Nodame Cantabile: Paris Chapter
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Review: The second season of Nodame Cantabile begins with Shinichi and Nodame's relocation to Paris to further their study of classical music. Overall, it's a bit of a slow start. The humor feels strained in the first half; too many outbursts of “Gyabo!” from Nodame, as if that is still supposed to be cute on its own merits after over twenty episodes, and not enough sadistic retrospective of Shinichi's traumatizing flight. Instead, we see Shinichi obsessing over his upcoming concours and bullying Nodame. Again, this is not especially exciting: Shinichi is always super-serious about his study, and Nodame always makes a tempting target. What else is new, and why should we continue to care?
Things improve dramatically, though, when the two heroes of this tale get to know their new neighbors better. Both Tanya, a vampish young woman who moved to France from Russia at the age of seventeen, and Frank, a French anime Otaku, are traumatized in their own ways by their respective encounters with Shinichi and Nodame. The last third or so of this episode was well-worth working through the tedium of the first two-thirds and quite amusing in its own right..
Nothing much from a production or stylistic standpoint has changed from the previous season, although the confused profusion of multiple language is worse than ever. The animation palette is still soft and pastel, laid over attractive watercolor backgrounds. personTomoko Ninomiya's original manga looks as good as ever on the screen. Overall, it's not a bad season opener, but it's not great. Nodame Cantabile surely has better things on offer for the future.
Casshern Sins episode 2
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Review: The second episode of Casshern Sins really only has one purpose and one purpose only—to show us how much life sucks for the remnants of the robotic populace left in the wake of some horrific disaster that, we are assured, our slim, spandex-clad hero is somehow responsible for. As such, it packs nowhere near the punch of the first episode and is, alas, disappointing by comparison.
We meet personROOT and Wrench, two robots in love facing “The Ruin” with resignation, and their robotic Doberman Friender. They are living like refugees with a ragtag group of other rusting robots who are all trying to accept death gracefully. Unfortunately, when Casshern appears and they find out who he is, their lust to survive overcomes their Zen-like peace, and his is forced to dispatch all of them himself.
Save Friender, who is likely to become a sidekick, these supporting characters that appear in this episode were all disposable flunkies, and they do not do particularly well at yanking on the heartstrings. Yet the show's strengths still lie in the weird beauty of its visuals, the plot's ongoing mysteries, and its heady robot-on-robot action. There are a good three battle scenes here to keep action lovers preoccupied, but I could not help but note that the editing of the first two in particular was executed in a very confused, rapid-fire Western action flick style;which is not necessarily becoming in an anime. The third, though, remained as good as what we saw in the show's debut episode. All in all, this is a very good series and definitely strong enough to warrant coming back for more.
Vampire Knight: Guilty
Rating: 4 (of 5)
Rating: The second season of Vampire Knight picks up where the first left off: the death of the pureblood Shizuka Hio and its aftermath. Zero has returned to his duties at Yuki's side as one of the Cross Academy's guardians, having staved off Level E-dom at least for the present by drinking Kaname's blood. Unfortunately, it is still just a matter of time; Yuki's friendly overtures cannot console him. And, to make matters worse, the Council wants him dead, believing that he killed Shizuka. When the real culprit leaps to his defense, it may be that the Academy will be insulated from the real world no longer.
If you are not at least familiar with the personMatsuri Hino's original story thus far or do not derive visual pleasure from boatloads of vampiric bishounen eye-candy, you will not enjoy this show. Hardly any recap of the show's premise is on offer in the first episode, and practically every frame oozes slick gratuity. If, on the other hand, you adore pretty boys in distress, look no further—the larded on sexual tension of this show will give you new reason to exist. The storyline is about to take a much darker turn; the “Guilty” subtitle is appropriate, and the opening and ending themes alone take the aesthetic bleakness up to a whole new level. Indeed, even comic relief is in very short supply. Vampire Knight: Guilty does its genre extremely well, and it is one of the strongest second season openers thus far.
Toradora! episode 2
Rating: 4 (of 5)
Review: When their first plan to hook Taiga up with Kitamura goes very awry, she and Ryuuji find themselves instead doing damage control when everyone at school assumes that they are dating. Yet even when Taiga works up the courage to confess her love to Kitamura, he misunderstands her intentions and agrees instead to be her friend. Looks like the Tiger and Dragon tag-team have a long way to go.
