- Last Online2 hours ago
- GenderMale
- BirthdayMay 29, 1985
- LocationNew York State, USA.
- JoinedSep 22, 2008
Also Available at
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Feb 22, 2024
An entry in the “real robot” genre of anime, Bullbuster focuses on the members of the vermin extermination company known as Namikome Industries. The pests in question are mutated creatures known as “giant beasts” and Namikome utilizes super powered robots to handle extermination of the beasts in order to allow the residents of Ryugan Island to return to their home. However with the small scale of Namikome’s operations, they also have to be careful with business expenses as far as management of ammunition and maintenance of their robots go.
I suppose I’ll just get the main thing with Bullbuster out of the way first in mentioning
...
the title’s mecha elements. Bullbuster goes pretty hard with its “real robot” element with the titular mecha and a few other units used by Namikome Industries being designed to be more practical with their designs instead of the humanoid-like designs that many popular entries within the “real robot” genre like Gundam typically implement. Plus, the action scenes are nothing to write home about with the title’s more realistic implementation of weapons and technology employed by Namikome’s mecha to handle the beasts they are seeking to capture or eliminate instead of anything more flashy and elaborate. The mechas are CG-rendered, but the more practical designs help go well with Bullbuster’s more grounded approach to its storytelling. The only bad part of this element to the series is the rather rough looking rendering and animation of the various giant beasts that would look more at home with a 2000s TV anime with how ugly they look.
The other major element of Bullbuster that sticks out is the office politics in play with the series, harking back to past titles like Patlabor and Dai-Guard that offer this unique focus with a mecha series. In the case of Namikome, the series believably portrays the struggles of a small company with managing their budget and public reputation among the masses as they are financially struggling due to the use of their mecha being a financial strain as far as maintenance and repairs go. Each of the employees have their aspirations and stances with whatever element of Namikome’s operations they are part of, from Kataoka’s efforts to rein in expenses as the company accountant to Tajima trying to keep his employees under control as the company president. Elements of corporate culture also come into play as the origins of the giant beasts are gradually revealed to be linked to some shady corporate activity and exploring the lengths that the corporation in question will go through to mask their true motives and maintain their public reputation.
Characterization isn’t the largest focus of Bullbuster, but it does take some time to focus on the various characters involved with Namikome. Each of them undergo some degree of exploration and development involving their work with the company or how they are personally affected by the giant beast threat, this giving them a bit of dimension and also helping to add more to explore with the office politics explored within the series. The only character I was largely indifferent towards was Okino, whose typical young, idealistic character doesn’t get as much fleshing out compared to his co-workers. While seemingly introduced as the main character of focus at the start of Bullbuster, Okino’s character gradually loses focus as the series puts more focus on exploring his co-workers.
In short, I can see where Bullbuster may not be everyone’s cup of tea within the mecha genre as I’ve heard quite a bit about the indiffernce many had to its premise and the lack of elaborate action scenes involving mecha and mutant monsters. Those wanting something like Gundam or Evangelion with their elaborate action and high drama aren’t likely to enjoy this series. But if you are wanting something that goes hard on the “real robot” element of mecha anime mixed in with exploring office politics a la Patlabor or Dai-Guard, Bullbuster is a solid series that dabbles into those realms with the challenges faced by the members of Namikome and would recommend if you are looking for something different to dabble into within the mecha genre.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Jan 31, 2024
Mushoku Tensei is one of the latest popular entries in the isekai genre focused on a middle-aged NEET getting killed in an accident and being reincarnated into a medieval-fantasy based world as a young boy named Rudeus Greyrat with a talent with magic. Wanting the opportunity to have a better life compared to his prior one, Rudeus sets out to improve himself as he better understands the new world he is part of and becomes acquainted with the world’s occupants.
