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Feb 27, 2024

Giant Robo the Animation: Chikyuu ga Seishi Suru Hi (Anime) add

Mixed Feelings

Spoiler

Giant Robo is an OVA about a kid named Daisaku with a giant robot called Giant Robo. Giant Robo fights other giant robots and they have giant battles where giant robots destroy other giant robots and giant buildings in giant cities. When this isn't happening, we listen to giant amounts of technobabble from a giant amount of characters, which serves to expand an already giant storyline. Said characters also fight each other with cartoonish superpowers until they declare it a wash or die. Somewhere along the way, Daisaku has to fulfill his father's dying wishes by finding an answer to whether or not peace and ... prosperity can be attained without sacrifice. Puzzlingly, it would seem our hero has already decided the answer for himself; from the beginning, he is all too happy to let others sacrifice their own lives to bail him out while he stays frozen in place when bad guys point guns and spears at him as they monologue for 20 minutes and he has every opportunity to escape, and when he isn't getting his "friends" killed by staring at people who are about to kill him, he babbles about his robot and complains when the government doesn't allow him to play with a weapon of mass destruction at all hours of the day. Some characters take issue with Daisaku's inflated ego but eventually (if they are still alive by the end of the series) they see the error of their ways and bend the knee, showering him with praise because he is the chosen one who can command the giant robot and because he's really had it rough more than anybody else in the show, including those who are still mourning their losses.

You will be amazed as you watch characters talk a whole lot about nothing, twists and undoing of said twists where we learn the villain isn't really the villain but he is the villain after all but he's not, characters hop around and fly like superheroes and cheat death several times but then they are somehow unable to do that when the villains are about to really kill them or their friends with handguns or knives, and many other logical flaws within the story that will leave you baffled. The real story is that a group of scientists created an infinite energy source but one of them had an ego-trip and activated it before it was ready, causing significant destruction and loss of life in the process. Eventually, the experiment was completed and the entire world relies on this energy source for every little thing, even lighters. An evil terrorist/cult organization wants the incomplete experiment vials for themselves so they can cripple the world and take over, and the good guy government organization wants to stop them and recover the vials. The first question is this; why not destroy the incomplete vials? Near the end of the series one of the characters tries to do exactly this but is stopped in the process. Many episodes are focused on keeping the villains from obtaining the last vial but if these are such dangerous items and pose no benefit to the good guys whatsoever, it makes no sense to continue to keep them especially if they were all going to be destroyed anyway. If the idea was that the good guys were going to use them for their own agenda and it turns out that they weren't such good guys after all, that would make sense. However, in this show, every character with the government organization is a boy scout with zero ulterior motives. You would need as much suspension of disbelief as there are mindless diatribes by characters in this show in order to buy into the plot.

Speaking of diatribes, the technobabble becomes so immense and repetitive that we have lengthy exposition dumps about anti-energy forces used to kill the infinite energy sources and force fields used to cancel out said anti-energy forces or whatever. This is definitely a series where you should turn your brain off, look at the pretty animation and watch the sporadic and limited robot fights. The drama in this series is very melodramatic and all of the action by every other character stops so it can play out, and a character can have his/her pre-death monologue before they go down in flames. It almost seems tongue-in-cheek and definitely like a B-movie or Godzilla movie, which may be intentional given the tokusatsu roots of Giant Robo but it doesn't change the fact that technobabble is technobabble and diatribes are diatribes. Other drama in this series includes infighting within the villain group, conflict between one of the heroes and her brother who is with the villain group and the hero group imprisoning her after they discover their relation, Giant Robo miraculously launching on its own accord to save the day a few times then more technobabble to explain how that's possible, and Daisaku learning to ask Giant Robo to launch WMDs instead of order it to. Hilarious moments include one of the heroes shooting himself in the head while standing right in front of Daisaku then surviving to demonstrate his immortality, an elite group of villains in the villain team boasting about themselves only to be dispatched/killed off instantly by higher-ranking villains, and Daisaku getting bitchslapped by a guy dressed like a samurai.

The amount of times the villains have the upper hand then monologue while protagonists stay still and allow the heroes to defeat them is farcical. There's even a moment where a villain is about to kill one of the heroes, then another villain with a metal mask steps in to prevent him from doing so. Complete headscratcher. Later on we learn one of the elite villains, who is the villain group's master strategist, had everything planned all along. Of course he did, now it all makes sense. I'm sure that's part of the charm but then we have scenes that are clearly meant to be serious and played straight, like the funeral of a dead character or Daisaku arguing with the immortal Interpol agent about how it's wrong to sacrifice people because the agent doesn't understand the value of life because of his immortality or something like that, while Daisaku is fruitlessly and pointlessly beating a small metal pipe against the tube where the aforementioned girl character is imprisoned and a villain is about to kill them all. Wait, I'm not completely sure that one is meant to be played straight because I burst out laughing until it was over. Also, at one point Giant Robo gets a frozen, snow-looking material stuck to his shoulder and the characters acknowledge that this is not normal, setting up another mystery that will definitely be answered. By the end of the series we never learn what it was or why it was there, it just melts away at some point. Mystery solved.

While the plot is a mess, the animation is actually very nice with decent character designs and robots throughout, a lively color palette, and it looks good in motion. Another win for cel. The orchestral music is great, with the two standout pieces being the theme when the Giant Robo is called into action and the music during the flashbacks to the experiment gone wrong. The giant robot fights themselves are mostly unmemorable; they are short and ultimately not too impressive compared to the ones in, say, The Big O or 90s Gundam series. I wouldn't recommend Giant Robo if you are looking for a compelling story, but if you want to turn your brain off and watch nonsense schlock for a few hours, it's worth a watch.

