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Jun 15, 2012
I'm conflicted over this anime. For starters, it's an excellent take on Lupin III with beautiful art and a darker storyline, and had an interesting crew consisting of a SHAFT/Gainax freelancer, a KyoAni art director, Dai Sato and Shinichi Watanabe.
On the other hand, it has a messy and pretentious story that kinda killed the "mystique appeal" of Fujiko Mine, added some unnecessary characters and is cluttered with bad writing by one of the biggest hacks in anime (And yes, i'm talking about Mari Okada).
The story of this Lupin III series is all about Fujiko Mine, and how she became to be that one hot
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chick you see in every Lupin III anime from the past 4 decades. You also see her trying to rob things and steal stuff but who cares.
It's basically Lupin III meets "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" with a sprinkle of Black Rock Shooter.
The story is quite a mess. The first 5 episodes have that sense of humour of the typical Lupin III story. And that's fine.
But then, they just have to add that fucking annoying and unnecessary "DEEP" crap and turn Fujiko into an Asuka clone. And i'm not talking of making Fujiko a tsundere. I'm talking about them turning Fujiko into a post-mental breakdown suffering of a woman. And yes, i hated that part. Why?
Because it's unnecessary and pretty killed the character for me. Fujiko was made to be a mysterious figure of lust and envy, and to add something that's the opposite of the two pretty much killed that. I don't want to know about her past. I want to see her as the sex bomb figure of tension that she is.
Also, the worst thing about the story are the flashbacks of Fujiko's childhood. It's messy and gives away nothing that would make understand her. It's just padding at its worst and i hated that.
I understand the need to go dark. Hell, i loved Casino Royale and Batman Begins for offering a gritty take on their respective franchises. But you don't make it to a point where you kill the appeal of the character. It's one reason the Star Wars Prequels don't work. You don't try and be edgy to the point of butchering what makes the characters likable.
And all of these can pretty much be blamed on Mari Okada. You can tell that all the "Deep & Dark" flashback trauma crap is handled by her. Hell, episode 11 has her shit all over it. And i fucking hated it. It reminds me of everything i hated about Black Rock Shooter. Who gave this woman more work? We kicked Shyamalan hard for butchering The Last Airbender and Akiva Goldman got cockpunched for Batman & Robin, and yet she's getting away with this?
And besides Fujiko III, you see the return of the well-loved Arsene Lupin, the samurai wonder Goemon, the sharp-eyed Jugem and the bumbling Interpol agent Zenigata. And they added another main character named Oscar who's Zenigata's assistant and obviously gay for the Inspector. And to me, he's pretty pointless because he brings nothing to the story, and he makes me ask "Is this franchise really desperate of a new following that they need to add a character made for a fujoshi fanbse?" Seriously, he's just there for the fabulous.
But those are the bad parts, so now, here's the good parts!
The art is excellent.It feels like moving palettes rather than animation and has an excellent colour scheme of sorts. It's clearly influenced by Western animation and it's more colourful than the other stories in Lupin III, which is a contrast to the dark storyline.
The sound's nice. In terms of music, it's clearly the jazzy orchestra type of music you'd expect from a Shinichi Watanabe production. It's nice and i enjoyed the score as it reminds me of music by Anton Karas. I'm surprised that the score wasn't composed by Yoko Kanno, because it feels like one. And thus, i think the composer did an excellent creating a score influenced by Yoko Kanno.
And the voice acting's pretty nice as you have the original seiyuus for Lupin and Jigen(Kanichi Kurita and Kiyoshi Kobayashi), whereas Fujiko is now voiced by the talented Miyuki Sawashiro while Goemon is voiced by the excellent Daisuke Namikawa. The legendary Kouichi Yamadera now voices Zenigata and Oscar is voiced by Yuki Kaji. All of them provides excellent voice acting and i'm impressed the most by Sawashiro as she is able to weigh in and sound as good as her predecessor, Eiko Masuyama.
