Ryan Reviews: Clannad ~After Story~ Ep 8

Clannad is no doubt one of the finest series out this fall. I say this because it always manages to exceed the expectations I set for the show. Indeed, like I had hoped, Clannad takes what seemed like the cliche story of the rivaling gangs with the girl in the middle and tells the story in a fashion that draws me in. I might be overselling it a bit, but it’s a show every one should give a try at least once in their spare time.

This weeks wraps up the arc aforementioned in my previous post with nothing less than satisfying results. Yukine is indeed made a more interesting character and as you can see in the above screen shot the main characters get some more air-time actually doing things. I think we are also getting ever so closer to unveiling the mystery of the illusionary world with the girl and the robot. If I had to complain about one thing in this episode it’s the style of animation they use in the fight scenes, character detail drops in favor of slightly more fluid movement. A minor complaint I suppose, seeing as how the fight doesn’t last that long and it’s not what Clannad is about. At any rate, I know now I want even more Clannad. The preview for the next episode suggests interesting events involving our main hero Tomoyo. It should prove interesting but as always we’ll have to wait to see.

Well that wraps this up. Laters!

Podcast: Episode #14 – Genshiken

Genshiken is a slice-of-life comedy about a group of friends who make up the the college club The Study of Modern Visual Culture, also known as Genshiken. The show reflects on their daily otaku lives doing otaku things, such as buying doujinshi, attending Comikets, and playing videogame.

What’s New this Week:
Ryan: Gonzo's yearly anime output cuts in half
Ging: Shikabane Hime: Kuro anime confirmed for January
Nam: Possible anime titles up for Oscar nominations.

 

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Opening song: Kuusou Runba by Kenji Otsuki and Zetsubou Shoujo-tachi
Transition: My-pace Daiou (Short Edit) by manzo
Ending Song: Ai Oboete Imasu Ka (Do You Remember Love?) by Mari Iijima

Ging’s Large Short Serious Business Review #7: Banner of the Stars

Note: Before I review this, I should tell you that I am reviewing this having seen the first season, Crest of the Stars. One who would watch Banner of the Stars before Crest of the Stars is a foolish person. I advise watching crest of the stars beforehand. If you haven’t seen either you can still read this. It is spoiler-free. Also be sure to listen to podcast #13 to hear the anime pulp review for Crest of the Stars.

Synopsis: The story of Banner of the Stars takes place in a science fiction space world and is literally the next chapter in the seikai series (the first being Crest of the Stars). This particular space opera is set in a universe divided by two. One side is the four nations alliance, which is comprised of four major nations of mankind. The other side is the Abh empire which is ruled by the Abh, a race that evolved from humans and taken over half of the known universe.

In Crest of the Stars, a young man named Jinto is thrown into the ordeals of becoming an Abh noblemen after his planet was taken over by the Abh. He must be sent to the capital of Abh to become a trained solider of the Abh army. A young lady named Lafiel, who is the princess of the royal Abh empire as well as a space pilot trainee, is assigned to take him to the capital of Abh. Unfortunately a war has started between the two main forces of their universe and the path to the capital – and safety isn't such an easy task. Crest of the Stars is a wonderful dramatic anime that focuses more on the journey to the destination than the destination.

In Banner of the Stars, three years have passed and Lafiel is now in command of a spaceship going into war. Conveniently enough, strings are pulled so that Jinto can be the supply officer of her ship. This chapter of the story, unlike Crest of the Stars, is focused more on the actual war. Another difference from Crest of the Stars is that the main focus is divided amongst different characters than just Jinto, Lafiel, and their friends. Instead, it also focuses on the leader of the entire Abh army, Dusanya, and his second in command discussing viewpoints on the war as well as their strategies. The other focus aside from Jinto and Lafiel are two twin brothers, Nereis and Nefee, who are given orders to protect the war consumed region despite the fact that they are from a family known for their “spectacular insanity”

