アニメと漫画

Review: Mai HiME 「舞-HiME」

icelava — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:24:45 GMT

Looks can be deceiving. Prejudices can blind unreasonably. Combine these two and it gets extremely easy to watch the beginning of Mai HiME and swiftly dismiss it as yet another mediocre clone that goes nowhere. Equipped with your standard issue of charm items of adolescence:

School girls as premier combatants. Check.
Busty school girls. Check.
Fan service. Check. It's almost like an unavoidable formula denoting a law of physics.
Childish conversation - how else can kids get by? Check.
Destructive nuclear power at the hands of growing girls. Woah... hope they rip each other's clothes off with all those abilities.
Unimpressive mecha design. (Is that even mecha?? Hmmm... read more below.)

If you are anywhere as jaded as me about the sorry state of shounen anime, you'd would be tempted to drop this series real early upon witnessing these traits. Even the opening sequence makes you think it's bright and upbeat action. And by that I mean shallow. But like I mentioned, deceptive it is. Boy can we go so wrong with our biased opinions sometimes.

The first clue of what was truly to come came from the closing song - kimi ga sora datta. Usually I do not factor in opening and closing sequences because directors tend to lack the skill and affection to mold them into the same theme and mood of the story. This time round however, the closing earns my praise for being befitting. Be patient, and you will be treated to pleasant surprises that make this production a lot more polished underneath than it appeared on the surface. And be filled with sorrow.

Mai HiME sets up the concept of several girls, who are classified as HiMEs, getting empowered with incredible fighting capabilities. Besides gaining the ability to materialise their weapons, each get to summon a "mecha pet" to augment their combat tactics and effectiveness. Only a few are identified at the onset, and we follow the life of the main HiME Tokiha Mai in her struggles to discover the true meaning of being a HiME. It is this initial bout of incidents with the above attributes that make it somewhat of a pain to watch, but the biggest attraction on an episodic basis is the unraveling of the characters; trying to find out who the remaining HiMEs are out of an entire school of characters.

The plot does pretty well withholding information, dealing it out page by page, and having you coming back for more. It really helps that each revelation builds the characters with deeper foundation, and they behave less like the shallow renditions as they did in the beginning. This in turn helped by demonstrating what each person hold dear in their eyes, their motivation, and how preventing them from reaching their goals can make them really angry. In an ironic way, this series truly shines as the whole plot starts moving the characters into the dark abyss of directed hatred and relentless destruction. Oh the beauty of it all, to witness how ugly people can get when you block their path. Human emotion is best tasted raw and unprocessed.

While showcasing the "brilliance" of humanity, the show also reveals more and more of how its underlying mechanism borrows heavily from the bio-spiritual theme made infamous by Neon Genesis Evangelion (NGE). Those mecha pets (referred to as "Childs", I wonder why...) are not mechanical by any means, but I shall not elaborate any further to keep their truth intact. Albeit a well-done concept at the individual level, the inclusion of world-catastrophe motions with evil overlord beings in the grand scheme of things only served to dilute the matter as a whole. I cannot help but feel Mai HiME blatantly trying to out-do and out-scale NGE at its own game. I am sorry, Obara Masakazu, you are not Anno Hideaki. Good attempt, though. If only you chaps did not completely mess up the ending by reversing everything just to keep the kids happy. Things were turning out really well, until the last moment. Wow. Talk about pulling a wheelie and falling off the bike before riding pass the checkered flag.

Casting aside the botched ending, the misleading front, the bandwagon habit, Mai HiME surprisingly turns out to be a pretty strong title. Forget about the action and art. This is one of the best anime to watch about people per se.

Overall Rating: 8/10
Ugliness of anger and hatred; emotional chain bomb; surprising; unexpectedly grows above its mediocrity; relatively good character art; teaches the value of "second look"
Typical traits of mediocre anime; bio-spiritual clone; Can't let the children cry in the end, can ya?

Review: Kite

icelava — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:10:46 GMT

Good triumph over evil is a myth. Millennia of human history have not seen any real shift in balance and we continue to struggle in our battle against wickedness in effort to make the world a "nicer place" to live in. By this I do not mean evil nations or organisations seeking to destroy the world. Rather, the more down-to-earth lifestyle of crime is the area that piques my interest. Especially when somebody presents a vision of how the seedy underworld may operate in the future, and how this perennial problem goes out of control.

With Kite, Umetsu Yasuomi showcases his talent in painting a world that is heavily dark and tragic, while simultaneously ozzing a style that makes one believe professional street assassination is just tremendously cool. This is a world that is outright merciless. Take good care and be righteous, lest you make enemies who hire pretty teenage schoolgirl like Sawa to unload bullets into your body in the toilet or subway. That is, delayed-fuse bullets to ensure you don't remain as one piece. Those with hemaphobia should avoid this show.

Actually, the whole point for watching is to witness how the assassins dispatch their targets. This is the future, and folks are prepared to defend themselves, or just blow you away if you piss them off. So when an assassin has to ensure her target is eliminated, by all means necessary she will do it. Not some quick slient sniping, but fabulous wanton destruction with bonus collateral damage. Expect changes to the landscape on a daily basis. The highly elaborate sequences give evidence where most of the animation budget went to. If action is what you are looking for, you will not be disappointed at all.

It is not all senseless action like Quake or Doom, though. Behind this two-episode frenzy is a rather quick but gripping story of how not everybody enters criminal professions by their own calculated decisions. Sawa was brought up by a rogue cop eversince her parents got murdered. Living on by sheer will of getting her revenge, she receives training from the cop and wields very cool weaponry to carry out her trade. Amidst all the excitement of combat, it gets really obvious her life is not one bit glamourous. Getting sexually abused by her foster-father does not help her happiness quotient either. Speaking of which, despite the point of realism I can see in that, injecting sexual activity is a negative move in my opinion. The fighting completely outclasses the sex in orders of magnitude, making it all moot. Setting that aside, this OVA still finds time to develop a bond between Sawa and another assassin, Oburi. The occassions they spend together makes them reflect on the lives they are leading and consider what future they have. The shackles that bind them to this world are stiff, and breaking free from them is going to be mighty challenging given the skill and wit of their guardians.

Rooting for the teenagers in their fight for freedom is an easy one. Since the wicked folk do not really have any attribute for salvation. It would have been nice to potray adversaries with a more grayish tint, exposing more humane motivations instead of plain old evil-who-must-be-destroyed. And drawing the people with such cliche differences - Sawa and Oburi have similar stylish character art, while the adversaries are rendered ugly and hideous - really does the art direction a huge demerit. For something that has achieved a great feel for torment living in the underworld, realistic character art should not be a challenge at all.

Overall, incredible action to please the senses, combined with moving emotions for the protagonists. The ending in particular, would undoubtedly invoke some strong feelings from you, albeit not very conclusive by most standards. Whether you want to consider that good or bad, I leave it up to you. But one thing's for sure - the future is a sad place.

Overall rating 7/10
Sleek fighting; raw adrenaline; smooth operative; stylish world; tragic
Unbalanced character art and development; too violent for some; sex is useless; should have more gray

Review: FLCL

icelava — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:49:54 GMT

Do not be deceived by the quiet, mellow first scene. Buckle your seat belts. And preferably wear a G-suit as well. You about to experience the biggest roller-coaster ride in all anime.

What is FLCL? Unfortunately, this high-budget 6-episode OVA by Gainax is indescribable. Anything resembling a normal plot about 12-year-old Naota having an intimate moment with his elder brother's girlfriend Mamimi is completely smashed to bits in less than four minutes from the opening. The arrival of Vespa-riding Haruko and the quite-delibrate pedestrian accident that follows mark the path down the road of insanity and sheer thrills. There on is non-stop edge-of-seat momentum that does not wait for you to catch your breath. So tremendous the action, FLCL is just about the only anime title that almost makes one feel the physical motion and impacts beyond its cool art quality. That which remains unprecedented to this day.

This heightened level of visceral experience is achieved not purely with genius screenplay devising, but by mating the scenes with The Pillows' rock discography. FLCL is without a doubt the Exhibit A of conclusive evidence that great visual presentations combined with the right type of music can erupt into fanstatically epic levels. It becomes really easy to figure out why The Pillows is one heck of a revered band in Japan.

Having said all that, FLCL is not going to sit well with many. Much like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Anno Hideaki's influence is too strong to ignore. This show is chock full of abstract concepts, hidden messages, symbology that can be taken many ways. If you want a plain-dead storyline where you don't have to think about what the characters just said, you will hate this show. In fact, the entire series was fabricated and directed in a rather seat-of-pants manner, but still the end result is a string of engaging events - even when they don't make sense on first look. There is not one single boring scene at all. Well given that it is only six episodes, there is absolutely no time to include boring scenes.

