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Feb 27, 2025
Horus: Prince of the Sun is an interesting proto-Ghibli picture that really tests the art of the possible for late 1960s anime. Watching it for the first time I was quite impressed with the animation given the fact that this film released in 1968. If you take even a cursory glance at the anime landscape at the time and works that were contemporary to this film the animation prowess on display here easily blows the rest out of the water. It is important to keep in mind that in the late 1960s it was not uncommon for anime films and television series to be produced
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entirely in black-and-white and with fairly cheap or stilted animation. A rather extreme example would be 1967's experimental Ninja Bugei-chou, a film spanning over two hours that contained no animation whatsoever, only voiceovers and camera panning over black-and-white still images. Horus, releasing little more than a year later, occupies the total polar opposite of this spectrum; lush colors, detailed shading and lighting techniques, picturesque backgrounds and smooth, high frame animation.
This film's Ghibli DNA is immediately recognizable and it's fascinating to observe how relatively modern it looks for how old it is. It certainly isn't flawless however and limitations in both the production and budget become very apparent around halfway through the film where rather long and complicated scenes play out using still images (not unlike Ninja Bugei-chou in these moments) which is particularly jarring given the stark contrast to the sheer fluidity of movement and the high number of moving objects in frame in other scenes.
The story I found to be pretty basic and to be honest rather boring. As an adventure narrative this would have stood out as something more gripping perhaps in 1968 but I found that it plays out like a bog standard mythological hero vanquishing the dark lord with very few truly unique or standout elements. That said it is competently told, even by today's standards. The score provides some charming melodies and hymn-like songs and the English voice acting is decent despite being very much a product of its time.
From a technical perspective this film is impressive to behold and was definitely a milestone for Japanese animation. Outside of the art direction and animation quality however I don't think time has been kind to this film. It's okay for what it is but I think if there is a reason to watch it in 2025 or beyond it would be from a perspective of anime archeology where it offers context and a study into the seed-planting and root-laying for what would later become the legendary Studio Ghibli.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 22, 2025
Clear my mind... Keep it undisturbed...
Dragons Rioting is a battle ecchi harem series that strikes the right balance between fan service, comedy, action and wholesome moments. To describe it in a sentence, this is Dragon Ball Z except it's also a high school ecchi manga.
Speaking of Dragon Ball this manga is rife with Japanese pop culture references from other manga, anime, video games, broader Japanese culture and occasionally Hollywood and even real-world history. You really get the sense that the author Tsuyoshi Watanabe is a major pop culture enthusiast and that this work is a labor of love written by a manga/anime nerd for manga/anime
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nerds. The references at times can start to pile on but instead of getting to the point where it might come across as annoying you just start to recognize and accept this as a quirk of this series. The English Yen Press release also does a good job collecting all of the references at the end of each volume in case there were any you missed or didn't understand.
The story takes place almost entirely at the Nangokuren all-girls school. Well, "school" in the sense that this is one of those high schools in manga where no one ever does any studying, ever goes to any classes and where there seems to be no structure at all to student life whatsoever other than rival gangs of menacing, busty girls accosting one another in physical showdowns to determine who can exert dominance over the other. It more resembles a prison in that sense with the school functioning as little more than an excuse to gather the characters together in one place and to provide them with both a gladiatorial arena and a turf to fight over.
Now, with any harem series the weak link can be and often is the MC. Usually these characters are either so bland or so unlikeable that they either have no presence or impact on the story at all or they wear thin the patience of the reader who'll either check out entirely or begrudgingly read on in spite of the MC. This is not the case at all with this series. The single best part of Dragons Rioting is without a doubt Rintaro Tachibana and that is saying a lot in a manga chock-full of badass, ass-kicking alpha females who look like they can break necks with one quick twist of their thighs.
Unlike most harem MCs Rintaro is surprisingly and refreshingly quite likeable. He's a good-hearted guy without being an insufferable goody two-shoes, he's a sheer badass in his own right and admittedly fairly OP but without it coming across as undeserved and above all he is funny and entertaining. Not only is Rintaro not a scumbag, which is something most ecchi or harem MCs at least occasionally flirt the line with, he's also an honest person who genuinely cares for others in a way that feels authentic. You really can't ask for much more from an MC in a manga like this.
Rintaro is given a contrived but novel reason for being fiercely avoidant of women and lewdness - a congenital disease that predisposes him to what could be a fatal heart attack if he ever became too aroused. As ridiculous as this obviously sounds it works on three distinct levels: (1) as a plot device to establish a need for years of intense training with his father the martial arts master, (2) as the main underlying comedic fabric and formula for much of the humor throughout the series, and (3) as a meta level satirical jab and subversion of the ecchi and harem genres.
Aside from the titanic martial arts clashes, absurd humor, and the panty shots another thing that stands out in this manga are the underlying themes of friendship and comradery. This manga has some soul and the message it constantly returns to is learning from people you care about and as a result growing to be a stronger person, both physically and socially. While this might appear to be an invocation of the cliché "power of friendship" trope, Dragons Rioting genuinely anchors friendships as a consistent theme central to the story and the journey of the characters and in the end comes across fairly wholesome and warm especially for a series where school uniform policy is adhered to only in the loosest possible sense.
