largely untested on such a grand scale, so not everything goes to plan.
Part three is set centuries later... but at the same time is difficult to summarize in a way that won't spoil the other two (this isn't quite Fantastic Children level storytelling, but the links between seemingly unrelated events spanning long time periods is similar, and cleverly done). Suffice to say that by this point Earth isn't a great place to live, most of the colonies set up in the hyperspace travel era have failed for some reason or another, and so the fate of humanity depends on one final voyage into space...
With less time than a regular anime episode to tell each of these stories, everything that was shown was there to forward the plot. As mentioned earlier this resulted in a lack of character development, but that seemed irrelevant. This is not a character driven show, it's just a nice collection of cleverly linked stories offering us a look at some of the issues which those travelling in space or colonizing other planets might face.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The music was standard 80s sci-fi OVA synth – I liked it, but if you'd thrown in tracks from something like Hades Project Zeorymer (which I only reviewed a couple of days ago) I wouldn't have noticed. They all sound pretty similar, at least to me.
The animation wasn't the OVA's strongest point. The ART was good – backgrounds and static images were quite detailed, and the characters looked more realistic than most. But things didn't move much, and when they did it was often jerky.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: Well I certainly liked it, but it wasn't without its faults. Fans of sci-fi with an hour to kill might want to look into this, otherwise there are probably things with greater depth that you could be watching instead. 3/5.
PLOT: Another short OVA; this one was a single episode, but split into three parts, each just under 20 minutes.
The first part begins in the near future, 2058, and humanity is taking its first step towards colonizing space. Earth is still nice and inhabitable and everything, they're only doing it because they can. Scientists have picked out a planet that looks as though it may be able to sustain life, but as it is thousands of light years away, and human technology isn't on the level of most space travel sci-fi series, they plan to have their spaceship hitch a lift from a passing comet (which also provides them with fuel and resources to mine along the way – not a bad idea!). But no grown human could survive the journey at the speed which the comet is travelling. Instead, the plan is to send human sperm and egg cells, and have the ship's computer turn them into babies once they reach their destination. Again, it makes sense... but why are all the sperm and egg cells coming from this one couple, the Robinsons?
You'd have thought they'd want a nice varied gene pool for their distant space colony, but instead they take the Adam and Eve option. Anyway, part one focuses on the children born from this project hundreds of years later, raised on the ship, knowing that it will eventually run out of fuel and that they'll be forced to land on a world that may or may not be able to sustain them. There is no time for character development, though we do get a rushed but touching look at their lives on the ship – births and birthdays, as well as deaths and disease.Part two is set 50 years later, when humans have developed hyperspace travel and jumping to planets such as that in part one is much quicker and easier. The focus is on a man called Adam Robinson – yep, that name is familiar, he's the Earth-born son of the couple who donated their cells to the project in part one. He is leading a mission to terraform a barren rock of a planet in order to make it inhabitable... but terraforming is still a new science and largely untested on such a grand scale, so not everything goes to plan.
Part three is set centuries later... but at the same time is difficult to summarize in a way that won't spoil the other two (this isn't quite Fantastic Children level storytelling, but the links between seemingly unrelated events spanning long time periods is similar, and cleverly done). Suffice to say that by this point Earth isn't a great place to live, most of the colonies set up in the hyperspace travel era have failed for some reason or another, and so the fate of humanity depends on one final voyage into space...
With less time than a regular anime episode to tell each of these stories, everything that was shown was there to forward the plot. As mentioned earlier this resulted in a lack of character development, but that seemed irrelevant. This is not a character driven show, it's just a nice collection of cleverly linked stories offering us a look at some of the issues which those travelling in space or colonizing other planets might face.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The music was standard 80s sci-fi OVA synth – I liked it, but if you'd thrown in tracks from something like Hades Project Zeorymer (which I only reviewed a couple of days ago) I wouldn't have noticed. They all sound pretty similar, at least to me.
The animation wasn't the OVA's strongest point. The ART was good – backgrounds and static images were quite detailed, and the characters looked more realistic than most. But things didn't move much, and when they did it was often jerky.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: Well I certainly liked it, but it wasn't without its faults. Fans of sci-fi with an hour to kill might want to look into this, otherwise there are probably things with greater depth that you could be watching instead. 3/5.
Hime-sama Goyoujin:
PLOT: 'Plot' probably isn't the right word, as this is a random comedy series. The 'premise' is that the main character, Himeko, ends up with a magical crown through a series of ridiculous events, and when she places it on her head she becomes the queen of the whole country. Instantly. Her house becomes a palace, her father goes from being a policeman to the captain of the royal guard, while her mother works as head maid. People start to treat her with respect, obeying her every command etc. It would be many people's dream situation, but Himeko (being quite possibly the most brain dead character I've ever seen - and this series alone is full of them!) takes an episode and a half to even realize anything has changed!
And when she does, and decides she doesn't like her new position, she finds herself unable to remove the crown from her head!
Not everyone welcomes the new queen, however. An evil organisation of cat-suit wearing weirdos (lead by NORIO WAKAMOTO, who shoots EYE BEAMS) seem desperate to acquire the crown for themselves, and send various underlings to try and steal it. Among them are two foreign thieves, Leslie and Karen, who are largely to blame for it falling into Himeko's hands in the first place. Needless to say they're also thick as five planks, and while their Japanese is pretty good on the whole, the strange accents and occasional misunderstanding add to the humor. Oh, and did I mention Himeko is scared of foreigners?
There is also a gibberish-speaking blonde-haired girl who follows her around, trying to grab the crown at every given opportunity; an assassin sent by the evil organisation to kill Himeko, but instead ends up falling in love with her; the daughter of the school's chairman, a generic rich-girl character who suddenly finds herself to be far less influential; a random monkey (who eats bananas, and throws the skins on the floor... you can guess what happens next, right? It's that kind of show); a girl who speaks through her cat hand puppet; a young boy who claims to be the prince of a neighboring country and Himeko's fiance (but nobody believes him); and an alien cat who believes that Himeko is actually the queen of his planet and plans to return her there (guessing the creators really liked cats?). Yeah, it's a big cast for 12 episodes, but they were all fun!
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The OP was a generic (if slightly catchy) song. In the accompanying animation the various cast members danced, which was either very jerkily animated, or it caused my new computer to lag (and it hasn't done that before
). ED song was also generic, but the sequence featured some nice still images of the main characters.
Since the jumpy OP was the first I got to see of the show's animation, and since it was produced by Nomad, I was initially worried it would look dreadful. But I needn't have, as in the episodes themselves it was good throughout. The character designs were pleasant enough, the soft colours used were nice, though the backgrounds were unremarkable.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: If you like random comedy shows (think Galaxy Angel or Excel Saga), I would recommend this series. It isn't the best series the genre has to offer, but it's far from the worst, and really doesn't deserve such a damning A-P rating (#3,295 out of 3,782!? I'm sorry, but it is NOT worse than Piano). 3.5/5.
PLOT: 'Plot' probably isn't the right word, as this is a random comedy series. The 'premise' is that the main character, Himeko, ends up with a magical crown through a series of ridiculous events, and when she places it on her head she becomes the queen of the whole country. Instantly. Her house becomes a palace, her father goes from being a policeman to the captain of the royal guard, while her mother works as head maid. People start to treat her with respect, obeying her every command etc. It would be many people's dream situation, but Himeko (being quite possibly the most brain dead character I've ever seen - and this series alone is full of them!) takes an episode and a half to even realize anything has changed!
And when she does, and decides she doesn't like her new position, she finds herself unable to remove the crown from her head!Not everyone welcomes the new queen, however. An evil organisation of cat-suit wearing weirdos (lead by NORIO WAKAMOTO, who shoots EYE BEAMS) seem desperate to acquire the crown for themselves, and send various underlings to try and steal it. Among them are two foreign thieves, Leslie and Karen, who are largely to blame for it falling into Himeko's hands in the first place. Needless to say they're also thick as five planks, and while their Japanese is pretty good on the whole, the strange accents and occasional misunderstanding add to the humor. Oh, and did I mention Himeko is scared of foreigners?
There is also a gibberish-speaking blonde-haired girl who follows her around, trying to grab the crown at every given opportunity; an assassin sent by the evil organisation to kill Himeko, but instead ends up falling in love with her; the daughter of the school's chairman, a generic rich-girl character who suddenly finds herself to be far less influential; a random monkey (who eats bananas, and throws the skins on the floor... you can guess what happens next, right? It's that kind of show); a girl who speaks through her cat hand puppet; a young boy who claims to be the prince of a neighboring country and Himeko's fiance (but nobody believes him); and an alien cat who believes that Himeko is actually the queen of his planet and plans to return her there (guessing the creators really liked cats?). Yeah, it's a big cast for 12 episodes, but they were all fun!MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The OP was a generic (if slightly catchy) song. In the accompanying animation the various cast members danced, which was either very jerkily animated, or it caused my new computer to lag (and it hasn't done that before
). ED song was also generic, but the sequence featured some nice still images of the main characters.Since the jumpy OP was the first I got to see of the show's animation, and since it was produced by Nomad, I was initially worried it would look dreadful. But I needn't have, as in the episodes themselves it was good throughout. The character designs were pleasant enough, the soft colours used were nice, though the backgrounds were unremarkable.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: If you like random comedy shows (think Galaxy Angel or Excel Saga), I would recommend this series. It isn't the best series the genre has to offer, but it's far from the worst, and really doesn't deserve such a damning A-P rating (#3,295 out of 3,782!? I'm sorry, but it is NOT worse than Piano). 3.5/5.
