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Mashiro Symphony: The Blandness of Half-Ass Ville

I've watched 2 episodes of the anime. That was all I could muster before I just couldn't watch anymore. This is a preliminary review, based on what I've seen so far, and experienced based conjecture as to where it's gonna go.

The best way to describe this is with one word: bland.

Bland, bland, bland.

Characters are extremely one dimensional. Any attempts to make them interesting or have the audience invest are cursory at best. This is especially true for the main character. He has no quirks, no eccentricities, no emotional palette. He has 3 emotions: smiling contentment, thoughtfully unsettled, ... mildly upset due to embarrassing situation. Even when he's supposed to be upset, it's amazingly uninteresting.

He's the embodiment of harem tropes, the quintessential "smiling nice guy with no particular talents or distinguishing characteristics who inexplicably has several embarrassing, sexually themed misunderstandings/encounters with one female protagonist who now views him with great disdain."

The female leads are slightly more interesting, but even they are just super stereotypes within the genre. The situations they get put in (guy walks in while girls changing, guy somehow falls forward into their breasts, guy somehow ends up at perfect angle to look at their crotch) and their reactions to them them (sudden shock, anger, and violence, accompanied with several "kyaaaa!"s) have been played out a thousand times before.

My big qualm is not that it's not original, though. Originality doesn't mean quality. But, if you're using something that's been done before, you better darn well do a good job at it, or there's no reason to watch it again. This series is all so soulless, like the writers, voice actors, and animators are just going through the motions and have nothing better to offer.

Now, I have a rule that as long as something is even remotely palatable, I have to watch at least four episodes of it, so I will. In fact, I'll probably watch the rest of the episodes two, one fast forward, just to say I've seen them. And it might turn it around; but I doubt it. There's no indication that this will recover at all and turn into something worth while.

There is a tiny potential for a decent story here. An insignificant seed, where they could have done something good. They could have gone the school life and friendship(not romance) in realistic comedy centered route that Seitokai Yakuindomo went, or done something like Kaichou wa Maid-sama and brilliantly fused the school life/politics comedy with a budding romance, or they could have done something very romance focused, like with Kanon, Clannad, even Myself; Yourself (which is greatly inferior to the former two mentioned, but still largely superior to this series). But they didn't. Instead there's just this lame, limp pile of gruel.

I have a deep seated hatred for series that waste my time by not putting any effort into doing something engaging. It's not a matter of pacing, lack of a standard story arc, or even mundane subject matter, as there are series that are amazingly engaging, even with slow pacing (House of Five Leaves), pure slice of life story lines (Kino no Tabi; Mushishi), and mundane subject matter (Azumanga Daioh) that are simply amazing, and make you feel like your life is now better for having seen them. It's a matter of the amount of effort and care put into the crafting of the story on the part of the artists that contribute to its creation.

This story is just super duper half-assed, and viewers owe it to themselves not to waste their time with this crap and instead go find something worth watching(see above mentioned series.

I have noticed, in recent years, the shift away from the straight ecchi harem, and I can't complain. The action-romance-harem is much more enjoyable, and is a far better investment when it comes to time spent watching anime. So, when I saw this series, I had hope. And, throughout the first six or seven episodes, I thought that my hope had been realized. But, by episode ten, I have realized that I was premature in that judgment. This anime does a lot right, and is probably worth of a watch, but it is no masterpiece, and suffers from some major flaws, particularly in regards to ... it's over structure and the way it's story plays out.

WARNING: There are some spoilers in this review. They aren't super huge, and you kinda see them coming in the series anyway, but whatever.

Story: 6 fair*
*Really it should be "story for eps 1-6 is an 8 or 9; story for episode 7 on is a 4"

This is a "magic functions along with science in and alternate modern day or near future" kind of universe, much like Zero no tsukaima or Maburaho. As I watched, I realized it was amongst the best of these type of anime. The characters work nice together and are consistent in their behavior, so that once you accept the premise you don't find yourself having to suspend your disbelief too much. Now, that's not to say there isn't some silliness, but it works. Also, the idea for the story is a very interesting one. THE MAJOR PROBLEM IS, it moves too fast. This is not a 12 episode series. This is a twenty four episode series crammed into twelve. As a result, they sacrifice character building (though they manage an admirable job within their limits) and world building (which is the one that really suffers) to fit everything in. Unfortunately, this means that there are characters, like the headmaster, or the teacher, who you don't really care much about and who don't seem to fit in the story. The central characters could really use more time together, letting us get to know them and invest in their well being.