Love or hate the "story", but there is no denying the cast of characters with their excellent seiyuus have achieved a deep impression in the anime industry. A pity though, that some interesting characters with the potential to contribute weren't given time to develop. Regardless, it is hard not to be attached to the main characters as they seek to find meaning in their lives and laugh at their silly and sometimes inexplicable actions. Literature students have had - and will continue to have - plenty of opporunty to analyse this production from all angles. This is one helluva ride, start to finish. Finally, Gainax gets to finish a series without messing it up.

Overall rating 10/10
Explosive action; literally visceral; lasting characters; The Pillows; pure style; raw entertainment
No real point; mind boggling; some underdeveloped characters

Review: kimagure Orange Road 「きまぐれ Orange Road」

icelava — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:36:56 GMT

The most tragic fact about video gaming is that any title's enjoyment and entertainment value is tightly depending on the currency of the technology platform. Once that platform goes obsolete, no matter how great it was during its heyday, the game is destined for the graveyard. Not so with film and music. Done correctly, productions on such medium can have such tremendous impact on the populace they span the ages. "Classic" is the word frequently associated to such marvelous pieces of art brought from the minds of past generations. As such, I was fairly interested in discovering this classic everyone talks about, kimagure Orange Road.

Much to my dismay, what I got was a sour and nauseous taste that taught me not all red wines age well, and indeed first-hand experience trumphs second-hand recommendation.

What is so wrong with this production? (if you happen to have seen the score below) It is not so much a question of what is wrong, as it is a question of just exactly what is done right? Nothing, that's the problem. 15-year-old Kasuga Kyosuke moves into a new town with his family, and on the first day of scouting up a hill in his neighbourhood meets beautiful girl at the top of the stairs. Their destiny brings them to the same school and the same class (oh my, what a surprise), and therein begins a whole string of events between them and a whole cast of friends. Except, all these events do not gel to form a coherent story. I do not know if Japanese studios back in the 80s were largely lacking sophistication and maturity in storytelling and plot, but Studio Pierrot's style of shonen romance with this series is one of little direction and moves around in circles repeating practically the same plot. Progression is at a near zero.

Kyosuke the unimpressive teenager is, by the Order of Nature, caught in an undeclared romance tug-of-war between two childhood friends, Hiyama Hikaru and Ayukawa Madoka, the girl he met on the hill. Almost every episode features the extremely chirpy and annoying Hikaru clinging on to Kyosuke like a leech. Her airheaded disposition is simply incredulous and beyond rescue. The entire length of the series has her ignorant to the true air of mutual feelings emanating between him and Madoka, the latter whom, quite unbelievably exhibits contrasting personalities of infamous kungfu-fighting gangster/party girl and sensible mature lady. Madoka who loves Hikaru as a dear friend refuses to express her true feelings and always remains passive. And Kyosuke displays exemplary teenager behaviour by being hopelessly wish-washy in his decisions and actions. Too many times he is forced to hide his guilt and lie. Boy, am I so glad I did not have such stress when I was 15! This just goes on and on without anything to look forward to.

If the trio's frustrating love triangle is not enough, add in two absolutely moronic and lecherous classmates who do nothing but trying to hook with and gossip about girls, and a jealous childhood friend who does nothing but lose temper and break walls. Not enough? Every episode features a completely irrelevant and unfunny couple Ushiko & Umao who read the same Romeo & Juliet lines to each other in embarrassing situations. To make things "more interesting", the Kasuga bloodline is actually empowered with psychic abilities simply known as "Power". This abilities allow Kyosuke's family to perform a variety of superhuman telekinesis activities that contribute to a wide range of episodic situations. But really, all this use of the Power is but a red herring for some extraordinary events and adventures that still revolve around this same ill plot pattern.

In the end, I captured nothing of interest, and absorbed an immense amount of negative character portrayal and example. I come out of it thinking what the audience of the 80s had been drinking or smoking while watching this title on TV back then. Whatever about kimagure Orange Road that people love and consider it a classic, I fail to see it. It has been a waste of my time, and I am better off now watching other mediocre titles.

Overall rating: 0/10
Nothing, absolutely nothing
Utterly boring and lame; cast of undesirable characters; what is the point?

Review: Perfect Blue

icelava — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:47:37 GMT

It is easy to become "spoilt" with the luxury of TV anime. Even a quarter-year season would provide approximately 5 hours of storytelling opportunity; more than twice the length of an average movie. This is why I tend to experience more disappointment than not with movies, with that strict budget of time that condenses and chops plot and character development into disfigurement. Add to the fact that I typically find horror or psycho thriller themes pretty lame, I could not see much going for Perfect Blue. But, this first encounter with Studio Madhouse and the unearthly genius of Kon Satoshi has brought me great relief and reassurance that the movie is a still good vessel for delivering brief yet deep pounding.

And what a pounding you will get from this movie. Right into the centre of your brain.

The setup is not exactly the most unique though. Who would have been surprised by the psychopathic repercussions when Mima, a member of an increasingly popular pop idol group CHAM!, decides to call it a day with her singing career and gives full-time acting a shot. Of course, in a violent thriller format, the decisions and actions of the protagonist directly means somebody else is unhappy with it. ;-) Which will show up in due time. In fact, the pacing and flow of the first portion runs along so mundane it almost seems like a deliberate attempt to unprepare the audience for the shocking leap into the realm of the fantasy and delusionment. And I am not exactly talking about the gratuituos violence and nudity here, although I can see how they all add up to form a critical whole to the plot. What I am referring to is the completely seamless transition from actual events to dreams to surrealism that the audience has to witness while being gripped at the neck.

As the plot progresses and more killings happen with increasing brutality, Mima must combat her ownself in trying to discover what her true personality and desires really are, and goes through repeated cycles of fear and confusion over what she is doing, or may have done. This confusion flows to a great extent to the audience as well, as it gets more and more difficult to tell what is real and what is not. Everything appears so real, especially when this is accentuated by the potrayal of contemporary pop culture that audiences are most likely able to identify and live with. Most people have no problem with believing this can appear on the newspapers tomorrow. Here lies the true beauty of the movie; characters in this story could very well just be your family or friends.

Thankfully, unlike another depressed director, the psycho-romp is still regulated by insulin, and enough cues have been left around to allow making sense out of the scenes. All the loose ends are even settled by the end in quite a satisfactory way, and is one of those truly rare titles that does not leave me asking frustrating questions when the credits start scrolling. This story really tells and completes itself in such a short timespan. The only single problem I have with this title, is at one of the ending scenes a woman can leap off a building a number of storeys and does not break her leg or crack her skull. Just because she thinks she is a fairy who can float. For all the realism this movie has maintained, that one moment really broke the rhythm in a ridiculous way. But really, given how perfect Perfect Blue is, I'd just overlook that.

Before Perfect Blue, I thought only Anno Hideaki was capable of taking anime to the next psychological level. After Perfect Blue, I was filled with great delight for this industry. I eagerly await whatever Kon Satoshi releases from his sleeves. My brain is free for him to smash to pieces, and to reconstruct.

Overall Rating: 10/10
- gripping boundary between sanity and insanity; frigtheningly real
- Outrageous physics

Review: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time 「時をかける少女」

icelava — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 21:58:15 GMT

Some interesting things in life come about purely by accident. So just in the early evening my friend called me to check if we could catch Transformers in the theaters, but sad to say he was way ahead of his time; Transformers won't arrive in Singapore until next week. Maybe he got caught in some time warp. And it was from there did I see Cathay's movie listing featuring an anime by the title The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (toki o kakeru shoujo).

And it ain't from Studio Ghibli. Hmmm. Ah, the wonders of the Internet. A quick check and it was a certainty this is something not to be missed. We did not regret this alternative choice of a movie; my effort to brainwash surrounding friends into otakus just got easier.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is not an original concept, but actually a "follow-up" (I won't exactly call it a sequel) to a 42-year-old novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka. It mimics the first story by featuring Konno Makoto, the boyish protagonist, in a close group friendship with two other boys in her class. Makoto is not an achiever, and struggles pretty hard - and pretty much in vain - to get life to work out to her liking. One day she chances upon a device that grants her the ability to Time Leap, literally jumping and tumbling back into the past. Her style of "entrance" has got to be funniest thing in the show.

