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Feb 25, 2016
Overview:
Welcome to the NHK is one of the most beloved and critically praised anime NOT named Neon Genesis Evangelion. It actually shares quite a bit with Evangelion both for better and for worse as I will explain in my review. Both are series that can be described as essential viewing, thought provoking, meritorious, but also quite frustrating to watch at times.
Story and characters:
contains some Spoilers!!!
The main character is Sato, who lives alone in an apartment that his parents pay for. He is unemployed and has no drive to try find a job or interact with the outside world at all. He represents the Japanese
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cultural phenomenon of Hikikomori that you have probably seen referenced in other anime. There are also many people in their twenties in the US that are unemployed and live with their parents, but that isn't quite the same as Japan's hikikomori. American "Millennials" living at home still tend to socialize, drive, and have friends that they often visit. Hikikomori tend to combine their unemployment and dependency with an extreme social phobia and agoraphobia. Part of this is likely due to the feeling of deep shame and fear of being judged that their American counterparts largely lack. Americans will simply dismiss unemployment as the result of a bad jobs market, but to Japanese it is a complete disgrace to both the individual and their families.
Sato's life changes when he meets an unusual girl named Misaki, who becomes obsessed with curing Sato of his condition. She forces him to meet with her in the park, where she reads passages from Freud and Jung. Misaki forces Sato into signing a contract and taking up her "therapy program". However, she doesn't know that he is going to be an unusually difficult case. In addition to being a hikikomori, Sato is also a paranoid schizophrenic that suffers from delusions of persecution. He believes in a shadowy organization called the NHK, that is obsessed with trying to keep him a hikikomori. In order to convince Misaki that he has his life together, Sato teams up with his otaku neighbor Kaoru to try create an "eroge" or erotic video game. Sato briefly tries attending a video game design college alongside Kaoru, but he has another episode of paranoia and can't bring himself to return.
Another sub-plot is started when Sato ends up meeting his old high school crush, Hitomi. Sato was in his school's literature club with Hitomi, where they were literally the only members. I apologize for that terrible pun! They even celebrated their upcoming graduation by having sex on the teacher's desk one school day afternoon because NO ONE in that school ever went near the literature club apparently. Hitomi has become a successful government employee since graduation, but is frustrated because she often runs into office bureaucracy that stops her from implementing any of the reforms she wishes to make. Hitomi also seems to suffer from clinical depression, for which she takes many pills off label. Despite the fact that Sato looks rather disheveled and has become a complete failure... and despite the fact that she has a very successful boyfriend, Hitomi still flirts with Sato and seems to still have feelings for him. This predictably leads to a love triangle and unpredictably leads to Sato accidentally joining a suicide cult with Hitomi. However, since this is a comedy drama, they are prevented from killing themselves and Sato continues in his struggles. As the series goes on, we also learn about Misaki's background, Kaoru's background, and see the development of the relation between Sato and Misaki.
Art and Music:
The music isn't amazing in my opinion, but certainly isn't bad either. The art is overall excellent and combines great character models with impressive backgrounds including Sato's many schizophrenic hallucinations. This is a top dollar production, so you would expect it to look phenomenal and for the most part it does.
Issues:
1.
The first real issue I had with this series is that it is advertised as a drama/comedy. However, the comedy tends to fall flat FAR more often than not. Take for example the sub-plot about making an eroge. This sounds funny on paper and maybe it was funnier in the original novel, but it didn't get a lot of laughs from me in the anime adaptation. I'm aware that NHK was always intended to be a drama first and a comedy second, but when the likes of "Lost in Translation" and "Sideways" are SO much funnier than your comedy, why even bother having a comedy element at all?
2.
I applaud NHK for tackling the uncomfortable issue of hikikomori with the grace and dignity that it did, without just harshly dismissing them as losers and basement dwellers. However, I think it tried to tackle too many issues at once. Why must Sato in addition to being a hikikomori ALSO be a schizophrenic, Kaoru a Lolicon, and Misaki suffer from borderline personality disorder? Why must EVERY character in the entire series attempt suicide at least once?! Apparently the anime actually toned down the characters from the original novel in order to make them more believable and focus primarily on the hikikomori issue, instead of every mental issue known to mankind. However, if that is the case then why leave in all the mental issues?! Sato's schizophrenia and alcoholism that were very serious issues in the original novel are basically reduced to a joke in the anime! Many other anime are guilty of this crime of shoehorning in extra issues, like Elfen Lied and its random pedophilia abuse sub-plot, but even Elfen Lied didn't leave it in only to reduce it to a fucking joke! That really left a bad taste in my mouth, which is a shame because NHK can be brilliant at other moments.
3.
The last major issue with NHK is pacing and struggling to adapt what worked in the novel into a TV series. During the story about the suicide cult, we spend at least 3 LONG, hard to watch episodes in which we already know that Sato and Hitomi aren't going to kill themselves halfway through a dramedy. Does the series reward us for trudging through those 1.5 hours? Does Sato have a moment of character growth and stop the suicide pact? Nope. Some random guy that we didn't see before and never see again ends up stopping it. Hitomi is then saved by her boyfriend who arrives just in the nick of time and our hero tries to kill himself because Hitomi is going to go back to her boyfriend. I understand that Sato is a protagonist with serious issues and isn't supposed to always be likeable, but rather a flawed individual struggling to overcome the obstacles in his life. However, that long and draining arc only to be rewarded with one of the most selfish and loathsome character moments was frustrating beyond belief! This was all done to show character growth and increase the drama when Sato stops yet ANOTHER character from committing suicide. However, that doesn't occur for another 13 episodes or roughly 6 fucking hours, when I was so frustrated with Sato that it wasn't as moving as it should have been. You generally can't in a TV or film adaptation spend hours and hours making the audience dislike a character and then give him a faceturn in the last second and expect everyone to instantly love him and start cheering. That's terrible pacing! NHK is a series that often seems to drag its heels and can be VERY slow and exasperating. A novel can afford to be slower, dryer, and more philosophical because the reader controls the rate of reading. If I am stressed and in a foul mood, I don't have to read 100 pages of the slower parts of the novel. If I have the flu and I reach the part in War and Peace where Natasha is trying on dresses for 10 pages, I can put the book down and read later. A show comes in 30 minute chunks and people want to watch a show in as few sittings as possible. This is a 10 hour anime that probably only needed to be 4 hours long to tell the actually relevant, important story and had 5 hours about as fun as getting your toenails torn off. If I wasn't a completionist, I would have dropped this series like a bad habit halfway through.
