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Bakemonogatari was a special anime for me. While it didn't really have any stand out qualities, the whole show ended up being much more than the sum of its parts. It had some nice visuals, fun dialogue, interesting characters and plot. Maybe a dab of mystery/suspense here and maybe a few seconds of good animation there. Ultimately it was an incredibly enjoyable show that was just a blast to watch when all of its elements came together in a dizzying fashion. So you can imagine my confusion when I finished Nise only to realize that I hadn't enjoyed the show all that much. When ... I came along for this ride, I was expecting to have a damn good time, similar to all the fun I had with Bake. So what exactly went wrong with this show? A hell of a lot apparently.

The plot itself is more or less the same kind of scenario we saw in its predecessor. The biggest difference between the two however is the pacing. Bake moved along at a brisk pace, it introduced new elements quickly and broke them up with some occasional fanservice bits and exchanges of dialogue. Nise does the opposite and moves along at a snail's pace. Everything is introduced very slowly and is resolved equally as slowly. The climaxes to the story arcs didn't really evoke any particular sense of excitement in me. Which brings me to another problem, and that's the complete lack of urgency and tension. Bake had a lot of mystery and suspense in all of its arcs; it was carefully put together and enjoyable to watch unfold. Nise somehow completely forgets to introduce any sort of tension until half-way through the show and right before the climax of its first arc. Yeah Kaiki was imposing when he was introduced yet he never became a threat until a couple episodes later, the mystery surrounding him wasn't particularly well established. There was an attempt at build up with off-screen interactions between him and the supporting cast but it was all vague. So when the time came for a resolution, I came away thinking "so what?”. There's definitely a problem when you're waiting for something good to happen each episode but nothing ever does. Nise is stunted as hell, there's no real build up and whatever little characterization there is, comes in the form of isolated little moments of plot instead of a subtle constant stream of information. The storytelling is a noticeable step down, and it doesn't improve a great deal. Rather you'll always come away feeling unsatisfied and wanting something more substantial from it. It does manage to get interesting during the course of its run but it never becomes truly engaging, it teases you with some good scenes and moments but it rarely follows through.

Bake found a balance between characterization, fanservice and witty dialogue. It juggled these three elements very well, always managing to stimulate the audience with their juxtaposing. Nise does not have this balance, and looking back, it’s what made Bake as good as it was. It’s what I mean by "more than the sum of its parts". These core elements are what made the original show so much fun. Nise unfortunately decides to throw characterization out the window in favor of more sexual stimulation and dialogue with 60% less charm. I don't have a problem with fanservice but it needs to be well-implemented just like any other aspect. In Nise's case, a barrage of gratuitous fanservice every other minute doesn't really constitute as good execution. An overload on one stimulus just makes it boring when it happens again. Fanservice gets yawn-inducing fast when it’s the only aspect of note in an episode. The dialogue isn't nearly as fun as it was in Bake, it lacks the hints of characterization that was so prevalent in the conversations Araragi had with the girls. It’s like they stripped these elements of what made them good in the first place and threw 'em back in without any substance this time around. With the interesting characters playing support, they don't really offer anything to the audience besides some occasional humor and tips for Araragi. The sisters don't fill this vacuum at all, one is boring as fuck and the other is irrelevant for all intents and purposes. Ultimately this entire story is really about Araragi and his relationship with his sisters, not the sisters themselves. His soliloquies are sparse and aren't nearly as effective as they ought to be, though this is more of an execution problem with the show. There's Kaiki and Shinobu as well, and admittedly, they're pretty cool. Shinobu's bits serve as closure for Kizumonogatari so I imagine that some of its impact is lost on the viewers who haven't read the Light Novels. There's not enough of Kaiki unfortunately, he's probably the best character to come out of this and his screen time is pitifully short. Overall Nise feels like a shallow version of its predecessor, which is saying quite a bit since Bake wasn't exactly down there in the Mariana Trench either. Bake's main theme (Growth/Healing) worked on several different levels of the story and was naturally interwoven into the narrative. It felt organic and refreshing; however Nise's themes (Fake/Imitation) feel extremely superfluous. It felt as though they were clumsily thrown in, as if NisioIsn was trying far too hard to emulate the same poetry of his previous works. Ironically Nise appears to be a hollow imitation of its predecessors which in and of itself could be considered "Fake" on some level. I wouldn't put it past NisioIsin to include such nonsensical meta bullshit in his works but this one is delivered in a half-assed manner so it’s largely meaningless.

This isn't the only area where Nise falls short of Bake either; even some of the technical aspects are weaker. Yes the animation quality is much more consistently well done this time but Nise lacks flair and punch in its visuals. Many of the key staff that made Bake as good as it was are missing in Nise. People like Nobuyuki Takeuchi, Tatsuya Oishi, Toshimasa Suzuki and Shaft's own ace key animator, Ryo Imamura are not present and their absences are very noticeable. Takeuchi and Oishi contributed a hefty amount to the storyboard work; they made the visuals fairly exciting and involving, even if Bake often took the route with less animation. Nise however has less experienced people on storyboarding, so while Nise does have a fairly consistent level of animation quality, none of it is particularly fun to watch or evocative of the imagination. For example, part of the fight in episode 7 was done by Hironori Tanaka, a talented key animator. He was responsible for a good portion of the fight in episode 8 of Bake as well. One had incredibly dynamic, fast-paced and visceral animation; the other was slow, lacked any sort of momentum and was a bore to watch overall. I'll leave you to guess which one is which. The music on the other hand, is actually well done. The new OPs sung by Karen and Tsukihi's respective seiyuus are every bit as catchy and enjoyable as you'd expect from this series. Kaiki's main theme is amazing of course; the music is one of the few aspects that are on par with the other season.

Nise is a decent watch. Certainly above some many other anime but it's heavily flawed and is a clear decline from the first season. On the surface it appears to have all the same things that brought us all to love this series but lacks the gritty details. If Bake was more than the sum of its parts, Nise is in fact the opposite. Somehow its less than all of its individual elements. While some of them might indeed be great, the entire show is pulled down by sloppy writing, bad pacing, a lack of focus and an overabundance of fanservice. It feels directionless, its dialogue more meandering than subtle, its humor more reference-filled than witty, its themes more pretentious than heartfelt, and its characters more pandering-bait than people we should care about. This probably would have worked better as a short OVA series or something. Though at this point I believe Bake was a mistake on both NisioIsin's/Shaft's end and we'll probably never see the Monogatari series on that same level again. Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh but it’s annoying when people don't seem to realize what exactly it was that made a show good, especially if those people are the same ones who created the damn thing in the first place.

In its three months run, Fate/Zero has managed to amass quite the following. It dazzles the audience with its highly stylized visuals, sports a fanciful narrative and boasts a multidimensional cast of characters. It’s certainly a complete package that any anime fan will enjoy and doesn’t really require comprehensive knowledge of previous Type-Moon works to be appreciated despite what others may tell you. It’s a prequel that can stand and be valued on its own terms.

