Half-Review - Deadman Wonderland

I know it's playing with genre stereotypes. I know the point is to have gratuitous violence for the sake of crazy gorey violence. But those are just the reasons I don't like Deadman Wonderland.

I'd heard great things about this series. The reviews are stellar. Word-of-mouth is the whole reason I watched it. And it was a big fat mess of a whiny hero and shadowy lazy animation. If you watch it online, you'll find many scenes inexplicably shadowy and impossible to see. Many of these scenes are censored for gratuitous violence. But there are many that have absolutely NO FIGHTING WHATSOEVER. Scenes of Yoh and Shiro just standing around talking are in the dark. And I will not stand for that. Unless someone proves to me that those are random censors, I refuse to watch any more of this series. The concept is not original by any stretch of the imagination, and is not enough to endear me to violence-for-violence's sake and cheapskate animation.

I watched 5 episodes, almost half of the series, so I can't call this a "first impressions" review, but neither can I judge the whole thing. I know there are more characters in the very next episode, but I don't care enough. I haven't been this angry at a promising series since Last Exile.

Rating: C
+ violence, if you're into that sort of thing
- standard lame-hero, uber-innocent-sexy-badass-girl-sidekick, fighting-obsessed anti-hero, creepy villain, random badass lady with a sword. Plus gratuitous violence. Like Tarantino gratuitous violence. SHADOWY ANIMATION WHEN THERE IS NO VIOLENCE HOW LAZY CAN YOU GET.

Review -- Summer Wars

Merry Christmas! Here's a family movie I meant to review a year and a half ago.
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Summer Wars is probably not the best movie you've ever seen. It probably won't change your life. But it's definitely worth watching. 

Those familiar with Hosoda's work will recognize the plot of Summer Wars from Digimon: Our War Game. It's still got jagged edges from where he ripped out the Digimon script and pasted new character names on top. I'm a fan of that Digimon movie (American fans might be more familiar with it as the middle of the Digimon "movie" released in the States. Said movie was actually three movies badly cut-and-pasted together.) and of the one episode of the Digimon anime he penned. I don't recall the name of the episode, but it's that really sad one where Tai goes back to the real world and hangs out with Kari, but then he realizes he has to go back to the digital world. Man, I miss that show. Too bad it's not getting re-released on DVD or anything.

Digimon tangents aside, Summer Wars does not suffer from the borrowed storyline. It actually improves upon it, and makes you feel pretty good about yourself in the process. Hosada has an energetic, distinct, and likable bunch of characters, which always impresses me.

The film opens introducing Oz, a social media of global-domination proportions. It's like every internet service you ever use bundled into one website. Protagonist Kenji is the anime-typical timid high-school boy. He and friend have summer jobs being code monkeys for Oz. Kenji gets roped into (read: eagerly volunteers) going with crush Natsuki to her family's country estate for her great-grandmother's 90th birthday. What Kenji doesn't know is that Natsuki intends to introduce him as her betrothed. Old-fashioned family indeed. The charade is only a little subplot in the grand scheme of a shadowy AI-villain taking over Oz and plunging the world into chaos, eventually culminating in a nuclear missile threat and some kind of Japanese card game.

Even this villain isn't at the core of the film, though. Summer Wars is a true family film, both in its target demographic and subject matter. This movie is about the members of the Jinnouchi family - quiet Kazuma, smooth-talking Wabisuke, matriarch Sakae, boisterious Mansuke, policeman Shota, the computer guy, the -hiko brothers who all work for emergency services, and about twenty other family members. Every character is distinct, realistic, and as three-dimensional as they can get in their two or three lines of dialogue. They will charm you. The whole film and its many lessons on the importance of family could easily devolve into the sort of annoying wal-mart bargin bin animated movie fare, but everything is sincere, genuine, and crafted with care. Do not think less of Hosada for expanded on a previously used plot. It is by far the better for having been in this movie.

Shout out to the solid dub cast! Not a bad one in the bunch. Special shout-outs to Mike Sinterniklaas, Brina Palencia, and Maxey Whitehead. With such a large cast, most of the FUNimation regulars are in this somewhere.

If that doesn't convince you, check out the trailer. Granted, it's a bit misleading. It uses most of the best footage, all of the important plot devices, and catchy music that's not actually in the film.

Rating: A-
+ gorgeous animation; huge, unique, and likable cast; a little something for everyone, from fighting to romance - even a transformation sequence. solid, if cliched writing.
- whole is not greater than sum of parts. for all the good things it has going, it still lacks a punch. perhaps too cliched. only one really good bit of music in the whole thing, and it's not a big enough payoff.

Review - Fractale

Blogs look good on resumes, right? So let's try to keep this one going.
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I like watching dubbed anime. I don't speak Japanese. I don't like reading subtitles while watching things. I am a bit of an audiophile, but I place more emphasis on unspoiled visuals than original actors. While this argument doesn't apply as strongly to anime, with its frequent use of the slow-pan-over-a-static-image technique, information is still lost in the time it takes to read subtitles. The director did not intend for a subtitled show. So I'd rather watch a dub.

Whenever I'm in the hankering for a new anime then, I check out FUNimation's youtube page, since they have a tendancy to post full series, and dubbed if they're old enough. Fractale was the trailer playing at the top of the page, and it looked cool, so I went for it.
I was immediately drawn to the series because Caitlin Glass is a main character. I didn't even realize she came back from Spain, so I was quite excited.

That was the most exciting thing about the series. It plays like a mecha-less Eureka Seven. A young boy lives in a futuristic world controlled by religious dictators. Or dictators that use religion as a cover for their dictation. I'm not sure. Anyway, boy lives in dystopia. Most people don't interact with other people, but use their "doppels", weird virtual doppelgangers instead. Clain does not. He is also obsessed with "vintage" technology, like computers and flashdrives and projectors. One day, this girl on a flying machine appears, being chased by some (comic) bad guys. Clain hides her in his house and takes care of her for a night. Her name is Phryne - she comes off as very cheerful and whimsical. Then she vanishes, leaving behind a doppel of a little girl named Nessa. But this doppel is solid at times. Clain and Nessa eventually decide to look for Phryne, find the "bad guys", who turn out to be a justifiable rebel group, and they call get caught up in an uprising against the Fractale System and the corrupt religious leaders.

Fractale presents a pretty standard anime dystopia, a standard protangonist, an ill-characterized standard love interest for the protagonist with some interesting scenery and cute character designs. The sci-fi setting is the most impressive part of the series - while the overbearing government is not unique, the technological-driven social crisis certainly is. The idea of doppels performing communication and eliminating human interaction is not so far-fetched. It provokes discussion about our present day technological concerns. But then Phyrne comes back and it has a bunch of one-off episodes that sort of relate to the plot but just slow things down, especially in an 11-episode series.

The different plot lines come together awkwardly and unwillingly. There are a few stereotypical dramatic moments, but none of them last long enough to effect anything, which is a shame in a series so lacking in decent structure. The ending is forced, confusing, and unsatisfying. It is disturbing, and not in any ways that relate to the previously established doppel-human-interaction-and-independence problems. It's disturbing for the sake of being disturbing.

All the positives of this series are just average and can't possibly outweigh the negatives.

Rating: C
+lanscapes, solid animation, cute character designs
-pacing, Clain is annoying, confusing plot, needlessly creepy ending, inconsistent character design

Movie Review -- Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos

The Hollywood Theater in Dormont is awesome. $7 movies, $2 popcorn. 2 blocks from the T--what is there not to love?
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Let me put your worries to rest; Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos is nothing like the movie that wrapped up the original 2003 series, Conqueror of Shamballa. Instead, it's like one of the light novels: all bright colors and beautiful landscapes and rollicking action with a nice dose of tasteful humor. Milos is a stand-alone piece that can be set ambiguously any time after Al remembers the gate of Truth--although fans of the series might question when exactly they had time to go to Table City since Arakawa keeps the timeline very tight. But such things matter very little to fans who have been waiting for this movie ever since the final depressing notes of Shamballa. 

As is the norm with anime movies, familiarity with the series is a bonus, not a requirement. All necessary information is given to the audience within the first half-hour. Ed is the Fullmetal Alchemist, and as such, a member of the Amestrian military. Al is his brother. They lost their respective body parts attempting to transmute their mother. Gate of Truth = bad. Thus ends any plot points from the original series that are needed to understand the film. Two new characters, Ashley and Julia Crichton, are children in the country/land of Milos. Their parents are alchemists, and scorned by the other Milosians. They are forced out of their homeland, and their parents are killed some years later. Around six years after that, on the night of the Harvest Festival, an alchemist who appears to be an older Ashley Crichton, breaks out of prison in Central. The reason? A news article about Julia Crichton getting captured by Amestrian border guards. Ed and Al encounter the escaped prisoner on his way out, have a spectacular alchemy battle, and are thus involved in the case and must go to Table City to investigate. There, they become mixed up in a crazy plot of rebels, wolf chimeras, the escaped alchemist, Julia Crichton, and an abused ethnic group living in the slums on the verge of extinction.

