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Jun 21, 2020
I *really* want to keep this brief, so I apologize if the following review is like, bad.
Yesterday wo Utatte was a whole lot of interesting to me, right from the start I had this weird feeling that it didn't FEEL up my alley, I couldn't explain WHY I liked it, but somehow I didn't want to stop. I think it's worth pointing that out, because it's largely because of that initial impression that I think I ended up liking it as much as I did.
The purpose of this review is to hopefully help YOU, reader, enjoy this show. I certainly have no intention of
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discrediting the opinions/experiences of anyone who was dissatisfied by it... BUUUUT... I DO think that expectations can go a long way insofar as how much you like this story, and I wonder if the people who are (at the time of writing this) pretty upset over the ending might just have had some unhelpful expectations. So let me tell you what I think this story ISN'T about.
This is not a love story, this is not about romance, this is not about "coming of age" (well I mean maybe it is, but kind of most stories can be, so let's just distance ourselves from that idea for now), this is not about finding characters likable or rooting for your favorite ship or whatever. Well ok, it CAN be. Maybe it's still fun if you view that that way, but I'm not the one telling you so. But to paraphrase some less-than-positive takes I've seen floating around, certain characters in this show don't really feel "developed." If you are watching this anime in hopes that a really sweet romance will blossom and everything will feel "right" with a happily-ever-after, you'll probably feel like this story is pointless, or that it doesn't earn what it tries to have, and particularly in the case of the ending, you might even say it was rushed. And let me tell you - I am NOT the person to talk to about whether something was rushed or not, because apparently I have an extraordinarily high tolerance for fast pacing, so maybe my opinion on that won't be helpful to anyone but me (I mean, the pacing felt fine to me tho).
Anyway, to anyone who finishes this show with feelings like that, I hear you. You're probably right, honestly. But somehow I made it through without feeling that way at all, so surely there must be some valid alternative approach?
Let me describe to you what this show was to me, and hopefully I can convey why it's pretty good (uh oh, is this where the "review" starts? Wasn't this supposed to be brief? What's wrong with me? Are you really ok with reading this kind of a review?). And as one final preface (ugh), I'll just say that I have no idea what the original manga is like, and maybe what I think of this story would be really untrue for that, in which case, perhaps this simply isn't a good adaptation? But this anime, man... This is a show about a handful of characters, each with a handful of insecurities and social hangups, and they all pretty consistently just kind of flounder about awkwardly in an attempt to achieve 3 broad goals. First goal: Understand each other. Second goal: Understand themselves. Third goal: Relationship???
Listen, if you're gonna claim that this is a "romance" anime, I hope you realize that everyone in this story pretty explicitly DOES NOT understand what romance is, they don't know what it really means to be in a relationship, they all second-guess themselves and are constantly casting all of their feelings into doubt. Relatable. But this isn't really a cute "aww they don't even KNOW that they're madly in love" kind of confusion. This is like, actual confusion. Like dumb confusion. These people are kind of dumb, and it's a little frustrating, and I didn't really like any of them for a while because no one seems to know what they're doing. BUT THEREIN LIES THE HEART OF THIS DANG STORY, READER.
A great feeling was when I realized that I had started to like everyone involved, they're all so *bad* at like, stuff, but it's always a good time to see someone brute force their way into the coveted "being a slightly more mature person" zone, and that's what I think just about everyone does in this story. Time spent watching this anime feels quiet and introspective. Dialogue is written in this weird way where characters can muster the conviction to simply call out each others' insecurities with pinpoint accuracy like it's NOTHING. They do this CASUALLY in that way that you can only really sigh and nod in response. There is virtually no music, most of the time, so you're just left with these stinging acknowledgments that whatever given character has to come to terms with, in the quiet of your own mind. There's kind of a melancholic vibe to this sorta thing and I do think I dig it. And all this time in quiet reflection was time well-spent for the characters, because they follow it up with little life decisions that reveal genuine effort to self-improve.
The magic of this show is kind of exemplified by the ending, so RIGHT NOW is when spoilers might start. Personally, I wouldn't shy away though - at least for this show, if knowing the "outcome" is what will spoil your experience, I'd hazard an assumption that your view of what this show is about is already deviating too far from my own for me to expect you to have that good of a time with it anyway (maybe that's assuming too much though).
SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILER
It's exhilarating to use the apparently-controversial final episode to illustrate what I liked about this show, honestly. Not that I have much to say about it either way (this is a "brief" review, after all), but there's a sweetness to the nectar that is "revealing a dissenting opinion." But let's sum it up: The relationship that, for the duration of just about the entire story, has been built up: ends. After a short talk, everyone involved realizes that they didn't really know what they were doing, they were just kinda confused and wrong about what they thought they wanted or were comfortable with in the first place. The relationship that, for the duration of just about the entire story, has been ignored and downplayed: FULL SPEED AHEAD LET'S GOOOOOOO the end! Listen. I just tried to explain that in a way that feels accurate to the pacing, and also accurate to how VERY FRUSTRATING I imagine it is to the people who disliked it. But I think it's pretty appropriate, really!
What is key to appreciating the ending, in my opinion, is acknowledging that there isn't really a guaranteed happy-ever-after. Everyone involved admits to themselves and everyone else that they STILL don't know what the best thing to do is, and they have no idea if even this is what they really want. Very, very true to form. But they DID learn that that one relationship? The one that was built up over the show, particularly in the previous few episodes? That relationship really isn't what anyone wanted. Sure, it could have been ok, but come on. This entire story has been about all of these people not knowing what they should do, but taking action anyway. They specifically all approach their problems with an attitude of "you can't know if you don't try," and hey, they tried, and they're gonna keep trying. You can SEE the progress made since the beginning, everyone is steadily improving. No one in this story is truly satisfied with a half-assed solution that only technically works, that's why their struggles will never end. That relationship ending the way it did was the product of everything this show has built up, I'd like to think. Everyone has been confused, everyone has been doubtful, everyone wants *something* but they can't really grasp it, no one wants to settle for less than this intangible desire they have, so they think in silence, they talk directly and frankly, and they make mistakes until something finally sticks. Finally, after something stuck, they are treated to a moment of genuine clarity: this ain't it. No doubt about it. Let's try something else!
OK SPOILERS ARE DONE YOU CAN COME BACK NOW IF YOU LEFT THANKS I MISSED YOU
To me, this is not a story about finding love, as you may expect from a romance. To me, it's more of a story of like... Becoming the type of person who CAN find love. Which is neat! And whether I'm right about that or just talking out my butt, I was able to really enjoy this show as I thought of it in this way. Maybe you can too!
TO SUMMARIZE:
Awkward, introspective show about some confused people, watch them as they become slightly less confused over time! Character design is likable, characters grew on me in a weird way, music is(n't), voice acting is pleasant, honestly I'm surprised I was into this but honestly the more I mull it over, the more I think I like the dang thing. 7/10 from me, and it'd be kinda funny if I rewatched it someday and gave it like a 9/10 but I guess we'll have to see. OR MAYBE IT SUCKS IDK BYE
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 1, 2016
It's frustrating when something gets a lot of support, especially financial support, and builds up everyone's expectations just to end up being a huge and shallow disappointment. I get that. But to me, it's a lot more frustrating to see what seems to be the majority of people miss the point and hate something that frankly doesn't deserve that level of hate. This is the case with Under the Dog.
First, let me briefly address the backstory of this OVA's development. To oversimplify things, Under the Dog was an idea from the 90's for a 26 episode anime that was never made. Certain people were
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very passionate about the project though, and believed that they would have more success if it was funded by the masses, rather than by other companies that might want to affect the creative direction that the anime takes in order to fit their own agenda. They made a kickstarter campaign with a beautiful and exciting trailer advertising Under the Dog, and they managed to raise nearly $900k to make it. Fast forward roughly 2 years, and after various development issues and changes to the team working on it, this OVA is the result.
So, the question that many are asking is, "was this worth the wait/money?" And here's where I want to make my point, because a lot of people are saying that it wasn't. Think about what we got, and think about what they wanted to make. This is a story that needs 26 episodes to make - their options were essentially to cram the entire plot into one short OVA, cheapening the entire story and ruining the entire idea of having more creative freedom on a project that they're passionate about, or to essentially make a teaser for the full story that makes us wonder but doesn't answer our questions right away. Personally, I'm very happy that I contributed $75 towards the latter rather than the former.
This OVA is actually pretty spectacular as a pilot/teaser if you ask me. For one, it shows that there is indeed talent behind this project - yes, the visuals don't look as crisp as the trailer, but it still looks quite good and the animation during the action scenes was on point. Beyond that, there is a surprising amount of detail that builds a narrative on top of what is actually being said by the characters. A lot of people like to preach "show, don't tell" when it comes to storytelling, and a lot of anime does a lot of telling rather than showing, which to me isn't that terrible of a thing. Take JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for example, if they didn't explain everything that was going on all the time it would be impossible to follow, and a huge part of the style of JoJo's is the presentation of their long-winded explanations. In the case of Under the Dog though, I'd say that there's a lot more being shown than told, and I appreciate that as well.
I'll probably start spoiling the episode a bit from here out, so this is your warning if you haven't seen it yet and are interested in avoiding spoilers. You can already tell that I liked this quite a bit though, so if all you're looking for is a recommendation, consider this it.