(edited 12 years ago)
Dallos:
Yesterday I complained that Hime-sama Goyoujin was a bit harshly rated, but that is nothing compared to the rage I feel towards Dallos' low A-P ranking. Apparently it was edited into a single movie and given an atrocious dub, which may explain things. But as ever, I'll make every effort to watch something in its original form where possible, so this review is for the four episode OVA version (the first anime OVA ever released, and Oshii Mamoru's directorial debut, you may be interested to know), which I watched with better than average HK subs.
PLOT: Dallos is another sci-fi OVA (I got all these from the same friend, who really likes his sci-fi). This time the Earth has used up all its resources, but rather than head out into deep space, humanity settles for the more local and convenient Moon. After several years of development and mining on the Moon, Earth is once again prosperous, but things aren't so great on the lunar surface itself. It has a population of about half a million, and most of the able bodied men work hard as miners for little reward, other than the knowledge that they're helping their home planet (which only a few of the older folk have even set foot on). In addition, everyone wears an identification tag on their heads so that the strict and controlling government can keep an eye on them.
Inevitably, the lunar workers revolt, fighting with mining equipment, makeshift bombs and whatever else they can steal or salvage. Needless to say they go on strike too (as miners do best), so Earth is starved of much needed resources. They are even able to kidnap the fiance of the Moon's Commander after a successful ambush of his ship. They are looking for independence from Earth, as they feel they owe it nothing. But even with all this, the Commander refuses to negotiate with them, sending in the police and later the military to deal with the situation instead. Leading to some epic space fights and action scenes!
The series' main character is a young boy named Nonomura Shun, who for the most part is neutral. While he does get dragged into co-operating with the rebels (he is arrested as his brother was a famous rebel, leading the government to believe he may have useful information, but is later rescued by the rebels), he soon falls for the hostage (Melinda, the Commander's fiance), and doesn't agree with a lot of the rebels' methods and ideals. The other big plot point is Dallos itself, which is a strange alien artifact that lies in one of the Moon's craters. The workers worship it like a god, believing it will protect them, but all this only makes it a prime target for a counter attack by the lunar government. Will they regret angering this 'god'? That is a difficult question to answer for two reasons: the first is SPOILERS!, while the second is that a lot of the things surrounding Dallos are never explained at all. Sadly, this isn't the only weakness in the plot; but the majority of the focus is on the Earth vs Moon conflicts, and I thought those were handled spectacularly, so I could overlook most of the weaknesses.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The BGM was great! The series' main theme/OP in particular was a powerful piece, and the rest of the music fit the scenes nicely.
OVAs are generally better animated than TV series due to animators having less time constraints, and the first really set the bar high for all that followed. Forget the plot holes, Dallos was a pleasure to watch simply for the epic animation, which was very fluid when you consider its age and that there was no CGI involved. Of course, this made the action scenes even better.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: Dallos is NOT perfect, not by a long shot. But it IS an important part of anime history, it IS very pretty, AND IT IS NOT WORSE THAN PIANO. I only hope some sub group bothers to give it a better release in the future. 4/5
Yesterday I complained that Hime-sama Goyoujin was a bit harshly rated, but that is nothing compared to the rage I feel towards Dallos' low A-P ranking. Apparently it was edited into a single movie and given an atrocious dub, which may explain things. But as ever, I'll make every effort to watch something in its original form where possible, so this review is for the four episode OVA version (the first anime OVA ever released, and Oshii Mamoru's directorial debut, you may be interested to know), which I watched with better than average HK subs.
PLOT: Dallos is another sci-fi OVA (I got all these from the same friend, who really likes his sci-fi). This time the Earth has used up all its resources, but rather than head out into deep space, humanity settles for the more local and convenient Moon. After several years of development and mining on the Moon, Earth is once again prosperous, but things aren't so great on the lunar surface itself. It has a population of about half a million, and most of the able bodied men work hard as miners for little reward, other than the knowledge that they're helping their home planet (which only a few of the older folk have even set foot on). In addition, everyone wears an identification tag on their heads so that the strict and controlling government can keep an eye on them.
Inevitably, the lunar workers revolt, fighting with mining equipment, makeshift bombs and whatever else they can steal or salvage. Needless to say they go on strike too (as miners do best), so Earth is starved of much needed resources. They are even able to kidnap the fiance of the Moon's Commander after a successful ambush of his ship. They are looking for independence from Earth, as they feel they owe it nothing. But even with all this, the Commander refuses to negotiate with them, sending in the police and later the military to deal with the situation instead. Leading to some epic space fights and action scenes!
The series' main character is a young boy named Nonomura Shun, who for the most part is neutral. While he does get dragged into co-operating with the rebels (he is arrested as his brother was a famous rebel, leading the government to believe he may have useful information, but is later rescued by the rebels), he soon falls for the hostage (Melinda, the Commander's fiance), and doesn't agree with a lot of the rebels' methods and ideals. The other big plot point is Dallos itself, which is a strange alien artifact that lies in one of the Moon's craters. The workers worship it like a god, believing it will protect them, but all this only makes it a prime target for a counter attack by the lunar government. Will they regret angering this 'god'? That is a difficult question to answer for two reasons: the first is SPOILERS!, while the second is that a lot of the things surrounding Dallos are never explained at all. Sadly, this isn't the only weakness in the plot; but the majority of the focus is on the Earth vs Moon conflicts, and I thought those were handled spectacularly, so I could overlook most of the weaknesses.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The BGM was great! The series' main theme/OP in particular was a powerful piece, and the rest of the music fit the scenes nicely.
OVAs are generally better animated than TV series due to animators having less time constraints, and the first really set the bar high for all that followed. Forget the plot holes, Dallos was a pleasure to watch simply for the epic animation, which was very fluid when you consider its age and that there was no CGI involved. Of course, this made the action scenes even better.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: Dallos is NOT perfect, not by a long shot. But it IS an important part of anime history, it IS very pretty, AND IT IS NOT WORSE THAN PIANO. I only hope some sub group bothers to give it a better release in the future. 4/5
(edited 12 years ago)
Those Who Hunt Elves:
PLOT: Three people are accidentally summoned to a fantasy world, and when the spell that was supposed to be sending them back home goes horribly wrong, it is split into five fragments, which are then scattered throughout the land. Leaving our main characters with no option but to seek out these spell fragments over the course of twelve episodes - pretty standard fantasy setup, right? Well, yeah, but it also comes with a twist: the five spell fragments are tattooed on the bodies of five unsuspecting female elves... and the protagonists have no way of knowing which five... so are forced to go around stripping every elf they find.
With such a crude-sounding premise, it would be easy to mistake this series for one of the many (mostly recent) ecchi anime which use weak fantasy/magic settings as an excuse for panty shots and boobies (which would later be uncensored for BD/DVD!). Believe it or not, Those Who Hunt Elves isn't an ecchi series. The show is fully aware of how ridiculous it is, and focuses far more on the character's attempts to find elves in a number of episodic, humorous settings than on the stripping itself, with the majority of the spell fragments showing up on faces anyway.
So who exactly are the characters I keep talking about? As already mentioned, three of them are from Earth: Junpei, a simple-minded but incredibly strong and skilled martial artist (who does most of the stripping); Ritsuko, a schoolgirl/weapons enthusiast who provides ranged support; and Airi, a Hollywood actress and expert in deception and disguise. They are joined by Celcia, a dog who's actually an elf, and Mihke, a tank that's actually a cat. Not exactly your generic fantasy RPG party, but considering how powerful they all are as a group, they're probably better than most. The characters (particularly Junpei) are also fully aware they're in an anime, frequently breaking the 4th wall to complain about their stereotypical fantasy setting. 
I found them all great fun and highly likable.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The BGM isn't anything to write home about, but does the job. OP and ED are catchy, but nothing more.
The animation (produced by the late Group TAC) was fairly typical based on other anime I've seen from the mid 90s. The character designs were nice; not exactly original, but as it's a parody of other fantasy series that's easily forgivable.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: If you love fantasy and comedy, Those Who Hunt Elves offers the best of both with its tongue-in-cheek parodies of the usual stereotypes. But if you're here for the elf fanservice, you may be disappointed. Try Queen's Blade instead. I gave it an overall score of 4/5 (Those Who Hunt Elves that is, not Queen's Blade).