All of these good points provide a counter-balance to the ridiculously terrible storyline. You have all of these elements of music and animation that brings more to the anime than the story itself. And surprisingly, the Lupin and Jigen scenes managed to be more enjoyable than the Fujiko scene and that is also a good point about this series.
Overall, Lupin the Third: Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna is a conflicted series with a flawed story, but makes up for it with the music, animation and giving space to Lupin, Jigen and Goemon. If you're a Lupin III fan and its core, then you will like this. But if you haven't seen any of the Lupin III series before, then go watch the original series alongside Castle of Cagliostro and maybe one of the other OVAs like Fujiko's Unlucky Days which is also similar to this anime.
And to end this review, here's Tom Jones singing It's not Unusual, because i really love Tom Jones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrwO8b9iq34&feature=related
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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May 9, 2012
NOTE: Before i start my review, i'd like to say that the excellent Shane Smith from VICE has done a reportage from a major arms dealing convention. So if you want to see some Jormungand-style gunrunning in real time, then you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJct-kBqIKA
My understanding of arms dealers came after watching the excellent film "Lord of War". Nicolas Cage plays a Ukrainian-American arms dealer who sells guns like AK-47s, M-16s and a M-60 Machine gun to warlords and rebel groups. The movie is great as it portrays a balanced view of the arms dealer, and how inane our world is.
Arms dealing is rampant
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in this current age. With the Drug War across Latin America along with Middle Eastern revolutions and a Taliban insurgency in West Asia, the need for arms dealers is higher than ever, and these wars gave rise to people like Viktor Bout who sells AK-47s to dictators like Charles Taylor and Muammar Gaddafi. It is evil, manipulative and horrifying and his recent arrest became a morality tale about the nature of war and how people like Viktor Bout are making the world a worse place to live.
Jormungand came a few months after Lord of War, but it's also excellent. And the anime adaptation aired the same month Viktor Bout received 25 years of prison in the United States. So it's pretty co-incidental that both the manga and anime came at a time when stories of arms dealers reached the news.
The story is about a group of arms dealers led by a Genki girl named Koko Hekmatyar (Shizuka Itou). Her ragtag crew is like the A-Team of arms dealers, and their ways of running the business is as carefree as the Googleplex, but with more explosions.
The series begins with Koko bringing a new member of the team: A former child soldier named Jonathan. He's about 10, hates guns but joins an arms dealing group to find the dealers who killed his parents. Koko, along with Jonah and her crew of badasses go around the world selling guns and partying. It's k-On! meets Lord of War and Micmacs, and that's the best summary of the story.
Animation wise, the animation's nice. Pretty sunny, but since it's by White Fox then the lens flare is expected. The character designs are done by by the key animator from Steins;Gate and it shows.
The direction is pretty good, especially when it's directed by the director of Katanagatari and School Days. Yeah, about that: Keitaru Motonaga should stick to directing for White Fox since all his other works are pretty bad. His career reminds me of Martin Campbell's career: a hit or two in a resume of crap.
The music's nice. The OP sounds like something from a Prodigy/Pendulum concert, and the ED is done by the excellent Nagi Yanagi. The entire score is done by Taku Iwasaki who remains great at what he does. His attention to surrounding and action makes him great, which is why he's the best action anime composer ever, since he does stuff like Gurren Lagann, Yakitate Japan and Ben-to.
The one flaw about this story is character development. So far, Koko, Jonathan and Koko's colleague Valmer (voiced by Sayaka Ohara) has given us a glimpse of what they are and recently we get to see Jonathan's backstory and Koko's brother. And that's about it. There is a backstory about the most recent villain group in the series, but that was not as exciting as it should be. I wanna see more of that Lehm guy (voiced by Unsho Ishizuka) and more of William Nelson (voiced by Kenji Nomura). The series could have been better if each episode revolves around two characters hanging out with each other, like Community. But we get to see more of others later in the series which helps improve character relationship. We also get to see interactions with people outside the arms bubble, like the "Medicines Sans Frontieres" guys later in the episode.
