Category Archives: Anime Reviews

Anime Review - Myself; Yourself: 78.9%

Thursday, August 7, 2008 – 10:00 am

The Essentials

Name: Myself; Yourself
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Episodes: 13
Released: October 2, 2007 - December 25, 2007
Based On: Myself; Yourself dating sim by Yeti
Director: Yasuhiro Kuroda
Produced By: Dogakobo
US Distribution By: N/A

Major Japanese Cast

Sana Hidaka: Shinnosuke Tachibana
Nanaka Yatsushiro: Ami Koshimizu
Syūsuke Wakatsuki: Takehito Koyasu
Syuri Wakatsuki: Yukari Tamura
Aoi Oribe: Tomoko Kaneda
Asami Hoshino: Mai Nakahara
Hinako Mochida: Ayumi Murata
Yuzuki Fujimura: Megumi Toyoguchi

Major English Cast

N/A

Scores

Animation: 7/10 (x 4 = 28 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 9/10 (x 2 = 18 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)

Total: 150/190 (78.9%)

Review

Myself; Yourself is about a boy, Sana, who returns to his hometown after being away for 5 years to attend high school. Before he left, Sana was friends with Nanaka, who was a gifted piano player and whom Sana liked, Syusuke and Syuri, who are twins, and Aoi, his cousin. When he returns, he finds that many things have stayed the same with his old friends, but that many other things are different, especially in regards to Nanaka.

Myself; Yourself somewhat suffers from a split personality, and on multiple fronts.

First off, while some parts of the story were well written and executed very well, other parts of the story just seemed to be stuck in for the sake of being stuck in, and story arcs had a tendency to end with plot twists, which is nice as it keeps one on your toes and doesn’t make thing predictable, but having so many twists creates the tendency to have each twist outdo the last, causing them to become increasingly over the top. Also, more plot holes than I would have liked were left open in the end.

Second, while the animation is, generally, OK, the character designs are, to put it simply, bad. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly what’s wrong, but I just didn’t like them.

The one part of the series which I think helps left it up more than others is the depth of the characters and their interaction with each other. While the behavior of a couple characters was kind of annoying (Aoi in particular), most of the main characters behaved in a way which made the series better.

Ultimate, I think this series is generally worth watching, as it has a uniqueness which separates it from other shows like it. However, I think Myself; Yourself is a bit of a hit-or-miss show.

First Watched: October - December 2007
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (2)

Anime Review - Kamisama Kazoku: 75.3%

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 – 10:00 am

The Essentials

Name: Kamisama Kazoku, God’s Family
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Drama
Episodes: 13
Released: May 18, 2006 - August 10, 2006
Based On: Kamisama Kazoku light novels by Yoshikazu Kuwashima
Director: Kimitoshi Chioka
Produced By: Toei Animation
US Distribution By: N/A

Major Japanese Cast

Tenko: Ami Koshimizu
Samatarou Kamiyama: Daisuke Kishio
Kumiko Komori: Ai Maeda
Osamu Kamiyama: Masashi Ebara
Venus Kamiyama: Nanaho Katsuragi
Misa Kamiyama: Yumi Touma
Meme Kamiyama: Akemi Kanda
Shinichi Kirishima: Hiroaki Miura
Suguru: Yasuhiro Takato
Fumiko: Mariko Kouda
Ai Tachibana: Mamiko Noto
Lulu: Ryou Hirohashi
Lulu (child): Tomoko Kaneda

Major English Cast

N/A

Scores

Animation: 6/10 (x 4 = 24 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 8/10 (x 2 = 16 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 7/10 (x 5 = 35 pts)

Total: 143/190 (75.3%)

Review

Kamisama Kazoku is a story about Samatarou, the son of God, and his guardian angel Tenko. Samatarou is currently living on earth in order to train to know what it’s like to live along with humans so that he may become a better god when he grows up.

