School Days
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S
Shigurui
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Super Robot Wars OAV
Alternate Titles: Super Robot Wars: Original Generation – The Animation, 超級機器人大戰O.G.
Original Japanese Release Date: May 2005
Episode Length/Run-time: 3 Episodes
Summary:
A new model of super robot has come out and everyone’s excitement suddenly turns to fear and chaos as these new robots become the enemy and start attacking everyone and everything around their inaugural celebration. Upon thwarting the enemy there was a mysterious lack of casualties. The ATX and SRX teams must discover the reasoning behind the attack and what happened to their friends.
Review:
This anime delivers on its title, it has a lot of super robot wars. Wasting no time, as it shouldn’t being only 3 episodes long they quickly establish the world and characters with a few scenes and simple dialogue and move right into the initial attack. The fight scenes are pretty sweet, despite some of the characters corny lines and jokes to”lighten the mood.”
The mystery about the new robots is just enough to keep you, as the viewer, engaged in them. At the end of the first episode a rather graphic image of a naked woman suspended painfully with clips throughout her body in a strange fluid drops out and you learn of the perhaps sinister ODE system.
One thing I really have to tip my hat to in this OAV is how they give the information about the world and characters. Its on a need to know basis which works well. In three episodes they don’t have time to elaborate on everything or go into every last little thing and they don’t. They also don’t make the common mistake of bombarding you upfront with all the information either, which works well.
The animation is nothing impressive, given the animation look and style I actually thought it was about 5 years older than what it was. Now that’s not all bad, I like the look of the old style, but for 2005 its lacking in a few scenes I think, particularly the action scenes. The music is decent, nothing astounding either but they seemed to have a fair amount of pieces for such a short series and it fits the mood and fight scenes well to create the mood. Plus, the opening is pretty good!
Overall, for three episodes they do a good job of packing a story with some suspense and desperation along with some good action scenes in there. It wont change your life and the originality is nothing astounding, but I would say it’d be a good way for someone who isn’t sure about the mech genre to try things on and see if they like it. The time investment to enjoyment for this series I’d say is pretty high. Overall it is is pleasantly average series.
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S-Cry-ed
Alternate Titles: S.Cry.Ed
Original Japanese Release Date: 2001
Episode Length/Run-time: 26 Episodes
Summary:
Due to a strange environmental phenomena an area of Japan has broken off from the mainland and during this humans are given the ability to use Alter, a power which allows them to combine metal alloys to their skin and use magic like powers. The area in which this phenomena occurred is known as “The Lost Ground.” Kazuma is one such native alter user and lives as a mercenary in The Lost Ground. One day a group known as HOLY is dispatched to collect native alter users and Kazuma must defend his freedom against them.
Review:
Shown on Toonami a bit this anime is likely one which many people are familiar with. What’s nice about this anime is it actually has some kind of plot, unlike many anime that are being put out today. Don’t be fooled by it seemingly have themes of uprisings, oppression, and liberation. Those are there, but they’re really not too flushed out or not as much as you want them to be.
The first problem are the characters. They’re either unlovable. Or they’re just silly, for example a character who fight with watermelons. Beyond that the characters get out of hand to almost a Dragon Ball Z scale where they just get overpowered and just go around fighting and blowing things up. This goes with as the series shifts from the oppression to just combat and the rivalries, loosing a lot of the plot along the way.
So while the plot is interesting there are a lot of other things that drag it down making it just average, which isn’t as good as it could be.
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Shukufuku no Campanella
Alternate Titles: Blessing of the Campanella, Blessing of Little Bells
Original Japanese Release Date: 2010
Episode Length/Run-time: 12
Summary:
Leicester Maycraft is a magical item creator of the guild “Oasis” in the city of Ert’Aria. Well known and loved by all he and the ladies of the guild are generally well taken care of and live a good life. One night while watching a star shower on the roof of a nearby church he finds a girl asleep in a room. When she awakens she declares herself Minette and Leicester her father.
Review:
“Well this sucked.” That was about all I could think when I finished this anime. Based off of a dating sim, which doesn’t always mean total crap but in this case it does. The best thing about this series is the character designs which I’m not even sure if I can give it credit for since that was all done for them from the game. They are executed well and the animation does look clean and polished, but what doesn’t these days?
