Back to Psychotik's Profile Psychotik's Profile

Every year or so, there is usually an epic movie that comes out on the silver screen. A story of a kid sucked into a fantasy world of some kind, willingly or not, and embark on an adventure of a lifetime. These films have almost become a dime a dozen these days, so they really need to be excellent and memorable to become a classic. Sadly, I don't really feel like this one treads new ground.

In this tale, we follow Asuna, a regular, independent teenage girl. We also meet a substitute teacher (Morisaki) and follow them through an underground world to play God and revive ... the dead. Ambitious, you can call them, though it is an understatement. The concept of resurrection is certainly very interesting to explore, though this movie doesn't really do that, even if it is a main focus. It lead to a very anti-climactic ending. They made very quick work of the ending. They could have really explored more about resurrection and be more imaginative, but instead it felt lazy. Everything leading up to the end felt cliché and predictable, thus, a little boring.

The characters didn't really standout, either, though they aren't terrible. Asuna is a fun little character, always happy and optimistic, though also a little bland. Morisaki was also a little boring, always serious and never letting loose. They could have played around with him a little but we got nothing. The same can be said about most of these characters. They're pretty one-dimensional and not very believable.

Of course, I have to praise the art. "Scenery porn" as many like to call it. The landscapes are all very beautiful and detailed; they remind me of shows like 5/cm. It's probably (okay, definitely) the strongest point of the movie. The lighting can be really exquisite at time and DEM CLOUDS. I can jerk off to those clouds all day, but I digress. Being a movie, the animation is very good but not exceptional. Standard movie stuff.

Overall, the music is nice and fits the scenes well. They used the music well, as well as silence for those tense moments. The only qualm I have with it is that it just isn't memorable at all. It's hard to recollect any song from memory. Voice acting is decent, but even they couldn't save the sort of bland characters.

This movie is just another fantasy story that doesn't standout or offer anything new. It isn't really remarkable at anything, except perhaps the art. The story left more to be desired and a lot felt somewhat unexplained, especially near the end. I still kind of enjoyed it though. The characters were a little boring, but I still enjoyed their interactions with the new world. If you're looking for something just to enjoy on a boring night, or need a movie the whole family can enjoy, you can give this a try. If you're looking for a masterpiece, you should probably look elsewhere.

Some people hate sequels, saying it will never be as good as the original. Some people love them more, saying that they're just glad that there's more. I try to stay at a neutral stance, but I admit that I was still looking forward for this second season of Index (third if you count Railgun). I liked the first season; it had good characters and good story arcs. Railgun was a nice change to Index. How can putting the two together be bad? I had high hopes. Had. I don't know, but somehow, it happened. I mean, it was really really bad.

The story. What can ... I say? I just didn't really like them. Most of it has to do with the characters, which I will elaborate later on. The story arcs didn't lead to anything big in the end. There was no big climax or anything; they just left an ambiguous ending, sequelbating. The arcs seemed to be half religion half science. I would be okay with that if the two were actually mixed together but they were kept apart. It was more like it was half Index and half Railgun. At the end of each episode, they say that when magic and science cross, the story begins. That's the problem; they never crossed. Characters from their respective shows didn't really mix with the other either, and that was kind of disappointing. One of my biggest qualms with this show is how each arc ended. Some of the most unoriginal endings ever written. I can break it down. 1. Touma is the last man standing 2. He gives some terrible speech about care and love and other unimportant stuff and 3. He punches a woman in the face. How anti-climactic is that? You'd expect an epic ending with something magic or science related used against the enemy, but all you get is a punch in the face.

The characters. They have changed so much, and not in a good way. Touma seems even more self-righteous than usual. Index seems even more useless than usual too. She was very annoying, one of the most annoying characters in the series. You know, I didn't laugh the first time she bit Touma on the head, so why would I find the 46th time funny? Why are all the characters pandering to the fans? Who thought this was a good idea. I don't want to see every single female character wanting Touma little head (except for Index who wants his bigger one on his shoulders). They turned so many of them into tsunderes when they clearly weren't that in the previous season. Why? One is enough (well, one is too much, actually). Mixed in with these terrible story arcs, I've grown to hate these characters that I used to like. Oh, and there's fanservice. Some of the stupidest fanservice I have ever seen. In many shows, you have the panty shot, which is understandable because the camera just happened to be at an angle to see it, but it index, the characters strip down for you! Terrible.


The art is very generic. The animation is average, I guess. Pretty much the same as the first season and Railgun, so I don't really have complaints about it. The music was really boring. It's some very generic music. I didn't really like the OPs and EDs either, but the first OP was alright. There seems to have been very poor artistic direction. Any art is just drained to almost nothing, and art is something that I crave. Oh well.

Overall, I pulled nearly no enjoyment from this show at all. I absolutely hated the characters and story arcs. Very little logic was used, like that grenade in one of the later episodes that exploded in a small room and did barely any damage to the room and not even injuring anyone in the room. Logic was not on the menu for this show. J.C. Staff took something I really enjoyed and turned it into this ugly, disfigured beast that I found nauseating. I really hope they stop there and stop ruining it further. I can't say I have high hopes for that.

