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Apr 21, 2014
My review is entitled the top 5 criticisms of Kill La Kill and why I disagree or do not care. I guess this really is not in tune with the guidelines but what’s the point of reviewing if you can’t address the issues that everyone has on their mind?
1. Mako is so annoying.
The number one criticism is that Mako, the stupid best-friend character, shows up at inopportune times—usually in the middle of a hot action scene—and this ruins the mood. I think that’s the whole point. That’s not to say that the fact something is on purpose makes it a good idea but it
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works here. Mako’s appearances remind the viewers that the show is just not that serious and that we can always expect the absurd to occur. It’s even beyond just establishing the expectation of absurdity but absurdity surrounding themes of what I would call “plain values”. By that, I mean simple, idealistic notions like friendship, having a nice outfit, or eating a comforting home cooked meal. I believe the point of the anime, and the creator’s views of anime itself, is to give the viewers a vehicle to feel these simple but gratifying emotions. In the real world, we just can’t get there because things aren’t as ideal as they are in the world of anime; so heroes like Ryoko break all the boundaries of logic in the animated world to achieve a state of affairs where these feelings can exist. Mako’s appearances remind us what we’re fighting for, that this fight is illogical and that this anime will destroy that logic for us.
2. It’s just a rip off of TTGE
I will admit that this series shares both style and sentiment with Gurren Lagan. My question is, why does Gurren Lagan have to be a one off? Why can’t Gurren Lagan be a genre? The plot itself was different enough that I was interested in what was going to happen. I felt the same emotions I felt watching Gurren Lagan but I didn’t feel like I was watching TTGE all over again. A popular anime turns into a genre about every other year these days. Look how many trapped in a virtual world shows came out in the last few years. Exorcism shows are another example. I could keep going. Give me TTGE type shows at the same rate I see stories about four high school girls having fun together!
3. The animation looks bad
I agree that the whole thing didn’t always look high budget but I didn’t care because I found that the style was enough for me as I went through. There was lot of flash animation style stuff or still images with moving lines in the background but the character designs were always cool and colorful. Also, keep in mind that this is an 80’s throwback type show and purists don’t hate on those old shows despite how much they use stock footage etc.
4. It objectifies women
I won’t argue with that but there are many progressive aspects of the show. It has three female main characters who act on their own accord to save the world. None of them are acting to save a man or for some other conservative, traditional, stay-in-the-kitchen type goal as far as I can see. Here, the female characters are acting like shonen heroes with the only string attached being them wearing sexy outfits and having NSFW transformation sequences. My view is that having mentally strong female characters is a more important concern than whether or not there’s a lot of skin on screen.
5. It was too long/should have been 13 episodes
One of the less profound but more awesome things I liked about the show was the fact that the four devas kept getting new costumes and that the suits kept evolving. I feel like we couldn’t get all that cool stuff if we hadn’t had some of the sillier episodes at the beginning. I think the increased number of episodes also helped build up some of the mysteries like the origin of the scissor, Satsuki’s origin and the main plot. Also, to digress a little, the main plot is awesome. I won’t spoil it but it’s ridiculous, creative and allows us to explore themes that we just couldn’t do in these serious shmerious shows. I think it’s important to have absurdist shows like this because you can’t experiment with these types of plots in works where the creators are constantly worried that they will break the viewer’s suspension of disbelief.
So yeah, people have already said all the good things I want to say about this series in other reviews (maybe not all the good things) but that’s my two cents on some of the criticisms.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 18, 2013
There are people out there who really hate Neon Genesis Evangelion because they think Shinji is a dirtbag. These types of folks hate dirtbag main characters. I don’t really trust people like that.
I think good people understand their inner dirtbag. Watamote is a test, developed by Silver Link Studios—a test to see who can really tune in to the higher levels of reality.
The kind of person who hates this program is the sort of person who cannot face their own short-comings.
I am one of the realest people on the planet; so, it’s no wonder that I loved this show
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and totally identified with the main character. I empathized with her agony and frustrating anxiety. Watamote’s immersion in frustration felt like a nail file being raked again my gums and I could not get enough. As the heroine descended further into despair I sat titillated, hoping for her to fail harder and harder. Mind you, this was not out of hatred for the character; it was out the excitement for seeing how far Japanese television could push the limits of true humanity.
Sometimes there were episodes where I fell into the trap of wanting Kuroki to make a friend before she ultimately failed. I was never disappointed though. I knew that as long as she remained alone, the show could go on and so could my joy. A happy episode would ruin everything. It would ruin Kuroki-chan’s beauty. That is why it cannot be.