Overall, Jormungand is a decent anime about arms dealer. It's not as great as Lord of War, but it's good for lots of action and a great staff which makes the series much more enjoyable.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 31, 2012
We looked back at our school days and we think "Yeah, i've done some stupid shit in school." No one is perfect, and even the most perfect A-scoring twit might just be the greatest exhibitionist in the universe. And thus, we are prone to doing things that are childish, dumb and hilarious.
And thus, comes The Daily Lives of Highschool Boys. originally from a manga by Yamauchi Yasunobu, The Daily Lives of Highschool Boys tells an everyday tale of three boys: Hidenori, Yoshitake and Tadakuni who lives like the male versions of Azumanga Daioh characters. Along with several friends and female side characters, these three go
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on with their daily lives recreating Dragon Quest, talking about something and attempting some crossdressing. It's pretty much related to any high school kid, since most of these things the three have done are similar to some of the stuff we've done.
The show's format runs like a sketch, where each sketch are dedicated to 5 minutes of the main characters and/or the side characters. It works in a sense and some of them are funny, and even if some of the sketches aren't as funny as the rest, atleast it brought a smile to my face. And the show tends to end with a post-credit sketch featuring three girls, who are living parodies of slice of life shows like K-On! and A-Channel. And sometimes, these girls are funnier than the main characters and it brings some irony and surprise to this show, since the main focus was set on the boys.
If you're a fan of British comedy like me, then the best way to describe the series and its humor is like watching the characters from the Inbetweeners acting like they're in the Last of the Summer Wine. In fact, it is exactly that: It's basically Last of the Summer Wine but with characters from the Inbetweeners. I mean, it's slow yet it's funny but at the same time, peaceful. It's like watching the antics of teenagers from the window of a Starbucks joint. While you're sipping you macchiato and pretending to listen to your stupid hipster friends, you're actually paying attention to a bunch of teens outside the window recreating Dragon Quest, and then retweeting it to make sure that everyone cares what you fucking saw, eventhough they don't because they're too busy trying to read a book at a river bank.
The cast of this series is basically a crossover cast of Gintama, Code Geass and Persona 4, especially when Hidenori and Yoshitake are voiced by Gintama's Tomokazu Sugita and Kenichi Suzumura. Tadakuni is voiced by the talented Miyu Irino. He has a really good voice for a tsukkomi type of character, and he should be doing more of those to be honest. Other than the three, you also have the likes of guys voiced by Akira Ishida, Hiroki Yasumoto, Daisuke Namikawa, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Takahiro Sakurai, Showtaro Morikubo and Jun Fukuyama to name a few. SUrprisingly, this show also has an excellent female cast featuring Yoko Hikasa, Ayahi Takagaki, Risa Hayamizu, Yuuki Aoi, Ami Koshimizu, Yuu Kobayashi, Shiwa Saito, Kaori Mizuhashi and Yukana to date. It has one of the best A-list cast of seiyuus i've seen in an anime, and their voices are done pretty well. I love yoko Hikasa as Yassan, the awkward literary girl who has a crush on Hidenori but is suffering from a case of introverted awkwardness that pumps up to eleven everytime she meets him. She's exactly like Mio, except more awkward.
Infact, with a cast like that, they'd actually look like a government cabinet where Tomokazu Sugita is the Prime Minister and Jun Fukuyama is the Minister of Roadworks or something like that. Infact, imagine a Japanese government where the cabinet ministers consists of nothing but the cast of Daily Lives of Highschool Boys. Imagine a government like that, and if it happens Japan would become the greatest country in Asia, where its policies consist of Miyu Irino crossdressing to attract foreign investors or Yuu Kobayashi throwing pies to members of TEPCO in the face. I'd support a government like that.
