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Oct 7, 2010
Adaption success? Adaption success. Unlike that of Dance in the Vampire Bund I had meant to do with a long time back with, among other things. Don't pay attention to my scores as my writing, as I tend to rate most things highly.
This is a simple show that does what it is supposed to, but is a big deal because shows like these can have a lot of expecation behind them from the manga fans like me. Could you imagine how much expectation you would have if someone animated Yotsuba&!? Exactly.
Shinraku! Ika Musume, is another Slice of Life Comedy show. A very good one. They're
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becoming very popular in recent year, so one may ask, why watch Shinraku Ika Musume? Because it is by no means below sub par. Many of these within the genre are kind of lacking in either the anime or manga. Shinraku Ika Musume started with a very solid manga beginning, and I believe that the first episode, is in fact, that the entire series will be successful in portray the charm that is Ika.
And because I feel this way I am writing a review early to garner positivity for the show.
You get the premise of a girl who is trying to take over the world, because of ecological and animal rights type of reasons, and is practically a walking embodiment of Radical Ecologist Greens in moe form. So you won't find her accomplishing much of her goal to conquer the world, aside from her financial gains working at a restaurant. It is a Slice of Life comedy. It is episodic, not much changes.
And Slice of Life and Comedy are not bad genres, just because what many people who prefer anime find exceptional about the genre, is Fantasy Action and Philosophy. And to someone who wants a good example of the sort of thing the genre should aspire to, can read some of the modern greats such as Calvin and Hobbes and of course Yotsuba&! Shinraku! Ika Musume, does the best job of keeping along in the tradition of better Slice of Life comedy shows. By one, having just enough and not too much moe focus, and having equally as good comedy situations.
Ika, is herself, a moeblob. But unlike a lot of Slice of Life shows, Ika Musume still takes a lot of effort in crafting good comedic situations in the form of short. The show does not once suffer in terms of comedy from the fact that Ika is a moe personification of Deep Ecology. I cannot stress well enough how well balanced the different things that lie in this manga and anime are, and how amusing I find it's comedy. Something that has carried me through chapter to chapter, begging for more.
If you are an anime fan because you like Fantasy scenarios, from the high ends of production and quality to the lower, because that is your taste, while having little interest in comedy and simple like Calvin and Hobbes like shorts, reminiscent of your Sunday Newspaper, Slice of Life anime, and as well, Shinryaku! Ika Musume is not for your.
However, if you have just caught up with the very newest Yotsuba&!, Chi's Sweet Home, taking up Shinryaku! Ika Musume may even do a better job of an addition to such shows than the likes of K-On and Lucky Star have been. Simply because it's format, as interpreted in my mind, is a better balance of moe, the slapstick, and other comedy situations. And those comedy situations themselves, in my mind, being very amusing.
Clearly it is something that came off refreshing to me. And I hope that is has, or will be for you as well. Give it a try. Give it a try if you like this kind of material. For if you do, it is well worth your time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 26, 2009
TechnoShamanist Fiction.
Oh we Pagans of the future! The longer one spends time as an outsider with outsider culture, the more one realizes that things that should be polar opposites such as the ancient past and fantasy tale of magic and occult, and future tales of science and reasoning, science fiction and fantasy are actually two sides of the same coin. Ever so closely tied in strands not yet I ever close to grasp. Both in defiant analyzable of the that which is not the status quo of culture and thinking, they are but sisters!
This TechnoShamanism word I will start off this review with and
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orient the review towards because not only is it not stated enough by the fans, it can seem a bit hard to understand and incomprehensible without any background information on the matter, one of the flaws I consider Serial Experiments Lain to have.
I recommend various readings on wave paranormal studies and Gaia theory beforehand watching this anime. Especially Douglas Rushkoff's Cyberia. Which I would argue is the primary influence for this anime.
Too easily do people get into material which may or may not be very deep but just surreal, and go 'WOAH MAN, CHECK THIS OUT IT'S REALLY TRIPPY STUFF" and I would gather a lot of recommendations, trying to look deep, but are actually rather shallow, about such a show are made.
For one, the material in this show is there to be analyzed. It's indeed a thinking person's anime. It's also a drama. Though it is before all else, as stated before, another fusion of Science fiction and fantasy.