While the art is at times very good there is something left to be desired in the way of consistency throughout the series. Most of the character designs are top-notch and fairly memorable. Despite the fact that the series quickly gets crowded in short order with what feels like rows upon rows of beefy amazons, they are all fairly distinct in both their physique and outfits that you never really lose track of who is who. The author demonstrates a wide range in styles, from hilariously misshapen comedic caricatures (usually of Rintaro) to downright graceful and majestic double page spreads featuring epic special techniques or particularly badass poses during some of the more serious face-offs. But these panels are fewer in number than one might hope for and so overall I would put the art quality roughly in the B-tier on aggregate. By no means bad and in some places surprisingly good but just not consistent enough to truly stand out.
Above all this manga is genuinely funny. The myriad of absurd special techniques and martial arts styles employed by Rintaro, usually in efforts to avoid looking at or colliding with the female form, never really wears out its welcome. I lost track of how many times I had to close the book and laugh out loud at the unbelievable stupidity of his special techniques both due to the cheesy animal-inspired naming conventions, that goes something like "Way of the Sneaking Shrew - Burrowing under Busts", as well as the absurdity of the physical movements involved or the sometimes unrecognizable shapes Rintaro has to take on.
Beyond that recurring joke the series is full of ridiculous scenarios and conversations that often make you want to strangle multiple characters at a time. One particularly memorable episode was where both Rintaro's pupil and his stalker follow him home on summer vacation - his pupil motivated to seek his guidance on training and the stalker to presumably find a way to make him her boyfriend. Before long Rintaro's eccentric muscle-bound father appears suddenly, and without asking imposes a strict training regimen on the girls, resulting in the stalker girl in the end spending more time being trained by Rintaro's insane dad in grueling martial arts trials and never actually getting to spend any time alone with Rintaro. If you get a kick out of scenarios like this you'll enjoy this manga.
It's unfortunate that this series never got an anime as I feel everything here would lend itself well to a 12 or even 24-episode adaptation. While Dragons Rioting isn't breaking any new ground, it does a lot of things right and delivers entertaining battles and laughs in a consistent way and wraps up with an appropriate conclusion before it ever starts to grow stale.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 17, 2025
Airing only 8 months after the first film this sequel delivers more of the same albeit in a more refined overall package.
Everything about this movie marginally improves on the original. The animation quality is noticeably better with higher fluidity of movement. The cinematography is improved with some decent transition shots early on and more varied and creative perspective shots and the art design and art direction, especially the backgrounds, are noticeably more detailed and polished. The voice acting has also improved as a whole. Despite what seems to be the same cast the performances are more lively and spirited and the plot lends itself
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to some emotional confrontations and outbursts where the actors do much to make the scenes more interesting than they otherwise should be.
The plot here is in some ways even dumber than in the first film but this is compensated for with better pacing and more focus leading to a tighter overall narrative from start to finish. There is no attempt at any kind of political commentary around military–industrial complex this time around. This theme is seemingly replaced with a more generic statement on the nature of doing right by your personal convictions and not being a slave to blind loyalty.
When it comes to the action set pieces, while they are better animated and slightly better choreographed than in the first film, recycled shots still abound and the exceedingly contrived ways in which the protagonists defeat their foes also carries forward. The nonsensical "exposed weak spot" trope is employed here in an even lazier way than in the first film if that can be believed and the catching and throwing back of missiles and artillery shells makes a return as well.
The absurdity is not limited to the action sequences as tension is built up in some of the most spurious ways bordering on falling through plot holes. At one point 009 is holding another character over a ledge of a crevasse by the wrist, preventing them from falling. As the walls of the chasm start to close in 009 is shown struggling in an overdramatized, drawn-out way over the task of pulling this one character over the ledge and to safety... but 009 has already been established as an enhanced cyborg with super human strength so this scene plays out rather farcically with that in mind.
At another point a character is first electrocuted by the main villain and then repeatedly shot by dozens of henchmen in an extremely cheesy way but nevertheless manages to slide across a wall very slowly to reach a lever to free the other cyborgs while sad music plays in the background. This all happens so painfully slowly and melodramatically that you have to question why the henchmen a) stop shooting, and b) make no other attempt to stop the character given how slowly they are limping and stretching for this lever. If you can find the unintended comedy in these kinds of scenes then you might find it amusing but otherwise you'll be left with your face in your palm.
One other thing that jumped out more in this film than it did in the last was how annoying the 007 character is and how constantly they are featured throughout the film. It feels like they alone are given a quarter of all dialogue in the movie and practically all of it is either drivel, whining or poor attempts at humor. You could edit this character out completely and save what feels like 10 minutes off the run time while losing nothing of note or value.
All in all, while this is a sequel that surpasses the original in essentially every way, being better than "horrid" still lands you "fairly bad" in this case. I still can't quite come around to recommending either film however if you have the inclination to watch only one of these two then this sequel is perhaps the one to go with.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Feb 11, 2025
This is an exceedingly simple anime with no real grasp on subtlety whatsoever. Things happen and then more things happen. There is no real finesse in plot progression, just brute forcing scene after scene of uninteresting dialogue and tedious action sequences. You don't really care about anyone in this story simply because they haven't given you any reason to. Around the halfway mark they try to make the characters sympathetic but the attempt comes across as forced, hollow and void of life.
The animation looks primitive even for 1966. Lots of recycled shots and choppy movements. It's in color which was something not yet taken
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for granted at the time this film first aired, so I suppose there is that. But beyond the animation quality what I find most disappointing here is the unappealing art design. Characters and machines alike look blobby, rudimentary, and frankly low budget. While I understand this anime is adapting character designs from the original manga series a few glances at the original panels leads one to the conclusion that the author's work was not done justice in this adaptation.
