The recent slew of negative reviews for Neon Genesis Evangelion that exist here is rather irksome to say the least, if only because of the fact that the people writing these reviews more often than not use superficial complaints to justify why they think Evangelion isn't worthy of praise. Let me make one fact perfectly clear: If you think Evangelion isn't worthy of praise because the story is "boring" or "confusing", the characters are "unlikeable" or "annoying," the entire work is "pretentious," or anything of the sort, you are a complete and total moron with shit taste. If you can't handle this little fact, downvote
...
this review and get on with the harsh realities of your miserable life. Now that we have all the ruffians out of the way, let's talk about what is bar none, one of the most influential programmes to ever be released.
Before I get on with the rest of the review, let's talk a little bit about depth. A lot of people mockingly say that Evangelion is "2deep4u" but here's the thing: Evangelion IS deep. I like to think that Evangelion (and virtually every single form of entertainment that currently exists) operates on two levels: the "surface" level which deals with the story and characters at face value and the "deep" layer where one can draw parallels between the show and other things if you were to analyse the story a little more than someone else would. It's important to note that the "deep" layer isn't crucial to one's enjoyment of the programme. You can watch Evangelion without having to analyse every single aspect of the show. Unfortunately, a lot of these negative reviews just talk about the story at face value without bothering to factor in some context.
Unless you've grown up in the late 80s and early 90s or have consciously made the effort to go out there and watch older anime, it's hard to see exactly how influential Evangelion was to the industry. Genre breakdowns and meta-commentaries are so commonplace in anime these days to the point where people fail to realise that it was a trend Evangelion pioneered. Why is this? Well, Evangelion is the brainchild of a clinically depressed and extremely frustrated animator who grew disillusioned with otakus. He decided to take the two things that otakus violently masturbated to (in this case, mecha and harem programmes) and decided to shatter their sick, twisted fantasies. What do I mean by this? Well, let's think about it for a moment.
The whole point of Evangelion is to see how things would play out if the world really was in a post-apocalyptic situation and the fate of humankind rested on the shoulders of teenagers who have to put up with the burdens of adolescence and society whilst having to save the world with virtually no sympathy whatsoever. People rag on Shinji all the time for being a gutless coward who runs away from his problems, but guess what? That's the point! He's a kid with a slew of psychological problems being forced to pilot a giant robot with no prior training whatsoever in order to fight otherworldly creatures that could very well KILL HIM. I don't care if you think you're up to the task of becoming a giant robot pilot. If you were in Shinji's exact circumstances, you'd be chanting "I mustn't run away" before every Angel fight.
On that note, let's talk about Shinji. He's not a gutless coward, he's someone deserving of our sympathy and he's a lot braver than people give him credit for. Now that we got the inherently obvious out of the way, let's talk about what a lot of people DON'T talk about in regards to Shinji. A lot of people complain about how anime these days are full of wimpy characters who do nothing but complain and hesitate during fights (i.e. Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul, Yukki from Mirai Nikki), but guess what? Shinji was the very progenitor of that character archetype. Do keep in mind that I'm NOT saying that Kaneki and Yukki are on the same level as Shinji, I'm merely stating that there's a parallel that can be drawn between them and Shinji.
Before Evangelion was made, the bulk of male lead characters were confident Gary Stu-like characters or just straight-up MANLY. That's all fine and dandy, but the problem is that the bulk of anime fans who watched those shows were the complete opposite of characters like Jotaro Kujo. Instead of being confident and manly individuals, the bulk of anime fans back then (to my understanding, at least) were socially inept introverts who were using things like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure as an escapist fantasy of sorts. Evangelion was the first show to come around and give these pathetic losers their own pathetic loser to empathise with instead of a GAR character that they wish they were. Even though Shinji was a pathetic loser, that didn't stop the pathetic losers IRL from using him as a self-insert character. You see, THAT'S what makes Evangelion so great in the first place.
Remember what I said about Evangelion destroying everything those mouth-breathing otakus loved? Well guess how they did so? By using our boy Shinji to get these losers to insert themselves into this show without realising that their precious little fantasies would be shattered mercilessly. Evangelion breaks down common tropes and archetypes like the aggressive tsundere and the teenage mecha pilot and shows what would most likely happen if they were real people living in a post-apocalyptic scenario. Through this, we find out that being a teenage mecha pilot is anything BUT a walking sex fantasy and that characters like the aggressive tsundere, the bandage chick, and so on and so forth are in fact, real women who don't require a filthy otaku's semen-encrusted penis to feel validated.
All of the extra stuff like the religious symbolism and the surreal imagery have no bearing on the actual substance of the show. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a complete and total moron, and I don't think a lot of Eva fans would beg to differ on that matter. When Hideaki Anno said that this show has no depth, he was referring to the fact that people were over-analysing things that were just thrown into the show because they looked cool. The true substance of Evangelion comes from the many personal struggles that the characters go through which many of us also experience in real life. Unfortunately, this little detail seems to be lost amongst the myriad of negative reviews for this programme.
Speaking of the characters, the other characters on the show like Rei, Asuka, Misato, Gendo, among others were quite delightful. Asuka’s behaviour was certainly insufferable but it was quite interesting to see a studio actually demonstrate how unhealthy being a violent tsundere actually is. The air of mystery surrounding Rei was interesting to say the least, and what’s more is that her characterisation actually shows just how creepy and unnerving being an emotionless and completely submissive person actually is (although it should be noted that Rei actually does have emotions, but she never knew how to express them properly). Then again… the fact that she’s completely and totally submissive might be the reason why Rei was so popular among the otakus that Anno so viscerally despised. Yeah, I suppose it’s safe to say that Rei is the subject of many a demented pervert’s rape fantasies. I could go on to talk about the other characters, but there are a whole lot of other reviews out there that talk about that in much greater detail than I’d care to talk about. So let’s just skip over to the production.
Evangelion was a victim of Gainax’s poor accounting practices at the time, which meant that they were given an extremely limited budget to work with (which was exhausted before the final episodes were ever made). For what it’s worth, the Evangelion producers did a great job with what they were given. Action-heavy scenes are animated with such a remarkable degree of fluidity to the point where it makes Cowboy Bebop look like Oruchuban Ebichu. Seriously, look at any of the Eva battles and you’ll see that the production quality holds up quite well to this day. Of course, this means that there were a LOT of corners cut with the animation (especially in dialogue-heavy and atmospheric scenes). Personally, I don’t really mind this approach whatsoever. It only ever gets tedious when we get treated to nothing but silence and a bunch of stills of Shinji doing absolutely nothing and as the series progresses, we get fewer and fewer of those scenes as it starts showing just how fucked up everything is.
Sound-wise, Evangelion delivers in full force. The OST is comprised of lighthearted melodies that get played quite often in the first few episodes when Evangelion is establishing the setting, but then the focus of the OST changes over to bone-chilling atmospheric tracks and bombastic battle themes that never cease to get the blood a-pumpin’. “Cruel Angel’s Thesis” is without a doubt, one of the most memorable opening themes ever and it perfectly encapsulates everything that this show has to offer. The ending theme though gets on my nerves because of the fact that it just felt so dissonant with the tone of the later episodes. Then again, there are probably a LOT of Eva fans out there that are gonna try coming to Ontario just to find and murder me for making such a statement. Oh well, such is life I suppose.
Would I say that I enjoyed this programme? Well, yeah! Evangelion is one of those programmes that takes a little bit of time to warm up to, but once it gets into gear, you’ll be begging for the next episode to actually air. Then again… if you can’t get past the characters and the atmospheric feel of the first few episodes, you’d be better off watching Attack on Titan like the tasteless casual you are! Anyway, I’m just gonna wrap up this review now. See ya later.
***
If you’re wondering why I didn’t talk about the TV series’ ending, there’s a good reason why. Watch the video to find out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyFQVZ2h0V8
OR, just look at this picture:
https://40.media.tumblr.com/0f94ac9418dd65d70def0f0e0e3db0d3/tumblr_mybunfEOvF1shc3x3o1_500.jpg
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Aug 27, 2015
Shinseiki Evangelion
(Anime)
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The recent slew of negative reviews for Neon Genesis Evangelion that exist here is rather irksome to say the least, if only because of the fact that the people writing these reviews more often than not use superficial complaints to justify why they think Evangelion isn't worthy of praise. Let me make one fact perfectly clear: If you think Evangelion isn't worthy of praise because the story is "boring" or "confusing", the characters are "unlikeable" or "annoying," the entire work is "pretentious," or anything of the sort, you are a complete and total moron with shit taste. If you can't handle this little fact, downvote
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Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 24, 2015
D.Gray-man
(Anime)
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D.Gray-man plays out like a macabre epic that details the struggle between the forces of good and evil. Tragedy and strife give rise to sinister and horrifying creatures known as Akuma that grow progressively stronger as time goes on, and those who were chosen by God himself to fight against the Akuma also have their own demons to battle against. Over the course of 103 episodes, we follow the story of Allen Walker: an exorcist of the enigmatic Black Order, an organisation dedicated to fighting the Akuma and the struggles that he and his comrades face in their battle against the Millennium Earl, the demented
...
monster responsible for creating the Akuma. Is it without its flaws? Of course not, but there is a lot of good to be found in D.Gray-man which many unfortunately overlook whilst talking about this programme.
