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Mar 26, 2014
There is no doubt that the mecha genre in anime has been the most well-known genre in the last 40-50 years and some of the time, most people check out those shows to see how’s the mecha fights are and how the animation looks and performs and nowadays they do look pretty impressive although it started to all be the same thing happening over and over again, only without any interesting story aspects and characters and I would complain more but I won’t due that I didn’t see that many mecha series in my lifetime. Now they are plenty of mecha series over the years,
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the more notable being the Gundam franchise and the Evangelion franchise to an extent but we’re going to look over the first entry in the very recognized Macross franchise, Super Dimensional Fortress Macross.
In 1999, a city-sized alien spacecraft crashes in South Ataria Island on Earth. Over the course of 10 years the military organization U.N. Spacy reverse-engineers its technology and rebuilds the spacecraft, naming it the SDF-1 Macross. In 2009 at the launch of the Macross, a young civilian pilot, Hikaru Ichijyo, comes to visit the Macross upon U.N. Spacy pilot Roy Focker‘s request. During the launch ceremony, a space war fleet from an alien race of humanoid giants arrives into the solar system and identifies the Macross as a former battleship used by their enemies, the Supervision Army. As the aliens, known as the Zentradi, approach the Macross, the original systems override the crew’s commands and fire its main cannon, wiping out the advance alien scouts and starting a war.
OK, looking at the overarching premise and the plot, it sounds like something I would’ve said being the same thing I seen a lot of times before but however, this is one of the few that may have started that type of premise in its heyday or it’s just not as rampant and numerous as these type of shows are now and for the most being, I didn’t mind the whole civilian enrolls in the Ship X to fight against other alien beings storyline as much although the character studies and their relationships and own personal ideals is what got me sticking to the series. Yes, this is a space opera but it never felt unnecessarily melodramatic as most stories are today, whether it be anime or any other media. Most of the time, it’s rather touching and heartfelt when exploring some of these characters and their actions, maybe the writing of it can be unpolished and hokey and maybe in today’s standards, it is but I wouldn’t call it bad writing per se.
Characters in the show are actually very endearing and have an aspect of them that does make them wholly human instead of the basic cliché caricatures that we know of in anime. Hikaru Ichijyo and Misa Hayase are the good character highlights of the show as when the first time these two interact with each other, their relationship does grow in the course of the series and to tell you the truth, I didn’t know which girl to route for get with Hikaru, either Misa or Lynn Minmay (Yeah, there’s a love triangle among those three but I never find it to be that distracting) because I did like Minmay as I felt she was vital to some aspects of the show and while I do like her, her progression as a character was lesser than the others, especially involving her dick of a cousin, Lynn Kaifun and yeah, to me, he’s a whiny, self-centered asshole who bitches about the military not helping out and them being the enemy even though all he does is just that and they…..well, they actually do more vital things than him. Point is, I can’t stand Kaifun and as for Roy Fokker and Claudia, they are also good characters and would like it if more of them was used for screen time instead of Kaifun.
This is a show made in the early 1980s…..do you really need me to tell you that the animation quality hasn’t aged that well in the past 30 years? Because guess what? The animation quality hasn’t really aged that well since its release and for the time being, the dogfights and mecha battles were honestly OK. It’s just everything else wasn’t that animated well. Hell, I think I caught a few derp animation mishaps. The teams of Studio Nue / Artland & Tatsunoko Productions did their best at the time of the production and their values were a little off.
Musically, I love the score and music in the show as Lynn Minmay is the key aspect to this department as she’s a pop idol in the series as she performs her various songs to audiences alike and yes, I did like the song, “My Boyfriend is a Pilot” (Yeah, I find the song kinda cute.) and as for her other songs, I really don’t remember them as much nor did they stick in my head as much, unlike the opening and ending themes of the show, which I got to say, they are the most powerful themes I’ve heard in an anime. The opening feels more like something I would like to wake up to every morning (even if I’m groggy at the time) and the ending is more of a calm and soothing sound after each episode.
Also, more of Lynn Minmay is that the original Japanese voice actress, Mari Ijima, reprise her role in the ADV Films English dub and she sounds good in English, too. As it did give the character more of a foreign flavor to her. It was a good move on ADV’s part but I don’t see that happening more in the future, considering it might be expensive to get the original VA to record in Texas. As for the rest of the dub cast, it was moderately fine with the leads being Vic Mignogna and Monica Rial, who deliver some good lead performances and Brent Weaver and Christine Auten weren’t too shabby either.
FINAL VERDICT: Macross is definitely something you should see at your lifetime if you’re looking at anime before your time. It hasn’t aged well in terms of animation but delivers on telling an engaging and respectable story that it’s still a good mecha series to get into. I can easily that if you’re interested in mecha shows (that isn’t Gundam), you should check out this series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 7, 2014
Once again, I’m exploring into the material of the late Satoshi Kon and see how much of an influence and mind fuck they can be. Only time, it involves the subject of pop idols in Japan. What is a pop idol, you may ask? A pop idol in Japan are media personalities in their teens to twenties who’re considered to be very appealing and attractive…..to at least for a few years. I would say it’s like the similarity to most Disney Channel / Nickelodeon or any other squeaky clean celebrity; adored by the public but when you try to transcend yourself out of that image,
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it gets harder to do that so. The only thing sometimes the consequences can be a bit worse, as that happened in the film.
Mima Kirigoe, a member of a Japanese pop-idol group called “CHAM!” who decides to pursue her career as an actress. Some of her fans are displeased with her sudden career change, particularly a stalker named Me-Mania. As her new career proceeds, Mima’s world becomes increasingly reminiscent of the works of Alfred Hitchcock: reality and fantasy spiral out of control, including string of murders claiming the lives of her TV show colleagues and Mima discovers that Me-Mania is the least of her troubles.
Now getting into the story, I say that the plot and the whole story is still relevant to today as when you want to further your career but there is some backlash from fans who think different of that and only see her as something for their enjoyment and theirs only, even so far is to actually start stalking you, putting your life and your psyche in danger and it delves into the dark side of the transition from an idol to an actress or whatever career you pursue after that. For those that say the pacing felt slow, well, I wouldn’t say that as an insult as it takes a while to get into the story and plus, its 80 minutes long….it didn’t manage to be too overbearingly long. I like that it dealt with what I just previously mentioned and doesn’t skimp through the details of that. Plus, there are some surprises that I didn’t expect watching this for the first time and the second time (yeah, I watch this twice) it finally got to me with what’s going on with Mima’s pop-idol personality haunting her. I also have heard of comparisons to the 2010 Darren Aronofsky movie Black Swan, which does share similarities with each other although Aronofsky said that it didn’t have much of an influence.