Unfortunately, nobody bought the DVD’s and we will never see a program this great ever again. There is just no room in the market for incest free motion pictures these days. To make up for that void, I’ve opted for repeat viewings. This might be the first anime I ever watch from beginning to end twice in the same week.
I did have to deduct a point for a whole episode surrounding rape/sexual assault jokes. Where I come from, that’s just not cool no more. A perfect 10/10 ruined by left wing fanaticism. Thanks Obama.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 19, 2013
This is a romance series revolving around a girl who lives in a pretend world where she`s the centre of a crazy sci-fi fantasy novel/game (or something). I read the synopsis for this series and immediately concluded that it was a rip off of Denpa Ono (where the main girl acts like an alien). That wasn’t going to stop me from watching it, however, because, as we all know, all Kyoto Animation series must be watched by everyone on the internet no matter what.
The anime gets my endorsement. I liken it to a youtube video I saw the other day where
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anold man made a fancy flower out of some cotton candy. I’d say the nice people at Kyoani made a masterpiece out of cotton candy on this one. It has all the mush, fluff and sugariness of your usual late night romantic comedy show with about a zillion times the polish and an actual theme that-- is an actual theme and not just a plot device to give the bs in the anime a reason for being there. I’ll get back to that later.
The best way to go through this is probably just to list what I liked and what I disliked.
Thing I liked #1 – Aesthetics: Forget what your mom told you to make you feel better. Looks are important. If some second rate basement studio made this series, it would not be anywhere near as fun as it is, nor would it have the emotional impact. For example, the corny fantasy fight scenes in this series rival and often exceed what you get on the big name shounen series. Even subtle things like details in the background are done really well and make the experience really immersive.
Thing I liked #2 – Macro Plot: You can look at me and say the plot isn’t that original. Denpa Ona had the same plot, didn’t it? You saw quirky/spaced out chicks in may be 9432% of the harem anime you shamefully consumed over the years. I shrug my shoulders to you. The fact that the male lead has a history similar to that of the female lead was enough to get me slightly intrigued. I also thought that, as outlandish as the character`s fantasies are, they do feel like something that I would’ve actually done myself or would’ve seen in real life with gothy kids in high school (however, maybe not taken to the extremes that characters in this show take it to). In my teenage years, I used to come across kids who thought they could cast spells and do witch magic (no BS). It’s not that far off.
Thing I liked #3 – Cuteness/Comedy: Well it is a romantic comedy so it should deliver laughs and aawwws and it did. The jokes weren’t especially original but I think the enhanced production values gave certain jokes more punch from the visual wow factor. For example, in the very first episode the main character bounces around a room and knocks down a bunch of cabinets. That’s not that great of a joke but it looked so cool in the series. For romance, it did a lot better job. The romantic scenes in this anime are relentlessly cute; it’s probably cuter than anything I can remember.
Thing I kinda liked #4 – Theme: Now I don’t want to get all spoilerific but it’s not much for me to say that a this show has some sort of existentialist theme where it tries to tell you that you can make your own reality. I found that it did this really well in conveying this theme but I’m not sure if it was really explored to the extent that it could have been. I think you really get the pros and cons of living like Rikka mapped out and where the show finally goes with this theme at the end is actually somewhat bold for a show like this. I can't really get into it without spoilers though.
One thing I commend the anime for is the fact that it convinced me that it had a sincere purpose and that the creator of the story actually concocted this story based around that As much as this is a cutesy romcom (and that is what it is 97% of the time), I never got the feeling that I get with so many other anime that it’s just the same old romantic comedy in a different situation just so they could make a different show out of it or so that the situation could be a plot device for zany, cutesy things to happen. The situation here IS a plot device that allows numerous zany cutesy things to happen but it’s more than that. That’s good.
Thing I’m kinda ehhhhhhhhhh on #5– Characters: There were some good characters and some bad characters. The female lead character, Rikka, was cute but I didn’t really feel attached to her even though they do a good job of telling you her history. Conversely, I didn’t get a lot about the main male character’s history like I thought I would near the beginning of the show. The main girl’s sister and the popular girl’s characters are also done with some nice depth. Unfortunately, all the other characters seem shallow/one dimensional and the reasons they are what they are go under-explained. I especially didn’t like that the pigtailed bratty girl is such a regular pigtailed bratty girl anime character.
Thing I didn’t like much #6 – Ending: Can’t spoil the ending but I had two problems with it. Firstly, it wasn’t paced very well and could’ve been crafted better. Maybe they could have split it into two episodes. Second, the reveal at the end is so lame and unnecessary.