The series is directed by Shinji Takamatsu from Gintama who's work is excellent in this series. There are certain quirks from Gintama that you see in this, with the camera shots and Tadakuni's room resembling the Yorozuya most of the time. Speaking of Gintama, the addition of Sugita, Suzumura and Audio Highs as composers makes for a great experience watching this, because it feels alot like Gintama set in high school, and it succeeds in that compared to the Sket Dance anime which also aims to do that yet somehow misses the mark.
Overall, great series. if you want to remember about the stupid things you did as a teenagers, then you should be watching this instead of telling your friends and family members because they really don't give a fuck about the time you ran naked during a class trip, because no one wants to remember that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 11, 2012
Mari Okada is a writer who is the perfect definition of "all style, no substance". I enjoyed her script for Toradora, but everything else she wrote makes me want to throw my monitor out of the window.
For example, Ano Hana. It took 2/3 of the series to reveal that yes, Menma the ghost is real. Why couldn't she just prove herself instead of acting like a moeblob for the first six episodes? Oh wait, it's bad writing.
She's basically the Nicholas Sparks of anime. Her only purpose is to make you cry, and when emotions are the main factor behind a story, you know that there
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is no room for rational explanations & logic. (And don't give me that "oh it's anime who cares about logic" bullcrap. Nanoha and Madoka Magica has alot of rationale in it)
In short, Mari Okada's a hack and no work of her's define hackery better than Black★Rock Shooter the TV series.
B★RS is originally a music video from a music producer named "Huke", which became an OVA created by former KyoAni director Yutaka Yamamoto, also known as "the saviour of anime". An anime series for this would be inevitable, especially in an age of Madoka Magica and Penguindrum. Hey, why not cash in on the success of a mahou shoujo franchise by making a TV series with our mahou shoujo franchise, right?
The story of B★RS TV is almost the same as the OVA, but it does not follow up from the OVA. So prepare to be disappointed if you're expecting a sequel from the OVA.
But if you're a newcomer to the franchise, it's basically this:
A bunch of middle school kids transcends two worlds: a world of middle school innocence and a world of gunfights and sword battles. These middle school kids have emotional issues, and these emotional issues in one world translates into awesome battles in the other.
Simply to say, it's basically Narutaru and Utena meets the Matrix and Inception. Or something like that.
The characters are exactly the problems with Mari Okada's writing. I mean, they are the same terrible characters you see in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening. The main character, Mato Kuroi has some non-existent emotional issues. Hell, she's basically a female Alan Partridge, unable to comprehend the problems of her best friend, Yomi. Yomi, in the other hand is dominated by her awful childhood friend Kagari and her parents are terrible even in Maury Povich/Jeremy Kyle standards. Yomi's mother is a terrible person. Hell, even the worst parent in the world would not be as bad as Yomi's mom. Also, Mato's other friend Yuu can bring her otherworld personality into the real world, whereas their councellor Saya is a crazy bitch.
But all of this terrible characterisation makes up or amazing battles in the otherworlds, and that makes for amazing visuals and art. Even if you didn't like the main story, but the action is heart-pounding and the otherworld scenes where Mato becomes the Black Rock Shooter is one thing that redeems the bad writing.
Another good thing about this series is the sound. Kana Hanazawa is pretty okay as Mato, eventhough i'm sick of her child-like voice. Miyuki Sawashiro is still amazing as Yomi, displaying her range even better this time around. Eri Kitamura as crazy Kagari is not bad either, since she's knwon for playing crazy characters and Kana Asumi keeps that Yuno voice which works for Yuu. But Mamiko Noto is the best seiyuu in this, especially when she's playing something out of her range. A crazy lesbian councellor with the voice of Nogizaka Haruka? Hell yeah.
And the OPs and EDs are pretty good. I hate it that both Noitamina shows this season are basically mediocre anime with Supercell and Kana Hanazawa, but i enjoyed this Supercell than the Supercell from Guilty Crown. And Hatsune Miku's voice do work for the OP, because thank God it's a Miku song that utilizes her voice as an advantage.