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Jan 7, 2024

Grappler Baki (TV) (Anime) add

Not Recommended

Spoiler

Grappler Baki is a shonen anime about a kid who dreams of beating up his abusive father. Before he can achieve that dream, he must defy the laws of gravity, physics, and mortality using shonen magic which, in this series, happens to be adrenaline. Along the way, he meets other social misfits who sometimes want to beat him up, but mostly just want to kill him, so that they can brag to their friends about how they murdered a child. Luckily for them, Baki is the protagonist and quickly befriends his would-be killers after he defeats them. While this is happening, his father Yujiro, who ... is the ultimate badass, grows bored of watching his son's prolonged and futile tantrum, and decides it would be more fun to behead endangered species, attack political figures, volunteer for terrorist watchlists, and somehow not be hunted down toward every corner of the Earth. We also learn about Alzheimer's and how showing three or four flashbacks of the same scene within 10 minutes can worsen the symptoms. Eventually, Baki and the viewer overcome this crippling disease together to reach the pivotal moment where he finally has the chance to achieve his dream, much to the dismay of his sociopathic mother Emi who, up to this point, had only been helping him get stronger because she was using him to fulfill some sick delusion that a mass murderer would feel romantic attraction toward her. Thankfully, despite having 13 years to think about this, she realizes it is wrong to use her son as a sacrificial lamb and futilely steps in to stop the beating, only to be CQC'd to death by her love interest. I will give credit where credit is due and say this show accurately portrays what a hybristophiliac would likely experience if they got their wish. The last few episodes focus on a time skip with Baki entering underground death tournaments against a variety of opponents, not unlike Bloodsport, culminating in a fight between Yujiro and one of the higher-ups. Baki ultimately doesn't get his rematch, instead having to fight a villain-of-the-week, and the season ends with a teaser for the inevitable sequel.

The main problem with Grappler Baki is that it is a typical shonen from beginning to end. It has everything you would expect. Training, drawn-out buildup for fights against boring villains, too much talking, befriending would-be killers, constant flashbacks, neverending story, you name it, it has it. It doesn't do anything different and while it is more grounded in reality than others that have outright superpowers or magic, it ultimately remains just as dull because it retains all of the cliches that the others have. It isn't anything remarkable and it isn't disastrous. It achieves its goal of setting up the premise, then remaining in stagnation with glimpses of progress in order to keep the viewer tuned in for next week's episode. The fights happen and people don't shut up. The fighting is constantly interrupted by characters who we don't care about giving live commentary like they're on ESPN, or the fighters politely standing still so that one fighter may finish their inner monologue. While this may be a problem in virtually all shonens, it is still frustrating because it would be much more interesting to simply watch the fight play out with no interruptions. There are also many instances of reused animation and some particularly jarring moments, such as in episode 10 where you can clearly hear Baki snap someone's neck and that character survives. The show presents the fights like they are a serious threat and mortality is constantly at stake, but with the exception of Emi and the Yasha Ape who are killed by Yujiro onscreen and offscreen respectively, no one ever dies from the fights. Baki’s opponents may intend to kill him and while we obviously can’t have the main protagonist get killed, there is still a certain lack of tension this series has when we know either Baki will defeat them or they will let him and their other opponents live.

Speaking of jarring, there are entire episodes where it would seem the animation was completely outsourced, because the show goes from its usual style to looking more like the Titans from Attack on Titan with very disturbing, fish-like eyes and creepy faces on every character. Episode 10 is the first instance of this and at first I thought maybe this had something to do with the tension of that episode’s situation, where Baki is dropped in the middle of a jungle with the goal to dispatch an extremely lethal militia group. Maybe they were going for some kind of Vietnam PTSD look. But as the episode goes on, it’s clear that it was just outsourced to terrible animators and it happens again in one of the later episodes. I guess constant exposition that hangs on still shots, reusing animation, and shoving constant flashbacks in our face wasn’t enough cost-cutting for the animators. That brings me to my next point; the studio seems to think that the audience has short-term memory loss, because we see flashbacks of scenes that we have already seen before more times than I can count. One particular moment that continually gets flashed back to is after Baki has defeated the Yasha Ape and how he feels bad for attacking him. I counted at least 2 flashbacks of this scene and there was probably another one during the recap episode. There was also at least one flashback to a flashback that another character was having where he and his sister were being attacked by wolves. I think there may have been occasions where there were flashbacks to scenes that occurred within the very same episode. There are so many flashbacks that you will probably get dementia after watching this series. By the time this series came out, it was possible to catch up on what you missed by either looking up plot summaries online, watching reruns, or renting the DVD. Having so many flashbacks is completely unnecessary and serves as an annoyance and a distraction in addition to padding out the runtime.

Most of the characters of Grappler Baki are forgettable or bland. Baki himself is respectable enough. He has a clear goal and motivation and we can feel sympathy for him because of his terrible parents. We want to see him succeed. Yujiro is a lot like Dio Brando in the sense that his character is little more than villainy for the sake of villainy and that he is the impossibly strong shonen antagonist. We can laugh at how unbelievable his actions are. Emi is a cold and sociopathic character who uses her son for her own gain, then pays the ultimate price when she realizes the error of her ways. I suppose we can feel bad for her like the show wants us to, if we can ignore that she intended to sacrifice her son and that she fully knew what the consequences would be, and that she had no issue with it until she saw those consequences first-hand and suddenly decides that now it’s the wrong thing to do once it is too late to stop it. The rest of the cast are completely forgettable stock villains who become friends after getting curb-stomped. What was most laughable was the giant teenage yakuza boss character that the show spends one quarter of its length building up to a fight with, and how the most predictable twist occurred; he does what he does because his mother is dying of cancer. Boohoo. Cue tears. Now that suddenly makes me like this boring, angst-ridden character. We can laugh at how little time it took the writers (or should I say author) to come up with that. The rest of the stock characters do not stand out one bit and all of them are generic villains. We can forget about them.