The action sequences are largely nonsensical and much of the time downright idiotic. Characters pluck oncoming missiles and rockets out of their flight paths and throw them right back like they were footballs. Any moments that could be tense are quickly ruined by just shooting at the enemy more, this time with a more determined expression or at exceedingly contrived and nonsensical weak spots. Robot sauropods with missiles firing out from their mouths was an early last straw for me.
The film attempts at some very basic antiwar commentary as well as a general critique of military–industrial complex that comes across mostly oversimplified except for one particular moment where the anime very briefly elevates itself. At one point the cyborgs are hiding in airfield-adjacent bushes and foliage watching the Black Ghost group conduct and conclude arms sales (outdoors and in full view of any hidden spectators) with each of two warring sides in a global conflict that Black Ghost itself had helped instigate. After witnessing this group arm both sides and profiteer from the ongoing death and destruction of the war one of the characters remarks in disgust "these guys [Black Ghost] are more cruel and evil than the ones actually fighting the war". That caught my attention for a moment as something resembling profundity in an otherwise mess of childish mayhem but the moment passes quickly and soon you are reminded why you shouldn't be expecting too much from this film. Finally, in true fashion for post-war Japan still coming to terms with Hiroshima and Nagasaki the film ends with an atomic bomb dilemma and subsequent detonation, capping off the antiwar message with an exclamation point.
The voice acting is mostly sleep-inducing with one exception very late in the film by Masato Yamanouchi which definitely steals the show and comes across as a high effort performance. Though brief this was perhaps the best part of the film all in all but it still falls short of making you feel like it was worth sitting through the first 55 minutes to get to it.
Ultimately there is little reason to watch this other than to gape at a historical curiosity. While I am sure this anime was something closer to adequate in 1966 in comparison to what had aired up to that point, I don't think it was ever good and it certainly has not passed the test of time in my view. Recommend passing on this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Feb 9, 2025
Black Lagoon in my view transcends anime and manga as a seminal work of crime-action fiction. This is a very approachable and accessible series that you can introduce to someone who either doesn't watch much anime or is not drawn in by typical anime tropes and more than likely induce a favorable or very favorable response. The themes it explores such as personal meaning and purpose, comradery, morality and honor among others resonate sharply while the very Hollywood, action-blockbuster presentation and polish yield undeniable charm and appeal.
It should be noted that this isn't a heavily serialized story working towards a definitive or planned ending, at
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least that is not the case with this original anime (the manga is currently ongoing). If that is something one must absolutely get out of an anime series then there is some room to be disappointed but I would in any case suggest to approach with the understanding that Black Lagoon is a short-arc-based series that delivers high octane, ultra-violent action set pieces complemented by memorable and well-written dialogue in the form of philosophical musings and intriguing conversations squeezed in between downing attack helicopters and fighting off terminator house maids.
The series is often compared to Tarantino films and while I appreciate why someone would make the comparison, to me it may be a bit more accurate to describe this series as Tarantino meets John Wick meets Lara Croft meets Hong Kong action flick. In any case, while these comparisons can be fun and useful perhaps to give someone uninitiated the general vibe and gist of the show I think if overstated do a disservice to the creator Rei Hiroe and the world and characters he has built and brought to life here through his writing, aesthetic design and his signature quirks. Once you familiarize yourself with the Black Lagoon anime and manga you might just as likely find yourself recognizing other works as being Rei Hiroe-esque as opposed to seeing Black Lagoon as necessarily Tarantino-esque.
Between the equal parts beautiful and badass female characters who are both physically and mentally powerful and overwhelming, to the "scum of the week" approach of showcasing the most irredeemable, rotten-to-the-core bastard villains of assorted backgrounds and motivations, to the plausible ambiguity of character backstories there is a signature style and tone at play here that, in my view, remains criminally underrated and underappreciated (pun intended).
While remaining very faithful to the manga (save for the placement of various story arcs, which may appear earlier or later in the anime as compared to the manga) the anime does a fantastic job both in adapting the style of Hiroe's original work while also adding to it to achieve something unique to the anime itself. The incredible, built for purpose soundtrack along with Madhouse's sharp and clean animation elevate the anime beyond what the genius of the manga could realize on its own. No where else is this more true than the voice-over work, particularly the English dub which is easily one of, if not the best, English localizations of any anime I have ever heard, even after all these years. The vulgarity of the language never comes across as needlessly edgy or sophomoric. It's written and delivered in such an original, intelligent and authentic way that it only serves to further immerse the viewer in the world and endear them to the characters. While the Japanese dub is certainly serviceable and Megumi Toyoguchi's more subdued, almost elegant characterization of Revy works on its own level it is ultimately difficult to match Marÿke Hendrikse's standout performance with the character, bringing a dynamic range between frighteningly psychotic to coldly cerebral to jovial boorishness and above all keeping these distinct modes both believable and consistent with the character. The rest of the casting is similarly faultless and Ocean Productions put on a masterclass in ADR directing here that has and I feel will continue to stand the test of time.
The characters in this anime exude personality at all times and their unstated or at most understated backstories further allures the viewer with the sense of mystery, always leaving you to guess at how exactly these characters got to where they are from the bits and breadcrumbs interspersed throughout the series. The almost stoic and world weary dispositions of Dutch and Balalaika are offset by the humorous and playful attitudes of Revy and Chang who are in turn balanced by the humanity of Benny and the idealism of Rock. Even relatively minor characters like Rock's boss or the captain of the mercenary company in the first two episodes are fully realized, have memorable quirks and as despicable as they are, are still somehow likable and charming in their own way.
