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May 19, 2019
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Ashita no Joe's manga, Megalo Box was created to pay a huge homage to it. As such, the show has scattered tons of references to one of the pioneers of sports manga. Fans of Ashita no Joe will be able to quickly recognize them which do help increasing the enjoyment level of the show. However, Megalo Box is a solid show that stands well on its own.
We start off with our delinquent protagonist, also named Joe in this show, together with his one-eyed trainer, as they work their way from rock-bottom to try to aim for the very
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top. While Ashita no Joe has 20 volumes of manga to gradually develop the story, Megala Box does not have such a novelty. Still, Megalo Box manages to deliver a strong plot to hold its ground well, developing sufficiently the most important parts of the story such as the tournament, the Gear technology, and the main characters.
Unlike the more recent Hajime no Ippo which focuses a lot on the terminology of the sport, Ashita no Joe and Megalo Box do not particularly aim to educate the viewers on the sport, instead relying on delivering adrenaline rushes from the excitement of the matches. The artwork during the fights are superbly done with pure hand-drawn animation with minimal CG usage (not really a common trend with action anime nowadays). You won't be getting your fancy, over-the-top action from Megalo Box either, all fight scenes are incredibly realistic and reflects the real world pretty closely. Well, that's what the fights in Ashita no Joe were about anyway.
While Ashita no Joe was famed for its legendary ending, Megalo Box somehow found it difficult to replicate such high heights, perhaps rightfully so suffer the wrath of many Ashita no Joe's loyalists who had very high expectations to this show. The popularity of this show subsequently dropped as the show progresses to its latter half, eventually becoming "cult favorite" show. I wouldn't say the plot is awful, but really, the ending could've been better. Nevertheless, the ending won't take a lot of enjoyment away from you, especially if you weren't spoiled.
Perhaps you have heard the many praises surrounding the OST of this show, indeed, Mabanua, the composer of this show's OST, did a stellar job on it. The tracks give a strong vibe of the late Nujabes of Samurai Champloo fame, yet held a strong distinctive flavor of their own. You will be hearing jazz, hip-hop, lo-fi, electronic music, etc. Just to mention a few. Dammit, just listen to the OST somewhere and you will know where we are going from here.
I would say Megalo Box did well in presenting its characters, albeit not in an excellent manner, but it was good enough. At only 13 episodes, we were only given enough details to at least be able to empathize with what the characters are going on. Joe's and Yuri's yin and yang dynamic is good, yet nothing ground-breaking and is something you should've already seen in the other shows, still you will easily find yourself getting off your seats every time they confront each other. As for Joe working his way to climb up the rankings of Megalonia, his opponents have sufficient gimmicks on their own to distinguish them from one another. I was hoping we could see more of Yukiko though.
To wrap up this review, let's just say that Megalo Box is a short and sweet enough show to entertain you for a short while. Perhaps it may not find its way to your top 10 favorites, but I am sure you will still hold it with a relatively high regard, as its animation and soundtrack are absolutely decent, with perhaps a weaker story and characters to boot. It won't be too shabby either, so rest assured, you will be getting yourself a nice, quick treat of an action show should you pick this up.
If you are done reading this review, do yourself a favor and start reading Ashita no Joe if you haven't. You will thank me later. =)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 25, 2018
It’s pretty safe to say Dragon Ball Super (DBS) had escalated to become a very popular shounen anime in recent history, the creators knew the Dragon Ball franchise is still well loved everywhere, and capitulated on it by expanding it into something known as DBS.
Subjectively speaking, I would prefer to straight away call DBS a kid-shounen show. While it does retain many of the shounen troupes such as infinite powering ups, power of nakama, single-minded villain, etc., astonishingly DBS also managed to throw away literally all kinds of logic out of the window, and you are left with a show that only has mindless
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action to entertain its viewers.
Perhaps the most impressive feat that DBS managed to do is to keep its viewers at the edge of their seats week in week out, especially during Black’s arc and Tournament of Power’s arc, which are easily two of the better arcs in DBS. We are given quite a number of power ups to our main protagonists, most notably Goku, where he receives several upgrades to his Super Saiyan form, ranging but not limited to, Super Saiyan God form, Super Saiyan Blue and Ultra Instinct –complete-. Seeing our childhood hero Goku gaining such hefty upgrades and beating the crap out of his enemies are somehow very satisfying to watch, despite the fact that there is only a very simple story and a very simple villain going on.
In a sense, I can say DBS has been, to some extent, reduced to a show that caters very well to kids, as kids love to see their hero getting power ups, and beating the crap out of his enemies. I had to repeat this, because literally this is the only thing happening in DBS, over and over again. To give the show some justice, the animation, although can be terrible at times, can also be sublimely good when they has to be. It’s all thanks to Toei as they knew what the viewers are after and managed their budget well.
When it comes to sound, most Toei veteran viewers would know, they wouldn’t disappoint, especially at the voicing department. In the Japanese dub, Masako Nozawa once again delivered a powerful performance on voicing Goku, and this time we can hear many serious, cold and no-nonsense tones for Goku. Maybe it’s because of her age (would you believe she’s 80+?) and that Goku Black and Ultra Instinct may be done on purpose for her to utilize her voice in a new and less strained way. If that is so, hey, I would say Toei did a great job as those two things aforementioned are easily the best things to occur in DBS.
One biggest qualm I would want to point out is that DBS never actually had any sense of danger going on the entire show. Their biggest attempt was Black’s arc however it received one of the stupidest solutions ever (don’t use your brain). In DBZ we are constantly shivering when the likes of Frieza, Cell and Majin Buu really threatening to end everything and our heroes really struggle against them, in DBGT there’s still Baby’s arc which is filled with senses of danger almost throughout its entirety. In DBS, despite the World Tournament arc threatening to erase all universes, there is hardly any sense of danger because it had turned into an action fest and whatever universal erasure going on is never in the picture.
