This is just a note saying that I’ve re-scored my review for Howl’s Moving Castle.
You can see the full review here.
The new scores for this series are:
Animation: 5/5
Story: 4/5
Music: 4/5
Dub: 5/5
Series: 4/5
Category Archives: Anime Reviews
Maid Guy – Anime Review
The Essentials
Name: Maid Guy; Kamen no Maid Guy; Masked Maid Guy
Genre: Comedy
Episodes: 12 + 1 OVA
Aired: April 5, 2008 – June 21, 2008
Based On: Kamen no Maid Guy manga by Maruboro Akai
Director: Masayuki Sakoi
Produced By: Madhouse, Rondo Robe
US Distribution By: Not Licensed
Cast
| Character | Japanese Cast | English Cast (N/A) |
|---|---|---|
| Naeka Fujiwara: | Yuka Iguchi | |
| Kogarashi: | Rikiya Koyama | |
| Fubuki: | Megumi Toyoguchi | |
| Kosuke Fujiwara: | Daisuke Sakaguchi | |
| Zenjuro Ofujiwara: | Mugihito | |
| Eiko Izumi: | Emiri Katou | |
| Miwa Hirano: | Yu Kobayashi | |
| Elizabeth K. Strawberryfield: | Saki Fujita |
Review
Maid Guy is a show about the grandchildren of the rich and powerful Zenjuro Ofujiwara, whom are set to inherit his fortune once the elder sibling, Naeka, turns 18 in half a year. However, Zenjuro’s family members have gone missing one after another, including Naeka and her brother Kosuke’s parents, and thus Zenjuro assigns his top two maids, Kogarashi adn Fubuki, to serve and protect the siblings.
However, the seriousness of the set-up soon gives way to hilarity as Naeka, who is not used to any sort of high-scale living, has to deal with the two maids. Most problematic is Kogarashi, the so-called “Maid Guy,” who is assigned as Naeka’s primary protector. Kogarashi quite over-zealously attempts to protect and aid Naeka using his multitude of powers, including such things as the ability to see through clothing and his ability to plug computer devices directly into his brain. This results in Kogarashi usually causing Naeka more problems than he solves, though he always acts with good intentions, and often aids her without her noticing (but perhaps more often causing big problems WITH her knowing).
The second maid if Fubuki, who is largely there in order to try to keep Kogarashi in line with her nail-laden baseball bat, but who often falls victims to Kogarashi’s harassement, as well as the oogling of Kosuke, who just happens to have a maid fetish.
Maid Guy is very much a hit or miss series. It is very fan service heavy, though is perhaps a little less gratuitous with it than other fan-service laden shows. However, the show – and Kogarashi in particular – have an obsession with the size of Naeka’s breasts, so may that be warning to anyone who may dislike such series. However, the humor in this series at least makes this show a somewhat, though certainly not an overly, entertaining watch.
One should also note that Naeka still hasn’t turned 18 by the end of the last episode, leaving open a decent chance of a second season.
The music is so-so and the animation seems sub-par for a Madhouse show, though is still decent. This show is as yet unlicensed in the United States.
Scores
Story: 2/5
Animation: 3/5
Music: 3/5
English Dubs: N/A
Overall: 3/5
First Watched: April – October 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Indifferent
Nijuu Mensou no Musume – Anime Review
The Essentials
Name: Nijuu Mensou no Musume; Daughter of Twenty Faces; Chiko, Heiress of the Phantom Thief
Genre: Action, Drama, Mystery, Fantasy
Episodes: 22
Aired: April 12, 2008 – September 27, 2008
Based On: Characters created by Edogawa Rampo
Director: Nobuo Tomizawa
Produced By: Bones
US Distribution By: Not Licensed
Cast
| Character | Japanese Cast | English Cast (N/A) |
|---|---|---|
| Chizuko “Chiko” Mikamo: | Aya Hirano | |
| Twenty Faces: | Yuya Uchida | |
| Ken: | Masaya Matsukaze | |
| Tome: | Satomi Arai | |
| Shunka Koito: | Rina Satou | |
| Detective Akine: | Masanori Takeda | |
| Akechi: | Kenji Hamada | |
| Nozomi Kayama: | Miyuki Sawashiro |
Review
Nijuu Mensou no Musume, a.k.a. The Daughter of Twenty Faces a.k.a. Chiko, Heiress of the Phantom Thief, is the story of Chiko Mikamo, a young girl who is slowly being poisoned by her parents so that they can claim her parent’s inheritance, but who is rescued by the famous master thief “Twenty Faces,” who has been given the name due to the fact that it is said that “no one has seen his real face.”
