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Sep 4, 2008
I feel kind of weird to be writing a review for Black Lagoon: the Second Barrage after I just wrote the review for the first season. Why? Because I don't really consider them to be two different seasons. It's just a continuation of a series I really didn't expect to be as good as it was the first time around. All 24 episodes are just Black Lagoon to me, and for good reason: Second Barrage keeps up the high octane action that made the first season such a blast. The art is the same, the sound is the same (which is unfortunate we didn't get
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any new songs added in), and the VA's are the same, thank God. Except something fail happens -- some of them start speaking in English in the last arc, and the pronunciation and grammar are horrible. Actually, the lines were cringeworthy too for Revy, who is supposedly a Chinese American so I would expect better English from her. It was revealed near the end the cast actually speaks English all the time and it's only in Japanese for the audience's sake. Having learned that I'm rather curious how the English dub sounds in some of these later episodes where English, Japanese, and Russian were all used in one conversation. I would have rather they just kept Revy talking in Japanese for the remainder of the show as I saw it, although that makes another character shouting "Hey! Speak in Japanese!" to her seem weird. ;-)
One difference is the story length this time. Last season was a series of 2-3 episode arcs wth a couple one-shot stories added. This season the entire last six episodes are absorbed into a single war between the old guard Japanese mafia and the up and coming Russians of Hotel Moscow, that takes Rock back to his home and to face the past he turned his back on. The "Greenback Jane" arc is easily the weakest of the season (probably both seasons) but is made up for with the first story arc featuring murderous children (yes, deadly lolis) and the epic ending arc.
Like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, this is one show I was disappointed to see end, and it looks like I wont have to yet, as a Third Season has been announced now.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 4, 2008
The Lagoon Company is a "delivery" company that operates in the South China Sea. While they do in fact deliver cargo to and from destinations, the business is as legitimate as Al Capone going to the bank to "make a transaction". They are made up of their leader Dutch, a black ex-U.S. Vietnam veteran, and Captain of the PT boat Black Lagoon; Revy, a Chinese-American sharpshooter from New York; and Benny, a Florida post-grad electronics expert.
Our main character is Rokuro Okajima, a mild mannered Japanese office worker still very low on the totem pole at his employer. His company is smuggling information on nuclear weapons
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and Rokuro is unwittingly given the job on holding the discs with the information for the trip. The boat he is on is captured and Okajima is taken hostage by Lagoon. His employer decides not to pay a ransom to get him back and hangs him out to dry as part of their cover up. He is declared dead by his employer, and they send mercernaries to kill him and the Lagoon company. Rokuro's quick thinking saves them from the trap. His employer buys the disc back from Lagoon but when they offer to take him back Rokuro decides to stay abroad having had his life back home destroyed. The Lagoon Company feels sorry for his plight after he saved them, and take him on as a sailor-in-training/gopher employee. The first half dozen episodes have the classic fish-out-of-water premise as Rokuro (who now goes under the name "Rock" with his new employer) tries to prove his worth in a career field he doesn't always agree with morally.
The art is slightly above average for the most part, and occasionally the show did surprise me with a different visual styles for a fight or flashback scene. The music wasn't fabulous, but it wasn't bad either. I've heard the complete soundtrack and it had a couple gems on it, but they get used a little too often in the show itself. That's nothing I haven't come to expect after watching Full Metal Alchemist and Bleach, though. Voice acting was fine, too. I've heard the dub and it's not terrible but I felt Dutch's English VA sounds too young and lacks the deep gruffness the original did, among other little tweaks. This remains a show I prefer to watch subbed.
If you're read the Wikipedia entry for Black Lagoon, it goes on for awhile about Existentialism philosophy used in the show. I'm sure this is true, but it really wasn't much of the focus as far as I could see. Black Lagoon was a classic action/adventure. Lots of guns and swearing and pretty girls and evil men. In fact, I think it was a slight parody of the genre. The violence was seemed to be a little bit over the top (in a Sin City sort of way) and the characters made references several times to Hollywood movies. Revy usually wears a pair of Daisy Dukes and tank top while doing acrobatic flips and shooting wildly, or lounging around in unladylike poses. With a couple other ruthless female characters you get a "girls with guns" sort of vibe from the show at times, but overall it was more a trash-talking, ass-kicking good time. The story arcs (each 2-3 episodes long) aren't very deep in their plot but are given a light coat of real-world politics and history.
