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[Adapted From Original Blog Post]

Melodrama is a term that I feel is thrown around in this medium a lot without much thought or care, but since it's pretty much going to be the driving topic of this review, it's probably a good idea if we define it right here and now. The confusion is probably due to how nebulous the concept has become in the situations it is applied, so forgive me if my definition doesn't quite match up with your own, but we need a solid definition so we can move forward with this review.

For me, when I say ... melodrama on this blog and in these reviews, I typically refer to "drama instigated by the narrative instead of the characters". Good drama is most efficiently communicated when actions, both rash and seemingly inevitable, are instigated by the characters, while melodrama appears when the narrative has seemingly run out of things to do, and needs some unconsequential actions to shake the status quo before instantly restoring it. That seems to be a practice, that the topic of today's review: Glasslip, has somewhat mastered.

Hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, I hope you're having a pleasant day, and welcome, one and all, to a new anime review... finally. It's time to beat on this dead and brutalized horse, so join me in picking out which bats to use. Let's get started.

Glasslip was animated by the wonderful P.A Works, who have made ripples before in the industry with such titles as Angel Beats!, Nagi no Asukara, and Shirobako. The director was Junji Nishimura, the guy behind True Tears and this season's Bakuon!!, with some rather mediocre stuff in between. Credit for script goes to Tatsuhiko Urahata, and that surprises me frankly, since Urahata has shown adept skill in multiple genres including slice-of-life and romance. Some of his notable scrips have been for anime like Nana, Rokka no Yuusha, Aria and Hanasaku Iroha, though to be fair, there's been some duds in the bunch, like Strike Witches, Haganai, and Escha & Logy no Atelier: Tasogare no Sora no Renkinjutsushi. Glasslip aired 13 episodes in the summer season of 2014, stretching from July 2nd to September 24th. With all the technical stuff out of the way, let's get this review started.

Story

Summer has arrived for Touko Fukami and her group of friends, which include the comic-relief Hiro, asshole-McEmo(or Yuki), glasses-endowed/resident lesbian Sachi, and spurned women Yanagi. The group of friends mostly live a peaceful life, as they struggle to figure out their feelings for one another, since trust me, the relationship dynamics in this show require a spreadsheet to understand, and decide what to do about their futures as the new year of school comes closer and closer. However, two events are about to shake the foundation of their friendships to the core.

The first thing that happens is the arrival of Kakeru Okikura(or David as he goes by), a brash and somewhat enigmatic new arrival in the town who seems to stir up trouble wherever he goes. While the group of friends seem to unanimously decide to hate him, Touko finds herself inexplicably drawn to David, not only because he is sort of hot as all hell, but because of the choice words he whispered to her on the night of a fireworks festival a few nights ago: "I saw the same thing." Which brings us the second disruption. Touko has been living her normal life without much drama thus far as she works towards an admirable goal of becoming a glass artisan and perhaps one day inheriting her family's studio, but on the night of the fireworks festival, a strange vision came to her as light reflected off of the thimble she held, showing Touka and her friends in places and situations she didn't recognize. Upon talking to David about it, it appears that he saw the same vision, and they mutually begin to understand that they both have the same strange power: to be able to see "shards" of the future reflected in anything shiny or bright.

Armed with fragmented knowledge of the future gained from these "shards", Touka attempts to both try to understand her power and the feelings she has begun to have for David, a situation made more complicated by the fact that both Yuki and Sachi already have a thing for Touka, while Hiro has a thing for Sachi, at the same time as Yanagi has a thing for Yuki(her step-brother, by the way), made even more ambiguous by the fact that David may or may have a thing for Touko as well. Got all of that? Good, because there's a quiz later.

That's right, it's another big dumb "everyone is in love with everyone" scenario that you've seen a million times, and hell, while that's obviously an over-used troupe in anime, that's not necessarily a criticism. I'm not even saying this premise is bad for a slice-of-life/romance per say, because I've seen anime pull this kind of thing off before, most notably Nagi no Asukara, with the whole huge love-web scenario made even more confusing by vague supernatural elements driving the story from the side-lines. Glasslip however, does a few things wrong right off of the bat.

Proper characterization of your cast is really important before you want to start doing dramatic things with them, and while I get into this more when I get to the "Characters" section of this review, the bland and largely unlikable cast of Glasslip don't help the show's case at all. Dramatic tension isn't so much built up through events in the narrative as much as stuff just kind of happens, the characters wine about it for an episode or two, before the next event on the checklist steps up to be dramatized. The narrative never seems to know really what it is doing. First I thought that the power to see "shards" of the future that Touko and David posses would tie into some thematic center about facing the future and change, but that theory hits a dead-end quick as the narrative continues to do a lot of stuff, yet somehow a whole lot of nothing. It's this nebulous focus that just simply kills any kind of structure that the show may have had, and the series of largely disconnected events that each episode entails fails to have any impact.

Look, I'm not saying that Glasslip had to be about something, because it didn't, not really, especially in the genre it is a part of. Many of my favorite anime are about nothing in particularly: the narratives of slice-of-life anime like Nichijou, Toradora, Clannad, and hell, another show by P.A Works that came out later the same year as Glasslip, Shirobako, could be argued by a cynic to be about nothing in particular. And yeah, maybe that's correct, the events in those shows were also random, sometimes disconnected events of the everyday anxiety of normal people. Despite that though, everyone of those shows had something to say about the nothing of everyday, about the human experience, about the connections between their characters, managing to tie all of that into some kind of lesson or moral for the audience that they could apply to their own days of nothing in particular. So no, Glasslip didn't have be about something. But it did have to say something. And it doesn't. There's no overarching moral, the characters don't really learn much of anything by the end except how not to get on one another's nerves, and the whole sorry affair is just a gigantic waste of time.

Meanwhile, the one part of this narrative that might have been interesting: the ability to see the future in the reflection of objects(a cool and somewhat narratively appropriate idea that I found interesting) is completely undermined by just how contrived the story is, and ultimately makes no sense. Just to be clear, I'm not saying I need an explanation per say for supernatural powers in a contemporary setting, certain stories need the audience to suspend disbelief in order for their narrative to work, and that's fine, stories are allowed to define the boundaries of their own worlds. What I am calling Glasslip out for is that the power itself doesn't operate under any given rules, and pretty much just does what the narrative wants it to do. There's no rhyme or reason for when the visions of the future grip Touko or David, or how the visions present themselves, whether through a corporeal screen or as a full-blown hallucination of varying vividness. At one point, David loses his power to see the future for some reason, and hell, it's not even clear why Touko received the power to see the future when she did. She wasn't born with it, and as far as we know, and hadn't been repressing it. Is this a metaphorical manifestation of teenage anxiety, like what Charlotte did? I don't know. And at this point, this story has become stupid enough for me to not really care either.

In truth though, all of this ties into the biggest problem with Glasslip, which I'll talk about more in depth later, but for right now, I guess I'll touch on the few things I did like about this show. While this is more likely attributed to the animators at P.A Works than Urahata, I appreciated the range of expressions on the characters' faces, cluing in the veiwer into what they might be thinking(unless there was some obnoxious inner monologue), and helping to tell the story, no matter how crappy it may be, in a more organic and subtle way. That actually ties into my next positive: the silent storytelling. Many of the best moments of the entire show are when the characters keep their fat mouths shut, like when Touko and David silently lay down in a meadow of grass enjoying the sun and the breeze, a maelstrom of unsaid things between them swirling around the scene. Or that moment when Hiro realizes exactly what kind of person Sachi is(which I can't elaborate due to spoilers, though I'm not sure why I even care at this point), and he simply stares at her for moment in confusion which transitions to disgust, before he walks out of the room without hardly another word, unable to fully process what exactly just happened. Oh, and there's this one chicken named Jonathan who is pretty cool.

Characters

All of the main cast of Glassip mostly come off as unlikable, stupid, or boring, and that's something that can be attributed to how the story treats them, or to be more precise, what the story makes them do. See, the characters in Glasslip aren't so much actually characters as they are plot-devices in order to serve the narrative, and in many ways, this is the worst parts of Glasslip, the characters have no agency of their own, they only are there to create the drama. Our main heroine Touko is the bland shoujo protagonist for nearly everyone of the male cast(and female to be fair to Sachi) to latch onto and fall in love with, not because they share any sort of particular chemistry or personal connection with her, but because drama will be created as she inevitably turns them down to end up with David. David's character basically only exists to break the group of friends up and create tension. Yuki is only there to act like an asshole to everyone, and for Yanagi to get all upset when he goes after Touka. Hiro... well to be fair Hiro is probably the only character I like in this entire cast, mostly just because he seems to be the only one with truly good intentions. A lovable idiot, Hiro is a simple, tactless, well-meaning guy who just can't help but fall for the quiet, glasses-wearing Sachi(who incidentally is only there to create drama when Yuki isn't around).

While the main characters don't really have anything to do besides from what the story needs them to do as they try to pretend to be people stuck within the extremely rigid personalities the anime has given them, the side characters thankfully have a little more breathing-room, which pretty much instantly makes them more likable then the main cast. Since the narrative doesn't(usually) make them do anything stupid to serve the drama, the supporting cast actually feel like people observing the situation, and the anime actually did a really good job of putting that observation into a family unit. I enjoyed characters like Hiro's older sister, David's parents, and Touko's younger sister the most; just because their sort of realistic demeanors of amusement and understanding watching these stupid teenagers scream their feelings at one another was the closest this show came to being self-aware. I mean, I doubt it was intentional, but it at least gave me the closest thing to enjoyment while watching this show.

Presentation & Sound

P.A Works are notrious for their stupidly beautiful anime, and Glasslip is thankfully no exception. This is probably the best-looking show I've seen from them disregarding Nagi no Asukara; it's got that feeling of quality that only certain animation studios can make vivid. I could go over the pleasant character designs and the lustrous colors used, but the place I feel the animation really shines is in the backgrounds of the anime. Even without pointers via the narrative, the town where the characters live is so wonderfully realized and drawn with such detail that it really does feel like a living breathing town. There's always a nice landscape in the background to gawk at as the characters do whatever stupid thing they're doing, and there is almost always movement, from birds taking flight in the distance, to cars passing by the characters as they walk to school. It's that sort of commiment that makes this studio stand out among others. It just would have been nice if they had animated something kind of worth watching.