PLOT: Three people are accidentally summoned to a fantasy world, and when the spell that was supposed to be sending them back home goes horribly wrong, it is split into five fragments, which are then scattered throughout the land. Leaving our main characters with no option but to seek out these spell fragments over the course of twelve episodes - pretty standard fantasy setup, right? Well, yeah, but it also comes with a twist: the five spell fragments are tattooed on the bodies of five unsuspecting female elves... and the protagonists have no way of knowing which five... so are forced to go around stripping every elf they find.
With such a crude-sounding premise, it would be easy to mistake this series for one of the many (mostly recent) ecchi anime which use weak fantasy/magic settings as an excuse for panty shots and boobies (which would later be uncensored for BD/DVD!). Believe it or not, Those Who Hunt Elves isn't an ecchi series. The show is fully aware of how ridiculous it is, and focuses far more on the character's attempts to find elves in a number of episodic, humorous settings than on the stripping itself, with the majority of the spell fragments showing up on faces anyway.
So who exactly are the characters I keep talking about? As already mentioned, three of them are from Earth: Junpei, a simple-minded but incredibly strong and skilled martial artist (who does most of the stripping); Ritsuko, a schoolgirl/weapons enthusiast who provides ranged support; and Airi, a Hollywood actress and expert in deception and disguise. They are joined by Celcia, a dog who's actually an elf, and Mihke, a tank that's actually a cat.
Not exactly your generic fantasy RPG party, but considering how powerful they all are as a group, they're probably better than most. The characters (particularly Junpei) are also fully aware they're in an anime, frequently breaking the 4th wall to complain about their stereotypical fantasy setting. I found them all great fun and highly likable. MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The BGM isn't anything to write home about, but does the job. OP and ED are catchy, but nothing more.
The animation (produced by the late Group TAC) was fairly typical based on other anime I've seen from the mid 90s. The character designs were nice; not exactly original, but as it's a parody of other fantasy series that's easily forgivable.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: If you love fantasy and comedy, Those Who Hunt Elves offers the best of both with its tongue-in-cheek parodies of the usual stereotypes. But if you're here for the elf fanservice, you may be disappointed. Try Queen's Blade instead. I gave it an overall score of 4/5 (Those Who Hunt Elves that is, not Queen's Blade
).Don Dracula:
This series proved difficult to find, and later episodes came with dodgy subs (which I'm guessing were translated from a Spanish script; as well as the original Japanese track, the files came with the Spanish dub). No doubt this will put off a lot of people before they even get as far as the plot description, that is fully understandable, but I see no harm in spreading the word about an obscure series, and hopefully it'll get a better release someday (ARR released the third episode just a few days ago, but they're not known for finishing projects. Still, fingers crossed).
PLOT: This series is a comedy starring Count Dracula, who in the late 20th century has moved from Transylvania (taking his large, scary-looking mansion with him) to Japan, along with his daughter Chocola and their manservant Igor. It looks at the daily (sorry, nightly) lives of these characters, and the troubles they have to face. First of all, they're affected by all the stereotypical vampire weaknesses – garlick, crosses, sunlight etc. Secondly, Dracula accidentally sucked the blood of an ugly woman, who then falls in love with him, repeatedly chasing him around and paying unwanted visits to his house! Thirdly, the vampire hunter and old nemesis of Dracula, Professor Van Helsing, has followed him to Japan, and won't rest until he has driven a stake through the vampire's heart! And if all this wasn't bad enough, young women don't even sleep in the night time anymore, preferring to spend all their time in discos instead!
Most of the humour comes from the vampires' attempts to integrate themselves into human society, despite all these problems. Chocola is forced to attend a night school (where Van Helsing gets a job as the fine arts teacher!), and wants to live a regular schoolgirl life, attending the after school sci-fi club with her boyfriend Nobuhiko etc. Her father, on the other hand, isn't quite so good at blending in... Aside from that, we get to see them deal with other mythological creatures such as fish men and living paintings, and resist attempts by Van Helsing and other enemies who want to see them exterminated. A-P tags the series as 'crude'; I won't deny that the humour can be crude at times, the first episode in particular (Van Helsing pulls down his trousers within a minute of being introduced, and suffers from chronic haemorrhoids), but this is limited to one or two of the eight episodes, is pretty harmless, and I'd say they're being a bit harsh giving it a tag shared by the likes of Dead Leaves and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
Sadly, Don Dracula was cancelled after the sponsoring company went bankrupt, so it doesn't really end (another reason why people might be put off I imagine, but meh). But as it didn't have a continuous plot line, it didn't need a concrete ending, so I don't think any less of the anime for that.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The OP and ED are both alternating in my head, and I imagine they'll be stuck there for some time. Might have to try and get the extended versions if they're out there, as they were good. BGM was also decent.
I've not seen many anime from Tezuka Productions, but of those I've seen I'd say Don Dracula had the best animation. The backgrounds were pretty simple, but the character designs were great.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: I'll be very surprised if this review encourages anyone to watch it who wasn't already planning to do so. But I'd still recommend it to anyone who likes slapstick comedy, who can actually find it to begin with, and who has a high tolerance for Spanglish. 4/5
This series proved difficult to find, and later episodes came with dodgy subs (which I'm guessing were translated from a Spanish script; as well as the original Japanese track, the files came with the Spanish dub).
No doubt this will put off a lot of people before they even get as far as the plot description, that is fully understandable, but I see no harm in spreading the word about an obscure series, and hopefully it'll get a better release someday (ARR released the third episode just a few days ago, but they're not known for finishing projects. Still, fingers crossed).PLOT: This series is a comedy starring Count Dracula, who in the late 20th century has moved from Transylvania (taking his large, scary-looking mansion with him) to Japan, along with his daughter Chocola and their manservant Igor. It looks at the daily (sorry, nightly) lives of these characters, and the troubles they have to face. First of all, they're affected by all the stereotypical vampire weaknesses – garlick, crosses, sunlight etc. Secondly, Dracula accidentally sucked the blood of an ugly woman, who then falls in love with him, repeatedly chasing him around and paying unwanted visits to his house! Thirdly, the vampire hunter and old nemesis of Dracula, Professor Van Helsing, has followed him to Japan, and won't rest until he has driven a stake through the vampire's heart! And if all this wasn't bad enough, young women don't even sleep in the night time anymore, preferring to spend all their time in discos instead!
Most of the humour comes from the vampires' attempts to integrate themselves into human society, despite all these problems. Chocola is forced to attend a night school (where Van Helsing gets a job as the fine arts teacher!), and wants to live a regular schoolgirl life, attending the after school sci-fi club with her boyfriend Nobuhiko etc. Her father, on the other hand, isn't quite so good at blending in... Aside from that, we get to see them deal with other mythological creatures such as fish men and living paintings, and resist attempts by Van Helsing and other enemies who want to see them exterminated. A-P tags the series as 'crude'; I won't deny that the humour can be crude at times, the first episode in particular (Van Helsing pulls down his trousers within a minute of being introduced, and suffers from chronic haemorrhoids), but this is limited to one or two of the eight episodes, is pretty harmless, and I'd say they're being a bit harsh giving it a tag shared by the likes of Dead Leaves and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
Sadly, Don Dracula was cancelled after the sponsoring company went bankrupt, so it doesn't really end (another reason why people might be put off I imagine, but meh). But as it didn't have a continuous plot line, it didn't need a concrete ending, so I don't think any less of the anime for that.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The OP and ED are both alternating in my head, and I imagine they'll be stuck there for some time. Might have to try and get the extended versions if they're out there, as they were good.
BGM was also decent.I've not seen many anime from Tezuka Productions, but of those I've seen I'd say Don Dracula had the best animation.
The backgrounds were pretty simple, but the character designs were great. OVERALL THOUGHTS: I'll be very surprised if this review encourages anyone to watch it who wasn't already planning to do so. But I'd still recommend it to anyone who likes slapstick comedy, who can actually find it to begin with, and who has a high tolerance for Spanglish. 4/5
Mazinkaiser: Shitou! Ankoku Dai Shogun:
With a title like that and considering the other things I've reviewed recently, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is one of those 1970s Toei movies only available with bad (but hilariously so) HK subs. But no, this is a 2003 OVA that was translated by an actual fansub group!
PLOT: The plot for this anime is basically the same as for every Mazinkaiser/Mazinger anime ever: giant ancient Mycenaean monsters attempt to take over the world, while young Japanese kids in robots try to stop them. But aside from Mazinkaiser, all the rest of them suck, so it's down to main character Kabuto Koji to save the day in the titular mech! Only this time, the enemy (Ankoku Dai Shogun, or the Great General of Darkness) strikes while our hero is on holiday in Paris, so most of the OVA focuses on his attempts to get back to Japan and to Mazinkaiser with the help of various side characters, fighting off mid-bosses along the way.
That's really all there is to the plot - I've not seen the first Mazinkaiser OVA where Koji switches his old mech for this one, but new mech aside it could easily be a sequel to any of the Mazinger titles I've seen. Therefore, if all you want is an hour of super robot action then there's no reason why you can't just jump into this one without any prior knowledge of the franchise. (Though some side characters do die, which may not have as much effect as it would if you already knew them from earlier anime).