Plot: The Plot of the Banner of the Stars is one of my favorites and while it isn’t very easy to get into, once you do, you will be hooked. Banner of the stars has a lot more action than Crest of the Stars, but the story and dialogue do not suffer from it at all. One complaint I do have about the plot is that they took the focus away from Jinto and Lafiel too often. The romance part of the story was practically ignored. What is worse is that the other two focuses were often more entertaining than Lafiel and Jinto. I usually wouldn't complain about a show having well thought out characters, but when they take the focus from the main characters the whole story seems to hurt. Another thing I disliked was the lack of a proper conclusion, although it is clear that this is leading directly into the third season so I am not sure how bad that really is for the overall plot. 7.5/10

Characters: The characters in Banner of the Stars are all well thought out, however the problem with the characters is that Lafiel and Jinto make no progress in their relationship and are not as fleshed out. This seems to be compensated for via the newly introduced characters. Other than the well developed main focuses I have already spoken of, the crew on Lafiel’s ship is also very entertaining. The other main members of her crew include a mechanic who always seems drunk, an extremely shy girl who takes care of Jinto’s cat, a flirty woman, and a cat that always gets into shit. The downside to this is that it also takes away from what the main focus is supposed to be, however I think that the characters are entertaining enough you don't really worry about where the focus is, all of the characters are very well done. 8.5/10

Sound: The sound was never a point much focused on in Crest of the Stars, and it isn't in Banner of the Stars. I would like to have heard more music that wasn't reused though. The only mildly annoying thing is that the music is just reused from the first season. While I can understand budget was most likely the culprit, it would have been nice not to have to hear the same orchestra number during every space scene. With that said it didn't necessarily take away from the experience too much, it just didn't add anything to it. 6/10

Animation: Ah, sweet cel animation how much I miss you. I think that the animation was fine. It wasn't anything spectacular but it did the job for sure, especially since the show is mostly based on dialogue and the many conversations. There isn't really much to talk about here, the animation was good. 7/10

Overall, the show is a very enjoyable science fiction space opera that has a solid mixture of both action and drama. While I thought the first season was better, this one is by no means bad. I think that once you get past some minor flaws you should be able to enjoy this anime a lot. If you saw and liked the first season I would definitely recommend watching this, you will probably like it. Over All Rating: 7.3/10

Ryan Reviews: Clannad ~After Story~ Ep 7

Another week, another episode of Clannad. This time we follow the story of the gentle and soft-spoken Yukine. It appears the vandals she’s been taking in aren’t just ordinary vandals, they’re also part of rival gangs. Her brother is apparently the leader of one of the gangs and she happens to associate with its members and enemies from time to time. I don’t understand her motive for actually taking care of both of the gangs, but maybe that’s just the kind of person she is.

Like I said before, Yukine is a fairly boring character, but maybe this arc will give her chance to develop like it has for the other minor characters. The whole gang being taken care of by the sister/daughter of the tough guy who runs the operation is nothing new to drama stories and this episode makes me wonder if Clannad can make it good. Ultimately, nothing terribly interesting happens, but then again, that’s because this is only the start of the arc…right? At any rate, I hope they make Yukine more interesting and try to make more use of our main characters that I actually care about such as Tomoya and Sunohara.

Review: Kanon or How Much I Was Bored

 

As a college freshman last year, I realized that I had an incredible amount of free time. The lack of a tight schedule meant that I had an almost infinite time to do the most counterproductive and useless things like surfing the web and staring at the ceiling. I decided that I should devote some of this free time on an old hobby of mine: watching anime. Having been burnt on anime for a number of years, I wanted to watch something that would make me realize once again why I fell in love with this medium. So I checked on the internet to see what’s being talked about, and I discovered…Kanon.

