Summer '11 Anime Mini-Reviews Part 1

Now that I'm taking a break from classes for the summer, I have much more time to catch up on the huge queue of anime that has built up.  I have already viewed a number of titles and will give some brief thoughts.  I don't feel like going on and on and giving in-depth reviews, but that doesn't reflect the quality of these titles by any means.  Here's what I've got so far this summer.

NOTE: This is stuff that I just happen to be watching this summer.  These shows aren't necessarily new.  Sorry if "Summer '11 Anime" may have lead you astray.

Pretty much what last semester was like.

Sekirei

Sekirei is pretty much what would happen if you bred a harem anime with Pokemon.  The result is something that is oddly enjoyable.  There's really nothing deep here, but people picking this up won't exactly be expecting that.  Silly harem stuff is here:  Guy finds himself living under the same roof as a number of females, most of whom have exceedingly large breasts and insist on fighting over him in one way or another.

The twist is that most of them are/become his sekirei, battlers created for some strange, grand game that pits sekirei against sekirei.  My roommate summed it up concisely: "So...it's like Pokemon...with tits!".  Yes, yes it is.  There's some surprisingly decent drama at some points, and things do start to get particularly interesting toward the end.  It shouldn't work, but it somehow does.  There is a second season that I assume will be released over here eventually.  Recommended summer viewing?  Maybe, provided this is your kind of thing.  Want a rating? 3/5.   Moving on.

The main character's Pokemon.  He's got a grass, a fighting, a water, and uhh...nerd type.

Spice and Wolf Season 1

Netflix added this one to its instant queue not too long ago, and the cover art certainly catches the eye, so I figured, why not?  I do not regret that decision in the least. 

Not sure why this caught my eye.

Spice and Wolf is a tale that revolves around Lawrence, a merchant, who happens upon Holo, a wolf goddess in human form.  They embark on a trip to Holo's home in the north, complete with trading, drama, and conflict.  The dialogue is loaded with merchant and trading lingo, and it can seem a bit excessive at times, even if it is important to the plot.

It's pretty refreshing to have conflict revolve around such simple things.  The life of a merchant is tough.  Delivering goods is dangerous, negotiating prices takes skill, and travelling with a cute wolf goddess just adds complications to the whole thing, especially with the Church purging the area of pagan stuff.

Where this anime really shines, in my opinion, is the interaction between Lawrence and Holo.  I found myself become pretty engrossed, from their arguments to their more intimate and playful moments, as they cleverly veil and joke around their feelings for each other.  I deem Spice and Wolf as an interesting and refreshing show for summer viewing.  Highly recommended.  My rating: 5/5


Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne

I don't know why this caught my eye either.

Next up is Rin, a six episode OVA that deals with the exploits of an immortal woman throughout the course of numerous decades.  Steeped in mythology, the cases she deals with as the show progresses all tie in to an overarching plot that is revealed bit by bit.  Plenty of violence, blood, nudity, sexual situations (lots of lesbian stuff), and the like pervade the show.  The extra-mature stuff doesn't detract from the viewing experience like ridiculous fan service or anything.  You probably shouldn't let your kid brother watch it, though.

The episodes are around 45 minutes a piece, and they are well-paced.  Each aroused my attention, kept me interested, and left me satisfied after finishing up.  There were plenty of "oh god" or "OH SNAP" moments to be had.  Don't want to reveal too much for potential viewers.  It was certainly a worthwhile experience.  I'd give it a solid 4/5.


Paprika

Anime brain splosion.

I had been meaning to watch this one for quite some time, and I recently managed to get a fantastic deal on it at my place of employment.  Familiar with some of Satoshi Kon's work, I expected to get my brain raped a bit.  What happened turned out to be no rape.  It was amazing and consensual.

The movie's plot revolves around an invention that allows users to enter and record dreams.  The ramifications of the device's use are central to the conflict.  Things begin to go awry when two of the devices are stolen, and the collective dreams of its users begin to encroach on reality.

Indeed, there are times when transitions from reality to dreams are so fast and indistinguishable that it provides for quite the ride.  Things get so crazy that there were moments while watching Paprika when I began to wonder if I was high or something.  If you pay close enough attention, the plot isn't too hard to figure out as it unravels, even if it insane to watch it happen.

The visuals are outstanding and captivating, with a surreal mixture of hand-drawn and CG effects.  In addition, the music is strange and wonderful.  Viewers of other Kon works such as Paranoia Agent will likely recognise Susumu Hirasawa's interesting, electropop style.  The combo of music and artwork can be charming, wondrous, and menacing at the same time.