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: Well, you COULD make this your first Go Nagai super robot anime, but I don't know why you'd want to. While I'd be lying if I said the animation wasn't better than the 70s TV series and movies, the increase in quality isn't as much as you'd expect from an OVA made 30 years later using CGI. It felt like a transition stage between the old anime and the newer Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen, but without the charm (and lulzy subs) of the former or the great animation of the latter. 
Needless to say, this meant that all the 'super robot action' I referred to earlier wasn't overly impressive. 
One thing that Mazinkaiser: Shitou! Ankoku Dai Shogun does have over the 70s Mazinger shows is JAM Project. The music is what I liked most about this OVA - the ED was particularly good, as if they deliberately planned it as a reward for anyone who could watch this anime through to the end.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: Maybe I'm being too harsh on it, and I wouldn't go as far as telling people to avoid it if they plan on watching the whole franchise. As I mentioned before, it's more or less exactly the same as the other Go Nagai super robot adaptations I've seen. It just doesn't look as nice. 2/5
With a title like that and considering the other things I've reviewed recently, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is one of those 1970s Toei movies only available with bad (but hilariously so) HK subs. But no, this is a 2003 OVA that was translated by an actual fansub group!
PLOT: The plot for this anime is basically the same as for every Mazinkaiser/Mazinger anime ever: giant ancient Mycenaean monsters attempt to take over the world, while young Japanese kids in robots try to stop them.
But aside from Mazinkaiser, all the rest of them suck, so it's down to main character Kabuto Koji to save the day in the titular mech! Only this time, the enemy (Ankoku Dai Shogun, or the Great General of Darkness) strikes while our hero is on holiday in Paris, so most of the OVA focuses on his attempts to get back to Japan and to Mazinkaiser with the help of various side characters, fighting off mid-bosses along the way.That's really all there is to the plot - I've not seen the first Mazinkaiser OVA where Koji switches his old mech for this one, but new mech aside it could easily be a sequel to any of the Mazinger titles I've seen.
Therefore, if all you want is an hour of super robot action then there's no reason why you can't just jump into this one without any prior knowledge of the franchise. (Though some side characters do die, which may not have as much effect as it would if you already knew them from earlier anime).MUSIC AND ANIMATION: Well, you COULD make this your first Go Nagai super robot anime, but I don't know why you'd want to. While I'd be lying if I said the animation wasn't better than the 70s TV series and movies, the increase in quality isn't as much as you'd expect from an OVA made 30 years later using CGI.
It felt like a transition stage between the old anime and the newer Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen, but without the charm (and lulzy subs) of the former or the great animation of the latter. Needless to say, this meant that all the 'super robot action' I referred to earlier wasn't overly impressive. One thing that Mazinkaiser: Shitou! Ankoku Dai Shogun does have over the 70s Mazinger shows is JAM Project. The music is what I liked most about this OVA - the ED was particularly good, as if they deliberately planned it as a reward for anyone who could watch this anime through to the end.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: Maybe I'm being too harsh on it, and I wouldn't go as far as telling people to avoid it if they plan on watching the whole franchise. As I mentioned before, it's more or less exactly the same as the other Go Nagai super robot adaptations I've seen. It just doesn't look as nice. 2/5
(edited 12 years ago)
Loveless:
This is actually a re-review - Loveless was one of the first series I wrote about in this thread, but my first review only looked at about half the series, and isn't up to the high(er) standards of my more recent attempts.
So while I won't be rewriting all my early reviews, I see no harm in doing so for Loveless since I was rewatching it anyway.
(BTW, my first review stated I'd only be likely to pick up Loveless if a sequel got confirmed. To my knowledge, there's still no word of one - I ended up watching it anyway because a friend had the full series to hand. Sorry if I got anyone's hopes up).
PLOT: My first review may have been short, but it hit most of the main points - the plot is definitely shrouded in mystery, and that's not something that the latter episodes went on to explain. About all we do know is that the main character (Ritsuka) has lost his memories, his brother has been murdered, and his mother hates the person he has become. We are left with a character who has no idea who he is, who he was, or what it is to be loved. Then all of a sudden this guy who claims to have known his brother appears, confesses his love for Ritsuka... and then they team up to fight other couples who've been sent to defeat them.
Now usually in my reviews I'll give a brief overview of the plot based on, say, the first 3 - 4 episodes, avoiding major spoilers. In Loveless, there's nothing to hold back and not much to spoil - we don't get to learn how these battles work, why they must take place, who the antagonists really are... don't go into this anime expecting answers. But if you're okay with the fact that you never truly know what's going on, then the series has some decent fights, a lot of drama and interesting characters.
It is those characters that make this anime. I got the feeling that they were meant to be more important than the plot, and they certainly received more development, so hopefully that's what the series was aiming for, or else they screwed up badly somewhere along the line. Ritsuka is shown in the early episodes as being very angry, short tempered and untrusting - about as far from generic male lead as you can get IMO. But his circumstances more than justify his behaviour, and his reactions to Soubi clearly show that he wants to be loved, so not once did I find him annoying - he's far from being a generic tsundere too! Without spoilers, he changes a lot towards the end of the series, becoming even more likable. Soubi was harder to like, probably because he was more mysterious; what was his relationship with Ritsuka's brother, what made him approach Ritsuka acting the way he does, and why the hell won't he keep his promises? 
Unlike the questions relating to the plot, some of these things are answered, or at least hinted at, though it didn't make Soubi any less creepy. 
Other characters were a bit more generic (big-breasted airheaded girl, male classmate/rival for girl's affections, unmarried teacher in her 20s etc), but they helped the main characters to develop so that's forgivable.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: Last time I summed it up with 'the music was very good'. I now know that Yuki Kajiura was involved with both the OP and ED, which explains why I liked them. The insert themes and general BGM were also great though.
'The artwork was different, good in places and bad in others IMO'. Again I'll elaborate further: the character designs were nice, the soft colours worked well, and the battles were (on the whole) nicely animated. But all the budget seemed to go on making the action-packed scenes look nice, and as a result a lot of the more slice of life/romance/drama moments suffered from lack of (or simply poor quality) animation.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: My ratings have become a bit more strict with time (I really gave Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora 3.5/5!?
). So while I was disappointed that so little was answered at the end of the series, I didn't expect much closure from a short series based on a manga that was nowhere near finished. Everything else was as I remembered it, so the only real reason for the lower score is that I've seen a hell of a lot more awesome shows in three and a half years. 3/5
This is actually a re-review - Loveless was one of the first series I wrote about in this thread, but my first review only looked at about half the series, and isn't up to the high(er) standards of my more recent attempts.
So while I won't be rewriting all my early reviews, I see no harm in doing so for Loveless since I was rewatching it anyway. (BTW, my first review stated I'd only be likely to pick up Loveless if a sequel got confirmed. To my knowledge, there's still no word of one - I ended up watching it anyway because a friend had the full series to hand. Sorry if I got anyone's hopes up).
PLOT: My first review may have been short, but it hit most of the main points - the plot is definitely shrouded in mystery, and that's not something that the latter episodes went on to explain. About all we do know is that the main character (Ritsuka) has lost his memories, his brother has been murdered, and his mother hates the person he has become. We are left with a character who has no idea who he is, who he was, or what it is to be loved. Then all of a sudden this guy who claims to have known his brother appears, confesses his love for Ritsuka... and then they team up to fight other couples who've been sent to defeat them.
Now usually in my reviews I'll give a brief overview of the plot based on, say, the first 3 - 4 episodes, avoiding major spoilers. In Loveless, there's nothing to hold back and not much to spoil - we don't get to learn how these battles work, why they must take place, who the antagonists really are... don't go into this anime expecting answers. But if you're okay with the fact that you never truly know what's going on, then the series has some decent fights, a lot of drama and interesting characters.
It is those characters that make this anime. I got the feeling that they were meant to be more important than the plot, and they certainly received more development, so hopefully that's what the series was aiming for, or else they screwed up badly somewhere along the line.
Ritsuka is shown in the early episodes as being very angry, short tempered and untrusting - about as far from generic male lead as you can get IMO. But his circumstances more than justify his behaviour, and his reactions to Soubi clearly show that he wants to be loved, so not once did I find him annoying - he's far from being a generic tsundere too! Without spoilers, he changes a lot towards the end of the series, becoming even more likable. Soubi was harder to like, probably because he was more mysterious; what was his relationship with Ritsuka's brother, what made him approach Ritsuka acting the way he does, and why the hell won't he keep his promises? Unlike the questions relating to the plot, some of these things are answered, or at least hinted at, though it didn't make Soubi any less creepy. Other characters were a bit more generic (big-breasted airheaded girl, male classmate/rival for girl's affections, unmarried teacher in her 20s etc), but they helped the main characters to develop so that's forgivable.MUSIC AND ANIMATION: Last time I summed it up with 'the music was very good'. I now know that Yuki Kajiura was involved with both the OP and ED, which explains why I liked them.
