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Apr 3, 2013
Maoyuu was one of the anime that I was most excited about, having to read one of the source (manga, someone translate the novel, PLS!!). It was a twist on old stories with a different theme that really struck a chord in me, so having an anime was like the icing on the cake.
Maoyuu starts with the usual the classic fantasy setting of the Hero on a journey to defeat Maou, whose realm is at war with mankind. It starts at the end as he reaches the castle and enters the final battle, he ended up founding himself in a university introductory class, listening
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to Maou as she explains to him about the real state of world. In the end they enter into a contract (practically marriage) to find “the place behind the hill”, an alternate possibility to bring peace.
And so we enter their journey as they help to bring about change in the human and demon world alike, using methods and invention that we, the viewers are no stranger to, education and technology.
The series acts as in part as a deconstruction of the typical RPG Hero setting, but also breaking into the political, social and economic nature of warfare and development and how this reflects on our history. On both side, humans and demons, was there shown to be unhappiness , inequality and struggle for the denizens and on both side, there are ones who benefit from war and go out of their way to ensure its continuation, for their selfish reasons. It also shows the corrupting nature of hierarchies, as the powerful in the world controls the wealth and dines, while there are dying people who can’t even have a chance.
The series itself composes of dialogue between the characters, showing the various plans and thoughts of everyone who is a stakeholder in the situation, so everyone, from the small servants to the leaders and how in a sense “the game is played” by the various factions who wants to achieve their goals. Maou’s plan is to introduce new technology and thinking into the human world in order to improve the lives of the people, this gets on the nerves of others, who sees this as a threat to their rule and invoke war.
The characters themselves are interesting, as they are extremely stereotypical of characters of their kind, yet also somewhat aware of their limitations and they mostly act in ways to add to the story, not to explore themselves. Hero is nearly the a cut out from RPG game, being an idealistic loner who despite having comrades, decided to face Maou alone so that he can save everyone and so that no one has to get hurt. While he himself had noticed that there were discrepancies in the human world and to his role in defeating Maou, he never really thought about it until he meets Maou. Oddly enough, he ended up being quite pacifistic as he would rather reach peace through Maou’s way, rather than using the sword; despite being EXTREMLY OP!!!
Maou herself is a scholar type character, who would probably out-rank modern day hikkis for the time she spent locked away in a room doing nothing but studying, with everything else cater for by the Head Maid, until she decided to become Maou to start her plan to meet Hero. She is extremely wise yet idealistic in her goals and is very serious in her task, she is shown to have a lighter, more humorous and childish side mostly when dealing with Hero.
The other characters, from the Head Maid to the Winter King, are all part of the big story. The Head Maid is the all around helper to Maou that does everything that Maou, can’t, even leading the demon armies and also acts the counsellor to the other characters in the series. The Winter king is the idealistic leader and ally to Maou who realises the abuse of his country and people by foreign nations and sees that Maou can help his country to gain independence through her knowledge. There are also Hero’s old companions, from the Old Man, Female Knight and Female Magician, each have their own role to play in the story, aid Maou and Hero in various way.
Also, I think that the story touched upon the idea of humanity and different human relation. This is show mostly through the various points in the series where we saw how demons and humans treat one another and themselves, from conflict to cooperation. It shows that every relationship requires acceptance from both sides and that no dominance or rule can be cast over people without their acceptance and so that’s why revolts start. This is exemplified by Maou and Hero, who belongs to one another, but neither one, is ruled or controlled by the other.
The series overall acts as a summary of human development that occurred in Europe in the Medieval Age, that went through the Renaissance and even goes close to the Enlightenment, with ideas such as the rights of man, free market, meritocracy, the idea of popular government and even the rejection of universal control of belief by religion and various technological change.
While that is all good, the biggest problem the anime has is pacing and explanation of the story, as they had to squeeze a lot of story in just 12 episodes and therefore a lot of parts were cut and made the story seem a bit idiosyncratic, also it may sound boring to tedious to many who don’t like political and economics talk. Also the way the series ends was disappointing to many, even me a bit, but this is due to the lack of source material sadly, which I hope means that the anime will continue if the novel continues, in a year or year I hope.
