My collection of short anime reviews

The main male protagonist Okazaki Tomoya and the best character in this anime, the starfish freak Ibuki Fuko.

The fifth anime in this wave of 2007 anime reviews is Clannad, as promised. This is another anime based on those dating simulations, brought to you by those who make the excellent AIR series. The difference between Clannad and AIR is that Clannad is a romance anime, thus automatically will be saddled with the higher standard that I imposed on all romance genre titles.

Fuko-chan is making fun out of the main character’s ignorance.

Story:-
Our high-school delinquent Okazaki Tomoya hates his school and hates his father, and went through the motions of his life alongside his sidekick, Sunohara Youhei. But one day, as he is going late to the school, he meets Furukawa Nagisa who is also late just like him…

For those who did not see this anime yet, the anime is divided into several story arcs, and this information is important for the context of this mini-review. The first arc which deals with the Ibuki Fuko is the longest, and also the best of them all. In fact, I started to wonder whether Clannad will get a perfect score despite the handicap (which will automatically dethrone Nodame Cantabile off its perch) if the anime continues, but unfortunately the subsequent arcs is nowhere as good as the first one.

It is not to say that the rest of the story arcs did not have good stories behind them, it is just that the first arc is just a magnificent masterpiece; it makes the others look so ordinary. And this is one of the weaknesses of this anime, which will be the unbalanced storyline quality. Another weakness of this anime that has something to do with the story arcs formation in this anime is that they do not merge smoothly enough to make a whole complete package. This scene-transition problem also happened to AIR, and I wonder if this problem is inherent in anime based on dating games.

I also have issues about the storyline of the arc about the genius girl, which requires a significantly higher degree of suspension-of-belief. There are some facts in that arc that is simply hard to believe, for example how the main protagonist can forget a major event like the fire in the genius girl’s house just like that. Considering the context of the anime up to that time, this is simply hard to believe, and the main protagonist has an unusually hard time to remember it back. The explanations given for his ‘amnesia’ is not satisfactory and ruined the arc for me.

But in general, despite of issues mentioned above, this anime has a good story as a whole, even better than the one in AIR although it would have been better if the arcs after the Ibuki Fuko’s can match its (first arc) brilliance. The ending is also very well done, and I wonder how this anime can be extended in the confirmed second season. Which I will definitely watch.

Yet another weakness that has something to do with the story arcs of this anime is the ‘weird’ character development strategies this anime seems to employ. This mainly applies to Furukawa Nagisa, but I think some other characters like Sunohara Youhei is also affected by this to a lesser extent. This weakness caused Furukawa Nagisa to look like different characters depending on what story arc is currently playing. For the rest of the characters, their development is rather mixed, with the main male protagonist and Ibuki Fuko being the best amongst them while many other characters having minimal development especially those who are not main characters of an arc.

She also points out one of the main issues that infested many titles in Japanese anime.

Character Design:-
Coming straight out of a typical H-game. As usual, black is an alien color for hairs, and the obsession with purple hairs is simply unhealthy. Stereotypes are the rage here with big eyes, big boobies and impossible body shapes.

The face that launched a thousand Awws.

Voice acting:-
Overall, voice acting in this anime is just average at best, with no one being better than the rest.

Music:-
This anime has good OST, and the ED theme is excellent. Nothing can be said about the OP theme though.

No matter how many times she does it, it never gets boring.

Animation/Direction:-
A positive point of this anime, the animation quality in this anime is top notch, even in the little fast-paced scenes this anime has. Due to the nature of this anime, there will be no comment about the choreography, although the fight scenes are nothing to write about. The directing is generally good, and I will forgive about the story imbalance problem, but I will not overlook the problems with the genius girl arc.

She is totally awesome even when bashing other people’s head.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10 (remember the handicap that AIR does not have). If the anime finished at episode 9, Clannad would have taken home the Anime of The Year 2007 title from Nodame Cantabile. Alas, the next 14 episodes ensure that that will not happen. The next anime in the pipeline is 5 Centimeters per Second, in the glory of HD.

She makes the first story arc magnificent in this first place, it makes me wanting to get the game just to pair her up with the main protagonist.

More crying than 1 Litre of Tears.

Oh well, for the fourth review in less than a week, I’ve chosen Kaiji instead of Clannad (which I have slightly regretted downloading). Clannad will come after this, but now I present my mini-review of an anime that has a lot of crying involved.

A not-so-obvious rip-off of a certain TV show across the Pacific.

Story:-
Our hero that cries a lot, Kaiji was left in debt after the borrower he is co-signing for defaulted and goes missing. Unable to pay the exorbitant interest, he is forced to board a mysterious ship where he was told he can wipe out all his debt in one night by winning a strange card game that is held there…

Brilliant is the appropriate word that can be used to describe the story of this anime. It is definitely much better than any of the anime reviewed here in this current wave of reviews (take note to whoever wrote Hayate no Gotoku). The mind games and the psychological warfares that are abundant in this anime can easily be compared to those kinds of detective stories like Meitantei Conan or even other thrillers like Death Note. And if you ask me, Kaiji is better than those two mentioned when it comes to intricate and complex stories and plot twists. The ending is done very well too, and I hope this anime will have a richly-deserved second season.

Another aspect where this anime really shines is the presentation, which is one of the best for quite some time. Portrayals of human emotions; sadness in defeats, elation of winning and also the anger after being scammed is a major essence of this anime and contributes greatly to the quality of this anime. Characters development is also a good point of this anime, although with that small number of characters and most of them are not a recurring character, this is probably inevitable. Although, with most of the episodes happened only on two different nights, this is very commendable.

This anime has no weakness whatsoever in this section.

One of the key cliff-hanger scenes in this anime. Have to be seen to be believed.

Character Design:-
This anime seems to be aimed to older audiences just like Nodame Cantabile did, and the character design reflects that fact. It wasn’t exactly realistic, just different than those in titles aimed to younger demographic. Has plenty of black hair too, which is as realistic as it can be. Definitely a positive point of this anime.

Having to put with 2 retarded teammates can be fatal.

Voice acting:-
Another positive point of this anime, the voice acting for the relatively small cast for this anime is decent, but the main protagonist takes the cake. He is so immense and also one of the major reasons why this anime is that damn good. This dialogue-heavy title succeeded because the voice actor has done a very fine job, he is not far behind Ayako Kawasumi’s Noda Megumi.

There are no abuse of children here.

Music:-
This anime has good OST and OP theme, but unfortunately the ED theme is falling behind. It is very unfortunate that this happened, and you will know why later below.

Some of the violence in this anime, you may want to keep your children away from this title.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation is good as usual for a 2007 anime. There are little fast-paced scenes in this psychological thriller, but when it comes it does not disappoint. Choreography is almost non-existent due to the nature of the anime so no comment for me here. The directing is superb, with some clever camera tricks and angles and also what I have described in the Story section.

An ample explanation of the main protagonist.

Conclusion:-
A definite 10 out of 10. That is how good this anime is if you enjoy this kind of stories (and I do). But just like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Kaiji failed to capture the Best Anime of The Year 2007 title from Nodame Cantabile, mainly because little things like inferior ED themes. When you got a perfect score, I will start to compare little things like this to see who is ahead and who will be left behind, and for now a slightly retarded pianist still managed to hold off a poor bum who cries a lot from getting the greatest prize of all. Hmm… somehow this reminds me about the ending of this anime. Clannad has a tough time following Kaiji’s footsteps here.

Still wondering why he loses to a pianist.

List of 10 out of 10 anime in this blog: Kaiji, Capeta, Nodame Cantabile, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Chocotto Sister and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I forgot what caption should be put here.