By all technical rights, there should be nothing remarkable about this anime series. The animation quality at best average, the soundtrack instantly forgettable, the cinematography and editing workman-like. In short, the anime by itself adds little experiential value. No, the strength of Toradora! resides almost entirely in its source material, the original novels by personYuyuko Takemiya. And what source material it is.
While the first episode wowed us with the spectacle of Taiga's fearsomeness, the second episode digs deep into her vulnerability with novelistic precision. We learn that she is so violent and angry because she is lonely, enraged by her parents’ emotional absence—and that, of course, her anger just functions to further drive any potential human connection further away, thereby making her even more lonely. Ryuuji's eccentric life with his mother and parrot is a rock of stability by comparison, and he is the first in a long time to see through Taiga. Viewers are made to care about these characters, and this sentiment, when combined with the already-established pleasure of watching the Tenori Tiger's kicks and punches fly, should be enough to keep them coming back for the rest of this series.
Bihada Ichizoku
Rating: 1 (of 5)
Review: love labo's Bihada Ichizoku is to Japan what Geico's Cavemen is to the United States—corporate mascots come to monstrous life and given their own television show. The problem? These mascots were originally conceived to sell stuff—facial cosmetics in the case of Bihada Ichizoku—not to entertain audiences with their own linear narrative. Shows like this one and are among the finest examples of transparent product placement;and little else. Although less than ten minutes long, by the end of the first episode, you will be wishing you'd spent the time watching an infomercial instead.
The story, such as it is, is set in the gentile but backbiting world of the Japanese glitterati, where everything is pastel-colored and even the laughter sounds infuriatingly cultured. The central conflict is the rivalry between Sara Bihada, the innocent heroine, and her jealous twin sister Saki. (They have the same face, but guess which girl is blonde.) After Sara wins the World Bihada Challenge, Saki takes matters into her own moisturized hands and seizes the reins of power. What will happen to poor, poor Sara? Obviously, this show is intended to parody personRiyoko Ikeda-esque vintage 70s shoujo. But unlike those esteemed classics of Japanese manga and anime, Bihada Ichizoku lacks even a rose-scented whiff of those classics’ complex characterization and emotional sincerity. All it is is poorly animated campiness that pushes product—and does not even do that in a way likely to persuade many viewers to buy.
Kemeko DX
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
Review: Long, long ago, at a poolside far, far away, Sanpeita and a girl named Kemeko were engaged to be married. Now, ten years later, Kemeko has returned—just in time to save Sanpeita from giant, destructive rice cookers! Unfortunately, she seems to spend all of her time encased in a super-powered, ovoid-humanoid mecha that is anything but a boy's dream girl.
Like Macademi Wasshoi!, this is yet another example of the done-to-its-deathbed, shounen romantic comedy where the ordinary boy torn between the magical girl and the ordinary one (in this case, a classmate named Izumi). But unlike Macademi Wasshoi!, which is an offense to Otaku everywhere, Kemeko DX is done-to-its deathbed, shounen romantic comedy done right. The first episode alternates deftly between the languid pace of Sanpeita's everyday life and the lurching overdrive of the Kemeko-robot's appearances, which are bizarre, even by anime standards, and instantly addictive. At first, we don't even know that the ovoid creature isn't entirely human, and its intimidating insistence that it is his bride—the wedding gown it wears proves it!—is both sadistic and funny. In fact, we don't even know for certain whether nor not he is just dreaming it all, but by the end of the first episode reality sets in when Kemeko informs Sanpeita that she is moving in with him. This show is one insane ride, and even a taste is certain to leave many craving more.
Yozakura Quartet
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Review: The first episode of Yozakura Quartet privileges style over substance;and, for that matter, coherency. Things were looking good for the first couple of minutes, which provided a succinct and easy-to-understand explanation of the city of Sakurashin, where humans and youkai co-exist and certain folks are charged with defending the peace. It all goes downhill from there, though, once we are actually introduced to said defenders of the peace, which include serious girl wearing a long scarf named Hime whom everyone calls Mayor and her compatriots. Watching them go after an escaped prisoner with a trench coat full of guns feels a bit like tuning into an action flick halfway through. Most of what we learn about any of these characters—of which there are five, not four, as the title of the show implies—relates to their superpowers. Because naturally the extent of the damage you can do is the most important thing about you.
