My collection of short anime reviews

The title protagonist.

From the creator of the excellent Kaiji series, come another proper thriller anime titled Akagi (he actually wrote this one first before Kaiji). Unlike Kaiji which is basically a darker and  deadly version of Wipeout Australia, Akagi is a mahjong anime (kind of like Saki). Therefore, this anime will be subjected to the sport genre handicap. This is a 2005 anime, thus none of the ‘Anime of the Year’ title holders will be challenged this time around.

Story:-
During the era of reconstruction right after Japan’s loss in World War 2, a desperate man is betting his life in a mahjong parlor in a rainy night with the local yakuza. On the verge of defeat, suddenly a drenched middle-schooler barged into the mahjong parlor. Sensing something special about the white-haired student (I told you white-haired people are evil!), the desperate man asked him to play mahjong in his stead, and everything started from there on.

The story in this anime is almost non-existent, but the mahjong games in this anime are intense, complex, very deep and mesmerizing. And that’s about it with this anime. The games are more realistic with the players getting more normal hands unlike in Saki where its players gets rare hands far more often. The protagonist especially is really skilled at getting hands that cannot be anticipated by his opponents or getting them to do what he wants, and he usually achieve that using mind games, deceptions (this guy cheats quite often), phenomenal calculating abilities, psychological warfare, abnormal strategies and sheer luck. Add them up to his charismatic, cool and calm persona, the protagonist is a very good template for a manga/anime character specialized in mind games. If only Lelouch Lamperouge has his ability, the Code Geass series would have easily gotten a perfect score. And he is just as good as Kaiji or Kaiser Reinhard or Yang Wenli, probably even better than them.

The flow of the plots during the games are excellent, which more than adequately covered for the lousy story transitions when not in-game. The presentation of the games is top-notch, with gazillion of monologues from the players, the spectators and very helpful commentary from the narrator that explains the strategies used in the games and their ramifications. Because of the narration, this anime is more accessible to mahjong n00bs than Saki (the fansub group also helps explaining the scoring system used in this anime, which differs than the ones used at my localities). Character developments is basically scarce, applies only to the main protagonist, and mostly done before the first time jump. Most of the main protagonist’s developments happened in the games played before the first time jump, with more off-screen developments during the two time jumps this anime before we get the (assumed) final fully developed character for the final game. BTW, the title main protagonist is definitely the best character here (as if you have any other options).

Unlike Saki, there are no metaphorical exaggerations in this anime, and of course far less flashbacks (they are nicely done). Some of them appears during the final game though, see the screenshot below. The ending is neat and tight, with some loose ends purposely left in ambiguity. Although I hoped that a second season will arrive, I do not think one will come.

This metaphor may be ugly, but it was relevant within the context of the scene where it was used.

Character Design:-
My comment from the same section in my Kaiji review applies, after all, the same person is responsible for this anime too. It is also interesting to note that there are virtually no female characters anywhere in this anime, even on the background. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Most of the dialogues comes from spectators, gobsmacked by the crazy turns the main protagonist is taking.

Voice Acting:-
My comment from the same section in my Kaiji review still applies. The main protagonists in both anime are voiced by the same person, with the same level of performance. The only difference between these two anime in this aspect is that the main character in this anime speak (or being in monologues) far less than his counterparts in Kaiji. In fact, the narrator and some of the recurring characters that acts as the spectators may have far more lines (after all, they like to doubt the crazy strategies the main character deployed in the games he plays). Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Your typical antagonist that is common in any shounen titles.

Music:-
Unlike Kaiji, the OP theme and the hard-hitting two ED themes are excellent. The jazzy OST are sparse, but they are good too. Definitely a positive point of this anime.

Animation/Direction:-
The animation quality in this anime is quite good, even in the little fast-paced scenes this anime has (I will put the blame on camera panning problems upon the shoulder of the encoder). Choreography in this anime is decent in the few fighting scenes this anime has. The directing is good for the things explained in the story section.

And the antagonist will not be complete without evil laughs and creepy hairs.

Conclusion:-
Despite the sport genre handicap, this anime will get a 10 out of 10. Although if I were to compare this anime to Capeta (which incidentally is also a 2005 anime), this anime will come short. Capeta is, after all, is one of the best anime I have ever watched and has far better story than this anime. This anime is good enough to depose Uchuu no Stellvia from my Top 5 Anime of All Time list though, taking the spot number 4 currently occupied by Galaxy Angel series. Galaxy Angel is now number 5 in the same list.

The antagonist would have easily vanquished the protagonist if he have read that website! He should listen to his underlings’ advice more.

The main male protagonist.

