review – bluemist anime blog

Hitohira

Hitohira

Once in a while these things pop up, a slice-of-life anime gem that most of us may have skipped in favor of other more hyped series running in the same season. Hitohira had absolutely nothing going for it. High-school setting about a drama club, zzzzz. Didn’t hook me up that much from the get-go. But what I was about to experience is something special. It may not have the greatest story in the world, but it is a story well told, by very lovable and relatable characters.
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Strike Witches

Strike Witches

Everytime summer arrives, the big-budget Hollywood movies come too. It seems to be the most lucrative season of mainstream film the whole year, as blockbuster after blockbuster gets released in a span of a few months. Granted that there are some exceptions to the rule, but generally, summer blockbusters are usually shallow, popcorn entertainment for the masses. It’s not Oscar season, and so they are just raking in the big bucks for now by offering simple yet fun movies that one would probably forget after a while. In a way, this is how I felt Strike Witches was for me. It is an equivalent of a shallow, popcorny, simple and fun anime blockbuster… with a heavy slice of fanservice.
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Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone

Rebuild of Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion, after more than a decade, still remains to be one of the most revolutionary anime series of all time. I am not a fan of mecha, but this anime transcends beyond being mecha, bringing along twisted characters and an intriguing plot at amazing pace and intensity. I guess the anime stood the test of time, in that despite looking rather old by today’s standards, it still entertained me when I rewatched it recently in preparation for this new movie. When I got the news that Evangelion is being ‘rebuilt’ anew, I myself have mixed reactions. How would GAINAX do this? Obviously there will be comparisons, and personally I would have preferred a remake of the anime series instead of rebuilding it into four separate movies. After I had watched this first movie though… well… I still have mixed reactions I guess.
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Kimikiss -pure rouge-

Kimikiss -pure rouge-

The problem with most bishoujo game based anime love stories is that the focus isn’t on the romance and how it blooms, but mostly on fleshing out the girls themselves. Because of that, you can’t really say that their romance stories are ‘romantic’. In the end, they are just giving character to the character, like revealing her secrets, exposing her pasts, or giving a little character development bump for posterity. Also, I feel like a male lead of many a bishoujo love story is so generic anyone could take his place. They have no personalities, or even if they do, they are just there without any relation to the love story. This is where shoujo romance anime takes the lead, because character development is in equal footing between the two sexes. In shoujo anime you can see a male character developing in relation to the love story with the female partner, and it makes for more interesting viewing for me than some generic harem where all you care about are the girls. So when I saw Kimikiss -pure rouge-, I was getting mighty impressed. I feel like it’s a perfect mixture of not only the best bishoujo/harem anime had to offer, but also the best that shoujo anime has in store. While in the end it wasn’t that ‘perfect’, I think Kimikiss would have earned its proper rank in my list of the best romance animes ever made.
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Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS

“Still not lyrical, and they are not lolis anymore”

Initial reaction. What else can I say? This is one of the rare sequels in anime where they fast-forward about 10 years and make all characters older, taller, and sexier. That alone would alienate thousands of fans of the two original [Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha->] series. That, along with the change of theme from innocent magic to… well let’s just say “corporate and political magic”, this would sure be a controversial piece to review. And indeed it may be, because this is the longest review I would write so far. If you can stomach all my rants and raves, please sit tight, we have a lot of ground to cover.
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Lovely Complex

Lovely Complex

With the seas of bishoujos I sail lately I really appreciate having a catalyst. For this season Lovely Complex is the counter-programming, and I should say that this is really a blast! Despite rollercoaster animation quality, this shoujo series is a total LOL-fest! Extreme comedic value with a lighthearted touch on romance… and height complexes.

You see, Risa is a tall girl. Usually tall girls are the school idols of anime society, but this one here is a total baka. Well not really, she is as talkative and fun as a rowdy girl can get. On the other side, Otani is a short guy. Usually short guys get the flak and ridicule in anime society, but this one has his thing going (good basketball skills for example). Nevertheless he is quite an baka too. If we mix baka and baka together we form the “All Hanshin Kyojin”, a nickname awarded to them by the school, because they always bicker with each other as if they’re some owarai comedy duo! Yep, Risa and Otani started up doing word wars with each other… and crazily enough ended up STILL fighting by the end of the series. The question though is… will they find love with each other?