Fate/Zero is set up as a prequel and takes place 10 years before the events of Fate/Stay Night. Yet despite the continuity between these two works, they share little ... in common besides some characters and themes. The plot details a battle royale between several Magi as they fight each other to death for the Holy Grail. Each Magi comes with their Servant, a heroic spirit drawn to the power of the Grail. Everyone comes with their own motives, strengths and weaknesses and the audience plays the witness as everything comes together in a pulse-pounding an intense manner. The pacing and set-up for everything is expertly fine-tuned and executed so the entire show is very gripping from start to end. Along the way, you’ll end up hating some characters, latching onto others and developing newfound respect for otherwise despicable ones. F/Z’s cast is very well written in the sense that they have a very clear set of traits and a defined character arc that progresses in dynamic ways with respect to the other characters. More importantly though, there isn’t a clearly defined moral landscape. Many characters are very ambiguous in their motives and actions. In fact the difference between the protagonist and the antagonist is almost nonexistent at the beginning. Aside from the context of their backgrounds, Kiritsugu and Kotomine are very similar. Yet the juxtaposition and dichotomy of the two set the tone for the rest of Fate/Zero. Certainly that tone may appear to be outwardly dreary and grim, almost excessively so, but the overall nature of the show is pragmatic. Kinoko Nasu, the writer of Fate/Stay Night, used his characters as springboards for elongated scenes of philosophical contemplation. Yet that’s not present in Fate/Zero. While it is definitely a character study at heart, it’s more about character dynamics and development than introspection. Which basically means Fate/Zero has much more focus with its characters, for better or for worse. This is one of the key facets where Fate/Zero and F/SN differ greatly. I’m not saying that one is objectively better than the other; instead they’re both good but for wildly different reasons. If you’re someone who adored the technobabble elements of Nasu’s works, than you might be put off with how straight-forward everything is in F/Z. With that said, F/Z is still very solid with its narrative and cast, they intrigue and entertain the entire way through.

The structure and pacing of F/Z is a bit of a different story. The basic layout is exposition, followed by buildup and ends with a confrontation. This cycle repeats itself multiple times and follows the same basic structure of the novels, adapting it competently enough. However F/Z does trip its own feet towards the end of its run. Specifically, I’m referring to episodes ten and eleven. My thoughts go along the lines of “Goddammit ufotable, what the fuck were you thinking?”. The main problem here is that episode ten is completely out of place with the rest of the show. No there’s nothing particularly bad about the content of the episode. It’s just that something that should have been a simple side story, is stretched to the length of an entire episode. And as a result, the pacing of the show is thrown off balance. To add to this questionable decision, episode eleven on the other hand is erratically paced. One episode is too slow, not particularly engaging and has far too little development for the main plot, while the other episode is far too quick. It literally rushes through a lot of important material and gives us the short end of the stick in terms of character development and insight. It also doesn’t really give the audience time to fully digest and internalize a lot of the events that occur. To further add insult to injury, episode eleven (the one that’s actually important to the show) gets horrendous production values. And not just you’re typical QUALITY here and there; I mean an entire episode that is a clear step down from the others in terms of overall animation, art and direction. Yeah yeah, it’ll probably get “fixed” in the BD release, but I’m not reviewing the BD release now am I? Unfortunately, this little misstep sticks out like a sore thumb and just grates on my nerves like nobody’s business. This really stops me from loving the show to pieces, but oh well maybe the second season won’t make such grievous mistakes.

One of my favorite parts about Fate/Zero is the direction. It’s definitely one of the more standout shows this year, similar to Penguindrum, Idolmaster and Nichijou in terms of storyboarding and animation prowess. You get a lot of people often saying that ufotable animates their shows really well, but that’s not entirely correct. A storyboard is basically barebones key animation, a rough sketch of the scene with a summary of what the director wants the key animator to do. Back when they first started out, ufotable was a studio that put more focus on key animation than storyboards. However, somewhere down the road they shifted this focus to storyboarding, its particularly noticeable first in Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight. This change in focus really bore fruit when they started working on Kara no Kyoukai. What this means is, they started to put a lot more detail into their storyboarding. Stuff like expression changes, minute details in character movement, are very apparent in this style of storyboarding (which if I had to define, is probably slow, weighty and very precise). It’s the same style they use for Fate/Zero and the results are very good. The general composition for a shot is superb and meticulously detailed. A lot of the off-center shots it has are great for the atmosphere; it shows the audience multiple subjects within a single frame and builds immersion. What you get is a show that manages to not only hold your attention for its 23-minute duration, but really draws you into its world. The animation on the other hand, ends up playing second fiddle to storyboarding and composition work. Outside of fight scenes, the animation is rather stiff and lacking in detail. However it’s not too noticeable mainly because the framework is excellent. You’ll come across very little badly animated scenes in Fate/Zero which is certainly a complement, since most TV anime these days have a hard time keeping the quality up for just one episode. This is in part due the fact that ufotable is keeping F/Z as a complete in-house production which is very rare in the industry. The only other mainline anime studios that do this are Kyoani and Gainax (their original anime projects). An in-house production benefits from having a uniformly singular, cohesive vision that many anime don’t have the luxury of getting. The end product is very well put together and consistent in quality. The only real weak link in the overall bundle is probably the music in my opinion. I know everyone loves Kajiura and drones on and on about how great her work is, but it’s rather forgettable here. Aside from the sweeping scores that accompany fight or tense scenes, there really aren’t many standout tunes. Kara no Kyoukai benefitted from her work, but for some reason F/Z is missing strong melodic or ambient sounds, which could have greatly helped with atmosphere building. It’s wasted potential in this otherwise tight package. The voice work is top notch; stand out performances includes the entire fucking cast. I can’t think of a single character whose lines aren’t delivered with panache and emotion. It’s some of the best and most enjoyable voice work I’ve heard in quite a long time and if I really had to choose just one performance, it’d be Jouji Nakata. Behold everyone; THIS is how you breathe life into a villain.

Fate/Zero is definitely of the better shows to come out this year. It’s not necessary to be a Type-Moon buff to enjoy it; in fact it’s probably one of more accessible works out of the Nasuverse. People might say that watching Fate/Zero before F/SN will ruin the whole thing but honestly, it doesn’t really matter. Both can function as a starting point in the series, Fate/Zero is written to be a sufficient gateway as well. Many people seem to forget that Nasu and Butch wrote the novels with this in mind. So go for it, you really can’t go wrong with an anime like this. The best part about this show is that it doesn’t even cover the best parts of the novel, so we have quite the second season ahead of us.

Way back at the turn of the century a short OVA series was released that went by the name “Trava”. It was a quirky series that was noted mostly for its visual style. The think bold shadows and lines were very much not unlike those of a comic book and it sported some very interesting and experimental animation. It was co-directed by Takeshi Koike, who instead of going on to direct some more anime seemingly stuck in the background and directed bits and pieces of animation here and there. More specifically, he was also behind the Afro Samurai promo, a section of the Animatrix and ... Iron Man’s pilot. All of them had the same style as Trava, thick and bold shadows and incredibly stylistic animation. While it appeared that Koike wasn’t heavily involved in the industry, in reality Madhouse had went ahead and turned his work on the second set of Trava OVAs into a full feature length film. And so Redline came into existence, complete with different main characters and plot, however taking place in the same continuity as Trava.

Redline’s story won’t raise any eyebrows. What will raise eyebrows is how it’s told. Redline doesn’t aim to woo the audience with its writing; however it does use its visuals to make the plot sincere and engaging. The plot is also pretty retro and it’s a callback to anime in the late 80s and 90s with its sci-fi setting and crazy character designs. This is reflected in every aspect of the movie, from its themes to romance and even the fanservice. This isn’t by sheer coincidence either, the old-school style is there to remind people of a time when anime was built solely on the sweat and tears of the animators and staff, when anime was just taking off and was a lot less commercial than it is now. Although Redline does nod its head to its predecessors, it never completely wallows in nostalgia either. It boldly stands on the shoulders of giants saluting the past yet painting the way forward for the medium, taking risks and daring steps forward. It may not amount to anything more than a pipe dream in the end but its stride is more than enough to inspire complete and utter glee from the audience.