In 19th century Europe, a man known as the Millennium Earl capitalises upon the grief that people go through whenever they incur a tragic loss in order to create beings known as Akuma: self-aware puppets for the Millennium Earl that not only bring a soul back from the afterlife, but also forces them to live in torment as they are forced to do the Earl's bidding. Those who are wrought with grief get paid a visit by the Millennium Earl with the opportunity to bring back a deceased loved one, not realising that the Earl is nothing more than a cruel and sadistic genie who won't grant their wish the way they want it to turn out. The end result is a tortured soul forced to do the bidding of a complete and total monster without any say in the matter. On the other side of the spectrum, we have the Black Order: an enigmatic organisation of exorcists that whilst unknown to the general public, work to destroy the Akuma and defeat the Millennium Earl. These exorcists are able to wield a mystical substance known as Innocence: shards of was known by an ancient civilisation as the Crystal of God. Innocence has the power to destroy Akuma and free the tortured souls that inhabit them, but only those who were chosen by God himself can wield it. Those who are revealed to be accommodators of Innocence must abandon everything they once knew so that they can train to become exorcists. In the process, they disappear completely from the lives of their loved ones. When they die, their deaths are kept a secret from anyone outside the Order so that new Akuma can't be made. Though the Black Order aims to do the world a service, their actions make it evident that they're not infallible nor are they the epitome of morality. The exorcists we see over the course of the programme like Allen, Lenalee, and Lavi are also shown to be more than just your standard protagonists. Yes, they want to destroy the Akuma and defeat the Earl like anyone else does but exorcists are human too. They have their own struggles and inner demons to battle against, but they must ultimately deal with that on their own as the primary goal of the Order is to destroy the Akuma and defeat the Millennium Earl. For example, Lenalee is someone who was forced as a child to abandon her brother to become an exorcist. As such, she harbours such a deep-seated resentment toward the Black Order and yet is terrified of standing up against them. In spite of this, she keeps fighting because the friends she made at the Order are what comprise her entire world. Of course, they're all fighting a dangerous battle against an enemy that grows stronger by the day. Who's to say what would happen to Lenalee if her closest companions fell in the line of duty? In Lavi's case, this is even more evident. Even though Lavi is an exorcist, he's the heir to a clan that takes it upon themselves to document history as it unfolds whilst minimising their own impact on history and remaining as neutral as possible. Lavi cares deeply about his comrades but his role as Bookman's successor means that he's obligated to detach himself from those around him for the sake of maintaining neutrality. These struggles that the characters go through along with the very conflict that exists between the Millennium Earl and the Black Order is what makes D.Gray-man such a captivating show to watch. However, it's not without its flaws. Unfortunately, the programme is marred by flaws that would otherwise hamper one's ability to enjoy the programme. Like many long-running programmes, D.Gray-man suffers from something of a slow start and these earlier episodes, whilst decent enough to watch, can come across as heavy-handed to many as they try to reinforce the tragic nature of Akuma. There's also the matter of filler to discuss. Toward the end of the second season and the beginning of the third season (Episodes 29-36 and Episodes 41-50 to be precise), D.Gray-man ends up going into some filler episodes that don't particularly mix well with the feel of the earlier episodes. They can be skipped, but it's still something to be mentioned. Speaking of which, there's also the matter of the way the anime ended. The source material has a tendency to go in and out of hiatuses due to Katsura Hoshino's poor health and TMS Entertainment ended up pulling the plug on the adaptation because at that point in time, they would've caught up to the source material but Hoshino wasn't able to push out timely chapter releases because of things like her own arthritis and whatnot. Whilst the anime's ending works just fine as a conclusion, there are many loose plot threads left hanging because it's an adaptation of an ongoing manga. If you're the kind of person expecting total resolution from your programmes, you might as well look elsewhere because D.Gray-man won't satisfy you in that regard. This is a shame because there's so much that this series does well. Regardless, there's a lot this series does well and I think that there will come a time when there will be a continuation of the adaptation. In terms of production, D.Gray-man is quite lovely to say the least. TMS Entertainment, the ones responsible for this show have proven themselves time and again to be capable producers. Their rather extensive catalogue consists of things like Lupin III, Detective Conan/Case Closed, and the film adaptation of Akira. It's safe to say that these guys have a remarkable track record for quality, with few (if any) slip-ups. With that said, the production values may not hold up to everyone's standards. This is a show that started out in 2006 and ended in 2008, so the animation quality itself is a touch dated. Thankfully, it still looks rather nice and the atmosphere is as good as ever. The entire series has this sort of dark and Gothic feel to it which is quite befitting given the subject matter. Yeah... as much as I enjoyed shows like Soul Eater and Blue Exorcist, I was put off by the lack of a dark and (mostly) serious tone throughout the entire narrative so D.Gray-man was the perfect fit for me. Sound-wise, D.Gray-man doesn't disappoint. The background tracks are all quite lovely and fit the tone of whatever moments that they're being played in. However, the OP and ED themes are where this show really shines. It's rare for me to actually like all the OP/ED themes in a show but it's even rarer for me to like them all equally. I can't choose which one I like above all others because they all sound incredible to me. Then again, your mileage may vary but whatever. The dub is also some really good stuff, although Funimation was only able to license the first 51 episodes so you might wanna stick with the sub if you want consistency. All things considered, D.Gray-man is a show that's definitely worth your time and is something that everyone should give a chance at some point or another. It's a shame to see people give the time of day to lacklustre programmes that ultimately end in disappointment for all when quality is easily within one's reach. It's weird how people who viscerally despise shows like Naruto and the second series of Fairy Tail keep watching those shows despite hating them so much and yet don't give good shows like these a chance. Do yourself a favour and go on Hulu or KissAnime and watch this show. Trust me, you won't regret it. *** First review of the New Year! Wow, am I late to the party...
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 9, 2014 Recommended
All it took was a small trip to my local anime store that was having a 2-for-1 special for secondhand DVDs for me to come across a series which I'll always hold a special place for in my heart, a programme which was no doubt an emotional roller-coaster that was a harrowing tale of love and loss. Unfortunately, that very programme suffers from a *very* lacklustre beginning. What is this programme you ask? Why it's none other than Clannad: After Story and its lacklustre beginning is this very season.
It's no secret that us Desi folks get pretty damn melodramatic and sentimental at times. We LOVE ... the shit out of our romances and melodramas. Can you name ONE Desi person who hasn't cried once whilst watching Kal Ho Naa Ho or Baghban? Okay, maybe the younger folks don't have a taste for that stuff but I certainly do (and so do my parents... who like to kick me out of the house every time we watch Baghban together because of the infamous guilt trip that movie begets). What does all this shit have to do with anything? I don't know, but one thing's for certain: this season of Clannad is a romantic melodrama to the core and yet it completely failed at eliciting an emotional response out of me a good majority of the time (which is a feat in and of itself given my tastes). Regardless, this season ain't all bad. In fact, I really did like it but I didn't find it "poignant," "compelling," or "heartbreaking" like the back of the DVD box says it is. ***THE CONCEPT AND SETTING*** Clannad follows the story of Tomoya Okazaki, a delinquent high school student who hates where he lives because it's full of too many painful memories and his adventures with several other girls, each with their own sets of problems that he needs to help them solve. However, there's another event happening in different world as Tomoya et al are going about their lives: a girl who is the last of her kind all alone on an unknown world builds a companion out of junk who wants to help her leave this place before the winter comes and eventually takes her life. How do these stories connect? Tune in to find that out and MORE on the next episode of... DRAGON BALL Z!!!! In case you haven't noticed by now, this is the third instalment of a series of visual novel adaptations produced by Kyoto Animation and KEY Visual Arts and a hallmark of these visual novel adaptations is a seemingly mundane setting mixed together with a supernatural element of sorts which gradually becomes more important as the series progresses. Now I haven't seen (nor do I have any interest in) Air or Kanon (2006) but I can safely say this: if you are NOT a fan of moe, inadvertent harems, supernatural stuff in your slice-of-life programmes, or moe drama... you probably won't like Clannad which is a real shame because After Story is definitely several leagues above this season but I digress. As for the concept and how it's explored... well, it isn't explored very much here (or all that much in After Story... oddly enough). The first episode literally starts with an opening monologue from Tomoya who says "I hate this town, it's too filled with memories I'd rather forget." What are these memories that he'd rather forget? Why is his relationship with his father strained? None of these questions are answered at all and whilst After Story does a good job of cleaning up those loose plot threads, there are still some questions left unanswered as the show puts more focus on the story of Tomoya et al in the here and now rather than explaining what happened in the past. This is more or less the case throughout the entirety of Clannad for various plot threads, especially given how it puts more emphasis on the stories of certain girls but then throws everyone else to the wayside as the anime adapts that particular girl's arc from the visual novel. Remember Nagisa? You know... the girl that Tomoya meets that one fateful day at the beginning of the first episode? She's no better than a supporting character for the bulk of this season. The same goes for Kyou, you know... that tsundere twin who Tomoya should call Jacoby and Meyers on? Granted, After Story DOES put in some work to fix this, but it's too little too late by that point. ***THE STORY*** Considering the fact that Clannad is a visual novel adaptation (a romance visual novel adaptation at that), it's no surprise that there is an inadvertent harem that forms over the course of the series and that Tomoya is the only useful guy around for the bulk of this programme's run. Unfortunately, that's my biggest problem with the story of Clannad. As far as visual novel adaptations go, it isn't exactly a cut above the rest of its competition when it comes down to execution for a variety of different reasons. For one thing, there are certain nuances which make perfect sense in a visual novel context but when translated over to an anime context, they work to its detriment. If you need a good example of what I'm talking about, look no further than the way that the characters are handled. Visual novels are fundamentally designed in such a way where certain characters and arcs are often thrown to the wayside based on the route you choose to play through. In an anime context, that nuance doesn't work well and is often considered to be poor/lazy writing. This especially works to its detriment when we're talking about how each of the girls' arcs are adapted. In short, KEY's visual novels were never meant to be adapted in a linear fashion. This is a ROMANCE visual novel adaptation. You know that Tomoya would've hooked up with the girl whose arc was being adapted by the end of it all, and yet somehow this show still gives off the vibe that Tomoya and Nagisa are going to end up together (spoilers: they do). Now this didn't really bother me that much since I understand the context of the adaptation but that still doesn't change the fact that these problems could've easily been avoided had there been more foresight. I mean, why didn't Tomoyo and Sunohara have a romantic subplot which actually adapted her arc of the visual novel? In hindsight, that would've worked a lot better rather than having Tomoya move over to Tomoyo once he was through with Kotomi's arc. There are WAY more instances like that than I let on, by the way. The supernatural aspect of Clannad is also something that a great many people end up taking umbrage with and I definitely understand that sentiment as it DOES get rather ridiculous at times. There is a way to do supernatural stuff in drama right (look no further than the 1990 film, Ghost), but this doesn't apply to Clannad or the rest of the KEY visual novel adaptations whatsoever. At the same time, the supernatural elements of Clannad become far less prevalent as the series progresses (even moreso in After Story) so it's not as bad as it would initially seem. What is present however is intrusive enough to deter prospective viewers from giving this series a proper chance. The last thing that I want to talk about when it comes down to the story of this season is the fact that it