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Jan 12, 2018
Did you like Mahou Yuugi 2D? If no, skip out on this one. If yes, also maybe skip out on this one.
Story - 4: This OVA helped my main complaint with Mahou Yuugi 2D's story, which was its lack of direction. It has a distinct 3 act structure, and an ending that resolves the episode's conflict while leaving tons of room for more material. But that goes back to another complaint I had with 2D's story, which was that it not only lacked direction, but that at least somebody working on it desperately wanted it to have direction. There is an idea to be explored
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with this setting and characters, and this OVA teases at that more than I think the ONA series did, but none of it ever gets its conclusion.
Character - 6: While the characters may not be as fleshed out as in the OVA, this one's getting a higher score. Mahou Yuugi 2D had a good variety of chemistry and relationships, but this OVA has far less time to do all that. However, it seemed to succeed as well as it could. It had to establish three characters, their dynamic, make the protagonists likable, and give us an interesting quirky villain. That seems pretty difficult for under 30 minutes of screentime. It's still not great, hence the 6, but there was a good effort.
Art - 4: The main draw of 2D is sorely lacking in 3D. As you can guess, that's largely due to the transition from hand-drawn to CGI animation. 2D had some CGI in spurts but it was never all that obnoxious, and one of my favorite episodes of it had a lot of meta jokes about 3D animation. But here, as well as in the main series, the 3D ranges from weird but passable to weird and pretty janky. And I don't know what it is, but it's a lot harder to forgive bad 3D than it is bad 2D animation.
Sound - 6: Honestly didn't pay attention, but it seemed about the same as the ONA.
Enjoyment/Overall - 7/5: A longer, more serious prequel to the OVA without the visual charm but seemingly with slightly higher writing quality.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 12, 2018
Mahou Yuugi is an incredibly unique, cute series, but it doesn't offer very much beyond that.
Story - 3: The story is split across 24 episodes of approximately 5 minutes each, most of which stand alone with the exception of a few multi-parters. The nature of its broadcast is somewhat abused in this regard, leading to a complete lack of direction. The story follows three aspiring magical girls in a nonsensical realm where they complete challenges to earn Flower Marks, of which they need a certain amount in order to become magical girls and go to Earth. This doesn't actually happen, though. This is first
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and foremost a wacky slapstick comedy with little actual development besides the characters changing location. The most glaring example of this is how the series decides to end with the conclusion to a three parter. Despite having set up some lore and had a goal set out from the start, the series ends with the conclusion to a three parter about the trio opening shops in a city. What could have been a weird yet fun 22 minute diversion in a 26 episode series was instead one of the primary arcs, taking up about an eighth of the runtime.
Character - 5: Relationships and character traits are established, but never expanded on in any meaningful way. Despite characters not having very much to them, they all served their roles and worked off each other well. I'm mostly docking points for reasons related to the story, where seeds are planted for development that are never expanded upon. This problem seems to grow worse as the series progresses, focusing less and less on the main villain and her foil and instead shifting gears to her incompetent minion.
Art - 7: This series has loads of great style to it. From heavily airbrushed storybook backgrounds, to some fantastic character designs by Azuma Kiyohiko of Azumanga Daioh fame, it had a lot going for it in its aesthetic. It was one of the main reason I picked it up, next to "I heard it recommended in passing and it's short." The show also works very well within its budget constraints and adapts to them for some very inventive animation shortcuts and snappier slapstick. Unfortunately its low technical quality is what's keeping it from getting an 8 from me, though.
Sound - 6: Sound is servicable but nothing extraordinary. Sound effects are incredibly exaggerated to suit the animation, but the music doesn't follow suit, opting for simple, cheery, melodies like those you may find in the starting area of an RPG. I'm not picky about dubs, but the one for this is godawful, as it tries far too hard to mimic the moe sound and just comes across as shrill and grating. The dub on the other hand actually had adorable voice acting, which is a bit of a surprise since I don't tend to like that sort of thing.