Being the good mature responsible teenager she is, Makoto starts using this highly useful technique to score ~~well~~ perfect in her tests, "read" the sporting moves of her opponents, avoid trouble and injury, or even extend her play time. Quite the gleeful girl we see as she increasingly succeeds in life, happy to redirect all the troubles that will befall her elsewhere. I am sure given enough power and resources, she would have plotted for the betterment of mankind as well by counter-influencing the two World Wars, terrorism, global warming, political scandals and corruption, the JFK assassination, and such.

But of course we know the stress points and desires of a 17-year-old lie elsewhere. But then again, Makoto is also close to coming of age, possessing just enough maturity and sensibility to grade issues on the scales of Right and Wrong. I felt the use of this sweet-spot age has been a perfect medium for conveying the message on how our actions and personal selfishness can have far-reaching effects on others. Makoto will soon discover just what kind of consequences take place each time she modifies the past, and she must carry out drastic acts for the sake of her friends. While the first half was light with comedy, the second half brings on a heavier weight, carrying undeniable lessons that "if only i could turn back time" is not exactly a good thing.

While the character art, for a movie, leaves much to be desired, and even with some flimsy attempt to explain certain time travel logic, there is no doubt most audiences will completely overlook these shortfalls and be immensed in the experience Makoto has to go through, with the underlying themes of what it means to be a friend, to grow up and face up to obligations and responsibilities, and the world not being about yourself alone. Truly a must-watch movie for all ages, whether you like anime or not. And then, you too can come to understand the phrase,

"Time waits for no one."

Overall rating: 10/10
profound lessons; hilarious time travel
bland character art; time-travel theory

Review: Naruto

icelava — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:29:17 GMT

Ah, the title everyone loves to hate. I don't even think I need to write an introduction. With the advent of Naruto Shippuden to continue the second segment of the Naruto manga series, I finally feel free to unleashed all my accumulated complaints I have for this atrocious production. ;-)

Adaptations from manga titles are generally not easy. Although they share many similarities that almost make the viability of transition seem like a "natural" one, anime and manga ultimately have one striking difference - the communication medium of time. Manga are free-flow and timeless; readers follow through at their own pace. Anime has.... 24 minutes per episode on average. How well directors reconfigure the presentation to fit a limited timeframe makes or breaks the end-resulting production. Studio Pierrot in their feeble attempt to remain faithful to the manga has failed in this aspect, and illustrates a severe lack of directorial expertise.

It should not be surprising that Naruto, being a ninja-oriented story, earns its day salary by showcasing fights. The beginning season focuses on a single mission Naruto undertakes with his newly formed genin (low-rank ninja) squad after graduating from ninja academy. While the number of characters involved in this initial arc are limited, there are already a fair number of opportunities to display the unique jutsu (techniques) each shinobi utilises to out-fight and out-wit his/her opponent. It is honestly exciting to witness the characters fight, but most unfortunately it just about mandates the tragic stage and template for how the rest of the series will be like. All these excitement quickly boils away into thin air, as characters frequently stand still and start explaining what they are doing, and downright rambling of unnecessary statements. Couple in the style of conducting character development during fights and not between them, it makes for fast-moving action like a Bangkok traffic jam. It even took half a year's worth of episodes to account for a single day's event at one point. Clearly Studio Pierrot has no knowledge about the concept of "momentum" and "pace" here. Obviously targetting a shounen audience, it also downplays its message delivery by having characters talk so much about themselves, leaving almost nothing unexplained and thus nothing for a mature viewer to pick up on his own.

A pity, because many of the characters do carry a fair amount of substance; you have to hand it to manga author Kishimoto Masashi to come up with literally platoons full of unique personalities (and skills) that all mesh and gel rather well into this special world that features a potentially deep political background and long military history. If you can ignore the brattiness and rashness of attitudes, you can see recurring values about sheer guts and determination, working hard to fight for your own beliefs, and never losing sight of your life ambition. Another thing done right is the music; I have not heard a soundtrack that communicates the theme of comeback as strongly as like this one. Of course, as a fighting show the growth in strength and skill is necessary for characters. But many times, the level of skill is simply off the scale and does not adhere to any logic. Take for example, Naruto could actually fight on par with a certain enemy who so easy dispatched ANBU squads (elite ninjas), when it is obvious Naruto's current skill level could not possibly match up. The overall story is actually decent; it is just that Kishimoto and Studio Pierrot need to hone their timing skills on when to tell a story and when to fight, with believable power scaling.

That aside, there are some delightful key fights, when the animators ram full throttle to animate scenes of immense motion and situation awareness. These are arguably the biggest treats of the series, the talking point of many whenever they appear. However, they are far and few, so waiting for one to happen over the standard stand-and-talk fight is like playing bingo. The quality of art and animation is also never consistent; the constant change of hands is way too blatant to miss; I've lost count on how many "versions" of Naruto I have seen. Milking a cashcow must really mean alot for Studio Pierrot, for after the end of the first manga segment's storyline, they stubbornly produce filler after filler of utter tedium and irrelevance that are just a pain to watch.

To be honest, I quit after Anko's arc, but so would any self-respecting adult. In the end, this series is a rampant fest for kids yelling "CHIDORI!!!" and "RASENGAN!!!" all day long at school. For the rest of us, just stop after Naruto and Sasuke has their last fight at the waterfall.

Overall rating: 3/10
intriguing political/military system; huge roster of characters; unexpected life lessons; the fully-animated fights; rock-solid soundtrack
wrong way to adapt from manga; absurd imbalance of power; excrutiatingly slow/draggy; too much "tell" too little "show"; uncreative filler tail end; fluctuating art quality; last-minute storytelling

Review: Card Captor Sakura

icelava — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:38:43 GMT

Growing up as a boy was fun. I lost count to the number of giggles and hard ROFLs I had watching the utter silliness that is mahou shojou. I mean, swinging that magic wand, that sparkle of nakedness to prove that a kid can instantly swell into adulthood, and ridding the world - or really just the neighbourhood - of all that evil, sprinkling angelic dust over bewitched citizenry. At least mecha anime mostly had the sensibility to teach that the world out there ain't so pretty and people fight to death to protect the peace and well-being of their beloved. But enough about my past complaints, because I now believe strongly that an unfounded genre can evolve and redefine itself into something that reaches out with greater appeal. My mind is changed courtesy of Card Captor Sakura.

All the magic begins when 10-year-old Kinomoto Sakura cleans up her father's library and accidentally unlocks an ancient tome, unleashing a circus of magical card beings running wild into the city. Included as part of the package is Kerberos, who explains himself as a guardian entrusted with the duty of safekeeping the cards by their previous owner, Clow Reed. It is now up to our unprepared heroine to bear the responsibility of recollecting the Clow cards before they cause massive havoc with their untamed powers. And here is where the show takes sharp departure from traditional mahou shojou tropes.

Ok, Sakura still gets a wand. But hey, there is no such thing as a non-competitive magical realm, so everybody needs a weapon. Or her card control device in her case. It also doubles as a flying broom for efficient pursuit of mischievious cards, which she dutifully carries out under Kerberos' guidance throughout the show. The first half can get repetitive at times, featuring card capture after card capture without significant plot advancement. However, you will barely notice this because CLAMP has formulated one of the most lovable characters in all of anime.

It is incredibly charming to see Sakura, a timid and unconfident girl by nearly all measures, cower in fear when challenged. It takes some serious nudging and support from her friends before she commits. Add the fact that she cannot transform and is actually forced to change into different costumes made by her friend Tomoyo just so she can videotape her in action, it makes for many scenes that causes a warm feeling to bubble within me. And smile unconsciously. If I have to tag "moe" to someone, Sakura wins hands down.

No arguments that CLAMP's focus is firstly the characters, secondly the characters, and thirdly the characters. Sakura grows into her role, gaining confidence and abilities. She also grows with her family and friends and thereby illustrate the best moments of life are with ones you love and cherish. The "side effect" of this is less of a solid plot. While she encounters a couple of twists - and thereby bigger challenges - the entire story does not actually call for any real use of her powers. There is no true adverserial entity or party; it can be viewed as a very long series (at 75 episodes) with all her magical adventures only about capturing the Clow cards and developing new bonds with them and the guardians. For the immense amount of offensive power she wields as she progresses through the story, Sakura's purpose as a magician remain rather unaccounted for. Therefore it can sometimes make the beautiful action soundtrack (which is a treat of immersion for the ears) grander than what the actual situation is. In fact, that is the case.

Not that that is a bad thing. For its purposes, Card Captor Sakura does really well, and blows the stereotypes away. No doubt a title that can likely change any pre-conceived opinion you may have on this genre. This is one show you will gladly let your kids watch.