I remember watching the first episode and felt like I wanted to puke. This is what good anime is now?! The show starts off with the introduction of the main character, Yuichi Aizawa. He is a blank slate: a boring, average, high school student that carries no character whatsoever other than on a superficial level. The main character meets his cousin Nayuki, and it is discovered that for some unknown reason Yuichi will stay at her home to go to school. Nothing is revealed as to why he came. Later on they introduce the other four girls that make up his life.

The girls must be the most non-threatening, stereotypical, moe girls I’ve ever seen in my life. All of the girls’ hairs are cleverly color-coded to help the viewer remember which one was which, but in the end it didn’t matter. They were all the same. Each had their own catchphrase that are meant to be cute but instead becomes downright annoying. Many of the girls are shouting stupid catchphrases in squeaky voices. The words “Awooo” and “Fighto!” are forever locked into my head, and I cannot help but say them out loud at times. Damn you moe! I would also like to mention that Nayuki's mom looks like she could be her daughter's sister.

The most notoriously annoying girl of the five is Ayu Tsukimiya, a girl that looks like she’s 11 and lacks the intelligence to utter any words other than “Uguuuu” and something about taiyaki. One of the stupidest moments of the show was in the first episode when the main protagonist asked Ayu why she had wings on her backpack. In an instant Ayu swirls around continuously in a circle trying to see her pair of wings instead of just moving her fucking head back. After that moment I stopped watching the show for a series of months, thinking that this might be the worst anime I have ever seen.

Though all of the other girls (Nayuki, Makoto, Shiori, and Mai) act somewhat different from one another, each can be derived as to some moe stereotype. There are the shy types, the quiet types, the sick girl, the loud obnoxious types, and even the supernatural and furry types. None of the characters though, never seem threatening at all. They are always sugary sweet and cute, so much that I wanted to kill myself. I rather not see girls always complementing one another and weeping and asking for Yuichi’s stupid ass for help. There’s a sheer lack of originality in the girls. They just don’t seem appealing at all to me. None of them seem strong at all and cannot function without the help of the protagonist. Some of them are so unintelligent that there were times when I thought that they were retarded.

Speaking of the characters, I suppose I should start talking about the actual storyline and why the girls matter more than the actual main character. The show seemed like it was going to lean towards a harem show since many of the girls eventually lives with him. After a series of unimportant and incredibly boring episodes, the show actually starts telling a story. Yuichi is so much of a blank slate that he cannot remember anything that happened in his childhood when he visited this town. The amnesia effect helps create the entire show, and it works so well that many of the other characters also have amnesia. Ayu is searching for something she cannot remember. Makoto is searching she can’t remember. Even Yuichi is searching for something he can’t remember. The only girl that seems to be even remotely interesting is the sword-wielding Mai, and she’s the one that barely even talks.

Eventually, it’s revealed that most of the girls are somehow connected to Yuichi’s past. The whole “childhood friend” thing is overdone, and though I’m sure the generic storyline could be well executed, this was not the case. Yuichi also just cannot remember a single thing that happen in his past except when it’s conveniently necessary in order to advance the plot. The pacing just seems off at times, and at other times it just seems so force in order to make the show somewhat understandable. Yuichi was also just not interesting enough for me to even care about. It seems like he was just there so that they could somehow connect all of these characters together. By the way, I don’t know how he could forget about girls with powers, a fox girl, and girls that could be considered mentally disable, but I guess if all of that happened to me I’d probably forget and pretend I wasn’t crazy.

The overall storyline just seemed like a clusterfuck of sad occurrences happening without much satisfaction for me as a viewer. I never laughed at the jokes. People were just complementing each other and making silly jokes. Yuichi’s sarcasm wasn't well executed. Whenever there were light moments I never felt like I was enjoying it, and whenever there were sad moments it was turned to 11. I never felt a sense of relief when the sad moments stopped. What was also disappointing was the last arc, Ayu's story. She was the main love interest, but her story felt like it was just plain dumb. Even after 24 episodes it seemed like romantic relationship was rushed and forced. I thought that my dedication to finishing the series would give me relief at the end, but I felt a sense of betrayal after episode 20. What I witnessed in episode 20 was the worst kind of moe I had ever seen: when a girl seemed so retarded that you believe that she actually is. I wanted to understand why the show was so popular, but I while watching the series I realize that this show was way over-hyped.

