xlr8r's Anime
*** 3 jan 2013 At the time of this writing, I am still new to the site and I do not know policies about comments here, specially about spoilers. So be warned I plan to write some comments using spoilers. For now this is an experimental work in progress, in search of the definitive way to write a comment. Everything is subject to evolution, from spelling to syntax to content.
*** 4 jan 2013 Finished writing the raw ideas in sparse order that determined the ratings. Probably there is need to deepen some analysis. New titles will be added as soon as they are finished viewing.
*** 15 jan 2013 Finished revising all the comments. Now they should be more complete and fluid to read.
*** 17 jan 2013 It is becoming difficult navigate this page as I add things. I probably will add some sort of list here. UPDATE: list done, it seems I can put anchors so the entries are clickable. It awaits me a boring task of editing that list and putting anchors in every comment. Clearly I can put them only in the comment section so the link jumps to the text and not the title. To return here just press Back button in your browser. UPDATE: links done.
*** 18 jan 2013 Created a second list with the adding date. See to apply some style.
*** 26 jan 2013 Passed the (probably small) milestone of 40 titles added here, it is time to make a step back and look at the ensemble. Ratings make me think. The system by instinct does not seem fully satisfactory. Two anime with the same rating are not at the same level, for the many factors to consider. In the middle of rating scale, where statistically most productions could fall, it is difficult decide a rating, In fact "I didn't lose my time" and "worth seeing" means the exact same thing. And at first sight "don't miss it" and "should be in anyone collection" do not seem very different too. I think for now my Decent means "good, but with big flaws" and my Good means "good, with small flaws". Upper ratings mean superior level of goodness, not the absence of flaws.
*** 4 jan 2013 Finished writing the raw ideas in sparse order that determined the ratings. Probably there is need to deepen some analysis. New titles will be added as soon as they are finished viewing.
*** 15 jan 2013 Finished revising all the comments. Now they should be more complete and fluid to read.
*** 17 jan 2013 It is becoming difficult navigate this page as I add things. I probably will add some sort of list here. UPDATE: list done, it seems I can put anchors so the entries are clickable. It awaits me a boring task of editing that list and putting anchors in every comment. Clearly I can put them only in the comment section so the link jumps to the text and not the title. To return here just press Back button in your browser. UPDATE: links done.
*** 18 jan 2013 Created a second list with the adding date. See to apply some style.
*** 26 jan 2013 Passed the (probably small) milestone of 40 titles added here, it is time to make a step back and look at the ensemble. Ratings make me think. The system by instinct does not seem fully satisfactory. Two anime with the same rating are not at the same level, for the many factors to consider. In the middle of rating scale, where statistically most productions could fall, it is difficult decide a rating, In fact "I didn't lose my time" and "worth seeing" means the exact same thing. And at first sight "don't miss it" and "should be in anyone collection" do not seem very different too. I think for now my Decent means "good, but with big flaws" and my Good means "good, with small flaws". Upper ratings mean superior level of goodness, not the absence of flaws.
| Seen all▲▼ | Rating▲▼ |
| 5 Centimeters Per Second (movie) | So-so |
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An usual love story between teens, who got separated by time but not memory. Nothing special really to see here. Dedicated to who loves romantic stories, and their evolution through life. | |
| Accel World (TV) | Very good |
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Everything here is interesting, the characters and their depth and development in the course of time, the technical background of the story, the soundtrack. The series starts with the classic timid guy who is bullied at school, but gets some sort of compensation in the virtual world, where he is a champion in some videogames. Funny, his avatar is a little pink pig, showing there appearances do not really matter - or maybe just for remembering us he in reality a short fat boy. He is approached by the most beautiful girl in the school, who saves him from bullies with a little trick and shows him a secret software that permits accelerated perception in the virtual world, and a secret videogame (a tournament with health points, xp levels and special abilities) that will change his life. The two main characters are the strength of the series, deeply developed, never obvious (even the perfect beauty queen has a dark past). Actually for several episodes our attention is kept alive by her behavior, it is unclear if she really is fond of him or she just want use his abilites in videogames. Not only, but the series perfectly balances their psychology, they seem opposite, the perfect girl and the shy nerd, but they are actually in the same situation, because the girl is approached only for her beauty, and the guy is lonely and closed in himself. A bit less interesting the rest of the good guys, we have the perfect student who excels in sports and study but actually uses the accelerated reality to cheat opponents and exams, until a dramatic battle with the protagonist will bring him again on the bright side. Other two girls are noticeably less likeable, one because is undecided between the male protagonist and the perfect student, trying to keep them both and causing confusion, the other is the little cousin of the protagonist and is a little arrogant brat (while really wise and powerful in the virtual world - it is explained even if the body is young, the time spent in accelerated state is all time for the mind to become mature). We have also a wide range of evil guys, with the usual characteristics, defiant, sarcastic, arrogant and so on. Merit mention for the opponent inspired by the Ghost Rider, who seemed cruel and designed just to introduce us to the virtual game, while afterwards he will be the biggest help and the major twist for the protagonist couple. One of the last evil guys is sincerely frightening and repulsive, and his defeat comes as a true relief. The series gradually shifts from the psychology of the protagonists to the game, whose rules are gradually explained. The virtual world is immense and mysterious, a sure attraction to everyone likes exploration in games. We have here an excellent example of character growth, and if you like role playing games, virtual reality related technology, some good fights accompanied by inspiring music, you can not miss this. It is not a masterpiece because actually it does not finish. They did not reach the mythical 10th level, never met the game authors. Funny too the special short comic episodes and the OVA. | |
| Angel Beats! (TV) | Decent |
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As sadly often happens, a good idea wasted by superficial characters and underdeveloped settings. This should have been longer to explain more, specially about the relation between the technology and reality in the afterlife, that is much more complex than it would appear at first sight. But it seems it was longer than due for inserting some boring musical pieces. I guess who creates anime will never learn there is nothing more strident and unappealing than an anime girl singing with the tone of a mature woman. Set in a school campus, this particular piece of afterlife is not the definitive stay. There, only students who leave life with regrets have time to come at peace with their inner worries, and when this happens they disappear for an unknown destination, they state probably souls will reincarnate in the physical world - not necessarily in a human body. The protagonist befriends a group of students who rebels against the school rules, because they do not want disappear before having met God. Lead of the group is an energetic girl. The protagonist anyway convinces them the soul peace and the disappearance is the better thing, and in a moving ending they simulate a graduation ceremony and one by one they disappear. In the final sequence it seems they reincarnated. The ending twist is logically wrong - he donated his heart to a girl who arrived in afterlife before him - whom he donated it to, maybe lady Frankenstein. | |
| anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day (TV) | Decent |
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The story starts as a ghost story with a little mystery. But soon it becomes sadness and annoyance. No characters evokes strong feelings, the sadness is due to the realization people change over time, often not in the best way, it is due to the separation by accidental causes, it is due to the fragility of the human life. A group of children lose one of them in a tragic accident while playing, and now the dead girl returns for being seen only by the male protagonist. She wants a wish granted, but she does not remember what. So he decides to reunite the old group, hoping to solve the mystery. But they are young adults now, and they are changed, and they do not go along anymore so well. regrets and conflicts emerge, in a bitter display of a coming of age. But in the end, the sole thing who moves to tears is the individual love for another human being. The ghost girl actually is remained a child, and she is still believing time had not passed. Her ingenuity and innocence sometimes is an annoyance for the viewer. Every character is flawed in some way, from the lazy male protagonist to others who use this occasion to selfishly get the attention of who they love, to the mother of the dead girl who since the accident closed in herself and denied love to her second still living little boy. The quest for solving the mysterious wish is not so much interesting, the series is kept afloat by the psychology of the characters. | |
| Another (TV) | Decent |
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A good story, interesting characters and captivating setting. The anxious feelings of the community are well rendered. Unfortunately, as soon as we get the first clue, the rest becomes all obvious. Unoriginal superstitions story, whose only supernatural element is the strange occurrence of students deaths the rest is just stated by words. The lone and emarginated girl evokes protection sentiments, other students are repulsive for they are so terrorized by the curse that they want arrive to everything for avoiding it. Bitter ending. Dedicated to who wants to see how a community and social structures dissolve in front of a great personal fear (and worse, we see here it does not really matter if this fear is justified or not). | |
