Kyonyuu Try! Tanki Shuuchuu Chichi Momi Lesson
[starrater]
2.5
Tokyo Ghoul
[starrater]
Zankyou no Terror
Alternate Titles: Terror in Resonance
[starrater]
Isshuukan Friends
Plot Summary:
Kaori Fujimiya is a high school student who gives off a cold and aloof appearance in class. She has no friends and she is uninterested in making any more. Yuuki Hase decides he is going to break the ice and become her friend. As he succeeds in doing so he finds out that Fujimiya has a form of short-term memory loss where she loses her memories of her friends every monday morning. Because of this she doesn’t see herself as being able to make friends. Hase works hard to become her friend and she begins keeping a diary so that each Monday she goes to school knowing who he is. As time goes on she makes more friends and the mysteries surrounding the source of her memory loss are slowly revealed.
Production and Technical Information:
Based on the manga by Matcha Hazuki published by Square Enix
The manga was published in January 2012 and is still ongoing with 6 volumes.
The television anime series is produced by Brains Base and originally ran from April-June 2014 with 12 episodes.
The director Iwasaki, Tarou was very involved in the project as Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, and Key Animation. He has worked as an Episode Director on a lot of projects but was director of Memories Off 5 and Yakushiji Ryouko no Kaki Jikenbo.
Suga, Shoutarou did the script and series composition. He has worked on scripts for Darker than Black, FMA Brotherhood, Ghost in the Shell: SAC, and a good number of other shows.
The anime is very simplistic with thin lines and a clean style. I wouldn’t call it a “traditional” anime style. Characters are more muted and the colors are natural. At some points they use picture montages to save some money, but being a slice of life anime it’s not jarring to action or flow of the series.
Music is done by Toda, Nobuko and this is her debut working on anime music. The music I would say is simple, but well done, just above average. It fits the feel of the anime but a few themes can be repetitive.
Review:
Isshuukan Friends, or One Week Friends, starts out really charming. Memory loss isn’t anything new but Hase-kun’s earnest feelings and clear romantic interest makes the viewer interested in going along for the ride. Over the first three episodes the pacing is near perfection. He makes reasonable progress with Kaori and you can see their relationship really beginning to blossom.
Shifting into episodes 4-6 Fujimiya begins making more friends and you see her growing. These are also strong and the viewer is satiated with a few hints and clues to whatever the reason may be behind Fujimiya’s memory loss. At this point in the anime it’s being painted as the ultimate crux and reveal with what may be the climax of the series.
This is when the anime began to drag for me. The reasons behind Fujimiya’s memory loss seem very superficial and thrown in almost as an afterthought. It ends up revolving around something that you end up thinking “really, this was the reason?” After having so many episodes where you feel such strong emotions for the characters and have it steeped in mystery to have it be revealed and it be trivial.
As a result, I began to feel distant from the characters. When one thing begins to feel superficial it all does, including the romance between Hase and Fujimiya, which ends up going nowhere.
In all this series had a lot of potential and I was really hopeful, but it ended up disappointing.
[starrater]
No Game No Life
Plot:
Siblings Sora and Shiro do everything together. They are hikkikomori NEETs who spend all their time indoors on games. It doesn’t matter what the game is, new or old, digital or physical, their combination of gut instinct and book smarts carries them through any game to victory. They leave their usernames empty, and it earns them the name of ‘Blank.’
Their victories attract the attention of the god of an alternate world in which everything is governed by commandments surrounding games. Politics, wars, futures, successes and failures. They quickly take over the kingdom and learn that the entire world is one large game of conquest between races. The victor earns the right to challenge – and even become – god himself.
Director: Atsuko Ishizuka
She was a story-arc director for Aoi Bungaku. She has directed Tsuki no Waltz, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, and Hanayamata. Otherwise her most high-profile shows were only smaller roles such as episode directors or storyboards.
Source:
Light novel by Yu Kamiya that started in 2012 and is still ongoing. It currently has 6 volumes.
A manga was started in January of 2013, also published through Media Factory, and has only one volume.
Studio/Animation:
The anime is produced by studio Madhouse. As a result its production values are fairly high for the majority of the show. It has decent movement and fairly elaborate fantasy-esque fantasy designs.
The anime has a strange, glow-like, wash to it all, as though it’s almost blurring neon. This could be something that could easily be a turn-off or turn-on for many people. However, it is a fairly creative approach.
Music:
The in-show music has its high and low points. It mostly equals out to just above average, I would say. However, the opening and closing are fairly catchy.
Review:
This anime bears all its cards right off the bat. Within the first episode we learn the dynamic of the brother and sister and their affinity for games. And, when I say ‘dynamic’ I meant that awkward ‘No of course they don’t want to bang they’re brother and sister… but really, they want to bang.” And, when I say ‘affinity’ I mean, ‘They win by impossible chance, small margins, and things even a supercomputer couldn’t figure out – but we want you to believe the girl is a supercomputer anyways.’