I’ll be the first to say that this series isn’t setting out to break any new ground with the isekai genre, as it does have a
...
fair share of the familiar cliches and character types you can expect out of it, including Rudeus being well aware of the cliches for it when he shares his internal thoughts on situations to the audience. But what I can appreciate from Mushoku Tensei is that it does actually take the time to set up world building and explore its characters instead of immediately jumping into adventures. The series introduces and fleshes out many of the various characters that Rudeus encounters with members of his new family, friends, and companions as the series explores the first 10 years of his life in the new world. Some characters are still a bit underdeveloped compared to others, but do appreciate how some of them contribute to Rudeus’ growth in varying ways within this series. The series also dabbles into some of the norms and customs found within this world like the celebration of birthdays in every fifth year of life, discrimination against different species, and polyamory seeming to be a norm. The third element I’ll touch on a little later in this review, as that has been known to be a somewhat divisive element among those who have seen the series. The only other gripe I have with this series is its lack of a proper ending, though the title’s second half and a second season of Mushoku Tensei help continue the story.
The heart of this series is the development of Rudeus’ character as he settles into life within his new world and tries to better himself. In a departure from many recent isekai titles, Rudeus doesn’t come off as a flawless character who can seemingly achieve everything flawlessly and easily win the hearts of anyone who meets with him. Having isolated himself from the outside world in his former life due to bullying, Rudeus does find himself unaccustomed to handling a number of situations within the medieval world he is in between both his lack of experience interacting with others and the different setting he is in. Plus while being a prodigy in magic and being mature for his age with knowledge, his inexperience with the medieval world and feeling like he has to do all the thinking for others does occasionally overwhelm him in heated situations. In addition with the series more focused on exploring its characters, the series is focused on the first ten years of our lead character’s new life as he befriends some of his world’s inhabitants and comes to learn valuable lessons as he interacts with them. This focus on fleshing out Rudeus gives his character a bit more dimension and allows the audience to build a connection with him because of the growth he undergoes.
As mentioned, the one area that has proven somewhat controversial with Mushoku Tensei is the setting’s rather frank view of sex. Nobles within the world of the series are known to have mistresses they have affairs with, can have multiple wives, and some of them, especially among Rudeus’ family, are shown to have their fetishes for women they want to have their way with. Plus, the society isn’t averse to having minors as young as 10 engage in sex, a fact that shocks Rudeus during a later story arc when he gets into this sort of predicament. On the one hand, this does believably depict how sex was approached by nobles during medieval times, women having little say in what men do to them due to their lower societal status, and children being recognized as adults once they turn 13. On the other hand, these story elements can come off rather unsettling when approaching the series with modern sensibilities and is likely not to be everyone’s cup of tea. While I largely didn’t mind this given the setting, my only gripes with this angle to the series was Rudeus’ occasional moments of perversion when he was having lewd thoughts of the female characters and attempting to peep on or molest them, that made him look more in line with the cliched anime pervert.
While not breaking any new ground, I’ll admit I did get a good amount of engagement to Mushoku Tensei thanks to the effort put into fleshing out and developing Rudeus and other characters within the world of the series, especially notable as many recent isekai titles I’ve seen are more in the habit of milking overdone cliches at the expense of giving themselves any kind of depth. The series does have some issues I can’t overlook with some of the typical cliches of the isekai genre rearing their ugly head and the medieval setting’s frank thoughts on sex. But despite my gripes, I’ll admit that this series had more meat to its storytelling than I was expecting and plan to dabble into its second half at some point.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Dec 31, 2023
Aquatope on White Sand focuses on two teenage girls with their involvement working in an aquarium. The first, Fuka Miyazawa, is a former idol attempting to sort out what she wants to do with her life until she comes across the Gama Gama Aquarium. The second, Kukuru Misakino, is the assistant director of Gama Gama to support her grandfather in running the aquarium, which is struggling financially with attracting visitors. The two girls develop a bond as both work at Gama Gama and undergo their different developments with the tribulations each face.
Aquatope is essentially a slice-of-life series with some coming of age drama elements in
...
exploring the developments faced by Kukuru and Fuka. Despite what I may cover from the plot summary above, the series devotes more focus on Kukuru’s developments as they are more central to the show’s story developments. Kukuru is shown to have a strong passion for learning about and preserving the aquatic life within the aquarium that she maintains. At the same time though, she is still a teenager dealing with her own growing pains as she is trying to prevent the aquarium’s closure due to the strong emotional connection she has to it, while ignorant of some of the realities involved with maintaining things for it such as generating business and the building infrastructure. Getting over this hump serves as the major crux of Kukuru’s development for the first half of Aquatope and making for the more heavier drama in the title’s story. There are points she does selfishly do things to try forcing things to go her way, but learns reality will not always allow things to be as such and she must learn to work with the circumstances of life as best she can, making her character story rather relatable.