| Bakemonogatari (TV) | Not really good |
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Probably who created this stuff did not realize the difference between a manga and an anime. When I read a magazine I decide the pace: I decide when turn the page. When I watch a movie the pace is decided by the fps. So, as a precise person, I became very early annoyed by the rapid flashing screens full of writings and ideograms. The choice was forget them or put in pause and rewind 1000 times per episode - and pause again trying to get the right frame. If we add the use of real still photographs and some clay stop motion, we have the worst of the worst. This is bad, since the main idea was interesting. Usually, when we think to the supernatural we think to ghosts or demons. Here, the supernatural is formed by creatures with little or no conscience, anyway very far from human standards. The supernatural entities, named oddities, usually come from curses or strong feelings of people. Some characters are interesting, others less. Thumbs down also for the lead couple, we somewhat expect arrogant dominating female characters and submissive male ones, but this time she is well over the psycho. | |
| Cat Planet Cuties (TV) | Decent |
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This comment covers the OAV too. Light and funny comedy that makes a small step further the sexy side. It is just a bit more explicit than the average romantic comedy anime, but never vulgar and never excessive. The science fiction plot revolves around a species of alien cat people, all girls here, who resemble humans except furry, triangular cat ears on the top of the head and a long furry tail. The cat girl theme is well known to every anime fan, while I can not prevent to ask myself why they have human ears too. Of course, it is nicer to have four ears than nothing at the sides of the head, but I digress. These extremely advanced cat alien girls come to our planet to investigate and befriend, and they of course finish to stay in the house of the male protagonist, with all the funny misunderstandings caused by the life under the same roof. The male protagonist is the classic shy, troubled by girls, skinny with glasses nerd. As it often happens in science fiction, aliens without a reference frame get as important the most irrelevant details, so we see here the alien cat girls who use the hentai comics under the bed of the protagnist as reliable documents of human life, finishing to wear a tight swimsuit to meet the Japanese government - with a discrete diplomatic result. The comedy moments are rather obvious but not for this, less amusing. Admittedly, the plot too is thin, but not too much and never boring, even because the two neighbour girls of the male protagonist are two secret agents, both interested to the alien cat girls. Some nice gun fights are present. It is redundant notice the psychology of the characters is not the main concern of this series, but the love struggle amongst the two girls and the main alien cat girl is well represented, and the problems due to the sentient side of the servant androids is surprisingly deep. Even if the situation seems too forced, we continue to wonder why these two secret agent girls, trained in weapons, hand to hand combat and vehicle piloting, find in that less than ordinary boy. Animation and drawings are good quality. Who is in search of strong adult content will be disappointed. Who likes science fiction comedies with a spicy side will appreciate this series - specially when recognizing the several citations of other sci fi series, notably Star Trek - that they call fanservice. Dedicated too, to who likes warrior girls fighting in tight bikinis. and of cource, to who loves cats. | |
| Cat Planet Cuties (OAV) | Decent |
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Please see the main series comment for a review. | |
| Cat Soup (OAV) | So-so |
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Curious surreal travel of a little cat in search of the lost soul of his sister cat. The art quality is not interesting and the plot is pratically random. | |
| Chaos;HEAd (TV) | Good |
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It is not the idea of the virtual reality who becomes real reality or vice versa is original. It is the development of the main character that makes it captivating. The neuroses, delusions, hallucinations, social isolation make him almost crazy. But often crazy ones are those who can see the real truth. It is easy impersonate the feelings of the main character, given his experiences and his story. The sense of mystery and danger is well rendered, interesting themes are present, like virtual reality, self identity and self conscience, mind matter relationship, dreams as illusions of living. Absolutely not boring. The problem is the drawing style who makes all characters almost all alike. And, the sacred theme of many anime: girls with swords, very big swords. | |
| Darker than Black (TV) | Not really good |
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This is the classic example of a series where the unrelated episodes could go forever without arriving nowhere. If we add the total lack of explanation about what is happening in the world, we have a real thin thing, saved only by the psychological depth of some situations and characters. There is out there a lot better to watch. Thumb up for the talking cat - so what? I like cats. | |
| Death Note (TV) | Decent |
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This the most difficult series so far to rate. It is the symbol of how a single word can not really resume alone the quality of a lenghty complex piece of human creativity. I had to meditate a bit to understand why. Usually, we watch our anime, we get the pros, we get the cons and a final synthetic judgement arise. But, the typical situation is, pros and cons are fast variating and with high frequency - in a single episode whe have the good moment and the bad one, so it is easy get them and weight them. Here instead, there is not such quality oscillation. the quality starts good and finishes bad in the whole series. We start from a master piece and we finish to a master garbage, in a linear steadily inexorable declining - so this rating is just an arithmetic mean. The main theme of the series is the titanic struggle between two first class brains. Light Yagami, a student who is given the power to kill at will, using the Death Note, and L, some sort of private investigator, very wealthy and very reclusive. There are two keys of interpretation of theur struggle. The first, it is the individual key, where two people fight like in a chess game, trying to understand the opponent and weighting every detail, every move, every word. This is by far the best part of the series. There is pure intellect at work - here, they are balanced. The second key, is the social or global key, where they act inside the world system. Here, the student is totally alone, with the money a student can have. The investigator L, instead, has the top of technology, pratically unlimited supply of money, total availability of the state police force and the unconditional support of the governments of the world. We see the situation is totally unbalanced this time. And here the flaws start. The student wants clear the world from the criminals, in this acting he shows his distrust for the actual system. Nonetheless, he kills anyone is convicted or just named in television. The huge contradiction, substitute himself to the government and judiciary system while blinding believing everything is stated by a the actual ones, seems not noticed by his great brain. L, on his side, is no better, he can access any information he wants, he can direct taxpayer police as he wants, he can put microphones and microcameras in houses and cars of private citizens without any authorization or privacy concerns. He treats population like insects, he can arrest, detain, even torture them on the slightiest suspicion. From the moral point of view he is no different than the student. This, until around the first third of the series, where it becomes less intellectual and more spectacular - the quality is almost disappeared now, and it becomes just a police chase. The final scene is truly pathetic. | |
| (The) Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (movie) | Very good |
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I liked this movie, the characters and the plot. The ending was not obvious at all, so the mystery remained intact until the very end. This time, I consider myself lucky. For I have seen this before the series, if I encountered the series before, maybe I would have lost this gem. And I try to follow always the chronological order of series. Despite the series, this is really a science fiction movie. Every aspect of the world and of the male protagonist is well done, we have a parallel universe story, or better saying an alternate time line story. The struggle of the protagonist in an similar while unknown world is excellent. The final explanation is good and interesting, and a bit touching. Do not miss this, even without the main series. | |
| Dusk maiden of Amnesia (TV) | Good |
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Excellent love story between a normal guy and a ghost girl. For the sake of love, he investigates and solves the mystery of her death. But as usual in the folklore of Eastern ghosts, they wanders on Earth until they have solved their regrets and their affairs. So he caused involuntarily her departure. Very tearful ending (aside the final twist). The series is a good blend of comedy and mystery. It shows the cruelty of the superstition in rural areas, along with the love for family members and willingness to sacrifice. The ghost girl can be really funny and interesting, while the male protagonist as often is clumsy and terrified by the sight of a piece of naked female skin. Interesting the subplot about the good ghost and the bad ghost. The song Requiem is a masterpiece on its own. | |
| Elfen Lied (TV) | Decent |
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Interesting insight on the human dark nature. The true monsters are not the mutant girls but the ordinary humans. In their fear of what is unusual or powerful, they use coercition and violence, causing the birth of the monsters they want avoid in the first place. A couple gratuitous scenes of bondage torture and blood, masqueraded as scientific experiments. More hurting, is the fact these innocent mutant girls call their wardens and torturers mom or dad. We witness not only the cruelty of the hearthless scientists, but from the orphan children too, so no one is spared. The double personality of the main female character is a bit intriguing since it adds tension, even if the idea of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is not really a new thing. When she is good, she has big eyes, she is short and curvaceous. When she is bad, she is drawn as tall, thin and with subtle eyes - a low level trick. | |