Naturally the two have many various run ins and it's even more common to mix the two together than to mix them with other things. Serial Experiments Lain is no exception.
However, in this case, what makes it the more "intellectual anime", is that is based around the case of making a case for the fantasy by entirely modern means. And it indeed has a background as I've stated before.
Yes, what makes Serial Experiments Lain different from other Fantasy Science Fiction, is that most fiction tries to throw around the two haphazardly for entertainment, whereas this is a works to explain hypothesis of how the things would work.
The series starts off very well, however, while it paces slowly enough at the beginning, it rushes on into the subject matter rather quickly at the end. I don't consider it much of a spoiler to go into these thing either. It's actually helpful to know the material of the series beforehand.
It namedrops and mentions a lot of inspiration real fast and rushes the ending, while it spends a bit too much time building a drama at the beginning.
I know I'm doing this review haphazardly but, I'll have to keep into this as best I can..
Other anime experiment very easily with concepts presented here, the main one to note being Gaia Theory through waves. Even Boku no Pico once put this idea of waves and Animism together for a story. The difference again being, that this one fleshes out and tries to pull together a strong case for Technoshamanism.
That's all the story there. Good story intention at least, I still rated a 10. Art that was ahead of it's time. Good music and use of sound and voices. Interesting enough characters though not the memorable cast. Good enjoyment and entertainment. And overall something that's hard to rate anything other than ten.
I'm repeating myself again but... the theme of the show is that further technology(and this is no spoiler I say) is helping to reduce the boundary between the spirit world and less esoteric or mystical world. One of those things is grounded in the idea of increased wave signals. This is a common idea of "filling in the gaps in science". Quantum Physics has given Spiritualists a lot of room to push paranormal ideas between the gaps and explain them with science. In SER, we have Space, Time, and waves working in a way that's much like psuedo matter creating a deep gap for all sorts of mythological ideas. Because we have all this gunk that is not yet all fully measured, we're able to at least strongly approach if there's no strong religious idea to prove, a good possibility for "ghosts" of sorts to be lying in between the gaps.
The only spoiler in this show is where the gaps are and where they are not.
Think of it as the bumps and space in time. Remind yourself how it's not always been presented as perfectly linear. How matter can be in more than one place. How things seem to keep rubbing each other in ways we still don't quite fully understand. And then throw in how fickle and strange and mysterious waves are, and you've got the idea of the ghost in gaps here. Oh, and throw in a bit of Nikola Telsa and the weirdness of our brain, and the fact it's also constantly giving off electrons. All this room for gaps.
And with these gaps, Gaia Theory, Shamanism, Animism, Pantheism. We put forth the idea of group consciousness and the "all is connected" at least one some scale. With waves and of few of these other ideas, the idea here is put forth that we are connected by unseen but scientifically recordable forces, from out electron spouting brains upon time/space leaving indention, interacting with waves from cell phones and the like. And creating an interconnected ghost of sorts that could give birth to a spirit world together or at least bridge the gap that's already been there.
And in SER, the gap starts to fade, and you see real consequences of that hypothetical interconnectedness. We're moving into Gaia 2.0 and our brains are being connected through a comparison akin to moving up from fiber option to fiber optic.
What will the consequences of this bridge be? And how will it affect Lain?
That is the premise of Serial Experiments Lain.
It's a great idea, but it doesn't flesh out perfectly. They speak all this information at the very end in a way that can only confound viewers and it requires a little bit of back information or paying very close attention at the very end. In my viewpoint, this is a mistaken which helps to filter the information and case presented in Serial Experiments Lain from getting across.
I really applaud this taking from the raver culture and other subcultural science fantasy new age grab bag and making an amusing and thoughtful contribution. It's worth of great praise. It's still not perfect though. I think it's a bit rough of a diamond. But it is a diamond nonetheless.
It's not perfect, but I think you should give it a try. Especially if you're into various "Pagan" or "New Age" spirituality. If your'e a strong Atheist you might think it's laughable, but it tries real hard to walk the line between science and fantasy that I think it deserves credit for.
I apologize if I rambled about making this review.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 16, 2008
Well, of all things today I'm writing a review of Kodomo no Jikan. I thought I was going to be writing a review of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni next, but time changes moods it would appear.
