Back to Alaroki's Profile Alaroki's Profile

I would not recommend this show, but I did find a couple elements about the show interesting.

Positives:
Kamanosuke: In the show, while not a lot, there are little nuances about sexuality and gender. For an example Kamanosuke, probably the most interesting character of the show, constantly refers to himself as he/him, but we see other people in the society at first view him as a women, which leads viewers to think about gender identity, societies view of it at the time of the shows release, and etc as a whole. While I do say this, the show never dives deep at all into this which can ... be very bothersome.

Battles: The show did have some fun battles in it, although to be honest, there were also some boring battles to.

Jinpachi: This dude is a good character with a diverse background. Although, he was quite literally the last brave that was revealed so you dont get to see him much.

Sound: While im putting sound here, honestly sound was a mixed bag of positives and negatives. They did do some things well such as the banger OST and ED but most conversations felt bland.

Negatives:
Story: The story is very generic. It felt like the only reason why it was greenlit was because ninjas and Shonen were popular at the time.

Every other character: The rest of the cast had no depth. Especially the two main characters, Sasuke and Isanami. They were very cut-out tropes you can find done anywhere else better.


Overall: Most people will find the show to be bad. but a few people will find some parts interesting only if they were hyper analyzing the show.

Byoudoku no Denpa made in 1926 is one of the oldest anime in the world. Because of its special time between Japanese history it also gives insight on Japan's views and knowledge during this time.

Some things I enjoyed about this film classic was the connections of the small plot lines that occurred in the show. By thinking of the world of Byoudoku no Denpa as an "ecosystem" you are able to connect these small plot lines a little bit more.

Another thing I enjoyed about this film classic, that many other film classics seem to share, is eye rolling. This attention to detail many film classics ... have makes the films a bit more dynamic and enjoyable. Something less dynamic about this film classic however was the animations in general with many scenes being far to slow. Overall I really enjoyed the style of art/animation in this film classic and personally find the art to be very good and a positive about the show.

The film contains no sound, and is considered a silent film. I find this to be neither a positive nor negative, but I believe, like many, that sound would make the film much better.

The Characters of the films are not enjoyable, and I find them to be poorly written mainly due to the fact, that they are meant to be "placeholders" and just objects to drive the main theme of the show.

Overall, however, I did not enjoy nor hate the film and therefore I believe this show to be Mediocre.

I believe only Historians or those interested in History would enjoy this show, as the current day intended audience (kids) now have better means of obtaining all the information provided in the show.

To put this simply, this film/anime is propaganda (non-pejorative)... It is also quite insightful.

Art: From what I know, this anime was created from the same author who made "The Dull Sword". Overall the art is really good, but most of the film revolves around text and/or the animations for the text. I personally find it really good (hell I rated it a 9) but for people who dont like reading, it can get very boring to read. I do not recommend anyone who doesnt care about Japans history and/or at least this guys view of the Japan government to watch this as you will ... not enjoy it.

Sound: N/A. Like almost every if not every film pre-1930 it does not consist of sound.

Character: N/A. I guess you can say the person delivering the speach, (Goto Shinpei), is rather charasmatic and the artwork for the characters overall look pretty good, but other than that it isnt that type of anime to have characters.

Enjoyment/Story... aka Message: I really enjoyed the view's of Goto Shinpei. While the views dont necessarily apply to the 21st century, the ideas of universal suffrage, autonomy, electoral fraud and being resistant to it, rising global tensions, and the need for an intelligence agency, are all important for the current day rising nations.

On a smooth brain note: Hehe real hand at 26:31... Not sure why I find it so funny that they forgot to cut it out.

Overall pretty good.

"Saiyuuki: Son Gokuu Monogatari" or what Ive heard it as, "Kirigamizaiku Saiyuki Songoku monogatari" is a short silent animation that is overall fair.

The Story is overall ok following a simple plot. Overall this was good but the lack of proper captions and/or sound made it hard to follow half way through making it mediocre.

Contrary to what other people might think, I personally think the art is good. It uses the style of Chiyogami or cut outs. My personal favorite scene is in 5:43. Something about the scene has just led it to be stuck in my head. From my knowledge this is Noburo Ofuji second ... animated short film.

the Sound is N/A.. what do you think I was going to say.. its a silent film!

the Characters are actually pretty funny and good.

I actually really enjoyed it.

Overall the anime was pretty fair.

"Baguda-jou no Touzoku" or the "Burglars of 'Baghdad' Castle" is a silent animation made in 1926. Overall I can form a concrete paragraph of what I think about this anime so, I shall split it in bits (story, art, sound, character, enjoyment, overall):

The story is mediocre and is about taking action in order to fulfill your own dreams or in the literal words of the show "One's happiness ought to be earned by oneself". However the show does a poor job executing this, showing actions that are quite literally the opposite of the message.

the art uses the style of Chiyogami, or cut-outs of things like ... decorative paper and overall is done well. As an artist I can only imagine how hard it was to constantly move the paper to make the animations move.

Sound: N/A Its a silent film after all

The characters of this anime were just not good. We are told that the main character, Dangobei, a thief is a lazy man, but overall we are shown no sign of this.

Enjoyment: Mediocre

Overall: Decent

If you want to watch this anime I recommend going to: https://animation.filmarchives.jp/en/works/view/15479.