The single most important factor and noticeable aspect of Redline is without a doubt its animation. Anybody can tell you that after watching 20 seconds of footage. So what exactly makes Redline’s animation so special? Well for one, it’s nearly animated entirely on 1s i.e about 24 drawings/frames every second. You don’t see this in many anime movies let alone TV anime, the animation itself is on the same level as Akira, Satoshi Kon flicks and Studio Ghibli movies. However unlike these movies, the animation is VERY stylized almost to the point where the subjects can look horrendously off-model but all of it has a point. The name of Redline’s game is speed, and that’s something it portrays very well, better than any live-action movie, better than any book and better than any video game. Redline is a revelation, it shows us why 2D animation isn’t obsolete compared to its 3D counterpart and most of all; it’s a towering triumph for animation as a form of storytelling. The animation tells the story in Redline, from the visceral car/mecha porn fights to the more subtle moments of romance and characterization. This movie doesn’t achieve all of this through exposition nor monologues and not even the cast. And yes, plenty of anime have done this before but Redline really drives home the power of animation and how it can be used to really enhance the experience. More importantly, could Redline be possible as a live action work? No, it only works in the medium it was created for. It’s not really possible to brush aside the visuals for this movie nor is it possible to say its all style and no substance. The style is the substance in this case; Redline is all about the visuals as a vehicle for storytelling and in that sense you can’t really talk about Redline’s story without also addressing the animation, mainly because they are so tightly knit together. There a certain art to delivering cheesy popcorn entertainment to the audience and Redline does it the same way many landmark works before did it, by showing the audience instead of telling them, by raw energy instead of robotic puppeteering. I can’t stress the importance of what Redline is trying to do and how it’s trying to do it. It’s a visionary piece of work that restates the strengths of 2D animation and plays exclusively to its tune. It’s uniformly the Akira of this generation in terms of influence it’ll propagate over the industry. The only real difference is the environment in which both movies were released and Redline comes at a time where its presence stands out all the stronger compared to all of its peers. The audio design is fantastic as well, the cars themselves on nitro often sound like jets, which really goes a long way into convincing the audience of the speed and momentum each vehicle has. The crashes and explosions are gratuitous and glorious and the soundtrack is techno. Not the hipster kind but the UNTZ kind, the music is tailor-made to pump up the audience and like the animation, is there to enhance the experience.

The technicalities of the animation are also very impressive. The movie was 7 years in production, 2-3 in pre-production (storyboards and planning) and 4 of actual animation. The amount of care and effort into this project is plainly obvious upon viewing the final product, the complexity of the storyboard, the rich and detailed animation and the energetic audio design. The staff involved is even more impressive, ranging from talent like Gainax’s own Hiroyuki Imashi, all the way to grizzled veterans like Shinya Ohira. The animation in this movie is a culmination of the evolution Japanese animation has undergone over the past few decades and the results are dazzling. This is juxtaposed thematically in the movie as well. In the beginning of the movie, we are told that only “fools” with vanishing spirit continue to race in cars, which is acknowledged as a dying sport because of all the superior technology out there. This is commentary on 2D animation in general and the racers are very much alike to the animators who work in a medium that is becoming less and less appreciated over time. If you want to take it a step further, Sonoshee, the heroine is a symbol of inspiration and chasing dreams while the hero JP is symbolic of the audience themselves, smitten with the wonders of racing (animation) as a youngster and forever chasing a dying ideal out of romanticism and passion. This movie isn’t “deep” by any stretch of the word but if it had a message, I’d say it was simply trying to inspire the audience, daring them to dream for so much more.

Redline isn’t really the product of a bygone era, but more like the product of its immediate surroundings. It can entertain on any level and really, it’s a wonder just to behold it as the visuals and sound completely and utterly assault your every senses while you sit in awe for an hour and forty minutes. Even if you don’t really appreciate animation all that much, you can still take away a lot of enjoyment from the movie because in the end its just one hell of a ride that really needs to be experienced by oneself.

Prior to the initial airing of [C], I was really hyped for it because the director attached to it was Kenji Nakamura. Other notable anime on his resume were Mononoke and Trapeze (Kuchuu Buranko) and both were really good anime. They were eccentric, visually stunning, well executed pieces of animation. Most importantly it really highlighted Nakamura’s diversity as a director since Mononoke was at heart a mystery series with slight horror elements and Trapeze was an eccentric comedy about people with mental disorders. The only real element they shared was a sense of surreality. Then we got rumors of [C]: The Money of Soul and ... Possibility Control, a supposed anime that dealt with topics related to the state of the current economy in a battle anime-esque way. This was totally the kind of anime I thought Nakamura would direct since the premise sounded fresh and original and it was in the noitaminA timeslot which basically meant that the concept of the show wouldn’t be gutted in favor of appealing to a broader audience. The only real notable difference here was that the production studio was Tatsunoko, where Mononoke and Trapeze were done by Toei. I didn’t really think this would be a big factor in the larger scheme of things so I brushed it aside and began getting immensely hyped. And at the end of this little rainbow all I ended up with was a pot of bitter disappointment and frustration. [C] doesn’t fall short of Mononoke or Trapeze, it runs off a cliff and gets impaled on the rocks below. Not only is it disappointing in that regard but it doesn’t even manage to have many redeeming aspects, if any at all.

Now let’s deal with the least offensive part of [C] and that’s the plot. The premise involves a student named Yoga trying to tough out the hard times and getting through life in an economy that seems to working against everyone. Cutting corners to save costs, working multiple jobs and getting good grades on top of that, yeah none of us are ever really ready to deal with the hurdles that comes with pursuing tertiary education after high school. Let’s not even deal with romance and finding a girlfriend/boyfriend in addition. This is one of the few things [C] does right and that’s creating an initially relatable main character that the audience can sympathize with. Unfortunately that’s where the good things stop with [C], the premise and the first episode is probably the best part of the show and I’m not kidding at all. We then get to the meat of the story and that involves a magical dimension in the middle of the city called the “Financial District” where people fight out battles called “Deals” with pokem-err I mean“Assets”. If they win they get some Midas Money and if they lose, their future disappears. Now in terms of actual plot, [C] has a bunch of pacing issues and a narrative that goes nowhere until the last couple of episodes. Everything the audience needs to know is given to us in the first two episodes and the driving force of the plot only shows up at the end. There’s a good flashback episode in the middle but that’s pretty much character related. You have a good chunk of the middle which revolves around Yoga fighting other people and their story but ultimately none of this stuff ever adds anything to the narrative. You could argue that they’re there to characterize Yoga but that’s pointless since Yoga doesn’t grow as a character throughout the show. They play on the redundant “What am I fighting for/What do I want to protect” theme that nearly every anime arbitrarily slaps on to characters they don’t know what to do with. There’s also a concurrent plotline that deals with Yoga’s dad but even that is done in a half-assed way. You have Yoga agonizing over several episodes on why his dad supposedly abandoned his family when the whole goddamn answer is so obvious in the first place. The way Yoga treats it as an epiphany is even more annoying, really why would a father ever fight to win money? COULD IT POSSIBLY BE BECAUSE OF HIS FAMILY? But nah that answer is too high-brow for the audience, might as well pad it out for a couple of episodes. It’s such lazy way of delivering a frankly boring plot point anyway especially since Yoga doesn’t learn anything from it. To make things even worse, Yoga never ends up doing anything on his own accord. Even at the end, he’s fighting because someone else told him to, not because he reached that answer himself. That’s the problem of creating a character based on a motive like “Protecting something” without any real elaboration. Yoga comes off as nothing but the standard battle shounen lead except it’s played completely straight. He’s barely a character on his own and whatever possibilities there are initially end up being completely wasted.