Anyway, I liked way more things that I disliked so I give it an 8/10. To refer back to my lame metaphor. I feel like they took the sugary romance material but still managed to shape it into a legitimate piece about having the freedom to use our imagination to cope with the world.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 7, 2012
Man, Chihayafuru is freaking good. I wasn’t going to watch this show. You look at the promo. It’s a shoujo/josei type joint about some chick who plays Japanese cards or some nonsense. How can that be good?
I know a lot of people mess with those mah jong anime that keep coming out. I can’t hate but I never know or care about what’s going on in any of that stuff.
Lucky things happened though. Winter 2012 anime were failing hard so I had to start review crawling. MAL gave this thing an 8+ so figured I’d give
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it a shot. Normally that’s a bad idea because girl anime tends to have inflated ratings on this site.
Expectations exceeded. This show right here filled me with some serious glee. I still have no idea what the rules of Karuta are and I still loved the show. All I managed to discern is that somebody reads a poem in a creepy voice and then you have to snatch up a card real quick. Apparently that was all that I needed to know.
Characters? Mostly win. I like that every character is unique. There hardly any typical characters, except some minor side dudes from that red shirt karuta club. Actually I’ll contradict myself and say that Chihaya herself is a pretty typical ditzy but hard working female lead character but everyone else is fresh. My favourite guy of all is Desktomu-kun. I’m comfortable enough to say that he is actually cute as a grown male character. Welcome to 2012. Speaking of Desktomu-kun, how come all the side characters in the club were small and funny looking where as the main three characters are all tall and handsome? It’s like there’s a class system through character design. I save further analysis of this for the Marxist anime review page.
While I said the characters are good that’s not saying the chracters are deep or anything. It seems like they all have one personality type, typically only express a couple moods and are all motivated by a single factor. For example, the adorable Kana-chan, can be summed up completely as the girl who likes poetry or a history buff. Not every anime has to be an exercise in psychoanalysis though.
The worst parts of the show are some of the flashbacks and plot devices used to motivate characters are pretty bad though. Arata’s motivation for quitting karuta is so contrived. Pisses me off right now just thinking about how little imagination went into that.
Taichi seemed like he was the most multifaceted guy. He’s sort of an insecure ass but more at least it’s only as far as a real person acts like an ass. You watch these josei/shoujo anime and the main guy is usually some epic dirtbag dude that could only another dirtbag could relate to. A good example is the guy in Nodame Cantabile. I want to punch the trash out of that guy. You always have these girl anime pitting Dirtbag Dans against Nice Guy Norms but here I don’t really get that. Taichi actually seems like a nice guy but he can’t help but do some dumb stuff. Arata is kind of shy but he doesn’t really seem that nice either. He is actually pretty edgy since he’s supposed to be the Lebron James of speed cards or whatever.
Then you have the action, which kicks a bunch of ass solely because of the direction and writing. Like I said before, I still have no idea how karuta works but I definitely felt the suspense in every match. I’m dying to hear them read the cards out and I don’t know what they mean. That’s good TV. The matches are made interesting by focusing on internal mental stuff going on with the players and small details that the reader can understand. For example, there is a part where a distinction is made between a player with speed and a player who uses rhythm and pacing. I don’t really need to understand karuta to be able to relate to that.
Thematically, you get a lot of the typical stuff here around being in a team and striving for a goal and all that sports anime crap. I love that sports anime crap. Makes me feel good as heck. You also get a little education about Japanese poetry. That also makes me feel good. Like I’m not just watching cartoons, I’m getting educated out here. I would have liked to have seen a little more focus on the outsider nature of the game though. The whole ordeal with the Empress teacher was supposed to present that aspect of things but that unravelled pretty predictably. I think more focus on Taichi and Chihaya’s interactions with their parents and the parents’ acceptance or ignorance of karuta would have been nice.
I give this series a 9. It delivered happiness, that sports anime suspense and some interesting knowledge about a weird sport. I’m dying for a second season. You know, I have now seen anime about karuta and kendo. When am I going to get a sumo anime?
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 7, 2012
I decided, based on what I thought was sound reasoning to check out Manglobe's latest release Mashiroriro Symphony: The Color of Lovers. I'm not the biggest fan of eroge interpretations but when I have liked them they were usually produced out by the higher tier studios. I dug the output from studios like Kyoto Animation (Clannad, Kanon, etc.), Shaft (Ef series), and P.A. Work (True Tears) because those studios were able to mask the usual problems with harem/game based series with great animation, direction or story writing.
