Mini-Review – Spring 2009 pt.3

More reviews for the Spring Anime Season 2009:

Valkyria Chronicles

Interest Rating: 2.5/5

Synopsis: Because I’m lazy, here’s Wikipedia! “…set in Europa, a fictional version of Europe, in 1935. Because of its abundance of ragnite ore, which can be refined into a powerful fuel, the neutral nation of Gallia comes under attack from the East Europan Imperial Alliance, which is itself engaged in a war with the Atlantic Federation.”

Review: Hm. It was alright I guess. The art and animation were pretty, but I’m not liking the characters much yet. Alicia is pretty to look at, but doesn’t seem too smart at all. I’m not sure if it’s bad writing or just the way she is, but she seemingly can’t see the obvious and is usually absolutely shocked to find out. Oh wow! He’s not a spy? Oh! You’re going in to the general’s house! No it can’t be! You can’t be  general Gunther’s son even though you said your last name was Gunther! No way that such a laidback guy could be Gunther’s son because obviously all children take after their parents! Welkin, I suppose is probably the possibly male interest for Alicia and suspected spy, doesn’t do much better because he probably could resolve a lot of problems, such as being arrested and being locked, but just saying “hey, I’m so-and-so’s son, and I have to meet my sister so we can evacuate” or provide some sort of identification, instead of breaking out of the storage room he’s locked up in and making a run for it. (I’m hoping that I’m totally wrong and he has reasons for doing this.) I also didn’t understand why all the Imperials started chasing after the two and startedbombarding their house. I mean, unless that house was their original target, that’s a pretty stupid way to waste ammo and attract the rest of the town’s defenses. Just to kill two people, whut? It’s not really interesting so far, so I’m not too sure on this one. I think I’d rather play the game, since I’ve heard great things about it. Too bad PS3 aren’t exactly spare change….

Hanasakeru Seishounen

Interest Rating: 2.5/5

Synopsis (from ANN):”Kajika Burnsworth is talked into a “Marriage Game” by her father, the mighty boss of the Burnsworth Company. She will meet three men he has chosen and decide which one to marry. If she does, he will tell her what her true destiny is.”

Review: This episode moved really fast, in a weird way. We’re in Japan for like 10 minutes to introduce the main heroine and her first day at at a Japanese school.  Then later she’s shipped back to New York with her complaining that she only got to stay in 6 months. 6 months? What happened in those 6 months? Who knows? As far as we know she only went to school for one day. The character designs aren’t pleasant, especially the girls. The guys look like regular bishounen, so it’s alright for me I suppose. Expect the inconsistent animation didn’t really help. I couldn’t help that this felt like I was playing some sort of Otome game (think Bishoujo games for girls) and the story and opening animation  seems like that too. The premise is kinda ridiculous, there’s probably some reason behind it, but I’m not sure why anyone would agree to it. I’m prediction a bunch of bishounen of different backgrounds and haircuts will unexpectantly fall in love with the heroine as she uncovers their darkest secrets and unlock their hearts or something. Also, I’m not liking the heroine that much, I don’t feel much “soul” from her. Despite liking romance, I’ll pass on this one.

Cross Game

Interest Rating: 5/5

Synopsis (from ANN): “5th grader Koh Kitamura lives next door to the Tsukishima family, owners of a batting cage and the Clover cafe. His girlfriend, Wakaba, is the 2nd Tsukishima daughter; the 3rd daughter, the baseball prodigy Aoba, can’t stand him. Wakaba dreams of Koh pitching at legendary Koshien Stadium, site of the national high school championship finals. However, tragedy strikes, and it is up to Koh, with the help of Aoba and his other teammates, to make Wakaba’s dream come true”

Review: Wow, I watched this with low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was really cute, but not in a moe way. I didn’t really expect what happened at the end and even got teary eyed. Ironically I found this sort of old-fashioned type of show refreshing because it wasn’t trying to pander to an audience and was just “normal”. I liked it wasn’t overdramatic at the sad parts, sometime I’ve grown to be a little sick of. I think this will be a relaxing show for me to watch, but I doubt I would blog it.