While Fuka’s story focus has some relatability in regards of her struggle to sort out what kind of future she wants, her developments are a bit more straightforward as a result of Kukuru’s greater character focus. She is a pleasant character and the bond she develops with Kukuru is a touching and genuine one. But as she largely serves as more of a pillar of support for Kukuru as she better understands the situation with Gama Gama, she doesn’t get equal focus and development time. Plus with the handling of her character story for the first half of Aquatope, it felt like this was resolved and her return for the title’s second half seemed almost unnecessary at points since she seemed to mostly exist again to serve as emotional support for Kukuru.
I mention a second half of this and this one will require me to dabble into some spoilers. Essentially, Aquatope does a timeskip eight months after the events of its first half to explore Kukuru now in the working world working at a larger aquarium. As an adult, Kukuru’s main conflict comes from learning to compromise with her personal desires and others to maintain work at the aquarium as she becomes part of its marketing department due to her prior experience as Gama Gama’s assistant director. The series does a solid job dabbling into the challenges that come with marketing operations with getting the finer details and all parties involved all together to make major events and opportunities a success for the aquarium, challenges Kukuru has to learn to sort through.
As far as other supporting characters go in Aquatope, they are a bit of a mixed bag. While many of them are rather likable as far as their personalities go, they don’t have much to show in the way of dimension as they largely exist to support and assist Kukuru and Fuka with whatever challenges they are dealing with, with this applying to both halves of the series. Probably the only supporting character I took an interest to was Chiyu Haebaru, an aquarium attendant with serious aspirations on wanting to learn to work in her profession and is initially dismissive of Kukuru due to assuming she isn’t taking a career in the field seriously. But despite her seemingly hostile character, the series shows there is more to her character beneath the surface and helps add an interesting angle to the second half of the series with exploring work-life balance.
The other angle to the series I also have some gripes with is the supposed supernatural angle for it. There are instances that Kukuru, Fuka, and others who visit Gama Gama experience mysterious illusions involving either the aquatic life in the aquarium or flashbacks of their past, as well as some cameos from a trickster spirit known as a kijimuna. This angle to the series largely felt like a gimmick for me as it doesn’t add much to the story and clashes with the more believable, down-to-earth storytelling that Aquatope largely dabbles into with its characters.
In short, Aquatope is a solid series with its exploration of Kukuru’s character undergoing some trials of growing up while experiencing the passion of working in aquariums and exploring different angles of being in the working world within this sort of environment. This said, the series still has its fair share of hiccups that bring down its quality some involving some elements of Fuka’s role in the story, not doing much to explore more with the supporting cast, and the supernatural elements of the series contributing little to the story. Still with what else the series otherwise offers up, it’s still a relatable slice of life series exploring the challenges of looking for and being in a career one greatly desires.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Dec 17, 2023
Lonely Castle in the Mirror is another anime film focused on a troubled teen overcoming her personal issues through some extraordinary means, in this case entering a parallel world in a castle through her bedroom mirror where she encounters six other teens having their own personal troubles. There are two main elements explored throughout this film's run: exploring the personal issues of each of the characters and the mystery surrounding the alternate world that the seven are able to enter.
For the first one, the seven teens share a common dilemma in that they have their personal traumas impacting their lives to varying degrees. The
...
film addresses school bullying and parental abuse in exploring the problems faced by each of the seven teens throughout Lonely Castle's nearly two hour run. It makes a point to mention that while overcoming said traumas aren't easy, there are lifelines available to provide support for those affected. For example in the case of our main character Kokoro, there is a teacher at a special school for bullied kids who goes above and beyond to convince Kokoro that she is available to support her where needed. The other element to this is that the cohabitation that Kokoro and the teens have with one another in the castle provides an environment where they can be themselves and being around those with similar experiences allow them to be in a comfortable environment free from the personal problems impacting their lives. The support that the seven provide one another serves as a vital source of character development for each of them to overcome their personal issues throughout the film.