To wrap up this review, to watch DBS you really have to discard your brain and just let your eyes do their work. If you tried to think too hard to make logic of the plot, allow me to tell you that your efforts are futile. However, it is indeed an action delight, especially if you were a fan of Dragon Ball back then. DBS is selling extremely well and it will be back for sure, until then, stay tuned!
Final Score: 6/10 (when considered as a kid show)
My Score: 4/10 (too kiddy to my taste, great action though)
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 4, 2017
Touhou Project has grown to become quite a large multimedia franchise spanning from official video games, novels, mangas, artbooks and music CDs. There are also tons of fanmade stuffs such as music remixes, anime, fanarts, fanfictions, doujin mangas, fangames etc. It is quite difficult to get into the fandom out of nowhere because of the overwhelming amount of works of it.
Here, I would recommend Forbidden Scrollery as a start to begin your venture into Touhou Project.
In a familiar manga medium, Forbidden Scrollery is primarily about the wonders and mysteries of the world of Gensokyo. Through the eyes of a normal human, Kosuzu Motoori,
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we are introduced to the numerous existence of the other Youkai races that inhabit Gensokyo alongside humans - ranging from the Tengu, Tanuki, Kappa, and many others.
Many of the prominent characters of the Project also make their appearances, and the manga did a good job giving them sufficient panels so the readers would know who they are. Some of the most powerful beings in Gensokyo are present, such as the gap youkai Yukari Yakumo, the vampire Remilia Scarlet and the mask youkai Hata no Kokoro. From here, the reader will be able to have a good grasp on some of the characters and this will serve well as a stepping stone to get into the franchise.
If you ask me what genres do Forbidden Scrollery belong to, here they are - Fantasy, Supernatural and Mystery. Gensokyo is a fantasy world where supernatural beings and occurrences belong. A huge part of the plot is about mystery, such as solving the mystery of sounds heard in the middle of the night (turned out to be animated objects walking around at night), or some mischievous Youkai causing trouble to the human villagers that needed extermination. It is quite a straightforward read, while it may be dialog-heavy sometimes, which helps to build the world and characters for the readers, overall the plot isn't overly complicated and it certain doesn't drag.
While Touhou Project is officially a danmaku shooting game (mostly), there isn't much action to represent the game. Instead, we get something more akin of a slice-of-life drawing style, featuring Moe Harukawa who has the art style of drawing the Touhou girls in a rather cute fashion (you can see some of them from MAL directly). Meanwhile, the granddaddy behind Touhou Project, the great ZUN himself, is penning the story for the manga.
All in all, I would say Forbidden Scrollery serves as a great introductory medium to the Project. There's nothing groundbreaking or epic to be expected while reading it, instead, you will be given a delicious trip into the wondrous world of Gensokyo itself.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 24, 2017
"If you win, it's heaven; if you lose, it's hell." - Jabami Yumeko
Kakegurui, or "Compulsive Gambler", puts the gambling theme into the school setting which is probably the most common anime genre out there.
Viewers will first notice how the art style featured overly exaggerated facial expressions, if you had watched Death Parade before, you may notice some similarities here. While some may find this hilarious, some may be disgusted by this and be turned away.
Nevertheless, the overarching plot is pretty intriguing. In Hyakkaou Private Academy, the only rule is gambling. The most successful ones will climb to the top of the school, ruling
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over those that are less successful than them. Lose too much, you will incur a debt too huge, and you have no choice but to pay with your life, similar to a lifestock, a cattle, where you lose all freedom and choice of your life, letting others dictate every second and moment of your life until your time has come. As far-fetched as it may seem, it actually drew some parallel lines with the real world, as this is exactly how the world works. Power and success will always rule over those less successful than them.
Despite the fact that high stakes are involved most of the time, the games featured in the show are mostly fictional and self-made by the author himself, which are, sadly, mostly unfair. While the creativity has to be applauded in some way or another, it is rather apparent that the games are made so that drama comes first, rules come second.
Another problem with the plot, while having an interesting premise, its full potential was never unleashed. We mostly follow our heroine, Yumeko Jabami in her monster-of-the-week format, taking down enemies one by one, just to make her way to challenge the student council president.
The up side, however, is that Yumeko is a pretty decent main character. For most part, we are not shown of her thoughts. Throughout the show, she remains pretty enigmatic, that it is pretty hard to guess what's she actually scheming or thinking. Sometimes she may be seen to be acting recklessly and brashly, sometimes she may seem to be superbly intelligent. At times she may be assisting the weak, but there are times she would be seen as abusing the weak to her advantage as well. While watching the show, trying to guess her intentions alone makes it quite an thrilling ride.
The only character as mysterious as Yumeko would probably the student council president, and her twin which has yet to deliver a line throughout the show. Yumeko and president mostly share the same addiction of risk taking and gambling, but anything beyond that, remains unclear despite finishing the show. Well, we are not quite done with the plot yet.
The other characters, although heavily featured, does not strike to be as interesting as the aforementioned duo. While we are given sufficient background info on them, enough to know who they are. Ultimately they are only there to serve as stepping stones for Yumeko to reach her goal.
Art-wise, it's nothing special, except for the exaggerated facial expressions. There's not much action going on so don't expect anything too flashy. The idol performance segment which is purely hand-drawn might be one of the highlights.
