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Sep 29, 2020
You should not take Kakegurui seriously as a story, or as a pool of moral questions. Gambling is just the on-the-nose vehicle to bring you a lavish, alienating, gorgeously reactive and opulent entertainment series with charcters who're never going to be poor, but are always going to be staking their conviction to their goals.
I knew the show wasn't going to be a reality-ground show by the time I was three episodes into the first series. I just knew about Yumeko herself, I knew the anime was going to be expensive, and I knew it was going to be dramatic, and often melodramatic. The setting is
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objectively unbelievable, and the characters aren't anything to protect, save maybe Ryota who has his awesome clutch moves every so often, and Itsuki who is undeniably cute.
Just sit back and enjoy the ride. Yumeko's untouchable game, queenly character design and addictive personality continue to do their jobs, outplaying the cheaters at their own game, and forcing everyone else into pinch points of their growth. As with Itsuki, Nanami and Ryota last season, Kaede, Sayaka and Yumemi are forced to grow through the game, and there are some legitimate moments where the emotion was so raw that I could feel it in my gut. And now Mary and co. and a whole gang of new faces in opposition of the council are playing their own games in this fascinating power struggle, and I am curious to see where Yumeko fits into it all as just somebody who loves to gamble.
Unfortunately, this series ends on an anitclimax, meaning another series is probably on the way, and despite my good favour of the budget and blood-pumping drama of this series, limits my score to a 6.
This anime is a very expensive heap of salted caramel popcorn, coupled with a glass of knock-off champagne. Its an opulent, alienating experience, its hideous and conniving and superficial and lavish and extra. And, honestly, its stylish and well-made enough to recommend to anyone who is in need of an adrenaline/entertainment fix.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 6, 2019
Who doesn't stick up their nose at the idea of a mary sue? Any anime or media analytic knows to discourage them. But you know what, we can go have our worlds which don't revolve around one character and eat them. All of us can.
A year ago, I lost faith in this show on account of it disregarding a trope which I'd come to expect in my other watchings at the time - the only characters with any right to having the world revolve around them, are those who have their fingers in every pie, and Shirayuki herself definitely doesn't.
But what I didn't understand back
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then was that this was never that kind of show. You need the rose tinted glasses, you need the idealistic approach, you need to accept that some aspects just won’t be true to life with this one. It's a romance story, not a political drama. And whilst there is political drama, if it's what you;re watcing for, you’ll quickly find yourself tearing your hair out at how blasé and tunnel-visioned an apparent prince and governor can be around one endearing redheaded commoner.
Not to say Shirayuki isn't anything but lovely, diligent and gutsy. However her initial progression is very much based on fortunate circumstance, and makes me wonder how far her skill and hair colour alone would've gotten her if Zen had not bumped into her and subsequently been enamoured enough to piggy-back her past the recognition phase that any other herbalist in the nation would've first had to labour through to get into the royal palace.
And yes, people do cite this setup as hypocritical of Shirayuki's pro-personal choice and hard-working mentality. Had Shirayuki been shown working for her keep and gaining reputation enough with the common folk to reach Zen's ear, it might've yielded more positive acclaim.
So, disappointed with both of these immersion breaks, I dropped it. But a year went by, and I was still hearing good things said about this story. So I picked up where I'd left off, with afresh perspective and no other anime of interest to watch. And I quickly found myself settling, very happily, into the otherwise very thoughtful juggle between romance and social standing that Shirayuki's love story is actually about, all the while thinking that everything in the show looked positively immaculate.
Hence the reaffirmed 7/10, where once I'd given it a 4/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 5, 2017
I wanted to give this anime a perfect score. It deserves a perfect score, and if this were purely based on personal opinion, nostalgia, and the warmth and melancholy you feel after a show as cared for by its creator finishes, it would get my perfect score.
Oban Star Racers is an oddity for sure, and a very charming oddity. This could be due to the french influence of Sav! The World Productions, or the sheer number of years it took Savin Yeatman-Eiffel to gain financing for the production and undoubtedly hone the vision of work, or the shows vintage in the present day.
For whichever
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reason, much is different about this series to other anime of both its time and the present. Many tiresome anime tropes, which I've personally grown accustomed to, are non-existent in this series. It's a tournament based anime, which I personally have always found tremendously exciting, but may not suit all, if not for the characters leading the story. So I'll see if I can provide some con-crit, in spite of my own emotional bias.