I would say that relationships between a tall woman and a short man are statistically low, it’s usually the other way around. Lovely Complex delves on this kind of ‘height complex’ a bit, in that Risa wouldn’t imagine falling in love with a short guy. Likewise, Otani wouldn’t prefer someone taller than him. Nevertheless the setup is fun enough, but what Lovely Complex excels in is the totally extreme laugh factor! All characters speak in Kansai-ben, which is a perfect dialect for owarai comedy. Tsukkomi and boke-type jokes abound, which doesn’t necessarily translate to English well, but Lovely Complex gives the aural factor treatment because ALL the characters just SHOUT their lines! This anime OVERACTS like crazy! Might as well say that this is the first OA (overacting) anime I’ve watched. This ridiculous energy made me laugh out loud ‘literally’ almost every minute, and it really never lets up. The comebacks and the witty dialogue… very well executed. Maybe not really well-executed per se but it’s done in the OA fashion as mentioned, and that makes it as if you are part of the LOL gang. You know, if they had the “laughing audience” like in US TV comedy series, I think this would be a total knockout. The comedy kept me entertained, and the story isn’t so bad either. Just my observation, but the love story seems like a reverse of what [Suzuka->] had, in which Otani acts as the male version of tsundere… if there is such a fandom classification.

There’s nice development in the relationship of Risa and Otani, although some new characters just pop up out of nowhere near the end. This must have been a manga quirk, because they didn’t fit the whole manga content on there. I think they were struggling for a closure near the end, and the energy kinda died down, but still the rest of the series were so strong I just didn’t mind the slightly lowered quality. Speaking of animation quality, since this is a crazy LOL-fest, the character designs just zoom out of proportion, and the faces deform in very weird ways. When things get serious though, you would notice the inconsistencies in the way they draw between episodes. For a show like this though, it isn’t a major setback. Yup, this is one rare instance of me not minding the animation quality, because the rest of the show is just that good.

All in all, a surprisingly good anime, and one that makes me want more shoujo in my watch list. Lovely Complex is a hyper-WIN in my record books, and warrants my repeat watching. It’s hard to make me laugh (even rarer to make me laugh ‘out loud’) but this anime managed a ton of them (I even choked once, haha). Highly recommended.

School Days (TV)

School Days

Finally, another controversial anime. Ever since the hugely destructive emo soap opera in the name of Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien left me breathless, I’ve been clamoring for some other show that has all the angst of a mature romance story in anime form. Alas, no other anime ever came close to the greatness of that one… until School Days. But the question is, did School Days topple Kiminozo in my heart? Well, let’s see…
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5 Centimeters Per Second

Byousoku 5 Centimeter
“a chain of short stories about their distance.”

[Again->beyond-the-clouds], Makoto Shinkai blew me away. He is really the master of “wide open spaces” in animation. It is not so much the attention to detail as it’s really the cinematic scope of what he draws. The backgrounds have this sort-of emotion that conveys the beauty of this world, whether it may be a rural or a city setting. And so as you enjoy the sights and sounds of his new OVA offering, we also see very simple but heartfelt stories about three characters and their distance between each other.

5CM is a three-episode tale of three people, a guy and two girls, and how distances can make or break love and friendships. We start with two childhood friends, Takaki and Akari. They were very close to each other, but then after elementary school, they have to part ways. Akari moved to some town in Tochigi, while Takaki went to Tokyo. They still contact each other by letters, but then Takaki’s family will move much further away to Kagoshima. So Takaki agreed to meet her before that happens. It’s quite a long multiple train ride between Tochigi and Tokyo, and harsh snowy conditions delayed Takaki’s travel. Eventually they meet up, albeit late, and a very heartful reunion for the two. Takaki promised to still keep in touch, but eventually the letters dried out.

The second part is about Takaki, now in Kagoshima, and Kanae, a classmate who feels for him. They became close friends but Takaki still feels distant sometimes, as if he looks on to the horizons often. Kanae was trying to build up her courage to confess to him, but Takaki still thinks about Akari who is very far away. Takaki plans to go back to Tokyo to work after graduation, leaving Kanae behind.

The final part is about Takaki and Akari, now grown up. Akari is actually engaged to another man by now. Takaki has a girlfriend and have been exchanging text messages, but then she finally told him that their lives are so apart that their love for each other can’t work anymore. The anime ends with a music video-style piece, with the song “One more time, one more chance” by Masayoshi Yamazaki.

Can I say HD FTW? This is a prime example of why DVD can’t satisfy me anymore. This would have been so beautiful in high-definition, and it really shows in the preview. The downloadable teaser in the website is actually 720p, but then the original release is of course 480p in DVD. There seem to be no plans (yet) to bring this to either Bluray of HD DVD, and so my I’m quite sad to not see the whole thing yet in it’s real cinematic glory. Oh well, as if I already have an HDTV…

Seemingly this is also the only anime from Makoto Shinkai without a fantasy setting. It is very down-to-earth, but then again so were Beyond the Clouds and Voices of a Distant Star aside from the science. And… do you notice that all his works are about “distance”? Distance relationship stories really strike a tone on me for some odd reason, maybe because the longing for each other is so strong when people are far apart. This is a very effective and affective anime especially for someone who might miss a loved one from far away.