For a summer-blockbuster popcorn-film experience: I recommended it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 2, 2008
Declared one of the best of 2007 by AnimeNewsNetwork, Mushishi is a supernatural drama set in old rural Japan that boasts visuals and storytelling over action and fanservice. Mushi are a group of primiative lifeforms that are neither animal nor plant, and invisible to most people but have lived amongst humans forever -- kinda like poltergeist plankton. Their shapes and sizes can vary from small as an insect to as large as a small pet. The show follows a man named Ginko who is a "Mushishi" -- a witch doctor of sorts. One of a small group of people who can see Mushi, he studies
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them and helps people whose lives are being effected by them. Ginko has the added problem of being a person who attracts mushi as well, forcing him to be nomadic to help maintain the balance of life in the areas he's in.
The best part of this series is the artwork. Beautiful landscapes of lush vegetation, constant light and atmospheric effects, and special effects used for the mushi don't look like CG pasted on top like in a low-budget series. Character design wasn't bad, except that there wasn't enough variation between the appearance of the villagers, making it appear some are in multiple episodes when in fact it is a different person every time.
The stories themselves are fantastic in their humanity and charm. The quality of the writing varied some (especially near the end) but overall kept me happy throughout the show. Mushishi is first and foremost not an action series, and would generally bore anyone who's really looking for stimulation. I've heard people say you shouldn't watch it late at night (because it will put you to sleep) and while I can't say that's accurate, it is a series you generally have to be in the right mood to enjoy.
The music is simple and calming. It may be a little cheesy or repetitious at some points (like Casio-keyboard Muzak for the local Chinese buffet) but generally sets the mood right for whatever is happening. Only the opening theme has any singing, and the ending score that leads out each episode changes each time. Those are so nice and blend so well with the final minute or so of the story that I generally sit through the end credits to enjoy the rest of the song.
Mushishi is entirely episodic in nature, and there are only one or two references to previous episodes made in the entire run of the show, neither of them were important plot-wise, so the viewer is free to watch the show completely out of order for the most part. It's also a slice-of-life show, meaning that the stories don't always have a conclusive start or finish. Some of the stories end on a happy note, some sad or bittersweet, some don't really resolve at all. A couple of times we start with Ginko having already met the supporting cast and the story already begun. This also means the series itself has no conclusive end and the final episode was a little weak.
It took more than three months for me to watch the series, and it should have been done in a month at the most. But the one-episode stories and overall feel of Mushishi makes one not want to watch it quickly. But that's okay in this case, and I still highly recommended it for someone looking for a more contemplative adult anime or for fans of high production values.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 1, 2008
Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei is about a depressed teacher who would like nothing more than to die, but whose attempts are usually foiled by his students, who all seem to have social quirks of their own. The series starts with Zetsubo trying to hang himself from a cherry tree when he is interrupted by a girl optimistic enough to be his polar opposite. After escaping a conversation with what he sees as an annoyingly bubbly person, he arrives at his classroom the next day and realizes the girl is one of his own students. Zetsubo's full name when written horizontally reads as "despair" and as the
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series progresses it is shown the rest of the students similarly have names that are written puns on their personalities.
I was a little annoyed at the art style used in the show at first as it comes off as really cheap (especially when you watch on a streaming website) patterns are paint-bucketed in instead of drawn (example: Zetsubo wears plaid kimonos often and the stripes align horizontally and vertically no matter what section of the garment they're on or how he moves). But it soon becomes apparent that the visual style is entirely deliberate as at various times lighting and atmospheric effects are employed, and with a quality video source you realize the linework is actually fairly well done. The music has a wonderful quirkiness about it that fits well with the show, with opening and closing songs that are odd but fun nonetheless.