Also, while for me there are a lot of similarities that can be drawn from this series and Spice and Wolf, I still don’t feel that the two are comparable. If one only focus on the fact that they both have a theme of economics, then that’s nothing more than breaking the ice of both series. Maoyuu is more of a parody and conversational piece or a sort of long legend rather than an observable story, as its drawing up many similar stories and themes that is time immemorial in human history.
Overall, the series made it for me with how it made me feel, yes I know that is a bit bias, but this my opinion. The series made me felt the same way the manga did, a good concept that’s inspiring and motivated, as it speaks of the beautiful yet simple ideas of humanity, for love , peace and happiness and places emphasis on education and innovation, something we all usually takes for granted. It made me feel more hopeful of humanity( I was really depressed) as it shows the old spirit and belief we had in a better tomorrow, that we will work and live for it and we refused to be bound by old traditions and power to get to our goal. This reflects so much on our modern world, still sadly enough, even though the series is supposed to depict a world similar to our world few centuries ago.
Thanks for listening to my rants, hope that it’s helpful. >(^_^)>.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 30, 2013
Srry this is my first review so It won't be very good:)) and I'll try not to spoil anything.
I'm gonna write a review this time for the manga and currently running anime, Bindougami ga!. The manga started in 2008 in Jump SQ and the anime is currently airing in the Summer 2012 season.
So far I gotta say this series has been a big surprise. I never took notice of this series until the anime started airing and from the look of the manga's scalation releases, so did most other people. This series is like a small hidden gem that not many people will take
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notice of.
The story premise is simple. Momiji is a lazy, rude and flat-chested Poverty God who carries bad luck whose mission is to fix the "imbalance" in the world caused by Sakura Ichiko; a girl who is considered blessed in every way, brains, beauty and even brawns but have a two-faced, near rotten personality. Ichiko is very lucky, too lucky; she's even stealing luck from the people surrounding her. Momiji has to stop her from stealing people's luck and to make her a regular human, but it was tougher than expected and so the battle between God and Girl begins .
Now at first this seems like a really regular setting for a manga, well sort of. I didn't expect it to be a slapstick comedy though and to be true, I was pleasantly surprise by it . The series hits me with a very forward style of humor that constantly keeps me on my feet. Most of the comedy comes from the interactions between the cast of characters, at first from mostly the clashes between Momiji and Ichiko but later on from other characters as well. Another aspect of humor is references made by the characters(mostly Momiji) towards other manga and animes, such as One Piece and Dragon Ball and I even saw Doraemon and To-Love-Ru in there. I even thought that they were doing "It's Over 900000" before I realized in Japan the meme wasn't that famous.
Now and then there are a few dramatic moments in the series which helps to show the other sides of the cast; such as Ichiko being a lonely and misunderstood girl behind her two-faces and Momiji, who's suppose to be extremely ruthless in her mission to be more compassionate and caring towards her target and rival. They also serve the purpose of progressing the story of the series rather than making it completely filled with jokes and humor. This is a similar formula to a lot of mangas and animes, such as Sora no Otoshimono and Ranma1/2.
The most important aspect of the series is the cast, which is the main course of the whole thing. At first you are introduced to the I guess main pair of the series, the God & Girl rivals, Momiji and Ichiko. Their personality couldn't be more far apart and that is what drives the series at first. As the series progresses, more character are introduced, with many different personalities and archetypes and this diversifies the moods of the series. They're also well developed as most of them had their share of personal back story and dramatic moments that helps them bond with each other, from both the main and supporting characters.
There isn't a lot of ecchi elements to the series and they're mostly used for laughs rather than fanservice (well it maybe fanservice for some) and it mostly involves poking fun at either Ichiko's breast, Momiji's lack of breast, some small S&M and perverted fantasies by the series' resident perverts.
The most striking thing and maybe most obvious thing in this cat and mouse game between Momiji and Ichiko all the ironies in it. First is that since Momiji carries a lot of bad luck with her, so really every plan that she hatches against Ichiko will likely fail. Second and maybe the biggest irony of all is that Ichiko was never really happy in her life even though she was blessed with everything; and maybe the real blessing granted upon her, was the God of Misfortune meant to make her life miserable, may actually make her happy.