Enjoyment/Overall - 7/5: On the whole I did enjoy this series, though not as much as I'd hoped I would. If you have time to spare and it's piqued your interest, go for it! But if at any point you feel like dropping it, it may be a good idea, since it stays consistent in tone after the first few episodes of establishing things. The samey tone is made up for in the wide variety of ideas they can get out in a 5 minute format, but it's a very niche anime and I sort of walk the line on whether it's my niche.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 15, 2017
I have nothing to preface this with that the synopsis doesn't cover, so let's jump right into the review.
Story - 5 - I came into this series with fairly high hopes, but those hopes were slowly but surely dashed over time. It's a story about good vs evil in their most pure forms with no depth to speak of. It was an entertaining watch for a while, but the draw of a pure action series wears thin pretty quickly.
Art - 8 - The series' visuals are strange for anime, but they work well. It goes for an almost hyperrealistic style that's unafraid to
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have characters that look old or unattractive. This does unfortunately lead to a couple expressions that just look off, like they're conveying the wrong emotion, but they're few and far between. The decision to use CGI for characters at times was also strange, but it serves it's purpose and doesn't stand out too too much.
Sound - 8 - I feel like I have to say this in all my reviews, but I very rarely notice the quality of music, voice acting, or sound effects. No music in the series is coming to mind, so I'm not sure if it has much beyond ambience or cliche dramatic superhero music. The voice acting I thought was pretty excellent. It's not often screams and cries are accurately portrayed, and even as a non-Japanese speaker I could still pick up on some more nuanced emotions in casual conversations. Sound effects aren't especially good, but they do their job efficiently.
Characters - 1 - Inuyashiki is your generic nice, passive nobody. Shishigami isn't generic, but he's incredibly boring considering he has no moral code or motivations. All non-main characters are stupid and unlikeable in how they respond to Shishigami's actions.
Overall - 4 - I will commend the technical effort required to make this series. However, I can't recommend it due to the writing quality. Despite only having two episodes left, this is not something I'll be completing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Oct 10, 2017
STORY - 5/10
Apparently this idea was pitched by Hayao Miyazaki over a decade before the series was made. In total honesty I'm no fan of Miyazaki when it comes to his stories - I watch Ghibli for the animation - so it's no surprise I wasn't the biggest fan of the plot of Nadia. What confused me most was the inclusion of filler (there's an episode where the characters sing 2+ minute songs set to clips from previous episodes), considering it ran to a non-standard 39 episodes and wasn't adapting anything. It's very hard to pin down the story's faults beyond that, though, because the
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writing is inconsistent in its quality. It opened well, the episodes on the Nautilus were great, and the finale was fantastic. But anywhere inbetween those three points ranged from passable to annoying. I believe that's partly to do with the characters.
CHARACTERS - 4/10
Nadia: Secret of Blue Water has some really good characters. It's a shame they're not used very much. Our two protagonists, Nadia and Jean, are downright insufferable people. Nadia is preachy and needlessly confrontational, whereas Jean doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut about certain topics. The crew of the Nautilus and others serve a valuable role in keeping those two in check and teaching them how to not be awful to each other. Unfortunately the primary characters don't have near as much charm as the tertiary ones.
VISUALS - 8/10
I've heard the animation was kind of stellar by 1990's standards, but I haven't seen much from that time period, so I wouldn't know. Where Gainax earns this 8/10 from me is in the designs and the use of color in scenes. Most everything is incredibly vibrant, but by no means garrish or tacky. This also contrasts well with their decision to use monochrome at some points in darker locations and more intense scenes. Character designs were all readable and memorable, and settings reminded me of Steven Universe quite often.
AUDIO - 10/10
This anime has one of my favorite anime OSTs. It has the kind of jazzy feel you'd typically expect from a series of this time period, with plenty of memorable themes throughout. Sound effects were also masterfully done, adding just the right ambiance to scenes. This coming from somebody who normally doesn't pay much mind to sound design. As far as voice acting goes, I watched the sub because the dub was terrible, but I'm not an authority on the sub's quality since I don't speak Japanese. It seemed pretty good at the very least.