On the surface Revy can be recognized as the sparsely-dressed, ass-kicking femme fatale with the tongue of a sailor who is the flashy poster girl and main draw of the series and while she is certainly all of those things there is also a lot more to her character as becomes steadily revealed. Revy is unexpectedly and almost deceptively multidimensional and deep from a characterization perspective. On one hand she comes across as a cold professional, a veteran criminal with ice in her veins but at the same time she can be an unhinged psychotic adrenaline junkie reveling in bloodlust and mayhem. Just as often she is playful, sprightly and genuinely funny with a crass and provocative sense of humor while at other times she comes across as a pragmatic and cool-headed tactician or as a thoughtful and articulate purveyor of a particularly jaded brand of philosophy.
Despite her rambunctious demeanor there are ample moments where her intelligence and instincts are put on display as being practically machine-like, clearly a product of practice of the life-or-death variety. At the same time her undisputed mastery of killing is balanced out by very human emotional outbursts, deep-seated insecurities and clouded thinking. There is a tragic and mysterious dark side to the character that one only obtains glimpses of through quick flashes of her past where just enough is shared for the viewer to get a vague idea of the kind of hardship and trauma Revy must have endured at a young age. What makes Revy interesting is not merely that she is a badass gunslinger but it's the fact that she is a deeply flawed character that also happens to be a badass gunslinger worthy of cultivating the reputation and nickname of "Two Hands" in a city filled to the brim with cutthroats, assassins and gangsters. At the time Black Lagoon was new on the scene Revy was a new fresh twist on the badass female lead in anime. Now, over 20 years since the original publication of the manga and almost 20 years since the anime first aired Revy is now fully cemented in the badass anime female lead hall of fame and this is for good reason.
The other primary character, Rock, is without a doubt the intended self-insert character meant to relate to the target demographic of the series and resonate with them a semi-plausible fantasy of leaving their own dreary and safe day-to-day and joining up with a crew of devil-may-care pirates, one of which is a hot chick and going on the adventure of a lifetime. The idea that this kind of straight-laced, noble but naive character can find a place and a niche even in the most seedy of seedy criminal undergrounds is a unique and refreshing take on the fish out of water trope.
Over the course of the series his initial rejection of his deferential, customary life in Japan collides with his resistance to fully accepting the greed, violence and cruelty of the criminal underworld. Inside Rock there is a part of us that critiques both the class-based grind of everyday working life in modern developed societies while also condemning criminality as something undesirable for obvious reasons while at the same time conceding that there is something entrancing about trading safety and security for freedom and self-determination.
And these gripping characterizations are commonplace and continue throughout the series. The Colombian terrorist turned housemaid who is so disillusioned and disgusted with her former life and the false promises of ideology that she has taken up the cause of protecting a family friend and finding in that meaning, purpose and perhaps a hope at redemption. Or the Russian paratrooper captain who fought and bled and lost comrades all for what in the end amounted to just another fallen regime quickly forgotten and lost to history. This is a world of cast-offs, misfits and runaways who cross paths and draw weapons over money, reputation, personal responsibilities, business commitments and surprisingly, honor. Above all, Black Lagoon is a series where the characters wear their principles and convictions at the end of a gun barrel and where few if any compromises can be reached.
To me there are many different ways or reasons for which a work can be regarded as a masterpiece. Some works stand on their creativity and originality, others through mastery of the craft and through near flawless execution.
In the case of Black Lagoon I am so much under its spell that I can't think of really anything that could be improved or that ought to be changed. No single part of this series is wholly original, this is true. Hiroe, being a pop-culture aficionado, wears his influences proudly on his sleeves, but Black Lagoon is an example of when the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts. The quality and skill on display here (both from the creator and by Madhouse) is at such a high level and the execution so impeccable that Black Lagoon not only stands shoulders above anything else in its genre from an anime perspective but also emerges as an influential work in its own right, as good as the best of anything that has come out of Hollywood itself. I would venture to guess Hiroe would be pleased to know his own magnum opus has by now joined the annals of Hollywood and Hong Kong action movies as not just a homage or tribute but as a fully realized entry and an exceptional entry at that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 2, 2025
For an anime based on a free-to-play browser game this is honestly rather well put together, mostly competent and coherent. Personifying historical Imperial Japanese Navy ships into eccentric and colorful anime girls might seem like just another anime-ification cash grab, and well okay it is, but both the original game and this anime exude a certain nongeneric charm that is unique to this IP. There is a subtle genius in the way it is all put together that you never feel that this is an entirely soulless or cynical affair - there is personality here and I think that counts for a lot.
There definitely isn't
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anything groundbreaking here but it is also clear that that's not what this anime was setting out to achieve in any case. The original source material this anime is based off of is itself extremely thin on lore and backstory. Do not expect this world to be fully fleshed out or explained. The abyssals (the enemy/antagonists in this show) have zero characterization and if I recall only a literal handful of dialogue lines over all 12 episodes. They are more akin to a pest or infestation that the ship girls are tasked to confront and defeat than any kind of thinking, living and breathing opposing force in a military conflict.
But the abyssals don't really matter in that you're not supposed to be preoccupied with them all that much, or ask where they came from or why they are doing what they're doing. The game and specifically this anime are rather unapologetic about the fact that the enemy here serves merely as a plot device to give the ship girls something to shoot at and fight against and to provide a backdrop upon which to tell interesting character-driven stories.
