Mini-Review – Spring 2009 Pt.1 : Arad Senki, K-ON!

This season did not have many series I was interested in, so I decided to watch the first episode of anything I could get my hands on! (even shows that I normally would never consider) As usual with these types of posts these are only my first impressions of these shows and if you disagree with me, just tell me so I can reconsider them. I’m also watching these with a  blank slate, I didn’t do any previous research, so let’s see how this goes!

Slap-up Party Arad Senki

Interest level: 1.5/5

Synopsis (from ANN):”Swordsman Baron travels the world of Arad to find a way to heal his demonic left arm. Accompanying him is Roxy, the ghost of a woman who unwillingly unleashed the evil that also caused Barons transformation. On their travel they get to know other fighters who accompany them and soon they call their group the “Party”.”

Review: I was about to write off this show as a terribly cliche RPG anime. I could predict every scene and each piece of dialogue, it was that bad. (But not it’s not like RPG anime are renowned to be original) But then I looked on its ANN page and discovered there were only 9 Japanese staff members, everyon else is Korean. It’s a Korean anime in disguise! I’m not saying that Korean animation isn’t good (I haven’t watched any) but this is a sign that it’s cheaply made. Not surprising since Gonzo layed off most of its staff. While it wasn’t anything special, it wasn’t painful or anything. Just boring. I wasn’t too sure at first what type of show Arad is trying to be. At the begining it seemed like an action-RPG anime, then it turned into a RPG comedy, then back to action. Usually I don’t mind this sort of thing, but I felt in this case, the changes were a little jarring. I couldn’t take the dramatic scenes seriously at all. The comedy was overdone, but a lot better than the dramatic ones. The main character was the tough guy stereotype,  although the overly dramatic Cabensis  was a pleasant exception, He was probably the most interesting to watch, but he’s unfortunately been pigeonholed as a comedic character. It was okay, but it was too uninspired/bland for me want to follow it.

K-ON!

Interest level: 5/5

Synopsis: For some reason searching for a synopsis for K-ON! was more difficult than expected, since I’m lazy, here’s my terrible summary. (Someone please put a summary on ANN!) 3 girls (Ritsu, Mio, Tsumugi) want to form a band in the light music club. They need one more member to keep their club alive and in desperation recruit the clumsy Yui, who can’t play any instruments nor even knows what light music is.

Review: That was really. Cute. Maybe a little too cute. Especially Yui, whose clumsiness seems to be too severe to be normal. Something must be wrong with her head. This show seems like a character-driven one, and so far I’m really enjoying the characters. Even if they they fall into archetypes : moe klutz, tsukkomi, boke, and the mature lady, there’s still potential. The humor wasn’t as laugh-out-loud-ish, more cute, but enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the cameo of Krauser from Detroit Metal City. I have high hopes for this series.

Also, this is bothering me, did anyone notice the scene when Yui was expecting horde of people trying to recruit her, her hairclip was different? This is going to bother me the rest of the day…

Sorry for the short post! I was planning to include more series, but unfortunately my ancient computer can’t handle large .mkvs. I’m going to get a hold better laptop tommorow!

-shirokiryuu

Toradora ep.23-24

Last Saturday I came down with either the nastiest cold I’ve ever had or it could’ve been the flu. It lasted the whole week and I still feel a little miserable, but at least I can function properly.

I haven’t seen Toradora in a week, but the animation still looks pretty shaky. Everyone still looks a little out of place, even Taiga who usually looks fine during her close-ups looked terribly off character. Ryuuji looked the worst, looking inconsistent scene to scene.  It seems like they saved most of the budget for the end of the episode, but even those part looked a little odd. Usually bad animation isn’t a problem for me, but this time it was very distracting during the very dramatic and supposively touching scenes.

It seems like the creators are rushing to close all the ends of Toradora before the finale, making things kinda rushed and sudden. While bringing Ryuuji and Taiga together, we also fully close Ami and Minorin’s arc in the process. Since I’m late anyways, I’ll focus on my impression for these two episodes.