What I liked about Under the Dog was the little things that it tells you about its world as you go along. Thinking of this as an episode 0 or even an episode 1, I have a pretty solid idea of what I'd be getting into with this story based on this one episode. It seems that something that was meant to give people hope is now some kind of military threat, so much so that even seemingly normal, unassuming schools are equipped to be completely locked down with barricades at a moment's notice. Whatever this issue is results in people turning into terrifying monsters that are immune to normal bullets, and there are at least 2 factions that take interest in this - the US military, and an organization that creates "flowers," which are girls that are trained to be assassins under the threat that if they fail, their families will be killed. These girls carry out dangerous missions of assassination as well as protection of certain individuals that are for some reason labeled "white," and I can only assume that their assassination targets are all labeled "black." The girls seem to be convinced that if they can finally find a person that is truly "white" that they can all be saved from this situation, implying that this so-called "white" person can bring an end to this military struggle that the world is dealing with. Whether this person can act as a cure to whatever makes people monsters or as some way to shift the power over this force to one side or another remains to be seen, but what is clear is that people who are "white" can change to being "black," which seems to mean that they will start turning into a monster and need to be killed.
Naturally, this brings up a lot of questions, and thankfully, almost no answers. Let's assume that they'll eventually be able to make a full series out of this - I am deeply interested in what is happening and how things will happen from now on, which is a great way to feel at the beginning of any story. Here are some of the questions that I'd like answers to based on this episode (keep in mind, I didn't read the plot synopsis before watching so I only know the context that was shown to me in the actual episode): Why is the US military involved and not the Japanese military, given that this seems to be based in Japan? (This implies that whatever issue that is going on is being dealt with on a global level, or is considered important enough to apply the largest force possible to take care of.) Why is this military force at ends with the flowers and whoever controls them? What is causing people to turn into monsters? What does either side stand to gain by capturing someone labeled "white"? What is it that Hana injected into herself? Why do the flowers' eyes glow green? Do they have the power to disrupt people's guns or are they just observant of the correct opportunities to rush in for an attack? How much of society is aware of this issue? What powers do the monsters really have? Are they mostly biological or are they partially machine, based on the apparent force field that can deflect bullets? What was up with that badass gun Anthea used to actually damage that monster? Did Anthea's yelling at the end actually stop the monster, or was it just distracted by something else? If it did, seriously, what powers do the flowers have? And for that matter, why is it necessary to essentially hold their families hostage? What determines who will become a flower or not?
I have other questions but if I get into too many details it'll just drag on too long. My point is, I have a lot of questions, and having questions means that I find the anime interesting. If it wasn't interesting, I wouldn't care and therefore I wouldn't have questions. But it was interesting, because it deliberately gave me a lot to think about and wonder about. More than anything, this OVA made me crave the full story, which is a perfect way to introduce a story. Yet, I see a lot of people complaining. Unfortunately, the majority of people that I've seen complain about this OVA have offered very little explanation of what makes them not like it (saying "it's shit" doesn't mean anything to anyone, unless you think that your opinion is so important that no one will need any explanation in order to agree with you). The main complaint that I've seen boils down to 2 things, the animation quality and the "lack of story." As for animation, if you were expecting it to look exactly the same as the kickstarter trailer, maybe you'll be disappointed. But it does look quite good to me, definitely still above average.
And as for "lack of story," I think what people should be saying is "lack of conclusion" or "lack of answers," which is honestly the entire point of this OVA's existence. This OVA introduced a lot of concepts, it primarily follows 2 characters, a "white" person and a "flower," and both of them die by the end of the episode. Their stories got a conclusion, but the world did not, because the overarching story has not yet concluded. Anthea, the main character, doesn't even show up until near the end, and from what I noticed, she doesn't have a single speaking line of dialogue, just a couple grunts and a really great yell at the end. The OVA baits you into thinking that Hana and the one guy were going to be the main characters, only to reveal that they only existed in order to give us insight into all of the primary conflicts of the world that this story takes place in. I really disagree with the idea that no story is being told here, because in the span of these side characters' short stories, by the time they each died I had learned enough to be interested in this world and the many, many questions that I would now love to have answered someday.
So, TL;DR: This is a fantastic pilot episode that raises a lot of questions in a really great way that makes me want more. I'm giving it an 8/10 because if there was a full series based on this, I'd probably give it at least an 8/10 based on the potential I see here. If this ends up being all that we ever see out of Under the Dog, I guess I'd probably lower it to a 6/10 or maybe lower. If you expect this to be a full story contained in a single episode like Little Witch Academia, you will be disappointed by this because it's written to only work as a 26 episode series. It's simply not a full story, but it's a promising start, and I think it deserves a bit more praise for how good it is at being what it is.