Overall, B★RS TV is a mediocre series which has lots of good action wrapped around a bad story of terrible writing. You want something good? Go watch Lagrange, Mouretsu Pirates or even Symphogear. Yes, i prefer Symphogear than this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 23, 2012
Gyo is an adaptation of a manga by famed horror mangaka Junji Ito, also known as the "Stephen King of Japan". It's one of his known works to date besides Uzumaki and it's pretty unsettling stuff. Once you finish reading it, you will get fears of looking at the ocean for a while.
So it's no exception that a guy like Ito deserves his own anime. Why not? And thus Ufotable came to the blessing and made a 70-minute OVA of Gyo.
The result? One of the most hilarious comedies ever made.
No, seriously. Whereas the original manga is a work of itself, this anime feels like a
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mixture of most horror films made in the past 2 decades. Basically, you're watching Piranha 3D+Birdemic+Troll 2+Slither+The Happening+Sharktopus+Dawn of the Dead 2004 all in one movie. Hell, the Ending IS TAKEN FROM THE DAWN OF THE DEAD 2004 ENDING!I don't know if that ending was a homage or a rip-off, but it's so blatant that i feel like filing a lawsuit on behalf of Zach Snyder and James Gunn.
Anyways, the story of Gyo is about dead fish and aquatic creatures having metallic spider legs and walking around the surface while infected with a disease that can be contractable to humans. This disease turns humans into fart zombies and will also give them metallic spider legs while having tentacles on their mouths and private parts. It's basically the original plot of the manga.
However, the way it's directed makes it look more like a comedy than a genuine Junji Ito horror story. I mean, only in comedy can a shark with legs attack a woman who's receiving double penetration from two guys. Seriously, this is Birdemic-tier levels of hilarity. I am shocked by the fact that it's directed by the guy who directed Kara no Kyoukai 5.
And not only that, THEY CHANGED THE CHARACTERS. Kaori is now Tadashi, and Tadashi is now Kaori. Why? Apprently because the hot chick needs to win. Basically, they want a Hollywood ending which pisses me off more. I'm pretty sure that this was aimed at a Western audience, because there is no other reason for character change other than that. It just kills the purposes of the story. They also add in two unnecessary female characters, both which are Kaori's friends. Erika, the slut and Aki the fat one. They are pretty much the most worthless stories in anime and are there just to increase the body count.
The animation is quite nice. Great scenery and crisp animation made up for the flaws of this OVA. The characters look like they were drawn by yoshiyuki Sadamoto and it's true because the animator for this OVA is a former student and colleague of Sadamoto, working with him during the production of Evangelion. And the CGI is okay too. Ufotable is using a really good budget for an OVA, and they handled it well.
I'm okay with the music. I mean there is nothing groundbreaking with it. But the sound effects are generic. I mean, no GASHUNK! effect? Come on! We want to hear that GASHUNK! sound! They blew it hard by not making that sound.
Overall, Gyo is a mediocre OVA filled with unintentional hilarity with decent animation to make up for it. It's not scary and it failed so in every level, but it's a blast. You want an MST3K experience with your friends on a Friday night? Go watch Gyo. But you want to get scared? Read the manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 3, 2012
In 2003, Senator Rick Santorum compared gay sex to turtle humping. As a revenge, gay columnist Dan Savage google-bombed Santorum's name and now Santorum means "frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter, sometimes a by-product of anal sex". You know, shit that comes out after anal sex. Yeah, that.
In 2005, Japanese hentai makers Milky made a tentacle lesbian hentai called "Anal Sanctuary" or as i like it to call it "Tentacle Santorum".
Why? Let me tell you why:
The story is about a violin that can turn girls into rape baits for demonic tentacles. Once these tentacles start the anal rape, scat will come out after coming.