Samatarou and Tenko are childhood friends, but are rather confused about how they feel about each other. Their feelings are tested and prodded as the pair have to work through several situations, such as a girl arriving in their class whom Samatarou falls for, as well a mysterious girl who shows up on their doorstep who grows several years in age every day.

Kamisama Kazoku is a reasonably good comedy, which is able to keep up a pretty good pace of new material to keep the story fresh. One issue I had with the story, however, is that it’s one of those shows which establishes the central “problem” right off, and then the problem just spins it’s wheels through 2 or 3 story arcs until it’s suddenly resolved at the end. I guess there may be sort of a feeling that the events of one story arc lead into another, but it isn’t necessarily obvious.

The biggest minus to this series - unless the fansubs were just made from bad raws - was the animation, which I thought was generally sub-par for a series released in 2006. The music was good, however.

If you’re looking for a different type of series (how many series deal’s with god’s family?) which has some laughs, but don’t really care if your anime has some flaws, then you may very well like Kamisama Kazoku.

First Watched: July 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (1)

Anime Review - X: 80.5%

Tuesday, August 5, 2008 – 10:00 am

The Essentials

Name: X
Genre: Action, Fantasy
Episodes: 24
Released: October 3, 2001 - March 27, 2002
Based On: X manga by CLAMP
Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Produced By: Madhouse
US Distribution By: Geneon

Major Japanese Cast

Kamui Shirou: Kenichi Suzumura
Fuuma Monou: Junichi Suwabe
Sorata Arisugawa: Mitsuaki Madono
Arashi Kishu: Ryoka Yuzuki
Satsuki Yatoji: Houko Kuwashima
Nataku: Motoko Kumai
Kakyo Kuzuki: Yuji Ueda
Kusanagi Shiyu: Masaki Aizawa
Princess Hinoto: Aya Hisakawa
Kanoe: Kaho Kouda
Subaru Sumeragi: Tomokazu Sugita
Seiichiro Aoki: Toshiyuki Morikawa
Karen Kasumi: Yoko Soumi
Yuzuriha Nekoi: Kumi Sakuma
Yuto Kigai: Michiaki Furuya
Seishiro Sakurazuka: Otoya Kawano
Kotori Monou: Mamiko Noto

Major English Cast

Kamui Shirou: Steve Cannon
Fuuma Monou: Crispin Freeman
Sorata Arisugawa: Rafael Antonio Oliver
Arashi Kishu: Lia Sargent
Satsuki Yatoji: Karen Strassman
Nataku: Mona Marshall
Kakyo Kuzuki: Terrence Stone
Kusanagi Shiyu: James Lyon
Princess Hinoto: Bridget Hoffman
Kanoe: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn
Subaru Sumeragi: Dave Lelyveld
Seiichiro Aoki: Steven Blum
Karen Kasumi: Wendee Lee
Yuzuriha Nekoi: Philece Sampler
Yuto Kigai: Ethan Murray
Seishiro Sakurazuka: Dave Mallow
Kotori Monou: Michelle Ruff

Scores

Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 7/10 (x 2 = 14 pts)
English Dubs: 8/10 (x 1 = 8 pts)
Gut Score: 7/10 (x 5 = 35 pts)

Total: 161/200 (80.5%)

Review

X is about Kamui, a boy who is fated to determine the fate of the world. Kamui returns to Tokyo after a 6 year absence after the death of his mother. He soon meets up with two old childhood friends - Fuma and Kotori Monou - but attempts to keep them at a distance so that they don’t become involved in things.

Soon, members of the Dragons of Heaven - a group of 7 people who are fighting to protect mankind - and members of the Dragons of Earth - a group of 7 people fighting to destroy humanity in the name of saving the planet - arrive to persuade Kamui to join their side.

Kamui is cold towards both sides, but soon the friendliness of the Dragons of Heavan, and especially of Sorata, ultimately leads Kamui to choosing sides with them. However, this leads to Fuma being “chosen” as the leader of the Dragons of Earth as, unbeknownst to either of them, Fuma was destined to lead whichever group opposed the side Kamui chose. And thus, the apocalyptic battle between the Dragons of Heaven and Dragons of earth begin.