The insert themes and general BGM were also great though. 'The artwork was different, good in places and bad in others IMO'. Again I'll elaborate further: the character designs were nice, the soft colours worked well, and the battles were (on the whole) nicely animated. But all the budget seemed to go on making the action-packed scenes look nice, and as a result a lot of the more slice of life/romance/drama moments suffered from lack of (or simply poor quality) animation.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: My ratings have become a bit more strict with time (I really gave Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora 3.5/5!?
). So while I was disappointed that so little was answered at the end of the series, I didn't expect much closure from a short series based on a manga that was nowhere near finished. Everything else was as I remembered it, so the only real reason for the lower score is that I've seen a hell of a lot more awesome shows in three and a half years. 3/5Maria-sama ga Miteru:
PLOT: Marimite is set in an all girls Catholic high school, where senior classmates often choose to pair up with girls from lower years, forming a 'younger sister - older sister' relationship (though they use French terms like petite soeur to make it sound moregay Catholic Western? ). It focuses specifically on the school council (who are given weird titles themselves, making me question whether my subs were indeed English for a while in the first ep. :giggle), and on their second and first year sisters. This is very much a character driven romance/drama show, not unlike Loveless which I reviewed yesterday, but without the overarching plot to complicate matters (which also meant no battles... Combat Catholics would've been fun 
).
While the focus did shift occasionally to other characters in order to make sure the full cast were developed (an approach which worked well), the main character throughout most of the series was Yumi, a first year who ends up as petite soeur to Sachiko, who herself is petite soeur and presumed successor to the school council's 'Rosa Chinensis'. Sachiko initially askes Yumi to be her younger sister in order to resolve a dispute with the council members - Yumi happened to be the first first year pupil she (literally) bumped into - but as the series progresses their friendship develops.
I say friendship because, while this is a shoujo-ai series, most of the relationships don't seem to develop beyond close friends or caring for each other in a platonic younger-older sister way. The first kiss isn't until episode 6, and that was a 'reward' from one girl to another who weren't a couple; the first explicit lesbian scene occurs in episode 11 (of 13). Heck, Sachiko is actually engaged to a MAN (
) who actually gets screentime despite being male (
)... and though it was arranged by their parents, she actually loves him! (
). Of course, this is the first series of four - if every sister pairing fell in love within these 12 episodes, I doubt there wouldn't be much point to the sequels. Still, don't go into it expecting loads of girl-on-girl fanservice every few episodes - if that's all you want then Strawberry Panic has more. Personally, I found the lack of reliance of fanservice or even comedy refreshing; weird as the setting may be, Marimite is a serious drama anime.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The OP and ED were both instrumental, and neither really took my interest - ended up skipping them more often than not. However, the BGM really stood out. Largely because it reminded me of the BGM for Haibane Renmei - half expected the composer to be Otani Kou, but was surprised to find it was actually Katakura Mikiya, better known as being the composer for Ali Project!
Now to the animation... Oh dear. Oh DEEN... they outdid themselves with this one. I could tell the character designs and setting were meant to be pretty, but for the most part the animation was BAD. I've seen trailers for it's sequels though, and it looks as if they upped the quality a lot once they found out the show was a hit.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: A nice, slow-paced shoujo-ai drama with decent characters and music. If that sounds like your kind of show, then my only warning is Studio DEEN's animation. 3.5/5
PLOT: Marimite is set in an all girls Catholic high school, where senior classmates often choose to pair up with girls from lower years, forming a 'younger sister - older sister' relationship (though they use French terms like petite soeur to make it sound more
). It focuses specifically on the school council (who are given weird titles themselves, making me question whether my subs were indeed English for a while in the first ep. :giggle), and on their second and first year sisters. This is very much a character driven romance/drama show, not unlike Loveless which I reviewed yesterday, but without the overarching plot to complicate matters (which also meant no battles... Combat Catholics would've been fun ).While the focus did shift occasionally to other characters in order to make sure the full cast were developed (an approach which worked well), the main character throughout most of the series was Yumi, a first year who ends up as petite soeur to Sachiko, who herself is petite soeur and presumed successor to the school council's 'Rosa Chinensis'. Sachiko initially askes Yumi to be her younger sister in order to resolve a dispute with the council members - Yumi happened to be the first first year pupil she (literally) bumped into - but as the series progresses their friendship develops.
I say friendship because, while this is a shoujo-ai series, most of the relationships don't seem to develop beyond close friends or caring for each other in a platonic younger-older sister way. The first kiss isn't until episode 6, and that was a 'reward' from one girl to another who weren't a couple; the first explicit lesbian scene occurs in episode 11 (of 13). Heck, Sachiko is actually engaged to a MAN (
) who actually gets screentime despite being male ()... and though it was arranged by their parents, she actually loves him! (). Of course, this is the first series of four - if every sister pairing fell in love within these 12 episodes, I doubt there wouldn't be much point to the sequels. Still, don't go into it expecting loads of girl-on-girl fanservice every few episodes - if that's all you want then Strawberry Panic has more. Personally, I found the lack of reliance of fanservice or even comedy refreshing; weird as the setting may be, Marimite is a serious drama anime.MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The OP and ED were both instrumental, and neither really took my interest - ended up skipping them more often than not. However, the BGM really stood out. Largely because it reminded me of the BGM for Haibane Renmei - half expected the composer to be Otani Kou, but was surprised to find it was actually Katakura Mikiya, better known as being the composer for Ali Project!
Now to the animation... Oh dear. Oh DEEN... they outdid themselves with this one. I could tell the character designs and setting were meant to be pretty, but for the most part the animation was BAD.
I've seen trailers for it's sequels though, and it looks as if they upped the quality a lot once they found out the show was a hit. OVERALL THOUGHTS: A nice, slow-paced shoujo-ai drama with decent characters and music. If that sounds like your kind of show, then my only warning is Studio DEEN's animation. 3.5/5
(edited 12 years ago)
Macross - Do You Remember Love:
PLOT: Back to the sci-fi one-shots, but this time with 80s J-pop!
The space fortress Macross is heading back to Earth, having escaped on the first day of a war between humans and a race of space giants known as the Zentradi, but along the way they find themselves under attack by more Zentradi. These giants seem to be fighting just for the hell of it, but their warriors find themselves confused when they come into contact with the Earthlings. Why are the men and women living together?
And why the hell are they so small? In an attempt to answer these questions, the Zentradi capture a group of these midgets for closer examination. This sample includes our main protagonists - Ichijou Hikaru, a rebellious young pilot; Hayase Misa, a military officer who lives for her work; and Lynn Minmay, a famous idol. It is revealed that the Zentradi are all male - the females of their species, known as the Meltrandi, are considered enemies, and the two sides have been at war for years. Again, with no real reason other than that these space giants like to fight...
This movie looks firstly at the love triangle that occurs between Hikaru, Minmay (who fall in love after getting locked in a section of the space fortress together for a few days) and Misa (with whom he ends up stranded on Earth for a month - WTF is with this guy's luck?), and secondly at the larger scale conflicts between humans and the two giant forces. Will they be doomed to take part in epic space battles for the rest of eternity, or can all three sides unite in peace with the help of music?
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The general BGM for this movie was pretty good, but obviously the most important thing is Minmay's pop songs! Which I found fairly forgettable on the whole, with the huge exception of the main theme, which was AWESOME. Still, have to say I preferred Macross Frontier on the music side.
Animation was typical movie quality - better than what you'd expect from a TV series, but on par with other movies/OVAs I've seen from around that time. The character designs were different and took some getting used to, but they were nice enough.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: Simple sci-fi plot, nice animation and music. Well worth spending two hours on. 4/5
PLOT: Back to the sci-fi one-shots, but this time with 80s J-pop!
The space fortress Macross is heading back to Earth, having escaped on the first day of a war between humans and a race of space giants known as the Zentradi, but along the way they find themselves under attack by more Zentradi. These giants seem to be fighting just for the hell of it, but their warriors find themselves confused when they come into contact with the Earthlings. Why are the men and women living together?
And why the hell are they so small? In an attempt to answer these questions, the Zentradi capture a group of these midgets for closer examination. This sample includes our main protagonists - Ichijou Hikaru, a rebellious young pilot; Hayase Misa, a military officer who lives for her work; and Lynn Minmay, a famous idol. It is revealed that the Zentradi are all male - the females of their species, known as the Meltrandi, are considered enemies, and the two sides have been at war for years. Again, with no real reason other than that these space giants like to fight...This movie looks firstly at the love triangle that occurs between Hikaru, Minmay (who fall in love after getting locked in a section of the space fortress together for a few days) and Misa (with whom he ends up stranded on Earth for a month - WTF is with this guy's luck?), and secondly at the larger scale conflicts between humans and the two giant forces. Will they be doomed to take part in epic space battles for the rest of eternity, or can all three sides unite in peace with the help of music?
