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Jul 21, 2013
This shall be short or at least that is the aim.
Firstly one must not require previous knowledge into this franchise to enjoy this movie. Prior knowledge would help greatly and help understand the background and relationships of the characters a lot more but most certainly is not a requirement.
One of the elements i enjoyed most about this movie was its sound. Everything from the music to the sound effects to the voice acting, very easy on the ears in all respects. One thing i can’t stand is when a simple explosion feels wrong because it sound like nails on a chalkboard. I can only imagine
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how good it must sound in a theatre.
Coming from the studio and director of GiTS SAC/SSS you can certainly expect high production values and the art and animation definitely have some GiTS vibes and as much as the sound was pleasurable to the ears, the art is most pleasurable to the eyes.
So are you looking for an action sci-fi movie with mecha elements? Then do not over look this one. It even has a little romance too which i love to have in a mostly action movie/series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 7, 2012
At this stage of my review, that is to say, the very beginning, i feel obligated to let you know that this review will not end positively. It's a warning you perhaps do not wish or care to hear but one i must inform you thusly. There will be positive comments throughout but they will all fall eventually into a melancholic tone to highlight certain disappointments.
This show can be summarised in the following sentence; that is to say if i do not go off on a random tangent instead, big breasted female samurai fight against villains. That is, there are only two villains of the
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show but one of them isn't really that bad. He's just extreme. There are also only two males who actually do something. I believe there to be a third but he would hardly count and you do hear about other males but they are never seen. Expect a lot of harem clichés to slither their way in and out of the plot. I say out but to be fair they never leave. They stick around to the end. I will not claim Hyakka to be great and groundbreaking for its genre or claim it to be so terrible it's an insult.
The setting for this show is a hard one to grasp. At first you start thinking perhaps it is set in the edo period or a period similar but then a character whips out a computer from nowhere. Unless the writer of this show knows something the rest of the world doesn't. I don't think they had computers that far back, at the very least, we do know it is set in Japan and that it is set among very traditional Japanese people; Dojo's, Kimono's, those sliding doors. Not really surprising. It would be weird having a samurai show in modern day Tokyo or something. It's one of the shows facets that help it differ from the likes of Sekirei and Ikkitousen.
Each character from this show i found out (help from wikipedia was much appreciated) shares their name with famous Japanese icons from the past albeit gender flipped and huge personality changes. I mean ALL of the characters do, not just a couple or a few. There are two who do not however rendering my previous inflection on 'all' moot. Muneakira is our harem protagonist and to be fair to him he is a lot better at it than most HPs but he isn't that great. He actually does very little but what he did do was pretty bad ass. Yukimura is a small flat chested girl and is basically the 'smart' one of the group. Sen is the Ojou type who is incredibly bossy but does lessen as time goes on. These two become quite obsessed with the HP at times, i know, a pain right? Jubei is a slpit personality of sorts and claims the family name Yagyu, the exact same as our HP, yes they managed to throw in the classic non blood related little sister. Her 'other' half is so cool, that it can be forgiven. Matabei, Kanetsugu and Hanzo are pretty much there for the fan service. I mean, Matabei only ever wears a loincloth and a small shirt, Hanzo's attire consist os the standard maid uniform and Kanetsugu looks like Hatsune Miku of Vocaloid fame. With the abundance of clichés you should expect these characters clothes to get shred to pieces. I watched the blu ray (oh boy the blu ray) so everything was revealed in full HD. Something of which is hard to explain to people walking by glancing at what i am watching and having to explain not all anime is tentacle and boobs. Ah yes. I do believe i forgot to mention there are in fact two separate tentacle monsters and an invisible fiend. If you do not possess the ability to see me through your computer monitor i am as of mentioning the three monsters, shaking my head. You do have a blond haired big breasted d'Artagnan to look forward to (or straight at if you tend to perv).