The OP and ED, however, are a different matter. I am going to be honest with the fact that it's the OP that led me to watch this. The song is catchy, but the animation involved is sublime, the colors are vivid and you don't get to see any of those cliched OP segments, instead you will see many little subtle hints telling us how all 12 episodes are going to play like, hence it is very difficult to skip it. The ED, while less animation is involved (mostly we only see Yumeko walking forward), it tells us about her eccentric behavior - while seemingly innocent and naive at the outside, she also has a maniacal side inside her. The ED put these two contrasts pretty well in the two halves of the song.
Sound-wise, you will be treated with probably some of the best seiyuu performances in the anime industry. Saori Hayami and Miyuki Sawashiro, who voiced Yumeko and Kirari the student council president respectively, are as if having the time of their lives, going all out and have a myriad of tones and expressions in their voices, and they delivered it to absolute perfection. If anything, Kakegurui at least deserves some seiyuu performance award. The soundtrack is pretty fitting as well, doing well to lift up the tension and suspense of every gamble.
The enjoyment of this show will vary from person to person. The show have some cringy moments (orgasmic moans, anyone?) which will easily turn one away. But if the huge-risk-at-stake thing is your thing, where your heartbeat accelerates, your breath intensifies, your body trembles at the sight of a high stake gamble, then Kakegurui will be the show for you.
+ Interesting premise, drawing parallels with the real life
+ Can get pretty intense (it's gambling, duh!)
+ Interesting female lead, try guessing her intentions!
+ Superb vocal performance
- Has some cringy moments (orgasmic moans)
- Exaggerated facial expressions may turn people away
- Wasted plot potential, and cliffhanger ending.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 13, 2017
Once again, I am going all out to bash a popular anime, just like how I did with Re:Zero. (evil laughter)
Shingeki no Kyojin Season 2, the sequel that managed to throw everything built up in season 1 into the trash bin.
In season 1, we are presented with the idea of "kyojins are sent down from the heavens to punish us for our sins", and how humans sacrificed so much just to fight them back. After 25 episodes of epic-flying-all-over-the-place-like-spiderman-to-snipe-a-titan's-nape and hearing Eren screaming in almost every episode, we are finally presented with a very short and simple statement that summarizes season 1 in the best
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way ever, "Eren can become a titan". Full stop. That's all you need to know about season 1, really.
Continuing the trend of spiderman-wannabe-titan-slaying-technique-oh-no-he-grabbed-me-and-now-i-am-dead and more throat-busting yells from Eren, we are given the 12-episode sequel. Again, a very short and simple statement can summarize the entire season, and it's freaking hilarious that I can't help myself but laugh at how stupid the buildup is.
"Everyone's a titan!!"
So after spending the entirety of season 1 trapped behind walls, our dear humans, the elite of the elite, finally realized that they were mass murderers! Humans vs humans! Oh isn't it great!
How can the truth be hidden for so long from even the "strongest person in the world" is truly baffling. In the real world, the military can easily overthrow the government that relies on nothing but religion. But in the world of Shingeki no Kyojin, yes, the church rules of the entire world, and the superhuman soldiers that can fly around like spiderman had been obeying them for who knows how many years.
Forgive my insolence, but this, is extremely stupid. What governed the country is a bunch of religious old farts that has no means to protect themselves other than deceiving the only people (soldiers) that are capable to protect them. They would rather die protecting the secret and not for the sake of humanity. It’s a blatant lose-lose situation for the old farts, but anyway, something’s been tying their hands at their back.
That is what manga readers had been telling us the whole time, “there’s a lot more going on! There’s a lot more that you don’t know!” Okay, I won’t say I won’t buy this one, but for pure anime viewers, what we had been getting, is just a super-hot blooded action-pumped show that has actually makes zero sense. If anything, it’s a waste of our time. The whole season 1 is just a freaking huge introduction that the titans could be humans, which is proven in like, the minute Eren bites himself and goes all flashy and becomes a titan. Then, the 2nd season is another huge introduction that everyone is in fact, a titan, and we have some titans running another country, preparing for world war 3 in which the humans our protags are sided with, have totally no idea about anything except for the church’s old farts who only knew how to tremble in fear.
As much as a freaking huge mystery and conspiracy going on, I couldn’t fathom the fact they started the story that way. Surely there would be remnants of people who knew the truth of all things and are still alive and kicking and be living in the wall, don’t tell me they had all been reduced to old farts, or all of them had now become enemies trying to wipe out humanity. Now you see the problem? It doesn’t make any sense. Humans, trying to eradicate humans. Oh wait, let me rephrase that, humans, with abilities to turn into incredible hulks, wants to eradicate humans. Wait, that doesn’t sound too difficult to achieve, isn’t it? Imagine an army of hulks against the world, obviously the hulks would win, easily.
Now to complicate matters, these titan-humans are perfectly human when they don’t turn huge! These chaps can easily blend in and live in an only-human society, fall in love with them, and easily forget the notion of trying to eradicating them. What’s the point wiping out a species when you can just live with them in peace?
Enough with the convoluted plot, we move on to dissect the 2nd season further. First off, the stupid pacing at the first half of the show, where we are given ridiculous time-jumps just to highlight some events to “explain” why it happened, by explaining, I mean explaining the deus ex machina that happened, so that the viewers can be fooled that it isn’t a deus ex machina and is actually pre-planned or built up before it occurs. Bullshit, a good build up has no need of such cheap tricks to convince the viewers that it is good writing, what we get here, is a bunch of WTFs and a bunch of time-rewinding scenes to explain those WTFs. The writing is garbage.
Presentation-wise, there’s no doubting that Shingeki no Kyojin is one of the higher-budget productions we have currently, with superb animation and epic soundtrack.