Overall rating: 9/10
Grand orchestra; absolutely endearing; can you say "moe"?
Evasive raison d’être; some cliche patterns remain; too long; rinse-and-repeat

Review: Full Metal Panic? fumoffu

icelava — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:12:05 GMT

Life is about growing up. The process of learning what's good and what's bad, and focusing to deliver what's good even better the next time round. Such a simple rule, and yet people continue to miss many lessons in their lives and repeat costly mistakes. Not so for wise folks of Kyoto Animation. Having taken over from GONZO to produce the second installment of the popular Full Metal Panic! - notice I did not use "sequel" - they exhibit awareness and acknowledgment of what everybody loved about the old series, and jam packed pure comedy skits in 17 riotous episodes.

The episodes (some short ones are paired together in a single TV airing) are mostly self-contained and can be viewed in any order. Most are stripped of plot fibres linking back to original (annoying) backstory, so no timeline really exists. One can take them as isolated incidents during Sousuke's tenure at school. With no story to adhere to, the Essence of Comedy has been allowed to run wild with reckless abundant. While the plot is essentially absent here, one may nonetheless feel abit lost without first watching the setup of the original. This series is no doubt for "existing customers".

Back to the rest of us, we get treated lavishly by the already infamous Sgt Sagara Sousuke, as he tops himself several notches up the absurdity scale. He gives everybody around him in school an extremely hard time to get by those care-free days. Interpretation of innocent (and not so innocent) events and behaviour of regular people give rise to a wide variety of actionable options. And that means military manoeuvres with his inventory of combat equipment. The ensuing disasters and mess following his professionally precise and efficient executions are outright riots and hilarious to the core. The skits have been organised really well to also grant the supporting characters, especially Kaname, key roles in contributing to the destruction and carnage, or just to fall victim to Sousuke's plans and pay the price of sanity.

Such comedic actions require plenty of fluid animation, and those demands are met with highly dynamic cinematography to give a good sense and awareness of the action. The art quality does not fall as the number of frames increase either. Given the change in animation studios, the artists retained the characters' feartures remarkably well. For most scenes, the females have been toned down on their bustiness to give a more slender, thus realistic look. That is a good thing. But unfortunately, it seems that even a series that spews out perfect pearls still feels the need to sink to the level of blatant fan service. That has only served detrimental to the series, and gets a big red cross from me.

And despite knowing in advance the format of Full Metal Panic? fumoffu, I did feel that yearning for just that bit of plot and character development, so that the relationship between Kaname and Sousuke can witness some growth, and thus giving fufillment to Shimokawa Mikuni's awesome opening song "sore ga ai deshou" ("Isn't that love?"). Alas that was not to happen, but no big loss here. At all. Kyoto Animation has studied the diamond well, and cut out a truly shining piece here.

Overall rating: 9/10
More raw entertainment; comedy orchestration; quality art & animation
May require context from original series; is fan service a necessity?

Review: Full Metal Panic!

icelava — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 14:26:10 GMT

The first disillusionment I had on my return to anime (end of 2002) was a noticeable lack of decent mecha titles. Gundam SEED had been airing a few months back then, and it totally made me lose confidence in Sunrise's ability to produce anything beyond mediocre. Sure Macross Zero just came into the picture too, but the snail pace of OVA releases tested the patience of even monks in meditation. Nonetheless, to satisfy the mechanical fan in me, I continued deep diving the seabeds and prying open clamps in search of that beautiful pearl. That search brought me to Full Metal Panic!, a series that totally surprised and left me with mixed feelings, entertaining me from an unexpected dimension.

The onset of the show portrays a not-too-distant future where political unrest around the globe is on an upsurge. A clandestine peacekeeping consortium known as "Mithril" has been formed to deal with militant and terrorist violence with swiftness and efficiency, disappearing without a trace. There are also a variety of other secret "Black Technology" that are held within special individuals known as "The Whispered". Mithril must protect them from an evil organisation eager to obtain those secrets.

Identified Whispereds are assigned (without their knowledge, since they do not know they carry valuable information themselves) a team of bodyguards who go undercover and blend into their environment watching out for their safety and well-being. One such character is Japanese schoolgirl Chidori Kaname, and Mithril Sgt Sagara Sousuke being of Japanese origins gets assigned to act as a classmate of hers.

And here is where all the trouble, and fun, begins. Sousuke being bred and trained for survival in a war-torn third world country, knows nothing about Japanese pop culture. Everything is a battlefield in his eyes, and it's non-stop laughter seeing him struggling to decipher common items and daily lifestyle into something sensible, and always end up perceiving military threat. Incident after incident of wrongly-diagnosed situations invokes the (amusing) wrath of Kaname, and giving her an incredibly powerful personality that is not in your everyday damsel in distress. For that she remains one of the most vivid characters in anime, along with Sousuke's unforgettably unique antics. GONZO has done a superb job here translating the jokes of the original light novels into full animation. This title is a must-watch just for these alone.

While the political background makes for very rich soil for to grow tasty fruit, the same level of quality cannot said for the progression and development of the solemn military operations. Inbetween the funny episodes, the story takes breaks to delve back into the supposed "real thing" - combating the enemy organisation, Amalgam. Although the Arm Slaves (mecha) of Mithril looks sleek and overall art/animation quality is good, the action does not make up for the playout of events; which is mainly by the use of villainy, one that is absolutely grating. The Unmistakably-One-True-Villian, Gauln, time and again makes appearances in such annoying fashion, one can be lead to believe exterminating the cockroach from all the lands of the earth is an easier job. The story spent way too much time on Gauln without developing him or Amalgam. I was just hoping all the action would end quickly so that I could see more of the comedy.

So if you are looking for "military grade" anime carrying the legacy of Macross or Gundam (none of that post-UC trash, please), prepare to be disappointed. If you are actively seeking funny military tactics, prepare to be have your stomach hurt so bad from laughter. This is a comedy first, and sci-fi second. Make no mistake about it.

Overall rating: 7/10
Comedy format one of a kind; hilarious; sleek clean art; brilliant characterisation
Pesky villian; poor "enemy" AS designs; crippled story and development

Review: Love Hina

icelava — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 07:59:47 GMT

One thing that never sits well with me, even with my adolescent years, is how manga and anime manifests so strongly the bubbly wet dreams of young boys. Nothing exemplifies this better than the existence of so many titles of similar themes that warrant the harem genre. So it was with skepticism that I loaded the first episode of Love Hina despite all the written praise I have read of it.

Spectacled nerd. Coward. Loser. Dropped into a girls-only dormitory with 100% guarantee rate to catch them naked one way or another. All (or most) girls inexplicably still falling in love with hopeless boy. Yup, this is the kind of characteristics that turn me off. Badly.

But boy, could I be so wrong that such genres cannot be entertaining.

We follow the life of Urashima Keitarou, a boy just past his teens and trying, in vain, to gain admission into the prestigious Tokyo University (called "toudai" in short by locals). Having lost patience, Keitarou's mother essentially puts him out on the street and he goes over to his grandmother's inn Hinata Sou. With nobody around and unaware of his surroundings, he eventually settles in the outdoor hotspring bath, only to be joined shortly by a girl. And here is where all the havoc, fan service, and fun begins.

Let's face it. Most harem series suck. It takes a very special gift of thought to embed an inspiring underlying theme and some clever wit to make jokes actually funny beyond the otherwise superficial sexual fantasies. And those are attributes Akamatsu Ken (original manga author) and the directorial staff of Production I.G possessed. Life at Hinata Sou is never boring; we are treated to incident after incident of Keitarou affecting the lives of the girls. Negative impacts (chancing upon them in a modesty-disfavourable position; which form the bulk of the jokes) are reciprocated by the girls' incredible combat skills - punches, kicks, sword slices, and even missiles abound to discipline Keitarou. Maybe "abuse" is a better word, for these scenes picture the kind of lovable torment he has to endure to keep his job as the inn manager, a post his grandmother easily delegated to him while she goes on vacation.

All these well-shot scenes are well done by large part thanks to voices of a stellar cast with the likes of Ueda Yuji (Keitarou), Horie Yui (Naru), Noda Junko (Kitsune), Asakawa Yuu (Motoko), Takagi Reiko (Kaolla), Yukino Satsuki (Mutsumi), and then everyone's favourite veteran Hayashibara Megumi (Haruka; and also sings the catchy opening song Sakura Saku). They perform with perfect characterisation for their assigned characters, giving them life above and beyond that already in the manga, which had already given them a fantastic level of development. Few anime can boast of such an ensemble. Very very few indeed. To top things off the music creates the mood with such natural ease, again accentuating the delivery to a new level.

