Bakuman. 3
Score for the overall series ended up at a 4, but the third season sits at a 5.
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Score for the overall series ended up at a 4, but the third season sits at a 5.
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Mitsugi and Kram have first-hand experience working in public schools in Japan. They have seen the children, taught the classes, and mingled with the teachers so they offer invaluable insight into the “real world” of the Japanese school system. Is it anything like anime? Or does anime just sell us lies? Listen to this episode to find out!
Reviews: Amnesia and Senyuu
Impressions: Ginga Kikōtai Majestic Prince and Valverave the Liberator
Plot Summary:
In a lose “retelling” of stories from the classic Arabian Knights tales the story is set in a fantasy desert land filled with many peoples and countries. In this land magic and the fantastic are still very much alive as the world is filled with Rukah, the magical life source in every person. Only a couple people in the world are known as Magi, those with the power to draw endlessly from the Rukah and use their powers to suppose their chosen King candidates. A young Magi, Aladdin, has begun to discover what it means to be a Magi as he explores the world with his new friends the brave and kind Alibaba and the strong and mysterious Morgiana.
Technical:
Magi is based off a maga which started in 2009 and is currently still running with 16 volumes.
Staff~
The director Koji Masunari has little other notable credits other than the Read or Die OVA. Which speaks well for the action sequences in Magi and the attention to detail in that respect shows.
Otherwise this series has a mac-truck metric ton of episode directors, story boarders and key animators. Most notable is the art director Ayu Kawamoto who worked on No.6, Kodomo no Jikan as the art director.
Studio~
The animation was done by A-1 Studios which is a subsidiary of Sony Music’s Aniplex. They’ve worked on other shows such as Black Butler, Big Windup, and Fairy Tail.
Animation~
The fight scenes are really well animated and the animation, especially in the beginning of the series is fairly good by current standards. Not amazing, but good. The fight scenes remain consistent throughout but other animation gets really sloppy toward toward the end.
Music~
Music is catchy, diverse, and well done. It’s not going to win separate awards for music but it’s above average in my book for a shonen show. The man who did the music, Shiro Sagisu, also did music for many other shows including Bleach, Evangellion – including the reboots, and His and Her Circumstances to name a few.
Review:
This review will be developing as I review later seasons. The fact remains that the series will be more than one season and at the end of the first it has a literal “to be continued” type ending. Since I know it will be getting more I won’t entirely fault it for this.
I’d also like to say that I haven’t read the manga, and being a good girl and doing my homework I have discovered many people lamenting about the pacing of the adaptation relative to the Manga. I’ll touch on this more in-depth in a bit if I think not reading the manga is a pro… or con…
So, the first season…
The series starts out with a bang. Right off the bat we’re meeting the main characters, being introduced to an engaging world, and getting involved in back-stories involving poverty, purpose in life, and slavery, to name a few. We meet Aladdin first who you know off the bat has a greater purpose but you don’t really know why yet. Aladdin meets Alibaba who wants to be a dungeon capturer. Dungeons are these large tower places with treasure rooms, inside are djins who will lend their power to the capturer and massive wealth.
Within the first five episodes they capture a dungeon, seeming like the series has already completed its purpose of what it set out to do. But one amazing thing the series has going for it is progression. By the end of the first season capturing a dungeon doesn’t even seem like it’s that big of a deal anymore because the characters have moved so far past that.
But after these awesome first few episodes where we meet our main cast they end up splitting apart in a second arc that seems relatively slow, and comparatively pointless. The whole time you’re wondering if the characters you thought were the important ones actually are… spoiler, they are, despite this arc. Yes the arc ends up doing some things for character personal evolution and ends up being necessary, but the adaptation from the manga here I think is weak and lacking. I’m sure in the manga this part is much better. Or maybe, the anime is better because it blows through a “boring” part of the manga when they’re split… I don’t really know.
After the characters come back together, unsurprisingly, things pick up and get really interesting again. There are two more arcs following this, the third was my favorite and felt the most developed. The fourth was so-so. It felt like the progress that was made in the third arc was removed as characters just moved on from their achievements rather than building upon them in some way. Beyond that it felt like aspects of the fourth arc existed as simply a way to introduce more of the world that we won’t see till the second season. I read the ending is actually not a “manga ending” but an anime adaptation, I can’t confirm or not, but if they did make up an ending for the show it really wasn’t much of one.