| Elfen Lied (OAV) | Decent |
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This is just another episode of the main series. it does not add so much information, probably the authors felt the need to make something a bit funny, and in the main series the comedy would have been out of place. It is totally centered about the two mutant girls trying to be useful in their new home. If you watched the main series, it is worth it. | |
| Fate/stay night (TV) | Decent |
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Please read the comment about the prequel series Fate Zero, for details about the main plot and characters I will not duplicate here. It is not necessary having seen the prequel to understand and appreciate this series. Every some decade, a powerful magical artifact called the Holy Grail appears on the Earth, and it calls for a battle amongst seven mages, the Masters, who summon spirits, the Servants, to be used as weapons. Who remains will have their wishes granted by the Grail. As a nice coincidence, almost all the chosen mages happen to be students at the same school. And as usual some of the magical girls finish to live under the same roof of the male protagonist, with some funny sparkle amongst them, with sense of resignation of the male protagonist. Of course it is present the classic scene where he opens the door of the bathroom and one of the girls is taking a shower, with embarrassement and babbling excuses. Despite the battle theme, this is, in substance, a romantic or coming of age comedy. The tone of the prequel and of this series are totally different. In the prequel, we had long discussions about strategy and tactics, here there is none. There, the mages were chosen around the world because they were the most powerful, here, they are the heirs of the families of the prequel, by coincidence students of the same school. There, the spirits servants discussed about what was to be king and lead people, here there is nothing similar, any character is developed the minimum necessary to interact with others in their role. The prequel was really dark and full of despair for humanity, here we have comedy and light approach to the fights - the power of the male protagonist of materializing what he imagines, even powerful weapons, sounds too much as a cheap trick. The deepest and most interesting thread of the story is the human relationship between the male protagonist and the female spirit servant he summoned (King Arthur, I have already said what I think in the prequel comment). She is powerful yet respectful of others, she can be delicate but modest, she was a king but she does not know the little pleasures of everyday life (a meal with friends, walking in a market to buy some stuffed girly toy). She inspires admiration and protection together. No wonder the male protagonist fell for her. Sometimes the main male character is difficult to digest. He is affected by the same childish idealism of his father in the prequel - save always as many lives as possible no matter what, disregarding his own safety, and eventually sacrificing the minority. The result is he is very psychologically weak and other students in his school abuse him asking him every sort of favor. The most disgusting character of this series is his teacher, The authors tried to give her a comedic light but they totally failed. She is nothing else than a parasite, with the excuse of being the tutor of the male protagonist (it is stated by a promise to the father, and not even by legal means) she is always in his house at the meals time so she can eat a lot of free food. She is arrogant and she pretends always to discuss the choices of the protagonist in his own house. This makes him appear even weaker. Some inconsistencies in the plot and between prequel and this series. Very good soundtrack, at least during the fights. | |
| Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (movie) | Decent |
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This is the same story of the series Fate Stay Night, but condensed in a movie, and with several plot differences. Actually, I do not think this thing was created to exist alone, but for the fans of the saga. In fact, there is no background, no explanations, no philosophy and no characteristic of the servant spirits aside their physical attributes. So, it is useless without having seen the series, and after having seen the series, this movie will appear lacking of any core. Its strong point of force is the noticeably enhanced quality of the animation. Dedicated to who appeciated the series and is curious to see some sort of different strength balances of the warrior spirits and different characters motivations. | |
| Fate/Zero (TV) | Decent |
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This comment covers both seasons. Wide series that digs deeply in the darkest spots of human nature - set as a tournament or fights theme, it becomes soon clear the action is secondary to philosophy and psychology. In the modern world, some families have accumulated huge wealth thanks to their magic power, inherited generation by generation by blood line. due to their endless greed for power, they merged their forces and created a mystical device, the Holy Grail, having the absolute power to grant the wishes of the bearer. When they realized the Grail could have only a sole owner, the alliance turned into a war. To decide which family is the most worthy of the Grail, each one produces a champion mage, the Master, with the capability of summoning a Servant, a spirit of a past hero from mythology and history. There will be a battle, cruel but with some honor rules (mages belong to noble families, after all). The Catholic Church is chosen as a warrant of these rules, even because its big influence helps to keep hidden the existence of magic from the population - while underground fighting abnormalities like vampires or zombies with a modern version of the inquisitors. The series is the history of this battle. While set in Japan for motives connected to magic spots of the planet, the series is Western at the heart. The mages' most powerful families are Western, the Church is a Western institution, magic as a method to alter nature is a Western concept, the Servants are all taken from Indo European history, characters blended in mythology for their noticeable actions - King Arthur, Alexander the Great, Gilgamesh. The plot too resembles a Shakespeare's tragedy, where the material fights, the blood, the killings are secondary to the extreme pain of the soul, the crushing regrets of a lifetime of wrong goals, the remorseless betrayals, the greed for power that goes beyond the family love. Not only the humans suffers this fate, because even some of the spirit servans, have been heroes in their lifetime and summoned from the afterlife, take conscience of the decay of the human nature, witnessed the destruction of their empires and the crushing of their ideals. So do not be fooled by the marketing images presenting warrior and swords, the actual fights are a very tiny fraction of the series time and importance. Who searches the psychology of the person facing extreme choices and situations, he will be satisfied. Who searches the philosophy of a world view, from a modern mage in the quest for power or an ancient king who led countless battles, he will be satisfed. Who searches deep discussions and analysis about the tactics of a fight against opponent with unknown skills, he will be satisfied. But, who searches entertaining swords or gun fights, he will be disappointed - because as said they can be counted on the fingers of one hand and they are really short, even if in some occasion we can enjoy the wide view of an army in the desert or a giant tentacled monster, thanks to modern computer graphics. The characters are well varied, humans and spirits, each one with their own goals and methods. While it seems easy classify them in two classic groups, the good and the bad ones, even the well motivated have their dark past, their human flaws that caused pain and disasters, their obsessions so we can say there is no hero in this series. But anyway they are always interesting, even the most depraved amongst the spirits, Gilles de Rais, always capable to find a superior explanation for his cruelty. In fact, the most important discussions about the philosophy and the honor in battle happen amongst the spirits. Thumb really down for the authors' choice of materializing King Arthur as a young girl, ridiculizing one of the most important legends of the origin of the Europe. If this is done for the anime taste for warrior girls with swords, this dark series is absolutely not the correct one. As the sole female spirit, if this was done for the political correct necessity of giving some female presence, it backfires because it is like admitting there are not female historical personalities worth of interest and excitement. She is noble and generous, unlike the extremely arrogant, selfish and sybaritic Gilgamesh, and she has high ideals unlike the rude and naive Alexander the Great. Guess who is going to win the battle - not really a spoiler since the marketing images and the whole opening credits sequence, well revealing who the authors' chose as the most worthy. The most positive figure of the series is without doubt Alexander the Great. He is strong, simple, honest. But under this appearance, he is acute and intelligent, very capable to evaluate his opponents. He is the one who explained to King Arthur why she is responsible of the loss of her land: her goodness is a weakness, in a king, and her ideals of justice were unable to inflame the hearts of her men. Not only, but he was a good father figure for the young boy, apprentice wizard who happened to be his master, helping him to grow and to cope with his fears. As the story seems simple, it is plagued by some flaws that could have been easily avoided. As said, the battle scenes are severely under represented. They could have done a bit of effort in that direction. Not for the aesthetic value, but for the mechanics of the plot, showing the various skills of the spirits. Instead, the most anticipated battle, between King Arthur and Gilgamesh did not happen (the Babylonian is the most powerful anyway, and they used a ridiculously illogical trick to avoid the confrontation), and when she met alexander she just disintegrates his chariot with a blow of wind, and not even this is fully shown. There is not character growth, aside some bit of realization of one self nature. So the series seems static. The long discussions and planning do not meet action, so if the single episodes are always full of explanations, never boring, when we make a step back we ask ourselves something like, well already 20 episodes passed and we are still pratically at the starting point. The plot should have been linear, but it is confused in some points, and instead of correcting this, they created some 10 minutes special comedic episodes with the function of tutorial. | |