Speaking of other major characters, the only other remotely interesting one is the series antagonist, Mikuni. He contrasts Yoga’s blind sheep idealism with a stark amount of pragmatism. He drives all the action in the plot and has the most characterization out of the entire cast. Honestly I believe that [C] was initially written with Mikuni as the main character instead of Yoga, yet in order to make the anime more appealing they had to shoehorn a younger character in because lol anime. If you check out some of the groundwork on [C], most of the concept art and notes focus on Mikuni. On the other hand Msyu, Masakaki and Jennifer are just walking archetypes with one gimmick they play over and over again in place of actual characterization. The only other memorable supporting characters are the professor and the charity worker but they’re only around for an episode and again, they don’t add anything to overall narrative. This is a problem since the show has an overarching plot yet it tries to be almost episodic and these different narrative structures clash horribly. Generally the writing is the definition of mediocre. It’s got some good ideas, but never elaborates on them and whatever aspects it does elaborate on are wholly uninteresting. Also there is virtually no economics in this anime, unless you count naming attacks “Micro, Macro or Mezzo” economics related. It tries to use this angle to cover up just how shallow the entire battles are. There’s a bit with hyperinflation at the end yet it doesn’t make any sense in the context it’s used in. If you’re expecting something like Spice & Wolf, don’t bother since [C] uses fantasy economics because it’s a battle anime that fails at making any relevant or meaningful social commentary.

Possibly the most damning aspect of [C] is the animation, composition and general scene layout. Even if [C] has some lackluster and boring writing, it still could have been a decent watch if the visual fidelity was on the level of the Nakamura’s previous works. Yet in the end, [C] had some of the worst cinematography I’ve seen in an anime in quite a while. The cuts and composition for each scene are not just bland or boring, they’re awkward and jarring. You have a cut of Yoga and Msyu fighting someone else and we’re getting to the climactic end yet THE FUCKING SHOW DECIDES TO CUT AWAY AT THE LAST MOMENT AND PROCEDES TO SHOW THE AFTERMATH. Really. Now yes, this style was used in Mononoke and Trapeze but it had significance there. The jarring cuts in those shows were there to play off of their quirky and artsy visual style AND most importantly they built tension in Mononoke (because it had strong mystery and horror aspects) and those same cuts really magnified the surrealism and comedy in Trapeze. It has no place being in [C], because this anime’s composition is incredibly plain. You’ll have cuts of Yoga walking across the street yet we see it cut to him being on one side, in the middle than at the other side with not much animation in between. It has no meaning and it’s obviously there to hide whatever shoestring budget this anime was made on. Truthfully Mononoke and Trapeze didn’t have great animation either yet they hid that with clever scene layouts, angles and composition. Mononoke for example still had some breathtaking cuts that were animated beautifully. Just compare the last five minutes of its fifth episode to all of [C], the difference is like night and day. Not only that but [C]’s animation is genuinely terrible, the laughable running cut in the first fight should tip you off, or rather smack you over the head with it. All the fights have bad animation; I cannot understand why they would want to make a battle show if they didn’t want to spend money on it. There were some cuts done by notable animators such as Sushio and Ryochimo but in the end their cuts only exemplified how bad the scene layouts and storyboards were. Even their animation didn’t make any of the fights more interesting or exciting. Ironically enough, it seems all the good animation was saved for the final episode and while it’s alright, it still doesn’t excuse the utter mediocrity of the other 10 episodes.

To top it all off, [C] has some atrocious aesthetics. The character designs are bland and uninspired, and the color palette clashes with the CGI work (incredibly frustrating since Mononoke had just as much CGI but the difference was that [C]’s is a fucking pink elephant in the room). You have entire cuts that are done in CGI, even the characters and it sticks out like a sore thumb. There really is no excuse for such poor visual fidelity, it’s fairly obvious that Tatsunoko did not give Nakamura the creative liberty he had with his previous works and they also gave him a pretty bad staff to work with. The musical score is non-existent except for in the last couple of episodes and the voice-work only makes the characters more lifeless than they already are.

So after all those bitter tears, is [C] worth watching? No, especially if you’re watching this because of Nakamura. I admit, I’m being biased against it because I had lofty expectations yet [C] never becomes anything more than mediocre in all of its 11 episodes. The writing is contradictory, the visuals are horrible, and so it doesn’t really do anything that deserves praise. If you want an intelligent fighting anime, you’re not gonna find it here. Hell if you want something quirky and Nakamura-esque, you’ll definitely leave this anime with a bad taste in your mouth.

Madoka! An anime that has gotten tons of hype before its initial airing, even more hype once it started, and said hype went through multiple figurative roofs after everyone had watched the first three episodes. Truly this anime has become a phenomena and its just as interesting to watch everyone clamor around it as much as watching the show itself. A little context first though, a while back everyone was whispering about a possible Shaft Mahou Shoujo project with Akiyuki Shinbou attached as the director. In of itself, it wasn't too eyebrow-raising asides from the fact that Shinbou had directed the first season of Nanoha ... (another Mahou Shoujo series that subverts a lot of the genre's tropes). Nope nobody was really interested until it was revealed that Gen Urobuchi was doing the writing and series composition, Ume Aoki was doing the original character designs and Yuki Kajiura was composing the music. Ignoring Kajiura and Shinbou, simply mentioning that Urobuchi and Aoki were attached was absolutely baffling. I mean one is famed for his grimdark writing style and the other is known for her disgustingly cute drawing style, it doesn't really take a genius to figure out that this anime would be something different. So the hype machine took off and here we are months later all caught up in the veritable frenzy this anime has left in its wake week after week. Does it deserve all the love and the praise it gets? Let's see!

Gen Urobuchi is known for a lot of crap, mostly for being one of the writers for Nitroplus and by proxy the brains behind Saya no Uta (a Visual Novel). Now if you haven't read it, I strongly recommend you do. It isn't particularly long so take a few hours out of your schedule and just read through the whole thing in one sitting. You'll thank me for it later. I'm mentioning this because there are a lot of similarities between SnU and Madoka, particularly in the overall themes that are presented in both works. The particular things I'm looking for are mainly subversion and corruption/perversion, which Madoka is rife with. Urobuchi's style really shines when he takes something that is considered sacred and paints in a horrific manner. In this case, he's taking Mahou Shoujo and painting it in the same colors or...dementia he used to paint SnU. Now don't get me wrong, Madoka isn't good because it's a piece of dark fiction, but because its a well-written piece of dark fiction. A lot people get too caught up in its grittiness and play up on how its a revolutionary anime because its DARK AND BROODING. But that's not really the case, it's more like Urobuchi's inherent style melds so well with the genre he's working in. Mahou Shoujo already some entries that take darker approaches to its cliches (the aforementioned Nanoha) and its even got some good deconstructions (Revolutionary Girl Utena and the second half of Princess Tutu). What Madoka does is twisting the guts of the genre only to to pull out every organ slowly and concisely, getting its hands completely bloody in the process while showing the audience the rotted flesh in its hands. It's plot follows the generic magical girl fight monsters scenario but the actual execution is very different. So much so that it gives off a distinctly different vibe from even the triple A anime in this category.