I recommend this series to everyone, you may have to give it a couple of chapters or 1-2 episodes, but trust me you won't regret it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 30, 2013
Sword Art Online (SAO) was one of the, if not the most hyped-about anime of 2012, spanning 25 episodes and was some of the most talked about topic for anime viewers for several weeks. It ended on the 21st and after spending a whole day for a full marathon, I just can’t resist writing about this series as after watching it I felt like how I felt after I watched Guilty Crown; It was good, but made me felt that it was incomplete or that something very wrong had happened here.
Sword Art Online, adapted from a light novel by Reki Kawahara , who also written
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Accel World which also had an anime adaptation earlier in the year. They both had similar theme of VRMMOG (Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Game) but they have very different premises, progress and feel. I had really enjoyed Accel World earlier and while I wasn’t particularly interested in SAO, I did have certain expectations for the story.
The Premise of SAO was a simple but extremely interesting one, people trapped inside a Virtual Reality Game controlled by a mad scientist who where you will die IRL if u die in the game and the only way to get out of the game is to clear the game. It was interesting to see the perspectives that the show would take into this topic as the setting seemed worthy of a dark, gloomy and cynical adventure story of people trapped inside the game.
But the show had taken a different turn. The pacing of the show was one of the things that really made it suffer as the entire first arc, which spanned 14 episodes had a crammed timeline of nearly two years in it. The result out of this was that the whole thing came out really fragmented and it had left some dissatisfaction after watching it. The first few episodes of the show was more or less about our protagonist’s initial experience inside the game it was done in episodic fashion with large time skips in between and involved a lot of social interaction between our solo player protagonist with others, many of which were girls. It almost had seemed that he was building a large harem and it was almost annoying as it seemed that these were almost more like side stories that in the end had little impact on the overall plot.
The main romance in the series between Kirito and Asuna as I see had also suffered this problem. Their early interactions also had time skips in between them and it made them seem like their relationship development had taken big blind jumps while the actual timeline would have had allowed them to develop the way it did . Their relationship also seemed to have taken centre stage in the story and made it seem also that the original objective had been almost forgotten, so forgotten that by the time the original objective came back into view, the whole arc was forced to an end in less than 3 episodes in a early final battle where a slightly ass-pulled victory was achieved over the mad scientist who probably let it happened.
The second arc of the show focused on Kirito rescuing Asuna who is still trapped, only in another game by the new antagonist, Asuna’s extremely creepy fiancé who wanted to possess her. Again the pacing of the story really made it suffered again as the whole thing only spanned around 10 episodes and while the timeline fitted better, the speed at which things were moving at was still slightly too fast. Also, the second arc had one major disadvantage comparing to the first, the threat of death was gone and so the focus of the show had to be shifted completely away from the original which had taken a lot of the grip that the show originally had on the viewers and focus on the drama of the show.
The second arc also had its own strong budding relationship/romance between Kirito and his imouto/itoko who had feelings for her brother in the first place then fell for Kirito in the game, whose identity she didn’t know about till near the end of the series. The whole thing was resolved in a duel and a big “I’m sorry” hug which made her into a near supporting character.
Overall, the major flaw of the show was its pacing, and because of the pacing that many other problems arises. One is characterisation and character development, especially in the first arc. The characters seem to have different characteristics each episode, made evident by Kirito, who was screaming “I will survive” in the first episode, blaming himself and isolating himself for the death of a guild he joined to rescuing girls and taking afternoon naps on the front-line a few episodes later. The changes are obvious and slightly dramatic but may actually make more sense when taken into context of the time line of the series.
Some characters on the other hand, were really underdeveloped and whose actions were either really obvious or left for guessing. There were two antagonists in the series; one was the game creator/mad scientist Akihiko Kayaba whose motives in the end remain a complete mystery and whose role in the end has become some sort of Godly manipulator who is pulling the strings on the whole thing. The second antagonists, Nobuyuki Sugou, Asuna’s extremely creepy fiancé who was a shallow, one dimensional character, who was the archetype “drunk on power” supervillan who definitely had some kind of god complex. Both of these character who have had major roles to play are given little screen time and then having to play out big scenes and with nearly no insight into their behaviour.