Sound in contrast, is where the aesthetics of this show fall a little bit short, at least for me. The composer: Akito Matsuda, has done a couple of really good OSTs before Glasslip, including but not limited to soundtracks for anime like Hibike! Euphonium, Bokura wa Minna Kawaiso, and D-Frag, but I can't get too excited about his efforts here. Glasslip's soundtrack is heavily themed around classical orchestra pieces, and while I'm sure the OST is a treat for fans of that era of instrumental music, it just isn't for me. Now, I fully realize this negative impression of the soundtrack is due to my personal tastes alone, and I'm sure others who enjoy this kind of music will be delighted by the renditions heard in the background of certain scenes, but even when I take that into account, most of the tracks simply feel much too similiar to each other. Nearly all of the OST pieces use many similiar instruments and follow similiar tempos, and it just makes for a boring listen when you have to go through the whole soundtrack for a review, hypothetically. That said, there were a couple of pieces I felt stood out to some degree. The piano rendition of the song "Toumei na Sekai" is rather lovely unlike its vocal counterpart and reminiscent of some of the piano pieces from SNAFU Zoku's OST, and the fast-paced yet somehow intriguing "Tsunagaru Kokoro, Takanaru Kokoro" is probably one of my favorite pieces from the whole soundtrack. In summary, while I know that I never was going to like this OST contrary to some people, that fact that even an uncultured music listener like me can find a few tracks to enjoy probably is a testament in itself to well how structured this entire soundtrack is. At the very least, it's much better than most OSTs in a given season, so, you know, I'll stop being a pretentious prick for a moment and give the OST a solid "good".

I got really excited when I saw that nano.RIPE was doing the ED for Glasslip, but I ended up extremely disappointed in that regard. The band has done some of my favorite OP's for the slice-of-life/supernatural genre; I absolutely adore their opening credit songs for Sankarea and both seasons of Non Non Biyori, but Glasslip's Ed "Tōmei na Sekai" is just kind of generic sounding and uninspired, and honestly sort of unfitting seeing how much of the show's episodes end on some sort of dramatic cliffhanger. As for the OP "Natsu no Hi to Kimi no Ko", I can't really say anything about it. It's about as typical as OP's go, and is not even saved by maybe some creative visuals playing into the whole "shards" of future thing, but rather is made monotonous by the boring pannning shots and character vignettes.

Verdict

Somehow, at the end of this review, I need to swing this conversation right back along to melodrama, because really, that's core of why Glasslip is the way that it is. Melodrama is a term thrown around without much care in slice-of-life/romance genre, and sometimes that irks me greatly since I feel it's greatly unjustified. This, is one of the few exceptions.

Fundamentally, nothing in Glasslip really makes much sense, and that is precisely because it's melodramatic, a flaw which you can easily trace to nearly every single integral fault of the story. It was doomed from the moment the agency of the characters were compromised in their own story in order to serve the narrative, and its fate was sealed from the moment that the characters were created reliant on the narrative, because from that point, they didn't take action because they should, they took action because they needed to in order for the narrative to work. Why does Touka's and David's power to see the future fluctuate on how it works so often? Because the narrative said so. Why do they even have these powers in the first place? Because the narrative said so. Why do the character makes stupid and irrational decisions that only begets more drama? Because the narrative said so. Hell, why does this group of teenagers have feelings for one another in the first place, despite not really sharing any chemistry? Because the narrative said so. Why does this show suck so much? Because you, P.A Works, screwed up big time.

Somewhere along the way, I feel, Glasslip forgot to make its characters actually human, and whatever it wanted to do with them later, the sentiment was already compromised. Look, it makes it hard to care when you feel you're watching a bunch of wind-up dolls with water balloons attached to their eyes. It makes it hard to care when these dolls seemingly seek out drama. It makes it hard to care. And so, at the end of the day, I don't really care about Glasslip. I didn't care what happened with the story, or what happened to the characters, or even if everybody would be happy at the end. I just... didn't care. Apathy is the next step after sadness. Sadness is the next step after anger. And anger is the next step after apathy. If a show obviously doesn't care about itself enough to be coherent, why the hell should I put in the effort to find its positives or to recommend it to people who may feasibly enjoy it for some reason? I'm not. Instead, just to spite it, Glasslip gets a dismissive last phrase in this review, because frankly, I've spent way more time in this review talking about the show than it deserves. Glasslip is a failure of romance, a failure of a drama, and a failure of a story. Skip it.

Final Verdict: 4/10

P.S: Jonathan was always the MVP.

For this review and others, feel free to check out my blog! (Link on profile)

[Adapted From Original Blog Post]
[Mini Review]

Durarara always had to begin and end with Mikado Ryūgamine. His search for the extraordinary has been the main thematic pin holding the story of Durarara together since day 1, especially in !!x2, which has made his slow descent into darkness front and center, and Ketsu now has the responsibility to wrap up an epic character arc that has spanned over 60 episodes, along with whatever left over plot-threads have yet to be resolved. I didn't like Ten that much since its sloppy work basically is the reason why Ketsu won't be getting a higher score at the end of ... this review, but what it did do was let the cream of Durarara's story rise slowly to the top. Put simply, Ketsu is the best Durarara has ever been; a fascinating correlation of the show's insanity with the real human emotion that has made !!x2 so shockingly complicated, and damn do the episodes fly by. You can feel the narrative of what the franchise has built up over the years crash down inevitably on these characters without mercy. Everything is high stakes. Every decision made by every character is going to drastically affect how everything plays out, and in a spiral of emotional turmoil for both the characters and the audience, it's anybodies guess whether this ending will be a happy one.

But somehow, even after all this time, it still feels rushed, a fault that can be attributed to Ten not getting the unimportant stuff out of the way first. While Ketsu is mostly brilliantly built-up emotional arcs, it still has to wrap up a ton of loose ends, and doing so takes it a fair amount of time, time that should have been given to the main arcs which we've been waiting 60 episodes to see culminate, especially what can be argued to be the arc of the franchise's main character. And while once we get to end, what transpires is spectacular and satisfying, but really could have been more so if it had just a few more episodes.


Let's be straight here, while other important arcs are trivialized, the most tragic is Mikado's. It's his story that has pushed Durarara to its absolute best moments, and in Ketsu, it's best than its ever been, especially in the penultimate episode's finale which is so goddamn amazing that it seemed to me the first time that Durarara had been able to stand side-by-side with its cousin Baccano. If more time had been given to the arc, Ketsu would be no doubt have risen above anything the franchise has accomplished so far, but it simply has a rushed conclusion that stops it from being an incredible finale, a finale which really would have blown me out of my seat. Ketsu is a great ending to to this story, but if a few decisions had been different over the span of this franchise, it may have been able to find a place in my all-time favorites. But it still comes close.

Final Verdict: 7.5/10

For this review and others, feel free to check out my blog! (Link on profile)

[Adapted From Original Blog Post]
[Mini Review]

Ten constitutes somewhat of a return-to-formula for the Durarara franchise. While Shou mostly spent its time setting up the overall conflict for the season that would be reimbursed in Ketsu, Ten sets most of that to the edge of the narrative frame, which is brilliant conveyed in possibly the best opening the franchise has had thus far. The random comings-and-goings of the city are the focus in this cour, whether that be detailing a unwary stalker obsessing over a monster pretending to be a human, or a Russian assassin reexamining her life in a new situation that seems to be ... treating her well.


Some of what Ten dabbles around with is relevant to the overall plot and some of it is not, but it at least provides context to the overall frame of what exactly is happening in Ikebukuro, giving information that we may be able to use as the series prepares itself for the end-game. This leads Ten to be somewhat unfocused, even by Durarara standards. Most of what it has to offer is suitable, but I can't help but feel some loose ends, not quite crucial but still relevant things could have been cleared up so Ketsu could be more focused on the core conflict. In fact, Ten does a rather shoddy job of cleaning house for the third cour to be more focused, the reason for the tad rushed pace of Ketsu.

In that regard, Ten is most similiar to the style and pace of the first season; chaos without the control, which is good news for fans that preferred the first season's entertaining meanderings, and bad news for people who like me who prefer !!x2's thematic focus around a whirlwind of random... stuff. Luckily, Ten does somewhat still manage to please both kinds of fans, finally doing some crucial set-up for the third cour in its last couple of episodes, which more unluckily leads into this cour's most prominent flaw. Being the middle child, Ten lacks a solid beginning or more importantly, a satisfying conclusion, something that Shou was able to do with flying colors. That probably is balanced out since Shou had a rather lackluster start, but it's something to keep in mind as we head into the final verdict.

Out of all three of !!x2's cours, Ten is probably the most easily enjoyable, since it requires less thinking on what the events playing out in front of you mean in the bigger narrative picture, which besides from some certain moments(like the development of Masaomi Kida and the backstory of Izaya Orihara) is reflected in this cour being arguably the least interesting of all of what Durarara has to offer collectively. That's unfortunate, but still, in a second season that has been as unexpectedly complex as this one, a little breather in the middle before we get to the deep stuff is nice, and if that was Ten's intention: to cool off the viewer's expectations before destroying them one cour later, it does its job.

Final Verdict: 7/10

P.S: Shit, he got a new jacket.

For this review and others, feel free to check out my blog! (Link on profile)

[Adapted From Original Blog Post]
[Mini Review]

The five year gap between Durarara's first season and Shou may in fact be its greatest weakness. It's rather abrupt seeing these characters after so long, brought to life by a new, rougher art-style and now entangled in a complicated web of relations with new characters we don't yet know; it all is a little alienating at first, especially when the first episodes of this new season are largely spent parading around the setting of Ikebukuro, a large deviation from the action-packed finale of season one. I can't hold that against Shou, however. Its job isn't easy. It needs to ... recover old fans of the franchise while attracting new ones, set the ground-work for a second season that will be spread over three cours, while still having a definite narrative of its own that has a beginning and end, and it had to accomplish all of this in just 12 episodes. When you look at it that way, it's actually quite amazing Shou turned out as well as it did.

True, the beginning is slow and rather abrupt in its presentation, and while the writing is good, Durarara as a franchise has never held it accountable over fun action sequences and crazy characters. Sometimes I can't help but feel that Shou is simply adding things in order to make everything more complicated, because for all the setting-up it does for multiple characters arcs later on in !!x2, there are a few times it simply doesn't go anywhere, wasting precious time in a franchise whose pacing basically is already defined by being rushed and incoherent.