Anyway, Kodomo no Jikan is a show that has created a lot of buzz for it's content and I assume for mostly it's content is it popular or notorious. It is by far not a very unheard of anime and manga, but there are a few things I think are undersaid about this anime and manga, or since I have only seen this anime, and this is the anime
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section, the anime. So I'm writing this review. Not that I needed a justification for doing so.
This done one thing I have never seen done so much so in my life. And that is it's representation and extreme focus on child sexuality. This is what makes this show so notorious and so well known. It also in my opinion gives this show extreme artists merit. Well I have a lot more to say, and it's about time I leave my preface, but there will be a lot of such things in the coming review, as well as discussion of those so called undersaid things and misconceptions.
1. Story
Going by the book and numbered order again, I now discuss story. Though it feels like I left something out in my preface, it was already large. And hopefully I'll come across my thoughts again here.
This story is an emotional mess and better labeled a drama instead of a comedy for such. The student in said anime description above, is exactly as sounds. The situation is of a underaged girl, who harassingly hits on her teacher constantly, and due to his position, understands to keep it at a distance. For obvious reasons. So her attraction and unrequited love only leave for loads of tension in the supposedly comedic "ecchi" situations.
And to stack on top of this constant paranoia and fear you feel for the teacher. There this loads of drama about the past of the students. Which only creates more drama for the unrequited love of the student given the constant misunderstanding of their relationship. I do hope that's not a spoiler, in my opinion it is not. And it was required to properly go into detail about the drama of this show.
These so called "comedic" situations, as I have mentioned before in quotes, have so much underlying drama it's hard to truly get any comedic value out of them. You might eek out a tense laugh at best from nervousness. But it's no laugh out loud comedy for sure. The one time I laughed at this show was hardly a situation between student and teacher, but teacher and teacher or student and student. The rest was extremely cringeworthy.
And now to mention the ecchi, pretty much goes in line with the other things said. At best, these so called "child ecchi" situations are comedic but not very ecchi, and at worst, cringeworthy and pure remnants of drama. They're not meant to arouse you or make you fancy over the female human body like Moetan does, they're meant to shock you into some laughter hopefully, but fail to do so any mostly make you cringe for the whole situation. You feel sorry for the teacher the whole time, and even a little bit sorry for the student at the same time.
That being said, it's mislabeled but not bad. This is an amazing breakthrough in animation and revolutionary. This is a drama romance lolicon anime. And it takes a hardcore, hardline stance on child sexuality. It doesn't exactly have the most intricate or complicated story, but it's a groundbreaking drama that deserves it's merit it's been given. And it's notoriety.
I can give this at the very least a Nine.
2. Art.
I've said a lot of good things about the art of shows I've been reviewing lately. Well here's where I review a show with bad art. Okay maybe bad is too harsh of a word, but it's not so good. The art is dated, and is easily inferior to many of the animes during it's time and even before it's time. It's blocky, clunky, and not so pretty. And it's above average at best. They take traditional style, and they don't go anywhere with it. Don't watch this show expecting to see the most dazzling artwork you've ever seen.
3. Sound
To be honest, I didn't notice the sound all that much. Which is probably a pretty negative thing. The OP song is somewhat grabbing, the voices aren't lacking, and any music that I don't remember at this point, was probably pretty good. But there's nothing grabbing or spectacular about the music.
4. Character
I think connected to the story, character development is one of the best parts of the show. I mean it IS the show. I mean I may not like the personality of all the characters, but they put the show forward. They easily make up for any character design and artwork with very vivid personalities. You'll love them, you'll hate them, but they'll make the show. If you're not watching the show for story and character development, well, then I don't know what you're watching the show for.
5. Enjoyment.
I think overall it has it's flaws, and it's most entertaining gripping anime ever. But overall, it's darn worth the watch. It's a work of beauty and a true piece of art. You have to be in the mood to watch it because it doesn't have extreme fast pace, just like it looks like. And it's not a jack of all trades, it's a school romance drama with a couple very boring scenes. But my if it's not just the most fresh, thoughtful, controversial, and well paced enough anime that you just, I wasn't, able to get it out of my system.
It's an extremely ugly rock with a piece of uranium inside. But look past the dangers of uranium, and it's an absolutely essential, while dangerous and controversial thing. It is an utter gem in that light. And I think you'll just be drawn to it's highly radioactive uranium. I'd say this deserves a seven at least. I'm giving an eight.
