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Mar 24, 2013
I feel so sorry for anybody who missed out on this anime this year because it was absolutely brilliant. Likewise, I also feel sorry for anybody who didn’t, because Urobuchi Gen ripped their hearts out.
The series is set in the near future in which it is possible to instantaneously quantify a person’s state of mind, personality, and probability of committing a crime, all recorded on an individual’s “Psycho-Pass”. When their “Crime Coefficient” index becomes too high, they are pursued and apprehended by police officers known as Inspectors, and their ‘hunting dogs’ the Enforcers; in this way, order is maintained. Unit One of the Public Safety
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Bureau’s division of criminal investigation, navigate the system to uphold justice in their seemingly Utopian society.
Before anything else, let’s address some reasons the show received heavy criticism early on, and was subsequently written off because of it.
Inspector Tsunemori Akane: As a frequenter of tumblr, I saw so many people dismiss the protagonist of the series immediately after episode 1, and to that I say shame on you. She got a lot of flack for being naive and idealistic, but that was the whole point of her character development. Even more egregious was how much hate she got because of her design, and again, shame on you. Both the director and the writer explicitly stated that “moe” would be completely omitted from Psycho-Pass; there’s a lot of back and forth between whether Akane is or isn’t moe (though the pink jellyfish comes close), but you don’t hate on a character because of their haircut. And personally, I think she’s cute.
Too slow: I understand, the series does take it’s time in the beginning. Psycho-Pass doesn’t really reach the heart of its story until about episode 10. However, everything before this is time spent establishing the cyberpunk setting, the relationships between the characters, and setting up for an unbelievable payoff later. Every reveal in the series speaks to something that was established earlier (yes, even the HyperOats) because the writer is a master at foreshadowing and bringing his stories full circle. It is well worth wading through the cases in the beginning to reach the core of the story later.
Psycho-Pass is a ripoff of Minority Report: a 2002 film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise based off a short story of the same name written by legendary science fiction author, Philip K. Dick. And honestly, to this I have to say… so what? Having only seen the trailer, I could just as easily say that Pacific Rim is a rip off of Evangelion, but that doesn’t say anything about its merit on any level. So even if the series is derivative (and what material isn’t these days?), the two focus on different themes and tell totally separate stories; Minority Report is a commentary on human free will and choice where Psycho-Pass is a revenge story at its core and an examination of justice, taking place in the same kind of setting.
And the joke is on you, because Philip K. Dick’s work is actually mentioned in the series. It’s obvious, to the point of near literary pretentiousness, how the series pays homage to the themes and philosophies found in great written works. I can see how consistently name dropping George Orwell or Jonathan Swift might be annoying, but as a total classic literature nerd, it made me excited to pick up what they were alluding to in the books I have read, and inspired to hunt down the rest so I could understand the series even better (hard copies— because e-books lack character). Besides, an image of Heart of Darkness conveys just as much as a long-winded discourse about the descent into darkness and the true nature of humanity would. It isn’t always subtle, but it is challenging and elevates the show to more than just another crime thriller anime.
Before I continue lauding it, let me clarify: Psycho-Pass is bloody, violent, and disturbing, and not for the weak-hearted. This anime has cruel scenes, both physically and mentally, and the director joked that he wanted the kids in the audience to sustain trauma for life after watching. O_O But that is not why your heart will be ripped out.
Your heart will be ripped out because Urobuchi Gen helmed this.
Urobuchi-san (Fate/Zero & Puella Magi Madoka Magica) is known for writing dark, nihilistic themes and tragic plot twists into his stories, earning him the affectionate nickname “The Uro-BUTCHER”. Back when I wrote my original Madoka review, I had no idea who this man was or what he would do to my emotions. Lobotomizing yourself with a spoon would be less painful. If only I had known then…
The reason Urobuchi-san is capable of writing compelling stories is not because he’s heavy handed with the nihilism or because he shies away from current trends in the anime industry. There are two very good reasons.