Overall:
If you manage to grind it out and watch the entire series, the result is pretty good. This is still THE anime that did the best job of tackling the hikikomori issue and has some powerful episodes like episode 14. I can easily see why this series has recieved the praise that it has and I would say that it DOES deserve that praise overall. However, I wish that more people would address some of the issues the series has and give more of a warning that this is NOT light, enjoyable viewing. Even if you love this series, it is a disservice to future viewers to just praise it and give no warnings about how difficult to watch it often is. I went in expecting The Producers and I got Schindler's List. Those are both good movies, but if you walk into an emotionally draining and difficult to watch film with no warning, it feels like getting punched in the face! While I would recommend this anime, I don't do so lightly. This is a series to watch if you have plenty of time and are looking for deep reflection, not a watch with friends and drink beer kind of show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 14, 2016
Overview:
It is time I take a short reprieve from reviewing actually acclaimed anime and go back to my little niche on this site, reviewing old CRAP!
Background:
The first Pokemon movie brings to the big screen what was easily the most interesting sub-plot of the 1st generation of pokemon games, the creation of Mewtwo. The game and anime adaptation leave many hints and clues that foreshadow events in the movie and built up anticipation. In the original games on Cinnebar Island, there is a building that is filled with documents about attempts to clone Mew and create an all powerful Pokemon for Team Rocket. Throughout the game,
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you run into Team Rocket committing various crimes that only make sense when you consider that their goal was controlling Mewtwo. The reason that Team Rocket invaded Silph Co? They wanted the master ball to capture Mewtwo. The reason they invaded Lavender Town and want a pare of goggles that allow people to see ghosts? They want to capture ghost pokemon, because ghosts are effective against psychic types like Mewtwo. When you finally capture Mewtwo in gen 1, he was the most unfairly OP Pokemon in any game of the franchise! Since Psychic type was already unfairly strong in gen 1, Mewtwo was basically unstoppable with the move Psychic able to 1-shot everything in the game! The anime even shows a preview of Mewtwo by having him beat the living shit out of Gary Motherfucking Oak! This is the guy that won 10 gym badges in Kanto and at age 10 had a team of cheerleaders and a corvette! By having Gary basically job to Mewtwo, this built up his status to insane levels of hype in the eyes of young anime fans, myself included!
Story:
SPOILERS!
I must first mention that there is a huge difference between the Japanese version and the English version brought to you by our friends at 4kids! The Japanese version features a 10 minute origin for Mewtwo that not only establishes his motives much more clearly, but even sets up the seemingly random and bullshit Pokemon crying scene at the movie's end. Not only that, but from an objective and purely artistic viewpoint...it is by FAR the best part of the entire movie! How did 4kids handle the scene? The motherfuckers cut it from the movie! They even dubbed it into English and had it all ready to go, but they left it out because...I guess because it was sad? I honestly have no idea.
A scientist is working for Team Rocket's leader Geovanni and attempting to create a more powerful clone of Mew that will be strong enough to conquer the world. However, the scientist is only interested in using some of the money Team Rocket has given him to try bring his deceased daughter back to life. As an inside reference to Japanese audiences, the scientist is drawn to look exactly like the scientist Tenma from the original Astro Boy, who was also trying to resurrect his child with science. Mewtwo communicates telepathically with the comatose clone girl and she tells him that he can talk unlike other Pokemon and stands equal with humans. She herself doesn't know if she is a human or Pokemon, but dismisses this question as ultimately irrelevant because all life is precious. However, the girl's body is unstable and she begins to dissolve. This is emotionally devastating to Mewtwo, but her last words to Mewtwo are begging him not to cry and instead to cherish life while he has it. She also mentions the power within the tears of Pokemon, since they are special creatures. The girl then tragically dies along with all the other attempts at making clone Pokemon, leaving Mewtwo completely isolated and filled with a deep sadness and loneliness.
Now to begin the story where the English version actually starts. Mewtwo is born in a lab and is disgusted that humans are treating him as a mere lab rat and experiment despite his intelligence being above theirs. Mewtwo kills all of the scientists in a rage, but then meets Geovanni, who initially offers a partnership and insinuates that he will treat Mewtwo as an equal. However, after showing a training montage of Mewtwo's time at Geovanni's Gym, it becomes apparant to Mewtwo that Geovanni isn't any better than the scientists. Mewtwo decides to blow up the gym and return to the island where he was born. Once back on the island, Mewtwo develops a nefarious scheme to capture the world's strongest pokemon and create an army of clones. Then he will wipe out all human life along with any pokemon that don't bow before him as the God of all Pokemon. The movie then cuts to our favorite complete loser Ash, who wins a trainer battle by 1-hitting a Donphan with a grass move and using a thunderbolt to defeat ground types. Yet after almost 20 years he can't even make it to the finals of the League Championship, let alone win! Ash receives an invitation by Mewtwo to go to his island since Mewtwo considered Ash a strong enough trainer to want clones of his pokemon. Wait, I thought Mewtwo was supposed to be intelligent! Without any hesitation and despite an ominous storm brewing, our idiot hero sets out to the island with Team Rocket, whom OF COURSE he somehow fails to recognize! Mewtwo makes clones of all the pokemanz and these clones battle against their natural born counterparts. Ash of course fails to stop Mewtwo, but after getting killed trying to stop Mewtwo from fighting Mew, the pokemon start crying and this brings Ash back to life. Mewtwo then realizes the folly of his ways and buggers off! Of course, Mewtwo decided to erase everyone's memories so that Ash will stay ignorant and never learn anything...EVER! The End
Art:
Although anime movies always look much better than series and especially longrunning series, I have to give the Pokemon Movie some credit. For 1998, this actually looked really good and even today this movie looks awesome compared to many anime airing in 2016. The entire movie looks WAY better than any episode of Dragonball Super!