If there's one thing Fullmetal Alchemist is good at, it's making you feel for the people society has trampled on. There's something to be said for a series that can't have an episode or movie without a significant element of social justice. The Milosians are roughly equivalent to the Ishvalans of both anime series or the Roma people of Shamballa, but are thankfully distinct from both. Their design seems inspired by people of southern North America, but I'm not very confident making that guess. Their plight of being forced out of their holy land and into the desolate canyon can be found in real-world examples of Tibet, the Balkans, or Paletstine. Some inspiration also lies in Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which I'll cover in more detail later. Whatever their design inspirations, the Milosians are at least visually distinct from their plot-device siblings in other FMA media, if not particularly unique to the plot. The important Milosian characters also boast distinctive character types and designs, most of which do not have any easily discernible character-type twins.

The animation is at movie quality, which is to say it's really frackin' cool. The obvious!CG is much less obvious this time around and used much more effectively. No jerky CG armor armies in this movie. The fight scenes are well-done, many, and with only one exception, very easy to follow. The lone confusing one (and that confusion was only slight) seems to draw inspiration from Gainax, so I'll let it slide because it still looked really cool. Julia, Ashley, and Miranda were my favorite character designs. Soyuz was my least, because I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be some kind of joke about Lieutenant Yoki or if it was just a coincidence. Backgrounds were one of the high points. From the Badlands-inspired Table City to the underground caves of Milos, to the beautiful Milosian architecture, every setting of this movie was carefully crafted. The series' subtle steampunk got a boost in the Black Bats and their flying contraptions. The color scheme is much brighter and varied than Shamballa, the 2003 series, and the latter half of Brotherhood, which was a refreshing change. The overall look of the movie was very comic-book inspired, not just from the original manga, but with the sort of action-adventure feel that the actual FMA series doesn't quite reach due to its serious and complicated nature.

Part of that action-adventure had its roots in the works of Miyazaki, most notably Nausicaa. There were at least three distinct Nausicaa-inspired moments, not to mention the Milosian design, the flying contraptions, and Ashley's character design. Julia got have herself a Miyazaki-angry-hair-poof-- (is there an actual term for this phenomena?)--that thing that happens when the leading lady of a Miyazaki movie gets angry and spends a moment just staring at whatever's making her angry and her hair starts to stand up. Combined with Julia's orange hair, the moment was an obvious tribute, and it was delightful. I almost stood up and cheered right there in the theater. Director Kazuya Murata, who has worked on other Bones properties, including directing some episodes of Eureka Seven and Code Geass, gets an "A" in my book any day. I also am very interested to know if the Harry Potter reference was intentional or not. 


Shout-outs to fans of the original series are done sparingly, and Mustang, Hawkeye, and Winry are included, but not exactly necessary to anything at all. The three of them weren't awkward, but their presence still wasn't as smooth as it could have been. I mistakenly thought we'd get the Roy-Winry conversation we never got in Shamballa before I remembered that the whole reason for that conversation doesn't exist in Brotherhood. But there were some cool shots of Winry and Riza on the train, comparing the two characters and by proxy, Ed and Roy. It left fans with something interesting to reflect on, and also some good footage for AMVs. I really can't complain about the three of them when judging this as a stand-alone movie. Their voice actors were all at the top of their game, and all got some really nice lines, so they were satisfying to fans of the series. Newcomers will probably hate them, but newcomers really should go back and watch the actual show.

Voice acting on the whole was what one expects from FUNimation. All the main characters were great; a couple of the minor ones were pretty cheesy, but acceptable all the same. It's the one-line background characters that really get the worst treatment, but as their contributions are minimal, Vic and Maxey make up for them. Maxey Whitehead deserves some kind of award for pleasing fans of something as huge as FMA. She not only is a great voice actress in her own right, she is able to perfectly match the voice and character Aaron Dismuke created in the 2003 series. Alexis Tipton (Julia) and Matthew Mercer (credited as the character "Melvin Voyager") were both newcomers to me, and fooled me into thinking they might have been respectively Stephanie Sheh and Crispin Freeman, so that ought to speak for their performances. FUNi's translation was great, as always. There wasn't a character in the whole movie that made me think their voice actor was undeserving of the role. Music was also excellent, both with score and theme songs.

Overall, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos might not be as life-changing or philosophical as the manga, Brotherhood, or the 2003 original series. But those are each long works, 23 volumes, 64 episodes, and 51 episodes, respectively. Shamballa tried to mimic the philosophy of its series, and all it did was depress people. FMA as a series is much more than just a fun action-adventure. But sometimes, we all need a bit of good, clean fun to balance our complicated plots and musings on the nature of life and death. That's not to say that Milos is without any substance. On the contrary, it, like its roots, addresses the topics of genocide, racism, segregation, familial bonds, the abuse of power, and the nature of right and wrong. Not all characters make moral choices all the time. They're flawed. They're well-developed. They also kick ass and take names. And when I look back at Milos, I will remember the action, the gorgeous animation, the plot twists, the deliciously evil villains, and then the social justice and if certain questionable actions were morally or philosophically justified.
I think Ed sums up the balance between philosophy and action best. "I don't think you did the right thing. But you were still pretty awesome."


+ backgrounds, animation in general, great action-adventure accessible to fans and non-fans alike
- a little confusing in the middle; non-fans will probably wonder what a "transmutation circle" is; did they ever say the law of equivalent exchange?

Rating: A

Review -- Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy

Subtitled "Everyone has Wings" in Japanese. Media Blasters passed on their right to dub the second season of Ah! My Goddess, so FUNimation picked it up. They blessedly kept all the original voice actors, so whether you liked them or not the first time around, they're consistent. I technically have two more episodes to watch, but they're OVAs, so I'm going to write my review now. I haven't seen the OVAs for the first season yet, either.

After watching season 2, I'm not sure I can ever un-biasedly review again. I knew deep down that season 1 was mediocre and was simply good for its genre--not actually good in any other sense of the word. I felt disappointment at the botched writing in the final story arc, which was actually improved from the manga. Granted, I only read the two chapters of the manga I was interested in, so maybe the whole beginning of the Lord of Terror arc is actually fabulous in the manga and just has a lousy ending, but... man, what a lousy ending. Maybe it gets half a point for playing on the term "deus ex machina" if you think about it long enough, but I highly doubt that was planned. But this season... this season I actually found pretty darned good at times.

The second season starts off with lots of Keiichi and Belldandy episodes, and develops both their characters and eventually their romance. (If you can call Keiichi blushing when they accidentally hold hands yet still wanting to live with this woman for the rest of his life and possibly the afterlife romantic. I'm pretty sure that's called "marriage" in most other cultures, dude.)  At least this season they actually do hold hands. I'm pretty sure Belldandy kisses him on the cheek in that episode where he buys her a nice gift. At the same that the romance stagnates, Funimation and NYAV Post decide to drop the "Mr. Keiichi" about three episodes in. Belldandy still says "Keiichi-san" in the Japanese because half of her lines are "Oh, Keiichi" to match the number of mouthflaps, but I will take literally inaccurate over culturally awkward any day. Dropping the "Mr." also has the added benefit of catapulting their relationship forward about ten steps and making everything so much more comfortable to watch. Maybe the relationship hasn't actually progressed that far in Japanese, but I don't care.
The early bunch of episodes which are just a bunch of one-shots, are therefore fairly enjoyable. Belldandy hand-knits Keiichi a sweater, Keiichi, with Urd's help (in a character-developing and not bad-advice sort of way) gets Belldandy a Christmas present, and Belldandy gets drunk at Sayoko's Christmas party. All in all, a cute bunch of episodes with very little things-going-ridiculously-wrong plot lines and actual advancement of Keiichi and Belldandy's relationship thanks greatly to dropping "Mr. Keiichi".

This new closeness is very necessary for the next story arc with Peorth to make any sense at all. Peorth, yet another goddess accidentally summoned by Keiichi to fulfill a wish, confronts Belldandy with the fact that she's not doing anything romantically (see: sexually) for Keiichi. Belldandy and Keiichi struggle with whether or not their relationship is in the right place. Peorth provides a wonderful change of pace, despite the pool episode being one of the worst of the series. Did I mentioned I hate date-gone-awry humor? Peorth herself is smug and scantily-clad, even moreso than Urd. (Keiichi humorously points out that no one pays attention to Peorth in a bathing suit because she's usually that un-clothed to begin with.) Peorth has a grudge against Belldandy from long ago, but clearly looks up to her as a goddess. The misunderstanding between Peorth and Belldandy turns out to be silly, but at least the other characters have the sense to point that fact out. Despite her aggressive and arrogant nature, Peorth contrasts nicely with all of the other goddesses, and when her mission is complete, she actually leaves.

Then we move onto Skuld and Urd's story arcs, in which Belldandy and Keiichi fall into this weird parental role. Their love and relationship reaffirmed from the Peorth arc, they just sit in the background and provide moral support for a while. The arcs do wonders for both Urd and Skuld, though for Urd moreso in Skuld's arc than in her own. Finally, the last bunch of episodes go back to Belldandy and Keiichi... and fall flat on their faces. Hild, a new villain, is good for all of one episode, and then just becomes a stupid gag. Belldandy gets some more character development, and in necessary ways, but poorly executed. What this series really needed to end with was some actual romance.