With the focus on the alternate world, the teens are also tasked by a mysterious girl in a wolf mask called the Wolf Queen to find a hidden room that can grant their wish within a year. While exploring the personal problems of each of the characters, Lonely Castle also drops hints of the true nature of the mysterious castle and different elements of it as the seven are also trying to find clues regarding how they are able to come together, the location of a key needed for the hidden room, the identity of the Wolf Queen, and the location of the hidden room they are trying to seek out. The fact that the teens have a year to solve this mystery also provides this angle of the story a sense of urgency as they have that limited time to both solve the mystery and overcome their personal traumas. These layers of mystery help add more depth to the film's storytelling which, combined with the developments of its seven main characters, gives Lonely Castle tight enough pacing with its storytelling where I didn't feel as if it was padding things out or dabbling into too much for its two hour run.
If there is a weakness to Lonely Castle for me, it would have to be its predictability. There have been enough coming-of-age drama anime films in recent years that have come out with a similar focus on troubled teens overcoming their issues with some sort of extraordinary means and the storytelling beats for this focus are rather easy to pick up on. This also carries over into the mystery surrounding the castle as the plot twists it offers up are quite easy to sort out when you dabble into the bits of foreshadowing offered up throughout the film's run.
Still in spite of said predictability, Lonely Castle in the Mirror offers up a tight narrative in its main focuses on the personal issues affecting its characters and the mystery surrounding the castle that serves as their escape from the troubles they each face. Its exploration of how issues like bullying and parental abuse impact a teen's psyche is relatable and the film makes a point to show that there are adults who care about helping them instead of trying to "fix" them. It doesn't break any new ground as far as its storytelling goes, but I wouldn't say I regret the time I spent seeing this film.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Nov 27, 2023
Remake Our Life focuses on a struggling video game developer named Kyouya Hashiba finding himself whisked 10 years back into the past when he was enrolled as a college student. This event leads him to encounter and befriend three creative talents whom served as his inspiration in his efforts from the present to become a successful game developer.
Remake Our Life offers focus on both the challenges involved with creative projects like movies and video games, as well as the developments of Kyouya and his friends. While focus on creative developments isn’t new with an anime series, Remake Our Life still does a great job
...
believably delving into the challenges involved with planning and development of creative works as Kyouya’s projects often have him in challenging situations that compromise the quality of a project. This leads him to have to plan out how to overcome the present crisis through any available means to meet deadlines and ensure a quality work is provided, demonstrating his project management skills. This rings true for creative projects in real life as challenging situations with the development of a creative work can lead plans to have to be changed or removed all together to meet any expected deadlines for the project development’s timeline, especially in regards to TV shows, movies, and video games.
The series also explores Kyouya and his friends in their developments as Remake Our Life takes the time to flesh them out and explore whatever issues they are dealing with in their personal lives. Outside of Kyouya using his time leap to attempt improving his future, his friends each have their varying issues to deal with for the creative careers they are aiming for. This shows Kyouya that in spite of how talented each of them are in their different creative outlets, they are still individuals with their own personal struggles they have to learn to overcome in their endeavors in spite of how much he idolizes them. The time travel gimmick also comes into play when the series later explores how each of Kyouya’s friends are impacted from his involvement in their lives while in college and how this affects Kyouya’s future aspirations. Unfortunately, the series does end inconclusively during a major point in its storyline due to the usual culprit of the title’s light novel source material still being ongoing during the time of its airing.
Besides the lack of a proper ending, I also took issue with the title’s occasional milking of fanservice with members of the female cast usually seen in states of undress. For a slice-of-life drama, it felt out of place to add this to the series and would take time away from the serious focus it provided on its characters and the various projects that Kyouya and his friends were involved in.