Oh, but the English voice acting sucked 90% of the time. I was laughing at it for the wrong reasons, I kind of wish that it was Japanese people speaking "Engrish" instead so that I could laugh at it in a better way. There's a difference between "bad pronunciation" and "bad voice acting," and I'd take the former any day.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 4, 2016
I've noticed that a lot of reviews of this anime will likely lead you to believe that Koutetsujou no Kabaneri is some kind of terrible show that isn't worth anyone's time. I'm here to disagree, because I find it overall pretty fun to watch, and I think that's all it needs to be.
Based on the hype for this anime as it was airing, I suppose most people would come in with expectations that it would either be "the next Attack on Titan" or else just generally good enough to be anime of the season. Well it's neither of these things, so discard those thoughts now
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and approach this with a clearer mind.
I hope you don't mind a shorter review, but I'm just going to list what I think are Koutetsujou no Kabaneri's most basic weaknesses and strengths as quickly as possible. It's honestly a pretty straightforward experience so I don't think it requires much depth to explain.
So for one thing, the art and animation are pretty spectacular, which is great because OH MY GOD THAT SETTING!!! Seriously, samurai + zombies + steampunk? Sign me the fuck up, that's awesome! I mean sure, it's just a mashup of cool things that anyone could come up with, but it IS really cool and the animation totally does these themes justice. The strongest point of the whole anime is its action scenes, and they are truly well-made and fun to watch. The soundtrack also enhances the experience, and personally I really enjoyed the OP and ED a lot.
Where the show stops shining is the plot and characters. For the first half of the anime, rather than really following a clear plot, it just sets up the main character's position in the world and gives the audience some really entertaining action scenes. After that though, Biba is introduced. Biba isn't entertaining to watch, and in a way his influence becomes something of a toxin on the rest of the characters which makes everything less exciting and a lot more frustrating. And the actual plot of the show revolves around this more than anything else. Now, I don't think that the direction this show went is necessarily BAD, but I do think I would have preferred if it could have retained some of the initial badassery that the main cast had up until that point. I waver between a 6/10 and a 7/10 for this anime, and the lack of me caring about any of the characters as of the second half is what's kind of keeping it at a 6 right now.
Still, I had a lot of fun watching the beginning parts, and the action was still really great all throughout the anime. It slips up and loses sight of the badass-ness that it could have been partway through, but in the end, I don't think it's fair to write it off as a waste of time. Give it a shot if you haven't seen it, its plot and characters may not live up to the great action scenes, but the action scenes are pretty rad and it makes for an all-around enjoyable experience to watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jun 26, 2016
When this anime first started airing, I immediately caught on to how depressingly stale it is. It is utterly lacking in any distinct flavor, honestly every aspect of this show is pretty generic, but done worse than a lot of other similarly generic shows. I made a promise to myself that when it finished airing, no matter what I thought of it, I'd write a review of it starting with the sentence "all right motherfuckers, I hope you're ready for bread." Unfortunately, after enduring 13 weeks of this, that joke isn't funny to me any more (and it wasn't funny anyway, I just tend to
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laugh at stupid things).
Before I say anything specific, I want to mention that I don't take anything about this anime any more or less seriously than shows with normal-length episodes. It's true that the majority of short-episode anime like this are terrible, but I'd like to think of that as nothing more than a general observation, and not a necessary trait that defines them. If the episodes are short, the story should be structured around making the most of that format, and we shouldn't go easy on things like this because it's really not a disadvantage if the people working in it are competent.
That said, if there's one thing Pan de Peace kind of did right, it was taking advantage of its format. It's difficult to tell a compelling story or develop characters in 13 3-minute-long episodes. I don't think that it is impossible to do, but unless the team working on such an anime is God-tier, it's definitely safer to go for a generic slice of life. That way there isn't a story that needs to be crammed in, and the characters are generic enough that we basically already know them from other anime, so it can skip intros and development for the most part as well. It's very efficient but very boring.
The disappointing thing about Pan de Peace's take on these generic character archetypes is that it's almost offensively lacking in any thought. To be fair, the entire premise of this anime is "bread," so I really don't know what else to expect from the characters. Sorry to make the same pun again, but these characters are truly stale. They don't break from the norm at all, they aren't experimenting with new and interesting scenarios to put these familiar archetypes into, and they don't seem to be trying anything new with any other aspect of the anime either.
