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Jul 20, 2016
The Hyperdimension Neptunia series of Japanese role playing games have been relatively successful over the last years, even spawning remakes on the PS Vita and some weird looking rhythm dancing game subtitled producing perfection that has little or nothing to do with the main series. Naturally an anime series was commissioned and to date two manga series. We will be looking at the first manga series Choujigen Game Neptune – Megami Tsuushin in this review.
The story loosely follows the events of the games. My personal favourite tropes of the series such as it’s inherently meta nature, and 4th wall breaking dialogue remain. The biggest focus
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here is on Neptune and her irresponsibility, as with the games themselves the tone will barely shift away from being completely ludicrous. So traditional character arcs and development are pretty much out of the question from the offset and this series makes no illusions about that.
To progress the story the characters sometimes take on quests, which are essentially a series of adventure sub plots. These have mixed success, they certainly can excel in referencing videogame culture and role playing game tropes. But when they stray outside that formula and focus on what are essentially 2 dimensional characters with no backstory it can make the manga a pain to read. The humour itself is largely reactionary as it sticks to the principle of pairing an odd couple. In this case the immature and freeloading Neptune is paired with the hard working and uptight Noire with the other characters falling somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.
It’s as if the writers are aware of the elements that are work but aren’t able to provide enough humorous situations in order to warrant consistency. To give a mild spoiler, one of the sub plots entails the protagonists going to the beach where pretty much nothing happens. Conversely another sub plot that centres around “low polygon syndrome” is pretty much hilarious without needing much context. This manga focuses a lot more on slice of life than it does on action sequences, which works to it’s benefit as the art rarely has enough dynamism to pull off a sense of fast movement and instead is focused on subtle facial details.
people who haven’t played at least one of the Hyperdimension Neptunia games or seen the anime are going to get a lot less out of this manga. This is because it relies on a pre-existing understanding and appreciation of the characters and makes no bones as to wether you find them compelling. In other words fan service is pretty heavy throughout, and for that reason I really can’t recommend this to anyone who isn’t already a convert to the franchise.
Original Review:
http://thatsterror.com/manga-review-choujigen-game-neptune-megami-tsuushin/
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 20, 2016
If you’ve finished ‘The Second Barrage’ chances are you will be hungry for more. There isn’t any real sense of completion to the second season. I don’t know whether this was intentional or because they wanted to leave the show open for a possible third season. So in this sense the OVA does technically give a resolution. We also find out the full story about Revy’s past. It was already previously mentioned that she had a difficult childhood so actually showing what happened doesn’t add anything to her character. Revy was interesting because of her wicked sense of humor and unapolagetic way of living. ‘Roberta’s
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Love Trail’ just ends up making Revy seem like a victim of circumstance rather than a warrior.
This OVA came out in 2010 and is considerably more visually impressive then the original anime which aired in 2006. Presumambly this is due to advancements in animation software. Shading and lighting was used a lot more extensively in the OVA, from lens flare to carefully lit shower scenes. Talking of shower scenes there is some fan service. Like all fan service it’s completely pointless and ends up detracting more than it adds.
The plot focuses on Roberta who happens to be in my opinion the most absurd out-of- place character in this entire anime. Roberta is a gun-toting maid who serves the Lovelace family. In the OVA she goes through an identity crisis due to memories of being a guerilla fighter in a South American Country. Unlike Balalaika’s time as a solider, Roberta’s feels contrived and hard to believe. I get that they wanted the OVA to focus on another character, but they literally picked the worst one. They could have gone with the nuns from ‘The Church of Violence’. We could have seen more about how their illegitimate business operates. We could have looked at how Mr Chang manages to rule the Hong Kong Triad and deal with the delicate political problems as they arise from operating such a high level gang. Or we could have just gone with some random 2-bit Roanapur gangster and used his journey as an excuse to explore the City a little more. My point is they had plenty of choices yet still picked the worst possible character and gave her the worst possible arc. Whilst the OVA doesn’t feel like an outright cash grab is still comes off as shallow.
Black Lagoon Omake
If you must have more Black Lagoon but don’t want to ruin the story with an unsatisfactory ending then I’d suggest watching the Omake. It’s a series of anime shorts featuring the characters from the main show. The Omake clearly doesn’t have much of a budget behind it so the animation is limited. But seeing Benny end up as an internet troll or Revy turned into a gun-toting magical girl helps to make up for this.