Characters are sort of interesting in a way to study and about them. I like Mima and I get her whole transition and seeing how it’s not the easiest thing to do and you can sense that during that rape scene (As in “filming a rape scene in a film, not actual rape happening”) and preferably when she first revealed it to everyone. The supporting characters seem alright like Rica, Mima’s manager who was against her transition but I was with Tadokoro, Mima’s office manager who looks at the crossover in a positive manager.
This film was released in 1997, as in you know the animation for this film is going to look dated but for it is pretty good vintage, especially vintage material from Madhouse and like many of their earlier productions, they have their stylistic choices of artwork and felt like it was suited for a live-action film, although in actuality, animated makes it more interesting.
Musically, aside from the pop idol songs I heard in the movie, there isn’t much that really standout to me. It’s an alright score and all but slightly somewhat vaguely memorable to me. As for the English dub by Animaze, I quite like it. It was on par with their good English dubs in the ’90s and I really did love the performances for Mima (Ruby Marlowe) and Rica (Wendee Lee) as they really standout for me when watching this.
FINAL VERDICT: I say this as an anime fan, you should give this a watch and I say the same thing as a movie buff but seeing Black Swan before and noticing the comparisons, I wouldn’t call it as “Anime Black Swan before live-action Black Swan” that quick. Hell, I forgot about the whole Black Swan thing once I watch the movie. It has its insightful, artistic, and psychological elements that make it all into a good Satoshi Kon movie, maybe not his strongest but I still recommend it to most audiences.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 2, 2014
Oi…………
You know, ever since starting this in 2011, I always keep an open mind when reviewing most anime out there as most people tend to be too dismissive and ranty when it comes to new titles and often say the words, “Anime is DEAD!!” whenever a bad show (or what people perceive as ‘bad’) appears in the broadcast wavelengths and this particular show already has a history of that already in the span of two years and has already gotten its fans and its critics. (And note, I said critics, not haters because…..well, we’ll get to that later).
Sword Art Online (SAO) is a Virtual Reality
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Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), released in 2022. With the Nerve Gear, a virtual reality helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds.
On November 6, 2022, the players log in for the first time, and later discover that they are unable to log out. They are then informed by Akihiko Kayaba, SAO's creator, that if they wish to be free, they must reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if their avatars die in-game, their bodies will also die in the real world. One of these players is Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya, a skilled player who is determined to beat the game. As the game progresses for two years, Kirito eventually befriends a female player named Asuna with whom he ultimately falls in love. After the duo discover the identity of Kayaba's avatar Heathcliff in SAO, they confront and destroy him, freeing themselves and the other players from the game.
Now, with a premise like that, it’s something that could be promising and worth to be a watch but unfortunately, that’s only the first episode and maybe the second because as the rest went back, the quality of it got lower and lower as the show went and this is something I watched twice. First time during the simulcast period and second time around the Toonami run with the English dub and I didn’t hate it as much at the first time but the second time viewing it, I really didn’t like what I saw (and no, it’s not because of the English dub).
The show is split into two arcs: The Aincrad Arc and the Fairy Dance Arc. For the Aincrad Arc, I did think that arc was alright at first, but most of the time, I was bored to tears and the pacing of it is way too fast and clumsy. I know some people complain about slow pacing of anime in the past but at least they try to get you immersed into the storyline. They jumped forward to the story too much, leaving out some details that could be important to the story but instead, it’s left out for the romance side story, which really wasn’t that great in the first place. The Fairy Dance Arc was a completely unnecessary arc as forced melodrama took over with either a love triangle that shouldn’t have happened nor did it need to exist and a new game, ALfheim Online, was made even though after the disaster of SAO, you think you would’ve stopped there but nope. The bad quality of the writing shows during this arc, even though the writing for the first one was just uninteresting. It felt like they needed to just do shit for the sake of doing it with no plausible explanation and as far as people saying it was the smartest anime at the time, you got to be kidding me. There is nothing smart or deep about this series and while that might not be a bad thing, it’s not entertaining either and if you can’t be both of those, then you failed to be a good show.
Characters are even worse as most of them don’t really seem that memorable or inspirational. They are quite forgettable. Take the main character, Kazuto Kirigaya, who is the most powerful character in the show because of……..well, fuck if I know. Now I said one time that Kirito wasn’t the perfect character and I may have said that wrongly because it is described as being perfect, perhaps too perfect and with him being the strongest player (or beater) in the game, I have no concern to worry about him. He’s just a generic badass wannabe. We know he can defeat whoever challenges him and that just sucks out the tension of it.
Kirito is a wish-fulfillment character that guys desperately want to be. And as for Asuna, she could’ve been an alright character and she was for a bit but most of the time, she had some of that tsundere character traits that I really hate but the biggest downfall for her is when her development shrivels down and that confidence in her is just poof, gone and for their romance, it really wasn’t that inspiring as most fans think it is because no relationship like that would ever go like that within the span of the first arc, which I would blame the time skips for and the fact that the second arc shouldn’t have been made at all. The other characters in there doesn’t seem that important at all because the show doesn’t give them that much face time except for either one or two episodes. Klein and Agil were good characters, I give them that but the girls (Yui, Silica, Lisbeth, Sachi, Leafa) all seem like they are part of Kirito’s growing harem of girls that fawn over him, even an AI character that supposed to be Kirito and Asuna’s “daughter” and also his sister…..no, wait, his cousin (as in that love triangle that was pointless to begin with). The villains of the show Akihiko Kayaba and Nobuyuki Sugō (Oberon the Fairy King) have the worst motivations for doing what they did, especially the former whose reason for doing this wasn’t even explained and the latter’s purpose may have some motivation but a piss-poor motivation to do it.
The animation by A-1 Pictures (who made Blue Exorcist, Magi, Fairy Tail, & Anohana) was perceived as stellar to most people and while it looks look visually stunning, it’s not all amazing as some make it out to be. It’s not awful but nothing that I haven’t saw before and as far as some of the action scenes go, they aren’t actually that well-animated. It has pretty artwork and the character designs does appeal to the standard otaku, which is why they might love the show in first place.