A good story generally is split up into 3 different Acts, the first is setting the stage, and the third is climax and resolution. The dramatic question comes up in the first act which is pretty much the goal the protagonist must achieve by the third act, and the second is about the protagonist doing what they must to answer the dramatic question. The importance of all that highbrow BS is simply that Madoka has a completely different dramatic question compared to the norm of the genre. In Mahou Shoujo or even Fighting Shounen, the protagonist gets power of some sort of power in the beginning and is asked by the plot whether they can/will defeat/save/restore something of importance. The question posed to Madoka is "Will you become a Puella Magi (Magical Girl)?". First things first, we know by definition that if this is the dramatic question, than we know for sure that we won't see Madoka become a Magical Girl half-way through the series or anytime soon for that matter. We know damn well that its going to part of the climax. Dramatic questions usually force the protagonist to be proactive: to change themselves so they are better equipped to tackle the question. Madoka's as you guessed, commands more a reactionary response. This in turn changes the focus to inwards instead of outwards so its fair to say that this is a primarily character-driven anime. Now that's not to say that the plot remains on the backburner for most of show, in contrary it keeps going with or without Madoka driving it. In that regard, both plot and characters are well done, and one isn't really sacrificed for the other. Both work together concisely to drive the experience home.

One thing Madoka manages to pull off consistently well is the feeling of uncanniness through out the entire show. In good horror/thriller stories, fear is either presented to the audience in three ways: through the "self", through "uncanniness" and and through the "other". Madoka employs all three to startling good effects. The "self" aspect really brings out the psychological aspect of the characters, its the parts where they sit down and sort of think aloud to themselves accentuating their thought-process and presenting it to the audience. This happens a lot, and more importantly each character has their own monologue. Its effective because the girls really convey their own fears to the audience and not only that but a lot of that fear is something most of us can relate to. The "other" is basically the unknown and things that we cannot understand. For example, all witch scenes and FX that are done by Genkidan Inu Curry. These scenes are very surreal and abstract which is meant to evoke an otherworldly feeling. Or better yet, Kyubey is a very good personification of the "other" simply because the audience cannot understand him or his actions with human perceptions and concepts. The final piece is the uncanny, or the feeling that something is slightly off. This is the one horror aspect that is present in Madoka all the time and its there to unsettle the viewer. Its not the direct kind of "Boo" horror, but its a more subtle variety which is designed to peeve the audience and to keep them thinking about it long after they've stopped watching. In this anime, there's always something off, and it really adds a lot to the atmosphere. And if I had to pick only one good thing about Madoka, its the atmosphere. Its essentially draped over the viewer like an enormous blanket and can very well become almost suffocating at times. Its something that made Silent Hill 2, and in my opinion also becomes the driving force behind Madoka. Its the one quality that really separates from it from other good anime and pushes it up there with the best of the best.

The music is really incredible and is probably my favorite soundtrack composed by Yuki Kajiura. The tracks are very beautiful and melodious, and also border on haunting at times. I really cannot describe how important the music is, because it really is the atmosphere at times. If you were to take the soundtrack away from Madoka, it would substantially worsen the final product. It really just draws the audience into itself and the show. While in some other anime the music can be mediocre and even forgettable, over here its absolutely pivotal. The audio design is also great, the right tracks and used at the right moments and are always in sync with the direction or composition of a scene. One thing I'd like to bring attention to is the script which I actually liked a lot. There's not much filler in the dialogue nor are there any meaningless lines. All of it is put to good use which is really pretty rare to see, most anime these days are rarely efficient with the allocation of lines or script writing. Shaft is especially a bit lenient with this quality and most of the dialogue in their anime can be rather gratuitous at times.

However if Madoka can be criticized for anything in its presentation, its definitely the animation. The art style itself is good and contrasts heavily with the subject matter, but the animation often leaves something to be desired. While there are some good action scenes and generally the animation fidelity is actually much higher than in other Shaft anime, it's still a bit choppy. There are also a bunch of art errors in every episode (Meduka Meguca anyone?). This does get better as it goes a long, and its apparent that Shaft saved much of the animation budget for later episodes which do look very impressive from an animation stand point (espeically episode 10, GoHands helped out with that one). Hopefully if Shaft ever decides to do a sequel, they'll budget this appropriately and save up all the money, hookers and blow made from the Madoka BD sales.

Overall, Madoka is one the best anime to come out in a few years. It's not based off of a manga which is based off of a light/visual novel, it's not a fanservice-ridden sack of crap, its not utterly and completely generic and most importantly its a big breath of fresh air compared to a lot of the anime that have come out recently. If you're not out to hate it the second you start watching, than you should be able to take away a lot of enjoyment from it because like I said in the beginning, it's a hell of a ride. To all the people who have already seen it, I strongly recommend just marathoning the entire series again after a couple months. Because honestly, Madoka will be an entirely different beast when marathoned compared to being watched weekly. The atmosphere practically begs the audience to watch the entire thing in one go and it'll definitely be an experience worth the trouble. For all those who haven't watched it yet, what exactly are you waiting for? More importantly, why are you reading reviews instead of watching this anime? It's a no-brainer, don't make me beg you all to watch it.

Star Driver has been one hell of a polarizing anime since day 1. Some people were initially on board because it looked like a throw-back to old school mecha. Some watched it because it looked like a full on parody of 90's anime with the ridiculous nature of the show combined with the over-the-top style. And even more watched it because it was penned by the same guy who did the composition for Revolutionary Girl Utena, Yoji Enokido. Yet when the credits rolled at the end of episode 25, it was obvious to me and to anyone who stuck with the show that Star Driver ... was its own beast so to speak. It incorporated elements of the things I mentioned above yet it never really followed through with any one idea. Surely a mish-mash of these ideas would create schizophrenic anime which tries to do everything and succeeds at nothing, correct? Any other circumstance, I'd tell all of you yes, because there's absolutely no way an anime like that could ever be good. Yet against all odds, I found myself enjoying Star Driver more and more as the weeks went along until I reached the startling conclusion that hey, Star Driver was good! Not just good but pretty damn awesome and compelling! I wrapped my brain around why I was enjoying it so much, when virtually every aspect of the show was working against it. I mean what kind of anime has the audacity to take itself seriously when the main character's title is "Galactic Pretty Boy"? The answer is: Star Driver, an anime that somehow manages to pull it all off, and pulls it off with a healthy dosage of fabulousity.

SD's story isn't really something out of the ordinary. A secret organization made up of high schoolers are bent on taking over the world with giant robots that are sealed in a pocket of space/time while some random Mary Sue shows up to thwart them with his own ridiculous giant robot while sporting an equally ridiculous costume and Mahou Shoujo-esque transformation scene. While this is the basic premise of SD (and pretty much every episode), many people will think it gets repetitive pretty soon (and believe me, it does). So why would anyone like it? Well my answer is derived solely from one aspect of the show and that's primarily the subtlety of the execution. The subtle way exposition is fed to the audience, the subtle way characters are presented and written, it makes for a really compelling style. Its one of aspects that made Utena as good and popular as it was. Now I know BONES' anime have a notorious reputation of not holding the audience's hand at all when it comes to story-telling and much of it becomes read in-between the lines or not addressed at all. Star Driver also does this, but only to a degree. It's not so vague that it becomes frustrating but its mysterious enough to compel the audience to continue watching. It gives the audience a chance to think about the plot and characters by themselves and tactfully delivers the answers later at an appropriate time. This is a grand form of storytelling not because the story itself is good but mainly because of the way its presented. Unfortunately while the storytelling borders on masterful, there are some really annoying pacing problems with the whole package. Case in point, most people will drop this in the first 5 or so episodes. I wouldn't blame them because the show has very weak start, where characters are very slowly introduced and the show pretty much relies on the mecha fights to carry it for 20 minutes. Didn't help that the fights were usually only 1-2 minutes long. It slowly builds itself up and it really gets better after episode 7 but I can't really look favorably at the beginning since it could have played up the shows strength which is characterization instead of lolhijinks and boring-as-hell mecha fights. The show also drags towards the end which is honestly baffling to me since there was plenty of material they could have used to make things interesting. Yup, around the end it sort of reverts back to the formula used at the beginning, but thankfully gets its shit together and ends on a strong note.