| Fate/Zero (TV 2) | Decent |
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See the first season comment for a review. | |
| (The) Future Diary (TV) | Decent |
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Good variation of the interesting theme about ordinary pieces of modern technology with added some over natural powers and capabilities. Unfortunately, there is not any likeable character here, the main character is particularly awkward and clumsy, and the super natural god-like being has a ridiculous appearance. The quality of the series starts to decrease when the future telling cell phones become too diffused. Badly stretched, too, the ending twist for having the main male get the girl. | |
| Gantz (TV) | Decent |
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Recruit crew from the dead and make them fight the alien invaders. That seems a rather simple idea but it is realized in a very confused way. We will remain without understanding the Gantz motives, his (its?) nature, we do not even understand if the involved people are teleported or duplicated (probably both depending on the case). And finally, we do not know really if those so called aliens are peaceful or enemies - sice they are always attacked and never attack - and of course rarely the actors question their orders or try to escape. A bit more sexual than average, this series is far from complete or fully satisfying. | |
| (The) Garden of Sinners (movie series) | Very good |
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This series is really good - just it needs a bit of patience to be fully understood after a slow beginning. The main topic is the contrast between two entities: the inhuman darkness, born from the nothing, that feels the urge to fill its emptiness devouring the life of beings it encounters, and the blinding shining light of the childish innocence and optimism, for what hurting a life is wrong no matter what. And, as the Tao states (and it is mentioned in the series, this is important) the opposites attract, so the two main characters who incarnate those two natures engage in a improbable relationship. But since they are so far from the average human feeling, it was almost impossible impersonate them. The result is the viewer remains detached from their emotional distress, and the consequence is the blood, the killings, the violence lose a lot of their impact, they become accessories of the goals and point of the current agent, usually in some sort of transcendental quest. Not that what matters, since the force of this series is the reasoning, the building of a very complex philosophical system about the origin of life, the nature of death and the moral consequences of taking another human life - and similar related themes. I want to be touched in the brain and in the heart, but this time while the brain was pleased the heart remained unaffected - this is why I do not give the Masterpiece rating. | |
| Ghost Hound (TV) | Decent |
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Several interesting topics for a series that became too big and various for the authors to manage. The series examines lucid dreams, out of body experiences, details about brain anatomy, the spirit world as seen by the traditional folklore and as it could be seen by the modern quantum physics, genetic research and how they all interact. The plots is structured along a collection of contrasts, as the Taoist philosophy states, the world revolves around opposites. In order of appearance, we meet the contrast between the physical world and the spirits world. The protagonists access the spirits world through lucid dreams, and after out of body experiences. Since they all had a childhood trauma, this starts as a relief mechanism, and becomes a quest for truth - one of them searches the spirit of his deceased sister, another explores places that belong to his family. The second main contrast is between the young and the adult. The young experiences strange things, the supernatural, while the adults, here parents, priests and medics, tend as obvious not to believe children, and consider them delusional - specially the medics, with their analisys of brain damages and delusional states. As the series progresses, several minor opposites emerge. The modern scientific method of approaching the nature, in contrast of the traditional folklore and religion, but considering the frontiers of the physics, it is well stated they could be more near than one could guess. The contrast between the family life and the working life, a problem that plagued long time modern societies, specially Japanese. The ethic dilemma about researching living tissues for organ transplants, and how think about them, if living or not. The doubt about choice of knowing the truth - of the traumatic past, for the protagonists - and the ignorance and the forgetting, for goind ahead in life. The moral dilemma about revenge or forgiveness. The contrast between a religious cult that seems so easy to spread amongst population and the sacrifices it requires to children they consider gifted by the gods. The tension in the viewer is kept alive by these elements, but unfortunately the whole is far less than armonious. The plot is totally unbalanced and it seems very badly planned: for almost the whole series we are presented by new elements, but they are never big nor definitive, it seems nothing happens until everything is solved in a bad condensate in the last two episodes, by necessity leaving out a lot of explanation, forgetting a lot of details, or simply not considering them anymore of importance. So, a lot of questions remain unanswered, probably they should have started explaining earlier in the series or make some other episode. The graphic quality is average, and instead of a soundtrack we have a special sound effects track. | |
| Ghost Hunt (TV) | Good |
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This series is good, but it is clear it is not dedicated to a wide audience. It is dedicated to whoever is interested to technology and supernatural, since we have an unusual approach to ghost and similar phenomena with scientific attitude and technical devices. It is dedicated too, to whoever likes the folklore, the religions of eastern world, how its myths and legends are formed, with real references. Both these aspects are very interesting, but the series has some counter aspects that could render it not appealing to some. While I understand the authors are free to concentrate on the items they want and neglet others as they wish, some sides should have required more care. First, the characters are done since the beginning, ie there is not any of their evolution and they remain the same all the series. Second, the episodes tend to be repetitive, there is always some research and some exorcism. After some episodes, we will not hold our breath anymore. Third, some character lack credibility: the main lead had as assistant 3 priests of 3 different religions and the bottom line is: let's try an exorcism with one of them, if it fails, just change religion and try again. This is sometimes involuntarily funny, specially when the priests argue about who is more effective. Good male lead, always sure of himself and not submissive or infatuated to some female as often it happens. | |
| Howl's Moving Castle (movie) | Decent |
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This movie is less anime style than the productions I have seen until now. It appeals much more to the emotions than to common sense or logic, so it is easy understand it is aimed to children or adolescent girls. In fact the underlying message is with the pure love anything can be solved. The plot is trivial. In a fantasy world characterized by magic and primitive machinery, a good hearted girl, Sophie, makes a random encounter with a beautiful stranger, who is later revealed being the wizard Howl. An evil witch in pursuit of Howl make her under a spell that gives her the body of an old woman. She becomes the cleaning lady in the Howl's castle so she is thrown in a world of deceit, war and danger. She will save Howl and the realm, and happy ending follows. The artistic realization of this movie is double sided. We see a very great care for the backgrounds, the landscapes, the buildings and the cities - and an equal banality in the characters. We can distinguish children for their short stature and old people for their wrinkles, but apart this, the faces are too similar. In particular, Howl and Sophie have the exact identical face. She seems really a boy forced to dress as a conservative girl for some sort of cruel joke. As before mentioned, the plot is very simple, and the single successive situations and the characters' reactions have little sense and they are very superficial. At the beginning, it is really unclear why the witch turns Sophie in a old woman. Maybe because of reaction seen as less than respectful, maybe because the girl met Howl. Taking away youth and beauty could be seen also as an act from an elderly and lone woman in front of a possible rival, but small children will be satisfied by the idea the witch is evil so she does evil things. The ease with what the girl adaptes to her new body is ridiculous. The coincidence that makes her meet Howl again is typical of fairy tales. Howl is depicted as very well mannered, beautiful, perfectly groomed, elegantly dressed with good clothes. But he lives in a castle better described as a pile of trash, full of dust and spiderwebs and totally filthy. The contrast between him and his castle is probably the most stupid thing of the whole movie, but this leaves wide room to a nice cleaning lady. Some funny moments when she changes everything while cleaning ensue. The castle, as the title states, is a moving machine, powered by a demon with whom Hown made a deal. It seems Howl gave his heart in exchange of having a moving castle, but it is really unclear. Actually the demon is a funny character and he is the slave of Howl and not vice versa as logic would suggest. This is also contradicted by the late revelation Howl made the deal with the demon as a child for unknown reasons, long before the castle and probably the war. The castle moves so Howl can escape the royal witch, who wants him to help in the war; but this is contradicted first by some sort of oath Howl made when becoming a wizard, and second by some dangerous missions he does in the war field. He is escaping also from the evil witch, who he says he loves him but was declined, while after it is revealed she is really after the demon. The missions are accomplished by him transformed into an ugly bird, so giving the perfect (ironic) Beauty and the Beast flavor to the story. Listing every logical mistake would be probably tedious, but we can not avoid reporting how Shophie sometimes appears old or young depending on the situation. Very convenient, exactly as the final scene where the royal witch sees Howl and Sophie and says something like "how nice those young lovers, so let's stop the war". | |