6. Overall.
I think overall, even the overall is better than the enjoyment in this case. Because with it's any flaws, it's a work of art. Of magnificent proportions. It is an extremely unique, extremely beautiful, absolutely essential piece of controversial art that I think everyone should see. And if it shocks you, maybe that's a good thing. And it should most certainly be licensed in your country and bought.
We treat A Modest Proposal as a classic piece of Western literature, to sensitize the rich to the plight of the poor. And Kodomo no Jikan is this anime for child sexuality. It will shock you of your cultural norm, and actually make you THINK about child sexuality.
You may not think of it as a beautiful rock or gem. It's not. It's a piece of uranium. And now you can either let this energy go to waste, or use it.
An overall nine seems about perfect for this. And fits the mood I feel for it. I impulsively feel it's a nine. And that's what I will give it. And giving it thought, it seems no less as well. I will stick with my nine rating. And I hope you will give this anime a chance if you haven't thus far. It is worth your time, energy, and money.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 27, 2008
Ok, so I'm giving this review, for if nothing else, because this show simply doesn't get enough non- ten out of ten reviews.
For one, I enjoyed this anime. For several reasons. But in no way would I ever consider this the best anime I ever watched.
Story: I'm going to be very generous and give this a 9 out of ten. I really feel like I could give it an 8. Actually scratch that, I'll make it an 8.
The story itself, if taken seriously, is not the most breathtaking or in my opinion, anything short of silly. Now not that most other anime is particularly more
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realistic, but they really went for the zany with the drill power thing. But part of I think the reason the drill power idea was was chosen was to help with that overall fun theme that this show does have and does well. Not every serious part of this show is to be taken absolutely seriously. It is supposed to be fun. And if the main theme weren't so zany in some ways, it would take away from the overall feel of the series.
I think what does make the story good and is it's plus point, is it is a little bit zany and funny the whole way through. While being epic enough in moments to make you actually take it seriously. And a good pacing, what really makes this anime good more than anything, is the pacing. It gives you several different elements and manages to pull them together in a very good way.
Another thing about it and that whole thing is that it pulls in to being a very feelgood uplifting story that will give a person courage.
Still not deserving of a 10 out of 10 though.
Also along with that, this is about the closest thing to a Dragonball Z mecha that will ever come to be. It is WAY OVER 9000!! So those who are starved for an anime truly paralleling the content overwhelmingly epic power growth and mind shatteringly Godlike power of DragonBall Z, this show undoubtedly has it.
Art: Now this is a real selling point. That artwork is really sleek and just purty even while being what might be called superflat. It shows that anime artwork is still ever evolving and growing. Even if there's some things I like about other styles better, boy is that stylish. No problems here. Not one.
Sound: Well, I'm not that fond of some of the music, and more fond of other. There's nothing particularly lacking about the music or the sound effects, but it's not the best anime soundtrack I've ever heard by a long short. And ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWA gets real annoying real quick.
Characters:
It only covers a few of the bases in my mind.
For one, for those with a homosexual attraction to really many men, you've Kamina.
And even a homosexual. Though not the type one would usually choose for a yaoi slash fic of any type, it's nice that gays get representation in anime.
Personally I found the best of this characters fixation with manliness to be a humors silly part of the show. But at other times it felt annoying. You know there's only so much zany humor I can get out of a GAR.
If there's any one thing that I could take about his and most characters personality in the show, it was the hope the inspirited. Kamina was an emotional guy, not a logical one. And I don't think this is a spoiler. And so his emotionality of being an emotional, positive guy, made him and the other characters he influences, feel really fun.
So you don't have to be homosexual for manly men to like this guy. Looking past that, if you just like happy-go-lucky, emotional, bright eyed characters, he can be fun.
The rest of the characters are pretty cool, better so that Kamina, but no one particular memorable that I would ever even close to state was my overall favorite anime character of all time. Personally but, they all have their own charm. No problems, but they're not the greatest cast of all time.
8 out of 10.
Enjoyment:
Enjoyment is actually a 10 out of ten, even though overall this show is an 8 out of ten for me.