I have major issues with the characters, MAJOR ISSUES. Everyone in SnK has mental problems! I am dead serious here. Eren only has fire in his head and the only thing he knows, is that he wants to kill all kyojins. Obviously he’s gonna get mindfucked, because kyojins are humans, so he wants to kill all humans! Yay! Suit yourself Eren. Mikasa, from season 1, we all know how much of a control freak she is, and how obsessive she is with Eren. All she wants is Eren, all she cares is Eren. Okay we get that he did great things in your past, but isn’t it pushing a little too far?
When it comes to love, people in SnK do not know how to express themselves, and become huge stalkers. Just ask Reiner and Ymir! Their overwhelming love towards Christa is simply sublime. Well to be fair to them, Christa is crafted to be the ultimate waifu material by the creators, she’s damn cute, she’s chibi, she’s very caring and loving like Mother Teresa, and most of all, she’s badass! Out of nowhere, she said she’s gained inner strength sufficient to kill titans in the most badass way that even Levi would be jelly about. I’ve never seen such blatant waifu material since Asuna and Rem. The moral of the day, all you need is the ultimate waifu material and you will have a very popular anime. Oh, husbandos work as well.
By the way, why doesn’t Ymir’s other mode have tits?
To be fair with the creators, we have yet progress the plot enough to know our major antagonists well. The only one we are presented seems to be the beast titan, which has a horrendous design, seriously. His head is as big as yours and mine, yet his entire body is as big as the colossal titan, with abs, prominent, protruding abs, in that flabby body of his. And freakishly long hands. Godzilla was a terrifying beast with a menacing look, but titans, beasts with a comical look, how can they be terrifying?? Gah, this had been one of my major issues with SnK since season 1 episode 1. If you are going to make a dark and suspenseful show, cut off all the lame jokes, proper jokes can be included as long as they do not intrude the overall theme and atmosphere of the story. Yet, over the course of 2 seasons, some titans have been elevated to meme status because how ridiculous they look.
How exactly will the plot progress, the manga readers know, and the anime-only viewers will be stuck in darkness with only their wild imaginations and speculations to guide them.
“We will run out of people before we know the truth.” This final quote from Levi cannot be any more fitting than how I feel how this plot will progress. The kyojin-less humans are in real deep shit right now, vastly overpowered in terms of power, and number as well from the look of things. To make things worse, the kyojin-humans now had infiltrated their ranks so well that they are extremely informative and knows every single nook and crook in the human military. Those old farts in the church better grow some balls or there will be no salvation to them.
Well let’s just patiently wait for season 3, we all know how hyped it will get.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 14, 2017
Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni (I will call it KonoKata from hereon) is a slice-of-life, historical movie that details the life of a normal Japanese citizen during the latter days of World War 2.
For an average citizen, war is a very undesirable thing. It disrupts the peaceful routine that makes us very comfortable with our lives in the first place, food has to be rationed and thus you won't be eating much and deliciously for a while. Air raid alerts are very frequent and may happen anytime so chances are you won't be getting much sleep if an alert blared off in the middle
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of the night. When your beloved ones are drafted for war, the mixed feeling of sadness, fearfulness and loneliness came flooding in fear of losing them and not seeing them again.
KonoKata tells its story in a very simple and honest manner, purely from the perspective of Suzu Houjou, who is an ordinary Japanese citizen during World War 2. We follow her life story of her growing up and ends up having an arranged meeting with her husband, then we see her doing a lot of household chores just like how a married Japanese woman was expected during that era. War came, and its devastating effect was felt by Suzu and her close ones, just like how it would impact an ordinary Japanese citizen.
The pacing of the movie is pretty slow, and doesn't attempt to manipulate the viewers by using any overly dramatic methods. When they are under attack, it would be presented in a slice-of-life way instead of a dramatic way, where we simply follow Suzu and her family move towards a shelter as fast as they could, hiding there bracing themselves as the shelter quakes from the air bombings, once everything has subsided, they come out from the shelter and life goes on. When tragedy really struck, there isn't much going on, other than we see how the victims overcome their sadness of losing their loved ones and return to their normal lives being stronger than before.
The characters are presented in as realistic as possible as well, there aren't any ridiculous bravado only seen in shounen shows, nor are there any crazy personalities that are always found in shows with school setting. Everyone is normal in KonoKata, just like your friendly neighbor who greets you every morning, and that strict military police who arrests you because they have to be overly alert at all times, etc etc. While it is one thing to be complimented for having very realistic characters, it is a pity that these characters will not be very memorable to you in the distant future.
As the first scene shed its light onto the big cinematic screen, the animation style by MAPPA (Zankyou no Terror, Yuri on Ice) can be seen as very traditional - mostly hand-drawn animation with very minimal CG being used, the backgrounds are illustrated akin to a watercolor painting. The character designs are simple yet sufficiently distinct to give everyone a different face. Overall, the movie is a delight to watch. Colors are very balanced, not too bright nor gloomy, which is rather nice seeing most war-themed movies can get overly dark sometimes. If you had been following the newer productions recently, you might feel a little unfamiliar with the older style KonoKata utilizes.
For the sound presentation, the great speakers from the big screen do the bombings a huge favor, highlighting their powerful impact and damage every time a bomb is landed. There isn't much to say about the soundtracks used in the movie, however, as they are pretty much standard piano themes that aren't memorable, and there aren't many of them as most of the movie doesn't have any music behind it. Seiyuu performance, although solid, isn't anything to be touted for, either.