The music was an area i don't have any particular feelings towards. The opening is enjoyable as far as openings go. I will listen to it for one minute thirty every episode but i will not hunt down the full mp3 anytime soon. Same goes for the ending. Had i not watched this on my tv but instead on my laptop i would most certainly have skipped it. Now holding my hands up in regret, i did not pay an attention to the background music for the most part. That is not a good thing, if it didn't stand out it was probably out sounded by speech or destruction or just wasn't very good at all. My money being the latter. One thing i did notice a couple of times. The battle music sounded awfully similar to Black Lagoons opening theme song.
The voice actors did an ok job. I watched both sub and dub. Well only about a thirds worth of it subbed but still subbed non the less. Now there were a couple of moments in which phrases such as; 'Ooooh' and 'Aaaah' would uttered from my lips in reply to the occasionally badly acted line but i would put the blame on the scrip more than the actors. This is a show in which the sub out ways the dub but i would recommend watching the dubbed version due to the reason stated in my next paragraph.
The best part of is the art. Not necessarily the greatest compliment you could get. In fiction i consider the story and characters to be far more important than how good something looks. Here though it should be seen as a compliment as had this show used a regular art style it wouldn't stand out in the least. Everything is drawn with a thick black outline compared to a normal thin line that may not even be black. Often when looking at a still you could compare it to a more traditional western comic book. They also had some fun with color. The entire final abttle is in black and white. Not the kind of black and white where it's drawn in color and then a black and white gradient map in Photoshop has been applied leaving a more grey feel to. No. This is drawn verbatim. Black shadows and outlines. White everything else. It really did make it look quite nice. They also used blood splatter on a regular basis. Even in calm moments just to pan from scene to scene. It was a nice change. Even during battle certain characters had different color motifs.
The art is the single part of Hyakka that sets it apart from the crap you usually find in battle harems. It is also why i probably would never recommend Hyakka Ryouran to anybody. Because what am i supposed to say? 'Watch Hyakka, it looks pretty', i'll likely get replies along the lines of 'Sod off' or 'anime always looks good idiot' or 'So does Gankutsuou and that's better'. Anyway, i find this show to be top of it genre, not really a compliment in as much, the rest is just shite. Quite frankly my dear the bad far out way the good and i can fully understand why it has the MAL rating it does.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 24, 2012
Sannova bitch. I’ve been waiting to say that since i first heard the characters name. Now i’ve got that incredibly out of place pun out of the way i can continue.
Xam’d felt like a cross between Eureka 7, Fractale, Rahxephon and Heroman. Now with that many cross betweens i would think it could give it an air of originality about it but i never really felt like i hadn’t seen it before. Felt? Did i just say felt? Damn, i always hate that expression, like i could touch it or something. Anyway. The story is of this kid who turns into this thing but is
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some what saved by this person who belongs to this crew and this kid and this person get to fight quite a bit and a lot of morals get thrown about. It really was quite good though. It also appears to have a fantastic setting but everyone seems to have Japanese names. Not sure if i missed something about it being a future world. I don’t think i did.
What i quite liked about this show was it’s blend of genre. It was at the base of all things; Action adventure. That didn’t stop it from delving into fantasy, sci fi, romance and drama. Particulaly the romance was played quite well in my opinion. It was never mushy or really vague, it was just there. It also focused a little on other peoples romances like the protagonists parents and that female captain who doesn’t wear very much.
Art was nice. Yes nice, just nice. Not amazing or anything. The animation however was amazing. While the art was simple and very standard it did give variety to the creatures and buildings etc. This probably helped the animation move better. Everyone moved smoothly and made the fight scenes a whole lot nicer to watch. That is all i have to say about the art. Damn my note taking, why did i not focus on the art? Now i have to uses these few sentances to pad the paragraph out to make it look longer. What? Don’t judge me.