With all of that it seems like this review is more of a rant, so I think I should point out the good parts of the show. The storyline wasn't as excruciating as I thought it was going to be. My first impression was that this show was going to be really bad, and the first couple of episodes did not help. But as I kept watching it I started to stop hating it as much and just accepted it. Maybe it was because my level of expectations were severely lowered.

On a technical level, Kanon is visually appealing. There are times where the animation seems bad, but during key moments the animation seems great. Kyoto Animations seems to always amaze me, and even for a show that is minimally intelligent they seem to always execute key moments well. The cool colors and warm colors blend well and gives it a sense of coldness. Especially towards the end, it seems like a lot of the budget was used specifically for the last 2-3 episodes. I actually like the music (besides the boring opening), and I think it was used very effectively.

Overall, the series is not as bad as I was expecting. It doesn't mean that I don't think the show was a waste of my time though. I believe the lack of an interesting main character is a huge problem for this show. My attention wouldn't go away from the fact that the main character is not only flawless (besides his incredibly bad amnesia), but he could somehow get all these girls to like him without ever being remotely interesting. The sugary, sweet characters seem too fluffy for my taste. I like my anime girls to be more complex. It just seems like there wasn't enough thought put into their characters. Catchphrases, obsessions, and childhood memories are fine, but please make them have more than one motive (make the main character save them). I wouldn't really recommend watching this show if moe is not your type. I'm sure the average moe fan would enjoy it just as much as everyone else on the internet. Then again if they like moe, chances are that they already saw this show.

Podcast: Episode #13 – Crest of the Stars

Based on a novel series, Crest of the Stars is the first season of an space opera. When Jinto meets the princess Lafiel, they are sent on a journey across the vast universe in order to warn the Abh Empire of an impending war against the Four Nations Alliance.

In the news the Astro Boy teaser is revealed. Funimation add new series including Shuffle and Slayers to Hulu. Finally, rumor is that the Old Boy live-action is going to be directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Will Smith.

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Opening song: Kuusou Runba by Kenji Otsuki and Zetsubou Shoujo-tachi
Transition: Opening Theme by Katsuhisa Hattori
Ending Song: Dango Daikazoku (Rock Version)

Podcast: Episode #12 – Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

We apologize for not posting last week’s podcast (sorry, school), but here it is!

Instead of being cool and party on Halloween, we watch anime Vampires, bounty hunters, and weird mutant guys. A noble vampire named Meier Link kidnaps a girl named Charlotte. Her father then hires the half vampire, half human D and the Marcus Brothers to bring back Charlotte and kill Meier Link.

In the news, Code Geass R2 gets a horrible dub trailer. Otakus set up an online petition to marry 2D girls. Also Ninja Scroll is licensed to be made into a Hollywood film.

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Opening song: Kuusou Runba by Kenji Otsuki and Zetsubou Shoujo-tachi
Transition: song from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Ending Song: Tokyo Zombie (The Knock Came At Dead Of Night) by The Pillows

Ryan Reviews: Clannad ~After Story~ Ep 6

Clannad ~After Story~
Episode 6 : A bittersweet romance
Picking right up from where episode 5 drops off, Shima is still hanging out with Misae and becoming closer and closer with her. Certain things are revealed, and the story comes full circle into a touching romance told and executed brilliantly just like you would expect from Clannad. The strangeness of it all adds the touch of fairytale-like elements to the story while not going so far outstretched as to make the events completely ridiculous. The music always manages to add that extra effect to the scenes when needed, despite the fact we've heard the tunes multiple times before. Needless to say I welled up with tears and cried a little. On a extra note, unnecessary cross-dressing in this episode. Anyway...I look forward to more Clannad.