While the anime does a solid job maintaining the theme and characterisation of the manga, it does not faithfully recreate the flow of the original story. Some episodes are entirely filler not found in the manga; one sometimes feel they could have been better spent on delivering more of the manga plot, for in the end the series drops off in an incomplete state and leaving a large chunk of the manga unaccounted for. (These portions are later covered by future episodes which unfortunately drops severely in directing quality) Anybody who has read the manga can tell you how superior the flow and cohesion that version possesses over the anime in terms of storytelling. But this is not to say the filler content is worthless; contrary to that they are entertaining in their own right, thanks again to clever ideas and a lauded group of seiyuus. The rest of the anime still does instill the underlying lesson of knowing what one's dream is, and putting in the courage and effort to fight towards that dream, despite repeated setbacks.

Despite being incomplete, Love Hina is the epitome of using the inherent strengths of animation production to boost an already outstanding manga. So successful and great a following it created that the cast was commissioned to hold Love Hina concerts; a full-house phenomenon one hardly sees anywhere else in the world. They love it so much, and so will you.

Overall rating: 9/10
Spectacular seiyuu cast; following music; genuinely funny and fun; some life lessons; creative filler
The usual harem characteristics; incomplete

Review: Spiral ~ Bond of Reasoning 「スパイラル～推理の絆」

icelava — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 17:56:27 GMT

Sometimes the mainstream adult cannot be blamed for dismissing anime as a "children's thing" - there are just too many titles delving on the amazingly young participating in outrageous or impossibly epic activities, leaving little sensibility for the mature to ponder upon. (Not to say that is entirely a bad thing, since some of them are still entertaining and insightful from certain angles) Any series that features protagonists in school would therefore have difficulty gaining an adult's attention, but Spiral looks set with the right gear to overcome this.

Watching this slightly after I recovered my anime fever (yeap, you read it right - recovered the fever, not from), I was initially lacking any confidence in what this series with a Flash-based opening had to offer. The entry scenes present basic art and animation of low frame rate - a quality that would plague later incidents that involve a high degree of motion. Building up slowly at the start, it deceptively makes protagonist Narumi Ayumu's life look boring and perplexing as to what the main theme is. Well, do not be deceived; watch on and by the end of the episode you will be gripped tightly by the incident at school and just what intellectual feats this boy can achieve to solve mysteries.

You will want to watch each subsequent episode. Just so to see what new mysteries abound and how our detective hero goes about to bring them to light via his eagle-eye observations and use of inference to link things and ideas together. His famous quote, "The melody of logic will always play out the truth." has such a strong rhythm with my own means of thinking has lead me to use that as my personal signature line. Shelock Holmes fans can now be treated to an anime variant of Cluedo.

All these intriguing riddle and problem solving activities unfortunately reaches an effective "ceasefire" when Ayumu and the Blade Children, whom he had been engaging in the battle of wits, are forced to deal with the larger story that includes the dark organisation that originated the Blade Children. This second half of the series runs tired at best, as though the studio ran out of ideas to keep things witty. It also falls into the trap of introducing the afore-mentioned actioned scenes there are not animated enough; resulting in people with spastic movements.

At the end, the J.C. Staff makes off like the original manga author, and failed to deliver a satisfactory ending by leaving things unresolved, unconcluded. A great pity, for what could have been an excellent series ends up being just good. Don't get me wrong - this title isn't a waste of time - the first half is more than worth watching, and thinking for.

Overall rating 7/10
Witful detective play; engaging dialogue
lowly animated; deflated second half; unresolved ending

Review: Battle Fairy Yukikaze 「戦闘妖精雪風」

icelava — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 16:40:51 GMT

Being somewhat of an aviation buff, my biggest beef with most air combat anime titles is how the genre has been terribly marred by inexcusably cheap animation techniques; completely failing to capture the essence of flight. It gets really annoying to watch modern titles that cannot even match up to classic series like Macross or Gundam. I longed so hard, and with fervent prayer, for the day to come when directors would wake up their senses and bring situation awareness to the table.

Come 2004, my prayers have been answered when the Lord spoke to the hearts of the directors in GONZO, sent them to military air bases to learn about ACM (Air Combat Manoeuvring, or plain old "dogfight" for the old school in you), and delivered the most splendid air combat title anime has to offer.

Yukikaze is the name of Special Air Force aircraft B503, part of the Fairy Air Force battle group that wages war with an unclarified alien race known as JAM. The war takes place on a planet labelled as "Fairy", accessed via a portal the JAM opened decades ago to attack Earth.

JAM is largely presented as being aircraft-based, so combat with the aliens are almost entirely in the air. And here is where the show shines exceedingly bright to showcase evidence that the animation team did get it in terms of flight dynamics. The FAF aircraft are beautifully designed, rendered in glorious 3D models and animated down to the detail of control surfaces moving according to the pilots' commands. Even the cockpits and avionic systems are painstakingly realistic to give a pretty accurate picture what combat pilots really do in flight. Frontal-cone radar with sweeping azimuth, IFF, HUDs, FLIR, target designation, ordnance delivery. With the funny exceptional incident of showing programming language source code as scrolling data, you name it, GONZO's visualised it. Accompanied with some insane thrust vectoring (we're talking about future aircraft here), we are in for a treat witnessing amazing manoeuvres and air combat full of cannon shells and missles ripping through the air.

This is flight simulation re-animated. At long last. I almost weeped at the sight of it all.

Of course, when one dedicates so much attention to re-creating the combat flight experience, something has to drop in quality. Then it should not come as a surprise that Yukikaze, indeed like that of a flight simulation game, is devoid of any meaningful story or character development.

The plot centres on Yukikaze and its pilot, Lt. Fukai Rei, and goes at length to show that the plane's AI (artificial intelligence) program is coming close to sentience and shares a close relationship with Rei. Much like a computer nerd with social deficits, Rei is comfortable only when seated inside Yukikaze and has problems communicating with people. Some effort has been made to exhibit another special relationship with his squadron commander James Bukhar, but that, as with brushes with other people in each episode, falls flat to leave hardly a dent of impression just what their feelings and emotions are really about. In the end, nobody cares about anybody. It doesn't help either to have dreamy abstract scenes invade the story only to leave them unaccounted for. The only thing that carries a real punch of emotions is the closing song, RTB (military acronym for "Return To Base"), which magically carries a warm home-coming feeling for anybody who has flown sorties and made it back alive.

All in all, one is best left to view this title like a game - an informed rendition that leads to realistic action and much sought-after situation awareness - and zero on story.

Overall rating: 6/10
High-fidelity aerodynamics and ACM; gorgeous aircraft; realistic avionics
Lifeless; unfollowed abstract scenes; uninspired alien design

Bleach

spider — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 07:38:19 GMT

I may not have watched a lot of anime movies ... but so far after following 71 episodes, this is one of the animes that keeps me looking forward for the next release.

any next animes out there, let me know =)

Review: Neon Genesis Evangelion

icelava — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 18:03:21 GMT

Wow.

Somebody pinch me. Real hard. I need a firm grasp on reality. (no, put that knife down)

Ok in truth, I needed that pinch some 8 years ago when I first came upon Bandai plastic model kits for the mecha and monsters from this series in a departmental store. A friend of mine mentioned back then this was one of the most fantastic and hottest anime titles to have come out from Japan. "Oh really" was my initial response as I gazed upon the art designs, unimpressed.

Back in those days, I was a fairly simple-minded anime watcher. More specifically, mecha-based titles. My love for beautiful machinery and robotic designs were not exceeded by any other facet of this artful medium. Give me lots of ammunition discharge with wanton destruction and I get satisfied real easily. Needless to say, the biggest animations in my heart were the various incarnations of Gundam and Macross. How can anything top these?

Until I popped the first VCD of this "Oh really" title into the player.

To be honest I still wasn't impressed after the setup of the first episode; seemingly possessing all the traits of the days-of-old boy-in-giant-robot-fights-weekly-monsters-to-save-the-world titles. That impression however gets completely shattered with the continuation of the second episode and deliverying one head-smacking example of how to tell a story in a non-chronological manner. Sure it's been done before, but from there on, I was awoken with both eyes open, acknowledging that Anno Hideaki is possibly the only director in my lifetime who can send me on one helluva psychological rollercoaster ride and have me craving for more punishment. And to realise fighting action need not be the only factor for TV entertainment.

This is not to say Neon Genesis Evangelion is stand-still dull (we'll get back on this later *chuckle*). It features some of the most highly animated action scenes in a TV series, for the matter. Rest assured you will be treated with enough camera angles and motion to give you complete awareness of just how the fights are going on. Only a select few TV productions in this new millennium comes close to this level (read: expense) of animation quality.