Instead the story pacing is like that girl who you like, and have a good first and second date with, but now she is having some major financial problem and demands your aid even though you've only really known her a week and a half. You're torn, because you know it could have developed into something good if you'd have just had more time, but now she's asking too much too soon, and you really just wanna back off a bit.

SPOILER FOLLOWING
Also, I have major problems with the content of the story. Like the fact that it's an entirely unsubtle atheist rant, with some humanist overtones. The whole, "I'm going to destroy God" and the "God is just a system that human came up with to justify war and inequality they want to enforce, so it's bad and evil" and all that is just so unnecessary. In the story world, "God" is a giant evil computer that's not really well explained at all, and is somehow blamed for some of the bad stuff that is happening to the main characters. The story would be so much better if they had left that out, or at least not attached religious names and iconography to the computer system and the magic officials. The atheist message would have been an implicit, potential reading, but it would completely and suddenly alienate people of faith, like myself.
Also, it is so thematically weak because of what it does. In the story universe, there is no God literally is a created machine that people have illogically deified. In the real world, the existence of God is, at the very least, debatable. I don't want to make religious arguments here, but what I'm saying is, I want the God computer destroyed because it seems evil, but I've not been influenced in my opinions relating to God in the real world at all, because they are two totally different things that have only been connected by the author's choice to use the same name.

It's just dumb. I hate it when heavy handed, talentless hacks with an axe to grind ruin what was shaping up to be an interesting story with unnecessary, foundationally weak preaching, because they don't know how to show the audience something, only how to tell them.
END SPOILER

Additionally, there are some mild inconsistencies int he main character's actions, the background behind the major conflict, that is the "why are they even doing this" is never really discussed, the major villain appears with minimal warning and development, and the pacing goes from 0 to 60 and then back, so you're never sure whether it's a side story or the main story until you're already in it.

Also, the main character's powers develop a bit too fast. That's one of the reasons they should have spent longer on the series. He seems to spontaneously become the master of all magic, even though he is only barely learning and has minimal control at the beginning. They could have made him a super powerful badass, they should have just don so more gradually. Showing him fight some of the student as the disciplinary guy, or a learning montage of him in school getting better, would have easily satisfied this and made the passage of time feel a bit less rapid. Also, some time references, like "it's already been x months since you came!" and such.


Art: 9 great
Really well animated. The character designs are nothing ground breaking and new, but originality does not mean quality. These characters fit their voices and personalities, the combat (especially) is well done, and pretty well choreographed, there aren't that many continuity problems with the animation from cut to cut, and the even the fan-service is drawn particularly well. Usually I don't much care for fan service at all, especially when it distracts from the story, and there are some instances it does in this anime, but they are far fewer than is the standard for harem series, and it is well done when it occurs, so I don't over penalize it. So, yeah, for nothing something that's already been done really well, you still get a gold star.

Sound: 7 good
The opening is fitting and catchy, a good choice. The foley and background music is unobtrusive, doesn't really stand out. Once again, it's nothing amazing, like the full orchestral scores they do for one piece, or the edgy synthesized instrumental/industrial style stuff they use in Bleach, but it's well done enough that it contributes a bit to the story atmosphere rather than detracting.

Character: 8 very good
The main character, unlike in Zero no Tsukaima, is not such a ridiculous pervert that you hate him for it; nor is he weak, limited and indecisive, like in Maburaho. He's actually one of the few harem main characters that I really like. He's generally consistent and a good guy, if a bit on the ruthless side at times (which I don't have a problem with.) What bother me is the feeling of inconsistency I get from him.

SPOILER: A perfect example is that he is very willing to maim and torture the delinquents who attack him ruthlessly, but won't allow Brave to kill the creepy old man with the noise coat. This particular choice makes no sense. He should, frankly, not have a problem. In fact, the entire conflict constructed between him and Brave is a major story weakness, as it highlights major inconsistencies in their characters actions.
END SPOILER

Additionally, the female characters are fairly well developed, I felt, particularly the android observer and the blue haired ninja girl, who are the two I like best anyway. That's not to say it wouldn't have been better to get to know them a bit better, and to let the main character's relationship develop a bit further with the two primary potential love interests (blue haired ninja and red haired bimbo), but I was accepting.