I don't play eroge myself so I am not too certain about how often the source
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material affects the quality of the anime but considering that certain studios like Kyoani tend to constantly make good products and certain other ones tend to put out the same crap every season, I'd wager the studio plays a big role in whether these types of series turn out to be successful. For example, I understand that both Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate were made by the same game creator and were both just as acclaimed as games. One studio did a fantastic job producing Steins;Gate and another put out an hot mess with Chaos;Head.
Although Manglobe looked like it was hurting a bit monetarily (as you can tell by cut and cover animation job in the penultimate episode of Deadman Wonderland), I had faith that they would try to be competitive with the top studios with Mashiroriro Symphony. They did a great job of animating The World God Only Knows and I even figured they would try to go all out with a moe show since programs in this genre have the potential to give a good return.
I was very wrong. So far, I've spent most of this “review” discussing why I decided to watch this show rather than discussing the actual show for a reason. There isn't much to say about the program other than it's generic garbage. The plot synopsis is a boy from a regular school now attends a formerly all girl's school due to a school merger... and a harem ensues. I'm not even the type of person who is turned off by that type of plot off the bat (why else would I watch otherwise?). However, my view is that you have to distinguish yourself in this genre, either through quality or innovation, in order stand out. Mashiroriro Symphony is poorly made and unoriginal.
All the anime does is throw a bunch of 'gap moe' characters into a typical situation and has the main character being nice to them. I know that's the general formula but if you don't add something to the general archetypes you aren't really producing anything worthwhile. While I would prefer that shows deviated from the general moe archetypes, if they are going to be used, they ought to be a skeleton or a starting point rather than having the archetype become the point where the character ends.
As the characters go, there's a little sister in there who is your run of the mill quiet girl character, and then there are four other girls who are 'in play'. The most offensive of them is the maid character with the green hair. I don't mind maid characters. In fact I think a lot of maid characters are moe like Maria in Hayate the Combat Butler or even that spinning girl in A Certain Magical Index. But, for anything to be successfully moe, you have to buy into the context. An otherwise regular school isn't going to have a maid character. The whole thing is preposterous and this isn't a gag comedy like Baka Test or something where you expect preposterous things. So, first, she shouldn't be there. Second, there is nothing about her character beyond the things that comprise of the prototypical maid character. Her only trait is that she is a clumsy maid, which we've already seen in a thousand other anime. When she is on screen the only possible reaction is to marvel at how spectacularly uninspired she is.
After the green haired maid, there are two tsundere characters, one with yellow hair and one with red hair. Again, there's nothing more to say about these two characters other than the fact of them being tsundere types. The only thing that separates the two is that the red haired one is a lot more emotionally embellished than the yellow one. You do learn some biographical facts about them but there isn't much interesting about their inner lives other than their interest in the main character and maybe the red haired girl's interest in the purple girl.
The final girl is the incredibly boring purple upperclassman. She has a whopping two traits: she is nice and she likes animals. A good deal of the show focuses on her involvement with an animal nursery high school club. I guess one different thing I can say about this show is this sort of character would get a lot less shine in other harems; unfortunately, that's probably because the creators of other harem works realize that it's a bad idea to give the most screen time to the shallowest character.
I get it though. A lot of these shows have the same character types without anything special added but a lot of them are actually watchable because of the production values. That makes sense because something you already know about can still catch your attention when it looks great. You will often see very cardboard characters in the Kyoani shows but they are so brilliantly animated that even if you are seeing something old, it's something old presented in a pretty way. When the production is bumped up or at least stylized, you're seeing characters you otherwise know in a new, more magnificent light. It's like seeing Final Fantasy IV remade in 3d and then in HD.
Manglobe did a lacklustre job possible with art direction. All the backgrounds, even ones that should look pretty, like waterfalls, seem like super-plain stock footage. The whole show plays out with one camera angle and there are almost no innovative shots. Even Pokemon has cool shots sometimes. I realize that Manglobe isn't a money studio at this point in time but there was clearly no attempt to be creative with the direction. The only notable thing I can think of is one shot where they close up from outside of a window on a rainy day and you still see the rain falling outside as if the camera was actually there. Even that shot didn't look as cool as it was supposed to.
This is my first review and I hate to hate on a show but I just can't think of anything redeeming to say. I actually did expect a lot from Manglobe before watching Mashiroriro Symphony and at the end of the day I didn't get anything. I didn't even get into the the various other problems I found but I think I've made my point
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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