Music:
Once again, there is a big difference between the Japanese OST and the 4kids version. Honestly, neither are amazing, but not bad either. The music definitely takes a backseat to the animation in this movie.
Overall:
Considering this was a children's movie based on a videogame and a rather mediocre anime, it actually wasn't too bad! The animation is excellent relative to other anime of its time, the battles are the most brutally intense of anything Pokemon has ever done, and the original Japanese version featured heart touching scene was actually sort of....good! The story borrows heavily from Frankenstein and although any level of profundity is blatantly stolen from there, that still isn't too bad considering this is Pokemon we are dealing with! I wish Digimon had the brains to borrow from classic Victorian Gothic literature instead of just being shit! If you are Pokemon fan, but perhaps grew up with Gen 4 and aren't old enough to remember this movie, I would actually recommend checking it out. You could certainly do worse.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 21, 2015
Although one of the most influential and important superheroes of all time, Superman kind of sucks as a character. He has a bland personality. He's OP as fuck and defeats virtually any threats with little difficulty. He is a moral paragon and for over 80 years has fought for good and punished evil in a Manichean and childish style. This offers his character very little in terms of internal conflict or psychological development. He has no weaknesses to overcome, no need to improve, and never faces challenges that make the reader feel worried that he could possibly lose. Even IF he somehow loses once every
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40 years, the writers will create some fucking bullshit like a "healing coma" to explain that he didn't really lose.
What if you took a HUGE animation budget and gave it to an anime almost solely devoted to bashing Superman? You would get One Punch Man! If you are a true weaboo and have no familiarity with American comics like Superman...just imagine if Inferno Cop had a lovechild with Dr. Slump and that child had an ungodly high production budget. That's basically what this is.
Plot:
The eponymous One Punch Man is an incredibly lame and OP costumed hero who effortlessly defeats random opponents on a daily basis. These fights almost always result in absurdly high casualties and destruction, but this is just hand-waved and forgotten, much like the movie Man of Steel. One Punch Man is quickly joined by a spoof of Iron Man and fights a spoof of The Rhino from Spiderman, who randomly transforms into Eva Unit 1 for...reasons. This is all in just the first few episodes! OPM even jumps the shark by episode 3 or 4 and references the MUDA MUDA MUDA meme from JoJo. I just pray they have the restraint to NOT make a John Cena joke! OPM basically has no plot, but when you are a spoof series that doesn't take itself seriously, you really don't need a plot. Did Apocalypse Zero have a plot? No. It just made fun of Hokuto no Ken, Super Sentai, and Kamen Rider. That's it!
Humor:
I mentioned previously that OPM has a lot of superhero spoofing and geek referential humor, but that doesn't really capture the full picture. OPM has that style of REALLY stupid and immature humor that is entirely self-aware and revels in its own stupidity. I mentioned earlier the likes of Inferno Cop and Dr. Slump, which you should definitely check out if you enjoyed OPM. However, OPM has its own distinct tastes. It isn't quite as stoner centered in its comedy as Inferno Cop, which basically just wanted to be the anime version of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. While OPM shares its 4th wall breaking, playful stupidity, and even its strong hatred of Superman with Dr. Slump, it isn't as pun filled and there isn't as much sex humor. This is a somewhat unique brand of stupidity that you simply have to assess for yourself.
Art:
What is the main thing that makes One Punch Man different from all the other shows I've compared it to? One Punch Man is animated by Studio Madhouse and they are actually using their full efforts to make this silly spoof as aesthetically pleasing as possible! The animation is fluid, the character models look funny, the blood is heavily stylized, yet done in a way that instantly invokes laughter. Visually, OPM is actually pretty damn good!
Overall:
OPM is the most hyped anime of this year by FAR. Is it actually as good as everyone is saying? No it isn't, but at least it IS pretty funny and enjoyable. Considering the hype train was fueled by the same anime threads that backed the likes of Nichijou and Food Wars, this was actually above expectations. I can say I honestly laughed quite a few times and enjoyed myself. By some miracle, this isn't one of the plethora of absurdly overhyped anime out there with a fandom of hipster douchebags who like it "ironically". I'm looking at you Stardust Crusaders! If you haven't seen One Punch Man, I would definitely recommend checking it out!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 7, 2015
Overview:
It is somewhat difficult to review a show like Monster Musume, because it isn't just “run of the mill” bad, but rather mystifyingly bad. This is an echhi harem anime that decided to change 1 basic element of the formula and make all of the girls "monster girls". This is a series where ecchi lovers get to try masturbate to a snake girl, Quelaag from Dark Souls, a centaur, and MANY others. Since one of the MAIN points of a harem series is audience wish fulfillment and wank material, the girls are always highly attractive and appealing. This series completely torpedoes that goal unless it
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was made for about 25 people on deviantart. So it must be a clever subversion of the harem genre and a biting satire right?...right?
Plot and characters:
The government decides to randomly reveal that mystical creatures have always existed, but had been kept a secret since the middle ages and people simply forgot that they were real. Many monster girls travel to Japan allegedly to study Japanese culture, but actually many are looking for a human to mate with. The Japanese government heavily frowns on these "interracial relations" and even founded a government department to prevent them from happening. Our male lead is an average guy named Kuruso that received a monster exchange girl (snake body with human torso) as a mistake. He is very kind to the snake girl Miia and even defends her honor from some random xenophobes by beating the living shit out of them! Then the series quickly goes further downhill because more and more monster girls join and the series becomes extremely predictable and generic. During the first few episodes, you have lines like, “Japanese citizens don’t seem to actually like us foreigners, but they are usually polite because it is expected”. This is one of the things that leads me to believe that initially the writer actually wanted to use comedic satire to address xenophobia in Japan. However, there was either executive interference or his train of thought simply got derailed. Monster Musume almost immediately surrenders on any attempt to make a product with any value or purpose whatsoever. It just trudges along the tired and worn out path of harem clichés until it reaches an arbitrary point and just stops.