There has been some speculation that the abyssals are intended to serve as dehumanized stand-ins for the United States Navy and are inserted in such a way as to act out a revisionist fantasy in which Japan wins the Second World War. This interpretation is unconvincing for a number of reasons not least of which is the fact that the game this anime is based on and draws all of its lore and ideas from later added American ship girls based on vintage US Navy ships of the same period, along with ship girls from other nations that participated in that conflict, foes and allies of Japan alike. In the game all of these ship girls, regardless of national allegiances during WWII, can be recruited to together fight against the abyssals.
I think that at times those outside of Japan go a little too far out of their way to read into Japanese media what they believe to be thinly concealed Japanese military chauvinism where in reality is more often simply Japanese earnestness around having an affinity for their own culture and history. While it appears that Japan may still have some unresolved hang-ups concerning their defeat in the Second World War and reconciling that with their culture of honor and the significance of shame and defeat in that context but I don't think this anime or the game it is based on have any sort of pretentions of this nature or any such political message. In fact I will venture to suggest that this IP is going out of its way not to disrespect the US or their WWII allies by instead having a totally fictitious, unrecognizable, almost eldritch enemy for the Japanese ship girls to instead fight against and subsequently destroy.
The reason they are all based on Japanese ships is simply because the original game was developed in Japan for release to a Japanese audience. It's possible to have national pride and an interest in your country's history including the assortment of storied warships constructed in the past without glorifying the brutal regime that directed those machines in wars of aggression. That is my interpretation at least and I see the references to the Battle of Midway and other allusions to WWII like the breaking of codes to be nothing more than neat easter eggs and historical tie-ins to wink back at viewers who know their military history.
This anime and the IP more broadly are really not reaching that deep and I say that affectionately. This is in no way intended to be a war-opera epic; this is an anime where ship girls blow stuff up, exchange banter, form friendships and share wholesome moments. Kantai Collection is very honest and upfront in this regard and I feel that the more pernicious characterizations of the show as revisionist propaganda are unwarranted.
Having briefly played the browser game this anime is based on I can say that Diomedea did a good job tying in both the elements of the game and the tongue-in-cheek references to real-world history and adapting it without having the show devolve into an excess of fan-servicey references or overdone WWII trivia. The characters reference in-game resources like fuel and steel and mechanics like "instant repair buckets" that might seem too silly and absurd for someone who doesn't understand the context of the show being based on a game but these things don't rock the boat enough (pun intended) to otherwise detract from the enjoyment of the series.
I have watched all the episodes dubbed and most of the episodes subbed I can say that this is an example where both the sub and the dub totally nailed the casting. Naturally there are some voices where I feel the sub did better and a few where I preferred the dub but overall the characterizations are consistent across both with some standout performances being Nao Touyama as Kongou in the original Japanese or Sarah Wiedenheft as Zuikaku in the dub. One thing I did want to mention was the insistence on Yuudachi using the same "Poi" verbal tick in the dub. The word itself in Japanese means "like" or "ish" and so simply repeating it in the English dub as "Poi" is missing the meaning in translation and doesn't convey quite the same charm as if the character was ending all of the sentences with the word "like", which is how it works in the original Japanese. I feel the localizers either didn't recognize or appreciate their responsibility to authenticity make the verbal tick make sense in spoken English or that they were too worried about being pilloried by the anime community and western KanColle fanbase who at the time this series was dubbed were fully enthralled by the "Poi" memes surrounding this character.
My take is that the most vocal, hardcore fans are just going to watch the sub in any case so localizers should worry less about that kind of backlash, real or perceived, and worry more about their job which is to make the dub (all of it) make sense in English. It is not the end of the world by any means but it stood out as a strange choice, especially during the first few episodes until you settle in.
The animation is crisp and looks medium/high budget for the most part. The CGI scenes, typically occurring during action sequences, are not all that great but at the same time could be a lot worse given when this was made. For me it's the often clumsy transitions between regular animation and the CGI models that sometimes comes across as choppy and abrupt.
The soundtrack in my view punches above its weight in a big way. I really enjoyed the loud and bombastic OP and the collection of varied tracks do a great job setting and shifting the mood of the show and are well synchronized with whatever is happening onscreen.
Overall I like this anime. It's a fun, wholesome escape with just the right mix of personality, solid production values and WWII trivia and reaches a satisfying conclusion before it starts to overstay its welcome. The excellent voice over work of either dub really steals the show and exudes so much charisma and charm that together with the original character designs taken from the game make for highly memorable and likeable characters, which are without a doubt the main attraction of this series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 12, 2025
Pluto is something of a disjointed narrative that seems to want to say a lot but trips over itself so clumsily that I can't really take it as seriously as it wants to take itself.
To be clear this is a mostly competent story but it's definitely strongest at the start and gets progressively worse as the series goes on, culminating in a fairly contrived ending. This is a similar pattern to that of the other Urasawa work I have read/watched, Monster, where the general concept of the story and sense of journey is strong but the landing can't be stuck and in the end it
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undermines the strength of the story overall. I am starting to recognize that his personal quirks as an author and his method of storytelling is at best not something I personally gel with and at worst comes across just not as proficient and skilled as his reputation would suggest.
The world Urasawa creates here is admittedly fairly unique and creative, mixing elements of real-world places with a healthy dose of fictionalized aspects and overlaying it onto a semi-near futuristic setting that feels distant in some ways but not too distant in others. You have flying cars and advanced humanoid robots but police detectives still wear cheap suits right out of the 90s, that kind of thing. It's charming in many ways and you are left wanting to know more about the world and it's history but we don't get all that much.