The fighting in the series is also something to take note of, as there was relatively little heavy combat for such a strongly fighting-themed series, the fights were relatively short and also pretty predictable, as the Gary Stu protagonist will defeat his opponent either through a hidden skill or a slightly more shounen-ish “willpower” charge or even more blatantly, actually “cheating” by gaining access to the GM’s account.
In my opinion, the big mistake made in this series was the lack of in-depth exploration to the emotions and experience of the players in this simulacrum and the impact on reality. It was touched on for a bit but was never taken as a direction for the series. The lack of this in what I would call Plot-Driven Story made it seem shallow and the character just seemed to follow the flow without much will of their own. Also, while in the second arc character exploration was ramped up a notch and it also explored the on and off relationship between RL and VR, the objective and mood of the show had then shifted and what would have perfected the show in the beginning didn’t have the intended effect.
But I think there is a reason for all these flaws and it’s the same reason why the series had become so popular. It’s the experience and the setting. The idea of VRMMOG had been explored before in animes and it would be wrong to call it an original idea but I think that they did a good job here with providing a good stage for the adventure to unfold and the idea of living in the game made it more realistic and appealing to people, the classic scenes of a magical world and the atmosphere set by Yuki Kajiura’s scores, which created a fantastical fantasy world atmosphere.
The show also touched on what I would describes as some of the aspects and realities of gaming culture, with the online game economies, PK-ing, escapism and how these things can often act as a reflection upon our modern culture. These things were not a big aspect of the show most people had expected I think and was barely touched upon in favour of adventure stories like, but it was played on elaborately by the show in order to create a some-what realistic online game environment. Some other aspect such as faction clashes, political scheming and the moral distortions of human behaviours when under the anonymous guise of the internet were given greater insights into and while again it made up an important part of the show, it was barely given any spotlight when compared to the adventures. One thing that maybe bigger than the adventure aspect of the show is the aspect of online relationships and how it reflects on the real world, cited by the KiritoxAsuna relationship which was that feeling is real no matter where they’re, which was also part of what made the relationship seem more real and solid in spite of the seemingly big jumps in character. The relationship aspect again took centre stage in the second arc where the impact of online relationship on RL was explored with Kirito's charge to rescue Asuna in VR who was in coma in RL and his relationship with his imouto/adventure partner in game who have had to resolve their RL emotional and relationship issues through the game.
Also, as I have read many other reviews before writing my own review, I was surprise as to the low ratings given to the show by many people as I myself thought tat it wasn’t that bad. One point was that the character designs lacked creativity and that often time’s frames were reused again and again, in fight scenes or just in general. While some people say that this was done out of pure laziness of the producer I may offer an alternative reason for this. For the fighting scenes, often times the moves of the characters are pre-programmed so repeats are inevitable. For the repeat of the character designs, again they’re in a game, and like in most online game, the appearances of your avatar may often be similar, programming or just that it’s the habit of the player. Overall I think the character designs were fine.
Overall, if you are looking for something fun to spend your time watching, I would definitely recommend SAO to you. If you are looking for something akin to a masterpiece then you could look harder since this series has many flaws, but I think that the objectives of the producers were different from the viewer’s expectation and if you pay attention enough, you will find what you are looking for in SAO.
Srry for my long rant and pls look forward to the next review (^)_(^).
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 30, 2013
The winter 2013 anime season brought to us many good anime series, a great starter for the year and as always KyoAni has delivered something that I really enjoyed. Nothing special, just something that helps delivers one’s moods to spring. (I will try not to spoil too much)
Tamako market is a simple slice-of-life story about a Tamako Kitashirakawa, a high school girl in a small town, who’s the daughter of a mocchi (Japanese rice cake) maker in a shopping district. The show allows us to have a view of her and people in the community, their personality and lifestyle, with a small twist... the
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Talking Bird, Dera Mocchimazui; who enters the community accidentally while searching for a bride for his prince, in a tropical kingdom far away.