Now to the technical aspects. Animation. Is. Horrible. Especially in the last 5 or so episodes. Gone are the days when I just complained about static shots. Proportions are all out of whack, from limbs to facial expressions to hair to everything. Just flat out cheap, bad animation. They save the budget for the last episode, which has an interesting concept, but a somewhat confusing ending. Voice acting for all the major characters is roughly the same. Skuld becomes a lot less annoying, though this might be more due to her character development. In some fun dubbing shout-outs, the OVA voice of Belldandy plays Peorth and the OVA voice of Urd plays Hild. Both fit very nicely into their new roles, and once I watch the OVA, I'm sure I will appreciate them even more. Veronica Taylor and Dan Green deserve mention as well, playing the old Auto Club manager and Urd's ex-boyfriend respectively. Dan Green is hilarious, even if I hate the way Urd's character is written at the end of the episode, and I do not agree with the decision to leave Troubador's performance in Japanese.  Oh, and Eileen Stevens and Karen Neiil also deserve mention for their nice job singing in Sayoko's Christmas party episode.

The closing themes are nothing special, but the opening is almost as good as "Open Your Mind"! "Shiawase no Iro" uses bagpipes instead of violin and woodwind, and even suggests it is Belldandy herself playing the bagpipes and singing the song at times, which is pretty darned cool. I love Belldandy, did I ever mention that? I like the far-away cameos in the theme song to introduce some minor characters but not be as in-your-face as the typical theme song. The subtle cameos fit the music much better, and when the close-up theme song shots of Peorth and Hild do come up, it's when the music picks up and the electric guitars come in, so the change is appropriate.  It's much better than the average theme song.

Overall, I have to say that I enjoyed the second season a lot more. I don't know if this was because I was already in the mood to watch it, if I had lower expectations, or if it really was better. The character development is much better for all characters, but once again, the writing quality is inconsistent. The beginning and middle are much better than the end. If they had just saved the Lord of Terror for this season. Just go watch the ending theme from the first season finale to help when you don't get enough romance. I plan on reading the manga now that I've invested all of this time into the anime and actually rather enjoyed it. I will also watch the movie, which I've seen lots of people cosplaying and has a cool other character.


+ Better character development and story arcs all around, minor roles get better voice actors, good opening, good at what it does--make you feel good and love Belldandy.

- ANIMATION. Romance episodes sometimes just remind us that Keiichi and Belldandy love each other and don't actually change anything, bad finale, inconsistent characterization and plot points. (Belldandy can't go back to heaven because it might take her 50 years to come back--anyone remember that from season 1? Certainly not the writers.)

Overall Rating: C+

Review -- Ah! My Goddess

My tastes in anime series usually have less to do with genre and more to do with what people recommend. I've been a fan of everything from mecha to slice-of-life to magical girl. But one thing I still typically shy away from is romantic comedy. Not that I don't love a good rom-com. But keyword there is good. I cringe at dates-gone-awry, panty shots, and a complete and utter lack of plot beyond "this boy and girl are in middle/high school and like each other. Cue beach episode." Ah! My Goddess doesn't share all of these traits (see: complete lack of anything sexual, including panty shots) but enough of them to make me want to smack my head off a wall more than once. The main character is an average college student who has absolutely nothing to offer the goddess who has fallen into his lap. His love interest is said goddess, who is literally perfect. And she is bound to stay with him forever.  But somehow, something charmed me into watching all 24 episodes. I can't say I regret it, since I'm watching the second season now. But I also can't say it's anywhere near as good (or unique) as Princess Tutu, Trigun, or Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, all of which I spent last Christmas break watching. Ah! My Goddess is less sexual and more charming than it sounds, but at about the exact same quality level you expect it to be.

Keiichi Morisato is a really nice guy. The anime adds nearly an episode of character development for Keiichi before it reaches the opening scene of the manga where Belldandy appears. Said episode is just an ordinary day in the life of Mr. Morisato in which he does his best to help any and all people around him, but without the annoying "MY LIFE IS DEDCIATED TO HELPING PEOPLE RAWR HELPING-PEOPLE-SMASH" of Shiro from Fate/Stay Night, another series I was led to believe is much better than it actually is. (But that's a story for another review.) In the case of AMG, I was misled by the opening theme. I was playing a "guess the anime by opening theme" quiz and "Open Your Mind" was included. If you just clicked on the link and watched, I think you can understand why. The Celtic-inspired strings and woodwinds and the simple yet appealing animation in the opening were quite intriguing, and I was looking for something light and romantic to watch, so I gave it a try.

So Keiichi is a really great decent guy. His luck is terrible and his life kind of sucks, but he continues to help people. His roommates go to a party and stick Keiichi with all the chores--and he does them! He's in a hurry, but runs into a little girl looking for her mom's wallet, so he stops to help her. By the time he accidentally dials the goddess helpline, we're rooting for him. Upon answering the phone, first-class, second category, unlimited liscense goddess Belldandy (based on the Norse god Verdandi but mis-romanized) pops out of Keiichi's mirror and promises to grant him one wish. Any wish. His lack of self-confidence leads him to believe that she can't be serious and that his auto club buddies are just pranking him because she's so hot and he's a short, penniless loser. After sincerely complimenting him and boosting his confidence about tenfold, Keiichi wishes to have a godddess like Belldandy stay by his side... forever.

Belldandy for one brief moment finds herself panic-ridden at the thought of staying on Earth with Keiichi forever, and then recovers and attaches herself to him--figuratively speaking, as the most romantic the first season gets is looking at each and blushing. I don't know if they even really hold hands. Surely the physically closest they get is that episode where some sort of potion goes awry and Belldandy gets turned into a total tramp. The first bunch of episodes involve Keiichi and Belldandy adjusting to their new lifestyle. Since they are bound by contract, Belldandy must stay by Keiichi's side or risk the wrath of the "system force" which brings about misfortune to those trying to separate the two and thus break their contract.

After school adventures and the system force start to wear out their welcome, Urd, Belldandy's older sister joins the pair. She is followed by Skuld, the younger sister, a handful of episodes later, and thankfully the added women do not cause the series to devolve into a harem anime. Urd is by far the better character, partly due to a great voice actor, partly because Skuld is just that annoying, and partly because Urd is loads of fun. All other supporting characters, from the demon Mara, to the other university students, are almost entirely comic relief and severely underdeveloped. They are cardboard cutouts used like backgrounds to make things look more interesting--and the backgrounds do a better job.  Backgrounds are the high point of the animation, which is just good enough to stay consistent throughout, but not good enough to impress anyone. The overall look of the series is pleasant and as brightly colored as it can be without getting unrealistic, but static.

The high point of the series is Belldandy herself. Odds are, if you don't like her, you won't like the series either and this review is a waste of time, but if you like the series, you love Belldandy. She's completely perfect. She's a wonderful person, always positive, helpful, kind, compassionate, attractive, powerful, a good cook, a fantastic singer, need I go on? She ought to be a total Mary-Sue and completley repulsive. But like Tohru Honda of Fruits Basket, she is completely sincere in her efforts and therefore somehow the most likable of all characters. Her complete (and not altogether unwarranted) devotion to Keiichi is more touching and charming than annoying, which is the series' saving grace. Once we clear that awkward "I'm happy to be forced to serve you for the rest of my existence simply because you wished it" phase and get into the "I'm in love with you and I want to be with you of my own free will" stage, her status as BEST CHARACTER is cemented.

All the dub voice actors save Eileen Stevens (Belldandy), Shannon Conley, credited as Vibe Jones (Urd), and Emily Bauer, credited as Emily Blau (Megumi) are annoying, just to varying degrees. (Peorth of the second season isn't too bad, but I'll limit myself to discussing the first) Mara, Den and Dai, Hasegawa, and especially that pervy guy with the long name are all pretty terrible. Keiichi and Sayoko never get worse than "mediocre" and usually are about average, but they're not winning any acting awards. This isn't so bad for Sayoko, but Keiichi's our main character! His actor doesn't have that much material to work with, though, and he does get some points for a hilarious job in the final episode of the series, but Eileen Stevens gets more points for making me actually care about her character. In fact, Eileen Stevens is my very favorite part of the entire anime, save for the brilliant opening theme.

The music is another high point of the series, though like the backgrounds, it isn't enough to completely redeem it. The opener is one of the best in all anime. The vaguely-Celtic-and-hopefully-Norse-but-I-don't-know-anything-about-Norse-music inspirations for the opening theme (and a little in the first ending theme, too) give it just enough mysticism to set it apart from every other bland pop opening. The waltzing, flowing 3-count matches perfectly to the lyrics and visuals of wind and flying.Yoko Ishida does a great job with both the opening and closing, especially since it is her ending used for the final episode. The animation for the opening is simple, but unlike the rest of the series, very expressive. The bit where Belldandy floats down into Keiichi's arms makes watching the rest of the lame episode worth it. Choosing to play down the rom-com in the opening was the right choice, and makes "Open Your Mind" my new favorite opening theme. The soundtrack is similarly heavy on strings and woodwinds, and is fitting, but less memorable than any of the theme music.

Overall, Ah! My Goddess is a charming little series. It's nothing really special when it comes to anime. You might be better off watching the first and last six episodes and just skipping the twelve in between. It's just school adventure after school adventure. The second season is starting to get quite interesting, and focuses much more on Keiichi and Belldandy's romantic relationship instead of all the things around their relationship. If you need a good romantic comedy, give it a try. If you don't like it after six or seven episodes, then I recommend either skipping ahead or dropping it altogether. It doesn't get much better.

The entire first season is available to watch on youtube from Media Blasters. The second season is likewise available, with the same voice actors, from Funimation. This review does not cover the second season.