That's when it becomes frustrating, and that's when I sincerely get angry at this show, because it's too caught up in its own insanity to actually concentrate on the bundle of things it has on its hands that are actually really interesting, a pit-fall its older cousin Baccano! was able to side-step with flying colors. But I know that's redundant and unfair. If there's anything Shou was able to do, it was to define Durarara!! as its own entity, one that promises to end up in a very awesome place indeed by the end of all three cours of !!x2. And speaking of which.

What really redeems Shou in the end as its own entertaining narrative is the rather excellent last few episodes. When it actually has all the prerequisites of its own limited existence out of the way, Shou turns the excitement level up to 11, grabbing whatever plot-threads it needs and accelerates into an extremely satisfying ending, one that not only ends on several awesome but equally tortuous cliffhangers, but sets up the real narrative of !!x2, as the story of Mikado Ryūgamine and the crazy-ass city that surrounds him reveals its true colors and propels the hype level into levels yet uncharted. Shou is really good at what it sets out to do, and even if you don't like this cour for its bipolarity, you can't dispute that for Durarara!!x2, it's absolutely imperative.

Final Verdict: 7/10

P.S: "Then why are you smiling?"

For this review and others, feel free to check out my blog! (Link on profile)

[Adapted From Original Blog Post]

I have to ask: "why the head-tilt?" Studio Shaft, the animation studio behind today's review, is known for their "avant-garde" style of producing anime, materializing in their works having quirky cinematography, pragmatically enigmatic dialouge, viscerally surreal coloring and/or animation, and their characters, in almost all of their works, do a signature head-tilt at seemingly random intervals. Now obviously, the head-tilt itself is sort of a product of the art-style that the studio has been persuading for about the last decade, heavily influenced by the yearnings of director Akiyuki Shinbo, a man whose "out-of-the-box" style has been prevalent in almost every single ... Shaft work since he and Shaft began to collaborate in earnest, almost to the point of over-saturation. So, again, "why the head-tilt?"

Shaft's constant eccentricities could be argued to be a good or bad thing depending on who you ask, and trust me, I can provide plenty of examples of when the "art" is either enhanced or ruined by the presentation regardless of the actually content. And sadly, Mekaku City Actors turns out to be the equivalent of walking into a modern art gallery where the painting themselves are only barely finished. I applaud Shaft's efforts to create their own unique style in a medium where everything is looking more and more like Kyoto Animation's revolutionary moe anime K-On!, because that's something to strive for, to be different, to try new things. But today's topic mostly brings up the conversation when a studio's art-style becomes too bloated and overly-handled due to what I can only assume is habit, and doesn't concentrate enough on what actually gives the art-style value: the narrative. And to say Mekaku City Actor's narrative is one that has been completely lost underneath the layers of Akiyuki Shinbo's derivativeness, would be me holding back much of that statement.
So, hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, and welcome to a brand new anime review. Today, we'll be looking at the mess of color and ideas called Mekaku City Actors. Let's begin.

I know I pretty much already went over the studio and director in the intro, but for just for format's sake, let's just do it again. Of course the animation studio and director behind Mekaku City Actors have collaboratively created such anime over the years as Nisekoi, Madoka Magica, Bakemonogatari and its many sequels, ef: A Tale of Memories and Arakawa Under the Bridge just to name a few. The script was written by Jin, who actually also wrote the source material of this anime. See, Mekaku City Actors is based off a series of vocaloid mixed-media project by Kangerou Project and written by Jin himself, whose songs' and short videos' ongoing narrative was adapted for this anime, which probably explains a lot more about why the series is fashioned the way it is then I care to research, Finally, Mekaku City Actors was released its modest 12 episode run in the spring anime season of 2014. Now then, I think I've covered everything worth noting Let's get started.

Story

This part part is going to slightly harder than usual, so stick with me a moment. The story of Mekaku City Actor takes place in a roughly 48-hour period stretch from the dates August 14th and 15th, and details a series of seemingly unrelated incidents that pull together a group of seemingly unrelated people, whose, unbeknownst to them, strange random powers that somehow involve their eyes may be more connected to the crazy goings on around them than they could possibly imagine. Told in a series of flashbacks, fast-forwards, and changes in perspective, the narrative of Mekaku City Actors begins to uncover the interesting yet extremely convoluted tale of a organization named "Mekakushi Dan" the organization that this group of people has formed, as they attempt to discover the truth behind the events that drew them together. However, as the group dives deeper into both the conspiracy and the back-stories of their comrades slowly come into view, the truth, and by extension, their fate, may be something that nothing will be able to stop. An entanglement of actions and reactions is about to unfold; a handful of motivations have set an unstoppable series of events in motion, motivations that somehow or another, can be traced back to a mysterious girl from the past, a tragic fire, and an old children's story that made hold the key to understanding everything.


Still with me? Because if you couldn't follow that paragraph, this show might not be for you. Chaotic story-telling isn't inherently a bad thing, as long as the story can keep the central pieces of the narrative in focus and provide adequate reasons for the cluttered plot-threads, it's typically those kind of stories that tie together brilliantly the loose-ends of their story into one grand thematic point, which usually makes for my favorite kind of story. Anime in general seems to have a very adept way of handling this sort of narrative; Baccano, Kyousougiga and Punchline are some of the anime that have been able to pull the trick off, just to name a few.

Unfortunately, perhaps due to shortcomings in the writing, Mekaku City Actors isn't able successfully juggle all of its ideas, and that's thanks to a few key things. The anime seems to have a lot of ideas, ideas that I honestly quite love, but it doesn't know when to stop adding to the narrative soup and simply concentrate on what it has, which, in the case of this extended metaphor, leads to all the ingredients being burnt at the series to the end of a run of 12 episodes which honestly wasn't enough to give everything time to breath. Whatever new concept concept the anime introduces is given a maximum of one episode to develop before it moves on to something else, whether that be a new character, plot-thread, or thematic element. Let's be honest here, one episode isn't really enough to develop anything properly, at least to the extent that my critical viewpoint would be satisfied with. This leads the conclusion of the whole show being sort of a hot mess, an entertaining one to be sure, but one that feels rushed and quite inconclusive, as all the things the anime didn't have time to explain are sort of left to interpretation. It never quite leads to utter narrative retardation like with shows such as Mirai Nikki did in their final episodes, but several leaps of logic and suspensions of disbelief will be needed in order to enjoy the show.

Luckily, if you can keep everything straight to your head, Mekaku City Actors is at the best of times a rather entertaining ride. Most of the character's(which themselves mostly live on the rule of cool, but we'll get into that later) powers are stupidly unique and awesome, leading to several very memorable set-pieces where Shaft animation is colliding with super-powers from the characters, and it's just kind of awesome. It's at those times where I almost wonder if Mekaku City Actors was supposed to be a really out-there confusing superhero story. Once that thought occurred to me, I realized the central core the narrative basically follows the formula you'd expect, most of the show's time is spent either gathering the members of Mekakushi Dan(or else explaining why they are part of the group), which is a easy equivalent to a really patch-work superhero team. Even the final episodes are dedicated to the recently formed band of "heroes" battling an evil, that while doesn't exactly pose a threat to the world, is sort of a dark barrier to the character's desire to be exist and be recognized as individuals.

Like I said, it's easiest to enjoy Mekaku City Actors when you concentrate on the surface stuff. The superhero comparison makes everything seem bad-ass until you think about the situation a little deeper, and realize key elements of the story sort of contradict this sentiment. Sure, the anime is enjoyable on rule-of-cool standards, but thinking to hard about those said actions may lead to realizing several contrivances or stupidly convenient coincidence(though I have more to say about that in a bit) by the viewer. That said, it's not exactly good to go into it expecting a brainless show. The anime will expect you to think hard in order to keep track of the narrative, and, as I said, it's easy to get lost if you aren't paying attention.


The only thing I can really praise the plot for is a certain idea hiding under the surface, one I regrettably can't talk about in detail without spoiling basically entire plot of the show. See, as I've said, the biggest reason that Mekaku City Actors is critically disregarded is the convoluted plot, a plot which at the best of times seems inconvenient and at the worst of times seems just kind of stupid, especially once the metaphysical forces driving the narrative are revealed in the last third of the story. However, I almost forgive it for that, at least in terms of a thematic sense. No, don't get me wrong, the plot is still a mess. It has ta few bright spots, though those spots are mostly good due to my own bias, like certain story-telling tricks that I really like. But for the most part, it's the weakest aspect of the whole anime, an unfocused mess, a clutter of objects on the floor in no particular order, the kind of plot that makes it really hard to like Mekaku City Actors.

But in that criticism is a strange, almost paradoxical element. See, though it make be schizophrenic and convoluted, but believe it or not, the narrative of Mekaku City Actors is actually written with extreme purpose, much of the incoherent nonsense is a clue to hidden narrative strands; and keeping that in mind, whether or not it is utterly a figment of my imagination, the convolution of Mekaku City Actors, the shaky time-skips and strange coincidences, are actually play a bigger part in the grander, sort of meta-narrative. Again, I won't go into detail due to spoilers, but in other words, the story just kind of had to happen this way. I'm sorry if that is vague, but I hope you can see how that sort of places me in a strange place when I'm criticizing something that may have completely have been intended by Jin and the other creators. So, now I'm stuck in between the question whether thematic intention is justifiable to forming a very broken narrative. That question is something I don't really want to answer here, because I've been talking in this section long enough already, but whether or not the narrative is formed with a grander vision, there's still plenty of things about the whole plot that can be criticized and picked apart. So... that begs the question whether any of that really matters, because, even if that vision is even there, I think it is outweighed by the core problems of this messy narrative. I think it's time to move on.


Characters

I said this before, but the cast of Mekaku City Actors mostly survives on the rule of cool, which is just as well since the cast is so obtusely large. There are probably about 12 or so major characters in all that are relevant in some large way to the narrative, and since this anime seems to scoff at the idea of a main protagonist, we have no central point to bounce the other elements of characterization off of, leaving the character relations sort of hard to judge occasionally. To the show's credit, it does at least try to develop the entire cast, even if that is sort of impossible. As the time-line and perspective switches with every new episode of the show, so too does the character focus, and the anime has a range of success these episodes focusing on characterization. So, let's talk about some of the individuals players in this convoluted story, shall we?

