Evangelion 1.0 You are (not) Alone
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3.5
Infinite Ryvius
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Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokoro-Chan
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Taisho Yakyu Musume
Alternative title:
Taisho Baseball Girls
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Mushi-Shi
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Piano no Mori
Alternative titles:
The Piano Forest
The Perfect World of Kai
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Kuragehime
Alternate Titles: Jellyfish Princess, Princess Jellyfish
Original Japanese Release Date: Oct 2010
Episode Length/Run-time: 11 Episodes
Summary:
Tsukimi is a geeky girl who lives in Amizukan, an apartment complex that no men are allowed to enter, with other otaku, hikkimori, and NEETs. She has a deep love for jellyfish due to a memory of her late mother. One evening, when trying to save a jellyfish she recieves help from a beautiful girl, but this girl is a trap!
Review:
This is an anime that I was earnestly surprised at how much I enjoyed. The premise seemed a little cliché, nerdy people afraid of popular beautiful people. But the execution was awesome. I loved how the “ugly” people were, well, actually ugly. It wasn’t like a lot of series where the “ugly” ones were actually really beautiful all things considered, they were pretty homely in this one. But it worked with creating the realism of the seires.
There are two main points of conflict in the show. One with Tsukimi and her relationship not only with a boy but a cross-dressing, popular, beautiful, rich boy, and how she overcomes this within. The other conflict is the risk of the Amizukan being torn down to make room for new building projects in the city and the geeky girls loosing their home and safe-haven.
The pacing of this show is also really great, it moves well and progresses in a speedy but not hasty manner. Things seem realistic in how the emotions change from encounter to encounter.
At its core I’d say Kuragehime is a feel-good show which anyone who has ever felt slightly socially outcaste can enjoy. It was a show I enjoyed a large amount and really recommend as a worth-while watch.
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Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos
Alternate Titles: Fullmetal Alchemist: Milos no Sei-Naru Hoshi
Original Japanese Release Date: Jul 2011
Episode Length/Run-time: 110 Minutes
Summary:
The Elric brothers are back and they are sent out to a boarder city known as tower city persuing a fugitive who escaped from prison with only a few months left on his sentence using strange alchemy. When they arrive they learn there’s more going on that meets the eye as they learn of the people who have been stripped of their ancestral lands and now live in the valley floor at the boarder of the two cities, struggling to regain their homeland by any means.
Review:
I think Kimiko said it best when she said movies like this are basically official fanfiction. This movie has no real place in the FMA saga and it is basically a mini vignette where everything returns to how it was when its done. But, that doesn’t mean it was a bad movie. The movie had excellent pacing, between the engaging characters, interesting story, and top-notch fight scenes you will not be bored. Fans of the series will be pleased in how all the fan favorites have been placed in the movie, sometimes a little forced – Winry did not need to be in there – but not bad. The original characters for the movie are also surprisingly deep and loveable for only knowing them a short time,you quickly find yourself invested in their plight and cheering for them in their struggles. One of the main criticisms is the animation in some of the fight scenes seems a little rough for an anime movie, normally the budget is so high everything is flawless. Its not bad though, just not as good as one would expect. But it is overall a very enjoyable watch no matter if you are an FMA fan or total noob.
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Magic Knight Rayearth
Alternate Titles: Rayearth
Original Japanese Release Date: 1994
Episode Length/Run-time: 20 Episodes
Summary:
Three junior high girls: Shidou Hikaru, Ryuuzaki Umi, and Hououji Fuu, meet at a school trip to Tokyo Tower. Suddenly, a bright light envelops them and they find themselves transported to the fantasy land of Cephiro. Princess Emeraude brought them there to save the land from the evil High Priest Zagato. With the guidance of Guru Clef, and the help of their new mascot the bouncy, rabbit-like, uber-cute Mokona, they are sent on a journey to become the Magic Knights in order to save the princess, and the land.