Overall Rating: C

+ Belldandy is a great character with a great voice actor. Keiichi starts off strong. Urd is hilarious (also great voice actor!) Colorful, detailed backgrounds. Cute, innocent romance. Nice music. Fantastic opening theme, and a very good first ending theme.
- Romance never gets more romantic than looking wistfully at each other and blushing. Uses "date gone awry" plotline three or four too many times. Characters that aren't Keiichi or the goddesses are underdeveloped and/or annoying. Animation is static. Really fantastic plot lines in the final few episodes are destroyed by pacing and some big fat deus ex machinas.

Review -- Last Exile

In the country of Anatoray, Claus Valca and Lavie Head are a pilot and navigator pair, following in their fathers' footsteps. They fly a Vanship, a sort of flying car that looks like something you'd see in a Miyazaki movie. One day they find a fellow vanship pilot grounded and injured. His cargo is a little girl, and he is to deliver her to the Silvanna, the most feared warship in the skies, captained by the stoic Holland Novak--I mean, Alex Row. They accept the mission, deliver Al--the girl--to Alex and the Silvanna and are thrown into a war between the Guild, the elite alien ruling body of this world, and the countries of Anatoray and Disith. Last Exile has great potential, but in the end, it's lousy. At first, I thought it was a combination of Eureka Seven and Fullmetal Alchemist. That observation is based purely on setting and character types. In terms of quality, it's more like a combination of Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lover (Pocketful of Rainbows) and Conqueror of Shamballa.

The series starts off well enough. Claus and Lavie are likable enough. But once the plot shows up, everything gets confusing, quick. Said plot does its best to hide itself in cryptic one-liners and references to some MacGuffin called "Exile". Once revealed, the plot is actually very simple: Maestro Delphine, leader of The Guild, is evil. Exile is super powerful. Al is the only one who can control it. (for reasons that are never revealed) Alex wants revenge on Delphine. There's also some feuding between Disith and Anatoray, but really, Exile is the only important thing. And no one knows what the heck it is!

Meanwhile, there's lots of shoddy character development. Claus and Lavie start off like Ed and Winry, best friends from childhood minus any romantic undertones.... but then they randomly don't like each other about halfway through the series. I understand the whole "I don't want to fly a fighting vanship" thing that Lavie goes through, but they never resolve their conflict, they never EXPLAIN their conflict, and I'm supposed to believe that everything can go back to normal? No, sorry show, I need more than that. Dio, runaway younger brother of Delphine makes no sense. Why does he go to the Silvana? If he hates Delphine so much, why didn't he run away before? Sophia has a huge spoiler-y backstory that... kind of makes sense. I would think she'd run to somewhere less obvious if she wanted to run away from home, but whatever, I can deal. What I CAN'T deal with is her randomly kissing a man that is not Alex, and never explaining why.

I also can't deal with Tatiana's errant behavior... she's mean to everyone, she's mean to Alis, she's having a nervous breakdown, she's nice to Claus, she's mean, she's nice, she gives no explanation.

I could continue with all the character "development" that I hate, but there are a couple of good characters, Mullin and Dunya. Mullin is a soldier of Anatory, and has survived 18 times. If he survives two more battles, he can be assigned to any ship he likes. The class struggle really comes out in his character. He and the other soldiers are forced to shoot at each other from their airships. There's no point to it, though. It's like the old-fashioned fighting that lost the British the Revolutionary War. Meanwhile, the higher-ups sit safely on the bridge, preaching about "honor" and not caring for any loss of life. It's this conflict between the upper and lower classes that make the first few episodes really good, for it is a mission to Mullin's ship that introduces Claus and Lavie's job as Vanship couriers.

Dunya is a Disith soldier, and she doesn't show up until later in the series. I recommend not watching that far, so I might as well not even talking about her.

The backstory of the world itself is never fully developed, either. There's some kind of feud between Disith and Anatoray. Claus and Lavie's fathers were trying to deliver a peace message via Vanship, but failed because they could not cross the Grand Stream. Why didn't Anatoray just send a warship? Why didn't the Vanship fly lower and take its time? Why didn't they travel by land or sea? What is the geography of the land? How far away are Disith and Anatoray? Why is the Guild all-powerful? Why are they aliens? I should not have this many questions. Everything's just presented as factual, and the audience is supposed to accept it. I've seen shows where that works, but sadly, Last Exile is not one of them.

On the plus side, animation is great, because this was done for Gonzo's 10th anniversary. Even the obvious!CG is far ahead of its time. The style isn't my favorite, but it suits the series. Everything is very realistic, with muted, industrial colors for the human characters, and flashy bright whites, silvers and golds for the Guild. Battle scenes can get a little confusing, but for the most part, animation is fluid and easy to understand. I say "on the most part" because in the last episode, I had NO IDEA what was happening. The ending itself is weird and stupid, and I hate it. It's not even that bad, I just hated it.

Acting is okay, but nothing extra special. I watched in Japanese, so I can't comment on the dub much. I watched the trailers, and half of the actors are just type-cast from Eureka Seven. I can't take the show seriously when the actors don't even change their voices significantly. From the trailer, I hate the dub.

Overall, Last Exile is visually pretty cool... and a train wreck with everything else. Story and characters make little sense, and don't really try to.

+Cool CG, interesting concept, good first couple of episodes

-Story is too complicated, setting isn't properly introduced, characters are inconsistent, ending is crazy and off-putting

Rating: C-. Even a cheesy average shojo high school fluff piece can make you feel happy, but this mess is just depressing.

Review -- Princess Tutu

Princess Tutu is the most surprising series I've seen all year--or it would have been if every single person I know who's seen it hadn't told me how awesome it is. Shakugan no Shana appealed because I was in the mood for some typical shonen, Durarara!! was by the folks that made Baccano!, so I had high expectations, 5D's is both the best and worst show I've ever seen, and Trigun's overrated. But how can you help but expect anything but ridiculous, cutesy, over-the-top shojo from a show called Princess Tutu?

There is a fairly accurate fandom nickname of "Guitar Ninjas" for this show. I don't like the name, now that I've seen PT, because it threw off my expections wildly. I expected Code Geass or Evaneglion, and instead, I got the best fairy tale anyone's ever told. It's not Guitar Ninjas. Nothing comes out and punches you in the face. Rather it sneaks up on you, and before you know it, it's got hold of your heart and you're crying right along with Duck, Rue, Fakir, and Mytho.

The basic plot is simple enough. A duck wants to dance with the princely young man. A young teenage girl wants to be a ballerina. A magical girl wants to restore the broken pieces of the prince's heart. They all just happen to be the same person. Duck is literally a duck, but with the help of a mysterious man named Drosselmeyer, she becomes a human girl. The pendant that allows her to be a girl also has the power to transform her into Princess Tutu, legendary minor character in the fictional fairy tale, "The Prince and the Raven". In the story, Princess Tutu does something small, confesses her love to the prince, and turns into a speck of light because of it. That's it. Duck does not realize her character's part in the old story till a few episodes in, nor Tutu's tragic destiny. Because how can she be the very same character? She's herself, not part of the story written a thousand years ago. Stories within stories within stories that crossover with other stories and reference other stories doesn't even cover how complicated Princess Tutu gets. And yet, the most essential parts of the plot are quite straightforward. The audience's confusion typically mirrors the characters' own confusion, and by the end of the series, everything wraps up nicely.

Speaking of characters, they're all quite well-written. I must admit that I don't like all of the designs (see: Fakir's hair) but Tutu and Krahe's costumes make up for any other shortcomings. Mytho is the weakest character, since the plot point is that he has no emotions whatsoever. But even emotionless Mytho develops over time (well, the other plot point is that he is slowly regaining his emotions...) and Duck, Fakir, and Rue develop three times more than your average anime, movie, book, or any fictional story with character development, and that is the series strongest point. With only 4 main characters, it better be a strong character series. Even the rest of the supporting cast only consists of Drosslemeyer, Edel, Mr. Cat, [insert spoiler here] villain of season 2, and Duck's useless friends. There's a couple more, but for the most part, episodes focus on characters that appear for only their episode. Despite this episodic plot, each episode is carefully written to further the story, and no episode is extraneous. Princess Tutu is truly an achievement in storytelling.

The art's not too bad, either. The animation uses all of the usual anime shortcuts--long shots with no more movement than blinking, but besides these occasional static shots, the animation is quite good, especially in regards to expressions and ballet movements. The design is where the art really shines. Gold Crown Town is straight out of a Grimm Brothers story. I really wish there were more town scenes just so we could see it. The magical Princess Tutu dancing backgrounds are interesting and all, but usually not that detailed. The streets or buildings are usually far more interesting than the empty landscapes that magically appear every now and then during a climatic dance. For Princess Tutu doesn't exactly fight, she dances with people and this lets them realize their true feelings. Since the battle is to regain a piece of a heart shard that has latched onto an unsuspecting victim, this method isn't as stupid as it sounds. The fact that the show is steeped in ballet, ballet, and more ballet makes it all the more believable.