Now like I said earlier, SD's characters are its strongest point. Even when nothing but high school antics are happening on the screen, there is a sense that everything that happens has some meaning behind it. So when characters often start talking about inane or seemingly pointless topics, it can turn out to be euphemism or a metaphor that has relevance to the plot. Now I don't mean all the antics and comedy have some ulterior theme to them, sometimes there really are comedy scenes to make the audience laugh but more often then not, you'll be thinking about some lines of dialogue long after they've been said. This brings me to another element that SD does really well and that's character interactions. Instead of long flashbacks about something or other, character's personalities are revealed through the way they act around each other, especially when the tone becomes serious. And these are probably the best parts of the show, Sugata's conflict with Takuto, Mizuno general interactions with her sister, Kanoko's demeanor and attitude towards the Glittering Crux and Wako's internal struggle between Takuto and Sugata are all great. Even more impressive is the fact that SD goes out of it's way to characterize minor characters as well as major characters. You can probably argue that Takuto himself is the Mary Sue and isn't characterized worth shit but at the same time you could probably write papers on how his real personality is implied in juxtaposition of the Mary Sue front he shows to all the characters and even the audience. Hell you could even write an essay on how his first phase ability makes him the main character of the show with his catch-phrase "Dazzling the stage" as proof of how meta things can appear. It doesn't go as far as Utena does but it certainly isn't a slouch slouch in that regard.

As per all BONES anime, the art and animation is done very well. There are loads of awesome sakuga cuts for all the animation fans out there. Generally the fights can be very repetitive with Takuto winning all the time but the animation can make them very exciting sometimes. It doesn't happen too often since I can count the number of times where everything aligns on one hand but when the art, animation, plot and music are all synched in excellence, it becomes very awesome. But be warned, this isn't really an anime where the mecha fights are the most important part of the show, most of the backlash towards the beginning happened because the mecha bits were actually the worst parts. Mostly because the fights are nothing more than a tool for characterization in the end and you're enjoyment of it will revolve around how much you care for the character that fights Takuto. I won't say the mecha aspect is downright terrible, but I honestly think they could have better implemented the Cybody fights to coincide more with the plot than the characters. Some of the best episodes in the show don't even have any fights in them. The sound on the other hand is really good and is strong throughout the show. SD has some of the best insert songs I've heard in quite a while (like Monochrome) and uses them very efficiently. The other tracks manage to keep up with the vocal ones as well, so its not like the rest of the OST is bleh in comparison. The voice work is also typically good, the best performances come from Jun Fukuyama as Sugata, Ayano Niina as Kanako and Akira Ishida as Head. Can't say I'm not sick of Mamoru Miyano after watching a lot of animu but he pulls off Takuto's happy-go-lucky attitude well enough and still manages to convey his more serious moments with the appropriate tension.

Star Driver really turned out to be that one show you liked but couldn't really point out why. Kudos to all those people who stuck with it through thick and thin, god knows it tried our patience many times. But for all its apparent shortcomings like derp pacing, flaky mecha moments and wasted potential, it still manged to be one hell of an anime, and a great ride. I'll definitely miss the Saturdays where I stayed up all night into the wee hours of Sunday morning discussing the newest episode and whatnot. If you haven't watched it, I recommend really pushing through those first couple episodes because they're not the best this anime has to offer. Star Driver offers a really unique experience that I haven't seen in much-if any anime, so I strongly recommend it.

oh and

(ﾉゝ∀･)~キラ☆ KIRABOSHI!

because it had to be done.

ah Panty & Stocking, probably one of the most controversial shows from Gainax in quite a while, and since they made good ol' Evangelion, that's saying quite a bit. P&SwG at heart is a love-letter/parody/pastiche/you name it/ to/of Western pop culture. Filled to the brim with toilet humor, references, asinine plot elements and even more inane characters, it's like I sat down to watch some animu and ended up watching something on Adult Swim/Comedy Central. Is it a show everyone can enjoy? Definitely not, it's pretty much cut right down in the middle between lovers: people who absolutely adore it and everything it stands ... for, and haters; people who wonder how this show even managed to crawl its way out of the depraved minds of the people who thought this insanity up. Will you enjoy it? You can probably just watch the first 2 minutes or so of the first episode and decide whether its an anime for you or not. Unlike many other shows, Panty & Stocking won't win over the people who didn't like it in the later episodes, but at the same time it will not alienate the people who originally liked it when it started up. It doesn't make any compromises and sticks to its guns through thick and thin. Still it's not possible to write off all the flaws simply because its different, nor is it possible to write off the show entirely for its presentation. It can be looked at through an *GASP* objective point of view despite being absurdity-incarnate.

Let's start with the art and animation. It's been stated maaany times before, but the art is a fusion of the classic PowerPuff Girls and Dead Leaves with a tinge of South Park thrown in for good measure. The result? A wildly memorable art design and a slick sense of style. Yes they look like something out of a Western cartoon but that's definitely not a bad thing in my book, rather it makes the whole thing stick out from the rest of the generic shit that gets pumped out year after year. Gainax being the enormous fanboys of Western culture as they are, shamelessly throw in god-knows how many references to cartoons such as Courage the Cowardly Dog, Samurai Jack and even Ren & Stimpy. In this regard, I'd consider PSG to be quite the innovation at least in its art and content, something that hasn't been seen in Japan since well.....ever. Not that its the first of its kind, Dead Leaves had tread this ground years ago, and Gainax has always been doing wacked out stuff for as long as its been in the business. Nevertheless, PSG still manages to be fresh and bold with its simplistic and outrageous artstyle.

The animation...oh lord where to begin...

I can imagine it now, right when Hiroyuki Imaishi had the brain fart that created this travesty. He rounded up all of the giants among Gainax's in-house animators and proposed to them PSG's premise and let them off their leashes. Yup, similar to Parallel Works, we've had just about every notable animator over at Gainax giving their shot at PSG, even getting some notable freelancers such Ryotimo and Hironori Tananka to do some directing and animating. Basically they all got together, circle-jerked onto some paper and called it animation. The result is JEEBUS CUHRISHT GLORIOUS!!!!!111!!1! Easily some of the most colorful, high-frame, excellently directed and cut animation I've seen all year. Half the freaking hype for this show came from the sakugafags who were frothing at the mouth just thinking about the prospective animation staff for the next episode. I take my hat off to Gainax, they really do a good job with the animation and never fail to disappoint in this category in their original works. A special note for the CGI work that was done, especially in episodes 6, 10 and 13. Its the single most impressive implementation of 3D with 2D animation I've ever seen. Obviously Gainax is known to work some magic with 3D animation but they really outdid themselves here. I didn't even notice how many of the car-on-car action scenes were 3D until someone pointed it out, it's THAT good! The only other anime I can think of that has animators going crazy this year is probably Tatami Galaxy (another great anime worth checking out).