plays out more like an archetypal moe drama. We're presented with a bunch of cute girls who are then swiftly beaten with the angsty crowbar until they end up like Jason Todd and then they turn into cardboard cut-outs for the viewer to project their fantasies of consoling and/or fucking vulnerable girls. As ugly as that sounds, it's the truth and no amount of pathos, gorgeous animation, endearing character quirks, and funny/heartwarming moments can ever change that. It's all about eliciting an emotional response out of the viewer and because of this, nothing about this season feels genuine. Can the same be said about After Story: NO. Unfortunately, first impressions tend to last forever and as far as first impressions go... Clannad fails to leave a strong one and in many cases, the fact that this season is so underwhelming has actually caused MANY to not even bother giving After Story a chance which is a genuine shame. Oh well, such is life as I like to say. ***THE CHARACTERS*** I really want to know it's possible to have such a large cast of characters but then make it so blatantly obvious that by the end of it all, only two people will ultimately matter (it also doesn't help that one of those people was quite heavily criticised for being grossly unrealistic). There were so many characters that I genuinely did find interesting like Kotomi, Tomoyo, and Sunohara but the geniuses at Kyoto Animation and KEY were basically all like "Hey, you know those interesting characters we have that might very well be compelling individuals? Let's NOT use them to their full potential!" Well, what we got is what we got so there's no sense in complaining about that now is there? Anyway, I'm just going to cover Tomoya, Akio, and Nagisa because that's what I wanna do. Don't like it? Well fuck off, I don't need your negativity here. When it comes down to saving graces, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone else like Tomoya who fits the bill and then some. I'll say this right now: Tomoya's character is flawed to high heaven in season and it really isn't until After Story where he truly does shine. Regardless, Tomoya is still a rather likeable individual in this season and it's quite evident that he grows and changes as an individual from the first episode all the way to the end. His constant snark never ceases to make me chuckle and out of the entire cast of Clannad, Tomoya feels the most human. Like I can actually believe that Tomoya is actually a real high school student who's been through a lot of crap in his life and simply lacks motivation. That's about as best as I can describe him anyway. Another saving grace that Clannad has is Akio, Nagisa's father. To put it short, any moment where Akio was on-screen was more than enough to make me smile and laugh raucously when the time was appropriate. I don't really have much of a fondness for the loud, hammy type but Akio is DEFINITELY an exception. Furthermore, there are actually times when he stops being the large ham and is actually capable of carrying on moments of drama rather well which is surprising since most comedic relief characters I've come across are brainless morons when it comes down to drama. With that said... not everything about Akio is all sunshine and rainbows. If you wanna know what I'm talking about, look no further than his offspring: Nagisa. I'll just say this right now: if you're not fond of idealised girlfriend characters, you're probably going to hate Nagisa. I'll admit that of all the girls introduced throughout Clannad, Nagisa has to be the most boring of them all and yet she ended up being Tomoya's choice by the end of it all. I don't hate Nagisa whatsoever, in fact... I do quite like her. At the same time, it's the fact that we don't know as much about Nagisa in comparison to Tomoyo and Kotomi. People like to rag on Nagisa saying that barring her insecurity, she's an otherwise flawless character and I don't think that's entirely true. Insecurity in and of itself is a powerful flaw which can bring an otherwise perfect character down to reality and make them easier to connect with (ref: Belldandy from Ah! My Goddess) and in Nagisa's case, it does seem to work the same way. However, even though we know that Nagisa is a flawed individual, we still don't know much else about her. All we really know about her is that she's sickly crybaby with low self-esteem who happens to like the Big Dango Family and anpan/tonkatsu. Like really? Come on... With that said, it's not like she's without her redeeming qualities (outside of being so moe and adorable). The biggest redeeming quality that Nagisa has is the fact that she's the catalyst for Tomoya's growth as a character across the entirety of Clannad (including After Story!). It really does sound cliché and cheesy, but there are delinquents who actually change for the better because of a girlfriend or whatever. In Tomoya's case, it was Nagisa who was that very reason for him to change. It's quite obvious that Tomoya had a rather strained relationship with his father and had no ambitions in life and that chance encounter he had with Nagisa in the first episode was all it took for him to start bettering himself. Sure, the other girls definitely had a part to play but their roles weren't anywhere near as big as Nagisa's in Tomoya's life. ***THE ART/ANIMATION*** The first thing that you'll probably notice is the fact that pretty much ALL of the girls in Clannad are moe. Big eyes that are as large as the human forehead, tiny noses and small mouths, high-pitched voices, and the like are all prominent in KEY/Visual Arts (and by extension, most of Kyoto Animation's catalogue)'s work. If you can't look past that one particular detail, you'd do well to stay away from Clannad and opt for a different series like Kimi ni Todoke, ef: A Tale of Memories, Toradora, or Fruits Basket. However, if you happen to know that Clannad is one gigantic moe festival and you still want to keep going, that detail won't bother you all that much. From an artistic standpoint, Clannad has some of the best background artwork I've ever seen (no surprise there, this IS a KyoAni project after all). Everything is beautifully detailed and if I'm not mistaken, several parts of Clannad's overall setting were adapted from actual locations in Japan which is always a nice treat. The actual animation quality can be of variable quality however. There was just something about the character models that seemed a bit off from time to time, like one arm would be shorter than the other. Get what I mean? There may very well be a good reason for that, as there are segments of Clannad that take place in an illusory world of sorts with a girl who's the last of her kind and her junk robot companion. Those segments were animated ENTIRELY in CG and it's absolutely GORGEOUS. Seriously, no lie. Most of the time, CG in anime would be horrendously clunky and have stilted animation (ref: Gantz, Knights of Sidonia) but I can safely say that it's not the case with Clannad whatsoever. The animation is fluid and has just as much detail if not MORE detail than the rest of the series does. Talk shit all you want about how these segments are unnecessary but the fact remains that they're quite the visual delectation. ***THE SOUNDTRACK*** OST-wise, Clannad delivers quite well. Every track that Clannad has to offer on the OST (barring the OP/ED for obvious reasons) fits whatever moment it's being played in extremely well. If I really had to pick an individual track that stood out to me the most througout the entirety of Clannad (this includes After Story, by the way), it would definitely have to be "Yuki Nohara" (Eng: Snowfield). It's a track that never ceases to bring me to tears for reasons that I'd love to tell you about but that would be a MASSIVE spoiler on my part and I dare not do such a thing. The OP theme "Megumeru" by eufonius isn't a bad OP theme by any means, but it's certainly one that I don't really like listening to all that much because the theme itself sounds rather off-key from time to time. Like really... whose bright idea was it to even bother using this OP track in the first place if it sounds like that? The ED theme "Dango Daikazoku" by Chata is a different story. Whilst it's not an appropriate ED theme for some of the more dramatic episodes, it's still a nice song nonetheless (which later ends up being part of one of the most adorabe/heartwarming moments of After Story for... reasons). ***THE DUB*** Both seasons of Clannad get shit for the dub because this season was directed by none other than the infamous Steven Foster. I'm not completely familiar with why this man gets a lot of hate for his dubs (probably because I haven't watched a lot of ADV/Sentai dubs that had him as the ADR director), so I can't really say whether or not this is one of his better dubs. What I can say though is that this dub receives WAY too much crap than it deserves. The entire cast does an absolutely spectacular job with the roles they've been given. It's also rather faithful to the original without sounding like weeaboo fan fiction in the slightest. Most importantly though, it still manages to capture the feel of Clannad even though it's dubbed which definitely nets a few points in my book. However, there's no shortage of otherwise insignificant problems combining together which sours the overall experience. A few awkward line translations, a line delivery which sounds a bit off, mispronounced names, inconsistent usage of honourifics titles, etc, these are all problems that on their own wouldn't do much harm but when you lump them all together and have it directed by a much-maligned member of your staff... it's no surprise to see why people hate on this dub. Even so, I feel as though the good outweighs the bad when it comes down to the dubbing. For one thing, I love how the voice actresses don't do that archetypal high-pitched moe voice that I don't really care much for to begin with when voicing the female characters. Don't get me wrong: Luci Christian, Hilary Haag, and Emily Neves sound cute voicing their respective characters, but they don't go out of their way to sound moe which is all fine and dandy in my book. The highlights of the cast are easily David Matranga as Tomoya, Luci Christian as Nagisa, Andrew Love as Akio, and Greg Ayres as Sunohara. I'm biased toward David Matranga's performane though, but that's mostly because his performance reminded me of his work as Tohno in the 5 Centimetres per Second dub (which coincidentally is another Steven Foster dub, a GOOD one, mind you). Does the dub beat the sub? I wouldn't necessarily say that but it's certainly a LOT better than people make it out to be. If you're debating which one you should watch, I'd say it boils down to whether or not you want to hear moe when you're watching the show. If you want moe, go with the sub but if you don't want moe, stick with the dub. ***FINAL THOUGHTS*** Clannad as it stands is fairly underwhelming but at the same time, it was definitely an enjoyable experience and it left a good-enough impression on me to the point where I actually wanted to see what would happen next in After Story. Even if you don't wanna check out After Story because you think it's overrated or whatever (which it kind of is, but that's beside the point), this season if Clannad is fairly entertaining in its own right. The comedy was spot-on most of the time and even though nothing really felt genuine about Clannad in the slightest, the final few episodes were more than enough to actually make me forgo watching the show with my brain and got me to watch it with my heart instead... cheesy though that might sound. If you come out of this season underwhelmed and feeling like you want your money/time back, I highly urge you to watch After Story. As lacklustre as this season is, After Story is way more than enough to make up for it and then some. If you don't wanna give After Story a chance regardless... well, go onto the next section for another stuff that might suit your taste a little better. ***ALTERNATE *MANGA* RECOMMENDATION*** I'm only able to provide one recommendation for Clannad because I have WAY more stuff to recommend for After Story than I do this season. Go ahead and watch Air, Kanon, Angel Beats, or Little Busters if you want more of the same from KEY and KyoAni/PA Works though. 1) Fruits Basket - I'm recommending the manga over the anime for the simple reason that the anime was cut off before the manga ever reached its prime. Fruits Basket by and large is a paragon of its craft when it comes down to shoujo romance (and romantic drama in anime/manga in general). Much like Clannad, it has a rather lacklustre beginning but that quickly changes as the series turns into a harrowing tale of love and emotional hardship. Shameless plug for Fruits Basket review here: http://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=167669 ***AFTERWORD*** If you're planning on buying Clannad at all, be that this season or After Story, I urge you to buy the Blu-ray release instead of the DVD releases of the complete collection for the simple reason that the DVD releases come on those shitty spindle cases which force unnecessary wear on the discs and cost WAY too much given the price of the set altogether. It would be wise to buy Clannad whenever it's on sale at Right Stuf or Amazon, because Sentai's Blu-ray releases tend to be rather pricey. I mean, I got my copies of the DVD releases on sale and I can safely say I got what I paid for but still... why can't Sentai just package their shit normally like Funimation does? Oh well...
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 6, 2014
Fairy Tail
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
Oh look, it's an unpopular opinion! It seems like everyone just likes to rag on Fairy Tail because it's the cool thing to do. I'm not gonna lie, I'm guilty of talking shit about it just as much as everyone else but at the same time... there's no changing the fact that I genuinely did enjoy watching it quite a bit. Is Fairy Tail the worst battle shounen series out there? No. It really isn't. You mean to tell me that in the ENTIRE history of battle shounen anime, Fairy Tail has to be the worst one of them all? Come on... try harder, people!
...
I'm sure some of the older otakus on this website who've watched hundreds of thousands of animes can think of several other programmes that are objectively worse than Fairy Tail.