KonoKata is one of those movies that does an honest and simple job in portraying how life of an ordinary citizen looks like during World War 2, serving as a great reminder on how war is truly an undesirable thing. Being simple and honest doesn't make a great movie, however, as the slow pacing, lack of drama and being slice-of-life heavy may turn many moviegoers away.
+ Honest portrayal on how life was during World War 2.
+ Realistic setting and characters.
+ Doesn't use sappy drama to hook you on.
+ Decent art presentation.
- Slow pacing, nothing much happens throughout the movie.
- Can be quite boring if it isn't your cup of tea.
- Ordinary soundtrack.
Score: 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 14, 2017
(This review is spoilerfree)
How strong can a mother's love be? How far can a daughter reciprocate that love? Air is a good take on how powerful a mother-daughter relationship can be.
The most powerful theme presented by Air, without a doubt, is the bond between a mother and a daughter. We are then presented by “mini-arcs” involving the girls, Kano, Minagi, Kanna and also Misuzu.
While the stories are undeniably touching (mostly thanks to the brilliant soundtrack behind the scenes), their impact cut short by how quick the pacing can sometimes be. In only 12 episodes (episode 13 is merely a recap and
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a commercial for Air in Summer, damn it), much to my chagrin, we aren't given much exposure to the each of the girls.
As such, characterization suffers, most notably to Kano and Minagi, whose arcs actually provide very little significance to the overarching plot. In a way, I believe that this happens because Air is based on a visual novel, by seeing their arcs to the very end, we get to see a feather float up into the air and dissolve into the air in the form of shiny particles. With my little experience with Key's visual novels (most notably Clannad), this is a way to determine your “completion rate" and how close you are to the real and final ending of the game.
Another thing is that Air is a dating-sim game, and an eroge, to boot. In the game, you can choose one of the 3 main girls - Kano, Minagi and Misuzu to target and make her your lover. Ultimately the real and final ending is actually, Misuzu. So she takes up most of the screen time and we will spend more episodes reaching the conclusion of her arc, which puts a dampener onto the other two girls’ arcs, a sad thing if you like them more.
Supernatural elements are heavily featured here, and to a point I felt that it did not bode well with the how the show is trying to blend that into a slice-of-life show. All the dramatic incidents are all supernatural and in some way, it makes difficult to connect with the characters as whatever happens to them, won't really happen in real life. It may work better should the supernatural side be heavier, but unfortunately, the slice-of-life vibes are way too overpowering that I felt like these two themes are like oil and water.
Another thing is, viewers expecting a romance show should turn away, for the end product of Air yielded zero romance, which is weird for a dating-sim visual novel that features eroge. The most powerful theme that viewers should look forward for, is mother-daughter. I'd say this might make a decent viewing with your mom during mother's day (lol).
Presentation wise, as expected from the soundtrack by Jun Maeda, dude knows how to create tear jerking moments using powerful music, not to mention the songs can get very memorable and inflict sufficient tear jerking damage simply by listening to it. “Tori no Uta” is a very popular and revered song among the anime community, and it is not difficult to see why, for it is indeed one of the best openings I've ever heard.
Though, I am still begrudged by the fact that, the vocal version of "Natukage" is nowhere to be found in the entire show.
Sadly, the animation could have been better. During the age of Kanon, Air and Clannad, the animation design from Key can be quite horrific - unusually large eyes on the heroines that are too far apart, and terribly small nose and mouth. The resulting face can be quite revolting, but at least Kyoto Animation did a very good job to tone that down as much as they can so it's not too cringeworthy. However, aside from the grotesque faces, other things can pretty well made.
My final problem with Air, is the poor ending that leaves me very, very dissatisfied. I was hoping that episode 13 can be an alternative ending or something but sadly, episode 12 is the real and final episode. Still, it is a decent show if you want something that reminds you how great moms can be.
Final result: 6/10 fair.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 23, 2017
This is a manga review for both Trigun and Trigun Maximum.
It is not easy to depict action in the form of manga. Trigun is one of those works that fell victim to flashy art style that becomes overly convoluted and confusing for readers to follow.
Trigun started out as a light-hearted comedy where we follow Vash the Stampede and how having a mega bounty on his head attracts nothing but trouble. Beyond his happy go lucky exterior, we soon find out his dark past and his conviction of never to take one's life away.
Gradually, the mood shifts especially during Maximum where it becomes darker and
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bloodier. Maximum also introduces to use a myriad of new characters that are, undoubtedly cool, yet most of them lack much substance.
It's not to say that there isn't any characterization among the cast of Trigun, Vash himself is very well characterized, his background and personality are clearly detailed over the course of the story. Then, we have the insurance girls Meryl and Milly, most badass priest Wolfwood, as well as Livio etc., are all great characters.
Personally, I am not a fan of what they did to Knives in the manga as compared to the anime. Knives is nothing more than a power hungry and one track minded bad guy here, which makes him a pretty generic villain.
As I mentioned earlier, the artwork can often become very messy and confusing during the action scenes, it felt like Yasuhiro opted for style over substance as the story goes on, as many of the characters having freaky-badass-multiple forms just to showcase their badassery. This reminds me of another mangaka Oh Great! which also favors style over substance in his works, but sadly Yasuhiro's art isn't as good as Oh Great!'s.
Enjoyment wise, I kinda liked the non-action parts (ironically), but for most part, I have no idea what's going on during the fights.
Trigun is truly decent as an anime, but as a manga, I must say it is a disappointment, due to how messy the art is, and the story was mostly ignored for the sake of stylish action.
Overall: 4/10 Hopefully we can somehow get the latter half of Maximum to be adapted into anime, as there are indeed some badass action going on.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Oct 19, 2016
This review contains massive spoilers. I've decided to write it in a way that I am not holding anything back and thus spoilers are unavoidable.