I honestly can't figure out why this was made. The characters are less cute than a lot of similar shows (I guess that could be a matter of preference, but it's so hard to find their traits endearing when 90% of their worldly interests are directly related to bread), the animation isn't "bad" but it's kind of also just not present. Any movement that is animated looks really safe and easy to get right, and when they do try to animate more complicated movements it looks gross and jarring. I tried looking at some other anime by Asahi Production to see if there was a point of reference that I could compare this to, but unfortunately their entire portfolio is filled with anime that I've specifically avoided because I've either heard it was bad or I decided that it looked too generic to put the time into. As a matter of fact, Pan de Peace and Onsen Yousei Hakone-chan are the only things I've seen from this studio, and the only reason I had the patience for them is because they were so short. Lately this studio seems to specialize in this type of short anime, and it really looks like they have a habit of taking just one new thought and adding it to a generic cast of characters for a slice of life, but that one new thought can't be TOO unique or it might be difficult to write the characters without, you know, adding depth of any kind.
Enough with that though, the sound in this anime is quite shit. If you look at the cast of voice actors for this, their careers range from relatively new to DAMN YOU'RE NEW. Like a couple of them have only had like 3 or 4 roles total as of this review, not necessarily because they don't do much voice acting, but because they haven't had enough time to do more than this. I'll take that as the excuse for most of the girls sounding kind of floaty and bored, and I guess that's fine. It's cool that they can break some new voice talent into the voice acting scene and give them some experience so that they can improve. If the rest of this anime was at all noteworthy, this would be disappointing, but as it is, it's fine. Moreso than the quality of the acting, I'm bothered by the quality of the recording. It sounds like the audio was recorded on a phone, which actually wouldn't be that bad nowadays because current smartphone audio quality is actually kind of nice, so this must have been recorded on a phone from like 10 years ago or something. Speaking of, a lot of the background music sounds like it could have been a built-in ringtone for a cell phone from 10 years ago. It fits though, which is what's disappointing about it. If the rest of the anime was fun and interesting, I could say that the soundtrack does it a disservice, but as it is, I may as well say that Pan de Peace has really good sound directing because it fits the generic vibe of every aspect of the rest of the anime. Oh and I should mention, the opening song gets stuck in my head very easily and I don't like the song very much so thanks for the torture petit milady (by the way, petit milady is a "Unit formed by Aoi Yuuki and Ayana Taketatsu" according to MAL, who are each involved in more voice acting roles than the entire cast of Pan de Peace combined. Other than Yugioh Zexal, both Aoi Yuuki and Ayana Taketatsu have had voice acting roles in each of the anime that they have performed openings for, including Onsen Yousei Hakone-chan, so it's just kind of weird to me that they weren't involved with this. I know that I like some of their roles that I've heard before, so maybe Pan de Peace was just specifically meant to only feature newcomers? Maybe adding Aoi Yuuki and Ayana Taketatsu would have made the difference in voice acting talent too apparent? Who knows?)
Needless to say, I did not enjoy Pan de Peace. It is SO easy to watch short-episode anime though, which is how I managed to finish this. I think that Crunchyroll sends a portion of the money they make from subscriptions to the different anime studios based on what shows are actually being watched, so I guess in a way I'm directly supporting more shows like this being made, so that kinda sucks. I do not recommend this anime to anyone, BUT! I do think that some people will be ok with it. If you're the type of person that will like a generic and uninspired cast of girls poorly animated to eat bread almost nonstop, you already know who you are and in that case, please feel free to watch Pan de Peace. But if you're like me, it's not even worth the 3 minutes for the first episode.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Mar 30, 2016
Here's a short and pointless review, but Teekyuu is also short and pointless so it should fit.
It hurts to try to follow along with Teekyuu, let alone think about it on any critical level. The jokes fly by at supersonic speeds and the actual quality of the humor fluctuates dramatically on a second-by-second basis. Having watched through all 7 seasons of Teekyuu thus far, I've learned to just accept it for what it is, but to make it this far you'll have to train your brain to turn itself off, and your mileage may vary depending on how much condensed randomness you can physically
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absorb.
That said, this season was probably the most consistent of them all so far - I was able to enjoy every episode on some level, and some of the best moments of the entire series happened this season. Currently I haven't heard anything about an 8th season being announced, but if it gets made, you can bet I'll be watching it. Teekyuu is the kind of anime that I can't drop any more, I've invested too much of my mental well-being into this series to back out now.
I recommend that everyone at least watch one episode of Teekyuu, preferably from this season because like I said, it's the most consistently enjoyable one so far. You'll know right away if you will be able to watch any more of it, but it might take some time before you know if you like it or not.