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So yeah, that's "Tentacle Santorum". Not only that, but the main character is a Takehito Koyasu-ripoff who has the look of a Gintama character trying to shit himself.
But atleast the female characters are hot. Especially the blonde nun/priest. She's the hottest blonde chick i've seen in hentai. Too bad she started enjoying Santorum after getting tentacle raped. Seriously, a girl that hot should not enjoy Scat of any kind, especially Santorum.
Sound? yeah, generic horror movie background music mixed in with a classical song used by the violin to turn girls horny.
Overall, this is a hentai dedicated to the average scat fan, or if you're a Rick Santorum supporter. For the average hentai, there's a few turn ons but you might get turned off once the Santorum begins. And that's all i can say.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 9, 2011
I don't want to like this anime. I don't hate it. I just refuse to admit to liking it. But, i enjoy this the same way i enjoy hipster films like Me, You and Everyone We Know. It's like watching hilariously bad performance art at a gallery filled with hipsters. I've been there, and Penguindrum is the animated version of that exact experience.
Directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara who directed that fantastic mindfuck called Revolutionary Girl Utena. He went on to made this series because he's jealous that his bro Yuji Enokido got his own ego trip of an anime like Star Driver. So he's basically trying
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to make something that doesn't suck (yet fabulous!). And the result is Penguindrum.
The story about Penguindrum is a tale about terrorist anchor babies told with incest. Yup, it's about that, i think. It's about this family of siblings whose parents are Penguin terror cultists who blew up Tokyo ala London in Modern Warfare 3. One of the siblings, Himari is dying and to save her, the other two siblings Kanba and Shouma must save Himari with a "Penguindrum" according to Himari when she's wearing a Penguin hat with Utena backgrounds. And the hint of a Penguindrum lies in the notebook of Ringo, a yandere girl who's in love with Tabuki, Shouma's teacher and an Akira Ishida character married to an opera singer. At the same time, Shouma and Kanba are being challenged by a woman named Masako who's also aiming for the Penguindrum because of her ailing brother.
The story is pretty confusing at first, but when you describe it gets easier to comprehend. It's like having watched a bad cult movie or theatre play thinking "Wow that was pretty stupid" and moments later you thought about it and you started thinking 'Wow that actually made sense". Penguindrum is that. And it fulfils the "Bad Hipster Performance Art Experience" by trying to make this look deep. It's basically called deep by certain guys on /a/ and that reminds me of all the hipsters calling a story about a woman who paints babies and putting candy bars into her friend's ass as a "deep and insightful story about modern society". Seriously, the story is weak yet people praise it because it's made by Ikuhara. And i understand because Ikuhara spent his time in America after Utena hanging out at bars and clubs like it's Greenwich Village or something, and at the same time the paranoia about terrorism he witnessed after 9/11 makes an influence for him to put in Penguindrum. But if he wanted to make an anime about "terrorist anchor babies", he should just make an anime about terrorist anchor babies, not terrorist anchor babies with incest (which became twisted a the series goes on).
The art is okay. I expected something amazing because it's from the guy who turned chicks into cars, but yet it's nothing to be fazed about. I actually expected KyoAni levels of amazing animation and visuals yet that didn't happen. Hell, since it's Brain Base i also expected some cool art like in Baccano!, and no that doesn't happen either. To describe the art would be "minimalism meets fabulous European pre-contemporary art". I'm a sucker for minimalism, but i'm not a fan of the latter which is why i dropped Star Driver. And they should not draw people in backgrounds as stick people. I know this series is limited in budget but, come on spending an extra buck or two in trying to other draw other people does not hurt.
The music is great. I love the ED by Coaltar of the Deepers. I also love the use of music by Dvorak and the background music for this is noticeable.