The opening and ending songs were honestly not that great. They were a little different from the jpop you would usually get, the opening using autotune or something on the voices. They were both in English too. The opening also had a weird choice of lyrics that did not make sense to me for the most part, might because it was Engrish rather than proper English. The ending however was slightly better sung. Well it would be, it was sung by a person whose mother tongue is English. Now these to theme songs were mediocre at best. The background music was however far better. I will be honest, i didn’t notice the musc during the first two thirds. It probably just never stood out to me. However during the end few episode it did stand out and episode 23 in particular had a really nice orchestral piece playing and it made the scene far nicer.
I watched this mostly in the dubbed English and though i won’t put it up there with the Baccano’s of dubbed anime. It did seem well acted, the two sister being voiced by my favorite voice actresses.
Characters were cool. I guess. There were a few that annoyed me like the red head who tried to save everyone. But overall they all had the ups and they all had there flaws and these flaws gave them character. ‘Gave them character’ that doesn’t sound right. Oh well, i’ll leave it in. All the important characters seemed to change as they grew with the show. The protags (my new name for the main character of shows now) paraents started of disliking each other, mostly on the Mothers part, but came together through tribulations to show they really did love each other. That may be a spoiler. Doesn’t matter, i was lying anyway… Yea.. i was.. err. lying. Oh i should also probably mention there are a few bratty kids in this show, so if they annoy you like they do me you might want to have something in the room with you to punch everytime they speak. It would have helped me if i did.
Now a quick aggregation. It has a fairly confusing plot that if you don’t want to watch a second time you should really pay attention the first time. The characters are the best part of the show. I liked them all. Well apart frome that guy and that guy. Oh and that person and the thing and that other guy. But mostly they were enjoyable. Sound is amazing. Well the opening less so but the rest was amazing. Now as a summation for my aggregation; There is a reason why i didn’t mention a single persons name.
Good show. Go watch it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 27, 2012
Hotarubi no Mori e is what i refer to as a gentle slice of life. Now i bet your wondering how a gentle slice of life differs from a regular slice of life, while a regular slice of life may put your heart in your mouth or make you a little teary eyed or even make you laugh. A gentle slice of life will give you non of these but you find you can not look away while watching it and once it has finished you recall back and think, 'wow that was pretty amazing'. Well i do anyway. For comparison sake, i consider Eve
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no Jikan and the Aria series gentle slice of life's.. and is it me or have i said slice of life way to often in this paragraph? It also has a supernatural element to it but frankly my dear even if you removed this element from the story and replaced it with something less supernatural it wouldn't detract from the enjoyment.
One thing i really like about this series is that the story follows a large span of life. Granted with the 40 minute limit you only get small glimpses at the life of the two main characters. Gin and Hotaru. It starts with Hotaru being about 6 years old, i can't say for sure because i admit it, i was staring at the scenery far to often. She meets a boy of whatever age, nobody cares for his age, he doesn't age anyhow, but if i had to guess it would probably be around 16-18. Aaanyway, Gin is a spirit, sort of, i won't spoil it but watch it and it will explain what he is. Hotaru and Gin form a friendship and meet during the summer every year and while Hotaru grows up Gin doesn't, she briefy angsts over this but is quickly forgotton (was that a spoiler? maybe, but i don't believe it to be important). That reminds me, i forgot to point out the key point, Hotaru and Gin can never touch (that definitely ISN'T a spoiler) and this is actually where you can see Hotaru grow as a person as at the begining she tries to jokingly touch him. Basically throughout the years they have lots of fun together doing various activities, well not entirly various, they are stuck to being in a forest after all, but as various as one can get under the circumstances.
Now i shall discuss in depth about the art and animation. I joke it won't be in depth at all. The art i found was very predictable. Yes predictable. This is from the original creator that made the manga for Natsume Yuujinchou and you can definitely tell, and that is why it's predictable. That is not a bad thing though. I found the art style perfectly suitable and really has a certain ambiance that is fitting to the show. The foliage are very paintingesque, a word from which i will continue to use in the future. Even when there are a lot of characters on the screen at the same time and non of which are important, but they are all different and arn't just a repeated face and this gives a feeling that each person might have there own story.