This is an interesting series for me to try to review. First off, this series seems to have almost everything: Lots of action. Lots of angst. Lots of story. Stellar animation and music and a good dub to boot. However, despite all of this, I never could get very much into this series. Yes, it was entertaining and I didn’t really bored watching it, but…it just didn’t work for me. And I’m not sure if I can put my finger on exactly why either.

I’m generally a fan of serious drama like X, but in this case, it just seems that it perhaps lasted too long and had too much angst as compared to the action. I guess another way to explain is the fact that, here we are, everything seems to be set for the battle for the end of the world to start but nothing is really happening on that front. Yeah, people are fighting, and Kamui is being angsty and we’re learning about the characters, but after a while I was kind of like “so, when are they going to start fighting for real and stuff?” It just seemed like most of the fighting was people being like “I guess it’s time for us to fight now, even though there is no real apparent reason for it.”

It just seemed that the Dragons of Heaven were sitting there like “what are we going to do” for 23 episodes and then finally the final battle happens in like 10 minutes (if that) in the last episode. Maybe I just missed a lot of what was happening since a lot of stuff, especially at the end, seemed to come as a surprise to me in a “oh THAT’S why this other stuff was happening” way - stuff that really shouldn’t surprise you that late.

Now, after spending 3 paragraphs on that, I’ll reiterate that this is overall a pretty good series to watch for many reasons, and there isn’t anything really fundamentally wrong with it and that my feeling just happens to be one of those things were a series just doesn’t hit right, so for that reason I still would recommend this to people because a lot of people would enjoy this series.

First Watched: October 2007 - July 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (0)

Anime Review - Spice and Wolf: 72.6%

Monday, August 4, 2008 – 10:00 am

The Essentials

Name: Spice and Wolf
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Episodes: 13
Released: January 8, 2008 - March 23, 2008
Based On: Spice and Wolf light novels by Isuna Hasekura
Director: Takeo Takahashi
Produced By: IMAGIN
US Distribution By: N/A (licensed by Kadokawa Pictures USA)

Major Japanese Cast

Holo: Ami Koshimizu
Craft Lawrence: Jun Fukuyama
Nora: Mai Nakahara
Kuroe: Kaori Nazuka
Zeren: Daisuke Namikawa

Major English Cast

N/A

Scores

Animation: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Story: 6/10 (x 4 = 24 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 8/10 (x 2 = 16 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 6/10 (x 5 = 30 pts)

Total: 138/190 (72.6%)

Review

Spice and Wolf is about a traveling merchant, Craft Lawrence, and the harvest wolf god Holo. Holo had always blessed the wheat crop of the country area called Yoitsu, causing good crops, but over time, as better ways of growing the crops were developed, the people of the area stopped relying on Holo’s help, and so she escapes the area by hiding in Lawrence’s wagon.

While Lawrence doesn’t appreciate the company to start with, Holo has a keen eye (and ears) for a good - or bad - deal, a trait which Lawrence eventually starts to appreciate. In return for this, Lawrence agrees to eventually agree to travel with Holo to return her to her homeland in the north.

The primary thing that drives this show along is Holo and her personality and interactions with Lawrence - especially since they are largely the only two major characters in the entire series. While Holo is indeed an intriguing character, it’s hard for a single character to carry an entire series, and that ends up being the case here. I think Spice and Wolf would have been good had either more gone on or the length of the show was cut in half or so, but a show about economics dragging on for 12 or 13 episodes just doesn’t work that well. Oh yeah, and Holo being naked half the time is kind of annoying to me.

The technicals of the show - the animation and music - are good enough, I suppose, and this may be a worth series to watch if you’ve already seen everything else, but there are just so many other series out there which are better and more entertaining to watch than this.