Re:Zero. Possibly the most popular anime in 2016, everyone is talking about it. Its rating on MAL was pretty high that I recalled it reaching 8.80+ during its peak. For an average anime fan like myself, it'd be hard to not catch up with the latest anime trends and find out what's all the buzz about... eh?
To put it simply, after finishing this show, I could not comprehend the praise surrounding it. Perhaps it's not my type, as they say,
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tastes differ from one another. But rating it a 3? It's fair to say that I am one of those who joined in the hate bandwagon of Re:Zero, which I would not deny, for I do hate the show to a point that I was dragging myself to finish it.
The purpose of this review is to point out what I disliked about the show, I do not expect everyone to agree with me, that's for sure, but I felt compelled to write this whole thing, most of it is to satisfy my own amusement.
STORY:
My biggest critique on this part, is how the show lacked two very vital things: Identity and atmosphere.
Let's start with identity. What is Re:Zero supposed to portray? Our protagonist Subaru got transported into a fantasy world with no reason explained whatsoever in the entirety of the show. Okay so at the very least it ticked the "fantasy" genre, I will give it that.
Moving on, the time travel genre was one of the most hip thing in 2016. Erased had it, ReLife had it, Orange had it, and Re:Zero also had it. Our friend Subaru apparently has the ability to perform time loops! But how does he activate it? By dying. He knows! What does this remind you of? That's right, a video game! He has the ability to load his previous data in predetermined save points! But it is way too farfetched to categorize this into the "game" genre just because of this, seeing this is merely my own made up point in how I see the entire time looping gimmick is presented in the show. Subaru didn't exactly enter a game, he entered a realistic fantasy world where to him, everything is real.
So what's the point of Subaru dying? To solve mysteries! To solve problems! His beloved Emilia is in danger, his friends are in danger, the entire village is in danger, the entire kingdom is in danger! He must save them all! For he is the only one blessed with such a powerful power that he was allowed multiple chances to undo the calamity and save the world! No worries if he fails, he can simply die and retry! Due to this, whatever mystery is only a matter of time for Subaru to solve. There is no time limit, which effectively eliminates every tension of the show. Oh there is suspense, it's to see how Subaru solves this heroically, having to wait week in and week out for that as it airs, I can imagine the suspense among the viewers. As such, trying to catch up with this anime and marathon it, like I did, is truly a bad idea. This is a show where buying the DVDs and Blu-Rays loses its appeal and suspense since you can just marathon the whole thing and see how Subaru pulled everything together. "Mystery" I'd also slash out from the genre.
Next up, "dark", oh the thing that captures the hearts of many fans of Re:Zero. The blood splatters! The severing of limbs! The removal of head, squashing it! Ooh! A must watch for every fans of gore and violence! While everything I mentioned in the past statement did indeed occur at some point of the show, the problem lies in how they were presented. Due to the fact that Subaru has the power to reset time, every bad outcome that was inflicted onto his friends could easily be undone simply by having him die. Where is the shock value in that? Oh Rem died, Emilia died, everyone died, so what? They will be back soon, Subaru will definitely die to make them come back. Due to this, I find it hard to feel any sadness nor pity onto our perpetually dying friends of Re:Zero, and I felt better laughing off at their ridiculous dying manner, like how I used to watch Another.
There doesn't seem to be a limit to Subaru's ability as well, other than he will suffer some mental stress, and a sinister feeling that something is grabbing his very heart, threatening to crush it whenever he tries to reveal his time looping ability. This so-called sinister feeling is supposedly the Witch's curse which was placed onto him and granted him the time to loop time, and he can't tell anyone for he felt he's gonna die if he spilled the beans, but towards the end he was able to abuse this and never seem to have any dire consequences aside from minor panting and yelling "I MADE IT OUT!". No tension, no suspense.
"Psychological", the genre threw in mostly because of Subaru's personal issues he must tackle because of this overwhelming power he had. He is the only one with the ability to undergo character development, for there is no reason for the others to develop, seeing they might get reseted anytime soon. At one point Subaru was intoxicated by the shock of seeing many of his friends dying and he was totally in a slump for a while, but then, with no other choice to move the plot forward, he was immediately cured of this psychological shock with barely nothing to explain the cure behind it. It's standard shounen stuff, main dude is good, until he goes down and turns emo, then come back up even stronger. It's not necessarily bad writing, but the way Subaru regains his self simply by witnessing Rem dying for the nth time is pretty hard to digest on. Is the genre well explored here? Nay.
"Comedy", the thing that ruined the entire dark atmosphere that Re:Zero was emphasizing for 2/3 of the show. For the comedy to work in a dark show, it must not hinder the overall atmosphere that hangs around the show. If you went overboard with them, I do not know what to feel about the show anymore, am I supposed to immerse myself into the brooding nature of the show? Or am I supposed to relax myself and let the comedy soothe me? Which is it? With everyone dying all over the place, suddenly we have a cat-eared trap who wears a sexy dress and purring nyaa nyaa all over the place. When Subaru was mercilessly captured by Peltugese and has his hands chained and his emotions temporarily scarred, we see our evil villain dancing around like a clown, grabbing his poor head as he shakes with excitement "MY HEAD TREMBLES!!!"... err what? So is this supposed to be a tragedy... or a comedy? Another anime that comes to mind which suffers the exact same issue is Akame ga Kill, in which Bulat, one of the allies of the main dude, tells him how miserable it is to be one of them, "we must kill in order to survive in this cruel world", right that's deep and dark indeed, but then the next scene he strips down to show his muscles and said "I AM ALSO GAYYYY"... err what? Indeed. Comedy must be used appropriately, if it's a comedy-driven show, then let it flaunt itself be. If it's a dark show where comedy is used to lighten up the mood a little, then it must not be excessive and overshadow the dominant dark mood, good examples of how it's done well would be Rurouni Kenshin, Hellsing Ultimate, FMA:B or the more recent ERASED.