The last quarter or so of the series revolves around the underground tournament, where a slightly older Baki competes against opponents in the hopes of getting into a rematch with Yujiro. Obviously, this never happens because it’s a shonen and the plot is never allowed to end until the law of diminishing returns kicks in. At least we are treated to a dozen fights with villains-of-the-week. As I previously mentioned, the second-to-last fight is between Yujiro and one of the higher-ups who organize the tournaments. Yujiro beats him to death and leaves. However, the next villain-of-the-week uses shonen magic-I mean Hokuto Shinken-I mean “advanced surgical techniques” to revive this character, to the relief of no one except the extremely annoying, tiny old man who runs the tournament when he isn’t failing at comedic relief. The character should have stayed dead so that there would be some gravity to the situation and so that there would be more emphasis on going after Yujiro, because then it wouldn’t just be Baki who has a bone to pick with him. It is also anticlimactic to end the series on a fight between Baki and a villain-of-the-week. The order of the fights should have been swapped, and had that fight ended with that character dying, it would have made a great cliffhanger for the next season. I didn’t expect the plot to have a conclusive ending or wrap up by the end, but they could have at least tried to make it more enticing. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to take the story in a different direction than the author. But that would have taken talented writing, something which this formulaic rush-job clearly didn’t have.

The animation, when it isn’t being outsourced to meth addicts, has a distinct-enough look that makes it stand out a little bit. It has that early-2000s look where everything seemed like there was more attitude or experimentation behind it. It looks fine enough during static shots. In motion, it does enough to get the point across and not much else. There aren’t too many memorable shots. The 1994 OVA is more pleasing from an artistic standpoint because it was cel and achieved with what was probably a low budget, but I won’t lie; it wasn’t that impressive either. The music of the series is one of its high points, with an energetic and happy OP song to contrast with the somewhat dark tone of the series. The ED song is a similar case, except it is more relaxed. The background score does its job and suits the fights well, but with the exception of one or two tracks, it is mostly forgettable.

Overall, Grappler Baki suffers from too many cliches, too much predictability, and too much stagnation. In effect, that makes it a victim of its own genre. You understandably may not choose to watch a shonen series for a brilliantly-written story, but because of the painstaking buildup to fights with boring and forgettable villains, and then the fights themselves being not-so-impressive and continually interrupted with mindless chatter explaining to us what we can already see with our own eyes, you will be left bored and tired. Most of the positives come from some of the technical aspects rather than the very thin and drawn-out story, characters, or fight scenes. The only character development there seems to be is Baki getting stronger and hating Yujiro more than before, and bad guys turning into good guys. You will be left disappointed at the ending, and while you may consider watching the second season, be warned that it does not conclude the story and consists of entirely filler. Basically, everything bad about this season is all there is in the next one. Instead of watching this series, watch Bloodsport and the original Mortal Kombat. You will get much more fun out of them if you want to see deadly tournaments with enjoyable fights. Otherwise, don’t waste your time watching this series unless you love repetitiveness and monotony.

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Jun 30, 2023

Kidou Senshi Gundam: Gyakushuu no Char (Anime) add

Not Recommended

Spoiler

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack is an animated mecha/war movie directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, and serves as the conclusion to the series of events that began in the original Gundam TV series from 1979. At first glance, it would appear to be a cinematic epic that will undoubtedly fulfill one's anticipation for a grand finale in the endless feud between earth people and space people. Unfortunately, if you look past the great animation, you will find nothing but a convoluted mess of questionable writing and annoying characters.

Before I describe the story, it is important to remember that, technically, this movie is a follow-up to the ... polarizing TV series Gundam ZZ. The events of that series and Zeta Gundam do not have too much influence on the story of Char's Counterattack other than setting up Neo Zeon and its empty throne, which Char would promptly inherit in this movie. However, if you remember Char's supporting role in Zeta Gundam where it seemed like he was turning over a new leaf, you may be surprised to see that he is back in an antagonist role. Perhaps the true intentions of the character were always questionable, but it is still a pretty big jump for the character to make and it would have been more believable if we witnessed his development into a genocidal egotist. Even a short prologue to show this would have been better than nothing.

The story is that Neo Zeon has returned after their supposed defeat in Gundam ZZ, this time under the leadership of Char Aznable. Continuing with the Zeon tradition of dropping things on people, Char is planning to drop Neo Zeon's Axis asteroid base onto Earth. His philosophy is that people need to leave the Earth and live in space instead, never mind the fact that his plan would likely kill all of the Earth's inhabitants before that could happen. Gundam veteran Amuro Ray, who is now back to working for the Earth Federation government under their new special forces unit Londo Bell, must step up to the plate and settle things with his old rival once and for all. Other characters from the first Gundam series, such as Bright Noa and Mirai Yashima, also make appearances. Along the way, we will meet new characters such as Bright's son, Hathaway Noa, who is an entitled and spoiled brat, and a girl named Quess, who is also an entitled and spoiled brat, and is also a civilian who decides to join Neo Zeon because she is smitten with Char. Quess is easily the most detestable character in the movie. She is a typical overly philosophical know-it-all character who talks too much and magically outclasses her peers, a trope that is all too common in mecha anime and one that is grating on the ears. The rest of the characters that show up are completely forgettable and only a few of them have a lasting impact on the story.