The ballet references are most obvious in the score, almost all of which is taken straight from classical ballet. The rest is just classical ballet music in new arrangements. For example, the series uses many variations on the prologue to The Nutcracker, Duck's theme. Tchaikovsky is the dominant composer, and The Nutcracker and Swan Lake are the two most referenced ballets, so even those of us with little ballet knowledge (see: me) can understand and appreciate the series. And boy, do I appreciate it. It is one of my top five favorite series of all time, and probably the best thing I've seen since Cowboy Bebop. I watched Trigun the week after Princess Tutu and I was bored. Vash is great and all, but he can't hold a candle to Duck, Fakir, Rue, or even Mytho. Poor, emotionless Mytho. (pronoucned "Miu-toh", not "myth-o")

The English dub is very good, and I agree with ADV's decision to translate Ahiru's name into English. Duck is Duck, and she wouldn't be Duck without her silly name. Jessica Boone is my favorite, but that's probably because Rue is my favorite. If I attempted to be unbiased, then Luci Christian as Duck is probably the most solid performance, and with a look at her resume, it's no wonder why. She makes Duck likable and sympathetic, and keeps her from devolving into just annoying, which could easily have happened. Oh, and I should cover the opening theme, though there's not much more to say than it exists, it introduces the characters, and it's cute. The quiet waltzing 3-count is quite appropriate for the series, but not all that memorable. Solid, but not special for the opening theme. The ending theme is so average, I probably only ever watched it once all the way through. Don't even bother with that one.

Overall, a fantastic series, and one I recommend to any fans of entertainment, but especially to anime fans and anyone with any knowledge of ballet. The series is currently available on youtube, but when I went to link to the page for the entire series, it told me "show is not available". Here's episode 1, but watch it now--it might go away. Or you could just buy the whole thing for only $25! Believe me, that's a steal, and well worth the money. You will want to rewatch it and share it.

- Pacing can be a little slow at first before you realize it's all necessary. Character designs get to be a little silly. Talking animals?? Mr. Cat is creepy. Pique and Lillie exist only for stupid comic relief and occasional exposition, and in the second season, Lillie is just downright creepy.

+ Character development is phenomenal. Art is appealing, colorful, and great ballet animation. Tutu and Krahe costumes (and anything to do with the Raven) are all very well designed. Plot is interesting and complicated, but resolves. Music is all taken from ballets. Ending is heartwarming and surprising, and a little hit-or-miss, but I love it all the same.

Rating: A

First Impressions -- Darker Than Black

I REALLY hate the New York Film Academy commercials on youtube.

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I wanted to re-watch some Romeo x Juliet, but the only legal site I know is Toonzaki, and Hulu doesn't like my internet. So I scrolled through FUNi's youtube and decided to give Darker Than Black a try.

Tokyo is surrounded by a huge wall, nicknamed "Hell's Gate". It keeps in all the Contractors, human-like creatures with supernatural powers. Our main character seems to be such a being, though episode 2 will tell for sure. His name is Li something I couldn't catch. There is something mysterious about him. His new neighbor is a woman who stole some classified information. Li killed some guy that was friends with her, but now is helping her, and we're not supposed to understand yet. The romance part of the preview doesn't look that interesting, but the action does.

Animation's nice. Character designs are simple, but not too special. Yoko Kanno does the music, so I'm psyched to watch more. Concept is interesting. Hopefully it won't get too cheesy.

On first impression, I want to watch more.

Review -- Durarara!!

I need a new title for this blog. Any suggestions?

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Brain's Base, Takahiro Omori, and Ryohgo Narita, you have done it again. I adored Baccano!. It's one of my new favorite series of all time. Jacuzzi and Nice are one of my favorite pairings. Right now, I'm tempted to say Durarara!! is one of my favorites, but only a few weeks and a new series will test that. While DRRR doesn't have any new favorite pairings--something very odd for any "favorite" series of mine--it has one of my new favorite characters, Celty Sturlson.

My first impression was that Mikado and Kida were not the main characters, merely a way to introduce the series. They are the main characters, especially in the second half of the series. They aren't the strongest main characters at first because they have no apparent skills. Mikado never left his hometown before the start of the series. Kida spends the first episode showing Mikado around Ikebukuro and introducing him to all the characters. Durarara!! is very character-driven, moreseo than Baccano! DRRR is also chronological. It's less straightforward plot and more just people interacting with each other. Mikado, Kida, and Anri are seemingly ordinary high school students. Kadota, Walker, Erika, and Togusa can basically just be lumped into "those people with Kadota", because they always appear together. Shizuo Heiwajima is a bartender with super-human strength who really hates Izaya Orihara, a twisted information broker. Izaya is behind most events in the series. Our "main" character is Celty Sturlson, a dullahan. There's another bunch of people, Simon, Seiji, Harima, Namie, Shinra, but you'll meet them in the theme song.

Animation is superb, with extreme detail to the setting as far as I can tell, but I've never been to Ikebukuro. Character designs are distinctive, and I had no trouble telling people apart like I did in Baccano!. Celty's effects get a special mention. She has the power to manipulate a smoke-shadow-like substance at will, and black smoke stuff constantly comes out of her neck, all of which is animated well. She cannot speak, having no head, so communicates with a PDA. I am super excited to see Kari Walhgren play her in the dub, because Celty is just about the coolest character ever, and not just because she's a motorcycling headless Irish god of death. She lives with Shinra, a mildly eccentric underground doctor. They met when he was 4. Celty doesn't age. She's 200ish, and immortal-ish. Her wounds heal, and as we've established, she has no head. It is in Ikebukuro somewhere, and she's trying to find it. That's about all the plot we get. Mikado's just living in Ikebukuro. Izaya is up to something undefined until late in the series. He is also one of the most infuriating villains I've seen--infuriating in a good way. He's twisted, all-powerful, and has no redeeming qualities at all. He's nothing but villain.

The first half of the series (episodes 1-12) spends a lot of time developing characters and setting up for the second half, since there's no real plot right away. The first 7 or 8 episodes can drag because of that. While Celty's backstory is fascinating and unique, it's backstory. The second half of the series (episodes 13-24) hits you with all the things it hinted at in the first 12 episodes.

I watched DRRR subbed because that's all we've got so far.The dub will be released by Aniplex America around January 2011. Here's the English site, where you can check for more casting announcements. Mikado, Celty, and Shizuo are up, and respectively are Darrel Guibeau, Kari Wahlgren, and the very appropriately cast Crispin Freeman. Masaomi, Izaya, and Anri will be announced tomorrow. The entire series is subbed and legal on Crunchyroll, free in 360p. If you sign up for a paid account, you can watch in HD (720p).

Opening and ending themes beat Baccano! because "Trust Me" is my new favorite ending theme. I never even got through Baccano!'s ending theme. Second DRRR ending theme isn't as strong, but both opening themes really hit on the mood of the series, and have the familiar helpful character reminders. The first opening, "Uragiri no Yuuyake", is a little more classic rock and orients the series more towards the action side, while still staying a little mysterious--basically, Mikado's view of Ikebukuro. A fun, action-packed city that he knows nothing about. "Complication", the second theme, has a slightly melancholy feel to it, and is a little more mellow but driving pop-rock. The second half of the series matches that melancholy, as it strips our main trio of their innocence while the city wages war on itself. I didn't like "Complication" at first, but now that I do, I'm crazy about it.

Durarara!! is a fascinating series. I've never heard of a dullahan outside of anything but the headless horseman myth, let alone in modern Tokyo on a motorcycle. The early episodes of character development really drag the series down, and it took me a while to get through them, where it took me about a week to finish the last 10 episodes. Also, since there's so much time spent developing characters, it takes a while to like characters. Mikado seems pretty useless until about episode 10. Kida gets more points for knowing a lot of people, and for having Mamoru Miyano as a voice actor, but he takes a while, too. Celty and Shizuo are the only really strong main characters early on.

Rating: A

+ Unique! Celty is an awesome character. Animation, voice acting, opening and ending themes are all good. Everything ties together by the end of the series. Second half plot is awesome. All the characters turn out to be really cool. Did I mention it's unique?

-Character development takes a while. Early part of the series drags. Ending doesn't tie up all the loose ends. I hope there's some OVAs.

Review -- Fruits Basket (manga)

Fruits Basket the anime is one of the most boring things I have ever watched. Ranks right up there with "Plan 9 From Outer Space", which had me dozing in 15 minutes. The slow, relationship-driven romantic comedy of Furuba is not meant for the screen. On the page, however, it manages to charm a reader expecting a Mary-Sue in a reverse harem. Tohru Honda should be the epitome of a "Mary Sue", a very badly written female main character, but somehow she is not.

She exhibits many Mary Sue traits including, and not limited to:

-Everyone loves her

-She lives in a house full of pretty boys

-The boys all love her

-She's super nice

-She's clumsy

-Her parents are dead

-The boys are also magic

Her redeeming qualities overcome this seemingly indefeatable list of stupid, boring, badly-written character traits. These are: that she is great at housework, but awful at schoolwork. Being awful at schoolwork is never ever ever a major plot point. (just a very tiny one) She never tries to decide which boy she loves best. She never even thinks about the boys directly. All her thoughts about feelings for the boy are indirect, only shown to the reader when another character specifically asks. While the boys are magic, Tohru is not. Most of all, while everyone likes her, they like her for perfectly believable reasons. She's not super-powered-princess-magic-rainbow-ninja shojo!heroine, she's an empathetic every(wo)man.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We need a plot summary before I gush about Tohru. Tohru Honda is a perfectly normal high school girl. Through circumstances that involve her parents being dead and all her relatives being jerks, she starts the series living in a tent. Shigure Sohma, a thirty-something writer, and Yuki Sohma, Tohru's classmate, find her tenting on their property, and invite her to live in their house. Tohru then discovers their secret! When hugged by someone of the opposite gender, certain members of the Sohma family turn into the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, plus the cat. Said cat, Kyo Sohma, soon joins them in the house.