I was going to complain how Ryuuji is acting stupid for not listening to her mother’s wish to go to college, but I’ll cover that at the end of the episode. Tsk, tsk Ryuuji, to think I respected you at the begining of the series. When Taiga said that she wouldn’t need to work since she was rich. In real life that wouldn’t made me very angry, but of course I reasoned she was lying. Taiga says that since she doesn’t really know her present self, she can’t really think about the future. Well, you guys are making some pretty stupid decisions, but whatever. Although I did think it was interesting how Taiga wanted to live a normal life.

Next up was Ami. Ami was going to leave after the first semmester of school, but discovered after each day she wanted to stay. She especially connected which Taiga, whom she understood and wanted to save if no one else did.

Ryuuji finds out that his mother has fainted, probably from overworking. He gets all angry and leaves to get food for Yasuko, Taiga runs after him with his coat. Ryuuji is acting like a douche, blaming Yasuko’s fainting on him, breaking down, Taiga tells him to get a grip, etc. I really think Ryuuji’s regressed in terms of character. He used to be the only sane, mature one in the bunch. Now I’m not too sure why Minorin and Ami would like him. (Taiga I can understand though). His attitude makes Taiga’s look like a saint. My rankings for these characters changed quite a lot when I first saw this series.

Overall, Ryuuji and Minorin especially feel down on the rankings.  Ryuuji, in most recent conversations just usually nods and says something to the equivalent to “I see”. Taiga improved trememdously, she’s like a completely different character. Although she’s lost a lot of her feistyness. Ami has gone to a pretentious bitch to taking the role of “the most sane one here”. Minorin went from genki-girl to absolutely batshit insane.

Anyways Ryuuji and Taiga sell chocolates in place of Yasuko. They meet Haruta, who surprisingly has a girlfriend (who I initially mistook as Kihara’s best friend). Noto also stops by, and Taiga says that he’s looking for Kihara and that he likes her. Since they’re not selling much, Taiga takes out her secret weapon and asks Ami to advertise. Ami reluctantly does it when onlookers start to recognize her and she then walks away (Did anyone notice she just walked off without paying?). Ryuuji runs after her and says that she should stay longer, since everyone adores her. Ami thinks to herself, she wouldn’t mind if everyone didn’t like her. There a probably a million ways to interpret this, but my assumption is that she doesn’t care what others think, as long as she gets Ryuuji’s approval or something.

Taiga brings chocolates for everyone in thanks for rescuing her at the ski resort. Taiga especially thanks Kitamura for carrying her on his back, which shocks Minorin, who realizes Ryuuji lied to Taiga.

Minorin angrily confronts Ryuuji staring him down, calling him a liar with the nasiest face ever. Taiga tries to stop her, but Minorin grabs Taiga’s hand, shaking her asking her why she can’t be honest. Taiga tries to run away, but Ami and Kitamura are blocking the entrances. Minorin grabs on to her shoulders and tries to talk some sense into her, telling her that her (Minorin’s) happinesss depends on herself, not Taiga. Taiga runs away and escapes as Ami moves away from the door.

This was a pretty intense moment and I was absolutely caught off guard. I could feel all the pressure building when Minorin heard Ryuuji’s lies, but I didn’t expect Minorin to absolutely blow up, even being quite violent and forceful with Taiga. It was pretty scary (it was like Minorin could just murder Ryuuji with her eyes), I’m thinking a lot of it stemmed from Minorin’s own guilt of leading Taiga “astray” from Ryuuji because of Taiga’s dedication to her. But if I didn’t know the circumstances before, this scene looked a lot more like some sort of alcohol or drug intervention, not “confronting your romantic feelings” intervention. Well it’s safe to say Minorin’s batshit insane. However she was right that it’s up to oneself to be happy. I don’t know if this scene went so well with me, as I felt more uncomfortable than emotionally touched.

Episode 24

Takasu decides to run after Taiga with Minorin. Minorin calls out to Taiga, admitting she does like Ryuuji (in front of Ryuuji too), but wants to give him to Taiga, because she needs him the most. Taiga hears her, but leaves the entrance before the two could make it.