The characters are also the best parts of this story. I love Himari. She's cute as hell and shes the poster girl for this series, whereas Shouma and Kanba are also great characters on their own. The seiyuus who voice them are the rookie seiyuus beisdes Shouma's whereas other characters are really great with the likes of Tabuki who's the perfect definition of an Akira Ishida character. Yui Horie as Masako is kind of my personal favourite because she's used to voicing characters like Ayu from Kanon, but her voice in this is deep yet sexy. Mamiko Noto as Yuri Tokikago is also great, because she does a crazy psycho lesbian perfectly.
Overall Penguindrum is an anime that i will not admit to liking it. Like i've said, it's Bad Hipster Performance Art: the Anime. It's pretentious and weird for the sake of weird yet it's fabulous and amazing with its characters and music. If you're a hardcore Utena or Ikuhara fan, go watch this. If you love mindfuck anime, go watch it as well. But don't tell me that the story is deep because i'll punch you in the face you fucking hipster.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 17, 2011
Here is a series that could have been WAY better if they had tried harder. It's pretty much a poor man's Gintama, and that's saying alot since this is adapted from a manga by the former assistant to Hideaki Sorachi.
The story about SKET Dance revolves around a club that helps people with their problems of any. Led by the enthusiastic Bossun (voiced by Hiroyuki Yoshino), the foxy Himeko (voiced by Ryoko Shiraishi) and the otaku Switch (voiced by teh Sugita), the go around school receiving help and solving problems.
SKET Dance has everything pre-packaged to make it a good anime. You've got not one, but two
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all-star openings by AKB 48's French Kiss and Gackt along with ending themes by The Pillows. You also have an all-star seiyuu cast featuring Tomokazu Sugita, Ryoko Shiraishi, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Hiro Shimono, Tomokazu Seki, Yuu Kobayashi, Fumiko Orikasa, Marina Inoue and cameos from Ayana Taketatsu, Saori Hayami, Satomi Sato, Kaoru Mizuhara and lots more. There is also an episode directed by Shinichi Watanabe. Hell, they even adapted the Gintama crossover chapter, bringing the cast and characters of the Yorozura Trio into the SKET Dance world.
And yet, it still didn't fulfill its potential. Why? Because it's not funny enough.
The jokes are too safe and mediocre. The reason why Gintama is awesomely hilarious is because it holds no bar to how far the humor can go. In Gintama, they can show Okita creating a Human Centipede out of Gintoki, Hijikata and Katsura on top of the Bible because that's how they roll. But Sket Dance plays safer than the combination safe at Fort Knox. Hell, the few funny moments in this series is basically when the Gintama crew do one or two dirty jokes in this, and that's about it. That's as far as it goes with the humour. Come on Shinohara-sensei. You got your lucky break and blessing from Sorachi-sensei, and this is what you gave us? You can try harder than that.
But this series can really score in drama. When it has a backstory moment with some of its characters, it can get emotional and awesome, especially Switch's backstory. If it manages to have a Benizakura-esque arc later in this series, then why not? The show might just got better like what happened to Gintama after the Benizakura arc.
And that's why i'm quite optimistic. It has room to improve, and they can nail some serious drama. And this is one of the few series that is awesome for Tomokazu Sugita himself. If you love him as Kyon, Hajime, Gintoki and Hoshi, you will definitely love him in this. He's pretty much having fun voicing Switch, and he's the one reason that kept me continuing with this series.
I suggest you watch this only if you're a harcore fan of Sugita or Ryoko Shiraishi. Unless if this series manages to be as great as Gintama in its latter years, i would not think a casual anime fan would enjoy this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 19, 2011
Humanity ascended to the heavens, but then fell again so to get back to the heavens they decided to recreate history with flying airships and only people under 18 able to run the governments, a they all have techno-magic powers and super mecha weapons and there is an AI based on a girl who was run over by a carriage, plus ghosts too for some reason and the MC want's to boink the AI and everyone wants him to do it so they can have a big party.
That's the plot so far.
Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon is an anime that i'm still watching despite having
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a plot that is silly and explanations that are based on expositions. Here's a reason why i'm still watching this:
http://imgur.com/Wobvj
Yeah, i'm watching this for that sensei.