There was no official English release for the Omake, but you can find a fan-subbed version of the series on YouTube.
Original Review:
http://thatsterror.com/anime-review-black-lagoon/
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 20, 2016
I feel as if the writers decided they needed to outdo the previous season of Black Lagoon with ‘The Second Barrage’ and ended up getting some mixed results. For the most part they succeeded tremendously with the exception of the first arc which centers around child killers. This season begins with some of the edgiest episodes imaginable. Our team of mercenaries end up crossing paths with a pair of psychopathic children who escaped from their lives as slaves. This part of the narrative doesn’t fit the tone set in the first series and ends up feeling very jarring.
So with that out of the way let’s
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talk about the main arc. In the first season our heroes had to fight Nazi’s, crime lords, and other mercenaries. How can you possibly top that? The answer is simple; They end up going to War. Balalaika the Ex-Soviet army captain decides she wants to seize power in Japan. I won’t spoil what happens, but I will say the brutality of the action steps up a notch. Hotel Moscow acts like a Guerrilla army, blowing up buildings and assassinating rivals. To say this arc is exciting would be an understatement. The action is choreographed beautifully and the new Japanese urban setting that part of it takes place in adds a sense of realism previously not seen in the anime.
Balalaika manages to affect change on a huge scale due to sheer force of will and her hunger for a new cause. A cause she hasn’t had since her time as a solider in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion. Rock also comes into his in own this season, using business skills he is able to act as a diplomat to help diffuse the various power struggles that occur. Rock supresses his anxiety and eventually becomes apathetic towards the immorale decisions he ends up making. Revy continue to seize power through violence. But in Rock she sees something she doesn’t like about herself. This brings out a completely new dynamic between the two. The scenes in which these two protagonist’s reflect on their decisions seem far weighter than the previous season. I’d even go far as to say it makes the anime worth a repeat viewing.
Original Review:
http://thatsterror.com/anime-review-black-lagoon/
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 20, 2016
Nuns, Nazi’s, soldiers, maids, terrorists, ninjas, this anime truly does have every possible type of antagonist. It’s truly bombastic and doesn’t have much pre-tense of creating a believable World. It isn’t long before we see our cast of heroes go driving up a ramp and flying 80 feet into in the air in a gunboat on a collision course with a Hind D attack helicopter. It goes without saying you shouldn’t be expecting realism. If all of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s action movies where packed into an anime this would be it. Expect to see platoons worth of soldiers mowed down by little more than our heroine
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and a couple of handguns all whilst striking poses, and at the same time being shot at and missed hundreds of times from just meters away.
You should also expect cigarettes to be smoked and liquor drunk with noiristic levels of cinematography. Oh yes and guns galore all shown in fetishistic detail, our heroine’s chromed twin 9mm Beretta’s with ivory grips and skull symbols get a great deal of screen time along with every other weapon and military vehicle imaginable. As for the story well there actually is one being told in between the explosions and one-liners and it centres on the characters themselves.
In this anime only two characters are actually fleshed out, and even they have their backstories from a book of cliché’s. The two are Rock and Revy. Revy is basically an angstier female version of Arnold Schwarzenegger who tries to solve her internal conflicts through wanton carnage. Her arc revolves around her past as a tough kid growing up on the rough streets being forced into a life of crime and making her own code to live by. Rock gets himself somehow embroiled in a corporate conspiracy when he is sent to deliver a package and is nearly killed in the process before meeting our team of misfit mercenary pirates led by the Morpheus clone; Dutch. Due to Rock’s background as a corporate wage slave he is the subject to Revy’s uncontrollable rage, as Rock loses his humanity by his association with the pirates Revy begins to regain part of hers. As for Dutch well there isn’t much that can be said he is the typical cool bald headed sunglasses wearing, muscled black dude. He acts as a commander says wise things when the plot demands it, and is like an impromptu father figure to Revy at times.
As for the music there are two extremes adrenaline fuelled action riffs and somber melodies. The soundtracks sets up the gore-filled action sequences and gives our characters a touch of humanity afterwards as they stare angstily into the Ocean whilst cruising on a gunboat at night smoking cigarettes under the moonlight. The voice acting is great, this is one of the few times where I can recommend the dubbed version over the subbed. Rock is the only weak voice here, his emotional range is a lot narrower than it ought to be given the intense situations he often finds himself in. Dutch plays the part of the cool black dude with no range whatsoever. Dutch does get fleshed more in the OVA but not by much.