Despite some hiccups, I’ll admit that I was engaged with Remake Our Life thanks to its believable exploration of the developments of Kyouya and his friends, as well as the various challenges that each undergo with the different creative outlets they aspire to be in and the various projects they take on together. If you have interest in a series exploring the challenges involved with developing a creative work you aspire to work on, I’d recommend this as a solid series to dabble into.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Nov 22, 2023
The name Jun Maeda might ring a bell to fans of anime adaptations of visual novels from Key that were popular in the 2000s and early 2010s like Kanon, Air, and Clannad with his involvement in their writing. These titles were well known for having light comedy mixed in with heavy drama, romance, and fantasy elements that pushed things rather heavily with suspension of disbelief. Unfortunately, pushing out the same type of storytelling formula with all your works can lead to audiences tiring of someone’s creative works over time. Such is the case with Maeda’s most recent anime made, The Day I Became a God,
...
focused on high school student Yota Narukami meeting a strange girl in nun attire named Hina who claims that the world will end in 30 days and promises to help Yota with his affairs in the time they have left.
Roughly the first eight episodes of The Day I Became a God focus on Hina aiding Yota and several of his friends in helping them out with their various problems. She shows a superhuman level of predictive abilities that help aid the characters with resolving whatever personal issues they are facing. This storytelling focus has its equal parts of the light comedy and emotional drama you can typically expect out of Maeda’s works. However, the biggest issue with this angle to the series is that much of this focus on Yota’s classmates feels irrelevant in the grand scheme of things as their developments feel a bit rushed, they largely remain the same characters once their dilemmas get resolved, and they get pushed back into the background once their story is over. All this feels largely done to show off how impressive Hina’s abilities are, pad out the TV anime’s runtime, and reminds me of the issues that the anime adaptation of Air had back in 2005 with its focus on Kano and Minagi’s story arcs.
The side story of the series involving a mysterious organization investigating someone related to Hina serves as the actual focus to the series, though even this is ripe with a number of issues. This angle to the series implements the fantasy elements of Became a God, but more into the sci-fi realm as said organization relies on the hacking abilities of a young man with superhuman calculative abilities to aid them in their goals, serves to eventually reveal the source of Hina’s superhuman predictive abilities, and lead into the more serious developments of its final four episodes. This unfortunately creates a rather misleading direction for the show’s story as a whole with the direction its drama goes and does a rather sloppy and unconvincing job of developing a romance direction that early episodes never hinted to or smoothly developed. It also dabbles into some complicated themes like government corruption and the ethics of technological advances and uses, yet Maeda never bothers to dabble further into these themes as he’s more fixated on the unconvincing romance he sloppily put together at this point of the series.
But perhaps the one element to the series that made me personally disgusted with the final few episodes of Became a God was its handling of medical treatment for the disabled. Limiting spoilers, one major character gets heavily disabled enough to the point where they get admitted to a medical facility for treatment of their disorder and require regular support from nursing staff to maintain their everyday functions. My issue isn’t so much with the nursing staff in question as the series believably depicts the delicate handling of treatment for the character in question, the nursing staff genuinely caring for the character’s well-being, and how anything outside the scope of regular care they are receiving can be a negative risk to their physical and mental condition. My issue with this angle to the series is that because of Maeda’s storytelling approach, he tries to manipulate the audience into thinking the “power of love” can overcome whatever issues this character is experiencing while ignorant of the various accommodations, amount of therapy time, and necessary needs that would have to be in place for the living environment of said character to be able to live comfortably outside of a medical facility. Having experienced developmental and physical disabilities personally growing up, I’m aware of the struggles both personally and within society that occur when going through the effort to go through therapy in improving both my physical condition and my ability to properly interact with others. The fact Maeda thinks he can just gloss over this harsh angle to reality to create his idealized romance personally ticked me off and made my viewing of Became a God’s final few episodes a struggle to get through.
In short, The Day I Became a God greatly exposes the issues with the storytelling approach from Jun Maeda with having a good deal of storytelling issues, pushing suspension of disbelief too heavily, a good chunk of its story from its first half largely feeling pointless and feeling like filler, misleading audiences with its haphazard change in story direction, the sloppy romance it tries pushing for, and glossing over some serious themes to focus more on said sloppy romance. While I would typically rate this as a weak series and just move on from there, Maeda’s handling of treatment for the disabled in pushing for his romance angle personally ticked me off enough as such where I’m actually rather disgusted with this series and this now ranks among my all-time worst anime as a result.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Nov 19, 2023
Arriving after several years of development, Pluto is the anime adaptation of Naoki Urasawa’s well-regarded manga series featuring a more mature take on a story arc of the famous Osamu Tezuka series, Tetsuwan Atom (or Astro Boy for Western audiences), set in a future setting where the German robot detective, Gesicht, is attempting to solve a recent string of robot and human murders that lead him to some shocking developments when it’s discovered a robot is behind the murders, despite robots supposedly being programmed not to kill humans, and the murders connected to a larger conspiracy at hand.