Shintaro is probably the closest thing to a main character this anime has, and by that, I mean the narrative pretty much begins and ends with him. Shintaro is the first character we're introduced to: a reclusive NEET who inexplicably has an A.I named Ene downloaded onto his computer, and he is pretty much is dragged into the events of the show completely against his will as he goes to the mall to pick up a new keyboard. Though his personality is rather cliche, he ends up being one of the stronger characters of the show; I particularly found his eventual arc and reason for being a NEET the one of most interesting character threads of the show. From there, as I said, the colorful cast we are introduced to from there are very inconstant in terms of their development. Kano is the resident joker of the group with one of the coolest powers of the show, who hides a more serious demeanor behind his cheerful smile. Ene is a mysterious(and sort of annoying) A.I with a mysterious past, who may not be interesting in terms of her personality, but is one of the few characters of the show that actually grew on me as time went on. Marry is a ditsy moe klutz who at first seems like she is just there for the sake of it, but turns out to have a greater role in the bigger narrative than nearly anybody else.

Look, I could go on like this for awhile, but here's the bottom line. The cast of Mekaku City Actors certainty isn't the best out there, but it's far from the worst, There are many other anime who have attempted to juggle a large cast and ended up screwing up much more than this anime, so coming out with a happy medium in terms of characters, especially for a story this all-over-the-place, probably should be praised, if only slightly. Oh yeah, and before we move on, I should probably mention Tsubomi Kido, the shy leader of "Mekakushi Dan", a character which I have no personal bias towards, whatsoever. At all. Nope. Not biased.

Presentation & Sound

The animation of studio Shaft is something the typical viewer usually loves or hates. I already talked about what makes their style distinct in the intro, so I'm just going to skip over that and go right into the actual quality of the animation. Now, Shaft are infamous for being under-staffed and only completing episodes hours before they are on they air, which plays a part in why their style is the way that it is; the constantly cutting cinematography and frames of either live-action or text hide the fact that there actually isn't a lot of movement going on. Despite that, I find their animation in anime like Bakemonogatari or Nisekoi to be very pleasant to look at, in terms of backgrounds and animation in general, so despite Shaft's apparently being understaffed, I, perhaps unfairly, have sort of high expectations for this studio. Mekaku City Actors was perhaps the first time I've been disappointed by them.

Look, I earlier compared the art-style of Mekaku City Actors to that of walking through a modern art gallery, and don't get me wrong that analogy absolutely still holds. The art-style used, combining a mixture of interesting tactics using many shadows and shapes give much of the environment a really cool texture to look at while watching, especially the one used in the hide-out of "Mekakushi Dan". That's not what I have fault with, since Shaft's art direction has always been superb, and a low budget won't exactly change that. My complaints lie with the actual nitty-gritty of the animation, in movement specifically. Sometimes the animation is quite nice, but other times is flows rather awkwardly, and occasionally the character designs, which I do love, but the designs sometimes very poorly integrated into the world around them(espcially when said world is rendered with crappy CG), or else just look badly drawn. Look, it's not a deal-breaker; I prefer a mediocre integrated movement in a modern art gallery rather than just mediocrity all around, I'm just a little disappointed. Shaft's style works best when both parties are working: the movement and the art, and with one being sort of weaker than usual here, it sort of puts a bad taste in my mouth.

Crafted by Jin himself and a variety of different artists as a sort of way to build on the original songs of Kangerou Project, the OST of Mekaku City Actors is sly, fast-paced, and filled with awesome electronic music(becoming of their vocaloid song roots), giving the music a slick, modern kind of feel, becoming of Shaft's art. It's one of the things about Mekaku City Actors that I find hard to complain about. While most of the OST isn't quite my cup of tea, I can't complain much about an OST that clearly has so much work and effort put into it, with nearly every main character having their own unique theme, which most of the time range from good to bearable, which makes it even cooler that Jin himself sings in almost all of the tracks. I also like that, while the music definitely all is the same style, the OST has a lot of different emotions going on, from the upbeat idol-style song "Kisaragi Attention", to the more jazz-like "Yuukie Yesterday", to the sadder-sounding "Ayano no Koufuku Riron". However, there are always stand-outs. The first is, without a question, is the opening "daze", an awesomely bad-ass quickly paced song that, with rough yet still cool visuals that foreshadow the sh*t out of the plot, and still ranks as one of the best OP's of 2014 in my book. Seriously, I could listen to this opening all day. As for a song from the actual OST, I'd have to go with "Lost Time Memory", a fast-paced, yet somehow song, that perfectly encapsulates the character it's supposed to be emulating. Oh, and before I forget, the Ed: "「days」" is rather lovely too.

Verdict

Now, I've got a bit of a confession to make, one that you can probably guess from reading this review. Despite all the flack I've been giving Mekaku City Actors in this review, I actually really like this anime. That's probably because I'm a sucker for Shaft's artstyle, non-linear story-telling and pacing that I at least found addicting, but the fact remains that I'm very much alone on this matter. This anime was both panned by critics, casual viewers, and fans of Kangerou Project alike. This is because the show falls into a very weird area when the target audience is concerned; it's too sparsely constructed for critics, too convoluted for casuals, and sort of in held in vendetta by fans of the source material, since it put the thing they love in a negative light upon its induction into a new medium. I guess what I'm trying to say is, yes, Mekaku City Actors is way too over-hated by the anime community.

I'm not saying that it doesn't deserve criticism, the anime is far from being good, but just because an anime isn't good doesn't mean it should be completely disregarded. The Fruit of Grisaia is far from being a good anime, but it still is a unique addition to the harem genre whose psychological exploration of its characters occasionally brought up some very thought-provoking ideas(even if it spent most of its time swimming in pools of its own bullsh*t). Kill la Kill is far insuperior to its older brother Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, but I don't think a good experience can be completely skipped jut because a great one that is similiar exists. And finally, the zenith of controversial School Days is arguably one of the worst written anime I think I've ever seen, but in one of the very first posts on this blog, I was able to write an entire essay on the show's thematic underpinning, stating how it could easily be viewed as a deconstruction of the harem genre or a criticism of the genre's tropes, even if I don't particularly belief either of those things. But again, just the fact that somebody can watch that show can end up hailing it as a great anime despite the objectively terrible writing just proves that a show that isn't good doesn't always intrinsically mean it doesn't hold value.

If that is to be my argument, what then, exactly, does Mekaku City Actors have to offer as an addition to both the anime medium and the legacy of Akiyuki Shimbo? Well, to put it simply... I just think it's an interesting show. Yeah, that basically the crutch of the issue. I admit it, I find it very fascinating that a group of music videos and other aspects through other mediums came together to make one single story, and I find it fascinating that that story was adapted for the anime medium into a very convoluted yet weirdly intriguing result, something that still makes me faintly smile when it crosses my mind. Because... you don't get something like this everyday. Especially recently in the industry, where half of what comes out every season is adapted from some light novel with a stupidly long name, the fact that this thing somehow grew unto a full-fledged production that resembles the art of a mad-man splattered against a story that seems to be doing everything and nothing at the same time, fascinates me. And I'd rather have that than another mediocre comedy, or another generic shounen, or another predictable rom-com. Maybe it's a little superficial, but I rather have character doing weird head-tilts blabbering about a plot so loosely constructed that you need Detectice f*cking Conan to put it together into something coherent, than something where I don't need to do any thinking at all. Oh, and also Mekaku City Actors has Kido. So, that basically makes it 1,000x better than it would be. Nope, still not biased.

Final Verdict: 5/10

P.S: Oh. there go those silly kids again. When will they realize that this pain was there before?


For this review and others, feel free to check out my blog! (Link on profile)

There likely wasn't many people who didn't feel at least a little apprehensive as legendary director Hayao Miyzaki let loose on the reigns of Studio Ghibli, reigns that he had been steering for so many years. It honestly didn't really matter that Ghibli had other more-than-capable directors such as Isao Takahata, the studio was losing a vastly important factor that had been there since its very conception, and many anime fans were wondering what was next for Ghibli as Miyazaki's last cinematic endeavor: The Wind Rises, played its credits down the screen.
I can't say that Studio Ghibli's latest film: When ... Marnie Was There, quite settles my doubts about the studio's progression into the uncertain future, in fact, the movie is such a ball out of left field that it could signify a change in the common tonal direction for Ghibli, which of course could be unnerving for some. We'll get into that. But I think that at the very least, When Marnie Was There reinforces that Ghibli still has extremely talented people on staff, and not all of that "Ghibli magic" directly came from Miyazaki. Apparently it's a systemic thing for the studio to create delightful movies such as this. Oh, I'm doing that thing where I get way ahead of myself with the points I want to make. Let me take a step back.

Hello people of "The Wired" my name is Quan, may your days be sunny and wonderful, and welcome to a brand new anime review, in fact, my very first review of an anime movie. Today, we take a look at When Marnie Was There, Studio Ghibli's latest film. Let's get started.

When Marnie Was There was released in July 2014, directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, a relatively up-and-coming director for Ghibli, as one of the protégés that were being trained up as the studio prepared for Miyazaki's retirement. The only other film directed by Yonebayashi was The Secret World of Arrietty, which I haven't even seen so I can't exactly vouch for, but judging by how great the directing was for When Marnie Was There, I think we can look forward to fantastic works by him in the future. The screenplay was written by Yonebayashi himself, Masashi Andou(who worked almost completely as a key animator and character design up until now), and Keiko Niwa, who has done many different scrips for Ghibl films before, including From Up On Poppy Hill and Tales from Earthsea. Okay, I think that covers everything of importance. Let's get into the story.

Story

12yr-old Anna hasn't had a good life. Her existence is empty. She sketches drawings in her notebook. She goes to school. She returns home. Plagued by severe asthma attacks and a total lack of self-esteem, Anna finds herself bitter and alone, lashing out at the classmates who briefly attempted to befriend her and her step-parents who she currently could not feel more alienated from. Becoming increasingly worried over Anna's mental state and the severity of her asthma attacks, Anna's step-mother Yoriko sends her off from the hustle and bustle of their home of Sapporo to live for the summer in the countryside with her aunt and uncle, hoping that the fresh air and small country town will bring Anna focus and happiness in her chaotic life.