What about "romance" and "harem"? Almost non-existent. Yes, most of the driving force that pushes Subaru to do most of the things he does in the show was motivated by his unwavering love for Emilia, who just happens to be the first one to help him, then after that his target is fixed and no other girl matters. Poor Rem had no chance despite dedicated an entire episode telling how much she loves Subaru, only for him to reject her with the infamous "But I love Emilia." Oh too bad, Rem.
Then again, what makes Rem so popular? She had been appearing everywhere in anime sites and fan arts are multiplying faster than mushrooms. After watching the show, I finally knew. There's no competition at all! Her screen time was at least 5 times more than any other female character, which really makes me question the reason why Emilia was listed as a main character while Rem the supporting cast in the MAL page of this show. She was the one that Subaru will first see whenever he revives (during the third and longest arc), giving her tons of screentime to endear fans with. Harem? No competition at all, Subaru loves Emilia. Romance? But Emilia hardly appears in the show! What romance?
So now we have come down to this, what identity does Re:Zero has? Is it dark? Not really due to the heavy comedic tones. A comedy then? Nope too miserable with many people dying. A mystery? Just wait for Subaru to die enough times, there's no rush. A psychological thriller? Hardly justified. Time travel? Mostly a gimmick. Romance and harem? No thanks. If anything, only "fantasy" qualifies as the only identity of Re:Zero. And the atmosphere? Like I said earlier, it's neither dark nor comedic, it's wishy-washy and does not know what it wants to be.
Hell, even in the end, I could argue and say that there is no plot in the show. After 25 episodes of suffering and restarting and solving mysteries, everything seems unchanged. Some say there are currently 12 volumes of LN and the anime only adapted the first three. But if you failed to tell us the point of the story in 25 episodes, it's a failure.
PRESENTATION (ART & SOUND):
The show is colorful when it's peaceful, gloomy when shit happens. It's okay here. The fight scenes are fine, but nothing extraordinary. I liked the quick camera shifts during the fight between Reinhard and Elsa, but after that nothing like it returns, which is a shame.
The voices are indeed done well, the seiyuus putting their best effort to the characters they voice. OST wise it's pretty okay too.
CHARACTERS:
We have Subaru, whose name I often joked myself for a car, is a self-proclaimed otaku, a NEET who spends most of his time at home. Yet he has a grip strength of 70kg, claims to do sufficient exercises in his room that I won't be surprised if he can take down a Taekwondo black belt, and his reflexes are much above average. Had it not be the other characters in this fantasy world being too powerful, he would be among one of the candidates participating in the Olympics, I won't be too surprised.
While his knowledge of the otaku culture was pretty justified and highlighted several times in the show, beyond that he is more of a Gary Stu, minus combat abilities. He is a smooth talker, every girl he meets will like him at some point, he is good with kids, he is brave and fearless, he'd die to save his loved ones, he is able to discuss political issues with the supposed candidates of the throne, to a point they had no objections and followed all of his suggestions, he is able to boost the morale of troops with actions alone, he is truly the perfect man many could dream about. Oh sure, he is flawed, he is often beaten to a pulp, he always suffer psychologically because of his time looping power, he further suffers so because no one would understand why he would know many information that others don't, simply because he could experience it, die, and live to tell the tale. And yes, at times, he had the plot armor simply because it's not the time for him to die yet, most notably during the Moby Dick sequence, everyone dies except him whereas he was the one charging first into it. What? Subaru is at best, a totally fictional character that doesn't have a shred of realism in him.
Next we have Emilia, for unknown reasons yet revealed to us, she is one of the two half-elves of the show, the other one being Satella the Jealous Witch which everybody in the world of Re:Zero hates on. Since she looks so similar to Satella, her hair, her ear, everything looks so similar, she is hated by the public, but for mad reasons only Roswaal knows, she is also one of the candidates to be the ruler of the kingdom. Gawd, please leave the poor girl alone, everyone knows she stands no chance in democracy. Beyond that, she is immeasurably sweet, her kindness knows no bounds, despite her super important emblem which gives her the right to be a candidate of the next ruler being stolen, she wouldn't mind waiting for hours beside a stranger (Subaru) whom she had just met to recover and wake up. She is also a beauty, with perfect body proportions, and she also knows magic and fights well. The perfect waifu material. Does it remind you of someone? Yes it does. Asuna from Sword Art Online. She is the embodiment of the main girl that has to be created so perfectly so that the fans have a new waifu to worship on.
But fans of Re:Zero don't really worship Emilia, it's Rem!! How so?? Like I mentioned earlier, Rem had no competition in the show, as she had at least 5 times more screentime than any other female character of the show, probably more. What is Rem? She's a petite cute little maid, who has a twin (Ram) who is pitifully no chance to rival her twin sister's popularity. She is great at chores, and she is strong! For she is an oni! Ooh! And her boobs are pretty big! Double ooh!! The even more perfect waifu! And they gave her a tragic backstory to boot!! Triple ooh!!! It is mandatory to worship her as the new anime goddess, or the mob of Re:Zero fans will swallow you whole. Come on, it's painfully obvious that the showmakers are also getting high at Rem, that she was continuously allowed to shine no matter what. Ugh.