In going with a more mature focus on
...
elements of Tetsuwan Atom’s story, Pluto opts to go for a more believable design of its characters and scenery. Lacking the exaggerated bodily proportions and designs of Tezuka’s manga series, Pluto opts to make characters have more realistic details with their designs and make the designs of some of the robots look more menacing compared to older designs from prior Tetsuwan Atom adaptations. Similar to Urasawa’s last animated adaptation Monster, this gives characters and scenery a rather detailed look compared to many titles released for this year. In addition, the larger scale of the capabilities of some of the robots lend the series some impressively animated sequences and battle scenes that are nicely animated and among the more visually pleasing titles I’ve seen for 2023.
It’s a little tricky for me to dabble into Pluto’s story without spoiling things heavily, so I will try my best to be careful what I cover in this review. But essentially, the two major components of Pluto that the series focuses on are its mystery surrounding the human and robot murders, as well as exploring the complications surrounding sentience within robots. For the mystery element, Pluto takes its time to slowly uncover more about the causes surrounding the murders, those involved with them, and the mysterious conspiracy behind them. While Gesicht is seemingly the main character of this series, Pluto actually splits focus between other characters who get involved in the mystery as they learn of more elements to it and questioning their very nature. Unlike the original Tetsuwan Atom story arc, Pluto takes its time to flesh out a number of the characters involved with the situation to give them more purpose and allow the audience to develop a connection to them. This also adds a tragic element to Pluto as those who have read or seen older adaptations of Tetsuwan Atom know the inevitability of the fates of some characters that the series explores.
Exploring the complications of robot sentience also come into play with exploring Pluto’s mystery and some of the issues facing its characters. Like humans, more advanced artificial intelligence (AI) in robots within Pluto can demonstrate emotions and behave in ways that can be either positive or negative depending on their mindset, developments, and actions. This adds to the psychological focus of the series as several of the robotic characters have advanced enough AIs to be able to discern and emulate human emotions and nature, this affecting them with a number of story elements vital to different components of the mystery surrounding the robot and human murders occurring throughout Pluto. This rich amount of psychological focus is a unique focus on AI compared to other similar titles that get in the habit of romanticizing AI to varying degrees, whereas robot AI in Pluto is capable of being just as flawed as humans depending on their developments.
In short, Pluto’s more mature take on Tetsuwan Atom lends it a good amount of mystery and psychological insight in regards of the development of robot characters and their advanced AI discerning human emotions. It retains elements of Naoki Urasawa’s manga series with its more realistic artwork, fair number of suspenseful scenes, and psychological focus with the mindsets of characters affected by the title’s events. The unique viewing medium of the series as an 8-episode ONA with each episode running close to or over an hour a pop means quite a bit of story is packed into each episode and its slow pacing may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But if you enjoyed the psychological suspense and mystery of Urasawa’s previous well-regarded hit anime adaptation, Monster, in spite of its lengthy 74-episode run, you should get similar enjoyment out of seeing Pluto.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Oct 21, 2023
Will admit it's been a while since I've had some rather complicated thoughts regarding an anime series and looks like Brain Powerd has done just that with me. Being Yoshiyuki Tomino's answer to Evangelion in the late 1990s, the series is set on a future Earth where the planet is being ravaged by earthquakes and floods due to the massive power emitted from a massive alien spacecraft called Orphan that an enemy faction called the Reclaimers are attempting to learn more about how to harness its power and leave the planet, which would result in humanity's destruction should this happen. Opposing Orphan are those aboard
...
the battleship Novis Noah, a resistance movement seeking to halt the battleship's restoration and flight from Earth, and whom our series leads, teen orphan Hime Utsumiya and Reclaimer defector Yuu Isami, are aligned with.