Unlike most animes I've seen Zetsubo is episodic and the story does not build upon the plot of the previous episode (except for new characters introduced). It's primary shtick is spontaneity and the clashing of the various characters' personalities, along with some sketch comedy and monologues. Small jokes and random phrases are written on the blackboards through most of the classroom scenes, and the show uses cut scenes often. Unlike the cut scene jokes of Family Guy however, these cut scenes never have any real connection to the show itself generally, and are more thrown in to make the viewer go "what was that about?" The show was hilarious for the first six episodes or so but random craziness can only work for so long, and the laughs began to tapper off after that. More of a sketch comedy aspect was used towards the end. But I still recommended it if you want something entertaining and lighthearted.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 1, 2008
Ergo Proxy takes place on a future Earth where humans are confined to cities within domes due to an ecological disaster that occurred in the past and has rendered most of the planet uninhabitable. The cities themselves function as a utopia police state in a way. Everyone has a specific function in society and immigration from other cities is strictly controlled. The government of the city, run by a Regent and made up of several sub-departments, relies on control over every aspect of the dome and society to maintain stability in the face of humanity's conditions on the planet.
The art is gorgeous --- and one
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reason I loved this series. Backgrounds are quite detailed with lots of atmospheric and lighting effects put into them. Characters are drawn quite flat however, but the line work is superbly crisp. You would think this would clash, but when juxtaposed with the backgrounds it actually works quite well. Music is okay, but a little repetitious overall. This series is notable as having one of the best (not to mention one of the longest) openings I have ever seen.
Our main character is Real Mayer, the granddaughter of the Regent of the city of Romdeau and an investigator for the Citizen Information Bureau. At the time the story begins Real is investigating a series of murders that have begun recently. The humans on Earth live alongside advanced androids called "autorievs" that appear to be partially biological (think Bishop from the movie Aliens) and are intelligent enough to carry on natural conversation. The physical characteristics of autoreivs vary based on their function with some appearing more human-like than others, having higher intelligence, or sensor capabilities, ect. Real has an "entourage" style autoriev named Iggy, who functions as her partner at work and life (note: they are not romantically involved if you're misreading my use of "partner" here).
In Real's work she comes across an immigrant named Vincent Law who works in the Autorev control dept (think BladeRunner), where his main duty is to destroy autorevs that have become infected with the Cogito Virus, which is a virus spread between autorevs like a contagious human disease and causes them to develop emotions and become self-aware. As an immigrant, Vincent is struggling to fit into society and be successful at his new job so he can stay in Romdeau.
Real begins to find evidence at the murder scenes of creatures that are neither human nor autoreiv, creatures the government wishes to keep secret. After being personally targeted by the creatures Real realizes they have a connection to Vincent Law. Vincent is forced to flee the dome, with the help of a Cogito-infected autoreiv named Pino, when the Citizen Security Bureau attempts to capture him. Vincent has a form of amnesia is blocking him from remembering his past before he left his old dome, and decides to try and return to his birthplace to resolve his identity issues. Real and Iggy leave Romdeau to pursue Vincent and learn more about the creatures, called Proxy, and the connection the Proxy have to the future of humanity.
If you thought that summary I just gave was rather vague and ended abruptly; you're right, it was. Ergo Proxy is an incredibly vague anime overall, and lots of people have started to watch it and given up simply from finding it too difficult to follow. There are people who have written entire blogs trying to explain what happened in this show for others' benefit. I was going write a longer summary, but I thought that would spoil the show too much. Ergo Proxy starts off in a fairly action-packed way, with one of the Proxys trying to escape a laboratory and Real being attacked by it later in a stairwell while she's on a case with Iggy. If you're going to judge the pace of the show from these first two episodes, you'll be in for a disappointment. Ergo Proxy is primarily a psychological anime and much of it is the characters having inner dialogs about their own identities and exploring the world outside Romdeau. How exactly the world came to be a frozen wasteland with a muddy brown sky, along with the nature of the dome system and the Proxys' relationship to it is the primary driver behind the plot.
While the plot is not action packed it's still considered an adventure series by many, and although character-driven there are still the occasional fights, flights, and suspense. The show is filled with references to past great thinkers, psychoanalysts, and existentialists, especially in the character design and settings. I would consider this really cool, except the references are over the heads of most people who would watch the show, even the highly intelligent ones. The fact Shinsen actually made cue cards at the end of every episode when they subbed it, explaining some of the references made, should be a big clue to the producers they were trying a little too hard to be high-brow with their work. It was entertaining overall, but even I'll admit I was bored with a couple episodes in the middle. All this suspense also has the effect of making the ending slightly disappointing, and you may find yourself with many unanswered questions about the plot afterward.
Despite these drawbacks I still recommend Ergo Proxy if you want more of a "thinking man's" anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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