The sound needs no real praise from me since its been universally praised to hell and back. I'm jumping on the bandwagon and saying that its equally as excellent as the visual design. All the tracks that get played are memorable and that's definitely something worth commending. The techno is FABULOUS~ and really accentuate the whimsical nature of the show. All the tracks are overflowing with energy, hell I catch myself singing some of songs under my breath everyone now and then. The OST comes out on the 29th, so get your wallets/piratin into gear, it'll be one helluva an OST to remember. Fly away now~, Fly away now~, FLY AWAY!~
On a similar note, all the voice actors/actresses did a terrific job with the script (or lack of). What I really enjoyed is the fact that Panty & Stocking themselves had very unique voices despite me having heard the same VAs in different roles. A shout out to all the Engrish that went into this show, it made some of the scenes hysterical (looking at the zombie episode in particular!), ah the Japanese cussing in Engrish, it truly never gets old.

Now lets wind this down and come to some of the problems I had with the show concerning the characters and plot. "Plot" he says? "Character" he says? "In PSG" he says? Yeah I'm off my rocker but hear me out for a second. PSG is structured like most Western cartoons in that it's split into mini-episodes into the 24-minute run. So in reality most episodes were about 11 minutes in length, 2 per airing. So each episode has a radically different director, storyboard, and content to it. What does create? You named it, a rather large fluctuation in quality and a lack of consistency. Don't get me wrong, this style is largely what made PSG so different in the first place and its probably PSG's greatest strength. This structure allows for each director to be experimental and that's arguably what makes up PSG's strongest episodes. Episodes like "Vomiting Point", "Nothing to Room" and "Once Upon a Time in Garterbelt" are examples of this, and what a haphazard style of directing can create. On the flip side, its also its biggest weakness as this style can create episodes with little to no direction and lack of coherence, episodes like "The Runny", "If Angels wore Swimsuits" and segments of "Chuck to the Future" are examples of the latter. Nonsensical events and shenanigans is what this show is about and is good at. It works up till a certain degree, until it becomes too much and stale.Which is why plot and direction become exceedingly important, it keeps things moving and changes everything up, maintaining a firm grip on the audience's attention. Consider episode 6 "Les Diaboliques". It was a perfect mesh of good sound design and appropriate tracks at the right times, awesome animation during the climax and subsequent fights, a balance between crazy and well-written humor (RUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRs anyone?), and just enough direction and plot intrigue (the introduction of the Demon Sisters). Best of all, I didn't feel that they sacrificed anything in favor of the madness that made up such a large part of previous episodes. Rather this madness was still there but actually had rhyme and reason to it now. Thinking back to it, IMO its the best episode of any anime this year. A great example of what could (and could not be) done with this show.

Fast-forward to the finale, and I was absolutely ecstatic at what was going to happen after what episode 12 had set-up. This would be episode 6 but a much larger scale right? Going back to the idea that PSG needed to strike a balance between its more absurd qualities and a more tried-and-true approach, it makes it all the more frustrating to see them find that balance as demonstrated in episode 6 only to get lost in their own cesspool of ideas during the finale. It wasn't bad by any stretch of the word but it was underwhelming compared to what episode 6 had accomplished before it. Without any coherence, everything was just a whole load of Gainax animators animating their insanity before I could properly register the hell I ended up watching. I can only remember awesome bits and pieces that happened in 13, if you asked me describe the whole episode in detail, I'd be hard-pressed to think of a proper synopsis. In effect, the whole thing was a blur to me, in contrast I can pretty much describe all the scenes in episode 6 quite well. That sums up my gripes with PSG, a lack of consistency (which could not have been avoided given its structure) and a lack of proper direction (could have been dealt with). Its nice to see all the Gainax animators working up a frenzy to create some mind-blowing material but sometimes it really ends up being their own scribbles.

And a final mention of the last two minutes, those moments were just Gainax being so unabashedly Gainax that it was truly a sight to behold (we don't get much of that these days so cherish it!). I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't get a second season since this is Gainax we're talking about but I'd absolutely love to see more. Despite my personal feelings on the subject, this show was a breath of fresh air and reminded me how much fun anime could be. Yeah it could have been better, but than again, it was already incredibly entertaining and charming (never thought I'd use that word to describe this anime) to begin with.

When They Cry 3, dubbed Umienko no Naku Koro Ni is considered the spiritual sequel to Higurashi (direct in my opinion). Like Higurashi, its a mystery/thriller but with more emphasis on the mystery aspect. The state of affairs for the adaptions of the Umineko Visual Novel are pretty damn messy at the moment. There's the anime, which is a godawful piece of crap that's worth no one's time. Than there are the manga adaptions which are still being published. Simultaneously no less. Needless to say, it can get pretty confusing but that's what this review is for.

The premise is typical stuff for a murder mystery. ... The Ushiromiya family has an annual get together on the island of Rokkenjima. Of course while they're staying there, a storm comes a long and the next thing you know, half the people on the island are dead. Than its adopts the classic whodunit angle and we've got ourselves a run of the mill mystery. Except Umineko is anything but run of the mill, but I'll get to that later. The protagonist is none other than good ol' Battler, who's fairly silly, perverted and has a pretty good sense of humor. He's also very level headed and has a knack for thinking in a logical manner. All of this is integral to the story but it might not be so obvious as to why at first. Now an important detail to know is that Episode 1: Legend of The Golden Witch, is fairly different from the other 3 episodes. It has a completely different mood and tone from the others because the point of it is to establish characters and pose some initial questions to the readers. You can look at it as a long prologue of sorts, as the real story begins in Episode 2.

That's not to say that its bad by any means, on the contrary, episode 1 is a very good stand alone story that sells its mystery quite well. The suspense is excellent and a lot of the murders will leave the readers scratching their heads. Of course its all presented in a textbook fashion but considering what it has to work with at first, it does a splendid job.The pacing is great, if a bit on the slow side. Unlike the anime, the manga includes a lot of the details that the VN had in regards to the characters and story. It also has a very interesting spin on the more ambiguous events that in my opinion, add a lot to the elements of the story. It presents a whole load of interesting characters, like the abusive mother Rosa, the atypical loli Maria, the overcompensating grandfather Kinzo, and of course, the Endless Witch Beatrice. Although Umineko does have a tendency to take your impressions of characters and twist them hundreds of times over. In that sense, it has great characters who are certainly not what they seem at first.

The art is great, definitely better than the generic designs that DEEN did, and leagues above the VN's "art". Although the proportions on both the male characters and females can look kinda weird at times, its got a distinct style that suits the overall mood of the story well. Some of the details are exquisite, its definitely a pleasure just to stop and admire some of the spreads. The only problem I can think of about the presentation is that it doesn't have one of the VN's strong points: the BGM. Of course, this is the limit of the medium, but the VN's BGM went a long way in adding to the atmosphere. Some scenes in the manga are not as poignant without the appropriate tracks playing in the background but I guess its fair trade for the art.