Another thing to note is the excessive runtime. Clocking in at 2 hours, Char's Counterattack treats the viewer to several scenes featuring battles of attrition, political disputes, and characters talking to other characters or to themselves before or during battles. There is a whole lot of talking, but they aren't saying anything. It often feels like the story never develops or goes anywhere beyond the increasing death toll. It is normal for Gundam series/movies to drag on, but at least they are usually entertaining enough to warrant the runtime. This movie really does feel like it goes on forever.

One particularly head-scratching moment is near the end. Hathaway gets involved in the conflict and goes to confront Quess, naively thinking that he can talk sense into her. His optimism is rewarded with Quess pointing a rifle at his face. Amuro's love interest and fellow Londo Bell soldier Chan Agi intervenes in an attempt to protect Hathaway. In the process, she kills Quess. Hathaway then has a tantrum and kills Chan. No acknowledgment is made of Hathaway's act of murder and he never faces the consequences. It almost seems like the viewer is meant to have sympathy for these two brats instead of the woman who just got murdered by one of the brats she was trying to protect. If Hathaway and Quess had a little more sense, they would have chosen to not get involved in the conflict to begin with, and by extension, a needless death could have been avoided. At no point in the movie is this fact ever discussed by any character. It does not even make sense for Hathaway to get so enraged in the first place. Quess had no interest in him and even argued with Chan about how Chan took Amuro from her, with Hathaway present and hearing every word. Quess could not be reasoned with, and it is safe to say that she would have killed him if Chan did not intervene. It is the most nonsensical moment in the movie and it only exemplifies the poor writing. It fits right at home alongside some of Gundam ZZ's awful death scenes where there is no acknowledgment or consequences.

During the climax of the movie, despite Londo Bell's best efforts, Axis ends up on a collision course toward Earth. Amuro and several other Earth Federation soldiers try to prevent it from crashing by attempting to push against the asteroid. While this is happening, Neo Zeon soldiers appear out of nowhere to assist them. Very strange. The entire time, they knew that Char was going to drop Axis onto the Earth, and not one of them did anything to stop it until it was too late. There was no reason for them to have a sudden change of heart and suddenly care about the fate of the Earth. You could make the argument that perhaps they were moved by the Earth Federation's attempts to stop the asteroid, or maybe the Newtype magic/spirits of the dead/magical psychic plot device made them see the error of their ways, but the movie never hints at, shows, or establishes that any of this happened. That would already be lazy writing enough because it is illogical and inconsistent with the goals of the villains. To not provide any reason or excuse at all shows total apathy or incompetence on Tomino's part. If this were the only inconsistency in the movie, then maybe it could be overlooked. Instead, it is just the cherry on top of a plot-contrivance sundae.

The animation is very well done. At the time of release, this movie had the best animation of the Gundam series. The increased budget that comes with a theatrical project was used well by the animators at Sunrise. When things are in motion, the movement is fluid and smooth. There is great use of shading and detail, particularly when the mobile suits are out in space. The color scheme is vibrant and pleasing to the eyes. The sound design is good, with plenty of recognizable and memorable sound effects, from the clashing of beam sabers to the fireball when Axis is falling to Earth. Most of the music is forgettable, save for the Nu Gundam theme and T.M. Network's “Beyond the Time” playing over the credits.

Char's Counterattack is the Gundam version of a summer blockbuster movie. It is there to bedazzle audiences with bombastic sights and action, and to entice them with the promise of having captivating interpersonal drama like that of any other war movie, then failing to deliver anything beyond conceited psuedophilosophy. The writing and presentation makes it appear as if Tomino wanted it to be something more than that, but in reality, it simply does not have the depth, intelligence, or memorability needed to be one of the all-time greats. It is there to distract audiences for a brief period of time, and then be promptly forgotten about once they leave the theater, while the executives count the money from tickets, home video sales, and toy sales. The excitement and anticipation of the audience for more Gundam material, combined with the toy company's faith in the success of the property, is what drove the creation of this movie and led to its success. Whether or not the story is captivating and engaging, or if the characters are believable, relatable, have growth or meaningful impact on the story and their relationships with other characters, or if there are any thought-provoking ideas, lessons, messages, or perspectives, are irrelevant when all that is needed to guarantee success is the title.