Many over the years have dismissed Brain Powerd as a shallow "Eva ripoff" attempting to take after similar complicated storytelling beats as Gainax's famous mecha series and as a result, reception to it has been quite mixed. While I'm not interested in knocking the series as such, I will admit that my thoughts on Brain Powerd are rather mixed. I guess I'll go over the positives to the series I have for it first.
First off is that the series does have a good bit of substance to its story and themes that it makes an effort to lay out, and isn't just doing things for aesthetic effect. While I do want to be careful on how deep I dabble into things to avoid spoilers, I guess the major element of the series to consider are the mecha used by both the Reclaimers (that they call Grand Chers) and the crew of Novis Noah (that they call Brain Powerd). The mecha within the series are shown to have an empathic connection to their pilots, which shape the relationships that the pilot and mecha each have with both one another and those around them. This is rather noticeable in the different environments that both the Reclaimers and Novis Noah have due to whatever beliefs and personalities are forming within the different factions. This empathic relationship also shapes events going into later episodes as more about the mysterious Orphan spaceship gets dabbled into. Plus, Brain Powerd is consistent with applying its themes and the abilities demonstrated with its various technologies, as I never got any sense of things feeling tossed in just for the sake of plot convenience. I'll just say that the series is rather cryptic and takes its time with how it develops its story and themes, hence it does require the viewer to be attentive to minor details with the series as they develop as it doesn't get into the habit of explaining things too upfront. Because of this angle to the series, I can see where folks could get frustrated and choose to ditch Brain Powerd during its earlier episodes.
Another high point is the anime's soundtrack. Composed by the legendary composer Yoko Kanno, the series consists of a good amount of lively and energetic insert tracks, even coming with a catchy opener in the form of "In My Dreams." My only real gripe with the soundtrack is the show's rather questionable placement of insert tracks at points, as they usually don't fit the intended mood and tone of certain key scenes throughout Brain Powerd.
Major areas I would consider weaknesses with the series are its characterization and melodrama. For the former, I'll admit that it is rather hit and miss with the quality of the character stories that are dabbled into. Yuu's character story gets perhaps the best development within Brain Powerd as the bonds he gradually develops with his Brain Powerd, Hime, and the Novis Noah crew help him get over his lone-wolf mentality and the hatred he has for the Reclaimers. Some other characters get reasonable fleshing out of their personalities and motives, though the series doesn't go deeply into exploring them. The more weaker character stories within Brain Powerd involve a decent number of those among the Reclaimers, whose motives for their alignment with the group border on the ridiculous with how simplistic and over-the-top they can get with their unhealthy family issues.
Melodrama is tied to some of the character backstory issues I have with members among the Reclaimers. But like many mecha titles directed by Tomino, this also comes into play when characters are in the annoying habit of angrily debating one another during heated mecha fights due to their opposing ideologies that can distract from the action.
In short, Brain Powerd is certainly quite a mixed bag in terms of quality as an entry in the mecha title. It does have a solid foundation for a story and themes that become more apparent and engrossing as episodes progress, though the slow pacing of its first half and the cryptic approach to its storytelling can turn away first time viewers. It comes with a catchy soundtrack from Yoko Kanno that unfortunately usually has some questionable insert track placements. Characterization is also a mixed bag, with the series also having the typical melodramatic beats from Tomino that usually rear their ugly head. While not the worst anime I've seen of the mecha genre or from Tomino (the latter honor would go to Garzey's Wing), I'll just say your mileage would definitely vary to Brain Powerd with how its storytelling plays out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Sep 2, 2023
Sing a Bit of Harmony was a film that got sandwiched in with Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song- and Belle in 2021 with its focus on AI and technology within a near-future setting. The name Yatsuhiro Yoshiura may ring a bell to some folks as he was the director behind the highly acclaimed 2008 ONA, Time of Eve, with its mundane focus on androids and exploring how life would seem from their perspective as they secretly have gained sentience. Sing a Bit of Harmony dabbles into somewhat similar elements of exploring a near-future setting with technology as a company is testing out a new AI-programmed robot
...
named Shion to attempt having her blend in with students at a high school as loner student Satomi, who attends the school, is the daughter of Shion's lead programmer and finds her life getting hectic with Shion attempting to give her "happiness."