Art:
The art is fairly decent, but unsurprisingly it is nothing amazing. This is yet another giant tits anime that tries to milk money out of the Japanese buyers by releasing an “uncut” DVD, which is the EXACT same footage with a couple nipple shots added in! This has become a horrible new trend in anime similar to excessive DLC in videogames. If the entire purpose is to show tits, then just show tits! Don’t expect buyers to fork over extra money just to see your poorly drawn boobs!!!
Sound:
Monster Musume has a sickeningly sweet and rather obnoxious soundtrack that I couldn’t recommend.
Overall:
Maybe I am just being overly optimistic, but I feel like somewhere in this pile of shit, there was an idea for a decent satire or perhaps a parody/deconstruction that could have at least been halfway decent. However, those seeds were planted in toxic waste and obviously had ZERO chance to bloom into anything worth looking at. At least I almost laughed a couple times, so I have seen FAR worse!
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Oct 31, 2015
Overview:
It's nearing midnight on Halloween, and I just finished watching one of the most terrifying horror anime ever made! An anime that will make grown men shit their pants in terror! This is an anime that only REAL men can stomach sitting through! This is the Eldritch Abomination that is...Popo -tan!
Background:
Firstly, the word Popo-tan is not a reference to Mr. Popo and his politically incorrect tan. Popo-tan is a nonsense word that in this series means dandelion, although the actual Japanese word for dandelion is "tanpopo". Basically, it is named that because Popo-tan hates you!
Popo-tan was based on an explicit hentai game of the same
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name. The game had virtually no plot whatsoever and just involved guiding a guy through various romances to unlock heavily pixelated sex scenes. I've never played the game and am just summarizing from the Wikipedia article because firstly, even I have standards, and secondly, the game is actually illegal to own in the US! This is because the main character is an 18 year old, high school graduate and you can have sex with a 12 year old girl!!! In fact, the 12 year old girl has the most sex endings of any character in the game, so that was the choice the game designers clearly wanted the player to make! HOW did this ever get an anime adaptation!!?
The entire reason Popo-tan got an anime adaptation was because the character designs were deemed "very cute" and highly marketable. However, the plot of the game obviously had to go and the anime adaptation has NOTHING to do with the original game in terms of plot or characters besides the characters' designs! So did they create a good plot for the anime? HELL NO!
Plot:
The plot is that there is a mansion that travels through time and dimensions. The mansion is inhabited by 3 obnoxious sisters and their robot maid. Now you would think that if I traveled back to 1992 and spent 1 month there with my current body, then traveled to 1994 and spent one month there, that chronologically my body would be 2 months older. However, the girls are all seemingly immortal and have been hopping back and forth across time and dimensions for hundreds if not thousands of years. They are also telepathic and can communicate with all lifeforms including plants! I guess they're supposed to be Time Lords!? Did I mention their mansion is bigger on the inside? I guess the anime was banking on the British not being as lawsuit happy as Americans are!
In the first episode, a 12 year old boy with a camera decides to just walk into the mysterious mansion in order to try get a picture of a ghost. He ends up bumping into one of the girls coming out of the shower and taking a picture of her naked before she trips and smothers him with her absurdly huge breasts. The sisters befriend the young boy and help him take some fake ghost pictures to impress his friends. However, just as he begins to get close to the 3 sisters, their mansion disappears and leaves him wondering if they really were ghosts after all.
The next episode and each new episode takes place in a different time and place, but the series NEVER tells you what time and what place! Judging by the fashion and technology, they all seem to be a similar time in modern Japan, but perhaps they are alternate dimensions. The series never explains because Popo-tan HATES you! The backstory of the 3 sisters and how they found the mansion is never explained. The story of the mansion and how it got its powers is never explained. Why they have a robot maid is never explained! NOTHING in this fucking series is ever explained!!!
Art:
The art is mediocre to average for the series' release date. Popo-tan is an ecchi series, so of course it tries to show a LOT of nudity, including lots of underage nudity that hopefully creeps the viewers out. However, despite their large amount of screen time, zero attempt is placed into giving Ai's massive boobs any realistic sag or movement or any real detail whatsoever. The fact that they have nipples and not black bars is I guess the best this series has to offer.
Sound:
The anime soundtrack is annoying, but ultimately forgettable. The original hentai on the other hand, has a REALLY famous opening called "Caramelldansen" that became a widespread internet meme after someone posted it to the Japanese website Niconico. That innocent meme that even Disney referenced in one of their cartoons...actually came from an illegal loli game! I think I just died a little inside.
Overall:
I have to agree with one of my favorite anime critics, Bennett the Sage, when he said "Bad should be an acronym for: Boring, Annoying, Dumb." Those 3 words are exactly the right way to sum up Popo-tan. I mentioned previously that Popo-tan hates you, but hate is an emotion that still has a wide spectrum. On this hate spectrum I would place Popo-tan's feelings for the audience as greater than Freeza's hatred of the Saiyans in DBZ, slightly greater than Zbigniew Brzezinski's hatred of Russians, and slightly less than Hitler's hatred of Jews. That's a level of hatred that should keep all but the most batshit insane viewers from sitting through this pile of shit!
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Oct 19, 2015
Overview:
Flowers of Evil is a coming of age story that borrows its title from the very famous volume of poems by Charles Baudelaire. This was based on a successful manga and directed by the same guy that did Mushishi. These elements seem like they would combine to make an absolute masterpiece of universal acclaim...unfortunately that isn't quite what happened.