ENJOYMENT/OVERALL - 6/10
On the whole I liked this show more than I disliked it, but I would by no means recommend it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jun 17, 2016
Story: 8/10 What surprised me about the story was how fast it was and how many elements they were able to squeeze in. It almost felt as though it was written as a miniseries with different episodes focusing on different aspects, which they then turned into a film. Similarly, they also got in an abundance of morals and messages. Don't roll your eyes yet, because they're portrayed as realistically as possible for the scenarios, and only a couple are shoved in your face. However, as a side-effect of the pace and jumping focus, it felt rather disjointed at times, which is why I'm docking points.
Art:
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9/10 Hosoda's team has an easily recognizable style, but it wasn't until The Boy and the Beast that it really shone through. Firstly, something I didn't really like: characters are super obviously separated from the backgrounds. This is good practice for animators to make it clear what's happening in a scene, but its a bit jarring when everything's watercolor except the digitally drawn characters. But something I did like: the sloppiness. Why would one like sloppy art, you may ask? Because when an artist knows /when/ to be sloppy, they can give an amazing illusion of realistically fluid movement. The fight scenes were phenomenal because of this. Rest assured though, when it needs to be on model, it is.
Sound: 10/10 The voice acting (dubbed) was absolutely superb. They got stars such as my personal favorite Ian Sinclair, voice of Dandy in Space Dandy, but no one relied on their past roles to carry their roles in this movie. All performances felt genuine and even after finding out who was in it I had a hard time believing they were anyone but their respective character here. I'm not a musically oriented person, so I can't say much, but I'll let you make up your mind. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeAnn54FJa5jcsHnuu32EY2gTK1UBaIed Now, for sound effects, they were also very good, though I cannot easily explain how so without a minor spoiler. If you'd rather skip out, go down to the character section. Everybody good? Okay. There is a rule in the film's society that people may have and fight with swords, but they must remain sheathed. During fights with these swords there are of course bassy thuds, but you can also hear the rattling of the strings holding the sheaths on.
Character: 10/10 I keep mentioning the speed, and I apologize, but again I was surprised at how well they were able to make the speed work with the characters. Perhaps watching it after midnight I was in an easily influenced state but I fell in love with all the characters within the first 30 minutes. Not much is shown of anybody but the two stars, but enough is shown to get a feel for what they're like. As with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, all characters are relatively simple, but still easy to identify with.
Enjoyment: 10/10 I bring up this point semi-often when talking to my friends about films but its worth noting here. If a movie can get me to finish it in one sitting without boring me near the middle, that says a lot about how enjoyable it is. In this case, I was quite easily able to, and that's partly due to the aforementioned fast pace.
Overall: 10/10 I don't know what to say here that I haven't already, so I'll draw a comparison. Everyone praises Studio Ghibli, but I don't really like the stories in their work. I watch them for the breathtaking visuals. The Boy and the Beast gave me what everyone else seems to get out of Ghibli. Is Hosoda "the next Miyazaki" as many claim? Probably not, but he is certainly headed in the right direction with his newest work.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 28, 2016
2 Sentence Review: This movie is fantastic. It toys with the idea of perspective both physically in the animation and the mental concept of it, in what I thought to be a very creative manner.
Story 7/10: Not the greatest story in the world. Pretty basic to be perfectly honest. However, it did its job well. Its tone is relatively peaceful yet the message its trying to get across is rather direct. I cannot say much but I will say it could potentially leave an impression on your life outlook, as much of an exaggeration as that may sound.
Art 10/10: Nothing I've seen has so
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perfectly captured so many elements that are so hard to do in art. Parallaxing, Perspective, Velocity, Weight, Lighting, its all there. You know something is well animated when you feel a bit sick looking at times when a character is at risk of falling. If I do have two things to complain about they're the lens flares and the flatness of things. Complaining about flatness in an animation? Well, yes. With the method of parallaxing they used it sometimes looks like characters are flat images rendered in a three dimensional set. Is this bad? A little jarring perhaps, but I think it did at least somewhat add to the visual style.
Sound 8/10: Funny story, I finished Madoka Magica not long before watching this. I did not catch on that the main character was voiced by the girl who played Kyuubey despite them sounding pretty similar, and I feel like that's a testament to the voice acting in the dub. I am one of those people who focuses so much on the visuals that they forget to listen to the music, but I do remember there being a really smooth piano track and a couple incredibly fitting orchestral songs.