1. He knows how to write people— realistic, human characters with attributes and flaws and personal motivations and incredible development (see: Ginoza Nobuchika). The audience doesn’t suffer because tragic events happen, but because they happen to these characters, whom you have grown to know and love and sympathize with (see: Ginoza Nobuchika).
2. He never writes standard black and white conflicts. The system in place which monitors people’s mental states for the sake of safety arguably takes way their free will, but without it the society plunges into chaos. The Enforcer seeks to bring down the main antagonist for personal revenge, not for the sake of justice; and yet if the anarchist wins, in theory, people’s wills are restored as long as they survive the crumbling of the system. As you watch his series, you might not know who you want to win, or whether they should, and it makes for deeply thought provoking entertainment. (The “Psycho-Scan” aspect of the series alone is provocative when you put it into the context of how mental health is approached in Japan.)
There’s a lot of commentary on human nature, the natures of societies, law and governance, good and evil. There’s tons of brain-candy to chew on here; Psycho-Pass is not a series to watch if you travel into anime to escape or like to keep your mind turned off. Although it shares similar themes and story telling elements as something like Madoka Magica, the complexity, the science fiction crime mystery genre, and integration of philosophy and literature makes it less universal in appeal, but all the more appealing for someone like me.
Knowing Urobuchi’s previous work had me worried. Hearing that the entire staff cried over the final episode had me very worried. But even with his bloody reputation preceding him, Psycho-Pass has proved that Urobuchi-san is master storyteller capable of being twisted and incredibly emotional, as well as demonstrating diversity and restraint. His name is one I’m sure to be following from now on.
Oh, and it also looked great. And sounded great. Production I.G.’s work here is wonderful, and they’re generally a top notch studio. Production knew when to hold back, so they could really deliver where it mattered later (the dog hunting scene was very dark and difficult to see, but “The Gates of Judgement”? that three something minute fight scene was unbelievable). The backgrounds were incredibly detailed and the series has a great look, managing to be extremely colorful and yet very dark. The integration of CG was also very impressive, and I’m glad to see they pulled it off so successfully since technology is a major motif in this 22nd century world. I might just be drawn to the style, but all of Amano Akira’s character designs look great (yes, even Akane-chan’s).
*jumps onto the soapbox* Episode 18, “Promises Written in Water”, came out totally derpy-looking because of scheduling issues. Even the director apologized, saying that in order to get the episode out on time, it would air incomplete. This is not just an acceptable drop in animation quality like we typically see from Gainax or Gonzo, just an honest to goodness time issue. Production on the episode will be finished in time for the home media releases and it will be just as quality as the rest of the series. *hops off the soapbox*
The score was varied, very synthy and they played around with different types of sounds to add in, but fitting with the futuristic setting and dark tone of the anime. There are some standout pieces on the OST, I’m rather fond of the main theme and a very pretty and somber piano piece reserved for the quieter moments. Psycho-Pass is guilty of playing Bach, stealing a leaf out of Evangelion’s book, but at least the high-brow pretentiousness makes more sense here. All the OPs and EDs were similarly successful, sporting beautiful animation (and a bit of foreshadowing), not to mention that many of the songs were written for the specific characters. “abnormalize” speaks to Kogami’s character, where “Namae no nai Kaibutsu” should be listened to with Makishima in mind. Also, I don’t think the fanbase will ever get tired of “cause I feeeeeeeellll” or “your never walk alonee” and neither will I.
In general, I struggle watching shows week to week because I prefer marathoning my anime and when I really get into it, I am incapable of doing anything else while waiting in between episodes (should have seen me after Ep. 19, it was baad). And I haven’t done this with any other anime of 2012, so it speaks to how stellar Psycho-Pass really was when I say it was the highlight of my week, every week, until the end. I’m going to go out and buy Proust right now. What an incredible ride.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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May 14, 2012
The premise for this show. That being said, it was pretty enjoyable. There’s something kind of really hilarious watching high schoolers Street Fighter-it-out for half priced, convenient store bento boxes. (Ew…)
From an technical standpoint it looks kind of generic. I like that the characters are all recognizable, but the animation is only okay. You can tell that most of the effort was put into the battle scenes, and even then there are short cuts. But they were good short cuts, clever effects and angles and timing made the fights appear dynamic and exciting to watch. The music was also all over the place—I remember hearing
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something resembling African tribal music as well as Italian opera—but in it’s strange goofy way, it also fit the sort of survival of the fittest, overly dramatic approach these high schoolers take to getting their discount meals.