Plot-wise, it's not much of an improvement over personSuzuhito Yasuda's original manga. The sole human Akina's powers are more advanced, for example, but this isn't necessarily an improvement per se. Still, like Shikabane-hime: Aka (hey, two Himes and counting this season!), this anime series has serious style to burn. The classic rock soundtrack is a nice change of pace, adding crisp texture to what is otherwise a pretty normal-looking Japanese city. Character designs are simple but appealing, and the animation of Hime and her scarf in particular is handsome. Actions scenes are also pleasingly cinematic, albeit blink-and-you-miss-it fast, and they may well be enough to keep some coming back for more—even given what little we thus far know or care about the characters or overarching storyline.
Shikabane-hime: Aka
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Review: Makina is a walking corpse. She fights crime! Or, to be more specific, she fights other Shikabane, bodies of the dead that have been reanimated by souls which refuse to pass on. But you get the point. Shikabane-hime: Aka is told from the point of view of Ouri, a naïve orphan who grew up on the grounds of a Buddhist Temple. Sinister happenings he does not fully understand swirl around him, but the last straw is seeing his older brother Keisei, a Buddhist monk, seem to bring a girl bad to life late one night. Moving to his own place, paradoxically, only brings Ouri closer to the heart of his family's mystery when he sees Makina in action;
Plot-wise, there is nothing here anyone has not seen a thousand times before, and it seems likely, especially given that the anime is based upon a shounen manga, that story will basically devolve into a Shikabane Beastie of the Week parade. After episode one, we are already down one pimp-turned-vampire. The show is much more interesting purely from a visual standpoint, with an atmospheric, slightly nostalgic setting and a coherent stylistic worldview. Of course, this would be the minimum most would expect from Gainax. All in all, this is not the most impressive action-horror anime series ever to have been thrown onto the airwaves, but it could have been much worse.
Tales of the Abyss ep. 2
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
Review: Although the opening credits are still a gratuitous two minutes long and although the battle scenes still feel a bit too much like watching someone else play a videogame, the second episode of Tales of the Abyss goes a long way toward assuring viewers that it is a solid selection for anyone in the mood for a swords ’n spells fantasy series. Perhaps some of this anime's success is owed to the quality of the original game's plot; Japanese RPGs at their best are second to none in their narrative complexity, subtlety, and scope. And already, Tales of the Abyss is angling in that direction.
In the second episode, Luke and Jade, having just discovered that getting home is not going to be as straightforward as they expected, take a detour through a small village whose storehouse is being raided by fire-breathing balls of cuteness known as Cheagles. There, they meet Fon Master Ion, help the local Cheagles with their liger problem. This episode also marks the first appearance of fan-favorite Jade Curtiss, voiced by the inestimable personTakehito Koyasu.
Visuals continue to be attractive and—even better—consistent throughout, and the plot moves at a pleasantly rapid clip. The highlight of the episode, though, was Luke's interaction with the Cheagle Mieu. Anyone who has ever briefly nurtured homicidal thoughts when confronted by yet another cute anime creature will rejoice at his comedic whack-a-mole treatment and die laughing at his instantaneous hatred of its high-pitched squeal. Granted, there aren't any deep thoughts here, at least not yet, but thus far this fantasy adventure has not been the any less for the lack.
ef ~ A Tale of Melodies~
Rating: 1.5 (of 5)
Review: On the plus side, it's pretty. The show's vibrant use of lighting and color is an textbook example of what Japanese anime these days can do right when the studios are trying. On the negative side, however, is the sorry fact that not even attractive visuals will save viewers of the first episode of ef ~A Tale of Melodies~ from stultifying boredom. The talking heads and surreal atmosphere are supposed to be profound in their obscurity, but they are actually just obscure.
This season, which appears to be adapting the original ef game's fourth chapter, begins by jumping back and forth a bit between the school years and adulthood of one of its frame narrators, Yuu Himura. But by about halfway through, it settles into the burgeoning relationship between professional violinist Shuichi Kuze and schoolgirl Mizuki Hayama. The enormous age difference adds a special tension, as does some rather inappropriate conversation, but it does not go anywhere in particular, at least for now. The only nudity in question—tasteful, of course, in keeping with the show's risible high-minded attitude—comes earlier.