Music-wise, I love Yuki Kajiura and her music but this score is just about average and the same can be said about the opening and ending themes of the show (and I mean, all of them). “Crossing Field” doesn’t really stand out as one of the best themes in an anime and especially from the singer LiSA. I still say to this very day that “Oath Sign” is more of an inspiring theme song than this.
And now for the dub, which is also average. Yep, in 2013 where Bang Zoom Entertainment proves their dubs are getting better in quality (Fate/Zero, Blue Exorcist, Accel World) than most of what FUNimation or Sentai Filmworks pumps out weekly or monthly, this isn’t their brightest one but it isn’t that horrible of one either. Bryce Papenbrook as Kirito did felt uninspired although in his defense, I think it matches the character rightfully. Cherami Leigh does alright in her starring debut in a LA dub as Asuna. I would say that Todd Haberkorn being one of the villains is expanding his range as a VA but I’ve seen it done before and it felt like how Johnny Yong Bosch was in Fate/Zero (Ok, I’ve been mentioning that show here lately) In short, I do like most of the dub cast in here (like Cassandra Lee Morris, Christine Marie Cabanos, Patrick Seitz aka one of the few guys I don’t mind playing a black man because dude can do that, Kirk Thornton), but I felt they were underutilized.
FINAL VERDICT: OK, there’s no doubt about it. This is just a failure of a show, not a complete failure but damn, this was disappointing. I blame the hype of this as people making it out to be one of the best shows in 2012 when it’s really the most popular title of that year and I’ll say this as many people did, “Just because it’s popular, doesn’t guarantee that it’s any good.” The writing is abysmal, the characters are bland and forgetful. The only praise I get from it was the artwork and the music was just average and I thought .hack/sign was a bore to get through but at least that show had some merits. And I highly say I would NOT recommend this title to many of you unless you need to see it for yourself to show how it is. This is purely one of the many examples of how NOT to write an anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Feb 7, 2014
Yandere.
Yandere.
What in the mighty fuck is a yandere?
Well, good sir / madam / whoever the fuck you are, a yandere is a common term in otaku fandom, a yandere is a person (usually female) romantically obsessed with someone to the point of using violent means to get them in their arms. Often seen with a sharp weapon and a psychotic grin. Now maybe the most known character to be this type is Kotonoha in School Days since while she’s calm and gentle, she can also be unstable and quite messed up in the head, as the final episode sequence proved that (although that was the
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only good part about that anime) but enough about that considering this anime I’m about to review also has an yandere character that either has its fans as of recently and it also goes to show you that we need to stray from crazy psychotic girls like Yuno Gasai, Yu no? *rimshot and then gunshot*
High school 2nd year, Amano Yukiteru, is a boy who has problem making friends. He thinks of himself as a bystander and will always write down everything he sees in a cell phone diary. Yuki initially has no desire to win the game, but after Deus informs the other contestants that Yuki, as the “1st” Diary owner, is his favorite to win the game, he is forced to team up with the 2nd Diary owner—his obsessive stalker, Yuno Gasai—in order to survive the constant attempts on his life by the other diary users, who see him as the biggest threat. Tormented by solitude, Yukiteru began to imagine things like a friend called Deus Ex Machina who is apparently the Lord of Time & Space. Seeing Yukiteru’s miserable state, Deus gives him a new ability. His diary will now record events that will happen in the near future. Yukiteru is then forced to participate in a game which the winner will become Deus’ successor.
Well, the plot is precise to mostly the concept of Battle Royale where you better make sure you got the tools and skills to survive whatever gets thrown at you but with the addition of knowing your future beforehand via a future diary but the thing about them is that they’re not exactly 100% reliable as some of them do manage to do the opposite of what the diary predicted and you also know the whole ‘anything can happen if you do the opposite of what the diary said and still might live or not. It’s your choice and all that bunk.’ But as the premise sounds entertaining for a while and it did executed it for a while, it went off the rails and ended up being a trainwreck and it’s not a pretty sight as it’s more of people doing some heinous ridiculous shit that really seems uncalled for. I’ve compared this show to Deadman Wonderland much like I’ve compared This Ugly yet Beautiful World to Mahoromatic and like how I said Mahoromatic is superior to TuyBW, Deadman Wonderland beats out Future Diary by a margin and while Deadman wasn’t exactly a masterpiece, it didn’t felt like it was trying too hard to be mature or a seinen as you will (Although Deadman should’ve been longer than Future). Yeah, there’s blood, gore, gunshots, knives, and tits and ass but it isn’t really trying to tell a mature story; it’s what people said in some professional or amateur reviews, it’s more like a shonen series disguised as a seinen series and we can see through its ruse and not to mention, the tone is inconsistent when it comes to humor, especially at the end of every episode where Murmur (Murmur? Really?), the apprentice to Deus Ex Machina encounters with most of the characters in the show in a comical fashion. I don’t mind it as most characters but it felt very jarring after watching an episode.
Characters are the worst part of the series as I really hated the two main leads, Yuki and Yuno, but more of Yuki than Yuno. Why’s that, you asked? Yeah, Yuno is a crazy pink-haired psycho bitch with the basic traits of being lovingly devoted to Yuki and killing everyone who gets in her way but Yuki…….the guy has some fault in this. This isn’t a trait where the main protagonist isn’t at fault since all the shit that happened, all the stuff that happened to his friends, his family (oh, the hell with his father!! I hate that guy even more!!) Even to some of the competitors, which 3 of them are exactly more interesting than the main two such as The 9th (or Minene Uryū), who actually has more of a compelling background story although she has the textbook tsundere bitch thing going for her and The 7th (or Marco and Ai) and both of them are a better couple than Yuki and Yuno. They’re psychotic and crazy killers but they’re more entertaining and I actually gave a shit about them more.
The animation quality is alright. I really don’t know much about the company, asread, as they do have their own anime productions such as Corpse Party OVAs, Minami-ke, Shuffle among other series they only did some parts of and the look of the show does give out its crazy psychotic vibe and sometimes it get too purple. Yeah, like how K uses blue way too much, Future Diary uses the color purple so much that you think someone splashed Grape Kool-Aid into your eyes and yes, gory shit is happening around these parts.