As of episode 4 they’ve entered into the world, become king and queen, and are now trying to take over the world of games. This is an anime that revels in the ridiculous and celebrates the stupid. Each of the characters are over the top and have their own archtype.
We learn how the boy really wants to get laid, despite wanting to bang his sister, and ends up enslaving a girl to him – because that’s a super cool thing to do. We learn how the sister can learn a language in an hour, I wish. And we have a girl who can’t stop walking into things, or being dumb every second. We have cat girls, wing girls, name it, this anime likely has it.
Oh, what more can I say? The games are won on backwards and barely strung together logic until it stops making sense at all. We spend as much time in the bath as playing games half the time. Oh and we can create a world where people conveniently don’t have nipples or genitalia so we can show them naked.
The show has pacing problem that you begin to pick up right around episode 5. That’s when you learn that if you take over all the race pieces of the world you can challenge god himself. Cool right? I think so. But, then they just don’t have the time to finish that goal before the series is over. Don’t worry, there is time to fit in a love-shooting catgirl dating sim though.
The best I can say for this show is it has benefits if you revel in the ridiculous it’ll supply that. There are mildly amusing moments and there is a small excitement of ‘how will they do it’ to the game. But don’t look for anything substantial or serious. This anime was not even trying to it from the start.
[starrater]
World Conquest Zvezda
Alternate Title: Sekai Seifuku: Bouryaku no Zvezda
[starrater]
Midori
MIDORI (1992)
地下幻燈劇画：少女椿 (ちかげんとうげきが：しょうじょつばき)
– Directed by Hiroshi Harada (Eternal Paradise, Lullaby to the Big Sleep)
– Also known as MR. ARASHI’S AMAZING FREAK SHOW.
– Based on the ero guro manga by Suehiro Maruo, which is subsequently based on the narrative of Shoujo Tsubaki, a character who emerged during the Showa era revival of kamishibai. Kamishibai is an 800-year-old form of storytelling used paper scrolls to illustrate spoken stories told to an audience.
– The story tells of a young girl who loses her parents and is taken in by a traveling carnival. She is then abused and forced to work as a slave.
– The film had somewhat of a troubled production and distribution history. Director Harada almost single-handedly created the entire film, due to a the film’s subject matter scaring off potential investors and severely affecting the project’s budget. The production took five years and all of the directors savings.
– MIDORI is considered a partially lost film due to being seized by the Japanese government when it was discovered that the movie contained illegal depictions for the time. The original master reel was destroyed.
[starrater]
Senki Zesshou Symphogear G
Senki Zesshou Symphogear G
13 episodes ; started in the Summer 2013 season
· Staff
o Original creator – Akifumi Kaneko and Senki Zesshou Symphogear G
o Director – Katsumi Ono – Hataraki Man
o Production studio – Satelight
o Music – Elements garden – Boburetsu Pirates, Love, Election and Chocolate, Senki Zesshou Symphogear, Uta no Prince Sama, Kimi to Boku
· Plot Summary
o As was the case with the first Symphogear anime, this one is fueled by the pop idol power of Nana Mizuki, who as of a couple years ago was the top anime related idol in Japan. She does the voice for one of the main characters Tsubasa and contributed 5 of her pop songs to this anime including the main theme, Vitalization. My belief is that Mizuki Nana’s popularity is the fuel behind this anime and it is probably what allowed it to have a second season in addition to increased production values.
o This anime continues the story of Hibiki, Tsubasa and Kurisu. In this anime the world is in peril as one of the planets moons are being pulled down to the Earth on an imminent crash course. The world is predicted to be destroyed in the future and rival groups are each trying to save the world in their own way. To this end, an organization of American origin emerges with its own trio of Symphogear users to help remove the seal on mankind’s sanctuary from the impending destruction, “the Frontier”.
o The anime goes through an array of battles with the Symphogear users, which allows the series to show off its new character’s designs, the improved budget, and show new viewers what Symphogear is all about, music themed battles. We have battles at concerts, on top of air craft carriers, battles on top of Sky Tree (It gets destroyed a little), and everywhere in between. The flash and style of the action scenes will win over a lot of users and it’s what this show does best. One of the most fun aspects of the action is how Symphogear users will often call out the name of an attack, which is displayed on screen, before the move is done. It’s quite fun.
o The biggest problem with this anime is how blatantly it rips off the storytelling efforts of prior magical girl anime and it contributes virtually nothing new in the genre. I feel that Symphogear tries its hardest to be Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha and sadly, the truth is that it just isn’t that good. The mechanized weapons, the Nana Mizuki flare, and the way that villains are treated in the anime all feel like they were pulled straight from Lyrical Nanoha and in addition, the ending of the anime felt like it an attempted duplication of the end of Lyrical Nanoha A’s.
o I found the ending of the anime grew more and more convoluted and less and less believable. I also didn’t enjoy how the show subjected itself to the genre’s clichés and ultimately left me wanting a lot more. Also, the anime seems to treat the viewer with kid gloves by failing to deliver on its promise to kill off certain characters, magically saving them via some of the most obvious Deus ex Machina.