Entertaining as the action may be, the thing that truly grips you is the literally soul-deep venture into the psyche of the characters. Let me forewarn that this is an incredibly depressing story, and the intensity at which it delves at can be described as severe. Only the most nonchalant of viewers can get by this series unaffected by the deep dark valleys the characters have fallen into. You are likely unable to climb out of the hole like them. And to top that off, many scenes visualise the psychological trauma they go through, serving to thoroughly confuse viewers who are only used to perceiving single-dimensional reality. Now what did I say about opening of eyes.... and the painful over-stretching of the mind.

Accompanying this bleak mood is a solid composition of music. While not something one would just listen alone on an ordinary day, the musical tones and rhythms accentuate the scenes greatly and really pushes the emotionals up one notch. And just listening to this cast of characters who have all been brought together into this unfortunate environment talk is an experience like no other; nearly sentence spoken carries some meaning for the future or past, so I have never before paid such hightened attention on anime like I was studying literature. All things happening at the worldly, organisational, and personal levels affect one another at such an intermingled manner that many believe Anno Hideaki had no clue what he was doing and achieved it all by chance. Chance or not, the brilliance of the direction is undisputable. You will know one thing for sure - Anno Hideaki owns your brain.

Adding to character psyche, the spiritual layer with Christian and Jewish overtones is brought in and sprinkled all over for some of the most twisted interpretation of the Biblical message. And I mean that in a creatively good way. Some deeply-religious people will immediately find much to hate with the "falsification" of their faith, but to them I say: I am Christian and I am perfectly fine with the representations depicted by Neon Genesis Evangelion. Why? Because it is obviously fiction; no where does it claim to be the Gospel of Truth. It in no way is trying to alter the understandings of my faith, so I remain unaffected. The Lord remains The Lord, and this is just a show. But what a show indeed! No other anime has ever created such an impact on me; gotten me contemplating so hard over each and every tiny detail.

Unfortunately, the ending was shocking for the wrong reason - going off without impact. All that elaborate animation ate budget like a jet fighter on full afterburner, leaving the last two episodes in time crunch mode. The end result is motionless dullness of characters going through their mental "routines", trying to sort their emotions out. While it is amazingly and artfully done (we're talking still frames here), one cannot help but feel cheated with this lackluster approach. Imagine being issued hard-tac biscuits after a royal spread of the fresh seafood.

The last two episodes did cause major uproar all around the world, so much so Gainax was "forced" to rework them into a finalising movie in 1997. Nonetheless, this is still one extremely extraordinary series, breaking the ground for a new genre of the united sphere of biological-spiritual mecha. One series that stirred other studios into bandwagon imitation but none ever capturing its unique essence. Not just in technical feats, but with incredible stylistic and visionary models that anybody willing to perceive things beyond their eyes can appreciate.

Depression has never been this enjoyable.

Overall Rating: 9/10
Psychological visionary; shatters walls of conventional perception; depressingly deep characters; amazing plot interweaving; birth of new genre
Truncated ending; will confuse the one-dimensional among the audience

Anime Dorks

Gibby — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 05:02:03 GMT

http://www.tian.cc/2005/11/anime-dorks.html

If you ever wanted to hear nothing but anime songs...

icelava — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 18:09:52 GMT

then I should share what I have been listening for the past year:

Review: Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children

icelava — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 15:14:11 GMT

"Final Fantasy" should not be an unfamiliar phrase to anybody who has been entertained by quality gaming from Square Soft (now known as Square Enix) the past two decades and more. It should then not be surprising one bit for me to state that Final Fantasy VII is possibly the greatest gaming experience I ever had in my life so far. Never had I been impacted with such powerful storytelling and character development interwoven so well with gameplay, and truly the first time I cried playing a game.

So "EXCITEMENT!" would be an outright understatement to describe my feelings the moment I discovered Square Enix was planning to extend that marvellous epic story. It is a joy to once again "meet up with old friends" and see those cherished characters revamped in modern 3D glory, almost drawing the bond with them even closer. Cloud rendered in realistic proportions becomes by far the prettiest character in the show, even outdoing the females. I'm not too sure if that is a good or bad thing. The beautiful musical score nostalgically relives all those moments travelling the Planet, and certainly makes it one of those exceedingly rare occasions when yearning for the past actually becomes a case of truth for me.

Enough about the "good" old times. What about now? Two years after the Planet saved itself from the comet Sephiroth summoned, the team go their separate ways while Cloud and Tifa run a delivery service business (talk about overly-skilled couriers. And no comments about GetBackers here, please.) back in Midgar and also an orphanage for children suffering for a mysterious disease Geostigma. Cloud and the rest will soon discover the significance of this ailment as a trio of young biker punks appear and attack relentlessly.

And oh wow relentless action it surely is. This movie is chock full of fights and you will go out of breath trying to keep up with the pace of the action. Strategic use of slow motions at the critical "Matrix" moments really goes a long way to show these characters are way more powerful and skilled than would be expected from playing the game. You want mega fights that can challenge the skillsets of Naruto? You have it here fully animated, and you get your money's worth. However, the extravaganza of materia is completely minimised. Other than the summoning of (a new type of) Bahamut, we are just treated to a crate full of materia that goes unused. A great pity for items that were so crucial in the game.

Speaking of minimising, the most unfortunate problem to this story will become painfully apparent (perhaps at a slower rate for those enthralled by the action) - there is actually very little story and character development. Contrasting with the massive and deep character development in the game, the plot goes thin to link the elements to Jenova and Sephiroth, and the supporting team characters just about make up for screen time that is largely covered in the trailers and shots. I know a short movie grants little for time rationing, but giving characters more depth and use other than a cameo battle can be done. What we ultimately get out of this scheme is an incredulously paper-thin Cloud-and-Tifa story with mostly Cloud going through his periods of depression and flashbacks for Aeris. Audience who never played the game will be hard pressed to make sense out of anything, despite the narrative effort in the introduction. Of course, we all know this movie is for gamers only, right?

I believe I came in with the wrong expectation, and came out with major disappointment. The action's great, for sure. But hanging onto the same feelings of the game got me in an unfulfilling state by the show's end. Oh well, at least Aeris is happy now. I guess I don't have to seek a way to revive her anymore.

Overall rating: 6/10
High-flying action and extravagant fights; pretty faces
Minimalist story; underused characters; not enough materia; Where're the chocobos?!

Review: Steamboy

icelava — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 21:25:59 GMT

Summary: Young James Ray Steam carries the same engineering blood as his renowned professorate grandfather and father, Lloyd and Edward Steam. While both of them have been working for the O'hara Foundation in the USA for years now, Ray lives up to the Steam name by demonstrating his inherited genius on mechanical and steam contraptions in his Manchester hometown. One day he receives an unexpected package. The contents: a spherical device designed by his grandfather. This "steam ball" marks the beginning of an adventure nobody in 19th century England will likely forget.

What a rush.

I'm sorry, let me try that again.

WHAT A RUSH!

How long has it been since I was this rooted to my seat, unable to escape the mind lock of a world so elaborate and immersive? Something that even End of Evangelion or any of Miyazaki's films have not been able to do, for sure. And how fast did it take to get me into that state? By 7 minutes, when protagonist Ray Steam makes his first appearance, out of the steam.

(Frankly I wished they didn't match the family name with theme of the movie; we're in for some grave overuse of a particular word....)

Firstly, we all shouldn't get too excited about the storyline. Boiled down to its essence, it is the done-to-death "prevent Mr X from exploiting Technology Y to destroy the world" theme. Familiar, but thankfully flavoured with some spice elements to prevent it from appearing like a photocopy, as Ray is put through moral decisions by the Steam elders that prove to be confusing and challenging at his age. As with Appleseed the movie, the plot does not run deep so children have an easier time following, but the script runs a lot more naturally and carries a whole lot less synthetic talk. The truly annoying bit comes in the manifestation of the O'hara heiress, Scarlett. In accordance to bratty princess heritage, she pops in every now and then like that persistent mosquito or fly you cannot smack, babbling irritating noise and never does anything remotely resembling usefulness. If she is supposed to provide comic relief, well..... nothing in this show is funny at all.

But please don't be led into thinking a non-humourous production cannot be highly entertaining.

For once, let it be the case when Astonishing Visuals wins in court. Everything, and I really mean everything, is lavish with minute details; steam-powered machines are designed elaborately and drawn with precision for every nut, bolt, screw, gear, valve, handle, meter, pipe. And every part moves. And you will know objects in the environment, big or small, are no mere background art but completely subject to alteration. Witness the damage and breaking up of vehicles and structures in such spectacular fashion - just about every dislodged brick, beam, pipe, fabric, rod, and wood fragment is accounted for, it almost establishes the law that wanton destruction is a morally acceptible activity.