Music-wise, I think the first opening theme of the show, “Kūsō Mesorogiwi” (空想メソロギヰ) by Yousei Teikoku, is the most positive I can get with the show so far because the song will always be stuck in my head and it does got the destructive and terrifying tone that the show desperately tries to be. The other opening song was good but nothing that really grasp into my mind later on. For ending songs, while I equally like both of them, I’m sliding towards the 2nd ending theme, which is also sung by the 1st opening artist, Yousei Teikoku. Also, can you imagine someone using this song for their own personal life? As for the FUNimation dub, it’s not a bad dub but it just felt wrong and not wrong in the sense of watching the original language is better but I think it’s just the casting choices. Brina Palencia may not have been the right choice for Yuno, but I feel like no one else would’ve done it better than her. She’s acceptable in the role but not really a highlight for her. Josh Grelle is a good voice actor, but him voicing Yuki sounds a bit odd than usual. Rest of the cast does strike more as ‘meh’ choices and I did confuse some voices like how I thought Jamie Marchi voiced Yuki’s mom but it was actually Colleen Clinkenbeard and how I mistake Monica Rial for Murmur when it was Leah Clark.
FINAL VERDICT: Yeah, I hated Future Diary. That’s it. Some people said it was terrible but fun and while that may have a little bit of fun, it doesn’t convince me that it wasn’t entertaining. I hate the main characters and wish some of the supporting characters were treated better than they were in the show and the story is sloppily executed despite me being somewhat interested in it. It is one of those shows you should see once and if you like it, well, good for you but otherwise, avoid this clunker. It is not worth it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jan 19, 2014
“Because ten billion years’ time is so fragile, so ephemeral… it arouses such a bittersweet, almost heartbreaking fondness.”
That is the first thing you see once you watch the show, it sets the general tone of the series and believe me, this is a type of series that once you go into, the things you see throughout the entire 13-episode run, you would want to stick around to see the output of it and once recognizing the themes and backdrops of it, the emotion of that will come to you. Strangely enough, the director of the show, Akitaro Daichi, later on which to direct Fruits Basket,
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and since I never seen that show, I know that the two are very different.
While walking home from a somewhat bad, but regular day of school, “Shu”, the main protagonist, spots a girl named Lala-Ru on top of a smoke stack in an industrial park where he used to hang out as a young child. There is a sudden explosion and time stops; Shu finds himself defending Lala-Ru from abductors in mechanized snakes. After attempting to defend the girl, he is caught in a transportation to the world from which the strangers hail, a wasteland devoid of water and dominated by a red giant star. Lala-Ru possesses a pendant containing a vast reservoir of water, and has the ability to control that water. He is trapped in this new, harsh reality, and he is beaten and interrogated repeatedly inside the warship commanded by the ruthless, manic dictator, Hamdo.
Now, in the first episode, the tone is very lighthearted much like any shonen series but once the whole story and plot kicks in, that is when the show thrives to be an emotionally- driven and heart breaking at the same time, preferably the themes of war, slavery, rape (in one episode that is handle right and doesn’t come off as silly or exploitative) and the fact of child soldiers having to fight for their life to keep on surviving, even if that means having to kill one person to another and that could really put an effect on their life especially after that. Not only that, they are being looked at through the eyes of a teenage character and it felt very genuine as while some of us may be cynical some of the time, we need to have a little hope like the main character Shu and I’m amazed how it succeed without being too hammy and artificially pointless.
Speaking of the characters, I really felt for some of the characters in the show even the antagonists…..well, more of Abelia than Hamdo, which does fit him as a character because he is quite hammy and paranoid but not in a meaningless or trivial fashion where you really don’t take them as a threat. Hamdo is an obsessed villain with wanting to rule the world and Abelia has to maintain her position while being berated by him. Now, with Shu…..I like Shu, he is the character that is a pacifist in a time of war but he’s more optimistic about the way to settle it but he does come off as naïve. He isn’t a hateful character at all but just very misunderstood and he doesn’t know what to do there. There is another character named Sara, who I felt so much sympathy and pain for what she had to go through, especially in some later episodes. The child soldiers, mainly Nabuca, Boo, and Tabool, are very consistent enough to know that while their reason for fighting and getting LaLa-Ru is so they can get back home but for them, it will always seems like an eternity of hell. Lala-Ru…..I’m mixed on as she does have the ‘no mention for humans’ element in her and most do blame her for what’s happening and I can see why. Other characters like Sis and Soon are very likable and comforting but however for all the characters, don’t try to get too attached to them because there is some character deaths and this isn’t really for the faint of heart.
It would be redundant to say that the animation has aged and it looks very different than most anime and of course, it did. The show was made around in the late 1990s and it is animated very appropriately while it doesn’t really have that “OMG!! So dark and emo and shit!!” color tone, it also help that while it retains its dark and mature look, there is a hopeful feel to it. I don’t know much of AIC, the company that produces the animation for this show (and this time, it’s just AIC, not AIC Plus, Build, ASTA, etc.) and their works, aside from a few shows I already watched and/or reviewed but they always managed to give good animated works.
Music has very much of a presence throughout the show as it conveys the show and the emotions it goes through exceedingly in-depth and the same can be said about the opening and ending themes as the opening is more of an instrumental piece and possibly a track that could’ve been mistaken as background music but it does the job effectively. The ending theme, however, is more like after the calm of the storm and the song does fit every time an episode ends as it’s beautifully composed and sweet fully sound.
For the English dub, going in knowing that it is a Central Park Media dub and some say that their dubs are the standard dub of the 90s and that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing. The dub is fine, nothing ear-bleedingly bad but also not that fantastic. The most recognizable voices you hear and know in the dub are Lisa Ortiz(LaLa-Ru), Rachael Lillis (playing two roles, Boo and Sis), Dan Green (yes, that Dan Green playing Nabuca) and Crispin Freeman (and I didn’t even recognize his voice at first – playing Tabool). Possibly the hammiest performance in the show is Jack Taylor as Hamdo. He does have the paranoid villain angle down to a pat and as for Ed Paul playing Shu, he’s okay but not much of a highlight in the dub.