But I’m not complaining, I want more of the series. It had great action, good humor, and really good characters. It does have flaws, obviously in the fact that I’m not able to sing a lot of praises with regards to the depth of story and at times it felt like it moved way too fast to have any more depth. But the series is entertaining and has everything you need to be a good shonen show. Action, characters, and battles that seem to get more and more impressive as time goes on.
I’ll be looking forward to future seasons. But since I have to review what is out right now I’m going to be forced to give it 3.5 flying turbans out of five. The reason why this score is low for all the good I’ve said about it is because of the ending and overall pacing that didn’t seem to allow for anything deeper. It’s not finished and so it just can’t get an amazing score. But on an entertainment level it falls pretty high for me. I think if you like shonen shows and enjoy this brand of fantasy then get on the show now because it may be a long running one…
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Do you know about the Church of Mitsugi? Are you a subscriber to the manliness? Do you dream of ways sausage fits, in buns? Then this is the episode for you! It’s a Church of Mitsugi special telling you all you need to know about the Church, specifically, the circles of Anime Hell!
“A Chuch of Mitsugi special” – like the rules and cast outs that they hate.” – dino-anima-sorus
“A show just centered on the Holy Church of Mitsugi where you give us the 10 sins of anime.” – sh8keaspear
· 7 Circles of Anime Hell – The Circles of Anime Hell test your anime fandom and your existence as a man by visually feeding you some hellish anime content. All of the trials and tests that the Church strives to break down that one must undergo if they wish to exist as an anime fan.
o Circle 1 – “The Gate” – beach and hot springs episodes.
§ As you watch anime, prepare to endure tremendous amounts of garbage shit that is injected into anime where it both does and does not seem out of place.
§ Countless beach and hot springs episodes, even in horror anime (e.g. Another) and sci-fi space anime (e.g. Outlaw Star).
· Why did we have to awkwardly watch the most lifeless, completely unlikeable cast of characters of Another trying to have fun at the beach? (Like watching a guy have a tea party with love dolls) So strange and quite frankly dangerous old men could fill their eyes with pre-pubescent, middle school T&A.
· Why did Gene Starwind have to be dragged through the shit pile that was the hot spring episode of Outlaw Star? Why did the shows’ creators feel the need to find a Japanese Onsen in the middle of space? To see Aisha’s furry tits. That’s why.
o Circle 2 – “PVC Pedophiles” – Nasty people who buy a lot of PVC figures of very young girls.
§ It’s not a healthy world where grown men buy perverse manikin figures of little girls to put on their walls like trophies.
§ These are the primary market for Satan’s kiddy porn manufacturing ring.
§ The church encourages these people to cease the purchase of such figures as it may help to change the type of anime we are forced to watch. If the industry can’t make money off the naked girls, maybe they’ll stop putting them in anime.
· We as fans are partially responsible for the decay known as fan service and moe that has proliferated in the anime industry over the last 10 years.
· If we as fans don’t demand a higher level of quality from our anime content, the industry will just continue to keep us crap. So stop buying figures of moe, stop watching moe anime, stock buying DVDs, and maybe we can salvage what few brain cells we all have left.
o Circle 3 – “Elementary School Succubus” – Random ass and fan service where it doesn’t belong.
§ You decide that you can withstand the beach and hot springs episodes. So you continue deeper into the moe stench filled pit that is Anime Hell’s second circle.
§ In the second circle, you witness a great battle. It tempts and intrigues you with its serious plotlines and subject matter. SUDDENLY, you are distracted by the sight of 9 year old ass and enormous tits that sometimes move on their own as if they were alive. Welcome to the second circle; home of the elementary school succubus.
§ Welcome to a place where a story about war and the slaughter of 10s of thousands can be filled with random injects of ecchi and moe.
· A story about economics? Sure! Giant tits.
· A story about Japan’s greatest historical warriors? Let’s make them 8 year olds with giant tits!