Small Spoiler Ahead with a bit of repeated information:

The Burglars of "Baghdad" Castle is an innovation to the animation scene as a whole and is the first step for the famous pioneer Noburo Ofuji animations, Chiyogami( cutout animations), as well as animation as a whole. But overall the anime is pretty underwhelming (at least for me). This is mostly because of the static and bad story. The whole anime is about using your own power to get what you want but this man throughout his short journey uses the power of a magic rock to get what he wants. Like seriously? The writing overall is based off of "The Thief of Bagdad" (1924) which isnt an animation but I recommend you to watch as from the few clips I have watched is quite interesting.

Story: The Story for this anime was very good. I enjoyed it alot and it told an amazing moral. The only problem I have was that there was no character growth (more on that in Character).

Art: Amazing. I loved it. It was very traditionalist to old Japanese art which was popular at the time.

Sound: N/A no sound

Character: The characters were pretty static honestly. The only person who learned a valueable lesson was the antagonist, but we didnt even see him much often or get any background on who he is and why he is like that.

Enjoyment: For it being one of the oldest anime ... created, I really enjoyed it.

Overall 9/10

For me, Usagi to Kame was an absolute masterpiece, however for many Usagi to Kame falls short.

First off I should say that this story is based of the Fable of the Tortoise and the Hare and they did a great job recreating it.

Story: The Story is classic and amazing. It is about overcoming challenges.

Sound: N/A They had no sound.

Character: I loved the two characters. I especially love the hare. While many people might dislike him due to his cockiness, I like him for that. The hare was very "human" in sense and the director of film was able to bring that out well.

Enjoyment: I ... had a lot of enjoyment in this piece. You can see the improvement of Namakura Gatana work which goes to show the improvement of animation overtime.

7/23/2022 Edit: So I have recently rewatched Usagi to Kame after watching few other extant animations around this time. While the art is amazing, I have realized I overpraised it quite a bit for the position as a reviewer that I am. So here is an improved critique on the art section that separates my feelings from the review a bit more:

For Usagi to Kame's time, 1927, the art was very good. The beautiful use of stilling and other pattern making techniques was amazing and for any new art student, looking at this piece of work will allow you to learn more about the use of stilling itself. Namakura Gatana used eyerolling and little cute dances to give his characters more expression.

While for an artist the art might seem amazing and an excellent introduction to stilling for others the art of Usagi to Kame falls short. The art can seem very slow especially because in most scenes only one thing moves. This combined with the lack of sound can make Usagi to Kame feel much more drawn out. For those only looking for a story and enjoyment Usagi to Kame will feel boring and will not suite your taste, but for those looking to relish in the mind of the artist, you will have a much more enjoyable time.

Overall: If you are interested in old animation, the history of animation, or art in general, you will enjoy Usagi to Kame, however, for those looking for an amazing use of animation and time Usagi to Kame is not it.

This anime was a literal masterpiece of its time. It is a century old but it is still beautiful.

Story: The story started off great. The MC is a stupid samurai, something not really done, and overall the character progression of this MC was amazing.

Art: The art was absolutely outstanding. The use of a unique art style combined with the nice details of the show was outstanding. The animator exaggerated the character very well suprisingly and they were able to create tropes that have been able to stay today (star on impact).

Sound: Now this is my only problem with this anime. IT HAS NO SOUND! ... For some people it is a deal breaker but if you bare with it and it is well worth it. I cant blame the creator however. You can tell that there was supposed to be some kind of dubbing but it was lost to time.

Character: Character was pretty good. Like I said, in the Story part of this review, the character development was amazing.

Enjoyment: Honestly I surprisingly enjoyed this anime. It was nice and simple and there were no tsunderes.

Overall: Pretty good. I rated it great.

There was only one thing you need to know that was wrong about this anime... It doesnt have a season 2. It should literally be criminal for this to not get a season 2 and I dont understand.

Overall, however, the show was great. Its comedy was top notch especially for a high school boy like me. One problem I have though, other than how short of it was, is how one of the MC's, Tadakuni, didnt appear as often as I hope he would. If you are looking for a comedy, this is a seriously good pick to watch.

My favorite part of this anime ... has to involve a running gag that happens on a riverbank. Thats all I can say without spoiling it.

Seriously go watch this.

I really enjoyed Kanata no Astra. Other than the deep feeling of loneliness I felt watching it, it was good... Let me go in more depth.

Kanata no Astra is about a group of high schoolers who got lost in space. Their goal ended up being to get into their home planet and along the way learned about the history of their planet and why they got sent/lost in space.

In the series they had to overcome many challenges like starvation as well as their relationship with each other. the characters in the show were stereotypical but they still felt like possible humans. I especially like the ... very up bright stereotypical MC. Sure they were cringe at some times but it was still pretty amazing to watch.

The series sound was good with the art being very outstanding. the characters were well drawn and the world was well plot out.

During the series I had felt a huge sense of boringness and dropped it half way BUT after coming back to it I realize it was due to a sense of loneliness from the whole space scene. This might be my personal taste but could be some unknown element the creators of the anime weren't able to replicate from the manga.

One fault of this show (other than the sense of boringness I felt in the space scenes) got to be the sudden abruptness of comedy occurring in the show. I believe they could have done this better because it removed me from the flow of getting into the show. I found this passible however since most of this comedy was due to the characters, who are high schoolers, which would make sense as they are high schoolers.

I would like to point out before watching this is that they brought up some political/moral (around 2) topics that might anger you if you opposed them. (On the bottom of this review is a disclaimer on the topics).

Overall the show was good(7). If they were to fix the sense of boringness and loneliness the show had, I would have probably rated it a 8 or a 9 so maybe a 8.5.

If you want to watch it I would recommend you being prepared to watch 2 episode filled worth of content because few of their episodes lasted for 40 minutes.

I would like to applaud the creators of the anime and manga for the great job they did.