Really, this show has perfect pacing, despite it's flaws. It's very easy to marathon and enjoy for me. I did not feel this huge
Overall:
I think despite it's really good aspects, this show has it's flaws. And it is no way deserving out of a ten out of ten or a number one ranking on My Anime List. This is undoubtedly one of the most sickeningly overrated anime shows to ever come out. And I really enjoyed this show.
But in the end, it is only like a amped up Outlaw Star to me. And personally, there was even some things I liked about Outlaw Star better. I would say it is only a few points above exactly what Outlaw Star was, and I don't mean rating points.
Not saying this show is bad, and I've both said a lot of good things about this show and given it a impressively high rating, and I think you should see this show if you actually haven't already. But the idea that this is the best anime show of all time just makes me *facepalm*. So hopefully even though this review is likely to get lost in the sea of reviews, hopefully maybe someone may come by it as a moderately rated and slightly less fanboyish review(I couldn't think of a better word) and have a more general medium idea of it, and not be so disappointing as I was when watching it. Don't go watching it because you think it'll be the best anime of all time, because you'll be disappointed like me, quite possibly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 6, 2008
Ok, so writing a review for another one of my favorite. So of course, it's going to be hightly score. But in this, allow me to tell you why.
Well being the sort of Neo-Pagan Shintoist Heathen that I am, it was right up my alley. After seeing this one wikipedia one day, I knew that it was a show for me and I just had to watch it. And I ended up of course...liking it. A lot. I suppose they could have done the Shinto theme really badly, but this did not. At all.
Off of the preface, onto the individual qualities. Since I seem to
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like doing things by the outlines.
1. Story
This show, has an amazing storylines, even if it doesn't have any twists and turns and all that. Now I may be biased by the premise, but I do think this is something anyone would find entertaining and a real charm of an anime no matter their religious affiliation. It's got good characters, and just...just an all around good slice of life anime. Simply put, I think it carries you around from episode to episode very nicely and think the very idea behind the anime is pure genius. And I could use more shows like this. And I'm a person's who's very likely to find slice of life dramas very boring.
2. Art
The art, which charming, isn't an area where this show is particularly exceptional. There's nothing really wrong with it, but there's nothing particularly special or that stands out. It's not your ultra-moe art style, but it's not your ultra-gritty action art style either. It's just sort of plain and pretty, and maybe a little bit leaning toward the typical moe drama art style. And I think that's fitting. It takes that sort of plain and typic drama art style, and carries it very far with a good storyline.
3. Sound
The sound, I don't remember so well. But I would have remembered it if there were something wrong. But I would have remembered if there were something right too. Maybe a few of the characters could have had better voicing, but not Yurie. But then again I'm not one to complain about voice acting, at least Japanese ones. Not usually. I think I can give this a definite pass, but I'm not sure how high to rate it. Somewhere in the upper sections. It's nothing ugly, but nothing great. I don't even remember what the music soundtrack sounds like and that's a bad sign.
4. Character
Well the characters is definitely a good part. Yurie and her friends, you really get to know them, and probably gain an affection for them as anime tends to do. They're really quite lovable, even if her friends are kinda plain. In character appeal, in my opinion Yurie is rightly the most developed. And her character and her close best friends as well I believe is spot on. They create a very cozy atmosphere which is the sort of atmosphere the show is I'm sure trying to bring about.
5. Enjoyment
I think that even though it's not the most dazzling evolution of anime art style or epic soundtracking or any such, it has a simple brilliance that can hardly be matched. It's slow and securing slice of life, without being boring. I can only explain the experience I can get out of it's simple brilliance to the feeling I get when watching a Miyazaki film. It's not very flashy, it's just...pretty. I may not have seen enough anime yet to truly say this, but I don't think I'll see to many anime out there in many years to come that I've enjoyed as much as this.
6. Overall
I think overall despite it's flaws, which mostly lie in not being overly outstanding or exceptionally well in one area such as art or sound, are well put to a whole that's an outstanding piece of work, and in my mind, a masterpiece. I really can't think of anything to give it lower than a ten and feel ok with it. It is a ten. It all fits together to be a perfect show. Even if the art isn't groundbreaking and the sound isn't memorable. It's still an absolutely perfect masterpiece that I wouldn't change a thing about.