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: The general BGM for this movie was pretty good, but obviously the most important thing is Minmay's pop songs! Which I found fairly forgettable on the whole, with the huge exception of the main theme, which was AWESOME.
Still, have to say I preferred Macross Frontier on the music side. Animation was typical movie quality - better than what you'd expect from a TV series, but on par with other movies/OVAs I've seen from around that time. The character designs were different and took some getting used to, but they were nice enough.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: Simple sci-fi plot, nice animation and music. Well worth spending two hours on.
4/5Lupin III:
PLOT: Lupin III is an incredibly gifted thief and a master of disguise, who always manages to steal something once he's set his eyes on it (though whether he gets to hold onto it afterwards is another thing entirely!). He is joined by his trusty partner and skilled gunman Jigen, and occasionally by the samurai/thief Goemon and his treacherous love interest Fujiko. And no series like this would be complete without a rival who's dedicated his life to capturing the protagonist - in this show, the part is played by police inspector Zenigata.
The series follows the group of thieves as they continuously outwit the police, the episodic 'bad guy of the week', and sometimes each other, using hilarious methods to get away with it. The laws of physics rarely apply, especially when cars are involved. Episodes are almost completely standalone - about the only time there was any plot continuity was in the couple of eps when Goemon was introduced. Inevitably, this resulted in it being a bit predictable, and not ideal for marathoning. Having said that, the setting and antagonist for each episode was very different; over the course of 23 episodes, Lupin has to deal with such things as a rigged Grand Prix race, a time traveler, a bullet-proof man who shoots fire from his fingertips, and the classic impostor committing crimes using his name.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: At least 90% of the music (OP, ED and BGM) was people shouting 'Lupin' over and over again. Most of them pronounced it correctly at least, with the exception of the third OP which definitely said 'Rupang'. 'Dated' is the easiest way to describe it, though some of the BGM was quite catchy.
Since Lupin III is the oldest TV anime I've seen, I haven't got much to compare the animation with. I've seen older movies, but they tend to have higher quality animation - and the quality in Castle of Cagliostro made less than a decade later completely outshines this TV series. Again, 'dated' but with it's own charm is how I'd summarize it.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: An amusing series that I'd definitely recommend, but you might want to take it a bit slower than I did due to it's episodic nature. 3.5/5
PLOT: Lupin III is an incredibly gifted thief and a master of disguise, who always manages to steal something once he's set his eyes on it (though whether he gets to hold onto it afterwards is another thing entirely!). He is joined by his trusty partner and skilled gunman Jigen, and occasionally by the samurai/thief Goemon and his treacherous love interest Fujiko. And no series like this would be complete without a rival who's dedicated his life to capturing the protagonist - in this show, the part is played by police inspector Zenigata.
The series follows the group of thieves as they continuously outwit the police, the episodic 'bad guy of the week', and sometimes each other, using hilarious methods to get away with it. The laws of physics rarely apply, especially when cars are involved.
Episodes are almost completely standalone - about the only time there was any plot continuity was in the couple of eps when Goemon was introduced. Inevitably, this resulted in it being a bit predictable, and not ideal for marathoning. Having said that, the setting and antagonist for each episode was very different; over the course of 23 episodes, Lupin has to deal with such things as a rigged Grand Prix race, a time traveler, a bullet-proof man who shoots fire from his fingertips, and the classic impostor committing crimes using his name.MUSIC AND ANIMATION: At least 90% of the music (OP, ED and BGM) was people shouting 'Lupin' over and over again.
Most of them pronounced it correctly at least, with the exception of the third OP which definitely said 'Rupang'. 'Dated' is the easiest way to describe it, though some of the BGM was quite catchy. Since Lupin III is the oldest TV anime I've seen, I haven't got much to compare the animation with. I've seen older movies, but they tend to have higher quality animation - and the quality in Castle of Cagliostro made less than a decade later completely outshines this TV series. Again, 'dated' but with it's own charm is how I'd summarize it.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: An amusing series that I'd definitely recommend, but you might want to take it a bit slower than I did due to it's episodic nature. 3.5/5
Fantastic work, AJ. I've enjoyed reading every review. Hopefully, this'll yield some interest and encourage others to participate.
Spiral - The Bonds of Reasoning:
This is possibly the first time I have reviewed an anime adaptation of a manga I've already read. It would be very easy to compare and contrast it with the manga, marking it down where it does things differently etc., but I'll try not to do that. This is a review of the anime after all, and chances are if I'd read the original manga for every series I've reviewed that's adapted from one, I'd have a few more complaints about them too. So I'll make comparisons here and there, but will ultimately try and score it as a stand alone series.
PLOT: The series focuses on Narumi Ayumu, a high school student and child prodigy. He has a ridiculous amount of knowledge for his age, is very quick thinking, and notices small details... it's as if he was born to be a detective. However, his older brother Kiyotaka was born with the same gifts, the same intellect, and as a result Ayumu's achievements are constantly compared with those of his brother. This leaves him with a huge inferiority complex, where he believes that whatever he achieves will be at best an imitation of what his brother could achieve, and probably isn't even up to that standard. Then one day, his brother disappears without a trace, and the only clue left behind is that Kiyotaka was somehow involved with a group known as the 'Blade Children'. And before he knows it, Ayumu also finds himself being dragged into the mystery... He isn't alone, however - He has a reliable partner, Yuizaki Hiyono, who's information gathering skills are second to none. She also helps Narumi overcome his issues, strongly believing in his deductions, and often taking huge risks in order to prove to him that they are correct.
Spiral is one of the most recommended anime on A-P for fans of Death Note - and it certainly isn't due to their similar production values. The similarity lies in the fact that the intelligent protagonist Ayumu repeatedly finds himself in situations where he has to outsmart and predict the movements of equally gifted opponents, where failure to do so could have fatal consequences. More than the plot, it is the suspense, the character interactions and the revelations of thought processes at the end that make this an enjoyable series.
The anime follows the manga up until just after the midway point, after which it is all anime original (as the manga was unfinished). But I'm not sure I'd have noticed if I hadn't read it, as it fit in with all the early material well. A minor complaint would be the huge over-reliance on time bombs in later episodes, as if they couldn't come up with any more varied traps, but the situations where they dealt with those bombs and the methods of diffusion were different enough for them to get away with it IMO. The biggest flaw was the ending - or lack of one. Who exactly are the Blade Children, what sets them apart from any regular children (aside from the fact they're all missing a rib), why do so many people seem to want them dead, and what part do Ayumu and his brother have to play in it all? Sadly, none of those things are answered.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: It's another case of 'Animation? What animation?' - after the first episode I made the joke on Facebook that the manga had more in the way of movement. Quite frankly, the animation sucks. Character designs aren't hugely original either - though obviously that's the case in the manga as well.
The OP... my ears... THEY BLEED! ED was better, but not really my kind of music. Now as for the BGM, I have nothing but praise for that. It helped build tension where needed, in other places added to the humour etc. And since both Ayumu and another character (the amusingly named Eyes Rutherford) are gifted piano players, we get to hear them play a few times too, which sounded great.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: Hang on. A series with good characters and an intriguing, mysterious plot, but horribly lacking in explanation or closure. A series with decent music, but bad animation. Sounds a lot like Loveless to me... Hello again J.C.Staff! Since the flaws in both are so similar, the easiest way to remove the bias caused by having read the superior Spiral manga is to give it the same score as Loveless - a generous 3/5.
This is possibly the first time I have reviewed an anime adaptation of a manga I've already read. It would be very easy to compare and contrast it with the manga, marking it down where it does things differently etc., but I'll try not to do that. This is a review of the anime after all, and chances are if I'd read the original manga for every series I've reviewed that's adapted from one, I'd have a few more complaints about them too. So I'll make comparisons here and there, but will ultimately try and score it as a stand alone series.
PLOT: The series focuses on Narumi Ayumu, a high school student and child prodigy. He has a ridiculous amount of knowledge for his age, is very quick thinking, and notices small details... it's as if he was born to be a detective. However, his older brother Kiyotaka was born with the same gifts, the same intellect, and as a result Ayumu's achievements are constantly compared with those of his brother. This leaves him with a huge inferiority complex, where he believes that whatever he achieves will be at best an imitation of what his brother could achieve, and probably isn't even up to that standard. Then one day, his brother disappears without a trace, and the only clue left behind is that Kiyotaka was somehow involved with a group known as the 'Blade Children'. And before he knows it, Ayumu also finds himself being dragged into the mystery... He isn't alone, however - He has a reliable partner, Yuizaki Hiyono, who's information gathering skills are second to none. She also helps Narumi overcome his issues, strongly believing in his deductions, and often taking huge risks in order to prove to him that they are correct.
Spiral is one of the most recommended anime on A-P for fans of Death Note - and it certainly isn't due to their similar production values.