Anna finds little to dampen the burning isolation she feels from other people while living with her aunt and uncle, until she stumbles upon The Marsh House, an enigmatic mansion falling into disrepair, which Anna finds herself inexplicably drawn to. There, Anna meets Marnie, a girl that seems at first to be a polar opposite to Anna, as she takes delight from life and other people, relishing her lavish lifestyle of parties and dancing provided by her rich-as-hell parents. The two girls connect and quickly become unlikely friends(almost too quickly, actually), and seemingly, for the first time in her life, Anna has found a true confidant. But as she starts to learn more about Marnie, Anna quickly begins to wonder if all is quite how Marnie tells it, and whether her new friend is hiding something from her. And of course, it doesn't help that everything about Marnie is mysterious as hell, to the way she seems to appear and disappear in the blink of an eye, or whenever Anna says goodbye to Marnie, Anna wakes up in a strange place without remembering how she got there. As revelations around Marnie's identity slowly begin to come into view, Anna herself must start to question what is truly important to her, as she discovers the little wonders of the people and the world around her that just maybe, could make life worth living.

If that sounded a little heavy to you for a Ghibli film, get used to it, When Marnie Was There is likely one of the most thematically dense films Ghibli have done for awhile, from the very serious arc of depression that our main character goes through, to the surprisingly gripping and intense mystery that surrounds Marnie's whole existence. In that way, the film almost seems more like a supernatural mystery than anything, as it slowly unwinds the setting and characters into one single payoff; very much not the same cloth as the fantasy adventure or romance that Studio Ghibli usually bring to the table. Also just as a side-note, yeah, I'm not sure if I just misunderstood the marketing message of this film prior to release, but going into the film, I was honestly expecting a full-fledged romance between Anna and Marnie that was peppered with supernatural elements(because hell, anime has been depicting lesbian relationships since Sailor Moon all the way back in 1992, a.k.a, before I was even born), but I would encourage you not to approach the film with this mindset if you were. Sure, there might be an argument that the first half is somewhat romantic, but as the supernatural mystery takes over later on, it is revealed that Anna and Marnie's relationship is not like that at all, so much so that I wonder why the first half of the movie seemed to so strongly hint at romantic development. I mean sure, maybe I was just misconceiving the dialouge because I really wanted to see how well Ghibli would handle a lesbian relationship, but when the girls are saying things like "I love you more than any girl I've ever known" to one-another, can you really blame me for thinking it was going that direction?

Anyway, I've spent far too much time on that, so now let's go into the inner-working of the movie itself. As I've already stated, the whole thing plays out more like a supernatural mystery, which spends the first half mostly fleshing out Anna's character, before leaping right into the whole Marnie mystery later on. To get right to it, it surprised me just how well the whole mystery aspect of the film worked, it got me excited and guessing for what was coming next, and left so many great little hints and clues throughout that kept my brain thinking, trying to figure out the big revelation before the film actually revealed it. But mystery isn't all the film has to offer. I mentioned before that When Marnie Was There is much heavier thematically-wise than most other Ghibli films, and this is because it is excellent at depicting the complexity and subtly of human emotion. I'll get more specific when I get to the characters portion of this review, but regardless of their role in the plot, I never felt like any of the actions the characters took, no matter how dramatic they were, weren't always were justified in the context of the plot. To put it simply, the film feels exceedingly human, that's genuine with its actions and messages about life, and for how much of a crazy medium anime can be sometimes, what with the ninja girls, giant robots and talking cats, that's amazingly enlivening. Needless to say, when you pair the engaging mystery of the film and the background of human psychology to drive it, I really was ready to add When Marnie Was There to near the top of the list of my favorite Studio Ghibli films. All it now needed to do it wrap up the mystery concisely and awesomely, and give an emotional pay-off so desperately needed for the characters. ...Yeah, for how much I like this film... here comes the asterisk.

When it comes to sticking the landing, I feel When Marnie Was There was unable, but my reasoning is a little complicated, so bear with me. I watched this film with my whole family, because you know, that's really the only way to watch a Ghibli film, and I think the possible answers to the mystery that we came up with while watching were way better than the answer the film actually had in store. Okay, so don't get me wrong, the final revelation makes complete sense, mostly, if you're paying attention, but that's not my problem with it. I'll get a little more into this at the end of this review, but with the build-up it was having, I can't help but feel that When Marnie Was There sort of played it safe at the end there. Because... let's see... how to word it. The film ended in a way that if you have seen any Studio Ghibli film, you can probably guess the way the film handles its very final scenes. But... it didn't need to.

Characters

The only characters that really matter here are Marnie and Anna, so I'll just quickly gloss over the supporting cast. The supporting cast, that is mostly made up of Anna's estranged family and classmates, aren't important in terms of their characterization as much as they are important to develop the main cast. They exist only to show the changing mind-set of the film's leads, rarely having any particularly interesting traits or development of their own. Which is fine I guess, but judging from the moral that the film decides to wave in the air at the end, a stronger supporting cast really would have helped reinforced it. But When Marnie Was There really doesn't have it, in fact, only one other character really matters besides the main duo in the film's second and third acts, and before you ask, that character is just another tool for Anna's development.

Next is Marnie, the mysterious resident of The Marsh House. Lively and enthusiastic, Marnie is the one to initial pull Anna out of her shell of self-deprecation, which honestly, when you look at the film's thematic stitching, is sort of a brilliant move. Without spoiling too much, Marnie for the most part represents an opposite mind-set to the same situation, and as that trait mostly takes up her screen-time and thus is fleshed out, playing partly into Anna's development, the inherent tragedy of her character really doesn't seem that forced or melodramatic. Ultimately, I don't think Marnie is quite as good a character as our other main heroine, but she still is one of the more interesting characters to come out of Ghibli films recently, whose main characters' one-dimensional viewpoints could be rather taxing sometimes.

Now, it's time to talk about Anna, and holy Haruhi Suzumiya director Yonebayashi, thank you for Anna, who is possibly the best part of this entire movie. I always have pushed that anime needs more asshole protagonists in general, because I love me some asshole protagonists. Now, most people hate asshole protagonists because they're assholes, but in a medium where "pure waifu" female leads are too common, whenever I see a female protagonist that doesn't have an innocent personality, archetypal qualities, or eyes that are the approximate size of dinner plates, I find it exceedingly refreshing. Anna completely owns the first half of the movie(before the mystery takes primary focus that is), her character capturing perfectly the actions of a lost, bitter girl who doesn't know what to do or what she wants. A lesser movie would make Anna a really hard character to like, however, her characterization is so freakin' on point that it becomes impossible to dislike her just on the account of how well written she is. From her mannerisms, to her inner monologues, to the actions that lack them, you begin to understand that no matter how much the classmates that Anna has lashed out at dislike her, she dislikes herself more, and after that becomes apparent, it becomes hard not to cheer for her as she struggles to find her own answer. Besides from maybe a few others, Anna is by far my favorite Ghibli protagonist, and it was the desire to see how her character would play out that kept me going as the plot slowly started to move towards something I really hoped it would avoid.

Animation & Sound

Sweet Yuki Nagato in an Evangelion, I honestly thought I had seen the peak of Ghibli animation when I saw The Wind Rises for the first time, but low and behold, Ghibli animators find a way to push what I think they are capable of. This is probably the most impressed I've been with an anime's artwork since Nagi no Asukara(which I'm still amazed by how great it looked since it was a 26-episode show), and for good reason. Everything is at its absolute best, from the moving parts to the amount of expression shown by the character models, but without a doubt, what really shines is the absolutely beautiful backgrounds. I lost count how many times I simply wanted to pause the movie, take a screenshot of whatever background was on the screen and hang it up in my bedroom; it really looks that good most of the time, with astonishing detail and vividness of colors that really punctuate the setting and giving it more personality, which is nice, because all things considered, the art-style really does nothing more than provide ambiance instead of thematic clues most of the time. But that's a nit-pick if I've ever said one. That was really me grasping for straws, the animation is honestly nearly perfect.

As with most Ghibli films, the soundtrack of When Marnie Was There is one mostly for atmosphere with one exception. This time around the music was composed by Takatsugu Muramatsu, who honestly has really done nothing worth mentioning, and it shows. Nothing really stands out honestly, the OST is mostly made of slow instrumental pieces that help the relaxed and peaceful atmosphere. I'd say it's just kind of okay, if it wasn't for one specific song that plays during the end of the movie: Fine On The Outside by artist Priscilla Ahn. It's rare for a song to encapsulate the piece of media it belongs to, and even rarer for it to do it well, and even rarer for it to be as emotionally potent as this. Maybe it has something to do with how the entire song is in English and I can understand everything that's being said, but I really find this song simple, yet very emotionally heavy with its delivery... much like the film itself.

Verdict

I really don't know what to think sometimes about When Marnie Was There. Normally, something like this would be one of favorite Ghibli movies, but the strange circumstances of its story honestly leave me at a loss of which 1-digit number I should attach to it at the end of this review. This is one of the few times where I've really doubted whether a rating system is even necessary for reviewing anime, because this is a rare occasion where my expectations of what the film should have done right stray from what the movie actually did right. And that's a weird position to be in, especially when I need to attach a number to it.

The film is undoubtedly strong, but I find myself thinking about how much better it could have been. I acknowledge that it's good, but here I'm stuck wondering about how easily it could have been great. And I don't know what to think. Maybe the problem here is my expectations. Maybe it was wrong of me to expect that the film would play out differently than every other film Ghibli have been producing for decades. Maybe... a lot of things. But this is my experience after all, and as muddled and confused as it may be, it's still my own. I fully expect my opinion on this film to be wavering from time to time down my anime career, but I think this is something I can safely say. Despite all the strengths the film does have, and despite the way it is able to wrap up all questions relatively competently, it also showed me a hint of something else. A different kind of Ghibli film, that could still emulate the feelings that these films usually do while still being exciting, complex, and hell, maybe even profound. I didn't get that. I got a quality movie, but I didn't get that. I got intrigue, but not true immersion. I got great characters, but not a substantial moral to tie their arcs together. To wrap this up, while I got a good movie... I suppose I just expected a little more.

Final Verdict: 7.5/10

P.S: Though then again... that doll.



For this review and others, feel free to check out my blog! (Link on profile)

[Adapted From Original Blog Post]
[Mini Review]

Nozaki-kun is an anime with a solid goal, though perhaps not the right one all things considered. Every pore of the series is dripping with endearing charisma: from the beaming animation to its lovable characters that play off of one another with impeccable comedic timing and high-jinks. This makes Nozaki-kun one of the funniest series I've ever seen episode to episode, and its main vehicle to that end is the satirization of its own genre. The typical shoujo genre has been done so many times that Nozaki-kun is easily able to pick out those cliches formed over repetition and turn ... it into something comical, but it's not in any malicious sort of way, more like playful jabs that still fondly assure the anime's love for the very things it is making fun of. Through a constant channeling of delightful inspiration and situations throughout the show, Nozaki-kun is able to feel fresh with each and every episode, not just a one trick pony that only has one joke to tell. Of course, the comedic aspects means there isn't exactly any time for characters or really any meaningful development as far the story is concerned, but really, that's already asking for more than is fair from a series such as this. Nozaki-kun is definitely not a show you watch for any other reason than to laugh, unlike what something like Nichijou has to offer.