| Hunter X Hunter (TV 1999) | Decent |
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The main strong point of this long series is the variety, a lot of curious situations, characters, locations and goal to attain. But anyway, the feeling this is dedicated to children is still here. The main character is a little child, with his big friendly eyes and that steady big smile and that childish optimism, so it is really difficult impersonate him while watching. When he can not outsmart his opponents, he just leaves himself beaten to a pulp for inspiring a sense of guilt. This whole series shows how the world should be from the eyes and the desires of a child. An intelligent and active child, but a child anyway. The situations and the characters are stylized (the good the bad the thief the master the sneaky....) and the whole world, technologically advanced and primitive at the same time, scientific and magic together, is very wide but not deep. You get your (hunter) license and you are done for life - the dream of every little student. And with that hunter license, you can have discounts on hotels and transportation - a genius idea for who wants use that license for being a bounty hunter. | |
| Infinite Ryvius (TV) | Decent |
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The theme about a group of people who, for some sort of accident, are separated from the rest of society and they must survive on their own, is often used. For example, desert islands, damaged boats, high mountains. They recreate a microcosm representing the whole humanity, and it is a good occasion to explore the deepest psychological currents inside people. With this setting, this series is a very dark one, observing a group of young space cadets confined in a powerful alien starship, and descending in a spiral of abuse, lies, betrayals, violence, tyranny. No one here could be classified as hero, we have some anti-heroes but no one stands for positive reasons, for their weaknesses or their bad traits. The main protagonists are two brothers, one extremly weak and trying in any way to be good with anyone, receiving very often physical and psychological beatings (including fron his own brother). The other brother is the opposite, violen, arrogant, selfish, always defying authorithy and disobeying orders. The other male characters are no better, from the main villain, head of a group of violent people who took by force the command of the ship for some time, to the minor characters, everyone flawed in some way: we have the weak, the traitor for the sake of a girl's kiss, the rational ready to sacrificate lives for the superior good, the abusers of their power as guardians or bridge crew. From the female side of the cast things are not better. The main female protagonist is a childhood friend of the brothers, but it seems she wants them both, causing the extreme rivalry between them - even if it is never clearly stated in the series. Amongst the other girls, we have of course those who stay with the violent guys for having advantages, and even the good girl in the command bridge falls for their head (the good girl and the bad boy, very used theme); we have girls who commit strong act of violence towards other girls because of the attention of some guy, and other similar characters. If this is not enough, it is not the outside society is better. The military thinks the starship has been stolen by terrorists, and they attack without even responding to communication or help requests - forcing the cadets to cooperate to survive, learning to use the powerful alien weapons aboard. And the politicians prefer hide the scandal recovering in silence the ship, even if this means sacrificate all the cadets. For sure, the sole positive being we could find here is a small ferret, a domestic pet, always happy and playful. Dedicated to who likes observe the psychology of people enclosed in a situation of extreme disconfort, as guinea pigs. The main problem of the series is the lack of explanations, starting from the hate between the protagonist brothers. There is not explanation too for the motives inexperienced cadets are put on trining in a very dangerous space zone (that caused the initial accident), or why a very powerful and secret starship is hidden inside a cadet training space station. And, since this is at margin a science fiction series, we have aliens too. But it is not clear if they built a technological civilization, or if they use their power to enhance what is already built - anyway, they seem just powerful ghosts who increase the capabilities of the ships with some sort of paranormal power. But again, pratically nothing is explained about them. And the doubt about the ship remains, if this is a real alien ship or just a human one modified by aliens. | |
| Kanon (TV 2/2006) | Good |
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Very deep insight in the psychology of relationships, friendship, and life events. A guy returns in his childhood city after seven years, where he left behind memories and (female) friends. in a series of heart toucing episodes, he will come to face his memory loss, the nature of his friends, the value of time and life. I almost stopped viewing this after three episodes, since the characters are presented in the stupidest way possible: the group of girls saying half phrases, contradicting themselves at every time, changing mood for no apparent reason, while the male protagonist attempted to use reason and logic with them, with pathetic results. If this was an attempt to create mystery, it failed, it was just boring. Strangely, from episode four the tone changes radically, in positive. We start understanding some dialog from the girls, and finally the male protagonist stands for himself, refuse to act desperate and mockes their silly lines and their silly behavior. I persisted since it was tagged as supernatural in the Encyclopedia but I say from the beginning, the supernatural element, while fundamental for the plot, is totally subordinate to the romance and the sentiments of the characters. The series is divided in group of episodes, each group focusing of the problems of a girl and her relation with the male protaginist, while retaining the principal plot about him trying to remember what happened seven years before. In fact the behavior of all these girls can be explained with events of years before, and when bad things happen, the brain (specially the children ones) removes the memory, in some cases more in others less. if the amnesia is very used in the series, other elements are recurring. The loss of friends, due to accidents; the time that can not be stopped, when facing terminal illness; broken promises, as so easily children use promising things. The supernatural is present in many episodes, but I will not spoil the plot, that is really intersting if you like romance stories with a bit of mystery, and if you love animals. The main theme where supernatural helps, is having the so dreamed second chance, with love, with fiends, with life. Be warned if you have a tender heart, you will find yourself in the verge of tears very often. Across the series, the characters are very well explored, the sometimes obvious plot never bores, the stories of the girls and the male protagonsts are well represented (excepted the first three episodes as said). The biggest flaw of this series is the drawing quality of the girls. We are habitued to girls with big eyes, but here they are so huge to be monstrous. and more, the noses and mouths are microscopic, with grotesque effect. The faces are short and very wide, and the eyes again have the external angle lowered respect the internal one, and they are too much spaced in the face. Every girl seem a deformed newborn, but if this seems too rude it is true after the initial shock I got habitued and learnt to ignore it. | |
| Lunar Legend Tsukihime (TV) | Decent |
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Vampires. From Dracula to Nosferatu, from Anne Rice to Twilight, countless pieces from decades seem having already told us whatever needs to be told about the theme. So, I approached this series expecting a little boredom, but I gave it a try since it was only 12 episodes. But while it was a nice surprise, some flaws are present, even if boredom is not amongst them. The plot has a good architecture, always interesting, it has the classic structure of the truth as a mosaic to be built small piece after small piece, and what is a discovery of the world, it will become a discovery of the self, for the main male protagonist. We encounter several themes already used in this kind of supernatural stories. The Return, where the protagonist returns in the family nest after years of distance; The Accident, some traumatic event, as usual in the childhood, who changed the life of the protagonist and those around him; The Amnesia, who causes the protagonist to doubt of himself and the others, and forces him in the quest for the truth; The Hidden Power, at first considered useless if not a burden, that will be the life saving tool, until the final reconciliation with one's own nature. Those, and others, are the very well balanced elements of the plot, aside of the already mentioned theme of the vampire. But the actual characteristic of the vampires are not so much important here. It is just a way to frame quickly and efficiently the mind of the viewer towards an archetypal enemy, disgusting because he kills for blood without remorse, fascinating because extremely powerful, ancient and knowledgeable about the world origin. The characters are interesting, the story revolves around the male protagonist who starts a strange relationship with a girl who is revealed to be a vampire. He is always ambivalent about this, but he senses she could be the key of his own mysterious past. She is well depicted as a victim of her own nature, strong and fragile at same time, forced to become what she is by a deception similar to the Original Sin. The other characters are a good contour, everyone has a secret, everyone is not what they seem, from the sister of the protagonist, who with the extremely pretty and obedient two maids in her huge mansion, starts to build a suffocating golden cage for him, to the schoolmates of the protagonist, who range from the careless friend to the mysterious powerful girl. The flaws start in a obvious way if we think the series is only 12 episodes. Sometimes the plot is too forced, without any explanation. It is not clearly shown what is the relationship between the father of the protagonist and the condition of the family and the vampires, nor the nature of the sorceress who helped the protagonist when a child to cope with his hidden power. The characters too suffer. The sole well developed characters are the main couple. But, often the male protagonist is too passive. This is the biggest problem of this series: the male protagonist takes too much time to question people around him, and until then he is too available to do what he is told. The vampire girl has no clear justification for her quest, we can only guess she wants revenge from the entity who transformed her. And of course it is ridiculous when she states she is never been on a date, since she is very beautiful and she is 800 years. The other characters have too scarce room and it would have been nice explore them further. | |
| Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (TV) | Weak |
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So the obvious truth - I have checked this as a grown up because I fell for Fujiko when I was a little child in the first Lupin 3 series. But of course, everything is changed. I am changed. Of course children in the '80 liked Fujiko: she passed the edge of the classic female companion of the big hero, always kind and beautiful and strongly faithful. Fujiko, instead, was some sort of savage beast, less faithful but more available to enter in situations where she could lose some clothes. Consider then the internet was absolutely not so widespread as today so a bit of female skin had more effect than today. Back to this last series, it takes much more than some thigs and a nipple to get my interest. And the drawing is just ugly, colors almost absent, dialogues... what dialogues? some stupid line about who is the better thief. Total waste of time. Not even by far so objectionable as a lot of reviews try to convince, but I understand they must be conservative to avoid criticism. | |
| (The) Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (TV 2009 renewal) | Decent |
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This series is very light, and the rule says, if you do not expect anything, you could not be deluded. Unfortunately, this series seemed oriented to some sci fi or supernatural themes, for the first words of the female protagonist herself, "not interested in ordinary humans, but in time travellers, aliens and espers", but immediately afterwards it becomes just a comedy without any trace of plot or character evolution. The way to be interested in time travellers, aliens and espers is nothing more than going to amusement parks, going in the woods to capture stupid flying insects or playing baseball. The funny thing is the group of Haruhi is really composed by a time traveller, an esper and an alien (I would have said more precisely some sort of android); all unknowingly for her. Furthermore, it must be accepted without explanation that Haruhi has some sort of supernatural powers, this too without knowing it. So, the whole series from the very beginning to the very ending can be reduced to "let's her do and say whatever she wants, otherwise she will get nervous and the whole universe could be destroyed". As obvious result she is a spoiled brat, arrogant, violent and totally superficial. It is not she is evil, she has just the brain development of a newborn, never trained to respect others as persons. Now meet the male protagonist, whose point of view the most of the series is narrated. He is the only normal human of the group, somewhat stereotypical male of the anime, submissive, apologizing and afraid of contact with opposite sex, until he snaps towards the end of the series and act as giving her a well deserved slap when she continues to phisically abuse the other weak girl of the group (immediately stopped by others members of the group "otherwise the universe could be destroyed"). This series does not maintain one single premise, the female protagonist is for sure not very likeable. We can say it stays afloat for the comedic moments, the completeness of the male protagonist, very well represented, and, it must be added, an excellent fluidity of the plot that never bores. Thumbs down for 8 whole episodes totally identical apart some minor details just to make a point of the universe in a limbo, a pathetic move that flashes "marketing just to reach the desired number of episodes" all over the screen, and it is solved by the male protagonist doing his school homework. Seriously. | |
| Memories (movie) | Not really good |
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Nothing to see here. 3 episodes too short to have the depth necessary to be interesting. | |
| Millennium Actress (movie) | Decent |
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It is the story of a TV studio employee who goes to interview one of the most famous Japanese actresses of several decades, now a recluse old woman. When she recalls her life, he finds himself reviving with her the various settings. Memories, imagination and reality become mixed in a long dream of love and passion. This piece is the full developement of the same idea presented (also by Satoshi Kon) in the short episode Magnetic Rose of the movie Memories. But if in there the tone was most towards the mystery and the supernatural effect of strong regrets and strong memories over the physical reality, with a dubious result since everything was immediately obvious, here we see there is no need of supernatural to understand how emotions can mold and surpass the essence of life. It is clear since the beginning the interviewer is moved by love and admiration for the actress. So, if the primary message of this movie is the strength of love (the actress part), a second and equally important message is the passion that can be created by cinema, the powerful dream represented by a beautiful actress for a sensible man. The plot is presented with a series of sequences of scenes where the interviewer play a secondary but crucial role, like an actor in the movies recalled and told by the actress. Anyone who was moved and pleased by a movie imagines to revive the story with himself as a hero, or as a friend or lover of some protagonist, and here we have the same depiction. Actually, the parts involving the actress are less interesting, since they are rather stereotypical. She, since childhood, meets a mysterious man who is the archetype of the lone wolf, or bad boy, who surely steals the heart of a romantic woman. He is alone, strong willed, with secret goals and secret life, but kindly and with weaknesses that invoke a protective sense. And the woman of course will love him forever despite knowing nothing of him. We have seen countless times this kind of coupling. The most touching moments are the scenes where the interviewer takes on the action, not only as imaginary actor but in the cut scenes in real life, in the old actress house. His sentiments are perfectly represented. Funny and successfully done the contrast with his cameraman, who represents the reason opposite to dream, often dubious, well grounded to earth and easily scared (he enters in the imagined movie scenes too). Excellent soundtrack. | |
| Monster (TV) | Good |
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Good solid thriller, despite the title it has nothing supernatural. The characters are very well developed (I would hope so, with 70+ episodes) and the plot is almost always interesting. It is the story of an excessively good man against an excessively bad other man. When we hear the mention of an orphanage in the old East Germany (the story takes place in Germany) where children were abused and brainwashed, we immediately understand there is the tired clichet of the abused child who becomes a monster. From that point onward, there is no more mystery but only the psychological struggle of the characters. Dedicated to who likes thrillers and police stories. | |
| Neo-Tokyo (movie) | Not really good |
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Nothing to see here. 3 episodes too short to have the depth necessary to be interesting. | |
| Paranoia Agent (TV) | Bad |
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Boring and aestethically ugly short series revolving around a bunch of frustrated characters. Do not be tricked by the Encyclopedia, there is no horror here, and the supernatural is just the excuse to try to make this thing interesting resulting instead in a overused way to make thing mysterious (the weak and the silent who materializes their frustrations). The first half series is interesting and seems a good thriller story, After that, it becomes more and more frivolous and it seems more an artistic experiment without any goal of attracting the viewer's attention. Strongly suggested not waste time with it. | |
| (The) Place Promised in Our Early Days (movie) | Good |
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Noticeable movie with a good group of science fiction themes. The start is rather slow. In a cold war setting, japan is divided in half between a not better specified Union and America. The Union is much more technologically advanced and they built a huge mysterious tower. Two male students are building a small plane to fly near the tower, with the company of the girl whom one of them loves. Fast forward of three years, we learn a lot of information. The girl due to an illness is always sleeping, so the friends stopped building the plane. The tower is explained to be a device to access parallel universes and overwrite the current one with one of them. We learn too, thanks to quantum states of atoms of our brain, we are able to access those parallel universes while dreaming, that is what the girl is doing since three years - she is shown dreaming of being alone in a landscape. But, since she is the granddaughter of the tower creator, probably he did to her something, because her dreaming in some way prevents the tower to destroy the current world. The protagonist has the dilemma; save the girl or save the world, even if her memories will be destroyed. Interesting movie, dedicated to who loves science fiction with a vein of mysticism, here tending towards a pantheistic vision. Appropriate picturing of the world, every building is poor and decaying, colors are never vivid, every object shows the hardness of living in a world subject to military rule. | |
| Psychic Detective Yakumo (TV) | Decent |