(The red haired, airhead bimbo will hopefully not be the one chosen as the end of story romantic interest finally. I am so freakin tired of the dang japanese and their stupid "many girls, but who do I choose?"romance anime where the protagonist passes over the awesome, empowered, self sufficient, tsundere female for the retarded, airheaded, naive redheaded(or pink haired) idiot.)

Enjoyment: 6 fair
So, overall, my enjoyment was greatly lessened by the fact that it could have been such a better series if they'd have just let it go 24 episodes, and also hired a decent writer to reword the latter half of the series. A bit more character development, beefing up the story world early on so it doesn't fee like they are just making it up as they go to be able to create the final conflict, and a lack of atheist ranting would have greatly increased my enjoyment. I don't know what the final two episodes will hold, and hope that they can change my opinion, but I doubt they will.

Thus, overall it was good(7), but it could have been great. It didn't suffer some of the debilitating flaws that many other series like it did, but it still could have used tweaking and lengthening.

Hope this review was helpful, if not thought provoking.
Respectfully,
~Daemonblade1229

P.S.
Apologies for any spelling errors, but it is rather late. I'll likely tweak it someday, but I leave for 9 weeks of living in the forest soon (I work summers at a Boy Scout camp), so I won't have internet. That's also why i won't be able to see the last two eps until the fall. We all make sacrifices...

I typically have a four episode rule when I watch an anime: After four consecutive episodes, if it has descended to such depths of frustrations and stupidity as to make watching it painful for me, I stop.

This series failed my four episode test on the first four episodes.

The Pros: The art style is nothing original, and several other bishonen series have very similar styles. The quality is not terribly bad, with the possible exception of the very first scene in the very first episode, where child kajika's head is disproportionately large. The characters are well voice acted, even if the rest of the sound ... is absolutely run of the mill. The characterization is actually well done, for the most part, and is the most successful aspect of the anime, in my opinion. I find myself able to empathize with Li-ren and Barnesworth, and even Kajika, though her stubbornness is based squarely in stupidity and naivety, and her inability to consider the consequences of her actions is incredibly frustrating.

The Cons: As I mentioned at the end of the Pros, Kajika is frustratingly stupid, and the series world just goes along with it, trying to portray her idiocy and self centered naivety as heroic behavior.

The plot starts off alright, and has great possibility, but quickly descends into absurdity, with a nonsensical dilemma based on a convoluted family history. This is made worse by kajika's part in it, which seems to be limited to A) her insistence that Eugene is her dead pet cat because their (Eugene's and the cat's) eyes look the same, and B) her shooting a gun at a mirror, which manages to cause Eugene to spontaneously abandon his planned suicide and change his worldview entirely.

I guess all the people at the suicide hot line need to do is have someone on hand to drive out and shoot a mirror, and that will instantly cause the suicider to abandon their self destructive course and see the world differently. Sounds like a plan; let me go tell them.

In addition to this, the series is thematically barren, and consistently seems to shout that good looking people are somehow worth more than average looking people, and that it's okay to drive people to suicide as long as you're a selfish noble with a 'dark' past. Personally, I blame the schools.

Bottom Line: Well, this is what I have to say to you, creaters of this anime: As one of those average looking people, I object, and rate your crappy anime a 3 overall, based on it's crappy, poorly constructed plot, frustratingly idiotic main character (that everyone pretends is saintly), and inability to say anything worthwhile. So, no need to make any more, you should all just go die.

Now, you might think that harsh, but if I was a silver haired, greened eyed pretty boy, you'd want to have my babies, wouldn't you?

Caveat: I may be a little harsh, as I'm writing this write after finished episode four and the frustration and annoyance is still fresh, but it's a good estimation of how you will likely feel too. Unless, that is, you are a reincarnated cat.

Update: I'd like to apologize to all those who read this before now. It took me a while to come back and proof read, but I did. I'm fairly certain I discovered all the offending passages and corrected them. Please enjoy.

I'm writing this review, in part, to respond to the other reviews. I felt strongly that the number ratings given do not correspond with what was said, and that they were unnecessarily gentle. This series is 4(Decent) at best.

As to the story, it had a lot of potential, but none of that was realized. It ended up jumping around to random battles and poorly scripted conversations that seemed to have something to do with a general movement of plot, but in actuality did not. Lots of things happen in the plot, but the plot parts are so disjointed that no real story emerges, at ... least no story that can stand up beyond a vague general description of the overall arc. Very poor, indeed.

The art is nothing special, and it is not at all bad. The battles scenes are very average, with fighters swinging around weapons and throwing colored light balls, but the actual feel of legitimate combat is lacking. The character designs are, for the most part, interesting. If there had been actual character development, it would have been nice.