Sakura Ayane voiced Hotaru and is the only voice actress listed for her character, she did a bloody good job as well. Considering throught the course of the story Hotary grows several years it's really nice to see she actually aged her voice slightly while all the while keeping the playfulness in it. Uchiyama Kouki did a good job as Gin by the way, i just felt it never stood out as being amazing or anything. In fact all the voice actors did splendid jobs and no one sounded stupid. Sometimes a characters can sound stupid, i don't like it when that happens so the lack of silly voices was a blessing.
As for the music it was mostly a relaxing and calm sort of piano music and this created a fantastic atmosphere in the forest and really gave a slow feel about the show. This continued into the credits as the song for that was a nice ballad, it wasn't 'fuck me that was amazing, i need that in my playlist' nice but nice as in i didn't skip past it.
I won't delve to deep into the characters as i probably risk repeating myself as to avoid spoilers. Hotaru starts out as a really enegetic and seemingly playful lone child and this continues throughout, she does mature however and this becomes one of my favorite things about the show. Gin who whilst doesn't mature as much as Hotaru (if at all) remains rather calm and relaxed. I don't have anytrhing else to say about the characters. there really wasn't that much to them, but at the same had a lot.
So. here comes my summation in which i round all my thoughts about the show and either recommend you watch it or recommend you avoid it. With this one, i recommend you watch it. It's 40 minutes long so even if it does turn out to be against your taste it's not like you've wasted an hour or anything... With it being 40 minutes it is fast paced and as i had said previously does pass a number of years but while the time does fly the show remains calm, relaxing and genrally enjoyable all the time. There was never a moment in which i wanted it to get on with things. I wanted to take every bit of it in as i watched.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 12, 2011
This is a fairly short movie about a guy in a cycling race. Don’t let that put you off if you have no interest in the sport, i have watched many series or movies based on a sport i barely know the rules off so when i watched this i went into hoping to gain even a little knowledge of cycling races and i did. Due to its short length it doesn’t go into depth about any rules but a couple manoeuvres the cyclists use are described and it all just adds to the experience.
Pepe out main character is part of a team that don’t
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exactly want him any more as he hasn’t performed and are close to firing him spurring him to fight all the way to the end. It’s his home town so there are a lot of supporters cheering him on. His brother is getting married to his ex girlfriend, its stated in the synopsis its his ex but it really only hints at it but its enough to pick up on.
It seems to be based in Spain which is rather unique setting. A lot of it takes place on the road as we follow Pepe in an open almost desert like place and an old pub restaurant place.
The art and animation are brilliant, the characters are always well animated and even when the large group of cyclists are on screen it never lets up and doesn’t resort to using still frames which i believe is often lazy so having great animation helped here. Backgrounds are really well drawn even if not a lot is going on due to the desert like setting, crowds and characters designs are simple but work well.
Sound is another great part, the background music fits perfectly with the accompanying scene and fit perfectly well with the Spanish setting, they use a very Spanish sounding tune, you know the type that is played on acoustic guitars really fast (Flamenco?) im no expert so please excuse me. It just fits perfect as the movie draws towards its climax. Voice actors did a perfect job, i felt everyone did a good job and the acting wasn’t wooden due to a decent script.
Characters are fairly likable. Pepe, although not shown is a struggling professional cyclist, or at least that’s what we can summarize from the fact the sponsor wants to fire him if he can’t do well in this race, he has a past with his brothers new wife and doesn’t seem to happy to see them together but its never played for the drama but used to show how he’s grown. Pepe’s brother seems to have no remorse over ‘stealing’ Carmen his wife but does want Pepe to succeed and always had faith in him. The old man who owns the pub is cool and generally gets everyone in high spirits and is the party maker for a lack of a better description. Everyone else had individual personalities, the guy who works at the pub, the team manager, the sponsor, guy in the wheel chair. They all make up a nice and enjoyable cast of characters.