Yes. They turn into animals. Fruits Basket is one of those "pfffft, WHAT did you say it's about? XD" series. After a few volumes of Tohru falling into the boys every other page, things get more serious. The cast expands. Besides our core cast of Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure--the rat, cat, and dog, respectively--Kagura, Momiji, Hatori, Hatsuharu, and half a dozen others fill the menagerie. Besides the possessed Sohmas, there's all their relatives, high school classmates, adoptive parents, and significant others to keep track of. Everyone has their own distinct personality, though their designs can blur together. Art improves as the series goes on, and becomes very clear and sharp. While the series seems to have the same number of backgrounds as a below-average shojo series, one every three or four pages, this is usually because a character is having an internal monologue, or another situation where backgrounds are not needed. Takaya does a very good job with backgrounds.

Relationships are what drive this series. Each volume is a little collection of short stories about various characters. They just happen to play out chronologically in 23 volumes. Kagura and Kyo, Yuki and Akito, Kyo and his parents, Momiji and his sister, Hatori and Kaya, Hiro and Kisa, and so on, and so forth. The series has long storylines that keep everything tied together, but each volume usually has some story that could stand alone, and this keep things moving even when yes, Tohru still hasn't confessed her love, and no, they're not out of high school yet. The relationships are all different, and not as cliched as they sound. No one spends too much time angsting, even poor excluded Kyo. Everything remains pretty realistic, save one gaping hole in volume 21.

I'm happy with the pacing throughout the series, but your mileage may vary. Like I said, the little stories that get resolved every so often keep things moving, even though the main action is taking a while. Volume 23 is almost entirely unnecessary, and feels like a drawn-out epilogue just to squeeze one last volume out of the series. I have mixed feelings about that--it's unnecessary, but I'm glad Kakeru, Machi, and Ren all got their own covers. Volume 21 doesn't screw up the pacing, but it tests suspension of disbelief too much. Even more than people transforming into animals.

Overall, a surprisingly good series. Realistic, interesting relationships that keep the story fresh even when the main storyline isn't clear and drags. Tohru is a perfect main character to tie everyone together. This review is only for the manga. The anime is boring and a bad medium for this story. Stick with the manga on this one.

Rating: B+

- No plot for the early part of the series, plot drags on when it does show up, some confusing character designs, cliched dialouge, stretches suspension of disbelief, everyone cries entirely too easily.

+ Interesting relationships, short stories help with the pacing, clear background artwork, believable main character, well-measured angst. Emotion trumps believability in this one.

Review -- Shakugan no Shana

For a show that started out so abysmally, I sure do love it. There's nothing all that special about Shakugan no Shana, but it's a nice kind of ordinary show. I like to think of it as comfort food.

My first impression of Shakugan no Shana was that it was another run-of-the-mill shonen series. The only reason I watched episode 2 was because of a plot point thrown out at the end of the episode--Yuji is actually dead. This intrigued me, and I watched again. Episode 2 was too much high school for my taste, but also caught my interest at the very end of the episode. Plus, if he's dead and going to disappear soon, how does this show keep going?

I continued to watch, and while it didn't pack a punch, it did pay off. Shakugan no Shana fit into most shonen tropes, but had little variations here and there that were enough to make for a good watch. Cool Big Sis antagonist showed up right on schedule in episode 4, but her partner was a very unique character, and in the form of a book, of all things. Cool Big Sis, Margery, has a decidedly stereotypical past, but has a unique relationship with a couple of Yuji's classmates, earning the "Big Sis" part of her TV trope. Yuji wants to learn how to fight partway through the series, but he never gets good enough to come close to being as useful as Shana or any other Flame Haze. The show stays decidedly in the genre mold, but there's a reason that mold exists. It works. The most unique concept is the nature of people in the series. Yuji himself is a "torch", a replacement for a person who's been killed. Allowing the person to disappear would upset the balance of the world, so whenever a denizen or rinne kills a person, a torch replaces them and it gradually disappears. Torches are not human. They are only things, a fact that Yuji, Shana, and most characters in the show struggle with. These struggles are not enough to overpower the standard fighting-comedy-romance-drama of the series, but add a nice flavor.

The characters are almost all likable, and that helps a lot. Yuji defines himself in episode 2 when he insists that both he and the Flaming Haired, Blazing Eyed hunter are not "only" a torch and a flame haze. Shana is a good fighter and witty right off the bat, and develops a more human side as the series wears on. Yuji, in turn, makes himself more useful, but is always in the realm of everyman that can be related to. Together, they make a good main character duo.

The supporting cast is fairly good. Margery and Marco, Eita and Keisaku, and Ogata are the best. Kazumi is just to make the love triangle, and Ike, though seeming to be important, eventually only exists to make it a love square. The aforementioned five make up for those two, but it would still be nice to have a less annoying love triangle.

The blond denizen siblings whose names I forget are some of the creepiest villains I've seen in a long while. Their distinctiveness is good for making the series stand out, but man, were they weird. Names are the most unique part of characters. All Flame Hazes and Crimson Denizens and Lords have unique names like "Flaming Haired, Blazing Eyed Hunter"; "Chanter of Elegies"; "Thousand Changes"; "Judge of Paradoxes". Those were pretty darned cool.

Animation is standard, except for the cool cinders effect on Shana's hair. That's a nice touch. Voice acting was fine in English. Wilhelmina's "indeed"s are not at all the meaning of her Japanese speech pattern, "de arimasu" (the full form of "desu", "to be"), but the only other way to translate it would to have her never speak in contractions, which wouldn't have the same effect because Japanese Wilhelmina uses "de arimasu" at the end of every sentence. I'm fine with the overused "indeed" translation. It's her name that I'm more annoyed by, the same way I dislike "Kallen" in Code Geass. There is an actual name "Wilhelmina", with an L, but it's translated as Wirhelmina, with an R. I also am not very fond of her voice, but I don't like her character AT ALL, so that's probably why. I can't entirely explain why I dislike her, but I do. The rest of the voice acting is good. Tabitha St. Germian nails Shana's "shut up, shut up, shut up!".

There's really not much else to say about Shakugan no Shana. Overall, a very average series, but in a good way. Not a show I would normally like, but since it followed bizarre shows like Durarara, Baccano!, and especially Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, anything looks good after season 3 of THAT, it was a nice change, and exactly what I wanted to watch. It may not be outstanding, but it's entertaining if you've got the time.

Rating: C+/B-

+ Good example of a shonen. Uses standard character tropes and plot devices, but does all the right things with them. Shana and Yuji make a good pair.

- Standard shonen-high-school-fighting-drama-romance-comedy. Doesn't really break the mold. Final villains need more introduction. Shana's backstory arc was obtrusive, too long, and left more questions than it answered. I hate Wilhelmina, Kazumi, and Ike.

Opinion/Anime #38 - Dub vs. Sub

I have this argument all the time, and an incident just now on MyAnimeList.net incited me to write about it.

The "dub vs. sub" debate stretches far and wide. It's a topic everyone is aware of, and probably one everyone talks about, but I hear very little of it. It's more an unspoken rule in the anime community that the sub is better than the dub. My impression is, if you watch the dub, you're just a fair-weather mainstream/Adult Swim anime fan, not a "true" anime fan. Only real fans go and illegally download fansubs.

While I love my anime community, we can be elitist pricks sometimes. This goes double for myself, for I have no right to judge those who like to watch subs. I do it all the time. But I get defensive about my uncommon love for dubs. I'll try to refrain from lashing out at fans who have every right to prefer the original Japanese to localized languages.

I am a filmmaker. One of the principles of filmmaking is mise-en-scene, which has many definitions, but basically refers to everything that appears before the camera. Other definitions are worked out by academics, and people who want to sound smart. Anyway, everything you see on the screen. While the audio is what was originally intended by the creators, the subtitles are not. Subtitles distract from what else is on the screen. I prefer to see the visuals as the creator intended, as opposed to listing to the audio as the creator intended.

But isn't the audio just as important? Sure, it is! But I don't know Japanese. I prefer to listen to English speakers. Differences in Japanese and English voice acting have very little bearing on most shows that have been dubbed within the past 10 years. I hate to pick on 4kids, but well, just about everything not dubbed by 4kids isn't that bad. There are exceptions, but English does not equal bad voice acting. Nor does it equal bad translation. Another complaint of dubs is that they don't accurately translate shows. One of the reasons for this is because fansubs (and scanlations) love to throw in stronger curse words than are actually being used. Hiruma in Eyeshield 21 isn't really saying "f***ing pipqueaks!" He actually does say "damn". The stronger word makes it look like they're translating more "accurately".

Finally, watching dubs supports the anime industry in America. There are companies out there that are busting their butts so we can watch this stuff, and hopefully so they can turn a profit. Instead of helping them to earn that profit, and in turn, help them acquire more shows, subs thumb their noses at the system and people who watch them just steal what they want.

Now, I watch fansubs. I'm a big fat hypocrite. I also watch dubs illegally online. Who am I to lecture you? No one. I'm awful. I get DVDs from the library, and I watch things on FUNi's youtube channel when I can, but in the end, if I want it, I'll stream it (preferably dubbed) from Animefreak.tv or the like. But I'll lecture anyway. Whether you give me any credit or not is up to you. I guess my real point here is, should you be one of those people who refuses to watch dubs, try to see it from the other point of view. I'm tired of getting so defensive about my dubs. There's merit to both subs and dubs. That's why we have these debates.