The most abysmal part of the show was the opening. From an artistic perspective, it sucked quite badly. It didn't match anything in the show, thematic, stylistically, and was overall incongruous and lacking in substance. Whoever made it definitely has a fetish for strangely colored shapes and Adobe Aftereffects.

It's unfortunately that the opening was so bad, as the song chosen for it was not. Furthermore, the sound design for the rest was very good. Nothing ground breaking, but the Foley was well done enough to give the situations occurring some sense of depth, and the background music supported well without intruding on the story. That said, the music did not elevate the viewer/listener at all, as it can sometimes in masterpieces(Gai Rei Zero being an excellent example), but it didn't do anything wrong, which was good enough.

As you can probably tell, I hated watching this show. The first three episodes were fine, and offered the possibility of great potential in the future. However, things went downhill from there, until they fell off a bloody cliff into the bottomless chasm (i.e. episode 8) of being a waste of time. By 10, I was watching it on fast foreword, just to finish. I think, however, the most frustrating thing about the show was that the story made no apologies or real consequences for stupid decisions on the part of the protagonists. I mean, literally handing the bad guys the chance at world destruction is a mistake in my book. Hopefully that's not too much of a spoiler, but since this is such a bad show anyway, I doubt it will ruin your lack of enjoyment anymore than just watching can.

So yea, there were a few good aspects, but that like pointing out that the figure head is nice on a ship with no rudder and giant gaping holes in the hull. If the car is a rust bucket, you don't rate it average just because the windshield was recently cleaned. So yeah, I agree with a lot of what the other reviewers said, but I disagree strongly with their number ratings.

This movie is very much like a magic show put on to distract people from the steaming pile of garbage that is the story.

I love bleach the anime, but the story for this movie was really poorly done. There were huge logical loops, the pacing was confusing and jarring, and the final resolution made little sense in the larger context of sub creation. However, if you treat this as a non canon excuse for gorgeous fight sequences and more explosive action from your favorite characters, then heck yeah it's a ride. The fight choreography is, as usual, spot on, the voice acting is fine, the ... characters are, for the most part, the same lovable group you remember from the series (with the exception of that cardboard cutout of a villain placed there just to create opposition to the good guys, and the sound was very fitting stylistically, as it always is for the show.

The crime here is that without the story, the rest of it seems a bit empty. There was potential with investment, to create a great spin off story that would fit into the canon sub creation, and would simply deepen our understanding of various fan favorites, like Ice boy and his frozen dragon of awesome!

All in all, the movie is a bit like cotton candy, which is great for a carnival but not so good when it makes up all of dinner. I mean, even if you do a really good job cooking it, who really wants a cotton candy pork chop?

WARNING: Contains spoilers. Of course, unless you are bored, there are better things to watch so you might not care.

My opinion? Average, that's all. Would be more, if only it wasn't overshadowed by what it could have been.

This anime had a lot of potential in the beginning, but it was really ruined by several things. One, the characters--despite their unique personalities and quite good voice acting--remained at a distance as they refused to express any adult emotions. Characters who were supposedly in love never kissed or hugged, characters who were married acted the same as when they were children and just good friends, etc. The ... only two characters who weren't like this were the Hero and the Queen. Furthermore, there was a huge lack of realism and engagement due to the truly stupid use of violence. Characters put tons of other people in danger in refusing to kill, despite the implications that they have no qualms killing, guns were set pieces that people waved around more than anything, and dire scenes were full of inept bumbling and lacked tension completely. The latter half of the series was particularly prone to this. Also, as the series went on, the crazy situation made less and less sense. The final arc presented a complex mystery settup that made no logical sense. Why would you go through all that trouble to assasinate someone instead of just shooting them in the face? Also, (SPOILER) the prince was apparently dead and then--with no explanation as to his miraculous survival from certain death--he reappears.

There were some good parts. The first parts of the series were somewhat enjoyable, before the adventuresome spirit was tarnished by the lack of realism and authentic romance. The animation was fairly good, even if the battle choreography was stiff and unrealistic. The story world had great breadth and sufficient depth so as to seem complex, and the characters had a great deal of potential for development. If this series were remade under different direction, and several key story point were rewritten to include real violence, actual tension, realistic romance, and remove the gaping holes in the story logic, this would be a masterpiece, easily. But, due to mishandling of an epic nature, the show completely failed to live up to what it could have been.