Production:
When the original mangaka, Shuzo Oshimi, talked to director Hiroshi Nagahama, they had some creative differences that in my opinion adversely affected the anime. Nagahama felt that the story was very personal and realistic, so it would lend itself more towards a stage production or perhaps a
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TV miniseries. However, Oshimi was insistent that it be turned into a successful anime, so Nagahama decided to compromise by using rotoscope animation to give it a more realistic feel. In case you were unaware, rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over footage, frame by frame, for use in live-action and animated films and TV shows. An excellent example of Rotoscope animation done right would be the year 2000 film Titan AE. Incidentally, this was also the film that almost single-handedly ended the use of rotoscoping in big budget animated films in the West. Despite a solid script by Joss Whedon and fun characters, it struggled to find an audience and lost a LOT of money at the box office, becoming one of biggest bombs in Hollywood history! This is because good rotoscoping is an INSANELY expensive process and after Fox Animation Studios went bankrupt as a result of Titan AE bombing, it was seen as far too risky vs. cheaper and less labor intensive CGI animation. It is possible to use rotoscoping on a small budget, but it will look UNGODLY horrible like Adult Swim's "Tom Goes to the Mayor". If you know anything about Japanese film and television, you are well aware that the Japanese generally don't believe in having sky high budgets. The decision to use rotoscope on a highly limited budget was the single largest flaw with this anime. Fans accepted that Mushishi moved at a snail's pace because it had beautiful art and animation. If it looked like Tom Goes to the Mayor, it simply wouldn't have the same critical acclaim that it does!
Story and characters:
The main character is named Takao Kasuga and he is a socially isolated teen in a small town that likes to read classic poetry and feels isolated from his rural, working class peers. He is sort of like a less abrasive version of Holden Caulfield if I had to compare him to anyone. Takao especially loves Baudelaire and constantly bemoans the fact that none of his peers like French literature. Meh, if he wanted to know what isolation feels like he should try being a Russian literature fan in the deep south United States! Takao has a crush on a pretty girl (it is difficult to tell with the puke inducing animation) named Saeki and considers her to be his "muse". One day, Kasuga decides to impulsively steal Saeki's gym clothes and bring them home, but he is caught by the class stalker and social outcast named Nakamura. Kasuga feels extreme, crippling guilt over stealing the underwear and allows himself to be blackmailed by Nakamura and forced to do outrageous deeds in order to prevent Saeki from learning the truth. The problem is that the plot often seems like a comedy, but plays itself extremely straight faced and serious! Kasuga's guilt over stealing panties and acting like he just murdered his own family is so melodramatic and absurd that it is impossible to take seriously! Imagine taking the famous painting "Ivan the Terrible and his Son Ivan" and replacing the corpse of his murdered son with a pair of ladies underwear!" Look into his horrified, tormented eyes and feel his pain!!! This anime expects you to observe such a painting thoughtfully and NOT laugh your ass off, which is asking a lot! The other major problem is that the romance between Kasuga and his blackmailer Nakamura is telegraphed from the 2nd episode, and yet at no point does she EVER become remotely likeable or sympathetic!
Art:
I mentioned in the production section pretty much everything I wanted to say about the art. Basically, it isn't just bad, it is an absolute effrontery to your senses.
Sound:
There really isn't much of a soundtrack to speak of. Occasionally an atonal and unsettling theme will play, but mostly it uses silence. Once again, the silence worked in Mushishi because there was pretty art to look at and allowed the viewer to become absorbed. When your art is an absolute abortion, the strategic use of silence doesn't work effectively!
Overall:
Flowers of Evil is an anime with a LOT of problems in my opinion, but that doesn't make it a horrible anime. This was a highly ambitious project that tackled real themes that teenagers must deal with and has some instances of good writing, high culture, and impressive intelligence. The main character at times can be sympathetic and if this were a well directed stage play that perhaps toned down the panty stealing "played straight" melodrama, it would be at least very respectable if not loveable. It turned out kind of a mess, but I DO award points for effort and I think a 6/10 rating is honestly pretty fair for this one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 30, 2015
Overview:
This is an anime that I went into with high expectations. I was told OVER and OVER online that this was one of the funniest anime series to ever exist! I don't think I laughed once. I'm not just saying that I didn't get any sidesplitting laughs out of this, I don't think this series made me smile more than 2 times! Nichijou is certainly a series with an outstanding online reputation, but in this case I don't feel that the reputation was well deserved.
Background:
Nichijou was actually a bit of a flop in Japan and wasn't able to build a large Japanese fandom. However,
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it became a massive hit on the English speaking internet after 4chan latched onto it. For the last 3 years, Nichijou fans have been to /a/ what the bronies are to /b/! They are an absolutely devoted cult that recycle the same tired image macros OVER and OVER and team up the attack anyone that doesn't worship this piece of shit. Much like the Bronies, it is very difficult to tell how many actually like the show and how many embrace it entirely out of irony. Considering Nichijou is a comedy that is less funny than dropping a hammer on your big toe, I would say the latter is likely. Most of the humor consists of Japanese language puns and wordplay that doesn't translate well to a non-Japanese audience and even Japanese audiences didn't like it! This places Nichijou in a similar humor category as Vampire Holmes, which I also hated. The rest of the humor is "uber moe UGUUU" BULLSHIT, and tired slapstick gags that were old when Charlie Chaplin used them in the 1920s.
Story and Characters:
The story is simply the everyday life of a group of schoolgirls. Nichijou seems to borrow elements from both Azumanga Daioh and Cromartie High School without ever coming CLOSE to achieving the same level of humor and charm. A portion of this was that Azumanga and Cromartie had hilarious characters, while Nichijou just has really obnoxious characters. If I had to compare Nichijou to another anime it would be Lucky Star, but a version of Lucky Star that toned down all the anime and gaming references, leaving only the most mundane topics like finding a skirt that fits. Each of the characters fits into a well established archetype, but that alone doesn't explain why it's so bad. The Italian "commedia dell'arte" plays recycled the same stock characters and still won over audiences with their farcical humor. It is the combination of bland characters, linguistic humor lost in translation, tired gags, and horrible comedic timing that all come together to make this show a nearly un-watchable clusterfuck. If the show told a purposely bad joke and stretched it out until it became awkward for the audience, that would actually get a few laughs. When used right even "dead air" can be a useful comedic tool. Consider the opening of the famous comedy movie "Spaceballs". The joke is that the ripoff Star Destroyer is absurdly long in comparison to the ones in Star Wars, but that alone wouldn't be funny. It becomes funny because it just keeps going...and going...and going until the audience laughs because they don't know how to react. Nichijou just hits the audience with one bad joke after another in rapid succession like a machine gun of FAIL.