Don't get me wrong though, I understand WHY people like to rag on Fairy Tail. It does have some major problems and for what it's worth, even people in the fandom agree with that sentiment. At the same time, I think way too many people just focus on perpetuating the circle-jerk surrounding this series by parroting basically everything negative which has already been said about this series ad nauseum. Talk about irony. Meanwhile, I love how people talk shit about Fairy Tail and yet don't apply the same criticisms they levy to the programmes that they truly enjoy. Watching a Narutard talk shit about Fairy Tail is just as entertaining is like watching a DC/Marvel fan talking shit about manga. ***THE CONCEPT AND SETTING*** Fairy Tail takes place in a farcical world dominated by magic and follows the travels of a troupe of mages as they travel the globe on various missions and whatnot. Well, that's the condensed version anyway. One of the biggest problems that Fairy Tail has is the fact its arcs are very short, which is paradoxically its biggest strength to me (more on that in the next section). You see, Fairy Tail is one of those battle shounen animes where I'd really like to see more of the universe that this story takes place in explored but sadly it doesn't because one of its calling cards doesn't allow for it. I see people often comparing Fairy Tail to One Piece, but I feel like that's often made by people who've only taken a cursory look at both programmes and then come to the conclusion that they're virtually identical because they look similar, the leading males are both gluttonous idiots, and friendship is a shared theme. However, One Piece's claim to fame is an infinitely expanding universe which has a remarkable degree of complexity and thought put into the writing. This is obviously the case because the arcs are just as long as they need to be in order to allow each island the Straw Hats visit make their mark on the story. Fairy Tail's short arc length doesn't allow for any of that shit to happen whatsoever which is ultimately its biggest failing. I can forgive some of the more annoying running gags and the fan service to a large degree had there been a vast universe to explore, but from Episode 1 all the way to 175, that just wasn't the case. I'm not saying that the world that Fairy Tail remains completely stagnant from beginning to end, because there were *some* things that changed along the way, but nowhere near as much world-building as I had hoped for there to be. Really now, how could Hiro Mashima drop the ball on this one? I could easily think of several places along the way where the writing could've been improved to bring in some more insight on the world that this story takes place in but alack... another story of what could've been. ***THE STORY*** Going back to that short arc length, the reason why I think that it's Fairy Tail's biggest strength in addition to being its most crippling flaw is because this makes the programme very easy to watch. Given the fact that I'm working full-time and have filial obligations, I lack the time and quite frankly the will to keep up with continuously overarching stories like I used to. Do you think that I'm up-to-date with One Piece? Oh HELL to the fucking no. I'm still like 100 chapters behind and even further behind with the anime. It's the fact that Fairy Tail's arcs are short and yet still packed with plenty of action and comedy to spare whilst also being able to take itself seriously if only for a brief moment when the time comes for it to do so which kept me around for so long. With that said, there are several glaring problems that Fairy Tail has when it comes down to the story writing. For one thing, a large portion of the writing feels recycled from other battle shounen anime. Rave Master, Dragon Ball, D.Gray-man, Soul Eater, Hunter x Hunter, Yu Yu Hakusho, InuYasha, Naruto, Bleach, Busou Renkin, Fullmetal Alchemist, One Piece, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, etc., these are all battle shounen anime/manga which have done pretty everything that Fairy Tail does but managed to do so better whilst also bringing something new to the table or at least managed to put their own spin on it so that the story doesn't feel like the same tired-out battle shounen formula. What really irritates me is that there are individual parts of the story which genuinely did have me interested but these individual elements were discarded in favour of marketability (short arcs full of action, comedy, and fan service is what this show is all about, right?). The second biggest problem that Fairy Tail has with its story, the comedy. Yeah... comedy on the whole is a very subjective thing and despite being 25 years old, I'm no better than an overgrown man-child. I still find Beavis and Butt-head laugh-out-loud hilarious and sexual/vulgar humour still packs the same punch for me that it did back in middle school and high school. You'd think that I'd get a LOT of mileage out of Fairy Tail given that I'm an immature person, right? Well... not exactly. Natsu's extreme motion-sickness gets on my nerves more than Luffy's stupidity. It wasn't funny the first time, and yet Hiro Mashima and A-1 Pictures by extension still chose to keep that stupid gag throughout the entirety of its run. It's really the overuse of running gags which were never funny in the first place which dampens the comedy which is quite a shame because whenever Fairy Tail manages to get a laugh out of me, I burst out into uncontrollably loud and annoying cackling. The third biggest problem that Fairy Tail has? Fan service. I really don't know what it is about battle shounen anime and having girls with huge racks and bizarre proportioning. I just don't find that shit attractive (Book 3, Chapter 5 of Avatar: The Last Airbender is my idea of fan service done right, but I digress). Also, this is just a personal gripe I have but why does Gray always have to be shirtless at least once per episode? For the girls to fawn over? Come on... at least make them wait for that shit. It loses its impact if it happens almost every single episode. Now if you're into girls with huge racks sporting plenty of cleavage and shirtless guys that are "ripped," as the young people like to say it nowadays, I'm sure this won't be a problem for you but it is for me so too bad! I could go on to say that the battles rely far too heavily on power-ups, but I really don't give a shit about that since they're pretty damn entertaining to watch (especially given that battles are animated rather well) Besides, if you're going to rag on Fairy Tail for using power-ups and not levy the same criticism to programmes like Gurren Lagann, you're a waste of thought. People, this is a SHOUNEN series. By the end of it all, Fairy Tail is essentially the Japanese equivalent of Xiaolin Showdown: it's nothing more than mindless entertainment for sugar-high kids on Saturday mornings. Do you really think that there would be complex and intricate battles with all kinds of strategy out of something meant to be shallow entertainment? Speaking of which, it's time for something I like about Fairy Tail! When it comes down to its overall style, Fairy Tail knows exactly what it wants to be and it doesn't really set itself up to be anything greater than it actually is. If phrases could manifest themselves in anime form, Fairy Tail would be the embodiment of "What you see is what you get. Don't like it? Well fuck off, we don't need you here." As far as shallow entertainment goes, there's plenty of it here. If you're the kind of person who wants something along the lines of Ulysses, Paradise Lost, or In Search of Lost Time, why the fuck are you expecting it out of Fairy Tail when its claim to fame is short arcs chock full of action, comedy, and fan service? That's just like expecting a culinary masterpiece out of McDonald's. Now, there is one thing that I have a bit of a gripe with and that's the fact that Fairy Tail basically ended on a rather nasty cliffhanger and that was basically your lot until A-1 Pictures came out with the second series which has received... let's just say "mixed reception." Now granted, the second series DID come out almost a year ago and it's still rather early in the show's run. Let's just hope that A-1 Pictures gets their shit together before more circle-jerk reviews come into the picture. I could also rag on the filler, but let's face it: filler in battle shounen anime is prone to being terrible and there's no point in bitching about shitty filler in Fairy Tail when the filler in Naruto and One Piece is just as bad if not worse (well... more like padding in One Piece's case). ***THE CHARACTERS*** I just want to get this out of the way first: I don't like Natsu, I've never liked him, and he's REALLY annoying. The only battle shonen protagonist with an insatiable appetite who's also an idiot that I have the patience for is Luffy. Everyone else can go die for all I care. Throughout 175 episodes (and ~50 more in the new series), he has not changed a bit whatsoever. He's still all talk and no walk and the only time he can actually win a battle is with a power-up. I hate battle shonen protagonists like Natsu nowadays. The English dub makes him a good deal more tolerable since Todd Haberkorn is a great voice actor, but great voice acting can't help a shit-tier character. I'm sorry, Natsu fans. Gray 5evaaaaa. The characters of Fairy Tail barring Natsu are all likeable to me, but the biggest problem I have with them is the fact that throughout the entire run of the series, they remain static as individuals. I like to see people grow and change over time in my programmes and mangas (although that little desire of mine can be overridden if the programme I'm watching is cool enough). From episode 1 all the way to 175, there is no significant changes that occur in the entire cast we hang around. Lucy, Gray, Natsu, et al are still the same as they were when they first started out. I mean, it's not all bad because at least they HAVE a sense of characterisation about them, but at the same time... I still think it's unforgivable that despite all the time that was put into this series, NOBODY has changed for the better. ***THE ART/ANIMATION*** Art-wise, I see a lot of people saying that it resembles One Piece's art style and well... as much as I'd like to disagree on that one, it's kind of hard NOT to notice Akira Toriyama's influence over the look of both of those series. I don't really mind the art style, and hell... I actually kind of like it but again: fan service just gets under my skin. Animation-wise, Fairy Tail was done by none other than A-1 Pictures, which I was rather surprised to see attached to a long-running battle shounen series like this one. When it comes down to visual quality, A-1 Pictures is no slouch whatsoever and they have programmes under their belt which are nothing short of eye-candy galore such as Blue Exorcist, Sword Art Online, and and both seasons of Magi. It's a common occurrence in battle shounen anime for the animation quality to fluctuate quite a bit. Anything that isn't a battle may very well be animated with the same level of complexity as a flash game you'd find in the backwaters of Newgrounds. It's for that reason alone that I was caught off-guard when I saw that A-1 Pictures did a REALLY good job of keeping the overall animation quality across 175 episodes rather consistent. Yes, there are points where the animation takes a bit of a downward turn, but the rest of the series still looks remarkable from a technical standpoint. Battles are also animated exceedingly well which makes them nothing short of entertaining to watch, and you all know how much I love a well-animated battle! It should also be mentioned that Satelight co-produced the animation alongside Fairy Tail. These are the guys who brought us Log Horizon's first season and the first four episodes of Hellsing Ultimate among other such viewing delectations. The fact that the animation quality remained more or less consistent across 175 episodes might have to do with the fact that there was more than one studio working on it. A-1 Pictures can't shoulder ALL of the burden, now can they? ***THE SOUNDTRACK*** When it comes down to music, it's hard to find another battle shounen anime which comes anywhere close to Fairy Tail. This is something that EVERYONE can agree on. Like you can talk shit all you want about the story, the characters, and the art style but when it comes down to music... hot damn! The only other battle shounen anime I can think of that comes close to Fairy Tail would be Blue Exorcist, and even then I find myself leaning toward Fairy Tail's OST. I'm not even joking when I say that I actually had the 3rd OP saved as my phone's ringtone WAY back when I was just starting to get into Fairy Tail. Oh how I miss being a NEET living in Chandigarh. :( ***THE DUB*** When it comes down to the sub vs. dub debate, don't buy into the dub hate that you might see here on the MAL forums. Funimation did an excellent job with the Fairy Tail dub. My favourite performances definitely come from Newton Pittman as Gray and Colleen Clinkenbeard as Erza. We also get some wonderful performances from the likes of Christopher Sabat, Brina Palencia, J. Michael Tatum, and other such Funimation regulars as supporting characters as well. I understand that there are a LOT of top-tier seiyuus involved with Fairy Tail but come on! The dub itself is some pretty damn good stuff too. Seriously, why so much dub hate? ***ANIME VS. MANGA*** Oddly enough, I've never read the manga for Fairy Tail at all. I still say that if you're a manga purist, you're probably going to want to go manga rather than anime. Manga lacks filler, after all. ***FINAL THOUGHTS*** Fairy Tail is one of those anime series that receives WAY more crap than it deserves which is quite a shame. Look, I understand that it's popular and that popular series more often than not are overrated. That still doesn't give people the excuse to constantly make shitty reviews of the programme in question which basically parrot shit that's been said before ad nauseum. If you're in the mood for some shallow entertainment and nothing more that you can enjoy with your friends, Fairy Tail can definitely deliver on that front and keep you entertained for a good while. It's one of those programmes that I feel is best in small doses. If you know exactly what you're getting into, you should be fine. Hopefully, this review actually managed to sway some peoples' opinions on the programme but whatever. Chances are that it'll be downvoted into oblivion by diehard fanboys and haters alike. God, I need to pick a target audience and stick with it. ***ALTERNATE ANIME RECOMMENDATIONS*** 1) InuYasha and its sequel series, InuYasha: The Final Act - One of the most popular anime series of the early 2000s (especially here in the West), InuYasha is another anime series which consists of many small, easy-to-watch arcs. However, the biggest difference between InuYasha and Fairy Tail is the fact that InuYasha's small arcs all add up to an overarching goal whereas the arcs in Fairy Tail feel inconsequential for the most part. InuYasha is also a partially romantic story as well so there's also that. It also helps to mention that Fairy Tail is still an ongoing manga with a TV sequel which is still currently airing. InuYasha ended in 2004 and The Final Act ended in 2009. The manga also completed its run in 2008 with 553 chapters total. 2) Gurren Lagann - The bonds shared between Team Dai-Gurren is vaguely reminsicent of the friendship between Natsu, Gray, Lucy, etc. and power-ups are a huge part of each programme's battles (can you look at me with a straight face and NOT tell me that the Spiral Power ISN'T an excuse for constant deus ex machina?). However, Gurren Lagann opts for an extremely absurdist approach where logic and reasoning get thrown to the wayside in favour of being cool (as evidenced by Kamina's infinitely extending sword and his ability to pull his signature orange glasses out of thin air) whereas Fairy Tail doesn't really go that far with its fantasy elements. Also, the fan service in both series is similar... I mean, Yoko and Lucy pretty much serve the same purpose, don't they? Dem melons...