Character-wise, our main character, Yo Sato, is that stock male character you see in harem anime—pretty average looking, sort of a weenie, not too unique or memorable; the kind where all the girls have unreasonable crushes on him for no apparent reason. Heck, even his brawler name is ‘Pervert’. He deviates from the stereotype a little bit--he gets some character development and the girl he likes also likes him back for legitimate reason.
The other members of the harem are all bento brawlers. ‘The Ice Witch’, Sen Yarizuri, is one of the strongest fighters around, very stern and detached, mostly because she doesn’t know much else aside from her survival of the fittest wolf mentality. Yo’s cousin, Ayame Shaga, is known as the ‘Beauty by the Lake’—there’s not really much to her (but she does use chopsticks in battle :D). The last is Hana Oshiroi who nicknames herself ‘The Muscle Cop.’ She was by far the most enjoyable character in the series; easily excitable and into writing yaoi erotic fiction who wins her bento by sneaking in and taking it while everybody else is brawling. There are other trope-y charcters, including the little moe girl who’s pure evil and the domineering lesbian student body president...
The show is unabashedly fanservicey. Not really my thing, but I understand why it’s there. It never really got in the way of anything in the show, so I was fine with it.
What I did like was the Darwinian theory that sort of plays in and how it does allow for some character development in our lead. He rises from dog to wolf and comes to understand that it’s not just about half priced meals, but it’s about honor and dignity and all that.
I supposed if I could sum up to someone what anime is in a 12 episode anime series, this would be the one I would recommend. It’s got the typical stereotypes, fighting, naked girls, but it was legitimately entertaining and funny and did put it’s spin on it with it’s unique premise.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 14, 2012
Highest grossing film in Japanese history, winner of an American Academy award in 2002, and it's absolutely amazing.
At it's heart, Spirited Away is a familiar story. Again, our young heroine learns to find her inner strength and comes of age after “falling down the rabbit hole” and finds herself on a liminal journey through the realm of the spirits. Again it proves Miyazaki’s talent as a director, storyteller, and visionary-- elevating a traditional narrative by just executing it perfectly.
The lead character, Chihiro, excels as a heroine because her characterization is spot on. Miyazaki wanted to make a protagonist
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who would be able to speak to ten year old girls-- a demographic which is usually not represented in the medium, since ten year old girls are no longer adorable little children, but have yet to enter what we properly think of as adolescence. It’s really nice to see a strong protagonist young girls can look up to.
In addition to the coming of age story, Miyazaki also subtly folds in the difficulty of being able to consolidate traditional Japanese spirituality with modernity and the environmental theme pokes its head up again. And rather down the rabbit hole, Chihiro finds herself in a bathhouse for the spirits, allowing for really creative and fantastic visuals (and music; Joe Hisashi here is really at his best).
It also needs to be lauded for putting Ghibli on the map in the United States. While Totoro, Kiki, and Princess Mononoke had their fans, it was Spirited Away that first received a theatrical release that a fair amount of people saw (albeit after it won the Academy Award). It caught the attention of not only anime fans, but a general audience was suddenly turned onto Miyazaki’s work. It was followed by movies like Howl, but more notably Ponyo and Arrietty which are more obvious examples of Disney’s marketing and releasing Ghibli films stateside; this film set the precedent though.
This film is the perfect combination of mythical and reality; just the right amount of romance, action, tension, and those scenes where the movie quiets down and just allows us to take in the mood. It's truly a perfect movie, and one that everybody (anime fan or not) can enjoy.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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May 14, 2012
Tales from Earthsea is adapted from a series of novels written by Ursula K. LeGuin. It was also Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro's, directorial feature debut. I'm loathe to call any Studio Ghibli film a half-baked mess but that's exactly what this film is. Miyazaki felt his son lacked the experience to direct a feature length film-- especially one as ambitious as Earthsea-- and it's a shame that he was proven right (and that it damaged the relationship between father and son). While the animation quality is on par with some of the other Ghibli movies, it just fails.