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Mar 10, 2023

Initial D Final Stage (Anime) add

Not Recommended

Spoiler

Initial D: Final Stage is the finale to the series about street racing that began in the late 90s. Unfortunately, it falls flat in every regard. The series was on a gradual decline beginning with Fourth Stage, as it greatly reduced the personal drama that served as the buildup to the races. The drama made the races interesting to watch because there were real stakes and a reason to be invested. Instead, Fourth Stage focused only on the races themselves, with the only stakes being the continuing undefeated reign of Project D. The follow up to this, Fifth Stage, was even more of an insult, ... featuring greatly inferior animation to all previous seasons (no doubt due to the baffling decision to hand over animation duties to a studio that previously animated cartoons for very young children, such as Beyblade), an abysmal and unengaging plot followed by a sudden bomb dropped on the audience that was never even hinted at prior to this season, and not only seems out of place in this series but also for the character who was chosen to carry this twist. The blame for this lies on the author of the original manga. However, an adaptation cannot be shielded from criticism just because it remains accurate to the original story. A bad story is a bad story. In addition to all of this, each episode begins with a 2-3 minute-long recap of the previous episode, which is inexcusable because at the time this series was released, it was not hard to watch previous episodes if you missed them, and even if you did see the previous episode but you have the memory of a goldfish, you could look up a quick synopsis of what happened during the previous episode. During the races, we are treated to even more overexplaining from characters who continually interrupt the action to give their commentary than there were in previous seasons, as well as the author's cop-out for having to come up with any more convoluted and, at times, completely unbelievable methods for Takumi's victories, named "Fujiwara Zone". Fifth Stage is irredeemable trash. It is a shame because Final Stage completely relies on Fifth Stage to setup its narrative. It features the same exact production team, and as you would expect, Final Stage shares many of the problems that Fifth Stage has.

Final Stage begins where the previous season left off, with Project D facing off against their last and most dangerous opponents. Keisuke has just emerged victorious in the first of two races during this final match. The second and final race is almost underway. In a rare (for this series) yet still poorly executed example of setup and payoff, there is a character in Fifth Stage who appears occasionally to watch the races, who turns out to be the final opponent in Final Stage. This character, an annoying Evangelion-wannabe named Shinji Inui, drives a Trueno AE86 and is Takumi's last opponent. His backstory is told through boring exposition (again, during the race) rather than setting it up in the previous season by letting the audience watch for themselves, and is nothing more than a rushed attempt to have a cheap, overpowered final opponent ready for the last race. However, they also failed at this, because the majority of this exposition is told after the race has started. It is completely backwards. While at this point in the series believability has gone out the window, it is fascinating to see just how little the author and studio think of the audience's intelligence. According to the exposition in this very season, Takumi's proficiency with the AE86 is the result of his father's continuous training from an early age. Shinji is described as being "self-taught". We are expected to believe that Shinji taught himself to drive on his home course in an almost perfect, robotic fashion with no hesitancy to perform dangerous maneuvers, such as overtaking Takumi during a corner, while Takumi, who was trained by a highly-skilled ex-street racer, can barely match up to his skill level until the very end. It is simply weak storytelling.

After four episodes of excruciating, pointless commentary that continually interrupts the race, rushed exposition to make up for proper character development, and angsty inner monologue from Shinji, the race finally comes to an end when, through sudden exposition, it is pulled out of thin air that the engine inside of Takumi's AE86 has a last resort function. Takumi utilizes it, passes Shinji, then the engine blows up. Takumi recovers, then he drives in reverse to the goal. Everyone congratulates each other. Takumi retires the AE86, then he and Keisuke join the pro racing circuit without ever having their continually promised rematch. And they all lived happily ever after.

The animation is on-par with the eyesore that was Fifth Stage and retains its many questionable character design changes. One positive is that this time, it doesn't seem like the characters have a thousand-yard stare, and they appear to actually be looking at things. The interior car shots are sometimes passable and the CGI is nothing special. The music is forgettable, with m.o.v.e once again doing the OP/ED, both of which sound generic. The songs during the races are also bland and forgettable.

Final Stage is a disappointing, rushed conclusion to a series that overstayed its welcome both on TV and on paper. The author's lack of desire to maintain quality also hurt the animated adaptations, simply by virtue of adapting poor source material. It is a chore to get through and it is not fun to watch. The difference between the beginning and the end of this series is clear. What began as a stylized thrill ride ended as a shallow and boring exposition-driven slog littered with plot contrivances. That is the curse of long-running series. They trade a quality narrative for a longer shelf life and money. In the end, they always crash and burn.

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Oct 14, 2022

Gakkou no Kaidan (Anime) add

Not Recommended

Preliminary (5/19 eps)

The English dub of Ghost Stories is what you get when you boil the concept of comedy down to the lowest possible denominator. Remember that celebrity? Remember that thing that was popular in the early 2000s? Remember this? Remember that? If you have seen the individual clips on YouTube already, you have seen the best Ghost Stories has to offer. Otherwise, you will suffer with 20+ minutes of a very basic, juvenile story (which, to be fair, is equal in crappiness to the original Japanese version), and painful attempts at "comedy" such as the 4Kids reject voice actors reminding you that celebrities exist or that ... they have broken the fourth wall, to get to the very very rare moments that are somewhat funny.

A lot of people think this kind of ""humor"" is absolutely hilarious. Those are the same kind of people that were likely AIS for every single Adam Sandler movie, and probably think Family Guy is the pinnacle of comedy. The politically incorrect humor is nothing special and are comprised of jokes that everyone on Earth has probably already heard, even at the time this was originally released. So the main appeal of watching this ends up falling flat, and you are left with what is essentially a show for preschoolers, which is fitting because the writers themselves have the mentality of preschoolers.

Pop culture references are not jokes.

EDIT:
Two years later, I feel I have not done Ghost Stories justice in my original review. The idea of a gag dub sounds great on paper, but it was executed in the worst way possible. It has to be funny. Listening to whiny shrill voices occasionally swear then follow it up with name dropping celebrities is the lowest of the low, bottom of the barrel drivel that it can't even be called "comedy" because it takes so little thought or imagination that only lobotomy patients or Family Guy fans can laugh at it. 19 episodes is also far too long, even if it were funny, the welcome would have been long worn out by episode 6.