The whole series seems to represent the ideal small town life in Japan, with an extremely close knit community that could be considered one big family and the simple happiness of their seemingly bland, mundane life. From New Years to summer festivals, it shows us to how they handle their lives and new situations and problems, mainly with the introduction of Dera.
The series has little plot, but staying true to real slice-of-life, I think that this is befitting of the series. The series is mostly a series of short stories about the things that happen in the community surrounding Tamako’s family and friends, from school to trips to different events that takes places. While there is a underlying plot involving Dera’s original mission, I personally think that this was just used in order to be used to bring the series to a more conclusive ending, though I think that it didn’t make it any more conclusive then it can be.
The thing that made is series for me is the atmosphere that the characters and community produced. They’re personality and mood makes you feel warm and happy as they live on their simple lives in a small neighbourhood. Individually the characters are somewhat stereotypical and not well developed, but as a whole they produced a welcoming and lovely atmosphere for the viewers.
The characters also come with a wide variety, allowing them to have a more vibrant feel. From the various shop owners in the area to Tamako’s friends, to the newcomers in the block, Dera and later his boss, Choi, each of them have their own quirks and personality that helps to build the feel of the story. The main character, Tamako; is a first-year high school girl who is described by Dera as “head with nothing but hair and mocchi” is the sweetheart of the district and is loved by her friends and family. She loves the shopping district and said that she will never leave and her carefree and loving attitudes made her a joy to watch as she felt natural, for me anyway as she lives out her life in the community, having fun and feeding Dera mocchi.
The most interesting character in the show is by far Dera, who was added as a supernatural element to the show and also as a comedic mascot. A flamboyant talking bird’s whose name is like a taboo in the Kitashirakawa household as Mocchimazui means “mochi is bad”, despite becoming a stuffed bird due to mochi, so stuffed in fact that he couldn’t continue on with his journey and decided to stay in the area. Dera acted as a sort of catalyst that allows us to explore the lives of the community as he follows Tamako around engages with people in the community. His personality is a bit obnoxious and narcissistic but acts as a comedic joke to lighten the mood.
There is also Tamako’s family, whose members added little stories to the series, from her father, who was found to have written a song for Tamako’s deceased mother to confess to her while he was young, a song which from the beginning of the series Tamako was trying to find. Then there is her sister, “An”ko; who had her own little section where she dealt with her crush and came to term with her own feelings.
Her friend’s also had a lot of time on screen, from Kanna, daughter of a carpenter who was the series’ joker, always having weird lines in a monotonous voice, to Shiori, a shy girl who as the series progressed made friends with Tamako. Then there is Mocchizou and Midori, the former being Tamako’s childhood friend from across the street who has a deep crush (despite the fact that their fathers are competitors) on her but always fell short of confessing, even so that he took advice from Dera…..The latter is one of Tamako’s closest friends who seem to be very protective of her from others, especially Mocchizou, who she considers as somewhat of a rival.
There are also various members of the shopping district, each of them vibrant and sweet in their own way. They all love district and is often seen as Tamako and Dera often goes shopping and helps around in the area.
There were also a few melodramatic moments in the series, but these serve as nothing more than a simple representation of those bad moments in your lives, where you have friends and family to support you, even if the problem is not that big and you may have made it too hard on yourself.
The music of the series also helped to contribute to the wonderful atmosphere; it made the whole show more lively and natural to me, especially the OP and for some reason the whole thing made me feel like the show was set in the 70s or 80s.
Overall, the series is a simple and sweet show, and if you want a conclusive storyline then I don’t think that this is for you as it’s just supposed to be a view into the somewhat normal life of a certain group of people and that's what I love about it, being simple and being yourself. As Dera described the town: “Even in days that seem to chill you to the bone, but despite that, you always feel warm right here”. I would describe this series as sitting in the cool spring wind with a cup of tea and eating sweets(maybe mocchi, but I’m not Japanese), nothing extraordinary, nothing great, but just simple warm joy that satisfies your soul.
Thanks for listening to my rants, I don’t like to give number scores but if I had to, u can see it above ,No?
Btw, can somebody pls explain to me wat moe is, till today I can’t understand it???
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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