Review:
Alright, as always it’s time to get the specifics out of the way. Magic Knight Rayearth is a 20 episode series which came out in Fall of 1994 and ran through to 1995. It was produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha based off an original manga by CLAMP which was three volumes running from 1993-1995. There IS a follow-up manga and series to Magic Knight Rayearth, aptly titled Magic Knight Rayearth 2, but I am not reviewing that because I have not seen it. Makes sense, right? Both the manga and the series have been licensed in America, so if you want to get your hands on it, it should be pretty easy.
This series is hailed for following the first arc of the manga relatively closely. Which should be pleasing to many manga fans out there.
This anime feels like an RPG come to life on a screen. If Lodos war was D&D Rayearth is the spitting image of every JRPG fans game. Cephiro is a fantasy world full of large crystals, flying fish (literally, flying), gryphons, mages, and of course magical girls. The characters are as equally cliché as the world. Fuu is the quiet shy girl with glasses, Umi the entitled rich girl who seems to initially care only about getting home in time for her fencing tournament, and the spunky tomboy Hikaru.
So, yeah, the series starts out exactly as it looks. The girls learn of their powers, get into some battles, and fall into some clichés along the way. But it becomes significantly more than that. As is CLAMP’s style often times the series is full of forlorn love, taboo relationships and heartache. If you’re a girl, this addition really helps make the series IMHO.
The major con of this series is the animation. Where the character designs seem enchanting and different in the manga they just seem jarring and odd. Their faces are angular and odd looking and their eyes take the “big eyed anime character” to a whole new extreme. The animation is also poor, even by 1990s standards, the low frame rate makes the action sequences (something many Shojo series lack) clunky and odd. This is barely excusable just because these action series serve more to provide a catalyst for the emotional storm brewing in the series than a flashy soiree. Music is average, about what you’d expect.
What is best about this series is the ending. Magic Knight has a fantastic, unexpected, and emotional ending that you REALLY do not see coming. This series is the exact opposite of what we normally talk about, good series that end up bad. This series starts out with you expecting a little, and it ends up giving you a lot.
Overall, it’s a shojo magical girl anime, so there’s really so much you can expect . But generally people looking for the high-budget action sequences are going to stay away from this anyways. On a magical girl show scale, I’d give it a 4+. But this isn’t a magical girl only review site, so overall it gets a 3.5, slightly above average.
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Rozen Maiden
Alternate Titles: Meitantei Kun-Kun
Original Japanese Release Date: 2004
Episode Length/Run-time: 12 Episodes
Summary:
Jun Sakurada is a middle-school aged boy who refuses to go to school due to some past trauma which occured there. To pass the time he orders products on-line which he returns before their trial period is up. One day, he recieves a box prompted by a strange letter possessing a beautiful doll. When the doll springs to life she introduces herself as Shinku and forces Jun to enter into a contract with her to save his life from a sudden attack. Jun is pulled into what is known as the Alice Game.
Review:
I didn’t expect to like this anime, in fact, I walked into it expecting to flat-out hate it. But this anime really ended up taking me by surprise by the end when I actually ended up both feeling for the characters and feeling sad that it had ended.
At first it seems cliche, Jun is an unhappy teen, his sister is ditzy and well meaning to the point of frustration since she seems to not care when Jun walks all over her, and every episode appears to be introducing a new doll with a little battle of the “Alice Game.” But the story seems to run much deeper than that. As the story progresses there are heavy under and over-tones of self-worth and psychological battles that people face. A person’s true meaning is called into question and how people handle mental battles is emphasized as just as important as how they handle the physical ones.
The “Alice Game” is something all the “Rozen Maiden” dolls engage in. Each given a power the one to collect them all will become Alice, a girl so pure and innocent that she is the most beautiful creature in the world. Suiseki is the main villan of the story, a Rozen Maiden bent on becoming Alice to gain the love of “father” their creator.
Shinku is also an enjoyable character. Rather than being soft spoken and demure she doesn’t put up with anything and is willing to tell it like it is. A nice change in the anime world. It’s also great that they keep the doll theme, they are the size of dolls and never become human sized or any cliches like that.
Even though it’s full of cliche, and some filler that’s unnecessary, it’s still a good watch. Definately above-average compared to most.
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