My collection of short anime reviews

The main protagonist.

Since my last review was published about a month ago, many changes has been done on this blog. Two most notable changes are the theme switch and the change of URL to a shorter one. All your bookmarks etc will still work because of the magic of mod_rewrite. To commemorate this occasion, what else is better than a brand new spanking review of the two seasons of Asura Cryin’ (spelled like it is in ANN). Both were aired last year, therefore our newly-anointed ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ winner Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei will have its first challenge!

Story:-
Our main male protagonist was haunted by a ghost of a pesky girl that harassed him every second of his life. Then his life make a turn for the worse when his brother sends him a mysterious steel suitcase that is wanted by many shady organizations. He was then attacked by a demon who also wanted the said suitcase, and after barely escaping alive, his rented house was then raided by those shady organizations. Hounded by a ghost, chased by a demon who will stop at nothing to get the suitcase and also by the organizations with the same aim; our hero finally snapped, called out the dark mecha from inside the suitcase and started to have his revenge!

Strictly speaking, the story in this series is typical of its shounen genre. Not the pinnacle of storywriting, but not too bad either. In the first season this series has done well when it comes to the progression of the story and pacing, although character developments are not done properly. Then the ending of the first season comes, setting up a link for the second season quite nicely. The second season then comes, and this series promptly started to fall apart.

The first thing I do when I finished watching this series is to check whether the director has changed for the second season. The answer is no, therefore I checked the director’s CV to see whether he has directed any other anime titles reviewed here in the past. One entry comes up; Inukami, in which I commented that he has done a very good job. He also directed Sekirei which is in my queue, of which I have only planned to watch after the second season was aired and the DVD comes out. This doesn’t explain one of the biggest directorial cock-ups since Armitage III though.

Right after the second season started, the director seems to feel that suspense is a bad thing and started to show all his cards a.k.a. telling the startled audience (that would be me at least) the key elements of the storyline. This alone make the series very predictable, allowing me to see how the ending will be 10 episodes from the end (more to come about this later). As the director does this in the first few episodes of the second season, this started to affect the pacing of the anime too, where the pacing can become suddenly fast in key scenes. With this, parts of the anime that is important storywise can be missed if you did not concentrate enough when watching the early parts of the second season.

In the second season, I also feels that the presentation of the storyline has become worse in the second season. It is kinda like what I have said in my review of Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun. This is evident mostly on the plot twists that happened more frequently on second season than in the first. A good example is the scene where the main male protagonist’s brother finally appeared  and spilled the beans (related to what I have said above); such a very important event doesn’t have any air of urgency when I watched it happening. Even with the fact that that scene heralds the time when the series enters a new phase, it feels that the said scene is no more important than, let say, the episode where the character roster went to a hot spring bath.

Another complaint of mine has to do with some serious scene transition problems throughout the series. This weakness also happened in the first season, but the worst case of this problem happened during the ending of this anime:-

Near the end of the penultimate episode….

Antagonist: I want the <insert_name_of_some_special_artifact>! (said artifact is secure with the protagonist’s team) I want to create A NEW WORLD!
Protagonist: I will not give it to you bla bla bla…. (as the protagonist spits out some self-righteous clichéd drivel)
Me: (cut down another point from the final evaluation).
Antagonist: So we see things differently…. (start ordering his mecha to attack)
Protagonist: WARGHHHHHH (his mecha joins the fray)

Ending credits rolls

Me: (Open up last episode in MPC-HC)

Final episode starts with a big explosion from the clash between two big bad-ass mechas. From the aftermath, comes out the antagonist, with <insert_name_of_some_special_artifact> in his hand!

Protagonist: Eh? (surprised seeing the <insert_name_of_some_special_artifact> taken away just like that).
Me: EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?
Antagonist: You’re unlucky! (imagine him saying that the way that enchanter in Torchlight does)
Me: (opening Mozilla Firefox to book a ticket to Japan so that I CAN GO POSTAL ON THE DIRECTOR’S ASS).

Attention Japan! Doing an important scene progression OFF-SCREEN is a big no-no! This make an already predictable cliché-laden ending worse. This series is really beyond help at this point.

As I say above, character development in the first season are not done properly, but at first I thought that this will be addressed in the second season. Guess what? It did not happen. Character development in this anime are done half-heartedly at best. For the characters that has plenty of airtime like the main protagonist, their development are done well but those who doesn’t get the airtime, the reverse happened. Example is the 2nd student council president, whose background are completely opaque until it was too late in the series. Her relationship with her sickly friend are not exposed until the ending, unlike the 1st student council president (best character in this series) who have far more detailed character development (has dedicated episodes for him too).

The dialogue that confirms his status as the main protagonist in an anime.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime is good. There are quite a number of black-haired characters in this anime too, such as the main protagonist. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is decent enough, but there is no one standing out from the rest.