Today’s post is my review for yet another sport anime, titled Over Drive. Actually when I downloaded this anime, I expects a mecha anime or something like that. This is a 2007 anime, which will then compete with Nodame Cantabile for the ‘Anime of the Year 2007’ title. With the sport genre handicap, can this anime do what countless other 2007 titles has failed to do and dislodge Nodame Cantabile off its perch?

The main male protagonist with his woman.

Story:-
A dorky yet overdramatic high-schooler enrolls into his school’s cycling club despite not knowing how to ride a bicycle, and in the end, he becomes a Tour de France winner. This anime shows what happened in-between, and that’s about it.

This anime starts slowly before the pace picks up when the tournament arc of this anime started. In fact, this anime only gets going at that part. The story itself is dull before the tournament but the quality becomes better as the plot developed far more quickly during the tournament compared to the first 10 episodes that precedes the tournament arc. Just like Saki, this anime uses flashbacks to manage the flow of the story and also do character development, but usage of this plot device is not as flawless as the ones in Saki. For example, flashbacks in episode 13 and 20 disrupts the pacing and the story’s flow, but the ones in episode 14 and 19 (I believe) are done very well. The absence of the exaggerations found in Saki also helps this anime immensely.

Character development is definitely the major positive point of this anime. Some factors conveniently shore up character developments in this anime, like the fact that bicycle road race is one of the most physically demanding sport in the world, plus the fact that at the start of the anime the main male protagonist is a weakling that cannot even do PE classes well. With this situation in place at the start of the anime, the viewers will be able to see the rapid transformation from a completely untalented normal high-schooler to a promising bicycle road racer in Japan, using the commonly seen ‘protagonist become better in his/her sport by sheer hard work, unbreakable spirit and unwillingness to give up’ plot; common in this genre. This alone is an incentive for any fans of Japan’s sport-genre anime to put this title in their watch-list. In this regard, this anime is not too far behind Capeta.

The ending of this anime is not only written very well, but was also presented flawlessly. Having one whole episode to tie up every loose ends is a masterstroke by the director. Unfortunately, there is no second season for this anime though.

The main male protagonist dropping his pants in front of his woman.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is decent enough, especially designs for female characters. In this anime’s version of Japan, brown-haired people vastly outnumbers those with black hairs.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is generally good, with outstanding gigs from the main male protagonist himself and his blonde club’s captain.

Music:-
All OP/ED themes in this anime are good especially the 2nd ED theme. The same thing can also be said for the OST. Definitely a positive point for this anime.

When the main male protagonist’s woman is not around, his classmates will also do well as replacements.

Animation/Direction:-
While the animation quality for normal scenes is passable, the ones for fast-paced scenes (like the ones in the race) are almost always mediocre, and sometimes can be downright terrible. Some racing scenes are done in CGI and they are much better. Integration between 2D and CGI scenes are not exactly seamless though. Choreography in action scenes in this anime, especially in the tournament arc are great. The directing is good, especially when doing the presentation of the ending and there is also some nifty camera tricks in some rainy racing scenes.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Nodame Cantabile successfully defended its title for the umpteenth time.

There are plenty of grimacing faces in this anime.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-by

The title protagonist and one of the best characters in this anime.

The moment of truth has arrived, and today the inaugural ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title holder will be chosen. Two of the initial candidates has already been reviewed, and you can read what I have to say about them here and here. As mentioned in the K-On review, the sport anime Saki is the last candidate that I will review before the winner is chosen. Being an anime that revolves around mahjong, the sport genre standard handicap will be applied in the scoring. Can Saki stops Wolf and Spice 2 from running away with the ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title? Read on to find out the result.

This explains why there are lots of Saki hentai doujins at TokyoTosho. I have always wondered why, but after watching this anime, now I knows. There is also a similar character in Shion no Ou, but she was not exploited unlike the character above.

Story:-
The title protagonist Saki Miyanaga, a first-year high schooler who is good at mahjong but hated the game (sounds familiar?) was forced by her friend from middle school to play a game in the mahjong school club. There, she meets the middle-school mahjong prodigy Nodoka Haramura and after a chain of events, the protagonist joins the club. As expected from a high-school sport anime, both of them vows to win the the prefecture tournament so that their club can qualify to the nationals (if you are not familiar with this kind of stories, you need to watch more Japan’s sports anime titles).