You'll thank me for writing these reviews in criteria order when I start forgetting to do them that way and I'm rambling all over the place incoherently.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 6, 2008
Well the thing about this review is it's directly compared to the other series, favorably or unfavorably. And after just writing a Lucky Star review, I thought it was only right that I write a Lucky Star OVA review. In fact, I only got up the energy to write a Lucky Star review to the community.
So, now that I've filled out the preface, it's time to get to the individual qualities of the short movie. Or actually, just medium as an OVA.
1. Story
Well how does one comment on one story, that's slice of life episodic comedy?
Well, you rate it on being an episodic, slice of
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life comedy.
This one doesn't quite pace as the other one did. And has quite a bit of cool down and then short spurts of comedy. It's not so chatty and eventful as the main series.
In this way it does make it feel a bit more like a movie. But at the same time, it doesn't do what it does quite well as it did with the main series. You expect more out of it than you get. It moves slow and uneventful, and ends before you know it.
Well at least in it's favor, it ends long before you want it to end.
2. Art
It's the same great artwork as before. And there's no change at all.
So there's really nothing to say about this. It's the iconic moe art style we know and love Lucky Star for.
Ten out of ten.
3. Sound
Well you know...I didn't even notice the sound too much this time around. It doesn't have that memorable opening song that I remember. And it all seemed sort of quiet. Too quiet at times. It didn't really have to have all the music though.
And the character voices were as cute as ever.
4. Character
I think I have to commend them for spending the time they did on characters like Patricia Martin. But overall, it felt like when it was supposed to be a party, that it was an empty party. I think this part...this...OVA..was lacking in some of the character charm and development that Lucky Star often had. In the case with everything with this OVA, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good.
5. Enjoyment
Even if an OVA isn't as good, it's a Lucky Star OVA. Meaning we'll love it.
Seriously, how long were we starved for this? Too long. I went through every second of this thinking how I couldn't believe I was getting to watch more Lucky Star and fearful of every minute I drew closer to the end. It might have not been jam packed with the same about of fun as the main series, but it was still a lot of fun and well worth the watch.
6. Overall
Overall, it was what the number 8 says. It was very good. And well worth the watch and very much needed, beyond needed. It was almost cruel how long we had to wait. But it wasn't every thing Lucky Star was. I think a person is better off watching Lucky Star the series first, and then watching this because they're still absolutely starved like I was for more. It may not be one hundred percent as good as the original, but it's still got the magic. I don't want anyone to think and to get the impression that because it doesn't shine just as hard as Lucky Star the TV series that it's not every bit a good and enjoyable anime. It's a quality watch and I recommend it to anyone.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 6, 2008
You've probably heard a little about Strike Witches already, I'm willing to gander.
You've probably already heard something about it being a fanservice anime if anything. And have already formulated your opinion about it from that.
The likelyhood of that opinion being that it's just a fanservice anime and is therefore not good. And while there are quite a few fanservice anime that would make you to think that way, being since there are a lot of poorly done fanservice anime, that is not the case here. Oh, but it is not the case at all. Strike Witches is in fact a fanservice anime. But it is
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an exceptionally well done fanservice anime. In fact, it is a perfectly done fanservice anime. And a recommendation to anyone who wants to see a fanservice anime done right.
And since it's given me criteria, I think it's time for me to move on from my preface and work on into the various ratings and why I rate them so.
1. Story.
I really wanted to rate this a ten, but...I don't know how to say this without spoiling it, it builds a decent amount of story and plot and could very well be worked on. But instead of delve into this properly, they focus almost purely on character development. Which is good, considering what it is, that's a good thing. But still, it only leaves for only development like it's an unfinished anime.
It's really hard to rate this, because you have to take into account heavy character development is necessary, and that it is a fanservice anime. And that it does at to a whole which I rate a ten. Because even at it's enjoyable pace and good character development and adding to a perfect whole, I can still only rate this an 8.
2. Art
Art is one of the main things that makes this anime what it is. It is truly superb and a magnificent thing to watch. I don't think an anime, much less a fanservice anime could get much better than this in terms of art. It's animated well, and the character design is flawless. It doesn't make any big deviations from the traditional Japanese animation art style, in fact it only forwards the standard style, but it forwards the style so well and perfectly it's really taking it to what we expect it to be doing, remaining, but only developing and improving that style and raising the bar for it.