The story is adapted from a light novel by Minoru Kawakami, and even that made no sense.
But to be fair, this anime had some of the most beautiful scenery and art for this season......until the female characters came along. Seriously, the character design is pitiful. Half the girls look like they have soccer balls on their chest. It doesn't remotely look like breasts.
Speaking of character, the MC is a smug guy played none other than Jun Fukuyama. Imagine every other FukuJun character in a fraternity house together. Oh, and the star of the show is Minori Chihara as P-01s, which sounds like what you expect (Penis). And this is a very all-star cast, with too many characters and too many a-list seiyuus that it might surpass Dragonaut and Star Driver combined. And even after episode 3, you still don't know half of these characters, except for Ryoko Shiraishi's yummy sensei some of the male characters since it's easy to recognize them based on their seiyuus like Takehito Koyasu (the tall one), Daisuke Ono (the one with the cap), Minoru Shiraishi (the fat one)and Tomokazu Sugita (the blonde one). Unlike Majikoi which introduces the all-star characters pretty well, Majikoi does it badly and i doubt you'd even remember all of their named by the 12th episode.
Sound is okay. Minori Chihara usually starts the show with her singing, and it's pretty nice to listen to. But there's nothing else i can say since the final product of the score hasn't been done yet. But the OP is okay and the ED is nothing to talk about.
Overall, this is a decent anime i'll keep on watching despite the nonsensical plot and the overload of characters. I'll keep watching it for the art and DAT SENSEI!
http://imgur.com/Wobvj
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 16, 2011
I'm kind of a minimal Gundam fan. I was raised by badly-dubbed Malay episodes of G Gundam and Gundam Wing, and i've seen the first two episodes of Gundam SEED and i kind of enjoyed it.
When i heard about people raging over Gundam AGE, i said to myself "Hm, stupid weeaboos not being raised by Doraemon, Astro Boy and Ninja Boy". From the character design i can basically tell that it's not only for kids, but it's also for parents or those raised by traditional kids anime from the 80's and early 90's. And i understand that. This is not for the 00/SEED fan. And
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it pretty much says that in the artwork.
But seeing the first two episodes, i said to myself "Hey, this is not bad. Not a great start like 00 but still decent". It's okay.
The story is pretty much a rip-off of Nadesico where some kid named Flit Asuno (played by Toyonaga Toshiyuki from DRRR!!) lost his mom but got this AGE system which enables him to pilot Gundams. He has a cute female childhood friend named Emily and works with an Agasa lookalike scientist in the development of a new Gundam.
In this story the space colonies are under attack by unknown Alien-looking mechs called GAFRANs. The fact that they look different that the usual Gundam enemies makes me want to believe that the story is pretty much a rip-off of Nadesico. Dead parents, supernatural technology, space colonies and alien enemy mechs without an early backstory makes this story sound like Nadesico, and to me that's kind of a low point.
The characters are okay. Flit is a type of guy who wants to pilot a Gundam, since they look cool in oil paintings. Alot of them look very old-school, especially one military guy named Aynor who looks like he just came from a 1980's mecha anime-themed Japanese barbershop. And Haro's back. Hooray.
I'm really loving the art. It looks well-made and very polished. So far they are using the budget well and it's use of simplicity to create a very child-like character design is one thing i applaud Sunrise for. I love it when anime companies that do really big projects does an anime that is based on childlike art (like IG's Usagi Drop and Gainax's P&S), and Gundam AGE is one of them.
The sound is nothing to be judged. I'll wait for the next few episodes before making a judgement out of it. So far, Toyonaga makes an okay Flit and i love the AnoHana OP from galileo Galilei, and having them do the OP for AGE is pretty cool.
So far, it's an okay show. It has a chance to get better after the next few episodes provided Sunrise won't fuck this up in SEED Destiny levels. I'll keep my eyes on this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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