First Watched: January - March 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: No

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (0)

Anime by Score Organization

Sunday, August 3, 2008 – 10:48 pm

I reorganized my Anime By Score page from listing them as Excellent/Very Good/Good/etc. to doing them by star rating, hopefully to give it a little bit more granularity and to give more context to the scores.

So now I have 5-stars to 0-stars, divided by 1/2 stars.  Each star rating spans 4%, so the ranges are:

  • 5-star: 96%+
  • 4 1/2-star: 92% - 95.9%
  • 4-star: 88% - 91.9%
  • 3 1/2-star: 84% - 87.9%
  • 3-star: 80% - 83.9%
  • 2 1/2-star: 76% - 79.9%
  • 2-star: 72% - 75.9%
  • 1 1/2-star: 68% - 71.9%
  • 1-star: 64% - 67.9%
  • 1/2-star: 60% - 63.9%
  • 0-star: under 60%

Hopefully this shows that basically the “above average” shows (3.0 or above) = shows with scores of 80% or higher, average shows (2 and 2 1/2 stars) are generally in the 70s, while below average scores (1 1/2-stars or below) are below 72%.

My concerns about this are:

  • Only one show is 5-star, which seems a little silly, but unless I use different scales for each rating, I’ll either need a bigger range, have a smaller range (and not just have any 5-star shows) or I’ll have to live with it.
  • I originally had a scale of 5% per scale, but that put the middle ratings - 2 1/2 stars - in the bottom of the 70% range, which I thought was rather low.  To me, the division between good and not-so-good in a 5-star scale seems to be above and below the 3-star mark, so that’s how I’ve tried designing my ranges.  However, that’s just me.  I don’t know what other people might think.
  • Even with this, this just shows a possible issue with how I rate shows, in that I kind of give a score of 8 or so by default, and then raise or drop it based on what I like, with the effective range really being 7-9, with a range of 6 - 10 for really good or really not-so-good things.  Of course, the problem at this point is that going back and re-scoring over 100 shows and doing so consistently seems like a rather significant job, especially for shows which I may not have seen for quite a while.

In any case, I hope this makes looking at the Anime By Score page a little more useful.

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (0)

Anime Review - Blue Drop: 86.8%

Sunday, August 3, 2008 – 10:00 am

The Essentials

Name: Blue Drop: Tenshi-tachi no Gikyoku
Genre: Sci-fi, Romance
Episodes: 13
Released: October 2, 2007 - December 25, 2007
Based On: Blue Drop manga by Akihito Yoshitomi
Director: Masahiko Ohkura
Produced By: Asahi Production, BeSTACK
US Distribution By: N/A

Major Japanese Cast

Mari Wakatake: Akiko Yajima
Hagino Senkoji: Miyuki Sawashiro
Michiko Kozuki: Satsuki Yukino
Tsubael: Yuko Goto
Azanael: Ai Orikasa
Yuko Sugawara: Miho Yamada
Akane Kawashima: Akeno Watanabe
Hiroko Funatsumaru: Kimiko Saito
Shivariel: Youko Asagami

Major English Cast

N/A

Scores

Animation: 7/10 (x 4 = 28 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 10/10 (x 2 = 20 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 9/10 (x 5 = 45 pts)

Total: 165/190 (86.8%)

Review

Blue Drop is about girl, Mari, who lost both of her parents in a mysterious island disaster when she was younger - an incident where Mari was the only survivor. She now lives with her grandmother, who decides that she should attend an actual school when Mari enters high school of being home schooled like she had been up to that point. However, Mari sees this as her grandmother dumping her off because she’s tired of taking care of her (which isn’t the case).

On her way to the school, Mari sees a mysterious girl standing out in the harbor. Mari soon finds out that the girl is her roommate in the dorm. However, when the girl, whose name is Hagino, touches Mari, she goes temporarily crazy, trying to strangle Mari. This obviously doesn’t start their relationship off on a good foot, and it doesn’t get any better when Mari finds out that Hagino is actually an alien who is on the Earth to do observation.