Ultimately Urasawa doesn't appear interested in showing us how this imagined human-robot society and economy even works. What percentage of the population are robots? How and why have they not fully displaced humans from the workforce? While it's fine for Urasawa not to want to get bogged down in the details, when your story centers around human-robot relations and interactions these kinds of details strike me as important to consider if you want to craft a fleshed out and believable world which is able to carry the weight of your messages and themes.
The problem here isn't necessarily the setting, it's the fact that Urasawa seems to want to cash-in on the spectacle and novelty of futurism without thinking critically about how such a future could even exist. While this would be fine if this was a comedy or action-oriented series, it's clear that Pluto is intended to be a more cerebral and thoughtful piece of fiction. It comes across as Urasawa wanting to use robots and artificial lifeforms in a way to say something unique about the concepts of life and death but then not bothering to grapple with the details and mechanics around how or why loss in the context of an artificial and presumably fairly robust robot life would mean as much as loss of fragile and fleeting human organic life.
As far as themes explored I find them to be rather ham-fisted and incredibly unimaginative for a work in a sci-fi futuristic fantasy. For instance why on Earth could a robot, once physically "killed", not have their intact memory chip placed into a new body and essentially reborn or revived? This is perhaps the entire point in having removable personality or memory chips in such a world. Your body gets destroyed? No problem, here is a new one. In fact actual human characters in this same world are described as having been turned into robots/cyborgs after their human bodies are destroyed but the actual robots whose bodies perish can't be reconstituted? This is never explained or explored and it's just so dumb given how the story tries to say so much about the tragedy of loss and considering the melodrama that is employed it's just hard to take anything else in this world all that seriously.
Other aspects of the world are also begging to be scrutinized. Urasawa wants us to believe that there have been 38 previous central Asian wars prior to the continually referenced 39th? Where is the real-world analog to this to help make it even remotely believable? Come on. It would have sounded much more plausible if this event was the "5th central Asian war" for instance but Urasawa apparently wanted to impress the audience with such a high number. I'm not impressed, I'm just taken out of the world. This may seem like a small detail but these little contrivances are common and they add up and erode at your immersion and the believability of this setting and the perceived quality of the worldbuilding. When a story takes itself this seriously then so do I and that means some of the silly choices get less of a pass.
The best parts of the story are the small snippets where interesting characters appear and vignettes that tell a condensed story within the larger narrative of Pluto. Sometimes it is the back and forth banter centered on a legendary robot murderer held in something approximating a maximum security prison who came across as a bit too cartoonishly evil but captivating and original at the same time. Other times it was the C plot like the journey of radicalization taken by a man whose murdered brother was part of a anti-robot hate group and the journey coming full circle to the man's subsequent deradicalization and grappling with forgiveness. These episodes within episodes were much more compelling than the actual A or B plots at times.
Where Urasawa is strongest is when he starts to weave vague notions of international conspiracies, shadowy interest groups, slowly building up with the pace of a semi-psychological thriller... but this mostly falls apart as more is uncovered and revealed the less interesting it all turns out to be in the end. Many of the moments intended to be gasp-inducing pin-drops elicited only an eye-roll from me due to how predictable, telegraphed and self-indulgent they were in execution.
I am left unconvinced that this story offers any kind of profound commentary on war, existence, purpose or really any other theme. The anti-war message for example that is touched on repeatedly came across as fairly simplistic and juvenile in it's black-and-white presentation of one side as totally guilty and the other fully framed and misunderstood. Beyond that the message could be summarized as "war is bad". It's all just way too neat, tidy and preachy to carry any real weight and this is how I received the story's other attempts at philosophy.
Having both read the manga and watched the anime I can confirm that very much like Monster before it this is a very faithful manga-to-anime adaptation. It's basically 1:1. But like Monster that means that all the flaws of the manga's narrative translate directly to the anime as well. If I had to recommend one over the other I would probably go with the anime for the animation and presentation alone.
As a work of sci-fi entertainment and as a decent thriller story it isn't bad at all but it is difficult for me to see it as something more profound.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 12, 2025
Pluto is something of a disjointed narrative that seems to want to say a lot but trips over itself so clumsily that I can't really take it as seriously as it wants to take itself.
To be clear this is a mostly competent story but it's definitely strongest at the start and gets progressively worse as the series goes on, culminating in a fairly contrived ending. This is a similar pattern to that of the other Urasawa work I have read/watched, Monster, where the general concept of the story and sense of journey is strong but the landing can't be stuck and in the end
...
it undermines the strength of the story overall. I am starting to recognize that his personal quirks as an author and his method of storytelling is at best not something I personally gel with and at worst comes across just not as proficient and skilled as his reputation would suggest.
The world Urasawa creates here is admittedly fairly unique and creative, mixing elements of real-world places with a healthy dose of fictionalized aspects and overlaying it onto a semi-near futuristic setting that feels distant in some ways but not too distant in others. You have flying cars and advanced humanoid robots but police detectives still wear cheap suits right out of the 90s, that kind of thing. It's charming in many ways and you are left wanting to know more about the world and it's history but we don't get all that much.
Ultimately Urasawa doesn't appear interested in showing us how this imagined human-robot society and economy even works. What percentage of the population are robots? How and why have they not fully displaced humans from the workforce? While it's fine for Urasawa not to want to get bogged down in the details, when your story centers around human-robot relations and interactions these kinds of details strike me as important to consider if you want to craft a fleshed out and believable world which is able to carry the weight of your messages and themes.