Animation and sound:
Here is where Nichijou got its points from. The opening theme is at least kind of catchy and the animation has moments where it shines. Having said that, I fucking HATE the art style of this series for taking even "moe" to a new rock bottom.
Overall:
If you want to tell other people online that Nichijou is great in order to fit in, go for it! However, I warn you to NOT actually bother watching Nichijou yourself because it is a massive waste of time. There are few experiences more annoying that watching a horrible comedy with no laughs. Avoid this anime like the plague!
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 27, 2015
Overview:
Shigurui or "Death Frenzy" is a...controversial anime. This anime has a LOT of gore, a LOT of nudity and sexual violence, and doesn't exactly tackle its gloomy subject matter with artistic subtlety. Basically, imagine combining the 1990s OVA Ninja Scroll with elements of Rurouni Kenshin, Berserk, and some exploitation movie that the Cinema Snob would review! THAT is exactly what Shigurui feels like to watch! Despite all of this...I actually enjoyed this series. This is definitely not a series for everyone, but it has some positive elements that are truly worthy of praise.
Story:
The story starts in the year 1629 with a large kendo tournament using
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real swords and matches to the death. This tournament is being held by the brutal tyrant Tadanaga Tokugawa, who is the younger brother of the shogun ruling Japan. Tadanaga was executed for his "criminal insanity" and is sort of like Japan's Caligula, so this tournament is not out of place with the kind of deeds commonly attributed to him by Japanese historians. However, that isn't to say that Shigurui tries to be 100% historically accurate. Shigurui will instantly remind viewers of the much more famous Rurouni Kenshin with legendary swordsmen standing around and waiting for their opponents to unleash the "Super Secret Bullshit Technique" of the "Does not exist" school of sword fighting. Shigurui is infamous for having so many rape scenes, but nothing gets raped worse than the laws of physics in this series! The 2 main fighters in the tournament are long time rivals and mortal enemies. The entire series is a flashback explaining their histories and all the bad blood between them. The main 2 characters are the samurais Fujiki and Irako. Both were once students of universally feared Kogan School of Kendo, which was run by a brutal and completely insane old man named Kogan Iwamoto. Irako was blinded and exiled from the school for cheating with Kogan's mistress and now wishes to annihilate the entire school for revenge. Fujiki is loyal to the school and wishes to get revenge on Irako for killing everyone it it besides him. That's the entire plot! Also this is a condensed adaptation that didn't want to create its own "filler ending" so instead it just abruptly ends in the middle of the story! What makes the series interesting is its action, music, portrayal of history, artwork, and believe it or not the questions that it asks!
Characters:
The 2 main characters have commonly been compared to Guts and Griffith from Berserk and although this was actually based off a novel far older than Berserk, I can REALLY see why people would say that. Fujiki is a one armed swordsman who is loyal to a fault and against his conscience will carry out brutal deeds if ordered. Fujiki lives on for the sole purpose of getting revenge on Irako for killing all of his friends. Irako is a highly effeminate, Machiavellian bastard that wears lipstick. Irako was born to the lower class, but he is extremely ambitious and charismatic, willing to kill anyone and everyone to rise to the top. However, here is where the similarities end! Fujiki may feel sort of bad for following terrible orders, but he would never quit his master like Guts did after Griffith ordered him to assassinate the Duke. Guts would never follow an order to hurt someone he cares about, while Fujiki willingly held down a girl he liked so another man could rape her. Guts shows a lot of strong emotions and is a Byronic Hero, while Fujiki is NOT portrayed as a hero at all. Fujiki is frequently called a "puppet" with no will and ambition of his own, and this is honestly accurate. Irako may share similarities to Griffith, but the show never at any point attempts to make the viewer admire Irako. Griffith has his many "magnificent bastard" moments when the viewer is awed by his cunning, intelligence, and skill. Griffith also was shown in Caska's flashbacks to have at one time been a fairly decent person that sort of cared about the lives of his men. Irako is a straight up evil motherfucker. This guy laughably murders a kitten for absolutely no reason! He randomly murders prostitutes and only joined the Kogan School to "drain everything it had and move on". To top it all off, he's not even very cunning and is only the 4th best fighter in the series! His revenge only succeeded as well as it did due to random outside help combined with dumb luck. He hires someone to poison the # 3 best fighter, beats the #1 fighter by backstabbing when he was distracted, and gets his ass kicked by the #2. There are some other characters with potential, but the 2 scorned and revenge obsessed female characters don't have enough development. Kogan is a sick old fuck who happens to be freakishly strong, much like Wyald from the Berserk manga. There is a reason Wyald keeps getting cut out of the adaptations! He is a plot device, not a well developed character. Now on to the things this anime really does well!
Art:
Shigurui was animated by Studio Madhouse and it looks absolutely fantastic! Japanese characters actually fucking look Japanese!!! People actually have intestines and well drawn organs instead of red paint and indiscernible chunks. When a character gets his head split in 2 we actually get to see a Sagittal Plane view showing everything inside with decent anatomical accuracy! The characters wear clothes that are period accurate and look like some actual thought and effort went into them. The backgrounds are well detailed and aren't marred by horrible use of CG. This was made in 2009 when bad CG, lazy backgrounds, and "Moe" absolutely dominated the anime industry. This series took a gamble and it really paid off!
Music:
The music is entirely traditional Japanese music that stays consistent with the Tokugawa Shogunate time period. It doesn't switch back and forth between period appropriate music and a really crappy comic relief track played on synthesizer whenever some dumbass appears on screen! This may not sound like much, but seriously I have seen over 300 anime and this basically NEVER happens!