Character 6/10: I don't know, they were all a bit standard. They got the job done but I didn't think any of them were all that special. The villain could have stood to be explained a bit more and the protagonists could have done with a notable trait or two, but I think that's just personal preference.
Enjoyment 9/10: It was fun. It looked nice and took a somewhat unique angle on a story of pregiduce. I am a person who will take at least one break during most movies I watch on my own. I don't have a two hour attention span, or so I thought. Patema Inverted kept me thoroughly engaged throughout all of its hundred minute runtime. It faltered a bit during the last ten or so, but the rest blew me away.
Overall 9/10: Patema Inverted is not a "must-see" for those who are big on story and don't care about the animation. This doesn't mean its not good, you just may not get as much enjoyment out of it as I. For those interested in visuals and more experimental concepts, like myself, watch it as soon as you can.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 24, 2016
This is a children's movie, plain and simple. Not a family movie as advertised. What's the difference? Children's media is made to get kids to sit down and shut up, family media is made with the intention to have multiple age groups interested.
Overall 5/10 - Enjoyment 6/10: Let me put this one first and say I understand its a kid's film, made for kids, and I can't judge it by the same merits as a show aimed at my age group. As I watched the movie I tried to keep this in mind, but even 10 year old me would be bored. It was a
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bland film with some good but overall didn't really work. Had their focus been more on Oz, it would probably rank much higher.
Story 3/10: Its way worse than the synopsis had led me to believe. Coming from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo), I expected much better from Mamoru Hosoda. Instead I got something with a few interesting ideas but overall a very basic plot. The main problem with this movie is that it promises too much. The opening 20 minutes or so look very interesting but its not long before you realize you have to trudge on through the rest.
Character 3/10: There were SO MANY! How can I say I like the characters when all but three are up for two seconds? I suppose I can talk about the main characters, though, sort of. We have male lead 002, female lead/love interest 497, and skilled quiet fighter 033.
Art and Sound 7/10: I really don't have much to say about these. They got the job done, and the art/animation had a few nice touches. However, if you don't like product placement, run. Oz itself is very bright and colorful, rendered in CGI but somewhat stylized to fit in with the 2D animation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 8, 2016
Space Dandy is, at the time of writing (March 8th 2016), my favorite anime. I think a lot of that is due to it being made for English audiences first, but I try to overlook that stuff. So what is Space Dandy? Many have made comparisons to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I feel a more Futurama vibe from it. But enough babbling. On to the review.
Story 8/10: [WARNING] - I may have spoiled something clever in this section. While the series is episodic and I can't spoil plot points, I'm throwing this up here just in case.
This show is episodic, but that doesn't
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mean I can't rate the story. I just have to rate the individual stories. This series plays heavily with the multiverse, which you'll easily pick up on not only with the plot of most episodes but also in the lack of continuity. While some of the episode's plots have been done many times before (e.x., a Groundhog Day episode), the show has so much charm that they hold up on their own. While its hard to compare to Cowboy Bebop due to the massive difference in tone, it almost feels like a modern retelling of the classic.
Art 9/10: Space Dandy is beautiful beyond belief. Bones of course has not failed to disappoint, but I feel a bit sorry for myself making this the second anime I've seen simply because it gave me such high expectations in the animation department. The outdoor backgrounds are painted with psychadelic landscapes while the indoor scenes are populated with dozens of wholly original alien creatures. Animation is always fluid and on the odd occasion where it seems more jittery it still fits with the situation. One of my favorite things about the show's look is how Dandy and Meow are animated in their movements. Both feel very alive at all times. I do have one complaint though, and that is that its painfully obvious where they cut corners in some places to save money for the rest.
Sound 10/10: Oh my God, the voice acting! The music is good too and always fits the situation but there's not much to say beyond that. The voice actors though, let me tell you, are phenomenal. I don't know what I can say about it to elaborate, but if you were to give it a listen you'd know immediately.