As mentioned above, the overall story in this anime is very typical for its genre, especially the ones that involves middle/high school students. We have the usual cliché-laden made-up reasons on why a given characters has to get to the nationals at all costs, then we also have the obligatory ‘training camp’ sessions (there are a couple of them here) and of course we have the tournaments where anime of this kind revels upon.  Of course, a generic sports anime will not be complete without overexaggerations, and Saki delivers them in abundance. I thought Japan anime/manga industry has already left these kind of exaggerations behind to the last century, but they make their comebacks with a vengeance in this 2009 title.

Regular readers of this blog may compare this anime with the recently reviewed Shion no Ou, but actually IMHO this anime is more similar to Umisho. Why is that? This is because both of them are sports anime titles (although Umisho is not subject under the sport genre standard handicap because it was reviewed before I watch Capeta) and also both of them has lots of fan service. The huge amount of fan service in this anime far exceeds of Umisho’s; in fact you will be forgiven if you think that this anime is an adaptation of a dating simulation game (which seems to be common nowadays) instead of a sport manga.The fan service is not a bad thing though, and I really likes them. The quality of the stories in those two anime titles are comparable, but the yuri genre influence in this anime (yuri genre anime titles like Strawberry Panic are the ones that I actively avoid like a plague) drags this anime’s quality down. Of course, that’s simply a matter of preferences; you may like it, but I don’t.

Tantalizingly very short skirts like this one (very short even for non-hentai Japanese anime titles standard) are just one of the fan-service you can see in this anime.

Nevertheless, despite the average quality of the story in this anime, the presentation are excellent. One notable aspect of the presentation of this anime is the excellent usage of flashbacks. Let me warn you first, this anime has shitloads of flashbacks inside; combined, they can easily take up one-third of this anime’s airtime. They are used for many purposes, usually to advance the storyline but more often than not, to do character introductions and developments for characters that are not the students in the same school where the title protagonist is studying. Poor usage of this literary device has sunk many anime titles I have watched before, but here, even with the humongous amount of flashbacks, there are zero impact upon the anime’s story developments although the pacing may have been slowed down quite a bit during tournament episodes. The director really has done his/her job well.

Character developments in this anime are also done very well, with the title protagonist and her pink-haired big-breasted yuri-friend  being the best of them all. Those flashbacks really helps at creating many likeable personified characters, either from the protagonist’s own club or the ones from rival schools. The ending is structured to accommodate a second season, which I think this anime should get. Umisho also has the same structured ending but there are no news of a new installment yet, so I hope Saki is not be left hanging just like that, because I want to know what will happen at the nationals.

One of the ‘unique’ character designs in this anime. Oh BTW, she is not blind, but there is a sharingan beneath those closed eyelids that she will use when in a pinch in a mahjong game.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime is good and, well, unique. This anime is a story about women mahjong, but the designs in this anime are done as if to distract the viewers from the the fact that this anime is a mahjong anime. The pink-haired girl with gigantic breasts and that girl who closed her right eyes are some of the examples I am talking about.Black hair are rare in this anime, most of them are for secondary characters only.

Chihara Minori has really done an excellent job voicing an insane character that scares people like the rich blonde girl above.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is excellent in general, if you exclude the two main protagonists (these two are stupidly average). The taco lover (Rie Kugimiya), the rich blonde girl (Chihara Minori) and the girl who can become invisible (Momoko Saito) are three outstanding characters in this aspect. Chihara Minori really impressed me with her gig here, I never thought she can voice a pompous yet hyperactive character like that. At first, I thought the rich blonde girl was voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro (the rich blonde girl character is similar to the rich purple-haired girl in Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun voiced by her) but it turns out that I am wrong. Chihara Minori’s gig here is better than what she has done in Haruhi Suzumiya. Maybe, just like Mamoru Miyano, she has found her niche? Definitely a positive point for this anime.

Some good monologues from another character with excellent voice acting.

Music:-
A positive point for this anime; the OST is good, and so are the OP/ED themes except the 2nd ED.

Even when just used as metaphors, these kinds of overexaggerations are simply over the top and eventually wears me down.

Animation/Direction:-
The quality of the animation is good, even in fast-paced scenes. Unlike the more mundane Shion no Ou, there are choreography in this mahjong anime, and they are quite good. Where else can you see magical girls appearing just after a character put a tile down on the table (I am looking at you the rich blonde girl). And of course, fires or lightning that emanates from the tiles as the characters swings their hand to put them on the table (almost everyone else). The directing is excellent, especially for the flashback management feats I have mentioned above.

When high-school female students plays mahjong in Japan, lightning comes out from their eyes to scare the wit out of their opponents.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. With this, I hereby declared that Wolf and Spice 2 is the first holder of ‘Anime of the Year 2009’ title.

Also in Japan, high school female students who plays mahjong also wears jerseys, like football players.