The mediums of literature
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and film are completely different; adaptation from one to the other is extremely difficult to do, and even harder to accomplish well. Earthsea apparently failed as an adaptation; the author commented that it was an entirely different story being acted out by characters that happened to share names with hers. But even taking the film out of the context of the book series, it fails as a film (I’m using this word a lot...). Despite being one of the highest grossing movies that year in Japan, it was met with mixed reactions. The movie is just incompetent. In addition to mythos spouting and plenty that goes unexplained, there's little time allotted for character development nor any insight into their motives, which is unforgivable considering Earthsea is two hours long and spends so much of its time accomplishing nothing. The movie is boring, and by the end, the conflict comes and goes, but you're left confused as to what happened in the first place. The only reason to sit down and watch this film, is to say you’ve seen them all.
Better luck next time, Goro.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 3, 2012
As a little girl, or even as a thirteen year old girl, I remember wanting to be just like Sailor Moon (specifically Sailor Jupiter). Or one of the Magic Knights (specifically Fuu). Or a Power Ranger (the Pink one of course). How cool would it be to have magical powers and be brave and strong and wear an adorable outfit and have a cuddly, kawaii animal sidekick that can only say Puuu?
Well this show is out to prove you dead wrong.
Don’t let cute, pink, little Madoka fool you; once you get over the establishing episodes, this is a full out deconstruction of the magical
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girl genre little girls grow up with. It takes every character, trope, and cliche and turns it over on its head.
To begin with, the art and the music for this show are both stunning. On the surface the show looks pretty average, and the girls’ forms with their petite bodies, rainbow hair, and sort of squished heads start looking way too cute way too quickly—but to be fair, that’s sort of the point. It looks fine most of the time. But it’s when we leave the real world dimension and fall into the underworld where our magical girls have to fight their enemies that the artistry really comes alive. It’s so hard to describe, you just have to see it.
Each new enemy manipulate’s the physics of their own dimension and creates its own world. Every witch battle presents a unique world with its own style and wonderfully surreal and symbolic images that’s either thematically representative of one of the characters, or is perhaps a cultural critique or point the show is trying to make, or just for the purpose of looking weird and beautiful.
The music was also really wonderful, with terribly fitting opening and ending themes that subtly clue us into what’s going on before the show even gets rolling, as well as a beautiful soundtrack. The score matches the mood of the show perfectly—whimsical and beautiful, and yet there’s an odd sense of foreboding when listening to that haunting choir, something that feels off. It swells in all the right places, but also knows when to back off always complimentary to the mood.
This series is only 12 episodes long, so there isn’t much to say about the plot without giving much of it away ((it’s paced nearly perfectly—there was one raspberry-colored character arc that stretched a twee too long, but it’s not much to complain about in a series this short)).
To be a magical girl sounds like a dream, but such things come at a price. Even though the chosen ones get a pretty transformation sequence, not all magical girls get along; not all immediately find they have the talent for it. Fighting demonic spirits is very dangerous life-risking business. Not every wish is worth the price paid. The series takes on a very Faustian view on the whole situation ((you can pick which version you’d prefer to go with, neither one is wholly appropriate for the direction the series turns)). And Madoka is witness to all of the disturbing consequences that follow making a contract with Kyubey as she tries to make her decision.
In many ways our titular character isn’t what we would normally expect from this sort of series. She’s not the red (or pink) leader like Hikaru or Ichigo; Madoka’s very much a blank slate and observes as all the tragedies of being a magical girl as they continue to stack and sack on top of each other. If anything, the typical leader personality is found in Sayaka (the blue one).
I like that about this show. I mean, even if I was given a pretty outfit, a sword, and the ability to shoot lightning at people, I sure as hell would have been eaten by a monster the second I became a magical girl.