FINAL VERDICT: This is one of those dramatic anime series that hits in the right emotions and doesn’t pull any punches. It got the major themes of war down while having a few annoyances now and then but nothing too major to complain about. This, like Grave of the Fireflies, is another example of a tragic story that can be done right and I got to say, while I recommend you check this series out, this will be a tear-jerker and a heart-breaker of a show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 1, 2014
You know, knowing about this anime when I first discover it, I wasn’t that exactly knowledgeable of much anime as this was the time I was pretty much limited to TV via Cartoon Network on Toonami and Adult Swim when it came to anime but once seeing a preview of it, knowing that it’s going to air on SPIKE TV, who was…….um…….well, some shows. (Yeah, I don’t watch that network that much anymore) but that was the time when I was still much a teenager and now that I’m in my early 20s, I wonder if this show still holds up to today.
But are all
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the origins of the show and where it’s from?
It is originally a seinen dojinshi manga series by Takashi Okazaki, in which the artist has a love for soul and hip hop music, which like many people said about anime is that while American artists do have some inspiration from anime, sometimes the Japanese does have a bit of our influences in their material and for this time around, it’s hip hop and I love hip hop and I love the usage of it being more creative in a style like this rather than a gimmick to sell to audiences as this is an anime directly hand-made for the American audience.
On the dark path of swordsmanship in a "futuristic" yet feudal Japan, it is said that the one who becomes the No. 1 warrior will rule the world with powers akin to a god. Only the No. 2 warrior is allowed to challenge the No. 1, but anyone can challenge the No. 2. The current No. 2, the Afro Samurai, travels the road looking for revenge on Justice, the man who murdered his father (who was then the No. 1) in front of him when he was just a boy, a skilled gunman who became the current No. 1 after defeating Afro's father.
Now with the plot outline out of the way, you know that I love a good revenge storyline and that’s the overall theme for the character of Afro. The reason why Afro hunts for these headbands…..he didn’t care about the power or the fear of others or the respect of it. He was haunted by his father’s death at the hands of Justice and that was his only motive to hunt down Justice, even though he managed to break some friendships he made in his past and judging by the way it went, I’m not surprised that one of his former buddies want to end him and I completely understand it.
Does it mean I like Afro any less of a character?
No, not really? Yes, Afro is a character with some fucked-up tendencies about him but you can’t argue the fact that Afro can kick some ass and I love seeing him in action, kicking some ninja/samurai ass all around but thankfully, he isn’t some god-like fighter as he even struggles with some fights, thus making them more exciting to watch.
Plus, this is one of the few leads in an anime where the lead character is African-American and I like that they portrayed him well and not in an embarrassing, coonish way that make you want to facepalm. Also, he is a silent-type stealth character – another trait that I like in a character because it means their actions are far more important and meaningful than just talking your ass out about something that can be pointed out in less than a second.
And there’s Ninja Ninja and no, I’m not annoyed by the presence of him because he actually provides some good humor into the show and it does balance out the tragic aspects and the action scenes, so it doesn’t feel too awkward and out of place. I don’t get how people are annoyed by him considering he is about as important to the character of Afro.
Jinno (or as he called Kuma), I really do feel for this character’s motivation for wanting to take down Afro. He might sound a bit cliché with the whole “you killed my master” shtick but when that and your whole class died (with one of whom isn’t entirely dead) from being cutted down, you wouldn’t take that lightly. Otsuru (or Okiku) is one character that does have some focus on her having a crush on Afro but I feel that she was shafted early on in the start of the series, although I could see if the opposite of that would’ve happened, it could have made some more major problems than what we got.
As for the villains, the Empty 7 Clan are just some secondary villains to Justice, the main antagonist prize and while he only shows up in the beginning and the end of the show, he is still more of a threat than them as the Empty 7 Clan just wanted the #2 headband for themselves. They want that for power and yet they were so full of themselves.
Now for the animation. Yes, GONZO was in charge of the animation here and knowing its reputation and what people say about their style and as for how they’re done in the show, it is actually fitting and very appropriate from the dark atmosphere, the harsh surroundings and the desolate dystopian and futuristic setting. Also, the action and fight scenes were just downright amazing in my eyes and if you happen to be squeamish, you might want to think twice before watching because there is a lot of blood and gore. Possibly my favorite fight scene of the series is the final showdown between Afro and the Afro Droid. Maybe it may not look fancy or shiny but it’s definitely something worth noticing.
The music……(yeah, this is the part where I show my fanboyism)….If you don’t know much about me, I am a big fan of the Wu-Tang Clan but more specifically, the producer behind it, Robert Diggs aka The RZA and I’ll say that the score and soundtrack is fucking excellent but not because it just uses hip-hop in a show and it’s done right but he does take on more musical genre influences such as spaghetti-western style music to the funk fight-showdown style music to some traditional samurai/martial arts music. The point is, the music does explore a few genres fitting into the series and I appreciate that fact. The opening theme is just 30 seconds long and while it’s good, I wish I had more to listen to but the rest of the soundtrack got tracks I really got love for, mostly the song “Fury in My Eyes/Revenge” with the RZA and Thea van seijen, whom often is a go-to singer/vocalist for anything RZA or Wu-Tang related but yeah, this is that song that goes with the tone of who Afro is as a character and the choices that he made throughout his life.
Oh, the English dub……actually, no, it’s the only version because there is no Japanese voice-acting on this and this is a dub-only title (and this is actually very rare considering there is a lot of sub-only anime on the market so this is quite fair) and not only that, this is quite the star-studded cast of either well-known actors and voice actors, even ones that don’t be in a lot of anime productions, but then again, this is a Studiopolis production and FUNimation is the one distributing it, instead of using their own people. Let’s start with but who else but SAMUEL L. MOTHERFUCKING JACKSON!!!! Yes, for doing dual roles as both Afro and Ninja Ninja, I say that he delivers a great performance from both, especially for characters with different traits; Afro being the silent one and Ninja Ninja being the talkative one. Ron Perlman was great as Justice, Kelly Hu did a decent job with her being Okiku although Tara Strong as Otsuru was actually a better effort. Yuri Lowenthal as Jinno did put a great performance as well and others such as Phil Lamarr, T.C. Carson, John DiMaggio and even small appearances by Grey DeLisle, Steve Blum, Liam O’ Brien & Greg Eagles was also well-acted.