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 11, 2014 Recommended Preliminary
(235/? eps)
You know what I really miss? The good ol' days of shonen anime/manga where something could have an outrageously bizarre concept with an equally bizarre universe which can be light in tone and set the stage for some grand adventures to unfold. Nowadays, it seems like most shonen anime and manga try to be all dark and edgy in order to defy those sort of preconceived notions that all shonen anime and manga is light-hearted and/or childish. While that's all fine and dandy, I can't help but feel that we're losing something special in the process of this sort of transition from light-hearted adventures to
...
dark and grim tales of survival.
With the cancellation of the Hunter x Hunter anime (further compounded by the manga's hiatus), it seems like brutal survival games chock full of fan service and outrageously violent battles are all that's left of shonen series. Then enters One Piece: one of the most popular shonen anime/manga series out there which is still going strong despite being around for 15-something years. It's had a lot of ups, downs, and more than its fair share of criticism levied against it but all things considered... it's something like a breath of fresh air in this stale climate that shonen anime/manga seems to have immersed itself in as of late. ***THE CONCEPT AND SETTING*** One Piece takes place in a world completely dominated by maritime travel that's currently experiencing something known as the "Golden Age of Pirates." The "Golden Age" was brought about by the death of the so-called Pirate King, Gold Roger and his final words about where he's put his entire life's fortune. Whosoever finds Gold Roger's treasure, the eponymous "One Piece" will then become king of the pirates (or so the legend goes; I question how finding a dead man's riches will automatically make you king of all maritime bandits, but that's beside the point). While many people might dismiss this concept as childish, this is one of the very things I love the most about One Piece. You want to know why? The reason why is that despite the simple set-up would seemingly get repetitive over a short span of time, Eiichiro Oda steps up to the plate and manages to deliver plenty of adventures that are so grand in scope that you'll have a hard time trying to keep your jaw attached to your face. The way that Oda manages to so is quite clever and something that I never really get tired of: the fact that the Grand Line (the place where the vast majority of One Piece takes place in) is pretty much a perfect canvas to unleash his creative mind. The Grand Line is literally a place where common sense won't get you anywhere. Conventional means of navigation are impossible because each island emits its own, strong magnetic field that interferes with regular compasses. Instead, you need a special compass called a "log pose" which basically leads you to the next island and that island is completely random. In addition to that, it takes a certain amount of time for the log pose to reset itself and lead you to the next island. The log pose can change at a moment's notice, so you can't even trust the calm of the seas or the weather. On that note, weather in the Grand Line is incredibly chaotic due to the irregular magnetic field that encompasses the entire area. On the topic of weather, every island in the Grand Line has its own climate, fauna, and such. Some islands are cloaked in perpetual winter while other islands are quite literally stuck in prehistoric times with dinosaurs and everything. Going back to the log pose, sometimes it can point you to seemingly impossible locations. Would you believe that there's an entire arc in One Piece that takes place on an island IN THE FUCKING SKY?!?! I'm not even kidding. Whenever Eiichiro Oda puts his mind to it, he really can surprise you with what he can come up with. In fact, when it comes down to the world-building, only Fullmetal Alchemist and Hunter x Hunter come close to matching it. Of course, One Piece and HxH opt for a sort of "make it up as you go along" approach while Fullmetal Alchemist is more carefully crafted. A rather important part of One Piece's universe is the existence of the so-called "Devil Fruits." Whosoever devours one of these strange fruits will be given great power at the expense of their ability to swim. It should be noted that throughout the entirety of One Piece (thus far), there is absolutely NO explanation behind the mechanics of Devil Fruits and their effects on humans. Some people will undoubtedly take umbrage with this, but I don't. One of the things that irritate me the most when it comes down to shonen anime and manga in recent years is the fact that there's always NEEDS to be an explanation to EVERY SINGLE THING. Don't get me wrong, there's always going to be shit that will need explaining, but I find it infuriating whenever there has to be some sort of pseudo-scientific explanation given for practically EVERYTHING that happens to our characters whenever they gain/use a superpower. In One Piece, the Devil Fruit superpowers are indeed important but they're not the overall focus of the plot. I suppose you can consider the Devil Fruit powers to be analogous to Nen from Hunter x Hunter or chakra from Naruto if you need something you can compare it to (even then, it's not quite like those two). Another thing to note is that no two Devil Fruits will bestow the exact same power. ***THE STORY*** One of the biggest problems that the One Piece anime suffers from is a VERY slow start. Like most shonen series, the story of One Piece is told arcs. The first 61 or so episodes encompass what I like to call the "East Blue" arc (which comprises of several smaller sub-arcs). Basically, it's where Luffy is recruiting his crew and the various adventures that follow suit. By the end of Episode 31, the final crew member joins and the team is ready to set sail to the Grand Line... although that's not quite the case. After Sanji joins the team, Nami briefly defects as we go into an arc that dives into her own back-story before she returns and becomes a permanent fixture of the Straw Hat pirates. It's not that these episodes are bad or anything, but I just got done telling you all this amazing shit that happens in the previous section and yet none of that shit actually goes down until AFTER these episodes. Well... to be fair, these episodes were produced well over a decade ago when the manga itself was still rather young. I suppose it's like Phantom Blood from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure in the sense that it at least provides us with the foundation for these grand adventures to unfold. At the same time, I can't help but feel like Toei Animation could've at least skipped over some of the more superfluous stuff from the manga. Whatever, it's too late to do anything about that now. Aside from that, the story of One Piece is pretty damn good. For a series that's been going on for well over 15 years, it's surprising as to how consistent the overall story quality remains across the board. Yes, there are points where the storytelling takes a downturn, but this generally happens in filler arcs and whenever there's some excruciating padding in an episode to stretch out the chapters (more in the next section). Of course, there are also moments whenever you can tell that Oda didn't quite bring his A-game to the table in a particular arc. Yes, a man like Eiichiro Oda can also suffer from dry spells where his storytelling isn't quite up-to-par with what he usually brings to the table. He IS human, after all. Considering that One Piece is a shonen series, it's no surprise that themes of friendship and loyalty are quite prominent. What's more is that in a vein similar to "classic" shonen series like Dragon Ball, it's going to be a tale of adventure that is rather light in tone (for the most part). Does this mean that One Piece is automatically childish garbage? HELL TO THE FUCKING NO. Surprisingly enough, One Piece is fairly capable of taking itself seriously when the time comes for it to do so and what's more is that friendship/loyalty will ALWAYS be themes no matter what since those are hallmarks of the genre. No sense in complaining about something that's part of the course, you know... The overall arc structure of One Piece is fairly predictable, but that's not an inherently bad thing since it does offer a degree of consistency with the storytelling. The basic formula generally goes like this: the Straw Hats land on an island -> residents of the island hate them -> the Straw Hats meet the island's bad guy(s) -> they beat the bad guys -> residents of the island now love the Straw Hats. Keep in mind that this is simply the framework for an arc and the way an arc actually plays out may very well end up surprising you. This goes back to One Piece's greatest strength: giving us amazing adventures that are so grand in scope to the point where you can't look away from the screen for a moment. ***THE FILLER*** Surprisingly enough, Toei Animation did a relatively good job of remaining filler-free in a series as long as One Piece (roughly 98 episodes). It also helps that most of the filler arcs tend to be rather short (typically 2-5 episodes) across 670 episodes. It also helps that a good portion of them basically got their origins from ideas that Eiichiro Oda wanted to put in the manga but couldn't for various reasons. But does that mean they're worth watching? Well... I suppose you can go ahead and sit through the filler but the G8, Ice Hunter, and Ocean's Dream arcs are the only ones that I consider worth watching since the other filler arcs tend to be more hit/miss. Going back to how Toei Animation mostly managed to subvert filler, it was through adaptation expansion. Eiichiro Oda is a guy who packs quite a lot of detail into his stories, so it's easy for writers to expand upon concepts he brought up but didn't quite flesh out. Unfortunately, Toei Animation has this nasty habit of taking things too far. While the adaptation expansion was good enough that occasionally bordered on great in the first half of the anime, the latter half of the series (Episode 405-onward) is where Toei Animation's adaptation expansion takes a downward turn for the worse. After the Sabaody arc, Toei Animation decided to up and scrap the idea for filler episodes entirely and instead adapt the chapters at a 1:1 ratio. Considering the fact that not every chapter will have ~20 minutes' worth of stuff to adapt, Toei Animation had to improvise and they did so by means of VERY excruciating padding. It REALLY got ridiculous in the Marineford arc where you're basically panning over shots of the crew and have to put up with Buggy's pitiful attempts at comedy. It even got to a point where they showed one character looking for milk before going back to a fight. Now with that said, it DOES get better and it's really noticeable after the time skip but it's too little, too late by that point since the time skip is fairly recent (around episode 515?). ***THE CHARACTERS*** Considering the fact that One Piece has been going on for 15+ years, it's no surprise that there would be a LOT of characters. A good deal of them show up later on in the show/manga's run, but the vast majority of them are more or less just there for one arc before the focus of the story shifts to the next arc. Surprisingly enough though, even characters that have been around for just one arc were fairly well-developed and rather likeable like Dr. Kureha whose only appearance is in the Drum Island arc. There are certain characters who stick around with the Straw Hats for more than one arc (i.e. Vivi), but they're few and far between. Despite that, they receive more than enough screen