As you can imagine, the series quickly spirals into something much darker and more thought provoking than Tokyo Mew Mew ever did. It forces each of the five protagonists to deal with the harsh realities of becoming a magical girl—the danger, the loneliness, the self-doubt, the fear, attempting to reconcile their fatal choice.
And that’s the conflict in this show. It’s not a final boss battle with Walpurgis Night, or even our ‘villain', but it’s the decision to receive one instantaneous wish for a lifetime of servitude. Which wishes are worth that, if there are any at all? It renders the girls incapable of reconciling their normal lives with their magical ones. It drives some to insanity and others to despair. The show isn’t about magical powers and fighting witches, it’s about the physical, psychological, and emotional consequences that would stem from being made a magical girl in any world that even resembles reality.
Lastly, most of the weapons these girls are cool. One literally pulls rifles out of her skirt and then finishes her enemies off with a rocket launcher thing. I’ve never even seen that in a shounen series let alone a magical girl show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 3, 2012
People aren't going to like what I'm about to say, but I went into this series with my brain turned off, and trust me, you have to turn your brain off. This show is ridiculous. I can’t even begin to explain the things this show does and gets away with in order to move the plot forward, and still expect you to take it seriously. And this starts early on too. I watched an animal lliterally rip his tail off in order to satiate the pilots' hunger and provide them with the energy they needed to pilot their respective mechas… and it worked. By the
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end of the series, the mechs grow and learn new attacks like Digimon, tromp all over the laws of physics, biology, time, and space, what have you, and you’re supposed to nod and say “yeah, seems about right.”
Technically, Gurren Lagann has a lot of great things going for it. The music is one of the most excellent aspects of the show. Several of the songs were written specifically for Gurren Lagann and they’re very catchy ((row! row! fight da powah!)). Design-wise, all the characters, the robots, and the villains are are varied and extremely colorful. I really, really like the visual style in the series. Very cartoon-y and over the top, but dynamic just like the show itself. In my opinion, most of the mechas look pretty silly, but I’ve got to give it credit; too many times mechs, Gundams, and Transformers, all look the same; here they’re all very original, and instantly recognizable, even if it looks like they’re not even remotely physically and mechanically sound.
And while the robot fights are cool and all, and despite being utterly ridiculous, the series about so much more than that. At the forefront is the lead, Simon; originally shy, annoying, and afraid, Simon, with the help of his stronger and more competent friends, learns to man up and develops into quite the protagonist. His big bro, Kamina, serves as the brave, brash, and berating voice of inspiration—one part cool, one part sincerity, and three parts complete lunacy. All of us at one point or another have felt scared, or unworthy, or hopeless; when Kamina steps in and literally slaps the sense into Simon telling him to believe in himself, it’s as if he’s speaking directly to all of us. It’s Kamina that first unlocks the hidden potential in Simon. Yeah, he’s kind of a weenie in the beginning of the series, but he’s supposed to be. The point of the show is to watch how far he develops as a character from beginning to end as a symbol of the potential of the human soul and spirit to achieve anything.
So where Gurren Lagann manages to hook you, despite being completely implausible and repetitive, is with your emotions. Think you don’t care about this side character whose name you probably don’t remember? Guess what—they make you care. Sure, we watch for the cool robot battles and to see how the heroes will evolve in order to triumph, but like I said, it really appeals at times when Kamina speaks to us, when Yoko makes a new life for herself, or when Simon mans up and kicks ass. The show directly appeals to every person’s belief that anything is possible—their dreams, their inspirations—and the deepest, best, most whole-heartedly good center of human nature. Deep down, everybody wants to believe that they are capable of doing anything; Gurren Lagann began with a whiny nobody, and we got to watch him become a true, strong willed, self-sacrificing, hero.
But that’s the thing about this show—everything is developed exponentially—the characters, the plot, the mechs, the deus ex machina, and the true extent of human capabilities. In the same way the spirals around Simon’s dream begin small and tight, and expand outward, they symbolize the way every element of the series progresses. Simon began as a drill digger, and every arc of the story, he becomes something greater than he ever imagined he could be in the previous one. Unfortunately, he’s one of very few characters that get this treatment (the pig-mole is another one), but it doesn’t mean that their actions and emotions don’t strike us as genuine and again, put us right behind the team as they go in for their next epic battle.