There is nothing to this series, it kind of tries to put forward a loose plot with master puppet makers and the well being of the world. And the last episode was honestly the best one. But you have to thumb through so many mediocre, average, cliche episodes to get there. It likely could’ve been trimmed down to a 4 episode OVA and still ended up having time for random fluff.
There’s not much else to say about this series. It’s literally your generic harem which does random fantasy-esque things while having entire episodes devoted to carnivals and being cute maids. What more can be said?
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Shin Chan (Dubbed)
Alternate Titles: Crayon Shin Chan
Original Japanese Release Date: 1992
Episode Length/Run-time: 721 episodes (Each episode is broken down into three segments, only about 30 of these were released dubbed in the U.S.)
Summary:
Shin-Chan (Shinnosuke Nohara) is the eldest child in the Nohara family and is a generally mischievous little boy. Generally stupid he does what he can to annoy those around him and create the most annoyance possible in his family and friends around him.
Review:
This review is different form many others because it’s specified that this is the “Dubbed” version. So why this specification? Well, for anyone who does not know Shin-Chan is a long-running series in Japan with a similar summary as what’s listed above. However, in Japan it’s an innocent show targeted at kids with innocent, light-hearted, humor. When the American dubbing companies got their hands on it they completely “South Park’ed” it. The jokes went from innocent and child-appropriate to wildly perverse and mature.
But that’s what makes it so funny!
It’s a show full of little kids who talk about things like sex, hookers, drugs, and just to complete the trifecta: Rock and Roll! Even though they’re crass and wildly low ball and slapstick combined they are SO funny. I don’t know if it’s the good/bad voice acting, the fact that little kids are talking like a veteran marine, or what but it’s fantastic. Obviously don’t watch this show if you’re an anime purist who wants to see things translated over as directly as possible. Otherwise, it’s a great show I highly recommend. Just average on a technical level, but if this was a humor score it’d be a 6/5.
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Shonan Junai-Gumi
Alternate Titles: Pure Love Gang of Shonan, GTO: The Early Years
Original Japanese Release Date: 1994
Episode Length/Run-time: 5 ( 52 mins ea. )
Summary:
Follow the action packed adventures of young Eikichi Onizuka and Ryuji Danma, together known as Oni-Baku, the strongest duo of fighters, as they try to get through high school while trying to lose their virginities. They are known for their tenacity and fight, so watch out for the Oni-Baku! Its considered to be the pre-quel to GTO, but actually came before GTO.
Review:
Whats more fun than watching Eikichi Onizuka and Ryuji Danma rise and overcome triumphantly through battles and high school dramas? Personally, I love these characters from watching GTO (first unfortunately), so I am biased I suppose. But if you give this show a chance, and then watch the sequel GTO, you’ll understand why this series is so fun and amazing, yet serious!
Two legendary fighters, making up what is called the Oni-Baku, fighting through high school, but in actuality really just want to lose their virginities? Thats comedy at its finest! One would think they wouldnt have any issues being such tough guys. But they do! Especially Onizuka. Poor guy, he’s just so awkward around women.
The show is fairely old, released in 1994, so the animation shouldnt be expected to be awesome. The artwork is decent to say the least (I’m just being honest folks). But that isnt really why you watch this show. You watch it for the greatness of the characters. The show manages to pack in a lot of comedy, but also has multiple serious parts to it where I actually found myself worrying about the characters a bit.
If you love GTO, and havent seen Shonan Junai-Gumi, then I feel sorry for you because you’ve missed out on the badass-ness that is Onizuka and Ryuji. Its almost an additional 5 hours that happens before GTO! I know at the end of GTO, I craved more. Here it is! Its the prequel but it hits the spot!
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Senkou no Night Raid
Episode Reviewed In: Episode 46
Alternate Titles: Night Raid 1931
Original Japanese Release Date: 2010
Episode Length/Run-time: 12 episode
Summary:
Set in a pre-war Shanghai, 1931, a team of elite Japanese spies is dispatched to the city. But unlike your “normal” spikes this group the “Sakurai Kikan” is full of people with special super powers, making their jobs the “impossible” to the average soldier. This group’s place in history and how they affected events unknowing to the modern population unfolds.