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The series protagonist has the capability to see the dead. And as usual, if the dead can be seen, it means they are still here, because they have regrets and suspended questions - often regarding their violent death. So, this series is heavily sad, but not in the sense of moving to tears, just dark for being constantly near people's situations that caused their life to be broken. It continues to remind us the death will arrive for everyone sooner or later. The main thin plot about being chased by his father's ghost, that is not so interesting, but the happy ending is fast and safe. At least the male protagonist is not the usual apologizing submissive. | |
| RahXephon (TV) | Bad |
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Drawings, old and insipid. Plot: none. Characters: paper thin. Explanation: none. Evoked interest: less than zero. Boring and repetitive. You can not hide under an oniric setting the total absence of content for a more than a couple episodes, figures a whole series. Do not waste time and move on. | |
| Rental Magica (TV) | Decent |
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In a world where magic cohexists with normal technology, while unnowingly to most, mages form businesses to deal with its effects when spells or exorcisms go wrong, or to deal with wizards too thirsty of power. This series is the story of one of those businesses. It is impossible not notice the influence of other series like Ghost Hunt. But while Ghost Hunt was serious and full of deep explanations about myths and folklore, Rental Magica is comedic and very light, and with much fewer references to mythology and religion. Furthermore, here we have not only supernatural due to mythological elements or ghosts, but even the classic fantasy magic, intended as the special capability of an individual to bend the forces of nature at will. The series borrows heavily from Harry Potter saga too, with magic schools, with magic exams, also similar student uniforms. And strict rules about use of magic power in the normal society. This series is dedicated to a younger or girl audience, funny, light and optimistic. Absolutely exagerated the Significant rating for Objectionable content in the Encyclpedia here, where even in the couple of situation where there is a drop of blood, it is more pink (or brown in the night) then red, and the usual dose of skin the time girls take a bath without revealing any inconvenient detail. The main character is the heir president of one of those mages' businesses, while having few magic skills. Again, the Encyclopedia here states bluntly he is a coward, and it is totally false. Since he has no experience, it is obvious he is more scared than others when facing magic phenomena or monsters, and since he has no active magic skills, he lacks too the protection of spells and he must rely on others. But when there is danger, he is the first in line, he is always thinking to the safety of his employees, he is generous and kind. Later in the series he develops his skills, but since the beginning he has the passive skill to see the flow of magic energy; when he use this skill he becomes more commanding, his voice tone changes too. The other characters follow the Ghost Hunt series method, different mages who get their power from different philosophies or branches of magic. They are nice and well balanced, we have the Celtic witch with witch cone hat and flying on a broom, the hypersensitive ghost, the nice priest controlling four little sympatethic magical cats, the young girl priestess who wants always prove herself. It is really funny notice they can release a huge amount of magical power to destroy terrifying monsters, and at the end of the day argue about their wage, their budget and their expenses. Good supplement the often present president of another magic business, a typical blonde beauty, very sure of herself and very powerful, former schoolmate of the witch girl, and often arguing with her about who is more powerful, while it is clear they contend the attention of the male protagonist. If the characters are nicely drawn and they are various, including foes, the problems start when we try to see the settings. it seems who created this series forgot there are also backgrounds, and the rare landscapes are blurred by fog or darkness, or heavily styilized. We often feel the upsetting desire to see what is around the characters. This problem is so relevant I needed several episodes to be able to put the series in a definite age. Aside the witch girl wearing glasses, and the usual Japanese school uniforms that I have no idea how much time they are in use from, I waited episodes to see a vehicle and a cell phone, to decide the settings is in modern age. Since the second half of the series, characters become deeper and well developed, with references to their childhood and ancestors, and we see finally also some nice background, while still a bit stylized. Exactly as in the case of Haruhi Suzumiya series, I do not like the stupidity of messing the chronological order, so I followed the order stated in the Wikipedia. | |
| Sci-Fi Harry (TV) | Decent |
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The backbone ideas are good here. We have psychic powers, a mystery thriller, secret facilities doing secret scientific experiments, some romance. The down sides are equally serious, anyway. First and essentially, the protagonist is so neurotic and so frustrated it becomes almost impossible impersonate him and share the feelings (the archetype of the totally inept guy who thanks to his new powers gets the dream girl). The plot is a bit confused towards the end - and the usual twist about whether the researchers are also the creators is present. Last, the drawing quality is abysmal, faces seem deformed with a huge nose. | |
| She and Her Cat (OAV) | Good |
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When we visit a big garden, we appreciate at first the big things, the colorated and well cared flowerbeds, the nice curvy paths, maybe the funtains with their water spills and the little rivers. But it can happen, a single small flower catches our attention. And, we use the same word, for the big complex garden and the little simple flower - beautiful. Here, we have a 5 minutes single episode anime, and we rate it using the same word - good - as we used in other bigger productions. Because this is the small flower that contain the seed of the beauty of any big garden. It is in black and white, still images with the minimun of animation, a simple short music track, stylized characters and simple plot. Nonetheless, it contains emotion - true, it depends on how the viewer feels about domestic pets, but if I watched this, I should be at least interested. Dedicated to who loves pets, particularly cats. Beware, this is not a children story, with a talking cat. The cat voice is adult and steady, a mature male who make perfect distinction between what he understands and what not. There is never a sense of inferiority because he is a cat, and she is human. A remind pets are not stuffed toys, but they have intelligence and sensibility. A remind of how they can make our life much better, exactly as we can, with a small effort, make theirs better. A remind of the much love and respect they deserve, because they are living beings. Just like us. | |
| Steins;Gate (TV) | Excellent |
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Pure so called hard core science fiction here. No monsters, no supernatural no esp no ghosts. Not that I mind those, but sometimes they leave too much the side open to the easily unexplained. Not only this series is science fiction but it faces full strength one of the most difficult and controversial topics in that genre: time travel and its paradoxes. Actually, there is something unexplained and not so scientific, the capability of the protagonist to remain unaffected by the present changes caused by the changes of the past. It is quickly solved with the justification of his particular brain power, even if we stay in the doubt he is a genius or an idiot - even if this seems strange probably both, because as usually people with genius abilities are inept, or socially or in every day life. Aside this detail, the series is solid and with a very good attention to the plot details, and every ramification of every possible paradox (related to time travel, precisely time travel of information). Every subplot is examined and developed with extreme care, not only the time travel per se (actually some sort of text message sent in the past by a particular cell phone connected to a microwave), but the conspiracies about big scientific institutions that want keep secret the time altering possibility, the personal issues and characteristic of people involved, even the moral dilemmas about changing a past who is already happened and has already affected the world. The characters are nicely developed, even if a bit stereotypical (the genius sometimes stupid, the computer nerd, the skeptical scientis, the spy, the severe store owner who is after the unpaid rent, the cat girl waitresses - thumbs up for them, specially when they interject a meow every some word when on the job). John Titor (google it if you do not know the name) appears too with a particular time machine. The protagonist is the strong leader and motivator of the group, as said he is some sort of genius with some moments of stupidity, and obsessed with conspiracies. He is strong willed, never apologetic and almost never weak - not only, but when he want to save his school friend from a time line where she dies, he will do everything to save her, revealing a big heart in a particularly touching episode. This is easily a masterpiece, except for a big flaw. There are two main girls in the show. The first, the skeptical scientist, is an American arrogant and full of herself brat, violent and always insulting - despite having seen the time machine she stupidly remains long time attached to her clearly wrong math formulas. A girl like this, who uses the expressions "this is harassement" and "I call the police" every other phrase, should have been kicked back in her USA after 5 minutes. The second girl, a schooltime friend of the protagonist, is a simple, nice, sensitive, caring, innocent and feminine girl. Well guess whom he is going to fall for. Exactly, the first. Very very bad, even if we must add she becomes more human later in the series. | |
| Summer Wars (movie) | Good |
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Very interesting and appealing light movie about a cyber war in a virtual world. The matter is made complicated because that virtual world is not only a videogame, but it is the place where every computer for civilian and military services is connected. Disrupt that virtual world, and the physical world will fall in confusion. Interesting insight of a matriarchal family of the rural Japanese society. The trick used to gain control of the virtual world is trivial, in the best tradition of the so called social engineering. Thumb down for the coincidence: the sysadmin of the network, is also the math genius, and also one of the very few who were tricked in hacking his own system, finds himself in the same house with the strongest warrior or the virtual world and the author of the evil ai. Aside the unoriginal pair, beauty queen and nerdy timid genius, this is a good piece. | |