As a mystery, Episode 1 is great if a bit familiar. I said before that Umineko isn't typical at all but the story only really takes off in the later episodes. Unfortunately EP1 is the only one that's been completely published so far, so you're looking at 3 other episodes that are still incomplete. There's continuity between each episodes, so this publishing method isn't exactly the best, seeing how the whole thing is fragmented right now. I wouldn't ever recommend watching the anime, so if you want to pick this up, I'd say do it sometime in the future unless you don't mind the wait. The only other option is to read the VN which I also wholeheartedly recommend if you really want to know what happens next.

Nurarihyon no Mago had a really bumpy start in my opinion. The first couple chapters were generic, the lead was boring, way too many characters to care about, and it was pretty boring. The whole "youkai" angle just seemed like a cheap gimmick to cover up how utterly bland and mediocre it felt. However despite that, I continued because I thought it had some potential and man oh man did it really become something else. The beginning is EASILY the worst part of the manga. Unlike most shounen, where strong beginnings are the norm, Mago plays it completely differently and does the opposite. It starts ... off with a rather weak beginning, picks up steam after the first couple of volumes than it really takes off and becomes amazing. A true diamond in the rough.

The story revolves around a quarter blooded Youkai/Ayakashi named Rikuo who has to come to terms with becoming the leader of his youkai clan. Its a pretty cliched premise and it even comes with the whole "dark alter ego" spiel ,who serves as the true leader of the clan and has a ridiculous hair style. I can't say I liked that annoying "Yami Rikuo" thing that the mangaka had going but thankfully it was done away with and the personality became the same for both egos eventually. Of course this happens over a period of time and is subtly implemented which is one of the manga's strong points. While in some of earlier arcs, small bits of interesting information are scattered here and there, only to be brought up later. Its obvious that a lot of time and effort went into making the story good and it really begins to show later on. It especially gets good after chapter 50, when the main villain gets introduced and a concise goal is finally presented to the lead. This manga borrows heavily from a lot of old Japanese myths and legends, so it has some really rich material to work with. At its best, the story can get really interesting especially during the major flashback arc.

Mago shoves A LOT of characters into the readers face at the beginning. Its almost guaranteed that you won't remember any of the youkai that hang around Rikuo all the time. However as the manga goes on, many of the youkai get some time to shine and they get reintroduced to the audience. Their past/youkai quirk all go a long way in creating a really memorable cast of characters. As I'm writing this review, a lot of characters that got introduced in chapter 1 are getting some much deserved time in the spotlight for themselves in the recent chapters. The truth is, the beginning might have felt kinda off because the mangaka was trying to lay the foundation quickly. Get all the necessary exposition out of the way so that everything that comes after has more focus and better writing. It might not have been the best method, but everything in the past couple of arcs have been rock-steady in quality.

The art is phenomenal, especially considering the fact that it's a weekly manga. Not one youkai design is alike, and that's saying a lot since there's literally hundreds of unnamed youkai designs in the manga. Never mind the main cast, who all have really unique designs that range from quirky to down right badass. It has a paint-brush like quality to it which really looks amazing sometimes, not to mention there's nothing quite like it in Jump at the moment. The artstyle in this manga is just dripping with imagination, just like One Piece in that regard. The fights range from forgettable to really awesome. However this factor fluctuates a lot more than the other elements but most of time, they're all solid.

Mago does a lot to separate itself from the standard shounen fare. Sure it has its share of cliches and archetypes, but everything just works together so well. Its definitely more than the sum of its parts, a real pleasure to read each week. For me its definitely the most consistent out of all the mangas in Jump. Its probably gonna turn into a long running shounen, but it has the advantage of having a near limitless scope. I'm not to worried about it in this case since it could go anywhere after this arc and it'd still work. Its still in its early stages but it has something a lot of other long running shounen don't: focus and pacing. So if you're still reading this review, than go pick up Mago. Bear with the beginning because it'll pay off tenfolds later.

Evangelion 2.0 is the second part of the rewrite of the popular NGE series, dubbed the "Reubuild" of Eva. It picks up after 1.0 and episode 8 or so of the original series. Now I remember watching 1.0 and I wasn't particularly impressed with it. Sure it had new shiny animation, soundtrack and so on, but it didn't really bring anything new to the table. In fact it followed the original series painstakingly to the mark, so it made me kinda skeptical about the whole rewrite aspect of this 4-part series. In hindsight, it was probably for the best since 1.0 slowly eases us back ... into Eva universe only for 2.0 to throw a bucket of cold water on us. In a good way.

The story is a departure from the original series and is much more focused in many ways. It starts off explosively with the introduction of the new pilot, Mari. Unfortunately, not much is actually revealed about her asides from piloting Eva units for the lulz. In that regard, her appeal is geared towards the all newcomers to the series, yet much of her character is still shrouded in mystery. Despite all that, she's a welcome addition to the cast and all of her scenes are very poignant and fun to watch. There's at least one more big deviation from the beaten path, but I won't spoil that here. Never the less, that change is extremely welcome and actually brings much more to the table, its better for all the newbies and pretty shocking for the old-timers. The story is also much less vague and some lingering mysteries from the original series are subtly answered or at least hinted at. The experience is much more clear-cut: it knows where it wants to go unlike the original which had a lot of fat around the edges.

All the major characters we all know and love are the same yet have a distinct feel of difference about them. Perhaps the most notable one is Rei, who is more of an endearing character this time around. Another noticeable change is Asuka, but its not one I personally liked. She takes a backseat to Rei but is still involved in some of the plot heavy sequences. She's also more tsun and less dere if that was even possible. Though the best change lies in Shinji and his reactions to everything especially in the second half. He is LEAGUES better than his previous iteration, sure he's still a whiny little runt but if the climax taught me anything, its that even people like Shinji can be incredibly awesome given the right circumstances. To all those who hated him in the original, you'd probably want to watch this just for the end, his moment is just THAT amazing.

The animation...well damn its easily the best I've seen in an animated movie, right up there with Miyazaki and the likes. I never been an avid fan of the implementation of CG in 2D animation, but it works really well in this case. The mix of 2D and 3D animation manages to pull off a very distinct, and clean look. The mecha action is amazing, just as visceral and brutal as we've all come to expect from this series, but 2.0 sets the bar even higher with some of the fights. Outside of all that, the art is pretty much the same as the rest, albeit extremely well drawn and colored. The Evas and Angels still have that very alien look to them which is what makes them so visually appealing. Outside of the action, character movements and expressions are very fluid. All in all, the animation is excellent, truly a sight to behold.

The soundtrack is also got the same level of attention as the animation, there are some truly wonderful pieces in there that complement the movie incredibly well. The orchestrated ones that come at the end really gets your blood flowing and amplifies the tension a lot. Besides the music, all the voice acting is top notch and the sound effects and cues are great. Hearing the Evas otherworldly growls and grunts with explosions plus epic music going on in the background makes a hell of a memorable experience.

In my opinion, the rewrite's quality even exceeds that of the original. Sure some of the more ambiguous symbolism is lost but the entire experience is streamlined and everything is just a lot more tight. Everything from the plot, characters, and animation is more consistent, its obvious that the staff is in more control. The original suffered from not knowing what to do with some of the plot elements and themes it brought up, essentially "biting off more than it could chew". 2.0 does away with this problem and everything just flows really well, the pacing is excellent. However I still think the original series should be watched first before tackling Rebuild to reap the most enjoyment out of it. A lot of the fun comes from picking apart the subtle differences. This is fantastic addition to the series, doesn't feel half-assed or like a cash-in at all. A must see for all Eva fans, and even those of you who disliked it. This movie is basically everything good about Eva minus a lot of the flaws that dragged it down. Truly a remarkable achievement in many ways.