Whereas many anime series have a habit of meandering along their principle plots, becoming sidetracked or in worst case, overextending themselves, Oban Star Racers doesn't diverge for a single second away from what it principly is. Half of almost every episode is a race, with the other half either showing preparation for said race, or the aftermath thereof.
Additionally, the series moves its plot along independently and almost strictly, each episode often feeling self-contained and rarely allowing their contents to indrude into the ones following. As a result the series paces completely different from a standard japanese style-show, the only similar exmple I know from my watch list being Avatar: The Last Airbender, which also was made by a western company.
This creates an effect that's either beneficial or detrimental, depending on personal views: because of the speed and strictness of the plot's progression, it often feels touch and go, especially with its more emotional moments, of which they are many. Their benefit however, can be seen in the races, as the fast pace makes the races feel like proper races at fast speeds.
The only real negative I have about the pot is its finale, which feels rushed and poorly developed, due to storytelling keeping it's crux hidden for all until near the very end, with only obscure hints to indicate there may be something more dire behind the race; but it is still satisfying and still fulfills what the original goal of the plot was to achieve.
All races in the series incorporate 3D models, animation and CGI for their tracks and the ships which fly on them, meanwhile almost all off race graphic is done in conventional 2D animation. This visual aesthetic choice produces some very high-octane visuals and motion that 2D animation would struggle to convey and there is tremendous variety, creativity and zaniness and surprising naturalism to be found in every course's layout and it's gimmicks.
It remains a beauty to look at, even with the tremendous graphical appeal of newer shows, and often offsets the otherwise repetitive nature of the episode's structure so it's barely noticeable. This same visual impressivenes carries over to the character designs.
The racers are the standout in design, especially true in the later part of the series. You see nearly 20 different alien races and racers, each one managing to be uniquely distinctive and the same zaniness can be seen in their designs and also the design of their racers, which match their owners own character brilliantly.
Eva/Molly, being the show's frontrunner gal is represented beautifully as a character who's experienced loss and rejection at a young age, but harbours tremendous passion and drive, and even a couple of personal quirks. Her take over as the Earth Team's pilot feels believable given the plot's confines and so do her continual struggles, failures and successes she experiences in the role. The show doesn't shy away from making her lose, something many other anime protangonists can't say the same for, and her victories are believable.
Her relationships with the other leads are also believable: her realtionship with Jordan is one of close trusting partnership; her feelings for Prince Aikka mix affection with mutual respect as racers, and the continual frustration she and Don Wey feel with each other can be understood by their own backstories.
Most of the other racers serve as adversaries to the earth team, normally with a particular episode showing the adversary racer deliberately opposing the earth team's success, which does admittedly grow tiresome on occasion, but the benefit of this is allowing each additional racer at least one episode to really show their stuff as both characters and racers. The Krog racers are merciless and arrogant, and fulfill the role of an effective end antagonist, at least until the last few episodes, Groor is aggressive and bullish, Rush is high spirited and supportive, Spirit and O are intimidating and mysterious, Sul stands as this indomitable powerful racer to revere, as well as one of the few racers whose wider plot relevence goes beyond being an adversary. Some of the racers do get additional episodes or screen time, namely Rush and several of the later racers in the second half, where their drives and reasons for seeking Oban's Ultimate Prize are explained. Similarly these racers also can be considered the stand out characters alongside the Earth team.
The only final word to add in way of characters is that there does exist a larger antagonist in the series, whose identity and actions shall remain anonymous for the sake of avoiding spoilers, who only becomes prominent in the final episodes and is otherwise unknown by the racing teams. Not much to say, other than he succeeds at least in seeming sinister and ancient in his powers.
And that's about it. I'll let the show do the rest of the talking. Depending on if you're watching it in Japanese or English, you'll be greeted either with the song Chance to Shine, which is how I managed to find the series again to rewatch it more than a decade after seeing only a couple of its episodes, or Never say Never, which has grown on me episode by episode and I think may fit the show better than Chance to Shine, at least in the way of the race aspect, whereas Chance to Shine is more about Eva herself. If they don't do it for you, see what the episodes do for you. It only gets better as you go along.
Good racing to you all, and enjoy this beautiful story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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