The similarity lies in the fact that the intelligent protagonist Ayumu repeatedly finds himself in situations where he has to outsmart and predict the movements of equally gifted opponents, where failure to do so could have fatal consequences. More than the plot, it is the suspense, the character interactions and the revelations of thought processes at the end that make this an enjoyable series. The anime follows the manga up until just after the midway point, after which it is all anime original (as the manga was unfinished). But I'm not sure I'd have noticed if I hadn't read it, as it fit in with all the early material well. A minor complaint would be the huge over-reliance on time bombs in later episodes, as if they couldn't come up with any more varied traps, but the situations where they dealt with those bombs and the methods of diffusion were different enough for them to get away with it IMO. The biggest flaw was the ending - or lack of one. Who exactly are the Blade Children, what sets them apart from any regular children (aside from the fact they're all missing a rib), why do so many people seem to want them dead, and what part do Ayumu and his brother have to play in it all? Sadly, none of those things are answered.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: It's another case of 'Animation? What animation?' - after the first episode I made the joke on Facebook that the manga had more in the way of movement.
Quite frankly, the animation sucks. Character designs aren't hugely original either - though obviously that's the case in the manga as well.The OP... my ears... THEY BLEED! ED was better, but not really my kind of music. Now as for the BGM, I have nothing but praise for that. It helped build tension where needed, in other places added to the humour etc. And since both Ayumu and another character (the amusingly named Eyes Rutherford
) are gifted piano players, we get to hear them play a few times too, which sounded great.OVERALL THOUGHTS: Hang on. A series with good characters and an intriguing, mysterious plot, but horribly lacking in explanation or closure. A series with decent music, but bad animation. Sounds a lot like Loveless to me... Hello again J.C.Staff! Since the flaws in both are so similar, the easiest way to remove the bias caused by having read the superior Spiral manga is to give it the same score as Loveless - a generous 3/5.
(edited 12 years ago)
Akazukin Chacha:
PLOT: Chacha is a young girl aspiring to become a wizard, but her magic rarely goes according to plan! She lives with her mentor Seravy (who happens to be the strongest magician in the land), and is pretty much inseparable from her best friends Riiya the werewolf and Shiine, another wizard-in-training and (relatively speaking) the sensible one of the three. They spend their days like any other children: playing around, attending magical school, and occasionally fighting off assassins sent by the Great Evil Lord... what, that isn't a usual part of growing up?
The majority of the series is episodic and formulaic; while the setting and situation changes each episode, Chacha and her friends always end up fighting some evil minion or other. At first they fumble about, Chacha and Shiine use magic with results that are often more hilarious than helpful, while Riiya's brute strength is only equaled by his weakness to food and general lack of common sense. Luckily, their enemies are usually just as incompetent. When things get serious, however, the three heroes use the combined power of their three accessories to allow Chacha to transform into the magical princess Holy Up (yes, that's her name ). This part is pretty typical magical girl fare - the transformation scenes are fairly long and are repeated each episode, the transformed Chacha looks a fair few years older than her usual self, and once transformed she is able to one-hit-KO the bad guy with a single 'Beauty Serene Arrow'! Until the bad guys power up after 20 episodes or so, at which point they head off in search of a new weapon, and the process continues with a longer transformation sequence. The reason why the Great Evil Lord is targeting Chacha in the first place isn't revealed for quite a few episodes though, so I'll leave you guessing as the first few episodes did to me!
You're probably sick to death of hearing this from me by now, but the best thing about this series is the characters. It is impossible not to like Chacha, Riiya and Shiine. What I didn't mention earlier was that both Riiya and Shiine are in love with Chacha, so there is a lot of rivalry mixed in with their friendship. This is further complicated by the side characters: Marine, a mermaid who is in love with Riiya but who only recognizes him in his human form (and since the feeling isn't mutual, he often transforms into wolf-form to escape her); Orin, a kunoichi who has a crush on Shiine but is too shy to tell him; Yakko, a young witch who is madly in love with Seravy, and is jealous of Chacha who gets to be his student - but again the feeling isn't mutual, as Seravy has something of a love-hate relationship with Dorothy, Shiine's mentor... suffice to say this huge love polygon makes for some very amusing situations, while not really progressing anywhere (mentors aside, they're all kids afterall). With all this going on around the episodic magical girl battles, I remember thinking to myself that the series would work just as well (if not better) without the over-arching plot, as a slice of life comedy...
I was not expecting that last part to actually happen, but it did. 2/3 of the way through the series, the plot is brought to a close, and soon afterwards Chacha even loses the power to transform! The remaining third of the series features the same characters in much less repetitive situations, and forces them to use their awful magical 'skills' (along with Chacha's new, but not so overpowered accessories) to sort things out. While some of these episodes felt like they were lacking something (aside from the transformation scenes, that is ), others were funnier than anything in the early series, so it all balanced out in the end.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: There is no faulting the animation or character designs, the series looked great! Quite possibly the cutest character designs ever, actually.
The music was also great fun. I loved the OP (which is fortunate, since they kept the same one throughout the whole 74 episode series). The first ED was lovely, the second was really catchy and probably my favorite of the lot... can't say I was overly keen on the third and final ED, but I've heard worse.
The BGM for this series was fantastic as well - happy music for the good guys, creepy music for the bad guys, and all sorts of other sounds for all sorts of other situations and characters. The characters themselves seemed to break into song every 3-4 episodes, which was always fun - if there's a character song album out there, I want it!
OVERALL THOUGHTS: A difficult one to rate, with the first part being repetitive and the second part suddenly lacking in plot. But as both parts were fun, and everything else was perfect, I'm giving this 4.5/5.
PLOT: Chacha is a young girl aspiring to become a wizard, but her magic rarely goes according to plan! She lives with her mentor Seravy (who happens to be the strongest magician in the land), and is pretty much inseparable from her best friends Riiya the werewolf and Shiine, another wizard-in-training and (relatively speaking) the sensible one of the three. They spend their days like any other children: playing around, attending magical school, and occasionally fighting off assassins sent by the Great Evil Lord... what, that isn't a usual part of growing up?
The majority of the series is episodic and formulaic; while the setting and situation changes each episode, Chacha and her friends always end up fighting some evil minion or other.
At first they fumble about, Chacha and Shiine use magic with results that are often more hilarious than helpful, while Riiya's brute strength is only equaled by his weakness to food and general lack of common sense. Luckily, their enemies are usually just as incompetent. When things get serious, however, the three heroes use the combined power of their three accessories to allow Chacha to transform into the magical princess Holy Up (yes, that's her name ). This part is pretty typical magical girl fare - the transformation scenes are fairly long and are repeated each episode, the transformed Chacha looks a fair few years older than her usual self, and once transformed she is able to one-hit-KO the bad guy with a single 'Beauty Serene Arrow'! Until the bad guys power up after 20 episodes or so, at which point they head off in search of a new weapon, and the process continues with a longer transformation sequence. The reason why the Great Evil Lord is targeting Chacha in the first place isn't revealed for quite a few episodes though, so I'll leave you guessing as the first few episodes did to me!You're probably sick to death of hearing this from me by now, but the best thing about this series is the characters. It is impossible not to like Chacha, Riiya and Shiine. What I didn't mention earlier was that both Riiya and Shiine are in love with Chacha, so there is a lot of rivalry mixed in with their friendship. This is further complicated by the side characters: Marine, a mermaid who is in love with Riiya but who only recognizes him in his human form (and since the feeling isn't mutual, he often transforms into wolf-form to escape her); Orin, a kunoichi who has a crush on Shiine but is too shy to tell him; Yakko, a young witch who is madly in love with Seravy, and is jealous of Chacha who gets to be his student - but again the feeling isn't mutual, as Seravy has something of a love-hate relationship with Dorothy, Shiine's mentor... suffice to say this huge love polygon makes for some very amusing situations, while not really progressing anywhere (mentors aside, they're all kids afterall).
With all this going on around the episodic magical girl battles, I remember thinking to myself that the series would work just as well (if not better) without the over-arching plot, as a slice of life comedy...I was not expecting that last part to actually happen, but it did. 2/3 of the way through the series, the plot is brought to a close, and soon afterwards Chacha even loses the power to transform!
The remaining third of the series features the same characters in much less repetitive situations, and forces them to use their awful magical 'skills' (along with Chacha's new, but not so overpowered accessories) to sort things out. While some of these episodes felt like they were lacking something (aside from the transformation scenes, that is ), others were funnier than anything in the early series, so it all balanced out in the end. MUSIC AND ANIMATION: There is no faulting the animation or character designs, the series looked great! Quite possibly the cutest character designs ever, actually.
The music was also great fun. I loved the OP (which is fortunate, since they kept the same one throughout the whole 74 episode series). The first ED was lovely, the second was really catchy and probably my favorite of the lot... can't say I was overly keen on the third and final ED, but I've heard worse.
The BGM for this series was fantastic as well - happy music for the good guys, creepy music for the bad guys, and all sorts of other sounds for all sorts of other situations and characters. The characters themselves seemed to break into song every 3-4 episodes, which was always fun - if there's a character song album out there, I want it!