It also pushes the plot as far over the top as it can go; the point is that we are capable of doing the impossible—it only seems ridiculous when our rational brains place these limitations on ourselves. That’s why you have to turn it off. Going into the show, watching Simon and Kamina explore the surface world for the first time and fight for the right to win it back, I had no idea I’d end up where I did, and how emotional I would be when I got there.
It might sound as if the show is being manipulative, and it might be, but I never felt animosity toward it for making me care. You can just feel that everyone putting all their love and passion into this show really believes in their message—that we are capable of anything. And you can tell that they truly admire and wanted to pay homage to the classic mech shows they drew so much inspiration from. For those of us who grew up with 90’s mecha anime, it’s fun to catch the tips of the hat the series gives to the old Gundams or Evangelion ((I squee’d a little when I caught one straight from the last episode of G Gundam)).
I said you have to go into this show with your brain turned off, and that’s mostly true. That being said, despite trampling all over science, and without giving anything away, along with human potential, there are overlaying themes tying in with “Biology” and Darwinian evolution. It was rather enjoyable for me as a pre-med nerd to catch the bio-related nuances, and I’d rewatch the series for no other reason than to find them all.
My only real issue with this show was the pacing. The series was 27 episodes long and roughly broken up into four story arcs (6-7 episodes long). This means it moves at breakneck speed, especially as the story becomes ungodly complicated. Given, if you look at the genre for the series, its a mecha action adventure, it’s also a drama, a romance, a comedy, it has a lot to fit in in its short series length. Again, it’s not a huge deal as I don’t like it when my anime run forever, and it also adds to the madness and greatness of the show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 3, 2012
The Japanese always seem to have words for things we wish there was an English equivalent to. For example, the Japanese word Bakku-shan is one you would use when you see a woman from behind and go “damnn gurrll!” until she turns around and you’re like “oh…nevermind.” Awkward.
A hikikomori is one of these words. It literally translates to “pulling inward”, but it is used to describe those members of society who choose to withdraw from it; they are reclusive to the extreme due to whatever internal personal conflict or fear left to grow unchecked inside of them.
This evil organization the N.H.K. create hikikamori for
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the purpose of making the normal yet still average members of society feel better about themselves by giving them someone lower than themselves to look down upon. Pushed to the lowest of the low, these lonely recluses find themselves at the end of the food chain, like those fish that suck the bottoms and sides of the tank by themselves. The majority of the N.H.K.’s work is done via the media and anime, causing helpless innocents to spiral into hardcore otaku and other pathetic derivatives of human beings. There are several agents that carry out their work—M.I.B. type men, celebrities, or even blue haired moe cat girls.
Sato is useless, self-destructive, and completely caught up inside is own head. He dives head first into absurd situations without any thought of consequences, he’s unreliable and lacks motivation, he’s not particularly good at anything, and only causes trouble for himself and everybody else around him—including his lonely otaku neighbor, Yamazaki who Sato suspects has fallen into the conspiracy’s trap, and his ex, Hitomi, who also believes her whole life is run by men in black hiding in the shadows. More importantly, on the chance day he decides to open his door, he meets a strange high school girl, Misaki Nakahara. She shows up claiming she’s going to ‘fix’ him—but it turns out she might need him as much as he needs her.
I liked both the animation and the music for this show ((the intro is the most forgettable song I’ve heard in an anime, but the 1st ending is amazing—the images and the lyrics fit these misanthropes to a tee)). The animation can get lazy in parts, but for a slice of life anime, there was a lot more love and effort put into the realistic often gritty looking backgrounds and more important ‘action’ or emotional sequences.