When the whole thing came to a close, I just had to sit there for a moment.  I was awestruck at what I had just experienced.  I couldn't really find anything to gripe about.  Nothing is perfect, but I enjoyed Paprika so much that I can't recognise or recall any of its flaws at the moment.  It's one of my new favorite movies and an absolute recommended viewing.  6/5

Well, that wraps up Part 1 of my summer anime viewings.  Pretty solid stuff so far.  Until next time, I will continue watching anime and trying to survive.

Where I see myself in a few years.

Dai-Guard Review

Make the coffee!
File the paperwork!
Save the world!

Every once and a while, I watch something that completely catches me off guard.  Dai-Guard did just that.  As soon as I watched the opening, I found myself being filled with the spirit of JUSTICE.  The opening song invaded my head for at least a week, playing especially loud while at work, and I would find myself humming along to it in public.  Needless to say, the show grabbed my attention.  I had previously looked at the boxed set a view times and had seen some screen shots, but I had no idea what I was in for.

Anyway, for those who don't know, Dai-Guard is a mecha show centered around the members of 21st Century Defense Corporation's Public Relations Division, three of whom become the pilots of Dai-Guard, a giant robot built for battling strange, multidimensional invaders known as the Heterodyne.  Out of any mecha show you watch, this one is likely going to be the only one that will take into account things such as paperwork, damage claims, red tape, public relations and so on.  I'm sure this doesn't sound exciting, but the results are often quite funny.

Office workers saving the world!

The Heterodyne themselves are somewhat reminiscent of the now-typical mecha anime monsters such as the Angels from Eva.  The designs are strange, ranging from a giant ball of dirt to a giant mushroom to a huge floating pyramid to a vase-like shape with thin, flailing arms, etc.  You get the picture...weird and almost random designs.  Their purpose is eventually revealed to be something disappointingly simple.  I won't spoil it, but I suppose in a way it was nice that the show didn't try too hard to be deep.

The main character, Shunsuke Akagi, is fun and almost child-like for an office worker.  He usually leads the way into battle as Dai-Guard's main pilot, uttering often-humorous justice-infused lines.  My favorite is, "You Hetero bastard!  Take this fist of justice!" simply for the possibly-unintentional homosexual connotation.  What bothers me about Akagi, though, is that he is fairly static throughout the whole series.  The other two Dai-Guard pilots get quite a bit of development, but by the end of the series, all we really know about Akagi is that he grew up watching giant robot anime and that he's pretty much fulfilling his childhood dreams by piloting Dai-Guard.

There's also not much resolution in the end.  After the nature of the Heterodyne is revealed, things just kind of boil down to Heterodyne conflict will keep on happening intermittently and indefinitely.  The End.  It has its own appeal, I suppose, in that Dai-Guard and crew will continue having crazy and silly adventures for a long time to come, but I'm not sure it's quite the way I would have liked it to end.

Baa ba ba baa, ba ba baa....

When I watch anime, I typically watch the dub if it is available, and this was no exception.  I was very pleased with the overall quality.  My favorite dub voice is Shirota, hands down.  Everything he says is so deliberate, so official.  Those who watch it will see exactly what I'm talking about.  Also, Kokubogar is one of the most awesomely silly names for a robot I have ever heard.  I love saying it.

Overall, Dai-Guard is just plain fun.  It never stopped being a blast to watch.  The show isn't perfect by any means, but it should prove to be refreshing to most mecha anime freaks such as myself.  If I were to give Dai-Guard a rating, I'd give it a solid 4/5.  It isn't as easy to snag a copy of it on DVD since ADV went under, but there should still be some floating around out there.  Do yourself a favor and watch it.

Thoughts on Evangelion

Like I said I probably would, I ended up watching Neon Genesis Evangelion (series plus End) during the break between semesters.  It had been quite a while since the last time I had viewed the TV series, about four or five years, actually.  I was surprised at my latest viewing, and the following are some thoughts on my experience and the show.

Before I even delve into the show itself, I must admit that I almost hesitated to even write on Eva.  It has such a strong and incredibly prickly fanbase.  To these folks, Eva is like the Jesus of anime.  I can't say that I include myself with these folks, and so my take is likely quite different.  I actually have a RahXephon and Eva comparison blog entry coming up that will address that whole "RahXephon is a NGE ripoff" claim that some Eva fans like to make.