This film has a number of the familiar drama beats you may see from other coming-of-age films that include a lonely teenager being an outcast and another character coming along to help liven up their lives and improve their interactions with others, this chemistry focused on with Satomi and Shion. The AI focus comes into play with exploring the bond between humans and technology with Shion's attempts to bond with Satomi and several of her classmates, as her infectious energy and antics clash with the otherwise mundane environment from her human companions who believably react to her outrageous behavior. This does make things feel a bit different from most sci-fi titles that depict AI as being logical and to the point in their interactions with others, as Shion's lively personality and inability to blend in with students due to unintentionally showing off her inhuman abilities does add some additional dimension to her character with her efforts to make others happy. Elements of Shion's character hint to a more closer connection she has to Satomi than expected that the film does explore as things progress with it.
Outside of the focus on the main duo, there is focus on some of the issues affecting several of Satomi's classmates that Shion gets herself involved in as well, notably Satomi's childhood friend and talented engineer Toma. The film has enough time to flesh out and provide some sort of resolution to these issues, though it does get a bit clumsy with handling moments of teenage angst affecting the characters.
Overall in spite of having some typical elements of a coming-of-age drama, Yoshiura's touch on the genre with Sing a Bit of Harmony makes Shion's lively character quite different from typical depictions of AI in media and offers some solid exploration on the idea of humans and technology having positive relationships with one another, even if feeling a little romanticized compared to his earlier work on Time of Eve. I'd at least give it a watch, even if it doesn't completely break any new ground as far as its coming-of-age drama elements go.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Aug 10, 2023
Ghost in the Shell 2.0 is a 2008 reproduction of the 1990s cyberpunk anime film of the same name directed by Mamoru Oshii and created by Masamune Shirow. I’ll be approaching this review on providing my thoughts of this reproduction and providing fresh thoughts on the film after having last seen the original 1995 film back in the 2000s.
Far as the reproduction element of this film goes, it largely feels like a gimmick to me for the most part. While enhancing most of the original visuals for digital film, some key scenes in the film are animated in 3DCG and a few scenes with digital
...
computer displays and vehicles get the CG animation treatment as well. This works better for the digital displays, as the 3DCG animated scenes and altering of vehicles into CG is quite jarring when considering much of the film otherwise retains the hand-drawn animation of the original film, which amazingly still holds up well today between the lifelike character designs, detailed scenery, and beautifully animated action scenes. The other major change is the Puppet Master’s voice now being done by a female seiyuu, though this is largely inconsequential.
As far as my thoughts of the 1990s film adaptation of Ghost in the Shell go, I’ll admit I have my issues with this compared to later adaptations of the series. But before I dabble into the cons, I guess I’ll go into what I enjoyed with the film. The film does a solid job establishing its advanced future setting with many of its major characters having varying degrees of cybernetic enhancements, some advanced as such where they are cyborgs like main heroine Motoko Kusanagi. This creates some interesting exploration on to what degree the characters could still regard themselves as human and whether or not they can trust their own memories, especially as cybernetic-enhanced brains are vulnerable to hackers.
Ghost in the Shell mainly stumbles with its story and characters as the film is trying to be a bit too grand with what it wants to do within its 80+ minute runtime. The plot involving the hacking attacks of the Puppet Master escalates into a political conspiracy which while ripe with storytelling potential for a TV series, this film adaptation doesn’t have the time to properly explore and build things up with it. Also in a departure from the manga and later anime adaptations of Ghost in the Shell, the characters are far more moody here, particularly Motoko as she will usually philosophize about her humanity and finds herself drawn to the Puppet Master. This may be my personal leanings for Stand Alone Complex coming in, but I’m more a fan of that title’s versions of the characters compared to this film. Also with the lack of time to devote proper focus on exploring its characters, it’s rather difficult to connect with the members of Section 9 for this film.
In short, I guess my feelings for the 1995 Ghost in the Shell film haven’t changed much since I seen it years ago. While having an excellent visual presentation that still holds up well today, its premise is better suited for a longer media format that could take its time to develop the title’s complex story, themes, and characters that was best shown with the 2000s Stand Alone Complex TV series. I’d actually implore you to look into that series if you are looking for more to dabble into with the Ghost in the Shell franchise.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