time to the point where you feel like something's missing once the time comes for them to depart. For the vast majority of One Piece, we're stuck with the Straw Hat pirates: a rag-tag bunch of misfits with their own share of issues that also have such large bounties on their heads that rival Vash the Stampede's. The leader of the Straw Hats is none other than the rubbery Monkey D. Luffy. For lack of better words, Luffy is well... an idiot. What's more is that he's a gluttonous idiot in a vein similar to Goku or Naruto but thankfully he's not THAT extreme. A good benchmark as to how much you'll like Luffy is how well you can tolerate his airhead behaviour since it does get rather ridiculous at times. Regardless, he's got quite a few good traits to back him up and without Luffy, there would be no adventure, which would fucking SUCK. My favourite character would definitely have to be a tie between Roronoa Zoro (the swordsman) and Sanji (the chef). Why? Well... it's a combination of cool factor AND the fact that they play off of each other (and Luffy) rather well. I just can't get enough of their constant snark toward one another, nor can I ever get enough of Zoro's santoryu (3-sword style) or Sanji's ridiculously powerful kicks. That's not to say that the rest of the Straw Hats are forgettable, boring, or whatever because that is NOT the case at all. What I love most about the Straw Hats is that despite the predominant focus on Luffy, each member receives a good amount of development and time to shine on-screen. Of course, what are protagonists without their villains? Suffice it to say, Eiichiro Oda's creativity leads to us having quite a lot of interesting villains. Some of them are fucking AWESOME (like Enel in the Skypiea arc) while others are well... lame and stupid (like Buggy in the Orange Town arc). Honestly, this is something you'll have to put up with over the course of One Piece. You think that a limitless well of creativity is free? Oh fuck no! While Eiichiro Oda manages to hit the mark 95% of the time, there are moments where you have to put up with some of his ideas for villains that aren't stupid in an awesome way but are instead just well... stupid (ref: Buggy). Thankfully, arc villains aren't the only ones that the Straw Hats have to deal with. Considering the fact that the Grand Line is so vast in scope, there are a LOT of threats that the Straw Hats have to put up with, two of which being the Marines and the Seven Warlords of the Sea. The Marines are essentially your maritime police force which deals with pirates while the Seven Warlords are essentially government-sanctioned pirates. In exchange for a cut of the treasure that the Seven Warlords find, the government allows them to basically pick off smaller pirate ships that try to traverse through the Grand Line. Whenever an arc deals with one of the Seven Warlords, there's no doubt that it will be intense. ***THE ART AND ANIMATION*** If the seemingly childish concept, Luffy's stupidity, or the sheer length won't repulse you, chances are that the artwork will make or break your overall experience. Personally, I feel like Eiichiro Oda's artwork has quite a unique charm to it. What I love most about it is that there isn't a single anime/manga series out there that has this exact art style (and before you say anything, Fairy Tail does NOT count). I can understand why some people wouldn't like it since it's rather cartoony and most shonen series nowadays tend to have realistic character designs. Regardless, Hunter x Hunter has a similar "cartoony" art style and yet people praise the everliving Christ out of it so if you're gonna talk smack about One Piece's artwork but not levy the same criticism against Hunter x Hunter, you're too stupid for words. Of course... there is one little gripe I have with the art style and that is the fan service. Seriously... One Piece's fan service is something that I can never quite get accustomed to despite having watched the anime AND read the manga for well over 6-7 years. Maybe it's just me, but I really don't find huge tits on top of a skinny waist and lanky limbs to be that attractive. If that weren't bad enough, post-timeskip Nami's outfit is essentially a bikini-top and low-riding pants. Come on, Oda! You expect me to believe that Nami just went through a growth spurt? Don't lie, she paid Chopper to give her a boob job and you know it. Same goes for Nico as well! But, I digress. While I can certainly complain about it all I want, the fan service isn't as bad as OTHER popular shonen series (i.e. Akame ga Kill, Fairy Tail). As for the actual animation itself, it pains me to say that Toei Animation doesn't really have that good of a track record when it comes down to animation quality because they have this nasty habit of producing several long-running anime series alongside one another as they're airing while rotating between animation teams that tend to vary wildly in terms of quality. There's a tendency to go off model every few episodes and it's actually gotten a lot sloppier in the more recent episodes with character proportioning changing at the drop of a hat (let's hope that these animation errors get fixed in an upcoming Blu-ray release or something). The first 206 episodes were more or less par for the course from Toei Animation. There was a lot of good, a good deal of penny pinching along the way, fights were decently animated but nothing worth getting excited over, etc. Episode 207 is when the show makes the switch to HD and a 16:9 resolution and from that point forward, the animation became more fluid and the artwork became a lot cleaner as it ditched some of the line effects and such that it used in the earlier episodes. A general rule of thumb I use is that if an episode I'm watching on Funimation's website has been dubbed, I'll watch the dub instead because dubbed anime generally uses the footage AFTER it's been cleaned up of most of its off-model errors. ***THE SOUNDTRACK*** Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot about One Piece's OST that really caught the fancy of my ears which is quite bizarre since there's usually one or two pieces of BGM that would stand out to my ears while watching. The OP/ED themes are fair enough, and I do have a fondness for a few of them (although I forget their numbers and I'm WAY too lazy to look them up at this point). I will say this though: Skypiea had some pretty damn good BGM even though I couldn't remember any specific tracks that stood out. ***THE DUBS*** If you've ever done a basic Google search on One Piece, you'll probably find out that it had a rather turbulent distribution history here in the USA. It was initially picked up by 4Kids Entertainment and was aired on FOX during Saturday mornings (only to eventually air on Toonami during Saturday nights). Unfortunately, 4Kids has this nasty habit of editing the anime they license WAY past the point of compliance with FCC guidelines. For a full list of 4Kids edits, you can Google it. Most One Piece fans will urge you to stay away from the dub and honestly... I can't really blame them for that (especially now, since Funimation has been distributing One Piece for damn near 7 years and their dub is significantly better). But if we were to take away the content edits that 4Kids was responsible for and focus solely on the actual dubbing, you'd be quite surprised. The actual dubbing isn't quite bad and if you want a real surprise, Marc Diraison (the voice of Guts in the English dub of Berserk) voices Roronoa Zoro in the 4Kids dub of One Piece. It's no stretch of the imagination to think that he's my favourite performance in the entire dub. Erica Schroeder, the voice of Luffy did a fair enough job in her role but some of her lines came off as a bit forced and unnatural (although I blame the ADR director for that, since the woman really is a talented voice actress). As for the Funimation dub, I'd have to say that it's pretty damn good stuff. It's common to hear dub haters say that Colleen Clinkenbeard as Luffy and Brina Palencia as Tony Tony Chopper make their ears bleed, but that judgement is really left up to you. Both Clinkenbeard and Palencia do a great job with the roles they've been given, but I will concede that they can get rather irritating at times (of course, I blame the characters since their voices can be grating in the Japanese dub too). However, my favourite performances would definitely have to be Luci Christian as Nami and Christopher Sabat as Zoro (although I wish that Marc Diraison was still Zoro's voice actor because Guts). It's nice to hear Luci Christian's regular voice and Christopher Sabat not being a large ham and I wish more Funi dubs would play them straight rather than having Christian and Sabat doing exaggerated roles. ***ANIME VS. MANGA/HOW TO WATCH*** When it comes down to anime vs. manga, the manga always wins hands-down for one simple reason: lack of padding. Were it not for Toei Animation's overuse of padding, I'd heartily recommend the anime over the manga since it does have quite a lot going for it. However, it should be noted that you can alternate between the anime and the manga so that you don't have to plough through 760+ chapters or spend 6 months trying to catch up to the One Piece anime. Thankfully, the One Piece wikia can tell you what chapter(s) the episode you're watching is adapting and vice-versa. Rather than sitting through the first 61 episodes, what I recommend is reading the first 100 or so chapters from the manga (it's not as much as it sounds, trust me) and then moving over to the anime at Episode 62. If you ever feel like an episode is dragging on in pace, look up the episode on the One Piece wikia and see what chapter(s) it's adapting, then go ahead and read the corresponding chapter so you don't have to sit through 20+ minutes of something that you could easily read in less than 3-4 minutes. If you feel like the chapter you're reading is confusing or whatever, look it up on the One Piece wiki and then watch the corresponding episode. It's as simple as that, really. What made you think you had to sit through all 670+ episodes to begin with? The manga does exist for a reason. ***FINAL THOUGHTS*** On the whole, One Piece is a very interesting beast to tackle. I like to imagine One Piece as the boss of the Big 3 with Naruto and Bleach standing by its side as its bumbling and incompetent henchmen. While the sheer episode count and turbulent distribution history may put you off from watching it, don't let that scare you. Whereas Studio Pierrot only began adapting Naruto and Bleach in 2005, One Piece has been going on since 1999 so of course there's going to be a stark difference in terms of episode count. For a series that's been going on for 15 years and counting with no end in sight any time soon, it's amazing as to how Eiichiro Oda is able to keep up this level of creativity. Are there low points? Of course, but thankfully they aren't THAT low and are instead very brief. Don't buy into the hate against this series since it's actually quite lovely. ***ALTERNATE ANIME RECOMMENDATIONS*** 1) Hunter x Hunter (2011) - The bonds between Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio are similar to the bonds shared between the Straw Hat pirates and what's more is that they both take place in bizarre worlds where fanciful occupations set the stage for tales of grand adventures just waiting to unfold. 2) InuYasha - Both InuYasha and One Piece are more about the journey rather than the destination itself. Both shows comprise of large arcs that are split up between many smaller, easy-to-watch sub-arcs and standalone episodes. Both shows also put a lot of emphasis on friendship and trust (although InuYasha does so for different reasons; it IS a partially romantic story, after all).