Chiko, who was already enamored with the stories of Twenty Faces’ heists, gladly goes with him and his gang as they travel around the world, pulling off heists, stealing valuable objects from people who gained them through less-than-honest means and return them to their “proper” owners or to places like museums. This includes the “Anastasia Ruby” which is the Mikamo family heirloom whom Twenty Faces returns to Chiko. Along the way, Chiko trains with all the members of the groups until she is a very skilled fighter.
This lasts until one day, a rival gang, who wants to steal the treasures Twenty Faces has collected to keep for themselves, attacks and wipes out Twenty Faces’ gang, seemingly killing Twenty Faces as well, and once again leaving Chiko to return to her parents. However, she and a detective named Akine who befriends her still believe Twenty Faces is alive and they both separately seek out Twenty Faces, learning about his terrible past along the way.
The first quarter for so of Nijuu Mensou no Musume – the part of the series where Chiko was traveling around with Twenty Faces and his gang – was very good, and perhaps could have vied for best series of the year had that story line kept going. However, when that story arc ended, the series switched to a series of weird story arcs which were seem more suited in a science-fiction or fantasy story than in a historical drama. If one has ever seen the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, it has a little bit of that flavor to it, though this series is overall better than that movie in my opinion.
I think the new fantasy-like story arc was able to hold it’s own for a while, though I think it started wearing thin after a while, with the series ending more in a sputter than in a bang for me.
The animation was pretty good, though I’m not sure it’s good enough to warrant getting a perfect score, and the same goes for the music. As this isn’t licensed yet, there is no English dub to score.
Overall, I give this series a 4 out of 5, which is more of an average between the 5/5 I’d give the first third of the series, the 4/5 I’d give the middle third, and the 3/5 I’d give the final third. I think the show is still a worthy watch, but the more it decided to go the “weird” route, the more disappointed I became with it.
Scores
Story: 4/5
Animation: 4/5
Music: 4/5
English Dubs: N/A
Overall: 4/5
First Watched: April 2008 – February 2009
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes
Kannagi – Anime Review
The Essentials
Name: Kannagi
Genre: Comedy
Episodes: 13
Released: October 10, 2008 – December 27, 2008
Based On: Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens manga by Eri Takenashi
Director: Yutaka Yamamoto
Produced By: A-1 Pictures, Aniplex
US Distribution By: N/A
Major Japanese Cast
Nagi: Haruka Tomatsu
Jin Mikuriya: Hiro Shimono
Tsugumi Aoba: Miyuki Sawashiro
Takako Kimura: Risa Hayamizu
Daitetsu Hibiki: Takanori Hoshino
Zange: Kana Hanazawa
Meguru Akiba: Tetsuya Kakihara
Shino Ookouchi: Mai Nakahara
Major English Cast
N/A
Scores
Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 7/10 (x 2 = 14 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 10/10 (x 5 = 50 pts)
Total: 168/190 (88.4%)
Review
Kannagi is about a goddess, Nagi, who materializes into a corporeal form thanks to Jin, a member of his high school’s art club, carving a statue of a girl out of the wood of a sacred three that was recently cut down. Nagi states that her purpose is to rid the area of “impurities” before they start causing too much trouble.
What ensues is a hilarious comedy as Nagi and Jin have to come up with excuses as to why they’re living together to their friends, and as Nagi, and her goddess sister Zange, compete to see who can gain the most influence over protecting the land.
My overall thoughts on this series are based on the assumption that there will be a second season, just because how this series ended was so open, with Jin and Nagi saying how they’re going to try to find out more about Nagi’s past, and because so many things are left unresolved, such as Zange’s possession of another girl’s body, the general relationship picture overall, and the fact that Nagi warned that, over time, her body will start crumbling without being attached to something being worshipped, and we failed to see any danger of this developing in this series.
