Monday, June 24, 2013

[Ended] Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru

I’m rather nervous about writing this... seeing how this is my first post (and review ever) and how english is not my native language I must apologize for any grammar errors you guys find. Well on to my introduction! I’m Mus, short for Mustard (I also go by the alias of Reik on some of Evil’s posts).  Just like Zetro I’ll also try to throw some reviews every once in a while as long as my schedule allows.

Well onto Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru! When I read the synopsis of this show I was struck by this one part “This romantic comedy revolves around an antisocial high school student named Hikigaya Hachiman with a distorted view on life and no friends or girlfriend.” Why? Well it may seem dull but I enjoy lone wolves and an antisocial guy in a love comedy seems weird. After the first episode I was sure that this one would be one hell of a ride, as the show progressed my affection for Hachiman rose so to such levels that (quoting him) I almost entered the Hachiman route. During the show they basically go around solving people’s problems and while doing that their own personal problems/traumas/past show up and the way they deal with those give the show this rather rare sad vibe. I could say Hachiman was the reason this show is so great, he is one of the best main characters I’ve seen lately if not the best…and probably he ranks in my top 5 best main characters ever. From his solo baseball play to his monologues, the balance they managed to achieve between sadness and fake happiness is just great. Well I’ll stop babbling about my secret love  for... What?

The point is that I REALLY enjoyed this show you could say they did everything right, the plot, the right amount of comedy per episode, the soundtrack, everything! But the major selling point would be Hach…I mean the characters and their relationships  and how they develop through the show. Unfortunately I can’t rank it yet as my top one for the season because Suisei no Gargantia has not ended yet and that one also is doing a pretty good job right now.

I might love Hachiman too much. I'm worried guys….

Just some random facts: The studio behind this anime is Brain's Base and it’s the same studio behind Durarara!!, Baccano! and Penguindrum (also known as Mawaru Penguindrum) and the director directed a few episodes of Ano Hana and OreImo and if that is not enough to convince anyone to watch it I have no idea what is.

Drama: 86 (Well placed)
Comedy: 90 (Hachiman's sick view on life was fun enough)
Action: - (If you call a sports festival action it had some)
Art/Animation: 96 (Pretty enough)
Sound/Music: 88 (Nothing exeptional)
Character: 100 (Hachiman)
Plot: 86 (Short arcs with lingering feelings between characters)

Ending: 89 (Happy but i wanted a better close to the Yukinon x Hachiman thing)
Re-watch value: 88 - Might be nice to catch all of Hachiman's monologues

Overall: 90 - Pretty enjoyable and doesn't have alot of noticeable flaws

Well thats it. I'm still unsure what points i should tackle when reviewing something and i was doing my best not to spoil anything (if i did i'm sorry, let me know and i'll fix it)

Also thanks to Evil Cat for letting my post on his blog and let me know how i did and if you want me to keep posting *im really not very confident on my writing skills, also what font / size do you usually use?*
With that said i'm out! See ya!

[Movie] Nerawareta Gakuen

It's rather intriguing to watch two movies back-to-back (this and Kotonoha no Niwa) that both have stunningly gorgeous visuals while accompanied with a somewhat heart-wrenching story.

The pace of the movie is interesting and confusing at the same time. It alternates between fast and slow, intense and relaxing. It is good in a way that the slow parts of the movie never get long enough make you lose focus, but at the same time, the transition from fast part to the slow part leaves a rather unsatisfactory feel because it winds down a bit too quickly that gives you a feeling that the climax was never quite reached its full potential.

As far as the plot goes, in my opinion it's confusing at best. While it did the whole blending central plot line with relationship side branch pretty well, they never fully explained the whole power thingy to full satisfaction, nor did they bother to explain the relationship of various important side characters (like the father, mother, grandpa business).

While I somewhat enjoyed the movie, I have to say I honestly wouldn't recommend this to everybody outright. If you want to see a visually gorgeous movie and don't mind some minor details left unexplained in the end, then you'd probably enjoy it. But if the minor lack of coherence bothers you, then I'd say just leave it.

Drama: 82 (Fast and slow)
Comedy: 83 (For what it had)
Action: 91 (Well made)
Art/Animation: 96 (Gorgeous)
Sound/Music: 88 (Good)
Character: 91 (Interesting, but slightly confusing)
Plot: 84 (Mostly coherent but with details left unexplained)
Ending: 78 (Unexplained stuff)

Overall: 82 - Pretty, but with flaws

[Movie] Kotonoha no Niwa

Stunningly beautiful visual, music that touches souls, and emotional stories that touches hearts, these are the key elements of every single film produced by Shinkai Makoto, who in my opinion is one of the greatest anime directors of our time.

Shinkai Makoto is among one of the very few anime directors that could manipulate human emotions with surgical precision. I would describe the feeling after watching this movie is "extremely depressed but not sad". Yes, it's a bit contradicting, but when a story is written and built properly, like Shinkai Makoto did, it's actually quite amazing that you can be depressed and feel the joy at the same time. The way he achieved, is through a sequence of very depressing events which is just enough to set the tone to be depressing, yet not enough to be full out tragedy. It is a very fine line to stay on, where it doesn't take much at all to overshoot or undershoot the target. Yet Shinkai Makoto manages to be right on it, every single time. Another movies of his that I can clearly recall this feeling was "5 Centimeters per Second", where the joy was a bit less and depressing'ness was a bit more (actually, a lot more).