FINAL VERDICT: This anime, to me, feels like it’s made for a person like me, wanting to cross two genres that may seem a weird fit but in the end, it does work well. When people say this is Samurai Champloo mixed with The Boondocks, it does draw much of an interest in me. It feeds within the anime fan of me, the action fan in me, the samurai/martial arts fan in me, and also the hip hop side of me as well. I can’t say for others if they’ll like it but the thing is, the show isn’t some perfect work of art but it’s downright over-the-top and enjoyable.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 15, 2013
Well, welcome back to the world of Ken Akamatsu, the guy who made a manga series that I was very annoyed with, spinning off into an anime series that I reviewed over a year ago and I really hated the hell out of that show and can’t understand why people like this but then again I reviewed the Christmas Special and that was less painful but still bad nevertheless.
Now given that this is only an OVA that lasts 2 episodes, I’m already considering to be better than…..well, you know, and I’m going to try my best to not much mention much of Love Hina, since
...
this could be a whole different set of property than what I already seen of Akamatsu with some similarities to his past work.
An unlucky boy named Santa was born on Christmas Eve whose parents don't even care about meets a Santa-in-training girl named Mai. She is determined to wish him the best Christmas he will ever have and its gets even better when they fall in love with each other. Mai, a Santa in training, appears in front of an Unlucky boy named Santa, on Christmas Eve, promising him, she will make him happy for one night.
Well, I can tell you this: future and soon-to-be parents, if you ever name your kid Santa, they got every right to hate you and for leaving your kid on Christmas Eve, another reason for them to hate you (although in the show, that reason is mentioned but that is SPOILER territory that I won’t go into) so anyway, the first episode is a bit cheesy and sometimes serviceable considering a kid being left alone on Christmas time and you wonder why he really hates it. You could say he should took advantage of his parents being alone and he acted like a little angsty bitch boy and you might be right but either way if it would’ve gone that route, it would’ve been worse and far more disjointed and that’s not saying much as some of the comedy and drama elements are very disjointed.
One moment, you have Santa telling you about his horrible past and then the next, Mai gets into a fight with the Yakuza over for some damn birthday cake. However, that main problem only lasts an episode out of a 2-episode OVA and the second episode really seems pointless. I mean, as cheesy and annoying as the first episode was, at least it had a plot and storyline. The 2nd episode was just another standard beach episode with some rehashes of what I saw previously. It becomes blindly redundant and over repetitive as if the writers felt lazy and didn’t bother to expand the first storyline to fit into the 2nd OVA episode.
Well, for characters, there are some basic anime archetype characters like Santa being the angsty whiny boy character type and there’s Mai, the energetic trainee girl who tries to lift Santa’s spirits although it turns out in the story, she would end up being the romantic opposite of Santa and I did expect some Akamatsu female traits in her, much like Naru, fortunately she wasn’t as unlikable and irritating as Naru but not as smart as her (although Naru isn’t really that smart in the first place). Them as a romantic pair…….It seemed like they were just putting that together at the last minute and never develop any actual thought into it. Then in the second episode (or at the end of the first one) introduce the typical tsundere character Sharry and it’s definitely what I expect from this type of character although as bland and atypical they are, I wasn’t exactly raging in anger. They are just mostly boring characters for the part.
Animation is courtesy of TNK and if you don’t know who they are, well, it wouldn’t matter as they don’t make much good material anyway although their well-known stuff either involves high school, boobs, and sometimes murder (i.e., High School DxD & School Days) and this is mostly dull animation. Possibly even worse than what XEBEC did with….well, you know….it has the amount of and even on a 2-episode budget, this feels mighty cheap and I did suspect them re-using the same animation in the beginning of the 1st episode into the 2nd one.
And you know what? To save me and yourself some time, the music and the English dub from FUNimation is just awful (and by that, I mean the script either it be the Japanese or English version is dull and awful). First, the music is somewhat festive but nothing I would remember of the spot and I really didn’t like the theme songs that much, especially where they would scream MY SANTA!!! At some point. Then about the dub itself, Chris Burnett’s voice really didn’t work as Santa as he was whinier than the character itself and as for Britney Karbowski, she wasn’t exactly better either although for both of them, that’s more of the script’s fault than the actors.
FINAL VERDICT: This isn’t exactly rage-inducing but this is still quite bad. The writing is all over the place with a much lack of the primary focus into the story and like the Love Hina Christmas Special, I wouldn’t give it a pass because it wasn’t like its predecessor (although My Santa was only a one-shot manga). I would not recommend this for the holidays whatsoever. Hell, I would actually say watch the Love Hina Christmas Special over this…..yes, the one time I say watch anything Love Hina over this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Dec 4, 2013
These are elements in most things media that you as the viewer are attracted to or appalled to and in this case, there are many anime that is clearly not meant for everyone and it’s not just the pointless fan service anime or the very, very nauseating hentai titles but more titles that are too risqué for TV but instead went into the OVA format and that is where Rin Daughters of Mnemosyne come to mind and when first hearing about it based on most reviews and just shootin’ the shit with some people, some say it’s either good, perverted, creepy, etc. but then again,
...
I’ve been reviewing anime for two years now and I have seen way worse material than what they describe and so I went inside an open mind and that’s all I wrote.
Rin Asogi is an immortal private detective with a thirst for vodka and a talent for attracting things that go bump in the night. In a series of nightmarish vignettes spanning sixty-five years, Rin’s lush body is sadistically pierced, blown up, and mulched to a bloody pulp. The fiend behind her tortured existence is Apos, an eternal being obsessed with sacrificing Rin to Yggdrasil, the tree of all life. While Rin struggles to unravel the secrets of her endless agony, Apos lurks in the shadows, eager to tear into her ripe body and devour the memories of her countless lives. Rin’s no stranger to the realm of the dead, but her next visit could last forever.
And the result was that the show was……while it has very strong sexual and erotic themes and there is copious amounts of graphic violence in the show, I didn’t really feel that creeped out by it because in actuality, those themes fit within the show without it being played for shock value. Like I said, I have seen much worse than this. Elfen Lied, I feel was creepy, pretentious, and only being played for shock value for most of the part and also it fits the context. It doesn’t seem out of place or inappropriate that you wonder what the hell you just watch. The story does introduce immortals, which most people are familiar with if they saw Baccano! And believe me, Rin gets in most situations where any person would just up and die. However, while Rin is an immortal, I did felt like she was in real danger most of the storyline does go through 5 timelines from the 1990s to 2011 to the very near future of 2055 within the span of 6 45-minute episodes, the pacing was smooth as when an episode end, it feels more conclusive and episodic at least for the first 4 episodes and while it has that monster or bad guy of the week (actually, year) format, it never felt as tiring or easily bored. As of what I thought about the main plot, I was confused at some times but then again, like most shows, I get the idea just about a few episodes in and it is an interesting yet devious plot.