I had to point out this character for I had the biggest problems on him throughout the show. Felix Argail. For heaven's sake, what's the reasoning behind his creation? He is a brilliant healer, the best we know, and it's a good thing, for whenever everyone's liable to die everywhere easily, we do need someone to heal effectively and quickly to ease the suffering of people. Here's the problem, his design. Allow me to put it simply. He is a male, who has a feminine look, a feminine voice, speaks like a female, and dresses like a female, and has cat ears, and speaks nyaa nyaa every time!! What is that? More stuff to satisfy the otaku fetishes? We already had Gary Stu, perfect waifu, even perfect maido, and now nyaa trap?? Oh lord, what is becoming of our world now? A trap doesn't have to act like one, like how Nagisa in Assassination Classroom doesn't actively seek out female dresses to wear and actually acts like a boy, as we know there exists of feminine looking guys in the real world. But... but... Felix is... beyond my comprehension, truly.
Next up is the other obnoxious character I could not tolerate in the show. It's our main villain of the season, Peltugese!! Do you know the phrase "evil for the sake of being evil"? He is one evil bastard alright, and to make him stand out, he has various quirks, let's see... "MY HEAD TREMBLESSSSSS", while dancing and with the most noxious of voices he repeated preaches about how sinful Subaru is for being slothful and doing nothing (while being chained), as well as not saving Rem when she was being slaughtered (he was still being chained), blablabla. SUBARASHIIIIIIII oh gawd no, please stop and die already, thanks. A good villain has to be someone who does enough to credit him/her to be a villain everyone hates, for Game of Thrones viewers, they should be familiar, as how the villains there got numerous accolades for best villain awards. Or to look closer in the anime world, Griffith of Berserk. But Peltugese? My head trembles every time he tries so hard to justify his evilness by preaching how someone can be slothful (for whatever reason, even looking at him in the eye, he will say "oh those slothful eyes!!!") and dancing like a maniac, as well as having no bones and ligaments that his body parts can twist around like rubberman. What?
The comical designs of the characters in the show makes it difficult to take things seriously. Roswaal truly looks like a clown, the same manner why I detested Mephisto in Blue Exorcist. Beatrice, although probably the only good character in the show that I liked, is a kuu-yandere loli magician. The two beast howlers that assist Subaru by emitting powerful howling waves, are wolf riding loli twins. Rem is a petite maid with big boobs, reminiscent of someone? That's right, Hestia, minus the maid part.
ENJOYMENT:
If you made it all the way here, I thank you, for this is truly one of the longest reviews (and ranting) that I've ever wrote. It should be obvious at this point now how much I detested the show. Truly sorry, but Re:Zero was not the show for me. I was constantly annoyed by the way the story was told, was constantly annoyed by the ridiculous characters, and was constantly annoyed by the incomprehensible rave behind the show.
An opinion is an opinion. I tried my best to wrote one, and this is what it became. If anything, I must praise Re:Zero for making me writing such a lengthy rant.
OVERALL: 3/10 Poor.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Oct 10, 2016
Once upon a time, I watched the anime adaptation of Orange, and it was said by many that it was a poorly made work and how the manga was way superior. Knowing that the manga is pretty short, I decided to find out just how good the manga is.
It was worse. Worse than the anime.
The most criticized part about the anime version was how badly drawn the characters were, in which they often came as lazily drawn faces and became totally off-model, and what do you know...
The manga is the same!
I was like... "what!?", it was claimed that the manga had clean and
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beautiful art that the anime version was a shame compared to it. I really fail to see how this is true. By "clean", Orange manga has very "clean" (read: empty) art, where backgrounds are non-existent, character faces are also lazily drawn, and when there's drama, the art did little justice to portray those scenes.
Shoujo manga often has these... blings blings and flowers around, and honestly I do not mind them, since they did well bringing the context out to the reader, most notably how the female lead realizes that she's in love with the main guy, badum badum oh how her heart flutters every time she sees her prince charming. These "accessories" are really handy to have, despite how cliché and often they are used.
You don't see any of these in the Orange manga, which is supposed to fall in the exact same category as its shoujo romance sisters. When our main girl sees the main dude, at most we see her blushing, and that's it. Empty.
Enough with the art, another major factor to make a successful romance drama is to have great characters, which the reader can connect or sympathize with, so that we would root for them, and cheer when they finally got together.
But in Orange? Everyone's a cardboard.
Everyone can be summarized in just one sentence. Naho is too dumb to do anything on her own, Kakeru is too blind to know how much his friends cared for him, Suwa is way unrealistically kind, and the other three are pretty much irrelevant for most part of the plot. I really fail to push myself to root for the main couple, and when they finally be together, I was like "yeah, okay". Their romance is totally hollow, I fail to feel why those two like each other, and why they should be together in the end, I really can't.
For the story, the time travel thing failed to make any real sense and I just treated it as a plot device in order to make the story exist. Sure it is interesting to see how a letter from the future could instruct their past selves to correct the mistakes. In some parts, okay they fixed it, it's all good. However, for most parts, it's a hair-pulling affair where it becomes increasingly frustrating to see how idiotic the characters could act. As an example, the irrelevant 3 knows main girl is dumb, yet still they left her alone to deal with emo main dude and ultimate screws everything up and dragged the story unnecessarily longer and took it to a painstaking direction. They should've known better that this very same mistake happened before in the past, yet they repeated it, goddammit.
By the time we reached the ending, which is unfortunately, a pretty standard happy one, there is literally nothing to be rejoiced about, nothing to be cheery about, really, what is the point about all this?
When the art of the manga isn't that good, all you could hope is to have a good plot and good characters to make it up, but Orange ended up as a great disappointment, especially the manga.
At least the anime had decent backgrounds, voice acting and OST.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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