So in perhaps more simple words, you have the moe anthropomorphic art style fully realized and rendered. Beautifully used as ever. There's no question that the artwork is what makes this anime. It's not the only thing that's good about this anime of course, but it's something that helps it stand out and be the good anime that it is.
3. Sound
This anime has superb sound. The character voicing is fantastic, the sound effects are good. And after watching the show, and going back and listening to the soundtrack, realizing, what an amazing job they did on the soundtrack so much that it stands on it's own. It may not be epic, but it does what it asks to be, it's charming. And it fits the mood perfectly. And it's a great piece of musical creation that can easily be enjoyed for hours at a time without any other thing involved.
4. Character
Well, considering I already mentioned character development is the biggest part of this story, it's needless to say it has good character development. I don't think you can say anything bad about the character development, it IS one of the main focuses of the show, and it does it well. They want you to get to know the characters, and the character and made to want to be get to known. They also spend a very decent amount of time on most all the characters. Doing a very good job not to neglect a single one. It's one of the very best parts of this show that keeps you coming back for each episode.
5. Enjoyment
Well I think that's what gives this a ten. Even if it's a fanservice anime, it never stops being fun for one second. It doesn't overload you with ecchi or fanservice, and when it is that way, it provides in a very amusing fashion that most fanservice anime completely and utterly lack. If I could set a standard for what even an ecchi anime should be, Strike Witches would be on the list. And way up on that list. It's easy to even forget it's an ecchi or fanservice anime, because it's just so much pure fun.
Forget the words and associations that come to mind when you hear the words fanservice and ecchi. Because those things are not what makes this anime. What makes this anime is that it is just a ride of pure fun. Or might I say, a ride through the clear blue skies with a bunch of fun girls.
6. Overall
Well, as an anime being pure fun, this results in the same thing for me as Lucky Star. I think something is pure fun overall and a ten in the scale of enjoyment, it's a ten in the scale of overall. Because isn't that what makes an anime? I say this anime is %100 Outstanding. You just really can't be this sort of anime in the area of overall charm. I think it should become a model for what it is, and become it's own sort of mini-genre. I can already feel the influence of Sky Girls and Strike Witches.
Without Sky Girls, we wouldn't have Strike Witches. And with the success of these, at least Strike Witches, I can see this helping to spread and eventually create a flood of panty clad women with guns and superpowers, it seems to be it's own genre already. And if it is, I can certainly say this is the Godfather of what's to come. It's really a masterful work, and I can really only, like many others, hope for being graced by a sequel or at least another anime along this lines.
10/10. My life wouldn't have been complete without watching this anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 6, 2008
First off, yes, this show has a reputation. And some people might hate it just because of that. But really it does live up to it's reputation.
Secondly, this is only my first review, so I hope I can manage to actually do a good job. If I'm confident in this review, I might just go on to write a few more.
Preface extended:
As another part of my preface, I'll go into my motto than an anime has to do something well to be a good anime. And if it does something really well, it's enough to be called a masterpiece. Now the more genres something
...
does right, then the more the merrier. But it only takes one.
And this show does that one thing really well.
Now I'm not one of those people who goes around saying every genre of music has good music which I don't. And music and anime taste is subjective anyway. But for my own person tastes, and person feeling that every genre of anime has something to give, I felt a great deal of pleasure out of the elements this anime used. And has near single handedly shifted my anime fandom farther away from psychological and action anime which I used to be, and further towards comedy partialism.
I would hope to assume other people could share some of these same tastes. That's the point of a review is it not? I can only be subjective, not objective. This is art after all. But I will try my best.
For those of you who do not want to hear my rambling about good and bad, and the subjectivity and objectivity of art, skip the spoiler and start reading here.
1. Story.
I think this, like the other aspects of the show deserve a ten. I doesn't have anything complicated and intertwined deeply, no plot twists, no story hardly even. It's just an episodic slice of life anime. But it doesn't need it. And I love deep psychological story heavy anime. The pacing of this show and general fun is unparalleled hardly. Every scene of this this show basically stands on it's own as a good piece of anime work. Every little piece has been something I would want to watch several times, and often have since youtube, niconicodouga, and other sites have decided to break up scenes and mess with them.
It's a loveable, school based, otaku oriented school based story. It's nothing more, nothing less. It needs no more because randomness is part of the charm. It's fun because you just sit back and go along for the ride.