Upon further reflection, it might not be that Teekyuu is improving, but rather that it has broken me completely by this point. As this is actually quite likely, please disregard everything I've said up until this point. 10/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Oct 7, 2014
This is the best bad anime I've seen in a while. It isn't good. It doesn't really stand out. Due to Momo Kyun Sword's rather shallow exterior and interior, there isn't really a good way to write a long review about it without some filler. Therefore, I'm going to keep this review short. But I'm going to try to recommend that you watch it, despite the low score that I think it deserves.
Here's the story: Follow Momoko, her boobs, and her 3 animal friends as they travel Japan, meeting more boobs and changing costumes along the way. Beware of predictable plot twists and cliches.
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The art is colorful, but isn't all that special. Everyone's shoulders and cleavage and various other body parts are blushing at almost all times, unless they are male and are therefore not sexual objects. But who cares about them, right?
The music confuses me, it's usually generic and more annoying than not, but then sometimes I can almost dig it. I was left with a feeling of vague satisfaction coupled with deep disappointment in the sounds in this anime.
Every character falls into some archetype and doesn't expand on it or do anything out of the ordinary. Onihime was my favorite. That's really all I can say here.
Enjoyment: Well, I enjoyed this. I'll explain why, but that's where this review kind of gets long, so if you want to leave off here, just know that it's possible to revel in Momo Kyun Sword's lack of substance, but that doesn't at all make it a "good" anime. It is inherently bad, as (hopefully) evidenced by my brief description of everything about it above. I didn't really leave anything out, I think I've described the entire anime in this review.
Anyway, here's where my "short" review ends, and my "long" analysis of why I enjoyed this anime despite its terrible-ness begins:
This is a very simple-minded anime made with a very simple-minded audience in mind. It doesn't look down on its viewers at all - it puts itself exactly on their level and celebrates the mediocrity. I assume that if you're going so far as to read a review about Momo Kyun Sword, you aren't the type of person it was intended for. So, in order to enjoy this anime, you need to exert some effort. There is no meeting halfway here. You won't be rewarded for your trouble with anything that is at all redeemable by the end of this story. No, for someone that enjoys thinking critically about anime, the only surefire way to make this worth your while is to go all in and lower yourself to the very standards it expects of its audience.
At least, that's what you have to do if you want to enjoy it and also rate it higher than a 3. I, however, enjoyed this anime without respecting it. It was risky though, I very easily could have hated it (still probably giving it a 3, but without the fond memories). All I had to do was start watching this anime, fully anticipating something underwhelming. I know that people say that you shouldn't watch this anime if you're wanting something deep, but I'm going to change this to "only watch this anime if you're wanting something shallow." It's not enough to know that this anime is bad, you have to WANT it to be bad. If you want this enough, you will be rewarded with exactly what you want, and therefore enjoy this anime!
But really, everyone needs a mediocre anime or two under their belt. Not necessarily to accentuate the better anime, although that's not a bad reason. I just kind of like to take a breather, to stay grounded in reality. If I throw in some bad anime along with the exceptional anime, I won't get bored with my favorite medium always meeting my expectations. But that may just be me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Oct 13, 2013
The subject of time travel is no stranger to the world of anime, so it takes a lot of work to make a time travel story stand out. For Steins;Gate, that hard work paid off. This is by far the best-executed time travel story that I've ever seen in my experience with anime, and if you haven't seen it yet, you're definitely missing out!
Story: 10
The story revolves around the antics of Rintarou Okabe, a self-proclaimed mad scientist that goes by the alias "Hououin Kyouma," as he essentially dicks around with time and subsequently deals with the consequences of his selfish actions. I'll be completely honest
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and say that the incredibly slow and random start to the anime threw me off so much that I re-watched the first episode 4 times over the course of 6 months before I could resolve to just pushing onward and finishing the anime. However, this slow start is balanced out by the fast-paced second half. By the end, it was answering questions that I never thought to ask, pointing out the significance of things that had long been discarded by my mind, and that sense of tying up loose ends is just the most refreshing feeling to have after dealing with so many time travel stories that are too lazy to clean up after themselves.
Unlike many time travel stories, especially in the world of anime, Steins;Gate has no noticeable inconsistencies objectively. I say objectively because this is a science fiction story, and that makes it really hard for everyone to agree on it. The thing is, none of us have experienced time travel in the way the characters in these science fiction stories have (and if you have experienced it, I'm very sorry for making assumptions), so there isn't a clear right or wrong way to write a time travel story. Obviously, if a story contradicts itself, something went wrong. But Steins;Gate seems to obey its own rules, and while a lot of people have made very compelling arguments that point out flaws in Steins;Gate's concept of time travel, they all make assumptions about how time travel works, and no one can really say for sure how things would change if we altered the past.