There's also another disturbing element to the show besides the repeated epic failures at comedy; there is a running gag where a little girl trips and her blouse blows upward, then one of the male characters takes a photo of her. The gag is meant to be perverted in nature. While this can't be blamed on the dub because it was in the original Japanese version and also played for "laughs" there, it is extremely questionable that this is in the show to begin with. Sexual abuse of children isn't funny and I have to seriously question the mentality of the original creators of the show and the manga it is based on. What's really funny (much funnier than Ghost Stories, in fact) is that after I left my original review, I received a sarcastic comment on my profile from someone who was angry that I criticized the pop culture references in the show and it said something like "I can only laugh at sexual harassment in my anime", yet he enjoys a show which attempts to make humor out of the repeated sexual harassment of a child. Interesting.

I will reiterate; if you value your time and your sense of humor is above laughing at things you recognize, you should skip Ghost Stories.

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Sep 21, 2022

JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 5: Ougon no Kaze (Anime) add

Not Recommended

Spoiler

Golden Wind is the fifth part of the overall JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series. While the previous parts focused on descendants of the Joestars, this one shifts gears a bit by focusing on the son of DIO. What follows is a mostly uneventful, rushed adventure as we follow Giorno Giovanna and his companions throughout Italy as they seek to defeat the main antagonist while fights and plot contrivances happen along the way.

The story in many ways felt like a retread of Stardust Crusaders but more limited in scope. As it plays out, it became more and more apparent that the writing was not on par with ... the previous parts. There were not many compelling developments or tension that keeps you on the edge of your seat and many episodes are spent with our unlikeable, ugly heroes fighting boring, stupid villains. Another thing of note is that this story is more serious and played straight compared to previous parts, which I think is a flaw. Part of the appeal of the previous parts was that while there was a developing story with a clear goal, it was used as a means to have crazy, interesting, fun things happen in the process of getting to said goal. It was the journey that made it fun and made the destination all the more satisfying. The writers were aware that this is a series about pastel colored warriors that fight against vampires and zombies by using controlled breathing techniques, and later on, are able to use spirits that have abilities ranging from simple punches to transforming into other people, or controlling bullets, or making objects or people explode. This is not a concept that works when you want to pretend to be Francis Ford Coppola.

There are glaring issues with the cast. Our main protagonist, Giorno Giovanna, is a blank slate goody two-shoes who possesses the magical ability to transform inanimate objects into living organisms. He possesses no motivation other than "I want to defeat the villain so that he stops selling drugs to the children". If it was not directly explained through exposition, you wouldn't even guess that this is DIO's son. Bruno Bucciarati, on the other hand, has more weight on his shoulders than Giorno does and would have been more fitting as the main protagonist. Following his decision to aid Giorno, he not only must maintain the façade that his allegiance lies with the main villain, he must do so while managing his own group of people who are not privy to his or Giorno's true intentions.

Speaking of which, if there was one thing Bruno's group of misfits was successful at, it was making this season painful to watch. I definitely will not forget about Mista, because the talking Stands from his magical revolver screeched his name every 5 seconds as loud as possible. Abbacchio, an ex-cop with the ability to briefly replay past events, was unlikeable all the way to the end and only when he dies does the story drop a pity party on the viewer in an attempt to garner sympathy toward him. Narancia was definitely the comedic relief of the group and as a result, was more entertaining than his dour peers. Many of Golden Wind's more funny or memorable moments can be attributed to him. The worst of the bunch, Fugo, is an angsty, angry, killing machine with a Stand ability that is much more powerful than his role in the story demands, to the point that Araki "corrected" it by dropping him off the story. As for the villains, they were not as memorable as they were in Stardust Crusaders. None of them particularly stood out with the exception of Doppio, who stood out for his insufferable, irritating presence. The main antagonist, Diavolo, was underdeveloped and the way he met his demise was sudden and unfulfilling. Whereas DIO and Yoshikage Kira were eccentric and very entertaining to watch, Diavolo is a standard main antagonist who never seems to rise above simple cruelty. Once his identity is discovered by the protagonists, the most interesting characteristic of him is lost.

Later on, Polnareff shows up to assist the main cast, having spent years researching the plot contrivance McGuffin created for the previous part, Diamond is Unbreakable. Polnareff's role in the story felt like it could have been served by any other character. There is also a plot hole relating to him. At some point, the main cast finds a turtle that has a safe room inside of a key on its shell that they can teleport into. Later in the story, Diavolo supposedly kills Polnareff. After that, there is a situation where the characters' souls have swapped into each other's bodies. Polnareff's soul swaps with the turtle before his soul is able to pass on. Later on, Narancia, whose soul was swapped into Giorno's body, dies as a result of Giorno's body being impaled on iron bars, one of which went through his head. This is enough to kill Narancia's soul, so given that we are under the impression that Polnareff's original body is now dead, there should have been no chance for Giorno to be able to use his body again, and yet after this happens Giorno is able to swap his soul back into his own body after using the iron bars to heal it. If being impaled to the point of killing the soul within the body isn't enough to prevent Giorno's Stand from healing said body back to working order then swapping his own soul back into it, Polnareff should have been able to go back to his original body as well, as it stands to reason that Giorno could have found more inanimate objects to heal him and Polnareff would not be doomed to spend life as a turtle. There is no reason why Giorno's dead body could be healed back to life while Polnareff's dead body could not. It is a glaring flaw in the story that cannot be ignored, as it has led to a grim fate for a beloved character.

The final episode was also a pointless waste of time, because it is a flashback episode with a story that is meant to foreshadow character deaths that have already happened. Maybe Araki ran out of ideas for a proper conclusion to this terribly written story, as the brief scene of Giorno becoming the new boss would have been too short to fill an entire chapter.