Anyway, back to the movie itself, it's a very unusual story of love in a very unlikely situation. It's about a high school boy who wants to become a shoemaker skips school at each rainy day to go to a park to draw shoes. There, he met another person who is doing the same thing. The movie itself is rather short (about one hour), yet it actually felt heart-wrenchingly long, in a good way. In fact, I didn't even want the movie to end. I was hoping "please don't end here, let me see more, just a little more, I just want to know".

As I read from some reviewers out there that they thought this is Shinkai Makoto's "next big thing" and was slightly disappointed after watching because of how "ordinary" it actually was. Maybe they are right to be disappointed in their mind. But, in my opinion, the ability to make an ordinary story extraordinary, is what separates him from the rest anime directors. He did it in 5 Centimeters per Second, and again here in Kotonoha no Niwa. His ability to make a story that you could finish reading in five minutes and completely forget in ten minutes become a highly memorable event is just unmatched.

The bottom line is, I can't think of any reason anybody wouldn't want to watch this. So, go, find it and watch it, and any other work of his that you haven't seen, because every single piece of work by Shinkai Makoto is a masterpiece that everybody should see.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Kakumeiki Valvrave: A Gundam Anime that does not have the word "Gundam" in its name

Currently finished: Episode 9

Since Zetro has made a post on the "non-mecha" mecha anime from this season, Suisei no Gargantia, I figure I'd make a post about other mecha anime from this season, Kakumeiki Valvrave.

Unlike Gargantia, who only disguises as a mecha anime, Valvrave is an actual mecha anime. In fact, Valvrave is as generic as a mecha anime could be: space battles, invasion for the sake of the mecha, an unwilling protagonist, and, most importantly, a top secret mysterious super-powered ass-kicking eye-blinding limited edition mecha that for some reason become more-ass-kicking when pilot screams.

Then, just the other day, as I was chatting with one of my friends who is supposed to be a Gundam expert, I was told that Valvrave is almost an act-by-act copy of Gundam Wing (I hope I remembered it right, since there are just so damn many of them with names that are just a couple of characters away). While there's no way for me to tell the validity of this statement (since I don't watched any Gundam anime), a quick browse of wikipedia on Gundam topics seems to loosely validate it.

While I was somewhat caught up in the early excitements, it seems that the story doesn't have anywhere to go other than the typical mecha path.

Despite the early excitements, I start to get a little bored lately with the repetitiveness and the highly predictable plot movement. But since I've already come so far, I think I'll stick for just a little longer to finish off the first half of the story where it'll take a break. 

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Suisei no Gargantia: Not a Mech anime

 Last seen: Episode 10
Current topic: Episode 9

While I'm sure that you're all on the edge of your seats for the next big event in Attack on Titan, I'd like to point the reader to another gem that's out this season you may have neglected a bit because of it. Yes, I'm talking about Suisei no Gargantia. Evil Cat briefly mentioned this in his New Season Release post for it, but the tone shift in Episode 1 near the end is drastic. Gargantia is in no way a Mech Battle anime. Gargantia is an anime with mechs in it, Not an anime about Mechs. If any of you put it down or dropped it on account of Episode ones appearance, I Demand you go pick it back up and catch up. This stories all about the guy on the right, not the left.
(well ok maybe it starts to be about the one on the left a bit, now, but not as a great big gun for flashy fighting)
If you don't like it after that, that's fine.

Up to this point the story, while still maintaining a base level of interest varying from 1-3 out of 10 for the last series of episodes, has been more or less slow, that is mostly because of story, tone, and world building. Something you can't really do without in a good show. Episode 1 has proven to be a big tone builder, so even if you're completely against anything to do with Mech anime at this point, I'm imploring you, pay attention to Episode 1, it's important to understanding Ledo's character and personality, and if the most recent Episode is to be believed at face value at the end, it may also be part of the next big story and plot elements come Episode 11.
Upon Episodes 6-9, things start to get serious at an exponential rate, culminating to a crescendo in Episode 9. If I was the type of person that could so much as remember my dreams, let alone distinguish whether or not they were nightmares, Episode 9 has a scene that very much so would have been several flavors of nightmare for me. I spent the rest of that day having to forcibly remove the scene from my mind whenever it popped up, unable to do my usual internal processing on it. This is an almost unheard of event for me, as I'm among those who say that to ever cease to think, is a grave evil upon yourself, and everyone around you. To have something strike me hard enough to force me to try to forget it, for any length of time, is very much a credit to it.
[To give y'all a point of reference for gauging what I'm saying here, another show I love to watch, and have paid money to own, is Criminal Minds. If you don't know what that show's about, a google or wikipedia access should fill you in pretty fast.]

In Summary: If you've ignored, or haven't been paying attention to this little gem this season because of Episode 1, Consider yourself reprimanded.
The scene with this in it came closer to giving me nightmares than anything has for a very long time, and not in the way you might expect just from looking at it.