Ristorante Paradiso

Interest Rating: 3/5

Synopsis: Nicolette goes to Rome to expose her mother as a divorcee to her current husband who owns a very popular, but strange restaurant full of glasses-wearing waiters. She fails to expose her mother, but she becomes accquainted with the staff of the restaurant.

Review: I have to say this show was kinda weird for me. I liked Nicoletta and enjoyed the scenes with her mother, but having older looking male interests was new for me. Maybe if they erased a wrinkle or two it would be alright, but it’s not really something that bothered me that much. (Although the CGI food did, a general rule is that food has too look delicious in any show about a restaurant.) I was interested how Nicoletta deals with her mother and the backgrounds of the waiters, but when I saw the preview for the next episode, I’m not too sure what’s going on. It looks like a drunk Nicoletta is raping Claudio, who has this weird “no I mustn’t but I can’t resist look” on his face. I’d say I’m interested, but a little tentative, I really don’t know what type of show this is.

Eden of the East

Interest Rating:(5/5)

Synopsis (from ANN): “On November 22, 2010 ten missiles strike Japan. However, this unprecedented terrorist act, later to be called as “Careless Monday,” does not result in any apparent victims, and is soon forgotten by almost everyone. Then, 3 months later… Saki Morimi is a young woman currently in the United States of America on her graduation trip. But just when she is in front of the White House, Washington DC, she gets into trouble, and only the unexpected intervention of one of her fellow countrymen saves her. However, this man, who introduces himself as Akira Takizawa, is a complete mystery. He appears to have lost his memory. and he is stark naked, except for the gun he holds in one hand, and the mobile phone he’s holding with the other hand. A phone that is charged with 8,200,000,000 yen in digital cash.”

Review: Heh. I always laugh when English speakers are hired to voice American characters. The security guard was hillariously  bad. I always wonder where they find these people. I liked how everything was very sharp, clear, and very pretty. *_* However, I don’t think it’s the best thing to give your clothes to some naked stranger with a pistol, despite the fact he “saved” you. (I guess you can get fined for throwing coins into the White House lawn?) It was a little silly with all white scribble censoring Akira’s privates, him running around the streets, discovering his apartment, and “dealing” with the police. I think I like this kid. While I think Saki if being too trusting of Akira, I like their relationship. Although it’s interesting how well Akira is dealing with the fact he has no memory and might possibly be a terrorist. I think i’m just rambling now, but with all this mystery in who he is, I’m definitely going to follow this one.

Shows I watched but didn’t have much to say on them:

Shangri-La (4/5) -While all the talk about carbon stuff went over my head (it’s a little late right now) I think this show has a lot of potential. However knowing Gonzo, they always find a way to ruin such an opportunity. I probably will marathon it. It was pretty, but how long will that last? Why do all the fabulous gay characters have green hair?

Sengoku Basara (N/A/5) – this actually isn’t working well on my computer, despite downloading a smaller sized file. I think I need to update my codecs. I saw rocket-powered horses, Engrish, and fancy attacks, and thought, I probably wouldn’t have followed it anyways. Although I instantly recognized Kazuya Nakai as Date Masamune, because he’s using the same voice he does for Hijikata Toushiro from Gintama. *swoon*

I’m going to be on hiatus for a month. I have all this AP testing to take care of.  = (See ya guys later!

-shirokiryuu

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Mini-Review – Spring 2009 pt.2

Basquash!

Interest Level: 4/5

Synopsis (from ANN) : “On the planet Earthdash, its inhabitants gaze on its moon and the technologically advanced lunar city of Mooneyes with awe. Dan JD, a boy living in Rollingtown on Earthdash’s surface, gets caught up in Bigfoot Basketball — a fast-paced sport played with giant Bigfoot robots.”