Eva confirmed for Kamen Rider ripoff.

Evangelion was always an intriguing show to me.  Strange creatures called Angels, mechs, tremendously flawed characters, loads of religious references, etc.  It does a good job of drawing the viewer in with its interesting story.  The opening episode did a great job of hooking me, even the second time around.  After I got past the initial intrigue of the religious symbols and names and got a ways in, I came to see that religion or God didn't really have much to do with the plot.  It was a little disappointing after all of the cross-shaped explosions, Angels coming to wreck humans' shit, and whatnot.  I had heard that the references and imagery were put there simply to make the show look cool and unique, and I believe it.

Your shit is about to get WRECKED.

With Eva, I have some trouble distinguishing between Hideaki Anno's directing style and efforts to cope with a crappy budget.  Scenes with recycled backdrops, such as ones taking place on the NERV escalator, seem to have an intentional distance from the viewer so that the animators wouldn't have to waste money by actually drawing moving mouths and expressions.  The characters' bodies usually don't even move during some of those scenes.  Scenes with just silhouettes and dialogue became too frequent for me. I know there were budget and time constraints, and it wasn't usually that big of a deal, but it starts to get almost humorous after a while.  Such an approach also seems to weaken certain scenes.  In End of Evangelion, during the final exchange between Shinji and Misato, the "camera view" is largely on the wall instead of the characters.  It was such an intense and emotional moment, and actually focusing more on the characters' facial expressions and body language could have added to the moment, I think.  I'm pretty sure we can't chalk that one up to budget issues. 

*sigh*...Another escalator scene.

After the first episode, the show started to drag a little bit for me.  I think it's because Shinji and his interaction with others becomes a little depressing and repetitive.  However, when Asuka gets introduced, she breathes some life into things.  I generally found the first half of the series to be a bit weaker than the second half.  Eva seems to implement somewhat of a "monster of the week" formula at times.  New Angel appears, gotta find a way to beat the thing, drama, fighting, hints concerning big secrets, rinse, repeat. This doesn't really bother me, but I generally expected more from the much-hyped Jesus of anime.

I found some episodes during the first half, such as "A Human Work" and "Magmadiver", to actually be a bit dull.  Another episode, "Lilliputian Hitcher", was somewhat humorous to me.  Most of the episode consisted of NERV personnel looking at monitors and freaking out.  The viewer doesn't see much other than characters screaming things like "SHUT IT DOWN!" in regard to the Angels' attack.  Then, the solution to destroying the Angel revolves around some techno-babble that we know works when the monitor shows the characters that it does.  Anno attempts a sense of urgency and panic, but I don't really think showing us some character reactions to action we don't see as viewers is particularly effective.  There was some decent character development for Ritsuko in that episode at least. These are just a few episodes that I recall offhand.

I swear, this still shot lasted for at least a minute, maybe longer.

Toward the end, Anno really starts delving into his characters' psyches.  It can actually get fairly deep at times, probably not as deep as some fans will have you believe, but also likely deeper than what folks who sneer and make "lolDEEP" comments will tell you.  The final two episodes start to get pretty abstract as Shinji struggles to justify his own existence and much of the character drama reaches a climax and somewhat of a conclusion.

Then comes the End of Evangelion.  Its existence is almost a controversy, as Anno was apparently at odds with Eva fans that were dissatisfied with his original ending.  Such fans demanded a "better" ending, and a few even sent Anno death threats.  I think Anno was pretty reluctant to make the movie, and I bet that he was using it to make some cash while spitefully trolling everybody.  All in all, the movie had good action and many intense scenes as this whole thing comes to a close.  During the second half, we get bombarded with a more abstract imagery and thoughts as Shinji comes to some sort of decision about his part in all of the crap that goes down.  The ending is open ended and a bit disturbing.  It wasn't necessarily a bad way to end, but I can't say I felt satisfied after watching it.  Eva begins with many questions and slowly trickles some details or hints to the viewer, and this process continuously opens up new questions, some of which are never really addressed in the end.

I GOT this.

Maybe I've been a little to harsh or picked Eva apart too much.  It's just that whenever anything gets an extraordinary amount of hype, it makes me want to put things into perspective.  Somebody reading this might get the idea that I didn't enjoy Evangelion.  To be honest, I loved it.  I simply desired to push past the ravings of the fanbase and tried to see Eva for what it really is, recognizing its merits as well as its flaws.