Music:-
The OST is good, but from all the OP/ED themes, only the 2nd ED theme from the second season is worth mentioning here.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this series is excellent all around, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography in action scenes are ordinary though; you won’t see any good battles in here. I have said plenty of things about the directing above, but hey, from the director’s CV, do you realize that Inukami, Sekirei and this series’ stories are basically the same in essence? Hint: The keyword is ‘contract’. Is this director a one-trick pony? Then again Inukami is a very good shounen anime.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Awful directing is responsible for 2 penalty points. Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei passed its first test as the reigning ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ holder.

Our evil antagonist!

Our main protagonist, now biting puppy ears.

Today when I want to write the review for this anime, only then I realized that my previous review for Needless is missing because of the server migration that happened nearly two weeks ago. Therefore it may seem that there are two reviews for today but actually there is only one of them. And that one would be for the third season of the Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series, which follows the first and second season already reviewed in this blog before. Titled Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, this 2009 anime will then compete with Wolf and Spice S2 for the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title. Compared to the first two seasons, this newest installment in this series will throw a nice surprise to you.

Still the best character in this anime, even if her airtime was cut even further.

Story:-
In the third season, our main  male protagonist has completely stopped being suicidal (he is afraid to die even), therefore his (mostly) female students doesn’t have to restrain him from finding the hangman noose anymore. Nowadays all he does is complaining and despairing over many things, and his (mostly) female students followed suit. I somewhat miss the more flexible main protagonist that you can see in the first season.

What you can see in the second season was carried into the third season (each episodes are divided into several chunks), but with some notable changes in presentation. In the third season, there are more long story arcs that are shown to the viewers in non-consecutive chunks (usually in different episodes). This approach was pioneered in the second season but are used far more extensively in this season. But what defines the third season over its two predecessors is that there are more good plots over bad ones. If the first season has 50:50 good:bad plots ratio and with second season may have a 40:60 ratio,  the third season has vastly improved with 80:20 ratio. The third season is definitely the best installment in this series so far.

Epson/HP/Canon/Lexmark etc. business practices thoroughfully explained and mocked in this anime.

As a consequence of that, the outstanding humor in this series (which helped the first two seasons achieves 8 out of 10 scores) has also been improved. I actually think that would be impossible to do, considering my experience of watching the first two seasons in the past. But the humor in the third season does improve over the already excellent humor in season one and two, and that’s a good thing. Parodies and references to other manga/anime/games/TV shows/political events are still there, with diverse references to AKB48 all the way to Rozen Maiden (with a not-so-veiled reference to a particular politician). This anime will surely become a hit in North Korea…

Taking a swipe at North Korea is this anime favorite pastime.

Another presentation changes that are done in the third season is the pacing of this anime. The director probably have heard my complaints about the terrifying pace this series has and toned it down in this season. It is still fast compared to other anime titles, but between the three seasons, the one here is the slowest. Therefore I do not use the MPC-HC rewind combo button as often as I do in the first two seasons. This anime can still be inaccessible to live TV watchers though, therefore time-shifting is a must.

One of the best humor scenes in the entire series.

Character developments was stalled in the second season, and little has happened in the third season that indicates that anything has changed. The only things I have seen is that the main protagonist now fears death (so far apart from the suicidal him in the first season) and the so-called class monitor has permanently become a murderous person. Our mobilephone-toting non-talking best character is still there, her airtime being cut even further. There are no actual ending I have seen in the last episode, just like it does in the second season. Will there be a fully deserved 4th season? Well, we have to just wait and see then.

I hope a new season will come, not necessarily in that timeslot.

Character Design:-
My comment in the first season and second season review still applies. The best design belongs to the main male protagonist. Generally, this series are strong in this section.

One of the many parodies in this anime.

Voice Acting:-
Another traditional stronghold for this series, my comment from first and second season still applies.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Music:-
The OST is still great as it is in the second season, but only the OP theme is good. Cannot say the same thing for the 2 ED themes.

This show can be ‘informative’ too!

Animation/Direction:-
For animation quality and choreography, my comment from the review of second season still applies. The director has changed some of the presentation aspects in this anime for the better, and staying closer with the original manga probably contributes to the better stories and humor in the third season too.

Conclusion:-
Say hi to our newest ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ with its 10 out of 10 score. Simply better than Wolf and Spice S2. I never thought a despairing good-looking teacher with a huge harem he doesn’t take advantage of can take the throne from a beer-chugging wolf-girl. I do expect the third season to do well, but not THIS well.

Quoted For Truth.

Our main male protagonist a.k.a. the best character in this anime, Hatake Kakashi Adam Blade.

The anime that replaced Clannad After Story in my queue list is Needless, yet another arbitrary anime I have downloaded. The 2nd review this year is for a 2009 anime, which will then challenge Wolf and Spice S2 for the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title. This anime is unique in few aspects, but embarrassingly predictable in others. Read on to see what I mean.

And this is his sidekick, perfect as a comedy outlet.