Some people need a bit of story to help assuage their guilt about the porn, which is all fine and good. But when that bit of story becomes the raison d'entre in its own right, assuming monumental, monstrous proportions, something has gone very wrong. The ero genre has lost its way; it's ridiculous. So would it be too much to ask for the creators of ef ~A Tale of Melodies~ and others of its ilk to get found and hurry up with the sex in subsequent episodes? If not, well, a least it will be good for chronic insomniacs; a few nights of this on their screen will definitely cure them.
Ga-Rei –Zero–
Rating: 4.5 (of 5)
Review: Time to lay my cards out on the table: I have not the slightest clue what relationship this anime has to the Shounen Ace manga by personHajime Segawa, which is the same-old same-old about a high school boy with supernatural powers who gets caught up in Serious Business in Spades. Not even the anime's official website is particularly illuminating on that matter. But guess what? It doesn't matter. Ga-Rei –Zero– is great because it is nothing like anyone would have expected.
Let's start with the obvious. 1) It isn't cute. The brooding, shadowy palette and mature, sometimes decaying infrastructure of post-Industrial Japan is the last thing one could call cute. 2) The hero and his girlfriend aren't especially cute (by the Japanese definition of the word, at least). They are both adults, and they look it. 3) The story is intense. And moreover, what starts as a reasonable but not expectation-upending battle on the streets between the members of the Supernatural Disaster Prevention Agency and a duo of beasties called Kasha that look like mutant Komodo Dragons, fast becomes a fraught encounter with the ghosts (perhaps literally) of a traumatizing past.
If that's not recommendation enough, there is more: The cinematography is just spectacular by anime standards, and many of the shots and scenes are constructed with a technique more common to live-action action film than anime for television. Music also evinces impressive range, from techno to orchestral. Arguably best of all though, the first episode of Ga-Rei –Zero– ends on an awesome cliffhanger. To spoil it here to be a sin, but suffice it is probably the last way in which viewers would have supposed the half-hour would end—and that is just the beginning!
Kuroshitsuji
Rating: 4 (of 5)
Review: The season's offerings thus far have been so appalling that even a bishounen gothic horror show as fundamentally derivative as Kuroshitsuji feels like a breath of fresh air by comparison. Or maybe like the choking dust of a haunted Victorian mansion. But never mind the semantics; this one is a keeper. The first episode sets the stage nicely by showing viewers what an “ordinary” day in the life of Sebastian, an unflappable butler of—key word—inhuman proportions is like. His youthful charge Ciel Phantomdive, heir to the Phandomdive toy fortune, is to receive a guest at the family estate. However, preparations do not exactly go smoothly because the rest of the staff are bumbling fools. Fortunately, Sebastian manages to keep everything from teetering over the precipice and into a yawning chasm of disaster. But we soon learn that the objective of the evening is not to wine and dine the guest but rather to punish him his transgressions;
In any case, the demonic butler, though gimmicky, proves to be effective character type, invigorated less by any Japanese maid fetish and more by the rich, literary tradition and style of Victorian England (think Dracula and Jekyll & personHYDE) and the fujoshi taste for sinister bishounen with ambiguous relationships to other bishounen. (The “other bishounen” is Ciel, of course.) Obviously, the anime is also deeply indebted to shoujo horror classics such as Yami no Matsuei and Earl Cain. Yet what is arguably most pleasurable is the way in which it will have you chuckling one second at the characters’ unlikely antics and shivering the next at their unspeakable acts. Those sorts of pleasures never get old or stale.
Macademi Wasshoi!
Rating: 1.5 (of 5)
Review: Okay, Japan's obsession with the Harry Potter-esque magic school stories has officially hit its nadir in Macademi Wasshoi! (also known as Magical Academy, just in case you thought the word “nadir” is an exaggeration), an anime series whose first episode makes even a veteran fan shake her head in despair and wonder where it all went wrong.