| Time of Eve (ONA) | So-so |
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This is really too short for being intellectually appealing. Dedicated to who likes just some clue or a few visions and likes build the rest in their own mind. The plot revolves around a guy who find a strange bar where robots are treated like humans, in a world where robots and androids are diffused in many homes, to accomplish household chores. That bar policy is forcing no discrimination between humans and robots, but it is only an annoyance, because already inquiring if one is robot or human is considered discrimination, and inquiring about the possibility of sentient robots is also discrimination. Good allegory of today world, over sensitive and political correct, where it is just better avoid certain topics in public. The main question about the self conscience of the robots remains unclear. | |
| Waiting in the Summer (TV) | Decent |
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Romantic comedy with a bit of science fiction, about the maturation of a group of students facing the first love problems. The plot follows the usual love chain where the first person is loved by the second, who is secretly loved by the third, who is secretly loved by the fourth and so on. The first one is an alien girl who fell on Earth due to a malfunction of her starship. Actually, the main plot could have survived even if she were just a human foreigner, so the science fiction element is for spicing the story - not that this does not work, because it is well developed. These love stories are the secret background of the making of a student movie, where the students can act as they were faking their situation, while actually feeling and being what the movie script requires. The story is very well told, the watching is fluid, often amusing and often touching. The growth of the students in the adult stage of judgement is good, they always act accordingly to a superior moral code, putting the wellness of their peers above theirs. And, we want add, as typically in the anime world, adults are not necessary. The main problem faced by the female alien protagonist is the knowledge sooner or later her people will come to find her and take her away, since it is not allowed, as usual in sci-fi, influence a primitive planet like Earth with an alien contact. The problem faced by other characters is declaring their love and messing with the happiness of their friends, or suffering in silence. To reduce the seriousness of the topics, some comedic moments were added, including an alien assistant in the form of a stuffed little animal - the outcome is funny. Given these premises, the biggest flaw of this series is its predictability. thumbs down too, for the childhood friend of the male protagonist, secretly in love with him but totally unfeminine (aggressive, short hair) - she never thought of changing a bit for getting his heart. Also, the senior girl, not romantically involved with anyone but directing the movie, is unlikeable, because she uses the heart troubles of others for her own amusement - probably because she has an underdeveloped body so she seems younger than she is. The male protagonist too is as usual weak and always feeling forced to explain himself to the girls. Dedicated to who likes love stories with a taste of science fiction. | |
| xxxHOLiC (TV) | Good |
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Very funny and entertaining series. It is also very varied and interesting, with a good cast of characters. It starts as a mysterious psychological drama, where the shop owner solves others' problems using their own conscience, but she wants in payment something worthy (again, not worthy in money terms but in soul terms). Notice I watched all the series and movies without interruption so this is a global comment. Enter the male protagonist - self defeating, weak, desperate, exactly as described by the beautiful opening theme "19 years". He is tormented by some spirits he can see for unknown reasons. A mysterious she will help him, but in payment he will work for her. This series never deludes and never bores. it is easy share the feelings of the main guy, even if he is a bit too submissive. The supernatural is well inserted in the everyday life, with references to ancestors and religion. The first thing we notice, this is a female universe. Female is the powerful and mysterious shop owner. It is never stated in the whole cycle who or what she is, just she has an human appearance. Only later in a dream the male protagonist is told she did a deal with some powerful entity for doing what she does, nothing more. In ther first episodes, we could think she is a mentalist (a person with great ability to read people's souls from their attitude, clothes, words and movements - without supernatural powers). But soon we get she has capability to see far things, to pratically see in the future, to deal with supernatural beings. A funny noticeable power she has is drinking all day without getting drunk - but maybe that was just a detal the authors left out - considering the work the male protagonist does is 99% cooking and serving food and drinks. Female, too, are the customers of the shop. Often they have trivial problems, like internet addiction, lying, a stressful life. Nothing requiring super powers, but it is guaranteed a little magic greatly speeds up the solution. Female, lastly, are most of the supernatural being of the series. They can be cocky, emotive arrogant and delicate just like human females. Later I apprehended this was created by an all female group of authors, this explains probably the dominance of the female element. Specially the female protagonist, she is the symbol of the femme fatale, tall, beautiful, sophisticate and mysterious, never surprised by events. The male protagonist is a nervous guy, often losing patience but never in a threatening way, very likeable, who often shows to be generous. He is coupled with another male character, who is his opposite, well built, masculine, inclined to sports, nevel losing his cool or his deep voice tone. The two often engage in verbal fight, at least from the protagonist point of view, when the other ask him to cook or he is always present when the protagonist tries to be alone with the girl of his dreams. The effect is really funny. The drawing style is often stylized, and human form is out of proportion, too skinny and tall, but this adds to the comedic effect. Surely a good supernatural comedy, with some touching moments. | |
| xxxHOLiC the Movie: A Midsummer Night's Dream | Very good |
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See the first series comment for a review. Here, bonus value for the excellent computer graphics, used for creating very nice interior environments. | |
| xxxHOLiC: Kei (TV) | Good |
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See the first series comment for a review. | |
| xxxHOLiC: Rō (OAV) | Good |
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See the first series comment for a review. | |
| xxxHOLiC: Rō Adayume (OAV) | Good |
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See the first series comment for a review. | |
| xxxHOLiC: Shunmuki (OAV) | Good |
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See the first series comment for a review. | |
| Yozakura Quartet (TV) | Bad |
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The setting of this series is truly repulsive, and I believe who created this was not even aware of this. I do not mean ugly aesthetically or scaring horror, just they present as positive a situation that has nothing good. The yokai are spirits or supernatural creatures in the Japanese folklore. In this series, since they usually do not adapt well to live with humans, they are collected in a town buil for them, where they live in peace with a part of normal humans. This town seems nothing else than a concentration camp. The female protagonist is a very strong yokai (pratically a girl who can fly), she calls herself Mayor but she inherited this title by bloodline from her grandmother, like a dictator instead of a mayor. With hypocrisy, she and her friends use their yokai super powers to force the rest of the yokai to well behave - to not use their own powers. She and her friends have the right to decide in what house the new yokai will live, where they will work and if they will go to school. They give orders to the population using a system of loud speakers along the streets, and furthermore when this she-mayor invented a song, she made it the official song of the town and made it broadcast three times a day with said loud speakers. In a word, the quartet of the title has rights of life and death over the town, and if a yokai misbehaves, or better refuse to be a puppet - as stated by the enemy in the series - the sole human of the group send them in another world using his power. For several episodes it is unclear if sending yokai in another dimension was a way to say he killed them, but afterwards the enemy explains this means sending them in a dimension of total emptiness but the meaning does not change. With these premises, it is impossible not partake for the enemies, who rightly affirm the quartet just eliminates those who have different views. If we add a yokai girl who jumps around nighttime dressed as a nun and with two katanas, watching the population, we seal the coffin of this series. Character animation is good, but often over dull and dark backgrounds. People are drawn uglier than average, and girls are not feminine. | |
| Yozakura Quartet ~Hoshi no Umi~ (OAV) | So-so |
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Please read the comment of the main series Yozakura Quartet for a description of the setting and characters. It is not even clear if this is a sequel, since it is passed two years from the main series, or a side story, because the enemy they removed from the human world at the end of the main series is present again - while he could have returned, as he did once. But probably they realized the disaster they created with the first series so they tried to correct the aim. We noticed an improvement. There is not the suffocating athmosphere of dictatorship of the main series over the town, backgrounds are richer and brighter, characters are better drawn and girls are a bit more feminine. Characters display some sentiments too. But only three episodes are too few to have a higher rating than this, maybe more episodes would have helped raise the interest. | |