That being said, I enjoyed a lot of Shinji's existential pondering.  In addition, instrumentality and the surrounding concepts are interesting and give you something to think about.  There's so much angst about personal boundaries and being with other people, not to mention loads of sexual frustration.  Another one of my favorite things about Eva is that it can get fairly creepy.  There's something awesomely disturbing about seeing that NERV has a crucified Angel that leaks LCL stored away in the basement and that the Evas are actually lobotomized creatures bound by mechanical parts.  The "angel graveyard" and the tank of Rei clones also come to mind in regard to the cool creepy factor. 

I have one of these in my basement, too.

Also, many of the battle scenes are cool, and seeing the Evas in action can be exhilarating, especially when one goes berserk.  The scene where Unit 01 brutally beats the living hell out of Unit 03 and almost kills Toji is one of my favorites, and the emotional trauma Shinji goes through as a result helped to keep me glued for a while.  All in all, Evangelion is a solid series with a lot to offer.  If I were to give it some sort of rating, I would probably give it a 4 out of 5.  If you haven't seen it, you need to.


 

RahXephon Review

Brief synopsis:  Ayato Kamina is a teenager from Tokyo who becomes entangled in a conflict between humans and trans-dimensional invaders known as the Mu.  He is called to pilot the RahXephon, an almost-mystical technological construct, and he becomes a useful tool of the Mulian defense organization known as Terra.  As the conflict with the Mu intensifies, so does his inner conflict as he struggles to find the truth about himself and those around him.

Initial thoughts:  I had seen parts of RahXephon several years ago and recently decided to purchase the boxed set in order to view the entire thing from start to finish.  I recalled enjoying what I saw of the show very much the first time around, and I was curious to see how the title held up during its second viewing.  This is my first time really trying to review something, so I'm going to try to tackle it by breaking it into sections.  Please keep in mind that this is all just my opinions based on what I have seen and felt.  It's really okay to have a different opinion.  I don't care for arguments and shitstorms.

Story: RahXephon is a complex show, with many references to music, literature, folklore, etc.  That being said, I definitely got more out of the second viewing than the first time I watched.  The show is often likened to Neon Genesis Evangelion, and it's apparent that RahXephon was influenced by Eva and various other shows in a number of ways.  However, RahXephon's basic plot is inspired by the 70's super robot show Brave Raideen, and it really has more in common with Raideen than Eva.

Brave Raideen

Like most anime fans, I have seen Evangelion, and I will admit that the similarities between some of the scenes in Eva and Rah are startling, especially toward the beginning of the shows.  However, as I watched RahXephon further, I noticed more differences than similarities.   I don't really see Rah as being an Eva ripoff.

Anyway, the characters in RahXephon are well-developed and complex.  I found most of them to be likable or at least very interesting.

Visuals:  I found RahXephon's visuals to be absolutely stunning.  I'm kind of an old-school anime guy, so I admit that I don't have a good feel for how they hold up against current titles, though.  I was pleased with RahXephon's beautiful imagery and smooth animation.  I loved the designs of the dolems used throughout the show, and I thought that the RahXephon's design was quite interesting and captivating, despite the clear influence of Raideen.

Music:  For a show that contains so many references to music, RahXephon doesn't disappoint with its powerful musical score.  It's opening song, Hemisphere, is definitely a standout anime opening.  Yoko Kanno and Maaya Sakamoto did a fantastic job, and I found the song to be unique and powerful.  Hemisphere was on heavy rotation in my mp3 playlists for some time after hearing it.  The ending song, Yume no Tamago, is amazingly beautiful, and is well-suited for the feel of the show.  In addition, the background music was used very well, and often complemented the scenes quite nicely.  One track that comes to mind off the OST is Second Sorrow, which was used to great effect in episode 19.  ;_;

The Requisite Rah vs Eva Section:  It's nearly impossible to talk about RahXephon without talking about Evangelion, and most discussions end in arguments about which is better.  I don't care to argue about it, but I figure I'll share my two cents on the matter.  Quite frankly, after seeing both, I vote for RahXephon.  It has stronger characterizations, more likable characters, better-grounded and well-thought symbols and references (not just there because producers thought it was cool), a clearer and more satisfying ending, and superior music and visuals.  That's just my take on things.  Don't get huffy.

Conclusion:  I found RahXephon to be a very interesting and riveting experience.  I blew through the whole thing very quickly, and when it was all over, I found myself sitting and thinking about it for quite some time.  Highly Recommended.  Do yourself a favor and buy a copy.