Opinions -- OneManga Closing

I'll be sorting my posts more and more, instead of just labeling everything "anime" like I used to. This "opinion" label will be just that, opinions on things going on in the anime world. I thought of having a "news" label, but a dedicated news site like ANN would be a much better place for you to get your anime news. I'll just offer my opinion when I have one.

Popular scanlation website OneManga announced last Thursday that it will close this week. For once, I think the fan reaction means nothing. Whether fans like it or not, OneManga is over. The importance of this is in the industry. I admit, I read Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Eyeshield 21 all on OneManga. I also buy all of those titles, which doesn't make what I did any less wrong, but it makes me feel better. Now, I will still finish buying those titles.

What does this mean to all the people who only read things online and did not pay? Theoretically, it will help the manga industry. There are other manga scan websites, though. Mangafox, for one, which has no notice of closing. Some people will shift to other websites, and some people will try to buy. There will always be somewhere online to find these things. But it's possible that OneManga closing might trigger some peoples' consciences, and they'll feel bad about not paying for the manga. I certainly do. I don't have the money to spend more than I already do, so I'll order more manga from the public library.

The industry's response should be to put manga online, but I don't know if it will happen as readily as it did for streaming anime. People are used to getting manga online, and they will want to continue. I hope some will be free, and some will be paid-only. For example, 3 chapters free, pay to download the rest of the volume or series.

This shakes up the industry all the way to Japan, though. Manga is printed. It's always been printed. Putting it online takes away the point of printing it. It hurts the printers, too. Anime has TV, DVD, and internet, but manga has only printing and internet. People like to own hard copies, but print is not as suited to download-to-own as video. It will be interesting to see if the manga companies offer download-to-own or not, and how well it does. Ad-based revenue might start to crop up to allow people to read manga online.

It's good of OneManga to step down. Now we wait and see what Viz, Tokyopop, Del Rey, and the like do with their new opportunity to reach the internet manga readers. I'm not too optimistic. Images are harder to control than video. More sites will pop up. Manga is harder to stick ad-based revenue on. I think that someone else will replace OneManga, and publishers will only have single chapters or the like available to read on their sites. I want to be optimistic because of how great FUNi has been about posting shows for free on youtube and its website, but I just don't see online manga taking off right now. A lot of people, myself included, like having a book in their hands. I'm glad their closing, and I hope this means that more titles get printed, not that another website takes over.

First Impressions -- Ultimate Venus

Ultimate Venus is one of the worst messes of a shojo I've ever seen. Yuzu's mom is dead, she's about to become heir to an extremely wealthy family, and there's at least 3 cute boys fighting for her right now. Not to mention she likes to wear glasses but looks much prettier without them, the main boy wants to protect her and has some mysterious connection to her past, she gets into ridiculous situations that the boys have to save her from, and she just started attending high school. There's so many cliches, I wouldn't be surprised if someone turned into an animal when hugged. I won't be reading this series any longer. I grabbed it from the library just because I wanted something to read, and it was awful. I could barely finish the first volume. The only positive thing I have to say is that the artwork is clear and easy to understand, even if it looks like every other shojo artist under the sun.

First and Last impressions rating: D

Review -- Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers

Fun fact! The original title of this movie was Eureka Seven: Pocketful of Rainbow. I have no idea why they changed the title. If anyone knows, can they let me know?

I actually went to see the movie in theaters. It was a supreme disappointment. I had just finished about the last 30 episodes of the series in just a few weeks, and I was psyched for the movie. Ew.

On rewatch, though, it was much better. My expectations were much lower, and I knew how it was going to differ from the series. As a stand-alone movie, it's not too bad. As a representation of the series, it's awful. Characterizations for the crew of the Gekko are way off. Dialogue's not so great. Animation is good, but could use a more oomph for a movie. Missed all the great music from the series. Fight scenes could have been better. Confusing as heck. Ending is weird. About the only really good thing is the romance.

Renton, son of scientists, and Eureka, a girl who can't live under the sun, are raised together when very young and become very attached to each other. One day, Eureka is taken away. Powerless at the time, Renton vows to rescue her. He enters the military and is soon assigned to the Independent Youths Unit 303 of the First Mobile Forces thanks to his exceptional performance alongside his Nirvash, a bio-mechanical armor/control system. Unknown to Renton, lies a plot to extinguish the alien invasion that is currently happening. It involves not only him, but Eureka too.

Eureka and Renton grew up together in the town of Warsawa. One day, army men took Eureka to experiment on her because when she is exposed to sunlight, her skin burns. Many years later, Renton is a military pilot and part of a mercenary regiment made up of members of the Gekko. Their mission is to capture Eureka, who has some connection to the EIZO, Corallian-like aliens. Renton brings Eureka back to the Gekko, overjoyed to be reunited, only to discover that the Gekko are a crew of rebels and are going to use Eureka for a mysterious, dark purpose.

Meanwhile, Coda Lovell is sent to investigate the murder of Dewey Sorenstram. Braya Mattingly is in charge of the Hammer of God, which will destroy the EIZO, but also most of the world and humanity.

Fans of the series will recognize that this is a complete reimagining of the series. Basic relationships are the same, characterizations are... sort of the same, but everything else is turned upside-down. It's a nice way to do a movie, instead of the typical side-story or summary of the series. I like the concept. A side-story wouldn't work so well in E7 because of the meticulously planned character development throughout the series. Straightforward fighting shonen series like Bleach, Naruto, Inuyasha, etc. have no problem cranking out as many movies as they can because of the nature of their shows. It was a good move for E7 to re-do the series.

The execution, though, was not as smooth as fans would like. The movie spends far too much time on exposition, and in the end, things still don't make sense. The crew of the Gekko are rough and unlikable. They need to use Eureka as they did in the original, but to different ends. Their reasons aren't that great, and I don't really care about any of them, not even with the plot twist that fans of the series can see coming.

I did like the shift from Dewy to Coda and Braya. Coda was a pretty cool character, and it's too bad that she's stuck discover so much exposition and can't do more cool things. I also liked the idea of reusing shots from the series, but in different ways. Usually shout-outs are in the form of cameos. This way still called out to fans of the series, but it didn't make non-fans feel like they were missing something. Cameos were still there, though, such as Dewey, Dr. Bear, Maria, and I believe William B. Baxter. Ray and Charles are notably missing, but I think their mechas make an appearance.

The best thing about re-doing E7 in 2 hours is that we get to skip straight to Eureka and Renton being a couple. If you cut the movie down to just cute moments between Eureka and Renton, it's worth just as much to the fans, and possibly less confusing. My favorite line of the movie is, without a doubt, "We're going on a date." Their back-and-forth "I'm going to die so you can live", "no I'M going to die so YOU can live!" gets old, but at least it's straightforward, unlike the rest of the plot.

Animation is good, but not movie-quality. The fight scenes are better than in the show, but few and far between, and still not as nice as they should be. Poor Holland spends all of his fight scenes dramatically shouting a line while the camera zooms in on his face. Every single fight scene.

Voice acting is superb. Crispin Freeman puts on a much more gravelly voice for villainous!Holland, Stephanie Sheh has a much more outgoing Eureka, and Johnny Bosch is much more comfortable with his Renton than he was in early episodes of the show. Kari Walhgren voices young and extremely old Anemone, with a completely different personality, and nails it. I have no complaints about any of the voice acting in the dub. I didn't get around to the sub yet.

Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers, is an interesting alternate take on the events in Eureka Seven, but falls short of its series. Too much exposition, stilted dialogue, bad characterization of everyone on board the Gekko, and a confusing ending are too much for a good romance and an interesting concept to overcome. Not even mascot!Nirvash is cute enough to redeem this movie. It's not so bad if you go into with with abysmal exceptions, which is what I did the second time around. It's still enjoyable, and I think fans should give it a look. It's only 2 hours. If it was between watching this movie and reading the graphic novels, I'd watch the movie because it's a different take on the series.

Rating: C+

+Focuses on interesting lesser characters like Coda and Braya. Renton and Eureka get to skip development and jump right into the relationship. Voice acting is really good

-Confusing plot, confusing ending, bad characterization for the Gekko crew

First Impressions -- Durarara!!

Durarara!! comes from the same light novelist, director, and studio that brought you Baccano!, and as such, I've been meaning to watch it for a long time now. The first episode focuses on a couple of kids, but like Carol and the Vice President, I don't think they're the real "main" characters. Episode 2 switched over to a minor character from the first episode, and the motorcycle rider that seems the most likely candidate for main character.
Animation is good, especially the few fight scenes that I've seen so far. At the same time, they have simple sequences of internet chat rooms that must save them so much money. Opening theme is amazing animation, but I'm not as sold on the music as I was for Baccano! Story is beyond interesting. It's addicting. I really want to see more.
But is it good? For anime can certainly keep you watching without being good. It's hard to say at this point. Characters are pretty cool so far, and the animation is good... but it's confusing as heck, and I feel like I'm biased because I love Baccano! so much.
Biased or not, my impression is that it will be a very good series. Better than my impression of Shakugan no Shanna, at least, and I've heard good things about both series.
First Impression Rating: A

Review -- Chrono Crusade

I'm going to try to review more often, to catch up with the amount of anime and manga I've actually seen and read.