I do like the duo of Rin Asogi and her assistant Mimi as likable characters although while everything around them change, from cities to people to technological advances, they actually don’t considering that I always remember the line of when Rin wants some water and Mimi gives her Vodka and says, “Vodka is Russian for water” and that is repeated for the first 4 episodes. The Maeno family are the most interesting characters as you see different variations of them from Koki to his son Teruki and to Teruki’s daughter Mishio and it does show how well-connected they are to Rin and Mimi. Apos, the main antagonist of the show, isn’t exactly as textbook “take over the world” villain as I thought. He does it with sex and murder.
Xebec is in charge of the animation and while I had my gripes with them on a few titles that I either watched and/or reviewed, this is definitely a far cry from the usual material they often make. The art style and animation is fine with the setting within the in-universe changing from either a year or two to 10 to 50 years. The gore and violence factor is very high so this is definitely not recommended for those who have weak constitutions or not much of a gore/violence fan.
I really, really, really love the opening theme and I also thought the ending song was decent but not exactly high on my list as the opening and ending are both sung by Galneryus and while I like it, I can’t really say it fits to the show although some of the time, it does.
As for the English dub, the FUNimation dub leaves me not wholly satisfied as while Colleen Clinkenbeard was perfectly cast as Rin, I seriously can’t picture Jamie Marchi as Mimi. I like Marchi as a voice actress and I appreciate her going for a role outside of how she’s usually cast but she sounded kind of screechy in her role. Todd Haberkorn manages to give a decent performance as Apos and all around, the dub is….well, the FUNimation standard of dubs.
FINAL VERDICT: In short, I really enjoyed watching this show. I like that while it does have those themes I’ve mentioned earlier, it manages to fit with the context of the show and not feel out of place and if the show creeped you out, then the show did what it needed to do. I guess if you are a fan of shows like this, then this is made for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 4, 2013
When it comes to most media in today’s world, the “rule of cool” is often used in either movies, TV, music, books or especially animation. In this special case, anime can have the rule of cool (for instance, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo), that is, if the show is rightfully done where you can recommend it to every one you know, but you can’t make that your only priority or as most people would just call it something that tried and failed, even if you got high production values.
Yashiro Isana has lived a relatively ordinary, simple life. He lives in the technologically-advanced Shizume City and attends
...
Ashinaka High School, a notable high school that is located on an island just outside the areas. Yashiro is friendly with everyone. Nothing ever seems wrong about him, except perhaps his habit of forgetting where his school-issued PDA is. However, nothing normal has been happening since the recent murder of Tatara Totsuka, prominent member of the infamous HOMRA. No one knows who exactly killed him but the man responsible bears an uncanny, identical appearance to Yashiro. Seeking vengeance, the Red Clansmen of HOMRA set out to get Yashiro and kill him. Everyone suspects that Yashiro is the murderer. Isana Yashiro was not the person who killed Tatara Totsuka but yet another mysterious character is pulling the strings behind the curtains, a person which is quite dangerous and powerful.
Yeah, I have never been so confused about reviewing an anime, especially one that has a very simple storyline of a high school kid being accused of murdering a well-known clansman from a very dangerous group and for the time being, I actually did like the plotline and I felt like it didn’t feel rushed during that plotline. I didn’t feel like they completely went too quick with that, but I feel like they went too quick about most of the kingdoms and their characters. I felt like we could’ve gotten more stories from the HOMRA group, as most of those characters and their stories did seem interesting, but that phase didn’t last. Scepter 4, I can say less about because it’s mostly 3 members of the group that are more prominent (the others are just members no one gives a shit about) and there’s the fact that one was a former member of HOMRA and has a rivalry with another HOMRA member. I think the biggest problem about the plotline is that there wasn’t enough episodes to fill most info on these characters. Maybe the light novels and manga did that better, but it still doesn’t mean it left me underwhelming.
Characters for the most part, I’m at 50/50 on them.
Let’s start with Shiro, Kuroh, and Neko: Shiro is our main protagonist and he is a trickster for the most part as the show starts and I did felt a little progression when it came to him solving the crime of being framed for murder and he didn’t really get on my nerves. Kuro is the atypical stoic badass with a sword and while most people thought of him as his credibility as one with weaken once he joins Kuro and Neko, to me, he was more of a better character. Yeah, I like my stoic badasses now and then but at least, he does get comedic at a few times and it may seem like breaking character to you, but it’s more of having a personality to me. Neko…..is honestly annoying the whole time, basically she’s very devoted to Shiro and is mostly there for the fan service otaku crowd as she’s a catgirl….not a girl dressed as a cat, a cat that can change into a girl….did I mention she has huge breasts? *gets a slap from random female* Ow.
The HOMRA group is basically some gang archetype characters with some uniqueness in them. Mikoto Suoh aka The Red King is the tough and most powerful leader of the group; Izumo Kusanagi is the one member that keeps everything under control and the level-headed one. Misaka Yata is the passionate, very violent and headstrong member of the team, especially when he really wants to hunt down whoever killed Tatara Totsuka (one of the first members of HOMRA and also the weakest); Rikio Kamamoto as in the blonde-haired guy who wears sunglasses and eats…; and there’s Anna Kushina, the youngest and only female member of the gang…because badasses needs a loli on his side.
Then the Scepter 4 group, as I said, has only 3 members that are more prominent than the rest. Reisi Munakata aka The Blue King is the calm yet elegant character, the polar opposite of The Red King and wants to keep things in order. Seri Awashima is (of course) the lone female member of the group, nicknamed The Heartless Woman (or “Tundra Woman” in the Japanese version) and….well, that’s it. She’s the second-in-command and I found nothing that interesting about her, except that she loves red bean paste so much. However, Saruhiko Fushimi is probably more interesting to me as he was a former member of HOMRA and has a long rivalry with Yata since he left there and he basically didn’t give a shit about leaving them, calling them a childish gang of thugs and gangsters but he seemed more of a regretting asshole of a character throughout.
I could mention the other characters like some of the classmates (Kukuri Yukizome, Shiro’s friend) but they aren’t really that of much importance in the plot, so I’m going to move on.