The animation was not enjoyable to look at. It was ugly and headache inducing. The characters appear grotesque. There were no particular moments that stood out in regards to the sound. It is was what you have come to expect from JoJo at this point, loud and bombastic. There is not much to say about the music. The background music was unmemorable. Both OP songs ("Fighting Gold" and "Traitor's Requiem") and the first ED song ("Freek'n You") were not very good, but the second ED ("Modern Crusaders") was fine.

Overall, Golden Wind was a disappointment and a clear step down from previous entries in the series. It is very much overrated. After Stardust Crusaders concluded the main plotline of the series, it is clear that Araki was just trying to come up with whatever he could to keep this series going and thus keep the money flowing in. Such decisions do not usually have quality at the forefront of them, and Golden Wind is undeniable proof of that.

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Jun 26, 2022

Gun x Sword (Anime) add

Not Recommended

Gun x Sword is an exercise in futility. I had high expectations for this series. When I learned that the plot centered around the protagonist attempting to avenge his dead wife, I was intrigued. Unfortunately, with each passing episode I felt more and more dread that this series would not live up to my initial expectations. I still had a faint sense of hope that the series would prove me wrong in the second half. My prayers were left unanswered and I am left with a 26 episode waste of time. It is soulless and formulaic in every way. It has no depth. It throws ... everything possible at the viewer in a vain hope that something will stick. The simplest way to describe it is that on the surface, it is a Trigun ripoff with elements of Cowboy Bebop mixed in and none of their depth. Once you start watching this trainwreck you will see it lacks the quality and deep writing of its predecessors. This is a style-over-substance series, and in that sense you can say it was a pioneer for what would become of the anime industry. For those of you that appreciate a deep, well-written story with developed characters and thought-provoking situations, steer well clear of Gun x Sword.

The story takes place on an Earth-like prison planet. Somehow, this prison planet was able to develop into a modern civilization with advanced technology, including mechas called Armor which are piloted by the characters in order to fight each other. The setting tends to vary, but for the most part it is similar to Trigun's futuristic wild west. Our protagonist is a tuxedo-wearing cowboy named Van. He is out to avenge the murder of his wife at the hands of someone named The Claw. He pilots an Armor called "Dann of Thursday" that is stored in a floating charging station in space. When Van turns his hat sideways, Dann shoots down from space to someplace near Van's current position. Along the way, we are introduced to a multitude of pointless characters with their own motivations for tagging along with Van. These characters are never developed any further than when we were first introduced to them. The first tagalong, Wendy, is a child who is searching for her brother who joined up with The Claw. Wendy is a defenseless, useless character who is completely out of place in this supposed story about vengeance. She exists to give the story the illusion of having layers and depth, but in reality her character is a hinderance to the core story because her own story does not align with Van's in a manner that develops either of their characters. Her search for her brother is a subplot that runs astray of the main goal. This is a repeat pattern you will notice all throughout this series and it is clear the studio thought throwing new character after new character at the viewer would be a substitute for having to develop the characters that have already been introduced.

The further into the series you get, the more pointless characters seem to fill up the runtime of each episode. A Faye Valentine ripoff, complete with unfinished business from her childhood, named "Carmen99" shows up and tags along with Van for some reason. Now, my first thought upon hearing this was that Carmen99 is an internet username that this character uses to find jobs or something similar. It doesn't sound like a normal name for a character in this series, since every other character has average sounding names like Wendy. I do not remember if it is ever explained why she has this name. However, I later found out that she is called Carmen99 because that is her bust measurement. I am sure the studio thought that was very clever, original, and well-thought-out. Let this set the precedent for things to come.

The two other major supporting characters that are introduced are a Vicious ripoff named Ray, another man whose wife was murdered by The Claw, and his little brother Joshua, who is searching for him. Ray and Van are often at each other's throats as they both want to be the one to kill The Claw but no development of this rivalry ever happens, the closest thing that comes to them reconciling is a brief discussion near the end where they maintain that they want to kill The Claw before the other and then part ways. The only memorable thing about Ray is his hilariously cold and angsty attitude. My favorite part in this entire series is during an Armor fight between the protagonists and two annoying children, a brother and a sister, that are working for The Claw. Ray pulls out a sniper rifle and assassinates the little girl. Rather than ponder to himself about how he just murdered a child, he immediately reloads and says something along the lines of "one down". Joshua is a contender for the most annoying character not just in this series but in anime history. He does not contribute to the story in any meaningful way above creating plot holes and being an all-around annoyance. He has no awareness of what is going on at any given time. He enjoys preaching about morality in a half-hearted, shallow fashion. In one episode, Wendy meets The Claw face to face. Ray then appears and just before he can kill The Claw, Joshua steps in front of him while preaching some nonsense about pacifism. Meanwhile, he has no issue with his brother murdering a child. Once again, this is a character that does not aid Van's quest for vengeance which is supposed to be the main story. This is a quality that is present in the entire cast of Gun x Sword.

The main antagonist, as mentioned before, is an old man named The Claw. True to his name, one of his hands is a claw. Despite being a murderer, he has somehow convinced other members of this show's mentally-incapacitated cast that he actually wants peace, happiness and rainbows and to believe in him despite having already murdered two innocent women. His henchmen acknowledge this inconvenient fact, yet they willingly fight for him anyway. The ramblings of this shallow, one-dimensional villain are somehow so influential that it can turn almost any member of this idiotic cast into his loyal servant. Even Wendy is intrigued by him and briefly leaves to have a conversation with him near the end of the series because she wants to understand his motivations. The writers seem to think that having other characters pick up the slack for a shallow, one-dimensional antagonist is good writing.