On the plus side, it does prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that a sloppy amalgamation of a half-dozen or more popular anime tropes does not exceed the sum of its parts. The sorry excuse for a story revolves around Takuto, a student of magic who casts a summoning spell that calls forth a—wait for it—big-breasted, pointy-eared cutie whose vocabulary is confined to “myuu~” and who clings to Takuto like a leech. (Oh, and somehow morphs into a near-featureless claymation blob when clinging to the wrong, shall we say, Takuto parts.) Her presence pisses off his cousin Suzuho, who is a veritable Avatar of Destruction when she isn't a mute shadow of Takuto. Before the first episode is over, she and “Myuu~” girl are engaged in a tug-of-war for Takuto;literally.
If this tired magical girlfriend plot isn't irritant enough, the poor execution is nigh unbearable. Character designs and development are uninspired, for example, and the humor fails to amuse. Animation quality skirts the boundary between mediocre and appalling. Yet, arguably worst of all, random, meaningless inclusion of dog-girl maids, giant robots, and broom-riding lacrosse players lets slip the true depths of anime industry cynicism. “If we animate it, they will come?” Do not let them get away with it! Show them up, and don't bother showing up for this show.
To Aru Majutsu no Index
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
Review: To Aru Majutsu no Index takes place in an alternate universe Japan where high technology, psychic powers, and magic are intermixed and revolves around the life of an unprepossessing boy named Touma Kamijou and little nun named Index whose appearance on his balcony one morning heralds the end of life as he knew it. Incidentally, the protagonist looks like Ban from Getbackers, the first flunky antagonist looks like Gojyo from Saiyuki¸ and the magical girl looks like Shaolin from Mamotte Shugogetten. In short, no one and nothing we haven't seen a thousand times before.
Yet despite the above, and despite exhaustive voiceover monologues that betray this anime's light novel origin, this show is actually shaping up to be a lot of fun to watch. The main reason for this is its off-beat, slightly sadistic humor. You see, Touma is a walking bad luck charm. And while this means that superpowers as a rule don't work on him, it also means that anything bad that could happen to him—does. Happily, the show milks this sorry state of affairs for all its worth in comic relief. It also mills plenty of laughs from Index's naïve willingness to eat Touma's rancid food, which is undoubtedly the funniest sequence to show up in a series this season so far. All in all, an improbably promising series that needs to be seen to be believed.
Kyo no Go no Ni
Rating: 2 (of 5)
Review: Anime series about the day-to-day lives of ordinary elementary school kids come in two broad types: 1) Shows for elementary school kids, and 2) Shows that are not for elementary school kids. Kyo no Go no Ni, based upon a manga of the same name by personCoharu Sakuraba, is emphatically of the second type—and this anime cannot, as others of its ilk sometimes can, be repurposed out of its original Japanese context and into the first.
This is because the series vibrates with finely-tuned sexuality. Nothing too overt, of course, or it would not be airing on TV Tokyo. But this series—or the first episode, at least—explores the fumbling emergence of fifth grader Ryouta Sato and his classmates (both male and female) from, to borrow terminology from psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, the latent homosexual stage. In other words, we get to watch mutual disgust on the part of boys for girls and vice versa slowly but surely morph into mutual desire. So when, for example, Kazumi Aihara starts to gnaw on Ryouta's finger because her loose tooth is bothering her, it is both silly and erotic simultaneously.
At least, that's the theory. But in practice, it's mostly just creepy. Not to mention that the washed out colors and slow, stilted animation feel nothing like the hyperactive intensity of childhood. So never mind whether you are inclined to empathize with the characters or fetishize them—either way, it's hard to believe that most people would consider revisiting the awkward beginnings of puberty vicariously to be great weekly entertainment.
Tales of the Abyss
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Review: In the first minute of the first episode of this show, we learn that there are two rival kingdoms whose uneasy truce is about to come to an explosive, destiny-fraught end. At the center of it all is Luke, a young nobleman who has spent his life sequestered within his family's estate. But before he knows it, he finds himself far away from home with only a woman of questionable motives as his companion;
Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about Tales of the Abyss, an animated adaptation of the Namco RPG of the same name, is its opening sequence, which clocks in at an embarrassingly long two minutes in length. Normally, such a thing would not bode well for a show's prospects purely on the basis of its own merits; either the creators are wasting time because they do not have actual story to fill that time with, or the anime is in fact a vanity project on the part of its creators, pitched primarily toward those already sold on the franchise.