Nasu is a really enjoyable movie that will have you pumping with excitement as the race end draws closer, his story is well told and we learn plenty despite the short running time and you may even pick up a few cycling rules or even make you want to pick up your bike. Its not a comedy buts its also not a drama and is very light hearted, the doping test is hilarious.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 6, 2011
Wow is all i have to say, never would i have thought fourteen episodes of 7 minutes in length could be so enjoyable. It tells the story of Stain a man who lives like a homeless man and each episode he finds a different unique item in the pile of junk in the alley. Anything can happen from magic crayons that bring drawings into reality to robots that want to fly. The creator really did do a good job in making each unique object into something that can tell a story because you never know what will happen.
The show itself can be rather violent, pretty
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much every episode feature Stain being hurt in some way giving him various bruises and cuts and there is always blood, this is a touch that might make you go 'what the fuck' because you simply don't expect it to happen in this type of show, granted you get used to it, but it all adds to the uniqueness that makes it all the more enjoyable.
It's created solely in CG but all the characters are cartoonified so they don't look too realistic but it does make the show quirky and the CG allows for great animation. What will become apparent is it seems the creators like dancing, there is a lot of dancing whether its just the ending credits or part of the episode, the dances are pretty cool and funky and the music that accompanied the credits is brilliant and catchy.
Stain lives in a room but its not a house, im not really shore what it is and lives off eating doh nuts or what ever he kills, he also falls in love multiple times throughout the series with various things, a painting, a flower, a real girl, he gives off that feeling that makes you want to see him succeed in anything he does as he gets the short end of the stick a rather lot. Palvan is a cat, i think, he also likes doh nuts and is the most seen recurring side character and often helps Stain with whatever. Other characters barely make appearances unless its an episode they only feature in, then they are likely to get plenty of screen time. Masked Monkey a masked monkey, Rings a lizard thing, they're all weird.
Fourteen episodes seven minutes long with a 30 minute finale you can hardly find better time, this show should be enjoyed for its daring uniqueness and its lovable characters. Oh and there is not a single word spoken in the shows entirety, don't let this put you off because it simply doesn't need words, that how well it tells each story. It is a comedy but a dark one as its jokes come from its characters suffering with amusing injuries. You can never guess what's going to happen next or what Stain will find.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 15, 2011
Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai or Munto TV is basically an adaptation of the two original OAVs, although adaption is used loosley as they didn't exactly adapt it but rather just used what was there and added a bit at the end. It is a story of a magical world that is being destroyed and the King of said world goes down to the human world to find the girl seen in the visions to hold a tremendous amount of power (Akuto) that is enough to save both worlds from iminent destruction.
There are two worlds, the human world is well just
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normal but does suther a few after effects like earthquakes, the magical world floats above and is quite a stereotypical fantasy world with people having pointy ears and lots of greenery and opening settings.
This isn't a comedy its a straight up fantasy adventure but it does include a few little scene such as Ichikos father in episode 5 to add a little light heartedness into the mix. I feel as a TV series it fails, it basically copy and pasted the OAVs without even adding everything, i do feel they added and subtracted a little but nothing major which is a cop out on their part as this could have been a lot better, you can tell episodes seven through nine had better artwork and was more enjoyable for it.
The art and animation were ok, nothing great but it did an ok job but for a fantasy series you want huge scenes with gorgeous scenery and smooth animation. The biggest disapointement as i have already stated is the fact that they used the old art and never remade it so its like watching a 2009 series made in 2003. There are a few nicely animated scenes and cool smoke and explosion effects. The backgrounds could have been better for a fantasy series but they were acceptable and helped create a difference between the greeness of one world and the concreteness of the other.
Voice actors all seemed ok, a couple characters had annoying high pitched voices as the enhance their characters cuteness or a childish nature compared to other characters but they all did a decent job and was only let down by a few poorly written lines. The opening is an unoriginal J-Pop song but is still a fairly nice song and enjoyable to listen to. Background music always fitted the mood of each scene but never stood out and make you say wow. Ending theme song is a slow calming song that is beutiful but again is nothing new that we haven;t heard before.