Then again, I'm pessimistic.

Space: the final frontier. Not many get to experience being in space or even know much about it, but many people dream. For these 5 kids, it's a real adventure. Uchuu Show e Youkoso, or Welcome to the Space Show in English, is one big adventure in space, trying to get back home. We see how much the kids are willing to do and learn to get back home in time.

The story starts in rural Japan, during summer vacation where 5 kids go to camp for a week... with no adult supervision of any kind? Okay. Everything is normal until they find an injured "dog" ... whom they healed, but it turns out he's an alien and takes them on an adventure which involves a space show (duh), drugs (kinda) and an evil plot. I'll keep it at that to try an be as spoiler free as possible. The story's okay and quite simple. Right for kids. I like science-fiction and out-of-this-world things, but some stuff don't make sense, like why is everyone on Earth an idiot by not realizing that there's a huge city on the moon? They did mention that Earth isn't part of the Space Federation, so they probably kept it a secret. But why didn't Earth join the federation then? I know it's just a kid's movie so they keep it simple, but it would have been nice to know. About the simplicity, they keep every name simple. Space Federation, Space show, space this, space that, etc. It's like the entirety of the universe is all connected and earth, for some reason, is out of this, which makes me more curious about this. One last major complaint I have about this is that the ending is very anti-climactic. I'm not going to spoil anything, but it was very boring compared to the rest of the action in the movie. The story is simple, great for kids, but adults feel wanting more, you know, story. It relied to much on visuals and pretty colors.

Art: I loved the art, which is probably the movie's strongest point. The animation, like in most movies, is very nice through out. The art in this movie reminds me a lot of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (for the Village scenes) and Summer Wars (for the Space scenes). The village has a very calm feel to it, like it should, but it's the space scenes that are extremely nice. Many different colors and designs to keep any kid's attention. Space itself looked great as well. My one qualm with this is that some of the designs feel generic. I wanted to be more wowed by weird designs of the ships, buildings, etc. but it disappointed. Still, the art is very good nonetheless.

Sound: The sound and music is great as well. The music fits nicely and they know when to use silence as well. There wasn't a song that stuck out to me as amazing, but that doesn't matter. The voice acting does it's job well. Thta's about all I have to say.

Characters: This is probably the movies biggest downfall. The characters are boring paper cutouts. We have the strong heroine, the little sister, the perfect helpful guy, the nerdy guy, and the helpless girl. It's a real shame because I liked a lot of the supporting characters. I liked Boga, Kool-aid Tony, Ink, and even Neppo. I would have really liked to see more of the bad guys and learn about their backgrounds, which is never really clearly explained. The robot at the end gets barely anytime at all and comes out of no where. Oh well.

All in all, this movie isn't really that bad. It's a very nice adventure through space, learning about what really goes on out there. This is more of a visual/auditory experience because of the simplistic characters and story. "Welcome to the Space Show" is a very accurate title.

Sisters. They can sure be a pain, and I know based on experience. They might cause you trouble and make you unhappy at times, but they really don't want that deep down. This seems to be the case in Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute), but maybe it was taken a little too far. I'll explain later.

Story: 6
Let me go over the story real quick. Kyousuke finds an eroge game in a DVD case. Kirino talks with him and reveals her hidden side; she's goes gaga for little sister eroges. Kyousuke decides to help her ... out with "life counseling" sessions to get her to open up with her secret hobby. I'm not gonna lie, it's an interesting story, to say the least. I mean we can all relate. We have secrets we might not want others to know. The problem for me is that it felt stereotypical and predictable. It had some twists near the end. but for the most part, I knew what was going to happen. Speaking of the ending, I thought it was quite sudden, which seemed forced to fit into the 12 episodes.

Art: 6
I'm not gonna say much about this. Nothing spectacular. Quite generic. The end.

Sound: 4
I wasn't impressed by the sound used. The OP and EDs are forgettable. I honestly can't remember much that stood out at all. Oh well.

Character: 3
This is what made me really dislike this show. I don't care what anybody says; I hate Kirino with a passion so strong, it can only be compared to the force of a thousand suns. She was utterly useless for nearly the entirety of the series. I guess this is a little biased, because I hate people who care only about themselves, but that's just me. To me, she's a terrible person. She's not the only problem. Kyousuke, for example. He bland and boring. He has his moments, but they're scarce. This show has good characters though, like Manami and her grandfather. The problem is that they barely get any screen time, especially the grandfather who's only in one episode. Kuroneko and Saori are pretty alright characters as well, but they can't save the show.

Overall, it's a story that had potential. It could have gone deeper, explaining the difficult relationship between Kyousuke helping Kirino accept the she has a hobby that she can't keep secret forever, but instead, we get a whiny sister and a boring brother doing stereotypical otaku things. I guess they really tried to appeal to otakus and weeaboos.