Given that the song in question used for the opening theme is personBUMP OF CHICKEN's “Karma,” also used in the video game, and the seiyuu who contribute their talents to the game also reprise their respective roles here, it is tempting to conclude that this show is an example of the latter. But surprisingly, although unquestionably formulaic in all particulars, it stands reasonably well as light entertainment on its own merits. The character designs are attractive, the animation is reasonable in quality, and the palette is sensuous and vibrant. Indeed, except for one battle toward the end of the episode, the viewing experience does not—as in the case of many animated adaptations of video games—feel like sitting by while someone else mashes buttons. Anyway, Tales of the Abyss should be a good pick for anyone on the market for a high fantasy hero's journey.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Season 2
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
Review: Anyone who has taken a turn around a Gundam anime or two over the years surely knows that Gundam 00 is basically a jumped up version of Gundam Wing, made newly relevant with the inclusion of allusions to the politics and paranoia of the 21st century. Now, however, Gundam 00 goes where its predecessor never dared—into the protagonist's adulthood. It's been four years since we saw Setsuna last, and the time elapsed shows on his handsome, person]Yun Kouga-designed visage. In this episode, we learn that an autonomous counterterrorism force known as A-LAWS has been oppressing humanity with “peace” and press-ganging anyone suspect of opposition into labor camps on the Proud colony. Setsuna emerges from hiding to help free the prisoners, whose number happens to include Saji Crossroad, but his now-obsolete Gundam Exia is damaged beyond repair in battle.
So how is Sunrise doing? Well, from a production standpoint, nothing seems to have changed from season one; for example, the digitally drawn backgrounds mesh as poorly as ever with flat, retro style of the characters and mecha. Otherwise, suffice to say that this is a Gundam anime, which means an enormous cast of characters and space colony-loads of convoluted politicking, not to mention a storyline that only recaps specificities when it is damn well ready (not this episode, apparently). Anyone familiar with the franchise should be able to read the genre codes well enough, though, to get a basic grasp of what is going on. There are only so many directions a Gundam show will go. (One guess as to who has donned a Char/Zechs-like mask and what that means.) All in all, this is a solid season opener that includes a couple of intriguing reveals that will be more than enough to keep fans riveted in coming weeks.
Kannagi
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)
Review: Jin Mikuriya becomes a modern-day Pygmalion when the statue of a shrine maiden he sculpts for a school crafts project from a piece of a felled sacred tree comes to life. Unfortunately for Jin, the adorable Nagi coming into his life is something less than unequivocal good news; while she is learning how to use the telephone, she is not out there protecting the land from corrupt intrusions. She will need to find another way to do her duty as a protective deity. Guess who is going to help her!
Although this Kannagi probably will not be the best series to debut this season, it is definitely the best first episode I have reviewed thus far. The animation is attractive, and the story thus far is well-constructed and comprehensible, and the warm, comforting depictions of ordinary domestic life and nature surrounding the shrine of Jin's youth leave plenty of room open for a darker narrative turn. Also, the obvious conflation of Shinto god, magical girl, and pop idol is intriguing cultural commentary and would make a great undergraduate honors thesis topic. (Any takers?) In any case, the eventual trajectory of this show is easy enough to guess, and if one episode should be enough to decide whether or not you want to watch more.
Rosario + Vampire Capu2
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Review: The new season of Rosario + Vampire picks up at a logical starting point: the beginning of a new school year at Youkai Academy. A convenient recap of the premise and characters occupies the first third of the episode and gets newcomers well up to snuff. In any case, Tsukune returns with his eyes open this time, eager to see Moka again. When he returns, he finds that his supernatural friends have become veritable celebrities, but things take a sinister turn when Moka starts getting letters from a stalker which threaten her life. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the stalker proves to be someone Tsukune would never have expected;
An ordinary boy who attends a school catering exclusively to supernatural creatures? A standard anime premise, but fair enough—and a bit like Vampire Knight for boys—could be good or bad, depending upon the execution. Which, surprisingly, is not bad. This series is basically light-hearted and cheerful, with a vibrant palette to match. Not to mention very easy to enjoy mindlessly, even if you are just picking up an episode or two randomly. It stays well away from hard questions or heavy themes. While, granted, the creators of this anime series have never wandered past an opportunity for a panty shot that they were willing to pass by, it's hard to judge this show too harshly. Rosario + Vampire is like that bubbling, bouncy friend whom you would never trust to help solve your problems but can always be relied upon to play when you are in the mood for a bit of guilt-free fun.