Yumemi the girl that is destined to save the worlds and is the only human who can see the magical world and was often teased as a child. she starts the first half of the show rather reluctant to jump inot things and start believing all this nonsense she's being told which is a nice change from the usually power to save everyone type series. Munto is the King of the magical world and throughout the series seemed to hold as much power as the plot needed, whether it was just transversing worlds, destroying multiple enemies at once or biding time by holding the world together, whatever was needed he was capable of doing. Yumemi has two close friends; Suzume and Ichiko, Suzume is a rather childish naive girl who is dating a slightly older guy and does have a moment with him in an early episode just so the series doesn't focus everything on one point. Ichiko is a tomboyish girl who seems to have more of an impact with Yumemi as she is constantly trying to be there for her and protect her but because she can't see the magical world is constantly in pain over not being able to fully help. Gntarl is the main bad guy but to behonest he isn't much of a threat as he is a dick head, he shares the same goal as everyone else, to save the heavens but can he cooperate? No, can he trust Munto? No, he is never developed so you don't know why he is like that.
As a short fantasy series it is a decent watch, its only nine episodes long and could have been better had there been more character development for some characters. If you dislike the OAVs quite a bit then this isn't really worth checking out but if you did enjoy them its a great series to see what happens after.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 29, 2011
Nezumi Monogatari is a story about two rival mice that live in a large house with a whole bunch of other mice. These two mice both have there good points and bad points which makes it difficuly for the Elder to choose which one is to become his successor, he sends them on a quest to find and capture the Dragon of Light and so they set out on a journey with a couple of close companions as they face various challenges and new friends along their road.
It appears to be set in a fantasy land but being 50 minutes long it never goes into
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detail about anything, mice and other animals are able to talk but any form of animal playing the antagonizing role is seen more of a beast and never speaks. The majority is set in the forest and our characters come across various obsticles including poisonous berries, an owl and a weasel.
It is very much a power of friendship show and goes with the ‘with teamwork anything can be accomplished’ and is the morale of the story.
The art is very beutiful, every scene is like a painting, the detail they put in everything espeicially the foliage as it is the main focus and thus we are treated to a richness of greens and browns. The characters being mice are a little caricature to give them personality and distinguished from all other mice and even in the large group everyone is individual and not all exactly drawn alike, they even where hats and do give a Cinderella mice feeling since they live in the attic of a large house.
Sound is great and fits well with the shows feeling and setting, background music changes from soft sounds when nothing in particular is happening to a fast paced sharpe tune for fight and chase scenes, each time adding something to that scene. Ending credit song is a lovely song to listen to and ends the show spectalually. Voice actors were great, i think the majority of the main cast were live action actors rather than specifically Anime voice actors but they made each character their own and pulled it off well.
Gerald is one of the main rival pair and personality wise is the heroic brave one that boasts his achievments, though he is always willing to help his rival when in trouble. George the other rival mouse is a friendly and kind type who always puts his friends first but during times of need can be brave. Chamberlain, Walter and Marie Lu all add to the cast as companions, chamberlain is the do everything for Gerald, Walter is the fat one and Marie Lu is the ratty snob in which George and Geral fight over. The old man Alex mouse gets them to do a lot of menial tasks such as fetching herbs and grapes but it really sets them up for their teamwork to grow.
Art and animation is the biggest draw here, they were able to add it really well making this 50 minutes really enjoyable with a cast of lovable characters and with it having a morale of friendship and teamwork. The only thing missing that would have been nice was a short epilogue but even without it it is still great.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 20, 2011
The story of three old men who as boys had the dream of verifying the theory that there is life on Mars and how along with the daughter of one of them and her husband create a ship, yes a ship, and a ship with proppellors no less, to reach fullfill there fifty year old dream. Now there are many questionable parts of this OAV about the sci-fi bit and how it wouldn't actually be possible to do pretty much anything these guys did, but it gets away with it, you shouldn't really watch this for it science fiction, watch this for the warm atmosphere
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it gives.