This show is definitely not for everybody. There’s a lot of dark and crude humor (what do you think 20-something year old guys do in their apartments all day?), but I never found it to be inappropriate or too much. Given my limited introduction to anime in the 90’s ((which was mostly shounen fighting fanfare)), I forget where Japan draws all of their humor from. Nearly all of the series I’ve watched since my revival slip in fanservice in in some form—even the series as innocent looking as Chobits. Where I find it works best is when it makes sense in context, and is not too raunchy. Throwing a pair of high school girls into the shower doesn’t do it for me, but a hormonally driven adolescent accidentally (or not) fantasizing about every girl he knows works when it serves to give insight into his character and the development of their relationship and not just for the sake of creating a spineless, perverted weenie meant to represent the ‘every man’.
It also helps when the erotic fantasy is slipped right next to a scene where the protagonist is also fantasizing about talking chibi floating flan desserts multiplying like amoebas.
What makes Welcome to the N.H.K. stand out from other slice of life anime, is that the focus is on these four obscure, unhappy people and their place (or rather lack of place) in society. The relationships are natural and intriguing—but they make us uncomfortable. Sato does nothing with his life—he offers nothing, and in turn, society has no reason to accept him. Any attempt he makes at breaking from his unhappy cycle is ultimately foiled by the defects in his own character—laziness, immaturity, pure insanity… We also know this isn’t going to work when the attempts to break out involve trying to make money on an MMORPG or trying to escape reality by vacationing on a deserted island.
What’s nice is that the show neither condones nor condemns our characters for their lifestyle. The show doesn’t judge Sato for sitting in his apartment and playing hentai games all night; we just get to watch him do it and see what happens ((oh dear…)).
So why watch this show at all? There’s interesting social commentary in here about being unemployed and sponging off your parents, having unconventional interests, a bit about the suicide issues in Japan, and what people are capable of when they’re pushed to their limits.
What I’m trying to get at, is that Welcome to the N.H.K. feels very real. Sato is not a bishie with navy hair and a charming smile—he’s average. He’s actually below average. All of the character designs, while not uninspired, are muted to reflect real, palatable people. It allows for their unique unhappy personalities, not their rainbow hair, to carry them through the series.
So Sato should be unlikable, Yamazaki is creepy, and Hitomi is miserable, and yet there’s something about these characters that can find some chord to strike in everyone. Who hasn’t wanted to stay in their house all day instead of having of having to go outside? Who’s never felt once as if the entire world were collapsing around them; or as if they didn’t fit in? The characters drag us into empathizing with them whether we like it or not; they’re endearing because the desire to act and change is there, but motivation or bravery isn’t. I challenge anyone to tell me they’ve never felt that way.
Because sometimes these issues hit a little too close to home, Welcome to the N.H.K. is uncomfortable and refreshing for it. It’s also inspiring for it. There’s no idyllic happy ending for any of the characters, but it’s not unsatisfying either—it’s life.
If I had a nit to pick with the series, it would have to be with the romance. The relationship between Sato and Misaki starts off quirky and develops pretty nicely for a while and at a good pace. And then somewhere in the middle, it kind of halts. We get moments of feelings that pass between the two, but it’s often one sided and put aside for the other issues and themes the show wants to explore. However, the ending and resolution between these two is so good you can’t even be mad about it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 3, 2012
Chances are, even if you don’t know what anime is, you’ve seen Chii before. You’ve seen the persocom ‘ears’ before. They’re iconic.
Despite being a cloyingly cute, dusted-with-powdered-sugar and raspberries on the side slice of life anime, Chobits actually has much more to offer than what the plot summary would initially have you believe.
Technically, Chobits is a good looking show, not great. Slice of life anime often gets the shaft in terms of animation quality, and here it’s very basic. The character models are equally simple and the colors are very sweet, muted pastels; it’s a very cute anime to look at. CLAMP’s unique art style
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actually translates from manga to anime pretty seamlessly—something that sometimes works well, like in Rayearth, and sometimes horribly fails, like in xxxHolic. The music is equally precious and poppy, unbelievably catchy, and a perfect fit for the series.
The first two thirds of the show are all kinds of adorable, where Hideki and Chii find themselves in different every day situations—a day at the beach, looking for a job, cramming for a final. Unlike most persocoms, Chii doesn’t understand humans or their world, and it’s endearing watching Hideki attempt to teach her how to play an MMORPG as well as impress upon her the importance of wearing underwear.