Minorin collaspes, but only has a nosebleed. Ryuuji takes her to the nurse office and they take the time to explain Minorin’s background. What. the. Why now? Anyways Minorin explains that she was saving up all her money to go to a sports college so she could prove that women can play baseball. And that she can that Ryuuji likes Taiga, in which Ryuuji confirms it. Minorin cheers him on after he runs after Taiga.

Taiga goes to the pastry shop, surprised to find Ryuuji there. Ryuuji says that Taiga is honest enough to not miss work. Taiga tells him to meet her after work and if she tries to run away,  to stop her. However as the two walk together after work, they’re confronted by their two angry moms, Yasuko and Taiga’s real mom. Taiga’s real mom wants Taiga to live with her and Yasuko is furious that Ryuuji is working without telling her. Ryuuji yells at his mom for pushing all her failure on to him, when in reality she’s the biggest failure of all (well he said something equivalent to that, but he was still being a big douche). Taiga takes Ryuuji’s hand and they both make a run for it.

Taiga explains that her father’s business failed and he ran away. He asked Taiga’s real mom to take care of her, but Taiga didn’t think she’d fit in her new family. Ryuuji says that he think that if he weren’t born, his mother’s life would’ve been better. She’d gone back to high school and not have such a burden. Taiga looks distressed and tells Ryuuji that the reason why she is alive is because Ryuuji was there for her. And if her weren’t born, she wouldn’t know what she would be doing. (At this point I finally get teary-eyed, you’re letting me down Toradora!)

Taiga accidentally pushed Ryuuji over into the river. Ryuuji proclaims that he’ll run away until he’s 18, then he’ll marry her. Taiga interrupts him saying that she promised that she would tell Ryuuji (her feelings) before that. She jumps down into the river, and Ryuuji says they should do it at the same time. However they’re interrupted by Kitamura who tells him to hide from their parents at Ami’s house.

Friar Lawrence agrees to let Romeo marry Juliet, despite being Romeo being infatuated with Rosaline not too long ago.

The two tell their friends of their plan, and although they disapprove of their decision, they decide to give them support.  Minorin lends her life savings, Ami gives the key to her villa, and Kitamura gives them… some sort of papers I’m not too sure what those are…

Since we’ve been both dumped, let’s become lesbians Ami!

After they leave, Minorin starts bursting into tears. Ami is thinks she’s upset about giving up Ryuuji, but Minorin says she’s not even sure herself why she’s crying. She compares getting a nosebleed from tripping in the hallway, to crying when you trip in life. Ami points out that they can’t talk about life since it’s always going on and on. (Ami, you’re still my favorite character)

Ryuuji goes home to get his stuff, but finds that Yasuko has also ran away, leaving his grandfather’s watch and a note to go to his grandfather’s. I was mad at Ryuuji for not treating his mom like an adult who can make desicions,etc, but Ryuuji was right about her afterall… I mean Ryuuji should go to college to have a better life, but forcing to not work is a little unreasonable.

Ryuuji and Taiga are looking at their future selves here

Taiga and Ryuuji go on a train and they then visit Ryuuji’s grandparents, introducing himself and Taiga as his wife.

Okkkkaaaaayyy. Where to start. You know I was really enjoyable all the romance and the proposal made me a happy fangirl. However, everything just popped out of nowhere and had to be respectivly explained in a few sentences. Oh! We forgot to explain Minorin! Oh! How about Taiga’s real mom? It was a little too much for me, and didn’t give me any time to think about those topics. While I always rooted for a Taiga and Ryuuji ending, they’re going for full blown Romeo and Juilet-esque stupidity. Eloping without thinking? You guys just admitted you liked each other this very episode. It’s rash, but dramatic, which well, what this anime aims to be anyways.

Preview: Things sound a little ominous in the next episode with Taiga apologizing to Ryuuji….IT BETTER BE HAPPY DAMMIT.

Looking forward to the finale!

-shirokiryuu

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