Character 8/10: Because its an episodic series its a bit more difficult to judge the characters. Dandy is the lovable buffoon who's a bit of an A-hole but not to a disgusting degree. Meow is the cute yet lazy and agressive sidekick, which makes sense considering his feline-esque species. Finally, QT is the classic straight man keeping them away from each other's throats and on task. There's also Doctor Gel and his assistant/henchman/secret lover whom I've forgotten the name of (looks like a bean) but they don't do much. These characters, despite how they may appear, do absolutely nothing in the story and act solely for comedy. Because of their ominous nature in the beginning of the series I know some people are upset by the fact that they aren't important so I felt I should get that out of the way before anyone else was disappointed.
Enjoyment 10/10: Nothing really to talk about here. Its good not-so-clean fun with goofy antics and subverted tropes around every corner.
Overall 9/10: I really wanted to give Space Dandy a solid 10/10, but taking the average of all my scores for its parts came out to an even 9. This anime is clever, silly, brilliant, and a bit dumb all at the same time, and I applaud it for that. However, I had some problems with the second half. It didn't seem quite as creative, but you can hear my thoughts on that when and if I decide to review season two.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 1, 2016
An even six for this episode, yet I gave the full series an 8? What is this madness? If I were to describe it in one sentence I'd say "I see why it was cut from the series in the dubbed version." While it provides a tiny bit more information about Lucy, its an unnecessary episode. I guess they felt they needed to pad it out or something. The bulk of the episode is just Nana doing chores and being suspicious of Nyu. I thought it was fine, but definitely skippable. The episode is, dare I say it, filler. Throughout the series they've touched on
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things like Kouta and Yuka's relationship in small ways and something as insignificant as Nana adjusting to human life should have gotten the same treatment. Instead we get it all dumped into one episode. Granted, it was the funniest episode, but nothing was added to the Elfen Lied experience in watching it.
I'm only giving it an 8 in sound for the opening and closing songs.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 1, 2016
"The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" is quite a boring title for a movie like this yet at the same time it tells you exactly what you're getting into. I didn't really know what I expected going into this but it certainly was not slice of life time travel. If you want something traditional with paradoxes and such I suggest you look elsewhere, but if you want a character driven movie this is a great one.
Story - 7/10: I'm only giving a 7 because everything is in the characters. They try to shoehorn something of substance in at the last half hour and it didn't
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really work with me. I can't say much without giving spoilers, though. The overall approach to the story was actually really unique and subtle. Time travel isn't abused for personal wealth or fame, its used to spend more time with friends and avoid awkward situations. People must deal with the consequences as Konno learns more than she should about people and her classmates end up hurt in ways they wouldn't have been without her intervention. All that said, I feel like you'd have to be in a certain chilled mood to enjoy it fully, as it doesn't provide much action.
Art - 7/10: I was never blown away by the art, but it was pleasant to look at. I like to split up art into two categories, lines and animation. The linework I'd give a 6, nothing special but it gets the job done. The animation itself was definitely worthy of a 9 or a 10, with little touches here and there to make the characters feel less stiff. The "camera placement" really stood out to me in some ways as well. Rather than stick to the classic angles seen in live action film they decided to branch out and make it as interesting looking as possible.
Sound - 7/10: I don't remember any of the music save for the fact that there was a really sweet ambient track near the end. With that, I can't really give a rating, but I can comment on the sound effects. They always fit with what was happening and seemed very realistic. When someone runs into a bookshelf, it sounds almost as if they actually got someone to run face-first into a bookshelf and recorded it.
Character - 9/10: Okay, granted, the characters themselves are sort of cookie cutter. You have the misfit, the jock, the nerd, the misfit's semi-misfit friend, and the group of gossipers. What I admire is how the time travel allows the writers to play with them and show you not what traits they have, but exactly what their personalities are. This is done by placing them in variations of different scenarios and they could not have done it better.
Overall+Enjoyment - 8/10: While its not a must-see movie, it does something I've personally never seen before, and that's enough to make me say its worth giving a try if you like a little slice of life. I started this film expecting it to be good, a 7/10, but what I got was able to exceed those expectations. By no means a masterpiece but still an interesting take on an element that's been done to death.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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