To top that off the visuals are more than just the technical amazement. The sheer brilliance of the artistic direction cannot be ignored. Be it fabulous action or serious dialogue, the scenes of wonderous technology all emit heavy doses of the steam punk culture that permeates this alternative England. Even George Lucas failed to achieve this with his visuals for the Star Wars prequels.

So this is what you get for spending 10 long years in meticulous production. And this is a production of grand scale. Steam burns are in fashion once again.

Overall rating: 9/10
Grand & spectacular from beginning to end
Scarlett; template theme

Review: Noir

icelava — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 14:48:40 GMT

Summary: Mireille Bouquet is a mercenary firearms assassin, always operating alone under the codename "Noir". Her solitary modus operandi is set to change forever when she gets contacted by a Japanese school girl, Yumura Kirika. Suffering from amnesia, Kirika seeks help to remember her own self, but demonstrates she hasn't forgotten her training - frighteningly superior skills with guns. By producing an object of Mireille's own haunting past, Kirika convinces Mireille to take her back to Europe. Together they investigate the truth of an organisation that ruled the European underground for the past millennium, how their lives are affiliated to it, and discover the real meaning behind the codename they bear.

Let me get straight to the point: the grandest, most inescapable, aspect of this production is the music. From the peaceful town centre to the serene countryside to the engagement in "nerve wrecking" fights, scene after scene gets mated with musical themes that set the mood perfectly, even when the visual direction may sometimes fail. The pan-european scores pair up so well one could almost use this anime as a tourism vehicle for Europe. Half the time I was "watching" just to listen to the melodies. Kajiura Yuki has earned many fans, me included, for demonstrating music can have the magic to save the day.

Sad to say this almost makes other aspects pale by comparison. Not to say Noir's worth is to serve as a mere music video. Rest assured the story is nicely written, and planned well to uncover the historical truths in intriguing stages. The ending is actually conclusive and satisfying. But, you have to wait - the beginning starts off with a series of filler missions just to show the assassins' prowess, doing little to advance the story. Only with subsequent gigs involving the organisation they are after - Soldats - do events and the things they do start to become increasingly meaningful and weave smoothly into the story. Your patience will be tried, and rewarded with dark and tragic moments. The biggest problem I have with the characters, though, perhaps being traits of assassins, is the lack of connectable emotions. Even when they cry. Many a times call for you to reach your hand out to them but it simply feels too distant.

Now, if there is one thing that Bee Train is inadequate at, it certainly has to be combat scenes. This is essentially a title chock full of fighting; bullets and knives saturate the air; injury and death abounds. Yet the direction and choreography for the fighting moves and tactics completely fail to communicate any "heat of the action". The (named) assassins are apparently commissioned by God Himself to carry out the Deathly Art of standing still and slow, eliminating opponents with such idle ease. There are hardly any slow motion scenes, yet I can't help but wonder sometimes if I was watching The Matrix; how else can a pair exterminate an entire gang surrounding them in open space while avoiding all their bullets? If you have ever played the game Diablo, recall those glorious moments when your armour rating is so high that the monsters squeeze you in the middle and bash away without hitting. That's exactly how it is. Or should the HR department of gangster corporations re-evaluate their recruitment policies for competent gunmen? For an anime that doesn't rely on super-powers but actual real life weaponry, it almost made it. An action title this is not.

It is possible to lace combat with motion while maintaining the "winners" are superior (e.g. Macross; Gundam 0083), but Bee Train is not up to animating such. Possibly more of the budget went to the musical direction, thereby shrinking the technical limits the animation team could achieve. (Note: this deficiency in fact continues to plague their future titles which I haven't reviewed.)

As long as you don't demand highly animated combat with boat loads of situation awareness, you will be able to forgive the fighting flaws. And more importantly, you will enjoy the journey Mireille and Kirika embark on (although I can't say the same for the characters themselves). Even if you aren't into "girl power" or the mystery organisation theory, at least buy the OSTs.

Overall Rating: 8/10
Magnificent music; nicely wrapped story package
Idle combat; unbelievable skills; under-used beginning

Review: Elfen Lied

icelava — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 11:20:00 GMT

Summary: Kouta returns to the town of his cousin Yuka, ready to attend the local university together. In reminiscence of their childhood days they visit the beach, only to find a pinked hair girl floundering out of the sea naked. On closer inspection, they find horns protruding out of her skull that sends Kouta into an undesirable shock of an unknown past. Naming her "Nyuu" for the only spastic sound she could make, they take her home. Little do they know this seemingly harmless girl's name is Lucy, the epicentre of nightmares past and present.

You know a show wants you to sit up straight and pay attention when a morbid opening transitions into the first scene involving an arm broken away from its owner. Welcome to the world of Elfen Lied, where a mutant strain of humans, referred to as "diclonius", can exert swift and vicious violence with their "vectors" - invisible arms of great energy capable of slicing stone like vegetables. Coupled with their intrinsic homicidal tendencies, be ready to order body bags in bulk.

Thankfully a fictitious world. But not because I fear for the violence and cruelty. Rather, because given the demonstrated intelligence of scientists and armed tactical/security teams employed to keep these mutants under containment, I have serious doubts the clean-up teams have the capability to determine which body part to place in which body bag. And in overall, I come to disagree humanity should be allowed to live - the Diclonius aren't a destructive evil, but have a Holy Duty to conduct - rid that world of its rampant stupidity.

What am I talking about here? Given the "realistic" violence, one would expect a resonable level of professionalism and counter-measures when it comes to dealing with threats at the level of life and death. But when AI commandos in Half Life conduct tactical manoeuvres far superior to the stand-still "please put me out of my misery" procedures this show's armed forces practises, a mighty head shake I gave more than once. It is also apparent that scientists never get informed about what happened to their predecessors for positions they take up within the research facility. Approaching these dangerous subjects with complete ease to get sliced or broken to pieces is all part of the daily job routine. I hope company insurance has a great policy coverage.

To top that off, it is actually common knowledge the Diclonius only exhibit murderous intent towards other humans but are incapable of dealing the same damage on animals. So nobody ever thought of using guard/hunting dogs to handle crisis; sacrificing whole squads of soldiers is a much more preferrable loss. If there is a show that burns the message that life is cheap, this must be it.

Still not enough to put you away? Surely there has to be a good thing or two to this title, right? Well, if you fall in that group, the Diclonius featured are almost entirely female, and they get naked as often as possible for.... the story's sake I guess. On the other hand, only these "sub humans" don't deserve any respect, and the normal humans remain clothed to maintain their modesty. Is that a good or bad thing? You decide. The art is actually nice, on its own. The problem is the characters are drawn with such a cute style, a complete mismatch with the sinister air that can almost be smelt throughout.

The only thing worthy of praise, amongst all wanton unintelligence, and actually standing out, is the systematic revelation of the relationship between Kouta and Lucy - one that extends long before that day on the beach. Each episode peels history layer by layer, presenting with ever increasing clarity where Lucy came from, and how Kouta comes in to become such a critical character in her life. This most enjoyable and touching feature is most unfortunately disrupted by a truncated ending.

An otherwise highly impactful story about the destruction of lives (not death per se). If you can put up with the disturbing lack of use of the human brain, you may be able to obtain some value out of the story. Else stay away from the viral intellectual incompetence, or you too may foolhardily serve your own head on a plate to somebody one day.

Overall rating: 3/10
Relationship and history of Kouta and Lucy.
Incredulous stupidity; character art and theme incompatible; inconclusive ending.

Review: Fantastic Children

icelava — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 10:58:21 GMT

In this age of processed, fast, and instant food, we (or at least me) cannot help but trust our tastebuds to tell us nothing really beats traditional, and natural, seasoning and cooking methods. This is almost the case with alot of anime I have watched these few years - plastered with increasing quality of graphical and musical candy but somewhat forgetting the critical ingredient where it matters - a good story.

So pleased I am to have heard of Fantastic Children and with my decision to give it a watch.

Right from the beginning the unmistakable message that this show has a story to tell gets delivered to your doostep. Character art is reminiscence to the original Mickey Mouse; opening and closing sequences are bland; technological designs are completely uninspiring. You will know all the superficial elements are taking a back seat for the sequence of events presented and the characters who knit the story together.

Be forewarned: prepare a box of tissues (or handkerchief if you're obsolete). This is not a happy anime at all. Powerful moments of sadness and grief for the characters sprinkle throughout this series, as you have to witness how everybody's lives are mangled over and over again in this cruel twist of fate.