I said it gives a warm atmosphere but looking at the setting you can't help but feel a little chilly, its always snowing, but this does provide a nice touch to the landscape shots. The setting is never really touched upon but they all have English names. Now although not strictly a comedy one could hardly call it a drama, there are a few times you will want to say "Jack, get your fucking ass home to your wife." But there love is strong and the old guys provide enough humour.
There are only six character to appear in the whole show, not surprising with it being only two episodes. Jack has a job in which he must travel away and the story starts with his return, he lives with his wife and her Father and doesn't seem to be able to hold his drink, Windy his wife is an eduacated girl, she published a book about Ethreal and the Scientific Boys Club are the only ones to have taken it seriously, she helps them out throughout providing answers to equations and genrally setting them straight. The three old men of the club are the main highlight, Windy's Father seems like the leader of the group, the Einstein look man is funny, he is a bit of a perv flipping a couple of girls skirts and is the main source of the comedy, the other member stays rather quiet and isn't really involved in the plot but is always around. Not forgetting of course Miss China has a few cameo roles.
Art is rather simple and seems a little dated like something from the 90s rather than 2001 but the landscape shots were nice and it didn't effect the show it self. Animation wasn't terrible, it wasn't great either, something like a motorbike heading of in the distance didn't even become smaller as it faded off, characters were all well drawn and stayed proportion mostly.
Sound is decent, the general background noises were bland, the sound of trees and the wind blowing were what you would expect them to sound like but wasn't much variety in it. No music stood out, it all fit nicely into the scenes and the credits song was a cool big band type song and was a decent listen to.
Overall for an hours worth of OAV spread oout over two episode you can't go wrong, especially if you enjoyed the prequal as this gave off a very similar feeling to it, its got a clam feel about it and is something to sit back and relax, there are no bad guys to worry about, no one to get into the way of out characters, a nice gentle comedy that will make you go 'D'aaaawwww' a few times.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 2, 2011
The story follows Shirase a super hacker known as BPS and its this name that is (in)famous for being able to use a phone or a computer to create defense barriers and the like and gets him hired by all sorts of government people.
The show tends to run on a certain formula, through out 15 episode arcs are split into three episodes each, and each arc we find Shirase being hired to solve a case using his computer skills, he also tends to end up in a compromising situation every time his employer comes to visit him in which said employer will ramble to himself
...
about morale before deciding to ignore it accompanied by a laugh track, and many other recurring jokes.
The art is not great, it is very simple and uses rather dull colors and not a lot of detail is put into it such as character designs are unoriginal and simple, backgrounds as well aren't brilliant but do fit in with he dull colors again. Animation is bellow average with characters barely moving when speaking and background characters don't move when they should be.
Opening song is quite amazing, sounds a lot like Rick Astleys Never Gonna Give You Up which does give you quite a good laugh listening to it, especially the first time. Ending is fun but no original but does fit the show, all other music sounds like something from very early Nintendo games and doesn't really add much to the scene. Voice actors are ok, a couple of characters give a really annoying voice but tend to fit there over the top character.
Shirase is known as BPS or Battle Programmer Shirase and tends to be and act like a bum, often found in a small apartment sleeping and having his meals made by his great niece Misao, they have a somewhat complicated relationship, Shirases sister is Misaos grandmother, and then of course Shirase is a bit of a pervert who tends to like younger girls as he is often persuaded to do a job for either a computer part or some otaku merchandise and tries to peak up Misaos skirt. Misao herself tends to be a bubbly girl who helps out Shirase. Shirase is employed by a different guy each arc whose name is always Akizuki. Other characters tend to be cliche, a genius kid working for the navy, a teacher and a bad guy that seems to think too much of himself, they maybe rather simple but do add a few jokes that tend to repeat.
Overall Battle Programmer Shirase may lack in all areas but it is fairly enjoyable watching Shirase kick the bad guys ass each time. Its also not all that ecchi but does provide a few laughs through out, just as long as you do not go and watch having high expectations.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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