The problem here isn't necessarily the setting, it's the fact that Urasawa seems to want to cash-in on the spectacle and novelty of futurism without thinking critically about how such a future could even exist. While this would be fine if this was a comedy or action-oriented series, it's clear that Pluto is intended to be a more cerebral and thoughtful piece of fiction. It comes across as Urasawa wanting to use robots and artificial lifeforms in a way to say something unique about the concepts of life and death but then not bothering to grapple with the details and mechanics around how or why loss in the context of an artificial and presumably fairly robust robot life would mean as much as loss of fragile and fleeting human organic life.
As far as themes explored I find them to be rather ham-fisted and incredibly unimaginative for a work in a sci-fi futuristic fantasy. For instance why on Earth could a robot, once physically "killed", not have their intact memory chip placed into a new body and essentially reborn or revived? This is perhaps the entire point in having removable personality or memory chips in such a world. Your body gets destroyed? No problem, here is a new one. In fact actual human characters in this same world are described as having been turned into robots/cyborgs after their human bodies are destroyed but the actual robots whose bodies perish can't be reconstituted? This is never explained or explored and it's just so dumb given how the story tries to say so much about the tragedy of loss and considering the melodrama that is employed it's just hard to take anything else in this world all that seriously.
Other aspects of the world are also begging to be scrutinized. Urasawa wants us to believe that there have been 38 previous central Asian wars prior to the continually referenced 39th? Where is the real-world analog to this to help make it even remotely believable? Come on. It would have sounded much more plausible if this event was the "5th central Asian war" for instance but Urasawa apparently wanted to impress the audience with such a high number. I'm not impressed, I'm just taken out of the world. This may seem like a small detail but these little contrivances are common and they add up and erode at your immersion and the believability of this setting and the perceived quality of the worldbuilding. When a story takes itself this seriously then so do I and that means some of the silly choices get less of a pass.
The best parts of the story are the small snippets where interesting characters appear and vignettes that tell a condensed story within the larger narrative of Pluto. Sometimes it is the back and forth banter centered on a legendary robot murderer held in something approximating a maximum security prison who came across as a bit too cartoonishly evil but captivating and original at the same time. Other times it was the C plot like the journey of radicalization taken by a man whose murdered brother was part of a anti-robot hate group and the journey coming full circle to the man's subsequent deradicalization and grappling with forgiveness. These episodes within episodes were much more compelling than the actual A or B plots at times.
Where Urasawa is strongest is when he starts to weave vague notions of international conspiracies, shadowy interest groups, slowly building up with the pace of a semi-psychological thriller... but this mostly falls apart as more is uncovered and revealed the less interesting it all turns out to be in the end. Many of the moments intended to be gasp-inducing pin-drops elicited only an eye-roll from me due to how predictable, telegraphed and self-indulgent they were in execution.
I am left unconvinced that this story offers any kind of profound commentary on war, existence, purpose or really any other theme. The anti-war message for example that is touched on repeatedly came across as fairly simplistic and juvenile in it's black-and-white presentation of one side as totally guilty and the other fully framed and misunderstood. Beyond that the message could be summarized as "war is bad". It's all just way too neat, tidy and preachy to carry any real weight and this is how I received the story's other attempts at philosophy.
Having both read the manga and watched the anime I can confirm that very much like Monster before it this is a very faithful manga-to-anime adaptation. It's basically 1:1. But like Monster that means that all the flaws of the manga's narrative translate directly to the anime as well. The soundtrack wasn't memorable but I don't recall it being bad. Watching the dub the voice acting was also serviceable but nothing particularly outstanding. The animation was however quite crisp, high-quality and in some places downright impressive. If I had to recommend one over the other I would probably go with the anime for the animation and presentation alone.
As a work of sci-fi entertainment and as a decent thriller story it isn't bad at all but it is difficult for me to see it as something more profound.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 3, 2024
Monster is something of an experience and one that I decided to run through concurrently alternating between reading the manga and watching the anime. This is primarily a review of the manga but given that the story is basically identical in both versions (which is to say the anime is a very faithful and complete adaptation) all of what I outline here around the story and plot also applies to the anime.
Right away I can say that this story does not live up to it's acclaim as one of the highest rated manga of all time. This isn't because it's necessarily bad or poorly put
...
together but because it's not all that remarkable or groundbreaking. This is a mostly rudimentary action mystery thriller with elements of a detective story. That's not a bad thing but this is not what the general reception to this work would have you imagine this story would be or how the manga presents itself at the beginning.
The opening chapters of this story were extremely promising and fooled me for a moment into thinking this was the start of some masterpiece of storytelling where a kind hearted, well meaning Japanese doctor in Germany becomes traumatized and tortured by the trolley problem-esque dilemmas of emergency medicine. Being broken after having to save one life over another and so haunted by that to the point of being driven mad. Perhaps mad enough to be motivated to directly confront the inequities inherent in our modern world, leading to extreme, highly immoral courses of action in service to some kind of rationalized greater good and in doing so slowly becoming the titular "monster" himself. Going in blind and reading the first few chapters this is honestly the general direction I thought the story would take and I was prepared to watch the deconstruction of this man Tenma through a complex and tragic story of philosophical and psychological unravelling.
But this isn't the story that unfolds and after the first two volumes or so it became clear this was mostly a mystery suspense thriller. It is entertaining though. The art style on display is signature Urasawa and while it isn't my personal favorite it is very polished and realized and seems to complement the setting and story well. The plot is mostly running around Europe always being a step or two behind the main villain. The series likes to dangle the carrot in front of the reader a lot. It definitely starts to get to the point where you begin to doubt there will be any kind of resolution to the story at all but after 162 chapters there finally is... sort of.