The one thing this anime is both let down by and excels at is the facial animations. It exceeds with Revy and is let down by everyone else. Revy can steal a scene just by stink-eying someone from the backseat of a car or snarling for the 50th time that episode but the rest of the characters have no memorable expressions to speak of. They simply aren’t as animated as Revy and consequently you forget them pretty much immediately. The lighting and shadowing are a cut above average for a 2006 anime. The backgrounds whilst not poor quality are definitely less detailed then they could have been. If our heroes visit the same bar 3 times we won’t have any recognisable feature to remember from that bar. If they go to a military camp all we get for detailing is a few tents and boxes. Out of all the locations the most detailed is the interior of our heroes’ gunboat and even that doesn’t have a single personal touch unless beer cans and cigarette butts count. Fortunately the focus isn’t on the environments but on Revy pulling off action poses midair whilst dodging a hail of bullets. The action sequences are usually dynamic enough to hold your attention just don’t expect there to be any realism. The budget went on explosions and bullet wounds not on carefully choreographing scenes in a way that would make them appear plausible.
Whilst this anime is mostly style over substance it manages to pull off the style well enough to warrant a view. Due to the blistering pace at which we swap in and out new characters and locations every episode ends up having a high point. I highly recommend this anime to anyone whether your new to the medium or a veteran of it.
Original Review:
http://thatsterror.com/anime-review-black-lagoon/
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 16, 2014
‘Welcome to the NHK’ is an anime focused around hikikimori disease. To those who don’t know a Hikikomori is someone who never leaves there house or apartment, in the West we would see this as something like agoraphobia, or social dysfunction.
With such a weighty subject you’d think this anime would be truly deep, perhaps even to the point of analyzing the complex nature of Japanese society as an insight to the rest of the World so that we could finally comprehend why someone might spend their entire lives indoors.
Well no. The main protagonist Tatsuhiro Satou is a 20 something college drop-out hikikimori. His
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soon to be friend Karou Yamazki is however, to the point of being a massive stereotype. He is video game programmer, otaku and dakimakura owner.
That’s as much as the plot I can delve into without giving anything away. The general feel of this anime is that of unrest, the comedy is very dark and the protagonists all lead deeply troubled lives even if they are all middle class young adults with potentially burgeoning careers or relationships. In fact if anything makes the actual story arc of this anime fall apart it is the ridiculous lack of realism, that would work much better for a sitcom style TV show than it does here.
Another huge gripe is that the protagonist is shown to be both a loser and yet somehow have two young women fall in love at least partially with him. Additionally the female characters although given weighty issues such as depression, drug addiction, schizophrenia even somehow remain 2 dimensional with back-story that doesn't make us neither care for their plight nor understand it.
The music in this anime however is fantastic it manages. From the opening full of false optimism that contrasts perfectly with the dark subject, to the heart wrenching quieter more reflective songs that play in the characters lower moments. It’s a shame that the writing doesn't have the depth or nuances of its highly compelling soundtrack.
Read more Anime Reviews on my Blog:
http://comicconreviews.blogspot.co.uk/
The narrative arc of this anime is rather uneven it almost feels as if we are be given too stories, one an exploration of why the protagonists are as screwed up as they are and the consequences of thei lifestyle and another a more traditional adventure narrative, for this reason there can be a somewhat jarring transition every 6 episodes or so. The conclusion is not only unsatisfying but also ends up feeling flimsy and tacked on in order to have some sense of completion that really doesn’t seem natural at all.
Usually when watching an anime I would choose the original Japanese undubbed version over the dubbed. Not because I’m some kind of hardcore anime fan but because dubbed anime tends to have at least one character that has a headache inducing sugary sweet take on a character. However when it comes to ‘Welcome to the NHK’ the dubbed version features some terrific voice acting that captures the subtle nuances of each of the characters. Satou does come off as a little too suave for his character.
The art style is another huge plus for this anime, there is a lot of very careful detailing from discarded tissue and computer screen monitors to the moody lighting inside Satou’s apartment. Most of the time the art direction is excellent however more so toward the end of the anime we will get frames that are clearly under detailed when compared to certain others, overall it still looks great but a little bit more consistency would have gone a long way. All in all I could still recommend this anime even if the writing doesn’t hold up to seriousness of the subject matter.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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