Chobits was good because it finds itself in every position to degenerate into a raunchy ecchi fest—after all, we’re dealing with a 19 year old male and his beautiful, innocent, eager to please computer—but it never does.
Given our magical girlfriend and harem genres, we should expect to get the typical character tropes we’re used to seeing: (a) totally average, sexually aroused teenage guy at the harem’s center, (b) innocent, eager to please beautiful girl who is in love with the average guy for seemingly no good reason, and (c) other varied members of the harem, some sweet, some feisty, but all hot and all pining after character (a) also for seemingly no good reason.
What CLAMP does is smartly adjust these tropes to make it legitimately work in the story they tell, and not simply pandering for the sake of entertainment. Is Hideki a pervert? Of course he is; he’s a 19 year old male. But at heart, Hideki is really an old fashioned, good guy. Yeah he enters a conversation with any female who will engage him, thinking ’good things’ will come by the end of it, but then he usually finds himself in the position of the guy who sits there listening to her feelings, sincerely offering advice, and talking through the problem. Hideki is also in a perfect position to take advantage of Chii. He is after all her master, and she doesn’t have the human sense or even conventional persocom sense to know any better. The difference is, Hideki ultimately views Chii as a person, not a machine, and no matter how hot and bothered she makes him, he could never bring himself to treat a someone he views as a woman that way.
Hideki’s ‘harem’ is similarly adjusted. While he may be lusting after them, his landlady, his cram school professor, and his cute coworker all lead their own lives and have their own set of problems to be dealing with, instead of blindly lusting after a guy just because he happens to be the protagonist. The three of them also actually serve purpose; they all directly tie into the plot and persocoms in some way and contribute to the overall discussion Chobits engages in.
And then we have Chii, the innocent girl ready to do whatever Hideki asks of her. But here, it actually makes sense. There’s a reason for Chii to be this sweet and naive; she’s a robot, and one who’s memories were completely wiped from her hard drive. Upon waking up again, Hideki is the only person she has; why wouldn’t Chii like Hideki? He’s kind to her. He takes the time to find her a job and buy her books, when he really should be studying. She should want to reciprocate his kindness. And he other thing that makes us invested in her, is that we, like Hideki, are left to wonder what makes Chii different from other persocoms; who she really is, what she was like before Hideki found her, and why she was abandoned on the side of the street.
So characters established, in the first two thirds, among all the cutness and the antics, there’s foreshadowing of an odd sense of foreboding about Chii, and not even she knows what it is or what it means.
But it’s the shift in focus for the last third of the series that really made it stand out. Throughout, Hideki has attempted to fall in love with all of the members of his ‘harem’. However, at the end of the day, Hideki always finds himself happiest and most comfortable when he’s with Chii. But how can he in good confidence fall in love with a cold yet captivating machine?
The anime explores the relationship between the persocoms and human beings, and then uses this to explore relationships in general. The issues they cover are complex as these humanoid supercomputers have become fully integrated into daily life. Whether we’re referring to persocoms or people, it gets into themes of perfection, age and economic differences in relationships, and societal norms and stigmas that force people both together and apart. What is it about human beings that separate them from these machines? Or can you program a person’s physical appearance and personality traits into a computer, and synthesize a replacement?
I’ve read before that CLAMP are notorious for exploring and manipulating the concept of love from all angles; Chobits does just that.
Are these computers are really capable of emotion, or are their owners are just projecting onto their already human like forms—and even if they are, who’s to say it isn’t okay? A lot of stories try to convey the message of true love having no boundaries, but Chobits pushes the idea in a different way that is still translatable to the world we live in now. Decades ago, interracial relationships were considered blasphemous and marriage between different ‘racial’ groups was illegal; today, gender and sexuality identity is under the same debate. Who’s to say that decades from now, the notion of love between humans and humanoid robots won’t parallel these same issues we see today?
Overall, there’s good reason to strongly recommend this series. It’s really done a lot to class up our typical magical girl harem style fanfare. Chobits is a great classic because it got us to really think about a simple love story between a hormonally stressed out boy and his computer.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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