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 6, 2014
Fruits Basket
(Manga)
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People underestimate children and teenagers. When you're a kid, you're a blank slate that can be easily damaged. When you're a teenager, you tend to go through a lot of crap and as you get older, the baggage from when you were a teenager can carry over to your adult life. Yet there's this preconceived notion in our society that children/teenagers are stupid and that the problems that they go through when they're this young are trivial in comparison to the trials and tribulations they'll go through in their adult lives. Fruits Basket is a manga which tells the story of Tohru Honda and her
...
life with the Sohma family and is also a tale of emotional hardship.
Though Fruits Basket might seem like a supernatural comedy at first with its reverse harem premise and some occasional cuteness/man service to boot, it quickly turns into something much darker and deeper as it dives into the story of the Sohma family (specifically, the 12 members of the Chinese Zodiac, plus the cat) and their history of abuse/neglect and emotional hardship. At the forefront of all this is our plucky heroine, Tohru Honda who by the start of the series is an orphan. While many people like to criticise Tohru's characterisation as being "too perfect," I'd like to take the time to say that it's not entirely true. Yes, Tohru is certainly kinder than most people and embodies certain characteristics that one might find rather stereotypical/idealistic. However, it should be noted that Tohru is not infallible. She actually is a flawed individual and is capable of making mistakes. Her cheerful demeanour simply masks the strife that she's endured. In fact, being TOO and cheerful and upbeat is her coping mechanism for all the shit she's gone through. Her behaviour doesn't go unnoticed. People do call her out on being "too happy" all the time, and what's more is that we get to see the child crying out for her lost mommy and daddy as the manga progresses. Each instance we see the part of her personality that her bubbly exterior masks is brief, but it's more than enough to remind us that she isn't perfect. Another purpose that Tohru's cheerful demeanour serves is to lighten the mood of the overall story. This is a manga which deals with VERY heavy subjects such as parental/psychological abuse, neglect, and emotional codependency. Tohru and virtually every member of Zodiac is a seriously damaged individual with a history of great strife. Without something to lighten the overall tone of the story (if only a little), Fruits Basket would immediately become a work thoroughly entrenched in the melodramatic. Despite what most people who suffer from depression like to say, their lives aren't all bad. There's always going to be a light spot, some jovial mood every now and then, etc. In that sense, Tohru is even more of a necessity and not a hindrance to the storytelling. When it comes down to lightening the mood, Natsuki Takaya did an excellent job with Fruits Basket. In fact, this is what I love about it so much. Far too often in anime and manga, we tend to get what seems like a light-hearted narrative that quickly devolves into a melodrama which tries too hard to evoke an emotional response out of the viewer/reader and Fruits Basket manages to avoid these very pitfalls by carefully blending the comedy with the drama/romance without creating some sort of dichotomy between these elements. With the right blend of comedy, drama, and romance along with some very well-written characters who play off of each other very well, she was effectively able to throw something depressing at you while reminding you that it's not all bad and that things will eventually get better for the characters. When it comes down to characters, virtually everyone in the cast is properly fleshed out and play off of each other really well. Characters of particular note are Yuki, Kyo, Hatori, and Rin. We know exactly who each member of the cast is, we know their back-stories, and we see them grow and change as individuals. Tohru's friends, Saki and Arisa are also given their own time to shine in the sun and prove to be invaluable to Tohru's character growth. However, if there had to be a character that stood out to me more than anyone else, it would have to be Tohru's mother, Kyoko Honda. Surprisingly, even a deceased character is given time in the spotlight via flashback to show just how much of an influence that she's had on Tohru and vice-versa and for that, I applaud Natsuki Takaya. Unfortunately, I can't really say the same about Takaya's artwork. It's going to be hard enough for people who are unfamiliar with the shoujo aesthetic to get used to the artwork in Fruits Basket, and her artwork certainly isn't bad by any means. What's more is that her artwork does go through quite a bit of refinement as the series progresses. However, the biggest fault that the manga has when it comes down to artwork is the relative lack of detail put into everything along with the fact that it seems like character faces/hairstyles sometimes end up recycled for side/supporting characters. I had a hard time trying to figure out whether or not Kyo was in the panel, or if it was one of the student council members, just as an example. Regardless, Takaya certainly did an adequate job of the artwork and it works for what it does. So final thoughts: Fruits Basket is definitely one of the best mangas I've ever had the pleasure of reading. People often think of the shoujo demographic as being rife with big eyes, man service, reverse harems, debauchery, idiot girls fawning over guys who are complete dicks to them, etc. That's not entirely the case. Yes, that is certainly true for anime/manga on the lower end of the spectrum. However, if you're really looking for a shoujo series to read that's in the top of its class, I cannot recommend this manga enough. Now, there is an anime adaptation currently available from Funimation that was produced by Studio DEEN back in 2001. However, it only covers the first 38 chapters or so of the manga which is relatively early in its run. It's still worth watching, don't get me wrong but you might find it a bit too jovial compared to the rest of the manga. Currently, Fruits Basket is out-of-print. TOKYOPOP used to publish the series and it was one of their all-time bestsellers (with sales only being topped by Naruto, believe it or not). Unfortunately, TOKYOPOP went out of business in 2011 and as such, all their titles have gone out-of-print and Viz Manga/Yen Press/Dark Horse/Kodansha Comics have not yet picked it up for publishing. Fortunately, there are plenty of volumes in circulation for you to read at a fair enough price so you should be able to pick up the entire series on Amazon or possibly Right Stuf if you're lucky. With all of that said, I'm done with this review. Feedback is greatly appreciated as always. This is also my first manga review so please be gentle, senpai >////
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 28, 2014
Samurai Champloo
(Anime)
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one of the things i missed most about living in the usa is watching anime on [adult swim] every night. hell, i remember all the times i spent staying up until 3am watching episodes of inuyasha and cowboy bebop when i should've been sleeping because i had class in the morning. but if there's one anime that i remember fondly, it's samurai champloo. i don't want to be "that guy" who says that the ost is what i remember the most, but that's definitely what first comes to mind.
i remember back in 2004/2005 when i was still attending high school and there was this massive ... hip-hop and reggaeton craze that swept pretty much every corner of the united states (and even my home country of india, since it seemed that virtually all bhangra music seemed to have a rap/hip-hop twist to it). samurai champloo started airing around this time period and i remember it so well because of all the promotional adverts on [adult swim] which featured that instrumental hip-hop soundtrack. considering the fact that i was an impressionable teenager at the time who had nothing but 50 cent and eminem songs on his ipod mini, it was no surprise that i loved the hell out of this show. but looking back, i liked it for the wrong reasons. yes, the soundtrack is odd and yet works extremely well for a show with this kind of style. but there are many other reasons to like this show which i ended up finding out upon re-visiting this programme after 8-9 years. of course, i also found many reasons to criticise this programme as well but let's cross that bridge when we get to it. at its core, samurai champloo can be viewed as cowboy bebop's younger brother. it's brash, impulsive, doesn't always make the right decisions and sometimes mimics its older brother much to our annoyance but we still love it anyway. unlike cowboy bebop, samurai champloo is much less serious. come to think of it, there weren't many serious episodes at all. episodes tend to vary between being action-centric and comedy-centric. unfortunately, this leads to quite a few problems. cowboy bebop's biggest shortcoming is the fact that it's episodic in nature, and samurai champloo opts for a similar approach. however, it does have *some* semblance of a plot. the goal of mugen, jin, and fuu is to find the samurai who smells of sunflowers (which STILL sounds like a ridiculous name almost a decade later). the episodic nature is thus forgiveable since the show focuses more on the journey rather than destination itself. but it isn't all good. i said before that shows of episodic nature tend to suffer from this problem of having episodes that vary wildly in terms of quality and that's further exacerbated in this show. considering the fact that it varies between being action-centric and comedy-centric, there exists a drastic margin of error. i'm biased toward the action episodes rather than the comedy episodes since some comedy episodes like the one which involved baseball (yes. that actually happened) were just plain average while other episodes like the one where there's a graffiti battle between two gangs and mugen learns how to read (yes, that actually happened) were fucking hilarious. the action episodes are of particular note since it gets to showcase the absolutely gorgeous art and animation that champloo has. since the backgrounds moved in real time, the sword fights were intense as all hell. couple that with mugen's unorthodox fighting style and some rather bizarre scenarios that led to some intense fights, and you've got a happy desi anime nerd. speaking of art/animation, manglobe did a spectacular job animating this series. everything looks absolutely gorgeous and despite coming out in 2004, this holds up amazingly well 10+ years later (although some characters' faces tended to go off model from time to time, especially in shots that were at a small distance). now with that said, let's go back to the characters. unlike bebop, we aren't really given much in the way of recurring characters so we're pretty much stuck with mugen, jin, and fuu for the entire run. unfortunately, they pretty much remain static throughout the course of the show. i mean, mugen and jin start out wanting to kill each other and over time, they actually tolerate one another but that's about it. as for fuu, she is quite literally useless. the only purpose she serves is being a walking plot device. oh, and being a generic damsel in distress. mugen and jin on the other hand are pretty damn likeable but sometimes it feels like they rely too much on their "gimmicks" (what with mugen being a vulgar, illiterate break-dancing swordsman and jin being a reserved ronin with an extremely orthodox fighting style). other than that, not much to complain about here. now we get to my favourite part of champloo: the audio. put it short, samurai champloo is basically flawless in this section. i know so many people who hate rap and hip-hop, and yet love the everliving shit out of this show. also, despite comprising of predominantly hip-hop music, the show does a good job of not shoving it in your face (most of the time). the background music consists of amazing instrumental hip-hop tracks done by the likes of nujabes (may he rest in peace), fat jon, and forces of nature and i must say that i wish these three did more anime soundtracks, but i guess that's too late now. the dub is also really good stuff, but that's no surprise since this is bebop's little brother. steve blum does an excellent job voicing mugen (although his voice work did remind me a bit too much of spike spiegel from time to time) as did kirk thornton as jin. i really don't understand why some people give this dub shit since it's pretty damn good. can you really go wrong by a dub done by funimation (or was it geneon? i keep forgetting who licensed this show when)? on the whole, samurai champloo isn't perfect and in many ways, i can see why people would give this show crap. at the same time, it definitely has quite a few merits to stand on. say what you will about this show being a carbon copy of bebop, but there's one thing that this show has that bebop will never have: its style. going back to that little brother analogy, it does borrow quite a bit from its predecessor, but they are ultimately two totally different shows. if you're in the mood for something with a lot of entertainment value you'll surely remember for a long time, i cannot recommend this show enough. in fact, i highly recommend buying it on blu-ray (provided you have the means to watch something on blu-ray). some shows simply "take" to blu-ray with no two ways around it and champloo is one of them.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 24, 2014
Cowboy Bebop
(Anime)
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If you've been a fan of anime for any length of time, chances are that you've come across a bunch of shows that people hail as nothing short of masterpieces such as Neon Genesis Evangelion. Now, whether or not those programmes are perfection is entirely up to interpretation but if there's one programme which has been lauded as as nothing short of a masterpiece ever since its creation, it's Cowboy Bebop. Such a lofty title is not without those who question it, and indeed there are people who happen to dislike Bebop for a variety of reasons. I personally don't think that Bebop is a
...
masterpiece (and I do consider it to be overrated), but I do see where the praise comes from. In fact, I do believe that Bebop deserves most (but not all) of the praise that it gets. Let's go into great lengths to find out why.