A pretty somber but emotional piece this is. I feel bad for Takaki and Kanae, they were pretty much broken by the end of the anime but I think it is implied that they should be able to move on after this. The whole anime is just within a span of an hour, and yet it has created very fleshed-out characters that you can somewhat relate to. Plus the animation and sound really livens up the emotional level, and so this is mighty fine viewing. Definitely a must-see.

Hidamari Sketch

Hidamari Sketch

Everyday nothings

Slice-of-life, one of the more difficult genres of anime in my opinion. In this genre, it is important to have not only great characters, but great chemistries of characters. Because your story will remain in the sidelines for the most part, the characters must be interesting enough, and not only that, the characters must interact well with the other characters. Series like Azumanga Daioh and [Ichigo Mashimaro->] fit this bill quite perfectly, and now I would like to add Hidamari Sketch on the list.

Four girls… four apartment rooms… four seasons… THE END. That’s the basic plot. Now we should go to the characters. The series centers around Yuno, a seemingly normal, but sometimes clumsy, girl. A very natural and happy character. Yuno is paired with Miyako, the clown of the series. If I may so compare, she is the more mature version of Ichigo Mashimaro’s Miu… same weirdness, but still sensible when situations demand her to be. The third character is Hiro, a very softspoken and kind girl. She is particularly obsessive-impulsive when it comes to her body weight, and yet she likes sweets so she is hard-pressed to cut down on her fat. Hiro is paired with Sae, the short-haired meganekko which could serve as the onee-san of the group. Very mature but slightly emo at times, she is also a writer. These four girls go to a sort of art-inclined high school, and go home in their own apartments at the complex called Hidamari-sou.

The tendency of slice-of-life shows is to capitalize on each characters quirks in personality. For example, Hiro’s food and weight problem is always a running joke. What’s hard in slice-of-life though is how to use these quirks without getting repetitive, and I think Hidamari Sketch succeeds in that department. For one, you can call this [Apartment Living 101->] anime series. As some of you know, there are more apartments than homes in Japan cities, and it is basically the way to live here. Hidamari Sketch reflects life in the apartment, and life in Japan in general. They talk about apartment maintenance, season changes, and tons of stuff about Japanese food. Also, (non)events like buying in nearby convenience stores, going to karaoke, visiting temples, public baths, etc. That is aside from the usual school themes we normally see in anime series. Like Ichigo Mashimaro, Hidamari Sketch is more focused on home.

Director Shinbo Akiyuki spearheads this production. Compared to his previous works of Tsukiyomi and Pani Poni Dash though, this is IMO the weakest in the technical quality department. Some episodes have radically different character designs, and others seem completely unfinished. Such a shame really, because the voice work and music is really well done. If anything, Hidamari Sketch can pass as a good audio drama during those low-budget episodes. Nevertheless, Hidamari Sketch puts the ‘cute’ in ‘very very cute’, and that’s not only because of the drawings and voice, but because of the well-established characters and the chemistry within them.

If you can stomach a few boring episodes you can find some real entertaining gems in this series. Here I am already ready for a second viewing immediately after (because there is a widescreen version available, but I was watching the 4:3 version all along). Hidamari Sketch can bring you a few laughs and moe~ feelings, something only few slice-of-life series can provide.

Genshiken OVA

Genshiken

Episode 13

In about two years, I feel like I have learned more about all this otaku stuff. I just replayed the first [Genshiken->] series in sheer anticipation of the new OVA, and now I get most of the things that they say. I would say that this anime helped me understand the whole subculture from various viewpoints, because each character has his/her different interests. Madarame and Sasahara lead the doujinshi life, Kohsaka is the hardcore otaku, Tanaka is master of plamos and cosplay designs, Kugayama is the talented manga artist, Ohno is the ever-loved cosplayer, and Saki is the ever-loved outsider who just happened to have an otaku boyfriend.

The new OVA adds two more characters to the wild mix. Kuchiki is the loud and totally obnoxious otaku, and now I found my new wuv… Ogiue Chika! Ogiue is the tsundere in terms of her love for yaoi fandom. She pretends to hate otaku (especially female ones) despite being one herself. I feel like she is going to be the most complex-layered character of them all, having read parts of the manga not yet animated. OVA Episode 13 introduces Ogiue, how she came about to join Genshiken, and the riot yaoi fangirl war between her and Ohno.

One very enjoyable thing I noticed is that the voice acting is “very” top-notch this time around. Particularly, Ohno’s seiyuu (Kawasumi Ayako) really shines. Everytime Ohno utters a line I seem to get goosebumps. Almost the same way with the other casting, everyone’s very smooth in their portrayals.

Aside from the excellent voice acting, the animation really rides almost exactly like the manga. While it will be a bit of disappointment to some due to lack of consistent quality, I feel like it captured the original manga art pretty well. I think this is one of the best OVA episodes I have watched.