Portrayal of history:
The days of the samurai in Japanese pop culture, much like Europe's Medieval Period in much of Western literature, is frequently romanticized as "the good old days". This was when people knew their place in the world, served with honor, and nobly sacrificed themselves to avoid shame befalling their family. Much like Game of Thrones, Shigurui rejects this nostalgia and shows the poverty, disease, filth, and low quality of life that the ordinary people of this period had to suffer through. The author of the original novel was named Norio Nanjo and he was a Japanese soldier in China during WW2. He felt it was unjust that Japanese history at that point solely focused on Emperors, Generals, and the people at the very top. The life of an ordinary Japanese soldier or the civilians they massacred weren't written about and historians simply didn't care about that part history. Nanjo not only wished to show history from the perspective of the common man, but also to reveal the whole truth and not conceal any embarrassing details. For example, Shigurui actually has the balls to mention that samurai very commonly had 5-10 year old boys as assistants called "wakashu". A samurai was fully expected to have anal sex with their wakashu in order to teach them submission and loyalty to their master. In addition to this, most respected samurai did NOT remain faithful to their wives and visited prostitutes FREQUENTLY. I'm not talking about Geisha for music and conversation, I mean actual prostitutes! How about the fact that women in Japan until the Meiji Period would purposely blacken their teeth because blacker teeth were considered more beautiful? In a country like Japan with such reverence for ancestors and history, to show the naked truth and not polish up the unpleasant details is a rather bold and commendable feat!
Philosophy:
There is no good and evil in Shigurui. Instead we are left to decide which is worse: a man who will follow any evil deed like a robot, or a man who commits evil of his own volition and cares only for himself. Neither is portrayed in a flattering light and no answers are definitively given here. Normally the concept of absolute loyalty is revered in Japan, but after personally witnessing the actions of the Japanese Army in China and the willingness of soldiers to follow the "Kill all, Burn all, Loot all" policy, Nanjo began to question this supposed truth. In many ways, the simply evil and selfish character Irako is actually the anti-hero and chief protagonist of this story for rebelling against the Japanese cultural principles that led to the deaths of over 10 million civilians in just a few years. This is a rather interesting question and not one that is frequently brought up either in Japanese media or elsewhere. The supposed hero of the story Fujiki is someone the viewer grows to both pity and despise for embodying what is almost always portrayed as a great trait in anime.
Overall:
Who would have thought that an anime that features a martial arts master karate chopping a prostitute's nipple off and then eating it would cause the viewer to reflect and think?! I really would have preferred that the anime had more episodes and completed the manga instead of remaining faithful for the parts that it covered... but just abruptly ending. However, the fact that this wasn't a big hit in Japan and didn't get a sequel isn't the fault of Shigurui. It is the fault of consumers that demand Ikki Tousen have 5 seasons and frequently neglect more worthy anime. This is certainly a series with some big flaws, but as I explained I also really loved some aspects. It is certainly a series I would recommend checking out, as long as you have a fairly strong stomach that is!
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 25, 2015
Overview:
Time for another episode of highly obscure anime reviews! Today I am going to talk about Video Girl Ai, which is one of those instances of a show or movie that had a small cult following for a couple years after it was released but quickly became forgotten. The movie equivalent of Video Girl Ai in terms of small, cult films that became highly obscure with time would be something like "Zorro the Gay Blade" or "Buddy Holly: Six String Samurai".
Plot:
The plot starts out with the cliche premise of a hapless loser named Yota trying to get a girlfriend and constantly failing. Yota is
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in love with a pretty girl named Moemi, who overlooks Yota because of his sub-par appearance and only has eyes for the handsome jock, Takashi. Yota realizes that Moemi won't ever love him, so he tries to hook up Takashi and Moemi so that at least they can be happy. This is sort of reminiscent of the famous French play Cyrano de Bergerac, but the anime quickly moves on to rip off other things instead. While walking home depressed, Yota notices a mysterious video store he has never seen before and goes inside to rent a "Video Girl tape". Basically, in 1990s Japan there were VHS tapes (18 up) that would feature a hot girl talking to the screen in order for lonely guys to pretend they had a girlfriend. This particular video store is run by a mysterious old man who lends out magical tapes to youth in desperate need. These magic tapes will change the life of the troubled youth and help them mature and grow. I’m pretty sure this old man must be the brother of the old man that runs the magic bookstore in The Never-Ending Story! Yota goes home and plays the VHS, causing the beautiful girl Ai to come flying out of his TV! Ai attempts to help and comfort Yota, while also trying to get him together with Moemi. However, Ai herself begins to fall for Yota and this angers the mysterious being named Rolex, who created the video girls and is actually the one in charge of the magical video store! The anime has one of the most abrupt tone shifts I have ever seen starting late in the 5th of only 6 episodes! The series goes from being a romantic comedy to being a surprisingly dark and surreal artsy series at the drop of a dime. The anime has a very bittersweet and open ending, while the manga has a conventional happy ending. I actually kind of prefer the anime’s ending because it stays with you longer and leaves more of an impact on the viewer.
Edit: It actually becomes a happy ending if you wait after the credits on the DVD. I watched this series on youtube when I wrote this review. My buddy offline recently pointed this out.
Characters:
Yota starts out as a very generic romantic comedy protagonist, but he actually does grow throughout the series and is willing to put others before his own needs. It is frustrating to watch Yota chase after the wretched character Moemi, but the viewer quickly realizes that he has fallen in love with a highly idealized, fictional version of a bad person and this is sadly something that often happens in real relationships. Moemi is one of the most obnoxious characters in anime history! She is the ONLY person that never realizes that Yota likes her and perpetually uses him as a tool to try land a handsome guy with no interest in her. Yota himself is guilty of being dense in terms of Ai’s feelings for him, but Yota is also very kind to Ai and as previously mentioned is frequently willing to put the happiness of others above his own. Moemi on the other hand, never ONCE thinks about anyone other than herself. Along with being highly selfish and oblivious to the suffering of others, she is also extremely superficial and only values physical appearance. Ai starts out as a tomboyish comedy side kick, but her struggles with identity and whether or not she should have the capacity for love is interesting. Ai develops as a character in only 6 episodes and is a compelling heroine. The only character I would really criticize, since Moemi was intended to be insufferable, is the villain Rolex. In the manga, his motivations and origins are clearly explained. In the anime, he just sort of shows up without explanation and we never learn ANYTHING about the guy other than he created the video girls and doesn’t want them to fall in love. This is entirely due to the short, 6 episode running time of the OVA. However, they could easily have spared us 15 minutes of Moemi being an airhead and given time to flesh out Rolex and give at least his basic origin and motives. I kind of have to fault the anime director for this poor use of time management.