When it comes down to the actual story, it's rather disheartening to say that Bebop is lacking. The actual "plot" of the show is easily resolved within 4-5 episodes despite being 26 episodes long, so it might seem like there is a lot of filler. That's not really the case whatsoever, since Cowboy Bebop opts for a mostly episodic approach. With the exception of the 4-5 episodes where the plot moves forward, this is a show that you can jump into from virtually any point and wouldn't really get lost, provided you're familiar with the basic concept and the characters. In that regard, Cowboy Bebop may very well be considered analogous to something like Batman: The Animated Series in terms of both style and approach. Unfortunately, Cowboy Bebop is prone to the same problems that episodic shows of its nature tend to have. If you don't know what I'm talking about, allow me to fill you in. While episodic programmes are easy to get into if you're a complete newcomer to a particular show, the quality of each episode tends to vary quite a bit. Some episodes are absolutely amazing while other episodes are rather tedious to get through. There's also the matter of certain episodes being a bit formulaic in approach. For example, you'd think that a crew of bounty hunters would at least catch a break every now and then but that's not the case at all. No matter what the situation, it's like the Bebop crew would always be down on their luck despite how skilled each member of the team is. These might seem like relatively minor problems for a show that has a LOT of merits to stand on, but people often forget that this show is hailed as nothing short of a masterpiece. All it really takes is one relatively mediocre episode for someone with absolutely no prior knowledge of Cowboy Bebop to get a sour impression of this programme. So how would you remedy this? Obviously, you'd watch the episodes in chronological order, right? Uh... not exactly. The first four episodes aren't bad in the slightest, I fucking LOVE them as a matter of fact. But those first four episodes might not be the best introduction to a show lauded as much as Bebop is. If you really want my honest recommendation as to how you should view this programme, I'd say start out with Episode 5 just to get your general impression of the programme. If you like what you see, watch the first four episodes next and then keep watching in chronological order. The reason why you should watch it in that order if you're completely new to Bebop is simple: Episode 5 is a spectacular episode which contains virtually everything that this show is known for so if you don't like Episode 5, Bebop is most likely not going to be your cup of tea and if that's the case, watch Samurai Champloo instead. With all that ranting out of the way, let's talk characters. The biggest strength that Bebop has when it comes down to its characters is the fact that they're played straight. This might not seem like such an accomplishment, but keep in mind that characters meant to be overacted were more or less the norm back in the 80s/90s so for its time, this was a rather huge deal. Another thing that Bebop's lead cast all share (for better or worse) are dark pasts that with the exception of Faye, they all try to avoid confronting. Why is this a good and a bad thing? On the one hand, a dark past that slowly gets revealed throughout the course of the programme makes for some awesome plot twists and they are given a fair amount of foreshadowing so the reveal doesn't come off as an asspull. HOWEVER... the concept of a ragtag bunch of misfits with each member having a dark past is a trope which has become rather commonplace in anime/manga over the course of recent years so chances are that some might find it rather cliché which brings me to another point. While the leading cast of Bebop certainly does a good job of carrying the story without feeling like cardboard cut-outs a good majority of the time, the fact still remains that they all fall under common archetypes and it gets a little too obvious at times. If you've ever watched a little programme called "Lupin III." you'll be quick to notice that Spike Spiegel bears somewhat of a resemblance to the much beloved Arsene Lupin III with a sense of humour to match (although nowhere near as exaggerated). For that matter, I guess you can say that Jet and Faye are more realistic versions of Daisuke and Fujiko if you want to keep making the comparisons (Jet/Daisuke being the voice of reason and Faye/Fujiko being the "femme fatale" so-to-speak). To be fair, I understand that Lupin III was one of the influences behind Bebop's creation. At the same time, I saw Lupin WAAAAY before I ever watched Bebop so the resemblance is rather uncanny to me. With that said, it's still nice to see an interpretation of Lupin, Daisuke, and Fujiko being played straight. It's not like they remain static throughout the entire ordeal. With the exception of Edward who's more or less just the quirky and hyperactive computer genius (that still gets a bit of time in the sun regardless), everyone gets a fair amount of development and time on-screen so they're more than just the common archetypes like I've mentioned earlier and in some cases, actually feel like real people rather than you know... characters. With that said, let's talk about secondary/tertiary characters. A good chunk of the episodes introduce a new character whom the Bebop crew ends up dealing with for 20 minutes before their story is resolved by the end of the episode and they are quickly forgotten about. I suppose in that respect, Cowboy Bebop is similar to Mushishi. Unlike Mushishi however, Bebop actually does have recurring characters and they do what they do rather well without becoming a distraction. Of course, that still doesn't change the fact that I consider most of them to be like the cabbage merchant from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The standalone characters in Cowboy Bebop on the other hand are hit-and-miss for me. This goes back to the problem that most episodic shows tend to have with varying degrees in quality. Sometimes, I got REALLY attached to the character(s) introduced in one episode and was disheartened to never see them again and other times, the character(s) introduced in another episode were so dull to the point where I felt like the episode was dragging on. When it comes down to substance, Bebop falls a little flat so you may be wondering why you should even bother watching it if it's not the epitome of perfection. The answer is very simple: Cowboy Bebop is among the most influential anime of the 90s and its influence can still be seen to this day. In its heyday, Cowboy Bebop achieved a lot of success due to various factors. From its Space Western setting to the well-choreographed action sequences, a soundtrack composed by Yoko Kanno consisting of mostly Jazz and Blues tracks to an amazing English dub where everything was played straight and was allowed to air uncut due to the fact that it was the first anime series that [adult swim] picked up (coincidentally on the same night the network made its debut), it seemed like the odds were stacked in Bebop's favour from the very beginning. Let's not forget the aesthetics because it would be a travesty not to do so. For one thing, this is the best-looking TV show from the 90s without a doubt, and to this day it still looks amazing. It's one thing for digital animation to be fluid, but to see that same sort of fluidity with cel animation where each frame was drawn by hand without losing any sort of detail whatsoever really just shows the meticulous amount of time and effort the blokes over at Sunrise put into the art and animation. That's actually kind of funny (in an ironic sort of manner) given that Sunrise was kicked off the animation team for Batman: The Animated Series because of the fact that nearly all the episodes that Sunrise took a part in had to be redone multiple times (or even re-animated in America) because of the fact that virtually everything was off model. I'm guessing that they were basically looking for a way to get back at Bruce Timm and Paul Dini for kicking them off the animation team, so they decided to basically bring out their A-game to their next project which just so happened to be Cowboy Bebop. Going back to the soundtrack, what I love most about it (aside from the fact that it was composed by Yoko Kanno) is the fact that the OST isn't an afterthought of any kind since there are multiple scenes throughout the show which forgoes dialogue completely and instead rely on the music to actually convey the moment. It's the little things like this that make it so much more difficult for me to pick who's my favourite composer since the only other composer I can think of who'd actually do such a thing would be Kenji Kawai given that there were similar moments in the Ghost in the Shell films. What's more is the fact that a combination of jazz and blues among other such genres really helped give this show a unique flavour which has yet to be mimicked. Say what you will about Samurai Champloo being a carbon copy of Bebop when it comes down to story/characters, but one thing's for certain: Bebop's style is something that Champloo just cannot imitate (and that's a good thing, since Champloo's got its own style which works amazingly well for it). Another thing that Cowboy Bebop has going for it? An absolutely spectacular English dub which is so good to the point where dub haters generally make an exception for this show. This goes back to how everything was played straight in Bebop from the get-go. In the past, English dubs of anime varied quite a bit in quality. Some dubs like the DiC dub of Sailor Moon changed up the dialogue so heavily edited for content and censored to high heaven to the point where it makes 4Kids' One Piece dub blush. Other times, dubs were actually pretty damn good (such was the case with Neon Genesis Evangelion and Yu Yu Hakusho) but were unfortunately butchered when they aired abroad due to the fact that those shows were airing on children's programming blocks and standards back then were much tighter than they are now. That was never the case with Bebop since it was aired on an adult programming block and as such, it was able to forgo most (if not all) of the censorship regulations during its broadcast on [adult swim]. Aside from that, we also had wonderful voice actors working on this like Steve Blum, Wendee Lee, and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (fun fact: McGlynn also directed the English dub of Bebop) and a slew of many others, all of whom gave excellent performances. Aside from the visuals and the audio, what other merits does Bebop have? Well for one thing, its style is something that allowed it to achieve widespread success with Western audiences. It's impossible not to notice that a good majority of anime these days require you to have some pre-existing knowledge of Asian culture in order to properly understand what's going on. Haven't you ever wondered why films like Akira and Ghost in the Shell (and to a lesser degree, Studio Ghibli movies) were huge hits back in the day? It was mostly because these were films that nobody needed any knowledge of Japanese culture to enjoy. Yes, Akira and Ghost in the Shell both took place in Tokyo, but it was really the the concepts, the gloomy atmosphere, the action, the blood, etc. which drew in Western audiences. It was taking place in Japan, and yet it didn't really feel like Japan at all outside of naming conventions, but that's a minor detail in comparison to everything else. It helps that unlike the former two, Bebop actually had virtually all the signs, posters and such in-universe written in English rather than Japanese in the original dub. Don't even get me started on the subtle cultural references and its film noir overtones because if I did, you'd be here for hours reading this review. So when you combine all these things together, it's no secret as to why Cowboy Bebop is as lauded as it is now. I can certainly see why it wouldn't really be everyone's cup of tea (especially given some of the flaws I mentioned earlier). Regardless, its influence can't be denied. For all its worth, Cowboy Bebop is certainly a show that deserves most (but not all) the praise it gets. I get the feeling that if it had more of a plot to it and didn't rely so much on being badass and awesome to make people forgive its lack of a plot, it would definitely receive more praise than it already gets. The stage was set perfectly, so I question why Wantanabe and the rest of the Bebop team decided to opt for a mostly episodic nature when the ones where the "plot" actually progresses were nothing short of spectacular. Oh well, I guess it's too late to find out why... unless Wantanabe decides to do to Bebop what George Lucas did to Star Wars. Thankfully, Wantanabe seems to have more integrity than that. Anyway, that's it for my first review on this site. Please be gentle, senpai.... (>/////
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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