This show most deeply of any subjects, centers around otakudom. Now it's not uncommon for shows to do this. This show can also be slightly caustic and biting about it as well at times. Which is not uncommon in anime either. But never outside of the realm that it stops being fun at good natured. A thing that a lot of anime shows do not know when to stay within the realm of. Lucky Star allows you to think about being an otaku, without feeling bad.
I really wish I could go into more, but I'm rambling. In short, it's just pure fun. And in opinion, you just about have to have a broken fun gene to not like this anime.
2. Art.
You know when looking at a couple screenshots I made of this anime, it almost looked MSPainish. Meaning it looks like it could have been drawn in MSPaint. But it's every bit as brilliant as any anime artwork. You know back in days past, I used to think that maybe anime wasn't meant for MSPaint and CG and other computer related art making, because all the things I can saw at my local stores that used either one, looked nothing like anything that was anime or even could be anime. But I've learned otherwise, it's just that unfortunately the style that I love had not taken off in the United States then. And to make it to my point instead of rambling, is everything that the anime art style is.
It's MOE. It was designed to be moe. The characters are chibi looking, they have big eyes, unusual hair colors. Nothing out of the ordinary here, but Lucky Star does that art work really well. There's something almost iconic in it. As if to be some kind of mascot for moe. It's got some of the simple stuff that's not hard animation involved, such as exaggerated motions and puffs of smoke. But I don't know who you are and what you know about frame rates and whatever, but the character designs while chibified and such, are not lacking any shading they should, and everything I have found about the animation was to be smooth and superb. I have no complaints whatsoever about the artwork.
3. Sound.
Well...there's not much to go into for the sound. Which is good because this review is probably getting to be too long. There's nothing particularly epic or specially about the soundtrack. But it's cute and perfectly fitting, however simple. And the opening thing is downright famous. And for a reason, it's a simply genius bit of music. I've listened to the original and the remixes alike many hundreds of times throughout my life. And I'm sure to hit the thousands mark someday.
Actually, that was just the music I was thinking of. I forget that this is sound and not music rating. Well then it's time to go into voice acting.
The voices fit the characters in pretty much every way. And I only say pretty much because I'm in the habit of saying pretty much no matter what I'm saying. The voices absolutely fit in every way. From Konata's tomboyish otaku moe, to Kagami's tsundere moe, to every single side character. It's a cute overload. And that's why it's moe. And if you think it has any connecting with association with the artwork, just go listen to Konata's rendition of Cha-La Head Cha-La without any picture. You might be so overloaded with moe that you might faint and overdose.
4. Character.
It's a simple school life story, centered around a lovable otaku who the audience is set to agree with or relate to to some degree. She's you, the anime fan, especially if you're a big anime fan. If you're a girl, you'll probably relate to her, if you're a guy, you'll probably think she's your dream girl. That's the way she was designed and she makes and outstanding main character.
As for the other characters, they purposely got every anime character stereotype the could and played them out in various characters. And they did it in such a very charming spot on fashion, that it's just pure fun to watch these different archetypes play out and socially interact with each other in the same school.
Even the foreigner Patricia Martin, who plays out every single stereotype of Anime Otaku foreigners(and I mean every) is portrayed in only a positive light. It's almost like a fanservice to us this time. Japan is obviously growing more and more aware of it's otaku fanbase abroad.
5. Enjoyment.
Well I think that what pretty much covered so far, winds around what really motivates this show to be good. It doesn't have a complicated story. It doesn't have an epic soundtrack. It doesn't even have the most heavily shaded characters I've ever seen. But what it does have, makes all those other things pure 10's. And that's enjoyment. They all spiral toward one piece of pure fun in which every little piece of this show stands on it's own of fun. This is a show I will gladly watch several times throughout my lifetime and it will never get old.
6. Overall.
Well, I already sort of went into why everything in it tied into enjoyment. Or that enjoyment was the driving force. But allow me to ramble further. Some things get attention they don't deserve. Some things that are great go unnoticed. But Lucky Star is neither of these. It's a great anime that everyone knows about and actually deserved the attention.
I don't think I could criticize any one aspect of this show. Not one episode, not one scene. It is a masterpiece. It is a timeless classic. It deserves respect and reverence.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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