By now, you have noticed that I have stopped talking about the story and have spent three-and-a-half paragraphs discussing characters. This is because in Gun x Sword, the amount of characters thrown at you and the shallowly-written subplots they bring IS the story. Character development is non-existent in this series. Rather than deliver thought-provoking perspectives about grief, sorrow and loss, or put Van through interesting moral crises where his quest for vengeance would slowly turn him into a monster, the studio hopes that giving the viewer some shallow exposition will be enough to suffice. The plot is as basic as it gets and serves as a pretext for the nonsense that occurs in this series.

The first half of the series comprises of Van and Wendy wandering from town to town, meeting its inhabitants and assisting them, meeting another tagalong, or dealing with the villain of the week until the episode ends. As I was watching, I thought back to the way the episodes of Cowboy Bebop and Trigun were able to deliver interesting stories that kept my attention. Those series had a modest amount of established characters who grew as they went through their journey because it was about how the characters dealt with the people and situations they came across. No one grows or changes in Gun x Sword. The amount of time spent on the journey does not affect anything except for the amount of characters you will have to keep track of, and the amount of time wasted on this travesty.

It is later revealed via flashback that Van was one of an elite group of security guards for the prison planet and that Dann of Thursday is one of a set of Armor named after days of the week that these guards would use. His wife was a scientist that helped develop these Armor. At some point, The Claw showed up and decided to start a cult centered around him bringing about world peace by resetting the world End of Evangelion style. Because Van and his wife were the only ones to not go along with the ramblings of a one-dimensional murderer that justifies his killings with philosophy, one of the other security guards who was a friend of Van invites The Claw to Van's wedding where The Claw would attack Van and his wife. This doesn't immediately kill them however, and for some reason this "friend" is present in the hospital room with Van and his wife, who is in critical condition. This friend and Van's wife exchange words about healing Van by making his life depend on his Armor or something and then she dies. Then he and Van talk and despite arguably being the one to blame for the death of Van's wife, for some reason he agrees to give Van ownership of Dann of Thursday which is supposedly more powerful and advanced than any other Armor, effectively shooting himself in the foot. This is a completely nonsensical backstory that makes no sense if you assume the characters, and by extension the writers have any intelligence.

The second half of the series only gets worse. Every single minor character and their grandma decides to tag along with Van in what can only be described as "Super Friends" on crack. They live on a knockoff of the White Base and this is where character overload becomes a real problem because instead of dealing with 3 or 4 shallow, undeveloped characters at once now you are dealing with 10+, most of whom only appeared in one episode, for the remainder of the series. At this point I lost all hope of proper character development ever happening. By the time the episode about the woman-only bikini kingdom arrived I lost all hope of this series ever redeeming itself. The finale arrives not with a bang, but with a whimper as Van simply walks up to The Claw after thwarting his world reset and he is stuck in his seat. This angry, vengeful embodiment of wrath and sorrow brandishes his sword and quickly slashes him across the chest exactly once, with no blood or gore whatsoever. We see this from the back so that the animators could avoid having to animate a satisfying death scene for the villain. Afterward, the characters exchange pointless dialogue with each other and part ways. There is an epilogue scene where a slightly older Wendy, now operating a restaurant, is telling the events of the series to a reporter. Van walks in and asks for something to eat. The viewer is supposed to be happy to see them reunite. The only thing I was happy about is that this disaster finally ended.

The art style and animation were fine. Pleasing colors and hit-or-miss character designs. Van has the best and most memorable character design out of the entire cast, everyone else is forgettable or a ripoff of a character from another series, while others like Wendy's brother or the whore that works for The Claw have that weird, "big anime eyes" look that clashes with most of the other characters. The designs of the Armor, for the most part, are unmemorable. The movement of the animation isn't very fluid or intricate and while they did not go above and beyond, they at least gave the series its own style and it usually works.

The sound design was also fine, I did not care very much for the song used in the OP as it was clear they were trying too hard to make it sound epic or imposing. I think the best parts of the OP song were the flute and the choir. The ED has a melancholy song that would have fit well had this series decided to stay the course with its core plot, play it completely straight and develop it into something interesting. The majority of the insert songs were unmemorable. The sound effects weren't particularly memorable and there were no instances where I was amazed at their use.

I was sad and disappointed by how much of a disaster this series turned out to be. I was expecting something much greater than what it really was. Gun x Sword suffers from serious cases of clashing tones and character overload. You will not find character development or well-written, meaningful stories in any of its 26 episodes. It is a complete waste of time, and it is a shame because it could have been much better if they actually cared about telling a good story centered around the human condition instead of trying to appeal to casual audiences that tune in for nothing more than mecha fights and fanservice. If you value your time, stay far away from this trash.

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Dec 29, 2021

Baccano! (Anime) add

Not Recommended

Preliminary (3/13 eps)

I was expecting a decent mafia series, instead I got a Pulp Fiction wannabe with supernatural elements. If they kept it down to earth and trimmed the fat it could have been good but they wanted to make a series about immortal generic anime teens cosplaying as mafia gangsters while also trying to appear hip by throwing as many characters at you as possible, engaging in senseless violence for the sake of senseless violence, being self-aware and introducing plot elements out of order for no reason. It's pretentious garbage that insults the viewer's intelligence.

The artwork quality was passable and the opening/ending themes were fine, but ...

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