However, you can't help but feel that Nozaki-kun is cheating itself as well as the audience with the romance between title character Nozaki and the main heroine Sakura. Granted, it's not so much an issue(because the anime never intended to go that direction, it's comedy all the way) as a missed opportunity. First of all, because it is really hard not to love the both of them, but also, if the opening's lyrics are anything to go by, there may be some sort of meta-aspect about the parodistic nature of the anime itself clashing with the real emotion of people that could have been interesting and dramatic. However, dramatic or serious is never something Nozaki-kun never strives to be, it's more concerned with making you choke on the food you're eating while watching the show.

Fulfillment of the critical potential of the show aside, that honestly is most likely me pretentiously reading into some sort of sub-text that isn't there, it's hard to criticize Nozaki-kun. Never is it anything more than just funny, but again, it doesn't need to be. All it needs is to do is cleverly and playfully jab at the nature of its own satirical existence until you love it. And take my word for it, you will love it, because if Nozaki-kun doesn't tickle your funny bone and make you laugh, nothing is likely to ever, and if that's the case, I recommended you go watch your brooding psychologically complex theory, and stop ruining the fun... you fun-ruiner. For the rest of you, consider this recommend, for the laughs...if only for the laughs.

Final Verdict: 6/10

P.S: That relatable moment when you ask a boy out and he instead gives you his autograph.


For this review and others, feel free to check out my blog! (Link on profile)

[Adapted From Original Blog Post]

This is somewhat awkward. I rarely stand here before you and review that I actually consider one of the best anime I have ever seen, because hell, how am I going to justify such a massive claim? Yes, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. Zoku is not, in my opinion, only one of the best sequels of all time, but is probably up there in my Top Ten list of my favorite anime ever, and to explain something like that is somewhat like explaining why I chose Tsubomi Kido to be my waifu(trust me, I'm going somewhere with this). I know what ... I feel is strong enough to be justified, but the second I attempt to put it into words I can't quite seem to grasp the heart of the argument, or I feel I failed to explain it well enough to make the point I wanted to make. And that's frustrating. It's the reason why I sometimes shy away from reviewing the better spectrum of Eastern animation. It's easy to say why things that suck suck(because they suck), but explaining why something is truly great takes another whole level of mental organization and articulation to bring to fruition, levels likely more complex than my feeble mind can handle. But I've always wanted to give a shot to explain my adoration for one of my favorite anime. So today, I'm going to try my best.

Hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, I hope you've had a wonderful today thus far, and welcome to a new anime review, and my, is it a big one. Today, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. Zoku, the sequel to 2013's My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. Alright. Let me take a breath. And here... we... go.

Let's take technical first. Zoku was animated by Studio Feel, who aren't exactly in a positive light when it comes to their reputation. They've made some alright stuff like Outbreak Company and Mayo Chiki, but mostly their résumé consists of things like the softcore-porn OVA series KissXSis, the wincest epitome Yosuga no Sora, and the infamous ecchi So I Can't Play H! Needless to say, seeing such an entry like Zoku into the medium from this studio is more than unexpected. Hopefully this means Feel is turning a new leaf in their time as a studio, but then I remember that Bikini Warriors aired in summer. So... this is probably just a one-time thing.

Kei Oikawa steps into the role of director for this season, doing a surprisingly good job too despite only having major directorial work in Outbreak Company and Minami-ke Okaeri. The writing was handled by Shoutarou Suga, who has done scripts for anime such as One Week Friends, and Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society, but also has done random episode scripts for many different titles, like Eden of The East, Nanatsu no Taizai, Eureka Seven and Blood+. Finally, the anime ran its 13 episodes from April 2nd to June 2th of 2015. Onto the plot, then.

Story

Life appears to continue as normal for Hachiman Hikigaya and the Service Club. They still receive requests from various members of the student body who need help with their problems. The relationships of all the students, including the Service Club appear to have gone unchanged, and the monotonous trudge of everyday life continues forward without change. But that couldn't be further from the truth.

Despite his sincerest efforts to avoid growing close to others, Hachiman finds himself stuck in between his own stubborn ideology and the threat of the unspoken words of the people closest to him pushing away the closest thing to true friends he has ever had. Standing at the crossroads of the purpose of youth and relationships, Hachimana, Yukino and Yui will all need to confront what is actually important to them, whether the things they feel are real, or just another byproduct of the superficiality that constantly surrounds their lives. The answer won't be easy to obtain, but as the Service Club watch the elements that make up the high-school experience in the students who walk in and out for their club-room, it might just be a lot closer and obvious than any of them think.

I realize fully that that description doesn't exactly tell you what happens in the show, but that's because nothing truly different than anything else you'd see in any other rom-com transpires, at least as far as the basic set-up goes. But to get this out of the way now, it doesn't really matter. SNAFU has always been a character-driven show, and it's thanks to that aspect that the show is able to transform what would usually be cliches into little pockets of development between the relationships of the characters. Even something as basic as Hachiman randomly running into someone in a cafe serves some sort of purpose in the forwardness of the characters, and it's able to do this thanks to the great writing. While the interactions between characters in the first season were mostly just great because they were witty exchanges of dialouge, Zoku takes it to a whole other level. I don't simply mean that by the dialouge is extremely clever and intelligent(because it still is), but now there's always another layer of conflict running underneath the dialouge. There's always something being left unsaid in the conversation, or something that is implied to be really said when the characters interact, and this adds a fantastic window for the viewer for the what the characters actually think about one another and the situations they get themselves into.... and what it simply being said on-screen. Zoku doesn't just do this through cheap inner monologues, you can see what is really being stated from subtle glances, to the range of expressions on the character's faces, to certain silent actions that for one reason or another have some sort of meaning within the unspoken narrative. Hell, even the cinematography occasionally chips in to show either division between characters or something similiar. Trust me, I would love to show you some examples of this, but the examples I feel best encapsulate what exactly I'm talking about would spoil huge chunks of development later on. It's exceedingly rare to see something as tightly written as some of the best interactions in Zoku, and it's actually quite amazing just how much is packed into these 13 episodes, and simply put, that's because no time is wasted.

Okay, so the pacing is admittedly slow, especially in the first few episodes, but just because the episodes are slowly paced doesn't mean they aren't important. While there is a very good arc running in the background of the first few episodes, I think they were also meant to establish the overall tone of this season and how it differs much from the first, which I'll go into later when I talk about characters. The point is, this seemingly slow start is meant to establish the stakes for this season, and I think you'll find, as the episodes progress and so too does the remarkably complex themes, this little period of stupor is quickly forgotten when compared to how much else Zoku has to give.

The show's resolution is the only part of this entire equation that feels a bit incomplete. I don't mean the thematic resolution, but rather the one for the characters that Zoku had been building up to until that point. I don't know if 13 episodes simply wasn't enough for that, or the LN's haven't quite reached their conclusion yet, but as it stands, with 2 seasons and a grand total of 26 episodes, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU hasn't been concluded, and that's a shame, because that would be the final piece to assure Zoku's dominance in the slice-of-life genre. All I can do now is sit back and pray that a season 3 will happen and conclude this story. If that season 3 doesn't happen, well... that... is a huge problem.

Characters

I'm actually going to take about the supporting cast first, mostly because I feel I should save the best for last, but also because I want to preface with some things first that will hopefully lead in later. Now, SNAFU as a franchise has easily one of the best supporting casts out there in anime, and I realize that's a huge change to how I felt in my first SNAFU review, but allow me to explain here, because it's only while I re-watched certain bits of Zoku that I realized just how vital the supporting cast actually is. Occasionally I think that the supporting cast is meant to represent various faucets of society and youth, acting as a sort of possible eventuality for our main cast who are still very much in the process of figuring their lives out, but I almost feel like that doesn't give them enough credit. Nearly all of the supporting cast has at least one aspect of development to them that adds somewhere to the boiling pot of themes, and even in the case of characters like Hayato: the seemingly stereotypical "popular hunk", Yukino's older sister Haruno(who I honestly sort of despise), Iroha, a fantastic new addition to the cast this season, or Hachiman's crush from middle-school Kaori, who reveals in this season just what kind of person she is, are so well fleshed out that they are able to rival the main cast in some aspects. Of course not everyone gets the spotlight, the cast is so big that that exists as basically an inevitability. Totsuka very much remains the one-dimensional trap who is inexplicably infatuated with Hachiman throughout, Kawasaki, who showed promise in S1 gets basically nothing, and the chuunibyo-infected Zaimokuza hardly even appears. But I hardly think that matters. Firstly, it's impressive enough that the anime was able to do as much with the rest of the cast as it did, and secondly, the three above roles in this season are so trivial that is hardly seems to matter; the anime instead focusing on characters that actually have potential. Is it still a problem? Yes. But it's also one that is but a leaf in front of a mountain of solid characterization and development from the rest of the supporting cast. And also this next part.

To say that Hachiman, Yui, and Yukino are absolutely great characters in their own right is a severe understatement. This is easily one of the best main casts I've come across in the slice-of-life genre, and I honestly don't think I have enough time to describe just how great all three of them are individually, since we'd be here all day, so rather, let's go for some blanket statements.

To describe the main cast of Hachiman, Yui and Yukino, in one word, I'd think I'd go with "human". One of SNAFU's strong-points from the very beginning of the first season was to point how just how flawed real people are, and in a medium where "perfect-waifus" and "moe-jesus" female archetypes exist, it's exceedingly refreshing. Even Yui, who is by far the most moral person in the entire show, turns from simply an unassertive well-doer in something much more interesting by the end, even if admittedly, the show leaves it a little late for the development to start for her. Yukino also receives fleshing out, but this time, she's not just a more realistic take on a hackneyed archetype, she's a real character, and that almost seems to be a parallel between this season and the first. The first season of SNAFU was a parody if anything, and though I loved it for its realistic depiction of highschool dynamics, the author undoubtedly intended the satirical take of a typical romantic comedy to be the main selling point. Hell, it's even in the name: My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU(which is short for Situation. Normal. All. F*cked. Up.). Zoku takes a more straight-laced approach to the genre, and honestly it's for the best, because now instead of laughing at how the anime handles cliches, we can actually appreciate the great characters and storytelling. And speaking of great characters, I think I've put it off long enough.