As Hagino tries to improve her relationship with Mari, Mari eventually learns about the truth of the disaster which killed her parents, how Hagino is involved, and why Hagino is on Earth observing in the first place.

I found Blue Drop a rather slow-paced but still excellently written anime series about the relationship between Hagino and Mari. While this is technically a yuri series, it’s more about the buildup of the two’s relationship than about the relationship itself, which really only lasts very briefly at the end of the series due to certain events.

Even though Mari is the lead character in the series, Blue Drop is about Hagino and her past and regrets as much as it is about Mari. Hagino also has to deal with the commander of the fleet in which Hagino’s ship, the Blue, is included, as well as the commander’s sidekick, who has a grudge against Hagino as well.

In the end, all of these dramatic elements wrap together to make a pretty good put together show.

On the technical aspects, the animation is probably the show’s weakest point, though it isn’t too bad, and is marked more by a “softer” sort of coloring in contrast to the sharper animation one might see in other series. However, the music is excellent I thought.

I you’re open to a good sci-fi drama series, and don’t mind the yuri aspect, I’d suggest checking out Blue Drop.

First Watched: October - December 2007
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews, Blue Drop | Comments (5)

Anime Review - Murder Princess: 82.4%

Saturday, August 2, 2008 – 10:00 am

The Essentials

Name: Murder Princess
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Comedy
Episodes: 6
Released: March 28, 2007 - August 29, 2007
Based On: Murder Princess manga by Sekihiko Inui
Director: Tomoyuki Kurokawa
Produced By: Bee Train, Marvelous Entertainment
US Distribution By: Funimation

Major Japanese Cast

Falis (real): Romi Paku
Alita Forland (real): Ami Koshimizu
Dominikov: Kazuki Yao
Pete Armstrong: Akimitsu Takase
Jodu Entolasia: Takkou Ishimori
Ana / Yuna: Chiwa Saito
Akamashi: Hiroshi Tsuchida
Cecilia: Megumi Toyoguchi
Dark Knight: Daisuke Namikawa

Major English Cast

N/A

Scores

Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: N/A
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)

Total: 140/170 (82.4%)

Review

Murder Princess is about Princess Alita Forland, who is sent into exile by her family so that she can escape a coup d’etat attempt against the royal family by a former scientist of the government, who has used his knowledge to create futuristic weapons.

Alita escapes, but is soon chased through a nearby forest by the forest’s guardian beast and runs into the bounty hunter Falis, sending them both off a cliff. They both survive, but due to the near-death experience, their souls have exchanged bodies. Impressed with Falis’ fighting ability, Alita-as-Falis begs Falis-as-Alita, and her two sidekicks Dominikov and Pete Armstrong, to help defend the kingdom until Alita’s brother comes back from a foreign trip. Falis ultimatley agrees, taking on the role of Princess. However, this doesn’t stop her from personally fighting enemies of the state, earning her the name Murder Princess.

I thought for a short series like this, it was written an executed very well. One problem with short series can sometimes be a thin plot or the tendency to move either really fast or really slow, but I think Murder Princess finds the right balance all around.

The primary basis for this series is definitely action, as Falis and Alita have to fight off all of their foes - and it does have some pretty good action scenes. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lack of comedy, mostly centered around the very unrefined Falis having to learn how to behave like a princess.

Perhaps the only real negative with the series is that the ultimate plot point - the switching of Alita and Falis’ bodies - is never resolved, though I wouldn’t be shocked at all if this ended up getting a sequel at some point. Also, I should note that this series may not be for the blood-shy.

Most of the technical aspects appeared to be pretty good for this series, but I’m not sure there is anything particularly notable either.

Overall, if you’re looking for a good action series with a good mix of comedy in it, then Murder Princess may be a good, short series that you can check out.