Having said all of this, many of the characters in this series seem to be rather unique – or at least I can’t redily compare them to your standard, overused character archetypes very easily. I mean, yes, you have the “childhood friend” character, the “otaku” character and so forth, but these characters were largely developed above and beyond just their initial archetypes.
Also, comedy setups in this series end up being executed much the same way, with vaugely familiar gag scenes being executed in a way that’s fresh and hilarious. It’s sometime said that everything that can be told has been told, it’s just a matter of how you tell it (or something to that effect), and I think Kannagi illustrates this fact as well as any series. And it strikes just the right balance in almost every respect along the way.
Besides the loose ends, I guess my main beef with this series is that the series set up the idea of Nagi going around exterminating impurities right off the bat, and while we spent a good deal of time in the first couple of episodes dealing with that, the series never really got back to that issue except for a few moments in a few other episodes, and that aspect of the show was largely forgotten.
As for the technical aspects, I wouldn’t say that the animation and music was done in such a way that wowed you, but both were certainly of pretty good quality as far as I could tell.
Overall, if you’re looking for a good, fun series to watch, give Kannagi a try.
First Watched: March 2009
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes
Special A – Anime Review
The Essentials
Name: Special A
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Episodes: 24
Released: April 6, 2008 – September 14, 2008
Based On: S.A. manga by Maki Minami
Director: Yoshikazu Miyao
Produced By: AIC & GONZO
US Distribution By: N/A
Major Japanese Cast
Hikari Hanazono: Yuko Goto
Kei Takishima: Jun Fukuyama
Akira Todo: Hitomi Nabatame
Tadashi Karino: Hiro Shimono
Ryuu Tsuji: Kazuma Horie
Jun Yamamoto: Tsubasa Yonaga
Megumi Yamamoto: Ayahi Takagaki
Yahiro Saiga: Kishô Taniyama
Sakura Ushikubo: Natsuko Kuwatani
Major English Cast
N/A
Scores
Animation: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Story: 6/10 (x 4 = 24 pts)
Music: 6/10 (x 4 = 24 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 7/10 (x 2 = 14 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 6/10 (x 5 = 30 pts)
Total: 124/190 (65.3%)
Review
Special A, or S.A., is at it’s core a story about Hikari and her yearning to become an equal to her childhood friend Kei, who has managed to beat her at every single thing, no matter how minor or trivial, since the two met when they were little.
Granted, the story does branch out of that to include the other 5 members of the Special A – Akira, who is Hikari’s best friend, Tadashi, who has a rather abusive, but loving, friendship with Akira, Ryuu, who loves taking care of animals in his apartment, and Jun and Megumi, a twin pair who becomes ultra jealous over anyone who prevents them from monopolozing Ryuu’s attention.
The Special A itself is a super-special class of students at Hakusenkan High School which consists of the top 7 students in the school. These students are separated out from the rest of the students via the fact that they get their own uniforms and get to hang out all day sipping tea in a big greenhouse because they’re just that damn smart. The rest of the school is split between those who adore the Special A as celebrities and those who don’t really appreciate the highness of the group in an already high class school.
In the end, Special A does very little to captivate one’s attention. For starters, the first half of the series is nothing short of atrocious, staying in writing and acting hell for most of it. While the series does rebound a little in the second half, I could just never very worked up about the trials and tribulations of a bunch of rich bastards, whose primary day-to-day worries seem to be along the lines of deciding what business they’re going to buy today.
And while Hikari is supposed to be the center of the show, she’s so clueless and dense that it borders on the unbearable. Kei could orchestrate a parade down the street in front of Hikari’s house with giant heart-shaped floats that said “I love you Hikari!” (and he could), she probably still wouldn’t get that Kei likes her. This on top of a myriad of other reasons just makes Special A a very painful series to watch.
Perhaps the only good thing about the series – and this may be debatable about some – is it’s animation quality which I at least felt was pretty much what one would expect from a upper echelon animation company. However, both openings and endings leave a lot to be desired in the music department.
Overall, there is little reason to watch Special A unless you’re just into watching The Random Adventures of the Rich and Famous.
First Watched: April – September 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: No