OVERALL THOUGHTS: A difficult one to rate, with the first part being repetitive and the second part suddenly lacking in plot. But as both parts were fun, and everything else was perfect, I'm giving this 4.5/5.
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by Aiko
Fantastic work, AJ. I've enjoyed reading every review. Hopefully, this'll yield some interest and encourage others to participate.
I'm on it Aiko though I'd have to type 24/7 to keep up with AJ
Elfen Lied
(Suprised no-ones done this yet, I thought Ewan would be all over it)
So First Impressions:
Blood! Lots of blood, how are these security guards dying? And is all this nudity really necessary?
But once the shock wears off you can really start to enjoy a classic monster-on-the-loose-in-secret-laboratory scene with limbs flying, blood spurting like no-one ever explained physics to it and a novel use for a secretary 
. Even if the whole wholesale-slaughter business isn't your thing, just try and bear with it for a few episodes, there's so much more to it!Plot:
The plot revolves around the diclonius Lucy and her polar opposite alter ego Nyu. She is found washed up on a beach by Kouta and Yuka, a fairly typical anime pair of cousins who, on finding a naked girl on a beach take her into their home without telling anyone, totally normal right?
the problems start when the "evil scientists" decide to get their test subject back, mass murder, mayhem, and excessive nudity ensue.Sound and Animation
The opening theme "Lilium" is also an important part of the plot and sets the tone well, the ending being a fairly standard rock/pop piece. The background music went well with the moods of the series but again nothing special. The animation was of a reasonable standard reds and pinks being especially prevalent, I haven't watched enough series to really contrast it though.
Characters
I had a bit of a love/hate opinion on the characters. Firstly I think the Lucy/Nyu MPD worked really well especially how she changed when confronted with violence to the sadistic and carelessly cruel Lucy and when treated with kindness to the shy, childlike but incredibly irritating Nyu. Then there's Kouta; kind, caring, forgiving but thicker than two short planks, especially when it comes to his cousin Yuka
. Yuka is Kouta's cousin and has very obvious feelings for Mr Oblivious despite the fact that they're cousins 
. joining the party are the homeless girl Mayu, the young diclonius Nana, the psychotic soldier Bando and the conflicted Dr. Kurama who really makes the series for me conclusion
A great series that deals with dark themes of sadism, brutality and segregation while exploring the results of physical and psychological torture. That said it also has a lighter comedic side, especially where Nyu is concened. I give this 4/5 It has a great plot and plenty of action but is let down by some two dimensional characters and a truly unnecessary amount of fanservice.
Original post by Mono
I'm on it Aiko though I'd have to type 24/7 to keep up with AJ
Elfen Lied
Elfen Lied
Haha, I've had a lot of free time this month, allowing me to watch a lot of anime and still have time to write about it between series (and occasionally stop to eat/sleep).
I'll probably slow down from now though, dissertation deadline is approaching and all, but I'll try not to stop completely. Great review of Elfen Lied by the way, I agree with you on most of the points... apart from the fanservice, you can never have too much!
I'm also slightly surprised nobody has reviewed it before, but I'm guessing it's because most active members have either already watched it long ago, or don't want to watch it due to the extreme content, so it hasn't been fresh enough in anybody's mind to accurately review. Yeah... I'll slow down... eventually...
Amon Saga:
PLOT: Amon is a young swordsman, who as a child witnessed his mother's murder at the hands of looters fromthe UK the Valhiss Empire. As a result, he now seeks revenge against the leader of this empire, who is also called Valhiss to confuse matters. When he hears that his enemy is recruiting new warriors, he decides to sign up in order to infiltrate Valhiss' fortress... which just happens to be on the back of a GIANT TURTLE. So far, so generic.
In order to prove themselves worthy of employment, however, the warriors who wish to join the emperor must climb rope ladders up the side of the turtle. There are only 9 ladders, and every time someone climbs one it is cut down, so it soon turns into a bloodbath - being first to start climbing only leaves you open to attacks from below, after all. Needless to say, Amon is one of the varied bunch of fighters who make up the final 9.
Meanwhile, the generic masked bad guy emperor Valhiss has set his sights on a great treasure (the Valley of Gold), but he doesn't know where it is. He knows that the royal family of Vindorana have a map though, so kidnaps the king's daughter, holding her ransom. Damsel in distress GET! Predictably, rescuing the princess becomes a side quest for Amon and a few of the other 9 who end up joining him for a variety of reasons.
Plotwise, there is nothing new here at all. An hour isn't long enough for plot or character development, so instead they focus on fitting in as much action as they can. And sometimes it's nice to just sit back and relax while watching something that requires absolutely no thinking whatsoever. While I can't give Amon Saga any points for plot, it isn't bad, it is just unoriginal.
MUSIC AND ANIMATION: 80s OVA = mostly synth. Again, hardly distinguishable from the soundtracks of most other 80s OVAs I've reviewed. There were a few nice orchestral pieces thrown in though, maybe because it's fantasy not sci-fi.
80s OVA = awesome animation, too. If you can live with the cliched premise, the character designs, backgrounds, general animation and most of the fight scenes look fantastic, and it's probably worth watching just for that. I say *most* of the fight scenes, because the battle between the mages at the end was hilariously bad... so bad it's good though, made for a good laugh.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: This probably doesn't deserve a 3.5/5, but I'll give it that anyway for sheer entertainment. Plus Norio Wakamoto voices the captain of Valhiss' army, and that's always a bonus.
Amon Saga:
PLOT: Amon is a young swordsman, who as a child witnessed his mother's murder at the hands of looters from
When he hears that his enemy is recruiting new warriors, he decides to sign up in order to infiltrate Valhiss' fortress... which just happens to be on the back of a GIANT TURTLE. So far, so generic. In order to prove themselves worthy of employment, however, the warriors who wish to join the emperor must climb rope ladders up the side of the turtle. There are only 9 ladders, and every time someone climbs one it is cut down, so it soon turns into a bloodbath - being first to start climbing only leaves you open to attacks from below, after all. Needless to say, Amon is one of the varied bunch of fighters who make up the final 9.
Meanwhile, the generic masked bad guy emperor Valhiss has set his sights on a great treasure (the Valley of Gold), but he doesn't know where it is. He knows that the royal family of Vindorana have a map though, so kidnaps the king's daughter, holding her ransom. Damsel in distress GET! Predictably, rescuing the princess becomes a side quest for Amon and a few of the other 9 who end up joining him for a variety of reasons.
Plotwise, there is nothing new here at all. An hour isn't long enough for plot or character development, so instead they focus on fitting in as much action as they can. And sometimes it's nice to just sit back and relax while watching something that requires absolutely no thinking whatsoever.
While I can't give Amon Saga any points for plot, it isn't bad, it is just unoriginal.MUSIC AND ANIMATION: 80s OVA = mostly synth. Again, hardly distinguishable from the soundtracks of most other 80s OVAs I've reviewed. There were a few nice orchestral pieces thrown in though, maybe because it's fantasy not sci-fi.
80s OVA = awesome animation, too. If you can live with the cliched premise, the character designs, backgrounds, general animation and most of the fight scenes look fantastic, and it's probably worth watching just for that. I say *most* of the fight scenes, because the battle between the mages at the end was hilariously bad... so bad it's good though, made for a good laugh.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: This probably doesn't deserve a 3.5/5, but I'll give it that anyway for sheer entertainment. Plus Norio Wakamoto voices the captain of Valhiss' army, and that's always a bonus.
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by AngryJellyfish
Great review of Elfen Lied by the way, I agree with you on most of the points... apart from the fanservice, you can never have too much! I'm also slightly surprised nobody has reviewed it before, but I'm guessing it's because most active members have already watched it long ago, or don't want to watch it due to the extreme content, so it hasn't been fresh enough in anybody's mind to accurately review.
Great review of Elfen Lied by the way, I agree with you on most of the points... apart from the fanservice, you can never have too much!
I'm also slightly surprised nobody has reviewed it before, but I'm guessing it's because most active members have already watched it long ago, or don't want to watch it due to the extreme content, so it hasn't been fresh enough in anybody's mind to accurately review. Yeah I have the feeling I've been reviewing the anime equivalents of Titanic and Lord of the Rings
I guess I'll get to the obscure stuff eventually although I'm sure you'll have already seen it
(oh and I concede the point on fanservice
)Original post by Mono
Yeah I have the feeling I've been reviewing the anime equivalents of Titanic and Lord of the Rings I guess I'll get to the obscure stuff eventually although I'm sure you'll have already seen it (oh and I concede the point on fanservice)
I guess I'll get to the obscure stuff eventually although I'm sure you'll have already seen it (oh and I concede the point on fanservice)There is definitely room in this thread for reviews of more popular mainstream series too; if anything, I imagine people would appreciate them more than the obscure things I write about, and are probably disappointed when they find out we haven't covered them yet.
That won't stop me trying to spread the word about largely unheard of anime, though. 
Ive been wanting to write more reviews but im not sure which to do. I dont feel like i can really write about some of the series ive completed more recently.
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