In the end, this isn't a science textbook, it's a science fiction anime. It's not supposed to be 100% believable, otherwise we wouldn't be able to watch it and say "wow, that was unbelievable!" I give the story a 10/10 because it was interesting, well-researched (many ideas are borrowed from other works of science fiction and played with), and overall just plain entertaining.
Art: 8
I really prefer talking about the art of a particularly spectacular-looking anime or else a particularly underwhelming-looking anime. Since the art in Steins;Gate is neither extremely good or extremely bad, I'll rate it an 8/10 for not influencing my opinion of the anime in either direction. Consider it a passing grade, basically where we should expect the art quality of anime to be in this day and age. Anything better would be remarkable.
Sound: 9
I can't say much for the soundtrack, but the voice acting is awesome! Okabe's seiyuu is all kinds of talented, but everything good about the sound in this anime, and really, everything good about life in general, can be summed up in the maniacal laugh of Hououin Kyouma. I can't really speak for the English dub, and while I love Michael J. Tatum's work in Baccano, what I've heard of the dub sounds to be sorely lacking compared to the Japanese voices. Miyano Mamoru is just so cool! Sonuvabitch!
One thing of note about the soundtrack is the lack of one for a large portion of the anime. During quiet moments, rather than listening to quiet music, you're usually just listening to nothing. This is something that I've seen a few times, and I think it's pretty cool. It accentuates the importance of those scenes that do have music, and at the very least creates a nice contrast of mood, not between happy and sad music, but between silence and... not silence.
Character: 10
You should know that while not each and every character is the pinnacle of how great anime characters can be, they're all very interesting, entertaining, and Hououin Kyouma can handle being the pinnacle of just about everything.
But really, my rule for judging a character to be good is that I either like them or appreciate how much I don't like them. There are characters that I like and characters that I don't like in Steins;Gate, but all of them fit, and none of them are pointless and annoying. And yeah, Okabe is startlingly charismatic, and that can take an anime pretty far in the character department.
Enjoyment: 10
This anime made me laugh maniacally and cry silently. It also made me think, and it rewarded my thoughts by having closure and clarity, which left me more than satisfied. Easily a 10/10 anime, and now one of my favorites that I've seen!
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Sep 22, 2013
*Disclaimer: I've already written a detailed review of Prince of Tennis. This is more or less an analysis of New Prince of Tennis, as it pertains to the original anime, so it's less structured and doesn't go in-depth on anything that isn't being compared to the original Prince of Tennis.*
To say that I had high hopes for New Prince of Tennis would be, you guessed it, an understatement. The original Prince of Tennis was not just an anime, it was THE anime, to me. It was that enigma that, despite seeming to be "just a sports anime," managed to capture my heart and rose above
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all other anime in my favorites list. That's not to say that it's better or even that I like it more than any of my other favorites, it is simply "above," because it's the one anime that I feel the closest connection to, it's that anime where I feel most centered.
So yes, I had very high hopes for New Prince of Tennis!
I started out skeptical, and this skepticism quickly grew in its intensity. The opening song didn't really match well with the visuals, the setting had switched from the comfort of Seigaku to a never-before-mentioned hardcore high school training camp that seems to be all sorts of hostile, and worst of all, it felt like the people making this anime were just trying to pander to long-time Prince of Tennis fans by over-using the shallowest aspect of each character, rather than allow them to act naturally. I dare you to find more than 2 consecutive lines from Inui that weren't just stating some arbitrary percentages. I felt anything but at home with this anime at the beginning, and this lasted for about 7 episodes.
But after that, everything was right again. They actually had matches that took up whole episodes (you just don't get that same emotional impact when the matches are short enough to fit 4 or more into a single episode), the characters weren't stale any more, finally, FINALLY it felt like Prince of Tennis again! I was prepared to dismiss this entire anime as a failure, but I'm very pleased that I stuck with it, because the second half or so is quite good. If you are a Prince of Tennis fan, you certainly should not miss New Prince of Tennis. The weird mismatched opening sequence even started growing on me after a while.
However, despite how good it got at the end, the first half should not be overlooked. The writers are partially to blame for the bad pacing and shallow, well, everything about those episodes, but I attribute most of the sense of awkwardness to the fact that this anime is only 13 episodes long. A Prince of Tennis story of this magnitude should not be confined to so few episodes, and from what I remember of the manga, a LOT is left out in this anime, and that just doesn't work as well as one would hope. This is the only thing that's keeping me from adding this to my collection of "perfect 10" Prince of Tennis arcs/seasons on MAL.
But what can I say, it's Prince of Tennis. It's a good time, you should watch it if you liked the first anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 8, 2013
I would like to preface this by saying that I've never even heard of Bamboo Blade, let alone watched it.