Review:
This anime is exceptional at seeming important. It deals with a time shortly after the First Sino-Japanese war when Japanese soldiers were stationed in Japan. Throughout the course of the anime it covers important events in history, notably the Manchurian Incident, as well as other important figures and places. Throughout this the anime is almost an alternate retelling of history of how this super secret group really affected the course of human events which we never knew about as a general history.
Sounds cool right?
Too bad it’s not.
The unfortunate thing with this series is they do literally nothing for the first six episodes, they have a recap episode five episodes in for a 12 episode series! They don’t even touch on the plot until after that. So while there were some things that were cool to see it ended up not really flushing things out because they wasted time upfront with what could be said was “character building” but what I really think is that’s a nice way to say “wasting time.”
I wish this anime had more to offer but it ended up being boring and confusing at best. Making it not an enjoyable watch.
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Sacred Blacksmith
Alternate Titles: None
Original Japanese Release Date: 2009
Episode Length/Run-time: 12 episodes
Summary:
Cecily Campbell is the last in the prestigious Campbell line. Coming from a prestigious family she has decided to become a Knight in honor of her family. Despite being confident she is a clumsy swordsman and is fearsome of true battle. One day because of this clumsiness she is saved by Luke (with his assistant Lisa) who is a legendary blacksmith capable of forging Katana and powerful swords capable of fighting demons. Cecily asks him to forge her a sword but he is skeptical of her and she must first prove herself first.
Review:
Don’t let this review or the seemingly original concept/title fool you into thinking this is an anime you want to watch because it is most certainly not. I made the mistake of being excited for this anime the season it was coming out and, behold, I ended up being disappointed.
Cecily is your traditional anime girl, large boobs which the other girls are never shy to point out, clumsy to a fault and of course pure intended and true. The most frustrating thing I found is she was supposed to be a knight and ended up being saved by everyone else throughout the whole show. Even when she tried to stand on her own she ended up faltering almost every time.
As the series progresses they throw more girls into the mix so the series ends up basically becoming Luke’s harem.
The problem with this series is that it had a lot of good ideas. A legendary blacksmith, swords that became people, magic, impenetrable evils, and Knights! Anime these days just doesn’t have that traditional fantasy flare. But the problem was it felt like a huge brainstorming session that was never developed. Like if they had all these good ideas in there it would make a good anime but this sadly isn’t the case.
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Spice and Wolf 2
Alternate Titles: Ōkami to Kōshinryō II
Original Japanese Release Date: July 8th, 2009
Episode Length/Run-time: 13 Episodes
Summary:
The journey between Laurence Craft and Horo continues as the pair live the life of a merchant on their way to returning Horo to her home village.
Review:
This season of Spice and Wolf is largely the same as the last. It’s a nice “love story” between Laurence Craft, a merchant, and Horo, a wolf girl deity. As is the case with the first season, there is a great deal of commerce and economics happening which might make it a little difficult for some people to follow. Still, all in all it’s an enjoyable story.
The characters in this show as very good. Laurence Craft is a sensitive personality with shrewd business sense. He also has a lot of guts, at times risking it all on a business deal that can either make him a price or a pauper. Horo is equally a shrewd and is super cute. She’ll often use her senses as both a wolf and a goddess to read and manipulate people.
I do have a couple of complaints with the show to go along with my compliments. First of all, the story of Spice and Wolf 2 felt a bit stagnant to me. The pacing is very slow. It never really made progress over the first season. The pair travel from town to town, trading goods, and really the biggest drama in the series comes from Laurence’s ever present possibility of going bankrupt. Perhaps the most frustrating thing for me was the love aspect of the show which still didn’t seem to make much progress. It’s obvious that they care for each other but ultimately, there is little “physical” progress being made in their relationship.
The show looks glorious. The quality of the art and animation is stunning. Vibrant colors and very appealing character designs are the hallmark of this series. In addition, the music is beautiful. The themes and the episode music are whimsical and memorable.
All in all, this is a good show. What keeps it from being great is the slow pacing and the lack of progress that the story really makes towards its conclusion. The characters and music are memorable but the show does little that the original Spice and Wolf did not.
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