· Should be transfixed on a tense moment in the story? Sorry! Couldn’t stop staring at those giant tits and little girl asses to realize the tension.
o Circle 4 – “Hetalia cosplayer hell” – a nightmarish mixture of bad and obnoxious cosplay combined with the rampant popularity of a series destined to pollute the world’s skies and oceans with its fluffy bs.
§ You enter the third circle, a hellish, nightmarish scene that sometimes appears outside of hell at events known as anime conventions. 400 anime fans, dressed like hetalia characters, all screaming Pasta and Italy like infants who just learned theirs first words.
§ Their psychotic, caffeine and sugar induced excitement generates the smelly heat that we know as con-funk but Satan himself uses to heat his bath water.
· Why do the Hetalia cosplayers generate such a terrible smell? Some say it’s shame, but the real reason is that Satan feeds them My Little Ponies for dinner each night.
§ The Hetalia cosplayers, after being sent to hell by the likes of Jojo, Kenshiro, Golgo 13, Onizuka and others, are subjected to their greatest hell of all; being forced to shower. Satan special orders special Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure body wash because the sight of Jojo’s abs is just too much. Too manly for the likes of Hetalia.
· Water and soap burn like acid on the skin of those that have watched Hetalia.
o Circle 5 – “Moe blob cavern” – Somewhere in the pits of hell are the moe blobs: monstrous beasts that pollute our anime with cake eating, cat ears, culture festival episodes and stupidity.
§ The moe blobs were invented by Satan primarily to satisfy the interests of perverted men in their 30’s and 40’s. Normal people don’t buy half naked figures of 12 year old girls (or just normal girls) AND proudly display them.
· Moe figures are made the parts of the My Little Ponies the Hetalia cosplayers won’t eat.
· PVC figure sales account for 60% of the budget of hell, which is used to fund half of the anime conventions in Florida (which is where there are about 20 of them).
§ Take solace the in fact that Satan created a safety net when he created the moe blobs. In the event that the world should face a near extinction of the human race (e.g. Zombie apocalypse), the moe characters will be the first to be killed due to their stupidity, non-athleticism and clumsiness. Thus, preventing their ability to repopulate the earth.
Reviews: Magi, Girls Und Panzer, and Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman
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Alternate Titles:
Oreimo
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Are you pretty busy? Is your day scheduled from when you wake up to when you go to bed? But are you still an addict? Itching to get your fix however possible?! The addicts know how that goes and we share our tips for how to get anime in when your schedule doesn’t seem to allow for a single minute.
Our Tips:
· Best anime for the busy person – Simply put, its best to stick with shows that so not require a huge time commitment.
o Recommend: If you love anime for the sake of it there are many 3-5 minute episode anime right now. Most of these shows suck, but what can you do?
o Recommend: Watching very episodic shows; Cowboy Bebop, Mushishi, Samurai Champloo.
§ Allows you to take breaks of a day, a week, or more in-between episodes
Movies
o Stay away from excessively long series: One Piece, DBZ, Yu yu Hakusho, inuyasha
o Stay away from shows that require many episodes to be watched within a short period. Best to stay away from shows like Ergo Proxy that require a strong recollection of prior episodes to understand the story. A busy person may have gaps between viewing.
· Multi-tasking – This generally works with anime that is very simple minded and doesn’t require you to pay 100% close attention (e.g. Vividred Operation was a good recent example). Also, works will with shows that have simpler Japanese because if you can speak a little, it is possible to follow along while you do something else. It is easier to watch dubbed anime while multitasking, but you limit your selection this way and dubbed anime is sometimes bad.
o Anime while doing household chores
§ Cooking/dishes
· Put the laptop a bit back from the sink or stove
§ Ironing clothes
· Put the laptop by the ironing board
o Anime on your smartphone
§ Driving – Anime at red lights
§ Lunch at work – watch anime while you walk to and from lunch/at lunch
§ Traveling to work – many Japanese people watch anime on their phones on the train on the way into the city. Not many people watch AND walk on the street, but you could get away with this.
o Before bed – some people read to get sleepy. Most new anime is subtitled. This is reading, so take advantage by watching an episode before bed each night. It’s only 20 minutes and you can get through an anime in 2 weeks like this.
Reviews: Vividred Operation and Maou Yuusha
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