Casshern Sins
Rating: 4 (of 5)
Review: A superpowered dude in a Space Age-styled white spandex suit with a jagged “C” on his chest? Must be a remake of some 70s show. Well, close. The jury is still out on whether this is supposed to be a sequel of or loosely inspired by a series from the 70s called Neo-Human Casshern. Either way, familiarity with the original is not required.
Which is not to suggest that the first episode of Casshern Sins makes much sense, naturally. The setting appears to be some barren, post-apocalyptic world where even the humanoid robots are struggling to survive. Legend among them holds that killing or devouring a being called “Casshern” will bring salvation, which means that for the robot?/human?/cyborg? known as Casshern, life is a daily battle for survival. All he lives for is killing, as a matter of fact—until he meets a cute little girl called Ringo. Where the series is going to go in subsequent episodes remains a big question mark.
Happily, you will find that this question mark does not bother you. You will be too busy having so much fun that it almost feels sinful. Madhouse has gone all out, with choreography, soundtrack, and design harmonizing perfectly into a product of stark beauty that is half The Lord of the Rings and half The Matrix. Only Casshern himself strikes the least kitsch note, but you will be too busy wondering how the creators managed to make a blasted wasteland look so heart-rendingly lovely to think Power Rangers.
Linebarrels of Iron
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)
Review: Anyone not born yesterday knows that stories about ordinary people who acquire superpowers by some miraculous twist of fate function as wish-fulfillment fantasy for their audience. But rarely does one go about this purpose as blatantly as Linebarrels of Iron. Kouichi Hayase, a good-natured but unaggressive teenager so often bullied by his peers that his female friend feels the need to rescue him, fantasizes openly about becoming superhuman;and when something falls from the sky and crash-lands in a forest near his school, his wish is granted. With the help of Emi, a mysterious girl he finds lying beside him at the crash site, he becomes a “Factor” capable of piloting the giant robot that had nearly flattened him only hours before.
Of course, the awesome destructive power of the sinuous machine that looks lifted straight from Blassreiter, another of GONZO's offerings from earlier this year, goes straight to Kouichi's head. By the end of the first episode, he has become nearly as insufferable as this sorry excuse for a mecha series. Frantic, digitally rendered action scenes mesh terribly with the rest of the animation, and they are not well-choreographed enough to distract us from the fact that we still do not know who is fighting whom—or why. Not even the character designs are particularly attractive. All in all, Kouichi's overweening self-confidence coupled with perhaps unlimited violent potential harkens just a bit too closely to current events these days for a half-hour of easy escapism. You will not be missing anything if you skip it.
Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka
Rating: 1.5 (of 5)
Review: The following is a rough dramatization of my thoughts while watching the first minute of the first episode of Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka: Ooohhh, Saito (of Rurouni Kenshin) dead-ringer, big explosion, this show must be an espionage thriller. Definitely looking promising; Hey wait, isn't “feng” the name of an eroge studio? Whoa, holy bishoujo montage. Huh?! So it's really a high school harem anime, then? What the heck is going on?!
Alas, “What the heck is going on?!” seems to have been a question beneath the creators’ concern. The first episode's disjointed, jerky narrative is impenetrable and paired with animation quality that is passable at best. But perhaps this should not be surprising, given that the anime is adapted from an erotic game. Erotic games are not generally known for their scintillating storylines or artistic inspiration, after all, and purging all traces of sexual content, as this anime does, just leaves its pathetic excuse for a plot embarrassingly exposed.
Inasmuch as anything makes sense here, we have Jun'ichi Nagase, an ordinary boy who has garnered a fearsome reputation as the juvenile delinquent nicknamed “Genokiller.” Note that harem anime are evolving away from the loser protagonist that everybody else knows is a loser to the loser protagonist whom everybody thinks is a veritable He-Man. Anyway, we also have transfer student Yuuhi Katagiri, whom Jun'ichi rescues from a couple of toughs before either of them realize that they are soon to be classmates. These two are obviously destined for each other—and that is about all that is obvious about Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka! Suitable for the anime fan in need of background noise while doing chores around the house.
