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Dec 17, 2015
Lance N' Masques is not a series for everyone. In particular, if you are someone who needs their anime to be heavily realistic, or full of grit, or to have some deep message to it, then you might as well just close this page now and walk away as this anime won't satisfy you in the slightest.
If, on the other hand, you are after a fun and quirky series, that mixes together a fairly large number of genres in a way that still feels comfortable, then this might just be what you are after.
There are many different ways of interpreting and watching this series, but
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in my view this series is, at its heart, a comedy, although there are certainly sections that are not comedic in the slightest (including, incidentally, pretty much the whole of the last episode). However, I believe that in general treating it as a comedy is the best way of watching it - enabling you to appreciate that the lack of realism is deliberate, and done for comic effect. This, the absurdity or at times sheer imagination of what is being presented, is the main source of entertainment in the series, rather than gags or laugh out moments.
Some of the action scenes, particularly those not involving the main character himself, seem designed to attract the curiosity of the viewer rather than to engross them with the suspense of the action, whilst others are more of the more standard type, rooting for the hero's success. Whichever type they fall under, though, there is nothing even remotely realistic about any of them, and indeed several of the fights are won in ways that wouldn't even make sense in reality, which would obviously detract from the series still further for the viewer who craves realism.
The cast of the series is centred around Yotaro, the protagonist, but each of the fairly large number of characters has a distinct personality, and every one of them has their own distinct relationship with Yotaro, which vary from the obvious to the outright absurd. The characters are, indeed, another of the series' strengths.
That said, not all is positive about this series. The art style in particular is, to say the least, rather unusual, and most noticeably so when it comes to the characters faces. Some of their heads are literally as wide as they are high, and I swear there's something odd about the noses as well. This will likely take a few episodes to get used to.
The plot itself is in some senses rather repetitive, and not everything that happens fully makes sense either. Certain themes, such as kidnapping/hostage taking, show up rather more often than they should do, to the point where someone just watching for the plot may find themselves getting tired of it by the end. There is, though, enough variety that this doesn't detract from the series if you don't let it do so.
In short, the plot is weak, and the art style can take a bit of getting used to, but the characters are good and so is the humour.
Given that, as already mentioned, this is a comedy series (no matter what MAL's genres may claim at the time of writing), the latter two things are, in my view, rather more important than the former two, and thus, again in my view, the series is a good one overall.
(My scores for the individual sections, incidentally, were: story 5; art 3; sound 7; character 9; enjoyment 8; overall 7.)
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 23, 2013
This anime is a panacea of the heart and mind.
Life too stressful? Worried or anxious about something? Just sit down in front of the screen and put this anime on, and all your concerns will dissolve away - probably within seconds. Everything - setting, plot, sound, music, art, humour - all of it is perfectly crafted at maximising this effect. And what an effect it is.
The story itself is a simple one. It follows the daily lives of four girls of various ages who all live in the same rural village and are in the same class at school. Almost everything that happens is following
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their daily lives, with events that are both realistic and completely believable. As far as overarching story goes, that's about it - this isn't an anime you should be watching if you only care for a tense plot full of twists and turns. It is predominantly episodic in nature, although characters and settings are gradually built up over time so there's no lack of progress. Each episode contains one or two stories, every single one of which is a joy to watch and will melt your heart. The humour is lighthearted in tone, and is aimed at adding to this heart-melting effect, rather than at making you laugh out loud, although there are a few moments that could do this as well. There are also a few moments that will invoke other emotions, all very effectively and very naturally.
The cast is focused mainly on the four girls. Komari is the eldest of the four, although you wouldn't know it by looking. She is very self conscious of the fact that she is unusually small for her age and tries to make up for this by attempting (and largely failing) to act grown up. Hotaru, on the other hand, is unusually mature, at least on a physical level, for a fifth grader. She also quickly develops a crush on her cute chibi senpai, although none of the others ever seem to realise it. Natsumi is Komari's younger sister, and is a bit of a layabout. She's too lazy to work hard at anything and is always getting in trouble for one thing or another. And then there's Renge, called "Ren-chon" by Natsumi. I could honestly wax lyrical about Ren-chon all day, but I don't want to bore you any more than I already am, so I'll just say that she's the youngest of the cast, who knows a lot about things that you wouldn't expect a first grade student to know, but otherwise acts fairly normally for her age. Oh, she also has some brilliant facial expressions, and Koiwai Kotori's voice acting of her character is a definite candidate for being the best I've ever come across.
Every member of the supporting cast, just like the main characters, each have their own distinctive but realistic and believable personalities, and are every bit as likeable as the central four cast members.
The humour and characters may be brilliant, but what makes this series really stand out is the music and images. As someone who tends to focus very heavily on the characters of a series, I don't usually care much for these things - as long as they add to the immersement, enjoyment and feel of a series, just about anything's fine by me. But here even I can't help but be overwhelmed. The series starts with nothing but pictures, sound effects and music building up the scene and setting with pure imagery. It's almost 2.5 minutes before anything is actually said, yet by that time you will likely have already entered into a state of total bliss from the gorgeous artwork, more reminiscent of a high budget film or even something you might see in an art gallery than a TV series, and soothing background music and sound effects of what is being shown. And, while the effect may not be as intense in later scenes, the quality does not drop. Just about every background in this entire series is a work of art both literally and figuratively.
I've watched the first episode over and over again and every time the effect is the same. The entire anime is thoroughly rewatchable, and every episode provides the perfect relaxation whether on your first watch or your tenth. Even brilliantly written series that depend on plot twists and reveals often grow dull when watching through for the third time, but that is of no concern for an anime like this.
A lot of slower paced anime, however, require you to be in the right mood before watching them, but again that is of no concern here, as Non Non Biyori will put you in that right mood, no matter what your previous state of mind.
All in all, this is a series to be watched, loved and enjoyed over and over again. Everything is perfectly toned to add to this viewing pleasure as much as possible, and it is indeed a pure pleasure to watch.
If you want to know what nirvana feels like, watch this anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 1, 2012
Please don't pay too much attention to the score I have given this. This review is designed to explain what the anime is about so you can decide for yourself whether you will like it or not; it is not for me to blindly label it as either good or bad based on personal values which you will likely disagree with.
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why this anime is given the "game" genre. Let's make this clear: there is no mahjong shown in this series. If you are considering watching it for that, don't bother.(EDIT: The 'game' genre tag has been removed as
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of 19/1/2014)
So what exactly are you getting from watching these?
As the title says, this is a picture drama. This means that there is very little animation - it is just a series of separate pictures which can last for anything up to about 2 minutes, with voices and sound effects telling the story.
One of the consequences of this is that you should only watch it if you can recognise the voices of the characters, or else you may find yourself not knowing who is talking some of the time. Anyone who has seen Saki fairly recently should do fine though.
Brief summaries of each episode can (at the time of writing) be found in the "more info" tab along the top. As you can probably tell from that, the episodes do not follow on from each other. You can watch whatever ones you want, in whatever order you want.
Each episode is a separate story giving insights into the history of certain characters, or what they do in their spare time. This is, therefore, really more of a slice of life anime than a game one, or, rather, an assortment of slice of life stories put together under a single title.
I hope I succeeded in overcoming the distinct lack of information currently on this page, and helped you to decide whether or not you want to watch this anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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