First Watched: July 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (0)

Anime Review - Ballad of a Shinigami: 82.4%

Thursday, July 31, 2008 – 10:00 am

The Essentials

Name: Ballad of a Shinigami, Momo the girl god of death
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Episodes: 6
Released: March 2, 2006 - April 6, 2006
Based On: Shinigami no Ballad light novels by K-Ske Hasegawa
Director: Tomomi Mochizuki
Produced By: Pony Canyon, Group TAC, Ginga-ya
US Distribution By: N/A

Major Japanese Cast

Momo: Akiko Kobayashi
Daniel: Ai Shimizu
Kōta Seto: Akiyo Kanada
Mai Makihara: Chiwa Saito
Mitsuki Asano: Yuki Kaida
Yutaka Fujishima: Kana Ueda
Kantaro Ichihara: Toshiyuki Toyonaga
Tomato Fujiwara: Kanako Mitsuhashi
Chiaki Kazama: Tomoko Sadohara
Fuyuki Kazama: Ryoko Shiraishi
Eko Miyazaki: Fuyuka Oura
Sakura Kosakai: Nobuyuki Kobushi

Major English Cast

N/A

Scores

Animation: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: N/A
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)

Total: 140/170 (82.4%)

Review

Ballad of a Shinigami is about Momo, a Shinigami - basically the Japanese version of the grim reaper except cuter in this case - and her cat companion Daniel. The series addresses six different stories which deal with death in one way or another, with Momo playing a critical role each time.

These stories range from a young girl eventually succumbing to an illness, to pushing someone to live his life to the fullest since “you’ll eventually die someday,” to not being able to say “sorry” for things you said to a love one just before they died.

I think each of the six stories are interesting in their own right, and I like how each of the six stories were able to address the issue of death in unique ways. Of course the main negative to having six stories in six episodes is that none of the stories necessarily have time to really stand out or leave a lasting impression, but I’m not sure how important this is with a series this short (there is a reason why I have a minimum episode count before I give a coherence score, after all).

I’d say if you’re interested in a well written set of stories about an unusual topic (how many series deal with the issue of death this head on), I’d recommend Ballad of a Shinigami, especially since it is easy to watch in a single sitting.

First Watched: July 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (0)

Anime Review - Minami-ke: 85.8%

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 – 10:00 am

The Essentials

Name: Miname-ke
Genre: Comedy
Episodes: 26 (13 episodes in both seasons 1 and 2)
Released: October 7, 2007 - March 30, 2008
Based On: Miname-ke manga by Coharu Sakuraba
Director: Masahiko Ohta (season 1), Naoto Hosoda (season 2)
Produced By: Starchild (both seasons), Doumu (season 1), asread (season 2)
US Distribution By: N/A

Major Japanese Cast

Haruka Minami: Rina Satou
Chiaki Minami: Minori Chihara
Kana Minami: Marina Inoue
Makoto: Rika Morinaga
Toma Minami: Nana Mizuki
Fujioka: Tetsuya Kakihara
Yoshino: Aki Toyosaki
Yuka Uchida: Eri Kitamura
Keiko: Saori Goto
Maki: Reiko Takagi
Atsuko: Ryoko Ono
Hosaka: Daisuke Ono
Hayami: Saeko Chiba

Major English Cast

N/A

Scores

Animation: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 7/10 (x 2 = 14 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 9/10 (x 5 = 45 pts)

Total: 163/190 (85.8%)

Review

Minami-ke is show about the lives of the three Minami sisters: Haruka, who attends high school and is the caretaker of the other two sisters; Kana, who attends middle school and who is rather clueless, lazy, and impulsive; and Chiaki who attends elementary school and who is intelligent and precocious, but rather rude as well.

There’s not much else I can say to describe the series since it basically is about the random things that the three girls and their friends do in life. However, one thing this series does to exceptionally well, especially in the first season, is be absolutely hilarious. The fact that the three girl’s personalities don’t mesh at all - especially Kana’s and Chikai’s - just adds to how great this series is. Add into the fix each of the girls’ friends and their own quirks, and you have a show with a rather consistent supply of hilarity.