· Hanging its hat
o The anime’s designs are interesting and ton notch. Magical girl anime such as Symphogear G have led me to prefer the mechanized magical girl suits to the lace and frills of Sailor Moon.
o The music in this anime is what makes it special to watch. The openings and closing songs are magnificent and it’s always a treat to hear Mizuki Nana sing as she is definitely a great singer. I didn’t enjoy the battle songs quite as much as in the first series.
· Aesthetic
o The visuals of the anime appear to have been giving a production budget boost. `The visuals look more crisp than previously and the action scenes are longer and more frequent which makes the show generally look more impressive.
· Summary
o Pros
§ Action scenes are great. Much improved from the first season.
§ Music is great
§ Character designs are interesting and preferred to the lacy style of magical girl
§ Hibiki is a badass
o Cons
§ Story riddled with clichés and borrows too much from concepts used in other anime
§ Poorly delivered storyline
§ Uninteresting villain
§ Ending is just “WHAT?!”
Iron Man – Rise of the Technovore
Plot:
Tony Stark continues to be the self-declared world protector for criminals and evil-doers. To assist in this he is launching a surveillance satellite named “Howard” to help prevent crimes by finding them before they start. But the launch doesn’t go as smoothly as hoped when an unknown force lead by a boy in a suit attacks the compound. Iron Man and War Machine are quick to the scene but the boy is using a technology unlike anything Tony has ever encountered: the Technovore. Claiming it is the future Tony is left to learn the truth of the boy, the technology, and their motives.
Run Time: 88 minute OVA
Studio:
Like the Iron Man series before it this installation was produced by Studio Mad House.
Animation –
Mad House of course delivers on a good-looking show. While there are clear decisions that have been made to help cut costs (like avoiding showing Tony’s lip flaps in the suit by focusing on his eyes) the OAV overall has a nice glossy look. There is a clear application of CG, as is to be expected with robot shows these days. But it doesn’t seem out of place when it is used.
Director:
The director was not involved in any of the previous Iron Man, interestingly enough. But he did do some shows like Stein’s Gate, so he has been involved in something good.
Dubbing:
I actually watched this dubbed and it wasn’t so bad. As most of the characters are supposed to be American something about it actually “clicked” being dubbed and not having Tony Stark be Japanese.
That being said some of the writing was just a bit sad in how corny or mediocre it was. Some lines were particularly awful, but something about it did fit at times as an over the top super-hero movie.
Review:
So, think of Iron Man live action. What does it have?
- Iron suit dog fights?
- Playboy Genius moments?
- Other superhero cameos?
- Crazy over the top villians?
This anime? Check, check, check and check. It is exactly what Iron Man reboots have always and should always be. There is light techno babel but the important part is Tony Stark being Tony Stark and unabashedly messing people’s days up as Iron Man.
Right from the start they get into the action and do pretty well at keeping the beat all the way through the movie.
Nick Fury, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Pepper Pots, even the Punisher all have moments in this adaptation and it’s kind of fun to see Marvel’s take on the other characters in the Marvel universe. However, while Tony seemed to be as on-point as is to be expected these other characters fell flat for me. I’m not sure if it was writing, acting, or just bad storytelling but most seemed awkward, especially when dealing with Tony. Key example was Pepper Pots. I admit to being a Tony/Pepper fangirl. But every time I saw them together I was left wanting to laugh, or just shake my head. Right up until the end their whole interaction, professional and romantic, seemed forced and awkward. It would’ve been far better if she had never been in there from the start.
The story was simple enough to understand, but maybe too simple in that I didn’t completely get some of the motives of the villain. Just a crazy kid I suppose. But sometimes they would throw in techno-babble or self-important book quoting that made you feel like you went from the kiddy pool to the deep end and back without ever having a chance to acclimate.
But these are things that are just normal problems that shows, and superhero shows, have. Iron Man Rise of the Technovore did have some cool moments and great lines. One such moment was when Tony jumped into his Iron Man suit, literally, and it was an awesome sequence to see the motion of it wrapping around him.
The best thing I can say for this movie is that it’s fun. This movie is 100% fun. Like a summer action flick you can turn your brain off and just enjoy what’s going on. Jump along for the ride and have fun. If that’s all you go into it with, well that and a healthy love of Iron Man, you will be able to enjoy this movie for what it is.
[starrater]
Petshop of Horrors
[starrater]