Hyakko
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)
Review: You are to be excused if you have never heard of Flex Comix. A Japanese publisher specializing in free, ad-supported web comics, Flex Comix is one of the newest players in the manga industry, and its brand does not yet mean all that much to most fans. This may be because the publisher is still trying to find its way in a vast but saturated market. If so, then the animated adaptation of Haruaki Kato's Hyakko—the first ever Flex title to get the anime treatment—is an apt metaphor for this frustrating and potentially frustrated quest for market share.
The first episode begins with Ayumi Nonomura, a timid girl who gets hopelessly lost wandering about her new school's vast campus. She soon meets the elegant Tatsuki Iizuka, who despite having attended the school since a young child, proves equally lost. Ayumi and Tatsuki soon pick up two more fellow travelers along the way, Torako Kageyama and Suzume Saotome, and after much exploration find their way back to their classroom;but not before punching out their homeroom teacher. Cue the start of a beautiful four-way friendship and some potential for yuri.
Watching these children wander about is like being a rebellious teen trapped with both parents in the car for the duration of a cross-country road trip. Although there is nothing especially wrong with the plot, pacing, or characterization per se, the soundtrack is jarring in places, and Ayumi's high-pitched, whiny voice will leave you wanting to take an ice pick to your eardrums. Character designs also happen to be extremely ugly, and the liberal use of comic relief is funnier in theory than in practice. Clearly, the Flex brand is still lost, but there is no need for you to stay lost with it.
Toradora!
Rating: 4 (of 5)
Review: Schoolgirl moé and post-modern yakuza silliness collide in Toradora!, an animated adaptation of the Dengeki Bunko light novel series by person]Yuyuko Takemiya of the same name. As the Engrish mash-up title implies, the story is about a “tora” (tiger) and a “dora” (dragon). The “dora” in question is Ryuuji “Ryuu” Takasu, whose squinty little eyes lead everyone around him to assume that he is a dangerous juvenile delinquent. The truth of the matter is quite the opposite, however; he is in fact a neat-freak and a hopeless romantic who lives with his mother in a dilapidated house sitting in the permanent shadow of a new luxury apartment complex. One of the people living in said complex is the “tora,” Taiga Aisaka an adorable, pint-sized misanthrope who talks like a yanki and throws a mean uppercut. When she discovers that Ryuu is in love with one of their mutual classmates, she blackmails him into becoming her manservant. Thus begins a most unusual friendship.
For what is, at its base, another clichéd storyline about a man and a woman who team up as friends to help each other find love and (one can presume) eventually end up falling in love with each other, Toradora! feels surprisingly fresh. The scrupulously detailed interiors are evocative of the seedy sets of a gangster flick. The play on audience expectations of character archetypes—optimized for comedic effect, naturally—is refreshing. Indeed, it seems that moé girls are starting to power up in a big way like their bishoujo counterparts before them. Taiga is, no other word for it, fierce.
Clannad ~After Story~
Rating: 2 (of 5)
Review: It seems exceedingly difficult to justify the existence of a bishoujo anime series like Clannad that, while long on big-eyed, big-busted heroines, is woefully short on the fanservice. So one has even more trouble imagining how Japan justifies a second season of this lugubrious collection of ladies;but there you have it. The story operates under the assumption that you already know the plot premise and cast of characters; nothing is reintroduced. Instead, it barrels headlong into the Story of the Week, which involves a baseball game between the Clannad crew and a neighboring city. It takes about half of the episode for all of the characters to assemble, which is quite a long time but still way too quick for any newbie viewer to glean real backstory from current events, and another half of the episode for them to *yawn* win. The game in question proves to be boring even by baseball standards.
Although this anime series seems to be going for a modest elegance, the absolute best it ever achieves is inoffensive mediocrity. At its absolute worst, it descends into heretofore unplumbed depths of lukewarm, non sequitur idiocy;with the Idiot of Idiots being Yusuke. Okay, so shimmying up and down a telephone pole all day would make me crazy too, but come on! Anyway, if you haven't already been won over by last year's installment, this one is likely to leave you lost in the outfield, scratching your head. And besides, aren't Tomoya and Nagisa an item already? Even diehard Key fans will be asking, “What is the point of more?”