The one thing I should note is that the first season, which consists of the first 13 episodes, is a bit funnier than the 2nd season, and that is really the only thing keeping the score down for this series, as the story and gut scores are largely an average between the first and second seasons (with the first season getting an easy 10 while the second season kind of splits between a 7/8). Even so, the second season is still a respectable watch, but may pale somewhat in comparison to the first season.

The animation and music for both seasons are pretty good, even though both seasons were handled by different production companies.

If you’re looking for a series with a lot of random laughs, and don’t care much about a central story line, then definitely check out Minami-ke.

First Watched: October 2007 - April 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (1)

Anime Review - Baccano!: 85.3%

Tuesday, July 29, 2008 – 10:00 am

The Essentials

Name: Baccano
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Episodes: 13 + 3 OVAs
Released: July 26, 2007 - November 1, 2007
Based On: Baccano light novels by Ryohgo Narita
Director: Takahiro Omori
Produced By: Brains Base, MediaWorks
US Distribution By: Funimation

Major Japanese Cast

Isaac Dian: Masaya Onosaka
Miria Harvent: Sayaka Aoki
Firo Prochainezo: Hiroyuki Yoshino
Szilard Quates: Kinryuu Arimoto
Ennis: Sanae Kobayashi
Maiza Avaro: Mitsuru Miyamoto
Ladd Russo: Keiji Fujiwara
Lua Klein: Eri Yasui
Jacuzzi Splot: Daisuke Sakaguchi
Nice Holystone: Yu Kobayashi
Claire Stanfield: Masakazu Morita
Dallas Genoard: Atsushi Imaruoka
Eve Genoard: Marina Inoue
Chane Laforet: Ryou Hirohashi
Czeslaw Meyer: Akemi Kanda
Carol: Chiwa Saito

Major English Cast

N/A

Scores

Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 9/10 (x 2 = 18 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)

Total: 162/190 (85.3%)

Review

Baccano, at it’s simplest, boiled down form, is about the exploits and adventures of a set of alchemists in 1930s America who were able to summon a demon in the 18th century so that they could become immortal.

The story is largely told between two story lines taking place at two different times. The most visible storyline is about how, in late 1930, three different groups - the Russo group, the Lumeres, and Jacuzzi’s gang - all have different plans for the trans-continental train the Flying Pussyfoot in it’s run from Chicago to New York.

The Russo group, led by Ladd Russo, decides to kill many of the passengers on the train while holding the rest ransom in order to get a large ransom payment from the railroad company. The Lumeres decide to take the train passengers ransom so that they can demand the release of their group’s leader, Huey Laforet, from jail. Meanwhile, Jazuzzi and his gang plan on trying to rob some important cargo off of the train. The melee that ensues results in a lot of blood and a lot of fighting between the three groups, as well as the arrival of the Rail Tracer - a mythical monster which causes trains and the people on them to disappear.

The other story being told at the same time occurs earlier in 1930, and deals with the quest of one of the original immortals, Szilard Quates, to discover the formula for the elixir which allows immortality. However, while his researcher, Barnes, discovers the secret, his lab is destroyed in a fire, and he is able to salvage two bottles of the elixir. However, the elixir is soon stolen by a gang and starts rapidly changing hands.

Baccano certainly has an interesting and well written story, and it’s rare to see a story which has a good balance of action and story elements to it. However, my main problem with this story is how much it jumps around between the two stories, and to and from even other smaller sub-stories. While it is an interesting story-telling device, I think all the switching sometimes makes it unclear what is happening when and where and what is happening first and last and in between.

Despite this, I think it is still a pretty good watch, though I should note that it has a considerable amount of violence, and especially blood.

The animation quality is pretty good for this show, as is the music as they appear to do a pretty good representation of 1930s America, at least for one who doesn’t know any better like myself.

Overall, while how the story is told may be confusing, it’s still a good enough show to take a look at, if you don’t mind some blood.

First Watched: August 2007 - July 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes, if you don’t mind blood and violence

By Josh | Posted in Anime Reviews | Tagged | Comments (0)