To go with Baccano!, here's another Prohibition-era piece, and one of my old favorites. Chrono Crusade is the story of Rosette Christopher, an exorcist in the Magdalene Order, and her demon partner, Chrono. In 1920s New York, they fight demons and search for Rosette's long-lost brother Joshua. Chrono's former demon comrade Aion becomes part of the picture, and Chrono has to settle his old score while Rosette tries to save Joshua.

The longer one watches Chrono Crusade, the worse it gets, mostly because it deviates from the manga and gets very confusing. Early Chrono Crusade is some pretty darn good anime, though, and is the perfect example of "don't just a book by its cover". Rosette is part of a religious order... sort of, because Japan doesn't fully understand western religion, and so while the order uses Protestant terms, the exorcists' outfits are more like Catholic sisters and nuns... and she fights with guns. Nuns-with-guns, right? But the point isn't to exploit girls in nun costumes, it's all about Rosette and her quest to find her brother, and her relationship with Chrono.

Rosette, to quote the review on ANN, is a "female Ed Elric". Brash, stubborn, hot-headed, and loud, Rosette charges into fights, gets into tight spots, miraculously gets out of them, then has to face the wrath of Sister Kate for destroying yet another car. Chrono is sensitive, composed, and thinks things through. When Rosette runs in, Chrono calls for backup, sets a barrier to trap whatever they're hunting, and gets the weapons from the car. They compliment each other perfectly. The only catch is that Chrono is a demon. He and Rosette have a contract. She gives him power, and he serves her. The two aren't master-and-servant, though, but best friends, and more if you feel like shipping it. Demons normally take their power through their horns, but Chrono's horns are gone, so he can only live by contracting with a human and feeding off its life energy. The pocket watch Rosette wears around her neck allows Chrono to do just that. Rosette is more than willing to let Chrono shorten her lifespan, though, both to find her brother and keep Chrono alive.

I've both seen the anime and read the manga, and for the most part, I prefer the manga. The anime actually runs around in circles a little bit at the end because it breaks off and doesn't know where to go. The manga plotline makes more sense overall, so I recommend that one over the anime.

Because of the awkward ending to the series, the strongest parts of the anime--as a whole--are the characters and the setting. About the fist half of the series, the story is still really good. Rosette is stubborn and loud-mouthed, but she's compassionate and loving. Even if you can't stand the way she jumps in without thinking, you can't help liking her for trying to find Joshua and being a big sister figure for Azmaria. Chrono has a huge guilty burden which isn't fully revealed until late in the series, but instead of radiating angst, he's a pretty cheerful guy. He cracks jokes and tries to keep everyone in good spirits. Rosette doesn't let him get away with trying to act cheerful when he's not. Azmaria is adorable and awesome all at the same time, because she beats demons and heals people by singing at them. Satella is awesome because she's the Cool Big Sis and I generally love that character type. (...I also just spent half an hour poking around TV Tropes after finding that link.)

Fight scenes are another plus. There's plenty of them, and the main character's a girl, so we're spared from the usual shonen tropes. Animation is very good, and the combination of setting and characters designs make for a very distinctive look. There's no problems confusing Rosette or Chrono for any character in any other anime. The rest of the cast isn't always so lucky, but are decent. Music is not bad, but not distinctive. The opening theme is a nice song, and well-done, but it doesn't really stand out. The ending theme is the more distinctive of the two.

Voice acting is good. Rosette's dub voice actress is hit-or-miss, but I like her. Some people complain that she grates at times, but that's the character. Chrono sounds young, but as Greg Ayres himself commented on my livejournal when I first saw the show, that's because he has a full-demon form with a deeper voice. And besides the timbre, there's no fault to be found with Ayres' Chrono. Tiffany Grant does an excellent job with Satella, and I am very glad I went to get her autograph even though at the time I had no idea who she was. Azmaria, Sister Kate, and Father/Minister Remington are all solid as well, in both languages.

Overall, a nice series. It offers a variety of genres, and so can appeal to a wide audience. The manga makes much more sense, but the anime isn't bad either.

Rating: B

+ Likable characters, unique setting, wide variety of genres, solid animation

- Anime ending just doesn't do it for me. Manga ending is better, but the series is better suited to animation. The two balance each other out and have the same score.

First Impressions -- Shakugan no Shanna

I'm starting a new set of reviews called "first impressions". There's a bunch of series I've been meaning to start, so I'm going to go through and watch 1 or 2 episodes of each of them, and pick what I want to watch from there. Those 1 or 2 episodes, I'll post a short review on.

Shakugan no Shanna started off like any ordinary high-school-plus-magical-powers-shonen series. It cut in with a really interesting monster attack, then cut back to boring high school. If it had started straight in with the fighting and skipped the pointless "I was just entering high school. I'm going to say general things about myself that really don't define my character at all. It was a nice day outside. Don't you wish this was more interesting?" It's not necessary. The monster design was cool enough that the contrast between the two worked, but I still would prefer less pointless high school.

The fight was also pretty ordinary. Time stops, mysterious girl fights giant monster, boy asks questions and nearly gets killed. The flames made me think of Soul Eater, the monsters and girl with a sword made me think of Bleach, and the monster reporting to its master made me think of Sailor Moon.

The most interesting premise was saved until the very end, and for that I will watch another episode, but my first impression is a solid standard-shonen C.

Check it out at FUNi's youtube channel!

Review -- Baccano!

I spent the entire day thinking "I wanted to do some writing on my day off. What was it I wanted to write?" Oh, yeah.

Baccano! is one of the best anime series I have ever seen. It's one of my new favorites, jostling with Fullmetal Alchemist for the coveted title of my favorite anime, and with Eureka/Renton and Ed/Winry for second-favorite anime pairing.

Baccano! is very hard to describe, not only because it is so wild, convoluted, confusing, entertaining, and well-done, but because most descriptions spoil things that are better left unspoiled. The back of the DVD case tells you exactly how things came to be. I was much happier not knowing and waiting until episode 7. I recommend you do just that.

What I can tell you is that it takes place in Prohibition-era New York and Chicago. There's a whopping main cast of almost 20 characters, not counting all the minor players. The main two are Isaac and Miria, eccentric yet kind-hearted thieves. Their antics tie everyone together, "everyone" including at least 4 New York gangs, 2 Chicago gangs, a newspaper reporter, an assassin, a scarily mature child, and a crazy old man and his assistant. In 1930, in New York, under Maiza's tutelage, Firo is trying to join the Martillo gang. Luck, Keith, and Berga Gandor have a conflict with Dallas Geonard, whom Eve Geonard and the Runorata family, want to find. Aboard the Flying Pussyfoot, Jacuzzi, Nice, and their gang just want to go to New York, while Ladd Russo wants to have some fun. Chane LaForet has some unknown purpose with the men in the black suits, and Rachel, who saves half the train, doesn't even get to be in the theme song. Issac and Miria pop up in every timeline and with every character. That only glosses over the many timelines, plots, and characters that Baccano! covers in just 13 short episodes. (plus 3 OVA episodes)

While it jumps between multiple timelines in 3 different years, nothing is ever so confusing that you can't enjoy yourself. The show gives enough answers to keep everything straight, but doesn't explain it all until they very end. The non-linear timeline is masterfully done, unmatched by any other non-linear anime I've ever seen. Something's always going on to keep the audience interested, jumping from comic relief to graphic violence in a matter of seconds.

Boy, is it violent. Rated MA, youtube verifies a user is over 18 before allowing that user to watch. Violence isn't the norm, but you better be able to handle it before you start this show. Someone loses fingers, someone's forearm is no more than a bloody bone. Bullets, beatings, torture, blood, and more are seen in most episodes. The show is about gangsters, after all. If you can stand the violence, it's a heck of a show to see.

Character designs were a little confusing for me at first, but are spot-on for the time period. After time, I was able to distinguish characters without any trouble at all. The designs are all different in noticeable ways, but the shifting timeline and similarly colored suits threw me off. The rest of the artwork is great, too. The Flying Pussyfoot, the train coming into New York, is both the most impressive and weakest part of the animation. The sets are gorgeous, but there's a few instances of obvious, bad CG. These are excusable due to the quality of the rest of the show. The whole feel of the show is not of anime, probably due to the controlled colors, instead of the typical over-the-top anime coloring. Even slice-of-life shows feel brighter than Baccano!, and that's not a bad thing. It's stylish in its own... mostly... realistic way.

The music is yet another high point of Baccano!. "Guns and Roses", which I mentioned in my theme song post, is destined to become a classic anime theme song. The catchiest jazz theme song since Tank!, it also is a handy character guide. The music for the rest of the show keeps the jazz going.

The dub is excellent, and I prefer it to the Japanese if only because my favorite character is Jacuzzi, and the Japanese don't have a sound for "zi". His name comes out "Ja-cu-ji". After watching the whole series in English, I couldn't bear to hear poor Jacuzzi's name mispronounced like that. A few characters have questionable accents, but for the most part, everyone's great, and they add authenticity that Japanese voice actors cannot match. I recommend the dub, even if it means reading the back of the DVD box and spoiling episode 7.

Overall: A+

+ Fun, story, characters and character designs, juggling timelines, animation

- Confusing, lots of violence

Check out 2 dub and all 16 sub episodes on FUNimation's youtube channel!