Bamboo Blade is a comedy that comes around only once every very often. Let's face it, you've seen all of this before: Broke teacher looking for a quick fix to his problem, lovable cast of female characters who just want to train in kendo and have a fun time, all wrapped up in a comedy school setting. By no means is it anything new in the anime world, but it is still a wholly charming and fun little show.
Story:
Honestly, the story isn't all that fantastic. It's
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very predictable and cliche, and while that isn't bad, it certainly won't win any awards. I think it's best to just accept that the story is just a setup for the truly great cast of characters to interact in, rather than a driving force for the anime.
Art:
Character design is fantastic in Bamboo Blade! Each and every character is immediately recognizable and really left a deep impression on me. I still can't look at Kirino's face without smiling, what a beautiful character. Animation is surprisingly good, you can tell that while they knew this wasn't making any major leaps in the world of anime, the animators were dedicated to their work and wanted this to look really nice, and honestly, my hat's off to them. Well done! I'd also like to point out the lack of ecchi - there were a lot of times in this anime that could have focused on cheap panty shots and questionable ecchi situations, but it did a good job at not offending me at all.
Sound:
The soundtrack to the anime is kind of weak, but it makes up for it with the fantastic voice acting. Both the English and Japanese versions are very well-done, although I prefer watching in Japanese with subs. All of the voice actresses really capture the style of the anime very well, from the comedy scenes to the more serious ones, I was captivated the whole time by their voices.
Character:
And here's the major selling point of this anime. Really, when it comes to writing characters, there's nothing more frustrating than a good character that has poorly-written interactions with other characters. Bamboo Blade doesn't have this problem though, as all of the characters are well-written and enjoyable, but also their chemistry is superb and all of their interactions really make sense and contribute a lot to my enjoyment of this anime.
It may be a pretty typical style of anime, but that didn't keep me from thoroughly enjoying it. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a nice, fun anime to sit back and enjoy.
So, now that I've finished this review, I've decided it'd be a good idea to actually watch Bamboo Blade and see if it matches up with my review.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 5, 2013
My friends think I'm weird for liking a sports anime. "What's the big deal, it's just sports! You can watch real people play tennis on TV instead!" What they don't realize is that Prince of Tennis, as well as many other sports anime, is about much more than just the game. In fact, as far as Prince of Tennis goes, there is far more time spent outside of the court, developing characters and improving the viewers' bond with the anime.
The story's a real shocker here (not). Young prodigy joins a famous tennis school aiming for the national championship, overcoming all sorts of seemingly-impossible challenges and
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making lifelong friends along the way. It's a tried and true formula for any shonen anime, especially of the sports genre, but what I really appreciate about Prince of Tennis's take on the genre is the truly equal amount of attention given to each of the regulars on the team. Compare this with Kuroko's Basketball, another fantastic sports anime. Yes, all of the players on the team are important and have their own abilities, but the spotlight always shines on Kuroko and Kagami first and foremost. Prince of Tennis, on the other hand, thoroughly develops not only each player's skills, but also their personalities and relationships with everyone else in the anime. There are side characters in Prince of Tennis that are more developed than some main characters in lesser anime.
And that's the thing! The characters are all so lovable! I've watched Prince of Tennis in its entirety at least 10 times in my life, and there isn't a single character in the cast of Seigaku regulars that hasn't been my favorite character at some point. I wouldn't dare put any character from Prince of Tennis on my top 10 characters list because I'd have to include at least 7 more. And it's not that they're each some kind of ideal person, they all have issues and imperfections, but they're so well-developed and unique that it's really hard to not fall in love with the entire cast.
It's a kind of old anime, so it stands to reason that the art style starts out a little... well, outdated. Animation is sometimes rigid, and pretty much every special move animation is just cut and pasted every single time it's used, but rather than making the anime seem cheap, I've only ever felt more excited by the incredible style that this show has. It's not "oh, not THIS animation again..." it's more like "Awww yeah, here it comes! TWIST SERVE!!!" The main point is that it works really well, and contributes to the entire sense of style that this anime has.
As far as sound goes... Amazing. There are some really, really great noises that come out of this anime. I think a really good testament to a good show, or at least a good long-running anime like Prince of Tennis, is a sense of familiarity and belonging. Everything in this show has its own "sound," from special moves to catch phrases to background music for specific moments. After watching through this anime, you'll be able to listen to a sound bite and almost immediately point out what special move it is, or whether the tables have turned at the last second of a match or not.
So as not to belittle any of the other 10/10 anime that I've found, I can't say that Prince of Tennis is my very favorite anime, but... It's pretty much my very favorite anime. There is so much more to it than just tennis, so to any of my friends that criticize me for loving a sports anime, I only have one thing to say to them:
"Mada mada dane."
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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