The animation is quite the visual and shows a lot of their high production value and the art does look gorgeous. The studio behind this is GoHands, and they are relatively a newer studio as the only well-known works I know from them are the Mardock Scramble movies and as of recently, Coppelion, and while it looks beautiful, I wish they tone down some of the blue filter they got. I admit blue is my favorite color (hell, my nickname or my updated nickname is Blue Hybrid) but sometimes it can be irritating at a few times and that also goes to their future projects (i.e. Coppelion).
As for the music, this is one of those times where I like more of the score then the opening and ending themes as they really didn’t feel like they belong in the show. I would say the ending theme to the last episode fits better and this is nothing against the opening theme “KINGS” by Angela as I did like that song, it’s just should’ve been used in a different anime. Now the score does have some appeal as when the first episode began, I was really immersed into the music, preferably to the themes of Mikoto, Yata, and Reisi.
Now for the English dub, which aired on Neon Alley, brought to you by Studiopolis and Viz Media and this is much an all-star cast, despite the show being a non-union dub, and for the most part it is pretty standard in being a good dub. This year, Matthew Mercer still continues to impress me as a voice actor with stuff like Fate/Zero even with schlock with Iron Man: Rise of Technovore, his role as Kuroh was great. Ben Diskin, a voice actor who I first recognize watching Codename: Kids Next Door, has gotten good range over the years and him as Yata is acceptable but the one VA that I really thought was excellent is Todd Haberkorn as Izumo. That smoothness and calm demeanor in his voice made me not even notice he was in the anime and honestly, that move to L.A. has helped in get more diverse roles (with some exception). As for the others, Sam Riegel as Shiro was okay, Patrick Seitz as Reisi is plenty good, Johnny Yong Bosch as Fushimi is what I expected from him. Tara Platt, Carrie Savage, Grant George are well-acted and last while I do not like Neko as a character, I had no problem with Stephanie Sheh voicing her but I will say if I had to choose between her as Kuro in Blue Exorcist or Neko in K, I choose the former.
FINAL VERDICT: So did I like K? Well, I do to an extent but it’s not exactly I would recommend to most people. Some people may have gotten confused over the entire run and some did get it from the get-go. I’m the in-between guy where I get most of the plot but somehow miss something in the leeway that requires a rewatch (which I did do a few times) and I don’t do that often when reviewing anime. So with K, it’s in the middle of the road for me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Nov 11, 2013
So, Urobuchi has been working with Production I.G. in 2012 with the first project being “Psycho-Pass” and the success of that show got a second season coming soon but with this show and getting a first glance at that and you see it’s not something you expect from him but then again, Madoka Magica was something we didn’t expect to be good and look at that. The same can be said for Fate/Zero but can it happen again with this show? I guess I have to find out.
In the distant future, mankind has taken to the stars and formed the Galactic Alliance of Humankind (人類銀河同盟
...
Jinrui Ginga Dōmei?). The Alliance is engaged in a perpetual war with a tentacled alien species known as the Hideauze (ヒディアーズ Hidiāzu?). 16-year-old Ensign Ledo is a soldier in the Galactic Alliance, piloting a Machine Caliber (マシンキャリバー Mashin Kyaribā?), an AI-automated, humanoid-shaped battle suit, which he refers to as 'Chamber'. After a failed attempt by the Alliance forces to destroy an enemy super-weapon, Ledo is knocked into a wormhole and loses consciousness. When he awakens, he learns from Chamber that he has been in cryo-stasis for 6 months while his wounds were healing. Ledo learns that he and Chamber have been 'found' by a rag-tag band of 'primitive' human scavengers. Ledo quickly discovers that he is on board a massive fleet of ships on an ocean-covered planet. Chamber tells him that local star charts reveal the planet is Earth, the birthplace of humanity, a place that members of the Alliance were only familiar with from stories and believed was a myth.
Well, for one thing, the show is actually more tame and light-hearted compared to his earlier works and this is something that I would never picture being written by the same guy who made the magical girl genre wet itself and no, it is not a bad thing that Urobuchi went into a different mode than the usual stuff he’s known for. There is some dark elements into the story but nothing high caliber of Fate/Zero or Madoka Magica. It is more like a sci-fi “fish out of water” tale; a character looks at a world which is more primitive than the one he’s used to and feels more human once he interacts with the people surrounding it and as it goes, it was handled pretty well in planning and execution although it could use a little more in character development and speaking of that……
The main character Ledo is your basic stoic but strong lead with no knowledge of the planet Earth so you could expect him to not be like the other residents on the ship. Amy, the character that Ledo did kidnap when he was confused about the planet and possibly one of the reasons Ledo fights to protect Gargantia, is quite relevant into Ledo’s development as a character as well as her to an extent as how they bond throughout and also leading to a close relationship between the two whenever they have alone screen time together. As for the other characters, some few get some development like Amy’s two messenger friends Melty and Saaya; Ridget, the high rank officer; Pinion, head repairmen and Bellows, leader of the excavation team but since this is a 13-episode series, most of them are overshadowed to the plot and learning a little bit about them wouldn’t be as bad.
Production I.G. did a gorgeous job on the animation as this is a very colorful and vibrant looking anime, as in, something I never expect from the likes of Urobuchi and the action scenes with Ledo and Chamber are pretty top-notch and visually stunning. Some character designs, especially on the female characters, do seem kind of moe-like and also Ledo does look very bishonen, which I just suddenly realized now.
The musical effort was decent in their share. The opening theme Kono Sekai wa Bokura o Matte Ita (この世界は僕らを待っていた?, "This World Has Been Waiting For Us") by Minori Chihara did took me time to warm up to it but after listening to it a few times, I actually like listening to it with it being a calm yet adventurous sound, which does sound right for the series and the ending song to Kimi no Message (空とキミのメッセージ?, "Sky and Your Message") by ChouCho is very serene and soothing, which is a good way to end each episode. So………I would say something about the dub…..there isn’t one….well, not yet of course. The acting in Japanese is fine, although I can’t really tell as much but it was a serviceable performance although some female voices were a bit too high-pitched for my taste.
FINAL VERDICT: This is an Urobuchi show set with a lighter and tamer tone while not straying away from his usual style in some episodes but manages to make it interesting with how he takes it through. While not as grandiose or extraordinary as his other shows he’s written, this one is worth the watch for the story alone.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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