Review: I really liked the energy of this series, filled with a lot of action-packed scenes and Attitude! All this Attitude! made it feel a little refreshing compared to the other shows I watched so far this season. I’m not too sure what type of audience this is for, since I initially thought it was for kids with all the basketball and character designs, then I see all these boob jokes and sexual metaphors, now I’m not really too sure. While I find Dan to be a potentially irritating spuinky punk kid,  I can’t really tell how the other characters are going to turn out like. So far I’m not too sold on this basketball/ go to the moon premise, but I’ll give it a few more episodes. I can’t tell where this is going, that’s why it’s making me curious.

Asura Cryin’

Interest Level: 2/5

Synopsis: (someone put one on ANN!) Normal guy named Tomoharu receives a mysterious briefcase from an aquaintance of his genius older brother. Mysterious people attack him for it, and some of them go to his highschool, etc. After an attack by mysterious robed people, he opens it, and a strange mecha thing comes out of it. Oh no!

Review: Uh. Well. It wasn’t that bad, I guess. Just not very interesting. I was thrown off by the character designs, I wasn’t too sure if this was supposed to be some sort of harem show or supernatural show. A bunch of strange words were thrown at me, extractor, asura machina, and frankly I didn’t care. I actually found the parts where Tomoharu was talking to his ghost/astral projection/whatever friend Misao and got strange looks from his classmates, because I really didn’t like him. He’s spineless wimp whose random strand of long hair I just want to snip in front of his face. (This is a minor thing, but the style of haircuts were bad, just bad). While the mysterious sort of backstory of why things are happening is pretty intriging, I didn’t like this first episode enough to want to continue.

Phantom

Interest Level: 3/5

Synopsis (From ANN): “A spate of mafia assasinations occurs in America, the work of the mysterious organization named Inferno. “Phantom” is their most strongest and capable assassin, however a lone tourist witnesses Phantom’s latest act of murder. He unwittingly exposes the top assassin’s true identity, a young girl named Ein. Witnesses are usually killed, but the man is captured and taken to be brainwashed into “Zwei”, Inferno’s newest assassin, with no memory of who he is. From this point on, Zwei is drawn into a world of conspiracy, deceit and violence.”

Review: I have to admit I’m a sucker for gritty actions shows. Even if there’s some glaring flaw of logic, I never notice. However that’s only if the animation’s consistently nice, which I’m not hopeful since this is Beetrain… So far, it seems okay. But nothing really seems special. The animation looks pretty and the atmosphere is nice, but there’s not anything that really grabs. Brainwashing random Japanese tourist to be assassin? Well that’s interesting. Some long dialogue from scientist dude about Inferno whatever, something, I’m not so sure yet. Ein reminds me of Kirika from Noir in a bad way, she seemed a bit too similar, down the the haircut and soft unemotional voice. I watched all of Noir, but throughout the series I only get the “so-so” vibes from it, this series is giving me the same feeling. I can’t help but look at Ein/Phantom and think, oh! it’s Hei from Darker then Black in a skirt! And it makes me sad, wanting another season of that show instead of watching this one. When I watched the opening, I was half-expecting ALI Project to jump in anytime, and lo and behold, they sing the ending theme!

Pandora Hearts

Interest Level: 5/5

Synopsis (from ANN): ” Oz Bezarius, heir to one of the duke houses, has just turned fifteen. His life is rich and carefree, darkened only by the constant absence of his father. At his coming-of-age ceremony, however, everything changes. For no reason that he can discern, he’s cast into the prison known as the “Abyss”, only to be saved by a “chain” known as Alice, the bloodstained black rabbit. It is unknown why was he cast into Abyss, how does Alice factor into it all, and what does the organization known as “Pandora” want with him.”

Review: The music’s great, the animation not so much. This episode ended kinda cliffhangerish, making me really interested in seeing the next episode. I actually can’t saw much to compliment or insult this show, all I can say is that I’m pretty interested. There are a lot of interesting mysteries going on, like what’s with the pocketwatch, and those mysterious robed people and what they did to do that poor shota!!! Noooo ;_____; . Yeah, cliffhangers drive me nuts.

Late, but I’ve been working on some cosplay this week. I’ve never really done this before, so it’s been difficult. But if anyone’s going to Fanime, I’ll be there!

-shirokiryuu

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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

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