Animation and music:
The animation actually looks pretty damn good even by today’s standards! This anime was made in 1991, so that is saying something about the timeless quality that the artwork has. The music is also excellent with both the opening and ending themes being quite catchy.
Overall:
Although this is a condensed adaptation with a few flaws, it is very much worthy of seeing for yourself. At times this series can be quite slow and it can also be painfully frustrating to see our hero chasing the insufferable airhead, but it also does some things well. This series gets the viewer emotionally invested and provides some truly tear jerking moments. The characters actually develop in a short run time and go from generic to actually interesting. The old-school but high quality art is an absolute joy to see! Basically, there are a LOT of romantic comedy anime, but most are extremely forgettable. Video Girl Ai stands head and shoulders above the average of its genre. I give it a well deserved 6/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 17, 2015
Overview:
The United States is constantly getting bashed for producing horrible adaptations and ripoffs of other countries' shows, movies, etc. Many times these criticisms are justified and the American version truly was shit. Other times the the US version is judged unfairly by people who never even saw it. Today's review is an example of a shitty adaptation of an American cartoon. Have you ever wished that some country would take a beloved US cartoon and do to it what the Yanks did to "The Wicker Man?" This is that cartoon!
Background:
The original Power Puff girls was a popular US cartoon during the animation bubble of
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the 1990s. During the 90s, nearly every channel on American TV had a Saturday morning cartoon lineup and over 200 American cartoons were airing in any given year of that decade. In 2015 only 2 channels on US TV are airing cartoons and their are no more than 20 current American cartoons. This was a double edged sword because while the total number of awesome cartoon series was much higher during the 1990s, the average quality was actually lower. There were some BAD cartoons in the 1990s like the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter cartoons made by the USA Channel that would never pass current expectations of quality.
Power Puff Girls (same writers as 4chan's beloved MLP) was one of the top tier or roughly top 10 percent cartoons of the 90s decade.
So what did the original do well?
1. It featured cute character designs that paid homage to and parodied anime, which was a fairly new concept in the US.
2.It had lots of action, much of which was also heavily anime inspired. One of the early fights between Blossom and Princess was directly taken from the first Goku vs. Vegeta fight from DBZ!
3. Power Puff had MUCH younger and more "hip" writers that knew how to make pop culture references that actually hit home for the current generation. An example would be when they did a hilarious spoof on the then brand new 1998 Zelda game "Ocarina of Time" and Navi's extreme obnoxiousness. This was the decade when we had many shows with octogenarian writers like Hey Arnold, Doug, and others making constant references to Peter Lorre, Frank Sinatra, Mickey Mantel, and other 1950s pop culture jokes! Kids literally had to watch with their GRANDPARENTS to get the pop culture jokes in those shows! Power Puff was one of the first US cartoons written by younger writers in their 20s and early 30s for a young audience of kids and teens.
4. It didn't just patronize kids and offered some moral complexity and occasional witty writing instead of REALLY stupid PSA commentaries.
5. It could occasionally be surprisingly dark and wasn't afraid to push boundaries, but it also knew not to take itself TOO seriously and kept a balanced tone.
6. It actually had pretty good music and excellent animation for an American TV cartoon of its time.
7. It was freaking funny! My elder cousin would watch this show with me when he babysat me and my brother. He was a tough guy who was on his college's rugby team and was a bar bouncer and even he laughed his ass off!
Damashita Power Puff Girls Z and why it DIDN'T work!:
1. The Art Design: The character models are changed to be more realistic and less cutesy. This is a show for little kids! What's wrong with cutesy?! The girls in the anime version are WAY too oversexualized and it gives this show a very creepy, pedo vibe. These girls are in KINDERGARTEN for fuck sake! The redesigns of the villains are also just stupid as hell!
2. The Animation: PPG Z is 10 years newer than the original PPG and the animation is FAR worse. Of course this was animated by God Damn Toei, so you know exactly what to expect! The last popular American cartoon that had as low quality animation as 2000s decade Toei was the first few seasons of Ninja Turtles in the mid 1980s!
3. The Writing: Remember how I said the original PPG had generally good writing and was very pop culture savvy? PPG Z has NONE of that! PPG Z makes every character unbearably annoying, takes itself too seriously at times when it shouldn't, and has jokes that either fall flat or induce serious cringing. The Rowdy Rough boys peeing on people? Seriously?! Who green lights this shit!?
4. The Entertainment Value: The original PPG was a fun show that even older audiences like parents could watch with their kids and enjoy. PPG Z is about as entertaining as having your fingernails ripped off one by one. Even for little kids this shit isn't entertaining!
5. The Retcons: An adaptation is free to change things like background, time, etc. However, the changes made here were overwhelmingly for the worse. In the original show the girls were born with super powers and like Superman had to learn how to live among normal people. This was done in an interesting way and provided both laughs and some introspection. In PPG Z the girls are normal students that transform into heroes and are basically like every Magical Girl ever made! The villain backgrounds are changed and none of them are as amusing or creative. The setting is changed to Japan, but doesn't take advantage of this change by integrating any elements of Japanese culture or giving a REASON for the change. It is just a ripoff PPG that happens to be set in Japan for some reason.
Overall:
I can now finally understand the anger that British people feel when watching the American versions of Top Gear! This was just PAINFUL to sit through! Even by the 1990s low standards of a kid's show and assuming I hadn't seen the original it would STILL be a terrible fucking show! This is one the worst adaptations of a children's movie or show I have ever seen! I think that giving it a rating of "2" is being generous!
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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