Story:-
It has been few decades since Japan was walloped (again) by nuclear bombs in a fictional World War 3, and the country has pretty much returned to normal. But it is hard to ignore a huge black spot right smack in the middle of Tokyo, which is a remnant of one of those nuclear bombs. Strange people lives there and quite a few of them has inhuman powers. Those people are called Needless, and our main protagonist is one of them. Then a mysterious but powerful pharmaceutical company (why oh why it has to be a pharmaceutical company Japan?) decides to extend their operation right in the middle of the Black Spot, and their equally mysterious leader decides to do a ‘Needless Hunting’ (self-explanatory isn’t it). This eventually infuriates our protagonist, therefore a huge battle between two strong people is inevitable.

This anime reminds me a lot of another excellent 10 out of 10 shounen anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (abbreviated TTGL from this point) in more ways than one. But unlike TTGL which storyline is aimed towards younger audiences (elementary schoolers), the story in this anime is better mainly because it caters to the teen demographic (at least that’s what I like to think). Still, this anime barely has the great polish that TTGL has. What makes this anime unique/strange/interesting (choose whatever you prefer) is that the story is extremely short. Yes, the story in this anime is very short. The anime starts very well, with fast pacing and nice story development until the ending arc starts at EPISODE 8!

Did you follow me yet?

This anime has 24 episodes, but with the way the story was presented, you would have thought that you are watching a 12-episode series. The storyline that precedes the event when the main male protagonist and his entourage raided the enemy’s headquarters to save the main female protagonist (kidnapped of course, what else do you think has happened) is quite good of course before one of the longest final arc in an anime series started. In any other shounen anime titles, an event like above will only happened two or three or four or even five episodes (rare) before the end, but here it happens a whooping 16 episodes before final episode. As a comparison, the most recent shounen anime reviewed here which is Kaze no Stigma only has its final arc to start 4 or 5 episodes before the ending (and I did say that anime spends a lot of time for its ending too).

These trio peddles plenty of lame and stale jokes but are good when it comes to fan-service.

So what can you expect in that extremely long ending arc? There are 4 episodes of poorly timed flashback episodes, 2 of them are back-to-back near the end of the series. Diving straight to a final battle between the protagonist and the antagonist does have its drawbacks, with the director having to use the flashbacks as a plot device to present some unexplained loose ends in the whole story. Generally I have no complaints about the contents of those flashbacks, but the same thing cannot be said for their timing, which happened right at important moments. There is also plenty of fighting, which makes up the bulk of the ending arc. Interestingly, the main protagonist spends about only 2 episodes (and I think I am generous there) fighting the final boss while his fight against the Pretty Girls Squad can easily triple that for the whole series. The priorities in this anime is somewhat perverted.

Two things that this anime has but TTGL lacks are fan-service and plenty of humor, but their qualities are mixed bag at best. The aforementioned Pretty Girls Squad are good at the former but bad at the latter. Funny scenes by the main male protagonist largely succeeded, but the repetitive ones done by the main female protagonist quickly become stale after 2 episodes or so. IMHO, fan-service in Saki are better than the ones in here. Character developments in this is probably the only thing not being affected negatively by the long ending arc. With all those fighting and flashback episodes, it is hard not to see any character developments here, especially for the main male protagonist. He is definitely the best character in this anime.

The hero’s pack right before they raided the enemy’s headquarters for the final battle, 16 episodes before the anime ends.

Character Design:-
The character design of the main male protagonist is one of the main reasons why I compared this anime with TTGL. His look and mannerism is not far removed from Kamina. Unlike TTGL though, the overall character designs in this anime are a bit more mature unlike the former’s kiddy anime style. Black hairs are almost non-existent, while other colors are popular. White/silver is actually quite common, with the main male protagonist, his robotic flasher lolita companion, the main antagonist and one of his subordinates having that color, amongst others. Blue hairs are even more common, plenty of blue shades in this anime. The radiations from all those nukes must have done irreparable damage to Japanese DNA. Some mecha design are quite decent too. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

The law of Anime dictates that an event that has minuscule probability of happening, will definitely happen in an anime showing. If the said anime is a shounen, the odds are doubled.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is excellent, with plenty of honorable mentions for the white-haired main male protagonist, that green-haired greenhorn who saved him from death in the first episode, the blue-haired main female protagonist, that blue-haired girl with magnetic powers and (yet another) the blue-haired girl who leads the Pretty Girls Squad trio. Also a positive point for this anime.

Music:-
Just like TTGL, this anime’s OST is great but the same cannot be said for any of the OP/ED themes.

One of the humorous scenes that actually works.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is great, but the ones in TTGL is simply more exciting and more variable. Fast-paced scenes are not affected in any way, except when the director will it to be (this is not a negative point). Choreography in this anime is better than the ones in TTGL though, with many good fighting techniques (and characters in this anime likes to do an Onmyou Taisenki and shout the name of their techniques when attacking). The awesome directing in TTGL cannot be matched by this anime; that 4 poorly timed flashback episodes count against the director here.

Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. The story is thin, but this anime is still a decent shounen title. The next anime I will watch is a sequel of an anime already reviewed in this blog before, and I have actually already started watching it. And no, it isn’t Clannad After Story.

This flashback scene reminds me of a similar scene from a certain very famous J-RPG.