To say Hachiman Hikigaya is the absolute heart and soul of SNAFU would be me holding back on a lot of words. SNAFU has always been pushed forward by the characters, the character are who initiate what little plot there is, and it's their actions which forward the thematic weight and relationship dynamics, unlike some other melodramatic highschool anime I could mention. Hachiman has always been the front of center of the anime: it's his inner monologues and viewpoints of life that brung the first season life, but in Zoku, we actually get to see that SNAFU is not just a relatible view of society through the eyes of a pragmatic loner, but rather an examination of human relationships. What I really love is that Hachiman's pessimistic view of life is by no means supported by the Zoku, if anything, it challenges it. By bringing in the viewpoints of Yui, Yukino and the rest of supporting cast, Zoku is able to paint an intricate tapestry of the viewpoints and experiences of one class in a random Japanese highschool, who are are trying to figure out this thing called life. As all of these separate strands entangle themselves around Hachiman's inner character arc, it resolves in a pay-off so absolutely brilliant that I can now say that Hachiman Hikigaya is one of the best goddamn main-characters, or hell, even characters I have ever seen brought to life by the anime medium. Seriously, I love this magnificent bastard.

Presentation & Sound

I don't have as much to say about the music of Oregairu Zoku as much as the animation, so I'll get the sound section out of the way first. Nothing really stands out from composer MONACA(known for Yuki Yuna is a Hero and Monogatari Second Season) quite honestly, the music acting as nothing more than a way to set atmosphere and not add to it. The heavy presence of the piano in nearly every song gives the OST somewhat of an identity; the notes punctuating the often slow and somber songs to great effect, even if nothing stands out. It's something I learn to appreciate more every time I listen to it, and maybe I'll grow to really love it in time, but for now, so much of the tracks sound so similiar to me (particularly the piano-centric ones) that it becomes hard to distinguish individual songs; the OST remaining a sort of singular entity of piano and slow-paced music. Let me just say it: it almost all sounds the same. Not that that is a bad thing when the offerings are good, it just isn't something I can get particularly excited about, though I won't deny it may be something I can listen to as I drift off to sleep. My mixed feelings about the OST aside, if there is one undoubted highlight, it's the OP: "Harumodoki" by artist Nagi Yanagi, a song that typically wouldn't be my kind of thing for its up-and-down precision, but yet I still really enjoy, particularly Yanagi's lovely voice and the meaningful lyrics.

The animation for the show was already a big controversy even before Zoku had aired its first episode, obviously because production was switching from the acclaimed Studio Brains Base to the less acclaimed Feel. And let's just get it out there, the entire style, composition and design of the show have completely changed from the first season, with new character designs and whatnot, but believe it or not, it's actually all for the better. SNAFU's first season is actually one of Brain Base's worst effort in terms of animation in my opinion, the show really looked rough and unpolished, further punctuated by the mediocre character designs and artstyle. Now I have similiar things to say about the majority of Studio Feel's works(seriously, In Search of the Lost Future is one of the ugliest things I have ever seen), but apparently they realized just what they had on their hands on here, because Zoku is probably the best looking anime they have ever produced. Everything is much more smooth and fleshed out, with the colors used actually being somewhat attractive to look at for once. If the animation was ever choppy or unpolished, I never once noticed. Throughout, Zoku looks wonderful, and I have absolutely no complaints, so let's take this opportunity to congratulate Studio Feel for the bang-up job they did here. I know many(including me) were complaining about the deviation from Brain Base's designs before this thing had even aired, but when you actually see the show and see all of the new pieces come together, I'd say without hesitation that in every category, if only in this particular case, Studio Feel have topped Brains Base here in every possible area. Good jobu guys.

Verdict

It's probably obvious, but I really have a deep attachment to this series, because it took something I already loved and made it better. Zoku manages to juggle the duties it already has to its pre-established universe by further developing the characters, but also by expanding the ideas to simultaneously give me experience that reminded me why I loved the original series in the first place: its authenticity. Zoku is able to dissect the heart-aches and anxieties of the human experience that hardly any anime has even attempted to tackle since the medium's conception; that seemingly invisible bridge between people that we all try to truly cross; not by the superficiality of modern culture that has perpetuated into the pores of society, but by seeking that sense of human connection, that understanding, that we all long for whether we want to or not. And for, not just an anime, but for any form of media, to actually address these fundamental/existential problems with not just accuracy but with respect borders on something goddamn revolutionary, and before you stop me, no, I don't think I'm overselling this at all, cause when Zoku is able to reach its dramatic peak of these questions, it really becomes that good, particularly in an incredible scene at the end of episode 8 so potent with the essence of human emotion that I'd put it up there with one of the single best moments ever conjured by Eastern animation. Am I getting ahead of myself? Maybe. But when an anime is able to so deeply bring to light the emotions and struggles that I have wrestled with throughout my life... I'd be damned if I don't form some kind of personal attachment to it that warrants this kind of exuberant praise.

So, I'm going to stop and catch my breath here after that harangue of passion, because I'm pretty sure I'm getting into the thematic fundamentals of Zoku way too much, maybe at the risk of spoiling it for you the viewer. But I feel it's the only way for me to justify just why this is "one of the best anime ever made", because truly great narratives don't just make you love them through the characters or story, but rather through that little something extra that makes it remarkable. Remarkable. I'm just going to leave that word dangling in the air for a moment. If there was ever one word to describe this show, that would be it. Truly, it is remarkable for something, anything, to remind us all, that all we ever wanted was something genuine.

Final Verdict: 9/10

P.S: Dammit. I just want Hachiman to be happy.


For this review and others, feel free to check out my blog! (Link on profile)

[Adapted From Original Blog Post]

Can we, just the two of us, have a little heart to heart? Come now. Let's sit down at the table, look each other in the eye, and speak without veiling what we both truly mean. Okay, I'll go first. I don't want you to hate me. Please don't. My self-esteem is low as it is, and I don't think I can handle having my own readers turn on me, so, please, hear me out.

What I need to say is this. Nisekoi is not a good anime. It's predictable. It's aimless. It is, by merely existing, ... the epitome of every single cliche school-life harem romance that the anime industry has been saddled with more for as long as I can remember. There's no innovation. It has no ambition to be, pretend, or fool the audience into thinking, it is anything more than self-regurgitated slop that it will be forced down our gullible throats, because it knows that it doesn't need to try to be more than that, as Nisekoi knows that its audience will come and make it popular no matter how bad it is. Now let me say a second thing. I love this anime.

Hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, and it's time to get out the flame-shields, waifu banners and shipping containers, because today, it is one of my guiltiest of guilty pleasures: Nisekoi. Now then, let's get started.

Before we start the debate of who "best girl" is, let's talk technical shall we? Nisekoi was animated by renown studio Shaft, who are famous for their work on the Monogatari franchise, Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei(which basically instantly puts them into the top tier of my favorite animation studios). The anime was directed by Akuyuki Shimbo, directer of the Monogatari franchise, Puella Magi Madoka, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei... huh. Okay, just to save time, let's just say this man has basically directed everything Shaft have animated in the last 10 years. Finally, it aired from January 10th to May 23rd of 2014, a span which gave it a total of 20 episodes. Now, the plot. Or whatever you should call it.

Story

Welcome to "Bland Generic Japanese Highschool That Is Located In A Suburban Town That Remains Nameless No. 8593#". Here, we meet "Generic Highschool-Age Harem Protagonist Who Lacks All Semblance of Personality But Still Somehow Attracts A Group of Waifu-Material Love-Interests Who Follow Him Around Like a Lost Puppy No. X#", in this case, who goes by the name of Raku Ichijou. "But wait!" yells Nisekoi, "we have something new... look! The plot of Love Hina!" Yes, as it would turn out, Raku has a couple of secrets. The first one is that he just happens to be the son of the leader of the Yakuza, which somehow doesn't interfere with his everyday life at all, and the second one concerns the key-hole shaped pendant that hangs around his neck. See, 10 years ago when he was still a child, Raku made a promise with a girl he met one faithful summer. They exchanged the locket and a key, and swore to each-other when they met again, the girl would unlock the pendant hanging around Raku's chest, and they would get married. Aw... how romantic. But unfortunately for this romance, Raku appears to have forgotten to ask the girl a few essential questions, like what her name is, or where she lives, or anything that may have been helpful in ever finding her again.

So, as Raku lives out his adolescence searching for his long-lost childhood sweet-heart, he has yet another faithful encounter with a girl, and by encounter I mean collision, as in her hurry to get to school on time, the girl: Chitoge Kirisaki slams directly into Raku. Needless to say, this starts their relationship on rocky footing, and it doesn't help when later that day, Chitoge is introduced to Raku's class as their new transfer student from America, and the following interaction fans the flames of conflict between the two even more. So, you can imagine Raku's reaction when his father informs him that Chitoge is actually the daughter of an enemy mafia faction. But since neither Chitoge or Raku's fathers really want to fight(and since they are apparently incapable of just, I don't know, calling their respective forces off from the turf war), they come up with, what I assume, is the next best possible way to quell the tension between their two sides. See, neither side will want to fight each-other... if the son and daughter of their leaders are boyfriend and girlfriend. You probably can see where this is going. Even though they only need to act like they are romantically involved, Raku and Chitoge are still at odds with one another, a situation not helped by the fact that Raku already has someone he likes: the shy and beautiful Kosaki Onodera, who unbeknownst to him, returns his feelings enthusiastically, but doesn't know that Raku's and Chitoge's relationship is a mere act. And, simply put, highschool high-jinks ensues.

If you think I've sounded a little sarcastic during those last two paragraphs, congratulations, your sarcasm-detector is working just fine. This is my way of acknowledging that I know perfectly well how dumb this all is, how cliche and fulls of holes the plot is, and how superficial the whole anime is, so... why do I not care? Well, if I had to express it... I'd say Nisekoi is perfect. Okay, let me start over. I am not saying that Nisekoi is a perfect 10/10 masterpiece that deserves unrivaled recognition from the community and trumps such petty competition like The Tatami Galaxy, Kara no Kyoukai or Welcome to the NHK. No, I'm definitely not saying that. But what I am saying is that, as a romantic comedy meant to be easily digested and enjoyed, Nisekoi does its job and does it... kind of perfectly.