In fact, as the series progresses the closing sequence and song makes more sense and begins to invoke a very strong sentiment reflecting one of the protagonists. Take special note - other series may feature nicer songs you'd load into your MP3 player and animate flashy sequences, but few have combined to become such a powerful vessel of the heart.

The number of episodes used to set the stage may be considered slow for some, but patience will bring sweet reward. Each episode unfolds according to plan, in a controlled, yet natural, manner. Actually, when was the last time I watched a title with such a well-planned itinerary?
My gripe to that, though, was the waste of one episode dedicated to recaps. Surely there could have been more [wonderful] material to share for that 24 minutes. Other complaints point to some lapses in the spiritual and biological logic, one of them being a retarded insistence of using a specific individual as the bearer of a weapon, when anybody else could have been employed to the same effect.

It may be interesting to note the story isn't something new, really. Almost every plot mechanism had me going, "where have I seen that before?". But make no mistake, this is a compilation of old concepts done right. And a testatement that those who genuinely want to tell a story, and not win TV viewership points, create memorable titles.

Overall rating: 9/10
Superb story weaving; well-planned episode pace; emotional moments
simplistic character art and designs; recap episode

Review: Trigun

icelava — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 17:37:00 GMT

Trigun is one those productions that will have a higher chance of success in luring the international audience uninitiated to the power of anime. With the abundance of anime stories that find some sort of life-critical need to have events occurring in Tokyo, it is tremendously refreshing to find the rare title that, in bold search for a new premise, departs the shores of Japan and embraces an outlandish theme in style.

Ok, maybe "outlandish" is too strong a word. The setup is a very similar Wild Wild West culture living on a desert planet, where the name of Vash the Stampede strikes fear into the hearts of everybody. Wanted with a 60,000,000,000 $$ (that's called "double dollar" to you) bounty for the complete destruction of a city, he has earned the nickname "The Humanoid Typhoon" for consistent natural disaster-like wakes of destruction to whatever places of civilisation he passes by. This series is thereby a biography of sorts on the life of Vash the Stampede and his travels.

And an incredibly funny one at that. Fleshed out in playful disposition and carefree attitude, Vash is arguably one of the single-most entertaining characters to watch as he deals with dangerous situations of mayhem and villians one after another to such hilarious effect.

Being a series sporting plenty of fights, the animators have done a very good job animating the action sequences without dropping the art quality. A technical achievement that few studios, even in post-millennium years, can do so consistently. The use of an occasional "side kick", a stylish cross-toting priest by the name Nicholas Wolfwood, really pumps the values of fights way up. (Actually, he is more of an equal standing peer, but I'll leave you to witness it for yourself.)

Usually, a production of such great comedy, animation quality, and art direction would have easily earned a 10 from me. The point of contention is: this should have been two separate anime.

What I have mentioned so far are largely that of the first half. The second half, however, takes a 180° swing and begins descending into a frighteningly dark mood. As mentioned above, this "study" into Vash's life extends to the somber chronicles of his past, providing more than enough material to show just how and why Vash is living the life as he is. The different beliefs in morality then becomes explosive fuel for many conflicts between Vash and Nicholas, thereby bearing even onto the audience a very real challenge to decide just what is right or wrong.

Few anime present a story that doesn't move, but rocks one awake to realise and consider the standards and morals of life we sometimes take for granted. Simple yet powerful, a message has been transmitted loud and clear.

Both styles of storytelling have been tremendously entertaining/moving. But, like one wouldn't really eat bran with curry, they join together to form an odd overall taste. The distance between the two directions too vast to find cohesion. On top of that, the focus of development falls mainly on Vash and Nicholas, failing to include many other side characters whose main purpose then seem to be no more than witnesses to the events.

Still, if the drastic change of direction is not a problem for you, then prepare to sit through one helluva ride.

Overall rating: 8/10
Fantastic first half of comedy; stylish battles; deep moral challenge and development for the protagonists.
Differing storytelling modes; some characters wastefully undeveloped.

Review: Appleseed (movie)

icelava — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 07:12:01 GMT

Introduction: The world is largely burnt out wastelands after years of war amongst the human population. Nearly killed in a losing battle in one of many desolate cities, Deunan Knute was rescued by an ESWAT team and welcomed into the clean green city of Olympus, utopian home to the Bioriods (numbering half the population). Deunan soon gets to learn about the nature of these living androids, and the organic system, Gaia, that governs their lives.

The only reason why I wanted to watch this movie was because of the glimpse of gorgeous CGI I caught in the shorts. I was all prepared by the "warnings" of others to watch yet another mindless action movie that was all rock and no talk. To that I came out of the theatre pleasantly surprised, but not by much.

Anything featuring detailed 3D scenes is almost writing a personal letter to you informing of some elaborate scenes of fighting animation. And Appleseed does not disappoint. While the amount of fighting is actually less than what I expected to witness, it certainly was no less exciting when they did happen. The quality of animation is nothing short of superb, and made me wonder if the animators had been taking lessons from choreographers of The Matrix.

That said, there were times when the fighting goes outright dumb: if you possess wicked metal whips that can slice through machinery with ease, why not just cut the opponent into pieces instead of his weapon? Or a truly impressive city defense system that features a ludicrous single point of failure (ala Star Wars).

Also, beautiful as the environments are, the inherent incompatibility with traditional cel artwork is once again evident in this showing. In the effort to texturise the 3D character models with hard-toned shadings, they end up looking like shiny polished barbie dolls; a sore contrast with the gradient surroundings. The incompatibilities don't end there - the movie is at full blast with noisy cyberpunk music, even when the fighting stops.

The pleasant surprise I got came from the large pockets of time inbetween the fighting sequences - there are actual dialogue development for the personal histories of Deunan, her lover-turned-cyborg Briareos, as well as their lives' intertwining with the Bioroid race and polictical force revolving around Gaia. Now pleasant does not necessarily mean excellent; the plot is decent, but told with grade-school complexity. The conversations, events, and histories do not fold out in a very natural way and feel contrived so that school kids have an easy time understanding the natural wickedness and selfishness of mankind that plagues the world.

What results out of this directorial is a rather decent story with fantastic action for children and teenagers, but not much "core" substance for adults to take away with. In that aspect, Appleseed succeeds admirably - a movie to treat your kids.

Overall rating: 5/10
Fantastic fights. There's actually a story.
3D characters too "shiny". Simplistic plot; little for adults.

Review: Voices of a Distant Star (ほしのこえ)

icelava — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 13:34:52 GMT

I originally opened up a post just to drop some notes in preparation for a review in future, but ended up writing it straight away

Do not underestimate a title that is only 25 minutes long. This single-episode OVA really surprised me with what one can do to bring in and wrap up a powerful story within such a short duration. And you can take the "one" literally - this work was mostly done by a lone producer. Shinkai Makoto has earned my deep respect.

Given this strict time limit, the story is wisely stripped of all extraneous material. Only a very thin background about Earth sending space fleets across the galaxies to combat an alien race is provided. This is not a sci-fi anime, however; that's just a setup. The bare essence is on two middle-school students, Nagamine Mikako and Terao Noboru, who are only beginning to express their mutual liking for each other after their final exams. Right from the start you are faced with a troubled Mikako, who has to break the news to Noboru a relationship together in high school is impossible - she is being recruited for her talents by the UN Spacy army.

The mood of this setup is simply perfect. Backed by beautifully drawn environments in their town and soft music, Mikako and Noboru carry out their concise conversation. Yes, no unnecessary talk as well; even the moments of silence are well-timed. The impact of such a reality hits home - in an Internet infrastructure, the world takes instant communication for granted. But the vastness of space gives even the speed of light a tough challenge.

Few anime I have seen emit such strong an emotion like the crushing weight of separation upon these individuals. All the things they do tell of their struggle to bear the unbearable. So gripping it is on my heart that I can really forgive the odd policy where Mikako must wear her old school uniform while piloting in space (UN Spacy must be too poor to issue proper space suits after all the money burnt on technology R&D).

Although it is primarily a love story, effort to design some decent looking 3D models and choreograph flight and fights can be observed and appreciated - it actually puts many dedicated action anime to shame. However, the same cannot be said of mechas' movement animation, being less natural than that of the Sony QRIO. The one thing that does stick out like a sore thumb is the flat, sketchy character art; doesn't blend in with the rest of the beautiful back drops and 3D environments.

This magnificent presentation is one of the best samples that can be introduced to viewers uninitiated with anime. It extends a familiar, and very undesirable (in a good way), hand to anybody experienced with a long-distance relationship. I know that well.

Overall rating: 9/10
Moving story and emotions; exquisite environment art; good action choreography.
Flat character art sour against gorgeous environments; some robotic animation.

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