The ending is largely unsatisfying and disappointing in my view which is perhaps all the more egregious given how the story is artificially stretched and padded out in increasingly less plausible ways. There are also all kinds of contrivances employed to keep Tenma's hands clean just when you think he is about to be forced by circumstances to make decisions that go against his sense of morality. The story tries to be deep and while I am sure some readers got the impression that it is, I wonder if they are not mistaking a high degree of polish for depth. To me the overall presentation felt highly polished but the characters, themes and plot came across as largely shallow.
On the characters there is honestly not that much to say. Tenma is an impossibly good guy to the point of frustration. There was so much potential with his character to develop him in so many different and believable ways but he is largely the same character he was at the start of the manga as he is at the end. The villain is easily the worst aspect of the story overall as he comes across totally unbelievable, comically evil and confusingly cruel and the lack of character development is a problem here as well. Some of the other characters have interesting personalities like Tenma's ex, the detective obsessed with Tenma and "the amazing Steiner" and the presence of these more interesting characters is mostly what keeps the story moving.
What this manga admittedly does fairly well is gradually build up the sense of journey and adventure by regularly changing the setting, introducing different characters with different backgrounds and perspectives, Tenma constantly getting caught up in all kinds of unenviable predicaments, and stopping every so often for more exposition and long conversations revealing more behind the various mysteries and conspiracies central to the story. Each segment or sub arc of the manga has a very distinct setting, its own distinct tone and particular group of supporting characters and you can't help but get a bit nostalgic for the various phases in the story once you get to the end. To put it another way I would say that if you layer enough shallow elements together and stack one on top of another then you will ultimately come away with some sort of pseudo or false depth and that's what I think you get here with Monster.
To that end it's a competent story that works both as a manga and anime experience however I think most who come in expecting to be blown away as I did will be left wanting more. A lot more.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Oct 27, 2024
Monster is something of an experience and one that I decided to run through concurrently alternating between reading the manga and watching the anime. This is primarily a review of the manga but given that the story is basically identical in both versions (which is to say the anime is a very faithful and complete adaptation) all of what I outline here around the story and plot also applies to the anime.
Right away I can say that this story does not live up to it's acclaim as one of the highest rated manga of all time. This isn't because it's necessarily bad or poorly put
...
together but because it's not all that remarkable or groundbreaking. This is a mostly rudimentary action mystery thriller with elements of a detective story. That's not a bad thing but this is not what the general reception to this work would have you imagine this story would be or how the manga presents itself at the beginning.
The opening chapters of this story were extremely promising and fooled me for a moment into thinking this was the start of some masterpiece of storytelling where a kind hearted, well meaning Japanese doctor in Germany becomes traumatized and tortured by the trolley problem-esque dilemmas of emergency medicine. Being broken after having to save one life over another and so haunted by that to the point of being driven mad. Perhaps mad enough to be motivated to directly confront the inequities inherent in our modern world, leading to extreme, highly immoral courses of action in service to some kind of rationalized greater good and in doing so slowly becoming the titular "monster" himself. Going in blind and reading the first few chapters this is honestly the general direction I thought the story would take and I was prepared to watch the deconstruction of this man Tenma through a complex and tragic story of philosophical and psychological unravelling.
But this isn't the story that unfolds and after the first two volumes or so it became clear this was mostly a mystery suspense thriller. It is entertaining though. The art style on display is signature Urasawa and while it isn't my personal favorite it is very polished and realized and seems to complement the setting and story well. The plot is mostly running around Europe always being a step or two behind the main villain. The series likes to dangle the carrot in front of the reader a lot. It definitely starts to get to the point where you begin to doubt there will be any kind of resolution to the story at all but after 162 chapters there finally is... sort of.
The ending is largely unsatisfying and disappointing in my view which is perhaps all the more egregious given how the story is artificially stretched and padded out in increasingly less plausible ways. There are also all kinds of contrivances employed to keep Tenma's hands clean just when you think he is about to be forced by circumstances to make decisions that go against his sense of morality. The story tries to be deep and while I am sure some readers got the impression that it is, I wonder if they are not mistaking a high degree of polish for depth. To me the overall presentation felt highly polished but the characters, themes and plot came across as largely shallow.
On the characters there is honestly not that much to say. Tenma is an impossibly good guy to the point of frustration. There was so much potential with his character to develop him in so many different and believable ways but he is largely the same character he was at the start of the manga as he is at the end. The villain is easily the worst aspect of the story overall as he comes across totally unbelievable, comically evil and confusingly cruel and the lack of character development is a problem here as well. Some of the other characters have interesting personalities like Tenma's ex, the detective obsessed with Tenma and "the amazing Steiner" and the presence of these more interesting characters is mostly what keeps the story moving.
What this manga admittedly does fairly well is gradually build up the sense of journey and adventure by regularly changing the setting, introducing different characters with different backgrounds and perspectives, Tenma constantly getting caught up in all kinds of unenviable predicaments, and stopping every so often for more exposition and long conversations revealing more behind the various mysteries and conspiracies central to the story. Each segment or sub arc of the manga has a very distinct setting, its own distinct tone and particular group of supporting characters and you can't help but get a bit nostalgic for the various phases in the story once you get to the end. To put it another way I would say that if you layer enough shallow elements together and stack one on top of another then you will ultimately come away with some sort of pseudo or false depth and that's what I think you get here with Monster.
To that end it's a competent story that works both as a manga and anime experience however I think most who come in expecting to be blown away as I did will be left wanting more. A lot more.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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