Probably the biggest piece of why lies in the comedy, namely, Nisekoi is freakin' hilarious. It's a perfect mixture of comedic timing, character interaction(which particularly shines between Raku and Chitoge), and self-aware ridiculousness, which all culminates in a final episode where the class holds a Romeo and Juliet play: an episode where I'm pretty sure I never stopped laughing once. And needless to say, you don't really have time to think about how stupid it all is if you're too busy laughing. Things happen in the series that are borderline fantasy, like when a cross-dressing assassin/bodyguard transfers into the class, or how seemingly every single girl Raku meets seems to have a mysterious key and vague memories of a childhood promise, but all anybody seems to know for sure is that they were all on top of a hill together and someone made a promise to someone at some point but we're not quite sure.

And for those of you seeking cute romance with no actual emotional connection involved, Nisekoi has you covered as well. To start, all the girls look like walking marshmallows with arms and legs, so f*cking "kawaii" that you just want to squeeze them till they concede to being your waifu. See, Nisekoi has more than an adept grasp on how the keep the shipping wars going. It throws in a couple adorable girls, gives them all one episode of development with the main character, an archetype of a personality, then gives all of them a few moments of absolute adorableness that make you just love them anyway despite how bland most of them are. Oh, is Chitoge a tsundere so run-of-mill it borders on aggravating? Just give her a moment where she apologizes for her actions in English which is so goddamn cute that it makes you want to keel over and die from moe-overload. Does Onodera have the personality of a chair with moe eyes on it that can't express other traits besides from shyness and a crush on the main character? Have Kana Hanazawa make the cutest squeaks ever from behind her micro-phone when she's embarrassed and watch the legion of fans defend her honor from the "evil team Chitoge". Then rinse and repeat this process until you have a perpetual "best girl war" that threatens to tear apart the fan-base, and simply watch the dreams be crushed underneath you as you sit upon your huge pile of money. And it works. Amazingly so.

What you need to give Nisekoi credit for is that it wholeheartedly understands this concept, and also realizes that this anime will only work if it is kept in this limbo, and if anything as audacious as "plot-development" should become unavoidable, it's Nisekoi's solemn duty to prevent it at any cost. Is one of the harem members confessing? Have a baseball fly through the window to cut her off half-way. Is she trying again? Oh no, the main character fell asleep and missed it completely. Are we finally about to find out if one of the girl's key's fits Raku's locket? Oh how unfortunate, she got nervous and twisted it too hard, breaking it in the lock. Somehow.

It's times like that when Nisekoi does begin to try my patience. Usually, I'm enjoying it too much to mind the stupidity, but when things like that happen it's a harsh wake-up call for me, reminding me to once again put on my pretentious analytical glasses and stop having fun. But the series is so completely in love with itself, and so innocently fun, that I can't help but forgive it every time. Of course, this means that the anime will probably run out of novelty(for lack of a better word) soon, as the plot annoyances begin to overshadow the mindless fun, and, as it turns out, that's exactly what happened in the second season, but as for these first 20 episodes, viewing season 1 on its own, Nisekoi pulls it off, I think. 20 episodes, that unless you have the sense of humor of a rock, you should find more than entertaining enough.

Characters

I consider myself above the petty squabble of the "Best Girl Wars", because who is best girl and who is not matters not to the analytical lens of which I peer through to evaluate an anime on unbiased merits. Therefore, I shall not let any sort of embers from the flames of conflict throw off my completely objective summary of these characters, I shall trade no insults, and will take no cheap shots(because Chitoge is obviously girl and anyone is disagrees is clearly wrong). Seriously though, let's talk about characters.

If you've met the protagonist of nearly any harem anime ever made, you've probably already met our main character Raku Ichijou. He is the clueless nice guy that can, at random intervals do something epic for the sake of the plot, and that's all he really gives off as he wanders the school with a parade of attractive girls behind him. For whatever reason, I find I don't mind his lack of personality as much as I do with other main character's of this nature, and I think I can owe that to the comedy for mostly making his interactions with the other characters greatly enjoyable, especially with his friend Shu, or as I like to call him: The Best Wing-man in The World and MVP for the anime in general.

Chitoge Kirisaki is the main love interest, a blond and beautiful American transfer student that ebbs "tsundere" from every action she takes and word she says. And as tiring as that can get sometimes, her rare moments of clarity as a character surprisingly do a lot in the long run, and it also helps that she somewhat "drops the act" by the end of it. The only times the anime gets even remotely close to something tangible involves Chitoge, and that's enough to earn the "best girl" medal in my heart.

But of course, a harem would not be worth anything without a secondary love interest, so here we have Kosaki Onodera, the shy and eloquent girl who Raku has been crushing after ever since middle-school. While I don't mind her at all, she pretty much epitomizes the most frustrating element of Nisekoi: the aimless plot. The story literally could have ended at any point if Onodera got over her shyness and told Raku she liked him back, but since she doesn't have any sort of development in that that sense unlike Chitoge, that somewhat cute shyness is all she really has going for her. It helps that she has a no nonsense friend named Ruri who is basically there to call her and Raku out on just how tiring their current relationship is and one of them should just confess already, but unfortunately Nisekoi, just because you're aware of how stupid it is that this premise can be stretched for 20 episodes without any real progress being made, that doesn't make it any less stupid.

Presentation & Sound

I know a lot of people have a love-hate relationship with the eccentric art-style of studio Shaft's anime, but ever since I first saw it in Bakemonogatari, I will admit I fell completely in love with it, and Nisekoi has everything you'd expect from them: great backgrounds, cool aesthetic and character design, and a schizophrenic camera that can't seem to stop panning upwards or cutting around to eyes rapidly. So yeah, I personally think Nisekoi is top-notch in the animation department. The one complaint I will accept about it though, is that Shaft's quirks don't exactly gel very well with what is essentially just a romcom; this is no Monogatari or Zetsubou Sensei after all. If you're not well acquainted with Shaft's works in the past, the first episode of Nisekoi may take some getting used to, what with the unique cinematography and animation techniques. But... I do think an average viewer will get used to it relatively quickly; it by no means ruins the experience and becomes basically the norm a few episodes in. If you're worried about it, don't be, it's really nothing to be fussed about.

The OST for Nisekoi was handled in majority by Tomoki Kikuya, who has done previous Shaft soundtracks like Hidamari Sketch. To be honest, I don't think I ever really registered the background music of the anime, and copyright troubles have made finding the soundtrack in its entirety quite hard to do, but from what I scavenged and what I remember, it's not great. Far from bad of course, there's quite a variety of instruments and tones being expressed by Kikuya's music, but nothing is really worth listening to on its own. Which I suppose is expected for a harem anime, but what with Shaft's impressive OST collection, it does seem a little underwhelming. But there is a silver lining. I never really was found of either ED, but both OP's: "Click" and "step" are absolutely joys to listen to: 90 second jingles that worm into your ears and have you singing along after you've sat through them a number of times, and that shouldn't take long if you marathon this anime like I did.

Verdict

I realize there's no particularly substantial reason for me to put Nisekoi on this pedestal that no other anime of its genre will likely ever reach. Nisekoi is not special. There was anime similiar to it before and there will be anime similiar to it in the future, that did or could do what Nisekoi tried and better. So why do I love it so, and why will I be giving it such an, arguably undeservedly high score at the end of this review? How to put it... If I had to explain my feelings towards this show, it's the show I decided to fall in love with, despite its problems and despite its convention. It somehow managed to force its way into my heart despite so many shows similiar to it not being able to. And yes. I know that's naïve, and I know that's shallow. I know I'm just being fooled by the anime's enduring personality and pretty colors that hides the truth behind Nisekoi: that an entry in the ever vast anime medium, it's a show that truly has no new ideas to offer. But for once, just in the case of this anime, I find that I'm perfectly happy to be fooled.

Final Verdict: 6.5/10

P.S: Ruru x Shu is OTP


For this review and others, feel free to check out my blog! (Link on profile)

[Adapted From Original Blog Post]
[Mini Review]

Brynhildr is not just bad in the superficial sense, with its bland characters, unfocused pacing and general stupidity, it also lacks a certain understanding about what makes story-telling actually work. Missteps are evident in every aspect of its execution, turning supposedly serious moments comical and comical moments wince-worthy, a trend which only collects towards the anime's eventual finale, as this train-wreck continues to pick up more carnage as it runs down the track. The plot attempts to emulate dark supernatural mystery, but comes of more as edgy dribble that fails to bring any real emotion into its story. Astute viewers ... will notice parallels to Elfen Lied and rightly so; both stories conceived by the same author. But while Elfen was poor in every aspect, Brynhildr takes it one step further; seemingly rejecting elements that could have improved the experience in favor of the same, tired cliches that the genre has adopted into its culture over the decades. For something that tries to be dark and mysterious and exciting, Brynhildr is dull; too obvious with mystery, too stupid for darkness, and any excitement you may have had for the plot burns out quickly in congruence with those other two details. When you pair that with the unbelievable amount of contrivance and contradiction of the story, even enjoyment on the most basic level eventually is replaced with the frustration of watching an anime so incompetent that it can't even seem to grasp how uninteresting and poorly done it really is.

Nothing is redeemed as you look away from Brynhildr's flawed core and examine the aspects that most bad anime incorporate. The constant fan-service is tiresome, especially when the anime decides its a supernatural mystery again, and patience is really pushed when it becomes apparent just how little effort was put into crafting the setting and details. Action is the only vehicle left to enjoy Brynhildr, and the aesthetic makes it decent, as battles between the supernatural forces of the anime become the only time when any sort of engagement could possibly be reached. Also, if you're able to completely turn your brain off, you may be able to enjoy the completely unexpected twists that the anime pulls out of its ass, so prepubescent and under-cooked that they hardly feel real. It's so "out there" and "out of nowhere" that it's almost enduring. Almost.

But when compared to the outright trash that the rest of the anime is, that has a vague air of grasping at straws, trying to find something, anything, that the anime does right. I mean, I feel as should be insulted as a fan of the supernatural genre, but I'm not. Brynhildr insults me as an aspiring writer, who is really doing his best to turn his ideas and experiences into stories that can be enjoyed, and seeing that something so tasteless, so dull, and so uninspired can not only be fully conceived but made into a full 13-episode anime... it's just disheartening. And it makes me feel ashamed.

Final Verdict: 3/10

P.S: Moles before names.


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